Monthly Points Race

Of the $100,000, $60,000 is allocated for the monthly Points Race, which takes place through the entire month of February. The $60k Marathon is open to all the poker players on the site. So just keep playing poker games on it and you would automatically be a part of Points Race for the $60,000. The more the points you collect, the faster you head towards the leaderboard for the race.

But you will have to stay on course for a while, as this is a monthly marathon and you will have to get the highest number of points at the end of the month. The site will freeze the leaderboard by the end of the month, and the cash prizes would be awarded based on players’ rankings. Of all, 275 players can win big prizes, with the top one getting $8,000.

Weekly Points Race

The remaining $40,000 from the pool of $100,000 is allocated towards the weekly Sprints, which take place every week during the month. The weekly Sprint is a Points Race for $10,000 and takes place every weekend, from Friday to Sunday. While the game format is same as that of the $60,000 monthly Marathon, it is open only to players of ring games on the site. There would be 125 winners each week, and the first place winner gets $2,000.

Win when You Lose

If you are a regular Holdem player at Americas Cardroom, you should now try to improve your skills at losing marginally, as the site is offering a big Bad Beat Jackpot.

The Bad Bead Jackpot at America’s Cardroom crossed the $500,000 mark on Monday, and given the number of players trying for it by playing on the Bad Beat Holdem tables, it could soon surpass the $600,000 mark. The online poker room is being generous towards players who lose marginally to better or luckier poker players at Holdem tables.

If you are lucky enough to lose a Holdem game with quad eights or better at the Bad Beat Holdem tables, you could win more than $500,000 as the Bad Beat Jackpot. How this jackpot differs from most such jackpots at other poker sites is that even if you end up winning the hand, you don’t have to lose heart. The winner of the table gets 20% of the jackpot, while the dealt hand participants get to share 10% of the amount.

Ferguson Hoped to be Considered Potential Owner

In 2011, Ferguson gave money to the site just after Black Friday. He added $14.3 million to the FTP account to help meet expenses after the site was shut down. Ferguson said he did that with the hope that players would consider it a goodwill gesture from him. He also believed that the contribution would increase his chances of being considered the rightful owner of FTP once it was revamped and launched again. However, this did not happen. Instead, the site’s management decided to enter a deal with Groupe Bernard Tapie.

Players’ Attorney Requests Books at FTP be Opened

Both Ferguson and Ian Imrich, the attorney representing the site’s users, are doing what they can to refund the players. Imrich has requested that the books at FTP be opened, but the request has not yet been met. Imrich and Ferguson have stated that they will file lawsuits to develop a constructive trust. They also mentioned that they will request injunctive relief against the poker site. If they follow through with these actions, it is possible that the current deal will get delayed. This, in turn, will delay the payments that have to be made to the site’s users.

Initially, the deal between the poker room and GBT stated that Ferguson would get passive shares worth about $14 million in FTP. However, this offer was revoked when the Department of Justice said that any directors of the poker room will not be allowed to become shareholders in the company.

The possibility that Ferguson is standing in the way of the deal has angered several players. Some have stated that the issue Ferguson is facing is personal and that it should not be allowed to hinder the progress of the deal.

Ferguson earned about $60 million from FTP in 2007. The money was sent to different bank accounts which he held under a company named Pocket Kings Ltd. He withdrew $45 million from this money for his own use. $14.3 million was given to FTP last year. The $60 million he made through the poker room was in addition to about $25 million that the Department of Justice says he received. This $25 million was directed to a personal account held by Ferguson, while the $60 million was sent to a Pocket Kings Ltd account.

Unibet Poker expects around 300-400 players in the tournament and they’ve capped it at 400. The buy-in for the tournament is €1500 + €150 if you want to buy-in directly, but you can also win a prize package at Unibet Poker still. Unibet Poker is giving away weekly prize packages to the Unibet Open Prague 2012 Event in February right now. The prize package is worth €2500 and includes your buy-in, accommodations, €300 towards travel expenses and free dinners/lunches throughout the event.

Unibet Open Prague 2012 Schedule

• Day 1A Starts on February 16th at 14:00 Local Time
• Day 1B Starts on February 17th at 14:00 Local Time
• Day 2 Starts on February 18th at 14:00 Local Time
• Day 3 Starts on February 19th at 14:00 Local Time

If you’re in Prague early for the event and you’re planning on buying into the tournament directly you can play in live super satellites on February 15th and 16th at the Hilton Hotel Casino Atrium. The super satellites will rewards lots of seats into the main event and it could save you over €1000+ if you manage to qualify for the main event in one of the two super satellites. To kick-off the event make sure you head to Cloud 9 at the Hilton Hotel on February 16th at 10PM for the opening party and welcome drinks with Unibet.

Unibet Poker visited Prague in 2009 and 2010, but didn’t make a stop in Prague last year. Prague has always been a great host and I’m sure this event will be tons of fun for the poker players that decide to show up to play. Prague is also a great place to visit that offers plenty of tourist attractions ranging from nightlife to museums. There isn’t much going on in the poker world at the end of February in Europe and I think Unibet Poker Prague 2012 will end up close to the 400 player cap after day 1B registration is over.

Unibet Poker is a smaller poker room in the UK market, but Unibet Poker does have a strong player base in various countries in the European markets. Unibet Poker has several live events planned for 2012 starting with Prague and every time there is a live event you can bet that Unibet Poker will be trying to reward as many prize packages as they can in online satellites. Satellites will be running to the Prague event right up until the week before the start of the event, so there is still time to win a Prague prize package.

There has been no list of confirmed operators, but some poker rooms will definitely be in the mix including PokerStars, Unibet and Party Poker. One application has been confirmed and it was from the Groupe Bernard Tapie (Full Tilt Poker). The deal has gone through for Full Tilt Poker, so it looks like they have plans on reopening in the New Year. It would be very interesting if Full Tilt opened up in various markets and I’m sure they’d do fine due to their excellent software suite.

It has been announced that the poker industry in Spain will be segregated initially. Only players that reside in Spain will be able to play on the Spanish poker sites that receive licenses. Some of the licenses may be awarded to poker rooms within the next couple weeks, but the poker rooms aren’t expected to be operational until January 2012. There has been some indication that the poker rooms could open up to international non-Spanish speaking players in the future, but not initially.

The Spanish poker market is one of the bigger international markets in the world and they could definitely have success running a segregated poker network although it’d be much better to open up the network to international players. The poker rooms will only be able to offer Texas Holdem, Stud, Omaha and Draw poker games for the time being. There are also a couple other rules that the poker rooms will need to follow in order to not breach the terms of their license.

• The maximum big blind in a cash game is €10.

• The maximum buy-in in a tournament is €250

Many operators are jumping at the chance to receive a license in Spain because the taxes are low compared to other markets that have regulated such as France. The lower taxes should help operators keep the rakes the same as they are now and that should mean that most Spaniards will start playing online poker on the Spanish sites. Unlicensed sites are not legally allowed to operate in Spain once the 1st licensed poker room opens, but I’m sure many poker rooms that don’t receive a license will remain in the market.

PokerStars appears that they want to make a splash in the Spanish market. PokerStars will most likely receive one of the licenses and I’m sure they’ll become one of the most popular Spanish poker sites in 2012. More countries are expected to regulated poker in the New Year and it should be interesting to see how everything plays out.

The tournament was scheduled to be a WSOP bracelet event, but before that could be confirmed there needed to be a minimum of 22 players registered for the tournament. Yesterday the WSOP announced that the event was now official, as they have been able to meet the minimum of 22 players. A list of the participants was released, but some of the players wanted to remain anonymous until the tournament was closer.

A few of the big name players that have committed to putting up the $1M buy-in include Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand Grospellier and Andy Beal. Beal is a billionaire businessman that loves poker and he can’t wait to have his shot at winning a WSOP bracelet. It isn’t going to be easy to win the bracelet due to the fact that only the best poker players in the world will be participating, but I’m sure he’ll be getting lots of practice in the next several months.

Playing in a tournament with a $1M buy-in might be silly, but this event is for a good cause. A total of $111,111 from each buy-in will be donated to the “ONE DROP” foundation. The foundation ensures countries in need have access to clean water and it’s great to see that this event will be able to earn so much for the foundation. Poker players love to gamble and have fun, but they also don’t mind donating to charities and other good causes that help out people in need.

Some players have been complaining about the tournament because they won’t be able to play in it. They feel that the tournament shouldn’t have a WSOP bracelet up for grabs because they feel the players in the event are “buying the bracelet”. In my opinion if players want to put up $1M to help charity and play against the best poker players in the world, they deserve a bracelet if they win.

The WSOP hands out well over 50+ bracelets every summer now in Las Vegas, so it’s not like winning a bracelet is impossible. This is going to be the toughest tournament playing field in history and with so much money on the line you can expect each player to be playing their very best poker in Las Vegas. I can’t wait to see what other names appear on the registrant list in the next couple months, but I really hope that we see Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey. I wouldn’t mind seeing Tony G knocking out Hellmuth in a $1M buy-in tournament this summer.

Representatives from various skins on the Everleaf Poker Network have commented about the recent change. Most skins don’t feel that the change was necessary, but according to reports the chance was made due to Italian Sportsbooks. The Everleaf Network is open to players in the United States, but a lot of the traffic is European with a lot of Italian players. The Italian Sportsbooks on the network send a lot of players to the poker room and they didn’t want sportsbook players losing all of their profits to sharks in the poker room anymore.

The main reason why the sportsbooks would want this change made is because of greed. They feel that they could be earning the money that the poker players are losing in the poker room and they’re doing what they can to limit poker action. The new change isn’t going to be a problem for over 99% of the players on the network, so the change isn’t drastic. However, it could be a sign that there are more changes coming to the Everleaf Gaming Network in the future, especially since skins on the network know that the network will bend to accommodate the skins sending the most traffic.

If you play on the Everleaf Poker Network you may notice the new messages that pop-up. If you’re a shark (Earn €750/weekly) you’ll receive a pop-up when you try to join some tables that state your rating is too high to join the table. If you’re a losing player on the network you’ll receive a message saying your rank is to low to join certain tables if there are multiple sharks on the table. Some of you guys might like the fact you’re warned about sharks on the table, but at the same time it could be offensive to some players.

A player that is losing money playing online doesn’t want to be constantly reminded that he’s losing money. This idea isn’t going to change very much on the network and I feel it’s just going to cause bad press for the poker room. Winning poker players aren’t going to want to play on the network because they now that they’ll be limited when they have profitable weeks. Rather than being able to ride your run, you’ll now be limited and only allowed to play on tables with other profitable players.

Action on the Everleaf Poker Network is already small (Roughly 500 Players Online) and this could hurt the traffic even more. I’m sure some of the winning players on the network are going to decide to move or at least play less of their action on the network. Once they earn €750 there is no reason for a player to continue playing on the Everleaf Network for the rest of the week, as the player will be playing at a disadvantage compared to other networks, since the player will only be able to play against other winning players.

Lamb barely made it to the 2nd day and it didn’t take him long to be eliminated. Lamb was eliminated on the 4th hand of play on the 2nd day, so he didn’t last very long. Once Lamb was gone the battle between Heinz and Staszko began. Staszko was the 1st player from Czech Republic to make the final table in the WSOP Main Event and he almost brought home the bracelet. Heinz definitely took his time while playing in the Main Event, but it proved to be the right decision, as he’s walking away with nearly $9M.

Staszko was winning the heads-up battle, but he lost a big all-in hand that doubled up Heinz and that hurt him. Staszko was down to about 40M in chips and decided that it was time to push all-in with 10/7 of clubs. Normally he’d pick up the blinds, but Heinz ended up having A/K off suit. The board never helped Staszko and Heinz was able to win the tournament with his A/K. It took a long time to play the final table, but I liked the coverage from ESPN and hope they do something similar next year.

Heinz took his time to make decisions, but at the same time he was very aggressive. His style proved to work although he definitely looked out of sync for a large portion of the heads-up match. Heinz has admitted to struggling with his focus, but he was able to stay focused long enough to win the 2011 WSOP Main Event. The win earned Heinz nearly $9M, but he’ll also go down in the history books for being the 1st German poker player to win the WSOP Main Event.

2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Results

• 1st Place – Pius Heinz $8,715,638
• 2nd Place – Martin Staszko $5,433,086
• 3rd Place – Ben Lamb $4,021,138
• 4th Place – Matt Giannetti $3,012,700
• 5th Place – Phil Collins $2,269,599
• 6th Place – Eoghan O’Dea $1,720,831
• 7th Place – Bob Bounahra $1,314,097
• 8th Place – Anton Makievskyi $1,010,015
• 9th Place – Sam Holden $$782,115

The EPT Loutraki main event will start on November 15th 2011 and the buy-in is €4000 +€400. Many of the world’s best players will be in attendance to compete in the EPT event and the prize pool is expected to be huge. If you’re eliminated from the EPT ME early there will be live cash games running 24/7 in the casino and various other smaller tournaments. The main event will start before any of the other tournaments start in Loutraki, so you’ll only be able to play in them if you’re eliminated from the ME.

The event will be hosted at the Club Hotel Casino, which happens to be one of the biggest casinos in Europe. If you’ve never been to the Club Hotel Casino in the past you’ll be amazed by the size considering it’s on a small Greek island. Keep in mind that you need to be at least 21 years old to be permitted into the casino and the EPT tournaments. Now is the perfect time to go to Greece and it won’t cost you that much to book your flight and hotel.

Make sure you use the EPT site to book your hotel because PokerStars has exclusive deals with various hotels in the city that will offer players competing in the main event a great deal on accommodations. You can stay in the Club Hotel Casino for €150/night although there are also hotels nearby that are about half the price if you don’t mind where you’re staying. Flights to Greece right now are also inexpensive if you live near a major airport.

Don’t forget that the champion of each EPT main event this season also wins an incredible bracelet. The bracelet is actually very fashionable and is valued at roughly €10,000. Only the winner of each main event during the eighth season will win a bracelet and I must say they look great this season.

The eight finalists that weren’t inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame will have another chance to receive enough votes next year and I’m sure at least one of the 8 players will be inducted next year. It’s a great honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and not many poker players are given the chance to be inducted. There are only 42 members in the Poker Hall of Fame now and they don’t add many players on a yearly basis, which means only the very best of the best, will ever make it into the Poker HoF.

Linda Johnson might not be a familiar name to casual poker players, but she’s been in the poker industry for 30+ years. Linda has always been a strong supporter of poker and she’s done everything she can to increase the game’s reach. Currently Johnson is on the Board of Directors for the Ladies International Poker Series and Poker Players Alliance. Linda also purchased CardPlayer back in 1993 and was a publisher for eight years.

Barry Greenstein is known by everyone that plays poker and many people that don’t even play poker. Barry is a shark at the poker tables, but he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll meet away from the tables. He’s a great family man and father plus he has donated over $3M of his poker winnings throughout the years to various charities, which is more than 99% of the poker world can say they’ve ever donated to anything. Greenstein is often referred to as the Robin Hood of Poker because he takes money from the rich poker players and donates a percentage of the money to charities that are in need.

Linda Johnson and Barry Greenstein both deserve a seat in the Poker Hall of Fame and I’m glad that they were both inducted this year. The actual induction ceremony won’t take place until November 8th 2011, which is right before the final three players from the November Nine will complete the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

• Entrants – 7063 / Prize Pool – $1,412,600

There was nearly $1.5M in the prize pool for the Sunday Million to end the month of October at PokerStars. It would be nice to break the $1.5M threshold during the winter at some point and I’m sure PokerStars will. Traffic has been growing slowly in the Sunday Majors the past few months and now that the weather is getting colder outside I’m sure we’ll see more players staying inside and playing online poker rather than venture out into the cold weather. Kipu won $190K for 1st place, VonBaranow won $149K for 2nd place, EireAbu won $130K for 3rd place and Thostyle won $86K for 4th place after a 4-way deal was agreed upon.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up

• Entrants – 3267 / Prize Pool – $653,400

No players agreed upon a deal in the Sunday Warm-Up to end October and I suppose it’s because the players had a little bit of Halloween spirit in them. The eventual winner in the Sunday Warm-Up was PokerFred99 and he won $102K for winning 1st in the event this past weekend. Akb1 fell just short of winning the tournament and finished in 2nd place. Akb1 won the 2nd place prize of $76K, which is one of the biggest payouts this past weekend at PokerStars. MikeCzechl won $53K for finishing the event in 3rd place in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up the day before Halloween.

PokerStars Sunday 500

• Entrants – 837 / Prize Pool – $418,500

You can typically find a list of top online poker players in the top 10 of the Sunday 500 every weekend. This weekend another online regular at PokerStars won the grand prize. Shuriken555 won a little bit over $75K for taking down 1st place in the event, which only had a playing field of 837 players. D-mon-D finished the tourney in 2nd place and won $54K while Palau777 won $40K for ending the Sunday 500 in 3rd place. None of the players struck a deal in the Sunday 500 this week although that isn’t rare.

PokerStars Bigger $55

• Entrants – 5927 / Prize Pool – $296,350

Nearly 6000 players took part in the Bigger $55 this weekend and the winner was a familiar face. Jude Ainsworth is a PokerStars Pro and Jude ended up winning the Bigger $55, which paid out 45K. Mayrogata took down 2nd place in the huge field and that was worth $34K while Paris Dedes won $24K for 3rd place this weekend. The playing field is always big in this event due to the $55 buy-in, but it’s always tons of fun.