Collect football players and teams for prizes

The Championship Challenge promo links football and poker in such a way that you have to play cash poker games and earn Party Points to win a football player. Winning here means that you will be randomly awarded a football player card, which comes attached with a prize. The prize can be entry to freerolls, with prize pools between $1k and $10k, instant cash prizes of anywhere from $1 to $20 and a top cash prize of $100,000.

To earn the free roll seats or instant cash prizes, you have to play cash games on Party Poker and earn the reward points. For every 10 Party Points you earn, you will randomly get a football player, from the list on the site. With each player, you either get a free roll entry or cash. If you manage to earn enough points to collect all the 64 players listed on the PartyPoker site, you will win the top prize of $100,000.

Featured football teams

The number of football teams featured in the Championship Challenge are 16, divided into 4 groups of 4 teams each. The teams in the list include -

1. Poland, Greece, Russia and Czech Republic in Group A
2. Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands and Germany in group B
3. Italy, Spain, Croatia and Ireland in Group C and
4. Sweden, England, Ukraine and France in Group D

You can collect four players in each team – the Goalkeeper, the Striker, the Defender and the Midfielder.

The prizes

If you manage to collect these four members from all teams, you can get the top prize of $100k. If you manage to collect all players from Group A, you can win $7,000. You will get $1,000 for collecting all players in Group B, $3,000 for players in group C and $2,000 for all players in Group D. Cash prizes are also offered for collecting all players of a particular country. For instance, you can win the highest cash prize of $1,200 for an individual team, if you collect all 4 players from Poland. You get $900 for Irish players, $850 for Russian team and so on.

For individual players, you can get cash or freeroll seats. The highest cash prize of $20 for an individual player is given for collecting the Polish goalkeeper, and the second highest is for the Russian defender. The Irish goalkeeper gets $10, the Czech Republic Midfielder $5 and so on. The freerolls will take place after the promo ends, from July 5 to July 8, 2012.

Introducing Revolution Gaming

Recently, Lock Poker announced that it would be purchasing all of Cake Poker’s assets to rename the brand as Revolution Gaming. The new brand will be launched on June 1, 2012 and will focus on creating a richer tournament experience for all Lock Poker members. This Process will be supervised by the LockPro Elite team, which consists of professionals players such as Chris Moorman, Annette Obrestad and Melanie Weisner.

According to Lock Poker CEO, Jennifer Larson, Lock Poker had outgrown Merge Gaming’s offerings and has chosen to take on a new path towards improvement and success. But even with the launch of a new brand, Lock Poker will be retaining its name on Cake Poker, while the Cake Poker Room will continue as a skin.

What it means for Merge Gaming

After the Black Friday of poker, Merge Gaming Network was among the few that accepted players from the US. As a result, the traffic on the network grew significantly. That, however, might change with Lock Poker deciding to part ways with it. In fact, losing Lock Poker will be one of the biggest blows to Merge Gaming, as the poker room would be taking away a significant percentage of Merge customers with it. Thanks to Lock Poker, which accounts to around 40% of all Merge Gaming traffic, players on the Merge Gaming Network grew by around 5%  just last year.

Merge’s cancellation of the LockOps tournament, which was an exclusive event for Lock Poker Players, is said to have triggered this chain of events. Lock Poker was unhappy when Merge Gaming canceled the LockOps series on April 23, without any proper explanation. The series was initially given a go-ahead by the network, and was to giveaway over $2 million in cash prizes for 33 events.

What this means to you

You might wonder how all this would affect you. Well, if you are a poker player and also a member of Lock Poker, or have plans to become one, you would be a part of the all new poker experience that Lock Poker will bring in with Revolution Gaming. The new software for Lock Poker will be available on May 31, 2012 and existing players will be moved to it without any hassles. This means, you will get to enjoy all your favorite poker games like before. In fact, you will enjoy them better on this new network. Lock Poker is also ensuring that both your account balance and your VIP point tally will be carried exactly as they are to the new network.

Event schedule

The New Zealand Poker Open will feature a number of on-demand sit-n-go satellite tournaments on a daily basis. The buy-ins for these tournaments is $40 and $320. Several other satellite tournaments are also held through the month, for the events that would take place during the poker festival. Other than that, here are the poker tournaments that will be featured in the New Zealand Poker Open.

1. The first event of the poker festival will be a no-limit Hold’em Mega satellite event, with a buy-in of $320. The top two players of the game will be going to the Main Event. The second event is also a satellite, but for low stakes of just $20. More satellite events will take place on May 29 and 30, offering seats to the Main Event.
2. The first side-event of the NZ Poker Open will be the $220 NLH event on May 31. This will be followed by yet another satellite, which gives away seats to the mega satellite.
3. The $120 Ladies Tournament will be the second event of the series. This takes place on June 1.
4. The Main Event of the poker festival begins on June 2, at 12:30 pm. The buy-in for the event is $1500. Day 1 of the event will be on two days, June 2 and June 3. The final table of the event will be on June 4, which is the last day of the poker festival.
5. On June 2, you can participate in a $550 PLO event (2^nd chance format).
6. The fourth event of the tournament is the high stakes NLH for a buy-in of $3,000.
7. The last event of the poker festival will be the $330 NLH Deep Stack event on June 4.

How to participate

You can participate in any of the events of the New Zealand Poker Open by registering with the Sky City casino in Auckland. You can also participate in the satellites through the casino and win a seat to the Main Event, or buy-in to the event if you an afford to do so. In any case, the poker festival will be offering thousands of dollars as prize money, which could be yours if you are good at the game and register for the events without delay. All the buy-ins for these events are in New Zealand dollars.

CPPT schedule

A total of 22 events will take place during the Durant CPPT series, which will cover the hold-em andOmahavariants.  Along with the Main Event and the satellites for the event, there will be a number of side events you can benefit from during the series. The buy-ins for the event range from $200 to $1080, and guaranteed prizes lie between $15,000 and $500,000. The schedule of CPPT events at the Choctaw casino is as follows.

No limit hold-em events

The first day of the series, July 16, will feature a NLH re-entry event with a buy-in of $235. This event will continue with its second day on July 27, and has a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000. You can take part in $200 NLH events on July 26, 27, 30 and August 5. The $200 NLH events on July 31 and August 1 offer guaranteed prizes of $15,000. A 2-day NLH event with buy-in of $345 begins on July 28, and offers guaranteed prizes of $150,000. The $50k guaranteed NLH events take place on July 29 and August 2. The $20k guaranteed event is on July 30, and has a buy-in of $235.

The Main Event of the CPPT in Choctaw casino is also a NLH tournament, and has a buy-in of $1,080. The event begins on August 3, which would be Day 1A of the event. Day 1B is on August 4 and Day 2 begins on August 5. The final table of the Main Event will be on August 6, and will give away the cash prize, as well as the championship title to the winner.

Omaha

Besides no limit hold-em, the CPPT at Choctaw will also feature a fewOmahatournaments. The

1. The firstOmahaevent will be theOmahaeight-or-better tournament on July 29, and has a buy-in of $300.
2. A $345 Pot limitOmahatournament will take place on July 31.
3. The Limit eight-or-better tournament is on August 1 and has a buy-in of $300
4. The lastOmahaevent will take place on August 2. This will be a PLO tournament with an option of  ½ the starting stack size.

Satellites

Besides the NLH andOmahatournaments, the CPPT will also run a few satellites for the big events. The first satellite is on July 28, followed by another on August 3. Two Mega Satellites will take place on August 3 and August 4 and offer guaranteed seats to the Main Event. The buy-ins for these satellites is just $150.

About the WSOP APAC

So far, the WSOP had been prominent only in the Americas and Europe. According to WSOP’s executive director, Ty Stewart, it is time they focused on markets in Asia and Australia too. The WSOP Asia Pacific series will take place from April 4 to April 15, 2013. A total of five Bracelet events will be held at Australia’s prime casino, the Crown Melbourne. The Crown is a highly popular casino in the country and attracts around 18 million people from across all states of Australia. The casino expects a good turnout for the WSOP APAC events that will take place next year.

Besides the US, France and London, Australia will be the only country where the WSOP gold bracelet events will take place. With the WSOP being held there, the Crown also hopes to attract the best poker players from the country and around the world to compete for the coveted bracelets. Crown Casino is also the venue for the popular Aussie Millions poker championship that takes place every year.

About Crown Casino

Crown Casino in Melbourne is the Australian leader when it comes to casino gaming and entertainment.  The Crown Melbourne is spread over 560,000 sq ft and attracts millions of visitors each year. Besides the casino, the Crown complex has the Crown Towers, the Crown Promenade Hotel and the Crown Metropol. The casino at Crown has over 300 table games you can play. The casino also hosts some of the biggest poker events in Australia. The Aussie Millions and the Melbourne Poker championship are the two most popular events hosted at the Crown poker room. In addition to that, the casino also hosts several daily and weekly poker tournaments.

Upcoming WSOP events

While you wait for the WSOP APAC in 2013, you can consider participating in the upcoming World Series of Poker events that begin at the end of this month. The WSOP events begin at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, on May 27, 2012. The events will take place through July 16, when the final table of the main event will be played. During this period, a total of 61 bracelet events will take place. Registrations fro these events are already open. But as always, there are several generous casinos that are hosting satellites to give away free entry to the WSOP events at Vegas.

Deposit bonus and more

With the latest bonus offer from Switch Poker, you will get 100% of the first deposit you make. The maximum amount you can earn this way is capped to 600 Euros, which can be redeemed by playing cash games on the site. To benefit from this offer, new players creating an account with Switch Poker have to use the code ’20TO600′ when making the deposit. Following that, for every 2500 points you earn by playing cash games, you will be rewarded with 10 euros. The bonus has to be redeemed within a period of 6 months.

In addition to the cash bonus, Switch Poker players will also be rewarded with additional cash prizes, or bonus bombs. The bonus bombs are offered randomly and can be of any amount, up to a maximum of 1000 euros. Using the additional cash, you can play your choice of poker games offered by the site on your iPhone or Android phone.

Switch Poker rake race

Switch Poker is not only offering great bonuses, but it is also giving away big cash prizes through its four day Rake race from April 25 to 29, 2012. To be a part of the race and win, all you have to do is play as many cash games as you can on the site and earn Switch Poker Points (SPPs). The player with the highest number of points will be given a cash prize of 300 euros. Player in second position will get 250 euros, while the third best player gets 200 euros. Fourth and fifth place holders will get 150 and 100 euros respectively.

But to even qualify for this promo, you have to earn at least 2,500 Switch Poker Points.

How to earn SPPs

To earn the required number of SPPs, you should regularly play cash games on the mobile poker site. Cash games you can play include no-limit hold-em games in different formats, with 6 and 12 seater tables. The site is soon going to launch more games like 9 seater ring games, single table tournaments and sit n gos, multi-table tournaments, pot limit Omaha variants and fixed limit hold-em games. Switch Poker allows deposits and withdrawals through Skrill accounts, and does not yet cater to players in the US. So if you are in the UK or anywhere else in the Europe, register with switch poker today to enjoy mobile poker and to earn cash rewards.

Spotlight Casino WSOP packages

Spotlight 29 Casino, which is located in Coachella, California, is hosting satellites for the World Series of Poker this year. Winners of the satellite event will get to win WSOP packages worth $12,000. The casino will be hosting the events on three Saturdays – April 28, May 12 and May 26, 2012. The tournament starts at 11:00 am on the scheduled days, and has a buy in of $180 if you pre-register, and $200 if you register on the day of the tournament. Winners of the satellites will get $2000 in cash and $10,000 worth WSOP credits that can be used on their choice of event at the WSOP, where the buy-in ranges between $500 and $1,000,000.

2012 WSOP Circuit at Chester

The World Series of Poker Circuit Championship will be at Harrah’s in Chester from April 26 to May 7, 2012. The series will host 12 different events that will give away gold rings to the winners. The series begins with the NLH event for a buy-in of $345 on the 26^th. You can also take part in the $555 NLH events on April 29, May 1, and May 3. The pot limit Omaha event with a buy-in of $345 will take place on May 2 and the $345 NLH 6-handed event will be on May 3. On May 4, you can participate in the $1,080 NLH event. The highlight of this Circuit series at Harrah’s will be the Main Event with a buy-in of $1,600. The event will take place on May 5 and will take place through May 7, when the final table will be played.

Parx Spring Showdown

The 2012 Parx Sporing Showdown began at the Parx casino in Bensalem, PA, on April 20. The series features 20 poker events and will take place through May 2, 2012. Along with several no-limit hold-em tournaments, other events at the showdown include a $225 bounty tournament on April 26, $330 Deep stack bounty on April 28, a pot limit Omaha re-entry event on April 30 and a NLH ladies event on May 2. The Main Event of the Parx Spring Showdown will begin on April 29, and has a buy-in of $1600. The event will take place through May 1, 2012.

Other events to keep poker players busy this week include the Chad Brown Poker Challenge till April 29 at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, the Mid-South Poker Classic at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas, and the Grand Challenge Tournament at the MGM Grand in Vegas.

Pala casino events

The Pala casino will be celebrating its anniversary from May 19 to May 20, 2012. On these days, the casino will host the Anniversary Hot Seat, which is a cash promotion. Players who have played all blinds in the poker tournaments at the casino will get a chance to win $100 or a portion of $7,200 for every 20 minutes, between 11:00 am and 11:00 pm. Winners are randomly selected through a computerized program. On May 19, participants will also be treated to the anniversary cake by the casino.

WeekendRiverCard Classic

After the two-day anniversary celebration, Pala Casino and Resort will be hosting the Weekend River Card Classic tournament for five days, starting from May 24. The series will feature five tournaments, including three events with guaranteed prizes. The River Card Classic events include

• $80 No limit Holdem event on May 24, with guaranteed prize pool of $5000; add-ons are allowed for $50 and rebuys are priced at $24
• The NLH Knockout bounties event on May 25; this event has a buy-in of $150 and guaranteed prizes of $10,000
• NLH battle of the Sexes on may 26, with a buy-in of $125; this event has a prize pool of around $5000
• The Fifth Pala River Card Quest for the Cup, which begins at 12:00 pm on May 27, is also a part of the tournament. This event has a buy-in of $150 and a prize pool of around $20k, sponsored by the River Card Inc. clothing company.
• The $80 NLH re-entry event on May 28, with a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000;

Daily Chase for the Dough

Throughout May, Pala Casino will be running the Daily Chase for the Dough promotion and give away cash prizes worth $16,200 for the month. Every day during the month, except on May 18, 19, 20 and 30, players will share a cash prize of $600. Cash prizes are awarded depending upon the number of hours you play at the casino. If you play for three hours, you can win $10. For five hours of play, you can get $20 and for 8 hours of play every day, you can win $50.

In addition to all these exciting promos, Pala Casino and resort is also holding poker lessons for free at 9:00 am every Tuesday and Saturday during May. To be a part of this and to hone your poker skills, all you need to do is register for it by 8:30 am on a given day.

World Poker Tour Vienna

The Main Event of the World Poker Tour in Vienna started on April 10 and continued till April 15, 2012. The WPT Vienna title and Main Event cash prize of €313,390 was taken home by Morten Christensen. Christensen began the final day of the event with 2,540,000 chips and fought his way to the top, to win his first ever WPT title. The rest of the players who managed to stay in the top six included Konstantin Tolokno at second place ($251,166), Benjamin Wilinofsky in the third ($161,003), Ognjen Sekularac in 4^th ($111,095), and Goswin Siemsen in the 5^th ($82,106) place.

Party Poker Premier League V

In Party Poker Premier League V, Scott Seiver emerged as the first place winner for the Main Event and took home the grand prize of $500,000. The 8-handed final table of the Main Event took place last week in Vienna, Austria. The event featured a number or well-known poker professionals as well as amateurs competing for prizes worth more than a million. Participants at the final table who competed against Seiver included Sam Trickett, Tony G, Mathew Frankland, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Phil Laak and Dan “Jungleman” Cates. In the end, Scott Seiver won the top place to take home the cash and the title. Daniel Cates stood second ($300,000), and Phil Laak came third ($175,000).

While Patrik Antonius came fourth ($125,000), Tony G was in the fifth place ($100,000). Tom Dwan took home $80,000 at the 6^th place, Mathew Frankland won $65,000 for the seventh place and Sam Trickett came 8^th to take home $55,000.

Eureka Poker Tour

The PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour Croatia took place between April 9 and 14, at the Golden Sun Casino in Zagreb. The tournament was won by a Croatian poker player, Alija Filipovic. Filipovic won the Eureka Poker Tour championship title and cash prize of €42,700. The prize pool for the final event went up to €178,000, of which Filipovic won the first prize. The second place was won by the Hungarian player Mate Mecs, who took home €32,000. In the third place, Croatian player Dragan Galic took home €16,400 and Bulgarian player Nikolay Bibov took home € 13,450 for the fourth place.

Ivan Brkicic of Croatia took home €11,200 for the fifth place, and another Croatian, Verdan Premuzic, stood sixth to win €9,050. Dutch player Ruud van de Goor came seventh to win €7,300, Slovakia’s Karolj Kis came 8^th to win €5,910, Bulgarian players Marko Gasparovic and Yavor Tutev came 9^th and 10^th to win €4,575 and €3,300 respectively.

Sky Poker Tour 2011-2012

The Season 4 of Sky Poker Tour began with Leg 1 in October 2011, at the Dusk Till Dawn casino in Nottingham. The second leg was held at Newcastle in December 2011, Leg 3 was at Luton in January 2012 and Leg 4 was held at Glasgow in March 2012.

The next round, Leg 5 of the Sky Poker Tour, will be at Nottingham. The SPT Nottingham will be a one day event and will take place on April 28, 2012. The venue for it will be Les Croupiers in Cardiff and the buy-in is ₤110. The number of players for the event is restricted to 170 players.

This will be followed by two more events of the Sky Poker Tour – Leg 6 and the Grand Final. Leg 6 of SPT will be held at the G Casino in Blackpool, on June 23 and 24 this year. Leg 6 is the Bounty Hunter Tournament, and the first ever bounty tournament to be included in the SPT. The event has a buy-in of ₤220 and is capped to 150 players.

The Grand Final of the Sky Poker Tour will bring the festivities back to Nottingham’s Dawn Till Dusk Casino. The final event will take place on September 8 and 9 this year, and has a buy-in of ₤330. The 2 day event has a player cap of 250 players.

Sky Poker satellites for SPT Cardiff

The ₤110 buy-in for the Sky Poker Tour Cardiff event may not seem very high if you are passionate about the game. But certainly, you would like to play for a lesser price if possible. And Sky Poker is going to make that a reality for you. The online poker room is hosting a number of satellites for the upcoming event at Cardiff. Here are the details for it-

• SPT Cardiff satellites will be held every day at 5:40 pm, 6:05 pm, 6:40 pm, 7:05 pm and 7:40 pm. One out of every five players will get into the SPT Semis on that day.
• The SPT Semis will take place at 9:30 pm every day on the Sky Poker site. Every 1 player out of 5 will get a seat in the final.

The satellites are listed on Sky Poker’s lobby and registrations for the qualifiers are open. Buy-ins for the satellite starts from as low as ₤1.40. To win a share of the ₤250k at Cardiff, be sure to register with Sky Poker as soon as you can.