Online Poker Directory

Archive for December, 2011

I’ve been invited to join the panel of judges for the European Poker Awards in Paris in January, held at the absolutely gorgeous Aviation Club de France. It’s a real honour and I was definitely surprised and happy to be asked. It feels like a big responsibility, so I’ll be considering the possible candidates carefully and trying to make the best possible decision. There are so many fantastic people up for awards that there won’t be any easy decisions!

I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in Paris in January as Party Poker are putting me into some of the Euro Finals of Poker events to help me hit the ground running playing a new year of poker tournaments. My new poker season all starts on the 5th of January though, with WPT Dublin and I’ve already had a lot of people arranging times to meet up and drink whiskey and guinness. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m going there to play a serious poker tournament. It’s an easy venue to lose track of that fact!

I hope you’re all having a fab Holiday season and that you’re 2011 ends with lots of my three favourite things: Food, laughter and poker!

We know many of you will start the New Year with new goals and renewed vigour. To help you get off to the best possible start, PokerStars today announced a selection of special VIP Club offers that will reward all players, but especially those who play regularly at the tables.

Here’s what’s on offer in the PokerStars VIP Club Blast Off…

Discount TCOOP Tickets & Merchandise Sale

The Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) runs January 19-29, and players from every VIP Club level can buy seats from the VIP Store at discounted rates. The higher your status, the better the discounts are. Over 100 items in the store will also be offered at a discount – some slashed by as much as 60% – from January 4 until the end of the month.

The discounted TCOOP tickets can be found in the VIP Store under ‘Online Tournament Tickets’. You can also find the sale items under ’2012 January Sale’. There are a limited amount of TCOOP tickets in stock, and players are only able to purchase one of each discounted ticket on offer. Tickets can only be used in TCOOP events.

VIP Ring Game Happy Hours

Ring Game Happy Hours are running from January 2-29, allowing you to earn 50% more VPPs and FPPs. Just play on any real money ring game table during one of the following Happy Hours to earn your extra points::

January 2-8: 04:00 ET

January 9- 15: 10:00 ET

January 16-22: 16:00 ET

January 23-29: 22:00 ET

Pace Bonus

PlatinumStar and Supernova VIPs can get a cash bonus the following month based on how many VPPs they earn in January. The Pace Bonus will be applied to player accounts before 12:00 ET on February 1, 2012. Players will have until 23:59 ET on February 29 to clear the bonus in full.

Please see the VIP Club Blast Off web page for details of how many points are needed for each Pace Bonus.

Special VIP Tournaments

January’s VIP Club tournaments will have extras prizes. The weekly $ 30,000 VIP Tournaments, which run every Saturday in January at 14:30 ET and have a buy-in of 100 FPPs for all SilverStar and higher VIPs, will have added prizes on top of the prize pool. The winner each week will also receive a Citizen watch, while every final table player will also get Shure headphones (in week 1), customized leather wallet (in week 2), Oakley sunglasses (in week 3) and a Logitech Optical Mouse (in week 4).

There’s also a boost for the monthly $ 100,000 VIP Tournament, which runs on Saturday, January 28 at 15:00 ET. Entry is free for GoldStar and higher VIPs, but SilverStar VIPs can also qualify via satellites. The winner will now also get a Tag Heuer watch, and everybody at the final table will also receive a pair of Porsche sunglasses.

Also, remember there are quarterly VIP Tournaments, each with a $ 1,000,000 prize pool, for Supernova and Supernova Elite VIPs. The next runs on February 11, and GoldStar and PlatinumStar VIPs can win a seat via special satellites.

VIP Tournaments can be found under ‘Tourney’ >>’VIP’ >>’All’ in the PokerStars lobby.

VIP TCOOP Satellites

As part of the VIP Club’s online and live event satellites for SilverStar and higher VIPs, January’s tournaments will give you the chance to qualify for TCOOP events, allowing you turn some FPPs into a tasty TCOOP prize. See the ‘Tourney’>>’VIP’>> ‘All’ tab to see the VIP Satellites.

You have less than a week to qualify your players for our affiliate perk freerolls, designed to give you something extra to reward your player communities with.  Opt-in your affiliate account and all of your players will be eligible for a $ 500 freeroll January 14th and a $ 500-added value tournament January 15^th.

This is a recurring monthly promotion so spread the word!  Read on for more details on this promotion and how to get your players in on the action.

 

To make sure your players are eligible to play in the tournaments on January 14^th and 15^th and every month moving forward, all you have to do is fill out the opt-in form below and every player tracked to your account will be added to the entry list for the tournaments. No passwords or coupons are necessary for your players, simply opt-in and they are all set.

Note: To qualify their players for these tournaments your affiliate account must have at least five lifetime sign ups and you must have a CarbonPoker banner live on your primary site throughout the promotion.

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Monthly Tourney Details

Every month on the second Saturday of the month ChipSplit will offer a $ 500 freeroll for all players tracked to affiliates who have opted-in to the promotion.  Here are the details:

Name: Exclusive $ 500 Freeroll

Where: CarbonPoker Lobby

When:  January 14th, February 11th, etc. @ 15:00 CarbonPoker Server time

Location: CarbonPoker>> Tournaments>> Private>> Scheduled.

Name: Exclusive $ 500 Added Value – $ 2.20 Buyin

Where: CarbonPoker Lobby

When:  January 15th, February 12th,  etc. @ 15:00 CarbonPoker Server time

Location: CarbonPoker>> Tournaments>> Private>> Scheduled.

How to Add Non-Affiliated Players to the Tournament Entry List

If your affiliate community is built around a forum or site where not all of the players are tracked to your account, you may request additional player names be added to the Entry List.  To do so, email us at support@chipsplit.com with a list of player usernames or emails.  In your email include only one name per line with no spaces before or after the name, at least 10 days before the tournament.

Of course these special tournaments are only one of many great value tournaments your players can be accessing.  Daily freerolls run throughout the day everyday and can be entered by any player, and you can help out new players by introducing them to the 14 days of freerolls they can play in after they deposit.

As you may already know, Carbon Poker has been giving out double VIP points throughout the month of December. But the catch with this is that you need to play in MTT’s and SNG’s on Mondays and Tuesdays to get the VIP points. This being said, we’re running into the last few chances for players to pick up double VIP points this month.

Today and tomorrow are both excellent chances to grab extra VIP points, and you have up until 23:59 (server time) on Tuesday to do this. Following the beginning of this week, next Monday (December 31st) will be your final chance to get the double points.

Assuming you haven’t already opted-in to this promotion, go to your Player Admin area, and click on the “Activate Promo” button. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be earning the double VIP points in December. And it’s definitely worth the effort to earn as many VIP points as you can since Carbon Poker offers so many benefits to VIP Loyalty Program members.

The best thing you can do with the points is exchange them for real money (cashback). Depending on your level within the VIP program, you can really earn a lot of extra money by doing this. For example, if you were at the Ether level, you’d be able to exchange 5,000 points for every $ 60 (35% cashback).

Aside from the cashback, you can also enter poker tournaments for free with your VIP points, which is certainly a nice bonus! So if you’re looking to pick up extra rewards at Carbon Poker, make sure to take advantage of the remaining double VIP points days this month.

After the weekend of December 18th in which records ended up broken, players won millions, and PokerStars celebrated its 10th anniversary, there was no way–zero, nada, zilch–this past weekend was going to compete. Add to the fact this was a holiday weekend, and it was certain it was going to be a light day.

But you know what? The Sunday MIllion covered the $ 1 million guarantee with ease. So did the Sunday Warm-Up. No matter what weekend it is, no matter how soon after a major promotion the Sunday majors hit, it’s almost always a lock that people are going to have bankroll-changing weekends on PokerStars.

Witness Turkey’s “||Burkeeee!,” the winner of the December 25th Sunday Million. After cutting a deal heads-up, ||Burkeeee! banked nearly $ 200,000 this weekend. Our hard core reporter David Aydt has the full story right here: Turkey’s ||Burkeeee! wins final Sunday Million of 2011.

Sunday Million final tableNot only was our David Aydt on top of the Sunday Million, but he was working for the Sunday Warm-Up, too, where 2,700 people showed up for the last Warm-Up. Here’s the recap: Safe river card for crossthervr equals $ 85K victory.

Meanwhile, the rest of the weekend majors were rocking and rolling, as well. Check out the 12-25-11 Sunday majors results link for all you need to know about this week’ big winners.

Now it’s time to look to 2012. Strap in, folks, because it cold be a big one.

ChipSplit is overjoyed to send you into the holidays with some awesome news of some upcoming changes to our VIP Rewards Program!  Our VIP tiers will be going through realignment, giving players incentive to graduate through the tiers easier and making each tier easier to obtain. We are also adding a new top tier for our valued players.

 

We are happy to announce that we are adding an Ether Plus tier at the top of our VIP Rewards program!  This adds more value to our top players, including a concierge service where players can buy items, submit us the receipt and we will credit their account with cash and deduct VIP points. Ether Plus will also feature coaching from our partners at DragTheBar.  We will keep you posted on all upcoming Ether Plus info, as there will be more to come!

Our Earth tier will not be undergoing any changes but below are the amendments that players will be interested in with the remaining tiers:

Wind Tier

Previous required points/month: 2,000

New required points/month: 750

Fire Tier

Previous required points/month: 5,000

New required points/month: 3,000

Previous exchange points for cash: $ 15.00

New exchange points for cash: $ 16.00

Water Tier

Previous exchange points for cash: $ 25.00

New exchange points for cash: $ 22.00

Ether Tier

Previous exchange points for cash:$ 60.00

New exchange points for cash:$ 50.00

Legalization of online poker in the United States came one step closer when the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday that “interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a sporting event or contest fall outside of the reach of the Wire Act.” The Wire Act, legislation enacted in 1961, barred wagering via telecommunications that cross state lines or international borders, a ruling that some claimed also related to online poker and gambling.

Advocates of legalized online poker see the new opinion from the Justice Department as a significant boost which will open the door for states to allow the game for their residents. The District of Columbia and Nevada have already moved to legalize intra-state poker and other states, including California, Iowa, and New Jersey, are expected to follow suit in 2012.

The Justice Department’s opinion would eliminate “almost every federal anti-gambling law that could apply to gaming that is legal under state laws,” wrote I. Nelson Rose, a gaming law expert at Whittier Law School as quoted in the Wall Street Journal. “There is simply no federal law that could apply” against state operators, he wrote on his blog.

Although individual states may legalize online poker for their residents, most of the big casinos are pushing for legalization of the game on a federal level. The Poker Players Alliance says the Justice Department ruling “makes it even more important that Congress act now to clarify federal law, and to create a licensing and regulation regime for Internet poker, coupled with clear laws and strong enforcement against other forms of gambling deemed to be illegal.”

On his blog, Rose is pessimistic for the chance of Congress acting to legalize online poker. “My bet is that … Congress will continue to do nothing, while Internet gambling explodes across the nation, made legal under state laws,” he wrote.

We want your players to kickoff the New Year with a Fresh Start! January is a huge month for CarbonPoker, PDC Poker and Aced Poker as players who have been away from the network should be logging back in and seeing what an amazing facelift has transpired across all brands and also see how far these brands have grown since their last visit. To help get these players into the mix we want to promote a fresh start bonus, which awards 10% up to $ 30.00. The bonus is live now for all three brands and claimable until 11:59 PM server time on Sunday January 15^th, 2012. Simply enter bonus code FRESHSTART in the cashier when making a deposit.

 

1. FRESHSTART awards 10% up to $ 30.00.
2. Bonus valid for CarbonPoker, PDC Poker, and Aced Poker.
3. Enter the code “FRESHSTART″ in the cashier when making a deposit.
4. This bonus is claimable until 11:59 PM server time on Sun 15th January 2012.
5. Player must earn 30 VIP points for each dollar of the bonus amount and the bonus is expired if a withdrawal is made before the playthrough is complete.
6. All players must meet these Terms & Conditions, and ChipSplit, CarbonPoker, PDC Poker, and Aced Poker reserve the right to modify these rules at any time, and for any reason, at their sole discretion.

Christmas is coming to the G household – may I wish all the best and remember it is a feast! At this time of year it is only right that you think about others in need and have a deep and meaningful with yourself about life, love and the cosmos. It is with this in mind that I channeled all my positive energy into this spiritual video message to Phil Hellmuth. The change from 2011 to 2012 is very significant for you I know Phil – things are different, it is time for a new Korea. I read on the web rumors that Kim Jong Il was ‘in a fit of rage’ prior to his sudden collapse shortly after sustaining a ‘bad beat’ playing poker. Were you playing Chinese with him Phil and how much did you play per point? 2012 will not be the year of Team America Phil – don’t try and be a superhero – just face facts. I even heard you might be backing out of the PartyPoker.com Premier League because the stakes will be too high. If you do you owe me $ 50k anyway.

Merry Christmas everybody – I hope my record gets to number one. Just remember that you should feast a lot but not too much. The January sales are coming and so is plenty of seafood – leave some room for feasting on rake free MTTs at PartyPoker.com. Last time this happened I was so happy that I rolled around in a golf bunker – I was delirious.

Russian online poker players dominated Titan Poker’s $ 1,000 Facebook Freeroll last night, taking five out of the top seven places. The tournament attracted 3,085 starters and the player finishing in first place was Russian “denvernio”, who captured the first prize of $ 240.

Titan Poker stages frequent freeroll tournaments exclusively for its community of nearly 20,000 Facebook followers. Recent events have awarded, in addition to cash prizes, tickets to the iPOPS Live Main Event tournament that was staged in Prague.

 

The $ 1,000 Facebook Freeroll was a fast-paced tournament that lasted 3 ½ hours.

When final table action began, “denvernio” already had a commanding lead over his final seven opponents with a stack of 1,724,000 chips. Eliminations came quickly until only two Russians were left for eight hands of heads-up play. “denvernio” had a 3-1 advantage in chips over “Timarik1988”, and he was able to maintain his lead.

On the final hand, “denvernio” had K Q offsuit to the A 5 held by “Timarik1988”, who went all-in pre-flop. A queen on the river was enough to secure the tournament win for “denvernio”.

The final results of the tournament were:

Place	Player	Country	Total win
1	denvernio	Russia	$ 240
2	Timarik1988	Russia	$ 150
3	AAACe123	Canada	$ 80
4	OredegHills	Russia	$ 70
5	GangstaZUZ	Poland	$ 60
6	setjjj	Russia	$ 50
7	CEKACAHEXBATAET	Russia	$ 40
8	csizol011	Hungary	$ 30
9	raiod23	Bosnia and Herzegovina	$ 20
10	Greenboy89	Romania	$ 10

 Another freeroll tournament will be staged for Titan Poker’s Facebook followers to celebrate the New Year. Details for all of Titan Poker’s Facebook freerolls are provided on the Titan Poker Facebook page.