Online Poker Directory

Posts Tagged ‘Online’

A little over a week ago, we discussed how Carbon Poker is preparing for their first ever Turbo Online Poker Series. Well the preparations are complete and the inaugural TOPS is set to launch tomorrow on March 28th.

In all, TOPS will pay out $ 100,000 in guaranteed prize money over the course of 14 tournaments. And the series culminates on March 31st with a $ 15,000 guaranteed turbo tournament. Assuming you’re interested in the Main Event – or any of the other tourneys – here’s a full look at the Turbo Online Poker Series schedule (all times server time):

(March 28th)

TOPS #1 $ 2,000 Gtd (Turbo, R/1A) Starts at 20:00, NLHE, $ 1.00 + $ 0.10 buy-in

TOPS #2 $ 7,500 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 20:30, NLHE, $ 10.00 + $ 1.00 buy-in

TOPS #3 $ 10,000 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 21:00, NLHE, $ 55.00 + $ 5.00 buy-in

(March 29th)

TOPS #4 $ 7,500 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 20:00, NLHE, $ 10.00 + $ 1.00 buy-in

TOPS #5 $ 10,000 Gtd (Turbo, 1R/1A) Starts at 20:30, NLHE, $ 30.00 + $ 3.00 buy-in

TOPS #6 $ 7,500 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 21:00, NLHE, $ 55.00 + $ 5.00 buy-in

(March 30th)

TOPS #7 $ 3,000 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 16:00, NLHE, $ 10.00 +$ 1.00 buy-in

TOPS #8 $ 10,000 Gtd (Turbo, R/1A) Starts at 17:00, NLHE, $ 30.00 + $ 3.00 buy-in

TOPS #9 $ 5,000 Gtd (Turbo, HU) Starts at 18:00, NLHE, $ 30.00 + $ 3.00 buy-in

TOPS #10 $ 7,500 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 19:00, NLHE, $ 55.00 + $ 5.00 buy-in

(March 31st)

TOPS #11 $ 2,000 Gtd (Turbo, R/1A) Starts at 16:00, NLHE, $ 1.00 + $ 0.10 buy-in

TOPS #12 $ 7,500 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 17:00, NLHE, $ 10.00 + $ 1.00 buy-in

TOPS #13 Main Event $ 15,000 Gtd (Turbo) Starts at 18:00, NLHE, $ 100.00 + $ 9.00 buy-in

TOPS #14 $ 10,000 Gtd (Turbo, 6-Max) Starts at 19:00, PLO, $ 100.00 + $ 9.00 buy-in

If you see a tournament that you’d really like to enter – but don’t have the buy-in money – make sure to check out the satellites at Carbon. You’ll find a variety of satellites running until March 31st, which doesn’t give you much time to win a seat.

One more thing to keep in mind here is that TOPS will feature a leaderboard race where $ 2,000 is up for grabs. First place will collect a $ 500 prize, so it’s definitely worth trying to play in as many TOPS tournaments as you can. The action starts tomorrow so don’t miss out!

Carbon Poker has added a new major event to their vast array of promotions, and it’s called the Turbo Online Poker Series. The Turbo OPS will offer $ 100,000 in guaranteed money across 14 tournaments, which take place from March 28th-31st.

What’s nice is that the buy-ins are fairly low for these speedy tournaments, with entries ranging from $ 1.10 – $ 109. And if you see a tourney that’s right up your alley – yet you can’t afford the buy-in – thee are lots of Turbo OPS satellites starting at just $ 0.27. If all of this sounds interesting to you, be sure to take a look at the following information.

Turbo OPS Tournaments
(March 28th)
TOPS #1 $ 2K Gtd (Turbo, R/1A) – Starts at 20:00 server time, NLHE, $ 1.00 + $ 0.10 buy-in
TOPS #2 $ 7.5K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 20:30, NLHE, $ 10.00 + $ 1.00 buy-in
TOPS #3 $ 10K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 21:00, NLHE, $ 55.00 + $ 5.00 buy-in
(March 29th)
TOPS #4 $ 7.5K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 20:00, NLHE, $ 10.00 + $ 1.00 buy-in
TOPS #5 $ 10K Gtd (Turbo, 1R/1A) – Starts at 20:30, NLHE, $ 30.00 + $ 3.00 buy-in
TOPS #6 $ 7.5 Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 21:00, NLHE, $ 55.00 + $ 5.00 buy-in
(March 30th)
TOPS #7 $ 3K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 16:00, NLHE, $ 10.00 +$ 1.00 buy-in
TOPS #8 $ 10K Gtd (Turbo, R/1A) – Starts at 17:00, NLHE, $ 30.00 + $ 3.00 buy-in
TOPS #9 $ 5K Gtd (Turbo, HU) – Starts at 18:00, NLHE, $ 30.00 + $ 3.00 buy-in
TOPS #10 $ 7.5K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 19:00, NLHE, $ 55.00 + $ 5.00 buy-in
(March 31st)
TOPS #11 $ 2K Gtd (Turbo, R/1A) – Starts at 16:00, NLHE, $ 1.00 + $ 0.10 buy-in
TOPS #12 $ 7.5K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 17:00, NLHE, $ 10.00 + $ 1.00 buy-in
TOPS #13 Main Event $ 15K Gtd (Turbo) – Starts at 18:00, NLHE, $ 100.00 + $ 9.00 buy-in
TOPS #14 $ 10K Gtd (Turbo, 6-Max) – Starts at 19:00, PLO, $ 100.00 + $ 9.00 buy-in

Turbo OPS Satellites

All of the available Turbo Online Poker Series satellites are sit and go’s. However, the SNG’s are broken up into three different types with Super Turbo 6-Max, Regular 6-Max, and Full Ring SNG’s all available. The satellite buy-ins range from $ 0.27 – $ 30.50, which allows pretty much anybody to go after Turbo OPS seats.

Turbo OPS Leaderboard

The money doesn’t stop with the tournament prize pools because there’s also a Turbo OPS Leaderboard too. Players earn points by finishing as high up in as many Turbo OPS events as they can. The top 10 players will share in $ 2,000 worth of prize money, and here’s a look at the breakdown:

1st – $ 500
2nd – $ 350
3rd – $ 275
4th – $ 200
5th – $ 175
6th – $ 150
7th – $ 125
8th – $ 100
9th – $ 75
10th – $ 50

February may have been the shortest month of the year, but it was filled with plenty of poker fun and information to keep it quite busy. PS Women Team Pros were in action in places like Deauville and Melbourne, while some were spending time in the kitchen and even on TV. Meanwhile, our writers were busy covering them all, as well as featuring some of our regular PS Women online players.

The PokerStars Women’s Club picked up some steam in February, with more women getting involved in the weekly winning opportunities. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s free to join, and there are Club options for players of all bankrolls!

Bloggers were busy preparing for the excitement of WBCOOP in February, the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker that began on March 1. The weeklong series offers players the chance to compete for SCOOP tickets, prizes, and freeroll cash for simply writing about their favorite PokerStars moment and spreading the word with a blog post. Players without blogs could sign up here, and women were given an extra chance to win with a prize of $ 500 available to the best female blogger. Stay tuned for information as WBCOOP plays out this week.

Women’s Tournaments

The opportunities for women-only tournaments continue to grow on PokerStars. The Women’s Tuesday has become a staple in the lineup, with an $ 11 buy-in No Limit Hold’em 6-Max offered each Tuesday at 15:00 ET. Its $ 1K guarantee draws players in every week. And the recent addition of the Women’s Daily Special offers even more 6-Max action, with two $ 5.50 buy-ins per day – one at 6:00 ET and the other at 14:00 ET.

The Women’s Sunday is as popular as ever, with satellites throughout the week for each Sunday’s $ 55 buy-in NLHE tournament. Players can qualify or buy-in to compete for the weekly $ 10K guaranteed prize pool, not to mention the $ 50 bounty on Team Pros who participate. February’s exciting results were:

February 3
Players: 248
Prize pool: $ 12,400
Winner: Liza_plus_EV (Russia) – $ 2,535.80

February 10
Players: 235
Prize pool: $ 11,750
Winner: tenteli19 (Russia) – $ 2,402.98

February 17
Players: 235
Prize pool: $ 11,750
Winner: Kg7xKg8 (Canada) – $ 2,402.98

February 24
Players: 217
Prize pool: $ 10,850
Winner: vegasdream29 (Greece) – $ 2,218.93

Featured Players

We decided to get to know more of the regulars at the women’s tables, so we featured several of them in February. If you recognize the name cardkahleesi from the weekly women’s tournaments, you’ll want to read more about her here. And if you’ve played some poker with HUSTLheR0, you should meet her as well.

Several women stood out in the Women’s Sundays early in the year for making two final tables in a very short amount of time. We talked to Pkrbadgirl, Kristiine ’88, and Hotjenny314 to find out how they did it. It turns out that Hotjenny314, also known as Katie Dozier, enjoys poker so much that she let us in on one of her Sundays in the “Anatomy of a Sunday Grind” piece, something that will be a regular monthly feature on the blog.

Ladies in Live Events

When February began, players were converging on the French city of Deauville for some wintery poker fun in the EPT tournaments. Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree commented on the growth of ladies events just before the Women’s Event started there. The first report from the live action showed that the familiar face of Friend of PokerStars Charlotte Van Brabander made the final table, and the final report revealed that Anais Lerouge ended up winning it for €7,500.

Speaking of Charlotte, her sister Camille also ran deep in the EPT Deauville Women’s Event, and the latter wrote about it here. Luckily, she also wrote about some of her other experiences for us, including the story of her online poker birthday gift and appearing on Belgian TV.

Still at the EPT, Team Pro Vanessa Rousso had a great time, which was displayed in her table talk and excitement in this video and a blog post about celebrating her birthday in France. And at the tables, there was much chatter about her big bluff of the tournament, which was discussed here.

Meanwhile, Team Pro Celina Lin ran deep in the 2013 Aussie Millions in Melbourne, and we caught up to her to discuss that tournament, as well as marriage and ambassadorship.

Though PCA was in January, some players were still reflecting on the action there and lessons they learned. No one was better suited to talk about those life lessons than Jen Shahade, who learned to replace alcohol with Open Face Chinese Poker and to follow the adventurous spirit of Vanessa Rousso.

Non-Poker Lives

It is nice to get to know our Team Pros off the poker tables, too, and Liv Boeree wrote about being a first-time home buyer here. Vanessa Selbst talked about her not-so-secret passion for cooking, sometimes known as the “kitchen range merge”.

Vanessa Rousso opened up to our own Rebekah Mercer about poker, her dual citizenship with France and the United States, and guilty pleasures. And last, but not least, Liv Boeree disclosed her plans for the Vertical Rush, a race she is planning for charity. She and a team of four other Team Pros will run up 920 steps to help the homeless in London.

On that note, thanks for following us throughout the month of February. We have big plans for March, so stay tuned!

Finnish poker pro Jens Kyllonen, 23, will be the first poker player to blast off from earth on a commercial flight into space. Kyllonen, winner of the 2009 EPT Scandinavian Open and a very successful online poker player, has booked his $ 200,000 seat on a Virgin Galactic space flight. Launch date is not yet known.

“I’ve always been fascinated with space and now that I have the opportunity to be within the first people going I just felt like I had to do it… I’ll probably be going in 2014,” Kyllonen said, quoted in the media.

Kyllonen is one of over 500 people who have booked their seats with Virgin Galactic. According to media reports, Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, as well as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking have also booked seats on a future space flight.

Virgin Galactic offers two and a half hours of sub-orbital flight, including a six-minute period of complete weightlessness. Bookings and inquiries are made through the firm’s website.

Kyllonen has won $ 1,469,189 in live tournament play including a $ 1,120,815 first place finish at the EPT Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen in February, 2009.

Last year, Kyllonen won $ 2.5 million playing high stakes cash games online, and as a result he was named Internet Player of the Year 2012 at the European Poker Awards.

Kyllonen paid $ 1 million to play The Big One for One Drop charity tournament staged at the 2012 World Series of Poker.

I think we may have finally found the perfect new apartment in Italy (finally!) which means I’m one step closer to applying for residency and one step closer to being able to play online at PartyPoker.it. Seriously, this is cause for celebration. I miss playing online. For years, I’ve been living in the USA where I couldn’t play on PartyPoker and damn, it’s not been easy. I enjoy playing live poker but there are a few ways in which online is just head and shoulders above anything else.

1. Pyjamas.

This probably needs no explanation but just imagine the biggest, fluffiest and most comfortable PJs in the world. The perfect onesie. Who wouldn’t want to go to work in that!? It’s not just societal rules that say we can’t go to work in our pyjamas but sadly, most Casino rules too. But hey, my living room, my rules suckers!

2. Close proximity to World’s Best Snack Bar.

When playing live in a casino, you’re really at the mercy of their catering system. Some places won’t let you eat at the tables, some only serve basic sandwiches and in other spots, you have to leg it to the coffee place around the corner during breaks just to get a bite to eat. Playing at home online means never having to get hungry. Ahhh, snacks. I love you, snacks.

3. Privacy.

When super-raging tilt happens at home, I don’t have to keep my smiling public face on. There is no ‘seething in silence’ when I’m in my living room. I’m always a little embarrassed for people who flip out when playing live at the poker table. It’s unseemly, and often just plain rude. Sure, we’d all love to berate people for playing badly and then sucking out on us but when you really think about it, that’s bad for the game. In the privacy of my own home, I can rage and swear my head off and nobody has to know.

Ever since the U.S. Department of Justice shut down the three biggest online poker rooms in the spring of 2011, an event commonly known as “Black Friday” among poker players, online poker has been a distant memory for Americans. Despite this crackdown on online gambling, some providers never gave up the fight. A number of brick-and-mortar casinos in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, are leading the efforts to legalize online poker in the United States.

Rumblings in the Desert
Just two months after Black Friday, the state of Nevada passed the Interactive Gaming bill, which legalized the development of web poker applications before adopting state-specific rules for the industry that December. Under the new legislation, large gaming companies operating traditional live casinos were the only ones that could operate legal poker sites. Some gaming companies spent the time since developing their own poker sites, while others, according to a Card Player Magazine report, reached out to more established online poker providers to develop web applications that would provide their service with both a recognizable brand name and a pool of players ready to place their bets.

Many states are expected to approve similar legislation in the coming year, particularly as the Department of Justice effectively endorsed the legalization of online poker in an official legal opinion released in late 2011. The comment came in the form of an explanation of the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 in which the DOJ claimed that the law only prevented online sports betting, not poker or casino games. Knowing that the federal government is in no rush to halt the development of intrastate gaming operations could be a real boon to the American online gaming industry.

Movers and Shakers
While the rest of the U.S. waits for their legislators to catch up, several developers have already begun making strides toward a future with online poker in the U.S., reports Card Player. The first to leap out the gate will likely be Gaughan Straight Holdings. Though the launch of its site has faced some challenges by legislators hoping to iron out any imperfections the software may have prior to its release, the company seems likely to be among the first online poker sites to legally operate in the Silver State. 

Rumors have been swirling around the products that will be developed under the Wynn Resorts brand. The organization, which once shared a strategic partnership with some of the biggest names in the online poker world, will likely forge its own branded poker site. Recent rumors have hinted the site may possibly be created with the assistance of social gaming giant Zynga, developers of Facebook games like Farmville. 

One company that many players will be watching closely as the online poker industry returns to the U.S. is Caesars Entertainment, owner of the eponymous Las Vegas hotel casino as well as the immensely popular World Series of Poker franchise. Caesars received its online poker license in 2012. Card Player hints that the company could utilize existing partnerships with online gaming companies to help develop its own gaming platform, though only time will tell.

Obstacles from within
While these developments are welcome news to avid poker players, a recent study from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind found that roughly 60 percent of those polled opposed the creation of state-run online gambling sites.

The Republican Party platform adopted at last week’s GOP national convention in Tampa, Florida, calls for the prohibition of all forms of online gambling. In a section of its platform entitled “Renewing American Values,” the Republicans state their intention to make the Internet family-friendly:

“Millions of Americans suffer from problem or pathological gambling that can destroy families. We support the prohibition of gambling over the Internet and call for reversal of the Justice Department’s decision distorting the formerly accepted meaning of the Wire Act that could open the door to Internet betting.”

The platform was targeted at the U.S. Department of Justice which stated in December that the 1961 Wire Act (barring wagering via telecommunications that cross state lines or international borders) does not apply to online poker. That decision was a significant boost in efforts to legalize the game of poker at the state level, and Nevada and Delaware have already passed laws to set regulation.

In response, Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas said that the “2012 GOP platform on Internet gambling is grossly out of touch with the opinions of the party’s own elected officials.”

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat – Nevada) said last month that there were not enough Republican legislators in favor of online poker to pass legislation. “The only way we can get (an online poker bill) done is we need Republican votes, and we haven’t gotten them yet,” Senate he told the Las Vegas Sun. Reid has been a key proponent of online poker legislation.

Most analysts said that if the Republicans win the presidency, the Senate or the House of Representatives in the upcoming elections, it would make it more unlikely than ever for online poker to be legalized on a federal level.

President Barack Obama has not come out in support of online poker, preferring to leave its regulation as a matter to be decided at a state level.

After its huge success in November and December, iPOPs (iPoker Online Poker Series) returns with five online tournaments awarding $ 1,000,000 in guaranteed prizes and a live event to be staged at the Gran Casino de Barcelona in June.

Satellites are running now at Titan Poker to the five online iPOPS tournaments, which run from April 29th to May 6th, and in parallel to the iPOPS Live Main Event in Barcelona.

The online tournaments kick off with a $ 100+$ 9 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout on April 29th guaranteeing a prize pool of $ 200,000. Other events in the series include a $ 40+$ 4 Pot Limit Omaha 6-max re-buy tournament with a $ 50,000 guaranteed prize pool, and a $ 500+$ 30 No Limit Hold’em 6-max freezeout tournament with a $ 100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Action at the $ 125+$ 10 iPOPS #5 $ 500,000 GP freezeout on May 6th will pause when only 27 players remain. Similar to the paused tournament last year, action will resume at the Gran Casino de Barcelona on June 1st. The iPoker Network provided live coverage of the continuation of this tournament in Prague in December.

In parallel to the online tournaments, players can already secure their seats to the iPOPS Live Barcelona Main Event, a €770 buy-in event offering participants a starting stack of 30,000 chips. The iPOPS Live Main is a two-day freezeout event that will play June 2nd – June 3rd, 2012.

Titan Poker is staging three weekly iPOPS Live Barcelona Super Satellites awarding winning players with €2,200 prize packages to the event in Barcelona. The prize packages include the €770 buy-in to the iPOPS Live Main Event; €1,000 for 3 nights’ accommodation at the Arts Hotel, June 1st -4th 2012; €30 for handling fees; and €400 for flights and spending. Participating players will be invited to an exclusive players’ party.

The Republican primary race continues to be the main story in the American media, with the candidates exchanging blows and fighting to win the delegates of the different states in their race to the presidency. The leading candidates have stated, or hinted at their opposition to legalized online gaming and only a long shot libertarian candidate would support the issue.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who yesterday won a majority of the Republican votes cast in caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and in the Missouri primary calls online gaming “dangerous for our country.”

Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, was interviewed by news station ‘8newsnow,’ which concluded its article by stating: “Romney also said he doesn’t support legalizing online gaming. He’s says he’s against it because of the social costs and people’s addictive gambling habits.”

In an interview on the “Face to Face” program with Jon Ralston in Las Vegas, Romney was asked if he supported legalized online gaming:

“No, I’m not (a supporter). Gaming has a social effect on a lot of people. I don’t want to increase access to gaming and feel that we have plenty of access to gaming right now through the various casinos and establishments that exist. In some states, there are lotteries that are used to fund their schools and budgets and so forth, and I don’t think online gambl… gaming would encourage or improve that setting.”

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich has strong ties with Sheldon Adelson, the casino and hotel magnate who has been the only casino industry figure to state his opposition to online gambling. Adelson doesn’t believe available technology is good enough to prevent young people from making wagers on the Internet. According to media reports, Gingrich has adopted Adelson’s opposition to proposals for legalized online gaming.

That leaves only libertarian Republican congressman Ron Paul. Interviewed on “Face to Face”, the Congressman was asked directly about legalized online gaming, and he said: “I think people should have legalized freedom. People should be free and make their own decisions. There should be no regulation on the Internet.”

President Barack Obama, a Democrat, has not spoken out as to whether he approves online poker or not, but most speculate that he is a supporter.