June 15, 2009
Mike Matusow has released a brand new autobiography called Check-Raising the Devil and players at FullTilt Poker now have a chance to earn the book for free. Players have until the end of the month to compete in daily free rolls which will award players with a copy of the new book.
Four free rolls will take place every day for players to participate in. players can get to the free rolls by visiting the Full Tilt poker tournament lobby and clicking on the appropriate link. The free rolls take place at 11:40am ET, 2:40pm ET, 6:40pm ET and 11:40pm ET each day. Every player that gets to the final table during the free roll tournaments will earn an autographed copy of Matusow’s book.
The new book, Check-Raising the Devil is a large book that has the Full Tilt Poker logo on the back cover and retails for $24.95 in the United States. Phil Hellmuth provided the foreword to the book and he writes: “This abrupt way of insulting players when he greeted them did not hold Matusow in good stead in the poker world. But as the poker world got to know Mike better, we realized that he really did have a heart of gold.”
The book includes information about Matusow’s ADHA, bipolar disorder, partying and drug use. The book also tells readers about his career in the poker industry. Mike is a member of Team FullTiltPoker.net and has won three WSOP bracelets to date.
The book is also available at the Full Tilt Store for 6,900 Full Tilt Points. The book can also be found on Amazon for a low price of $16.47. The book offers poker fans a good look into Mike Matusow’s life and it is a really nice gift to Full Tilt poker players to be able to get the book for free. It is a double bonus that the book will be autographed by Matusow as well.
June 08, 2009
Full Tilt is just one of many large poker rooms that have lost or are having problems with the Instant eCheck deposit option. United States players can no longer access the method at Full Tilt and several reports have surfaced on why the option is not available anymore for players.
Many reports say that the UIGEA and United States banking could be to blame for the method no longer being available. The Attorney General’s Office in New York State has stated that they are the ones who forced the closedown of the Instant eCheck option at Full Tilt and other online poker rooms that cater to United States players.
The Attorney’s Office is known for dealing with aggression when it comes to gambling operators and many think this case is going to be federal instead of a state investigation. It has been rumored that the Office has seized money from Full Tilt Poker as well as PokerStars.
Response from Full Tilt has been limited. At first customers were told that the problem was only temporary but since the weekend Full Tilt released a statement to players who contacted customer support on the subject of Instant eCheck dismissal.
June 01, 2009
The World Series of Poker recently announced that the public will now be able to nominate poker players to be inducted in this year’s Poker Hall of Fame. The public can log on to the WSOP website and nominate who they would like to see inducted by registering the players name and a small paragraph on why they believe they should be nominated. Shortly after the WSOP announced this decision Party Poker came out stating they would like to see Mike Sexton nominated.
Sexton recently signed with Party Poker to serve as their ambassador and they want to see their newly appointed poker pro showered with the honor of being the newest member in the Poker Hall of Fame. The poker room is encouraging others to nominate Sexton as well.
A spokesman for Party Poker stated: “We encourage the poker community to vote online for Mike Sexton’s induction into poker’s hall of fame.” Mike famously said that poker takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime to master- it takes five minutes to vote and mark the lifetime achievement of the master! Mike meets all the criteria and deserves to be top of the list when the process gets to the Hall of Fame Committee.”
Nominees must have played poker against acknowledged top players as well as played for high stakes and played on a consistent basis to gain the respect of their peers and stood the test of time in the industry.
One poker pro who has said she will vote for Sexton is Annette Obrestad. Young and new to the poker scene, Obrestad has shown her skill in the game of poker and has a bright future ahead of her in the game. Obrestad commented: “I may be from a different generation of poker players to Mike, but in my mind he deserves induction into poker’s hall of fame this year.”
May 11, 2009
Full Tilt Poker, one of the largest online poker rooms operating today, recently announced the addition of a new member of their poker team. The online poker room is constantly adding fresh new talent to their roster but this time the site has added a familiar face as a Friend of FullTiltPoker.com. The newest member is actor Don Cheadle.
Don Cheadle is known for his performances in Hotel Rwanda and Oceans 11 but for those in the poker world he is known for his poker skills and charitable activities. Cheadle created Ante Up for Africa with poker pro Annie Duke to help raise money for the Darfur region of Africa. Ante Up for Africa holds charity poker tournaments in which poker pros compete to raise money for the organization.
Cheadle does not have a large record of cash winnings but he has competed in several events and seen great success. Cheadle has played in the NBC National Heads Up Championship and in 2007 he beat poker pro Phil Ivey, which really showed the world his poker skills. Cheadle has also competed in the Celebrity Poker Shoot Out and other NBC Heads Up Challenges.
Cheadle has commented on his tournament play stating: “I’ve done alright in the televised tourneys I’ve participated in, and I’ve won several tournaments around town. I have yet to play in the WSOP events, but I hope my schedule will permit me to do so in the future.”
Cheadle joins a good size list of Friends of Full Tilt which can be accessed through the “Our Team” link on the Full Tilt homepage. A few included on the list of Friends are: 9 time World Welterweight UFC Champion Matt Hughes, Brain Koppelman the writer of the poker movie Rounders and Bruce Buffer the emcee of the UFC.
May 04, 2009
It has taken two long years but online gambling provider, Bodog, finally has regained control of their domain name. The online operator recently announced that they now have the rights to the bodog.com domain after they lost back in 2007.
An agreement was reached recently between 1st Technology, LLC and Morris Mohawk Gaming Group. Morris Mohawk is the company that markets Bodog in North America. The agreement put an end to all of the lawsuits between the two companies. Back when the original court ruling was made, Bodog was told to pay $50 million in damages.
While the lawsuits were going on, players who typed in bodog.com (or BodogPoker.com) would be sent to bodoglife.com. This was the change that was made when the domain was taken from the bodog company. Now players looking for bodogpoker will be able to type bodog.com and be sent directly to that domain name.
Alwyn Morris the Chief Executive of Morris Mohawk Gaming Group commented in a press release about the agreement stating: “While the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group was not the judgment debtor, the MMGG is the exclusive licensee of the “Bodog” brand within the region and, as such, activities that impact the brand necessarily impact our business. “
Morris also commented: “We are pleased to have worked constructively with 1st Technology and its principals to bring an end to this protracted dispute. This resolution will provide certainty and will allow us to continue to enhance our technology base for online gaming in order to provide our users with unfettered access to the best technology.”
April 20, 2009
PKR, the online 3D poker room, recently announced their new online professional poker team. PKR has never had a sponsored poker pro team so this is the first time the poker room will have pros to send to live events. PKR has signed six players to their team and they recently went to an event in London. The members of the team are up and coming in the poker world and have been seen at the PKR poker room on a regular basis.
Each player added to the first ever PKR team brings something to the table. Some are well known and others may never have been heard of but have shown great knowledge in the game of poker. The six players signed to the team are: Henrik Eklund, Ashley Hames, Raymond O’Mahoney, Kai Paulsen, James Sudworth and Andrew Teng.
Teng, known online as ‘Golfpro699, appeared at the GUKPT earlier this year and outlasted the field at the Thanet leg of the tour to take the win. Sudworth also made the GUKPT final table earlier this year and is one of the newest young poker players to hit the scene.
New team member Kai “KingKai84” Paulsen has seen the most live game play success on the team. Paulsen is from Norway and he has an impressive tournament record including fifth place at the Irish Open last year. Ashley Hames is known more as a television personality instead of poker play. Hames is a writer, television presenter and for working on the Sin Cities show. Hames has been playing poker at the Vic for many years.
Henrik “Pokey85” Eklund is from Sweden and loves the High Stakes games. Eklund played well at the APT Manila as well as finishing second in the first ever PKR live event last year. The last player on the new PKR team is Raymond “callmebabe” O’Mahoney and he is a cash player at the high stakes tables and made the final table at the live PKR tournament last year.
April 06, 2009
The month of March was a good month to play online poker for several poker pros. Full Tilt is one of the more popular online poker sites and several poker players were able to earn seven figures while competing in the month of March.
Leading the pack in overall earnings is Tom “durrrr” Dwan who had experienced a few losses. By the end of March, Dwan was able to earn $1.595 million in just over 25,761 tracked hands. It was the last two days in the month that Dwan was able to earn over one million dollars.
Dwan has been competing in his Durrrr Challenge, which has caused him to lose quite a bit of money. He is still down over $2 million for the year at Full Tilt but that is less than what he was previously down.
Patrik Antonius is another player who has done well at Full Tilt Poker. Earning just over $1 million in the month of March, Antonius has now almost earned $3 million for the year. With many months left in 2009, Antonius should have a very profitable year if things continue to go his way.
Other well known poker pros had a profitable month as well though they did not break the million dollar mark. Gus Hansen earned $995,000, Phil Ivey earned $977,000 and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond earned $704,000.
And as everyone knows for every big winner there must be a big loser and players at Full Tilt are no exception. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies list close to $1.66 million while Di “Urindanger” Dang lost $1.593 million. Online players LarsLuzak lost $607,000, Ahatata lost $370,000 and Gypsie Queen lost $360,000.
March 30, 2009
Doyles Room holds weekly bounty tournaments where celebrities compete with the everyday online player. Online players must try their best to defeat the celebrity and they will earn extra cash while doing so. Such celebrities as Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Eve and Nicky Hilton participate in the bounty tournaments and the most recent addition is actor Mickey Rourke.
Mickey Rourke has been an actor for many, many years but recently came back into the spotlight after his Academy Award nomination for The Wrestler. Though Mickey is a pro when it comes to acting he is a novice when it comes to poker.
Rourke commented that he was interested in learning the game so he called his friend Doyle Brunson. Doyle and Rourke have been friends for many years and Doyle sent Rourke a few of his books and gave him a quick lesson over the phone.
Rourke is quick to admit that he is a rookie and stated that he just began learning the game six months ago. Since talking with Doyle and learning the game, Mickey Rourke will now begin to play in the weekly bounty tournaments at DoylesRoom.com.
Doyle will also have a price on his head during the tournaments and was quoted in his blog as saying: “DoylesRoom is the only poker site that could have gotten these celebrities to play in an internet poker tournament.”
March 24, 2009
BugsysClub is an online poker site that was established in 2003. The poker site was created by a group of private investors and thousands of players enjoyed playing at the poker room but the site was unsuccessful in attracting the amount of traffic they needed to stay afloat. PokerStars has now stepped in and bought BugsysClub and now will service over 150,000 customers of BugsysClub.
PokerStars has taken over all customer accounts of BugsysClub and no player will lose their funds. PokerStars.com is inviting all members of BugsysClub to transfer their funds to the PokerStars website. As a welcome to all the BugsysClub players, PokerStars is offering a special free roll tournament for those who were former players on the site. PokerStars wants the new players to feel welcome in the PokerStars community.
The Chief Executive Officer of BugsysClub, Brian Baker commented on PokerStars buying out the poker room: “We are saddened by the events that have lead to the closing down of the BugysClub card room. However, we are delighted that PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site has come forward for BugsysClub players to welcome them to the PokerStar.net community.”
March 02, 2009
There’s a lot of talk around the water cool these days regarding a possible “super user” account swindling massive pots away from some of Full Tilt Poker’s biggest names. Though not yet substantiated, the rumors also accuse Full Tilt Poker of covering up the alleged incident.
Most of the talk is coming from the 2+2 poker forums, where it’s becoming more and more evident that a super user account may have appeared on Full Tilt Poker. Someone using the nickname “TexasLimitKing” allegedly raked in enormous amounts of money from multiple players, including Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey and then-Pro David Benyamine in high-stakes, heads-up ring games. Afterwards, the player and username vanished from the online poker room.
In the summer of 2008, just as the World Series of Poker was getting underway, Full Tilt Pro Howard Lederer made an appearance on Pokerroad.com where, during his interview, he explained at length how it was technically impossible for a super user account to infiltrate the Full Tilt servers.
The current rumors, however, state otherwise, and it’s not helping that Full Tilt Poker is either unable or unwilling to provide the hand histories requested by players who feel they fell victim to the possible super user. One poster on the poker forum who demanded hand histories from Full tilt posted the email communications, in which Full Tilt Poker stated they no longer had the records in question.
One player actually claims to have heard that Full Tilt Poker administrators were aware of the problem and made a deal with TexasLimitKing. According to this speculation, FullTiltPoker.net agreed to take no action, allowing the user to keep his winnings so long as he or she never used the site or spoke of the matter again. Full Tilt Poker has failed to comment on this rumor, confirm or deny.
Again, all remains speculation at this point. We will of course follow up on this story as soon as more details are revealed.