Posts Tagged ‘PokerStars’

Atlantic Club successfully backs out of PokerStars Deal

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

For the past few weeks, the Rational Group (PokerStars’ owner) and Colony Capital LLC (owns Atlantic Club Casino) have been at war over a business deal. The Rational Group was set to buy the Atlantic Club for $15 million, but they failed to obtain a New Jersey casino license by April 26th, 2013.

What’s significant about this date is that Rational needed to obtain a license by then or the original agreement was altered. Furthermore, the purchase contract stated that Colony Capital could back out of the deal if PokerStars failed to get a license by the 26th. Because Rational failed to meet this clause, a New Jersey Superior Court judge recently ruled that Atlantic Club could terminate their pending deal with PokerStars. Plus they can sell to any company they wish to now.

What made this situation particularly complicated is how Rational dumped $11 million into Atlantic Club to keep it operational. The casino was on the verge of bankruptcy when PokerStars entered the picture and needed money to continue operations. Because they spent so much on Atlantic Club, Rational argued that they’d already met most of the $15 million purchase agreement. But as unethical as it may seem, Colony Capital was able to back out simply because the contract stated they could.

Popular speculation is that Atlantic Club owners didn’t fully realize how much more valuable their property was until partway through the selling process. Because only casino operators can get an online gaming license in New Jersey, the Atlantic Club is probably worth far more than $15 million. So by getting out of a deal with Stars, Colony Club can now seek a more lucrative deal. Of course, this all hinges upon Atlantic Club’s ability to stay open until they find a new suitor.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Poker News | Comments Off

Father says Black Friday led to Poker-Playing Son’s Death

Saturday, April 27th, 2013

Black Friday affected the lives of numerous US online poker players since they could no longer play at the world’s biggest sites or access their bankroll. Matthew “notnmyhouse” Roth was one of these players, and he unfortunately took his own life yesterday.

Roth, who suffered from depression and anxiety, shot himself in the head while sitting in his car outside Las Vegas’ Wild Wild West Gambling Hall. The 26-year-old had just been in his hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska two days earlier and had his dad, Bill, drive him to the airport.

Speaking of Bill, he blames Black Friday for the death of his son. The 45-year-old told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ““The federal government two years ago shut down his site, took his money, and with that – they didn’t know it – but they took my son.”

He added, “They took his livelihood, self-esteem, drive. They took his focus. “Imagine all of a sudden your job is just not there. All of a sudden, your money is taken away and you’re struggling to find work.”

As Bill Roth alluded to, his son fell into a deeper depression when he couldn’t play poker at the largest sites like Full Tilt and PokerStars. Matt had previously been a very talented player who made a living through mid-stakes Full Tilt cash games.

His friend from Alaska, Josh Norum, attested to Roth’s impressive poker abilities. “He worked extremely hard to be the best at everything he pursued, but cards were his true passion,” said Norum. “He could read the cards and people’s playing ability unlike anyone else I know.”

Going back to Bill Roth, the LVRJ reported that he wonders if his son would still be alive had Black Friday not came. After all, Matt was a huge poker fanatic and became very distraught when the game he loved was essentially taken away.

Whatever the case may be, it’s definitely a tragedy that Matthew Roth took his own life, and may he rest in peace.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Poker News | Comments Off

Brazilian Football Legend Ronaldo signs with PokerStars

Friday, April 5th, 2013

PokerStars has signed another big-name sports legend after inking a deal with Ronaldo Nazario. The former Brazilian footballer now joins tennis star Rafael Nadal, Olympic hockey medalist Fatima Moreira and tennis player Boris Becker on Team PokerStars SportsStars.

Ronaldo retired in 2011, at the age of 34, after citing injuries and hypothyroidism. Despite the fairly early retirement, the Brazilian striker managed to score a World Cup record 15 goals. Overall, he scored 62 goals in 98 international matches for Brazil. Other accolades for Ronaldo include being a three-time FIFA Player of the Year and two-time World Cup champion.

Many people may think that Ronaldo merely signed this deal for the money, while knowing nothing about poker. However, the truth is that the 36-year-old has been playing the game for quite some time. He discussed this with the following statement:

Whenever I try to deliver my best in everything, in football and in life. Poker is another challenge that excites me: read the game and opponents and choose the best way to win. For some time I have been discovering the game of poker and PokerStars chosen because they meet a community passionate about the sport. Moreover, it has a great team of players.

Those who are interested in competing against Nazario can find him playing under his namesake PokerStars ID “Ronaldo.” He’s also expected to play in plenty of live tournaments in Brazil too – especially the Brazilian Series of Poker.

This differs quite a bit from another Team PokerStars SportsStars in Rafael Nadal; Rafa is rarely found online – let alone in live tourneys. Of course, it’s also worth mentioning that Nadal is still a top-ranked professional tennis player, which cuts down on his availability. Ronaldo, on the other hand, is retired and has a bit more free time.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | Comments Off

New Jersey legalizes Online Gambling

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Online gambling took another big step in the United States after New Jersey legalized online poker and casino games. Governor Chris Christie signed the bill into effect today, making New Jersey just the third state behind Delaware and Nevada to legalize internet gambling.

After vetoing previous gaming bills in 2011 and early 2013, Christie finally approved the legislation this time around. The big reason why was that this bill made certain amendments to Christie’s liking such as raising funds for gambling addiction programs from $150,000 to $250,000, and increasing taxes on online gaming revenues from 10% to 15%.

Another major reason why Christie eventually passed this online gaming bill was because of New Jersey State Senator Ray Lesniak. After being rejected last month, Lesniak reworked the bill and got it back on Governor Christie’s desk. He stated:

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It’s been an unnecessarily long road, but we finally got there. It’s a relief. I didn’t want to have to go through this a third time, but I’ll tell you I was prepared to. The governor knew I wasn’t going away, and unfortunately neither were the problems of Atlantic City.

From the get go, the governor has been on the wrong side of what is necessary to save jobs in Atlantic City and grow the gaming industry there and in the state. It was a real struggle to get him to change his viewpoint, but thankfully he did. Better late than never.

Helping revive Atlantic City was a big selling point in getting this bill passed. Atlantic City has seen its casino revenue decline from a peak of $5 billion in 2006 to $3 billion in 2012. Now the city’s casinos will be able to offer online poker and casino games to both state residents and visitors.

This certainly works out in PokerStars’ favor, which purchased the Atlantic Club Casino just weeks ago in anticipation of legalized New Jersey online gambling. Now it’s looking more and more likely that Stars will be able to gain a foothold in the US online poker scene again.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | Comments Off

PokerStars to open World’s Biggest Branded Poker Room in Macau

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Over the past few months, PokerStars has been making some major forays into the land-based gaming world. First, they worked out a deal to buy the Atlantic Club Casino in Atlantic City; then they announced plans to build a branded poker room in London. And now Stars has announced that they’ll build the world’s largest branded poker room in Macau.

The room will be built at the City of Dreams Casino, which is located on the world-famous Cotai Strip. “PokerStars Live at the City of Dreams” will offer cash games, daily tournaments and 13 permanent poker tables. The venue will be spacious enough to add extra tables when needed and host major events like the Asia Championship of Poker, Macau Poker Cup series, Macau Millions and the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau.

Danny McDonagh, who’s the PokerStars Director of Live Operations for Asia-Pacific, discussed the new poker room by stating:

The PokerStars online brand drives more traffic to live poker events than any other. Players know that PokerStars is synonymous with integrity and high quality. That makes this collaboration a natural fit because City of Dreams has been at the forefront in providing the most innovative and premium gaming experience that is second to none in Macau.

Macau is already one of the world’s biggest destinations for live poker games. And now that PokerStars will be building a branded room at the City of Dreams, the Macau poker scene only figures to get bigger.

Some of the famous poker pros who commonly travel to Macau include Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, John Juana and Andrew Robl. Combine these action-hungry players with the Asian businessmen who regularly play in these high stakes games, and you can see why Macau features some of the biggest pots in the world.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Poker News | Comments Off

Joe Cada back in Online Poker, but has Bar shut down

Friday, February 8th, 2013

The past couple of weeks have brought a whirlwind of emotions for 2009 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada. First, he finally got a residence set up in Canada so that he could play at the world’s largest online poker sites, such as his sponsor PokerStars.

But on a down note, he learned that his bar – Cada’s Sports Bar and Grill – is being shut down due to a liquor license investigation. That said, let’s take a look at both of these recent high and low points for the 25-year-old.

Back in the Game

In just a couple of months, we’ll be nearing the 2-year anniversary of Black Friday. And it wasn’t until now that Cada finally put himself into a position to play at the bigger poker sites. He set up a residence in Canada, which is just 45 minutes from his primary suburban Detroit home. He wrote about this on Facebook with the following:

Don’t know why it took me this long to start back online poker. Feels good to be motivated again and first day went really well online. I actually feel lucky to live in Michigan to be able to make the drive once or twice a week to play and be able to be home with family and friends. Now I need to find a way to play more live tournaments because I hate traveling most of the time for poker.

Closed for Business

In 2011, Joe Cada and his dad, Jerry, opened the “Cada’s Sports Bar and Grill” in their hometown of Sterling Heights, Michigan. And this establishment drew quite a crowd because the father/son combo had a charity gambling license, meaning people could play real money casino games in the bar.

Unfortunately, trouble started for Cada’s Sports Bar when their liquor license application was delayed in 2012. The stated reason was that it needed to be “held for further commission considerations.” But there’s reason to believe the bar may have been selling liquor even when the application was still under review. This being said, Cada’s Sports Bar and Grill has been closed down pending a further police investigation.

Don’t feel too sorry for Cada though. He earned $8,546,435 after becoming the youngest Main Event champion ever and has collected $9,330,211 in overall winnings. So it’s unlikely that he’s in any trouble as far as money goes.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | Comments Off

Why is Zoom Poker so Tough?

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

If you’ve ever played Zoom Poker at Stars – or any of the other fast poker variants like Speed Poker (Titan), Fast Forward (Party Poker) or Fast Poker (Unibet) – you have probably noticed that these games are tough to beat. In fact, most people find that they’re far less profitable playing quicker poker variations than they are in regular cash games. This being said, it’s worth diving a little deeper into why Zoom Poker is tougher than normal cash play.

Tight is Right

Fast poker variants are much tighter than what many people are used to. One of the big reasons why is because players don’t have much information on opponents since they’re constantly being whisked away to new tables. So players tend to rely heavily on their cards/table position, rather than reads on opponents.

Because of the tighter play, high unsuited connectors like AK and KQ lose some value since you’ll be running up against big pocket pairs quite frequently. So anybody who’s keen on playing drawing hands will need to scale this back some in Zoom.

More Blinds

Another tough part about fast poker games is that you’ll be dealing with the blinds far more often. Action happens quicker in Zoom Poker, so the orbits come around more frequently.

Now this might not be such a big deal if you’re a skilled player who commonly makes profits. However, if you’re somebody who’s still learning the intricacies of poker, the increased blinds rate just compounds problems. Taking this into account, we highly suggest that you do your training elsewhere and save fast poker games for more experienced grinders.

Bigger Swings

One more point worth mentioning about the difficulty of Zoom Poker is that big swings occur more often. Again, these games move faster and so your up and downswings are amplified. Of course, anybody who’s used to multi-tabling will probably feel more comfortable with the wild swings.

All in all, fast cash game variants can be fun to play since you’re always getting action and never sitting around. But do be aware that Zoom and similar games seem quite tough in the beginning.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Poker Tips | Comments Off

Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom dominating Online Poker

Monday, January 7th, 2013

When Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom first hit the online poker scene in 2009, his hyper-aggressive style and fearlessness baffled opponents. He was taking on the world’s top poker players just months after moving into high stakes games – and he was winning too!

Unfortunately, Blom ran into a red-hot Brian Hastings, who was armed with ill-gotten hand histories on Isildur1′s play. Hastings’ massive EV spike coupled with the hand histories helped him win $4 million off of Blom in a single session. Since that time, the Swede’s profits have spiraled downward at both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. That spiral continued into this past November, when his career Full Tilt losses hit $2.97 million.

But it seems as if a cloud has been lifted because all of the sudden, Viktor Blom is dominating the online poker world. And when we say dominating, we’re not just talking about a few hundred thousands dollars in a week; instead, we’re alluding to the fact that he’s won almost $2.5 million in the past week alone!

Thanks to the $344k profit that he hauled in last night, Blom has earned $3.1 million since early December. What’s more is that this $3.1 million amount has easily made him the biggest winner in the “new” Full Tilt Poker’s history.

Blom is still only up $222k for his entire career at FTP, which dates back to 2009. As mentioned before, he was quite a bit in the hole after the $4 million losing session to Hastings. And he’s never really battled out of the red – until now that is. Seeing as how he is now pulling a profit, it’ll be interesting to see what Blom does from here. The 22-year-old is much younger than most high stakes poker pros and could really take over the game as time moves on.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | Comments Off

Sorel Mizzi opens up about Cheating Incidents

Monday, December 31st, 2012

Sorel Mizzi doesn’t exactly have the best reputation in the poker world. He was caught buying somebody else’s account deep in a tournament at Full Tilt Poker, and let a friend use his account during a PokerStars tourney because he had to catch a flight. And while these acts don’t exactly measure up to the UB Poker superuser scandal, they did earn Mizzi a tarnished reputation.

He’s had trouble living this rep down over the past few years too. But Mizzi seems to be more at peace with himself these days and blogged about it on his website. While it’s a pretty long post, one interesting excerpt reads as follows:

Several incidents of being robbed, cheated and wronged had made me cynical, cold, distant and emotionally disconnected. The thought of people accusing me of exactly what I had been a victim to was unbearable. Poor me, no one understands, no one cares, I can’t trust anyone.

In fact, whenever I chose to trust someone, subconsciously I wanted them to disappoint me so I could reinforce my beliefs that no one could be trusted! I wasn’t happy about the person I became. I thought I had self-respect but upon further self-evaluation, I realized I didn’t.

As you can tell from the post, Sorel Mizzi also claims to have been cheated himself plenty of times. And while poker cheating is inexcusable in any case, at least it’s a little more understandable why Mizzi would turn to such acts.

Even when not bending the rules in his favor, the Canadian has always been a very successful poker player. He’s earned an impressive $4,661,968 in live tournaments, which includes a 2012 WPT Vienna High Roller win and a 2011 WPT Paris High Roller title. Plus he’s made millions more in online poker tournaments over the years.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Poker News | Comments Off

Tatiana “Mysters_Y” Barausova becomes Newest PokerStars Pro

Monday, December 24th, 2012

Because she doesn’t play on the live circuit, Tatiana “Mysters_Y” Barausova isn’t exactly the world’s best known poker player. However, she figures to get a lot more attention after signing a deal with PokerStars Team Online. She’ll join other internet standouts such as Randy “nanonoko” Lew and Isaac “Ike Haxton” Haxton on this team.

Barausova has been excelling in online poker cash games over the past couple years. She’s made some excellent profits while playing NL Hold’em cash games ranging from the $3/$6 to $25/$50 limits. Based on her stats at HighStakesDB, Barausova has earned $45,770 in ring game profits. Keeping in mind that HSDB only tracks results at the $25/$50 stakes and above, it’s hard to tell how much more money the Russian has made during her career, but we’re sure it’s a lot more than $45.7k.

Barausova has accomplished the very difficult feat of being a PokerStars Supernova Elite VIP player two years in a row thanks to her frequent ring game play. Taking her VIP status into account, Barausova also makes a lot of money through the extra Supernova rewards and benefits.

One more thing worth mentioning about the Russian’s play is that she has experienced some pretty big tournament results as well. She’s final tabled both a $500,000 Sunday Warm-Up and $225,000 Sunday Rebuy to earn $35,787 from these cashes alone. We might see some other large tourney cashes from Barausova in the future since she’s talked about dedicating more time to tournaments.

Besides her talent on the felt, Barausova’s obvious beauty can’t be denied either. And since poker is such a male-dominated game, good-looking women are few and far in between. Taking all of this into account, we fully expect Tatiana to become a much bigger star in the poker world.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Online Poker, Poker News | Comments Off