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HALL WINS $2.3 MILLION IN PCA POKER TOURNAMENT
2011-01-18
San Francisco 24-year-old started heads up at a 5-to-1 disadvantage
All eyes were on the Pokerstars Caribbean Poker Adventure over the weekend, with Chris Oliver widely expected to take the title and the $2.3 million first prize down after starting the final table with an overwhelming chip lead and maintaining it right through to the heads up.
But it was 24-year-old Galen Hall from San Francisco who celebrated the victory at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas at the end of the 10 hour final table...and he did it despite being 5-to-1 chips behind Oliver when the heads up started.
When the final eight reconvened to decide the big winner, Oliver had a formidable lead of 13.24 million over his nearest rival, Galen Hall, in a final table that included: Sam Stein (5,855,000); Mike Sowers (3,685,000); Anton Ionel (3,520,000); Max Weinberg (3,350,000); Bolivar Palacios (2,445,000); and Philippe Plouffe (1,555,000).
The duo was to dominate the game and end up facing each other in the heads up.
It took only fifteen minutes for the first casualty on the final table to be eliminated, and it was all action from there on in as the eight survivors from an original field of 1 560 battled for the lion's share of the $15 132 000 prize pool.
Hall's win boosted his career earnings by $2.3 million, whilst Oliver still took home a very respectable runner up prize of $1.8 million.
Hall plays extensively on the Internet and is a respected player who has already cashed over a million dollars in his young career, although his latest triumph is his biggest payday yet.
He said that the big win would not deter him from his plans to attend Stamford Business School this year.
The prizes in the main event were generous for all the final tablers and the other players took home pay packets that looked like this:
3 Anton Ionel $1,350,000
4 Sam Stein $1,000,000
5 Mike Sowers $700,000
6 Bolivar Palacios $450,000
7 Max Weinberg $300,000
8 Philippe Plouffe $202,000
Still in the Bahamas, the Pokerstars World Cup of Poker (see previous InfoPowa reports) also played out this week as a component of the PCA. This year Italy was triumphant, led by Luca Pagano, and earned $100 000 for its four member team.
Liv Boeree's British team came second and picked up $70 000.
Among the final nine national teams were the USA, Ukraine, Spain, France, Philippines, Argentina and Slovakia.
NEW ONLINE POKER ARRIVAL
2010-07-02
Comeon.com joins Cake Poker Network
The launch of a new online poker room on the Cake Network is imminent, reports ComeOn.com, which said in a statement this week that its initial launch will include both online poker and casino products, with a sports betting operation planned for Q3, 2010.
The statement did not include operator details regarding the new internet venue, although it did disclose that the poker operation would accept U.S. action, and that the online casino would feature browser-based games from both CTXM and Net Entertainment, all integrated on one platform and using a single e-wallet system for the convenience of players.
Earlier this year (see previous InfoPowa reports) CTXM and Cake Network inked an agreement to jointly market their services to consumer facing gaming sites worldwide.
It is understood that the operation will carry out affiliate marketing activities through NetRefer.
"We will initially launch with full local support in English, Swedish and Serbian," a spokesman said, adding that more languages would be added in the future.
PLAYTECH AND DANSKE SPIL IN ONLINE POKER DISPUTE
2010-06-09
Danish state company’s deal with Party Gaming triggers complaint
The agreement between Denmark’s state gambling company Danske Spil and online gambling giant PartyGaming signed in January this (2010) year (see previous InfoPowa reports) may have been temporarily derailed by a ruling from the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement following a complaint by rival industry company Playtech.
Announcing the deal back in mid-January, Party Gaming revealed that it had signed a five-year deal with Danske Spil.The agreement involved PartyGaming providing the Danish gambling firm with an online gaming platform for poker and casino games in Denmark, although the full terms had still to be finalised.
Jim Ryan, CEO of PartyGaming, said at the time, “This is a landmark B2B deal for PartyGaming and validates our strategy to become a leading provider of B2B services to both corporates and governments around the world. Danske Spil is widely recognised as one of Europe’s leading gambling businesses, one that is pre-eminent in the Danish market.”
The first public intimation that the deal was in trouble came in the Danish publication Business.dk in late February, when it was revealed that Playtech had lodged a complaint regarding tender procedures with the Klagenævnet for udbud (Complaints Board for Public Procurement).
Few details on the complaint were available, and both PartyGaming and Playtech remained silent on the issue, a policy that extended to InfoPowa this month when comment was requested. The silence was possibly because the Complaints Board was studying the issue before making a ruling.
That ruling was released this week, prompting a press release from Danske Spil. The release reports that the Complaints Board ruling appears to favour the complainant (Playtech), in that it directs that the contract between Danske Spil and PartyGaming should have been put up for tender by Danske Spil, and will have to be annulled.
Commenting on the finding, H.C. Madsen, the chief executive of Danske Spil said: “We have not in any way tried to bypass the rules.
“Since the contract was supposed to be entered by a newly formed subsidiary, which was supposed to compete on a partially liberalised gambling market, we assumed that we were not obliged to perform a tender process as such, but chose a quicker and more flexible tender-like process instead.
“In the tender material forwarded to four participating companies, including Playtech Limited, it was specifically stated that the contract party would be a subsidiary of Danske Spil, and that the contract would be entered provided that the market for online casino and poker was liberalised and that Danske Spil was allowed to establish a subsidiary.
“The incorporation of these terms in the tender material should make it clear for the tenderers that Danske Spil acted on behalf of the future subsidiary and that the contract with the subsidiary could only be entered provided that the draft legislation was adopted.”
The Complaints Board for Public Procurement said in its judgment that when Danske Spil initiated the procedure in the fall of 2009, the draft legislation regarding liberalisation of the gambling market had not yet been adopted or even introduced.
Furthermore, the subsidiary was not even formed or established at that time. Based on this, The Complaints Board for Public Procurement found that there were insufficient facts to assume that the subsidiary when established would not be subject to the Public Procurement Directive.
Consequently, the contract should have been put up for tender.
STOXPOKER FOUNDER RESIGNS ON MULTI ACCOUNTING ACCUSATIONS
2010-03-25
Nick Grudzien the centre of attention on leading online poker forum
Nick "Stoxtrader" Grudzien, a founder of the poker coaching company Stox Poker, is leaving the company in the wake of a major row on the twoplustwo forum regarding allegations that he was multi-accounting.
His departure amid the new controversy follows accusations leveled against Stox Poker coach Jason Ho earlier this year relating to a fabricated online poker resume and claims that he cheated unsuspecting players and clients. Ho also left the company.
With the twoplustwo thread gaining momentum, Grudzien denied the accusations, but soon thereafter announced his resignation from StoxPoker, explaining that he had put the company in a difficult position as a result of the uproar. His explanation for his conduct revolved around the production of training videos using one name, while playing for personal use with another.
MICROGAMING POKER NETWORK CONFIRMS RAKE POLICY CHANGE
2010-01-05
New method of rake calculation will encourage operators to attract "looser, fishy" players
The Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) has confirmed that it is to adopt the Weighted Contribution method of rake calculation.
The current method of rake calculation, which the network describes as the 'contributed method', allocates rake between operators in proportion to the number of players they had in the hand, regardless of the relative contributions to the pot.
"This approach had a tendency to confer greater benefit for operators with a higher proportion of rakeback players and consequently did little to discourage the negative consequences associated with that practice," a MPN spokesman explained this week.
"The new Weighted Contribution method is similar to the contributed method, except that the rake is allocated proportionally based on the amount contributed to the raked pot, enabling a fairer rake distribution and encouraging operators to bring in players at a lower skill level, typically referred to as ‘fish’, whilst simultaneously discouraging the practice of rakeback.
Andrew Clucas of the Microgaming Poker Network said: “The introduction of the new Weighted Contribution will reward operators with a greater proportion of looser, 'fishy' type players, encouraging them to target these players proactively whilst making rakeback as a practice less attractive within the Network.
"It is believed this initiative will encourage the right sort of contributing players into the Network whilst discouraging the grinding type of behaviours which can be so negative to the health of the Network.”