Poker News and Poker Gossip

Forgot to post this a few weeks ago, but Mansion has now moved over to the Ongame network.  What does this mean?  More traffic, better software, better support and payment methods, plus much more!  Check out the revised Mansion Poker Review.  (Okay, maybe its not fully updated, it still has the old screenshots, but the new ones are very similar to Pokerroom, Hollywood Poker, or Chan Poker as all these sites are on the same network).

Also, they have updated their bonus so its now $500:

Zero Roulette, the flagship product of the Betfair Casino, has been on a losing streak in 28 of the 130 countries or territories in which it has customers. With no zero to create a house advantage, Betfair’s revolutionary Zero Roulette offers punters a fair chance of winning. It is the only casino game which offers 100% payback to customers.

In fact, in some territories customers have come out on top in Zero Roulette.

- Customers in Greece beat Betfair Zero Roulette to the tune of £29,700 – an actual payback of 100.02%.

Other significant winners over the year included customers from Spain at +£25,400, Germany at +£3,400, and The Czech Republic at +£3,800.

Significant European winners also included customers from Poland, Georgia and Lithuania.

Customers from Malaysia performed the best in Asia – beating the Betfair Casino out of £10,100 at Zero Roulette.

“While most casino operators are looking for clever ways to increase the edge they have over their customers we aim to offer our customers more value,” said Betfair’s Head of Casino Sam Hobcraft. “The results prove that Zero Roulette pays more back to customers per stake made than any other casino product on the market, we have even taken a loss in some countries.”

Betfair entered the online casino market in October 2006 launching the revolutionary Zero Lounge – an area where the customary house-edge is removed for “Zero” games of Baccarat, BlackJack, Jacks or Better and Roulette. In one year of operation the Betfair Casino has catered for more than 75,000 individuals placing over 90 million individual bets. Zero Roulette has proven to be the most popular game, catering for 25% of all bets made.

Notes:
1. Betfair Casino operates under the Betfair Games brand which is licensed in Malta.
2. Betfair is the world’s largest online betting company with over 1 million customers worldwide.
3. Betfair won back-to-back Egaming Awards for Socially Responsible Operator of the year in 2005 and 2006 and Operator of the Year in 2007.
4. The Betfair Casino was short listed for the 2007 Egaming Awards for Casino of the Year and Innovation of the Year.
5. For Zero Blackjack, the rules have been changed such that the house edge is zero. Suited Blackjack and five card 21 pay 2 to 1. By lowering the commission charge from 5 percent to ~2.75 percent, the house edge in Zero Baccarat is decreased to zero. In Zero Jacks or Better, the royal flush payout is increased. Players will have to play the correct strategy on Zero Lounge games of Blackjack, Baccarat and Jacks or Better in order to take advantage of the zero house edge. Roulette will consistently offer zero edge regardless of strategy.

This news couldn’t have come at a better time. Our Betair Casino Bonus just recently doubled to £100 in Free Casino Chips until November 19th. Read our Betfair Casino Review for more information.

Don’t know how I missed this, but a few days ago Tony G posted in his blog that he won a $3.15 Million pot.  His largest hand ever!  Here is the excerpt where he talks about the hand:

Now comes the biggest hand of my life so far.  I hope I can play as there is a mandatory straddle of 7k and a reraise.   I re-pop it to make it 85k before the flop with 4 way action. The flop is 10-7-6 with 2 diamonds giving me a nut flush draw, there is a bet of pot but the guy is close to all in so I move over the top and get called by a big stack.   3.15 million in the pot now.  The cards are shown.  They both have the nut straights, with one guy having a flush draw as well and the other guy having one diamond so just 6 outs for the flush or I need a pair and an Ace from space.  The turn and river are both Diamonds.  

And I gave out a scream and kind of lost my voice - just a little.  I do get too emotional and excited with poker.   Please excuse me, but I do have more fun then most playing the game.

Not bad for about 5 minutes work…  Congrats Tony!

Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil and well known poker player, officially launched the ONE DROP Foundation yesterday.  Their mandate is to fight poverty in the world by ensuring all people have access to water.

Their goal is to ensure that everyone in the world has access to clean drinking water.  Over a billion people do not have access to water in sufficient quantity or adequate quality. Almost half of the world’s population drinks untreated water.

I know this story is not all that Poker related, but for a while Guy was very popular on the high stakes poker tables at Full Tilt Poker under the username noataima.  I think its nice to see people giving back and trying to make a difference in this world, which is why I thought I would let you know about his charity.

To find out more, visit the ONE DROP Foundation.

For a while, many people have been wondering what LarsLuzak on Full Tilt Poker’s real name was.  It has finally been identified that LarsLuzak has been is Finnish born Sami Kelopuro (see his blog here). 

Who is Sami Kelopuro?  According to HighStakesNews, the blog link above was just started, and his first post (in Finnish) says that he first started playing poker while doing his military service.  He first started playing Texas Hold’em, then decided to give Omaha a shot and bought in for $40,000 on the $200/$400 PLO tables on his first attempt.

He is expected to make his first live appearance at the EPT event in Dublin, Ireland.

As mentioned a few weeks ago, I said that I would take some time to review some other quality poker sites on the internet that offer something that might not be available on my site.  So, without further adieu, here is my newest review of CoinFlipPoker.com:

Started back in 2006, CoinFlipPoker.com is one of the leading poker sites for poker strategy. They offer a ton of free information for players to improve their online and offline poker games along with many bonus codes for the biggest sites, such as their Pokerstars Bonus Code. The owner of the site specializes in Sit N Go Strategy and has many guides that will walk you through a sit n go (from beginning to end) so that you end up in the money. Some of the articles include sit n go basics, bankroll suggestions, playing for first place, along with many others. They have even written their own Sit n Go System (which I have personally recommended here) and I can vouch that these guys know what they are talking about. Even if you are not interested in buying their product, don’t worry, as mentioned above, all the information on the site is completely free!

Besides Sit N Go Strategy, Coin Flip Poker offers several other strategy guides for the different poker games. From Omaha to Seven Card stud, they offer guides to get you started in some poker games that you may have never played before. There are probably over 50 articles in total on the site which will help players both beginner and advanced such as “Understanding Implied Odds”, “Varying Your Play at the Tables”, “How to Play a Set” and many others. All of these can be accessed through the Poker Strategy link at the top of the page.

The other thing that Coin Flip Poker does is they offer reviews and bonus codes for many different online poker sites. They have a Party Poker Deposit Bonus Code, along with many others. The site reviews on their site take 3 main factors into consideration when ranking a site. These are: Bonus, Transactions, and Competition. These 3 factors are then averaged together to give a poker site its overall ranking.

The site itself is very easy to navigate so that you can find exactly what you are looking for immediately. It has a nice clean look, complete with a sexy model in the top right hand corner. The strategy articles are all listed across the top, and the room reviews and bonus code information (such as the Chan Poker Bonus Code) can all be found on the right hand side. Their site has all their contact information in case you have any questions or concerns, which they respond to very quickly!

So if you have never heard of Coin Flip Poker before, check them out today!