Poker News and Poker Gossip

The fledgling site of PKR.com is celebrating a milestone, yet again. The online poker room reached 10 thousand simultaneous players, on January 6th, 2008. Not a small accomplishment, nor was it anticipated to occur so quickly, when the poker site launched only a year an a half ago. With the new milestone PKR.com has become firmly rooted in the top 20 online poker rooms worldwide, with the promise of the top 10 and beyond with in their rapidly moving grasp. With the unique development and opportunities at the PKR.com site, it doesn’t take much to see why so many people chose to play poker on the competitive and entertaining platform that is PKR.com. In the effort to re-introduce you to the phenomenon that is PKR.com, let us first remind you that this is the only online VR poker site. They much more than most online poker players are accustomed to. Texas Hold’em Poker is not the only game available to play at the poker tables of this interactive virtual reality online poker giant. Here it is possible to create an avatar. But you say, don’t all of the online poker rooms allow you to have or create an avatar? Not like PKR.com does. In this virtual reality online poker room the avatars are in 3 deminations, which are accompanied by incredible life like actions. For example it is possible for the avatars to hold a conversation as you might across the real felt. Not to mention the various chip tricks, trash talk and even the across the virtual felt virtual tells. A simularity to the live event often believed to be missing from the online poker industry.

Pkr.com has drawn in many new players to the world of poker. Role playing is a very popular international pasttime, even online. PKR.com caters to those who enjoy creating a new virtual life full of rich experiances and more. Even with this in mind PKR had many naysayers when they launched in this amazing form. Those same people and industry leaders are changing their tune now as they are watching PKR.com shoot to the top of the online poker industry.

Taking their time to wow the poker world, PKR.com created many venues to push their brand out front, even though 2007 was only their first full year. At home they have made themselves visible online and off by sponsoring one of the biggest live poker tournaments in Ireland. At that event they placed a tent with a free virtual casino, no money invested by visitors, but prize were paid out. From that point the began planning and subsquently launching a major television advertising campaign that put them out front. Resulting from the incredible effort of 2007, they celebrated the 1 millionth registered online poker player in their 3D poker room. As we watch 2008 unfold before our eyes, they have begun with 1.3 million online poker players, and the industry is finding a new online poker measuring stick. What an accomplishment for such a ‘new’ online poker room.

The best online poker sites are now slowly finding reason to experiment with the virtual reality environment. Don’t pass up the opportunity to compete among some of the most competitive poker players online in the original and currently the only virtual reality poker room — PKR.com

This week’s Pokerstars Sunday Millions tournament drew one of the largest jackpots of all time for this weekly tournament. As it was quarter end, Pokerstars raised the buy-in of this event to $1000 + $50.

1869 players showed up to play, but only 270 players actually made any money.

The final table was very exciting and just after dannyred99 was knocked out in 4th place BrokenTPot suggested a chop. The players agreed to look at the numbers and the host came back with the following offer:

HostAlexS [Host]: Alright. There is $643,306.40 to chop, plus a minimum of $40,000 to be left on the table
HostAlexS [Host]: Governator: $237,199.67 UH Big Tex: $205,736.56 BrokenTPot: $200,370.16
UH Big Tex: good with me….
BrokenTPot: deal.
HostAlexS [Host]: If you are happy with that, simply type ‘I Agree’.
BrokenTPot: i agree
UH Big Tex: i agree
HostAlexS [Host]: If not, feel free to continue discussing until you can decide on something that works for all,.
Governator: Agree
Governator: I agree
HostAlexS [Host]: Excellent, it’s a deal.
HostAlexS [Host]: Congratulations guys!
HostAlexS [Host]: OK - the funds are transferred after the tournament has finished. You’ll receive an email confirming all of the details shortly afterwards.
HostAlexS [Host]: Don’t forget that there is still $40,000 to play for.

The players all agreed and played out for the remaining $40,000. Governator got off to an early lead and quickly built his stack up to over $9 Million in chips. But this did not last long, UH Big Tex pushed all-in with Jacks after an 8-high flop and a low turn and after some thinking was called by Governator showing 10 8. He missed the river and UH Big Tex was the new leader.

Several hands later UH Big Tex gave the lead to BrokenTPot when he called in an all-in situation with A3 against BrokenTPot’s AQ. The AQ held up and BrokenTPot became the new leader.

BrokenTPot could not hold this lead too long though, and eventually called an all in by UH Big Tex (who had just over $1M more in chips) holding AQ. UH Big Tex’s 99 held up, and BrokenTPot was out of the running for the extra $40k.

Governator was clearly dominated in stack sizes against UH Big Tex and almost made it back, but on the final hand he shoved with 2pr only to get sucked out on the river by runner runner flush.

HostAlexS [Host]: Harsh finish. Congratulations Governator, second place with the deal equals $237,199.67
HostAlexS [Host]: UH Big Tex, you take home $245,736.56.

Congrats UH Big Tex!

Here are the final payouts for the tournament:
1st - UH Big Tex (Austin) - $245,736.56
2nd - Governator (Oakland) - $237,199.67
3rd - BrokenTPot (Bowling Green) - $200,370.16
4th - dannyred99 (Brooklyn) - $106,533.00
5th - playmeandpay (etobicoke) - $83,544.30
6th - driverseati (Humble) - $62,985.30
7th - quadducks (Ypsilanti) - $44,295.30
8th - Eeedz (Hamilton) - $27,474.30
9th - mendiata (tenhult) - $16,447.20

Congrats to all the big winners in this tournament. To play in next week’s sunday millions, sign-up at Pokerstars today! Use marketing code BRB50 when signing up for a 100% up to $50 bonus on your first deposit!

This actress-slash-poker pro has proven that she has more talents than meets the eye. Shannon Elizabeth is one of the contestants in this season’s installment of Dancing With the Stars on ABC. While her first week on the floor proved a bit rocky, she showed an obvious improvement in week two.

While to the average American, Shannon Elizabeth is best known for her roles in the American Pie movies, this 34-year-old actress has been making a name for herself in the poker scene for the past few years. Calling poker her “second career”, she has placed well at various WSOP events and celebrity tournaments, even winning the First Nicky Hilton New Year’s Eve tournament at Caesar’s, earlier this year.

After her poor performance the first week, many expected her to go home early, however opinions seem to have changed. A few have referred to her as a possible “dark horse” of the competition, so people obviously see potential for further improvement. Her Dancing partner, Derek Hough, has been putting her through some rigorous training that is obviously paying off. Time will tell if this poker-playing actress can add professional dancer to her ever-growing resume.

An amusing thread at 2plus2 has had some interesting names thrown around as potential future contestants on Dancing With The Stars, representing the poker world. Hellmuth, Ivey, and Antonius were mentioned as possibly amusing entries. However, the images that obviously brought a smile to the faces of the posters there were Gabe Kaplan and Chris Ferguson, cutting a rug with the ballroom dance professionals.

The end of March will bring the deadline for an agreement proposal from the United States in reference to the sanctions imposed by the WTO against them, in regards to the damages owed to Antigua. Rather than comply with certain fair trade agreements regarding gambling, the US chose to change its agreement with the WTO and pay restitution to any country that regulates online gambling companies. 

This agreement follows on the heels of a mid-month settlement between the US and Costa Rica. In that package, Costa Rica received additional access to US resources regarding things like technical testing, research, development, and storage. This offer was placed on the table after a request for arbitration was filed to the WTO by Costa Rica.

A similar arbitration request was filed by Antigua, and they were awarded $21 million dollars from the United States. As arbitration is not binding, the US requested the chance to submit a different proposal for compensation. As Antigua offered no suggestions as to what would benefit them, one can only speculate about what this offer may include.

Late last year, there seemed to be secret agreements between the US and several other counties, which shifted their support away from Antigua. The US government has failed to release any information about these agreements, as they call it a matter of national security. There are still other governments that could be entitled to compensation in the future, as they have been shut out of the US gambling market by the failure to comply with WTO standards. 

Human nature says to always pick the BEST and when it comes to online poker there is no exception. That’s why we have searched all over the net to find the very best sites for online poker in 2008.

As poker players ourselves we spend a lot of time playing when we aren’t writing about poker. Since we play so much poker, we know what makes a poker site GREAT as opposed to just any of the other 1000’s of sites to choose from. Things like player volumes, promotions, game variety, software features are just a few of the many factors that are considered when choosing the “Best Poker Sites”.

Topping the list for March is Pokerstars.com, which has been our top site since we started our monthly list and I am sure any online poker player can agree with us on that. When you log in to Pokerstars you will see over 100,000 players online at any given time. No other site has these kinds of player volumes. They run the best tournaments and every week players there are tournaments with prize pools over $1 Million Dollars.

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March 2008 Top Online Poker Sites

Here is the current list of top online poker sites for March 2008:

On top of ranking the top online poker sites, we also rank the easiest poker sites, the best new poker sites.

The world’s largest poker site, Pokerstars.com, has announced that they plan on investing $12.5 Million for promotions related to this year’s World Series of Poker.

They plan to send a total of 1000 players to Las Vegas to compete for the biggest prize in poker - a WSOP Bracelet and a lot of cash!

Pokerstars WSOP Satellites

Players can qualify for the WSOP through a variety of different satellites starting from as low as $20 or 40 Frequent Player Points (FPPs). They have cash satellites, FPP satelittes and a series of step sit n go tournaments to get you to the WSOP.

The wsop steps are probably the easiest way to get there (starting at $7.50), here is a graphic of how they work:

Since 2002, Pokerstars has sent over 3,600 players to the WSOP, but this will be the most ever in one year. Prior to this year, last year Pokerstars sent 616 players which was the most ever, but this year will be almost DOUBLE that.

The current WSOP Schedule is set to begin on May 28, 2008 at the Rio All Suites Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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* WORLD SERIES OF POKER and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC (”Harrah’s”). Harrah’s does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerStars.com or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.