Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Betsoft Gaming, a reputed online game developer, recently announced that they had put up a 3D poker offering for online gamers. According to the company, the new site, Poker3.com will take players to a new level of gaming. So far, PKR holds the top spot for being the best 3D poker gaming site on the market, and only time will tell if Poker3.com will meet with any success.

Players who signup at Poker3.com will not have to download the software and install it on their computers; instead they will be able to use a sort of instant play facility that will allow players to access games like Texas Hold’em poker. Betsoft Gaming has also equipped the site with player avatar features and realistic animations with a cinematic feel.

According to David Morgan, a spokesperson for Poker3.com, the site is unique and is the future of poker. “We believe what Poker3 has achieved is unprecedented. We feel that this type of true to life 3D poker is the future of how the game will be played online. The user interface and game speed is carefully tailored to create a thrilling poker experience for professionals and new players alike,” he said.

The site has green poker rooms which are produced automatically by the gaming software which allows players to access betting limits and blind options based on their preferences. According to a press release, players can expect o find the playing cards and poker chips looking as realistic as possible. There will also be a varied choice of avatars which will keep increasing as the software is updated and Poker3.com will also offer a Point of View perspective to the players.

“Our exhaustive research and consultations with some of the world’s best poker players have provided a strong foundation for this visually stunning game,” Morgan claimed.

On April 7, 2010 France passed an historic bill legalizing and
regulating online gambling, and that included poker.  At the time of the
bill passing people were very excited, as the legalization and taxation
of online poker would put online casino’s into a position of “legal,”
and on the same level as brick and mortar casinos in France.  French
residents were optimistic that the new law would diversify a largely
state run monopoly and give the French consumer more choice in where
they spend their money, while not worrying that what they were doing was
“illegal.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be how it all
turned out.  As of May 13th 2010 the new law has seen it’s first two
casualties.  As of May 13, both Betfair and Sportingbet (owners of
Paradise Poker) have pulled out of the French market sighting an
insurmountable tax burden and stiff state-run competition. Tim Phillips
(European Public Affairs Director @ Betfair) was quoted as saying  “We
are looking very hard at the French market and how we might operate
within the new licensed regime. Though it’s not impossible for a
newcomer to create a commercially viable business, most projections show
it will be very difficult to do so, given the proposed restrictions
imposed on licence holders.  French legislation will certainly benefit
the incumbent players and the ultimate loser will be the French
consumer. The new law does not adequately open the former monopoly’s
market to true competition from other operators. We hope that the
review, scheduled 18 months from now, will amend the law to address
these flaws.”

Currently in France the application process is
beginning without the full law being decided upon yet, but this much is
known: The industry will be brought in line with live casinos and horse
racing. Taxes will be levied on any licensed regulator so that two
percent of each poker bet and 7.5 percent of each sports or horse racing
bet will go directly to the French government. However, a portion of
those monies will be dedicated to gambling addiction programs.  No word
yet on the cost of the license, but typically these licenses cost a lot
of money up front, and then yearly to maintain. The bill also includes
provisions to address the issue of underage gambling and rooting out
criminal activities.

So, it seems to me that the holy grail of
American Online poker players may be a false hope. After France
legalized the practice, a whole slew of new problems arose.  Maybe
keeping it as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” operation is preferable to
shining a light on an imperfect industry.

I wrote recently about how with the introduction of the Ipad poker
clients for Iphones/Ipads is something that is inevitable.  Weather it’s
a major online poker room (like full tilt, Party or Pokerstars) or a
3rd party who develops the app and put it on there via jailbreak or
whatever still remains to be seen. 

It seems i misspoke.  I ignored the fact that the Iphone isn’t the only smart-phone out there. 
There are many different developers, with different major brands (LG,
Droid, Samsung Blackberry) and most of them each have their own app
store.  So, in ignoring that fact and focusing on the Iphones closed off
software store, i missed a whole market.  A market Casino-Online.com is
looking to corner, and i actually can’t believe it’s taken this long.

Casino-Online.com is not new in the mobile app business, and has been providing gambling
centric content for the market since the company’s early days. 
Currently their main focus is providing content instead of game play,
but that is changing rapidly.  Currently in the UK there are a lot of
online casino games already ready for smartphone use (note, “smartphone”
is not iphone..), and in the US Bodog poker is listed as a “mobile
casino” that is ready, but when i followed the link from Casino-Online
it just took me to the Bodog sign up page.  It could be because i’m in
Canada though.  Here is the Link (it also lists the links from the UK if you’re interested) (also, we are not affiliated wtih Casino-Online.com)

Casino-Online.com’s chief editor Jennifer Lefrack said ” Casino-online.com continues to innovate by not only following the market trends, but actually creating them. Our customers
are tech savvy and because they have 24/7 access on their smartphone, we
need to make sure we provide them instant, easily accessible
information.” 

So it seems that while Iphone may be lagging (purposefully?)
in the online casino bid, the major players are making moves to fix
that.  I know that if the Android app store is offering Full Tilt poker,
or a viable way to connect to Full Tilt, my next Phone will be an
Android capable phone.  Watch out Iphone, or get with the program!

When the Safe Ports Act was signed into law on October 13th 2006, the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) also came into
existence as a provision of that law.  Consequently, a lot of major
players in the on line casino business shuttered their US operations in
anticipation of required complacency with that law.  Since then, very
little has come of UIGEA and the two biggest on line poker / gambling
locations on the net, Full Tilt and PokerStars have set records on a
regular basis with apparently little push back from US law enforcement.

Well, it seems that PartyGaming is getting set to relaunch their US operations.  Why
now?  Why after 4 years of staying away from the American market do they
want to come back?  When they pulled out of the US market, they were
the world leaders in on line gambling.  It seems that they assumed that
if they pulled out, others would follow and the US would be a veritable
wasteland for on line poker.  This bet failed, and they lost huge market
share.  Now, PartyGaming CEO Jim Ryan is quoted as saying “We are
seeing increased momentum towards regulating on line poker” …” it’s
possible that it could happen this year and we’re prepared if it does.”

But, with the House Financial Services Committee postponing their last
scheduled meeting regarding Chairman Barney Frank’s Bill’s, and no new
date set before the June 1st deadline of UIGEA coming into effect is
this a realistic stance?  Even if it is, it’s been 4 long years since
Americans could play PartyPoker, how much of Full Tilt’s and PokerStar’s
market share is a realistic goal for PartyGaming?  I guess until June
1st, we’ll have to continue waiting and see.

Just because it’s the biggest online poker room in the world,
doesn’t mean expansion has to include more players or absorbing a
smaller online provider.  It looks like Pokerstars is set to broaden
the frontier of what an online poker room is all about.  Pokerstars has
recently acquired three of the most well respected poker blogs in the
industry, betting that branding and affiliating those poker rooms with
Pokerstars and providing players with a “one stop shop” to play and
read all about poker, 24 hours a day will pay off big time.  And
they’re probably right!  If you think for one second that Full Tilt
isn’t eyeing up the remaining major poker blogs, well, you haven’t been
watching the these two follow each others major moves over the years.

The three blogs purchased by Pokerstars are Pokerpages.com, PlaywinningPoker.com and Poker-Babes.com.  All three
have their own strengths, and specific information niches, and all
three have been providing solid poker related news since early 2000, if
not before.

PokerPages.com’s speciality lies with it’s
worldwide live tournament results archive.  Need to know who won a
tourney in 2002 for a prop bet?  Bet you’re going to Pokerpages.com.  It also houses an article database, and has over the years had articles written by T.J. Cloutier, Lou Krieger, Tommy Angelo, Mike Caro, and Andy Glazer.

PlaywinningPoker.com
is mostly about strategy.  The sites former owner (Steve Badger) says
“It’s about strategy, and none of that resume stuff guarantees anything
anyway! Keep in mind this site’s principal lesson: if you want to be a
winning player, you need to think and decide for yourself. Creative,
logical, sensible, situational thinking is key to winning. Even more,
it’s the key to winning big.”

Poker-Babes.com has evolved over
the years, but was originally started by a Bicycle Casino cocktail
waitress Shirley Rosario.  Her mission was to get the word out about
talented female poker players that had been overlooked.  While this
aspect of the site is still active, it’s main bankableresource is
personal profiles that Rosario has collected on poker players over the
years.  If you’re ever heading to a major live tournament and need to
have some idea of the opponents that you’re about to face, you’d do
well to head over to Poker-babes.com and have a read.

But the
question now is: what will be Full Tilts response?  Will they dismiss
it out of hand and concentrate on delivering superior game play instead
of attempting toacquire and manage an online blog community, or will
after seeing the value and the loyalty created by having a “community,”
put a bid in for 2+2?

Way back in December I reported that both Full Tilt and Pokerstars will be rolling out big changes in 2010. Structures to tournaments, minimum buy ins for cash games, and many fixes for frustrating players who win a big hand after only sitting at the table for a short period, then leave. Well, Pokerstars has followed through on those changes and here is a summary of what they actually implemented. Check and see what the speculation was back then!

Cash Game Buy Ins
Poker is a game of constantly evolving strategies. One strategy that evolved, and became a huge annoyance to most players, was the “hit n run” attack or “short stacking”. A player buys in for the table minimum and waits for a big hand. Will usually get as much money in the pot as possible (and because they bought in for the minimum it’s usually an “All in”) and as soon as they win their money, they’re gone. An easy double up with little to no strategy.

Pokerstars has decided to roll out three tiers of cash games. A 20-50 big blind, a 40-100 big blind and a 100-250 (with antes) big blind model is now the norm at Pokerstars. This means that the table maximum is now much closer to the table minimum, and will create a more balanced game. I’m not 100% sure how i feel about this, as it’s well accepted strategy to buy in for the table max and bully suckers who only buy in for the minimum (maybe bully is the wrong word…), but for now at least they’re attempting to get this problem under control. They have also increased the minimum amount of time to re-sit at a table with fewer chips than you left with from 30 min to 60 min.

Tournament Changes
Probably the most notable change to the tournament structure at Pokerstars is the addition of the “Knockout” SnG tourney. In live poker land, we call these “Bounty” tournaments, and i quite enjoy them. For every $10 SnG you sign up for, 8 will go to the main pot, and a $2 bounty is placed on everyone’s head. The more people you Knockout, the more money you potentially earn. Easy. And a lot of fun, but be careful, i often run Bounty Tournaments at my house, and often hear “man, that bounty is up for grabs..i wouldn’t normally call with this, but it’s not that much more.” If you hear that, either a savage bad beat is on the way, or you just shouldn’t be calling with those cards.

There is a rumor that Pokerstars will roll out Gender restricted tournaments in the future, but i don’t see how they could enforce this. Would you create a female profile simply to play exclusively female players? Yeah, me too.

There are a few other Misc changes, but nothing as noteworthy as the above. So, are you excited to play a KO tournament?