PartyGaming says football is to blame for recent dip

8th July, 2008

PartyGaming, the operator of PartyPoker and PartyCasino, has reported that revenues are down from April 28 and has blamed their current situation on the Euro 2008, claiming the football championships distracted players.

PartyGaming shares have fallen by more than 10%, “due to seasonality and competition for players’ leisure time from the Euro 2008.

Although this news seems like it would be rather disappointing for the internet gambling operator, PartyGaming is remaining optimistic about its future, focusing on the road ahead instead of the one behind.

“In the group stages of Euro 2008 a run of results went with the favourites but there were a few more shocks in the knock-out rounds,” said John Shepherd from PartyGaming. “Betting volumes were very high though.”

There was a lot of stiff competition throughout the online-poker industry and the operator was forced to offer increased bonuses and tournament costs in order to get people to the site, which played a factor in the overall revenue.

The online-gambling operator is expecting to increase revenue with some new additions to its casino offerings through a deal they made recently with the movie-studio company Paramount.

“We have a deal with Paramount and are launching ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Godfather@ machines next and will also be announcing a tie-up with another movie studio in due course,” Shepherd said.

Computer program wins second Man v. Machine competition

7th July, 2008

The stage was set for the second round of Man vs. Machine poker challenge for Polaris II, a poker-playing computer programme created by a group of programmers from the University of Alberta.

Polaris had lost to poker professionals last year by a narrow victory, but this year managed to defeat seven players from stoxpoker.com, an online poker training site.

“We’re very excited,” said Michael Bowling, head of the team who created Polaris II. “I think there’s no question that we’re playing on the level of the absolute best human players in the world at the game of heads up limit hold’em.”

The computer programme emerged victorious after posting a record of three wins, two losses and a draw against the poker players in heads up matches. The programmers of Polaris modified their creation by altering computer’s ability to reason, learn and adapt to its opponents, which is essential in poker. Many in the poker world are astonished by what this means for the future of poker and technology.

“For those of us who make our incomes largely from playing heads up games, whether (computers) are ready to beat us or not, they’re certainly ready to beat some of our opponents,” Hawrilenko said. “They might win some of our money away.”

I don’t think this is the last will be hearing from Polaris. Bowling said that his team will do some post-match analysis before the next Man v. Machine matchup, but there seems to be plenty of interested poker players, especially around the WSOP, who would be willing to test their skills and risk their reputation against the computer.

WSOP main event delayed until November

2nd July, 2008

WSOP has delayed its main event until November 9th to build media coverage, and create hype and excitement. This has angered some fans who believe the move is in the interest of the media and not the games itself. “This is probably going to be a watershed moment for poker,” said series commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. The decisions aims to create the same sense of occasion as other global sporting events do, such as the NBA Playoffs or NFL Super bowel.

The WSOP main event was won last year by Jerry Yang, who took home $8.25 million. The size of the tournament and stakes attract a global audience, yet Pollack wants more high quality media coverage which would include, advertising campaigns and player profile building.

"We've been very forthright in that ambition," Pollack said. "Change doesn't happen overnight but a change in intention can happen overnight and our intention here is to help more people experience our thrills and excitement."

Some players and fans say that the break will benefit the amateur players who in between the 4 months break will not come back as the same players.

In spite of this, most admit the tournament needed a change, as participants figures were down from 8,773 in 2006 to 6,358 last year. Pollack went on to say "We have an imperative attached to us that requires us to constantly grow, not just for our own benefit but for the benefit of the entire game and to the benefit of our players, who are ultimately our customers."

$2 million Winner at the WSOP

30th June, 2008

Scotty Nguyen won an incredible $2million U.S. dollars beating opponent Michael DeMichele in a tense game at the WSOP. Nguyen earned his fifth gold bracelet at the championships finishing top of 148 fellow poker players. The winner started the final days game with the second highest number of chips and was involved in a constant three way battle with DeMichele and Lindgren. Third place Lindgren narrowly lost out to Nguyen being defeated by a pair of 9s when he held a pair of 8s. His pair of aces and high ten won him the tournament putting out DeMichele.

"Scotty Nguyen's gonna be triple crown, baby!" Nguyen said after posing at the made-for-TV final table with thick stacks of $100 bills and his newly won bracelet. "That's my dream."

Nguyen has had past success at the WSOP winning $1 million back in 1998. He showed his skill once again this with this impressive win. DeMichele, however, wont be complaining after earning $1.24 million finishing second in the tournament. Nguyen nows set out to overtake Phil Hellmuth's record of 12 WSOP bracelets. "I'm gonna make Phil Hellmuth squirm," he said.

Betting limits were imposed on the five game tournament to provide the ultimate test in skill for players and Nguyen demonstrated why he was five time winner of the WSOP.

Ladbrokes top of the Poker Pile

27th June, 2008

Ladbrokes has been announced as the UK leading online poker company by The Hitwise competitive intelligence facility. Ladbrokes Poker provides the ideal online betting company with numerous game options involving numerous real money and free games. Their wide appeal is reflected in their 19.5% share of the online poker market.

Ladbrokes commented ""Search Engine Optimization, online banner advertising, extensive affiliate partnerships and sponsored search listings have been revamped to ensure that the poker world knows that Ladbrokes is a serious player in the competitive online poker environment."

The good new comes at an ideal time just before the WSOP championship begins in which Ladbrokes have and team of 100 poker players heading for.

Players can play in 3D, Classic or Browser modes allowing them to play a full range of poker games. Future plans also include introducing multi currency tables for users from different countries to take advantage of. The site also includes an easy to use online community which can be used to view other players profiles and meet other users.

Flack leads the pack

23rd June, 2008

Layne Flack won his sixth Bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker in Event 34, the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys tournament.

Winning his first bracelet in five years, Flack was awarded $577,725 after outlasting a field of 320 However, Flack had invested $30,000 in the tournament using is reckless style he tends to use in rebuy tournaments where you just keep putting your money in until you have a good stack of chips.

“I caught some cards today, I mean it’s not like I just outplayed everybody,” he said. “I actually caught some cards.”

This tournament was gave the poker pro his first Bracelet since 2003. Flack says he’s back to play poker, and has been out of the game for a while sorting out some personal issues.

“I got off track pretty good for a while, I spent the last year regrouping and getting my life back together,” Flack said. “I want to throw out kudos to my life coach who’s turned my life around.”

Flack had a pretty big chip lead during day 1, mostly due to the three hour rebuy period where he accumulated as many chips as possible. Day 2 proved to be much more challenging.

“These tournaments are so hard, you don’t look at the bracelet, you look at fighting every day,” he said. “Every day I come in I don’t even look at the finish line, I don’t even look at how many bracelets I have, and I just battle through that day.”

This win gives Flack six WSOP Bracelets, which places him in the top ten World Series of Poker Players of all time.