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PokerStars Zoom Poker to Launch Mid-March

PokerStars Zoom Poker will be up and running for real-money play in the middle of March, according to a PokerStars representative.

The new fast-paced online poker cash game has been in beta testing at PokerStars for a couple of weeks, but it has only been available at the PokerStars test site for play money. However, a PokerStars representative posted at the online poker forum twoplustwo.com, and said real-money play will be rolled out soon.

We are finalizing the last few details regarding the product and expect Zoom to be released as Real Money beta in mid-March.

The representative also said a few changes were made to PokerStars Zoom since the beta test began:

Based on player feedback we have added two new features on the .TEST version:
1) Sit out next BB – Fully operational with the checkbox on the table.
2) “Fold & Watch” – There is still some graphic work to be done on this feature, but for now you can test it by pressing Ctrl+Shift while you click the Fold button. This feature does not work with the ‘Fast Fold’ button.

In PokerStars Zoom, players join a large “cloud” of players, and are seated at a table. Players can choose to play the hand, or instantly fold out of turn and be moved to a new table consisting of other players from the cloud. Zoom Poker allows players to see many more hands than they can at regular ring games, on average 200 hands an hour or more.

Blom Wins Big at PokerStars

The infamous 21-year-old Swedish poker pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom was back in the news last week after his 10-hour session on PokerStars in which he walked away with $577K. Blom started off the year with a $300K win, but had fallen on tough times losing about $1 million until his most recent upswing. He’s now up more than $91K for 2012.

The marathon session saw 3,837 hands of Pot Limit Omaha from stakes of $25/$50 up to $100/$200 while multi-tabling with various online poker pros. He was successful at most every level.

Two of the biggest pots Blom took where taken from Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond for $105K and another for $99K. Another big pot was worth $91K taken from “MaiseE,” also a Swede. Blom, who joined Stars in December 2010 has won more than $1.5 million on the online poker site thus far.

Before the world knew the true name behind the mysterious “Isildur1,” his unknown identity caused quite the buzz back in 2009 and 2010 until he revealed his true self just before the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and took sponsorship by PokerStars. In his short career, he’s participated in some of the biggest pots in online poker history, including the biggest pot ever against Patrik Antonius—a single pot worth $1,356,947.

His live tournament earnings are just as impressive. He has cashed three times including finishing 16th in the 2010 WSOPE for which he took home £33,582 ($51,806), and two cashes this year, a first place finish at the $100K Super High Roller Event, a $1.25+ million win, and a second place finish at the €5K Heads-Up EPT Deauville when he won €13,400 ($17,623).

Bodog.com Seized & Calvin Ayre Indicted

The recent chapter in the ongoing US online poker saga targeted Bodog.com, one of the only more well-known online poker sites still accepting US players. The US Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice seized the Bodog.com domain on Monday just before four individuals including Bodog founder Calvin Ayre and three other of Ayre’s executives, James Philip, Derrick Maloney, and David Ferguson, were indicted on charges of money laundering and running an illegal sports gambling operation between June of 2005 and January 2012, according to the Baltimore, Maryland US Attorney’s Office.

Maryland US District attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commented, “Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country. Many of the harms that underlie gambling prohibitions are exacerbated when the enterprises operate over the Internet without regulation.”

The indictments allege that Bodog Entertainment Group, aka Bodog.com, facilitated payments by processors, namely ZipPayments and JBL Services, to transfer more than $100 million to US gamblers and Bodog business promoters.

The four Canadian defendants are facing up to 25 years in prison. As for the company, Bodog is still in operation, as the company was no longer using the Bodog.com domain and had moved operations over to Bovada.lv for US players. The Bodog brand and Bovada.lv domain are run by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group located in Quebec, Canada in the Mohak Territory of Kahnawake.

Ayre, a philanthropist billionaire, said of the allegations, “I see this as abuse of the US criminal justice system for the commercial gain of large US corporations. It is clear that the online gaming industry is legal under international law…it will not stop my many business interests globally that are unrelated to anything in the US and it will not stop my many charity projects through my foundation.”

Android Poker App Poker Agenda Software Update

A new poker app for Android phones, Poker Agenda, provides users with a complete list of upcoming tourneys on popular online poker sites including Titan Poker, Bet365, PokerStars, SunPoker, and CentreBet. The app also has the option to alert you via your device calendar based on tournament reminders you set. This is cutting edge software that will allow online poker players to better keep up with their favorite tournaments without missing any of them.

Though you cannot play online poker via this app, you can only view the tournament schedules for the sites listed above. Poker Agenda keeps up with multi-table tournaments, buy-ins, amount of players, and game type, as well as satellites and freerolls. A recent update offers an enhanced interface with new features such as rakeback, bonuses, and promotions.

PokerAgenda is compatible with Android 2.1 or newer devices. It is 182 KB and more than 10K users have uploaded the app already since its original release. More online poker rooms will likely be added in the future, as there is a survey on the NobleDroid blog, the official Poker Agenda blog, that asks what networks/sites users and potential users would like to see incorporated into the software. PartPoker, 888Poker, and iPoker are in the front running.

Unfortunately Poker Agenda is not compatible with iPhone.

PokerStars’ Zoom Poker-the New Rush

Perhaps the most missed thing about former Full Tilt Poker, besides players’ money, is Rush Poker. Rush Poker was the best new thing to hit online poker since multi-tabling for many players and provided an exhilarating change to the monotonous daily grind of regular online poker. So it only makes sense that another version of the highly popular and highly addictive poker variant surface. Meet Zoom Poker, PokerStars’ answer to Rush Poker that will attempt to fill the void left by Rush Poker.

Only available on PokerStars’ test client (TestPokerStars), Zoom Poker is a fast-paced online poker game that is available for play money to registered PokerStars players only. This new game allows players to join larger “clouds” of players and are then seated at a random table. The player then has a choice of folding and moving to a new table within his cloud, or playing the hand.

In Zoom Poker, players can see about 200 hands per hour on average, possibly even more, as players can have up to four simultaneous entries in a cloud. While only 6-max NLH is currently available through the test site, the lobby features future spots for LH, PLO, PLO h/l, and more.

Learn how to use the PokerStars Test Site here.

Below is a video of Zoom Poker.

Danish Petersen Wins EPT Copenhagen

Young gun Dane poker pro Mickey Petersen, known online as “mementmori” took the first place win at the 2012 EPT Copenhagen yesterday and a €338,133 paycheck, worth about $455K in $US. This is only a drop in the bucket for the Internet poker phenomenon though, as his online earnings total more than $4.6 million. He’s only played in about 50 live tournaments, which account for about $700K, including the EPT Copenhagen, which proves that although he doesn’t have as much live experience, he’s just as good at the felt as he is at the computer.

Petersen said of his win, “This is so special to me. Not only is it the first time I’ve done well in a live event but doing it on home turf like this is just amazing. I’m good friends with Rupert (Elder), David (Vamplew), (Kevin) MacPhee and Ben (Wilinofsky), all those guys that have won EPTs in the last couple of years so to join that club is awesome.”

Petersen started the eight-man final table at the Casino Copenhagen in fourth place. He ultimately made his way through the opposition to a heads-up battle against Pierre “Zoutechamp” Neuville, Team PokerStars Pro. Six hours later, Petersen finally emerged the winner after both he and Neuville were all in pre-flop with A/5 vs. A/4, respectively. The K/J/6/3/5 board sent the hand to Petersen.

Petersen explained the ups and downs of the final session: “I felt pretty confident going into the heads up match but I’d like to think that I ran really bad in cards in the first couple of hours. I barely had a pair and I had ace-jack once and had to fold it. I was getting run over a little bit and then I made two stupid mistakes that I kind of regret which put a little doubt in my mind. Eventually I managed to grind it back, very slowly and steadily so that was really nice.”

Ivey Excels in 2012 LA Poker Classic Main Event

Former Full Tilt Poker pro, Phil Ivey has entered his first US tournament since charges were brought against Full Tilt Poker last April. Ivey has reportedly entered the first day of the 2012 LA Poker Classic Main Event, an event that he won back in 2008.

Since Black Friday (April 15^th, 2011), when the US Department of Justice took down the three major US poker sites, Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker, shutting them down indefinitely to US players, Ivey has publicly denounced his former sponsor site for not handling player accounts responsibly that resulted in millions of dollars in player funds unpaid.

Ivey filed lawsuit shortly after Black Friday against Full Tilt for $150 million in damages. This was the amount owed to former players of Full Tilt. Once Full Tilt began negotiating with Groupe Bernard Tapie regarding a buyout/takeover, Ivey withdrew the lawsuit. Ironically, Ivey is one of a handful of pro players who reportedly owe Full Tilt money. Ivey allegedly owes about $4 million to the site, which along with other debts owed to Full Tilt by high-profile players, is holding up the Groupe Tapie sale.

Ivey then refused to play in the 2011 World Series of Poker to protest the thousands of scorned Full Tilt players who still had not received their account balances. A few months ago, Ivey entered his first tournament since Black Friday, the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event. Then in January, he went on to win the Aussie Millions Super High Roller event and took home a $2.1 million paycheck.

Day 1 of the 2012 LA Poker Classic Main Event began on February 24^th. Ivey remains in play. Day 3 kicks off today.

California Looks to Online Poker for Financial Help

Last Friday, a new online poker campaign was launched in California. The Internet Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2012, if passed, will permit intrastate online gambling in California. The bill dictates that only poker would be allowed for the first two years of regulation.

Pending a regulatory outline, eligible operators can apply for a 10-year license and if accepted, will have to pay a licensing fee of $30 million, credited against monthly revenue.

This bill seeks “to provide hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the public services that have been cut repeatedly during the state’s budget crisis” in hopes that at least $200 million will be earned for the state in the fiscal 2012-2013 year. This all looks great on paper, but it won’t be good on paper. California Governor Jerry Brown has made it publicly clear that he is skeptical that legalized online gambling would solve the cash-strapped state’s economic problems.

California’s tribal casino community, which pays hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the state for gaming contracts, is divided on regulation. Gaming experts took the cause to Washington in earlier this month to shed light on how a federal Internet gambling bill would affect the tribes. One attorney testified that the large licensing fee imposed by California would leave tribal casinos helpless.

Neighboring state, Nevada, has already legalized intrastate online poker and are close to licensing.

Duhamel’s Stolen WSOP Bracelet Found

At the end of last year, 2010 World Series of Poker Champions, Jonathan Duhamel, reported his winning WSOP bracelet stolen after a home invasion took place. Fortunately, the bracelet has now been recovered, though it was found in a very unusual place in a very unusual way.

An employee of a street sweeping company that cleans the streets of Montreal reported the find. The bracelet was discovered last Wednesday by a street sweeper who had cleaned the Ville-Marie tunnel. The bracelet was found in a dumpster where cleaning residue accumulates on the street sweeper. The bracelet is not in the best shape, and needs a lot of work, if not to just be melted down and re-cast.

Duhamel’s ex-girlfriend, Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, and her accomplice await trial for their part in the forced entry invasion into Duhamel’s suburban Montreal home. Rojas-Latraverse is charged with assault, conspiracy, breaking and entering, and armed robbery.

How the bracelet ended up on the streets is still unknown.

Duhamel was the first Canadian to win the WSOP, taking home $8.9 million for his first place win.

Players Hold Up Full Tilt Buyout

As tension surrounding the buyout of Full Tilt Poker by Groupe Bernard Tapie continues to swell, the lag on the finalization of the deal is being blamed on some high-profile poker pros who allegedly owe the company money.

Laurent Tapie commented on the hold up: “The poker community, and particularly that of former players of Full Tilt waiting to recover their funds, deserves to know the reality of the behavior of some major figures in poker who say sorry for the situation …who blame the former leaders, but refrain to indicate how much they have borrowed from Full Tilt, and lost, playing on the site.”

According to Tapie, both Mike Matusow and Layne Flack owe $700,000 each, while Barry Greenstein owes the flailing online poker site $400,000. But that’s not even the half of it. Phil Ivey reportedly owes Full Tilt $4 million and David Benyamine, $2 million.

Matusow tweeted, “For all my fans out there, just to let u all know I don’t owe full tilt anything why my name is mentioned I don’t know.”

However, GBT/Full Tilt attorneys are adamant that Matusow does in fact owe “nearly $700,000.” Attorney Behn Dayanim claims, “Mr. Matusow has not responded to our attempts to reach him to discuss the matter.”

If it were untrue, Matusow would have a pretty hefty slander lawsuit on his hands, but there’s been no news of this.

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