• Home
• Poker Reviews
• Poker Bonus
• Poker Strategy
• Poker Rules
• Poker Players
• Mac Poker

• Poker Freerolls
• Poker News

Subscribe

Live Blackjack Tournaments at Rushmore Online Casino

Yes, we are aware of the fact that this is mainly an Online Poker News site but sometimes we come across things related to gambling that we just can’t keep to ourselves.

We have to admit that the staff here at OnlinePokerNews.org are a bunch of gambling degenerates and we bet on just about anything. We a have just tried out the live blackjack tournaments at Rushmore Casino and we are all really impressed by this concept. I don’t know if this is something new to the rest of you but it was for me.

The blackjack tournaments at Rushmore Casino are available in either SNG style mode or in a MTT format if you put it in poker terms. In each of the tournaments you are playing 10 hands of blackjack and the player who accumulates the most chips at the end of those 10 hands wins the tournament, it’s as simple as that.

What we like about this concept is that there is no “house edge” in this type of blackjack as the house is just acting as the dealer while you are competing against the other players at the table.

If you have not yet tried out the live blackjack tournaments at the Rushmore Online Casino then we can really recommend you give it a try. It’s a lot of fun.

PokerStars’ 40th Billionth Hand Has Come and Gone

The long anticipated 40 billionth online poker hand, aka F40, at the number one online poker site materialized on Friday, February 19th at 12:43 p.m. ET on a $2/$4 No-Limit Hold ‘em table. Player “Senecady” was the recipient of the 40 billionth winning hand prize which left him $24,000 richer. Also rewarded for their participation in the monumental hand was every other player dealt into the hand. For each VIP point awarded to each player on the previous 40 hands that took place at that table, $400 was paid out. Second place in the hand was “thecooler992,” who ended up with $15,590.20.

Ultimately, Senecady won with a full house, the pot valuing $401. At the time, around 280,000 players were logged on and 41,000 tables were running, these numbers rising over the previous couple of days as the 40 billionth hand approached. While PokerStars hadn’t seen 50,000 players between the dates of December 21st and January 30th, which could be due in part to the launch of rival poker site Full Tilt’s Rush Poker. However, beginning January 31st through February 19th, more than 50,000 players logged on in only eight days, according to PokerScout, official stat keeper of pretty much all online poker activity. Also worthy of notable mention is that at the time the coveted hand finally broke through, there were 128 PokerStars users on the waiting list to play at the table, Naef III, where the hand was dealt.

The celebration culminated with a joint party for F40 and the 4th anniversary of the Sunday Million last Sunday. This was the biggest Sunday Million event ever to take place and featured a $4 million prize pool and $1 first place payout. Now that the fun’s over at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker is offering a Fast $50 Bonus to all players in celebration of the new Rush Poker.

Expekt Referrer Code February 2010

Claim one of the best bonus promotions by signing up with Expekt referrer code EXPPBS during February. This bonus code will qualify players for a match deposit bonus all the way up to $600 in poker as well as free match bonuses for all products in this large gaming portal. In addition there is a free ticket for the weekly $1000 Freeroll, so get ready for some more free cash on Wednesday!

Sign up at Expekt here

Clearing the $600 bonus is not that hard. Earn FPP (player points) by playing at the real money tables, and for each 375 FPP’s earned, 5 dollar of the bonus is being released to your account. At first the poker bonus will be added to your pending bonus account.

Players that register with the Expekt Poker referrer code EXPPBS is also enrolled into the VIP loyalty program at Expekt Poker. Here you can work your way up the levels which are; Grinder, Rounder, Expert, Champion, Master and Legend. The further up the steps you can climb, the better rewards will await you. Just play poker regularly and Expekt will award you. As part of the iPoker Network, there’s also plenty of other exciting promotions to take part in.

Within the same account you can play in one of the best European sportsbooks, the award-winning Micorgaming Casino and much more. Claim your Expekt bonus now to start building your bankroll!

PokerStars Marketing and Bonus Code Explained

It seems like new players looking to sign up at PokerStars.com are a bit confused when it comes to getting the maximum bonus when making their first deposit. So we thought we would make this post to try to clear out all the terms related to the $600 PokerStars bonus.

PokerStars Marketing Code
When creating your account at PokerStars.com you will be asked to fill out a PokerStars marketing code. When filling out the marketing code PSP11903 you will make sure that you are going to be able to take part of the 100% bonus up to $600 that is currently offered at PokerStars.

PokerStars Bonus Code
The bonus code at PokerStars is different from the marketing code and it is supposed to be entered when you make your first deposit. The current PokerStars bonus code is STARS600 and it has to be entered in the bonus code field when you make your first deposit at PokerStars in order to get the 100% first deposit bonus credited to your account.

How does the Bonus at PokerStars work?
When you make your first deposit at PokerStars and enter the bonus code STARS600 you will automatically get a 100% bonus on the amount you deposit up to a maximum of $600. This bonus will instantly be added to your pending bonus account and can be seen under the tab called “Check my bonus status”. The bonus is released in increments of $10 for every 170 VPPs that you earn by playing cash games or tournaments at PokerStars.

How to earn VPPs at PokerStars
As mentioned before you need to play at the real money tables at PokerStars in order to earn VPPs that will count towards clearing your bonus. When playing Sit and Go’s or participating in tournaments at PokerStars you will be getting 5.5 VPPs for every $1 that you pay in tournament fees. If you enter a tournament with a $22 buy-in you will earn 11 VPPs from that tournament and there is no cap on the amount of VPPs you can earn from participating in a tournament.

When playing cash games it becomes a bit more complicated to calculate the VPPs that you are going to earn and the best thing is to check out the VPP schedule on the PokerStars.com website.

PokerStars Stellar Rewards Program
Even though PokerStars rakeback is not available they have recently launched a VIP Stellar Rewards program that works out to be the same as a good rakeback deal at other poker rooms.

With the PokerStars Stellar Rewards program you will be getting an extra bonus amount paid out to your account every time you hit a certain amount of VPPs starting from when you reach your first 750 VPPs.

PokerBonusSource.com Entering New Markets

PokerBonusSource.com, a website reviewing online poker rooms and their bonuses and promotions are continuing to expand their website with more languages. The latest additions to the site is PokerBonusSource.com in Czech and PokerBonusSource.com in Latvian. The decision to create the Latvian and Czech version of the site was taken when the people behind this poker bonus site realized that there were hardly any good poker review sites on the market in those particular languages.

At PokerBonusSource.com they now have 18 different languages available and according to their own official statement they are in the works of adding Lithuanian and Estonian to the website as well.

Here at OnlinePokerNews.org we have witnessed the enormous growth of this site since it’s launch back in 2004 and we are very impressed with what they have accomplished since then. It really is a great resource for poker players looking for the latest promotions from the most popular online poker rooms out there.

New Way to Play Poker: the Poker Pros Network

Just when the online poker industry, which grew so fast to begin with, is starting to really feel the need for something new, the Poker Pros Network, or PPN, is introduced. This completely novel and innovative approach to online poker affords players the opportunity to truly play against pro poker players 24/7, not just wait until you happen upon one in another online poker room.

PPN allows players to choose from 35 different poker professionals, selecting one as your home poker room. You will then be invited to join private games and other events. Alternatively, you can just join the PPN main site. Both options give you 24/7 access to all 35 pros.

The 35 poker pros range in experience levels and have chosen to play exclusively at PPN. Some of the biggest names include hall of famers like TJ Cloutier, Marsha Waggoner, and Barbara Enright. Other names include tourney stars such as David Levi, Paul Darden, and Chris Reslock. Poker authors and coaches are also available, for instance, Chris “Fox” Wallace and Vince Burgio, as well as online experts, Josh Brikis, Brandon Jarrett, and Krazy Kanuck.

The opening first deposit bonus is worth up to $500 (Poker Bonus Code: PPN500) and they have some pretty big events scheduled like monthly Pro Bounties taking place every Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET and the Monthly Grand Bounty Tournament that runs the first Monday of each month.

These pro bounty events are unique as well. For weekly events, each pro has a bounty point value on their head and for each pro you knock out, you’ll receive those points in addition to a cash value. The points will accumulate all month and then serve as a multiplier for the cash bounties in the following month’s Grand Bounty Tournament. These tournaments will be broadcast live on PPN radio.

This is a different concept and may or may not prove successful. It does sound interesting though, and you should definitely look into participating if it intrigues you.

$600 Rush Poker Bonus at Full Tilt

The introduction of the new poker game Rush Poker at Full Tilt last month is a dream come true for all the bonus whores out there. When playing Rush Poker at Full Tilt you can play as many as 300 hands per hour which means you are earnings those Full Tilt points a whole lot faster than at the regular tables. The Full Tilt player points that you earn at the Rush Poker tables will count towards the clearing requirements of the bonus so there is really no reason not to have at least one Rush Poker table running while attempting to clear your first deposit bonus.

When you sign up at Full Tilt Poker using the referral code TILTME600 you will make sure that you get a 100% bonus upon making your first deposit up to the maximum amount of $600. The bonus is credited to your pending bonus account when you make you first deposit and it will then be released in increments of $20 as you play Rush Poker, cash games or participate in tournaments. Every player point that you earn at Full Tilt is worth $0.06 towards the clearing of your bonus and you have 120 days to clear the full bonus amount. When playing Rush Poker you can be sure that it’s not going to take you nearly as long as 120 days to clear this bonus.

Bodog changes rake structure, micro stakes players pay

Bodog recently changed the way in which it calculates how much rake to take from every pot in cash games where a flop has been dealt. Bodog did not come forth with an official statement about this change, but it was noticed in a review of rake and rakeback for micro stakes players on FirstTimePokerPlayer.com. The article shows precisely how much rake different online poker rooms charge at the micro stakes (up to NL25).

According to the article Bodog Poker only charged an average amount of rake of 2.1% with their old rake structure at NL10 games ($0.05/$0.10 blinds). This was a very low rake amount that made Bodog cheaper to play at for NL10 players than most other online poker rooms, even if they would be playing on a rakeback account somewhere else.

Bodog’s new rake structure is similar to that of PokerStars for no-limit games. At NL10 the biggest difference with the old rake structure is a rake cap of $3 instead of $0.10. Although the new structure is still very attractive for low stakes no-limit players (on average 4.1% rake is charged at 10nl with this rake structure) this still means that NL10 players on Bodog all of a sudden have to pay almost twice as much in rake.

At mid to high stakes games the change in rake structure will have no influence on the amount of rake paid. At these stakes the rake cap remains the same.

The impact of this change on the win rate of NL10 players playing poker at Bodog is enormous. With the new rake structure they would be winning around 9 big blinds/100 hands less than at the time when the old rake structure was still in use. This is the same as the win rate of a solid winning player! Despite the impact of the change in rake structure, low stakes poker players don’t seem to have noticed it as discussions on major poker forums have stayed out.

When asking Bodog support why Bodog made the change to their rake structure that will cause a drop in the win rate of micro stakes players they answered assuring that:

“There is no reason for us to put our reputation in jeopardy. We collect our 5% and never exceed $3.00 per pot, or a small tournament fee, regardless of who wins or who loses. The rest of the money is divided between our players. The only way we benefit is by making, and keeping, more customers. Fixing hands would only lose us customers and is neither ethical nor sound business. We have an excellent reputation in the industry and very loyal customers – we would not risk that for anything.”

This reaction makes you wonder how often they get complaints from so called ‘rigtards’, people who believe online poker is rigged, and it also shows that Bodog support is not aware of the low rake percentages the old rake structure resulted in for low stakes players. Unfortunately an additional question asking what makes Bodog more attractive than other online poker rooms for micro stakes players now they changed their rake structure was not answered.

The old rake structure at Bodog could easily compete with rakeback programs on other online poker rooms for low stakes players. The micro stakes rake review mentions that a room like Full Tilt Poker would have had to give their 10nl players an overall rakeback percentage of 67% to be equally as attractive for example. With the change Bodog loses this attractiveness for micro stakes players: the big difference in amount of rake charged with some other online poker rooms is now gone and at the same time Bodog does not offer a very beneficial VIP-program like for instance PokerStars does.

PokerStars Celebrating Hand number 40.000.000.000

During the month of Ferbruary the number of hands played at the world largest poker room, PokerStars.com, will reach 40 billion. At PokerStars they are going to celebrate this even by hosting a couple of different promotions. This event goes under the name F40 at PokerStars.com and they are going to reward players with special prized every one million hands starting from hand number 39.601.000.000. This will go on all the way up to the magic hand which is the 40 billionth hand.

During the month of February they are also making some special amendments to their tournament schedule and the PokerStars Sunday Million will have a $4 million guaranteed prize pool instead of $1 million.

If you do not yet have an account at PokerStars we really suggest you head over and create one now so that you can take part of these great promotions that are running right now. Use the PokerStars marketing code PSP11903 when signing up and receive a 100% bonus up to $600.

$199 No Deposit Bonus at Celeb Poker

Ever heard of Celeb Poker? They have actually been around for quite some time but they are still one of the relatively unknown poker rooms out there. Well that’s about to change right now as OnlinePokerNews.org in collaboration with CelebPoker.com can offer you as a new player a $199 no deposit poker bonus. That’s right, $199 without making a deposit.

All you have to do in order to get this $199 no deposit bonus is to follow this link or the Celeb Poker banner in the upper left corner of this post and then follow the instructions on the CelebPoker website.

It is very important that you use the link on this page and in order to get your $199 no deposit bonus. Visitors who don’t use this link will not get tracked properly and won’t be able to get any free poker cash.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to CelebPoker today and claim your free $199 bonus.

Next Page »

Best Poker Bonus at 888 Poker 100% up to $600/£400/€400 sign up bonus plus £5/$8/€6 FREE to new players(No USA Players) .

Copyright © 2009 Online Poker News | Partners | Sitemap