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Bodog.com Offering Tournaments for Beginners

Site Will Pay More Spots Bodog.com has launched new tournaments that make it easier to get into the money. The online site is marketing the new, small buy-in tournaments to beginners who could use tournament practice, but don’t want to bleed their bankrolls away trying to cash. The 10-person sit-and-gos will pay half the field. These tournaments are taking place throughout the day. Bodog.com is also offering multi-table tournaments for beginners. Although payouts depends on how many people enter multi-table tournaments, about twice as many people will get paid in these tournaments compared to normal tournaments. Buy-ins for both the multi-table and sit-and-gos are $4.40.

World Poker Tour Now Has Casino Game

Game Was Recently Approved to be Played in Nevada Now people who don’t even play poker but are fans of the World Poker Tour can walk into a casino and say the words “all in” like they mean it. After a field trial at Bellagio, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved the “World Poker Tour All-In Hold’em” table game. The game was developed by Lakes Entertainment, a Minnesota-based casino operator and gaming company that owns more than half of World Poker Tour Enterprise’s stock. The pit game looks a like a blackjack table. The action of the game is very similar to the version of Texas hold’em found in cardrooms. Players place a bet to receive two holecards. If they want to see the flop, players have to bet five times the original bet. They could also raise “all-in” by betting 10 times the original bet. The board is then dealt, and bets are paid off accordingly. Like most casino table games, players can opt to lay down bonus bets that pay up to 500-to-1 for a royal flush. All the players play against the dealer. The tables are adorned with the now-famous red, white, and blue “WPT” logo and can accommodate six players, plus the dealer. The game was already available at casinos in California, Missouri, and Michigan. Now that the Nevada Gaming Commission gave its approval, Bellagio will go to two tables and Mirage and Treasure Island will also add the game this month. In January, it will be found at Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi, which will bring to 10 the number of casinos that offer the game.

PartyGaming Releases Trader Update

Report Shines Light on Some Interesting Numbers PartyGaming, the publicly owned company that operates PartyPoker.com, released a two-month report to its traders on Friday. PartyPoker.com is averaging a gross poker revenue of $2.7 million a day, which is a 14 percent increase over last quarter. The increase has a lot to do with the October launch of blackjack on its poker tables. Excluding the first week of the launch, blackjack revenues have ranged between $800,000 and $1.2 million a day. The report says that about 40 percent of the real-money players on PartyPoker.com play blackjack. Although this has reduced the poker revenue generated by these players, the “overall revenue generated by them during the period has increase dramatically,” the report says. During the last two months, new-player signups have averaged 2,455 a day, and PartyGaming remains confident that it will achieve its goal of signing up 800,000 players this year. The number of unique active players increased from 443,000 in September to 487,000 in November and the daily average number of players increased from 131,000 in the third quarter to 138,000 the last two months. PartyGaming will release its full fourth quarter report at the end of January.

FSN Will Hold $60 Million Tournament

Players Will Buy In for $10 Million Fox Sports Network has teamed up with soon-to-be-launched Mansionpoker.net to sponsor the largest single-table tournament in the history of poker. The 43-week Mansionpoker.net Pokerdome Series is slated to debut on Sunday, May 15, 2006. A few weeks later, a six-person winner-take-all tournament takes place at the series’ first “mega-event” on July 12 in which the winner receives $60 million. Each player will buy in to the event for $10 million. Phil Ivey is the first person to sign up for the event. FSN will release a name of a participant a month until the entire field is set. But that’s just the beginning. The series will go on for the next three years and will be played in the soon-to-be-built “Pokerdome” arena. The Pokerdome will contain a poker table, complete with an automated card tracking system, integrated chip counting capabilities, hole card-cam, and robotic cameras focused on each player's face. It will also come equipped with special cameras and card technology that allow viewers to see the burn cards before dealers flip the active cards, plus a rabbit-hunting camera for each hand, letting fans know what would have happened if each hand went to completion. The first event will take place at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. The next two “mega-events,” which will be held in 2007 and 2008, will have prize pools of $75 million and $100 million. Mansionpoker.net will be launched sometime in 2006.

Americans Say U.S. Should Allow Internet Gambling

Internet Poll Shows a Large Majority Say Companies Should Be Based Here An online polling company recently asked Americans if they think U.S.-based casinos should be granted the right to run online casino gaming websites and the answer is an overwhelming yes. When Scooop.net, a next-generation media site based on democratic voting principles and active participation of its members, asked people if the federal government should legalize online gaming so that U.S. companies can participate, 67 percent of Americans polled said yes. When surveyed about how people personally feel about online casino gaming, the responses were mixed. Of those surveyed, 33.7 percent said that they wouldn’t play an online game themselves but it should be legal for U.S. companies to compete with foreign casinos. An additional 33.9 percent said that they like online casino games and would like to play them if they wanted to. A majority of those surveyed feel that the federal government should allow online casino gaming but stay out of the oversight of the industry. Of those polled, 53.7 percent say that the U.S. government should stay out of regulating Internet activity by U.S. citizens, including online gaming, since the Internet is really a borderless community that crosses international lines.

LG Electronics Using Poker to Introduce New Phone

Hollywood Stars in Invited to Play With Moneymaker and Chan Poker is once again being used as a backdrop for a Hollywood-slash-consumer event and once again proves that it's good to be famous. LG Electronics will also show off its new phone, the V, at a poker event held at the Palms in Las Vegas this Sunday. Model-turned-comedian Jenny McCarthy will host the LG Mobile Phones Poker Showdown, featuring professional poker stars Johnny Chan and Chris Moneymaker, who will provide poker lessons for the group of Hollywood stars LG invited. The pros will also play with the stars in the tournament, which will take place in the Hardwood Suite at the Palms. The winner of the tournament will receive a complete home technology makeover from LG Electronics. Music will be provided by celebrity DJ AM and everything from a unique wet bar to thoroughly relaxing chair massages will be available throughout the evening.

Poker One of the Most Popular Search Terms in 2005

It’s Near The Top of the Lycos' Annual List Poker is as popular as Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson, and Britney Spears and it blows away 50 Cent and Howard Stern. At least that’s the case with people trolling the Internet at Lycos. “Poker” was the fourth-most popular term searched for in 2005 at Lycos.com, falling behind the beautiful Hilton, Anderson and Spears. Each year, Lycos releases the “Lycos 50,” a list of the most searched terms for the year. Last year, “poker” was tenth on the list. Lycos also named poker as the number one “fad” in 2005, even though poker received that accolade in 2004. “Poker” has been in the top 50 terms searched for at Lycos for 86 weeks, and has sat at the second spot for the last two weeks. Poker is by far the most popular search term for a sport, game or hobby this year. The professional wrestling league “WWE” was the seventh most searched term; “NFL” was at 23; “XBOX,” 24; “NBA,” 32; “NASCAR,” 69; and “golf,” 98. 50 Cent sat at 51, and Stern fell 20 spots to 80.

FullTiltPoker.com is Offering Gift Certificates

Site Hopes They’ll Find Their Way into Many Christmas Stockings FullTiltPoker.com is giving friends and family of poker lovers something to stuff into their stockings. The online poker site is offering gift certificates that can be immediately redeemed for use on FullTiltPoker.com. You can buy certificates up to any price, starting at $25. Delivered in PDF format, each FullTiltPoker.com gift certificate is available with one of three custom backgrounds, and can be personalized with a message of your choosing.

Bodog.com Offering Tournaments for Beginners

Site Will Pay More Spots Bodog.com has launched new tournaments that make it easier to get into the money. The online site is marketing the new, small buy-in tournaments to beginners who could use tournament practice, but don’t want to bleed their bankrolls away trying to cash. The 10-person sit-and-gos will pay half the field. These tournaments are taking place throughout the day. Bodog.com is also offering multi-table tournaments for beginners. Although payouts depends on how many people enter multi-table tournaments, about twice as many people will get paid in these tournaments compared to normal tournaments. Buy-ins for both the multi-table and sit-and-gos are $4.40.

World Poker Tour Now Has Casino Game

Game Was Recently Approved to be Played in Nevada Now people who don’t even play poker but are fans of the World Poker Tour can walk into a casino and say the words “all in” like they mean it. After a field trial at Bellagio, the Nevada Gaming Commission approved the “World Poker Tour All-In Hold’em” table game. The game was developed by Lakes Entertainment, a Minnesota-based casino operator and gaming company that owns more than half of World Poker Tour Enterprise’s stock. The pit game looks a like a blackjack table. The action of the game is very similar to the version of Texas hold’em found in cardrooms. Players place a bet to receive two holecards. If they want to see the flop, players have to bet five times the original bet. They could also raise “all-in” by betting 10 times the original bet. The board is then dealt, and bets are paid off accordingly. Like most casino table games, players can opt to lay down bonus bets that pay up to 500-to-1 for a royal flush. All the players play against the dealer. The tables are adorned with the now-famous red, white, and blue “WPT” logo and can accommodate six players, plus the dealer. The game was already available at casinos in California, Missouri, and Michigan. Now that the Nevada Gaming Commission gave its approval, Bellagio will go to two tables and Mirage and Treasure Island will also add the game this month. In January, it will be found at Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi, which will bring to 10 the number of casinos that offer the game.