When the 221 survivors from the assorted Day 1s arrived back at the Casino Vilamoura this morning and retreated from the sun into the Salao Miralago, Leonid Bilokur was the overall chip leader to start Day 2 of the PokerStars EPT Vilamoura Main…
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The second Day 1 flight at the PokerStars EPT Vilamoura was larger, as expected, drawing a total of 203 players out of the sun and on to the felt for eight hours of deep-stacked tournament poker action — 119 made it through all eight levels…
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More northerly European cities might have begun the inevitable descent into Autumn already, but Vilamoura, in the Algarve region of Portugal, was bathed in heat and sunshine on Saturday for the beginning of the PokerStars EPT Vilamoura. The first…
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08 27th, 2010
A few weeks ago, the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge was in Las Vegas filming brand new episodes for its upcoming season. We went down to the South Point Hotel and Casino to check out the set and chat with some of the competitors. While we…
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08 21st, 2010
This week you’ll want to pay special attention to the PokerStars EPT Steps freeroll on Sunday. PokerListings players will have the opportunity to win $25,000 in steps tickets to the European Poker Tour.
Also worth looking into is the Titan Poker weekly $1k, which kicks off today and the PartyPoker $500 added on Sunday.
The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, and then take your seat to potentially win baskets of free cash.
If you’re not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site’s name in the list to sign up.
Titan Poker is running weekly $1,000 freerolls for PokerListings players that cost just one Titan Poker Point to buy into.
Date: Aug. 21
Value: $1,000
Qualify with: Use 1 Titan Poker Point.
New depositors on 888poker will have a shot at four different $500 freerolls.
Date: Aug. 21
Value: $1,000
Qualify with: New deposit
PokerStars is running an exclusive $25k EPT Steps freeroll for PokerListings players this week.
Date: Aug. 22
Value: $25,000 in European Poker Tour Steps tickets
Qualify with: 250 Frequent Player Points
Qualify between: July 1-30
First time sign-ups and existing PokerListings players who earn 50 points will have access to the bwin Poker monthly $2,000 freerolls.
Date: Aug. 22
Value: $2,000
Qualify with: Sign up or generate 50 points before Aug. 22
All of August, PartyPoker will be offering a series of cash-added low buy-in tournaments for new players who sign up through PokerListings.
Date: Aug. 22
Buy-in: $5+$1
Value: $500 added cash
Qualify with: Sign up for a real-money account on PartyPoker through PokerListings.
Qualify between: Aug. 1-31
Visit
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08 20th, 2010
Earlier this week, Poker News Daily reported on the allegations of a cheating scandal on the site regarding its “Double or Nothing” (DoN) sit and gos. At the time, the world’s largest site had not responded to Poker News Daily’s requests to answer some questions on the issue. After the story was posted, however, quickly answered our questions via e-mail.
In the original story, we mentioned a thread on the popular poker forum Two Plus Two that addressed the issue in excellent depth. A player using the name “Jane0123” stated that their account had been closed due to alleged collusion (through the use of the “whipsaw” technique) with a ring of players from China in the month of January. The thread went on to detail how, over a two month span earlier this summer, PokerStars handled the case and how some players were upset over the situation.
Late Wednesday evening, a member of the Game Security team by the name of “Jackson” answered six questions posed by Poker News Daily regarding the ongoing issue. While the spokesperson did not answer how long the ring had been in operation, Jackson did report that PokerStars first discovered the activity of the ring soon after the reports in the original January 2+2 thread (a supplemental condensed version of the case was started in July) began. “PokerStars discovered the illicit activity in early February 2010,” Jackson stated in the e-mail. “Whilst conducting our review during this period, accounts associated with this situation were closed.”
The 2+2 thread stated that the ring colluded on the higher level DoN sit and gos, but PokerStars says they found evidence that the cheating went on over a much larger scale. “The cheaters were active across many stakes, some as low as our $10 and $20 DoNs,” the PokerStars spokesman reported. “However, the vast majority of the collusion occurred at both the $50 and $100 levels.” (Writer’s note: These are the largest DoNs offered by PokerStars.)
What was important to many involved in the situation – how many players were involved with the ring, how much money was taken and what restitution has been made to affected players – was reported as in much detail by the PokerStars spokesman as possible. When it came to the issue of the number of players involved in the collusion ring, PokerStars says, “Overall, PokerStars closed 38 accounts in this case.” This is a lower number than the 2+2 thread states (46). Additionally, PokerStars did not provide any information as to the player identities.
The compensation issue for players affected does line up with the 2+2 report. PokerStars spokesman Jackson states, “The colluders net profit was $494,000, and despite this, PokerStars has paid a total of $2,100,000 in compensation.” Although not exact, these numbers are close to those stated by posters on the forum; however, no actual numbers of players who earned compensation – or how much – was discussed by PokerStars.
The most critical issue of game security is something that PokerStars feels they have now adequately addressed. “We agree that we have room for improvement in relation to collusion detection, and alongside our internal discussions about this particular individual case, we are also very actively discussing various techniques to improve our performance here,” Jackson stated in the e-mail. “We have various ideas about how we can improve our prevention and detection methods, but we’re always open to listening to feedback from players on the site.”
To combat the possibilities of further problems with the games, “PokerStars has introduced a new security function to prevent players from certain countries from playing in the same Double or Nothing events together,” Jackson reported. “This restriction will ensure that only one player from each of several countries (those countries involved in this restriction were not given) will be able to play in these events.” The PokerStars spokesman goes on to say, “We continue to monitor the games for collusion and we do feel that they are now adequately secure, otherwise we wouldn’t offer them. The investigation of the accounts involved, as well compensation to players, have since been finalized.
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It has been just about a year since Joe Sebok signed with UB and vowed to help uncover the facts in the UB cheating scandal. He recently took to his blog to update us all on the situation. We’ve got that, and a look at the PokerStars UK & Ireland…
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After a month-long hiatus, fresh episodes of the PokerStars.net Big Game returned to the airwaves last week. Following Nadya Magnus’ triumphant stint as the Loose Cannon proved to be difficult for Troy Howard, a 29 year-old music engineer from…
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08 16th, 2010
Full Tilt Poker’s 17th installment of their quarterly online poker series is wrapping up today with the second day of the $600 Main Event. While you rail that online, take a look at some of the biggest wins from the last two weeks:
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When Day 3 of the PokerStars.com EPT Tallinn dawned, 84 players returned to the Swissotel Tallinn hoping to take a shot at the title and the €400,000 first prize. But before the day was out, 28 of them would go home with nothing, another 31…
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