TowerGaming is leaving the Ongame Network after five years, transferring its TowerPoker players to the Cake Poker network beginning Nov. 9. However, despite the shift to a US-friendly online poker network, the Costa Rica-licensed TowerGaming confirmed via Poker Affiliate Solutions that TowerPoker will not be accepting any US signups “at this time.” Players who make the switch with Tower will receive 33% rakeback (Cake’s max). With Ongame’s parent Bwin.party (Pwin) having declared its non-PartyPoker operation a “surplus asset” that is “on track” to be sold by the end of the year, it’s understandable that poker rooms are opting to have at least some role in determining their future home.
In other Cake Poker news, the welcome mat is now permanently rolled out for the poker world’s ‘bum hunters.’ Cake had long been an advocate against the use of heads-up displays (HUDs), but an exclusive test phase with Poker Tracker that began in July appears to have changed the network’s mind. From Nov. 9 on, Poker Tracker and Hold’em Manager HUDs will be permitted on the network.
Victor Chandler is offering a home to those former Entraction Network poker players in Israel, Canada, Norway and Russia who were unceremoniously shown the Entraction exit on Nov. 1. (Players in the fifth nation Entraction kicked to the curb, Turkey, are apparently shit outta luck.) Victor Chandler, whose poker channel operates on the Entraction network and was given only two months’ notice of Entraction’s plans, has decided to steer players to VC’s BetVictor.com (formerly Mr. Apuestas) offshoot on the Microgaming Network.
UK-based operator GuruPlay has inked Russian poker pro Mikhail Lakhitov. Lakhitov, who has career earnings of $1.1m despite having been a poker pro for just two short years, will now fly the GuruPlay flag at live tournaments around the world. Lakhitov earned his first World Series of Poker bracelet this June on only his second trip to the big show, but the refreshingly candid Russian admitted that he hadn’t even realized that winning an event meant you were also given a bracelet. Oh, those Russians…
