According to the poker news grapevine, 888 Poker is pulling in more cash game customers than both Full Tilt Poker (FTP) and PartyPoker (PP), and are just a hairs breadth away from the volume that the iPoker network currently enjoys.
It seems the software, variety and playability available at 888 Poker is to the players liking, and that can only be good news as 888 Holdings positions itself to be a major player in the Stateside online poker revolution, with its All American Poker Network (AAPN), and affiliations with Wynn Interactive (WI), Treasure Island (TI), Golden Gaming (GG), Scientific Games (SG) and Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE).
Delaware and New Jersey may have to wait to see what all the fuss is about, but Nevada clientele are getting a taste of that sweet medicine with the release of WSOP.com on the 888 fired software. The start-up has been a little slower than expected, but with Ultimate Poker (UP) enjoying a monopoly in that market for so long that can only be expected.
It doesn’t stop there. The release of 888 Poker’s ‘Snap Poker’ and a full rollout on the Mac will surely help 888 overtake the iPoker network in the coming months.
So what is the competition doing about this?
FTP launching the Take 2 promotion
FTP have launched their Take 2 promotion, where cash game players can earn double Full Tilt Points for playing two standard ring game tables simultaneously, or any Rush Poker table during Sep 27th and Oct 6th.
A promotion that may interest the current player pool, but the chance to win a FTP t-shirt from the FTP store is hardly going to see newcomers kicking the front door down.
PartyPoker Launch Introductory Series on YouTube
PartyPoker have followed up their rather expensive looking TV commercial with a series of introductory YouTube videos starring their ambassador Kara Scott. The series consists of six videos, so far, and they are:
- Say Hello to PartyPoker (226 views)
- Get Started (79 views)
- Playing Your First Game (101 views)
- Playing Responsibly (85 views)
- Hand Ranking (113 views)
- How to Play Texas Hold’em (64 views)
The content is aimed at the virgin poker pool and as you can tell from the viewing figures, they don’t seem to have been marketed very aggressively, which is a shame, as they look polished and well suited for their intended targets.
PartyPoker Announce Premier League VII Dates
There is a feeling of angst amongst the European media as the PartyPoker Premier League is going to be leaving European soil, and heading to the Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Canada, for its seventh annual offering.
This made for TV show is the most exciting poker tournament of the year, as it provides just the right blend of star attraction, controversy, superlative action and a spot of innovation that deserves accolades of the highest order.
If the departure from European shores creates acrimony, then don’t fret because the show will be screened for television production, and all of the memorable hands will no doubt be downloaded onto YouTube.
The event will operate between Nov 20-26 and the buy-in will be $125,000. The first player announced for the game is none other than Tony G, who keeps his record of having played in every single Premier League to date.
The event will feature six eight handed heats as each of the players involved compete in four league matches. Each point earned is worth $2,000 in cash, and the top four finishers will take a seat at the final table. Special heads up matches between the players in fifth and eighth place will determine the final two positions.
The Premier League is the perfect launch pad for PP to push the marketing of those beginner videos. If a visual extravaganza is going to be responsible for a surge of new players, then the Premier League is the one tournament that can muster the interest, as the format relates to most sporting tournaments that European gamblers are used to.
Established trader and IveyPoker pro Dan Shak won last year’s event after defeating Sam Trickett in heads up action for a first prize of $528,000.
PokerStars Announce 2014 PCA Schedule and a $10m Guarantee
It seems the bods in PokerStars towers haven’t bothered to read my latest article questioning the validity of the guarantee, and why should they. As 888 overtake FTP and breath heavily down the necks of iPoker, Stars continue to embarrassingly dominate the online poker industry by a country mile.
The company that can seemingly do no wrong has just announced the schedule for the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), and it seems if the Seminole Hard Rock can do it then so can we, as they have announced a $10 million guarantee for their main event. I guess it would have looked a little silly had they made it $10,000,001.
The event is due to take place at the Atlantis Resort, 5-13 January, and there will be 39 events with a wide range of buy-ins and tournament types. Just in case you are wondering whether the $10m guarantee was well thought through, that particular barrier has been breached on four separate occasions since the tours birth back in 2004 – pointedly those instances have been in the previous four consecutive years.
So let me get this straight. The tournament organizers have announced a guarantee of $10m buckaroos in the hope it will attract more players, when the guarantee has been breached in the past four years?
And the point is?
