A collection of stories from the world of online poker including the GGNetwork chief on Short-Deck, a Winning Poker Network upgrade, a Brazilian Sèrie A poker linkup, and an update from the Spring Championship of Online Poker.
The United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station lies at the site of the South Pole and has been permanently manned since 1956. I wonder if the current occupants are competing in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)?
This trio is.
Maksim “MAMOHT_T” Mamonov has taken down the SCOOP 36 (H) $530 No-Limit Hold’em PKO Six-Max beating 2,376 entrants to win the $87,440.79 first prize. Mamonov has earned more than $7.4m playing online tournaments. It’s the Russian’s second highest score, behind the $181,000 he won for finishing third in a 2013 SCOOP event.
‘Hello_totti’ won SCOOP 38 (H) $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em Four-Max winning $112,198.72 after taking the heads off 297-entrants. ‘Hello_totti’ has won more than $9.7m playing online tournaments, and in April he won the 105-entrant $25,500 buy-in, $2.5m GTD Powerfest Championship event on partypoker for $643,125 (playing under the pseudonym ‘PhileasFogg’).
Finally, ‘Raise Your Edge’ founder and many people’s vote for best online player alive, ‘bencb789,’ won SCOOP 69 (H) $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em, beating 548-entrants, and Michael ‘merla888’ Gathy, heads-up, to take the $96,735.51 first prize.
Head of GGNetwork talks Short-Deck
PokerFuse Pro continues to do some stellar work, this time securing an exclusive interview with the Head of GGNetwork, Jean-Christophe Antoine. A paywall prevents me from reading the full interview, but there was a preview posted on PokerFuse’s free website, and of interest was Antoine’s views on Short-Deck.
The GG Network Head Honcho talked about his awareness of the viral nature of Short-Deck, and how his team plans to bide their time introducing the game on GG as they believe keeping their powder dry enables them to create a more ‘appealing’ game.
Antoine also talked about their version of Short-Deck having ‘additional perks,’ and why not—GG’s Ambassador, Bryn Kenney has gained some experience playing Short-Deck on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Kenney is helping in the background on this one.
“We will probably launch it sometime in 2019,” said Antoine.
Short Deck originated in live cash games in Asia before the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series introduced the world to the live tournament version in 2018. The popularity has since surged with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) adding Short-Deck bracelet events to their schedules in Las Vegas and Rozvadov, and Poker Central added Short-Deck games to the ARIA High Roller schedule.
The game is also available online with PokerStars, partypoker, Aconcagua Network, Chico Network, and The Winning Poker Network (WPN) all hosting free and real money games.
WPN software upgrade leaves notes behind
And talking about the WPN, the American-facing online poker network is currently rolling out a new software update, and it seems they’ve made the same mistake as 888Poker.
WPN released a beta version of the new look into the orbit of the play money games back in April, and after feedback, the team rolled it out across the real money platform.
The one major transgression is the failure to allow players to retain their notes in the new version of the software. Note taking is a vital part of the game for many professionals and non-professionals alike, with some people building up dossiers over many years. To see them vanish in the blink of an eye is an own goal for any online poker operator.
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” said a WPN representative.
Well, that’s ok then.
Cruzeiro launches dedicated poker league
Finally, Brazilian Série A side, Cruzeiro, has entered the online poker market by partnering with PPPoker to provide tournaments and leagues for their supporters.
The Chinese gaming group, Elex Tech owns the PPPoker platform, which is available in more than 60 countries. As part of the deal, the branding of PPPoker will appear on the shorts of the Cruzeiro first team kit throughout the 2019/20 season.
