William Hill Poker promises a scorcher of a summer with new tournaments, offers, and innovations
In a bid to make its poker room even better, William Hill has introduced a host of improvements and events just in time for summer. They include a range of new tournaments, tables, and promotional incentives.
William Hill's James Lowe, poker operations manager, said, "We're investing more than ever in our poker room to provide players with an even richer experience. Whenever they visit, there'll always be something going on - no matter whether they're new to the game or seasoned players."
For players new to the game, William Hill has introduced low-limit cash tables, with blinds as low as 3p-6p. This means that players can start at a level they're comfortable with whilst learning the ropes, then compete with more experienced players once they think they are ready.
William Hill will offer tournaments for everyone this summer:
• Headhunter Tournaments - All players who enter have a price or bounty placed on their head. When a player is knocked out, that money goes to the player with the winning hand. It's a tournament structure that's unique to the William Hill Poker network. Players can finish out of the paid places but still make cash.
• Bounty Tournaments - Selected players have a bounty placed on their head. When a player is knocked out, that money goes to the player with the winning hand. Players compete to take the bounty off key players' heads in a fight to claim first place.
•
Gold Cup Series of Poker - It's designed for "big-game" players, with triple starting stacks of chips and a slow blinds structure. It's a tournament for premium poker players, as it puts the emphasis back on skill in tournament poker. It features an estimated prize pool of £500,000.
•
Caribbean Poker Classic - This is a $400,000 freeroll in which players buy in using loyalty points. The finals are held during a week on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. Now in its fourth year, the CPC promises to be bigger and better than ever, with a guaranteed final prize of $1 million.
And there's more ...
• $500 sign-up bonus - New players can claim up to $500, depending on the frequency and volume of play in the first few weeks of playing.
• Friday and Saturday freerolls - Players registering before 6 p.m. every Friday and Saturday can play in $1,500-guaranteed freeroll tournaments starting at midnight.
• New Key Hand Review - This is a fantastic new tool that enables players to have access to all of those big hands in which they committed large amounts of their chip stack. It's great for developing players' knowledge and implementing their newfound skills.
Fournier, official supplier of playing cards to the European Poker Tour
Fournier Playing Cards, manufacturer of playing cards since 1868 and supplier of playing cards to some of the most renowned casinos and poker clubs in the world, recently signed an agreement with the richest and most prestigious poker tournament in Europe, the
European Poker Tour (
EPT), to be its official supplier of playing cards.
The cards that will be on the tables will be Fournier 100 percent plastic playing cards, which offer the highest resistance and durability in a game that is well-known for putting a lot of pressure on the cards.
With this agreement, the finest poker cards, present in plenty of poker tournaments all around the world, will team up with the most reputed tournament in Europe.
No takeover at Ladbrokes
The chief executive of betting group Ladbrokes has dismissed speculation that it may be a takeover target as "absolute rhubarb." Chris Bell quashed speculation of a possible bid of 440 pence a share from private equity group Apax.
The comment came as the firm reported that strong growth at its betting terminals helped offset a weaker over-the-counter performance in the UK, although eGaming surged 11 percent due to strong growth within its sportsbook, casino, and games facilities.
The company has recently stepped up its expansion overseas with the takeover of Scandinavian online gambling firm Sponsio, in a bid to capture a bigger slice of the market in the Nordic region, where per-capita spending on gambling is the highest in Europe.
Viewing party
PartyPoker.com will be sponsoring the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts, which will be aired live on mainstream terrestrial channel ITV 3, Nov. 17-25; it's anticipated that it will reach a viewing audience of 4 million people.
Antigua and Barbuda prove U.S. discrimination
A U.S. Trade Representative spokesman recently said the United States would not appeal the ruling in favour of Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean nation that won the World Trade Organization case claiming the U.S. discriminates against online gambling firms located outside the U.S.
An Austrian Bwin
Austrian-based Bwin, which operates PokerRoom.com, has successfully overturned a preliminary court injunction to block the online gaming site from offering its range of games, including poker, to Austrians.
Expensive address
Website domain name www.poker.de was recently sold at auction for €695,000.
Party talking
Online gambling company PartyGaming has started talks with the U.S. Department of Justice to find out whether it could be prosecuted for taking online bets in America before the recent ban there. The move follows legal action against its rivals.
In a statement, the world's biggest poker company said that it was meeting with the attorney's office for the southern district of New York and was voluntarily responding to a request for information from the office.
"Actions have been taken by certain U.S. law enforcement agencies with respect to third parties that had previously been involved in the online gaming sector in the U.S.," PartyGaming said in a statement.
"This has created some uncertainty as to what actions, if any, U.S. law enforcement agencies may take against industry participants, based on activity in the U.S. prior to Oct. 13, 2006."
Google.co.uk - Don't bet on it
Search engine Google.co.uk has banned all online gambling advertising from its service.
Virgin Bets
Virgin Games (www.virgingames.com) has launched a new betting service, Virgin Bets (www.virginbets.com), which is designed to capitalise on the growing public interest in entertainment and novelty bets.
Created in association with Betfair (www.betfair.com), it will initially offer markets in entertainment, football, cricket, golf, greyhounds, motor sport, rugby, and tennis, with horse racing to be added later this year.
Sunderland wonderland for slot player
Brian Somers, a 39-year-old self-employed landscape gardener from a council estate in Sunderland, UK, has raked in a record PartyCasino.com jackpot of $1,092,957.68 from an 18-cent fruit machine spin!
Rakeback.com
Poker is a unique casino game, in that players do not play against the house, but against other players. So, in order to make money, poker rooms take a portion of every pot - called rake. This is roughly 5 percent, depending on the poker room.
There is no way around the rake in land-based poker rooms, but because of rakeback, there are ways for enterprising poker players to save money while playing poker online.
Rakeback, just as the name implies, gives participants part of the paid rake back to them. The average amount of rake given back is usually 30 percent. Rakeback.com features a calculator to estimate how much rake you are currently paying and how much you could be getting back. On average, Rakeback.com pays back more than $1,500 a year per player.
Here is an example of what people could be getting back if they were playing two tables of 50¢-$1 no-limit hold'em for about 12 hours a week.
• Daily rake, $21; rakeback, $6
• Weekly rake, $144; rakeback, $43
• Monthly rake, $576; rakeback, $173
As another example, when playing no-limit hold'em at $3-$6 tables, two tables at a time for 20 hours per week, a player's rake and rakeback would be:
• Daily rake, $80; rakeback, $24
• Weekly rake, $560; rakeback, $168
• Monthly rake, $2,240; rake back, $672
These are just a few examples of how you can make money at Rakeback.com. Also, bonuses are offered with its new refer-a-friend system.
Players can sign up for free.
