Inside Straight -- News

2009 PokerStars WCOOP Likely to Make More Millionaires
$40 Million-Guaranteed Series Kicks Off in September
By Shawn Patrick Green

The biggest online poker tournament year after year is the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) main event. Last year, two online poker players left the virtual felt of that final table with more than $1 million — apiece. This year promises to be even bigger.

“Despite the issue with the economy in the world, we still had good growth in our business over the last year,” said PokerStars Poker Room Manager Mike Jones. “So, I think we can expect that — to some extent, at least — to translate into participation in the main event.”

The 2009 WCOOP, which will run Sept. 3-21, is made up of 45 events with combined buy-ins of nearly $71,000. The main event promises a prize pool of at least $10 million, and a minimum of $40 million will be won by those who participate in the 2009 edition of the tournament series. Fourteen of the events have guarantees of $1 million or more.

Alex Scott, also a PokerStars poker room manager, is particularly excited about some of the additions to the WCOOP schedule, such as the experimental big-ante no-limit hold’em event and the “Stimulus Special,” inspired by the World Series of Poker event that went by the same nickname.

“The Stimulus Special … is one of the lowest buy-in events we’ve ever had in the WCOOP; it’s a $109 no-limit hold’em event with $1 million guaranteed,” Scott said. “We reckon the first-place prize in that event will be at least $130,000, and maybe up to $180,000, depending upon how many players we get. The chance to win that much money for $109 is good value, I think.”

Scott went on to discuss a host of new features in this year’s WCOOP, including synchronized tournament breaks, improved extended-registration periods, faster dealing (which was introduced in the Spring Championship of Online Poker, or SCOOP, earlier in the year), and better payout and blinds structures.

Jones added that the site is using the tournament series to experiment with different starting times for some events, in an effort to appease players from around the world for whom the normal WCOOP starting times were unrealistic. “It’s riskier for us in terms of making the guarantees,” Jones said, “but we wanted to make sure that more people in more time zones could be accommodated.”

The poker variants represented in the 2009 WCOOP schedule run the gamut, and include hold’em, Omaha, seven-card stud, razz, H.O.R.S.E., and deuce-to-seven draw, among others. Some entirely new events on the schedule include badugi, heads-up pot-limit Omaha, and the aforementioned big-ante no-limit hold’em. There are also three so-called “high-roller” events this year, including a $10,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, a $25,500 buy-in heads-up no-limit hold’em event, and a $10,300 H.O.R.S.E. event.

The main event, while not being classified as a high-roller event, has a hefty buy-in of $5,200. However, players can qualify for WCOOP events via PokerStars satellites, which will be available in a range of low-stakes buy-ins. That means that a seat in the $5,200 buy-in main event can be won for as little as $7.50 by starting off in a Step 1 satellite.

During August, PokerStars also held a series of satellites called WCOOP Extreme Satellites, in which they added 50 to 100 seats to the prize pools. According to Jones, the site threw in $1 million worth of seats completely as added value.

This year also marks the introduction of www.WCOOP.com, a site created by PokerStars that is dedicated to providing information about the tournament series, including news, video highlights, event listings, satellite listings, statistics, history, leader boards, and a hall of fame.

Russia Declassifies Poker as a Sport; Shuts Down Poker Clubs
European Poker Tour Moves Moscow Event in Response
By Stephen A. Murphy

“Total chaos.” That’s how one Russian gaming official described the situation in his country. In a move that has left more than 400,000 people without jobs, according to The New York Times, Russia has officially shut down all of its casinos and poker rooms.

On July 1, a new Russian law effectively closed all of the country’s casino and slot machine halls. Thousands of casinos had sprung up in Russia in the midst of a gaming boom, but all of them were forced to close their doors at the direction of Vladimir Putin, former president and current prime minister.

Under the new law, gambling in Russia was supposed to be restricted to four specific regions of the country, but with the troubling economic times and a lack of capital to build new casinos, nothing has been built.

Although casinos were forced to shut down in early July, many of them transformed into poker rooms, because under a 2007 law, poker qualified as a “sport,” and was therefore exempt from the new legislation.

However, Russian officials rescinded that clarification in July — forcing thousands of poker rooms to shut down. With the four zones not yet established, many outspoken critics have blasted Putin’s initiative.

“It’s hard to understand the logic and decisions of dilettantes,” Samuil Binder, the deputy executive director of the Russian Association for Gaming Business Development, told The New York Times recently. “We have a really silly situation in Russia; it is total chaos.”

The PokerStars European Poker Tour was scheduled to make a stop in Moscow in August, but with the recent news coming out of Russia, the EPT has decided to stay away from the country.

PokerStars issued a statement on the cancellation of the EPT event in Moscow, apologizing to its players for circumstances “beyond our control” and announcing that the event would be replaced with a new tournament in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

The New California Grand Casino Opens Its Doors
Northern California Casino Debuts New Facility
By Stephen A. Murphy

The California Grand Casino first opened its doors in 1854 in Pacheco, California. In the past century and a half, the casino has welcomed its local customers with open arms, providing a wide array of table games and great promotions. Now, the casino is poised to begin a new era in its illustrious history.

The California Grand Casino has moved into a brand-new facility, just across the street from its former location. The new building features a sleek look, with an expansive gaming area with increased seating, a full bar, a meeting and banquet room, and a new restaurant.

“We want to provide the best possible experience for our players. This beautiful new facility gives our customers a lot more room to play and relax,” said Lamar “Wil” Wilkinson, the owner of the casino for the past 30 years. “We’ve always been known as a fun neighborhood place, where friends come to play. This new facility is a positive addition to the local community and one of the nicest gaming establishments in California.”

The new casino’s poker room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The property is featuring several promotions in its first few months of operation, including high-hand bonuses, multiple “cash bonanzas,” and even $2 breakfast and lunch specials.