Online Poker News (and Updates to Poker on the Internet)

Here you will find the latest online poker news (and updates to Poker on the Internet), together with my own brief take on each new development. If you wish to supply any additional information for this page, please drop me a note at andrew@pokerupdate.com, so that I can add this material. All published contributions will be properly acknowledged.

Paradise Poker (21 February 2004) — The site has now introduced micro-limit hold'em games. These games, at $0.02/$0.04 and $0.05/$0.10, are designed to encourage play money novices to convert to real money competition.
My take: Another belated but welcome development at Paradise. In the past couple of years Paradise has invariably been behind the other sites in terms of key developments. From being the clear market leader the site has fallen back, acting essentially as 'imitators' rather than 'innovators'.

PokerStars (15 February 2004) — The site celebrates its one millionth tournament with a special frequent player points event. The tournament attracts nearly 5000 players vying for the $50,000 prize fund. First place of $11,000 is taken by Londoner 'Rockfel'.
My take: It seems scarcely possible that the site has already organised a million tourneys. I remember playing in tournament 3000 or so only 18 months ago!

PartyPoker (14 February 2004) — Party Poker Million III qualification closes with an incredible 569 $9000 cruise packages having been won.
My take: The Party Poker Million has been a tremendous success for the site since its inception in 2001.

PokerStars (5 February 2004) — PokerStars introduces new 'high-speed' tables. At these fast-action tables blinds are auto-posted and players have less time to act.
My take: Yet another very positive development from PokerStars. These new tables have proved an instant success.

Poker on TV (1 February 2004) — The World Poker Tour 'Battle of Champions' just before the Super Bowl attracts an estimated 10 million viewers.
My take: TV poker continues to go from strength to strength.

UltimateBet (14 January 2004) — The UltimateBet 'Second Chance $1 Million Championship' (AKA 'The Stone Cold Nuts') attracts 701 players with a buy-in of $2000. The $1,402,000 prize fund was the largest in online history. One hundred places were paid and the first prize of $350,500 was won by VARENNE.
My take: This event was a huge success for UltimateBet, a site which continues to occupy a strong position among the 'big four' poker sites.

Poker on TV (7 January 2004) — The Travel Channel announces a new poker series, 'World Poker Tour: Hollywood Home Game', which premieres on January 25. Celebrities featured in the four-part series include Jack Black, Drew Carey, Jennifer Tilly, James Woods, Ben Affleck, Jon Favreau and Gary Busey.
My take: After the positive ratings achieved by Bravo's 'Celebrity Poker Showdown', this series is sure to whet the appetites for second season of the World Poker Tour starts, which premieres on March 3.

Internet Poker (2 January 2004) — According to a study commissioned by Ladbrokes, the amount gambled on poker websites around the world increased from £6 million a day in January 2003 to £38 million a day by the end of the year.
My take: There are no signs as yet that the Internet poker explosion is in any danger of tapering off.

Paradise Poker (17 December 2003) —The site finally launches its multi-table tournament software.
My take: Early indications suggest that these tournaments have been a huge success in bolstering Paradise's flagging market share.

UltimateBet (2 December 2003) — The site has 'upped the ante' by introducing even higher limit games. In addition to $200/$400 hold'em and Omaha hi/lo limit games, UltimateBet now offers $10/$25 blind no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha games.
My take: Recent developments at PokerStars, and now at UltimateBet, suggest that there is a definite market for high-limit online play.

PokerStars (19 November 2003) — The site organises its first-ever rebuy tournament, a $10+$0 event. Each of the 159 players was allowed a maximum of three rebuys and, after 267 rebuys and add-ons, the final prize fund swelled to $4260.
My take: With Paradise Poker shortky due to launch its own multi-table software, which will include rebuys and add-ons, in some ways this move by PokerStars might be regarded as a 'pre-emptive strike'.

Poker on TV (18 November 2003) — NBC announces that it will be broadcasting the World Poker Tour 'Battle of Champions' in the two hours before the start of the SuperBowl on Sunday, February 1. The 'Battle of Champions' will feature all of the champions from the first WPT series, squaring off against each other to determine an overall champion, who will earn a six-figure sum and a seat in April's World Poker Tour Championship.
My take: Poker is back on the major networks — a great concept, and an interesting time slot. Will this poker event attract casual viewers flicking through channels looking for something other than pre-game football coverage before the big match starts?

PartyPoker (14 November 2003) — PartyPoker announces that it has appointed Shana Hiatt as its new host. Hiatt is one of the presenters of the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour series.
My take: PartyPoker again demonstrates its marketing flair. Hiatt is an very popular personality and is an ideal representative for the site.

PartyPoker (2 November 2003) — The site sells all 1500 places for its weekly Sunday night $200+$15 np-limit hold'em event.
My take: Having sorted out many of its software problems, PartyPoker is now beginning to stake a serious claim to the multi-table online tournament market, challenging PokerStars, the long-standing leader.

Poker on TV (1 November 2003) — Fox Sports Net joins the growing band of television companies broadcasting poker with its coverage of the Sands Casino Hotel's 'Showdown at the Sands', which takes place on Nov 22-24 and has a guaranteed $1 million first prize. The six-hour show will be broadcast on Thanksgiving Day.
My take: The TV poker explosion continues apace, with Fox joining the Travel Channel, ESPN and Bravo in covering poker.

PokerStars (31 October 2003) — PokerStars has announced that it is joining the World Poker Tour with its 'PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The event will take place aboard a cruise from Jan 18-25, and boasts a guaranteed $1 million prize fund. Satellite tournaments are already running on the site. The event will be broadcast on the Travel Channel on 14 April 2004.
My take: Party Poker and UltimateBet have been the two main online beneficiaries of the WPT series, and PokerStars is sure to make similar gains.

PokerStars (26 October 2003) — The site breaks its own record for the largest-ever tournament - 4107 players competed in a freeroll event.
My take: PokerStars' multi-tournament software is still the best and most stable in the business.

UltimateBet (23 October 2003) — UB announces the richest tournament in online history, with a guaranteed $1 million in prizes. The $2000+$50 buyin event (known as the 'Second Chance $1 Million Championship') takes place on 11 January 2004, and satellites are already underway.
My take: This is a bold attempt by UltimateBet to steal some of PokerStars' multi-tournament thunder.

Poker on TV in the UK (11 October 2003) — Challenge TV has announced that it will begin broadcasting nightly weekday poker TV programmes on Thursday, October 16 with the first edition of 'Celebrity Poker Club'. Produced by the same team that brought us 'Late Night Poker', this series features celebrities such as Stephen Hendry, Teddy Sheringham, Martin Amis, Rory McGrath, Fiona Foster, John McCririck and Keith Allen battling it out to see who can take home the ultimate prize of £25,000. On Monday 20 October Challenge will also begin airing the World Poker Tour, which has been such a hit on the Travel Channel in the US.
My take: Although Challenge is only available on cable and satellite, this is a very positive move, marking the first new UK poker programming since the demise of Channel 4's popular 'Late Night Poker'.

Paradise Poker (8 October 2003) — Paradise has finally announced that it will be broadcasting TV commercials during the advertising breaks on the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour. They thus join the ranks of Party Poker, PokerStars, UltimateBet and TruePoker, all of which have been using this medium for a while now.
My take: It will be interesting to see whether this belated response from Paradise has any effect on redressing its rapid decline in market share over the past seven months.

PartyPoker (1 October 2003) — With traffic at the site now regularly above 5000 real money players at peak times, PartyPoker recently issued a nice little software upgrade. It is now possible to see whether you have notes on a particular player at the table (rather than have to manually open each note window in turn). Furthermore, the lobby is much improved, with a faster refresh rate and the option of showing only those tables which aren't already full. It is also possible now to perform a search for the type of game you are looking for, by limit, number of players and/or average pot size.
My take: These changes are a definite step in the right direction. However, it is a shame that PartyPoker has still not introduced average players/flop (in particular) and number of hands/hour into its lobby, since these are a standard feature at all the other major sites.

Poker on TV (24 September 2003) — Bravo TV in the US has announced that filming for a new six-part poker series, 'Celebrity Poker Showdown', will begin in October. The show will be hosted by Kevin Pollak ('The Usual Suspects') and poker professional Phil Gordon. The provisional list of participants includes Martin Sheen, Ben Affleck, Don Cheadle, Carrie Fisher and David Schwimmer. The winners of each five-player heat will go forward to the final. The weekly series premieres on Tuesday December 2.
My take: This event looks like a sure-fire success, following on from the tremendous viewing figures achieved by the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour series and ESPN's WSOP coverage.

Number of Online Poker Players (24 September 2003) — According to figures just released by PokerPulse.com, there are now 20,000 real money online players at peak times (combining the numbers from all online sites). This compares to just 5,000 over a comparable two-week period in March and 9,000 in June.
My take: The number of people playing online is currently doubling every three months!

UltimateBet (23 September 2003) — The site has recently introduced triple-draw games, in both ace to five and deuce to seven forms.
My take: Although these games are only available for 'play money' at the present time, this is another interesting innovation from UltimateBet, which was the first site to bring crazy pineapple into online games.

PokerStars (20 September 2003) — PokerStars introduces $3/$6 ($600 maximum buy-in) pot-limit and no-limit tables. In order to prevent all-in abuse, the $3/$6 big bet tables have no all-in protection.
My take: The trend at PokerStars towards higher and higher limits and buy-ins continues (see also the entries for 27 July and 31 August).

Ladbrokes (19 September 2003) — Ladbrokes introduces multi-table tournaments for the first time.
My take: Currently the site is only offering no-limit hold'em beta freerolls. However, once these tournaments go to real money they are sure to be a very popular feature of the site.

PartyPoker (17 September 2003) — PartyPoker hits 5000 real money players for the first time.
My take: The massive expansion of this site since the launch of the World Poker Tour TV series continues apace.

PokerStars (14 September 2003) — The site hosts a $40000 winner-takes-all rematch of the World Series of Poker Championship between Chris Moneymaker and Sammy Farha, with each player putting up $15,000 of their own money and the rest added by PokerStars. The match was watched live by 3000 spectators and this time Sammy Farha emerged as the winner after 25 minutes. Reruns of the match (with commentary) were shown on Sunday 28 September.
My take: This heads-up contest was a nice little publicity event by PokerStars, but did not really amount to anything more than an 'exhibition game'.

Poker on TV (1 September 2003) — The World Poker Tour (WPT) and World Series of Poker (WSOP) TV series have each been attracting huge viewing figures in the US. The WPT on the Travel Channel has been consistently attracting 850,000 or more viewers throughout its 13-week run, with over 1.1 million for the premiere of the final event, while ESPN's eight-week run attracted an average of more than 1.25 million viewers each week. The Travel Channel has just signed a $40 million deal with the WPT for up to a further six series and regular reruns of the shows are being shown until the second series airs in early 2004.
My take: The TV poker phenomenon has brought thousands of new players into online poker, all enthusiastic to discover what poker is all about, and hoping perhaps to become the next Chris Moneymaker. Party Poker and UltimateBet have been the two main online beneficiaries of the WPT series, since their respective PartyPoker.com Million II and Ultimate Poker Classic events were each featured in the series (and will be featured in the next series too). However, other sites such as PokerStars and TruePoker have also had some good exposure as a result of taking slots in the commercial breaks.

PokerStars (31 August 2003) — PokerStars launches a new monthly $500+$30 no-limit buy-in tournament, to replace the regular $200+$15 buy-in event for that week.
My take: The success of the WCOOP has proved that there is a strong demand for higher buy-in tournaments. PokerStars is perfectly positioned to exploit that gap in the market.

Ladbrokes (22 August 2003) — Ladbrokes announces its sponsorship of the Irish Winter Festival (23-26 October) in Dublin, which includes an additional 10,000 euros (roughly $11,000) for the prize pool.
My take: This is another example of the growing trend for online and 'live-action' casinos cooperating directly for their mutual benefit. Other examples include UltimateBet and the Aruba WPT event and Paradise Poker and the World Heads-Up Championship.

PokerStars (21 August 2003) — PokerStars deals its 100 millionth hand.
My take: In the last five months an incredible 50 million hands have been deal on PokerStars.

PartyPoker (20 August 2003) — Back on 28 May I wrote that: 'according to PokerPulse.com, PartyPoker now has more real money ring game traffic than Paradise Poker, with peak daily traffic levels of around 1500 players.' Well, remarkably that figure is now up to 4500! When I completed the manuscript for my book back in March, PartyPoker typically had around 500 cash players at peak times. Thus the site has in fact increased its traffic by a factor of almost ten in less than six months!
My take: This rapid expansion can largely be attributed to the success of the World Poker Tour TV series on the Travel Channel in the US. The PartyPoker.com Million II tournament featured in one of the programmes, and the site's host, Mike Sexton, is one of the co-commentators for the series. Furthermore, the site produced its own adverts to broadcast during the commercial breaks.

PokerStars (18 August 2003) — The second World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) concludes with 891 players in the $1000 buy-in main event, in 'DeOhGee' from Indian Wells collected the $222,750 first prize. Over the course of the 11 WCOOP tournaments, an incredible $2,716,600 was awarded in prizes.
My take: The WC0OP shattered all record for online tournaments. PokerStars ran the event with typical efficiency and many of the world's leading online and brick and mortar casino players took part, including the 'King of Ding', Erik123 (see the entry for 9 July below), who defeated 1357 other players to win the largest event, the $300 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, on the first Sunday.

PokerStars (27 July 2003) — PokerStars launches a weekly Sunday night $100/$200 limit game. The game attracted some of the heavyweights of online and brick and mortar casino poker, including WSOP bracelet-holder Daniel Negreanu, who goes by the handle 'doublesuited'. The game runs for over two and half days before eventually breaking up on Wednesday morning (US time), and the site even supplies some of the players on opening night with free pizza deliveries!
My take: The new game was a big success, and the decision by PokerStars to restrict entry into the game in order to monitor the players is to be applauded. If the first night is anything to go by, there does seem to be a sufficiently large pool of players to sustain this game over the coming months.

UltimateBet (23 July 2003) — UltimateBet now has a new multi-table tournament starting on the hour, every hour, 24/7. Buy-ins range from freerolls to the big Sunday night $200+$15 event. A full schedule is available on my tournament schedule page.
My take: With the success of the televised World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker tournaments in the US, there is currently a huge demand for online tournaments. UltimateBet now has as many multi-table tournaments as PokerStars, albeit with fewer runners in each event.

Poker in Europe.com (9 July 2003) — In a fascinating article (available here), Isabelle Mercier interviews 20-year-old Swedish Internet poker professional Erik Sagstrom, the 'King of Ding' (AKA 'Erik123' and 'The Salmon' and various other handles), who has reportedly reeled in nearly $1 million from playing online poker in the past two years. And all before he is even old enough to be able to gamble in Vegas! Despite the fact that he will not be able to play in the WSOP until 2005, Sagstrom has already proved that he can more than hold his own in the 'real' poker world too, having placed third in the limit hold'em event at the 2002 Amsterdam Masterclassics of Poker.
My take: The 'King of Ding' is proof positive that the online poker game can be beaten for very good money, given a tremendous amount of talent, hard work and determination.

Paradise Poker (4 July 2003) — To tie in with its sponsorship of the World Heads-Up Championship, Paradise has now introduced one-on-one tournaments. In a long overdue move, the site also reduced its maximum rake in heads-up cash games to $0.50.
My take: Although both of these developments are to be welcomed, Paradise now seems to be starting to lag behind its major competitors. The introduction of multi-table tournaments at the site cannot come too quickly.

PokerStars (29 June 2003) — The regular Sunday night PokerStars $200+$15 no-limit tournament attracts 680 players for a total prize fund of $136,000 and a $34,000 first prize. As recently as January 2003 the turn-out for this weekly event was less than 200.
My take: PokerStars' tournaments have continued to go from strength to strength this year. The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which starts on August 7th, promise to be a huge event for the online poker world.

Poker Room (27 June 2003) — PokerRoom launches a Windows download version of its new 'Poker 4' software.
My take: The JAVA version of Poker 4 was released in April, and introduced multi-table play, Omaha and Seven-Card Stud, and pot-limit and no-limit games to the site for the first time

Planet Poker (12 June 2003) — Planet relaunches its website with a fresh, attractive newdesign. It is also now possible to play two tables at once at the site.
My take: The Planet Poker website has always been one of the most useful and informative. The introduction of multi-table play in the cardroom was perhaps somewhat overdue.

Paradise Poker (9-13 June 2003) — Paradise Poker hosts the World Heads-up Championship at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna. From a field of 128 entries which included such luminaries as Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen, and the two previous winners Bruno Fitoussi and Kirill Gerasimov, 'Miami' John Cernuto emerged as the new champion. The tournament was broadcast over three nights on Sky Sports TV in the UK in July and Paradise added 25,000 euros (around $28,000) to the prize fund.
My take: This event marked another big step in the increasing trend towards events in which online and brick and mortar cardrooms interact. Paradise Poker provided several online satellite qualifiers for the event.

Ladbrokes (5 June 2003) — Ladbrokes relaunches with new software, with an improved interface and a player statistics feature (multi-table tournaments are on their way, apparently.
My take: Although the new software is an improvement on the old version, it still seems relatively unsophisticated compared to, for example, PokerStars, UltimateBet and Paradise Poker. However, the site is popular with European players (US players are barred for legal reasons).

WSEX (1 June 2003) — WSEX relaunches with new software, together with a deposit bonus promotion for new or existing customers which runs until the end of July.
My take: Unfortunately, site traffic at WSEX is now very low indeed, with daily peak averages of around 50 according to pokerpulse.com. There are many other, busier sites for players looking for a game.

PartyPoker (28 May 2003) — According to PokerPulse.com, PartyPoker now has more real money ring game traffic than Paradise Poker, with peak daily traffic levels of around 1500 players. Furthermore, PartyPoker has far more tournament traffic than Paradise.
My take: For the time being, Paradise Poker's long-standing position as the 'world's largest online poker room' has been well and truly usurped.

PokerStars (23 May 2003) — PokerStars satellite qualifier Chris Moneymaker (Money800) wins the $2.5 million first prize in the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event, his first ever 'live' tournament. In all, 37 of the 839 players in the tournament won their seats on PokerStars. Chris MoneyMaker's rags to riches story began with a $40 satellite and ended with the biggest prize in poker tournament history.
My take: The 2003 WSOP marks one of the first times that an exclusively online player has made the successful transition to winning a major live-action tournament prize. No doubt there will be many more such instances in the future.

PokerStars (10 May 2003) — PokerStars breaks its own record for the largest tournament in history. No less than 2,028 players took part in its commemorative 100,000 tournament, which carried a $6,785 first prize.
My take: PokerStars continues to lead the field in multi-table tournaments, the fastest growing area of the online poker industry.

Paradise Poker (1 May 2003) — The site deals its 300 millionth hand.
My take: Paradise is currently running at 10 million hands every month, which is more or less the same rate that it was dealing back in 2001.

Poker Room (7 April 2003) — The site has undergone a radical revamp, with a new-look website and the addition of numerous extra features. Poker version 4 or 'Poker 4' is available only in JAVA download format and includes:

My take: These long-awaited improvements are a major step forward for the site.

UltimateBet (3 April 2003) — An extensive software upgrade was released, with five notable changes:

UltimateBet has also recently added rake-free $0.01/$0.02 hold'em and Omaha tables and $0.25/$0.50 seven-card stud tables.
My take: The addition of these extra elements is a valuable enhancement to what was already a very good piece of software.

Planet Poker (March 2003) — Both $0.02/$0.04 hold'em and Omaha rake-free tables were introduced, whereas previously the lowest games were $0.05/$0.10.
My take: Super micro-limit games are increasingly being used by online sites to attract new players, many of whom will later graduate to higher-limit games at that site.