Poker News

Running from April 1st to 30th on the USA-friendly online poker site UB.com is the Perfect 10 Challenge. A total of $100,000 will be given away as part of a special Leaderboard Challenge and a top prize of $20,000 is on the line.

Ten $11 buy-in poker tournaments will be held every day in April. Players who take to the felts in these low-budget events will automatically be entered into the $100,000 Leaderboard Challenge. Tournament Leaderboard (TLB) Points will be awarded to each participant based on their finish. After April showers bring May flowers, a player’s ten best finishes will count towards the $100,000 Leaderboard Challenge. The top 50 spots on the leaderboard will pay out.

What’s up for grabs, you ask? UB.com is dishing out a top prize of $20,000 in cash. Second place on the $100,000 Leaderboard Challenge will pay $10,000, while the third place finisher will bank $5,000. The fourth through tenth place finalists will pocket $2,500 and the top 50 players will nab at least $500. The Perfect 10 Challenge poker tournaments will run on the hour between 14:00 ET and 23:00 ET daily. All offer normal prize pool distributions.

UB.com pro Joe Sebok commented in a press release distributed by the CEREUS Network site, “The launch of the Perfect 10 and the $100,000 Leaderboard Challenge are the first of many new and innovative promotions set to be introduced at UB.” In light of the annual Aruba Poker Classic being shelved for 2010, Sebok explained, “UB has a completely revamped approach to 2010 and will be working to keep its entire community in the know about all new promotions and events. The offers will be more exciting, more unique, and each one geared towards rewarding our players for playing with us like never before.”

Satellites for the $11 events are scheduled and will cost $2.20. Online, UB.com customers can check out a Player Leaderboard to see where they rank. Also posted is a Team UB Leaderboard showing how the site’s cast of characters stacks up. These will begin updating at Midnight ET on April 1st. The promotion wraps up at 23:59 ET on April 30th.

The UB.com TLB calculator, which is the basis for the promotion, is relatively simplistic. To determine how many points a player will receive in a tournament, they should take the square root of its prize pool and then divide by their finish in the event raised to the two-fifths power. For example, if a player finished third in a $5,000 prize pool tournament, they’d amass about 45 TLB Points. If your head is spinning at the thought of taking square roots, an easy-to-operate Points Calculator is available on UB.com’s website. Satellites do not award TLB Points.

The CEREUS Network encompasses UB.com and Absolute Poker. Players on the latter site can also take advantage of the promotion, dubbed Trip Tens in April. Both rooms will use the same $100,000 Challenge Leaderboard. The CEREUS Network is the sixth largest worldwide according to PokerScout.com, offering a seven-day running average of 2,400 real money ring game players and a 24-hour peak of 3,709. Both online poker rooms welcome real money customers from the United States.

Team UB pros that may be spotted in the field vying for their spot on the pro leaderboard include 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke, 11-time <a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”World Series of Poker”>World Series of Poker bracelet holder Phil Hellmuth, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp, Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, Brandon Cantu, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Matt “mattg1983” Graham, Michael Binger, and former “Amazing Race” contestant Tiffany Michelle.

Look for the $100,000 Leaderboard Challenge poker tournaments in the UB.com lobby an hour before their scheduled run time.

Online poker site Victory Poker continues to take strides in becoming the next major poker room, as it recently signed well-known pros Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little and James “Andy McLEOD” Obst. The two players will represent Victory Poker at live events and play on the site.

Little joins Team Victory as arguably the most successful tournament player on the roster. He was named the World Poker Tour (WPT) Season VI Player of the Year after winning the Mirage Poker Showdown for $1,066,295 and placing second in the North American Poker Championships for $680,862. Little then won the World Poker Finals during Season VII of the WPT, collecting $1,120,310. In his four-year career, Little has more than $4 million in live tournament earnings.

The 25 year-old Las Vegas native told poker news Daily his reasons behind joining the new team: “Victory Poker is different from the other sites because it actually listens to what the online poker players suggest to them. The site isn’t run by poker playing celebs who don’t actually play much poker. We are working hard to make the site the best in the industry and I am confident it will be there in the near future.”

Obst, who makes his home in Adelaide, Australia, is an online tournament legend. He was crushing No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha poker tournaments before having his accounts shut down by online poker rooms after discovering that he was too young to play. Now 19, Obst is officially back and has won more than $1.5 million playing online poker tournaments. His biggest victory came in the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), where he won the $3,150 Mixed Hold’em event for $184,000. Obst defeated CardPlayer Online Player of the Year Steve “gboro780″ Gross to claim the title.

Said Obst, “The decision was a no-brainer. The pros involved are all tremendous players. And just as importantly, they strike me as fun guys who I’ll enjoy working with. But the most important reason for joining Team Victory is the comprehensive business model. When I heard about the people behind the scenes, I was impressed with their credentials and connections. All in all, I’m excited to discover the future of Victory Poker.”

Since the site launched on February 1st, Victory Poker has signed 19 personalities. The first group of big names to join the team included Antonio Esfandiari, Brian “tsarrast” Rast, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, Keith Gipson, Dan Bilzerian, Paul Wasicka, Lee Markholt, and 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year Sara Underwood.

In February, Danny Wong, Sander Lylloff, Alec “traheho” Torelli, and David “The Maven” Chicotsky officially joined Team Victory. Little, Obst, Steven “harrydebeng” Weusten, and Adam “The_Houdini” Hourani were added as pros last week. The 19 members of Team Victory have a combined 53 titles, 445 cashes, and $28,722,911 in earnings on the tournament circuit.

“The Victory Poker pros are basically the best cash game pros in the business, along with some of the best tournament players in the game,” said Little, who has been playing mostly six-handed cash games on Victory Poker. “Simply put, it is the best team of poker players ever assembled. If there were some sort of game between the Victory pros and any other team of pros, I am confident that Team Victory would come out victorious.”

Victory Poker makes its home on the Everleaf Poker Network and gladly accepts players from the United States.

Starting on April 5th, PartyPoker will be holding the first ever Online Cash Game Championships. Whether players grind it out in the lower level cash games or play at the nosebleed stakes, everyone will have a chance to take part in the event as long as they opt in before April 9th. At stake is a $250,000 prize pool.

The structure of the PartyPoker Online Cash Game Championships rewards players as they work their way through the tiered levels of the event. A minimum of 400 hands must be played on at least one day during a particular level. The first 400 hands on each player’s best day, based on the profits for that day, are used to calculate their performance at each level using the formula (total win) - (total bet) = (total profit) and the statistics for each level will not carry over to the next.

Level 1 will take place between April 5th and 9th at the $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em tables, with the top 30% of players moving on to Level 2 and the remaining 70% of the players moving to a “Second Chance” level. Both Level 2 and the Second Chance level take place between April 12th and 16th at the same $0.50/$1 No Limit tables, but once the end of the level arrives, only the top 30% of the Level 2 players and 10% of the Second Chance players will move on to Level 3. These players will also be the first to win part of the $250,000 prize pool, banking $50.

At Level 3 of the PartyPoker Online Cash Game Championships is where the money starts to get interesting. From April 19th to 21st, players who move on will compete at $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em cash game tables. The top 30% of the players will move on to Level 4 with an extra $200 in their accounts. Fifty players will advance from Level 4, which takes place on April 26th and 27th, and receive $400 each.

Level 5 steps the game up to $2/$4 No Limit Hold’em and takes place on April 29th and 30th. The top 50 players from the earlier levels will battle it out to get down to the top 18 players, with each of those finishers receiving a bankroll boost of $3,000. Level 6 kicks the action up to the $5/$10 tables on May 3rd and players will be judged on their win rate over a total of 500 hands. The final 18 players must play a minimum of 400 hands to be eligible and the final six players will move on to battle it out for the championship at Level 7 with a $10,000 cash prize as their reward.

At Level 7, the final six players will hit the felt at the $25/$50 No Limit Hold’em tables on May 7th. The same rules from Level 6 (win rate over a total of 500 hands, minimum of 400 hands played) will apply, with the top three players taking down the majority of the loot from the Online Cash Game Championships. First place earns $40,000, second place takes down $20,000, and third place is rewarded with $10,000.

It should be a true test of ring games abilities in the PartyPoker Cash Game Championships. With a substantial prize pool up for grabs - as well as the money a player can take away from playing the cash tables themselves - PartytPoker members should turn out in droves for the battle. For more information on the Cash Game Championships, be sure to visit PartyPoker.

Starting on April 1st, Cake Poker will make it even easier for players to amass Gold Stacks as part of its unique rewards program. The USA-friendly online poker site is making stacks up to 50% easier to earn.

In addition, rewards will be instantaneous starting in Level 10 of the Gold Stacks program. Previously, a pending bonus was placed in a player’s account. Now, all payouts will be awarded instantly. In addition, the requirements to complete a Gold Stack will be slashed by as much as 50%. The massive site is the flagship room of the Cake Poker Network.

In addition to tweaking its popular Gold Stacks Rewards Program, Cake Poker is holding $200,000 in races in April. A total of $50,000 will be on the line in April’s Gold Card Race, which features a weekly top prize of $1,000. Fifty Cake Poker members will take home at least $155 from the $50,000 Gold Card Race, which is held every month. Text found on Cake Poker’s website boasts, “Every Gold Card earned at the tables is worth miles on the leaderboard. Make the top 50 and you’ll collect up to $1,000 cash every week.”

Also in April, Cake Poker will host a $150,000 Point Race. Four weekly races will be held, each with a prize pool of $25,000. Every Frequent Player Point (FPP) that a player earns on the virtual felts of Cake Poker translates into one race point. The top 200 Cake Poker members will finish in the money each week, with the leaderboard’s champion pocketing $1,500.

Then, the top point earners over the entire month will vie for a $50,000 prize pool. In the monthly leaderboard, 300 spots will pay out and the top player will collect a healthy $3,500. Cake Poker explains, “Those who come late to the party will be happy to know that the value of FPPs will increase in value each week, with Week 2 points being multiplied by two, Week 3 points by three, and Week 4 points by four.” In traditional rake races, those who begin accruing points late in the game generally are unable to catch up to the pack. In Cake Poker’s format, diligent grinding in the final weeks of April may be sufficient to walk away with cash.

On his site’s unique Points Race format, Cake Poker Card Room Manager Lee Jones commented in a press release, “As far as we know, nobody has ever done a rake race where the value of points you earn increases each week through the month. We’re delighted to give the latecomers a fair shot at winning the big monthly prizes.”

The first $25,000 race takes place from April 1st to 9th. The second $25,000 race will occur from April 10th to 16th. The third $25,000 race will run from April 17th to 23rd, while the final race will occur between April 24th and 30th. The four weekly point totals will be added together to determine a player’s monthly tally. Each day starts at 00:00 GMT and ends at 23:59 GMT. For every $1 paid in rake in ring games, players earn one FPP. For every $1 paid in tournament fees, Cake Poker members pocket seven FPPs.

Cake Poker happily accepts action from the United States and makes its home on the bustling Cake Poker Network. The family of sites also includes DoylesRoom, Red Star Poker, and Unabomber Poker. The Cake Poker Network is the 10th largest worldwide according to PokerScout.com, with a seven-day running average of 1,860 real money ring game players and a 24-hour peak of 2,760.

Players in Levels 1 to 10 of the Cake Poker Gold Stacks rewards program cannot fall back due to inactivity. Players in Level 11 and higher can only drop back to Level 10.

To celebrate Annie Duke’s victory at the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, UB.com introduced a new high-stakes tournament last weekend, the $1,000 Annie Duke Heads-Up Challenge. Unfortunately, the tournament was rife with technical difficulties, eventually forcing its cancellation.

First, the tournament details. The Annie Duke Heads-Up Challenge will be held on the last Sunday of each month at 1:00pm ET with a buy-in of $1,000 + $50 and a guaranteed prize pool of $128,000. In addition to the prize money, there will be a bounty on Duke’s head.

There are lower buy-in qualifiers for the Challenge starting as low as $8 + .80. In addition, UB will hold two <a href=”http://www.freerolls24.com”>freerolls and two $1 buy-in poker tournaments in April and May to award four seats in each month’s Challenge tournament. If one of the qualifiers from those poker tournaments eliminates Duke, they will receive the usual bounty plus $1,500 in tournament dollars.

“I am thrilled that UB is introducing this new monthly Heads-Up event,” said Duke in a press release. “The higher buy-in events on UB have been so successful and the market for them continues to grow. Adding this exciting heads-up format to the high-limit mix is a great sign that UB continues to tweak the tournament schedule to give players what they want.”

What players did not want, however, was an inaugural Heads-Up Challenge that had to be canceled mid-stream. The inaugural tournament on March 28th started with 109 players, which meant some were randomly selected to receive byes to the second round. The problems began when UB’s software allowed late entries in numbers that eclipsed the 128-player limit.

Then, as players won their matches, they found that somehow they often did not start with the same size chip stack as their opponent in the next round. Everybody started with 3,000 chips in the opening round, but those who advanced to the second round ended up with 6,000 (theirs plus their ousted opponent’s), while those who were waiting in the second round because of byes still started with 3,000. To make matters worse, some first round winners were required to play that same round over again in order to accommodate the late entrants. Just like the second round problems, those who repeated the first round started with 6,000 chips versus the late entrant’s 3,000. In extreme cases, a late entrant would defeat a repeat first rounder (or vice versa) and begin the second round with all 9,000 chips, only to be pitted against someone on a bye with 3,000 chips.

As a result of the technical difficulties, UB refunded everyone’s $1,050 buy-in. In an attempt to make up for the inconvenience, UB held a <a href=”http://www.freerolls24.com”>freeroll on Monday and will hold another on Wednesday for those who had registered for the Heads-Up Challenge. The top five finishers in Monday’s <a href=”http://www.freerolls24.com”>freeroll received entries into Monday’s $75,000 Guaranteed, while the top ten in Wednesday’s <a href=”http://www.freerolls24.com”>freeroll will receive entries into Wednesday’s Canada Poker Pro SS tournament.

UB.com has not made any further announcements about the canceled event. Future Annie Duke Heads-Up Challenges have not been posted in the UB.com poker client, although the next two are scheduled for April 25th and May 30th.

After PokerStars’ announcement of its “Big Game” poker television show, Full Tilt wasted little time rolling out “The Poker Lounge.” The series, which pits an amateur against five Full Tilt Poker pros, will air on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

“The Poker Lounge” will be filmed in London and air on Channel 4 weekly from June 21st to August 23rd. Ten matches will hit television airwaves in total, each pitting a qualifier from the world’s second largest online poker site against five pros. The only confirmed names so far are Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen. Ivey reached the final table of the 2009 <a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”World Series of Poker”>World Series of Poker (<a href=”http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/articles/wsop/” title=”wsop“>wsop) Main Event and is poker’s all-time money leader. Hansen is one of two players ever to win three World Poker Tour (WPT) titles. Needless to say, the competition will be fierce.

Each “Poker Lounge” show consists of a $20,000 buy-in six-man sit and go; the winner banks the entire $120,000 prize pool. Text found on Full Tilt Poker’s website describes the allure of the winner-take-all event appearing on television: “Experience the cut and thrust of friendly banter that is such an integral part of the live game, while expert commentary provides insight as the cards fall.” The format is similar to the NBC franchise “Poker After Dark,” which airs during the week at 2:05am ET.

Qualifiers for “The Poker Lounge” begin on April 4th on Full Tilt Poker and will run through July 4th. A total of eight $22,000 prize packages will be up for grabs and the buy-in for each tournament is $640. If the three-figure price tag is above your bankroll, Full Tilt Poker is running satellites beginning at $10. To find the “Poker Lounge” poker tournaments, open the Full Tilt Poker lobby and select “Standard View.” Then, click on “Tournament,” “Live Events,” “All,” “All Types,” and “Highest.” The “Poker Lounge Qualifier” poker tournaments will be shaded in green. Register and you may be on your way to Jolly Old England with a chance to scoop a $120,000 top prize.

The $22,000 prize package consists of the $20,000 “Poker Lounge” buy-in plus $2,000 to use towards travel and other expenses. Contestants are responsible for making all travel arrangements, including hotel and air. All players must be at least 18 years of age and can only take home one “Poker Lounge” prize package. Multiple winners will simply have $22,000 in T$ deposited into their accounts. Each $640 Direct Qualifier takes place on a Sunday at 19:30 GMT.

Qualifiers began running on Full Tilt Poker on Monday. According to the USA-friendly site, two filming periods will be held. One “Poker Lounge” taping takes place from May 14th to 16th, while the other will be held from July 24th to 25th.

Full Tilt Poker is already the sponsor of several poker television brands, including “Poker After Dark,” Fox Sports Net episodes of the World Poker Tour (WPT), and “Face the Ace.” The former is in the midst of airing an encore presentation of “USA Versus Italy” this week. The cast features Italians Dario Minieri, Max Pescatori, and Marco Traniello facing off against American heavyweights Erick Lindgren, Chris Ferguson, and Howard Lederer. The next new installment of “Poker After Dark” airs on NBC during the week of April 19th.

PokerStars recently introduced the “Big Game,” a high-stakes cash game series that will air on Fox. PokerStars is qualifying members to play in the “Big Game” armed with $100,000 in cash against the likes of Daniel Negreanu. More details on airdates and pro participants will likely be announced in the near future, according to officials from Fox.

Visit Full Tilt Poker to qualify for “The Poker Lounge.”

The new show is a high-stakes cash game that will feature $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em with a $100,000 buy-in.

According to PokerStars some of the top poker players in the world will be invited including Daniel Negreanu.

In a new twist PokerStars will allow select qualifiers from the site to play in the Big Game.

The site is running qualifiers for the event and players in the US and Canada can play in free Big Game Round 1 qualifiers from now until June 25.

Winners will qualify for the Big Game final where the top 200 players will be invited to send PokerStars a casting video.

The players who are selected will be flown out and staked for $100,000 in the game by PokerStars. Whatever profit they make over $100,000 they will be allowed to keep.

No stranger to TV, PokerStars introduced the Million Dollar Challenge last year and is also sponsoring the “Did You Know” segment in the current season of High Stakes Poker.

High stakes cash games have become a popular format for poker TV shows and Poker After Dark, which is usually a six-player Sit and Go, recently added a $50,000 buy-in cash game episode to its schedule.

PokerStars has yet to announce when the show will be aired but the Big Game qualifiers can already be found in the poker room’s lobby.

Visit PokerListings.com

Dwan’s session started yesterday evening with a 489-hand $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em match against Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo.

Despite winning the largest pot of the match, worth $67k, Bonomo lost a total of $94,265 to Dwan before calling it quits.

At the same time as his heads-up match with Bonomo, Dwan lost $55k at the $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha game, leaving the session once his NLHE heads-up match had concluded.

After a five-hour break, presumably to sleep, Dwan returned at 3 a.m. to play Isaac “luvtheWNBA” Haxton heads-up at $200/$400 NLHE. After a three-hour 1,974 hand session Dwan had lost $13k, still up around $22k from earlier in the night.

About one hour later Sahamies logged on looking for action.

Dwan obliged and the pair went straight to two $500/$1,000 PLO tables, where they remained for 208 hands.

With Dwan up $290k the two left their seats and moved their game to Dwan’s personal $500/$1,000 PLO table, where Dwan managed to take another $142k from Sahamies over the final 92 hands for a total of $431,904 on the match.

Dwan finished his day with a $438,862 profit, putting him up around $2.4 million on Full Tilt so far this year.

Below are the three largest pots from the night, or you can find more by heading to MarketPulse.

Visit PokerListings.com

Full Tilt released details for its 2010 wsop Main Event satellite schedule this week and players will have numerous opportunities to qualify for the world’s biggest poker tournament.

Highlights include a 150 seat guaranteed tournament, daily shootouts and a $1 buy-in tournament that awards one $12,000 package every week.

The $1 Main Event Seat events will take place every Sunday on Full Tilt Poker at 1:30 ET with one player grabbing a $12,000 prize package to the Main Event.

Meanwhile the 150 Seat Main Event Guarantee will award at least 150 $12,000 prize packages to the <a target=”_blank” href=”http://www.pokerlistings.com/live-poker tournaments/wsop“>2010 wsop. The $600+$40 tournament will take place June 20 at 6 p.m. ET.

The $200+$16 Daily Shootouts begin every day at 3:30 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET. Each event awards at least one $12,000 package.

Full Tilt is scheduled to release more wsop promotions as the Main Event draws closer including a Race to the Main Event, which will award 50 seats.

The site is also bringing its Main Event Mania back where any qualifier that goes on to win the Main Event will receive a $10 million bonus.

To learn more about Full Tilt’s wsop satellites visit our poker room review.

Visit PokerListings.com

The Five-Star World Poker Classic tournament series began today at Bellagio, and it will conclude with the World Poker Tour Championship event, which will crown its champion on April 24. …