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The state of online poker 2009

By admin | December 28, 2009

That is a pretty big subject to cover in one short blog post.  So much has happened in the past year that it would be impossible to cover it adequately in one article.

But there is no real need to do that.

We can simply cover the general tone of the poker world in 2009, and see where that leaves us for 2010.

Closures and Amalgamations

The main theme of 2009 in the world of poker was the closure of some poker rooms.  For various reasons dozens of online poker sites have shut down.

In some cases, multiple rooms were owned by one entity, and probably due to the changed economic situation it made sense to amalgamate all their poker rooms into one. That should give them less overhead and associated expenses, but have pretty much the same player base and revenue.

Other rooms just ceased to operate but did at least transfer their players, and more importantly the players’ bankrolls, to a different site.  Bugsys club decided to close for their own reasons and transferred their player base to Poker Stars. I would imagine, as Poker Stars is the biggest online poker room, that many of Bugsys players already had accounts at Stars, but at least their bankrolsl were safe.

Other rooms simply closed and left their players high and dry. Pitbull Poker finally gave in and shut their doors overnight and with no official warning. Although the writing was on the wall for that room for the preceding two months as they underwnet an ad hoc investigation on the 2+2 forum.

Any player keeping up to date with that investigation as it was ongoing would not have been surprised at the sudden closure. And it seems that the word had gotten out through poker media channels that the room was in trouble as there were very few players reported as playing there in the week before the closure. By very few, we understand that there were fewer than one hundred active players there, and that would most likely include Pitbulls own house players.

Unfortunately, those players that had bankrolls still with Pitbull seem to have been out of luck, and will count themselves very fortunate if they ever see any of that money again.

Absolute Poker and UltimateBet Poker, having miraculously survived their superuser scandals, amalgamated into one network, but retain their individual identities as poker sites. As they were owned by the same outfit anyway this was probably just a marketing move.

There was a lot of coming and going in the Prima Network, with rooms closing and opening and moving around.

Doyles Poker and Mansion both moved networks but both remain open for business.

Online Poker in 2010

So what are we likely to see in the online poker scene in 2010?

Well, it seems safe to say that the poker boom has finally passed and we are now left with a more traditional market.  Markets are the same in certain aspects no matter what is being traded.  In online poker, we have a fairly steady set of numbers regarding online players, new players that can be expected and the dropping off of some old players, either because they have gone broke or simply grown tired of the online game.

In the year ahead, I think we can expect to see a slow down in the growth of online player numbers similar to what is happening in all other industries and this can be attributed to the global economic downturn. We will probably still see the same rate of new player acquisition among poker rooms, but the value of those players will inevitably drop as the cash squeeze hits disposable income everywhere.

This will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect that should lead to even more poker room closures and amalgamations.  I would imagine that it will seem sensible for some smaller network rooms to join forces and share player bases, so we can expect to see some of that.

I would also guess that smaller and newer poker networks will come under pressure this year and we may see one or two complete networks fold outright, with only a small number of thier skins being in a position to survive and re-launch on another network. My main guess would be that the Everleaf Gaming Network will not be in business as we know it now (or even at all) by the end of the coming year.

I would also guess that the Merge Poker Network will struggle to survive this year and will need either a serious rethink of their marketing strategy or else an infusion of money and talent in order to stay in business.

With the reduced poker revenue available I think we will see some poker sites start to make savings or shave costs by trying to reduce their affiliate related costs. This is a short-sighted move that will probably seem like a good idea to less-than-able poker site managers, and will have the expected affect of finishing off any struggling room that thies it.

But the bigger poker sites will probably also try to squeeze their affiliates too, not to stay afloat but to increase profits.  If they squeeze too hard we may even see an affiliate revolt against the larger rooms accompanied by a drive to elevate a secondary, but solid, online poker room up to the ranks of a Stars or Tilt.

That would be very good for all involved with online poker (even the bigger rooms though I would not expect them to realize it) but will need a big effort if it were to be achieved.

The bottom line here is that 2010 will be no better for online poker, and may even be a harder year overall than the one just passed.

From a players perspective it means that you must be even more careful when deciding to deposit into an online poker room. Do your research, and then do some more. Be guided by your poker portal of choice but remember that poker portals have a relationship with the online poker rooms that they promote. While that can be a good thing, that can also be very bad for the players (remember CardSpike anyone?).

Be guided by your poker affilaite but be sure that you trust them first.

Have a great year.

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Absolute Poker admits it?

By admin | October 19, 2007

The following statement was made on the pocket5’s forum earlier today;

PocketFives just received a phone call from Absolute Poker confirming the suspicions of the online poker community over the past month.  While we need to be vague in this post to respect their wishes, we can say that their systems were compromised, and that they are prepared to provide the details in a statement coming shortly. 

Part of the statement will include a plan to refund players affected by this compromise.

We are extremely relieved to hear this outcome, as our most important goal in all this is to see justice given to those who were cheated in this process.  Pocketfives is extremely proud to have played a part in the process of uncovering the impropriety that has occurred. We would of course like to thank all the other parties who played a key role in this process—specifically the folks that have been posting here and at twoplustwo.com.

The thread and any discussion can be found here;

http://www.pocketfives.com/18B87A4F-0F8E-4BB7-A3B8-5729C725E0FA.aspx

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Absolute Poker SuperUser Videos

By admin | October 17, 2007

I don’t want to go on about the situation at Absolute Poker tooo much, but, to save you having to read through hand histories, we have some videos of the hands that are in question. These videos show all the players hole cards. Have a look and make up your own mind about whether there was anything questionable about this players play. The player you are watchng is ‘POTRIPPER’.

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Absolute Poker rigging scandal

By admin | October 17, 2007

Well, the Absolute Poker card rigging scandal continues. But there have been some developments lately that might move this thing to a finish.

 Some further allegations have surfaced about Absolute Poker, namely that one of their own people might have been involved, but we’re not going to say much at all about that as AP has indicated that they might start sueing people…

Anyway, finally, after waiting over a month for the rumors to circulate good and proper, AP have issued a kind of statement. The following ’statement’ was emailed today to a member of the 2+2 forum, Corey, who has been involved in this from the beginning…

Absolute Poker Management wishes to inform the poker community of the following information in response to the most recent claims posted over the past 48 hours on the 2+2 and Pocket Fives forums wherein again it is alleged that some person or persons breached Absolute Poker’s redundant and varying levels of game client security. As was stated in Absolute Poker’s Official Response released on Friday October 12, 2007, Absolute Poker conducted an extensive investigation in response to the claims it was made aware of and received. The results of that investigation indicated that to the best of Absolute Poker’s knowledge, information and belief there was no security breach. Specifically, Absolute Poker’s internal investigation determined that it is impossible for any person, device, program, script or other means to see hole cards.Based on the most recent claims that Absolute Poker has been made aware of and at the request of some of our players and business partners, Absolute Poker has agreed to retain a widely acclaimed independent third party auditor, Gaming Associates, to conduct an independent audit of Absolute Poker’s security systems. Specifically, Absolute Poker has requested that Gaming Associates conduct a thorough and extensive review of Absolute Poker’s practices and security systems to determine whether it is possible for any person, device, program, script or other means to see hole cards thereby gaining an unfair advantage. (http://www.gamingassociates.com)Absolute Poker has agreed to fully cooperate with Gaming Associates and its investigative team and to provide the above with unfettered access to all systems, protocols and databases at Absolute Poker worldwide. Absolute Poker has also agreed to allow Gaming Associate’s final report to be made available to Pocket Fives and Bluff Media for their review.With respect to the claims that Scott Tom, a former Member of Team Absolute Poker, is in anyway involved in wrong-doing, Absolute Poker has requested a formal investigation into that matter as well. Mr. Tom has not been involved with Absolute Poker for over a year and to the best of our knowledge, information and belief has not had access to any of Absolute Poker’s systems, databases or information.Absolute Poker reserves the right to pursue any and all remedies whether in law or equitable which may procure to it as a result of any unlawful and injurious actions taken by any individuals who may have falsified any information, documents, files, or have by other means attempted to disparage and/or harm Absolute Poker, its Players, its current or former management, employees, business partners or affiliates.

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Ice Bear Poker

By admin | September 24, 2007

The free poker money offer of $5 at Ice Bear Poker has ended as of today. Ice Bear Poker is a new-ish room in the Microgaming network. The free offer was popular but they really didn’t run it long enough – it was only available for less than one month as far as I know.

Plus, it wasn’t advertised very widely, nor carried by many poker sites. I’m told that the next bonus there will be great, but I have not been told whether it will be another free money one or not. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

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Poker Site with Monthly Bonus

By admin | September 22, 2007

William Hill Poker is a long established and well respected English bookmaker (sportbook), that also has an online casino and online poker site. The poker site is part of the cryptologic poker network which has about a dozen poker sites in it at the moment.

Cryptologic is a poker software that is very popular with English poker sites. The network shares the player base with each poker site so that means that there are always quite a number of players in the William Hill poker site.

The monthly bonus is also available to all new depositors as well. So as soon as you sign up for a player account, you will be playing for a bonus of up to $500 no matter how much, or little, you deposit.

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Absolute poker rigged?

By admin | September 22, 2007

The big story this week concerns allegations of rigging at Absolute Poker. Some forum posters at the well regarded poker forum on two plus two has made claims that some players on Absolute poker were able to see the hole cards of the other players at the table.

The claims relate to the very high limit and no limit tables only.

This certainly is not the first time that players has claimed that online poker is rigged or fixed – against them, naturally. But what is different about these claims is the people making them – some of the most well known, and respected, and VERY successful online poker players are backing these allegations.

Not everyone agrees on what has happened, or how it might have happened, or who was involved, or even of Absolute Pokers level of involvement. But they all agree on one thing; something very strange has happened.

So waht does Absolute Poker have to say? Basically, nothing. They have looked into the allegations and have found nothing wrong; everything is above board and exactly as it should be. The hands/tables in question were just the result of a bad player getting very very lucky.

I haven’t posted any specific details here. If you want to see the ‘proof’ then head over to the two plus two forum – the address for the latest (at time of posting) details is here.

Next, it is claimed, that after the scandal was made public on some forums, that at least one of the players involved ‘dumped’ his chips to other players, either in an attempt to get his money out or to cover his tracks and start to look like a loosing player. Chipdumping is the name for when a player deliberately looses their chips to another player, say by calling a huge bet that they can’t possibly win, and there can be different reasons for doing this depending on the circumstances. No matter what reason for it, though, it is not allowed by ANY online poker room.

So what does Absolute Poker have to say about the chipdumping then? Nothing; it never happened.

And that is a BIG mistake on their part. Because to any online player with the least bit of knowledge about the game, the chipdumping is irrefutable. It was absolutely and blatently obvious. Again, for details, have a look at the two plus two forum.

Denying that the chipdumping ever happened is silly in the extreme and brings into question their denial of the rigging of the cards allegation.

To be fair, I don’t really know what to believe at this point. But I do think that Absolute Poker should come clean about everything. Trying to sweep it under the carpet and hope it goes away is not the way to handle this. One way or another this will come out. The only chance they have of staying in business, I think, is to come clean and explain what happened and how it can never happen again.

So do I recommend playing at Absolute? Um, no! It’s not that I think you will be cheated. I really don’t think that will happen. But if this thing isn’t fixed soon I think that Absolute may be going out of business, and I certainly wouldn’t want to have part of my bankroll in there when it does.

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Free Poker Bonus No Deposit required

By admin | September 14, 2007

This is a pretty cool free poker bonus with no deposit required at CDPoker. The free money is from a poker site called pokerroomschool.com.
The idea is you sign up with pokerroomschool.com and that will automatically get you an account at CDPoker. Then you read some poker strategy articles kindly provided by pokerroomschool. You will have to take a poker quiz next, and when you pass that you will get $30 for free into your new cdpoker account.

Play some poker, earn some player points, and you can get another $100 in free bonus money.

Unfortunately, CDPoker doesn’t take players from America, and of course you must not already have an account at CDPoker or you won’t be eligible for the bonus.

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Online Poker Free Bonus

By admin | September 12, 2007

There are no playthrough requirements, except for the minimum withdrawal amount of $30.

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Bodog Poker Problems

By admin | August 29, 2007

The Bodog poker site was down yesterday due, it seems, to a legal problem in relation to their software. They have, at least temporarily, lost the use of their domain name, bodog.com, and have moved their operation in its entirity to NEWbodog.com.

Gambling911 reports that “…because a retired contractor, Mel Molnick, 63, claims to own a method patent that governs live, electronic betting from a remote location. In other words, the process by which just about every Internet gambling site does business…” – the full story is available at http://www.gambling911.com/online-gambling-082907.html

Not to worry though; business as usual at the new site; you can access that here – New Bodog site

Bodog Poker

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