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With the World Series of Poker Circuit Series National Championship now in its third year the yearly event is starting to gain some traction as a major event in the poker world each year. In addition to the 100 automatic qualifiers, the WSOPC National Championship has also been opened-up to some of the top poker players in the world (the top 100 players on the WSOP Leader-Board), who, unlike the automatic qualifiers from the Circuit Series, must pony-up a $10,000 buy-in if they choose to play in the tournament.

This year the WSOPC National Championship is taking place in New Orleans after two years in Las Vegas. In 2011 the WSOPC National Championship took place just before the WSOP tournament series and was only open to the 100 qualifiers from the WSOPC tour. In 2012 the tournament was held just before the WSOP Main Event, and this was when the tournament was opened-up to the Top 100 point getters on the WSOP Leader-Board –57 of whom played in the event last year.

This time around 26 additional players registered for the tournament, likely due to the location and timing of the tournament (last year the entire poker world was in Las Vegas for the WSOP Main Event). So, the final tally saw all 100 players who qualified for the $1,000,000 World Series of Poker Circuit Series National Championship freeroll tournament, along with 26 of the 100 players among the Top 100 points-leaders on the WSOP POY Leader-board.

After two days of play the tournament has played-down to the final eight players, with some very big names among the final table participants, including two-time WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker, October Niner Jeremy Ausmus, and WPT Champion Joe Tehan.

Here is a look at the remaining players and their chip-counts heading into Day 3 of the tournament:

1. Brock Parker – 825,000
2. Jeremy Ausmus – 799,000
3. Max Steinberg – 738,000
4. Jonathan Hilton – 588,000
5. Robert Panitch – 338,000
6. Nicolas Vaca-Rondon – 223,000
7. Joe Tehan – 177,000
8. John Bowman – 118,000

And here is a look at the final table payouts for the event:

• 1^st place: $355,599
• 2^nd place: $219,799
• 3^rd place: $156,743
• 4^th place: $114,008
• 5^th place: $84,544
• 6^th place: $63,894
• 7^th place: $49,187
• 8^th place: $38,570

*Resources: www.wsop.com

The 2013 running of the World Series of Poker Europe tournament series will be the seventh in its history and will be held at the third different location as the WSOPE moves from Cannes, France (home of the 2011 and 2012 WSOPE tournament series) to Paris, France, after four years of the WSOPE calling London, England home.

This time around the WSOPE tournament series will feature seven separate bracelet events over the 14-day tournament series, including a new €25K High-Roller tournament, which will be added to the now-familiar WSOPE bracelet events:

• 10/12/13: Event #1 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry (4 Day Event) — €1,000 + €100
• 10/14/13: Event #2 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold’em (4 day event) — €5,000 + €300
• 10/15/13: Event #3 Pot Limit Omaha (3 day event) — €1500 + €150
• 10/16/13: Event #4 No Limit Hold’em (9-handed) (3 day event) — €2,000 + €200
• 10/17/13: Event #5 Mixed-Max Pot-Limit Omaha – Day 1 (3 Day Event) — €3,000 + €250
• 10/19/13: Event #6 Main Event – No-Limit Hold’em (7 Day Event) — €10,000 + €450
• 10/22/13: Event #7 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em (3 Day Event) — €25,000 + €600

According to the official WSOP Press Release, there will also be over four-dozen side events during the tournament series. Here is a look at the full schedule from the WSOP website:

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) is now just 11 days away and with the steady hand of the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club now on the tiller it looks like the ISPT may not only happen, but could possibly be a fairly successful event; which was basically unfathomable not that long ago when the ISPT looked like the biggest piece of fail since the Epic Poker League.

Dusk Till Dawn came in and slapped a €1,000,000 guarantee on the tournament, and took over the marketing effort which has seen far better turnouts for both the online and live satellites running into the Main Event. There have also been several prominent poker players declaring they will be playing in the ISPT, such as ISPT Ambassadors Liz Lieu, Mike Mizrachi, and Sam Trickett, as well as Patrick Antonius and Tony G.

This past week the ISPT announced that there would be a full tournament series built around the Main Event, with a total of 15 separate events taking place over the course of the six-day series. Here is a look at the full ISPT Wembley schedule from the ISPT.com website:

During last week’s World Series of Poker Conference Call it was revealed that the WSOP would be adding another layer to the WSOP tournament schedule. In addition to the WSOP bracelet events and Daily Deepstack tournaments the 2013 WSOP would also the reintroduction of the Carnivale of Poker. The Carnivale of Poker isn’t a new concept, with the original version played from 1998-2000 at the WSOP; although the WSOP did a lot of tweaking to make the Carnivale of Poker meet today’s poker needs.

This weekend we finally got a look at the Carnivale of Poker schedule, as well as how the leader-board –with its added prizes—will work. Basically, the Carnivale of Poker tournaments will use a cumulative point system (a leader-board) with all events sans the Main Event using the same point system, which you can see below:

And here is a look at the prize distribution for the Top 10 finishers on the Carnivale of Poker leader-board:

• 1^st place: $25,000
• 2^nd place: $15,000
• 3^rd place: $11,500
• 4^th place: $9,500
• 5^th place: $8,500
• 6^th place: $7,500
• 7^th place: $6,500
• 8^th place: $6,000
• 9^th place: $5,500
• 10^th place: $5,000

And here is a look at the full Carnivale of Poker schedule that will take place during the 2013 WSOP:

Resources: http://www.wsop.com/2013/carnivale-of-poker-schedule.pdf

It’s been a very strange time for online poker rooms operating in the United States. Not only do we have the launch of the first fully licensed and regulated online poker room in Nevada (Ultimate Poker) but the Merge Gaming Network has been hit hard with multiple room closures over the past few months, while the Revolution Gaming Network has been hit hard with accusations of wrongdoing and insolvency to their flagship site Lock Poker.

Amazingly, Revolution has been able to hold steady through what can only be described as a crisis, and by most accounts a crisis they handled pretty poorly. Merge Gaming has definitely been the hardest hit, losing some 20% of their player-base during a period where most people thought they would be picking up players from Revolution!

Looking at the traffic rankings at PokerScout.com it appears that players that left Merge Gaming landed at Bodog/Bovada, the Winning Poker Network and Ultimate Poker. It’s still unclear if there will be a mass exodus from Revolution as withdrawal times improve, or if current players on the network will feel they have righted the ship.

Another trend to watch will be the impact of the recent government action against Bitcoin, and what affect that will have on Seals with Clubs.

Here is a look at the US online poker traffic numbers from the beginning of the month:

1. Bodog/Bovada: Worldwide rank #11 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 1,100 cash-game players
2. Revolution Gaming Network: Worldwide rank #14 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 680 cash-game players
3. Merge Gaming Network: Worldwide rank #15 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 670 cash-game players
4. Winning Poker Network: Worldwide rank #27 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 245 cash-game players
5. Chico Poker Network: Worldwide rank #31 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 210 cash-game players
6. Seals With Clubs: Worldwide Rank #42 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 84 cash-game players
7. Ultimate Poker: Worldwide rank #43 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 75 cash-game players

And here is a look at the US online poker traffic numbers some three weeks after the launch of Ultimate Poker:

1. Bodog/Bovada: Worldwide rank #11 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 1,160 cash-game players
2. Revolution Gaming Network: Worldwide rank #13 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 680 cash-game players
3. Merge Gaming Network: Worldwide rank #18 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 550 cash-game players
4. Winning Poker Network: Worldwide rank #26 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 290 cash-game players
5. Chico Poker Network: Worldwide rank #31 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 210 cash-game players
6. Ultimate Poker: Worldwide rank #36 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 177 cash-game players
7. Seals With Clubs: Worldwide Rank #44 – 7-Day Rolling Average of 74 cash-game players

Traffic data from PokerScout.com

As the World Series of Poker approaches the Player of the Year (POY) races are about to undergo a major shakeup if history is any indicator. Of course we will also be seeing the WSOP Player of the Year race kick-in to overdrive –currently Daniel Negreanu is atop the leader-board thanks to his WSOP APAC win.

Right now everyone is still looking up at Paul Volpe, but the POY race is about as tight as I’ve ever seen it, and with Negreanu’s incredible start to the year he has a chance at a clean sweep should he kill-it at the WSOP in Las Vegas, considering the Team PokerStars Pro is currently leading the WSOP POY leader-board, sits in 4^th place on the Bluff rankings, 2^nd place on the Cardplayer rankings, and 24^th on the Global Poker Index.

Here is a look at the current POY races:

Bluff Magazine 2013 Player of the Year leader-board (accurate as of 5/16/2013):

1. Paul Volpe – 638.22 points
2. Aaron Lim – 606.65 points
3. Steve Silverman – 534.46 points
4. Daniel Negreanu – 532.04 points
5. Steve O’Dwyer – 523.60 points
6. Ole Schemion – 518.40 points
7. Griffin Benger – 485.75 points
8. Vanessa Selbst – 473.28 points
9. Kevin Eyster – 465.45 points
10. Mike Watson — 453.20 points

Cardplayer Magazine 2013 Player of the Year leader-board (accurate as of 5/16/2013):

1. Paul Volpe — 3,530 points
2. Daniel Negreanu – 2,946 points
3. Steve O’Dwyer – 2,848 points
4. Dimitar Danchev — 2,340 points
5. Kevin Eyster – 2,280 points
6. Paul Klann — 2,100 points
7. Mervin Chan — 2,100 points
8. Joel Micka — 1,996 points
9. Michael Watson — 1,904 points
10. Daniel Shak — 1,880 points

Global Poker Index 2013 Player of the Year leader-board (accurate as of 5/16/2013):

1. Paul Volpe – 760.79 points
2. Ole Schemion – 535.26
3. Steven Silverman – 532.28 points
4. Michael Watson – 524.77 points
5. Scott Seiver – 524.13 points
6. Igor Kurganov – 522.96 points
7. Steve O’Dwyer – 498.86 points
8. Daniel Shak – 469.97 points
9. Christian Harder – 461.69 points
10. Micah Raskin – 451.75 points

All three ranking systems use a different criterion to determine the Player of the Year:

• Cardplayer Magazine focuses on a player’s results over the course of the entire calendar year.
• Bluff Magazine takes into account a player’s results from the previous calendar year (weighted at about 50% of the current year)
• The Global Poker Index uses a players top cashes from different quarters of the year only, all other results are discounted

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/player-of-the-year/%20

http://www.bluff.com/poker-player-of-the-year

http://www.globalpokerindex.com/player-of-the-year/

For the 44^th consecutive year the poker world is getting ready for the World Series of Poker tournament series in Las Vegas, and another WSOP means another WSOP conference call for members of the poker media. Last year I sat through the conference call but this year I had to listen to a recording of the conference call due to a prior obligation (a big thanks to Pokerati for making the audio recording available) which was actually a much better way in my opinion.

So what did we learn during the conference call? Basically the same we get every year, which is to say very little in the way of groundbreaking news, but clarification on a number of details. Below you’ll find a quick summary of the more important/interesting details that came to light during the conference call:

• Security might be increased this year after the Boston Marathon attack, but WSOP officials would not go into detail regarding specific increased security measures. They did say that there may be random searches, but players would still be allowed to bring in backpacks and bags as they have in years past.
• The WSOP Player of the Year winner will now be awarded a trophy as well as receiving buy-ins to the WSOP, WSOPE, and WSOP APAC Main Events next year courtesy of BLUFF Magazine which is once again handling the POY rankings and formula. The daily Deepstacks tournaments at the 2013 WSOP will also keep track of player performance, with the top performer receiving a WSOP Main Event seat.
• “Despite what Todd Witteles Tweets…” was how WSOP officials began their response to the question of when the WSOP.com website will be launching. While they were vague regarding when the site would officially be launching, they did indicate it would be sometime this summer.
• ESPN coverage will be down to 40 hours this year, with the Main Event final table once again being shown live with a 30-minute hole-card delay.
• There will be a little more leeway regarding the hard-stop rule, which halts play after 10 levels of play, if I understand their response to this question correctly. According to Jack Effel it will be extremely rare for a tournament to go beyond 11 levels on any given day.
• The WSOP is taking it old-school, with the reintroduction of the Carnivale of Poker. The original Carnivale of Poker was part of the WSOP from 1998-2000, but the new incarnation will feature a different format. Carnivale tournaments will take place throughout the WSOP, ranging in buy-ins from $365 to $1,675, as well as the non-bracelet Open-Faced Chinese Poker tournament. Players will receive points and $100,000 in prize-money will be awarded to the Top 10 Carnivale of Poker players.

Lost in the shuffle of all of the Lock Poker accusations over the past week was that the iPoker Network had suspended all Player-to-Player transfers on the network while iPoker launched an investigation, allegedly looking into certain Winner Poker accounts. While iPoker has yet to publicly explain what precisely was taking place, and how P2P transfers factored into the investigation, we did learn today that it seems to center around online poker affiliate Muchos Poker, or at least some of their players.

According to an E-Mail I received from Muchos Poker, the affiliate which represents several different online poker networks is complying with the investigation and is trying to help iPoker resolve the issue. Most importantly for players is that their iPoker accounts are safe, and can be cashed out:

We have been advised by iPoker and the iPoker sites we affiliate with that Muchos poker can not bring players to iPoker and are fully complying with their requests.

As per their directive, all player’s funds are safe and secure and they will be able to withdraw their funds from the respective iPoker sites they have balances on.

From iPoker: “If funds are present in accounts they are allowed to be withdrawn following normal checks relating to collusion, fraud or account verification”.

From our perspective, we believe we have done nothing untoward and followed all network rules & regulations and performed necessary KYC checks on all players and will continue to do so.

However at this time, we respect iPoker’s decision and have removed the iPoker skins from our network and will assist player’s to withdraw any iPoker balances through normal payment processing methods.

We would like to point out we work very closely with all networks to provide a safe, secure, legitimate and most importantly innovative solution for poker players.

If the industry so desires that player’s should move their bankrolls through e-wallets, then we will comply exactly with what is required and will continue to innovate our product in other areas of the “somewhat stale” poker industry.

To point out too, the ban on p2p transfers, did not just affect Muchos, rather it was a network wide ban which affected many other affiliates and staking programs.

We will continue to assist iPoker in their investigations to the best of our ability and try to find an acceptable solution with them, so we can get back to marketing and bringing in new players to the great game of poker.

Along with running several poker rooms on ENet, Muchos Poker works as an affiliate for multiple sites ranging from 888 to OnGame, and four separate iPoker rooms, William Hill Poker, Poker 770, Dafabet Poker and Winner Poker, which is apparently at the center of the investigation. However, Muchos Poker is much bigger than that, as it allows players to register an account at Muchos Poker and use the same information across different networks.

We’ll keep you updated as more information on the investigation as well as the relationship between Muchos Poker and iPoker comes to light.

On Thursday the saga that has gripped 2+2 and the poker community took a new turn, as Lock Poker clearly communicated their Player-to-Player transfer policy, as well as CEO Jennifer Larson speaking for the first time regarding the lengthy backlog of player withdrawals. While the announcement and statement haven’t eased concerns about the site’s overall solvency, it does appear to have bought the site a little more time as forum chatter has lessened and has been far less vitriolic overnight.

So, just when things were at their bleakest (imagine the end of Lord of the Rings where Aragorn, Gandalf, and company are surrounded by tens of thousands of angry orcs); it seems Lock Poker has somewhat righted the ship (imagine the next scene with gargantuan eagles screeching in and temporarily saving the day); but there is still a long way to go for the beleaguered site before they actually throw the Ring of Power into the fires of Mount Doom.

On Thursday evening the following statement regarding the new P2P policy was posted on the Lock Poker website:

Lock Poker Clarifies P2P Transfer Withdrawal Policy

A large amount of mis-information has been spread recently on various poker news sites and forum postings about player funds being lost in recent banking scandals; none of this is true.

Soon after Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson sat-down/spoke-to Gambling911.com, a large online gaming affiliate which has been extremely sympathetic towards Lock Poker and defended the site throughout the current situation. In the “interview” Larson addressed the lengthy withdrawal delays the site has been experiencing (some unprocessed withdrawals date back to December 2012) telling G911 that “you will see improvement in this [payout times] over the coming weeks.” Larson added that there were a number of reasons for the slow payouts: “There was a group of people who were buying and cashing out players bankrolls and not playing at all – this was a large volume and was causing legitimate players’ cash outs to be delayed… The other main reason is that Lock one of the largest poker sites that continues to serve players in most States in the US.  This means that all Lock payments processors must be discreet as the DOJ has shown repeatedly that it likes to seize the players funds.”

It’s unclear what these “improvements” will mean for Lock Poker moving forward, or just how much the recent negative press will affect the company. It should also be noted that these statements do not speak to the site’s solvency as several vocal Lock critics have pointed out. While Lock Poker’s traffic has dropped off considerably in recent months, most of the decline was due to the lengthy withdrawal times and not the current situation which began a few weeks ago and really only gained steam over the past seven days; according to PokerScout.com Lock Traffic has held steady during the entire fiasco, with peak traffic numbers basically unchanged over the past month –However, now that withdrawal times are said to have improved there may be a run on the bank at the site.

PokerStars Road to 100 Billion hands has one more milestone stop to make, and that stop will be the 100 Billionth hand dealt at the site. According to the announcement at PokerStars website on Wednesday the site will be giving away an unprecedented $5,000,000 during the lead-up to the milestone hand, which is expected to be reached sometime in about six weeks.

PokerStars started handing out cash bonuses for certain milestone hands way back in 2007 when the player who won the 10 billionth hand dealt on the site pocketed $100,000. The current Road to 100 Billion hands began with the 60 billionth hand, and Pokerstars has been running special promotions every five-billion hands ever since. With millions having been awarded, the Road to 100 Billion has been an absolute success for the site, and there was only a single issue along the way, when two players colluding won the 70 Billionth hand promotion.

The precise terms of the promotion have not been released, but PokerStars has announced that $1,000,000 is being set aside for the 100 billionth hand alone, with at least $100,000 going to the winner of the historic hand. Another $1,000,000 will be awarded during key milestone hands leading up to the 100 billionth hand, and another $3,000,000 will be handed out during other promotions running at PokerStars in honor of the 100 Billionth hand promotion.

PokerStars has always been a major player in the world of online poker since their launch back in 2002, but it wasn’t until UIGEA shook up the online poker world back in late 2006 that the site shot to the top of the online poker world. Since late 2006 PokerStars has been the top-trafficked online poker provider in the industry. Even with indictments and having their website seized by the US Department of Justice on Black Friday, April 15, 2011, didn’t slow the site down, and PokerStars emerged from Black Friday with an absolute stranglehold on the online poker market.

No other online poker room is anywhere near 100 billion hands dealt, and with traffic that is roughly 10x their closest competitor (which at the current time is Full Tilt Poker, which is now owned by PokerStars parent company the Rational Group) it’s unlikely any online poker room is going to reach 100 billion hands anytime soon.