Now, the best thing about this freeroll, is that you don’t any buy-in points. So basically, you can participate in this freeroll with 0 buy-in points. The $500 private freeroll will start on 26th of July 2009 at 20:00 GMT.

To be eligible for this freeroll, you have to sign up with Mansion Poker first. To do this, just click HERE and follow the sign up process. When you are signed up, login into your account and find a tournament named $500 private freeroll. There you go. You’re done and ready to play. Now you just have to wait for the 26th of July. Good luck!

Mansion Poker is a well known and established poker room, and these guys are the best when it comes to freerolls. They are constantly hosting some really great freerolls, especially private ones, where usually there isn’t so much players as on public ones for example.

This $500 private freeroll is going to happen on 26th of April at 20:00 GM. The registration is already open and it’s your chance to sign up now. To sign up with Mansion Poker and receive an additional $500 100% bonus on your first deposit, just click here. Stop wasting your time, go prove yourself and make some cash!

I still don’t understand exactly what happened. Earlier this year, PokerRoom was taken over by BWIN. Instead of trying to revive the once amazing poker site (in its time), it appears BWIN has decided to scrap this giant and try and rebrand and get the players to go to their site instead. BWIN is trying to lure the old PokerRoom players with “special bonuses” but something tells me these are nothing compared to some of the other poker deposit bonuses out there.
Anyway, good game PokerRoom, it was fun while it lasted, but you really should have kept up with the times instead of letting your room go to crap!

Here is the letter that went out to players:

Apr 14, 2009

Well folks, after almost ten years of fun and games, it is with a heavy heart and a tear in my eye that I have to announce that this is it; as of 11:00 CET today, Tuesday the 14th of April 2009, PokerRoom.com will no longer be open for online poker.

PokerRoom first opened for business in 1999 and through its originality and loyal player base quickly grew to be a giant of the online poker industry. We have seen players qualify online for just a few bucks and turn it into tens of thousands at the biggest poker tournaments in the world and seen guys that were used to playing against their mates in lounge rooms mix it up with the very best players in the world.

BEATME x taking a pot from Joe Hachem at the 2008 WSOP Main Event and then telling him to take it ‘easssyyy’ comes to mind.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and with the closure of PokerRoom comes the expansion and growth of bwin Poker. The huge amount of PokerRoom players who have migrated to bwin just proves that when one door closes, another one opens.

Anyone who has not transferred to bwin will only have the option to transfer when they log in to the website, but our community Pokah is still thriving and new Pokah sign ups will soon be available.

What else is there to say? It’s been a lot of fun… thanks to everyone for making PokerRoom.com such a great place to be .. see you on bwin!

PokerRoom.com News Team

I’m actually very sad to see such great poker site to go. Their gaming software in my opinion, was one of the best. Hopefully, BWIN will now focus on their site and make it even better.

]]> http://pokerisgame.com/bye-bye-pokerrom/feed/ http://pokerisgame.com/2009-wsop-players-to-watch/ http://pokerisgame.com/2009-wsop-players-to-watch/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:55:16 +0000 admin http://pokerisgame.com/?p=746 WSOP 2009 is nearly upon us, and it’s time to start speculating about which players are going to make all the headlines this year. There are so many famous players now it’s tough to call out a select few to emerge as the big winners. One can’t avoid mentioning the obvious names like Hellmuth, Brunson, and Chan; they’ve all earned that right. But besides the big three, who looks like they’re poised to play well at the right time this year?

Momentum is always a good thing to have going into the WSOP, and no one has more of that right now than Jason Mercier. Since the second week of February he has seven live tournament cashes, totaling over $230,000. He leads the Pro Rank leaderboard with 13655 points, over 5000 points more than second place Bertrand Grospellier. Grospellier has been on fire too, with five cashes worth close to $700K.

Women that are playing well right now include Kathy Liebert, Sandra Naujoks, and Vanessa Rousso. Liebert has won over $675K since January from three big cashes, and she is always a threat to win another bracelet. Sandra Naujoks recently won the EPT German Open for 917,000 EURO and currently holds down 12th place on the Pro Rank leaderboard. Vanessa Rousso finished in second place in the NBC Heads-Up Championship for $250K on March 6, and she picked up a seventh-place finish in the WPT Southern Poker Championship for $79K back in January.

Scotty Nguyen will most likely be the most-watched player this year. Not only is he the defending $50K H.O.R.S.E champion, but he also won the $10K WPT L.A. Poker Classic H.O.R.S.E. event back in February. If those aren’t enough reasons to watch Scotty, there’s more. He recently stated that he would retire from poker if he didn’t win four million dollars at the WSOP this year. That’s a tall order even for Scotty Nguyen, and like pro wrestling fans we’ll all be watching to see if this is the end of the legend.

An unknown player from Panama has been tearing up the Latin American Poker Tour of late. Bolivar Palacios has made two straight LAPT final tables and is consistently posting money finishes playing MTT’s online. He intends to play a busy schedule at the 2009 WSOP, and this year may be his coming-out party.

We also have to consider the big guns of poker. Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, and Tom Dwan will all be looking to win bracelets. They’re the biggest cash-game players online and they have the bankroll to play as many events at the WSOP as they want. If you had to pick one from the group to win a bracelet it would probably be Ivey, who hasn’t won one since 2005.

Another good bet for a bracelet is Men “The Master” Nguyen. He has six bracelets, but none since 2003. He also plays a lot of events of all variations. It’s only a matter of time with Men the Master, who is responsible for teaching the game to many of today’s dominant young Asian players.

By the way, you still have time to participate in WSOP 2009 satellites, and who knows, maybe you will play at the world’s most prestigious poker championship!

“Since mid-2008 we’ve been steadily building up our video library,” said Raymer, the site’s lead instructor. “[We] now have a formidable amount of poker training video content spanning a wide Rummy Royal variety of poker games and buy-in levels.” Alex Outhred, Mark Kroon, and Shawn Rice have also created videos for ProPlayLive, and other instructors will be announced in coming months. All told, ProPlayLive instructors collectively have 18 WSOP bracelets and over $20 million in tournament earnings.

According to Beverly Pipes, Director of Customer Service, ProPlayLive videos have been “meticulously edited to squeeze as much information and learning value into as short a time as possible while still maintaining the integrity of play because rarely are any actual hands cut out. So the student still gets to see the good, the bad, and even the ugly misread or bad beat but without long pauses and delays commonly found in other poker training videos.”

Pipes notes that while “there are a number of good poker training sites in the marketplace today, but their instructors are predominantly online poker players whom the general public has never heard of.” Thus, says Pipes, ProPlayLive’s “approach was to offer great poker training for both the online player and the live game player who visits casino poker rooms or plays home games and do it with instructors that have proven live game success.”

Over 100 instructional videos have already been created, with plans in place to create more. The site is offering two introductory subscription rates. Prices vary according to the depth of the plan purchased. Further information as well as a demonstration video can be accessed at ProPlayLive.com.

Wanna be a poker pro? Train with poker pros on ProPlayLive!

In previous years chip stacks have been 2x the buy-in amount, and only a few years ago they were the same amount as the buy-in. Last year Jack Effel and the WSOP organizers collaborated with players and implemented many improvements. These changes helped to make the 2008 WSOP a big success, and Effel and his returning tournament staff feel they can make it even better this year.

“We went and did our homework and worked with the player’s advisory and competition committee,” said Effel. “This is the best possible structure for the amount of the money the players are putting in. All events will have three times the buy-in for starting chips.”

There are three changes implemented this year. First the $1,000 events will get $3,000 worth of chips. There will also be two more levels ($25/$25 and $75/$150). The $1,500 through $5,000 events will get three times the chips and two added levels: $75/$150 and $1,200/$2,400. And finally the $10,000 main event will start with $30,000 compared with $20,000 in 2008.

“This is the ‘Year of the Tweak,’” added Effel. “We got a lot of things right last year. We just needed to tweak some things to make it even better. It’s a very prestigious event, but in terms of value, if you ever thought about coming out to the WSOP or if you were going to choose one event, I’d say come to the Rio this summer.”

WSOP promoters are confident that they have the best structured tournament anywhere. If two times the buy-in was better, then three times will surely be an improvement. Tournament staff feels that the added chips and extra blind levels will not make the tournaments much longer, if at all. The final nine would reach the last stage of the tournament at the same time, but early and mid tournament play will increase.

“It’s a tough economy, so we wanted to make sure our poker players were getting the most value,” said Effel. “But this is about making the tournaments better for the longevity.”

The WSOP has improved the tournament over the last four years, and 2009 looks like it will be the best yet. With so many online satellite WSOP package promotions being awarded, we will likely see the biggest events yet. This is for sure; the Rio will be ready for whatever the poker community throws at them, and we can be sure that there will be fewer mistakes than in previous years.

3. The special anniversary $40,000 No Limit Holdem event to celebrate the number of years the event has been held. It’s a one-time event, with a hefty buy-in for the big names in the game. It will take place early in the schedule, and should attract lots of high rollers.

4. The Stimulus Special tournament. This event has been added for the players who may be feeling the pinch of the recent economic situation. This event is $500 cheaper than any other event ($1000), and should attract massive numbers of players, possibly becoming the biggest poker tournament ever that’s not a WSOP main event.

5. Tougher player conduct rules. The WSOP is cracking down on foul language, making it against the rules for anyone on the floor to use it. The rules have been generalized enough that the staff can penalize anyone who acts in a manner that is not in the best interest of the tournament.

6. All re-buy events have been removed. Some events will have a different structure where players start with a portion of their chips and can request more of them as the tournament progresses, with all chips entering play after the add-on period is over.

7. Vegas is cheap right now. Gambling numbers are down, and Las Vegas is offering more freebies and deals than ever before. Hotels, shows, and meals are all at a discount if you take the time to find them, giving you more cash to play with at the tables.

8. There will be 57 bracelets up for grabs. That’s up two from last year, and the organizers have raised the number of $10,000 buy-in events from eight to 10 in 2009, with the addition of a $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball event and a Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better tournament.

9. The WSOP Lifestyles Show promises to be better than ever. Now that online poker rooms and the WSOP have their legalities all worked out, the show should be the best yet. Everything that is new in poker is on display, and all the poker stars are there to meet and greet.

10. You could win enough money to be set for life. Let’s not forget why we all play in these tournaments. Someone has to win the bracelets and giant pay outs; it could be you who changes their life forever. You can’t win if you don’t play, and you’re not a real poker player until you’ve played in the WSOP.

Download Sportsbook and start practising for the WSOP 2009 today!

The festival will include high-limit cash games, sit-’n'-go action and a varied but not yet released lineup of preliminary events. The main event is set, however, running August 19-23 and featuring three separate Day 1 starting sessions. The buy-in for that event will be US $4,300 ($4,000+300). Also
Ladbrokes Poker
returning is a “high rollers” event; tournament organizers promise a higher buy-in than in 2008, but have not yet formalized its structure. World-traveling tournament director Matt Savage will return to head up the festivities.

The 2008 APT Macau Main Event was won by 20-year-old Russian Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who claimed the inaugural event’s $500,000 first-place prize over a field that included a large number of prominent international stars. Among those who participated were Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Huck Seed, Jack Binion, Liz Lieu, Todd Brunson, Kenny Tran and several soon-to-be members of the “Poker Pack” — Nam Le, Quinn Do, JC Tran, Steve Sung, David “Chino” Rheem and Kwang Soo Lee – which focuses on emerging Asian poker stars. More than 40 countries were represented at the inaugural APT Macau event.

According to Asian Poker Tour CEO Chris Parker, “The Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival will feature a side event schedule never seen in Asia before, including several new formats that will stir the curiosity of poker enthusiasts at all levels. We believe Asia’s first festival of poker will establish Macau as an essential stop on the international poker circuit.”

More information on the Asian Poker Tour can be found at www.asianpt.com

For the first time ever, FTOPS will also add a matching MiniFTOPS series. This new series will run in concordance with the standard FTOPS slate and
Full Tilt Poker
feature buy-ins exactly one-tenth the size of the corresponding FTOPS tourney. The guarantees for the miniFTOPS versions of the two-day and main events are $500,000 and $200,000, respectively.

Full Tilt will also implement new challenges tied to this latest FTOPS series. One such is the Zero to Hero FTOPS Challenge, where players must qualify for entry in an FTOPS event through a $1-entry qualifier, and then go on to cash in the FTOPS entry they’ve qualified for as well.

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series XII Schedule:

Event # Date Time Buy-in Game Guarantee

#1 5/6 21:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold’em 6-Max $1,000,000

#2 5/7 14:00 ET $240+16 PL Omaha Knockout $250,000

#3 5/7 21:00 ET $200+16 Limit Hold’em 6-max $300,000

#4 5/8 14:00 ET $500+35 NL Hold’em 3x Shootout $500,000

#5 5/8 21:00 ET $200+16 Stud/8 $100,000

#6 5/9 14:00 ET $500+35 PL Omaha 6-Max $400,000

#7 5/9 16:00 ET $100+9 NL Hold’em w/ Rebuys $600,000

#8 5/10 14:00 ET $240+16 NL Hold’em Knockout 6-max $750,000

#9 5/10 16:00 ET $500+35 NL Hold’em Heads Up $500,000

#10 5/10 18:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold’em $1,500,000

#11 5/11 14:00 ET $200+16 PL Omaha-8 $200,000

#12 5/11 21:00 ET $1,000+60 NL Hold’em 6-Max $1,500,000

#13 5/12 14:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold’em 4x Shootout 6-Max $300,000

#14 5/12 21:00 ET $500+35 HEROS $300,000

#15 5/12 21:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold’em Turbo $500,000

#16 5/13 14:00 ET $200+16 HA (half PLHE, half PLO) $200,000

#17 5/13 21:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold’em 6-max w/ Rebuys $1,000,000

#18 5/14 14:00 ET $200+16 PL Omaha Heads-Up $150,000

#19 5/14 21:00 ET $300+22 Razz $150,000

#20 5/15 14:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold’em $400,000

#21 5/15 21:00 ET $200+16 Mixed Hold’em 6-Max $150,000

#22 5/16 14:00 ET $2,500+120 NL Hold’em (2-Day Event) $2,000,000

#23 5/16 16:00 ET $100+9 PL Omaha w/ Rebuys $350,000

#24 5/17 14:00 ET $120+9 NL Hold’em Knockout $1,000,000

#25 5/17 18:00 ET $500+35 NL Hold’em (Main Event) $2,500,000

On Dec. 28 at 3:30 p.m. ET PokerStars will host a tournament, which will hold up to 35,000 players. The current record stands at 26,517 players and was unoficiallly set by PokerStars. PokerStars made everything to set their new record, including lowering the buy-in price for this tournament. We remind you, that buy-in price for this tournament is as low as $11.

By the way, the most popular poker site (PokerStars) has already set a record - “The Most Players to Simultaneously Play Poker Online” in December 2007. I guess now they want to set a new one, exactly after one year. Get ready ladies and gentlemen, this Sunday looks very promising. Get your aces and chips ready, as it will be a long Sunday’s night!