July 13th, 2009 by admin

Friday, July 10th sees the first time that surviving players from the various World Series of Poker Main Event heats come together on Day 3.

Of the 6 494 original main event hopefuls going after a massive prize pool worth over $61 million, only 2 044 remain in the race. The last surviving 648 players will cash for varying amounts, whilst the 9 final table players, who will compete for the $8 million plus main prize later this year, will each earn over a million dollars.

Harrah’s Entertainment, organisers of the WSOP, have released official numbers from the Day 2B heat that concluded with 1 437 survivors late Wednesday night after starting with a field of 2 924 players. At the close of play, Amir Lehavot (34) of Weston, Florida was the chip leader on a stack of 610 500.

His closest rivals were Peter DeBaene (465 000) and Troy Weber (453 200), followed by Dan Bilzerian (439 500) and Franklin Grigsby (424 400)

Day 3 will see the 607 survivors of the Day 2A heat combining with the 1 437 players left in the Day 2B heat in a single field for the first time.

Former World Champions who are still in the Main Event include Bobby Baldwin, Phil Hellmuth, Jim Bechtel, Dan Harrington, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, and defending champion Peter Eastgate.

Many are watching the play of international online and tournament ace Phil Ivey, who is currently on 346 200 in chips and still very much in contention, having already won two bracelets this year. Other 2009 multi-bracelet winners who have enjoyed an exceptional WSOP this year and remain in the field and include Jeffrey Lisandro, Ville Wahlbeck, Vitaly Lunkin, and Greg Mueller.

July 4th, 2009 by admin

The chief operating officer of UK online gambling group William Hill Online.com, Peter Marcus, has appealed to colleagues in the Internet poker sector to clamp down on the use of rakeback by affiliates and poker skins.

In an interview this week with the publication EGR, Marcus called on operatoirs to “get together and be strict” on allowing affiliates and poker skins to offer rakeback as he criticised a rewards model that incentivises players by offering to return a share of the operator’s rake. Marcus characterised the practice as cannibalising poker traffic and failing to attract the new players he felt were needed to develop the market further.

Commenting that networks and licensees have to find ways of rewarding loyalty which don’t encourage the player to constantly switch venues, or which involve stealing each other’s customers, Marcus said: “It’s going to take time and be tough to get there, but the whole industry has to get together and be strict on this.”

Marcus claims that rakeback in its present form “has a limited shelf life” and that “licensees who just want to give rakeback and not spend money on marketing will find it’s not going to work, because someone coming up behind working on smaller margins will just steal their customers.”

“It’s the wrong way of building a sustainable industry – you do this by brand marketing, giving great customer service and rewarding customer loyalty,” he added.