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Win a PokerNews Exclusive seat to 888.com’s World Poker Crown $3 Million Guaranteed tournament!

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:04:48 +0000

Do you think you have what it takes to become crowned poker royalty? 888.com is giving players the chance to take home this title at their very first World Poker Crown (WPC) tournament on Saturday April 26 at 14:00 GMT. Battle it out to become one of the final eight players and players will be flown to an exclusive location in Peralada, Spain where they will compete in the live, offline final table (May 6-10) to possibly become the winner of the WPC and to take home $1 Million guaranteed in prize money!

As one of the final eight, players and their guests will be treated like royalty receiving such luxuries as complimentary flights and transfers to Barcelona, Spain, a nights stay at the 5 star
Hotel Arts in Barcelona, a private helicopter transfer from Barcelona to Spain’s exclusive Peralada Castle Resort, 3 nights accommodation at the 5 star Peralada Hotel, a chance to party aboard a stunning yacht in Peralada and full hospitality at all the organized events. You will also have the opportunity to enjoy some feature time on television as the final table will be filmed and broadcast later across the United Kingdom, Germany and Latin America.

On top of all that, PokerNews and Pacific Poker give our players several chances at this fantastic event by hosting three exclusive qualifiers which reward the winner with a seat to the WPC tournament on April 26 at 14:00 GMT.

The three qualifiers begin at 20:00 GMT on the following days;

Friday April 11
Friday April 18
Thursday April 24

Interested players should download Pacific Poker through PokerNews, register a new account and make a deposit. Buy-in to the tournament for only $1.10 and you are good to go! If you already have an existing account with Pacific Poker, don’t fret – you can still participate so long as you signed up through PokerNews and have fulfilled all other entry requirements. Alternatively, you can buy-in to the WPC $3 Million Guaranteed tournament for $1,000+50, or participate through one of their many satellites, for as little as $3.30.

Don’t miss out – download Pacific Poker through PokerNews today for your chance to take the throne of the World Poker Crown where you may just go home a millionaire and a member of poker’s first royal family!

Ed Note: Pacific Poker also offers PokerNews players a fantastic first deposit bonus of 60% up to $100.

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PokerTek Obtains $3 Million in Loans

admin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:03:27 +0000

PokerTek, Inc., licensor of automated poker tables, announced a needed infusion of cash this week. PokerTek’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed taking out a $1 million loan from UBS in exchange for a lien against PokerTek’s holdings of auction rate securities. PokerTek also entered into an agreement with Board of Directors members Lyle A. Berman, James T. Crawford III, Lee Arthur Lomax and Gehrig H. “Lou” White for a $2 million loan. The loan was issued at an interest rate of 13% and collateralized by security interest in PokerPro tables with all principal and accrued interest payable on March 24, 2010. The agreement also leaves open the possibility for an additional $1 million
loan.

PokerTek was already facing some cash flow problems. At the end of 2007, PokerTek had $7.2 million in current assets on its balance sheet, but PokerTek was burning through a little more than $3 million a quarter. Even with improving performance, as indicated by their last earnings report, PokerTek would need to secure more funding in 2008. In the wake of the US credit crisis, PokerTek’s cash concerns became more urgent.

At the end of 2007, $6 million of PokerTek’s current assets were invested in auction rate securities. While they have since reduced their position, they still have $3.9 million tied up in these now troubled holdings. While these assets are usually liquid and highly rated, the credit woes in the US have made it all but impossible to sell these investments. PokerTek’s auction rate securities have experienced failed auctions during early 2008, meaning that they have not been able to liquidate their investments in the ordinary course of monthly auctions. On March 31st, PokerTek is officially reclassifying their auction rate securities as non-current assets.

Although in a far healthier cash position, World Poker Tour Enterprises is also facing similar balance sheet issues. In its recent SEC filing, WPTE reported that it might be put in the position to reclassify $12.4 million of their reported $31 million in current assets because they were invested in similar liquidity-challenged auction rate securities.

In related news, Massachusetts securities regulator William Galvin announced today that his office was soliciting information from three large investment houses in a continuing investigation into the $330 billion auction-rate securities market. Galvin issued subpoenas to UBS, Merrill Lynch, and Bank of America to determine whether they told investors about the potential risks of these investments, which have been virtually frozen since February.

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iPoker’s $2 Million Guaranteed Tournament – ‘lekkimmd’ Emerges Victorious

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:03:33 +0000

Last Sunday (March 2) at 20:00 GMT, the much anticipated $2 Million Guaranteed Tournament finally began. Hosted by the iPoker network, a field of 1,380 players battled it out for over 14 hours, all vying for a piece of the massive prizepool, which ended up totalling an impressive $2,070,000. Although direct entry was set at $1500+80, many players managed to qualify through the various sit-n-gos and multi-table satellites available – some for as little as $3+0.30. After the hands had been played, ‘lekkimmd’ outlasted all other entrants and collected the first prize of $434,000.

iPoker were extremely happy with the turnout and are confident their next major tournament will be an even bigger
success. “The $2 Million tournament generated amazing interest among our players, who competed for months for a chance to make it to the money. Now our players have set their sights on the even higher prize pool available at the upcoming ECOOP II tournaments,” explains Titan Poker Manager, Robin Steele. “Scheduled for May, ECOOP II features a total of 10 tournaments with $3.5 Million in guaranteed cash prizes. Titan Poker continues to up the ante!”

The results for the final 10 are as follows:

Place Nickname Amount
1st lekkimmd $434,700.00
2nd sigge79 $227,700.00
3rd dypwhuer $165,600.00
4th florin76 $124,200.00
5th fishface1 $103,500.00
6th bearbeer $82,800.00
7th RakIsUnderAttack $62,100.00
8th foxystu $41,400.00
9th IampinbaLL $28,980.00
10th UNATTENDED1 $20,700.00

The ECOOP II will kick off on Friday May 23 at 20:00GMT and conclude on Sunday June 1. Buy-in to the Main Event for $1,000 + $60 or qualify through their daily satellites. Better still, players who finish in the top 100 of the Main Event leaderboard go into a massive $50,000 freeroll – so don’t miss out! Download Titan Poker through PokerNews today for your chance to take home a share of the $3.5 Million guaranteed prizepool!

Ed Note: Titan Poker also have four exclusive €1,500 PokerNews Cup Austria Freerolls coming up on March 12, 19, 26 and April 9!

pokernews.com

ECOOPII, $2 Million Guaranteed Tourney & Exclusive Freerolls at Titan Poker!

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:02:06 +0000

Titan Poker looks forward to a huge few months ahead as they launch massive tournaments that reward players with fantastic prizes! Beginning this Sunday March 2 at 20:00 GMT, Titan Poker will host one of the biggest online events with a guaranteed $2 Million prize pool. Players can either buy-in to the Main Event for $1,500 + $80 or win a seat through their sit-n-gos and Multi-Table Satellites. These run daily and start off for as little as $3 + $0.30. Don’t miss out – there are satellites running as we speak!

Titan Poker are also giving you five opportunities to win your way to the
PokerNews Cup Austria! 2008′s first PokerNews Cup will be held in the beautiful city of Salzburg between April 23-27 and will welcome a Main Event field of over 300 European players. Each €1,500 PokerNews Cup Austria Package will grant you entry to the Main Event (€650), €850 cash for travel and accommodation, Team PokerNews Membership, exclusive merchandise and a special invite to the Team PokerNews Welcome Party.

Freerolls begin at 13:30 EST on the following days;

Wednesday March 5
Wednesday March 12
Wednesday March 19
Wednesday March 26
Wednesday April 9

In order to be eligible for these freerolls, players must download Titan Poker through PokerNews, register a new account and make a deposit. Players must then simply earn a single Titan Poker Point and use it to ‘buy-in’ to the freeroll. New players must complete all entry requirements at least 24 hours prior to each freeroll. All existing Titan Poker players who have signed up through PokerNews are also eligible for these PokerNews Cup Austria Freerolls, as long as all other entry requirements are fulfilled.

Finally, as the month of May draws near, Titan Poker launches the second European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP II)! This fantastic tournament will kick off on Friday May 23 at 20:00 GMT and end on Sunday June 1 – giving you ten full days of non stop poker. The series will feature ten tournaments over ten consecutive days with a total guaranteed $3.5 Million prize pool. Buy-in to the Main Event for $1,000 + $60 or qualify through their daily satellites. Players who finish in the top 100 of the Main Event leaderboard will go into an additional $50,000 freeroll set to take place 72 hours after the Main Event. All ECOOPII event winners will receive an exclusive personally engraved bracelet.

Download Titan Poker through PokerNews today for your chance at a share of over $5 Million worth of prizes!

Ed Note: Titan Poker also offers PokerNews players a fantastic first deposit bonus of FREE $50, plus 100% up to $500.

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WTO Awards Antigua $21 Million Annually in Online Gambling Dispute

admin — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:12:39 +0000

Today, the World Trade Organization released the decision by the Arbitrator on the case of United States – Measures Affecting The Cross-Border Supply Of Gambling And Betting Services. The 89-page decision awarded Antigua and Barbuda an annual $21 million compensation claim against the US and also approved of Antigua’s right to suspend its recognition of US copyright and trademark laws to an amount that does not exceed the value of its claim. Neither country can appeal today’s decision.

While Antigua’s dispute with the US was hard fought and won, the WTO decision is a far cry from the annual $3.4 billion that Antigua was seeking. Although the US was pushing for a mere $500,000 award
without granting the WTO’s permission to suspend intellectual property agreements, the US was understandably pleased. A statement from the Office of the US Trade Representative said, “Antigua’s claim was patently excessive. The United States is pleased that the figure arrived at by the arbitrator is over 100 times lower than Antigua’s claim. Because the United States is already taking steps to bring itself into compliance by clarifying its WTO commitments with respect to Internet gambling, the Arbitrator’s award issued today is not paramount.”

The crux of the award determination was the Arbitrator’s decision to adopt a “counterfactual case” that clearly favored the US cause. A counterfactual case is one that best reflects an agreement the two parties likely would have developed had they been able to do so amicably. In this dispute, the WTO sided with the US’ affirmation that they never would have agreed to allow Antigua unrestricted access to all online gambling markets. The counterfactual case that the Arbitrator decided on was one that would have allowed Antigua access only to the US online gambling market associated with horseracing.

Antigua’s lawyer Mark Mendel was critical of the Arbitrator’s damage calculation methodology, but focused on the silver lining of cross-retaliating by suspending the intellectual property rights of U.S. business interests. He said, “$21 million a year in intellectual property rights suspension going forward indefinitely is not such a bad asset to have,” he said.

While a financially shallow decision, the case still represents a landmark victory for Antigua. The dispute initiated by the tiny island nation in 2003 represents the first time another WTO country was able to defeat the US, the largest WTO member, in the international trade court. It also represents the first time that the US has formally withdrawn from a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) commitment. The US “clarified” its online gambling commitment in May 2007 after the WTO sided with Antigua, determining that US online gambling laws were discriminatory and violated its commitments under the trade agreement. This opened up the door for compensation claims by all affected WTO trading partners. Earlier this week, the US settled related claims with the European Union, Canada, and Japan. The US is still in talks with Macau, Costa Rica, and India.

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