Online Poker - Poker News

Ladbrokes Plans WSOP Rival

Ladbrokes, the UK based bookmaker and online gaming operator, has announced plans to invest a further £3 million into its 2007 Poker Million tournament with a view to creating a European competitor to Las Vegas’s World Series of Poker (WSOP).

This year’s WSOP, which is owned by Harrah’s Entertainment, was the biggest live poker tournament to date, comprising of around 8,700 players competing for more than $82 million (£44 million) in prize money.

However John O’Reilly, managing director of Ladbrokes’s e-gaming division, said that more than half the players had qualified online meaning that future events would be compromised by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was introduced last week.

“The Act opens up a huge opportunity for an offline poker tournament in Europe to rival the World Series,” he said.

“Poker Million is already the biggest poker event in Europe and we believe that by investing in the tournament and changing the format, London may rival the World Series.”

The Poker Million tournament brings together online qualifiers from ladbrokespoker.com for the week-long final at its new casino in Paddington, London and will be televised on Sky Sports.

Currently, the tournament winner will earn $1.2 million out of a total prize pool of $4.1 million, which through extra investment will double next year.

Saturday Night Live Star to Host Poker Show

Kevin Nealon, the longest running cast member of Saturday Night Live as agreed to host GSN's up and coming poker TV show Poker Royale: the WPPA Championship, premiering Tuesday, December 9 at 9.00pm ET/PT. Nealon will commentate in his own inimitable way on the action as amateurs and pro players do battle for the chance to split $10 million dollars with a GSN viewer in the $10 Million Poker Sweepstakes.

The championship, filmed at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, includes star players such as Carlos Mortensen, Kathy Liebert and Paul Wolfe.

GSN is currently the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming and interactive game playing featuring game shows, reality series, documentaries and casino games. It is distributed through all major US cable systems and satellite providers and reaches 57 million homes.

FantasyPokerChallenge.com Gets New Makeover

FantasyPokerChallenge.com, home of the world's first and only fantasy poker league, has unveiled its stunning new look this week; with a sophisticated poker-felt green and sparkling gold replacing the sky blue of the old site.

For those of you not yet in the know, the challenge was launched last summer by Bluff Magazine and is proving massively popular. It's free to play and works along the same lines as any regular fantasy sports league. Simply choose four of your favourite poker players, who will then earn you points depending on the amount of prize money they win at a designated tournament. The player whose fantasy team has accumulated the highest number of points at the end of the tourney is the winner. After the first day of the tournament you can buy and sell players, like the stock exchange, which gives the game the same mixture of strategy and luck as the great game of poker itself.

In order to celebrate this glorious transformation, we are offering winners the ultimate poker players dream come true: The top 1000-point earners between Dec. 17th (Five Diamond World Poker Classic II) and April 24th (WPT Championship at Bellagio) will compete in an invitation only online freeroll tournament with the winner earning a seat at the 2005 WSOP.