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The timeline for legalizing online poker in New York has seemingly gotten a little tighter after Sen. John Bonacic announced his pending retirement.

The post Key Senator’s Retirement Creates Urgency For NY Online Poker Legislation appeared first on Online Poker Report.

Global Poker is at it again. But instead of bears, like the Grizzly Games, the site is offering up a new series: The Rattlesnake Open. This is a 130-event online poker series with a grand total of SC$1.25 million up for grabs. The series begins with a $5,000 freeroll on April 29. it culminates in five different Main Events with both Sweeps Cash and Gold Coins buy-ins.

Separate Gold Coins and Sweeps Cash schedules

Those familiar with Global Poker know there are two currencies on the site. One is Sweeps Cash (SC) and the other is Gold Coins (GC). Players can load up their Global Poker account by purchasing Gold Coins with their Paypal account. As part of that purchase, players earn free Sweeps Cash.

Players can use both currencies to buy into tournaments and cash games on Global Poker.

With that in mind, Global Poker is offering two separate schedules of events for each type of currency.

Sweeps Cash events

The SC lineup features 27 different events. Within each event, there are three tournaments to choose from. Those tournaments are low, medium, and high buy-in events.

For the Rattlesnake Open, buy-ins for each level range from:

• Low: SC$3.30 – SC$22
• Medium: SC$11 – SC$110
• High: SC$33 – SC$218

The Main Event for the SC events runs on Sunday, May 20. Here is when each tier level begins as well as what the buy-in is (all times are in Eastern Time):

• 3:00 p.m.- SC$22 Low buy-in with SC$15,000 guarantee
• 4:15 p.m. – SC$110 Medium buy-in with SC$40,000 guarantee
• 5:30 p.m. – SC$218 High buy-in with SC$100,000 guarantee

Gold Coins events

Unlike SC events, the GC events feature only two different buy-in levels, Low and High. There are 27 two-tiered GC events in total. The buy-ins on the Low tier range from GC 5,500 to GC 55,000. The High buy-in events run from GC 22,000 to GC 110,000.

The Main Event times for the two GC tiers are as follows:

• 5/20 at 3:15 p.m. – Low buy-in GC 55,000 event with GC 5,000,000 guarantee
• 5/20 at 4:15 p.m. – High buy-in GC 110,000 event with GC 7,500,000 guarantee

The full schedule of both the SC and GC tournaments is available on the Global Poker website. There are benefits to grinding the entire schedule. As in the past, Global Poker is giving the leaderboard winner for the series a free buy-in to the live event of their choosing, provided it is a buy-in of $3,500 or less.

Social media SC opportunities

If you want to pick up a little extra cash, or you just love showing off your Global Poker gear, you can complete the following tasks and get some extra SC in your account:

• SC$20 for sharing a photo of you wearing your Global Poker Gear in front of a Civic Building in your hometown (i.e. Town Hall, Court House, Council Chamber)
• SC$20 for sharing a photo of you wearing your Global Poker Gear in front of the ‘Welcome To’ sign for your home town
• SC$20 for sharing a photo of you at your local casino/card room wearing Global Poker gear
• SC$100 for a 10-second video of you in a local poker tournament wearing your Global Poker gear with the player next to you saying “I love Global Poker”
• SC$1,000 for winning a tournament wearing Global Poker gear and sharing the winner’s photo with us (Result must be listed on Hendon Mob)

 

 

The post On Global Poker, Being Snake-Bit Is A Good Thing Starting April 30 appeared first on Play CA.

Art Papazyan’s rise to poker prominence is the dominant storyline from Season XVI of the World Poker Tour. Via wins at WPT Legends of Poker and WPT Maryland, Papazyan carries a comfortable lead into the last two events of the season. The WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship and Bobby Baldwin Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada offer two chances for the price of $10,000 each for the POY contenders to take their best crack at Papazyan.

Papazyan sits on a mountain of 2,450 points on the leaderboard — 1,200 for each win and 50 points his cash at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.

The WPT Player of the Year points formula states that once a prize pool reaches at least $4 million, 1,400 points become available for the winner. Only three events reached that threshold in 2016. Two of them were $10,000 buy-in events,? with the L.A. Poker Classic and Five Diamond Poker Classic holding honors.

The points system for top-10 finishers in a $4 million prize pool is as follows:

1. 1,400
2. 1,200
3. 1,100
4. 1,000
5. 900
6. 800
7. 700
8. 600
9. 500
10. 400

Assuming at least $4 million is in the prize pool for the two Las Vegas events, below are the rankings for the chances of the players chasing Papazyan to usurp him and win Player of the Year.

1. Eric Afriat (1,750 points)

The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open champion sits in third place behind Papazyan and Derek Wolters but has some gusto on his side entering the homestretch. Afriat is not going to go down without a fight, no matter entries it takes for him to gain traction.

When Afriat when his title in January at the Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ, he misfired a few entries before he finally spun up a Day 2 buy-in. At the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, the same situation played out for Afriat and he registered for the final time as the cage closed on the second starting flight.

The Elite Poker Championship is listed as an unlimited re-entry event and the Bobby Baldwin Classic offers a maximum of two entries.

Afriat also carries another WPT win from Season XII and has shown a repeated ability to put himself in a position to close when deep.

2. Joe McKeehen (1,650 points)

McKeehen does not plan to play the Elite Poker Championship but is impossible to count out. The 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event winner owns five cashes in Season XVI, more than any other player in contention. McKeehen’s reputation as a closer has not transferred over to the WPT just yet but his ability to go deep over and over again makes him a favorite when play starts in ARIA on May 20.

Afer taking a disappointing fourth-place at Borgata in January, McKeehen fell in third during WPT Rolling Thunder last month. Some would say McKeehen is due for a WPT win to go along with his two WSOP bracelets and there’s no better time for him to break through than in dramatic fashion to close the season.

3. Derek Wolters (1,750 points)

The L.A. Poker Classic and WPT Montreal bronze medalist flies under the radar among the talented group below Papazyan. Wolters did not travel to Florida for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown but is expected to be in Las Vegas for the two $10Ks.

What Wolters lacks in consistent tournament volume, he makes up for in survival ability. Both Season XVI final tables for Wolters started with him not among the chip leaders. When it comes to folding up the ladder, Wolters has the best shot to sustain a short stack and stick around enough to accumulate enough points to take down Papazyan.

4. Phil Hellmuth (1,300 points)

It only took Hellmuth two cashes to accumulate his points this season. A runner-up finish at Legends of Poker followed up by 15th place in LAPC nets out Hellmuth as needing at least second-place to jump into the Player of the Year lead.

It’s a tall task but Hellmuth welcomes the challenge of having to perform at his best when the pressure is the highest. Who knows what to expect from Hellmuth except his unrelenting desire to capture his first WPT title. That want could be the fuel Hellmuth needs to reach the finish line in one of the two events.

5. Alex Foxen (1,200 points)

If you’re looking for a longshot, Foxen is it. His only cash in Season XVI came from the $1.134 million silver medal he earned at Five Diamond. Foxen is on fire across high rollers in 2018 and the $10,000 price point is right in his comfort zone.

Officially a star by every metric, Foxen has the talent and experience necessary to go and win a title to add to his growing legend.

Image courtesy of World Poker Tour

The post Who Can Catch Art Papazyan In WPT Player Of The Year Race? appeared first on .

Sam Greenwood is having an incredible run on the live tournament circuit. He has four seven-figure live tournament scores in his career, and three of them have come in the …

This Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, Global Poker will kick off their Rattlesnake Open with a SC$5,000 freeroll! Anyone with a Global Poker account can play. There are no minimum …

It is that time of year where companies start reporting their first-quarter earnings. During these earnings calls, the top brass of these organizations talks at length about business plans and the direction the company is headed in.

For Churchill Downs (CDI), this call was particularly eventful. It was the first earnings call since news broke earlier this year that the company was acquiring Presque Isle Downs Casino.

With entree into the Pennsylvania casino market imminent, the topics of both online gambling and sports betting came up. And, on both fronts, the answers were both enthusiastic and optimistic.

Churchill Downs sees obvious opportunities in sports betting

While most forms of betting are illegal in the vast majority of states, there is an exception. That exception is horse racing. A major part of CDI’s business model involves mobile and online wagering on horse races using the TwinSpires product.

Needless to say, with a potential SCOTUS decision on sports betting imminent, the possibility of TwinSpires expanding beyond horses is very real. Moreover, CDI leadership believes the company is in a great position to capitalize on just that.

When asked about a federal change in sports betting law, Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen spoke about the company’s interest in the market:

“We have a lot of experience with different forms of wagering including online wagering through TwinSpires. And we think our company and our team is well-situated and experienced in ancillary products in order to transition into this one if it were made available to us in this country.”

Carstanjen also pointed out though that the company was limited to states where it currently owns and operates gaming facilities:

“We’re very interested in online wagering, we’re legal, we’re very interested in alternative products that are made available by different jurisdictions and an opening of PASPA and opening of sports wagering would be something that we would be very interested in and that we would look to pursue licenses. However, those licenses are made available presumably tied to brick and mortar facilities on a state-by-state basis. We would be interested in pursuing those, subject to the tax right and other regulatory restrictions on those.”

Churchill Downs and other online gambling opportunities

Like most other gaming companies presenting first-quarter earnings this week, CDI was focused on sports betting. This is understandable, given that a ruling from the Supreme Court could come down literally any day now.

However, there were allusions to the online casino industry. Carstanjen noted that an opportunity that comes with Presque Isle is an interactive gaming license in PA. He also noted that other states with similar opportunities are zones on the company’s radar when it comes to acquisitions and partnerships:

“We now have nine casino properties, five wholly-owned and four equity investments, in eight different states. This reflects our strategy of investing in modest sized casino properties with limited capital footprints and amenities and with stable, predictable cash flows in diverse markets. We also like states that we believe may ultimately grant access to online gaming and even potentially to sports betting to their brick and mortar casino license holders should either form of alternative gaming become legal in the relevant jurisdiction.”

In other words, Pennsylvania may just be the start of markets CDI tries to gain entry to in 2018. As the list of states considering online casinos and poker in addition to sports wagering grows, so will Churchill’s future plans. But, until the next earnings call, it appears Pennsylvania is both a priority and the frontier for CDI gaming expansion.

The post Churchill CEO Talks Pennsylvania, Online Gaming, And Sports Betting Plans appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.