Live poker
If summer time, we cannot only talk about a break for the majority of the important world tournament circuits, while everyone is looking at Las Vegas that hosts a new edition of World Series Of Poker, the most prestigious poker competition.
We are already in the middle of the 43rd edition of WSOP and many bracelets have been given away. We would love to mention the results of the Romanian players, even though not so many present, unlike the precedent years. The best known ones are Mihai Manole, Ionel Anton and Toni Judet, who are still under the average.
It is fascinating to see how Phil Ivey came back into the WSOP circuit after his withdrawal in 2011. He seems to have a strong return and managed to play 5 final tables. Thus, he reached his 2002 record, when he played 5 final tables and won 3 bracelets.
There are 8 players in the world to tie this record – should Ivey plays one more table, he will match the record held by An Tran in 1002, with 6 final tables within the same WSOP edition.
Phil Ivey places the first in the Player of the Year ranking, even though he did not win any of the final tables he played at – compared to the people in the top ten where each has a bracelet. Mike Sexton said that this is probably the highest performance of a player at WSOP, along with Johnny Chan’s in the 80’s.
There is a rumor that Ivey will be one of the few players to participate into the The Big One For One Drop tournament, where the buy-in is of $1,000,000. We will see whether Ivey is back into the World Series to make history.
Online Poker
Summer is a quieter time for those playing online poker. The number of the players at the tables is visibly smaller and the good games are harder to be found. But this summer is an exception from the rule. It is not a tranquil time at all, as this game is going under major changes, from several perspectives.
First of all, more and more sites are determined to do something real and bring as many recreational players as possible into the system, to keep them there as long as they can, while limiting the amounts of money leaving the poker pocket to the winners. The first timers were the Bwin in the Ongame network, and their method has been fruitful.
iPoker – the largest poker network has announced that it would implement a new system that will be effective as of August 1, which will sensibly improve the games and the liquidity in the network.
The fusion between PartyPoker and Bwin is expected to be concluded towards the end of summer – it is a sure thing that we will see a similar system on PartyPoker with the Bwin.
Thus, the direction is clear: lowering of the rewards, bonuses and promotions for the winning players and their steering to the recreational players. Once this trend is in place in the largest networks and sites, it is just a matter of time till the entire industry will follow and we will go back to the years when players were not given rakeback or too many promotions.
Another troubling issue for the players is that more and more countries decide to isolate their own players. Italy and France closed their borders, then Spain and very likely to have Germany next – the nationals will be playing against one another.
These laws conflict with the European Union’s, which state that many rights of the players are infringed upon. Moreover, upon the implementation of these laws, the number of players in the targeted countries has decreased (as reported by PokerScout.com) and so have the contributions to the budgets in these countries, on a monthly basis. We really hope that the markets will reunite again soon.
These days, the first licenses of the online gambling were issued on the USA territory. The return of the American players is still questionable – if they do, that will equal a new boom for poker, should they are able to play with the rest of the world.
