One could say that 2018 was a year of adjustments for the Poker Alliance. It started the year as the PPA (Poker Players Alliance) but with more financial troubles than at any time in the past decade, and it ended as the Poker Alliance, a new group financed by Poker
There was little doubt that the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship was going to be a large tournament. Not only was the live tournament in the Bahamas to be rake-free, PokerStars planned to add approximately $9 million to the prize pool for the January event. A new record for
As 2018 came to a close, online poker legislation in New York was at rest again, having endured another year of inaction that killed the bill. Several years of hope and potential were once again dashed. One of the primary concerns going into 2019 was whether there would be a
Every one of the three major online poker sites in the world – PokerStars, 888poker, and PartyPoker – maintain a schedule of live tournament series. It connects the online poker world with the live circuit, giving poker players the chance to win entries into live events via online qualifiers and
Poker players from around the world spent much of today traveling to the airport in Nassau, Bahamas, then catching a cab or shuttle to Paradise Island, and exploring some of the massive Atlantis resort. Every January since 2004, players of varying bankrolls have been making the trek to the island
There are several media outlets and data collectors in poker that rank poker players on a yearly basis. Some tours do the same but based on their own tournaments and by season, like the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker. The most respected and popular rankings, however, come
The Global Poker Index (GPI) tracks poker players via their live tournament performances around the world as published by the venues and operators that host the events. Based on a 36-month period, the competitors are then ranked per a set of criteria that include the tournament buy-ins, field sizes, age
It’s just another year, some say. It’s just a new calendar. True, but there are numerous stories that have the potential to play out in very interesting ways in 2019. Based on poker industry happenings in 2018, there are some interesting stories on the horizon. Company mergers and acquisitions, a
What was once a booming industry that seemed to have no limits is now a niche market that is struggling to maintain its presence, much less grow. US online poker has faced its share of struggles since Black Friday in 2011, and the year of 2019 could be pivotal in
The American online poker industry is officially zero for zero in 2018. Oh, but what about Michigan, you ask? Didn’t lawmakers work until late into the last night of the legislative session the week before Christmas to pass a bill to legalize online poker and casino games, you ask? Yes.
Last year, the attempt to predict which states might join the ranks of those with legalized online poker was not very successful. In fact, only one state actually passed such legislation in 2018, but at the very last minute, on December 28, that state’s governor vetoed the bill. Oh, Michigan!
So wrong. At the end of 2017, I posted a list of states that were most likely to legalize online poker in the new US market in 2018, as well as a list of those that were long shots but had a chance to make some progress toward the ultimate
