At the end of 2011 we talked about PokerStars switching to the weighted contributed rake model. With the new rake model a lot of players at PokerStars were upset because they were going to earn fewer rewards from the VIP program. PokerStars was going to make an extra 1.5% on ring table games with the changes, but players at PokerStars weren’t happy with those changes.

Initially at the time when the rake model was switched, PokerStars were also going to change the rake structure and fees. After it was clear that players weren’t happy with the rake changes PokerStars cancelled the changes at the time. Several poker reps from the 2+2 Poker forum were chosen to meet with PokerStars to figure out a new rake structure that was suitable for everyone. These changes do effect pokerstars rakeback rates so please take a look at the new vip table.

The meetings were just finished up last week and the new rake changes are beneficial for most players. Micro limit and low limit players at PokerStars will pay less rake now, but high stakes players are going to pay more rake. PokerStars have increased the rake on tables at the $25/$50 NL, $25/$50 PL and $15/$30 FL levels.

Overall PokerStars has reduced the rake that they’ll make by just under 3%, but not everyone will see a decrease. PokerStars feel that the higher limit tables need to pay a slightly higher rake because they take more resources to monitor. The rake increase won’t go into the pockets of PokerStars, but it will go towards lowering the rake on the micro/low limit tables.

PokerStars implemented the rake change on February 1^st 2012, so you may have noticed the difference this week. PokerStars will also be releasing poker tables at the $.03/$.06 and $.08/$.16 levels. Several changes were also made to the VIP program in order to try and keep some of the grinders happy.

Now players only need to earn the required monthly VPP’s for the Supernova and Supernova Elite VIP levels 10 months of the year, as players are allowed to miss the monthly target two months each year. Players that earned Supernova and Supernova Elite last year will be able to maintain their VIP level by earning 50% of the required VPP’s until 2013 to make up for the rake changes.

Many players are still upset about the rake changes on poker forums, but overall the changes will benefit a lot of players. Unless you play high staked poker you should see a small decrease in the rake you pay while playing. The decreased rake will make up for the fact that many players will earn less VIP rewards.

The new WC model rewards active players that play a lot of pots instead of simply rewarding players that play a lot of volume. I’m sure PokerStars is going to lose some players over these changes, but only at the higher staked tables. Micro and low limit players will actually be able to make more with the new rake changes.

Several reports have been released in the past week that pertain to the Full Tilt Poker deal and I thought it would be a great time to update our visitors on what’s been going on. Last week it was reported that a source close to the Groupe Bernard Tapie deal said the deal was almost completed. The only thing holding the deal back at this time is the cash that GBT needs.

GBT needs to come up with $80M to purchase the Full Tilt Poker assets that were forfeited last year. GBT also needs to be able to pay players outside of the United States over $150M+ in funds that are currently frozen. Recent reports have indicated that GBT may have found an investor or investors that want to fund the Full Tilt Poker project.

The fact that there have been some reports starting there may be new investors is a great sign. The deal relies on GBT coming up with enough money to fund the project, so finding investors has become a priority.

Chris Ferguson Has Hidden Bank Accounts?

In other news this past week, Subject Poker released an investigative report that showed Ferguson was in control of a hidden bank account that the US DoJ didn’t know about previously. The report states that Ferguson had access to a bank account with roughly $60M and Ferguson managed to withdraw/spend $45M of the funds in the account.

The funds that were left in the bank account were used towards paying back players after Black Friday and other expenses that the poker room incurred. Ferguson and his attorney (Ian Imrich) are now demanding that they receive the accounting from Full Tilt that happened after Black Friday.

Ferguson has made threats through his lawyer that he’ll try impeding upon the current Full Tilt deal with GBT. You can read the full report about the hidden bank accounts at Subject Poker to learn more about this recent revelation.

I’m unsure if Ferguson would be able to impede upon the Full Tilt Poker deal, but it shows you what type of person Ferguson is. The poker player that many fans watched and referred to as “Jesus” is definitely not the person many of us thought he was.

Based on reports from the US DoJ, the DoJ has only been able to seize $300,000 from Ferguson out of the $25M that was sent to his personal bank account in the USA over the years. Ferguson moved his money around frequently and there is no telling how much he could have hidden in bank accounts all over the world. It remains to be seen if Full Tilt Rakeback will still be available once they finally do relaunch.

In the past month we’ve spent some time reporting on the current progress being made to regulate online poker in the USA. There have been a number of US states considering passing legislation to legalize online poker in 2012. This has put some pressure to pass a federal poker bill that would legalize and regulate online poker across the nation.

Based on recent reports I’ve read it has become clear that a federal poker bill is in the works. Senator Kyl and Senator Reid stated this past week that the two of them are currently working on a federal poker bill. Senator Kyl has opposed online gambling a lot in the past, but he has now changed his stance on online poker.

With several states taking it upon themselves to legalize online poker, Senator Kyl changed his stance on online poker, but he still wants to draft new legislation to prevent other forms of online gambling. Kyl and Reid haven’t stated when they will try to pass new legislation through congress, but a recent interview with PPA executive director John Pappas said it could happen in 2012.

John Pappas thinks there is a 50% – 60% chance that a federal poker bill is passed through congress in 2012, but he stressed that the new legislation needs to be written up now before congress starts to focus explicitly on the 2012 US elections. Passing the federal poker bill through congress doesn’t sounds like it will be a problem, as the bill will most likely be attached to another bill as a rider.

Pappas also stated in a recent interview that if congress passed a federal poker bill it would only take about six months until the 1st licensed poker rooms were operating in the USA. Once legislation is passed federally gambling companies will be trying to release their product to the market as soon as possible and Pappas thinks the process would happen very quickly.

By passing a federal poker bill there would be no issue with offering interstate poker games. There may not be an issue right now based on a statement by the US DoJ at the end of 2011 relating to the US Wire Act, but by passing federal legislation there will be no problem with interstate poker.

US states will also be able to opt out from allowing their state to be included in federal regulation. There is no word on what US states will want to opt out from federal regulation, but I’m sure in the future most US states will be on board.

In my opinion federal regulation would be much better for poker players in the USA, as there would be no liquidity issues and it could also allow players to play with poker players in other regulated online poker markets in the future.

Titan Poker released an upgraded software suite today with several new features and a brand new lobby design. The new lobby is a huge improvement over the old lobby although old school Titan Poker players can change back to the old lobby. We’ve posted a screenshot of the new Titan Poker lobby below to show everyone the new features.

Titan Poker Lobby

The new Titan Poker lobby design is excellent and suitable for beginner poker players. There are several new features on the lobby that make it much easier for poker players to start playing exactly what they want. Not only does the Titan Poker lobby have a lot of great features, but every feature is now easy to utilize.

• Players can select the type of poker game they want to play on the left side of the poker lobby. You can choose different types of poker games such as ring table games, single table tournaments, multi-table tournaments and more.

• You can also click the “My Favourites” tab to view the poker games you play most often. Titan Poker also has a brand new “Quick Seat” button that will allow you to sit down at the poker game you most commonly play within seconds.

• Titan Poker also released a new tool that’s located at the bottom of the Titan Poker lobby. Players can view how many hands they’ve played and how many Titan Poker points they’ve earned. If you’re clearing a bonus your status is also tracked using the new tool, so you know exactly how far you are from completing the rollover requirements.

• Titan’s Casino and Sportsbook can also be accessed from the new lobby by clicking a single button. It has never been easier to play online poker and bet on your favourite sports at the same time.

• Poker players can now play up to 16 poker tables at once at Titan Poker. Titan Poker released a new table view tool that will allow players to resize every poker table proportionate to your screen size. If you’re playing 8 tables you can split the tables up into 8 small mini-tables that fit perfectly on your screen by clicking a single button in the options menu.

If you already have a Titan Poker account the software will be updated automatically when you log-in to your account. Titan Poker is one of the leading online poker rooms and the biggest poker room on the iPoker Network. The software upgrade made the poker room run more smoothly and improved the overall performance of the software on top of the features listed above.

There aren’t too many poker players in the world that would fork out $100,000AUD to buy-in to a poker tournament. However, this week a total of 22 poker players paid a $100,000AUD buy-in to play in the 2012 Aussie Millions $100K Challenge. The main event in Melbourne just kicked off yesterday and the massive $250K Challenge is still yet to come at the 2012 Aussie Millions.

With the small playing field of only 22 players only 4 players made money. The action on Day 1 was played down until the final table and on Day 2 the final 8 players sat down in Studio 3 at the Crown Casino to determine which 4 players would make money. The 4 players that didn’t make the money on the final table included Nam Le, Sam Trickett, Sorel Mizzi and Gus Hansen.

Gus Hansen finished on the bubble in the 2012 Aussie Millions $100K Challenge and walked away with nothing. Hansen had been doing great in Macau prior to coming to Melbourne, but his recent heater has slowed down in Australia. Tony G finished in 4^th place and won $242,000AUD.

Tony G went all-in with A/6 of hearts against Dan Smith’s A/Q off-suit and wasn’t able to improve. Joe Hachem was Smith’s next target, as Smith knocked out Hachem in 3^rd place. Hachem went all-in with A/9 of clubs against Smith’s A/10 of spades. Hachem managed to hit a 9 on the flop and turn to give him trip 9’s, but Smith hit a 3^rd spade on the river to win with a flush.

Dan Smith was starting to dominate the final table in the 2012 Aussie Millions $100K Challenge when the action went heads-up with Mikhail Smirnov. Smith started the heads-up battle in 2^nd place, but that quickly changed when he was able to double up with pocket jacks against Smirnov’s pocket tens.

The two players battled back and forth for a little while before Smith ended up winning the tournament. Smith and Smirnov both earned their biggest career cash in a live poker event and I’m sure it was a huge confidence builder for the players. This tournament had a small playing field, but the competition was stacked and noone would have guessed these two would have finished top two.

2012 Aussie Millions $100K Challenge

1. Dan Smith $1,012,000AUD
2. Mikhail Smirnov $616,000AUD
3. Joe Hachem $330,000AUD
4. Tony G $242,000AUD

Daniel Cates vs. Tony G

After the 2012 Aussie Millions $100K Challenge Tony G and Daniel Cates were interviewed. During the interview Tony G mentioned that there might be a big cash game going on in Melbourne eventually, but we can’t confirm anything. Daniel Cates also stated that he would still like to take on anyone in the world in a $100K heads-up match and Tony G would be his ideal opponent.

Melanie Weisner is the newest poker player to be signed to a sponsorship deal by Lock Poker. Weisner becomes the 2^nd women ever to become a Lock Pro and the deal should prove to be great for both parties in the long run. The other woman on the Lock Pro team is Spaniard Leo Margets who was signed to a sponsorship deal in October 2011.

Who is Melanie Weisner?

Melanie Weisner is a 25-year old woman from Houston, Texas although she has relocated to New York City. Weisner never played poker much until she realized her brother was playing online poker and making money. While Weisner studied at NYU she was able to earn over $400,000 playing online poker part-time at poker sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Weisner played under the poker alias “Callisto 5” and she dominated MTT’s and heads-up S&G’s. In fact, Weisner is one of the best online heads-up poker players in the world and has only recently started to hone her skills in MTT’s. Weisner has played across the world in various live poker events as well and has a total of 7 WSOP cashes already in her young poker career.

So far in her career, Weisner has been able to earn over $2M playing online poker and roughly $400K playing live poker events. The fact Weisner has earned so much in such a short amount of time is great. Weisner is the best young woman poker player in the world right now and is a great role model for aspiring woman poker players.

Weisner Signs to Lock Poker

The CEO of Lock Poker, Jennifer Larson, is very excited to have signed Melanie Weisner. Larson stated in an interview that Weisner is a perfect fit for Lock Poker right now due to Melanie’s intelligence and dedication to the game of poker. Weisner can’t wait to start representing Lock Poker around the world in live events and I’m sure she’ll be playing online at Lock Poker regularly.

Weisner is also proud to be able to represent the Lock Poker brand with the rest of the Lock Pro team members including Moorman, Stout, Lynch and many other great online poker players. Lock Poker seems to be making the right moves lately and I hope this is a sign of good things to come from Lock Poker in 2012.

Lock Poker has positioned itself to be the ideal online poker room for woman poker players. Weisner and Margets are two great poker players that could hold their own against many of the world’s professional poker players. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Weisner this year, but I have a feeling that she’s going to win a major tournament this year and become famous in the poker world.

The iPoker Network is the 3^rd biggest online poker network in terms of traffic right now. iPoker has done a great job of creating an online poker room that many poker players love. In recent news, the iPoker Network has just announced that they will be changing the current rake model on March 1^st 2012. The change won’t be completed for over a month still, but players should understand the changes that will be made to the current rake calculation model used by the iPoker Network.

Current iPoker Network Rake Model

Right now the poker sites on the iPoker Network calculate the way VIP Points are rewarded based on the “Average Contributed” rake method. The average contributed method rewards each player that makes it to the flop with an even share of the VIP Points given out during the hand. This method is better for players that play a lot of flops and will definitely affect the rate that certain players will be able to earn VIP Points on the iPoker Network in the future.

New iPoker Network Rake Model

The new rake model that will be implemented on March 1^st 2012 is the “Weighted Contributed” method. This method has been used by several other big poker rooms recently and seems to be the best method for the majority of players. With the weighted contributed method players will be rewarded VIP Points based on how much money they put into the pot. If you put 30% of the money into a pot you’d be rewarded with 30% of the VIP Points handed out for that hand.

If you have a VIP plan on the iPoker Network you may notice that your earnings will start to be different in March. The weighted contributed method won’t make much of a difference for the majority of players and some players will even see an increase in the amount of VIP Points they earn while playing. The average contributed method had some flaws and the weighted contributed method won’t have the same flaws since every player earns VIP Points based on exactly how much they put into the pot.

PokerStars also made a recent change to the weighted contributed method and many players were upset. The reason they were upset was because the weighted contributed method spreads VIP Points around more to casual players. Many of the grinders at PokerStars were upset because there loyalty program rewards would be lower. Overall the weighted contributed isn’t that bad and most players will find that they earn just as much or even more than normal through iPoker VIP deals.

PokerRoom.com was initially launched in 1999 and quickly grew into one of the most popular poker rooms. Most of the PokerRoom player base lived in the United States and once the UIGEA was passed in 2006 it destroyed PokerRoom. In 2006 OnGame had to leave the US market because of the UIGEA and within a few years it forced PokerRoom to close down.

After PokerRoom had to stop operating in the US market in 2006 it quickly crippled the poker site. PokerRoom tried to hang on to the small market share they had left, but in 2009 PokerRoom had to close their doors. PokerRoom made an announcement in 2009 that they were closing shop and that current PokerRoom players plus balances would be transferred to Bwin Poker.

PokerRoom Rumours

Throughout much of December there were rumours circulating the poker forums about PokerRoom reopening. In December Bwin’s SEO Manager made a Tweet on Twitter that stated PokerRoom would launch again with real money poker games. The Tweet was deleted from Twitter soon after, but now the rumours have been confirmed.

Bwin.Party Reopens PokerRoom

PokerRoom is now open for business again and have real money games running. US players still won’t be able to play, but you can sign-up and participate on the PokerRoom Forums. The OnGame Network still can’t accept US players, but if online poker becomes legal this year in states across the USA I’m sure OnGame will try and become licensed to operate in the country.

Bwin.Party has been trying to sell the OnGame Network and apparently they have several interested investors looking at possibly purchasing the network. Bwin Poker players would be merged with Party Poker, but the rest of the network would be sold, which could be one reason why PokerRoom was re-launched.

PokerRoom is a well-known brand in the USA and has never had any payout problems with players. Having such a well-known brand in the US market could be beneficial for potential investors of the OnGame Network, as it would allow them to work towards becoming licensed in the US states that have legalized online poker.

The OnGame Network ranks 5^th in overall poker traffic right now according to PokerScout. With the reopening of PokerRoom there is no doubt that the sale of OnGame will be sweetened up a bit. PokerRoom is offering great bonuses right now to new players that sign-up and you can also take advantage of our great OnGame VIP Deals.

This week the 1^st licensed poker rooms in Denmark launched despite scepticism that licensed poker rooms might not be able to launch in January 2012 due to technical issues. Regulated online poker was coming to Denmark in 2012 at some point regardless of technical issues, but many industry experts thought that the 1^st Denmark licensed poker rooms wouldn’t launch in January 2012.

In December 2011 the Danish Gambling Authority made an announcement that 38 online gambling operators received a total of 55 licenses to operate regulated online poker rooms, online casinos and online sportsbooks. The top online poker sites in the industry including PokerStars, Party Poker, 888 Poker and PKR Poker all received a license from the Danish Gambling Authority.

The new online gambling regulations came into affect in Denmark on January 1^st 2012. However, one of the regulations is that all poker rooms need to implement NemID, which is a system in Denmark to ensure logging into online services is secure. It quickly became apparent that poker rooms weren’t going to be able to implement the NemID system in time for the New Year.

During the holidays the Danish Tax Authority (SKAT) stated that licensed operators in Denmark would still be able to launch this month without the NemID system implemented. Every licensee has been given until March 1^st 2012 to add NemID. If NemID isn’t implement by March 1^st the poker sites that haven’t implemented the system will need to cease operations until they do.

How Will Poker Rooms Survive in Denmark?

One question many people are wondering is how online poker operators will survive in the Denmark market. Poker operators are going to need to pay a 20% tax on gross earnings, which leaves little profit margins for network skins. The fact that there will be so many poker rooms licensed in Denmark means that the competition is going to be incredibly tough as well.

Bwin.Party & Danske Spil Launch Regulated Online Poker Room

A few days ago Bwin.Party made an announcement that they just launched a poker room in Denmark with Danske Spil. For those of you that don’t know, Danske Spil is the national lottery operator in Denmark. The brand new poker room should be able to grab a large percentage of the online poker market in Denmark due to the fact it’s operated by Danske Licens Spil.

Danske Licens Spil already operates online gambling and has 600,000 registered Danish gamblers. This will definitely help the new poker room launch with a bang and it will help bwin.party gain a piece of the Danish market. Both parties have made statements about the new partnership and both companies expressed their excitement to work together.

Bwin.Party has been forming several great partnerships in regulated or soon to be regulated online poker markets. Once the new regulated markets have time to mature I think we’ll find that Bwin.Party has done a great job forming partnerships with companies that have local experience.