Bovada This Week
The room did not break ground on any new contests or reward programs this week, but is continuing to offer a good variety of existing ones: here is a quick rundown.
Golden Spade Poker Championship Series – qualify for as little as $4.40 for a cut of $1.25 million in guaranteed prizes.
Punta Cana – earn poker points for a chance to win a $5,500 Caribbean poker getaway.
Great White North – play in satellites and daily qualifiers for a seat to the WPT Montreal Main Event – part of a $6K prize package.
WPT Montreal: Cash Edition – earn up to $120 in weekly cash bonuses and a chance to win the WPT Montreal package.
100% Poker Welcome Bonus – get 100% bonus of up to $1,000 by joining Bovada.
Super Sundays – play all Sunday in MTTs with a guaranteed prize pool of over $170K.
The Weekly $5K PTS Freeroll – cash in your points for a share of $5K in prizes.
Refer a Friend – get up to $100 instantly by referring a friend to the site.
Download Bovada here.
Launch Date for Internet Gaming in New Jersey Set at November 26
Having passed an online gaming bill in February this year, New Jersey is now poised to allow operation of online casinos and poker rooms for its residents and visitors.
The state Gaming Enforcement Division announced that the five-day trial period of “soft play” will begin on November 21 and if all goes well, the full operation can take place as early as November 26.
Nine of Atlantic City’s twelve casinos have already acknowledged partnering with a gaming platform provider and one more is rumored to do so, as well.
The four casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment – Caesars, Bally’s, Harrah’s, and Showboat – are partnering with 888 Holdings, who offers online poker, sports betting, bingo, and casino games in Europe at a variety of websites.
The Tropicana Casino and Resort has teamed up with Gamesys Limited, known for their jackpotjoy.com offering.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has joined in with bwin.party conglomerate, owner of Party Poker and bwin.com.
Resorts Casino Hotel chose PokerStars, who also tries to become an independent operator in New Jersey by building its own land-based poker room in Atlantic City. The realization of this plan is contingent upon getting a gaming license in New Jersey.
The other casino – software provider teams are Taj Mahal – Ultimate Gaming, Trump Plaza – Betfair, and Golden Nugget – Bally Technologies.
Revel Casino Hotel and The Atlantic Club Casino have not yet revealed their online gaming plans.
Carbon Poker Slashes Benefits to Players, Rolls Out New MTT Schedule Instead
Effective October 1, Carbon Poker made changes to its VIP program that will effectively reduce the overall amount of money back to players by an estimated 75-80%.
The VIP program will now only have three tiers with the highest rakeback that a player can reach of only 15% – a steep decrease from 19%, 25%, and 35% offered to the top three tiers previously. There is an “invite-only” level in the new program that does offer 35% rakeback, but no information on how to reach that level is available yet either through the website or by reaching customer service.
Another cutback that the site has introduced is elimination of all freerolls. Unless that changes, from now on the only way to play on the site for money is to deposit your own.
On the upside, Carbon introduced a new MTT schedule adding 80% more tournaments, especially at micro and low stakes. The guarantees have been reduced somewhat, but the amounts may be adjusted later on.
Read a detailed report in this pokerupdate.com article.