PokerStars Focuses On New Jersey Market

PokerStars recently sent out an email to New Jersey residents asking about their personal gaming habits, and their feelings towards regulated online poker sites in the state.

The survey asks questions such as, “On a scale of 0-10 how likely would you be to recommend PokerStars to a friend or colleague?”, and “If online casino games were licensed and regulated in New Jersey, how likely would you be to play these online?”

Residents were also asked “How likely would you be to play online poker with PokerStars if they were granted a license to offer online poker in New Jersey?”, as well as a similar question regarding Full Tilt Poker.

PokerStars has teamed up with Resorts Casino Hotel in order to offer New Jersey intrastate online gambling, with a possible start in November.

Sources say Full Tilt is working on casino-style side games in addition to real money poker. PokerStars will continue to only offer poker games.

U.S. Players Still Waiting To Be Paid By Full Tilt

Despite a purchase by PokerStars and a settlement with the federal government, it has been over two years since U.S. players have been able to get their money from Full Tilt.

Garden City Group, who are the claims administrators for the U.S. player funds, are still going through information given to them by the United States Department of Justice. Approximately $185 million belonging to 1.3 million players is still waiting to be reimbursed. Former Full Tilt players who are expecting to be paid must register at fulltiltpokerclaims.com.

Player Banned for Repeated Abuse of “Buttoning”

After repeated warnings, PokerStars has handed down a lifetime ban to a notorious “buttoner” at the high-stakes and nosebleed limit tables. This is the first banning of its kind.

Player “Jama-dharma”, who plays from $10/$20 up to $1000/$2000 in Fixed Limit Hold’em games, was repeatedly warned for abusing the PokerStars software by starting games and quitting before having to post a big blind.

PokerStars previously warned him, “we must make this perfectly clear to you, there are no second chances. If you are still found to be abusing the blinds or are found to be angle-shooting in any other way, your account will be permanently closed.” Although his account is permanently banned, the player still has the ability to withdraw his funds.

PokerStars Reveals New Security Measure for Player Accounts

PokerStars has just announced a brand new security feature designed to protect player accounts. The service, titled “SMS Validation”, is free to all users and is accessible through the latest PokerStars software update.

After a player has activated the SMS Validation in the PokerStars software, the player will receive a SMS text message if potential account irregularities are detected by PokerStars systems. The ability to conduct any real money transactions, such as deposits, withdrawals, cash game and tournament registration, and transfers, are suspended until the player provides the code number included in the SMS text message.

In order to use this feature, a player must register his/her mobile phone number in the PokerStars software to receive SMS messages.

Michael Josem, Head of Public Relations at PokerStars, had this to say: “PokerStars is once again delivering on the importance of security for our customers. We were the first online poker operator to provide RSA Security Tokens and now the first online poker operator to offer this SMS security mechanism. The service is free to all players and adds an additional security mechanism to help PokerStars player accounts remain safe and secure against online threats.”

The RSA Security Token is yet another extra layer of security, on top of the player’s password. The token displays a six-digit code that changes every minute, and the player will be required to enter the RSA Security Passcode during every login.

PokerStars’ MicroMillions V Offers $5 Million Guaranteed

The fifth installment of PokerStats’ MicroMillions series will kick off on July 18 and run for 10 days until July 28. The popular series will feature 100 events and offer $5 million in guaranteed prize pools.

The series offers a range of games to low stakes players, with buy-ins ranging from $0.11 to $22. The series begins with an $0.11 No-Limit Hold’em Hyper-Active Rebuy tournament and culminates with a $22 MicroMillions Main Event. The Main Event offers a $1 million guaranteed prize pool along with at least $150,000 guaranteed for first place. 10 of the 100 events will have a guaranteed pool of $100,000 or more.

Last year’s series, MicroMillions IV, set a record for the largest online poker tournament series ever, with over 1.5 million individual tournament entries, which broke the previous MicroMillions III record of 1.3 million. The Main Event of MicroMillions IV saw over 68,000 players battling for a prize pool of over $1.3 million. For more information and the upcoming schedule, click here.

Seoul Poker Cup dates released

PokerStars have recently announced it will be supporting the second annual Seoul Poker Cup, set to be hosted at the Paradise Casino Walkerhill, from 23-25 August.

The Seoul Poker Cup will feature two official Asia Player of the Year events which will include the KRW1.1 million (USD$970) buy-in Main Event. Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) President Danny McDonagh said following the announcement “We’re excited to support this event again this year and we have added re-entries to the Main Event this time”.

Korean-based Frenchman Olivier Ziegler last year outlasted a massive field of 137 players to take home the inaugural crown and more than KRW40 million in prize money. This years event is set to break last years record with more than 140 players expected and a marked increase in the overall prize pool.

Players who log onto PokerStars.com can qualify for free if they entry the Seoul Poker Cup preliminarily event.

PokerStars thanks all who have supported Cancer Research UK

Throughout the majority of May and June PokerStars asked Players, Readers and Fans to join in a huge fundraising effort by the gaming site to help British charity Cancer Research UK fight cancer and close in on finding a cure for the millions who are diagnosed with the terrible illness.

PokerStars Woman and The Rational Group have joined together committing to raise money in aid of Cancer Research UK and raise awareness of the truly amazing research being conducted to find cures for more than 200 different types of cancer.

Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree joined a large force of woman to take part in the Race For Life to raise money on June 1, with the talented pro adding £3,500 to the cause. Following the run Boeree joined fellow PokerStars Pro Jose “Nacho” Barbero and Adrienne Rowsome in a USD$5+$5 event of which half the buy-in went directly to Cancer Research UK. PokerStars added an additional USD$100 to the prize pool with the total raised topping £6,000.

PokerStars also hosted a 3,000 player freeroll tournament where the host site donated USD$1 for every player who took part which filled up almost immediately. The winner of the event took home a brand new iPad and the USD$3,000 raised going to Cancer Research UK.

PokerStars also received individual donations which rose above £1,600 with a further £6,110 coming from a special PokerStars Staff tournament which raised the grand total over £19,000 for the cancer charity.

PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams Macau

Macau Poker Cup

The latest edition of the Macau Poker Cup (MPC) will once again run from 9 – 18 August  at the ever popular PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams, Macau with it tipped to break more records for a region blazing a trail through the Poker world.

The MPC schedule will feature multiple events which will culimate in the hugely popular Red Dragon Main Event. At a cost of HKD$11,000 the Red Dragon Main Event will feature a massive HKD$5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool which could double following the intensive interest from all over the world.

Asian Championship of Poker

The Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) once again arrives taking-up a two week slot at the PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams, Macau from 18 October to 3 November. The ACOP event schedule is set to feature a huge variety of tournaments with the highlight being the HKD$100,000 (USD$13,000) ACOP Main Event, featuring a massive HKD$20,000,000 guaranteed prize pool (USD$2,800,000).

In the lead up to the 2013 ACOP there will be the ACOP Platinum Series tournament which will feature the HKD$5,500 buy-in Main Event with aguaranteed HKD$500,000 prize pool. The Platinum Series will run from 11 – 14 July with a second series running from 12 – 15 September. The Series offers a unique opportunity for the top ten players from each Main Event all in with chance to compete for a HKD$100,000 Main Event seat in the ACOP Platinum Series Playoffs.

PokeStars LIVE at the City of Dreams, Macau is set to have a busy remainder of the year which comes off the back of an already impressively successful season so far. Asia and the Pacific’s poker pros are flooding into the regions Poker mecca with huge opportunites and tournaments offering such a wide variety of events.

For the full schedule on all of the upcoming events visit PokerStars.com or stay turned at Flop Turn River.

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