One of the biggest non-major tournament series of the year is underway in Thackerville, Oklahoma, promising $3 million in guarantees. “The River” — hosted by Greg Raymer and the historically storied WinStar tribe — is 9 events spread across two weeks, Aug 23-Sep 6. They’ve got some sort of overall points leader prize for a [...]
Tags: casino business, Chickasaw, choctaw, greg-raymer, license plates, nlh/plo, Oklahoma, poker business, Poker Tournament Coverage, poker-politics, The River poker tournament, WinStar, WSOP News & Speculation
Part of the buzz underlying this week’s Detox Poker activity has been the fate of the Hard Rock Poker Lounge. To be sure, the luxed-out $12 million 18+table poker room that opened in 2008 (nearly two years ago to the day and possibly two-and-a-half years too late) will be closing in about a week.
According [...]
Tags: casino business, Detox Poker Series, Hard Rock, Las Vegas poker rooms, poker business, Pokerati Live Action, WSOP News & Speculation
The Detox Poker Series is right around the corner, starting Friday Aug. 13 with a $100k Guarantee for $350 with two day ones, re-entry allowed. The tournament comes at a whispery time around the Hard Rock (home room to the Pokerati NLH/PLO game) … not only murmurs about the room’s spotty past with customer service [...]
Tags: 1/2 nl/plo, casino business, Detox Poker Series, Hard Rock, John Harris, Las Vegas poker rooms, Matt-Savage, poker business, poker-room-operations, Pokerati Game, pokerroad, Rules & Etiquette, Team Pokerati, tournament operations, tournament schedules, WSOP News & Speculation
Internet super-behemoth Google seems to be wasting little time positioning themselves to profit from licensed internet gambling in the United States by investing in “social gaming”. Both the New York Times and Techcrunch are reporting that Google has agreed to purchase “Slide”, a software development company specializing in Facebook apps involving the exchange of virtual money.
Sale [...]
Tags: gambling-laws, Google, HR 2267, internet-laws, payment processors, Paypal, poker business, Zynga
None of this should come as a shock … after all, we saw this summer that Team WSOP employees were all wearing name tags that clearly identified them as worker-bees for HIE, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, the year-old parent company formed around online poker capo Mitch Garber. Also, we noticed that the wristbands identifying live tournament [...]
Tags: 888, Dragonfish, HIE, Mitch Garber, poker business, WSOP News & Speculation, WSOP.com
The end of an era is upon us … with Harrah’s finally selling the Rio — that horrendous dump of a property at 3700 W. Flamingo Rd. that reminds us how quickly Las Vegas luxe can deteriorate …
But also a place that the World Series of Poker and so many of us connected to [...]
Tags: 2010 WSOP, 2011 WSOP, casino business, Las Vegas, poker business, the-Rio, WSOP News & Speculation
A few quicklinks, as I clean off my desktop while getting ready for the pseudo-final stage of the 2010 WSOP, which got started pretty much earlier today …
USA Today declares: WSOP is recession-proof.
Also from USA Today: Emmit Smith has an increasing love for poker, sparked by charity efforts backed by Full Tilt.
Timtern’s got a new [...]
Tags: casino business, emmitt smith, instapoker, Lacey Jones, poker business, poker-media, Twitter, WSOP News & Speculation, WSOP-Media
Jon Katkin
The Poker Economy
OP-ED
Brand names serve an important purpose in our society. For consumers, they offer a simple shorthand that let’s you know about a product’s quality – or lack thereof – while at the same time providing a quick way to flaunt your status or hipness to the unwashed masses in our burgeoning consumer [...]
Tags: 2010 WSOP, aadam-daya, bankroll-management, Harrahs, Linyang Song, low-stakes Vegas grinders, Op-Ed, poker business, poker economy, Praz Bansi, WSOP News & Speculation
Is this not news to everyone but me?
David Williams, 2010 WPT World Champion, will be donning the Spade-and-Star of PokerStars during this main event. I’m pretty sure you can bet on it …
Figured it had to be them or Full Tilt … maybe Victory, but probably not, as Williams, upon becoming a free [...]
Tags: 2010 WSOP, David Williams, Joe Cada, poker business, PokerStars, sponsorship deals, vanessa selbst, WSOP News & Speculation
Some more links to get you going … and keep you clued in about what else has been going on that may or may not be of interest to folks at the WSOP. Some of these stories are vaguely connected to the poker industry proper, and may actually turn out to be important:
First of all, [...]
Tags: casino business, crimes-against-poker, gambling-laws, Harrahs, India, Indian casinos, instapoker, Las Vegas Sands Corp., MGM Resorts, non-poker media, poker business, poker-politics, UIGEA, WSOP News & Speculation
