BetVictor officially launched in 2011, and while it may seem like a relatively new online gaming site, it is actually the rebranding of the long time Victor Chandler betting group, carrying with it a stellar reputation in the online gambling business. The company’s latest move was the recent launch of the BetVictor Club, an exclusive online poker club that is designed for players with serious poker game knowledge.

The team at BetVictor is ensuring that only the most avid poker fans can get into the club by requiring all who are interested to take a knowledge test. The Quiz, as it is being termed, has an 80% correct answer requirement in order for a member to pass and be accepted into the new online poker club. Achieving 100% on the test grants even more access to special benefits of the club.

What’s so great about this club? For one thing, it comes with an exclusive Free Play League within the online poker community, doling out real cash prizes to the winners. Members can snag their share of €10,000 in cash prizes every monthly at the new BetVictor online poker club. Special tournaments include members-only freerolls and money-added events.

There is a step-by-step process to join the BetVictor Club. First, the player must log into their BetVictor Poker account, click on the BetVictor Club link, then create a profile. They are then permitted to take The Quiz. Again, a score of at least 80 is required to be accepted into the club. Fortunately, BetVictor wants everyone to have an equal chance at membership.

The online poker room has provided a 5-step tutorial to teach players anything and everything they need to know about the game of poker. It covers cash games, sit’n’go tournaments, multi-table tournaments, bankroll management and more. If you’re not sure you’re ready to take The Quiz, be sure to take advantage of the tutorial so that you get the best score possible.

The Quiz contains five categories, with four questions per category. Answering 16 questions correctly grants access within 48 hours via email confirmation of your achievement, but answering all 20 correctly comes with special benefits that are little more than a mystery at the moment.

Members-only freerolls are held four times daily, from Sunday through Thursday, with prize pools of €25 and €50 (two of each per day). All other members-only tournaments are free to participate in. Some require Action Points, others require playing in at least one raked real-money poker hand, and yet more are completely free, requiring absolutely nothing at all.

All of the online poker league’s events will carry a real cash prize, as well as awarding leaderboard points to the top finishers. The club’s leaderboard awards cash prizes to the top 200 point earners each month. Should a player reach a spot on the top 200 of the leaderboard, they are guaranteed a cash prize of some size. Should they collect at least 10 Action Points playing real money online poker games during the previous calendar month, the cash prize awarded will be significantly higher.

South Point Poker is on the brink of launching its real money online poker site to residents of Nevada. The company is aiming high, hoping to be the very first, legal US online poker room to accept real money deposits. In accordance with that goal, the poker site is currently accepting applications for a multitude of positions that include customer service, marketing, technology, graphics and regulatory compliance departments.

South Point Poker launched a free-play poker room in October of 2011, but chose to shut down that site a few weeks back so as not to confuse its customers. The site helped to draw interest from potential real money online poker players, while also allowing the poker site to test and tweak its software. In addition, South Point attained a massive list of players nationwide for market targeting, both in Nevada and across the US should the legal framework extend that far in the future.

The poker room had hoped to be all set for launch this month, but those plans were pushed back due to further reflection of regulatory compliance, including more extensive testing of the South Point Poker software. Final approvals are now expected to come through in time to launch the real money online poker suite towards the end of the year.

“We feel we could launch today,” said Lawrence Vaughan, Chief Operating Officer of South Point Poker. “But you’ve got to go through the independent testing labs, you have to satisfy the State Gaming Control Board and because we are the first, we’re going to be under the microscope. They’re going to prod us every which way, and that’s good. We don’t want to come out and fall flat on our face and be an embarrassment for Nevada.”

South Point was the first to apply for an online gaming license from Nevada, and the first granted a license as well. Competitors have caught up in the licensing department, but continue to lag in other areas, thus South Point still appears to be the top contender for debuting the very first legal poker site in the US.

According to Vaughn, the regulatory process is not cut and dry. It is a grueling one, wherein the state’s gaming commission must determine if the technology is advanced enough to deal with any and all possible situations that may arise. Vaughn himself was even surprised by how meticulous the procedures are, saying “it’s so nitty-gritty, it’s mind-boggling.”

As for the free-play version of South Point Poker being dismantled, Vaughn commented, “We thought there was a lot of confusion happening. People see something in the press saying we’re the first to be licensed, and then they go to the site and see this free play thing.” He went on to say, “Now that we’re licensed, we put so much effort in to building our own stuff that we wanted the focus to be on that.”

Yesterday, South Point posted 17 positions available on the employment section of its website, including customer service reps, software developers, graphic artists and more, with annual salaries ranging anywhere from $25k up to 6-figures. Vaughn expressed the company’s goal to launch with about 40 employees on the roster, leaving room for exponential growth as the online poker room expands, not just across Nevada, but across the entire United States if and when such a nationwide legal status comes to fruition.

It seems the world’s largest online poker room is extending its infobahn boundaries in the upcoming year as PokerStars has inked a deal with the UK’s largest land-based casino. PokerStars will be providing live poker games at The Hippodrome, located in the heart of London. In exchange, Hippodrome will be opening a new online casino soon, with PokerStars set to deliver the online poker venue for the gaming site.

“The Hippodrome has dramatically raised the quality bar for the UK casino industry,” said Guy Templar, PokerStars Group Strategy Director. “So together we will give poker players the same great poker experience, live 24/7 in the heart of London that they get from PokerStars online.” Templar added that PokerStars is, “looking forward to unveiling some great new live events for the UK poker market in 2013.”

As for the new cyber-home of the Hippodrome, it has been confirmed that the online casino sector will be powered by another industry leader, Microgaming. CEO for the games system development company, Roger Raatgver, commented on the new partnership. “Microgaming is proud to have been selected as the exclusive provider of online gaming software to the iconic London brand, The Hippodrome. The convergence of offline and online gaming is a trend that Microgaming has been at the forefront of for some time now and we are delighted to be able to provide a bespoke online casino to The Hippodrome, giving their players a first class cross-platform gaming experience.”

Between now and 2013, The Hippodrome will be renovating its current poker room. The plans call for multiple upgrades. Though exact details are as yet unknown, we do know that the blueprints are calling for extravagant enhancements, befitting of the PokerStars brand.

The new live poker room in London will see PokerStars hosting a vast range of poker events, including sponsored tournaments. The first live poker tournament schedule is expected to be released in early 2013. PokerStars’ massive player base – approximately 50 million – will be able to log into their online poker accounts and participate in live poker events from the comfort of home, whilst those with access to The Hippodrome can take part in the live venue directly.

For The Hippodrome, the enormity of the deal could easily bring about the most successful all-encompassing internet gaming site ever to grace the exosphere of cyberspace.

On one pedestal, we have the highly distinguished software brand Microgaming, the longest operating developer of online casinos games in the business, in turn providing the largest assortment of gambling amusements at more than 600 and counting.

On the next plinth stands PokerStars, by far the largest, most respected and famously popular online poker room in the world. In a single week of activity, PokerStars averages 8x more active players at any given time over its nearest competitor, PartyPoker; 8.5x more than the entire iPoker Network combined.

The third podium is reserved for the core catalyst, The Hippodrome, the largest casino in all of the UK, centrally located in the very heart of London. Bringing all three laudably celebrated operators together will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the live and online gambling industry.

The projected re-launch of Full Tilt Poker draws nigh, less than a month away now. The Isle of Man has confirmed that the online poker room has indeed warranted itself a renewed license to operate; outside the USA, of course. Residents of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy and Spain won’t be able to play for real money either.

With accepted players waiting anxiously to log-in on November 6th and resume play – or more likely withdraw their money that’s been sitting in stalemate for the last 15 months – and Americans left with no other choice but to deal with the Department of Justice in hopes of receiving their due funds, what else was there for FTP’s new poker room manager, Shyam Markus, to do except go around the online poker community boasting the return of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series?

Shyam Markus made the rounds, promoting the re-launch of FTP, highlighted by a stop along the path of 2+2 plus poker forums to let everyone know that their old favorite FTOPS tournament series is coming back for a 21st season. According to Markus, FTOPS XXI is scheduled to run from December 2nd to 16th, not even a full month after the proposed grand re-opening of the online poker room.

For those of you who aren’t aware of FTOPS, it was a quarterly tournament series with as many as 45 events, paying out millions of dollars in cash winnings across the boards. From its earliest days, right up to the 19th season, FTOPS was a thing of wonder, sought out by everyone who was anyone in the online poker world. The Main Event winner was all but guaranteed a cool million, minimum. Then, sadly, after the shadowing eclipse of Black Friday, FTOPS XX reverted back to its humblest of beginnings.

Without American players to boost the prize pool, the FTOPS XXI Main Event winner received only about $350,000 after a four-way deal at the final table. No one heard Ariel “ArielBahia” Celestino complaining about winning a 3rd of a million dollars, but it does go to show how decimated the online poker series was by the loss of its primary US market. And if that name, Ariel “ArielBahia” Celestino, sounds familiar, it’s probably because he went on to win a SCOOP this year as well.

Where does that leave us for the pledged 22nd installment of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series? That’s a good question. When Shyam posted the scheduled return of FTOPS in answer to a member’s enquiry about the return of the famous online poker series, he did not give any further details as to the number of events, cost of buy-ins, height of prize pools, etc.

Another obvious question, from anyone who remembers the FTOPS of old; will there be enough Full Tilt Pro members on hand to host each of the events? Surely FTP’s recently named Brand Ambassador, Gus Hansen, will be on hand to host a few of the bigger events, but who else? That question should be answered soon enough as the subject of who will represent the poker room has been addressed on the website, stating Gus Hansen’s arrival and, “we expect to announce other additions before we re-launch on November 6th.”

There is a swelling energy that can be felt all around the world as the anticipation of legal, real money US online poker mounts. In an effort to be fully prepared for the impending day when online poker sites can launch a full-throttle, real money poker site geared towards American players, one overseas operator has jumped ahead by opening a free-play poker room with real cash prizes up for grabs.

Winamax, a leading French online poker operator, has delved head first into the US market by opening its doors to Americans in a wholly legal, yet rewardingly attractive fashion. Players are able to play for free, never being asked to make a deposit of any kind. They are competing for what the US online poker room calls ‘Wams’. These are not real cash prizes per say, but they can be used like real cash to enter tournaments that do carry real cash prize.

The Winamax website clarifies its position on real money online poker games in simple, lucid terms. “Because real money poker is currently not authorized in the United States, we have put together a play money offer designed to encourage real poker play and offer an experience as close to the real thing as possible.” The site goes on to state, “Unlike some, we have chosen to offer real-money games only in regulated markets, where so doing is both safe and legal.”

Because it cannot offer traditional real money poker games in the US market, Winamax provides non-cash prizes that work like real money to enter traditional, real money online poker tournaments. When a US based player uses ‘Wams’ enters such an event, he or she has the ability to win real cash prizes. Unlike ‘Wams’, this money can be withdrawn by an American player. According to the website, “Monetary prizes will be paid out, at your option, via check, wire transfer or deposit into your PayPal account.”

Winamax provides its US online poker site in a wide array of formats. Players can access the poker tables via the Winamax.com website, a Facebook app, an Adobe Air app that boasts PC, Mac and Linux compatibility, an iOS app for iPad and iPhone, as well as an Android app for smartphones. These are the exact same formats available to French players on Winamax.fr, the nation’s largest online poker room.

The poker site is rather proud of its multi-cross software interface, avowing that any player “can start a game on your iPhone while on the move and then easily transfer to another device or to your PC without losing any data or wasting time logging-out and logging-in again. To put it simply, start a poker tournament on your Android smart phone, grind through the bubble on your PC, and play the final table from your bed on your iPad.”

The online poker operator proclaimed its intention to enter the US market in a legal fashion earlier this year. As an obvious leader and innovator of the online poker industry, Canel Frichet, CEO of Winamax, gave a statement to eGaming Review shortly after the announcement, “we feel we would know how to navigate any American model, either interstate or federal.” Thus far, the US online poker site has backed up Frichet’s bold claims to the fullest extent.

As the re-launch date for Full Tilt Poker draws ever closer, it is obvious the online poker room is making all of the necessary last-minute preparations. The latest announcement came on Tuesday when FTP proclaimed a stricken contract with professional poker player and former FTP Pro Gus Hansen that will see him return to the poker site as a brand Ambassador.

Gus Hansen was a long time member of the esteemed Full Tilt Pros before the operation went south last year. Now that PokerStars has acquired the domain of its historic, long-time rival, things are looking way up for FTP. Hansen declared his adoration and devotion to the Full Tilt Poker name in a statement regarding his newly autographed contract.

“I’m very excited to represent the industry’s most authentic poker brand,” expressed the Danish live and online poker phenom. “Full Tilt Poker has the best games, most innovative software and the strongest poker community; to me this feels like coming home.”

A spokesperson for Full Tilt Poker asserted that upon its re-launch, players can be “confident that they are supported by PokerStars’ history of integrity combined with Full Tilt Poker’s track record of delivering the highest quality online poker experience.” Full Tilt Poker is scheduled to re-open on or before November 6, 2012. The online poker room intends to provide the same level of high quality, real money poker games across low-limit to nose-bleed stakes cash games and a plethora of tournaments.

Full Tilt Poker will once more be a global online poker network with a few notable exceptions. Only players from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Spain and the USA will be restricted from registering a real money poker account. Residents of all other countries will be able to sign up or access their existing accounts just as they did before the Black Friday debacle of April 2011 and subsequent revocation of FTP’s former gaming license.

At 38 years of age, the ‘Great Dane’, Gus Hansen, has earned a prodigious $11.2 million in major live poker tournaments alone, spanning three WPT wins and one outright victory in the WSOP-Europe. Hansen took down the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event for AUD-$1,500,000 and another cool million for winning the 2010 Poker Million IX. Add to that his countless cash game winnings, and it’s hard to argue that Gus Hansen is one of the most prolific poker pros of our time.

“I’ve been a part of Full Tilt Poker for many years, and I have always respected Stars as a very professionally operated and well-managed competitor,” said Hansen when asked his feelings on the new ownership of his long-time home, Full Tilt Poker. “Given what’s gone on in the past 15 months, I can’t think of any better company to be re-launching Full Tilt Poker and restoring it to the brand we’ve all loved.” Hansen went on to say that he had no doubts whatsoever about linking his name back to a brand with such a precarious history and that, on the contrary, he is excited to be a part of returning what he called “the coolest poker brand: FullTiltPoker.com”, back to its former glory.

When the online poker room vanished from the world wide web 15 months ago, Gus was on a sizzling hot streak at the highest stakes cash tables. When asked his hopes and aspirations for Full Tilt Poker after the November 6 re-launch, he responded, “Crushing the high-stakes games on Full Tilt Poker is of course very high on the list.” Hansen then became more serious, referencing the past issues of the online poker room. “On a whole different level, paying back the players and giving them back the software and the online poker experience they loved is the number 1 priority.”

On a final note, Hansen did have a few tenuous comments regarding the Lederer Files; Howard Lederer’s 3-1/2 hour video interview that discussed the history, demise and eventual acquisition of the Full Tilt brand. Gus made it clear that he didn’t want to discuss the matter in too much detail, but did say that “there were many people working very hard in the past year to try to restore the players’ accounts, get them repaid and reopen the site. Some of them are still with the company, and I am really happy to be working with them. I am focused on the future and feel really positive, both personally and for other Full Tilt Poker players.”

As anyone with an interest in the online poker world should already know, Full Tilt Poker is set to re-launch in the coming month of November. While the site’s previous acquisition by PokerStars is a definite positive for the old brand, the name now rings synonymous with a severe lack of trust among the poker playing community.

In times past, Full Tilt Poker was the number two traffic earner for many years, always trailing its leading rival, and now new owner, PokerStars. Likewise, PokerStars remains in the number one spot, despite its lack of USA player acceptance, leading the pack of traffic gaining networks by nearly 10x. But the question so many are waiting to see answered is whether Full Tilt can regain its former glory by claiming its long-time second-best position in player traffic.

The fact that the online poker room will be run by the same head offices of the world’s favorite, most respected poker site is a big plus. PokerStars has followed a straight narrow path of operating in a legal manner, while continuing to honor its player commitments to the best of its abilities. The poker site sustained its reputable relationship with American customers long after the UIGEA was put into place, following the recommendation of top ranking attorneys, but after April 15th of 2011, the ominous Black Friday of online poker, PokerStars succumbed to the overbearing prowess of the US Department of Justice, keeping its nose just clean enough to stay well above the dark waters of legislation that eventually engulfed Full Tilt Poker.

FTP’s worst mistake was not just its continuance of accepting deposits post-Black Friday, but as Howard Lederer admitted in a recent interview with PokerNews, it was the company’s decision to honor player deposits that were not actually being processed. In short, the banks were not delivering the deposited money to Full Tilt, but the poker room was giving the player’s the cash anyway. An intense amount of debt ensued, to the tune of more than $120 million. Thus FTP dug itself into an inescapable hole; unable to pay its players their due withdrawals when the site was officially shut down by the revocation of a gambling license.

The trust issues run very deep. Online poker players do not forget, nor forgive, quite so easily. The simple name Full Tilt Poker leaves a bad taste in the mouths of countless ex-members. Fortunately for PokerStars, the majority of players are well aware that the domain no longer has anything to do with Ray Bitar, who led FTP to its ultimate demise. Anyone who understands and respects the reputation of PokerStars should have no problem with the new face of Full Tilt.

The latest reports from Poker Scout, a third party poker traffic tracking site, revealed PokerStars to maintain a dominant lead in activity, currently showing over 100,000 players online (at the time of writing) and an average of 22,000 at any given time over a 7 day period. The second place position goes to the iPoker Network, with almost a 1/10 of that traffic, averaging 2,700 over a 7 day period.

Is there wiggle room for Full Tilt Poker to squeeze back into the second place spot? Absolutely! Do I think they will achieve such a standing? It’s only one opinion, but for me, the answer is a definitive yes.

International Gaming Technology (IGT) is one of the world’s largest casino and poker games software development companies, based out of Nevada. The company supplies games software to brick-and-mortar casinos, as well as international online casinos and poker rooms. But last week, IGT announced that the European internet gaming market has become entirely too volatile, thus it is pulling the plug on its online poker supplications across the region.

Just last year, IGT shelled out a whopping $115 million for the acquisition of the Entraction Poker Network, and two weeks ago, the gaming software giant announced that it would be shutting down the online poker network altogether. It wasn’t that long ago that we watched IGT pull out of several international regions, particularly those where the legalities are questionable, and now it looks like IGT is working towards confining its operations to within the borders of the United States, at least as far as the impending future of online gaming is concerned.

The company made it clear that it finds the European online poker gamut to be a jumbled mess of regulatory confusion at the moment, and IGT doesn’t feel that it’s worth keepings its relations overseas for the time being.

IGT is likely referring to the same information that came from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which released its finding from a recent study that declared Europe to be a whirlpool of “national online gaming monopolies”, something that leaves little room for outsiders like Nevada-based IGT to make a worthwhile profit in the region. According to the study, growth is probable “toward countries working together on licensing and pooling liquidity across borders, especially for poker.”

A report in the Las Vegas Review Journal affirmed that International Gaming Technology has plenty of room to spearhead online poker development in the US. The company has already acquired a license to perform business-to-business provisions of virtual poker technologies. IGT already supplies a host of Nevada’s brick-and-mortar casinos with its versatile gaming systems, and is now looking to further solidify its existing relationships with the state’s casino operators by teaming up for online gambling endeavors, expected to hit the world wide web as early as 2013.

While the idea of being a premier provider of online poker software to a state of 2.7 million residents that are known for their gambling prowess is an operable one, the option of operating online gaming communities nationwide would certainly be a lot more appealing to any relative software development company. Nevada state officials are right up there with IGT in the hopes that a federal bill will arise in the very near future to allow for a nationally legal framework for online poker. Although the subject has been revived on Capitol Hill, industry analysts have serious doubts about whether Congress will legalize internet poker on a national level any time soon.

Thus far, only Nevada and Delaware have succeeded in legalizing intra-state online poker, both of which are in the licensing phase. California and a few other states are still in the process of trying to legalize online poker within their borders. IGT and companies of its kind would stand to be a lot more successful in a national market. Imagine if Nevada-based online poker sites could promote their brand across the border of California, combing the 2.7 million population of the Silver State with Cali’s 37.7 million residents.

Once among the largest online poker rooms in the world, the Full Tilt Poker website hasn’t been live world-wide in over a year, but the dragon is slowly awakening as the poker site – under new ownership – is now requesting that its non-US members start sending in documents to verify their identification. Full Tilt Poker is scheduled to relaunch in November of 2012.

Several months ago, in an interesting twist of events, Full Tilt Poker was bought out by its biggest rival. PokerStars agreed to pay off all of Full Tilt Poker’s debts – something FTP could not manage to do on its own – in exchange for full acquisition of the Full Tilt brand.

The online poker operator began requesting verification documents on Thursday via emails sent out to its customers outside of the US. The email stated that identity verification is a necessary process “in the interest of account security and in accordance with the anticipated Isle of Man regulatory requirements.”

Although Full Tilt Poker will not go live for another two months, all players who submit the required verification documents now will find their accounts fully active on the date of the launch, giving them complete access to their accounts, including the ability to make a withdrawal of existing funds.

Non-US members of Full Tilt Poker are asked to supply a copy of their photo ID, in the form of a driver’s license, passport or some other government issued proof of identity. Confirmation of address is required, but it must match the address Full Tilt Poker had on file when the customer registered their account with the online poker room. Any type of utility bill, insurance forms, bank statement, credit card statement or pay stub slip will do, so long as it shows the correct address. If a player has moved, they should be able to retrieve a document with their old address from the utility company, insurance company, etc. Players are asked to either scan the original documents and fax or email them to Full Tilt Poker, or send “high-quality digital photographs” of the forms via conventional mail.

Unfortunately, American’s who still have funds tied up in Full Tilt Poker have yet to receive any direction as to how they can retrieve their due payments. PokerStars has already paid off the debt to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), thus they are no longer involved in the process of US player compensation. The DoJ has taken on the full responsibility of reimbursing Full Tilt Poker’s American players, and is accepting bids from claims administrators to process all claims, but that is the last anyone has heard in terms of progress.

The latest reports from the DoJ assert that there are approximately 1.3 million American players from Full Tilt Poker owed $159 million.

According to recent reports from the new owners of Full Tilt Poker, they are in the process of hiring a fresh management team. The previous mangers of Full Tilt Poker are still facing a multitude of criminal charges brought up against them by the DoJ.

Heads of France’s Partouche Poker Tour found themselves in hot water a few days ago when registration for its Main Event closed, revealing an overall prize pool of €4.3 million. It’s a tempting amount of money, indeed, but not what participants were expecting. Many poker players were outraged, and quick to reveal their indignation on the social media website, Twitter, as they insist Partouche Poker had previously guaranteed a €5 million prize pool.

Now with the Main Event halfway through, the Partouche Poker Tour website clearly states an €8,500 buy-in, but does not say anything about a guaranteed prize pool. When players on Twitter started arguing that a €5 million prize pool had been previously guaranteed, the PPT was quick to refute the claims, stating that there was never a written guarantee.

Let’s take a look at the evidence, starting with three notable poker pros who made their perplexity and indignation known via Twitter with the following posts:

TristanCre8ive (Tristan Wade): “Wow. Partouche is saying the main event is not a 5mil guarantee now!?!”

JohnnyBaxPoker (Cliff Josephy): “I feel so bad for the Partouche Head of Marketing who will soon be blamed for “proofreading errors” over ads offering a €5mm gty #ManUp”

JustinBonomo (Justin Bonomo): “Everyone at Partouche expected a 5 mil guaranteed prize pool. Staff is saying it was never guaranteed. I found proof: http://t.co/heDB7Vz7”

The gambling industry experts at iGaming France were quick to jump on the developing story and contacted the Head of Partouche Poker, Maxime Masquelier, about the confusion. iGaming France informed Masquelier of the mass-chaos surrounding the alleged €5 million guaranteed prize pool at the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event, to which he replied:

“Pour un buy-in à 8,500€ je pense que nous pouvons être fiers de cette finale et franchement un prizepool de 4,3M€ au lieu de 5M€… au niveau du prize pool, à aucun moment nous n’avons écrit que 5M€ était garanti, quand c’est garanti on l’écrit.”

Which roughly translates in English to: “For a buy-in of €8,500 I think we can be proud of the final figure of €4.3 million instead of €5 million… at no time did we say that €5m was secured when it is guaranteed in writing.”

When the story broke, ad banners that had once stated the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event prize pool was guaranteed at €5 million suddenly disappeared, replaced by more ambiguous advertisements. More Twitter posts and a thread on the TwoPlusTwo forums began showing these banners, alongside the previous banners that had, in fact, depicted a €5M guaranteed prize.

At that point, word around the water cooler was that the marketing team had simply used it as a gimmick, and that the prize was not really guaranteed. These speculations were supported by poker pro Peter Jetten when he stated on Twitter that he had spoken to one of the heads of Partouche Poker, who told him “This was not a guarantee but a marketing trick”.

Perhaps the PPT marketing team thought advertising such an enormous prize pool would entice more than enough players to develop the not-so-guaranteed amount? At the least, we can say it was an unethical tactic; one that could easily result in a loss of player participation when Season 6 comes along if they do something to rectify the situation. With the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event still underway, we are all in great anticipation of learning how this story will play out when the final table concludes on September 9th.