Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment is one of the forerunners for launching one of the first online poker sites in Nevada. Up until now, all eyes were on the Silver State to see who would lay claim to the first real money poker room. Those eyes were suddenly averted on Tuesday when the company’s Co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger was brought in for questioning by Belgian authorities.

It would seem that Bwin.Party is not following the legislative guidelines of Belgium, which has explicitly forbidden the company from taking real money poker wagers from Belgian players. In early 2012, the government of Belgium bared a detailed list that banned specific real money poker sites from proffering their services within the country’s border. Though it did not initially get the axe, Bwin.Party’s name appeared on the blacklist in May.

Only acceptable online poker operators who go through the process of obtaining a license are permitted to do business in Belgium. Bwin.Party’s largest rival, PokerStars, is one such operator, legally licensed to present real money poker games to the region’s population of 11 million citizens.

According the Reuters, Teufelberger is being questioned in relation to the poker room’s continuance of unlicensed business in the region. Reuters news stated, “A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor said Bwin had previously been asked to come to Brussels, but didn’t do so. Authorities then acted after they became aware that Teufelberger would be in Brussels on Tuesday.”

Ironically enough, Teufelberger was in town on Tuesday to attend a ‘responsible gaming’ conference, where he was also a key speaker of the event. After his speech at the conference, the Co-CEO was approached by authorities and asked to attend an interview with local authorities to answer some questions; a request with which the company avers Teufelberger willingly complied.

When word of the Co-CEO’s interrogation began to emerge, the real money poker firm made a point to quell the inquisitive media with a brief but clarifying statement.

“In response to press reports this afternoon, the Group can confirm that Norbert Teufelberger, Co-CEO, was requested to attend an interview with the Belgium authorities. He complied voluntarily with this request and is cooperating fully with the authorities”

Bwin.Party is lined up to provide its real money poker software to MGM Resorts and Boyd Gaming, both expected to be among the first to launch online poker sites in Nevada. MGM Resorts is one of the world’s largest land-based casino operators; a client the poker software company would not be content to lose. Bwin.Party’s subsidiary, BP Gaming Entertainment Inc, has already applied for licensing in the Silver State.

However, Nevada state regulators do not look lightly upon real money poker operators and software development firms with a history of providing services in jurisdictions where law prohibits such activities. Thus it is unclear how Nevada will react to the current developments.

It should be pointed out that this is not Bwin’s first interlude with regional authorities. In 2006, Norbert Teufelberger was detained by authorities in France on similar allegations.

Five long days, countless hours, one supreme champion. I’m talking about the PokerStars APPT Macau Asia Championship of Poker Main Event. The grueling competition began with 184 players battling it out to claim the title, and the HKD multi-million dollar prize at the end of the proverbial rainbow.

In the end, Xing Zhou would be crowned the ultimate victor, but it was no easy road getting there. Zhou would have to survive a fierce final table of elite competitors that included Jacques Zaicik, Ying Kit Chan, Michael Kanaan, Tsugunari Toma, Henry Wang, Tom Alner, Alan Sass and Andrew Hinrichsen.

As the action got underway, Zaicik, the short stack, wasn’t expected to last very long, but overcame his deficit with a lucky draw of pocket Aces that saw him doubling up on the second hand of the day. Xhou grabbed a solid lead shortly after, winning a near-million chip pot when he flopped a set against Michael Kanaan’s top pair. This hand gave the Chinese poker player a significant lead that would hold out for the remainder of the final table.

Henry Wang suffered a devastating blow when Sass doubled up through him, leaving Wang to fight for his tournament life, pushing with only a few blinds remaining on an unsuitable hand of Q-4 off-suit. Hinrichsen’s A-10 hearts would be Wang’s undoing, making him the first to exit the PokerStars APPT Macau Main Event final table.

Zhou then extended his chip lead in an enormous pot that crippled Tsungunari Toma, flopping a set of 8s that busted Toma’s pocket Kings and boosted Zhou’s stack to over 3 million while his nearest opponent had only 500k.

Another lucky hand brought Tom Alner’s remaining chip stack into Zhou’s possession when he hit a Straight on the river to beat Alner’s A-K, sending him to the rails in 8th position. A similar situation would bring an end to Hinrichsen’s road to glory. His pocket 9s ran aground against Zhou’s J-10 suited when a Jack fell on the river, eliminating Hinrichsen from the tournament.

Toma would be the next to leave the table when his stack took a grievous blow from Sass, followed by a clash with Ying Kit Chan that left his 9-8 off-suit stranded against Chan’s K-3. Sass made a big move, pushing all-in with pocket Q’s, but Zhou made the call, revealing A-K off. The board offered nothing at all to Alan Sass, but landed an Ace on the flop and a King on the river to twist the blade as Sass exited in 5th.

It was the Frenchman’s turn next. After fostering a short stack for several hours, Jacques Zaicik finally found a worthy opportunity to push with A-K off-suit, but once more, the board favored Zhou offering no help to either player, but holding pocket 9s Zhou took him out.

Now down to three—Kanaan, Chan and Zhou—the morning’s chip leader Kanaan finally fell to the rails. He pushed with pocket 8’s only to be immediately called by Zhou, who held pocket Kings. It became one of the most interesting hands of the day when the flop gave Kanaan a set, but the turn favored Zhou with a set of his own and it was all over for Kanaan.

Heads up play ensued between Xing Zhou and Ying Kit Chan to determine who would be the PokerStars APPT Macau Asia Champion of Poker. Zhou went into the bout with a heavy lead, but Chan fought tooth and nail and was actually able to take a slight lead at one point when he rivered a nut flush. After six very long hours of heads-up competition, with near matching stacks, something very strange occurred.

The dealer dealt each player a starting hand, but before either looked at their cards, a deal was made. The two agreed that this would be the final hand. They would split the remaining prize evenly, about $3.5 million apiece, and the title would go to the winner of the hand. Without ever viewing their cards, the flop, turn and river were played – 9d-8s-3d-5s-7h. The two then flipped their mysterious hole cards. Chan held 7-5, making two pair, but Zhou made a straight with 10-6.

It was all over. Both players took the same amount of prize money, but Xing Zhou would lay claim to the title. And so it was that Xing Zhou won the PokerStars APPT Macau Main Event and became the 2012 Asia Champion of Poker.

2012 PokerStars APPT: Asia Champion of Poker Main Event Final Table Results
1st Xing Zhou – $3,547,500 ($454,808 USD)
2nd Ying Kit Chan – $3,547,500 ($454,808 USD)
3rd Michael Kanaan – $1,731,000 ($221,923 USD)
4th Jacques Zaicik – $1,384,000 ($177,436 USD)
5th Alan Sass – $1,125,000 ($144,231 USD)
6th Tsugunari Toma – $952,000 ($122,051 USD)
7th Andrew Hinrichsen – $779,000 ($99,872 USD)
8th Tom Alner – $606,000 ($77,692 USD)
9th Henry Wang – $432,000 ($55,474 USD)

Full Tilt Poker is finally back in action after re-launching its real money poker games as scheduled on November 6th. The online poker room is up and running just like the days of old, fifteen long months ago, but remarkably improved now that it is under the wing of the Rational Group; the same vastly distinguished company that holds the world’s most popular card gaming site, PokerStars.

For those who haven’t been keeping up with the story since the ominous Black Friday of Online Poker—April 15, 2011—PokerStars head officers acquired Full Tilt Poker a few months ago when they agreed to pay off the online poker room’s considerable debt of $183 million owed to Full Tit Poker’s international members, plus remaining costs and fines that resulted in signing over a colossal check for $731 million to the US Department of Justice.

Full Tilt Poker first re-launched its play money poker tables just over a week ago on October 31st, essentially getting their operation, and any players who wanted to participate, back into the swing of things. It also gave players an opportunity to check out the new software, test the tables, and most importantly, view their accounts to ensure that the money owed them had been successfully reinstated.

Now that Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars are related, players were even given the option of transferring their funds into a PokerStars account, giving them instant access to a withdrawal option, since Full Tilt Poker was not yet prepared to handle cashouts.

It should be noted, however, that ex-members of Full Tilt Poker who reside in the United States will not be able to access their due funds via either online poker site. Americans must contact the US DOJ in order to request a return of their poker funds.

Full Tilt Poker was expected to reopen its real money poker tables at 8am on Tuesday morning, but was able to get things up and running an hour before schedule. It didn’t take long for droves of players to log into their accounts and hit the virtual felt. By 8:30, there was a staggering number of players logged in, surpassing the 22,000 mark.

With so many players attempting to transfer funds to PokerStars, place withdrawals and make cash deposits, the ensuing result was inevitable. Players quickly began receiving an error message that stated “We can’t process your request right now, please try again soon.” It’s hard to fault Full Tilt Poker for the issue when you consider the incredible overload of payment processing transactions all occurring at once, and in the end the online poker room was able to clear up the issue in a timely manner.

It certainly appears that the marketing campaign and solid backing reputation of PokerStars was able to convince the general online poker playing population that Full Tilt Poker is no longer the disgrace it once was in early 2011. Every genre of player was quickly back on the real money poker tables, from the micro-stakes cash gamers and SNG fanatics right up to the famous group known as “The Professionals”, including the likes of Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Viktor “Isuldur1” Blom. The big wigs were quickly found grinding it out on the $400/$800 tables.

The 1st Annual All Stars Showdown at PokerStars reached its conclusion on Sunday as Dan “w00ki3z” Cates faced off with Ben “Sauce123” Slusky. In the end, after 11 grueling hours and more than 3,000 hands, it was the illusive Dan Cates who walked away the winner, pocketing $550,000 for his intrepid efforts.

Let’s start with a brief history on the PokerStars All Stars Showdown. Deemed an annual event, this was the first of its kind and, compared to the miniscule size of the field, only 8 participants in all, it has become that largest prize pool in online poker history. Each player forked over $100k to buy into the event, building an $800,000 prize pool that guaranteed $550,000 to the winner and $250,000 to the runner up.

It all started on October 27th with the first heads up match between Ben “Sauce123” Slusky and Tobia “KTPOKP” Kuder. The two went heads-up on day one of the event and, obviously, Slusky went on to win the quarter-final round. On Day 2, PokerStars Team Pro Isaac Haxton took down Alex “Kanu7” Millar. Day 3 saw Dan “w00ki3z” Cates eliminating Alexander “Sussie Smith” Roumeliotis, and to set the stage for the semi-finals, Phil “mrsweets28” Galfond defeated Ben “Ben86” Tollerene.

As the semi got underway, Slusky went heads-up against Isaac Haxton in an exhausting 19-hour match that exceeded 4,200 hands before Slusky was finally able to send Haxton to the rails. The second match took near 8 hours to complete, surpassing the 3,000 hand mark before Dan Cates was finally able to route Phil Galfond.

With the final table sealed, Dan Cates and Ben Slusky prepared to battle it out on November 4th for the coveted title of PokerStars very first All Stars Showdown Champion. Both competitors began with an equal chip stack of 400,000, and for the first few hours, the lead exchanged hands multiple times and it stayed fairly close between the two.

Between the 5th and 6th hours, Cates took a definitive lead of just over $200,000, and it looked like the event would be coming to a close shortly, but Sulsky fought back, dropping Cates’ lead to under $150k. As the 7th hour closed in, Cates’ brought his lead back up to $238k. Up until this point, the two had been playing four active tables at PokerStars to keep the chips flying as quickly as possible, but Slusky was unable to cover the blinds and play dropped down to three tables.

Shortly after, when Cates’ lead rose to near $300k, the tables dropped once more to two. It was only a matter of time now before “w00ki3z” would finish “Sauce123” off. However, Slusky was not ready to give up, and managed to bring his stack back up to $130k in the 11th hour. But again, that would steadily decrease over the 150+ hands.

The PokerStars All Stars Showdown finally came to an abrupt end on hand 3,179. Slusky held only $60k, down to one table. His stack pushed in pre-flop, Cate’s called, revealing pocket Jacks. Slusky flipped pocket 9s, and the board played out from there. The flop brought J-9-7, giving both poker players trips, but leaving Cates in the lead. Before the final cards could even come down, Slusky posted “GG” (good game) in the chat window, and that was that.

Dan Cates became the first PokerStars All Stars Showdown Champion, earning $550,000. Slusky walked away with the remaining $250k of the prize pool as the second place finisher.

Three more companies have joined the growing coalition to present online real money poker games to residents in the State of Nevada. MGM Online LLC is joined by boutique firms Cams LLC of Los Angeles and Z4Poker LLC of Las Vegas as the latest gaming companies to be recommended for licensing by the Nevada State Gaming Control Board.

All three companies should find out in the next two weeks if they will be approved for licensing or not. The Nevada Gaming Commission reconvenes on November 15th to review and consider all new applications. Should all three online poker brands be favored, they will join the current list of 13 permitted gaming companies, bringing the total to 16.

When MGM Resorts directors met with the Gaming Control Board to present their request and qualifications for licensing, it was revealed that the company has plans to launch a play-for-free online poker site by March 2013, with a real money poker room to follow once MGM has cleared all regulatory sanctions. MGM already runs a social media gaming website, myVegas, drawing an average of 350,000 visitors each month. The impending free-to-play site would be developed in partnership with Playstudios, the same company that powers myVegas.

As for the real money poker site, MGM Resorts’ executive vice president, general counsel and secretary John McManus expressed their intentions to join MGM and the Boyd Gaming Group into partnership with Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc. Bwin.Party is a top tier provider of real money poker games, as well as online casino games, sports betting, bingo and other gambling amusements.

Already set on a straight and narrow path for Nevada licensing in 2013, Bwin.Party was the result of a 2011 merger between Bwin and Party Gaming, integrating the highly successful technologies and experience of two efficacious real money poker, casino and sports betting networks into one.

The partnership between MGM and Bwin.Party is a straight-forward one. MGM will take on the role of promoter and marketer, handling player acquisitions and retention, as well as all customer support needs. Bwin.Party’s responsibility will lie on the back end of things, maintaining the software, facilitating transactions, basically everything that doesn’t involve direct interaction with the clientele.

The Chairman of the Gaming Control Board, A. G. Burnett, made it clear that the real money poker network’s road to licensing is a long and tedious course. “Bwin.party license application is currently in the process of being investigated. At some point next year, [they will] be on an agenda for final approval.”

Burnett went on to comment on Nevada’s commitment to see a licensed and regulated intrastate online gaming sector come to fruition. In Burnett’s words, the state of Nevada “is embarking on a new course”, one that will, in all likelihood, see the Silver State become the very first in the US to present real money poker games to its residents over the internet.

The 13 real money poker companies to already receive approval for licensing from the Nevada Gaming Commission are (alphabetically): American Casino and Entertainment Properties, Bally Technologies, Boyd Gaming, Fertitta Interactive LLC, Global Cash Access Holdings, Golden Nugget, International Game Technology (IGT), Monarch Interactive, NetEffect Networks, PokerTrip Enterprises, SHFL Entertainment, South Point Poker, and WMS Industries.

The B3W Poker Pack Network is a small system of online poker sites that started earlier this year with the launch of Yacht Poker. It has grown to become 7 poker rooms strong and it is obvious the network is seeking new, fresh promotional ideas to attract the interest of players.

The online poker network just announced its latest promotional campaign, the Players Pool. It is an interesting idea, certainly. The Players Pool takes a collection from the contributed rake of all players to create a sizeable pool of money, then uses it to award players in multiple ways.

Back in July, before the promotion received a name, the online poker network was already incorporating a similar idea. The contributed rake of players was used to pay the High Hand Jackpot, which spread €1,200 to a range of worthy competitors. Now that the idea has been further developed, B3W will be using the funds to integrate new freeroll poker tournaments and added money events, as well as awarding cash bonuses to its members.

The more players contribute to the rake over time, the higher the pool will become and more valuable the promotion will be for the players. The Players Pool promo is expected to run on a monthly basis, alongside the current roster of monthly promotions.

The value of this promotion really depends on how you look at it. On the one hand, it appears that players are basically paying for their own prizes. They are claiming bonuses or competing in special events for a chance to reclaim what was once theirs to begin with. That point of view could certainly raise some eyebrows.

In the same token, if we take a moment to think about it, isn’t this exactly what all major online poker sites are doing? PokerStars, for example, runs some extremely valuable freeroll poker events on a very regular basis. They don’t advertise that they are taking their players’ contributed rake and using it to seed the prize pools, but rake is the number one source of a poker site’s income. Any online poker room with freerolls, added money tournaments and other free rewards is essentially doing the exact same thing.

In reality, this latest promotion from B3W is more of a way to get the names of its brands around the water cooler and attract a larger player base. If we skip over to the gracious poker traffic tracking site, Poker Scout, a long scroll down the menu tells us that the Poker Pack Network is trailing the industry in 53rd position out of 60 total, and that it has averaged frighteningly low peak-hour traffic of 33 players. That’s peak hour traffic!

One would conceivably wonder how B3W is staying afloat with such devastating numbers, but anyone who ventures into the online casino realm of gaming may recognize the name a lot more quickly than an exclusive online poker player. B3W has been a solid competitor in the online casino community much longer, established all the way back in 1998. It’s entry into the online poker world was just a new gateway for an existing enterprise. It will be interesting, nonetheless, to see if B3W’s new campaign can breathe new life into the Poker Pack Network.

Playing poker, whether online or in a live setting, is an exhilarating pastime for all lovers of the game. For most poker players, it can be nearly as much fun to sit back and watch the most talented players battle it out head to head for enormous cash prizes, as is evident from the past viewer ratings of the annual WSOP Main Event. That is exactly what every poker fan and member of the PokerStars online poker community will have an opportunity to do this weekend.

The PokerStars All Star Showdown will be awarding over half a million dollars to the ultimate winner of the event, but unlike most of PokerStars big-money tourneys, this one does not have many seats available. In fact, only 8 players will be able to participate in the All Star Showdown.

Most of the online poker community’s players are perfectly happy to take to the rails, especially considering that the bulk of the site’s player base does not have a big enough bankroll established to participate in the first place. Each player who managed to get their hands on a seat has already forked over a whopping $100k buy-in to get in on the action.

It’s pretty simple… 8 players, $800k prize pool, $550,000 to the 1st place finisher.

The PokerStars All Star Showdown has stacked up to be the highest paying event in the history of the world’s largest online poker room, in relation to the infinitesimal size of the field.

It all starts this weekend as the 8 competitors were randomly drawn to compete in 4 heads-up matches, facing off until each table piles its chips into one player’s virtual pocket. The remaining 4 will face off next in two more heads-up tables and finally, the last two standing will go head to head for the ultimate prize of more than half a million dollars.

The 8 competitors registered for the event include Isaac “Ike-Haxton” Haxton, the newest member of PokerStars Team Online, the infamous Phil “mrSweets28” Galfond, Alexander “Kanu7” Millar, Alexander “Sussie Smith” Roumeliotis, Tobias “KTPOKP” Kuder, Benjamin “Sauce123” Sulsky, Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates and Ben “ben86” Tollerene.

The action begins daily at 18:00 CET over the next four days with the following heads-up matches:

Oct 27th: Tobias “KTPOKP” Kuder VS Benjamin “Sauce123” Sulsky
Oct 28th: Alexander “Kanu7” Millar VS Isaac “Ike-Haxton” Haxton
Oct 30th: Alexander “Sussie Smith” Roumeliotis VS Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates
Oct 31st: Phil “mrSweets28” Galfond VS Ben “ben86” Tollerene

The winners of the first two matches will reconvene for round 2 on Nov 2nd at 18:00 CET, while the winners of the last two matches will hit the virtual felt on Nov 3rd at 18:00 CET. The grand finale will take place the following day, Saturday, Nov 4th at 18:00 CET.

Note that railbirds are not required to have an open account with PokerStars in order to watch all the action of the All Star Showdown. Anyone and everyone can take a virtual seat in the rails. The results will be updated regularly on the PokerStars Blog, detailing the reactions of players, all noteworthy hands and much more.

Full Tilt Poker appears to be all set for the eminent re-launch on November 6, 2012, but considering the current state of the economy, which greatly differs from its condition 16 months ago when Black Friday hit the online poker world like an Acme anvil, management is surely apprehensive about the probability that instead of hitting the tables, members will immediately withdrawal the $183 million they are collectively owed. To counter the girth of impending withdrawals, the online poker room is already campaigning new promotions to keep players around the virtual felt.

Just recently, Full Tilt Poker announced that they will be reinstating the hugely popular Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) with its 21st installment scheduled to run just one month after the re-launch from December 6-12 at the online poker room. Now, FTP is promoting a new hook they are calling “Deal Me In”.

According to a press release from the main office in Dublin, Full Tilt Poker’s “Deal Me In” promo will become available to all players of the online poker room the moment the tables goes live, less than two weeks from now. It all starts with a massive series of freeroll poker tournaments promised to pay out $250,000 in a single week, from November 6th to the 11th.

In addition, all first-time depositors at the new Full Tilt Poker will receive the largest cash bonus package the online poker room has every proffered, guaranteed to be worth a minimum of $200. The most unique thing about this part of the Deal Me In promotion is that you don’t have to be a “new” member to receive it. Whether you have a pre-existing account or are signing up an account for the first time, your first deposit at the new FTP poker site will be eligible to receive the bonus. Players who take advantage of this offer will also be receiving a free Rush Poker Ring Game Ticket.

Another perk of the promo, termed Ticket Sales, will see special game tickets up for grabs in the Full Tilt Store at discounted prices. The Full Tilt Store sells items for poker points, not cash, so as players participate in cash games and tournaments, they can turn the points they earn into entry tickets for ring games and tournaments, including Steps tourneys and FTOPS events.

To make it even easier for players to get their hands on these discounted tickets, Full Tilt Poker will be awarding double points around the clock during Happy Hour Week. Different games will be featured daily with double points awarded.

The press release also eluded to some special FTOPS bonus entries via its upcoming FTOPS XXI Satellite Frenzy. Full Tilt Poker guaranteed at least $300,000 in FTOPS entries will be awarded, and that doesn’t even include the standard schedule of FTOPS satellites.

Full Tilt Poker will probably see a big cashout extravaganza among its casual poker players who have simply been waiting to get their hands on the money that has been frozen in stalemate for nearly a year and a half. Fortunately, thanks to these staggering first-week promotions, the online poker site may not have to worry about its more serious poker players, whose funds make up the bulk of its accounts, pulling out anytime soon.

Cafrino.com is an exclusive new online poker site that launched in late September. Last week, not even a full 30 days after dealing its very first online poker hand, the legal US poker room is already celebrating its one-millionth hand. This remarkable milestone goes above and beyond the company’s expectations as Cafrino has grown to more than double its projected size for the first month of operation.

What makes Cafrino unique is that it is open to US players only and pays real cash prizes in a completely legal manner. The online poker site is based in New York, headed by CEO Jonathan Aiwazian and an expert team who are incredibly proud of the site’s preeminent success.

“Cafrino players are just confirming what we already knew,” expressed Aiwazian in response to the swift development of the US online poker room, “that America is the epicenter of the poker world, and players here demand a real-money online presence.”

The new card playing site is a real money poker room, but not in the same way as most operators. Cafrino.com never asks players to deposit any money. It is not even permitted, less the US poker room would not cohere to local laws. Instead, Cafrino pools a percentage of the money it earns from advertisements to foster real cash prize pools, like the ‘Daily Cash October’ freeroll tournaments they are currently promoting, guaranteed to pay out at least $1,500.

“Cafrino’s $1,500 October is just the beginning for us,” Aiwazian said. “There are currently prizes of up to $14,878.71 and $12,834.57 up for grabs for the top single-table and heads-up performers in the SpreeRoll tournaments.”

According to the CEO, the immense swell of the player base was never expected to happen so swiftly. The online poker room saw an intense growth spurt at the beginning of October, directly attributed to Cafrino’s precipitate dealing of the millionth hand.

To ensure the continued rapidity in evolution of the US poker room, Cafrino has initialized another unique promotion that is stirring up a lot of anticipation amongst existing members. It is called the ‘Prize Match Guarantee’, and encourages players to refer their friends to the website.

Any player who signs up an account using another member’s name in the Referral Box becomes a part of that players team, thus their name appears in the My Team tab of the referring player. When the referred player wins their first cash prize in a Spreeroll tournament, the member who referred them will instantly receive a cash prize of the exact same amount, up to $10,000 per referral. It’s an extremely valuable promotion, thus each player is only permitted to win cash prizes from their first 5 referrals. With that said, make sure your first five referrals are genuinely good poker players!

Spreerolls are online poker tournaments with an interesting design. Players must finish in the top ranks in the Step 1 tournament to proceed, but then they get to choose how to proceed. They can play in the Step 2 Cash tourney, with a real cash prize up for grabs, or move on to the Step 2 Advancement tourney. The advancement tourney then catapults players into a Step 3 Cash tourney, or Step 3 Advancement tourney. The Advancements tourneys do not have cash prizes, but they move players closer to the biggest cash prize events of all. The Cash tourneys award higher prizes with each higher Step, climbing as high as 12 Steps for the biggest prize pool in US poker room’s short history, topping $12k and $14 in single table and heads-up Spreeroll tournaments.

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.