Poker News

Wanted! There is a bounty on your head. Have you ever played a tournament where you get some extra cash for knocking out one of the pros? We have managed to get an interview with Rokkaz from True Money Games Christmas Freeroll, there is a bounty on his head and we really wanted to know what it feels like.  

Rokkaz, there is a bounty on you on the christmas freeroll, why is that?

Yes, there is. Truth to be told TMG wanted to put a bounty on me for the freeroll and I accepted, it’s not much stranger than that.  

Have you played with a bounty on you before?

I have actually played a couple of times before with simillar set up, it’s a tricky as people tend to play every hand where you are involved.    

 Do you have any strategy for the event?

Of course I have a strategy, I’m going to play really tight so that whoever, if anyone, kicks me out really deserves it. It wouldn’t be fun if I would go all in directly, it needs to be a good hand.  

 Are you looking forward to the event?

Yes I do, I’m sure it will be a lot of fun and laughs. It’s also fun because it can sometimes be a bit more tricky to play with the freerolls players as they tend to do stranger moves. This one requires Player Points though so at least it’s players that normally play. It can be some really weird plays in the ordinary freerolls and I don’t really play them any more.  

 If you are interested in playing against Rokkaz and the rest of the players, you can find more info on the Merry Poker Freeroll at TrueMoneyGames.  

Tags: bounty, freeroll, True Money Games
Posted in Interviews

We managed to get an interview with Ivonne Montealegre, Marketing Manager of the poker and backgammon site TrueMoneyGames.   

You just started as Marketing Manager on TrueMoneyGames.com, I’m guessing you will do a lot of changes and was wondering where you start?

Basically, we are changing the website, giving it a well-deserved face lift. The client runs really smooth so no changes there, mainly on the website and the way we communicate towards our players.  

Where will TrueMoneyGames.com be in a years time?

TrueMoneyGames will become a medium brand with a lot of prestige. We’d rather stay at a medium-to-small level company but with excellent service and an impressive poker and backgammon client than being one of big ones. Our commitment is with quality not volume. We take a lot of pride in the fact that we run a very smooth business. Customer’s queries are sorted in a very fast way, one of the best customer support I have come across with.

The competition in gambling is hard, what is the difference between TrueMoneyGames.com and other poker rooms?

TrueMoneyGames is devoted to its loyal players. We prefer to have a few players that will come back and enjoy action at the tables than have thousands of one time visitors. That is why we will be implementing very exciting promotions in which the TrueMoneyGames team will reveal its “face”, meaning that we wish to have a very interesting interaction with our players.

A lot of our readers are interested in promotions and bonuses and there hasn’t been that many offers from TrueMoneyGames in the past, is this something that will change?

Absolutely, we are on the works of a unique rakeback system and a very easy to clear bonus system, unique in the industry.

You are in a pretty small network, how is that compared to the bigger ones?

It’s great to be honest with you: things get done. We have everything from designers to developers in-house so we work in a very effective way. I was amazed to see how our new affiliate program was launched in a matter of days. Also our customer’s queries are really sorted out. We are offering all of those advantages to our loyal customers as well as those who have recently joined TMG.   

Do you like playing poker?

I love playing poker, especially online, because I think my poker face is the worst. I get this weird grin when I am holding something good. And now revealing it here, there is no chance I will hit an offline table in a while. 

Tags: Marketing, True Money Games, Women
Posted in Interviews

Women in the Poker Industry part 1

The number of women working in the Poker industry is nothing compared to other businesses. Finding them can be tricky but there are some and Pokeriot managed to get an interview with two of them. This is the first article in the series Women in the Poker Industry where we meet Diane Dalli, Managing Director of Melita Gaming Network. The network is relatively new and the competition in poker is of course extremely tough but we managed to get a few minutes with Diane.

If you compare the Melita Network to the big ones like Ongame or iPoker, what are the advantages in a smaller network like yours?

We provide a one to one working relationship that provides flexibility and quick fix to solutions. This has worked very well since every label has different ideas and concepts towards the industry and we acknowledge this and therefore we provide different solutions to every label on the network. We also have a full professional technical team ready to all our partners to discuss solutions for anything that they would like to implement into their system. The software has been developed in-house since 2002 when TrueMoneyGames was created, ever since it has been tested and improved giving it unmatched reliability and having virtually zero downtimes.We also provide a Shared Conduct of Business where we give the opportunity to young entities to try and grow as quickly as possible by avoiding to go through the application of the gaming license which can be time consuming and also very costly. With this type of set up the partner will still be operating through a Class 3 license but not needing to go through the whole process of applying for the license. This will give the opportunity to the companies on our network to use the money and energy on bringing in the customers to their label and start generating money as quickly as possible.We have a very easy setup because all our partners need to do is bring in customers through their labels and we do all the rest!

Are you aiming to become as big as they are?

Every company aims high and of course MGN is no exception. We are a young company started off in 2007 and our goal is to grow without holding back as we already have new labels on the network and also in the process of adding more at the moment, however our mission is to maintain our flexibility and reliability which is our identity and commitment to our partners no matter what the size is.

You have chosen not to accept US Players, why is that?

This was a forced action for us since we used to accept US players however ever since the legislation changed we had to follow the rules. However we are keeping an open eye on the situation for any changes because we would want to have US players again on our network.

A lot of our readers have wondered why so many poker companies are based in Malta, why are you here?

We wanted to be trust worthy and form part of a reliable infrastructure for the industry. Malta has the LGA which provides a very strategic system and avoids any type of loop holes in the industry which for us makes us trust worthy for our customers. Also Malta offers a lot of benefits for the industry that makes it even better.

What are your goals for the Melita Network?

MGN goals are to grow however with the aim to help every label on the network to grow as well. We have a lot of new ideas for the near future to make this happen which I cannot disclose as yet however it would be great for all the partners.

And finally, do you like playing poker?

Yes I do.

Tags: Melita Gaming Network, MGN, Women
Posted in Interviews

PokerOffice is the leading poker software when it comes to instant statistics and data presented as you play. The award winning software is constantly being improved and we got to meet the CEO. Jörgen Sandahl is the new CEO of PokerOffice and just moved to Malta.

Jörgen Sandahl started playing poker during his years at uni, he has a master degree in science engineering, industrial economics. It all started when he and a friend started to do the whole casino bonus thing, playing the casino rooms just to cash out the bonus. The friend is someone you might recognize, he is now a pretty well known poker player named Bo Sehlstedt. When they had finished almost all the casinos for bonuses Bo started looking at poker. A few poker strategy books later he convinced Jörgen to move to poker too and in just a year Jörgen felt confident enough to start playing professionally.

After a year and a half as an online pro Jörgen got sick of it. The online poker pro doesn’t live a very social life, it’s quite lonely playing poker all night at home. Another feeling that started to show up was that he didn’t want to waste his education and a job at Ongame (Bwin today) was a natural step. At Ongame he worked with several of the big brands as Bwinpoker, Europoker and Pokerroom with business development and leading projects. Jörgen liked the job a lot but after two years PokerOffice contacted him.

PokerOffice was exciting, it’s still in the poker business but not an actual gaming company. That it was a smaller company was also a positive thing, it gets more interesting when things can change a bit quicker. The placement in Malta was of course something that had to be considered but it was not only negative. Comparing the weather in January with the Swedish weather Jörgen is used to makes the advantages obvious.

When I ask Jörgen what PokerOffice really is his answer is that it’s a world leading software for players that want a better picture of theirs and other players game. This both in real time and after the game using PokerOffice as an analytics tool. If you compare it to the competitors it’s also easy to use and it doesn’t take a windows programmer to set up. PokerOffice both offers the depth demanded by the more advanced players and a good support for the beginners. Even though PokerOffice offers lots and lots of statistics you can choose to use the parts that make you a better player, like pot odds on overlay when you play and information directly on the table of how your opponents play their hands. A good way for a beginner to become a stronger player is to let the use of PokerOffice grow as the poker skills get sharper.

What PokerOffice actually does is just putting structure to and presenting the information that the pokerrooms make available. The advantage is that compared to a human, PokerOffice can keep track of quite a lot of information, there are thousands of variables to keep track of and getting them presented in a good way as you play really makes a difference. The benefits of being able to use all this information can make you a top notch player.

Just as in any other software business it is important to keep developing the product, says Jörgen, and PokerOffice is always being improved. During the spring and summer there will be a number of large improvements, many of them after ideas and suggestions from the PokerOffice users giving voice to their opinions in the forum. One of the news is the support for more languages.

The PokerOffice story started when two students on the Swedish Royal Institute of Science decided to realize their idea. The idea turned in to a real business and in 2006-2007 the company was restructured and the business moved to Malta. The sales and support departments was expanded and rebuilt and 2008 looks like it’s going to be a very good year for PokerOffice. The poker industry has been showing a big interest for the product and if you look at it as a service the timing is perfect. As affiliate to pokerrooms PokerOffice can offer more value to the partners and clients because of the nature of the product. The players coming to the poker sites from PokerOffice are better players than the average. Just compare the statistics, about 40% of the PokerOffice players are winning players compared to about 5 or 10 % when it comes to the general player.

Tags: interview, Poker software, pokeroffice, products
Posted in Interviews