Poker News

A while ago a Pokeriot journalist managed to get hold of information about a large number of affiliates offering Betsson Rakeback even though Ongame obviously prohibit Rakeback. Betsson was allowed to answer the article and claimed that they were actively working to remove all rakeback offers on their affiliates sites.   

 It might seem like the kind of answer that any poker room would give on an article showing such obvious flaws but now a few months later most of the Rakeback offers have actually disappeared. There are still a few of the listed offers available but in most cases they are gone and in some the whole sites. We at Pokeriot can only applaud Betsson for taking care of the problem in a fast and professional way.  

The question wether Ongames Policy is fair still stands though, even though Betsson are out of trouble this time. Is the Ongame Enviroment really Rakeback Free? Well, as long as poker rooms offer Revenue Share there will always be Rakeback in kind, it’s way to simple to start out as an affiliate and have your friends sign up through you, paying them a percent. If Ongame truly whishes to fight Rakeback, slapping fines on the rooms is not the answer, the answer is disabling Revenue share possibilites. 

The truth is probably somewhere in between, rakeback is bad for the network in a lot of ways but not so bad that it would be worth it to remove rev-share. Like in most online games they just want to do enough to be able to say that there isn’t any cheating. They settle for saying we have a no-rakeback-policy so that they can attract bigger poker rooms that would lose money from smaller rakeback offering rooms.  

Poker Office, a poker software that we have talked about a lot here on Pokeriot, has for a long time been the absolutely best poker tool that you can find. It’s also free if you sign up on one of their supporting poker rooms. The weekend they released the Poker Office 5 Open Beta so that all of us can get a sneak preview of the new software. We can soon expect the final version to be released.

What is new in PokerOffice 5?

One of the most important new features is support for Windows Vista, something that has been a major problem with previous versions.

A lot of new statistics. Poker Office has always been the tool to offer the most and best staistics on overlay (you can decide what to show directly on the poker table) and of course they are improving it even more in the new verision.

New Overlay. The overlay is completely new where you can customize several extra windows with the data that you want.

The Fish Finder. A completely new search function where you can search through the whole database for the Fish. You can select and set more than 200 variables to refine your search for the bad players.

Plugins. Poker Office 5 offers the possibility to create your own plugins and filters that you can use and share with others. This means that you can get custom statistics in all parts of the new version of Poker Office.

Faster. The new statistics engine is a LOT faster than the old one.

More filter options. The options for the filters have been expanded giving you the possibility to customize even more.

+ much more

Find out more about PokerOffice or go to Poker Office 5

What kind of tournaments have you seen in world of online poker?

In championships of poker the majority of participants are there to show their level of skill in the game. The best way to do that is joining a league, where you will find other good players who also want to show their skills and competitive instincts. Last but not least, in the end of all this you have the enormous prizes.

Championships are fun, emotional and make you want to prove that you are the best among all other competitors that are there and the odds are always an attraction for those who play and those attending the events.

There are championships every week so whether you are an amateur or a professional there is always somewhere to play.

But what to do when that is not interesting anymore and when you actually goal is to become a porn actor? The Swank Poker joined the industry of online sex and if you are 18 years or older this might be something for you. The promotions include supply of condoms for a year, international trips to brothels, erotic videos or what about a whole day with an escort girl? The imagination of Swank Poker is definitely not lacking.

The site has created a league that its members take very seriously. The championship gives the winner the chance to be a part of an adult film and guess what – it is a success!

The advantage in this promotion for those players more timid is that the site gives the option of doing the filming of the sex scenes using a mask which helps even more to promote the championship.

The poker is increasingly being associated with sex. The Strip Poker is a fever among many players of poker and is now available on the internet and electronic games for curious.

But who would have said that a site for online poker could have as much success as putting a championship together rewarding you with a place in a adult movie as the main prize?

Well, I bet you have seen nothing yet – what’s next?

The story of James Bond also known as 007 began in books. The first story, written by the writer Ian Fleming is entitled Casino Royale and was published in 1953.

Ian Fleming was inspired by himself to write the story of James Bond, as Ian was a secret agent of the British government during World War II, fascinated by betting and games together with luck with the women – doesn’t that remind one of 007?

The name James Bond was inspired by the name of the author of the book (Birds of the West Indies) that Ian read while traveling to Jamaica on vacation.

The story of the first book of the James Bond saga is about before he was promoted to be a 007 Agent with license to kill. In his first mission, James Bond goes to Montenegro to face Le Chiffre (the villain of the story) in a game of poker in the famous casino called Casino Royale. There are currently 22 James Bond films including the missions and stories of Agent 007. The first film was released in 1962. It was called Dr. No and starred at first Agent 007 – namely Sean Connery.

Casino Royale is the 21th movie in the series of James Bond and in 2006 Daniel Craig became the sixth actor to interpret James Bond with Casino Royale which marked his debut in the role of Agent 007.

Casino Royal was produced in 2006, but is actually a prequel to the whole series as the movie is the first story in a beginning saga of the James Bond with the codename 007.

In this movie, as well as in the book, James Bond needs to go to Casino Royale in Montenegro to play a game of poker – in this movie against Le Chiffre, played by Danish Mads Mikkelsen.

It is the sixth time that the casino in Montenegro is shown in the official Bond films and the scene where Bond and Le Chiffre is heads-up will certainly be a classic in cinema, which once again shows the great importance poker as a competitive game of cards in the world has.

We now have a Greek section on Pokeriot. Greece is one of the fast growing poker markets and it’s reasonable that everyones favourite poker news site is translated for all our friends on the Mediterranean islands to enjoy. 

Pokeriot.com is a constantly growing site as you might have noticed and today we are proud to say that it is available in Italian as well. The slogan for the site in Italian (you know the: Pokeriot – Your guide to free online poker) is: Pokeriot.com – La tua guida gratuita al poker online. If you know how to speak, or at least read, Italian, take a look. 

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.  

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. 

After the last article about Ongames unfair Rakeback Policy we got a lot of feedback. We thought that it was the right thing to do to let Betsson answer the statements in the article and here is the complete answer:

Betsson supports Ongame’s policy

As a hard working and serious gaming company, Betsson wants to point out its relation to Ongame and what we offer and do not offer our customers.

Betsson is an independent company which means that our agreement with Ongame as network is the same as every other operator in the network. This means that as Ongames states, Betsson is operating in a “rakeback free environment“ and have done from October 2007. The same goes for back to back bonuses.

We know that there have been affiliates working for us and giving out rakeback. As soon as this has come to our knowledge these affiliates have been suspended. In our aim to support Ongame to obtain the rakeback free environment, this is how we have to work.

Betsson wants to offer its customers a feeling of a high end product with a high level of service. This is how we attract and keep our customers.

Rumors about being an operator offering things to players that no other operator in the network does is not in line with how a serious betting company operates, and especially not Betsson. For other poker rooms in the Ongame Network Betsson therefore wants to clarify this by this article and explain that rumors are just rumors that have no real source.

We will together with Ongame proceed working for a “rakeback free environment” and are always open for new serious gaming companies in the network.

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.