In light of the developments that took place in the U.S. online poker market last week, the three largest formerly USA-facing online poker rooms each made significant changes to their major tournaments on Sunday. PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and UB, all of which had their primary domains seized by the Department of Justice on Friday, sliced the guarantees of their flagship tournaments, some by as much as half.
One of the up and coming online poker sites in the industry, Victory Poker, has asked its network provider to block U.S. players.
The past 72 hours have featured an upheaval of the online poker community, as the founders of PokerStars, Absolute Poker, and Full Tilt Poker were all indicted on charges that included violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and money laundering. Among the various organizations weighing in was the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), whose 1.2 million members, needless to say, have been affected greatly.
Online poker room Lock Poker has added another poker pro to their team. The LockPRO ELITE team has been increased by one as Jose Macdeo joins the ranks. Known online as Girah, Jose is a young poker pro that some say is the ideal representation of a new generation of poker pros. He is a “new face” on the game, according to CEO and owner of Lock Poker, Jennifer Larson. She mad the announcement over the weekend that Jose will be the latest pro to come on board.
A number of online poker rooms have been locked out of US access by the United States government. The domain names for major poker rooms FullTilt Poker, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and UB.com have all be sized by the US Department of Justice. US poker players were blocked from many of the poker rooms shortly after and a number of major players in the online poker industry were arrested on Friday, including the founders of three of the poker rooms. In total eleven people were arrested. The details of how this will impact the online poker industry are still developing.
Despite carrying the sponsorship of PokerStars, “High Stakes Poker” rolled on over the weekend. The GSN cash game franchise, whose new episodes can be seen at 8:00pm ET and 11:00pm ET on Saturdays, is in its seventh season. “High Stakes Poker” features funny man Norm Macdonald calling the action and PartyPoker pro Kara Scott conducting interviews. The series was filmed at Aria in Las Vegas and continues to be a favorite of poker players everywhere.
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