The Winning Poker Network has announced the largest guaranteed tournament for a U.S. room since the events of April 15th, 2011, a $250,000 guaranteed tournament to be held on April 15th, 2012. Dubbed the Liberty Weekend $250,000, the name of the event is an obvious play on one of the darkest days in history for U.S. poker players, Black Friday, which occurred one year to the date of this tournament. Poker rooms on the Winning Poker Network offering this large tournament include Americas Cardroom and True Poker. Players are able to buy-in directly to the Liberty $250,000 for $215 or via satellites for as little as $1. Players are able to rebuy during the late registrations period. On April 13th, a smaller $36+$3 buy-in tournament will be held which will guarantee 250 seats to the April 15th final. The network has been no stranger to larger tournament guarantees over the last few months, having gradually increased their largest tournaments each month. In December, their featured a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool, and then increased it to $75,000 in January and $100,000 in February, which was the largest on the network before the $250,000 Liberty Weekend Tournament was announced. Other U.S. facing sites have increased the prize pools over the last year, but not at the rate Winning Poker has over the last few months. The Merge Gaming Network increased their Sunday $50,000 to $100,000, while Merge Gaming’s Poker Maximus is featuring guaranteed prize pools up to $200,000. Bovada has continued $100,000 weekly tournaments and is hosting a $250,000 Guaranteed for the main event of the Black Diamond Poker Open running on April 1st. Winning Poker is currently the fourth largest U.S. facing site. Despite having their domain seized in the “Blue Money” seizures -- approximately one month after Black Friday – the network has maintained the fastest cashout times for U.S. players.
As some of you may know, each month I go through each of our partner rooms and post the most significant non-exclusive promotions of the month. Today, I thought I would share my subjective analysis of the most interesting promotions on the list -- my Top 7 -- running during February. 1) WPT/Party Poker Card Rush During February, Party Poker and WPT Poker bring back the popular Card Rush. For each 15 Party Points a player earns they will receive a game piece that will reveal a guaranteed prize of a minimum of 10 Party Points up to a grand prize of $5,000. Card Rush Race points will also be earned towards a leaderboard that will pay additional cash prizes of $50 to $9,000 to the top 200 players. Party Poker will also scatter $50 spots to players finishing 220 through 2,000. Party Poker will be awarding up to 1.8 million cards during the length of this promotion. Undoubtedly, many of these cards will be Party Points and freeroll entries but it's still a great extra perks that grinders should appreciate. 2) Carbon Poker/Aced/Black Chip Poker $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freerolls Carbon Poker, Aced and Black Chip Poker will be running numerous daily qualifiers to the $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freeroll to be held on February 26th at 2 PM ET. There is no direct way to get into the tournament so players must enter either three-times-daily Freeroll Qualifiers (at 13:30, 17:30 or 21:30) or via VIP Points Earned Qualifiers. The VIP Points Qualifiers are run nine times daily. To qualify for these tournaments, players must earn a designated number of VIP Points the previous day and/or the current day up to the time of the tournament. I'm estimating an overlay of about $10 per player in the final. 3) Minted Poker $1 Max Rake Minted Poker and other sites on the Everleaf Network have extended $1 Max rake caps on all tables through February. These tables should be attracting more players than they are due to the fact they are not subject to the large 5 euro max rake and the winning limits that players must undergo at the euro tables. This would be the top promotion in online poker if there was more traffic on these tables. 4) Betsafe $100,000 Points Races Betsafe offers their lucrative Points Race every month so this promotion isn't any more special than previous months. I like this promotion not only for the total size of the prize pool -- which is divided into two promo periods each month -- but the overall value to players. Betsafe also sweetens the pot by providing a $6,000 freeroll to all players that finish in the top 100 of Race 1 or 2. 5) True Poker/Americas Cardroom You really wouldn't think that a small network such as Winning Poker would be able to offer such large promotions, but during February they have actually increased their monthly race promotions to $100,000. $60,000 of the prize pool is awarded to the top FPP Point earners during the month and another $40,000 will be given away during weekend "Sprints," $10k each weekend. Note that the Sprints are only available to ring game players while the $60k "Marathon" is offered to both ring game and tournament players and actually awards bonus points for participation in top tournaments. 6) Boss Magic Hands For one day only on February 14th, the Boss Network (Poker Heaven, Fortune Poker, Interpoker) are awarding cash prizes to players that hit various Valentine's Day themed hands. I've always loved these types of promotions, especially ones that are relatively easy to hit like this one. Players receive €25 for a Heart Flush, €25 when losing 3 hands with K and Q of hearts and €250 when winning a hand with Straight Flush of Hearts. Players must submit a Magic Hand to claim via the Player Zone within 72 hours of hitting the hand. Note that both hole cards must be used and other rules apply. 7) Mansion Poker On Target! I'm also a big fan of promotions that guarantee a prize when a certain amount of play is achieved and that is exactly what Mansion is offering during February with their "On Target" promotion. Each week during the month, players can enter On Target via a no-play tournament from the lobby. Players that hit a raked hand target during the week will receive a cash reward and a $50 pending bonus. Prizes start at $5 and a $50 bonus for reaching 200 raked hands. Not bad, especially for grinders and when combining the promotion on top of the other many Mansion promotions. There you have it- my personal favorite standard online poker promotions for the month of February. If you a PAS publisher, be sure to also check out over $300,000 in exclusive promotions during the month of February. Good luck and happy marketing!
The network home of True Poker and Americas Cardroom has announced that they have officially changed their name from Yatahay to the Winner Poker Network, a move they say reflects their "industry-leading product offering and proven dedication to the online poker community in the United States." While other top U.S. facing rooms such as Carbon Poker and Bovada garner much of the buzz these days, the network now dubbed Winning Poker has been a quiet success story since the events of Black Friday, or Blue Monday for that matter. According to PokerScout the network has a shade over 200 real money players at the tables during peak times. But this traffic figure comes short of telling the entire story. The low to mid stakes games, for instance, often see just as many players as networks twice the reported size of the Winning Poker Network. The multi-table tournament prize pools tell a similar story. The Sunday guaranteed now fetches a $15,000 prize pool and at the end of January, the Winning Poker Network will be offering a $75,000 guaranteed event. These are prize pools that are competing or exceeding the MTTs offered by Cake Poker and Everleaf, much larger networks according to PokerScout. In addition, the promotional offerings on the Winning Poker Network are also very generous. Not only are players receiving 27% rakeback and a 100% up to $1,000 sign-up bonus at rooms such as True Poker and Americas Cardroom, but players can also participate in a monthly $65,000 Points Race, which provides impressive returns to players that are among the top 275 on the leaderboard. A Secret Santa cash-rewards program was also extended through January. The Winning Poker Network touts themselves as "being the best destination for U.S. players looking for a safe and secure site," but do they live up to the hype? The roots of Winning Poker Network trace back to the flagship room, True Poker. Even though the poker room has maintained a similar size for roughly a decade, they have always seemed to quietly go about their business providing the same respectable, quality service to players. In regards to payouts -- arguably the most important aspect of a poker room for U.S. players today -- they are among the top performers over the last few months. In December's Payment Processing report we gave them a B rating -- 2nd overall -- with non-bounced checks arriving to players' mailboxes within 1-2 weeks. Despite the many positives, the Winning Poker Network clearly falls short in some key areas, at least right now. Sit N Go grinders and non-Hold'em cash game players, for example, are two types of players who likely wont find much appeal in the poker network unless they are playing another poker room simultaneously. Most of the U.S. facing rooms, including the Winning Poker Network, are significantly above where they were at this time last year. While we can't expect a name change to affect a network's success by any significant measure (although I would argue it's an improvement over the confusing and ambiguous Yatahay), monitoring the Winning Poker Network's momentum over 2012 will be something we will be sure to keep an eye on.
Poker Affiliate Solutions has launched our latest rakeback offer, this time from the U.S. facing Americas Cardroom, a site on the Yatahay Network that recently purchased Doyles Room. ACR is gaining a lot of momentum in the online poker world since transferring Doyles Room players to the site last month. They have also been agressive with advertisements on ESPN as well as the Game Show Network. PAS publishers promoting Americas Cardroom rakeback will receive 35% commissions with 27% paid to players in the form of rakeback (8% after rakeback has been paid). So why should I promote Americas Cardroom? --One of the original online poker rooms, ACR launched in 2001 as an independent poker room. --Backed by a financially sound, reputable company --One of more recognizable names on the Yatahay Network (also home of True Poker) --Accepting U.S. players --Better than average payment processing --Good No Limit Hold'em game selection up to $2/$4, with the majority of the action taking place up to $0.50/$1.00 (Bad Beat Jackpot tables are especially popular) --Tournament action is increasing. Players can now take part in a $15k weekly and a daily $4k. Each month, hundreds of thousands of dollars in guaranteed prize pools are offered. What do players receive when signing up at True Poker through a PAS site? --27% Rakeback, Weighted contributed method --Free Poker Coaching through DeucesCracked (for eligible players) --100% up to $1000 sign-up bonus --Monthly Points Race ($65,000 for November). --Occasional Reload Bonuses --$150,000 in guaranteed tournaments each month How do I promote Americas Cardroom rakeback through PAS? ? If you previously promoted Doyles Room, the offer should automatically be available on your site. So if you do not wish to promote Americas Cardroom, make sure to disable the offer in the publisher admin. If the offer is not available on your site and you wish to promote ACR, simply enable the offer from the Rakeback Offers tab. If you are not yet a PAS publisher: Start promoting the Americas Cardroom rakeback offer today, as well as dozens of additional revenue-share and CPA deals from top online poker rooms. Sign-up today and get started in minutes. Where can I receive additional information? We have a provided publishers a helpful FAQ that provides you with answers to the most common questions we see. If you would like more information on the Americas Cardroom rakeback offer, be sure to check out our Americas Cardroom review. If you have any additional questions about PAS or the True Poker rakeback offer, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help. PAS is always happy to assist you with growing your online poker affiliate. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help.
Last week saw Doyles Room end their long run serving U.S. players as players were migrated to the recently reopened Americas Cardroom. In iPoker skin news, Genting Poker decided to ban players from 10 countries in a move that seems isolated to the Genting. These stories and more are a part of this week's Weekly Industry Update. Doyles Room Players Move to Americas Cardroom: Almost five months after Doyles Brunson left Doyles Room, Americas Cardroom has announced that they had purchased Doyles Room and would be migrating players to the rebranded room. The player migration took place in the middle of the week as players moved to fellow Yatahay Network site Americas Cardroom. Players will notice very little difference with the move, even being able to log on to ACR with the same logon details. Americas Cardroom relaunched about a month ago after a hiatus of approximately four years. They originally launched around 2001 as a standalone room using the Dobrosoft software. In the next few years they shared the Dobrosoft software with other rooms before moving to Ongame in 2005 where they remained until shortly after the UIGEA. Full Tilt Poker Updates: : Earlier in the week there were many rumors swirling that the Tapie-Full Tilt Poker was on the verge of collapse. Full Tilt Poker's lawyer denied the reports by saying that reports of the deal being dead "was news to me." If you haven't had chance to check it out, be sure to look at my sit-down with PokerAddict on Full Tilt Poker scenarios complete with betting lines. Genting Poker Leaves Ten Countries: Genting Poker, an iPoker poker room headquartered in Malaysia has decided to ban players from ten countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Greece, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Spain. Genting Poker's legal team has determined that it is not fully legal for the company to operate in those jurisdictions. The company has stated that the countries do not represent a large portion of their player base or revenue. Genting Poker's largest market is in the United Kingdom where they enjoy a very favorable legal environment. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: According to the latest traffic report from, PokerScout online poker traffic was largely flat with a modest 0.1% increase and 4.7% when not accounting for PokerStars' 8% drop. Party Poker also saw a large increase during the week, up a healthy 7%, putting them 13% above third place iPoker. Jottings: Sportingbet sells Turkish website... AGCC Regulatory practices rely on honor system...British player convicted of threatening online poker staff...Party Poker releases Mac client...$2 million more in online gambling funds seized ...5 year anniversary of the UIGEA...$20 million seized in Swiss accounts...Piggs Peak bans South African players, loses 90% of traffic.
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