Planet Mark's Blog. Thoughts, News And Strategy For Poker Tournaments Of All Size

Quick General Update From The World Of Poker

Wanted to update readers on some significant happenings in the world of poker, without becoming just another one of the 1000’s of ‘clones’ re-writing each others poker news! So, I’ll summarize in one post all the recent happenings, and clear the way for a more cheerful ‘look-ahead’ post tomorrow focusing on events in May.In a nutshell, the DoJ actions of last month look like they might have bought about the end for Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Latest updates are that their HQ is closed, 95% of their staff gone and a letter has gone out to shareholders advising that the company may be filing to go bankrupt shortly.

I will be going though my websites today (or at least starting to!), advising readers to completely avoid these sites. If you are one of the 5854 players at 900 tables still playing (as of 10 minutes ago!) then I wish you the best in seeing your money… I have a few hundred there (my latest $250 was requested already, alas no news), I have written off this cash as dead in my mind already, if it comes through I’ll treat it as a bonus. Guess this also means deciding what to do with the domain www.cereuspoker.co.uk … never really did have a good plan for that one! Not everyone will be sad to see these sites go, especially after the cheating scandals of 2008. My view is that any celebration would be a little hollow, lets just hope we get through this period of uncertainty for the poker world quickly and can then move on. Full Tilt – Cashouts are still not available for US players, or affiliates, for now.

There is some speculation around that there are some financial issues around with cash tied up by the DoJ and also a lot of check deposit cash which has been spent by players, yet not claimed from banks. I am personally pretty optimistic on this one, Full Tilt are big enough, even without the US, to generate enough cash to cover any temporary cashflow troubles – they simply need a mechanism. I'll continue to play there myself for now.

Merge Network – A separate announcement from the new US number #1 – no new rakeback players after the 1st of June. I like this move, rakeback quickly turns players who once enjoyed poker into mindless multi-tabling robots… and kills the games for recreational players at the same time by filling the tables with these multi-tabling types. Rewards programs are great, especially those which offer something to every level of player (Stars VIP club being the classic example). Anyway, I can get you a 33% rakeback deal for the rest of this month, via my rakeback site – click best carbon poker rakeback deal for more. If you already signed up through this site and would like to be switched to rakeback, write me a separate mail (we will need to send any requests to Carbon to check your sign-up data and change you over, so please, do not write if you signed up through someone else - you'll be wasting you time!). Merge Network #2 – 2 sites from this network, Sportsbook Poker and Players Only Poker, have decided to stop accepting players from the US. That’s all for the moment,

GL at the tables, Mark

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