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Poker News Round-up: Week #16Just as we are continually hearing of well established high street stores going under in recent times, the same seems to apply to internet poker sites as another one has bitten the dust this week. The imaginatively titled PokerRoom ceased operation on 14th April to draw an end to ten years in the business after it was set up by a couple of Swedish players in 1999. Having established itself as one of the major sites in the market, it was just about able to withstand the massive blow of losing its American customer base in 2006 with the introduction of the UIGEA. The current climate in which there seems to be a lot less expendable cash around appears to have been one obstacle too many though and PokerRoom has now closed its doors for good. As one site folds though, that provides the opportunity for another to grow as a valuable source of potential new customers is created for those who are able to make it through the hard times. According to pokerscout.com traffic on the big two sites in the industry is showing significant improvement with Pokerstars showing 48% and Full Tilt 69% year on year growth. Party Poker’s traffic is also currently at a two year high, proving that there is plenty of life in the online poker scene yet. It was reported last week that the payment made by Party to secure a non-prosecution agreement might have been made with the expectation that legislation in America might be changing soon, and there is more news this week which could be taken as a positive sign in that respect. It seems that Party Gaming’s former CEO Mitch Garber will soon be taking a job with Harrah’s - more specifically he is said to be due to lead a new division of Harrah’s which will focus on internet gaming operations and the WSOP brand. It may just be coincidence for both of these things to happen shortly before Barney Frank’s Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act is due to be heard, but it certainly seems possible that foundations are being laid for theses companies to be well positioned should the UIGEA be repealed and the US market opens up again. Over in Dublin there was a very healthy turnout for the second oldest no limit hold’em tournament in the world as 700 people took their seats for the Irish Open at the Citywest hotel. This tournament has been running since 1980 and has grown to become one of the most popular, regularly attracting American players including this year Dan Harrington, Jamie Gold and Brian Townsend. A cooler set over set hand for Townsend ended his involvement in the very first level at the hands of Richard Ashby, whereas Harrington was on the opposite end of one as he crippled home town favourite Donnacha O’Dea early on. Harrington in turn passed those chips on though as he was one of 636 players who busted out inside the first two days.  Irish Open winner Christer Johansson With the field thinning and many of the more recognizable names eliminated, the story of the tournament was that of EPT hostess Kara Scott who not only made it through to the final table but also kept on accumulating chips to hold the bigger stack when she took on Christer Johansson heads up. A bold re-raise for all her chips with second pair on the flop just 13 hands into heads up play proved costly though as Johansson not only held top pair but by this stage had also taken the chip lead. The Swede’s hand held up and he became the first player from mainland Europe to take the title in the long history of the Irish Open, collecting €600,000 in the process. For Kara Scott, another very impressive result to go with last year’s 104th place in the WSOP main event saw her net €312,600. When the WSOP Europe returns to London later in the year, there will once again be four bracelets up for grabs but there is one major difference in the schedule. The HORSE event has been scrapped and replaced with a £2,500 pot limit mixed Omaha and hold’em game. These games tend to more popular with European players than the HORSE variants so we can probably expect to see a greater turn out for this than the hundred or so who have signed up for the mixed games in the past. These events will run from September 17th to October 1st at the Empire in Leicester Square and once again the series is sponsored by Betfair. For those who fancy a crack at a bracelet without the ten hour flight to Nevada, live satellites are already underway. There’s some big tournament action to look forward to for the rest of April with EPT San Remo in Italy and the WPT championship event at Bellagio both getting underway next week. Dave Ulliott and Praz Bansi have already got on the score sheet in some of the preliminary events in Vegas and hopefully there will be more news of further successes for players from these parts to bring you as we see how they get on when they do battle next week.
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