On this page we've listed summaries of the most important news events of January 2006
PartyGaming reports 65% revenue increase in 4th quarter
January 29, 2006 - PartyGaming released very strong results for the 4th quarter, with revenues up 65 percent to $320 million. The company also signed up 229,227 new poker players during the same period, a new record. The revenue growth is largely attributed to effective cross-selling of Blackjack to PartyPoker's existing customer base.
WPT Season V: Exit PartyPoker and UltimateBet
January 29, 2006 - WPT Enterprises, the company behind the World Poker Tour, earlier this week announced the WPT Season V schedule for 2006 and 2007. One new event was added to the 17-stop tour, the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, hosted by the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. WPT also stated it is dropping the events sponsored by PartyPoker and UltimateBet.
God does not play dice but Poker
January 29, 2006 - Albert Einstein once said "God does not play dice" , expressing his discomfort with the apparent randomness in nature. However, according to John van Sloten, Pastor at the New Hope Christian Reformed Church in Calgary, while God may not play dice he does like an occasional healthy game of Poker, more specifically Texas Holdem.
'Biggest gambling raid since Prohibition' comes to a conclusion
January 29, 2006 - In November last year the Baltimore police raided a local card club called the Owl's Nest, which resulted in the arrest of 95 people for "illegal gambling". Soon after that all charges were dropped against the participating players, but this week the event's 65 year-old organizer was fined $500 and put on probation before judgment for two years.
As the Ante goes up, the clothes come down
January 29, 2006 - Poker online always had one distinct advantage over real poker, you can play it in your undies if you wish to. As of this week this advantage is gone. The Paradise Lakes Resort in Pasco County, Florida, is organizing a strip poker tournament in order to attract "younger people to the nudist lifestyle" . Though the tourney can only be entered into by couples and single women, single men do not despair, because the Sin Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas is offering topless poker tournaments from February 7 onwards, where "as the ante goes up, the clothes [of the dealers] come down."
WPT makes two stops at the Commerce Casino in February
January 22, 2006 - The Commerce Casino is hosting the L.A. Poker Classic between January 24 and February 21, followed directly by the WPT Invitational from February 22nd until February 24th. Both tournaments will be filmed for World Poker Tour's Season IV which will start airing on the Travel Channel in March.
WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open is underway in Atlantic City
January 22, 2006 - The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open started this Friday. The tournament offers ten No Limit and Limit Texas Holdem events, culminating in the final WPT championship event on Sunday, January 29th. The winner of the $10,000 buy-in WPT main event walks home with an estimated $1 million first prize, a Cadillac Escalade and a $25,000 seat into the WPT's World Championship.
Desynchronosis syndrome takes toll among poker professionals
January 22, 2006 - January 2006 might go down in poker history as the first month when there were more poker tournaments than players. The Aussie Millions in Melbourne, the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica, the L.A. Poker Classic in Los Angeles, the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City and the EPT Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen are just a few of the bigger ones. The overloaded tournament agenda is beginning to take it's toll among poker professionals, and many suffer from a new disease called chronic poker induced desynchronosis.
Phil Ivey voted 2005 Bluff Magazine Poker Player of the Year
January 22, 2006 - Bluff Magazine revealed in a press release this week that it's readers have voted Phil Ivey as the 2005 Poker Player of the Year. Bluff Magazine's Player of the Year is based on the accumulation of points in Bluff/ESPN Power Ranking for poker players.
PokerShare sues UltimateBet for £100 million ($177,049.83)
January 22, 2006 - One of the poker headlines that captured a lot of attention last year, was the unilateral closing of PokerShare by it's licensor Excapsa in November, 2005. The poker site was very popular among players because it offered it's players a 40 percent share of it's profits. According to Lawrie Holmes from the Sunday Express, PokerShare is now filing a £100 million lawsuit against Excapa's largest licensee UltimateBet, directly threatening UltimateBet's plans for a £200 million flotation later this year.
Canadian student wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
January 15, 2006 - Steve Paul-Ambrose, a 22 year-old student from the University of Waterloo in Canada, won PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) late last week. The third edition of the tournament was hosted by Kerzner Internationals famous Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island (Bahamas). Paul-Ambrose won $1,363,100 and a seat into the WPT Championship event worth $25,000, after qualifying in one of PokerStars online satellites for just $100.
William Hill Poker Grand Prix airs on Sky starting this week
January 15, 2006 - William Hill, one of Britain's top bookies, and Sky Sports have reached an agreement for the broadcast of the inaugural $800,000 William Hill Poker Grand Prix, starting on Tuesday, January 17th. The much praised poker tournament will air in eight weekly two-hour episodes plus one three-hour final episode. A second run of the series will follow later this year on Channel 425. There will also be a one-hour behind-the-scenes documentary narrated by Victoria Coren.
Annie Duke takes on the World (GSN)
January 15, 2006 - The Game Show Network (GSN) will air a one-hour poker special "Annie Duke takes on the World" on Monday, May 1 from 9 to 10 PM. The show is hosted by poker pro Annie Duke and co-hosted by Regan Burns, a comedian and actor who also presents the game show Oblivious .
Harrah's enhances 2006 WSoP after player complaints
January 15, 2006 - World Series of Poker owner Harrah's has taken a number of significant initiatives over the last week in an effort to strengthen it's relations with the professional poker community. To begin with a $50,000 HORSE event was added to the 2006 WSoP schedule. Secondly Jeffrey Pollack was appointed as "Commissioner of the World Series of Poker" . Finally a player advisory panel was created to give the players a formal "voice" in the organization of the World Series.
Aussie Millions kicks off at Melbourne's Crown Casino
January 8, 2006 - The 2006 Crown Australian Poker Championship officially began this Friday. The third edition of the Championship, better known as the "Aussie Millions", offers a plethora of Limit, Pot Limit and No Holdem events, as well as a couple of Omaha tournaments, and a unique Speed Poker tourney. The $5 million main event starts January 15. It's is a No Limit Texas Holdem tournament with a buy-in of $10,000+$500. It will be filmed by Fox Sports and broadcast in March 2006.
PokerStars up for sale according to The Times
January 8, 2006 - If you have some dead money in your savings account and are looking for a nice investment you might want to spend it on PokerStars. The world's second largest poker room, which is controlled by the Israeli Scheinberg family, is reportedly up for sale for a "bargain" price of $2 billion dollars, according to The Times.
Men 'The Master' Nguyen is CardPlayer's Player of the Year
January 8, 2006 - For the 4th time in less than a decade Men "The Master" Nguyen became CardPlayer's Player of the Year after the final player of the year points for 2005 were counted. Second place was for John Phan and Allen Cunningham took third. Men Nguyen also won CardPlayer's Player of the Year award in 1997, 2001 and 2003.
Will Britney Spears win the 2006 World Series of Poker?
January 8, 2006 - Britney Spears will most probably not win the 2006 World Series of Poker, but who knows what might happen, as it was reported this week by various entertainment magazines, that the Spears family is no stranger to the game of Poker. Britney, accompanied by the complete Spears family, including husband Kevin Federline, showed up at a launch party for her father's new poker software.
Aviation Club de France hosts European Poker Awards
January 2, 2006 - The 2005 European Poker Awards are hosted by the Aviation Club de France in Paris this year, after being previously held at the Grand Casino in Helsinki, Finland. The event is scheduled for this Sunday, January 8th, 2006. William Hill Poker is the official sponsor of the event.
Full Tilt Poker launches beta version of it's MAC platform
January 2, 2006 - Full Tilt Poker launched a beta version of it's MAC poker software this week. The new software, that behaves exactly like it's PC cousin, was developed especially for computers with MAC OS 10.3 or higher installed. A 800Mhz or faster processor is recommended as well as 512MB of RAM or more.
Caesars Palace's first poker tournament hosted by Nicky Hilton
January 2, 2006 - On New Year's Eve, a little more than a week after the opening of Caesars Palace's $12 million poker room, Nicky Hilton and boyfriend Kevin Connolly hosted an inaugural tournament at the new poker room. The tourney, dubbed the "Nicky Hilton & Kevin Connolly New Year's Eve Poker Tournament" , had a prize pool of $120,000 and was eventually won by actress and celebrity poker player Shannon Elizabeth.