Poker News | Carbon Poker Blog

Free DragTheBar Membership at Carbon Poker

Posted by PokerPop on 6th February 2012

Those interested in poker training will definitely be excited about the new deal that Carbon Poker is running. In association with DragTheBar, Carbon will be offering free poker training to players who meet the requirements set forth.

As long as you rake just $1 at Carbon, you’ll receive free poker training at DTB for the remainder of February and the entire month of March. Assuming you like the DragTheBar poker training ($30 value), you can keep it going beyond March by raking $500 before the full months-end.

To get started, you simply need to have a Carbon Poker account and opt-in here. Once you rake $1, you’ll have access to all of the membership benefits that regular DTB members get with no extra hidden costs involved. Perks to being a DragTheBar member include having access to their 1,000-plus video library, and watching training videos from over 30 poker coaches.

If you’d like more free offers, keep in mind that Carbon Poker is running a $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freeroll on February 26th. To get into this huge freeroll, you can play in the free qualifiers that are running every day at 13:30, 17:30 and 21:30 server time. The top 10 players win a seat for the $25k Bankroll Booster Freeroll, so if you keep entering the qualifiers, you have a good chance to win.

Those looking for less crowded freerolls should consider the VIP Points Earned Qualifiers. With these, you need to earn a certain amount of VIP Points throughout the day before entering. What this does is limit the field sizes, and gives you a much better chance at winning a seat for the $25k Bankroll Booster Freeroll. And keep in mind that the winner of the $25k Freeroll will earn $5,000, which is definitely quite a bankroll boost!

Robbie Williams takes Heat over Poker Site

Posted by PokerPop on 4th February 2012

UK pop star Robbie Williams’ life has pretty much been an open book ever since he hit stardom as a member of “Take That” in the early 90′s. And it’s only gotten worse as his solo career propelled him towards 70 million records sold worldwide. However, one aspect of his life that has escaped some fans is how Williams enjoys playing games of chance like poker.

He has recently turned this love of poker into a new site called RobbieWilliamsPoker.com, which, at first glance, seems like a free poker site. The words at the bottom of the home page say so with the following:

Our online poker room is the place where poker players and Robbie Williams fans play each other to score great prizes and create the craziest avatars! So get your poker face on for free online poker tournaments and perfect your Holdem Poker skills. This is NOT a Gambling Offer. You play in all games with virtual game money with no value.

It is worth mentioning though that not all poker games at Robbie Williams’ site are entirely free. In fact, a lot of the poker tournaments feature real money buy-ins, which makes this just about like any other poker site.

And this has the media on his back because it’s something else to rip on the former drug addict for. Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt told the DailyMail, “I’m outraged by this. It directly targets his fans, including children. The money he makes should go to addiction charities.” A fan also wrote the following on his website, “Taking advantage of vulnerable people for financial gain does not sit right with me.”

Unfortunately, the new Robbie Williams poker site seems to have turned into an attack on the game itself. And it’s unlikely that a mainstream media site like the DailyMail is going to understand this. Furthermore, don’t expect them to mention anything about how much skill poker involves either.

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2012 WSOP Schedule to feature Big Changes

Posted by PokerPop on 2nd February 2012

The new World Series of Poker schedule has been released, and it includes a few notable changes from previous years. First off, the much-anticipated $1 million buy-in tournament will happen as expected, and it’s titled the Big One for One Drop. The name refers to the fact that 11.1% of the prize money goes to Guy Laliberte’s “One Drop” charity, and the $1 million buy-in makes this the most expensive poker tournament in history.

Another big change is that the November Nine won’t actually be playing in November this year, but rather late October. The reason why is because the WSOP wants to avoid overlapping their Main Event TV coverage with the 2012 Presidential Election. In essence though, this still keeps the big delay in between the start of the WSOP Main Event (July 7th), and the date at which the final table concludes.

Some brand new WSOP poker tournaments besides the aforementioned $1 million buy-in tourney include the following events:

Event #3 – $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #6 – $5,000 Mix-Max No-Limit Hold’em
Event #28 – $2,500 Four-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Event #49 – $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold’em

WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel discussed his excitement over the new changes by saying, “This year’s WSOP schedule is very exciting. We’re introducing some fantastic new events, while bringing back many successful stalwarts that our players love.” He continued by adding, “We will expand our footprint this year to include extra tables dedicated to cash games, as well as plenty of satellite and single-day tournament space, so players will have an easy time finding a desirable game without ever having to leave the Rio Convention Center.”

With all of the new changes taking place in the 2012 WSOP schedule, it will be interesting to see how this event compares to last year when over 75,000 players competed for a collective $192 million. Considering the fact that there’s a $1 million buy-in tournament already on the schedule, you can probably bet that the $192 million prize money number will be shattered.

Posted in General, General Posts, Poker News, World Series of Poker | No Comments

Pick Super Bowl Winner for a $5k Freeroll

Posted by PokerPop on 1st February 2012

If you yearn for more from the Super Bowl than simply stuffing your face with chips and making a $2 bet with your friend, then you should visit Carbon Poker. After all, Carbon is giving players the opportunity to win a $5,000 freeroll entry simply by predicting the winner of Super Bowl XLVI.

To make your selection, all you have to do is visit your Player Admin area, and pick between the New England Patriots and New York Giants before the game takes place on February 5th. If your prediction is correct, your $5k freeroll ticket will be available on February 11th. As for the $5k freeroll, this happens on February 11th, and the field is limited to those who make a correct Super Bowl prediction.

If you’re looking for some guidance on which team to pick, the Patriots come into the game as the favorite at most sportsbooks. After all, they did finish with the AFC’s best record at 13-3, and easily won their division.

The Giants, on the other hand, struggled during certain portions of the year, and had to win their final regular season game just to make the playoffs (9-7 record). But since sneaking into the playoffs, the Giants have played excellent en route to wins over the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers.

In addition to their recent good play, the Giants also got the nod from the video game ‘Madden NFL 12.’ Every year there is a hyped Super Bowl simulation on Madden NFL, and this time around the Giants won 27-24 over the Patriots. In regards to its accuracy, Madden has made plenty of oddsmakers look foolish by successfully predicting winners in 6 out of the last 8 Super Bowls. Could they make it 7 out of 9?

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Carbon Poker running $25k Freeroll

Posted by PokerPop on 31st January 2012

On February 26th, Carbon Poker will hold a huge $25,000 Bankroll Booster freeroll that’s sure to help quite a few players out. This is especially the case with the first place finisher, who’s set to receive $5,000 for winning the tournament!

As for entering this freeroll, players will have two different options. The first option is the regular freeroll qualifiers that run three times a day. What’s great about these tourneys is that there’s absolutely no entry fee, and the top 10 players win a seat for the $25k Bankroll Booster. In regards to finding the regular freerolls, you can catch them daily at 13:30, 17:30 and 21:30 (server time) in the Scheduled > Special section of the lobby.

The other option for winning your way into the Bankroll Booster includes the VIP Points Earned qualifiers. With these, you need to earn a certain amount of VIP Points before a specified time of the day. Your points start being tracked at 00:01, and here is a look at how many points you need to earn to enter each specific qualifier:

- 00:30 qualifier requires 100 points
- 04:30 qualifier requires 20 points
- 08:30 qualifier requires 50 points
- 12:30 qualifier requires 100 points
- 14:30 qualifier requires 300 points
- 16:30 qualifier requires 75 points
- 18:30 qualifier requires 15 points
- 20:30 qualifier requires 100 points
- 22:30 qualifier requires 500 points

The big advantage to playing in the VIP Points qualifiers is that there will be far less poker players in these fields than what you can expect in the open entry qualifiers. But no matter what way you make it into the $25k Bankroll Booster, it’s well worth the effort because of the huge prize pool that’s available.

And as far as structure goes, players will start off with 3,000 chips in this tournament, and the blind levels go up every 10 minutes. This being the case, it gives players plenty of time to use skilled play to inch closer towards that $5,000 first place prize.

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Oliver Speidel wins Aussie Millions Main Event

Posted by PokerPop on 29th January 2012

Before the 2012 Aussie Millions, Oliver Speidel was a little known grinder whose main claim to fame was winning the 2011 Manny Pacquiao World Poker Event ($50,045). But all that’s changed in a big way after Speidel captured the Aussie Millions Main Event title along with the A$1,600,000 first place prize.

When final table play began, Speidel was sitting behind Bjorn Di in second place in the chip count. However, Li’s misfortunes along with Speidel’s dominating play propelled him to the final table lead. By the time it was down to just the Aussie and his head-up opponent, Kenneth Wong, Speidel had already built up a 4-1 chip lead. Wong was never able to make a dent in this lead either, and the tournament was over 20 minutes later.

Following the tourney, Oliver Speidel couldn’t believe he won the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event as he said, “Words can’t describe it. I’ve just been incredibly lucky this week.” He continued by adding, “It’s almost a joke to me really how lucky I’ve been this week. It keeps amazing me and now to win it all, I don’t know. I don’t know what to say really.”

What’s interesting is that Speidel is now the fourth straight Aussie to win the Main Event title dating back to Stewart Scott in 2009. And no one is more happy about this than Speidel himself who added the aforementioned $1.6 million AUD to his career winnings. The 26-year-old now has $1.97 million USD in poker tournament earnings, which ranks him 6th all-time among Australians (just ahead of Scott).

Some of his other highlights include a $1k side event win at the 2011 Aussie Millions ($99.5k), finishing second in a 2012 Aussie Millions $1k side event ($25.5k), and winning the aforementioned Manny Pacquiao tournament in the Philippines.

Posted in Aussie Millions, Live Tournaments, Poker News | No Comments

Phil Galfond to sell Condo with Slide

Posted by PokerPop on 28th January 2012

As if Phil Galfond’s unparalleled Pot-Limit Omaha ability hadn’t already gained him enough attention throughout the years, the American also made national news for installing a slide in his $3.14 million New York City condo. Unfortunately, Galfond isn’t getting much use out of the slide these days because he lives in Canada. And seeing as how he has two mortgages on the condo, Galfond is looking to sell the property within the coming months.

The high stakes poker pro discussed the sale by saying, “I’m selling my place in New York because I don’t know when I’m going to be able to live there full-time again. And it’s pretty expensive. I have a mortgage….two mortgages technically because it’s two apartments.”

He continued by saying, “I’m not living there, nobody’s living there. And I considered renting it out, but I don’t really like the idea of someone in my space if I’m gonna be back there. And I realize that I don’t really know if I’m gonna be back there.”

Galfond continued to discuss the sale by saying that if he wants to live in New York again, he can always find another place. He also added that the sale of his $3.14m condo will be featured on the Home & Garden TV show Selling New York. No date has been specified on when the apartments will be shown on Selling New York since they’re still filming the segment.

While not the primary motivation behind selling the condo, it’s worth mentioning that Galfond has been struggling in PLO games as of late. The Maryland native has lost over $580,000 playing online poker in January, and he’ll be looking to get back on track in future months.

Posted in General, General Posts, Poker News, Pro Players | No Comments

WPT Royal Flush Girls in Hot Photo Shoot

Posted by PokerPop on 24th January 2012

While those inside of the Las Vegas Bellagio were busy watching James Dempsey win the 2011 WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic along with $821,612, those outside of the Bellagio were busy gawking at the WPT Royal Flush Girls during their photo shoot.

The super hot poker babes did their shoot in early December when they weren’t occupied with greeting fans and taking pictures during the Five Diamond Poker Classic event. And we must say that the results were certainly excellent judging from the video clip seen below.

If you’re not already checking out the video, you should note that Carbon Poker sometimes offers WPT satellites for upcoming events. By playing in the WPT Satellites, you can take a shot at earning a prize package that will cover your tournament buy-in, along with travel expenses and hotel accommodations. Considering the fact that many WPT poker tournaments offer multi-million dollar prize pools, these prize packages are definitely worth playing for!

Getting back to the subject at hand, here is a look at the six WPT Royal Flush Girls posing for the lucky photographers:

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Jamie Gold has $1k Hourly Coaching Rate

Posted by PokerPop on 24th January 2012

It appears as if Jamie Gold has joined the ranks of the poker coaching elite since he’s charging $1,000 per hourly session. The 2006 WSOP Main Event champion has a sign posted somewhere in the Tropicana Las Vegas that gives players details on how they can retain his pricey poker coaching services at the Jamie Gold Poker Room.

People in the poker community have already started in with the jokes on how Gold’s actual playing ability may not be in line with the fees he’s charging. But to me, the funniest part of this story is the sign used to promote his services.

Pokerati, which originally reported this news, made light of the sign by writing, “Really … $1k an hour? I mean that’s not quite Carrot Top money, and supposedly Gold’s already had five students pony up … but jeesh … you’d think at that rate they could at least afford a nicer sign!”

Indeed the sign does look like something that would be posted outside of a high school bake sale. In any case though, it looks like Jamie Gold is continuing to find ways to make money with the game of poker. And as Pokerati alluded to, he supposedly has five people in line for coaching sessions already.

Since winning the 2006 WSOP Main Event along with $12 million, Gold has continued to put his stamp on the game of poker through appearances and having the Tropicana’s Jamie Gold Poker Room named after him. The Malibu, California native has $12,242,748 in live poker tournament earnings, which ranks him 5th on the all-time winnings list.

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Australian Poker Hall of Fame Inductees

Posted by PokerPop on 22nd January 2012

The Australian Poker Hall of Fame saw some new players inducted as David Gorr and Jason Gray were honored at the 2012 Aussie Millions. These two met the qualifying standards for the APHOF, which include being a resident of Australia or New Zealand, demonstrating long-term commitment to the game, and displaying excellence on the poker tables.

As for Gorr, he is best known for winning the 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event along with $1,978,044. Aside from this big win, Gorr has played in numerous poker tournaments across Australia, and has cashed in 34 tournaments throughout his career.

After being inducted into the APHOF Gorr said, “Well, first of all, I didn’t know I was going to be inducted. I found out five minutes before. They said stay around, you need to be up at the front. I’m really honored and humbled that they have chosen me.”

He continued his speech by saying, “I’ve been in poker a long time, that’s true, and I was the 1996 Adelaide Champion, but it took another 15 years for me to win a tournament, so you can see the stamina you need to hang around and hopefully win a tournament. It’s fantastic, it will be interesting to see what my wife says when I get home.”

In regards to Jason Gray, he has been playing poker since 1992, and has earned $1,158,553 in live poker tournament winnings. His crowning achievement came in the 2008 APPT Sydney – Big Game Poker Championships, where he finished second in the Main Event and earned $300,000.

Since being created in 2009, the Australian Poker Hall of Fame has inducted some pretty prestigious players including Joe Hachem, Tony G, Lee Nelson, Jeffrey Lisandro and Billy “The Croc” Argyros. This being the case, both Gorr and Gray are joining an elite class of Australian poker players.

Posted in General Posts, Poker News, Pro Players | No Comments