Steve RuddockOur weekly report on the world of online poker is back and this week we have three interesting stories for you. First, we’ll bring you news about Sky Poker’s decision to end their current “Points for Cash” rewards program for their high-volume players in favor of straight rakeback; our second story will feature a record-setting win at the PKR Live VII tournament held in London last weekend; and finally we’ll take a look at the upcoming Pokerfest III online tournament series at Party Poker.
Sky Poker eliminates “points” in favor of rakeback
High volume players at Sky Poker will find a major change in the site’s VIP Loyalty Program come May 1, as the site plans to change their current “Points for Cash” rewards model for a simpler rakeback rewards program that will be paid directly into each players’ accounts monthly.
It’s unclear how the change will go over considering the soon to be eliminated “Cash for Points” system had a high-water mark equal to 65% rakeback for the highest volume players at the site, while the new Rakeback system will see the highest rate cut to only 30% –although very few players were capable of attaining the 65% rakeback rate, and most players will see a marginal increase with the new rakeback program. Here is a look at the three new rakeback rates for high-volume players at Sky Poker beginning on May 1, 2013:
- Players earning 10,001 to 20,000 points will receive 20% rakeback
- Players earning 20,001 to 30,000 points will receive 25% rakeback
- Players earning over 30,000 points will receive 30% rakeback
For casual players at the site the “Cash for Points” program will remain in place, with the following conversion rates:
- Players accumulating 100 to 3k points will receive £0.01 per point
- Players earning 3,001 to 5,000 will receive £0.015 per point
- Players earning from 5,001 to 10,000 points will receive £0.02 per point
Right now Sky Poker is offering £10 free – click to find out how to cash in!
Yann Pelletier wins record-setting PKR Live VII tournament
For the seventh time since 2008 the award-winning 3D online poker room, PKR Poker, hosted a live tournament/meetup for their players, known as PKR Live. PKR Live VII was held at the Aspers Casino in London, England and boasted the largest field in the history of the tournament as 291 players took their seats for the $450 buy-in tournament, including Team PK players as well as employees for the site.
All five members of Team PKR were in attendance for the tournament, including recently signed Simon ‘Rhymenoceros’ Hemsworth, but the only member of Team PKR who survived Day 1 of the tournament was EPT Snowfest Champion Vladimir “Beyne” Geshkenbein, whose run in the PKR Live VII came to an end on Day 2 short of the money – Beyne then went over to the special televised PKR cash-game table where he put on quite a show according to reports.
The winner of PKR Live VII was Frenchmen and PKR.fr regular Yann “keefkeef” Pelletier who bested a final table that included a former PKR Live winner, Vince “vd12345” Diver –Diver won PKR Live III back in 2009 at the Loose Cannon Club in London. Here is a look at the final table results from PKR Live VII:
- Yann “Keefkeef” Pelletier — $27,620
- Emmanuel “ireoluwa” Arokodare — $19,245
- Senthuran “MookiWest” Senthilkumaran — $12,370
- Jamie “Reevio” Reeve — $9,165
- Vincent “vd12345” Diver — $6,870
- Laurynas “LaurisCrew” Ciuta — $5,495
- Craig “Swedo1” Sweden — $4,580
- Antony “g1gabeat” Hallam — $3,665
- Kate “PennyFold” Darracott — $2,745
Results from PKR Live VII courtesy of the PKR Blog
Party Poker Pokerfest III just two weeks away
Last week we brought you the details of iPoker’s upcoming iPOPS IV tournament series that will begin on April 21st, 2013. This week we have some news about another online tournament series, the Party Pokerfest III, which will run concurrently with the iPOPS IV series.
Pokerfest III will feature a total of 64 tournaments over the two week online poker tournament series, with a total of $4 million in guaranteed prize-money up for grabs. The biggest tournament of the series will be the $1.5 million guaranteed Main Event that will be held on Sunday May 5th, 2013. The Main Event will feature a $640 buy-in and Party Poker is already running satellite events to the tournament.
Pokerfest bears a resemblance to the popular SCOOP series at PokerStars, where the same tournament is played at multiple buy-in levels. Each day during Pokerfest III at Party Poker the site will feature a specific tournament format, offering four separate buy-in levels for players to choose from: For instance on the final day of the tournament the format will be a standard No Limit Holdem event with four separate Pokerfest tournaments taking place ranging in buy-ins from 30 Party Poker Points up to the $640 Main Event.
You can find the complete Pokerfest III schedule here: http://www.partypoker.com/promotions/pokerfest/schedule.html
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