The 2023 Kings of Tallinn Festival kicks off on February 23 at the Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park in Estonia. Running until March 5, the festival features a total of 53 scheduled events with buy-ins ranging from €60 to €3,000. The schedule culminates in the $500K GTD Main Event which is expected to attract plenty of players.
2023 Kings of Tallinn Festival
There’s no shortage of poker variants to choose from in the upcoming festival. Apart from traditional formats like No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha, the schedule also includes 8-Game Mix, Open Face Chinese Pineapple, and the popular Sviten Special.
Satellites are running both live and online, and some of them are available for free! Live satellites will take place at Olympic Casino venues in Estonia, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Latvia, with online qualifiers running on OlyBet Poker and GGPoker.
€500K GTD Main Event
The schedule is headlined by the Main Event which comes with a €1,100 buy-in and a massive €500,000 guarantee. The tournament has three Day 1 flights and runs from March 1-5.
The Kings of Tallinn Main Event was last won by Australia’s Adam Kharman in 2022 for €64,280. The tournament last had a $500,000 guarantee in 2020, with the top prize of €126,900 going to Swedish player Johan Karlsson.
The Zoom fast-fold game is finally back on PokerStars’ New Jersey-Michigan network and the operator is running a new promotion to attract more players into the game.
Zoom games initially went live on the network on January 23 but PokerStars had to remove them due to technical issues. The team worked to promptly fix the problem and the games were then redeployed in the same week.
How Zoom Works
Zoom is a fast-paced poker format where players immediately get seated at another table the moment they fold their hands. To keep the game running, there must be an adequate number of players. This is to prevent long pauses between folding one hand and getting transferred to another table.
According to reports, Zoom wasn’t attracting sufficient traffic after it was reintroduced on the NJ-MI network.
Zoom Week Promo
Always to the rescue, PokerStars launched an early bird promo to boost player participation in the Zoom games. The operator will award double rewards points to the first 10 players to join a Zoom pool. They will get 2x points until 10 minutes after the 10-player pool is reached.
Zoom Week runs until February 15, but PokerStars could decide to extend the promo if it proves effective in driving traffic.
WSOP Ontario recently launched a new exciting feature for cash game players called the “EV Cashout”. The feature, which is not present in any other online poker room operating in the province, enables players to receive their equity without having to continue playing for a pot during an all-in confrontation.
WSOP Ontario’s EV Cashout Feature
The EV Cashout feature can be used by players during post-flop all-in scenarios in Texas Hold’em cash games. It can only be activated when one of the players has at least 60% equity.
You may decide to enable the EV Cashout feature and not proceed with finishing the hand. By doing so, you’ll get your equity in the pot calculated using this formula: EV Cashout = (Pot Size – Rake – Jackpot Fee) x Equity. You will no longer be able to compete for the pot. Those opting not to use the feature will still get the chance to win the entire pot. Your equity won’t be affected by the results of the hand.
Avoid Bad Luck with EV Cashout
Features similar to EV Cashout are already active in many online poker sites in the international market. It is the first time the WSOP is introducing the feature. While the feature has some disadvantages, such as the 1% cashout fee deducted from your winnings and not getting the chance to compete for the whole pot, it allows you to avoid bad luck and stay in the game much longer.
A Michigan man has been sentenced to one year of probation for illegal gambling operations. Joshua T. Thatcher, 42, was charged in May 2022 for running an illegal poker room named 906 Poker Social located in Marquette.
Poker Room Only Operated for 3 Months
906 Poker Social opened in April 2021 and operated as a poker club, charging its players a membership fee. Thatcher, a former poker pro, was confident the room was operating within the law as it did not collect any rake. The venue was located in a commercial building and completely visible to the public, with posters, signage, and security cameras.
However, after three months of operations, Michigan officials closed 906 Poker Social, with Thatcher subsequently charged with one felony count of Gambling Operations to which he pleaded guilty in December 2022. The other charges filed against him were eventually dismissed following his guilty plea.
As part of his plea agreement, Thatcher forfeited all items confiscated from his poker room as well as money and cash linked to the room’s operations.
Complicated Laws
Henry Williams, executive director of the Michigan Gaming Control Board, said they are committed to ensuring fair and honest gaming in Michigan and eliminating illegal gaming activities across the state.
Small poker rooms in Michigan face an uncertain future due to unclear laws, similar to that in Texas.
Brent Carter, a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, has pleaded guilty to the federal crime of making hoax threats against the New York Gaming Commission.
Carter Faces Time Served and 3 Years’ Probation
Carter was accused of sending suspicious packages and threatening voicemail messages to the Commission between 2017 and 2021. The packages contained white powder which was later found to be harmless. In one of the voicemails, Carter made reference to the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas which left 60 people dead.
Even after being warned by federal agents for making hoax threats, the 72-year-old continued to send the white powder to the Commission in early 2021. He was then arrested by the FBI in Las Vegas.
Carter will be sentenced in May 17 during which he is expected to receive time served and three years’ probation.
Carter Held Decades-Old Grudge Against the Commission
Carter’s actions stemmed from a decades-old grudge against the Commission which, in 1976, suspended his horse racing license over cheating allegations. The agency eventually cleared Carter of the accusations and notified him in several letters that he could continue with his horse racing pursuits. But Carter apparently had not received any of the letters, leading him to believe that he was still suspended.
After moving away from horse racing, Carter shifted to poker and had achieved considerable success in the game, having won two WSOP bracelets in 1991 and 1994.