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GGPoker Unveils New Ask Fedor Feature

Want to get better at your poker game? How about getting a chance to learn from a poker pro? That is exactly what GGPoker is offering with its new, powerful, and innovative Ask Fedor feature. This is essentially a unique tailor-made deep learning system that was built in consultation with Fedor Holz, one of the best poker players alive.

The German poker pro has built up quite a reputation in the poker sector. Over the course of his career, he has earned over $32.5 million in live poker events and millions more from online poker gaming. That said, it is very exciting to get the opportunity to pick his brain.

How It Works

Ask Fedor is powered by Prometheus AI which not only analyzes your hand history but also gives detailed feedback on how you play a specific hand. To begin, you will be given feedback in the form of a one- to five-star rating. Five stars indicate that you played the hand in the same way or manner as Ask Fedor would.

“The perfect poker player doesn’t exist, and every one of us is curious about the best way to play a hand. This is why we have created Ask Fedor. Your hand is analyzed in real-time and the advice provided will help bring your game to the next level. It helps bridge the gap between casual players and professionals…”

Fedor Holz, GGPoker Ambassador

After the rating is then, the players then get recommendations on how to play the hand differently. In the long term, making the changes suggested by Ask Fedor should yield better outcomes for all the players that choose to participate.

The Ask Fedor feature currently only works in No-Limit Hold’em cash games and tournaments. However, there are plans in the works to introduce more varieties, so stay tuned.

Is It Free?

Well, it is possible to try out the feature without paying anything extra. Every player at GGPoker has been awarded five free asks. They may use these the next time they log into their account. You may choose from three membership tiers if you want additional requests to assist you in your game.

To make it more enticing, if you sign up for any of the subscription packages, GGPoker will give you a 50% discount on your first month. It is worth noting that VIP games can only be analyzed with the Ask Fedor Premium package. Cash games with stakes of $25/$50 or above, as well as tournaments with buy-ins of $5,000 or more, are classified as VIP games.

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Poker Problems Amid Sanctions on Russian Banks

With the war on Ukraine, a lot of things have certainly been affected. Global tension aside, there have been lots of casualties. At the same time, many aspects of both Ukraine’s and Russia’s operations have taken a hit.

In the case of Russia, the country’s banking systems have since taken a nosedive primarily because of interventions from other countries. Most notably, the United Kingdom, European Union and the United States agreed to remove Russia’s banks from SWIFT, the global international payment system.

As a result of these sanctions, the assets of the Russian central bank were essentially frozen. The stock exchange was forced to close something that ended up spurring a surge in ATM withdrawals across the country. Consequently, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, moved to ban international bank transfers.

The Impact on Poker

Poker is probably the last thing on many people’s minds but it would not be surprising to find that people are using the games to cope with all that’s going on. For people who may fall into this category, there is another complication. As it stands, the only options they have available to them when it comes to making deposits and withdrawals are offshore payment services. To that effect, even some of the most popular online poker operators have had to make some changes.

PokerStars, for instance, transferred its Russian players from its EU network in November 2021. This is not directly linked to the ongoing situation. The state of poker in the country was already a bit shaky in the country. Similarly, partypoker chose to let go of its operations in the Russian market. That was after trying and failing to run its online operations from Sochi like PokerStars.

The Alternatives

All in all, it seems like Russian players will not even have access to unlicensed offshore online poker sites. Aside from international payment options some of which are also likely to stop working in Russia, the remaining option is digital currencies like Bitcoin.

In addition to using crypto to play online, Russian players can also use crypto to contribute to relief efforts in Ukraine. Members of the poker and gambling community at large are already doing this thanks to the decentralization of crypto. We can therefore all chip in one way or the other.

Even though poker is definitely not even close to a priority considering what is happening right now, the impact on the sector is proof of the far-reaching effects of the attacks on Ukraine.

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Poker Players Betting on CryptoPunk NFTs

Non-fungible tokens, otherwise known as NFTs, have been all the buzz over the past year. One of the reasons why this is the case is how divisive they have proven to be as investment assets. There is a group of people who swear by it and believe that it is the future of both art and gaming. An equally large number of people see it as nothing more than a gimmick and a bubble that will fade away just as quickly as it rose.

Now, objectively speaking, nothing is cast in stone at this point. Still, the amount of interest in the sector is worth paying attention to. Several mainstream sectors are getting involved and one of the most notable ones is the poker industry. Recently, poker pros like Ryan Daut, Jeff Gross, Mike McDonald and Dan Smith have gotten in on NFTs. In total, the players have CryptoPunks NFTs worth about a whopping $400,000 as their Twitter profile pictures. Bill Perkins, another high-stakes poker player, has a World of Women NFT.

A Perfect Match?

Crypto and blockchain have found use cases in the world of online gambling and continue to thrive in the sector. For poker, especially in live dealer games, this has mostly been limited to payments. NFTs seem to be changing that. High-stakes poker professionals have a reputation for being risk-takers which makes NFTs a great fit for them.

The goal is profitability, something that is not always guaranteed. That is often overridden by the idea of the Expected Value (EV). NFTs present a rather unique opportunity for this as seen from their mind-blowing price surges in the past year. As it turns out, this fusion of poker and NFTs is already being explored on other fronts.

Next-Gen Poker

Recently, a new and innovative version of poker that brings together the loved game and NFTs was unveiled. Polker, the game, has been built using Unreal Engine 4 and is expected to usher in the next generation of online poker gaming. It is the first free-to-play and play-to-earn poker game that takes immersion to new heights. Most notably, Polker will be the first game of its kind to integrate NFTs throughout the game structure.

The gambling industry has always been known for its dynamism. Now we are at the tipping point in the way we gamble online and such innovations promise to take the poker experience we know and love to the next level. It will take a bit of time but it will certainly be worth the wait.

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FUNToken.io and Intertops Organize Crypto Poker Freeroll Event

This holiday weekend has been filled with lots of niceties, especially for gamers. For crypto and casino game enthusiasts, it has been even more fun. Poker players have been treated to quite an amazing experience thanks to the largest cryptocurrency poker freeroll event that comes to an end today, July 4.

Intertops, one of the biggest online gambling platforms on the planet, has recently partnered with FUNTokem.io, and together they have made history with the freeroll event. Hosted by Intertops, the tournament featured daily satellites all leading up to the July 4 final table.

“We’re very excited to have our first poker freeroll for FUN tokens hosted by one of the longest established i-gaming sites, Intertops.eu. And we’re working with Intertops to explore further integration with the Fun token on their site in the future,” FunToken.io Adriaan Brink commented.

For many poker lovers who also have interests in crypto, this was a great opportunity for them to claim thousands of free FUN tokens. These are very lucrative to own and are tradeable in major digital currency exchanges like Binance, BitFinex, HitBTC, and Changelly among others.

Huge Win for Gambling and Crypto

As mentioned earlier, Intertops is no stranger to the world of gambling. The operator already boasts of offering up to 4,000 daily wagers to customers from all around the globe. It also has a solid reputation having paid out over $500 million in winnings to its customers. The opportunity to host a crypto poler freeroll event thus presents it with a unique opportunity to tap into that market.

For FUNToken, partnering with Intertops is a great way of reaching even more gambling enthusiasts. The digital asset is already an established one-stop gaming token that makes online gambling much easier to finance and integrate. Its best traits are that it provides a clear and provably fair method of funding. This has enabled the token to revolutionize the way that online casino operators hand important operations like deposits, withdrawals, transactions, and even loyalty points or rewards.

The crypto sector continues to prove that it is more than ready for mainstream adoption. While it has certainly come a long way, it is not where we all want it to get to. At least not yet. With such collaborations and events, more people will be able to see the viability of digital currencies as ways of funding gambling activities and modern means of exchange. This is just the beginning.

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PokerStars Launches Its Operations in Michigan

Poker enthusiasts in Michigan have had to endure a long wait for the launch of online poker since online gambling was legalized in the state over a year ago. Well, the wait is finally over as Michigan has recently officially become the fifth state in the country to offer legal and regulated online poker. As expected, this is a pretty lucrative market and already some of the biggest brands in the sector have already made a play for the sector.

World-renowned online poker operator PokerStars became the very first poker brand to go live in Michigan. The company’s efforts to offer its world-class services in the state received the backing of FOX Bet and Stars Casino both of which are also pretty notable brands in the world of gambling.

For the venture in the newly-regulated online poker market, PokerStars and its affiliate companies partnered with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Gaming Authority.

A Rocky Start

There was of course a lot of excitement when PokerStars announced that its poker offerings would be coming to the state. However, a little adjustment period may have been needed as the company tried to figure out the new market and iron out a few bugs. On the first day of online poker gaming on the site, there were a few notable glitches.

These glitches mainly affected the users’ ability to add funds to their accounts which would have been disastrous at any other time. However, this has since been fixed and new players can go in with confidence that such issues will not taint their experiences.

PokerStars even went as far as offering some very exciting promotions to welcome poker lovers in Michigan to their new offering. The most memorable one was a 100 percent deposit bonus – the minimum amount required to claim this was however on the higher side at $600.

Very High Hopes for The Industry

As mentioned earlier, the state has very high hopes for the online poker industry and by extension the online gambling sector as a whole. PokerStars’ entry into the market makes things all the more exciting given its stellar reputation.

According to Richard Kalm, the executive director of the Michigan Gaming Control Board, revenue generated from the newly launched sector will have a huge impact on several projects in the state. The money will go into such things as education, support for the tribal communities as well as further development of Detroit.

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Poker Players Capitalize on Bitcoin to Enhance Their Winnings

Bitcoin has been on a roll of late and it is not just crypto enthusiasts that have taken notice of the surge in the digital currency’s price. Now, several successful online gamblers have begun to capitalize on the bump by cashing out using Bitcoin from their favorite poker sites.

Some of the sites that this has been happening to include the AmericasCardroom.eu and its sister sites under the Winning Poker Network (WPN) umbrella. The renowned poker operator has had to buy millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin in recent weeks to cater to their users who want to cash out using the digital currency.

Winning Poker Networks Chief Executive Office Phil Naggy revealed that about 90 to 95 percent of their users are now asking for payouts in Bitcoin simply because of the rise in the cryptocurrency’s price.

“We are constantly having to go out and buy Bitcoin — lots. Lots. More than we’ve even had to before,” the CEO commented.

The high demand for Bitcoin is not entirely a new thing but it does represent some pretty interesting dynamics for the online poker sites that are involved as well as the iGaming industry as a whole.

Cause for Concern?

Even though the sites that are seeing the massive surge in Bitcoin payouts are not legally available in the United States, most of the customers are actually Americans. Now, offshore gambling is not entirely unheard of in many states even those where online poker is still illegal. However, since crypto is involved, much more can be read from the situation.

Perhaps one of the biggest concerns is that crypto enthusiasts may be using the online poker platforms as a means to evade taxation. To put this into perspective, the Winning Poker Network which is based in Costa Rica does not regulate certain aspects of their customers’ activities. The most notable one in this regard is the winning and losses – the players are allowed to file their winnings and losses on their own. There is no guarantee that they will file the right figures in this case.

Moreover, the current activities also come with some issues for the online poker operators that have integrated crypto payment methods. Bitcoin is still not considered to be fully stable, at least not yet. That said, the operators are always stuck with it regardless of the situation. As Phil Nagy points out, in cases where Bitcoin’s price drops, their uses who have Bitcoin usually send them to the operator since this is more often than not the fastest way to liquidate the digital tokens.

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888poker’s Millions Superstorm Kicks Off September 10

Despite the massive changes that had to be implemented due to the coronavirus pandemic, online poker operators have been finding ways to bring back some action. Already a number of massive poker events have been held and more are yet to come.

Poker players have quite a lot to look forward to in September but the one that stood out the most for us is 888poker’s $8 Million Guaranteed Tournament Series, Millions Superstorm Edition. To begin with, Million Superstorm is the biggest poker festival that 888poker has ever held in nearly 20 years. It will also go down in history as the biggest online poker tournaments series that the renowned poker operator has held in the recent past.

What to Expect

To begin with, the Millions Superstorm will feature a whopping 480 events with the first one kicking off on September 10. The tournaments series will then run all the way to October 11. Buy-ins start from as low as $5.50 and rise all the way to as much as $530. This is a pretty reasonable range, particularly because it will allow all kinds of players to take part in some of that action.

This tournament series is part of the poker operator’s Millions Superstorm promotion that has been running for quite some time now. Participating players will have the chance to compete in tons of fun and exciting daily challenges. The promotion runs for 8 weeks and in that period the operator will have awarded a total of $1 million in cash prizes in addition to the $8 million that is guaranteed for the tournament series.

So, if you want a piece of that, you will certainly need to look out for the cash freerolls, the daily spinners, the bonuses, tickets as well as the Millions Superstorm Daily Freeroll tournaments.

The $1 Million Guaranteed Main Event

Perhaps the biggest highlight of the entire tournament series will be the Superstorm Main Event whose buy-in is $320 and there is a whopping $1 million cash prize. This will be an action-packed two-day event where the best poker players will battle it out to get a share of the cash prize.

Feel like you are a great player? Well, even if you cannot afford the $320 buy-in, there are ways of getting a piece of that action and possibly a piece of the cash prize too. With 888poker’s Daily Spinners, you might just be the lucky winner of a free entry into the Millions Superstorm Main Event. All you need to do is to spend no less than $5 playing games in the online casino or bet at least $5 in sports events with 1.5 minimum odds.

You could also win an entry into the Main Event via the satellite events which have been running since August 23.

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Poker.com Unveils New Bitcoin-Powered Online Poker Platform

Poker.com which is arguably one of the leading online poker platforms on the planet has been trying to outdo its competitors for a very long time. This it has done by offering some of the most enticing poker features and at the end of it all, the players are the true winners. Its most recent move in this regard was the recent unveiling of a brand-new Bitcoin-powered online poker platform. That is great timing for the site since there has been a significant rise in online poker traffic.

The poker site which has been in operation for two decades has always been committed to providing its customers with the very best in terms of features. That said, the move to go all-in with crypto is set to create an even deeper sense of trust and commitment among its very loyal fanbase.

What Does the New Platform Have to Offer?

Known as Bitcoin Poker, the new online poker platform is expected to gain massive popularity among both online poker enthusiasts and members of the Bitcoin and digital currency community at large. It will bring forth all of the amazing features that many online gamblers have already seen with other crypto-based gaming platforms.

To begin with, the players will get to enjoy instant play and they will be able to do this while remaining totally anonymous. All that they will need to do is verify their email addresses and dive into the poker action.

As if that is not enough, the players will also have access to superfast deposits and payouts thanks to the Bitcoin network. The poker operator is already very popular for offering some of the most reliable and seamless payment processing in the industry but, still that the addition of Bitcoin will be a much-needed step up.

Aside from the speed of transactions, players can also look forward to other amazing perks including:

  • Low transaction fees for the room and you
  • Private, anonymous poker, no personal details needed, no bank or cc statements
  • Highly secure deposits in minutes
  • Rapid cashouts
  • Freedoms from banks and governments.

The Platform’s New Affiliate Program

Bitcoin Poker is not the only thing that Poker.com customers have to look forward to. The company has also recently announced a 50 percent revenue share for all of the new members of its mind-blowing affiliate program. This revenue share deal will remain in place for a whopping three months for each of the new partners who join.

It goes without saying that in the very dynamic world of online gambling, such developments are always monumental to the growth of individual companies and the industry as a whole. Poker.com customers will certainly have a lot to enjoy but it won’t be long before other players in the industry also respond by introducing equally competitive products and features.

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PokerStars Begins Testing Poker Side Bets

Over the years, PokerStars has been known for being one of the most innovative online poker operators on the planet. All of the poker operator’s efforts are motivated by the need to give its customers the best possible experience at the poker tables. With its next project, PokerStars intends to give its customers the opportunity to bet against the house on what cards are coming. This new side bets feature is definitely going to resonate well with gamblers who are looking for more ways of spreading their wagers around.

Side bets are not an entirely new concept for PokerStars. The operator has been mixing casino-style gambling with partially skill-based games in a number of their tournaments. Its Spin & Go tournaments are a great example of this.

How Side Bets Work

As mentioned earlier, side bets are a special kind of bet since unlike the skill-based gaming that poker players indulge in, they involve the players betting against the house instead of betting against each other. To avoid the impact of the actual play at the poker tables, the money used for making these side bets do not come from the player’s stacks at the table. The money will come from the players’ account balances.

Since they are totally based on luck, side bets doe not require any form of skill to play. This will make them an interesting addition to the PokerStars poker tables. It is speculated that there will be Return-To-Player (RTP) of 97.12 percent and 97.29 percent for side bets flops and side bets on hole cards respectively. The house advantages on these are pretty low which means that the interested players will stand better chances of making a killing from the side bets.

When Will It Arrive?

As of the time this piece was written, the side bets feature is only available on clients in the United Kingdom and the European Union. It is also only available at hold’em tables. The beta test of the feature has been shrouded in mystery but since it has stayed around for this long, it is safe to presume that the company is making some progress in that regard.

No details have emerged from PokerStars regarding any timeframes for the unveiling of the feature to more markets across the globe. However, given the online poker operators’ massive presence in several states in the US and other countries, there is some certainty that players in those areas will be able to enjoy using the new feature when it is rolled out. Get ready for even more action at the poker tables.

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The World of Crypto and Poker in 2020 And Beyond

Poker remains to be one of the most popular games on the planet and this is set to be the case for a very long time. No other games come even close to offering the thrill and excitement that poker offers its customers. Now, things are about to get even better thanks to the entry and subsequent integration of crypto technology.

While digital currencies and the associated technologies are still seen as novelties by many people, they have evolved tremendously over the years to become among the most popular topics on the planet. A revolution in the way that we perform transactions is imminent and one of the industries that will benefit will be the gambling industry. This is because the sector was among the very first ones to adopt crypto technologies in a bid to improve service delivery. The gaming industry has capitalized on the benefits that can be derived from the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well as supporting technologies such as the blockchain and smart contracts.

How Will It Impact Online Poker?

Already, there are a decent number of online poker operators that are utilizing digital currencies. These companies are now essentially proof of concept for the benefits of using crypto for banking. Some of the most marketed benefits include security, safety, speed, flexibility, and even anonymity. Decentralization plays a huge part in this and it ties in very well with the accessibility that online poker operators are working hard to keep offering.

The shift towards online poker operations that support crypto payments has already begun albeit on a rather small scale – it is picking up the pace though. Digital currencies may have grown tremendously popular but there has been a bit of a slowdown in terms of mainstream rollout. The gaming industry does not seem to be suffering from the same problem since it is known for being very experimental as an early adopter of technologies.

Giving Users Full Control

At the end of the day, this seems to be the most important factor for many online poker players. By eliminating the middleman, online poker operators will allow the users to have more control over how they spend their money. Speed, safety and security are the core consideration in this case. A number of projects were already in the pipeline by the time 2019 was coming to an end with more set to come into play this year. There are lots of crypto-powered online poker sites available right now. You might want to get acquainted with them as soon as possible. Why? They are the future.