Poker Faces -- With general elections only a few days away in the United Kingdom, PartyPoker.com's new outdoor advertising campaign features the faces of some of Britian's most prominent politicians accompanied by taglines related to poker. One poster, for example, features the face of Tory Leader Michael Howard and the words "Good at bluffing?" while a poster featuring Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy says "No one to play with?" The posters can be seen in at 32 locations throughout London.
Bluff Poker Tour -- From June through December, Bluff Media, publisher of Bluff Magazine, will run the Bluff Poker Tour, a virtual poker tour that seeks to find the world's best online poker player by holding $30 no limit Texas Hold'em tournaments at a different online poker room each week. Players can earn points toward their ranking on the Bluff Poker Tour by participating and doing well in official tour events. At the end of the season, top players will compete in the Bluff Poker Tour Championship event, with the winner receiving a buy-in to three World Poker Tour tournaments.
Absolute Promos -- AbsolutePoker.com will target the college student demographic by holding a free "Win Your Tuition" no limit Texas Hold'em tournament on May 26. . . . Every Saturday leading up to the July 7 World Series of Poker main event, AbsolutePoker.com hosts a free-roll tournament for its leader board, with the winning player receiving a piece of the prize pool, a bonus $1,000, an Absolute Poker jacket and the opportunity to play Mark Seif (AbsolutePoker.com's resident professional poker player) in a heads-up shootout for a chance to win a $10,000 seat at the WSOP. After the first two weeks of the promotion, both players who have faced Seif heads-up have defeated him to earn a seat at the WSOP.
Ultimate Poker -- Kahnawake-based online poker room ultimatebet.com has entered the British market by launching a new brand, ultimatepoker.com. The company is accompanying the launch of the brand with a large marketing campaign that includes signage on 2,600 taxi cabs and advertisements in print an online. CEO Jim Ryan says the company also hopes to present a TV series.
Quoteworthy -- "I don't write this to brag, I just want any robbery-minded people out there who hear about this to know that I'm a tough mark, and they won't get that much off me even if they succeed."
- Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, champion of the 2004 World Series of Poker, who qualified for the event through a satellite tournament on PokerStars.com. In December two men armed with guns attempted to rob Raymer as he returned to his hotel room after playing poker at the Bellagio, but Raymer refused to give them his money and fought them off as they tried to shove him into his room. After being identified later by Las Vegas police who viewed the security tape, the two men were arrested this week at a gun show.
Red Felt Software -- Skill Gaming software provider CYOP Systems International Inc. announced that it's launching a U.K.-based online poker software licensing unit called Red Felt Software. CYOP announced in March that it plans to target Asian portals for the integration of its new poker software. The company's backend financial systems are already localized into traditional and simplified Chinese, and it has begun working on the front-end game translations of its poker games.
Poker Royale -- The third season of U.S. cable television network GSN's Poker Royale franchise will be called "Poker Royale: Celebrities vs. Poker Pros" and will debut on Friday as part of GSN's weekly "Casino Night" series. The first six one-hour episodes will feature three celebrities competing against six professional poker players, while the final two-hour episode will feature a tournament combining the three highest ranked celebrities with the three highest ranked professionals. Celebrities include Lance Bass, Tracy Bingham, Morris Chestnut, Mimi Rogers, Jennifer Tilly and Patrick Warburton, while poker professionals include Scott Fischman, Kathy Liebert, Cindy Violette, Roxci Rhodes, Paul Darden and Kenna James.
WSOP Machines -- Harrah's has licensed the World Series of Poker brand to WMS Gaming for the development, manufacture and deployment of video poker and slot machine game themes on WMS' Bluebird gaming devices in North American and Caribbean land-based casinos. WMS will develop several unique WSOP-branded games that will initially be available only at Harrah's properties for an exclusivity period in each jurisdiction. After the exclusivity period, the games will be made available to other casinos in those markets.
Nintendo Poker -- Console video game publisher Crave Entertainment in April released its "World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series" video game for the Nintendo DS system. The game features more than 10 different poker games and lets players compete in multiplayer tournaments using the Nintendo DS's wireless connection.