A new poker site has emerged, and it promises what it calls the biggest online poker tournament in the history of the World Wide Web.
The official launch of PartyPoker.com was July 15, although the site went live on July 1. Its software, which was designed in-house by a team of engineers and poker experts, features collusion prevention checks and the ability for players to set up private tables.
"We would like to dispel the myth that online poker is more susceptible to collusion between players," said Vikrant Bhargava, a representative of PartyPoker.com.
Bhargava said the checks are based on IP numbers and play pattern recognition as well as other parameters that he would rather not reveal.
The software was designed with an eye toward significant research that has been done on user behavior on poker sites. The game rules and user interface were developed with input from the European Poker Champion of 2000, Mike Sexton. For now, Bhargava said, there are no plans to license the software to any other site.
According to the site, what differentiates it from others of its kind is its PartyPoker Million tournament, which will have a grand prize of US $1 million. The tournament starts on Aug. 1 and has a buy-in of $22. Preliminaries will be held online, and the finals will take place on a Card Players' cruise ship in March 2002.