Visit Poker Stars

No More “Cash Refund” Withdrawals At PokerStars

Last week, PokerStars announced that it will no longer offer ‘Cash Refund’ as a viable withdrawal method. An email went out to all members from the PokerStars Payment Services department, recommending that members choose another convenient option to request pay outs from their account.

According to the PokerStars email, viable withdrawal methods for their members now include ClickandBuy, NETeller, Moneybookers, Direct Bank Transfer and USD Checks, along with CFT (Credit Fund Transfer) eligible Visa, Solo and Maestro Credit/Debit Cards for Canadian and European players. The recommended withdrawal method for US players is still USD Checks.

PokerStars apologized for any inconvenience this may cause their customers, asking that anyone with further questions please contact PokerStars via email. The following link was provided for more information about current withdrawal methods still available at PokerStars: http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/real-money/cashouts

While many online poker rooms have been hit hard by payment processors dropping like flies in a bug spray testing facility – mostly attributed to the passage of the UIGEA in 2006 – it is comforting to US players to know that several highly reputed online poker rooms, like PokserStars, have maintained unwavering loyalty to their US customer base, continuing to provide feasible solutions to fund transfers and steadfast support in all matters.

Visit Poker Stars

Natalie ‘TheV0id’ Teltscher Drops Lawsuit Against PokerStars

Natalie Teltscher has officially dropped her lawsuit for $1.2 million against PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room.

Back in 2007, Natalie Teltscher, under the username ‘TheV0id’, won the
PokerStars WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker’, worth $1,228,330. However, PokerStars refused to pay Teltscher her winnings until a thorough investigation could be completed into the validity of her win.

As it turns out, PokerStars was wholly justified in its investigation of ‘TheV0id’. Natalie Teltscher broke one vital rule of playing in the WCOOP competition – she did not actually play at all.

The 22-hour WCOOP Main event battle saw ‘TheV0id’ ousting ‘ka$ino’ in heads-up play to take the ultimate prize, but behind the username-mask of ‘TheV0id’ was not Natalie Teltscher. She had given someone else the seat in her place, under her username, ‘TheV0id’.

In a statement from PokerStars, “Ms Teltscher initially claimed that she had played the account. However, when faced with the results from PokerStars.com’s investigation, she eventually admitted she hadn’t played. The decision of Ms Teltscher to withdraw her claim fully vindicates PokerStars.com’s decision to disqualify her from the tournament and subsequently defend the claim, actions that were taken in order to protect the integrity of the games on offer at PokerStars.com.”

Since Teltscher withdrew her lawsuit, in accordance with the WCOOP competition rules, all remaining competitors were moved up one position in placement. All Main Event winners will move up one spot, including the player who finished just outside the money bubble, who originally had to winnings to show for his efforts.

“On her disqualification, all other players were moved one place higher in the prize table, the statement from PokerStars read, “and the money confiscated from her account, ‘TheV0id’, was redistributed in full
according to the amended tournament placings.”

Visit Poker Stars

José Miguel Espinar Wins PokerStars LAPT Uruguay

The final stop on PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour in Punta del Este, Uruguay came to an end last weekend as José Miguel Espinar routed the field to earn the top prize of $241,735.

It came down to an unforgettable finish as the field of 351, the second largest on the inaugural season of the PokerStars LAPT series, was whittled down to the final participants. Deciding the final nine, Espinar ousted Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso as his pocket Aces triumphed over her nines.

The final table was set, Espinar going in with the 3rd highest chip stack. Only three hands in, Espinar raised pre-flop with K-Q, calling a re-raise from Brazilian player Paulo Cesar Ribeiro, who held pocket Jacks. A Check-Raise from Espinar brought Ribeiro all-in after the flop of K-K-6, and the rest is history. Ribeiro left in 9th with $17,025.

The Spaniard continued his impressive run, taking out Juan Jose Perez in 7th place just a short while later as his A-J ran up against Perez’s pocket Aces. It looked grim for Espinar from the start when the Flop came down, Q-T-2, and the Ace on the turn certainly didn’t help his prospects, but when the River dropped a King, Espinar made the straight to send Perez to the rails in 7th with $25,535.

Espinar quieted down for awhile, maintaining a comfortable chip lead as the rest of the table took on the task of eliminating each other one by one. Eventually, it came down to three players – José Espinar, Alex Brenes and Lisandro Gallo.

Valuable chip stacks rotated the table for awhile until finally Gallo and Brenes battled it out for heads-up against Espinar. With a limping stack, Gallo pushed all-in with Q-9. Holding pocket Aces, Brenes was more than happy to oblige the Call, eliminating Gallo in 3rd position for $93,630.

As heads-up play commenced, Espinar held the advantage with $2,000,000 chips over Brenes’s $1,500,000. In the final hand, Brenes was forced all in as his 40k chips weren’t enough to cover the big blind. His A-T seemed strong, but Espinar’s K-3 prevailed, sending Brenes to the rails in 2nd place to pocket $127,675.

José Miguel Espinar earned the PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este Title and $241,735 - not bad for a few hours of mentally stringent labor.

Visit Poker Stars

PokerStars Ups Weekend Guarantees, Sunday Million Now Worth $1.5M

PokerStars announced last week that it is upping its guaranteed tournament schedule on the grandest of scales. Not only has the online poker room increased the amount of weekly guaranteeds from 199 to a whopping 483, even the guaranteed prize pools are swelling. The celebrated PokerStars Sunday Million will now be worth an astonishing $1.5 million.

Overall, PokerStars’ weekly guaranteed tournaments have spiked from a total GP of about $7.5 million to nearly double that amount, at $13 million.

PokerStars kicked off the new expansion of its guaranteed online poker tournaments with last Sunday’s biggest tournaments. PokerStars boosted the Sunday Million purse to $1,500,000 GTD. It wasn’t just a promotion either; this is going to be the normal Sunday Million at PokerStars from now on (unless they decide to increase it again, of course.)

The Sunday Warm-Up, originally a $500k guaranteed held every Sunday afternoon before the PokerStars Sunday Million, is also being increased to $750k each weekend. The Super Tuesday, hosted by PokerStars.net every Tuesday evening, had its usual $250k prize pool upped to $300k GTD.

PokerStars added another big online poker tournament to the already massive Sunday line-up. The new NL Hold’em tournament features a GTD of $250,000 with a normal buy-in of $500+$30. The last Sunday of each month, the buy-in will increase to $1,000+$50.

Even with the increased prize pools of PokerStars most popular weekly guarantees – Sunday Million, Sunday Warm-Up, etc. – the online poker room continues to see participation levels high enough to jump the prize pools over the guaranteed amount. The new $1.5m Sunday Million was upped to $1,686,200 this weekend with 8,431 players, while a field of 3,849 boosted the Sunday Warm-Up GP to $769,800.

The largest GP spike came from PokerStars’ newest Sunday edition, the $250k GP, which drew 1,003 participants – enough to more than double the purse to $501,500. With online poker tournaments like these, It’s no wonder PokerStars has grabbed and maintained the status as the world’s largest online poker room for so long now.