PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Gets Underway

Like a long-awaited dream vacation, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) got underway Monday as nearly every member of Team PokerStars Pro, as well as hundreds of online poker qualifiers and direct buy-in participants took to the tables at the Bahamas’ Atlantis Resort and Casino.

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A lot of familiar faces - or at least familiar usernames to online poker fans, frequent forum posters and bloggers – showed up for the first day of PCA action. Among them are Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb, John “apestyles” Van Fleet, John “PearlJammer” Turner, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke and Adam “ajunglen” Junglen.

Even PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein took to the tables, though his interest seemed more drawn by the newspaper on his lap than the cards at the table. Sorel Mizzi was seated comfortably, more so than most, as he took advantage of one of the on-hand massage therapists.

A few current Team PokerStars Pros who fall into the category of “past WSOP Champions” can also be found corralled in the PCA Ballroom: Joe Hachem (2005), Greg Raymer (2004), Chris Moneymaker (2003) and Tom McEvoy (1983).

It goes without saying that this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has grown much larger than that of recent years, enough so to already have drawn the label of the “biggest live poker tournament outside the United States”.

With the elated shouting of Daniel Negreanu - “Shuffle up and deal!” - the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has begun.

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Online Poker Traffic Skyrocketing In September

The results are in and the numbers speak for themselves – online poker is experiencing an enormous boost in traffic for the month of September. Across the boards, it seems every online poker room is seeing a boost in participation, but none quite so notably as PokerStars.

The world’s largest online poker room in regards to active players, PokerStars saw a massive increase in activity this month, jumping 34% from August with an average of 17,451 active players per hour over the course of each day. Not only is that an exceptional jump from last month, it makes September the most active month at PokerStars in all of 2008, thus far.

By far the busiest day of all for PokerStars fell on September 14th as an average of 20,406 online poker players took to the tables each hour. During peak hours of 4-6pm, those numbers rose even further to near 30,000.

One reasonable explanation for the increase at PokerStars has to be the ongoing World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), worth a guaranteed $30,000,000 overall. September 14th, PokerStars hosted Event #20 of the WCOOP, $1,050 NL Hold’em, attracting 3,467 alone.

The WCOOP can’t take all of the responsibility though as PokerStars is not the only major online poker room to see higher numbers in September. Full Tilt Poker came in second, jumping 28% since August with an average of 7,890 active players per hour.

Titan Poker, Mansion Poker, Hollywood Poker and Party Poker also experienced traffic improvements, ranging from 1% to 12% growth.

As a whole, we can safely assume that the return of college students has its hand in the cookie jar, as well. College students are infamous for dwindling away the first semester that should be spent studying, and what better way than to gamble those hard-earned tuition dollars?

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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.

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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.”