Interview with PokerStars Head of Game Integrity Baard Dahl

In this exclusive interview with Baard Dahl, Head of PokerStars’ Game Integrity Department, we discuss the nature of his team’s investigations against bots and collusion.

Baard also tells us about his professional background, shares his thoughts about the continuous progress in artificial intelligence, and reveals some fascinating insights about how his team works to ensure the security of online poker gameplay.

The post Interview with PokerStars Head of Game Integrity Baard Dahl appeared first on Cardplayer Lifestyle Poker Blog.

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The Bernard Lee Poker Show (6/23/20): Author and Poker Player, Maria Konnikova

On this episode of the Bernard Lee Poker Show, Bernard interviews Maria Konnikova, accomplished poker player and author of the new book The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win.

Maria talks about her 3.5-year long odyssey in the poker world, which saw her get coached by Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, climb to great heights and big wins, and being a PokerStars sponsored pro.

The post The Bernard Lee Poker Show (6/23/20): Author and Poker Player, Maria Konnikova appeared first on Cardplayer Lifestyle Poker Blog.

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PokerStars Game Integrity Exclusive: On Bots, Collusion, and More

Bots and collusion in online poker are an extremely hot topic in the poker community these days. For the first time ever, PokerStars’ Game Integrity Department has publicly released numbers relating to their on-site security efforts.

In addition to an infographic sharing these numbers, we’ve got an exclusive Q&A with representatives of the company’s Gaming Integrity Department. Their answers to our questions are quite eye-opening, indeed!

The post PokerStars Game Integrity Exclusive: On Bots, Collusion, and More appeared first on Cardplayer Lifestyle Poker Blog.

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Steve O’Dwyer wins PokerStars SCOOP High Roller for $521,598

The popular American pro has locked up an online title that goes well with his many other achievements in poker.

The post Steve O’Dwyer wins PokerStars SCOOP High Roller for $521,598 appeared first on CalvinAyre.com.

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PokerStars PCA Report: Sam Greenwood wins the $100k for $1.7m

Another report from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at the Bahamas and Sam Greenwood has won the first of two $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em events, banking $1.7m in the process. When it comes to walnuts, Sam Greenwood’s is bigger and more impressive than most. The Canadian has just taken down the first of two $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em […]

The post PokerStars PCA Report: Sam Greenwood wins the $100k for $1.7m appeared first on CalvinAyre.com.

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PokerStars Platinum Pass Adventure: storytellers, givers & gamers at the ready

PokerStars continue the Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Platinum Pass Adventure giveaway with new competitions from Daniel Negreanu, Lex Veldhuis, Maria Konnikova, Jeff Gross, and Jennifer Shahade. I get it now. When the concept for PokerStars’ Platinum Pass Adventure first rolled out in May, I wasn’t a fan. I’ve changed my mind. In January, PokerStars will attempt […]

The post PokerStars Platinum Pass Adventure: storytellers, givers & gamers at the ready appeared first on CalvinAyre.com.

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Is PokerStars Rigged? Here Are the Facts

People still ask me all the time if PokerStars is rigged. Or if online poker in general is rigged.

And I have never written an article about it before because I think this just legitimizes what is inherently a pretty ridiculous question.

But I know that the emails and the comments about online poker being rigged won’t stop. And therefore hopefully this article will solve the Great Debate once

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Why HUDs are at the Center of a Philosophical Online Poker Civil War

This is a guest post by Ivan Potocki of BeatTheFish.com

Heads Up Displays, or HUDs as they are commonly referred to in the poker community, are among the most useful and most powerful tools serious poker players (grinders) have at their disposal.

While the exact setup and the on-screen appearance of a HUD can vary greatly, all of them have the same common goal: gather relevant information

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PokerStars Festival Dublin: McGinty & Silver win titles, Hand the McGregor of poker

A round-up of news from the PokerStars Festival in Dublin including wins for Gary McGinty and Max Silver, and Fintan Hand wants to be the Connor McGregor of poker. Terrence Chan, no chance. Olivier Busquet, too dandy. ElkY, too pasty. Nope, none of these kick-ass poker stars is going to be the next big thing. […]

The post PokerStars Festival Dublin: McGinty & Silver win titles, Hand the McGregor of poker appeared first on CalvinAyre.com.

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PokerStars Live Reverts to Old Payouts, Overhauls Online Rewards

It’s been a busy week for PokerStars with the introduction of a new position, an old payout structure for live events and a new rewards program for online players.

PokerStars started by announcing Garry Gates as the New Senior Consultant of Player Affairs. Gates, a poker industry veteran, promptly posted a blog where he talked about how he hopes to serve as a link between the company and players.

In the blog post Gates also mentioned he’s already hosted a Players Advisory Council meeting, which is a first for PokerStars.

The result of that meeting was PokerStars shifting the payout structure back to the old, more top-heavy, 15% for all its upcoming live events. Many big-name poker pros were highly critical of the company when it switched to 20% back in 2016.

Stars Rewards Emulates Video Game “Chests”

The new PokerStars rewards program should be familiar to anyone who plays video games like Overwatch or Hearthstone.

Simply called Stars Rewards, the new program awards randomized chests to players based how many real-money hands they play. The more you play the bigger the chest.

Garry Gates

Garry Gates

Each chest represents a chance at winning big. There are a variety of potential rewards that could drop in chests including cash, StarsCoin or seats to live events like the PokerStars Championship.

The rewards will be personalized for each player and a tournament player will be more likely receive MTT tickets in their chests.

The program will also have cross-platform functionality so that if you’re a sports bettor with BetStars you could potentially receive a sports-betting reward from your chests.

Players will also be able to acquire boosts, which will double the speed of acquiring chests.

PokerStars plans to roll out Stars Rewards in Denmark later this month with Italy shortly thereafter. Other markets are planned for late Summer.

SCOOP Outage Leads to $105k Freeroll

Earlier this week PokerStars was down during a particularly busy day of SCOOP and the site is going to run a $105,000 freeroll for players who were hampered by the outage.

scoop

The freeroll will run Thursday, May 18, and will award 100 in tickets to a $5m-GTD SCOOP event.

The free tournament is open to anyone who was playing on a scheduled tournament as of 17:00 ET on May 15. That’s one minute before the nearly two-hour outage on PokerStars began.

PokerStars will send an email to all eligible players with an exact time for the freeroll.

Interestingly SCOOP will be extended by one day, next Tuesday, in order to play out the events that were originally scheduled for May 15.

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