Poker Affiliate BlogPoker Affiliate Blog, courtesy of Jeremy Enke, expert in Poker Affiliate Marketing.

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The Hungarian capital Budapest will be home to the Third Annual World Poker Conference next month, it has been announced.

According to InfoPowa News, Steve Lipscomb (CEO and founder of WPT Enterprises) and Hendrick Knopp (Head of Poker for bwin Interactive Entertainment) are once more bringing their extensive experience and unique perspectives to this year’s event, scheduled for October 29 - 30.

Both Lipscomb and Knopp will be speaking on Global Domination: Power Poker Brands Debate the Future, which seeks to explore “new directions in a maturing and increasingly competitive industry and addressing branding impact on market capitalization, innovative connections between online and terrestrial poker outlets, and strategies for increasing bottom-line results”.

Noted for “Bridging Land-Based and Online Poker Businesses,” the WPC bills itself as the “only event to examine the synergy between the traditional land-based and online poker industry.”

From the InfoPowa report:

Representing the growing pool of industry leaders, Chris Parker, CEO of Asian Poker Tour, will give an overview of the Asian poker scene examining both regulatory and game-specific issues currently surrounding the burgeoning market in Asia.

Global legal and regulatory issues, discussion about setting the rake and the latest innovations are just some of the many issues to be covered.

Presenters include Matt Savage, from Savage Tournaments, covering the details of hosting an international or national event. Marco Deen and Norbert Muller, both specialists in project management with Holland Casino, debate the constancy of baseline rules and local variations regarding poker rules. Hear from the players themselves as Jon Kalmar and other poker players, both professional and amateur, give their point of view on trends and what keeps them playing.

More information can be found at www.worldpokercongress.com.

Popularity: 10% [?]

In case you haven’t seen it on the PAP News page, I want to bring your attention to the fact that Paddy Power Poker has now “revamped, upgraded, improved, enhanced, and plain old spruced up” its popular (and lucrative) C*A*S*H VIP Program, making it easier than ever for players to earn Paddy Points, climb the ranks, and earn big cash bonuses.

They’ve also made the bonuses themselves bigger than ever before. Players will have an easier time moving up the ranks to Captain, Major, Colonel, and even General — a lower qualifying criteria and a faster accumulation of points combine with a significant increase in monthly cash bonuses to give players a better advantage than ever before.

What does all this mean to you? Players now have a much greater incentive to sign up with the program, and because of these easier-to-obtain bonuses, they’ll have larger bankrolls, which means a potential for much larger monthly commissions!

And the generosity of this program doesn’t end there. With the new C*A*S*H VIP Reload Bonus, all players now have the chance to boost their bankroll with deposits up to $400!

To learn more about this new program and what it can do for you, click here.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Exciting news! PokerTrillion.com has donated the use of their PAP room, in addition to $500 in prizepool money, for an all-new PAP Poker Affiliate Freeroll this Sunday, September 7.

When: Sunday September 7th
Time: 21:00 GMT - 5:00PM EST
Place: PokerTrillion.com (U.S. Players Accepted)
Tracking Link: www.pokertrillion.com/?bonus=pap

Members can use this link, or, if they go direct, they can enter PAP on the sign up code section.

And remember, PAP members get the following package from PokerTrillion:
15% Rev share of MGR with no deductions (standard is 10%)
$50 CPA for each player who rakes $50 within 30 days of joining (we do not offer CPA anywhere else)

In addition to the PAP freeroll this weekend, PAP members and their players are welcome to play in the $500 affiliate Freeroll on September 15th. The password for this game is ‘GLASGOW’.

Finally, remember that all PAP members always have access to the following offers for their players:
• 30% Rakeback – for all players (paid on demand via the players area)
• Or save Rakeback for 50% discount off entry fee to EPT, APT, WPT or WSOP main events.
• APT Rake Race – Began September 1st and runs for 2 months (as a small site, it’s likely that sub $30 a day rake will make top 30)
• $2500 New Players Freeroll – All who join in September can play this game on October 5th
• $100,000 Poker League – Feb by all MTT’s with 30 players or more with a $1 buy in or greater
• $500,000 in montly MTT GTY’s

Please contact PokerTrillion’s Affiliate Manager Colin Hawker at colin@pokertrillion.com with any questions you may have.

Popularity: 7% [?]

September 2, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — Poker has a great and expanding future in the vast Chinese gambling market, and appeals to mahjong and big-deuce players because of the similarities with mathematical odds and strategy, say experts in the game in a report carried this week in the Hong Kong Standard newspaper.

The article is topical with the 2008 APT just completed in Macau, and the APPT commencing in the region, amid claims that the Texas Hold ‘Em poker craze that has swept the West is set to take the region by storm.

Asia Pacific Poker Tour president Jeffrey Haas told the newspaper: “There are some very talented poker players from Hong Kong.” He went on to emphasize the math and psychological skill elements needed to excel at poker, pointing out that at its core it’s player vs. player, whereas in [most other casino] table games it’s largely a matter of luck.

The popularity of poker has been growing in Asia since expatriates and returning overseas students introduced the game several years ago, and it has grown organically, said the president of the Hong Kong Poker League, Kelly Flynn, who played a role in setting up the League with assistance from the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. Cash is replaced with points, prizes, and the chance to compete in international tournaments in the home grown League.

An indication of the growing popularity of the game is currently taking place on the island of Macau, close to Hong Kong. The just-completed Asian Poker Tour, which carried a main event prize pool of $2.5 million, attracted 257 top players, and the HK$100 million Macau stop on the APPT has just commenced and will run through to September 9, pulling in 400 players as InfoPowa went to press.

Last year the full tour embraced Macau, Seoul, Manila, Auckland, and Sydney and recorded 1,400 player registrations.

“I’ve got over 3,000 players in my database for Hong Kong and that number will easily double or triple in the next 12 months,” Flynn told the Hong Kong Standard.

Shanghai-born but Australian resident poker pro Celina Lin Pei-fei (25) is competing in the APPT and opined that the game of poker would appeal to mahjong and big-deuce players because of the similarities with mathematical odds and strategy. “I think Asians can be great contenders in the game because of their fearlessness and math skills,” the poker millionairess said.

Twice World Series of Poker champ Johnny Chan is another entrant this year, and believes the game has a huge potential to become the region’s most popular sport.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Internet poker star Brian “sbrugby” Townsend’s admission and apology this week is causing ripples in online gambling circles, according to InfoPowa News. Townsend has owned up to multi-accounting, a cardinal sin expressly forbidden by online poker sites where he plays (like PokerStars and Full Tilt).

Well-known as aba20 on Poker Stars and sbrugby on Full Tilt, Townsend has confessed to also playing as Makersmark66 in low stakes games at PokerStars, and as Stellarnebula at Full Tilt. In the blog statement that served as his apology, he emphasized that the additional accounts were not misused to collude during tournaments.

According to the news report, the admission and apology came “after strong player suspicions surfaced that he was multi-accounting.” The consequences were almost immediate, with Full Tilt issuing an announcement that Townsend is suspended from his pro status for six months, a professional embarrassment to Townsend personally as well as poker video instruction firm Cardrunners, with which he is involved as a professional. (As an attempt at contrition, Townsend is reportedly donating $25 000 of his Cardrunner earnings to a charity.) When InfoPowa went to press the Poker Stars decision on the issue was not yet known.

Another high-profile poker player, Scotty Nguyen (”The Prince of Poker,” according to his fans), was at the center of a mild controversy this week after his “provocative and discourteous conduct at the World Series of Poker resurfaced on ESPN television” and YouTube.

The footage was from several months ago, when Nguyen faced off against Michael DeMichele and Erik Lindgren in the closing stages of the Chip Reese Memorial $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the World Series of Poker. “The less said about Nguyen’s allegedly drink and frustration fuelled foul language and conduct, the better,” InfoPowa reported. “Although it went unpunished by the tournament organisers at the time, it was sufficiently bad to anger viewers, many of whom apparently communicated their disappointment to him directly, motivating his widely emailed apology.”

What do you make of these incidents? Does it point to a new lack of professionalism in the game, or is it just human nature shining through? Is Townsend’s six-month ban fair, or is it overly harsh to set a precedent for other transgressors of the “no multiple accounts” rules?

Popularity: 10% [?]

August 29, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — Michael Phelps, the Olympic legend who this year alone took 8 personal gold medals back to the States from Beijing, has apparently been besieged by as many as 50 endorsement proposals a day, according to media reports.  And at least two of those came from poker related outfits.

The attention of poker promoters was grabbed after Phelps made an off-hand remark in an interview with a Baltimore reporter that it ” … would be cool to play in the World Series of Poker”. Phelps apparently plays poker for relaxation and entertainment, and according to one of the many stories that subsequently appeared, his play is generally well regarded by those who have encountered him at a casino in Windsor, Canada close to the US border.

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) was first to jump on the bandwagon, inviting the Olympic star to stop off on his way home and play in the currently running APT Macau, and offering to pick up the tab for his travel, hotel and buy-in.

The idea of adding the world swimming sensation to a player list for the main event that already included Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, J.C Tran, John Juanda, Kenny Tran, Nam Le, Quinn Do, Steve Sung, APT Manila champion David Saab and many others was ambitious but understandable. It would certainly have been a game to remember for those online poker players who won seats in the event at satellite tournaments at PartyPoker.com, Datapoker, Titan Poker, Bodog, JBetPoker, Virgin Poker and Poker Trillion.

In an open letter to Phelps (a little publicity can go a long way) ATP wrote: “Some have said you are a ‘human dolphin’ but we’re keen to know if history’s greatest swimmer is really a fish. You may have feet that can reach angles others cannot to give you the ultimate swimming technique but just you wait until you’ve got sharks like Vegas poker legend Doyle Brunson chasing you. We’ll see how fast you really are then when they smell blood - get some flippers on those size 14’s!”

This week it was Betfair Poker making a pitch, suggesting that the Olympic hero might like to also make himself a legend at the poker tables with a sponsored trip to London for the World Series of Poker Europe in September.

Betfair offered to pay the GBP 10 000 buy-in so he could have a crack at the guaranteed GBP 1 million prize-pool and a WSOP gold bracelet … at the same time heightening the profile of the championship. Again there was the play on the swimmer’s achievements:

“Phelps will be free to wear his famous LZR swim suit at the table, although organizers fear it may not give him the same competitive edge outside of the pool,” the poker site joked in a press release.

Our guess is that the line for Phelps’s attention is a long one, with many opportunities for commercial endorsement deals worth tens of millions of dollars that require only his imprimatur and image.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Upon the release of Microsoft’s latest version of Internet Explorer, IE8, in the Beta 2 version this week (with the final version scheduled to arrive later this year), there have been some news reports on the new browser’s inPrivate feature, which reportedly enables users to browse the Internet anonymously. 

According to PC World, when enabled, the inPrivate feature prevents the browser from saving all sensitive data such as log-in info, passwords, and history. It’s meant to be a security feature, but as PAP member Arnoldpalmer recently pointed out in the Forum, this inPrivate function may pose a potential problem for affiliates who rely on tracking.   

What do you think? Could this new feature (which is almost sure to be heavily utilized) threaten the way affiliate marketers do business? 

Popularity: 11% [?]