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

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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: 8% [?]

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.

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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: 11% [?]

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% [?]

August 28, 2008 (InfoPowa News Service) — The Czech Republic’s estimated 60,000 poker players are contemplating a brighter future through government reviews of the country’s gambling laws, reports the Prague Post this week. Organizations like the Czech Association of Poker Clubs are lobbying their government to declare poker a sport, thereby reducing the risk of crime in a pastime that is growing increasingly popular with Czechs.

The Association has enlisted the professional services of Ernst & Young to aid the campaign, as government officials in the Finance ministry prepare to introduce a new gambling legislation that will streamline national regulations for gambling, currently prohibited outside of land casinos. Draft legislation is due for presentation late 2008, and the Association wants to make sure its input is considered in the drafting process.

Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Chocholová confirmed to the Prague Post that poker was currently not recognized as a sport, but would not comment on the contents of the upcoming legislation, saying only that poker outside of casinos is permitted in the Czech Republic, provided the game is played without any monetary stakes.

“Players disagree with the ministry’s assessment of the game,” the newspaper reported, ” … although large sums of money are often involved, poker itself is comparable with other sports, though relying on mathematical and psychological skills as opposed to physical.”

According to Chocholová, the hosting of poker tournaments, as well as the fact that the game has only recently become popular in the country, could potentially prevent the game’s reclassification. “The [Poker Club] association is trying to exempt poker tournaments from the lottery legislation,” she said. “These poker tournaments are the phenomenon of the past two years, and [permission is given] just for tournaments in casinos.”

Czech players are apparently between ages 18 and 30, and are overwhelming male, with women comprising only 10 percent of the national demographic, the newspaper reported. “While there are a few professional players living in the Czech Republic, most see it simply as recreation and a way to escape the monotony of their working lives,” it advised.

“Young people see poker as a form of entertainment and even a lifestyle,” a spokesman for the Czech Association of Poker Clubs said, adding that Internet gaming helps to introduce the game to new fans every day.

Popularity: 8% [?]

“Both (Sen. John) McCain and (Sen. Barack) Obama are poker players, but neither one has expressed anything one way or the other regarding the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It’s pretty low on their radar. For poker players, I really don’t think there’s much difference between the candidates.”

So says Jay Lakin, co-owner and vice president of Poker Source Online, as quoted by an article in today’s Las Vegas Sun. (Read “This pair, bettors would fold,” here.)

More from the article:

With the presidential election taking center stage, issues involving the Internet gambling law have taken a back seat, Lakin said.

“Nothing is going to happen in ’08 because ’08 is pretty much done,” Lakin said. “We won’t see anything happen until January ’09 at the earliest. So basically we’re going to have to wait and see what the new Congress is going to look like.”

Lakin is bullish on a bill introduced this month by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, with the catchy title of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification and Implementation Act of 2008. It’s also known as HR6663.

It would seek to clarify the ambiguous law and ultimately outlaw sports betting while legalizing poker and other forms of gambling online.

“One of the big issues with the UIGEA is that it needs clarification,” Lakin said. “It excludes horse racing, fantasy sports and online lotteries. Sessions is saying that all online gambling is legal except for sports betting. People that make sports bets, take sports bets or facilitate sports bets would be criminals under his bill.”

And though Lakin isn’t recommending either McCain or Obama, he says the evidence indicates Democrats are more open to legalizing online gambling than Republicans.

He cited the June vote on the Frank-Paul bill, a 32-32 deadlock (ties lose in committee), which took place after Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, a Republican, gave a bizarre speech in which he linked online gambling with child pornography and teen suicides.

Of the 32 lawmakers voting against it, 28 were Republican.

“It’s pretty much split down party lines,” he said. “Republicans don’t want gambling legalized, Democrats do, and Republicans will do or say whatever they need to do to make sure it stays illegal.”

Interesting, right? Nobody was really thinking that either of these candidates would do a whole lot to re-legalize online poker — it’s simply not an issue that a president is going to spend any time on, at least not yet –  and yet, a lot of supporters of Barack Obama seem to feel that, given a choice, he would repeal UIGEA.

What do you think? Is this good news, bad news, or not really news at all? Do you favor one political party over another based on what’s going on with UIGEA? Sound off, and let us know what you think!

Popularity: 51% [?]