Microgaming made a splash some time ago with their set of live dealer table games including Live Blackjack, Live Roulette, Live Baccarat and Live Multi Player Baccarat. Now the group has been enriched by a new addition – Multi-player Roulette which can be played by up to seven players at a time. Players are identified with different colours and if you want to see where others are placing their bets, just use the in-built action feature. The game looks really exciting and is expected to become very popular with players online. Microgaming produced it based on feedback from players and operators and is hoping to create an atmosphere as electric as in a land based casino.

If you have read the first article, you probably know that we tried to detail the French market regarding the online poker. Since 2010, the ARJEL authorise French poker player to play online but under certain conditions. After giving more details about Winamax, Betclic, poker Everest, Poker Bwin, poker SAjOO, Poker Eurosport, Poker, Le PMU poker,  and Pokerstar. I will keep detailing the list of the online poker competitors in France. To get a French licence, you have to respect a few rules: setting a limit on the wager, setting a limit on the amount of each account, automatic transfer on an account after a certain amount on it, indicate the time that the player is playing for (a clock), indication of the loss during at the end of the game, possibility to exclude a player and auto exclusion by the player...

Partouche poker: The website has just received its licence and they try to get customer through their reputation. The group is the second most important group of casino in France, so the clientele would be probably classier than another website.

Party poker: It was the last leader of poker in France; the website has signed different partnerships with different competitors: a way to propose better tournaments.
Chilipoker: this website is generated by a professional poker player: Alexandre Dreyfus, contractor of online marketing create his own online poker website. In 2002, the benefits were 2 million dollars and in 2008, it was 8 millions. The French business man hopes to increase his benefits through the French market.

Luckyjeux.fr: the information about this website is quite rare. The only thing we know is that the site uses the network of Party poker.

ACF poker: The famous poker room of the Champs Elysées is ready to open its market on Internet. The club enjoys a great reputation in the poker sphere and expect to improve it through its website.

888poker: one of the leaders of poker. It just got the licence.

Poker Xtrem: It is a new poker website. The website will probably signed a partnership with the magazine Live Poker.

Barrière poker/FDJ: The biggest casino in France and its partner the Française des jeux (70% owned by the government) decided to be associated for creating a poker website. The association can be a big competitor.

PKR: the only poker website which offers to lay at the poker in 3 D.

Fult tilt Poker: the biggest poker website in the world just got its licence with already a lot of French players on it.

Then, it is 19 licences that the ARJEL has delivered on the French market. A big contest competition has just started and players can observe it by the number of offers that the online poker websites are offering. It’s time to enjoy them and get a maximum of bonuses.

As everyone knows, it is the WSOP 2010 in Las Vegas. On the 13th of July, the atmosphere was quite electric. Indeed, 7319 players were present and only 747 could expect a reward from this tournament. On the 13th of July, before the dinner,there was just 751 players left. 4 players need to be eliminated to be one of the paid places of the tournament. The atmosphere is very stressful and the organisation at this moment decides to send everyone to a dinner break despite the discontent of the players.

One hour later, everyone was back for to expecting to be in the first 747 players of the tournament. The strategy was a little the same for everyone, fold until someone is eliminated on another table. The organisation decided to play every game at the same time on every table; better to get a fair game.

Two Players are eliminated quickly after the dinner break, and then something interesting happens. One of the 749 players left received pocket ACES. Awesome! So he decided to go all in. Against him, a guy called with pocket Jacks. The probability to win with a pocket of ACES is 20% and of course on the flop the first card was a jack. Unlucky, but this face to face eliminated another player and at this time, just 1 player needed to be eliminated to be in the 747 paid places. Everyone was just so stressed and everyone was hoping that someone else will go all in before them.

The last played who decided to go online was called Tim McDonald. In his hands a pocket of Queens. He raised. But unfortunately, someone raised on his bet and raised him to "All in". Tim was confident and decided to go all in. The opponent got an Ace and a 2. It is quite tight; Both of them had a good game.

All the different online banking options for poker players can be confusing, some are appropriate for UK players while others are only suitable for US players. Some European options are only suitable for a specific country; but where the biggest problem lies is definitely with US online poker players. 

These players have to contend with the Unlawful (I call it the Awful) Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, and while this does not necessarily make online gambling unlawful, it does make financial transacting to gambling sites unlawful for major banking institutions. They are pressured into not allowing financial transactions to take place and this places online gambling facilities and US poker players at a disadvantage. 

Signing up for a poker account and funding it can be frustrating if you don’t know what you are doing, so be prepared. Some banks don’t allow credit card transactions to online gambling sites and this is not always only a problem in the US. It all depends where you are from and what type of payment method you use, but the best thing to do is first set up an online eWallet type account. 

Some British players “only” sites have started accepting PayPay, but not all do, and Neteller is generally the widest used option. Starting a Neteller account is simple and many poker sites will have a link available. However be warned, Neteller is an un-cool option for US players, they have made it so difficult to use that it isn’t worth the bother. So much for the “land of the free!”    Ukash is a fabulous British option too; this is a pre-paid internet shopping voucher, much like a pre-paid mobile phone voucher. It can be used to shop at tons of online sites and most gambling and poker sites also now use it as a payment option. Making use of Ukash also provides a useful Bankroll money management tool.