Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for October 05, 2018

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Oct 5, 2018

Cafrino In Poker Player Merge

1.5 million poker players involved

Social gaming company Cafrino has announced the merger of its two poker platforms, “Cafrino” and “National League of Poker.” The integrated platform will continue under the “National League of Poker” (NLOP) banner, online, the company said in a press release Thursday.

The merger will result in an NLOP player database of more than 1.5 million online players, and will take place in Q4 2018. After Cafrino’s acquisition of NLOP in July 2017, the platform merger is “the next stage in the evolution of the Cafrino business,” according to Chief Executive Officer, Michael Murphy.

“We’ve been planning this consolidation since we acquired NLOP,” explained Murphy. “With this step, we are able to focus our resources on a single player experience and take our cash-award business model to the next level.”

Murphy added, “This includes the consolidation of development teams, additional product enhancements, better customer support, and a larger prize pool. Not to mention the impact of more marketing resources focused on a single product.”

With the move to NLOP, Cafrino players will have access to one of the best and longest running free-to-play online poker platforms.

Murphy said, “Cafrino players will enjoy all the benefits of the robust platform, with the additional benefit of carrying over their chips, as well as any prize money in their Cafrino wallet. The instant cash out system will also allow Cafrino players to automatically withdraw any funds directly to their PayPal accounts.”

Pokerstars Releases News On Brazilian Series Of Poker

The largest poker event in Latin America will have a guaranteed prize pool of R$12 million

The Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP), sponsored by PokerStars, has announced details on the Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) Millions, which will take place from November 27 to December 6 at the World Trade Centre (WTC) in Sao Paulo, and close the 2018 Brazilian poker calendar.

PokerStars claims that the BSOP Millions is the largest poker festival in Latin America, with 43 tournaments for players of all bankrolls held over ten days of competition. The total guaranteed prize pool is R$12 million, with R$7 million guaranteed in the Main Event. With a R$3,500 buy-in, the champion of the Main Event will receive a guaranteed minimum of R$1.2 million.

In the R$15,000 buy-in Super High Roller, the guaranteed prize pool is R$500.000. The festival will also distribute four Platinum Passes, valued at US$30,000 each, to the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC).

The BSOP Millions awards some of the biggest prizes in Brazilian live poker. In 2017 the event distributed more than R$21 million in total, and the BSOP series as a whole during the year awarded around R$52 million in prizes, only behind the Brazilian Football Championship in terms of paid prizes.

Back once again with an enviable structure, the first day of the 10-day tournament features 60 minute levels, with the exception of Day 1B Turbo, which will have levels of 30 minutes. From the Day 2 onwards, the levels increase to 75 minutes until the final table on December 6.

For Igor Trafane, CEO of the BSOP, the Millions event is recognised for its premium level quality and excellent player experience.

“BSOP is a circuit that covers all regions of Brazil and the Millions is the peak of the season, closing the year with a beautiful event,” said Trafane. “The BSOP started 13 years ago as a tournament among a few poker fans. Now it’s among the biggest poker events on the planet, with more than 15,000 entries expected for the Millions festival.”

To view the complete schedule, go to http://www.bsop.com.br/bsop-2018-millions

Online satellites for the BSOP Millions are now available on PokerStars.

O’Dwyer Claims Another High Roller Victory

Top poker pro scores a GBP 450,000 pay day in PartyPoker’s Millions High Roller

Top Irish (now US) poker pro Steve O’Dwyer has claimed another six-figure pay-day in his latest victory, taking down the PartyPoker Millions GBP 25,500 buy-in Super High Roller for GBP 450,000. – reportedly his forty-fourth cash at these levels.

The event took place at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham, United Kingdom and recorded 51 entries, the majority from top professional players, with World Series of Poker main event champion Ryan Riess the bubble boy as the final table of six formed.

At that point O’Dwyer was among the lower stacks, and German ace Christoph Vogelsang held the chip lead, although he was unable to maintain momentum and ultimately finished fourth.

By the three-handed stage O’Dwyer had surged to the lead, holding 51 million of the chips and more than comfortably ahead of his last two opponents, Fabrizio Gonzalez of Uruguay and Turkish pro Orpen Kisacikoglu.

The Turk busted out at third, leaving O’Dwyer with a 7 to 1 lead over Gonzalez, a deficit that was too great for the Uruguay player to beat; Gonzalez was eliminated at second for GBP 286,750, leaving the biggest share of the GBP 1,236,750 prize pool to a delighted O’Dwyer.

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