Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for September 14, 2018

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Sep 14, 2018

888Poker Confirms Recent DDoS Attacks

Online poker provider joins PartyPoker, PokerStars and Winning Poker Network reports of assaults

Online poker provider 888Poker has confirmed that since September 5 it has been the target of DDoS attacks similar to those experienced late last month by Winning Poker Network, PokerStars and PartyPoker (see previous InfoPowa reports).

The attacks disrupted operations last weekend, prompting the company to issue a statement which advised:

“As many of you may already know, we have experienced intermittent disruptions of our service to you due to DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. This has affected our ability to provide you with a comprehensive poker experience.

“On behalf of the team, I apologise for the inconvenience caused and want you to know that the entire 888poker Team continues to work diligently to mitigate these attacks. Addressing technical issues, outstanding member concerns and restoring normality to our poker room is our top priority.

“As you can imagine, our contact volumes are much higher than usual; therefore there may be delays in our responses. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to work to get our service to you.”

888will be keen to sort out thje attackers prior to the start this week of its much-anticipated 34-event XL series online tournament, which runs through to September 23.

Pokerstars To Discontinue Unfold Poker Variant

Brief trials persuade provider to withdraw product

PokerStars’ continuing initiatives to provide players with new and interesting poker variants will continue despite the occasional setback where a new product does not work out, according to the company’s director of poker innovation and operations Severin Rasset.

Rasset made the comment in his announcement this week that following a review the company has decided to “fold Unfold”, a variant that allowed a player to pay to unfold his cards if he or she determined that the flop was actually suitable (see previous InfoPowa report).

The decision follows a short period which presumably showed that there was little demand for the product, a fate shared by two earlier PokerStar’s innovations – Showtime Hold’em and Split Hold’em.

Tencent Holding To Shutter Texas Hold’Em Poker Game

Provider under increasing pressure from Chinese government

Chinese games and technology provider Tencent Holdings will shut down its popular Texas Hold’Em poker video game, the Chinese tech giant advised users on Monday, citing the need to take a further step to comply with intensifying government.

Tencent said it would formally begin to shutter “Everyday Texas Hold’Em” from Monday and would shut down the game’s server from Sept 25. Tencent would compensate users in accordance with regulations of Ministry of Culture, the company confirmed.

The Shenzhen-based company, which draws much of its profit from gaming, is facing mounting challenges this year from stringent regulation and government censorship. It has had to pull one blockbuster game and seen others censured, according to the Rewuters news agency.

The company’s market value slumped by around $20 billion in one day last month over concerns that China would limit gaming after a crackdown on online games citing rising levels of myopia.

A Tencent spokesman said the plan to shutter the game was a “business adjustment.”

Tencent logged its first quarterly profit decline in nearly 13 years in August, citing issues about getting popular games approved.

Founded in 1998, the firm’s main business is video games but it also runs China’s dominant social network, WeChat, with more than 1 billion users.

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.


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