It’s been a long time coming and we’ve been hearing a lot about it for a while, but the time is here: The World Series of Poker brand is online for real money, but of course, only in Nevada. On Sept. 19 at 9:19 a.m., the site started accepting real money for poker within the state. This made WSOP.com and Ultimate Poker the only real-money online providers to step up to the plate since the law passed.
The site is still in the “field test” stage of its business, but as soon as it’s able to show the gaming commission all of the hurdles have been cleared, it’s expected the site will quickly take hold and become a major player.
The site has many sit-n-go, multitable tournaments. These range from free to $215 buy-ins. There’s also a weekly $15K guaranteed every Sunday. So, WSOP.com has no signs of letting the dust settle on its boots when it comes to online or live play.
On Oct. 25 (after press time), WSOP.com offered the first WSOP Online Championship Series, which was comprised of nine events. The winners of each event will play in a live single-table freeroll on the main stage at the Penn & Teller Theater right before the WSOP main event final table. Prizes will be $50K for first, $30K for second and $20K for third.
FULL TILT UPDATE: Emails have been sent to eligible players with money in their Full Tilt accounts. I contacted some of my friends who received the email and have found out there were some glitches when they filled out the form on the GCG website. The biggest glitch was with the unique petition number claimants had to use to file their petition. The number was listed in the email from the GCG. When the player went to the GCG claims website to enter this number, a message was returned on the screen saying the number was invalid. It was later discovered and posted on several blogs that a zero had to be added to the front of the number before the website would accept it. The zero wasn’t included in the number in the email. Once that issue was settled, the process was simple and straightforward.
According to the GCG website (fulltiltpokerclaims.com), more than 1.4 million emails were sent and as of Oct. 3, there have been more than 23,500 petitions filed. For those who have not filed yet, the deadline is Nov. 16. If you don’t have your claim filed by that date, then you’re not eligible to receive any money from your Full Tilt account.
If you didn’t receive an email and you believe you should have, there’s a process in place for you to file a petition as well. Go to the website read the section titled IMPORTANT UPDATE. The same deadline applies.
— Email Joel Gatlin at editor@anteupmagazine.com.
