Home / Poker News February 2011 / The poker grapevine – Party Poker returning to the US?
The poker grapevine – Party Poker returning to the US?
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2011-02-18 10:04
It’s not a secret to anyone involved in the online poker industry that Party Poker has long been seeking to return to the US market one way or another. The site never quite managed to recover from the hit received from the 2006 UIGEA, and it has been entertaining thoughts of reclaiming its former glory by returning to the US market since. Rumor has it that the site may be on the verge of a breakthrough in this respect. It appears that the site’s representatives have signed a deal with a major land-based US casino, which would allow them to start offering US-based players a poker platform. It is not currently known which casino
Party Poker has apparently teamed up with, but several names have been floated. Caesar’s, MGM, Las Vegas Sands and Boyd Gaming had all expressed interest in such a move in the past.
The WSOP has been busy building its French connection for quite a while. First, the WSOPE was moved to Cannes, now it seems that WSOP.fr has just managed to secure a license from the French authorities. The site will basically be a skin for barrierepoker.fr and it will offer all sorts of online qualifying opportunities to various
WSOP events, on top of the usual selection of real money online cash games and
poker tournaments.
In other news: the Raise Your Hand for Africa event will kick off on February 19th in Las Vegas, at the Golden Nugget. If you were aching to see some of your favorite pros in action, this may be the perfect opportunity as the charity tournament will be televised by the Heartland Poker Tour.
Johnny Chan, Liz Lieu, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth and Howard Lederer will all be there, together with a bunch of other poker pros and celebrities from other walks of life: besides a host of NFL players and actors, Don Cheadle, a regular at such charity events, will also be present.
