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Happy St Patrick’s Day!
When we think of St Patty’s day, we immediately think green.  Green beer, the beginning of a greener season...
well how about some cold hard green cash?

Carbon Poker is celebrating St Patrick’s Day with a couple of awesome bonuses.
Bonus #1 - 200% up to $2,000 for new first time depositors.  Use bonus code STPAT200
Bonus #2 - 75% up to $750 re-deposit bonus for existing real money players.  Use bonus code MAD75
These are limited time offers so don’t delay.  Carbon Poker is U.S. friendly too.

Speaking of great bonuses...
VC Poker has the best new player sign up bonus in the business.  Earn a whopping 300% up to $600 on your first deposit.  For example; deposit $100 and receive $300!  This bonus is very easy to clear, see their website for details.  Sorry, VC Poker does not accept American players.

Poker Room Reviews
We’ve been busy writing in-depth reviews of our favourite poker sites.  If you’re looking for new places to play and want the inside scoop before downloading, check with us first.  We promise thorough and honest reviews and we only recommend the finest rooms in the business.  Read our newest review - Cake Poker - by clicking here.

Social Networking
As many of you already know, we are very active in the online poker community.  The Pokerkeep is an active member of Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA), Casino Affiliate Program (CAP) and Association of Players Casinos and Webmasters (APCW).  We also support a number of other associations focused on online gambling and the UIGEA.  By staying involved with the industry, we are always on top of breaking news and events.  We report updates daily on our Poker Blog.

Our good friend J Todd, founder of APCW has recently launched APCWinteractive, an interactive online community of players, webmasters and casino operators.  I support J Todd 100% in his efforts.  APCW fights for your rights... Players, Webmasters, Affiliate Managers, and Casino Programs will be empowered by the information we have, and they will gain the voice they need to be heard by the entire industry!  I encourage everyone to join us at APCWinteractive, add your voice!

The Latest News
Carbon Poker is hosting the “5th Street Charity Ball” to benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation

A friend of mine runs a monthly charity tournament on Carbon Poker with proceeds going to Make-A-Wish Foundation.  The tournaments run on the first Saturday of each month. Kudos to Carbon Poker for hosting this event for The House of Poker Blues.

I urge everyone to jump in and support my friend Earl from House of Poker Blues in his quest. As one of Earl's good friends said recently; "We usually get around 50 players in this every month but it would be great to see the numbers rise and raise a LOT more money for the kids. No matter where you finish at the end of the tournament you win because half of the money goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Stop and think for even half a minute; how would you feel if that $2 from your entry that goes to the foundation is all that was needed to make it possible for a gravely ill child to do that one thing they wish to do before they die? Personally that thought almost takes my breath away!"

Here are the tournament details:

Name: 5th Street Charity Ball
Site: Carbon Poker
Description: The House of Poker Blue's Special Charity Tournament - $2 of entry-fee going to Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Tab Location: Tournament > Private > Scheduled
Limit Type: No Limit
Game Type: Texas Holdem
Money Type: Real Money
Blinds: 10 minutes, starting at 5/10
Campaign: House of Poker Blues
Custom Table Background: House of Poker Blues
Maximum players per table: 10 players
Starting Chips: 1,555 chips
Break Length: 3 minutes
Break Frequency: 90 minutes
Buyin: $2.00
Entry Fee: $2.40
Schedule Type: Monthly tournament
Start Time: 1st Saturday of the month at 1600 lobby time (4pm est.time)
Announce Period: Immediately

Next tournament is Saturday April 5. Please join us!
Carbon Poker is US friendly


PokerDream - A Poker Nightmare
Hundreds of players, affiliates and skin owners have apparently been duped out of tens of thousands of dollars.  A couple of weeks ago, the site went down for days, no word from anyone in charge.  They came back online for a couple of days, emptied all the accounts and went down again.  Since then J Todd of APCW has gotten involved and has been working toward recovering our funds.  We have already managed to make contact with two of the people in charge including John Dutchak who we to be the current owner.  I invite you to join me at APCW, membership is free.

About APCW
The APCW produces a weekly news video, Perspectives Weekly, that has become the most watched webcast in online gaming. Our live audio podcast, Perspectives Now, airs each week in partnership with Rounder's Radio and is an hour long in-depth discussion about current industry events. Additionally, we turn out several digital and print magazines a year featuring content from some of the best minds in the business.
When it comes to information, we don't stop at audits and news! The APCW also produces a large volume of feedback reports from both players and webmasters each year. These reports detail how well online casinos and affiliate programs are serving their customers and cover a variety of criteria. We also run surveys and polls, like the one above, and compile all of this information into reports for our members to view!
We are not just a community of people who play and work in the online gaming industry. Our members area is a social network that allows complete interaction between all members: Players can contact and message casino programs. Webmasters can leave comments and questions for affiliate managers. There is nothing restricting the free flow of communication and information! And if there are problems, we're here to help with mediation and advocacy when needed. In the past, we have resolved complex issues that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in the pockets of players and webmasters!

Important Industry News
Tusk Investment Corporation has become insolvent.
Microgaming Network announced that it has terminated it’s software licence with Tusk after receiving notice that Tusk plans to put the Company into liquidation.
The following Poker rooms were affected:
Battlefield Poker, Royal Card Club, Red Nines, Arctic Poker, Raw Poker, Poker.ie, Daily Poker, Flush Draw Poker, Will Bet Poker, Bet Road Poker, Grand Central Poker, Off The Rail Poker, Privy Poker, Berserk Poker, Atomik Poker, Dave's Poker Room, Hetman Poker, Hot Pepper Poker, Poker Seas, TilttAA Poker, Loose Games Poker, CPT Gaming Poker, Ice Bear Poker, GoHard Poker, Caya Poker, Mr Urban Poker, Poker Sweden, Euro Poker Dream
All other rooms on Microgaming Network are unaffected by this.  Rest assured that Doyles Room, GNUF, Canbet and 32Red Poker are completely safe and secure.  This was an insolvency issue with Tusk Investment Corp only.

More Industry News
UltimateBet Poker is under investigation for insider cheating.
As reported by Gaming Intelligence Group:
“Following complaints from players, UltimateBet has confirmed that it has found evidence of ‘abnormal’ playing activity at its online poker site.

UltimateBet and its licensing authority, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), were alerted on January 12th to allegations that a player with the online handle “NioNio” exhibited abnormally high winning statistics, resulting in accusations that the player had an unfair advantage during play.

The allegations also included reports of suspicious activity concerning the deletion of the NioNio account and other accounts that may have been related to the cheating.

UltimateBet says it immediately called in an independent third-party expert to review “hundreds of thousands of hand histories, all of which were promptly locked down and made available to the expert”.

The company went on to say: “The initial findings of our third-party expert confirm that the NioNio account’s winning statistics were indeed abnormal, and we have expanded the investigation to look into whether an unfair advantage existed, how such a scheme might have been perpetrated, and whether additional accounts beyond those of NioNio were involved.

“The investigation has proven to be extremely complex and, therefore, has been more extensive and taken much longer than initially expected. We continue to aggressively pursue the matter and will communicate the findings of our full investigation to our regulatory authority and to our customer base as soon as practicable.”

UltimateBet is owned by Tokwiro Enterprises and headed by the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Jo Norton. The company also owns AbsolutePoker.

Earlier this year the KGC fined AbsolutePoker $500,000 following an investigation into similar cheating allegations. In that case, the perpetrator(s) were found to have used a ‘backdoor’ in the poker software which enabled them to view other players ‘hole cards’.

The fact that Tokwiro Enterprises is again at the centre of cheating allegations will come as a significant blow to the company as well as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, who’s investigation of AbsolutePoker was labelled a whitewash due to its lack of detail and limited financial penalty.

If these latest allegations are substantiated, the KGC will have little option but to impose a significant enough penalty to deter such activity in the future and to maintain its authority as a credible licensing jurisdiction.”
Courtesy GamingIntelligenceGroup.com

For the record, The Pokerkeep has never promoted any of the poker rooms involved in the Tusk bankruptcy and we had added UltimateBet to our blacklist back when the Absolute Poker super user scandal first became public knowledge, proof that dealing with honest and knowledgeable affiliates pays off.  We have always put the safety of our players ahead of the bottom line and will continue to do so in the future.

If you find our newsletters useful and informative, please forward them to your friends.

Until next month - we wish you good skill and monster flops!
The Pokerkeep



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