A brand new Facebook Poker app seems to be hot in the news – driven by actor Kevin Pollak and his apparent love for this game. For those of you who don’t know who Kevin Pollak is don’t feel alone, neither did we. However, after conducting a little research we found that he certainly has a very well-known face; claims to fame roles in A Few Good Men, The Whole Nine Yards, The Wedding Planner and more. He hosted the first season of Celebrity Poker Showdown, and regularly invites friends over to his house for poker nights.

Anyway it seems he is also the host for the brand new Facebook poker app, which has been aptly named – Hollywood Poker. The app debuts on the 8th October, 2012, and basically offers players a chance to win into star-studded poker games. This is not a “play for real money” game, but apparently does offer great prizes.

So far the names being dropped include: James Woods, Dennis Quaid, Peter Facinelli of Twilight fame (he plays Dr. Carlisle Cullen), John O’Hurley from Seinfeld, Scott Baio, Tim Busfield of The West Wing, Dean Cain of Las Vegas, Rob Riggle of 21 Jump Street, and of course plenty more. While we did not see Ben Affleck or Matt Damon on the list, and they are well-known for their celebrity poker antics, there is still a whole load of shining stars who seem keen to participate in this game, and have also committed themselves to playing Hollywood Poker.

While Hollywood Poker launches on Facebook on the 8th October, the tournament won’t start right away. Members will be playing their best game of poker to win entry into the first tournament which takes place on the 20thOctober. It offers a "rare and exciting chance to play Texas Hold’Em Poker" with Kevin Pollak and his chosen celebrity friends. Three lucky winners will get to play in this single table event. What a rush?!

This is one of the first poker games to be launched by Facebook themselves, and no poker player worth their salt is going to want to miss out on the chance. It is their first ever celebrity games, and over 160 stars of movies, TV, Sports and Media have pledged to play Hollywood Poker. Films and shows such as Too Big to Fail, Saturday Night Live, Vegas, Vampire Diaries, Revolution, News Radio, Charles in Charge, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, 30 Rock and more to be confirmed will be represented.

Hollywood Poker is easy to use – its designed this way – and fun for everyone. Fans get to interact directly with stars, rub virtual shoulders and chat with them, while playing poker. Visitors can follow the action, as well as become a member, and prizes include trips to star-studded events. This game is playable on most devices which includes mobile for iPad, with support for iPhone and Android being well on their way.

Fast-fold Poker is finally taking a-hold at more than one well-known website; PokerStars is now also attempting to stop its feverish spread on the World-Wide Web by pending patent rights. The game started more than a year ago at Full-tilt Poker, and with this websites’ downfall, copies have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Players are getting the hang of the game, where the appeal is its difference to normal paced poker online. Because it is fast, it reduces waiting time – a player can fold, then simply be moved to another table, and take part in another game. The additional appeal is that the game is a natural fit for mobile, and opponents barely get to know the game of the people they play against, so, this makes it fabulously fair. It is an action-focussed game with an almost arcade game-type feel.

Full-tilt introduced fast-fold in 2010 – calling it "Rush Poker". At the time, no other poker product was interested in exploring the possibilities that this form of the game seemed to offer. This gave FTP almost a complete year with exclusivity on fast-fold poker. Whether or not this shows lack of competitive vision, or fear of patent infringement, on the part of other online poker software developers, we actually do not know. But what we do know is this, as soon as Full-tilt was out of the fold, there was a mad rush to develop software which emulated fast-fold.

PokerStars have their own version of the game, and now that they own FTP – lock, stock and their backs over a barrel, they also want their hands on any patent rights they may be entitled to. Their version is called Zoom Poker, but they were in fact not the first to offer real money fast-fold poker after FTP. InstaDeal was the first fast-fold poker competitor online.

This software provider soft- launched a flagship product called "Terminal Poker" back in late 2010. They were the first online network to exclusively host fast-fold style poker with low stakes Hold ‘em games. They expanded with white-label skins on PokerTube as well as at an online poker portal – Vegas365. This product still receives consistent players, even if only in very small numbers.
When it seemed as though Full-tilt would never rise from the ashes of their ruin, let alone ever be able to competitively defend a patent rights legal brougha; “Fast Poker” from Maltese developer – Relax Gaming was the next to hit the Net. This game can be found at Unibet and iGame.

Zoom Poker came from PokerStars in March 2012, and is still ostensibly wearing the "Beta" banner. However, it has hit the tables hard, there are various stakes and multiple game types available already, and now PokerStars has nothing to worry about, their lawyers have taken the problem of "Patent Pending" away from FTP lawyers, and are letting their lawyers handle the issue, as though they developed this product for themselves. Good on them, they paid enough money for FTP; might as well get it back one way or another!

In the world of online poker – there has been so much drama taking place ever since April 15th last year. That is 15th April 2011 – now more infamously known as Black Friday. We have all heard of Black Friday, but the biggest impact this day probably had was for Full Tilt Poker (FTP). This brand unfortunately had made some huge mistakes in their management of the site, and despite the fact that they had grown into the second biggest online poker operator still doling out services to the USA marketplace; they also crashed the hardest. Sometimes it is true what they say – "the bigger they are, the harder they fall".

Anyway, not to harp on what was a huge misfortune for the FTP brand and thousands, and thousands of members who could not withdraw their funds from the site.PokerStars also took a knock on black Friday, and unsurprisingly bounced right back. This was chiefly because PokerStars was positioned properly to hit the European market hard after the loss of their USA fan-bases, and because they had their fiduciary responsibilities taken care of.

Now after eighteen months and a whole lot of heartache for FTP fans, and owners; their biggest rival in the online poker industry has taken the steps to save their collective bacon. What this also means is that 600 Irish employees, might not all lose their jobs completely.
How is this relevant to two online poker sites?

Well, despite what the rest of the world might think, the world of online poker is no longer a niche product. It has grown into a mainstream industry, together with most forms of online gambling over the past decade and a half. Today more people gamble online than (we would hazard a guess), than gamble in live casinos.

This knowledge tells us that because it is such a huge industry, there must be people employed to help run it. The World Wide Web might be clever, but at this point in time, people still need to be employed to make sure that the job gets done. The Company that provided IT handling and software development for FTP is situated in Cherrywood, Co Dublin, they are called Pocket Kings, and FTP was probably one of their biggest clients. With 600 Irish employees on the job, while we are not sure who will be re-hired, or fired, but at least these jobs are no longer so much at risk. Obviously some staff has already been let go.

The Irish Times, and other Irish-based newspapers have been spreading the news, so, we believe that it is good news.

In another aside, while criminal charges were filed against owners of both Full Tilt Poker, and PokerStars which caused Black Friday, and it is PokerStars that have done the deal with the DoJ, we would love to be privy to what the deal entails. However, we believe that it is highly unlikely that we will ever know what truly went on behind closed doors. PokerStars took a huge gamble, it’s bound to pay off, because gamble is what they do best.

Whether or not it was a huge bluff that PokerStars was buying out what was left of Full Tilt Poker (FTP) remains to be seen. There was massive excitement surrounding this topic just before the World Series Of Poker took place, but now the fuss seems to have died down. Popular opinion has it that the PokerStars/FTP Deal was only pie in the sky, and nothing much more. But of course, just as the possibility of the deal was conjecture, so, too is this opinion; but stranger things have been known to happen.

Discussions do however appear to have faded into the background. Rumour had it that PokerStars had been working with the U. S. DoJ to see if they could realize what Group Bernard Tapie could not. According to certain poker professionals who are in-the-know – these talks have ‘fizzled out’ – were "only hope and nothing more."(Matt Glantz).

Obviously it is wishful thinking for the online poker community to want this matter to be resolved. Any deal that any poker company might make with the US DoJ would have a vested interest for former poker players at FTP. It is no secret that the website was grossly mismanaged, and that millions of dollars worth of player funds were not been paid back to its members. The chances that these members will ever get their money back are indeed incredibly slim, despite the fact that there are half a dozen class action lawsuits still pending against FTP. We know that this deal would have brought some hope to FTP former-members, but there are huge problems involved for any online gambling or other company to attempt to rescue FTP from the morass.

First off we know that FTP’s Ray Bitar has faced the charges for Black Friday indictments, and plead not guilty; but PokerStars founder – Isai Scheinberg has not faced up to any charges, and does not intend to plead. This would probably be a pre-requisite for any DoJ deal, and PokerStars wants to avoid any leadership prosecutions. The Department of Justice (DoJ) is unlikely to decide not to pursue their criminal case against both Scheinberg and executive Paul Tate.

Even more telling with regards any discussion deal is the fact that there is no Federal landscape for online poker in the USA – so there is no ‘nationwide’ environment for PokerStars to get back into. Currently state-by-state individual changing of online poker laws is taking place, but the wheels of power are turning slowly, and there is not a great deal of incentive for PokerStars (a massive online poker offering in Europe) to offer ’íntrastate’ online gambling to the USA. Although to get a foot in the door; the efforts may be worthwhile. But then again, it would be smart business for big USA brands such as Caesars to keep this brand out of the USA, and Caesars as well as other big gambling brands have a lot of political influence.

Hybrid Interaction Ltd. welcomes Scott Yeates as its new head of Poker Consulting Services. Scott joins Hybrid Interaction from PokerStars, where for nearly 5 years he was leading the VIP Program. Scott will provide strategic direction and hands-on expertise to Hybrid Interaction’s expanding portfolio of poker clients, and as an experienced rewards program specialist, he would naturally fit into the core business of Hybrid Interaction: cross-vertical loyalty schemes enhancement.

"I was working directly with Scott few years back when we first established the Player Relationship Marketing team on the Isle of Man," said Shahar Attias, founder and CEO of Hybrid Interaction. "Scott’s extensive knowledge of best retention practices and vast experience in the Poker field, especially in what triggers the professional game makers, will have a significant, positive impact on our work in no time."

During his time at PokerStars, Scott played a key part of designing the most advanced online poker loyalty program, and as one of the previously largest players of the network, his insight was used to craft a program that had appeal to the new players, old players as well as the largest players on the internet.

"Hybrid Interaction is committed to maximizing its clients’ Lifetime-value by bringing together key professionals from across all verticals of the iGaming community," said Scott. "I am thrilled to join this ROI-driven organization at such a pivotal time in online gambling history."