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Microgaming Announces Two New Slots

mhill — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:02:58 +0000

Microgaming has two new slots for April: first up is SUGAR MAMA. She’s rich and beautiful, and so is this slot. Filled with opulent symbols, like the Sugar Mama, her Chihuahua, Cash, Credit Cards, and a Waiter serving refreshments, Sugar Mama offers up a fixed payout of 7500 coins. This game has 50 paylines, and has two scatter symbols: the first, the Free Spins Logo, will trigger 12 free spins with a 12x multiplier. The second scatter, the pink Gift Box, triggers a bonus game, where you pick three gifts out of fifteen to win up to 60x the total bet.

The next Microgaming offering is MAGIC MULTIPLIER, a magic-based, 30-paylines slot. Symbols include Playing Cards, Top Hat, Rabbit, and high value card symbols. This game’s wild symbol is the Magician, which offers up a maximum of 10,000 coins. This game offers three scatter symbols: the Hypnotic Wheel triggers a retriggerable free spins bonus round, with a maximum multiplier of up to 5x; the Curtain (when it appears on reels 2, 3 and 4), players get to choose to open on of the three curtains to receive a bonus prize; the Cup and Balls scatter triggers a bonus game where players need to choose the cup that has the ball underneath it – if successful each three times, players can win up to 25x the triggering bet.

It’s a Women’s World at Party Poker

mhill — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:25:10 +0000

Party Poker and Matchroom Sport once again team up to announce locale / dates for the Women’s World Open IV.

London.

March 23rd and 24th, 2010.

This high-profile tourney with a female bent will be comprised of 24 players, with a $3,000 buy-in. Total prize pool is $72,000, and the final table will hold 6 players.

Already committed to the event are Team PartyPoker.com’s Kara Scott along with Annette Obrestad. Women’s World Open III winner, Aisling Collins and that event’s runner-up, Kim Wooka, joins them. Other confirmed participants include Laurence Grondin, Stefanie Bergener, Shelley Rubenstein, Christine Klecz, Maria Demetriou, Pippa Flanders along with Women’s World II winner Soraya Homam.

Here’s a bit of irony: Aisling Collins’ aggressive play last year garnered her a star fan in Annette Obrestrad, and in this year’s event, mentor faces off against mentee. As well, it’ll be interesting to see how she fares against last year’s runner up, Kim Wooka, who clearly has lots to prove. With this year’s tournament, we can expect a deep stacked game rife with fierce competition.

Microgaming Unveils New Coffee-Themed Online Slot

mhill — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:48:34 +0000

Now, avid slot fas can get their slot and coffee fix at Microgaming, all while playing their newest online slot, CashOccino.

When you check out this slot, the first thing that’ll grab you are its warm, inviting coffee-infused hues. This slot is entrenched with deep warm browns of every shade – and the only thing players may miss is the actual smell of coffee. I hear Microgaming may be incorporating that in the next generation…

Making up the game’s symbols include miscellaneous Coffee Brand Logos, and coffee-colored card symbols. The International Coffee logo is this game’s wild, and the Gold Coffee symbol is the scatter. If you hit five wilds, you’ll trigger this game’s maximum jackpot of 10,000 coins. Per payline, a player can bet with a minimum of $0.05 and a maximum of 20 coins which works out to $1 per line.

If you land three or more scatters, you’ll trigger the free spins feature, which is normally 15 free spins with a 3x multiplier. This slot game also has an Extra Bet feature – if you opt to make an “extra” investment of 50%, you’ll win extra coins during regular and feature game play, along with one free spin whenever 2 Gold Coffee scatters appear on the reels. If you’ve activated the Extra Bet feature, you’ll also be awarded 30 free spins instead of 15 duing the free spins feature.

Microgaming Gets Struck Again

mhill — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:02:01 +0000

Leading software developer, Microgaming, has a one-two punch in store in terms of its online slots. Days ago, Microgaming announced that a new online slot game will be forthcoming, The Lord of the Rings based on the Warner Bros. film trilogy.

In terms of slots, it’s sequel heaven.

Now, Microgaming is releasing a sequel to its own hugely popular game, Thunderstruck, which has a memorable Norse god theme. The new online slot is aptly named Thunderstruck2, and Microgaming’s development team has done much to match and even exceed the visual splendor that defines the original game. According to their press release, the game will offer innovative game play, hand-painted graphics, an epic musical score, and an array of special features, all while retaining the original “vibe” of the first game.

Harrah’s Might Make Move in Macau

mhill — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:18:18 +0000

Harrah’s Entertainment continues expanding, but apparently, taking over the entire Free World just isn’t enough for them. It now looks likely that Harrah’s will take on China (i.e. Macau) as well.

The company has its eye on Melco Crown Entertainment, a company that owns the Macau’s City of Dreams and the Altira Macau. Harrah’s is “acutely interested” in buying a 32.5% stake, which Australian billionaire James Packer’s gaming company, Crown Ltd., has put on the market.

Melco Crown Entertainment’s co-chairman and co-chief executive officer is Lawrence Ho, son of Hong Kong billionaire Stanley Ho.

Up until this point, Harrah’s has been shut out of Macau gaming world, whereas MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. have already set up shop. In 2007, Harrah’s paid over $577 million for the 175-acre Macau Orient Golf Course. The gold course was later rebranded Caesars Golf Macau after its $26 million redevelopment in 2008. In terms of getting into the Macau casino biz, purchasing the Melco Crown stake might be an effective backdoor for Harrah’s.

Online Poker Rallies for Haiti Relief

mhill — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:24:30 +0000

The biggest names in the online poker world are pledging their efforts to aid quake-riven Haiti.

Tonight’s “Play for Haiti” Tournament comes courtesy of Full Tilt, Pokerstars, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet (all of which are familiar, or should be, to online poker fans). These sites have committed to matching all player donations, offering a $5 buy-in and a $10,000 pool as incentive.

Absolute Poker andUltimate Bet are hosting the tournament, and CEO Paul Leggett sums up the aspirations: “Along with the rest of the world, we’ve watched the headlines and news unfold with growing horror as the magnitude of the devastation in Haiti has been revealed. We believe we have a duty to do what we can to help raise funds and awareness for the plight of the people of Haiti, and our ‘Play for Haiti’ tournament is one small way we can work with our players to contribute.”

“Play for Haiti” starts at 8:30pm EST tonight (Wednesday, January 20th). The $10,000 prize pool offers coveted entries to the $4 Million Ulitimate Bet Online Poker Championship tournament, with a $2,600 entry for first place, and a $1,050 entry for 2nd place. Everyone who places between third and ninth place gets a $215 buy-in for a 25 seat satellite, and 10th through 15th gets a $109 entry into a 100 seat Satellite.

All donations go to the Red Cross Haiti Disaster Relief Fund.

Bahamas-Based PCA Goes To Final Table

mhill — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:23:35 +0000

Things just got hotter in the Bahamas. The lively scene at the Atlantis Resort Imperial Ballroom – home of PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – has just reached a steady boil as the showdown counts down to the final table. Currently leading the pack is PokerStars qualifier Ryan “golfa” D’Angelo, a young 24-year-old New Yorker with more than 10 million in chips. In a close second is Tyler “puffinmypurp” Reiman with 9,350,000.

D’Angelo is well known in the online poker circuit, having secured two WCOOP events this year and consequently making the record books as one of only three players in WCOOP history to have completed this amazing feat.

Today’s casualties include EPT founder John Duthie, who incidentally was the last surviving member of Team PokerStars Pro, who lost his five million chips in a showdown against Reiman.

Here are the eight men going into the final table – all from the USA, except for Norwegian Aage Ravn:

Ryan D’Angelo, 10,090,000
Tyler Reiman, 9,350,000
Barry Shulman, 6,805,000
Harrison Gimbel, 6,000,000
Thomas Koral, 5,370,000
Benjamin Zamani, 3,700,000
Zachary Goldberg, 2,340,000
Aage Ravn, 1,690,000

On the women’s team, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso looks likely to beat out the other 90 women (including EPT London Ladies winner Dagmara Aleksandrowicz and poker pro Annette Obrestad) who entered the PCA $1k Ladies event, and is in very strong shape to win the event’s $24k first prize.

The PCA main event final begins tomorrow at noon, and you can catch a live webcast feed at PokerStars.

CityCenter’s Condos Catch Buyers

mhill — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:09:05 +0000

The opening of the $8.5 billion dollar project CityCenter seems to be taking hold, as far as condominium buyers are concerned.

Last week, 10 potential buyers put up their bid to units inside the Veer Towers, an all-residential complex within City Center. Closing these sales will take place in January, when the potential buyers are required to put down 20% of the purchase price. Prices range from $500,000 for the smallest, studio-sized unit, and up to $9 million for the penthouse suites over the Mandarin Oriental.

Veer Towers is just one of CityCenter’s three different residential choices, with 2,400 high-rise condos in total.

To spur sales, a 30% price reduction on the condo units went into effect in October. At the time of this writing, the company has stated that buyers have reserved more than 1,300 units for a total sale price of $1.6 billion. Of that, MGM Mirage – who owns half of CityCenter – has collected deposits of more than $300 million.

Of the three residential properties, Mandarin Oriental is 97 % sold out, and Veer Towers is approximately 67 % reserved. The real challenge lies in Vdara, which is CityCenter’s hotel-condominium development. Here, owners have the ability to place their units into a rental program which are leased as hotel rooms when the owners aren’t occupying them – with a cut of the revenue split between owners and Vdara. Not unlike time-shares, it’s been more challenging so far convincing buyers to go this route.

Harrah’s Sets Sights On Planet Hollywood

mhill — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:31:49 +0000

Harrah’s Entertainment has moved forward with its missive to buy Planet Hollywood Resort.

On Monday, the state Gaming Control Board confirmed that Harrah’s had filed applications to acquire the property with gaming regulators in Nevada.

If the deal does go through, it’s expected that Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl would continue in his role, continuing to work closely with the new team.

Harrah’s has been in Planet Hollywood’s spotlight for a while now. In September, Harrah’s Entertainment had already controlled nearly $140 million of Planet Hollywood Resort’s debt, and they had been negotiating to control even more of PW’s $860 million total debt that’s currently in default.

No stranger to debt itself, Harrah’s – which owns and manages 52 casinos around the world – has their own $19.3 billion long-term debt to contend with. According to a SEC filing, $501.8 million of that is maturing next year, and $168.9 million is due in 2011. One of the criteria for approving Planet Hollywood’s acquisition is that Harrah’s own financial position will need to be investigated.

Trump Pulls Out Trump Card In Atlantic City

mhill — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:48:21 +0000

After leaving the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts, a New Jersey-based casino conglomerate that filed for bankruptcy for the third time in February as it continues to wrangle with a $1.7 billion in debt, Donald Trump and his former company have apparently reached a satisfactory agreement.

Trump gets a 10% stake in a newly-structured company that serves as an umbrella for three Atlantic City casinos, the Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Marina, and Trump Plaza. As part of the new deal, Trump and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to drop a lawsuit against Trump Entertainment Resorts, which centered around his $116 million bid to regain control of the three New Jersey casinos that bear his name. Speaking of which, the new deal allows Trump to stamp his name on other gambling endeavors as long as its outside of a five state radius from Atlantic City.

It’s a pretty good week for Trump. Not only does he square things up with his company, but his much-touted Trump Waikiki Beach Walk hotel – a five star, 462 luxury room property – opened in Honolulu this week as well. Perfect timing – he might need to head out there for some R and R after his latest boardroom…