Citing numerous breaches by the closing Trump Taj Mahal, which owes the company $1.5m. Details on how to get your money back coming soon at ultimatepoker.com and ucasino.com.

Story from the LVRJ's Howard Stutz:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/busines...rump-taj-mahal

EDIT: Ultimate Gaming's statement regarding the closing of services in New Jersey:

That was quick...

God
damn
it

One less guppy for Stars to swallow IMO

5 years from now Ultimate Poker might be the one doing the eating.

What would ever make you think this? All the evidence seems to suggest that Stars will absolutely crush UP.

There is nothing good about the happenings today. Stars is not coming to the rescue of online poker in the US.

Its going to be a long time before we see any sizeable market development in the US for online poker.

God online poker in the US sucks, ****s this country.

On paper at this moment it certainly seems that Stars can't be topped. But many said the same about Party Poker or even Paradise poker before that.

Take a scenario where it's an open market and both companies can compete worldwide including Stars back in the States. All being even so to speak.

The things that both companies have in common:
-Huge bankrolls
-Both have control over their own software.

Ask yourself and imagine this question was posed to everyone.... would you pay $100 dollars to play football with David Beckham (insert sports hero) if you were a fan of his?



Ultimate Poker is co-owned by the UFC. Right now the UFC runs shows nearly every week on either free television or PPV. Along with the live gate, there are millions of fans who tune in and everyone of them will see the free advertisement of Ultimate Poker every week. For Pokerstars to run an add they have to pay for the air time.

There are about 450 fighters from all over the world who are signed with the UFC. Some get dropped and new fighters get signed. All of them use twitter/Facebook. The vast majority of them aren't fabulously rich and would nearly all jump if given the chance to play online and draw their fan base to the site for a very small fee. The demographics for the UFC and Poker are nearly identical. I suppose DN does the same but at what cost per year?

The biggest difference between both sites is cost of acquisition. Stars has to pay DN and Nadal 7 figures where as a UFC fighter with 6 or 7 figure twitter followers would do it for a fraction of the cost.

Take Team Online... some of them only have a few hundred twitter followers and 99% of those are already poker players. How is this getting new players to the site? Yet the cost is 100k (play through) the last time I heard.

Nearly all UFC fighters have twitter followers in the 5 figures and some range up to 5 million for the most famous. The fans are in the same demographic and nearly all wouldn't be opposed to playing poker so I'd predict a healthy crossover (check the MMA forum under General Gambling>Sports Betting and gauge it to other sports, it's not even close). The UFC fighters/Events are hitting such a huge mass of people and for pennies compared to Stars and that will be the biggest difference.

Brand loyalty/familiarity would undoubtedly be what runs in Stars favor. But as it is the site is losing players left and right as players can't compete in the tough games. Imagine a table full of Brazilian MMA fans typing Vaaamooo into the chat box playing a UFC fighter and then compare it to playing on a table with a Team Online player. What table would you rather be sitting at as a pro? With softer games the regs will follow the fish... always have in poker, and always will.

Stars isn't really the cure all to the ails of online poker in the US but should Pokerstars show that they can dominate the NJ market (granted they are approved that is) I have no doubt other states will look to their success. From an overall market perspective, Pokerstars will too fall victim to being flattened out eventually if states continue to allow intrastate play only. Interstate compacts and/or international compacts is the only thing that could literally save the entire industry.

Stars is going to pwn...Everyone expects them to. They know that. They will not let us down. New Jersey will be their most important market in the entire world in two weeks...they are about to throw down!

Ultimate's geolocation was always a headache along with their outdated interface. The fact that most people are playing on Party/Borgata despite all their woes shoes something. Stars have said they're making the best effort to be on top of things like geolocation and I think they will be. I think it'll be a breath of fresh air and actual professionalism in the scene, I'm excited.

Two things:
1. the UFC is a big deal in the US. In the rest of the world it's somewhere between 'not so much' and 'non-existant'
2. outside the US most poker markets are more or less saturated and Stars totally crushed the competition

The UFC brand won't help in the rest of the world. But playing against US players would be a great deal. If ultimate can crush the US market and is able to include ROTW players, they might have a chance. But the likelihood for that is low.

The stadium that they're in right not (Saitama Super Arena Tokyo) looks to have a full crowd. In Brazil they could fill a soccer stadium with a good card. In the UK they've sold out the O2 arena every time and in Canada they sold out a 50k + stadium. In a few months they will sell out a stadium in Mexico city and it's really caught on in Australia/New Zealand.
Mainland Europe is still behind due to the legality in some markets but I'd be surprised if that's the case in 3 years.

Obviously it's an uphill battle but the UFC went from a carnival type showing to a semi mainstream sport in 5 years under the current owners.

When is Pokerstars coming?

best case scenario mid to late October in NJ

Anyone heard any new talk about States joining their player pools? I heard something about Delaware and Nevada joining together and that people in New jersey were unhappy about it as DE and NJ joining together would be great. I don't even know if any of it was legit as this was at the beginning of this year I think I heard this.

UP should have many things going for it, but the people running the show don't get it. Stars gets it. UP has been ok with marketing and promotion, but have serious shortcomings when it comes to critical mass, saturation, software and support.

DE and NV plan on pooling players by March 2015. 888 is going to launch in NV and be a skin of the existing WSOP.com site. So basically, DE players will have access to WSOP.com NV through 888.

Based on current PokerScout numbers, Delaware would only give a 10% or so bump to NV traffic. That does not account for people in DE that are on the sidelines due to the poor game selection so maybe it could add 20 average and 50 peak players.

NJ has yet to enter into an agreement with either state.

I thought Donald trump said he was a billionaire, correcting someone during an interview on tv one time?

Not sure what you are referring to, but Trump doesn't own much of Trump Entertainment anymore. He lost control during previous bankruptcies. They pay him royalties to use his name.

xpost from poker legislation http://www.californiaonlinepoker.com...nia-2015/1473/


seems like very very good news!! reputable company too!! ca in 2015 illinois ny and pa in 2016 and 20 states by 2020!
morgan stanley is a reputable company Im not sure why this isn't getting more attn on 2p2

^^ That link is broken.

Edit: It looks like this is the link he meant to post:

http://www.californiaonlinepoker.com...nia-2015/1473/