What was made crystal clear in the e-mail is that GBT had full intentions of remaining in the online poker market.

What is strange about Tapie’s plans is the degree to which he wished to make this online poker room (essentially) a rebranding of Full Tilt Poker without having to go through the US Department of Justice. For one, Tapie intended to “attract ALL OF the Pocket Kings KEY STAFF to join me [emphasis unchanged from original email].” Even more confounding, though, was Tapie’s explicit intentions to use this site to “repay” FTP accounts, using the same exact plan that Tapie had proposed to the DoJ.

So Tapie was going to launch a poker site with all of the head honchos of FTP at the helm, and then, this site was actually going to honor FTP money.

The e-mail quickly outlined some other ways that Tapie has attempted to circumvent the influence of the DoJ on Full Tilt’s fate. He said that he tried to convince Ray Bitar to—without the approval of the Department of Justice—accept a temporary license in order to be able to relaunch the site. Bitar insisted on asking for permission and was subsequently denied approval. Tapie also tried to have Bitar place FTP in insolvency and let all employees know that their jobs were at risk, but it seems likely that Bitar sought DoJ approval on this as well, and no action has been reported of this nature.

As with all of the other statements that Tapie has made regarding Full Tilt Poker, this e-mail continues the rhetoric that he is acting in the interest of unpaid accounts, saying “I continue to believe that our plan for repayment was fair.” This premise was once “good enough” for poker players to consider GBT the hero in this situation. Just so long as players felt that GBT gave them a chance at seeing their money again, they were going to side heavily with Tapie through any dubious reports that might have been made on his reputation, intentions, tactics, etc.

This crucial premise is now thoroughly clouded, though, as Diamond Flush reported two weeks ago some shocking details about the proposed repayment plan. Without going into too thorough of details on what was a lengthy and dynamic proposal, Tapie’s repeated emphasis on the fact that his plan paid back almost 95% of players was pretty clearly disingenuous. These player accounts only made up a fraction of 1% of the entire amount due to players, and the 5.1% of players who made up more than 99% of the money were getting—to be very brief—a bad deal.

Essentially, those players could earn their bankroll back by playing poker on the site for 18 months. The plan sounded like if a store were to refund a customer, not with cash and not even with store credit, but with a 25% discount—one that would expire once the total amount of money saved equaled the amount that was owed to the customer. It would, in fact, be even worse than that because the store, in this case, would be paying back in services (facilitating a poker game) instead of goods with a tangible value.

The short of it is this: with Tapie’s intended repayment plan becoming unacceptable to the poker community, his moves to work around and against the Department of Justice are growing unpopular. And these latest implications, of launching a FTP-esque site without having to work with the DoJ, certainly seems to fall distinctly into this category.

President of the EPT, Edgar Stuchly, talked about their approach when making the schedule: “We looked at every EPT season up until now and asked ourselves how we could make the tour even better for the players.”

And the biggest change in philosophy clearly came in taking a less-is-more approach. The EPT stops have been reduced from 13 to 8, with more events taking place at each stop.

They have also merged the EPT field with those from the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) and the Estrellas Poker Tour. These two changes should help facilitate larger turnouts at each of the stops, which means for more action and more concentrated star-vs-star bouts in the televised events.

Though the EPT has had an effective formula of success during its 8-year run, it should come as no surprise that PokerStars is taking this opportunity to re-envision a few things. This is, after all, the first season of the tour without Founder John Duthie at the helm.

Another one of the tweaks has EPT polarizing their ranges a bit: they will be offering a wider selection of low-buy-in events but will also have 5 High Roller and Super High Roller tournaments, the most of any season. The first of these will be a €50,000 buy-in on the first leg in Barcelona; then there will be two big buys each at the PCA in the Bahamas and the Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Those stops will include a €25,000 buy-in event and a €100,000 one.

PokerStars and the EPT have also made strides to try and improve the game variety. Each of the 8 stops will have a €10,000 Championship Series that will feature non-standard fare—from Heads Up NL Hold’em to 8-game.

The big carryover from the past season is that the finale will be returning to Monte Carlo for the EPT Grand Final.

The full season’s schedule is as follows:

8/15-8/25: Barcelona
10/3-10/11: San Remo
12/5-12/15: Prague
1/6/2013-1/15/2013: Bahamas (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure)*
1/30/2013-2/9/2013: Deauville
3/6/2013-3/16/2013: London
4/24/2013-5/4/2013: Berlin
5/6/2013-5/15/2013: Monte Carlo*

*: Denotes stops that will have a main event with a €/$10,000+ buy-in.

Whether or not this is your first time hearing of Poker Table Ratings (PTR), this is a huge development for any player on PokerStars.

There is no denying how big PTR.com has gotten over the last few years. Just like with tweeting and Googling in the internet world, “PTRing” has become its own verb in the poker world. Since Poker Table Ratings (ironically) doesn’t keep their subscription information public, it’s impossible to quantify exactly what percentage of players used the search function—which allowed players to see opponents’ career results—or what percentage of players purchased hand histories and/or had paying subscriptions. (These subscribers were given access to information as specific as Fold to River Raise and Raise Continuation Bet based on every hand ever played by every player on the site.) Without knowing the exact numbers, though, it is clear (based on frequent interaction with players in forums, chat rooms and Skype) that the search function was used during sessions by the vast majority of regulars and that it was a very common practice for regulars at $0.50/$1 NL and higher to have very privileged (and very illegal) information—that is, hand histories and/or paid subscriptions.

There are so many effects of this move that it deserves its own top 5 list. There is no fluff here; these are all very noteworthy changes to the game of online poker.

Note that PTR still tracks hands for several other sites, and this move only affects PokerStars.

Also note that PTR technically is not completely shutdown for all Stars-related gaming. Players can still e-mail PokerStars in order to give consent to making their playing information public, but it is unlikely that a significant enough number of players will do this for players to even bother searching the site. Anyone who hasn’t heard of Poker Table Ratings will obviously not e-mail Stars support in order to consent to a tracking service they know nothing about, and players who have heard of the site will generally know that it is only to their disadvantage to have their playing information out there for anyone to see.

Anyway, here are the top 5 reasons you should care about this move:

The Good, Bad and Debatable of a PTR-Free PokerStars

#5: Less Tank Tapping – GOOD!

Everyone knows that tapping the tank is bad for everyone in the game—bad for the fish being ridiculed and bad for the sharks who are trying to keep the fish at the table until all of their chips are gone.

And Lee Jones, PokerStars’ Head of Home Games, aptly pointed out last week that the ability to search any players’ results facilitated exactly that. In a lot of cases, there was explicit derision that took place in the table chat feature where a bully would rub it in that a player had losing results for their career. Even more commonly was there implicit derision—that is, even without a player openly mocking someone, just the fear that there was a site out there making all of their results public was enough to make players shy away from the potential embarrassment of playing. PokerStars’ takedown of this site—even if it’s a site a fish didn’t know of before—is a great PR move so that players can feel that the privacy of their results are respected.

#4: Coaching, Staking and Book Buying – BAD!

If you’re just a casual player who doesn’t invest in electronic books, coaching or staking players, then you can skip this. For everyone else, you likely already know how important PTR has been to deciding on what coaches to hire for personal use or for a training site, how uncertain it is to make staking decisions on players who aren’t well-connected in the poker community without PTR and how much less likely you are to drop a couple grand on a book written by an unknown player who can’t back up their credentials with some massively winning results. It might also be a lot tougher to get action on Prop Bets now that under-the-radar winners can become hustlers.

But, hey, we got by back in those pre-PTR days, so this doesn’t quite make the top 3.

#3: No More Bum Hunting (Especially at Heads Up) – Debatable

If you’ve ever been in PokerStars’ Heads Up lobby, then you already know how bad, ridiculous and embarrassing bum hunting had gotten. The first 20 tables would have one regular sitting on them waiting for a random fish to stumble upon their table, and if anyone with winning results ever tried to sit at “their” table, they would sitout immediately. It was a complete action killer—one that Phil Galfond expressed extreme frustration over recently.

Well at last, players are going to have to actually tangle with other players in order to find out if they’re any good. This is listed as “Debatable” because not all players are pleased by this move, but this really helps action at Heads Up tables. And since the point of poker is to—you know—play hands of poker, this is a big win for the game.

#2: Bots, Collusion and Multi-Accounts – BAD!

Online poker has had a great one-two defense against dishonest play over the last few years. The first weapon was a data-mining site that kept such thorough information on every players’ style that it seems implausible that there would be software (or collusion strategies) sophisticated enough to bypass suspicion. The second weapon was the poker community itself, which was chock full of smart, studious players who had an invested interest in keeping the game clean. The sleuths are still there, but their biggest investigative tool is gone.

Now, PokerStars has demonstrated an impressive willingness to take the short-term PR hit that comes from admitting that they have found cheaters on the site in order to achieve the most crucial long-term goal of getting those cheaters off the site. This helps give a vote of confidence that they will take all necessary steps to pick up where PTR left off. But no matter what steps they take, there will be a drop-off in the efficacy of catching cheats that existed under Poker Table Ratings.

#1: Leveling the Playing Field – Debatable

To put it simply, those who used PTR have been denied a gargantuan tool for winning the information war that we call poker. Those who hadn’t heard of PTR, or refused to use it on principle, are no longer being disadvantaged. Then, there are plenty of players in between who used PTR but to such a casual degree that they were probably being cheated more than they were cheating.

The use of Poker Table Ratings had become so rampant that it blurred the lines of what was cheating and what was just “keeping up” (kind of like steroid use in the 1990s MLB). In fact, there are those who argue that data-mining is part of the game regardless of what steps PokerStars takes. So, these people argue, getting rid of such a well-known avenue may level the playing field among all the “honest” players but make for an even bigger advantage for more persistent cheaters.

In the end, though, this move has lent such a big helping hand to those who were following the rules all along that it seems like a huge win for the game.

Though it may look like the final score is 1 Good to 2 Bads, both of those “Debatables” are really improvements to the game of poker.  So while PokerStars has been solidifying their already-extensive hold on the poker market, they have been embarking on a landmark move to ensure that the gaming across their network is honest.

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A best of luck to all of  readers who are ready to try their hand at the changed gaming environment of PokerStars cash game tables.

The first rule is that the entity being advertised cannot offer a sports book. The casino also has to give 5% of the advertising expenditure to the NFL’s anti-gambling program.

Restrictions exist for the ads themselves. They must be targeted toward adults, they must not contradict the NFL’s position against sports betting, must not show slots or blackjack and they cannot involve any of the NFL team’s logos. There are also rules about where the advertisements may go in a stadium, as they must be high enough so that they’re out of view from the common TV camera angles.

This slow progression toward allowing gambling advertisements follows an arc the NFL has been following for the last 19 years. In 1993, the NFL allowed plugs for track betting to be included in State Lottery ads; in 2009, they made further inclusions for these municipal gaming commercials, namely adding State scratchcard games; in 2010, the NFL began permitting Las Vegas promotions, so long as they didn’t promote gambling.

This latest one, though, is clearly the largest of the advancements, in spite of all of the red tape. Though forbidding casinos with sports books is a major restriction, the fact remains that non-municipal casinos are going to use one of the biggest stages in the US for promoting their brand, just so long as they do so in a way that rubs the NFL the right way.

It seems almost certain that the NFL will continue to move the field goal posts, and we will see which restriction will be the next to be forgone.

PokerStars.com Purchases Full Tilt Poker?

8:30 PM ET Update: Diamond Flush spilled details of how players would have been repaid had the GBT gone through:

Players with an account balance of less than $ 100 could be repaid in full or have that balance credited to their players account in the new company, virtually immediately. According to some sources, this was believed to encompass ~95% of account holders, and is what the media release today in fact, labeled as 94.9% of ROW players. What was left out of that release was that that purported 94.9% of player balances amounted to approximately $ 16,000,000.00.

The remaining 5.1% of players, with an approximate aggregate account balance of $ 168,000,000.00 fell into a different group. [...]

In each of these categories, in order for players to move more than the original $ 100 over to the unrestricted column (available for withdrawal), there would be significant playthrough requirements. (Full article)

It’s looking better and better for the players that the GBT deal did not go through.

4:40 PM ET Update: Diamond Flush releases a statement from Full Tilt’s attorney Barry Boss of Cozen O’Connor, stating:

To address issues reported today in the media and on blogs, Full Tilt Poker confirms that its agreement with Groupe Bernard Tapie has in fact been terminated. Despite this development, Full Tilt Poker is more optimistic than ever that its number one goal will be obtained: Full Tilt players will be repaid. Full Tilt Poker has been in settlement discussions with the US Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on any rumors related to the details of those discussions. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.

So they did not confirm the fact that PokerStars purchased FTP, and probably cannot legally comment yet, but they stated they are even more optimistic than ever, which makes us even more optimistic.

3:40 PM ET Update: PokerStars speaks! Eric Hollreise, Head of Corporate Communications for PokerStars for PokerStars, comments on the deal, but doesn’t say much:

We’ve had a lot of enquiries and there’s lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.

However, many people are stating that since PokerStars didn’t outright deny the rumors, there is a very good chance this is legit.

3:38 PM ET Update: QuadJacks reports a leaked e-mail sent early on 4/24 from Ray Bitar to all of Full Tilt’s employees stating that PokerStars has agreed to acquire Full Tilt Poker and the deal is true. Full transcript not yet available.

2:55 PM ET Update: Shaun Deeb makes a post on 2p2 with good news from his source regarding the deal:

I feel bad making a new thread but dont want this info lost elsewhere but cliffs are included my source I trust a lot.

Anyways the deal is already done by what I am told;

Players will be paid within 90 days
FTP will be open in the US market
Isai will be stepping down from the company

If these statements are true I feel that Isai deserves all our thanks+ business in the future with his company he is bailing out the igaming industry’s tarnished reputation

Deeb’s comments are interesting, but are getting heat, especially him mentioning that FTP will be opening in the US market. Update : The comments about opening in the US seem to refer to the fact that if the law changes to allow online poker, Full Tilt will then be allowed to open in the US instead of being black listed.

1:55 PM ET Update: Pokerfuse tweeted a link to PokerStars.co.uk which shows PokerStars was searching for software developers on Dublin, which is where Full Tilt’s headquarters are located. It seems the post was made about 10 days ago.

1:47 PM ET Update: Casino City Vin tweets saying they are hearing the deal is just a rumor and not reality. Still, nothing has been confirmed.

1:45 PM ET Update: Daniel Negreanu comments to Poker Listings, saying he is unable to confirm or deny the news:

“I have no information on it other than what I’m reading but people I’m talking to seem to believe it’s true,” said Negreanu.

“The idea of PokerStars buying Full Tilt for $750 million seems impossible to me, so based on what I know it would really surprise me.

“But it would definitely be good for poker players because PokerStars is a good company and players wouldn’t have to deal with those scumbags anymore,” he said.

1:40 PM ET Update: PokerUpdate has reported that they received confirmation from “credible sources” at Full Tilt offices in Cherry Wood, Dublin that this is in fact true. There still has not been any formal announcement from PokerStars.com.

1:00 PM ET Update: Statement released from Groupe Bernard Tapie, the original investor who planned on purchasing Full Tilt (Read the full statement here):

Groupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success. Ultimately, the deal failed due to two major issues.

The parties could not agree on a plan for repayment of ROW players. (continued)

12:00 PM ET Update: This still has not been confirmed. However, it seems very likely to be accurate as reported by multiple sources.

375 days have gone by since hundreds of thousands of Full Tilt Poker players world wide had their bankrolls disappear into thin air. And just as much as Black Friday is broodingly remembered, April 24th, 2012 will likely be its counterpart in the poker history books. Multiple sources are reporting that PokerStars has bought Full Tilt and is settling with the US Department of Justice.

As of right now, all news point toward this being the best-case scenario; in fact, it’s arguably better than best case scenario. Starting with the most important, PokerStars plans to refund 100% of all player accounts across the globe.

It is also expected that PokerStars will keep the site in full operation so that Full Tilt Poker will be an online poker room once again with separate promotions and all. This is also the best-case scenario labor-wise, since the full operation of the sites as separate entities will mean that employees will be keeping their jobs with their respective companies.

The good news started just a day after the one-year anniversary of Black Friday. Some of the most hopeful and most concrete signs yet to come out of the debacle began to crop up, all starting with FTP’s homepage displaying a number of players, tables and tournaments running on the site. Over the course of the next 24 hours, the number changed numerous times. It was apparent that they were testing their software. Tweets, forums and reports went in a frenzy over this, as finally the poker community was getting signs that were unfettered by rumor and anonymous sources.

It didn’t stop there. The software was also upgraded, there was a company with FTP connections that applied for a gambling license, and Pocket Kings—a poker strategy site—put up a Help Wanted sign. While testing the software could have been someone just kicking the tires (in fact, the software was also tested back in June of 2011 without much coming of that), these other signs showed a resource investment that would be unnecessary unless there was a serious buyer.

And after eight days of cautious optimism, that serious buyer has turned out to be the biggest online poker room in the world.

It’s being reported that the deal is for $750 million. This includes a settlement with the US Department of Justice and the aforementioned refund of player accounts.

Stay tuned, as we will keep this page updated to keep up with all of the news that is sure to be trickling in over the course of the day.

Post your comments or questions below or see our thread on the FTR poker forum: Breaking News! PokerStars to Purchase Full Tilt (FTR Poker Forum)

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Sources:

Original tweet from Chili Poker’s CEO, Alexandre Dreyfus:

Don’t miss your chance to play your way into the massive television event for free. The top prize has been more than $8 million for 6 years running, including a cash as high as $12 million!

How it works is the top two placers of the $1,000 Freeroll will get a ticket to a $500 satellite. The $500 tournament will reward the top finalists with $12,000 prize packages to the 2012 WSOP Main Event—one package for every 24th registrant, giving you very reasonable odds at the chance to showcase your skills on the biggest stage in the gaming world.

Though players only get one ticket to use, there are eight opportunities to use it, with freerolls taking place every Saturday from April 21st to June 9th. Players taking advantage of this promotion are still wholly eligible for their $1,000 welcome bonus.

Bovada is the rebranding of Bodog, a long-established online presence with a poker room, casino and sports betting. They are one of the top US-friendly names left in the market.

The perks of playing at Bovada do not stop at the stellar promotions. They have a very flexible cashier that allows for use of your deposit for poker, casino gaming and sports bets without so much as transferring funds. They are also one of the most recreational-friendly sites that allows American players. The rooms are fish-infested waters, they have anonymous tables which allow you to play without fear of data mining and they don’t allow players to play anymore than 4 tables at a time to keep play moving efficiently.

Get started today to start your own unbelievable path to the millions and to the acclaim of the WSOP Main Event bracelet!

Poker Table Ratings is a site that collects hand histories on the majority of all hands played on various sites, including PokerStars, and collates the information for the use of subscribers. Information is made public on every player, which can be found using a search function—information as basic as career winnings or as specific as how often they fold to river raises (depending on what subscription a user has). This information is available on all players with no consent necessary.

This ongoing battle with PTR has been extremely controversial, with many varying opinions on the ethics of the site itself and the viability of PokerStars trying to curb their efforts.

PokerStars has wholly unambiguous feelings on the matter. They state that PTR violates their Terms and Conditions and infringes on players’ privacy. “Furthermore,” adds Lee Jones, PokerStars’ Head of Home Games, “A small — but noticeable — boorish crowd routinely tells weaker players at their table how bad they are, based on these data-mined statistics.” And as everyone knows, tapping the tank is bad for everyone in the game.

The player population is more split on the issue, though. Many casual players regard PTR as a realization of their worst fears about their opponents having unfair advantages on them.

And then there are those who support PTR, or at the very least, are against PokerStars shutting them down. Those who rely on the site obviously are not keen on the site being shutdown and find mining to simply be part of the game online. Also, there’s an interesting stance that holds that banning the site will only exacerbate unequal play. Essentially, there are those who believe that fighting against data-mining is a helpless battle. Taking away PTR, then—an obvious avenue for data that’s available to anyone who’s heard of it—will only make it so that the more persistent and more dubious players will have the remaining advantage that’s unavailable to everyone else.

Regardless of the controversy, though, PokerStars is using everything in their arsenal to protect their players and their Terms. PokerStars had recently taken steps to this end by serving PTR’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) with a cease and desist. Since the ISP didn’t have a dog in the fight, so to say, they were willing to drop PTR to avoid incurring any risk. PTR found a new ISP provider, though, and PokerStars is currently on the hunt to find this new mystery provider, so they can serve them papers as well.

For now the largest poker site in the world is trying to bypass the middle man, and deal with Poker Table Ratings directly. PTR obviously has far more to lose by changing their operations than their ISP did, so this will likely be a tougher fought battle. But we will see how the company responds and if the courts will need to step in to decide the fight.

Ever since Black Friday, the tide has been turning in the US back toward allowing online gaming—making recent news are the state of New Jersey, Delaware and, of course Nevada. Likewise, many casino brands have been adding their votes of confidence for online gaming coming back to the states—all of MGM, Caesars, Golden Nugget and Donald Trump making definitive steps to prepare an internet casino and poker presence.

Sheldon Adelson and his Sands Casino brand are not biting, though. Adelson has lit up poker news with his controversially paradoxical stance of being against online gaming while building Brick & Mortar casinos all over the world; even more notably, he’s made some splashes in the national news with his unprecedented financial support of Republican Presidential Nominee Newt Gingrich.

And while Adelson’s stance on online gaming remains in steady resistance, his move toward internationalizing his B&M brand marches on. A few years ago, he dumped a couple billion dollars into a casino in Macao. Now, he is rumored to have another $4-billion casino in the works for the same city. But Adelson is prepared to turn those dollar amounts into laughable investments; that’s right, be prepared to have $6.4 billion sound like nothing. Sheldon Adelson has now announced that he is planning to dedicate $35 billion toward development in Spain.

It seems clear that the multi-billionaire is set on squashing the move toward online gaming while he focuses his investments in the live sphere. And he is putting his Sands Casino brand in great position to be the premier name for the 21st century across at least 3 continents.

Now Boss/International (IPN) is introducing their Poker 8.0, the most extensive overhaul of them all. Headlining the changes is their Instant Hand Replay so that you can view the action and results of recent hands while you’re still at the table. This is a big step up from the previous system where players would have to hunt down the Hand Histories after the fact.

The next most notable renovation is the opportunity to make a deal once you get to the final table of any of the major MTTs. Though most of the features IPN has been embarking on have been standards that most every competitor offers, Deal Making in tournaments is a little more cutting edge. Full Tilt most famously did it, but they’re obviously out of the game, so Boss poker rooms are some of the only ones left where you have the opportunity to hedge your bets when so much is on the line.

An important upgrade for regulars is the improvement to note taking features and to in-lobby statistics. Players can now “tag” opponents as having certain types of playing styles so that classification is very easily applied and referenced. No longer does one necessarily have to pull up notes and suss through the text just to get the idea that a player bluffs a lot or is a timid player. There are also, as of March 27th, stats right in the Boss windows on things like how often you’re going to showdown in your session.

And for those looking for some spice in the action, Boss Media also introduces (drum roll please) Straddle Bets! Play on select cash tables and have the ability to double the blinds and steal position preflop, making for bigger pots and for more informed decisions by the time the action gets to you.

With the commitment to and realization of modernizing Boss’ software, it is a very exciting time to be a player on their network. They have boasted 6 big improvements made in 8.0 and who knows what more is to come.

There will be over €65,000 in prizes given out over the course of the 6-week event, both to those who finish in the money in individual tournaments and to teams that place well consistently.

The event works much like any other tournament series’ leaderboards: players accrue points for finishing in a respectable position—both by playing in several tournaments, and by finishing well in those tournaments; by balancing consistency with big-point, final-table scores. The twist for this series, though, is that every player is on a team of four, and the final leaderboard standings are decided by the best aggregate score for an entire team.

Teammates can even bypass some of the oldest standing rules in poker by soft-playing each other and such. Of course, you won’t actually be able to table talk during the course of the tournament itself, but teams that have a solid, premeditated strategy for helping each other out will get an edge.

There are 2 MTTs per week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday for every week from the middle of April to the end of May. That makes for 12 MTTs. Players may play in as many as they’d like, and then the highest score for each player of a team for each week counts toward the team’s standing. That makes for 4 scores per week per team, for 24 total scores by the end of the series.

Players who play in multiple MTTs per week have two incentives. First, they get to use the higher of the two scores toward their team’s standing. Second, Ladbrokes is having a Freeroll at the end of the series with €3,500 in prizes for players who play in 8 of the 12 tournaments, and they’re offering a Freeroll with €5,500 in prizes to players who play in 10 of the 12!

The teams to finish in the top 4 of the standings will receive Vegas Packages for each of the players on the team. The biggest prize package is a €42,000 value! 65% of the buy-ins will go toward these leaderboard prizes, and the remaining 35% will go toward the prize pool for the tournaments themselves.

For more information on this event, including specifics on prize packages, charts for how the leaderboard points are awarded and more specific terms, visit Ladbrokes. Be sure to get your teams in by April 16th, or you’ll have to settle for late registration.