Virgin Poker Re-launch
November 22nd, 2005 | Published in Online Poker, Software | 2 Comments
I received an email from Virgin Poker late last night telling me all about how they’re relaunching their site and their software on Wednesday 23rd November. It’s a little-known site; in fact I only heard about it because the Virgin group of companies like to cross-sell as much as possible and Virgin.net are my ISP, so I registered a few months ago but just played a few cheap multi-table tourneys for practice purposes. There were far too few players at the site to make it worth visiting regularly though, so I hadn’t been there for a while. The one unusual feature is that the games are all played in UK Pounds rather than US Dollars because WagerWorks (the gaming software company behind them) have been granted gambling licenses by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission in the Channel Islands.
As I say, Virgin Poker have been using software created by WagerWorks (also used by WPTonline.com, Paddy Power, Hard Rock Casino and others), but this email mentioned that you would need to register a new account, which makes me wonder whether they are going with an updated version of the WagerWorks software or whether they are switching to Prima or Crypto or someone else. Frankly , I hope they are moving. I’ve had real problems with the software crashing. I’d assumed that the client software was written in Java, but a bit of research tells me that in fact, it’s written in Flash!
The good news is that to make up for the need to register again, they are holding five $1000 freerolls this week, starting on Thursday. And there’s another clue that they are switching to a different software supplier – the prizes are suddenly being listed in US Dollars rather then UK Pounds.
The bad news for anyone outside Europe is that each freeroll tournament starts at 8pm (presumably GMT, which is 3pm ET). In the absence of any information about the format, I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark and assume we’ll be playing no-limit hold’em. That’ll be a few late nights of tournament poker for me this weekend then (and just when I was working on my limit game too), so it’s just as well that I’d already taken Friday off work. I should be able to play in the first three at least; assuming I still have the will to live after the first one of course.
Update: The Virgin Poker launch has gone ahead and they’ve moved from using Wagerworks to Boss Media. There’s a press release from the company here triumphantly announcing the switch.
I’m not familiar with the software, but it’s the same as The London Poker Club use (apparently). Looks quite appealing anyway.
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:17 pm (#)
Dave,
You have a good blog going here. I found it through Iggy’s site. I too am toiling away at the micro-limits and bouncing between limit and no limit hold em. Make sure you update on what you’ve gotten out of the different books you are reading. I would be interested in knowing how it’s going.
December 4th, 2005 at 1:08 am (#)
Hey, thanks a lot BW. I was stunned and delighted to find this site listed in Iggy’s recent post. I have no idea how he found me.
After reading some of your blog Low Rollin’, I think you’re right, we both seem to be toiling at the same level. I’ll be following how you’re doing from now on.
As far as books go, I’m currently reading Ed Miller’s “Small Stakes Hold’em”, which is exactly what I was looking for to help me move up a level beyond what I learnt from Lee Jones. I’d recommend it, and I’ll be posting my thoughts on the book pretty soon.
Thanks again,
Dave