News Update: March 16th, 2012

March 16, 2012, Posted by Daniel.Smyth

In today’s news update we feel the heat after Epic Poker’s latest revelations, catch up with PokerStars’ Zoom Poker and see which stars are joining Party’s Premier League.

Epic Revelations Cause Backlash

It seems that when the Epic Poker League do things they don’t like to do them by halves. Indeed, with fresh revelations hitting the headlines, the beleaguered company is now experiencing a major backlash from the community.  

Spearheading the attack is Daniel Negreanu who let his tongue run riot in a recent post on 2+2. After learning the FS+G used borrowed money to pay over $450,000 in employee wages, Daniel launched a tirade of abuse aimed at Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollock.

In addition to siphoning funds for their own pockets, FS+G also filed for bankruptcy a day before they were due to settle the final payment for the Heartland Poker Tour.

After declaring themselves insolvent, FS+G couldn’t pay All In Productions – HPL’s former owners – but because they made the announcement before the payment date it meant All In Productions couldn’t reclaim their assets for the Tour.

Zoom Poker Takes Off

It’s been months in the making, but finally PokerStars’ Zoom Poker has hit the virtual shelves. An announcement by ‘Stars’ spokesman Lee Jones earlier this week informed the community that Zoom would first launch at the microstakes.

With the levels of anticipation bubbling across the industry, the operator finally unveiled its latest creation earlier today.

The game is currently only available at the $0.01/$0.02 NLHE and PLO tables, but it’s expected the software will spread across the site very soon.

Zoom Poker is a fast paced game where players are dropped into a pool of players and circulated from table-to-table in less than a second.

Once you fold your hand you’re instantly sat in another seat ready to start the decision making process all over again.

So far beta-testing results have been encouraging, with players able to average 200/hour when playing just one table.

Timoshenko & Katchalov Ready to Party

Hellmuth may be out but dynamic duo Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Eugene Katchalov are in. The Ukrainian born Americans are part of a fantastic line-up set to compete in Party Poker’s Premier League in April.

Announced yesterday, the pair will join the likes of Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates and Sam Trickett. Between them they have over $17 million in live tournament cashes, so their inclusion in the event should produce some exciting results.

Commenting on his first invitation to the Premier League, Eugene Katchalov said:

“I’m very happy and excited to be able to play the PartyPoker Premier League Event this year. From what I’ve heard and read, it’s a unique and fun event that will have some tough competition, but I’m sure will be a great experience overall!”