There have been some major poker stories taking up most of the front page headlines –like the WPT, PokerStars potentially getting back into the US market, and robberies and deaths– but there have also been a lot of smaller scale stories which I’ll touch on in this column.

A couple of well known poker players have been in the news recently for markedly different reasons, the Microgaming Network has a new name, and Lock Poker has launched another new promotion as it tries to solidify its place as the #1 US online poker room.

Gus Hansen reaches quarterfinals of World Racketlon Championship

Gus Hansen, one of the best poker players has added a few new games to his repertoire, and is now one of the best racketlon players in the world. Yes, racket, as in Tennis, Ping Pong, Badminton, and Squash!

Hansen has only been dabbling in the sport of Racketlon for a year now, but the former Amateur Tennis Champion is already shooting up the world rankings. Heading into his Quarterfinal run he was ranked #71 in the world, a number that rose after Hansen defeated the #38, #13, and #9 players in the world: Hansen is now ranked #59 in the world.

Dutch Boyd falls on hard times

Dutch Boyd posted an odd thread on the site Reddit, where he asked the question “what is the lamest reason you’ve been turned down for a job?” Boyd’s post goes on to explain how he has fallen on hard times in poker and is applying for a job in the real world, and how on one particular job interview he was turned down because he never finished High-School despite having a Bachelor’s Degree at age 15!

While the story itself is strange in itself, the fact that Boyd is ready to wash dishes for a living if he has to, is quite telling of the current poker world.

You can read Boyd’s Reddit post here: http://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/13hs8e/whats_the_lamest_reason_youve_been_turned_down/

Microgaming rebrands to MPN

Not much to report here other than the Microgaming Poker Network has rebranded itself to MPN (basically the acronym for the Microgaming Poker Network).

Lock Poker launches Happy Hour promotion

Lock Poker will now be offering its players Happy Hours (where they will earn double points) three days a week. Here is a look at the E-mail I received regarding the launch of the Happy Hour promotion:

Lock is excited to announce a chance to double your pleasure. Starting this Friday Happy Hour begins, giving you a chance to earn double points.

 

Happy Hour runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

* 6:00 AM – 10:00 AM PST

* 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST

* 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM GMT

Best of luck!

Eric “Rizen” Lynch

 

Tags: Amateur Tennis, Badminton, Different Reasons, Dutch Boyd, Gus, Gus Hansen, Happy Hour, Job Interview, microgaming, New Games, Page Headlines, Ping Pong, poker players, Poker Room, Poker World, Racketlon, Reddit, Robberies, Tennis Champion, WPT

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 at 9:53 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.