My team and I founded LiveAce.com because after Black Friday there were no options for US players to play competitive online ring games.  Since we launched in August 2013 we are proud to say that within 30 US states we not only offer the only competitive online ring games, but in the three major game types: no-limit, limit and pot-limit Omaha.  We’ve dealt over half a million hands, have not charged one dollar of rake and thousands of players have enjoyed competitive online poker for the first time in years, all the while improving their game.  Of all the players who joined in our first two weeks, almost 15% of them have played more than every other day since.  Almost 10% of them have played more than three of every four days since.  In this article we’ll discuss how we structured the site and other observations since launch. 

How LiveAce Works

Anybody familiar with live casino poker rooms will have no trouble understanding LiveAce.  Players start with Regular Chips which are used for table buy-ins.  No-limit hold ‘em ring games are offered starting at 1/2 blinds and go up to 25/50.  The buy in is fixed at 120 chips for 1/2 tables and 100 big blinds above that (400 chips for 2/4, for example).  You can start playing for free right away and the site gives you 400 chips, plus the ability to reload up to 400 chips once per day.  We also instituted bankroll minimums to help educate players about bankroll management.  For example, to play 2/4 no limit we require a 5 buy in or 500BB bankroll.  While some players would like to put their entire bankroll on a pot limit Omaha table, profitable players know that is not a recipe for success. 

LiveAce Auctions

So how do you cash out?  Chips you win during a session are called Live Chips.  You can use Live Chips to bid in daily real money auctions.  For example, you sign up and win 300 Live Chips.  There is a $500 auction ending at 9pm that evening.  You don’t have to bid on the whole prize – you can decide how many Live Chips to bid and how many dollars to win.  You decide to bid 200 Live Chips to win $5 (a Bid Rate of 40 LCs per dollar).  Minutes after the auction closes you find out if you were one of the high bidders.  If you don’t win any cash in the auction your Live Chips are returned to your account – so there’s no risk to bidding.  Any cash you win is transferred to your own secure cash account.  Redemptions are processed quickly via Dwolla or check.

The auctions represent an interesting game within a game that adds to the entertainment value of the site.  Each night we have approximately 100 players bidding to convert their Live Chips to cash.  However, we also have players who choose to hold onto chips they’ve won so they can climb the limits and play in bigger games.  Not only can you win or lose more at higher limits, but the competition tends to be even better as well – just like live poker.

We’ve learned some interesting things about the cash auctions.  We publish the Last Accepted Bid from prior auctions.  What we’ve seen is that people look at historical data to guide their bid.  Currently 100 Live Chips are worth about $2.  You can see on our leaderboard that our top player has won over 50,000 Live Chips.  It’s important to note that the winning bidders’ Live Chips are removed from their accounts (and circulation) and they must start building their bankroll again.

Our original hypothesis was that if we could make chips not only a scarce resource (a player cannot purchase or earn more than 3,000 in any single week) but also valuable then people would play to the best of their ability.  From observing the gameplay and player feedback we are happy to say that this hypothesis has been tested and proven correct.  I was recently observing a 2/4 limit table where people were playing tight, competitive and folding to river raises.  I think when players are taking a micro stakes, virtual chip limit game seriously it clearly illustrates we are onto something.

Legalization the Future

Many people have asked whether legalized poker will obviate our business model and I don’t believe it will for a number of reasons.  First, I believe there are a significant number of players who would like to play competitive ring games for a set monthly fee, which on LiveAce is $19.99 per month.  This is in contrast to real money sites where 95% of players are net depositors and in order to continue to play all but the smallest stakes often requires hundreds of dollars of investment per month.  Second, the rake on real money sites is difficult to overcome (and rakeback deals and deposit bonuses as a means to offset its effects are generally no longer offered). Third, real money sites typically offer big advantages for hardcore grinders such as Hold’em Manager software. 

Many analysts and players think the legalization of online poker on the state or federal level will be the panacea that the marketplace needs.  However, the legacy issues inherent in the real money model will persist.  Recent changes by site operators in Europe to separate professional from recreational players illustrate the severity of the issues and length sites will go to solve them.  The vast majority of players are net depositors and recreational players are intimidated by the advanced level of game play and in most cases are outclassed as well.  Attrition is very high and many players lose their initial deposit quickly and never return.

LiveAce has been designed to solve the problems inherent in the pre-Black Friday, post-Black Friday, and (eventual) post-legalization periods.  Importantly, LiveAce is structured to appeal to anyone with an interest in playing the game of poker online, with the notable exception of hardcore grinders.  While grinders are certainly welcome, they will likely be disappointed by a structure which is more difficult to capitalize on, a total amount of money leaving the system which is insufficient to earn a living from, and a lack of software plug-in tools typically found on a real money site.

Conclusion

I encourage you to try the site for yourself to see if you agree with this article.   We truly believe in our mission of bringing something very positive to the poker community.  We feel that LiveAce helps keep players interested and involved in the game, reenergizes their involvement in great poker resources like Two Plus Two, gives them the ability to learn new variations like pot limit Omaha in a comfortable environment all the while providing great entertainment from their living room or mobile device. 

For well over a year the poker world has waited with bated breath to see which company would be the first to offer online poker in a regulated market in the United States. At 9 a.m. PST on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, Nevada-based Ultimate Poker will become the first to do just that by launching real-money online poker at UltimatePoker.com.

“We are proud to be the first company to deliver legal and secure real-money online gaming to poker players,” said Ultimate Poker Chairman Tom Breitling. “We have worked closely with state gaming regulators to demonstrate our unique and compelling poker platform that, above all, players know they can trust. Ultimate Poker is dedicated to being the players’ choice for online poker.”

Ultimate Poker, a majority-owned subsidiary of Station Casinos LLC, is the exclusive online gaming partner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and recently made headlines by signing poker’s all-time leader in tournament earnings, Antonio Esfandiari.

“This day has been a long time coming. Online poker in the United States is finally here and totally legit,” Esfandiari sad. “I signed on to be the ambassador for Ultimate Poker because I knew the people behind this company would do it right. I signed on because UltimatePoker.com is where I would come to play. Now we all can.”

Indeed, Ultimate Poker is open to anyone age 21 and over located in the state of Nevada. Whether you’re a resident or just visiting the Silver State, you can create an account and deposit online. You can also make a deposit and cash out at any of Station Casinos’ 16 locations across the Las Vegas valley. What’s more, any player in the world can sign up and deposit at UltimatePoker.com in advance of visiting Nevada – a great option for those planning to attend the World Series or Poker over the summer.

Antonio Esfandiari

Headquartered in Las Vegas, Ultimate Gaming was founded by four prominent gaming and technology entrepreneurs, and in 2011, they acquired CyberArts in order to create and maintain its own proprietary casino software that offers a safe and trusted environment.

“We feel our technology is a major advantage. Ultimate Poker’s proprietary software is completely owned and operated by parent company Ultimate Gaming, allowing for continuous investment and product development,” said Ultimate Poker Chief Executive Officer Tobin Prior. “The technology was acquired in 2011 and initially developed by a U.S.-based company with a completely clean regulatory profile.”

Here are some more details on Ultimate Poker Version 1.0:

• Limit Texas hold’em and no-limit Texas hold’em ring games ranging from $0.01/$0.02 to $10/$20. Other games are planned to be offered moving forward.
• Players can deposit funds to their account with: 
MasterCard ($10 minimum deposit), checking account ($10 minimum deposit)
, mailed check ($50 minimum deposit)
, bank wire transfer ($500 minimum deposit)
, or 16 Station Casinos cage locations (no minimum deposit)
• Benefits for Station Casinos Boarding Pass members
• Once-in-a-lifetime prizes and rewards as the exclusive online gaming 
partner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship®
• Any player located in the state of Nevada and over the age 
of 21 can play now and for free
• Register and deposit from anywhere in the world 
so you can play as soon as you land in Nevada
• Wide range of tournaments at many stakes every day, including 
nine- and six-handed tables, as well as winner-take-all heads-up tables

PokerNews recently had the opportunity to sit down with Prior and Breitling, as well as Ultimate Poker’s Chief Marketing Officer Joe Versaci, to ask some pertinent in-depth questions.

PokerNews: First and foremost, how excited are you to be the first to deal legal and regulated online poker in the United States?

Ultimate Poker Executives Joe Versaci, Tobin Prior, Chris Derossi and Tom Breitling.

Breitling: For us, it’s exciting being the first properly licensed company to bring legal real-money online poker to the United States. It’s a big day for our company, Ultimate Gaming, obviously an important moment for the state of Nevada, and most importantly, for poker players in America. What’s happening, and the way we see it, it really comes down to the creation of a new industry, and it comes down to trust. We are going to rebuild trust between operators and players, and also between state governments, regulators and operators.

Players are going to come to UltimatePoker.com and not only get a great game, they’re going to know it’s legal, and they’re going to know that it’s being offered by a trusted company. As far as Nevada goes, the state has always been on the cutting edge of regulating gaming, and we believe the poker-only legislation is a responsible entry into the world of online gaming.

Can you talk a little bit about your partners in the Ultimate Poker endeavor and explain how this will prove beneficial?

Breitling: As it pertains to the two powerful forces behind Ultimate Gaming, we’ve got the trusted and leading Las Vegas gaming operator in Station Casinos and the world’s fastest growing sport in the UFC as our partners. That uniquely positions us not only with their potentially millions of customers, but media and entertainment expertise, over 30 years of regulated land-based gaming expertise, as well as a database of loyal customers here in Nevada.

Just to touch base on our philosophy on growth, Station Casinos started with one property, the Palace Station, and grew from one property to 16 properties here in Nevada. The company is classified as a casino that locals love and trust. It’s an important partnership for us as we launch in Nevada.

With the UFC, we’re the exclusive online gaming partner. This is powerful for a couple of reasons. One, their core demographic is not only a loyal fan base, but it’s the perfect overlap with the online poker audience. The UFC has a really unique penetration when it comes to this core demographic. Dana White has three million Twitter followers, they’ve got 10 million people on Facebook that are following them, and they also grew from one state to 46 states in the U.S. over the past decade. They’re also in over 100 countries around the world. Both of these companies provide tremendous value, but it’s also in the DNA in both companies to always run to regulation. I think that’s an important distinguishing factor here. We run toward regulation, and this whole new era of trust is going to be about innovation and regulation. Companies must embrace both.

One of the things we’re most proud of is owning our own technology platform. It’s different than any of our competitors. That’s one of the most important decisions we made as a company.

Can you talk a little about the decision to develop you own technology platform?

Prior: We looked long and hard at various different platforms and eventually found Cyber Arts, which provide software solutions to gaming operators in licensed jurisdictions. We basically set about purposely to buy that platform with a really good core of engineers who reside in the U.S., in California, and we turned that business from a business-to-business to a business-to-customer business, so we put in place the full marketing expertise and operating expertise, and some of the best guys in the industry to help us lead in that regard.

We’ve basically spent the past year or so with our engineers making sure we fully complied with all the technical requirements of the new regulations here in Nevada. We spent a lot of time with our heads down not talking to the media, just really trying to figure out how to get this platform and all the regulations to be implemented. We got through testing, we were the first to be certified and now we’re the first to get permission from the Nevada Gaming Commission to go live.

Versaci: Just to plug that a little bit from a player’s perspective, I think what’s exciting and what we’re sort of starting to prove out here is that we’re the only company that took the position of acquiring its own software and building it from the ground up, and I think it’s going to allow us to move quickly and get the players what they want. From our product, we’re not going to worry about other licensees or how we manage to afford our operations, or if we need new features in other markets, say France or Italy, we basically control our own destiny. I think that’s how we got here and I think it’s going to be a force moving forward that we are able to integrate and improve the product quickly.

Do you feel being the first gives you an advantage in the market?

Prior: I think for us in Nevada, where we’re sort of franchised through Station Casinos, one of our main owners, it was really important to us, with our big database, that we offered something to our customers really early on. We’d like to leverage that capability here, and leverage our market position. So for us it was important to get to market early in Nevada.

The Ultimate Poker client.

Versaci: With the limited liquidity I think it was very important. I think it’s important to get people registered early and then take care of the customers and keep them a players on our site. It gives us the opportunity to make it our game to lose.

The WSOP is right around the corner, and that seems like a prime opportunity to take advantage of the hordes of players that’ll be in town. Are you prepared to make a push to get players to try Ultimate Poker this summer during the WSOP?

Versaci: Yes, definitely. There will be marketing campaigns and promotions. We’re excited for the summer. I think what’s most exciting and relevant to the players is that now, for the first time, they can actually come on, pool their resources, and get together to qualify for live events at an affordable price point, something that’s not necessarily available in a brick-and-mortar environment.

Will we be seeing any qualifiers from Ultimate Poker for the WSOP Main Event?

Versaci: I can’t speak to how directly we’ll be able to qualify for competing events, but we will definitely be putting up satellites for it and for live events. In terms of what actual integration we have, it kind of remains to be seen, but in our eyes whatever we can do is good for poker and we want to support players being able to come in a qualify affordably. I think that’s one of the major benefits of playing online.

On Tuesday you’ll have dealt the first online cash game hand and will also offer sit-n-gos. Do you have anything special planned for your first multi-table tournament?

Versaci: Of course. We’re launching with sit-n-gos and cash games, and we’re looking for our first Sunday $10,000 to be May 5. We invite everybody to come out and try to participate in the first [legal online] multi-table tournament in Nevada. We thought it was important to create some sort of keystone event that we can involve a lot of people in a very important first.

Any other promotions players can expect moving forward? A bad beat jackpot perhaps?

Versaci: I don’t know if we’ll do a bad beat jackpot, but you’re correct that some properties do a bad beat jackpot. Something that’s more interesting is they do a $300,000 guaranteed tournament for those who log 50 hours plus. We’ll integrate into those sort of things. We’ll also qualify online for live events that we’ll host at Station properties, so we’re essentially going to treat each poker room as an extension of our brand and try to tie the two together in as many ways as possible.

Is Ultimate Poker available on a Mac? If not, are there plans for it to be Mac accessible?

Prior: At the moment, we’re launching with PC, and then we’ll be introducing for the Mac as we go forward. You can actually play on a Mac by downloading Windows for Mac, but our dedicated Mac software will come out in due course.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Prior: I just think it’s a really exciting day for poker players in America.

Breitling: Nevada is a really important starting point, and we’re excited to be first to market. We’re also confident the market is going to expand well beyond Nevada. It’s a big win for poker players throughout America, and it’s a big win for the state of Nevada. The goal is to make poker fun again.

Versaci: I think for me it’s important to note what the players can expect, and what they can expect is a throwback to five, six, seven years ago when poker players ran poker sites and decisions were made in the best interest of the players. Every account was looked at, and every player was treated with the highest quality level of service. We brought in the guys that we think are the best in the industry to do that. It’s an exciting time.

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Nevada residents are still waiting for the launch of the first legal, real-money online poker room in the Silver State. According to 888 Holdings CEO Brian Mattingley, they won’t have to wait much longer.

Mattingley told Reuters Tuesday that the company expects to launch its online poker offering in Nevada by this summer. 888 is waiting for its software to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board before it can go live via three online gaming partners in the state. The control board has been testing the software of providers since last year.

888, which owns and operates 888poker outside of the U.S., will provide an online poker platform for Caesars Interactive Entertainment and its World Series of Poker-branded online poker site, as well as slot machine manufacturer WMS Industries and Treasure Island. 888 has nonexclusive business-to-business deals with all three companies in Nevada.

Mattingley told PokerNews last year that 888 will be “well positioned” to perform strongly in Nevada. On Tuesday, told Reuters the that company is also seeking approval to operate in New Jersey, which legalized online gambling in February.

The Nevada Gaming Commission has approved more than 20 companies for interactive gaming licenses already, including MGM Resorts International, Fertitta Interactive, Boyd Gaming and the Golden Nugget. None of the licensed operators have announced an official launch date for online poker, but many expect to be up and running by the end of the year.

Mattingley said the company will begin to see how much of an impact the U.S. poker market has on its bottom line starting in 2015. 888 will increase its marketing budget in the U.S. next year while it competes for a share of the online poker market.

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Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com