BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Estonia accelerator flooded with 122 game startup applications

It looks like there is pent-up demand for a game accelerator in Europe. GameFounders announced today that it received 122 applications from game startups in 41 countries to participate in its three-month training program in Tallinn, Estonia.

That’s a pretty healthy expression of interest in the accelerator, which is like an incubator without the funding.

“This is our first round. We aimed for a three-digit number and are happy with the final result,” said Kadri Ugand, co-founder of GameFounders. “Our mentors were a tremendous help spreading the word, and that is how we managed to cover so many countries.”

Most of the applications came from large gaming countries in the United Kingdom and the U.S. as well as neighboring countries Lithuania and Latvia. Other applicants hailed from Kazakhstan, Kenya, Philippines, Kuwait, Argentina, France, Netherlands, Russia, Romania, Denmark, Germany, Finland, India, Italy, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Belarus, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Nordic Aces 2012!

On the weekend 18^th to 20^th of May players from the Baltic States and the Nordic countries will compete in the inaugural team poker event Nordic Aces!

Poker Icons are launching a new poker tour aimed for the best team of poker players in the Nordic Region. Will the winning team be a group of friends, work colleagues, members of a local poker club or an actual pro team from one of the partnering poker sites? The challenge is open for any team of four players to show who are best in the disciplines of No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. With a buy-in of €900 per team the winning team is expected to walk home with €10k and the total prize pool to be around €30k.

During Friday the 18^th of May, each of the four members in the team will play one ranking tournament in each discipline. Based on the combined result of the four team members, the team will or will not make it to the finals that are to be played on Sunday the 20^th of May. During Saturday, the team members might choose to participate in the individual NL TX tournament Tallinn All-In or participate in different events and happenings in the beautiful city of Tallinn, Estonia.

PokerStars granted Estonian operational license

After being granted an activity license in Estonia during August, PokerStars has now become one of the first online poker sites to also receive an operational license. The new PokerStars platform – PokerStars.ee – complies fully with Estonian law and enables the country's residents to continue playing at the world's largest poker site and to qualify for the biggest live events across the globe, such as the PokerStars European Poker Tour.

PokerStars Nordic & Baltic Director of Marketing, Michael Holmberg, said: "There are thousands of good poker players in Estonia and I am very glad that the license enables them to continue competing at the largest poker site with players all over the world."

Holmberg added: "PokerStars has been the most popular poker room among Estonian players for several years, and with the licensing system now put in place in Estonia, I am convinced the country shows the way for many other EU nations in terms of regulation."

PokerStars' latest operational license in Estonia follows other successful approvals in Italy and France. PokerStars.it launched in October 2008, offering Italian citizens the chance to participate in games organised by the world's leading poker operator, in compliance with Italian law. PokerStars.fr, which was granted a license in June 2010, permits similar access for French players. PokerStars.com operates worldwide under a license from the Isle of Man government.

MTEL Master : Carmen Kass checkmate

Foi ontem realizado o sorteio das rondas do Torneio MTel Master, que hoje se inicia em Sófia na Bulgária. Esta prova reúne alguns dos melhores xadrezistas mundiais, onde se inclui o vencedor da edição do ano passado o GM Vassily Ivantchuk.

As honras do sorteio couberam à Top Model Carmen Kass, que para além de ser adepta do xadrez, é a presidente da Federação de Xadrez da Estónia. O sorteio não podia ter resultado num arranque de prova mais emocionante pois colocou frente a frente o Búlgaro Vesselin Topalov, nº1 do mundo e o Norueguês Magnus Carlsen, nº3 do ranking.

Após o sorteio, decorreu uma partida de demonstração entre Topalov e Vassilis Kontos (na foto), um xadrezista que ganhou numa prova o direito de defrontar este amigável. A partida, que decorreu dentro da cabine à prova de som colocada no meio da praça frente ao Teatro Nacional de Sófia, teve a particularidade de ser uma partida "às cegas", sendo para o efeito colocada uma venda ao nº1 do mundo, que apesar de tudo conseguiu vencer em 46 lances o seu adversário.

Hoje a prova tem o seu inicio oficial com os seguintes jogos:

V. Ivantchuk (Elo 2746) - A. Shirov (Elo 2745)
Y. Wang (Elo 2738) - L. Dominguez (Elo 2721)
M. Carlsen (Elo 2770) - V. Topalov (Elo 2812)

Poker in Tallinn : November 2005

Olympic Poker Club is inviting all poker players to Tallinn to Anniversary Tour 2005 !
Schedule for the Anniversary Tour 2005 - Tallinn - 23 - 27 Nov 2005

Olympic Casino at Reval Park Hotel & Casino
Please notice special accommodation prices for tournament guests :

Single room - 55 EUR
Double room - 66 EUR

Taivo Egel
Poker Manager
Tel. (+372) 6305561
Mob. (+372) 5525817