Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2011 brings you all much luck, joy and prosperity!

I was very boring this new years eve unfortunately. I had planned to have a quiet night anyway,  but a sick baby daughter made sure it was even quieter than we had planned! I hope you all made up for my lack of excitement.

This January, the GR88 Tsunami promotion starts, giving all players a chance to turn their poker balance into a tidal wave of cash. It runs from now until the end of March, giving you plenty of time to earn your share of the overflowing bonuses on offer.

The start of 2011 also saw another successful MMA Hold’em tournament held, with MMA fans taking down some great extra prizes from the sponsors.

We have some big plans for 20111, with new product offerings, software improvments, some awesome promotions and of course we’ll continue to provide the stellar level of customer service that we’ve become famous for providing.

Here’s to a fantastic year!

Jacob

GR88 now has a regular tournament in the software for MMA fans! This Sunday at 18:00, we welcome the MMA Hold’em series of tournaments to their new permanent home in the GR88 poker room!

MMA Hold’em is simply a series of poker tournaments where MMA fans can get together after watching the big MMA events on TV – or live if you are lucky enough to get tickets. The series is up to MMA Holde’em #6, which is taking place this weekend.

The tournament is a $5 buyin Tex Hold’em event, with these extra prizes added to the prize pool.

The additional $100 is given out according to the tournament’s payout structure, and the other prizes are awarded to the top 5 finishers. 1st gets to choose their prize, then 2nd and so on.

In addition to extra prizes, the event features a custom poker table background. We tried to use an Octagon, but couldn’t fit 10 players at a table with 8 sides! There is also a MMA Hold’em accolade being developed that will be awarded to the player that wins each tournament.

Real MMA fighters have played in every event so far, thanks to the great organisation work done by GR88 player MMAMadhouse.

So if you’re a fan of MMA, or would just like to join in the poker fun – login and register for the ‘MMA Hold’em 6 : RUSH’ tournament now open for registration in the scheduled tournament tab of the GR88 online poker software.

And have a good weekend!

Jacob

We’ve already put your presents under the GR88 XMA$ tree!

This December, every GR88 player can unwrap over $43,000 worth of presents just by playing poker. Look in your player admin to see the GR88 XMA$ page.

To claim your cash presents, simply earn VIP points by playing at the GR88 poker tables. You have the entire month of December to earn points!

I love the holidays. Not only is it a time of generosity and giving, but you get to see your family, have a break from work and get some spare time to play some poker! Well some of us get a break from work… It’s a very busy time of year here at GR88, so I’ll be working through the holidays this year. Not that I mind, I love my job!

Best of luck at the tables, and remember that the XMA$ promotion starts December 1.

Jacob

Hopefully at least some GR88 players remember me, because I’m sure I’ve been in touch with many of you already. My name is Jacob Locutis and I am the Poker Room Manager at GR88.com.

It’s my job to make sure that everyone is having fun  playing in our poker room, and from now on I’m also going to be sharing my thoughts here on the blog!

How was everyone’s thanksgiving? This holiday isn’t something my native country usually celebrates, but I have noticed lately that it is slowly becoming more of an international event. Perhaps it is just an excuse to eat Turkey and have a nap? I know that the black Friday sales have certainly caught on around the world. Even sites like Apple had some good bargains – and they never have sales! My friend got himself a Mac at a cheaper than usual price so he can play with the new GR88 Mac software.

Which reminds me, the 4.7 ‘Beta’ software will be officially launched as the 5.0 version of our software very soon, hopefully next week. If you haven’t already checked out the new software, it is available for download in your player admin.

I didn’t do much on Turkey Day myself. I was lucky enough to have a roast turkey dinner, and I had some fun telling people in the poker room about the secret Turkey emoticon. Just type ‘Turkey‘ into the chat at the GR88 poker tables and see what happens…

There are some GR8 tournaments running this weekend too!  On Saturday at 13:00 server time there is an Aussie Millions Grand Final. You could win a trip to Melbourne, Australia to play in the southern hemisphere’s biggest poker tournament. It’s held at the same time as the Australian Open Tennis. I played one year and it’s a great tournament. Unfortunately I only lasted until the very end of day one… but that’s a bad beat story for another time.  There’s satellites running constantly at many different buyin levels, so have a go at winning your spot in the grand final if you have the time.

And of course, the $50,000 guaranteed runs on Sunday at 15:00. It’s only $109 to play for your chance at a share of the $50k, or you can win your way in for as little as $2.20. That’s less than the cost of a turkey sandwich!

So anyway, nice to meet you all. I’ll be blogging regularly in the future and look forward to getting to know more of our players. Good luck at the tables if you play this weekend, and I hope you like the new background image in the lobby… It’s a taste of things to come in the month of December.

The 2010/2011 NFL season is upon us, and you can hit the gridiron with GR88.COM.

GR88.COM‘s $15,000 Touchdown Contest, running from Wednesday September 1st until Thursday September 31st, will reward you for each First Down you complete as you “drive the ball” to the “endzone.” Complete 10 First Downs and you will score a Touchdown and receive over $15,000 in cash right to your player account!

To make a First Down, just click the “Join the Game” button in your GR88 player admin, and head to the tables. GR88.COM will track your total number of VIP Points earned during the month, and when you earn the required points for a First Down you will receive the corresponding cash prize, issued straight to your account balance. But you only have until the end of the month so GET MOVING!

For more information and contest, click here.

A Huge Congrats to BillyWilder2 who just won almost $10,000 playing at a GR88.com Bad Beat Jackpot table when it paid off.

“Gotta love GR88 Poker. You guys take good care of your players. The level of service from you is great. It’s a lot of fun to play here. I didn’t even know it hit – All of a sudden the smiley face pop ups and the avatar cartoon things were going crazy people just spamming stuff. I was wondering what was going on? Just some clowns enjoying the avatars? Then I see someone say BBJ got hit, So I scroll up and look at the hand – four of a kind tens beat four a kind eights. I check the cashier and I have almost $10,000 more in my account! Pretty awesome, everyone at the table was very excited.”

GR88.com would like to congratulate Vlad Sharypov who is the winner of this months Showing the Love promotion!

For your chance to win next months iPad, simply make a deposit of $50 or more in the month of June and you are automatically entered in the contest.

Click Here to read about all of the details.

The GR88.com team would like to extend our congratulations to our very own Spencer Lawrence (Player Username: SpenceLawrence) for taking down the weekly $50.000 Guaranteed on Sunday, May10th.

After 6 hours of fierce battle, Spencer took down the 1st prize of $11,250 and the bragging rights to go along with this huge accomplishment!

The weekly $50,000 Guaranteed takes place every Sunday at GR88.com! Join us next Sunday for your chance to win the huge prize!

We are proud to announce that GR88.com player wizardmickey1 won the monthly leaderboard tournament on Saturday, May 8th, and will be representing GR88.com at this years main event. Congratulations wizardmickey1 and do GR88 proud!

During the month of January, GR88.com is proud to announce it’s first ever $50,000 Cash Chase! For more info on the promotion click here.