Slotland's Jackpot Hit Again, This Time for $169K by Canadian IT Pro

Slotland’s progressive jackpot is won so often it's almost not even news. Still, I can't resist telling you about their latest winner!

This time it was a thirty-something Canadian IT professional who $169,072 playing the instant-play casino’s Tikal Treasure slot game. Since the casino’s progressive is hit four or five times a year Eric J. joins a long list of jackpot winners.

The latest winner had been grinding away for a few hours that night, winning a little here and there, enough to keep it interesting, but nothing to get too excited about. Fortunately, he had several wins over $1000 that kept him playing until he suddenly hit the jackpot.

“I guess I’ll go shopping, pay off my credit cards,” said the winner from his apartment in Vancouver, Canada. “And I’ll probably hit the slots again – I’m feeling lucky, eh? Know what I mean?”


“What good is a jackpot that never seems to be hit?!” asked Slotland’s casino manager, Michael Hilary. “Maybe Slotland’s jackpot never gets to be millions of dollars, but that’s because it’s hit so often! We’ve had a lot of jackpot winners who, believe me, were all quite happy to walk away with a couple hundred thousand!”



One reason Slotland’s jackpot is hit so frequently is that most of the casino’s real-money online slots are tied to one progressive jackpot. This is the first time the jackpot has been won by a player playing Tikal Treasure. The biggest ever was the American dad that won $266,800 playing Carnival last spring. The first mobile jackpot winner won $159,357 earlier this year playing the popular Ice Queen slot on his iPhone.

Tikal Treasure takes players to the mystical temples of the ancient Mayans where the treasures of the ancients lay waiting. It’s a 5 reel, 25 pay line slot machine with eye-popping full screen graphics and brilliant sound effects. Ornate symbols from Mayan astrology, stone masks, sun gods and mystical Mayan cats spin on the reels. Collecting five stone Balls triggers the Bonus Round, a separate game that awards generous bonus wins.

You won't find any of Slotland’s 32 games anywhere but Slotland.eu. All of them can be played in the browser on any computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone and the newest games are specially enhanced iPhone and Android phones.

By Larry Colcy, The Gamblogger

Online Tournament Champion Returns to CAPT Velden Courtesy Intertops Poker

An Intertops Poker player that won an online tournament at the popular poker room will be returning to Austria’s most luxurious casino resort this weekend for the €1,000,000 CAPT Velden poker tournament. Intertops’ poker manager will accompany “Christoph” to the €500 event he’s playing on Saturday.

Talking about his approach to tournament play, the Intertops champion said his strategy depends on the buy-in.

“In the early levels I try to get a feeling for the table dynamics and players playing tendencies. I try to keep my chips together for the later stages, where the pots are bigger and making moves is more profitable than in the early stages.”



“If the buy-in is higher, that is exactly the strategy I would follow. But if it’s lower, I would deviate from it and play more hands even in the early levels – against better knowledge.”

Last year Christoph almost won the €500 buy-in event in Velden. Even so, he wasn’t entirely happy with his game play.

“There wasn’t anything that I did particularly good that I liked.  Maybe coming to the final table I realized somebody else tried to be the table bully so I decided to not mess with him - despite my chip lead - and I sat back and merely watched players eliminating each other until we were down to two.”

“But  I shouldn’t have called a 3-bet shove from a tight player close to the final table with AQ, even though that was a pretty standard play for both him (shoving 12 BBs with AK) and me. Of course you’re always smarter in hindsight and in a 3-day tournament you will have to survive situations where you are behind.”

“Honestly, my tournament hands weren’t spectacular, they were all pretty straight-forward. But if I had one to brag about it’s this one: Down to 2 tables, out of a stack of 40 BBs, I opened from the middle position with KsQh, only to be called by the chip leader at that point, who I observed for some time now. The board comes Ah,9h,7c. Obviously, against a loose-defending Big Blind, I conti-bet this board and get called. At this stage I am not too worried because I saw the guy check-raising with top-pair or better in these situations. The turn is quite fortunate, a Kh gives me 2nd pair and the nut-flush draw. My opponent thinks for a long time and checks, I do so too. The river blanks with something like 2d. My opponents bets a bit over pot size, which at this point is quite meaningful, like half of 2/3 stack. I only have second pair and a flush is possible. Given the action that lead up to the river, I am rather certain that in this spot he is more likely to have a busted draw than a hand that beats me, or at least it is equally likely. For the call to be correct according to the pot-odds, I’d only need to be ahead 1/3 of the time. So I called after a minute or two and he mucks his cards and I was the new chip leader.”

“It wasn’t until the third player was eliminated that I realized I might win. I usually try to stay pessimistic because in tournaments it’s all over so quickly and you might be disappointed if you toss with the idea of winning too soon. I’ve played so many tournaments – if I’d won half as many as the number of tournaments where I had a chip lead at some point, I’d be rich!”

“I like Velden because the competition is superb. The whole event has so much flair. All kinds of people come to play: pros as well as people on holiday that just happen to realize there’s a poker tournament. So there is a good mixture of people and playing skills and the challenge is to realize who’s who and how to play against each one."

“One thing I tell people that are new to tournaments: never play at buy-ins where you feel uncomfortable. I think one thing you can say with certainty is you’re not playing your best if you can’t afford the buy-in.”

“Playing online has definitely has helped me a lot. Even though there are big differences between online and offline poker, there is no substitute for the experience of many thousands of online hands, where you play at least 10-20x as many hands in the same time.“

“I just enjoy playing Poker for fun. At the same time, I am quite ambitious and always try to improve my game, through discussions with friends, statistical analysis or reading. I would not take playing poker to the next level even if I had the chance to do so, simply because I feel I would lose the joy of playing. Also I feel that I am playing at my best when I don’t play too much and I don’t disregard my other hobbies.”

View this online poker news story on YouTube

By Larry Colcy, The Gamblogger