888Poker to remove heads up games
Poker site removes one-on-one games as it seeks to protect recreational players on its network
888Poker has announced it is to remove heads-up cash games from its online poker client in a bid designed to protect recreational players on the network.
The one-on-one games are favoured by professional players as they allow them to directly target recreational players.
In light of this, the company said it had taken the decision to withdraw the head-up option from its cash games in order to make its poker rooms more “competitive and fun”.
The news follows similar initiatives from a number of other poker networks with Microgaming replacing its portfolio of heads-up cash games with an eight-player fast-fold heads up variant in June.
In July, iPoker installed a ‘heads up hogging prevention’ update which tracks players sitting inactively at too many tables, while Pokerstars has placed a cap on the number of heads-up tables any one player can sit at.
The decision by 888Poker to remove the games comes ahead of tomorrow’s 888 Holdings’ H1 financial results for which investment analysts Panmure Gordon & Co has upgraded from a hold to a buy, with EBITDA forecast to be unchanged at $36m.
Panmure expects the company to elaborate on its plans for a H2 re-entry in the US market with Nevada and New Jersey both offering valuable income streams and improved results by 2015.
888Poker currently sits fourth in the poker rankings behind PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and iPoker. PartyPoker are in fifth after it was overtaken by 888Poker for the first time in June.