It was announced today by Virgin that they are going to release a free online gaming application of Texas Hold’em poker to be played on Facebook, in partnership with Playzu. In order to actually play on Facebook, players are required to add the Playzu application to their profiles. Every time a player wins a hand it counts toward daily leader board that can be viewed on Facebook. These particular 25 players will in turn receive a unique signup code to play for exclusive Virgin prizes, including such things as air miles.
The Facebook revolution has opened a whole new world of poker areas; players can also take part in invite-only tournaments whereby they invite their Facebook friends ad play the game together privately. This is always a good thing as it brings the fun of the home game online by integrating friendly rivalry between friends which most of us I’m sure enjoy! And on another fun note, the application gives users the ability to create their own avatar in the games, with accessories ranging from cigars and hats to tattoos and glasses. There are also comedy video clips integrated into the application, which can be played when users are waiting for a hand to be played, and users can set up a private “invite only” game with other Facebook members.
The chief executive officer of Virgin Games, Simon Burridge said, “Virgin Poker is about poker for everyone — from World Series of Poker bracelet winners to complete novices. We therefore wanted to partner with a Facebook application that offered not only an entertaining environment to play poker in, but also all of the excitement of a real tournament with exclusive prizes to be won. Playzu does just that, and, with over 8 million UK users on Facebook, this was too good an opportunity to ignore.”
The Virgin Company appear to be making a positive move in terms of the poker industry and its progress/expansion and hopefully the move will encourage increasing numbers of players from all manner of backgrounds to take up the game. On the other hand many people may speculate that the companies move may merely be a publicity stunt in order to generate more and more attention towards the company in diversified environments. Whatever Virgin’s actual reasoning for the movement, I’m sure all you poker players out there will definitely not complain!
