Caesars Interactive Entertainment announced it was forming a social poker development studio to expand the free-to-play World Series of Poker game through its Playtika division.

The Montreal-based subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment, which owns the World Series of Poker brand, will add a social gaming format of the tournament to its free-to-play slot machine, casino game and bingo franchises.

Caesars acquired Playtika a few years ago to expand its social gaming platform.

A Montreal-based team of 19 employees will form the core of Caesars Interactive’s studio. The plan is to expand and enhance the features and functionality of the current World Series of Poker game.

Playtika is responsible for all of Caesars Interactive’s social and mobile games assets.

Caesars Interactive acquired certain World Series of Poker game assets and intellectual property from Electronic Arts (EA).

Under the agreement, EA transferred global rights and ownership of its World Series of Poker game for mobile devices and Facebook to Caesars Interactive, ending a previous licensing agreement.

Financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

VG: Why do I sometimes feel so small?

Awesome Andrew and Random Dave hit East Fremont and the Arts District for some First Friday non-poker fun, then go home to sign away all future affiliate value sign up as beta-testers for the real money WSOP software … but not before yours truly donks off 1.4 million in play money Omaha on the EA Sports app, and somehow pays $3 in real US currency to reload!

Meanwhile back in the VG studio, we bring in Tournament Dave to report from the daily tournament tables of Venetian and Aria, where he keeps chopping up the top-heavy tournament cash and finishing ITM 2/3 of the time. Up for high-quality discussion here: the allure of tournaments with buy-ins over $100 … why early events offer more value to regs … the rationale of cutting deals at a final table … unique emotional swings of tournament-structured tilt … and was that a creatively appropriate way for floor to pull cards out of the muck?

All that and you’re ready to enjoy some hand porn. This week we look at a man who’s not afraid to get a little sexy in position with a relatively big stack and J-9s on the bubble.

Vegas Grinders 1.9
[audio: https://pokerati.com/podcast/VegasGrinders/VegasGrinders_13-04-10.mp3]