Now that Peter Eastgate is the new WSOP champion and the youngest one at that he will be the talk of the town, at least till there is something new to talk about.

A financial settlement has been reached between Tokwiro Enterprises, the present owner of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, and Excapsa Software, the previous owner.

Excapsa is to pay $15 million to Blast-Off Limited, the Tokwiro controlled company that originally acquired UltimateBet.

Move over Phil Hellmuth. Peter Eastgate from Denmark has just become the youngest player to win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

He has broken this record that Hellmuth had held on to for the last 19 years.

The names of this years entries into the Poker Hall of Fame have been announced. Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein were honored with this distinction on November 9 at the Rio All-Suites in Las Vegas.

PKR has announced the "Lovestruck Evenings" freeroll tournament.

This tournament is a partnership between the Lovestruck dating network and PKR Poker. The premier event is to be held November 17, 2008 at 8pm.

Despite all said about women’s equality, whenever a woman wins a mixed event in poker it does make big news. And when that woman is as beautiful as Clonie Gowen the news is gigantic.

The Real Deal premiered at the Venetian last week.

It has been billed as poker’s first reality show.

UltimateBet has announced that it has signed up Adam Levy as the fifth member of its prestigious Star Players Team.

The other four celebrities on that team are Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, James “P0KERPRO33” Campbell, Tracy Scala and Tiffany Michelle.

The nine World Series of Poker finalists are allowed ten square inches of logo space on the shirts they will wear while playing the televised event.

Dennis Phillips, the chip leader, has put up one of those spots for charity.

The Poker Player Alliance (PPA) has come up with an innovative way to influence the voters ahead of the November elections.

It has graded members of the American Congress, both House and Senate, based on their attitude to poker.

Scotty Nguyen is one of the few living poker players who have a tournament named after him.

And it is set to start its fifth season at the Cherokee Casino Resort in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from the 30th of October. It will run till the 10th of November.

What Lacey Jones and Christina Lindley can do, Liv Boeree can do better. Last month Lacey and Christina shot a racy lingerie sequence for the Bluff magazine.

This month Liv has done a solo three-page photo spread for the November issue of Loaded magazine.

It was the first time that PokerStars had organized a High Roller event in conjunction with the European Poker Tour (EPT).

The venue was the Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London, and the event was held on the 5th and 6th of October just after the completion of the London stop of the EPT.

Parting of ways is sad but perhaps when the parting is amicable then it is not so sad.

Mansion Poker, the Gibraltar based online poker room, and its software provider Ongame Network have amicably parted ways from the 24th of September.

Get your mind out of the gutter, we know what you're thining. Gus Hansen is participating in an event in which all the other contestants are female.

He was not playing in drag as famous poker author John Vorhaus recently did in a ladies tournament under the alias Cinnamon Shag.

Poker magazines can vie for newsstand space with fashion magazines and get the better of them.

The ladies of the world of poker can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of the super models and take the honors.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has long been an American affair. Last year it launched the WSOP Europe (WSOPE) and held its inaugural tournament in London.

For the poker world the result was electrifying because for the first time in the history of WSOP a woman won the Main Event.

‘Studs of Poker’ is a new column being written by Michele Lewis.

On her web page Michele Lewis is described as ‘mother, wife, volunteer, writer & poker player’.

After the rollicking success of the first season of the Best Damn Poker Show, season two of the show will go on air on the 27th of October.

The show has been shot at the San Manuel Resort and Casino near Los Angeles. It has been sponsored by the online poker room Ultimate Bet and will be shown on Fox Sports.

Early this year Asian Logic Limited acquired a controlling stake in the Asian Poker Tour (APT).

Till then Asian Logic was active only in online gambling and this acquisition was seen as a move to increase the online traffic at Asian Logic online poker rooms.

Dennis Phillips is the chip leader among the nine finalists scheduled to fight for the WSOP 2008 Main Event title in November.

Last week he officially announced that he would be hiring a coach becoming the first person to make the announcement.

She may not be stunningly sexy as some of the other women poker players and may have an aversion to dropping clothes unlike Catgirl.

But Annette Obrestad has done enough in the world of poker to feature on the cover of the September issue of Bluff Europe.

Hoyt Corkins is a poker player with a cowboy image. A few days ago his Spanish Trails home in Las Vegas was robbed.

This comes as a surprise because Spanish Trails is one of the most upscale and most secure localities in Vegas.

PokerStars is promoting its European Poker Tour (EPT) in a big way this season.

First came the announcement that the guaranteed prize to the winner of the London stop of the EPT would be a minimum £1 million.

In 2006 Arnold Snyder had come out with ‘The Poker Tournament Formula’.

The book was very successful. Earlier this year Snyder came out with a sequel titled ‘The Poker Tournament Formula 2’ and subtitled ‘Advanced Strategies for Big Money Tournaments’.

Probably in response to Republican Pete Sessions’ bill named the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Clarification and Implementation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6663), which the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has denounced, poker players have now resorted to more direct action.

Last week Barbara Enright won the first prize in the Ladies No Limit Texas Hold’em event which was a part of the Legends of Poker series being played under the aegis of World Poker Tour Season 7.

The venue was the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens in California.

Many online poker rooms go beyond providing poker related attractions in order to promote themselves. Hollywood Poker is one such poker room.

Its calendar with a bevy of a dozen attractive girls is a much waited for event since the past few years.

The average age of players at the tables is getting lower. Beyond doubt the Phil Hellmuths and the Doyle Brunsons have inspired a generation of poker players.

But today’s heroes are more in the Chris Moneymaker mold. Pit them against the Phil Hellmuths and it is the Phil Hellmuths who will falter.

New revelations and allegations continue to hound Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet in the context of the superuser scandal.

But these two online poker sites with common ownership are not taking things lying down.

Last year the Russians advanced quite a bit but did not finally make it. Alex Kravchenko made it to the final table of the WSOP Main Event but had to settle for fourth place.

Though he did pick up a bracelet in the in the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event on the way.

The final table is set for the WSOP 2008 Main Event and the nine contenders are being referred to as the November Nine, because play will resume now only in November.

And while ESPN airs WSOP 2008 events in order to build up momentum for the grand finale, gambling of another kind will be taking over from poker.

Absolute Poker invites its members to play poker with supermodel Serinda Swan every Sunday between 2.00 PM and 4.00 PM ET. (Yes the same Serinda that announced Compatible Poker won a private jet promo) :)

What a way to spend time with one of the most glamorous women in the online poker scene, even if only in virtual space. She plays $1/$2 No-Limit games so the stakes are not that high.

Polaris is the computer from the University of Alberta that plays poker. In July 2007 Polaris had lost out to the human pros Phil "The Unabomber" Laak and Ali Eslami.

The defeat charged up the Polaris team. Bowling, speaking on behalf of the team that is working on Polaris, had said, “… but all of us really, really want to win.”

Online poker rooms are not only competing with live poker but also with each other and therefore the need to innovate is high.

Recently two organizations have announced the introduction of new features. One is Cryptologic Ltd., which provides software for online poker rooms and the other is PKR, a popular online poker room.

After three extremely successful seasons NBC’s popular poker show Poker After Dark will begin its fourth run from July 14.

This means that show will cash on the WSOP euphoria without clashing with it.

An online player with the alias RIVERMAN1969 from Pasadena, Maryland won $325,212.40 after being beaten in a hand of Texas Hold’em Poker.

This is not all that surprising as it may seem because he was playing the Bad Beat Jackpot at the online poker room Absolute Poker.

In the voting held on the 26th of June by the House Financial Services Committee the bill HR 5767 was defeated with a tied vote of 32 in favor and 32 against.

The HR 5767 aimed to overturn the ban on Internet Gambling brought about through the controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, popularly referred to as UIGEA.

The innovative Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is introducing a new way of playing poker this August.

It is called a “poker lounge”. No more playing poker huddled straight-backed around tightly packed tables.

GameMobile’s mobile phone version of No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker is the latest rage in mobile gambling.

The game is offered the world over by the most renowned mobile service providers such as Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola and Samsung.

Australian Shane Warne may not be a big name in American poker circles.

But in other poker playing countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia Shane Warne is legend.

Games Show Network (GSN) has let its option for exclusive broadcast of the World Poker Tour’s Season VII expire.

This decision was taken after GSN broadcast WPT for only Season VI. The first five seasons of WPT were broadcast on Travel Channel.

In the context of the ongoing debate whether only women events have a place in poker today, the subject of “Women Players at WSOP 2008” may sound chauvinistic.

But no one can deny that women celebrity players have a special appeal for fans of both genders.

WSOP 2008 has begun and for a month and a half the poker world will be talking of little else.

The tournament consists of 55 events, the last of which will commence on the 7th of July.

It is confirmed that from 2009 to 2012 the National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHUPC) will be held in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

This announcement was made by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the television network that organizes the poker championship.

On the eve of the World Series of Poker 2008, it is but normal to take recap on the WSOP 2007 champion, Xao “Jerry” Yang, the player who beat over 6,000 others in the main event.

Like the famous Chris Moneymaker, Jerry Yang entered the WSOP 2007 Main Event through winning a satellite tournament.

Every generation of poker players has its own set of heroes and some of these go on to become living legends.

No one can deny that part of the urge to play poker is to identify oneself with the aura surrounding Wild Bill Hickok.

wo decisions in closely watched cases would affect poker players in times to come. One was taken by a county judge in Washington and will affect online players.

The other was taken by the New Hampshire Senate and will affect land based charity games.

Last week, on the 13th of May, Bluff Media came out with an announcement that they had purchased the print component of Woman Poker Player magazine.

At the announcement of the purchase this is what Eric Morris, the co-president and publisher of Bluff Media, had to say.

Poker After Dark is the extremely popular late night TV poker show that started in January 2007 and is currently in its fourth season.

This show from NBC has been able to create interesting themes that have added spice to the poker play.

A $1 chip from the now closed Showboat Casino sold for $28,988.88 at an auction on eBay.

This chip is one of the only two known surviving chips of its kind. It was expected to go for about $15,000. But when the bidding began at $2.25 no one anticipated that it would go for almost double the expected price.

Every year Bluff magazine declares the Poker Player of the Year award. It is a much-valued recognition and definitely a feather in the cap of the winner.

As of last week Men (The Master) Nguyen was in the lead for this year’s honors, closely followed by Michael Binger and Glen Chorny in the second and third places.

Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo has become the latest brand ambassador for the Bodog Group.

He joins a galaxy of eminent poker stars like David Williams, Evelyn Ng and Jean-Robert Bellande. As a member of Team Bodog, Bonomo will represent the group in both online and major land tournaments.

The second Man vs. Machine Poker Challenge will be held in the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas between 4th July and 8th July this year.

The occasion for the event is the Gaming Life Expo, which will be held during the 2008 WSOP Championships. The event is being sponsored by Stoxpoker, which is a world leader in online poker training.

Victoria Coren has not been named “Princess of Poker” for nothing.

She wears many hats. She is a celebrity British poker professional. She is a journalist. She is an author. She is a broadcaster. She is a poker commentator.

On the face of it Texas Hold’em Plus is a simple addition to the normal Texas Hold’em game.

The same man, Sam Shehadeh, who made the game everyone plays today (Texas Holdem) is the creator of this new game.

The shock over the shooting of February 16 had not yet died down, when Putnam County deputies were once again called to the poker tables on April 17.

The story went as follows according to Sheriff’s Maj. Keith Riddick. I live in Florida and it's amazing how many shootings there have been lately.

Atlantic City is one of the hottest casino spots in the world. But of late it has been more in the news for smoking rather than gambling.

Last week an ordinance was passed banning smoking on the casino floor. Smoking would be allowed only in smoking lounges where there are no gambling tables.

The exclusive and glitzy Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles will be the venue of a poker tournament with a difference on the 20th of this month.

Brad Garrett will be hosting a tournament, the net proceeds of which will be donated to the 1736 Family Crisis Center.

If there ever was a win-win partnership in the world of poker then this is it.

The latest buzz is that the celebrated poker agency, Poker Royalty, has been signed by the undisputed poker emperor, Gavin Griffin, to manage and market his celebrity status.

The San Remo event of Season 4 of the European Poker Tour (EPT) started on April 1st, 2008.

Poker fans will recall that Season 4 had kicked off on August 28, 2007, at Casino Barcelona in Spain.

The Philippines is the starting point for this year’s Asian Poker Tour which is set to kick off on the 27th of May.

The planners of the event have not held back and have jammed packed the 2008 tournament’s calendar with four exciting and challenging events.

In a bid to crack down on potential problem gaming and to make the industry more regulated, new measures have been determined for all poker machines in Victoria, Australia, from 2010.

The new measures would include placing time and spending limitations on the machines.

Many Americans are often looking for ways to show their support of the troops in Iraq.

Some hold rallies to support them, some send over food packages, clothes and equipment as a show of solidarity, and some even fly over (ala President Bush) and make surprise visits.

Cryptologic, a leading online casino and poker software provider, has announced that it has extended and expanded its contract with World Poker Tour.

WPT is one of the world’s top gaming brands and has been working with Cryptologic for the past year.

It has been announced recently that Poker Royalty has been requested by professional poker player Bill Edler to handle his public relations and professional affairs.

The deal which was signed in the past days means that Poker Royalty will be put in charge of Edler's international management marketing aspects of his portfolio

Pressure on the United States authorities continue to mount regarding the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

A special hearing has been planned in order to address the problems faced by US banks and other financial institutions when trying to apply this anti-gambling legislation.

Not many people ever get to meet top poker aces face to face, listen to them speak passionately about their game and still get a chance to earn a seat in a prestigious live poker tournament.

If you are in Canada and your dream is to attend a seminar with WSOP champions, you are in luck.

Ryan Osborne, a 27-year-old computer program manager from Orlando, Florida has won first place in a World Series of Poker event in Atlantic City, taking home $72,500 in prize money.

Osborne paid the $500-buy in the second event of a total of ten events in the schedule and played exceptionally well on the first day.

One of the poker industry’s most glamorous live events, the World Poker Tour Invitational crowned its first woman player as champion since the tournament’s inception.

“The Master” Nguyen, managed to beat 444 other players to become the first female to win a major televised tournament in WPT’s history.

Thursday night finally saw a change in luck for poker ace, Phil Ivey when he won Commerce Casino’s Los Angeles Poker Classic.

Ivey holds the dubious record of being the player with the most number of appearances at a World Poker Tour final event, without actually winning.

Bodog released they have signed an exclusive deal with Jean-Robert Bellande to become the newest member of Team Bodog.

He will be joining the likes of Josh Arieh, Evelyn Ng & David Williams, with his first big appearance representing Bodog in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

One of the poker industry’s most influential organizations, the World Poker Association, has announced a change in leadership; naming its founder Jesse Jones, chairman emeritus.

Previously chairman of the organization’s board of directors, it is believed that Jones will remain on as part of the board as an influential figure.

Mobile gaming has opened the doors to instant poker fun any time and anywhere. Poker fans can enjoy their favorite game on the beach, in the car or standing in line at a supermarket chain.

The sheer convenience of this type of entertainment has attracted thousands of players to mobile poker in a very short space of time.

The month of March is full of poker tournaments and exciting events, but poker professionals across the board are not forgetting to give a little of themselves by attending a couple of worthy charity events along the way.

Several top industry stars have found some time in their busy schedules to attend these happenings and bring some cheer to the less fortunate.

This week, the popular Carnival Cruise Lines announced that it would be hosting a No-Limit Hold ‘em poker satellite tournaments on many of its Fun Ship voyages this year.

The latest destination for players looking for poker action in a fun environment is cruise ships.

World Poker Tour Enterprises has announced that top professional, Antonio Esfandiari, will become its official ‘face’.

He will be representing over 80 pokers who have made a million dollars or more in World Poker Tour events and taking the role of spokesperson for this lucrative annual tournament.

The popularity of poker grew in recent years from a number of factors. Naturally, the online poker world had the majority of the impact, however popular media also played a huge role.

Non-poker players who were suddenly faced with action-packed televised poker tournaments could not help but be drawn into the excitement of the game.

At first glance, Vivek “Psyduck’ Rajkumar looks like your typical young man. But this 21 year old has a lot more going for him than most at his age.

Vivek has cashed five times in the World Series of Poker (2007) and has just walked away with over $100,000 in prize money after winning a $2500 No Limit event at this year’s L.A. Poker Classic.

GSN, the new network home of the World Poker Tour, has announced the telecast schedule for the airing of the sixth season of the WPT.

From March 24th, poker fans will be glued to their seats every Monday night at 9 pm (ET/PT) to watch two hours of action packed, heart stopping poker excitement.

Yesterday it was announced that one of the most successful acquisitions in the poker industry has reached its completion stage.

Absolute Poker, one of the most popular poker sites on the internet, that serves literally millions of players at all levels, recently acquired Vegas 247 – another popular site that has been acting as a skin site for Absolute Poker for some time now.

One of the poker world’s most prestigious events is the World Poker Tour Invitational – a glittering social evening where the elite of the industry rub shoulders with some of the top names in Hollywood.

Hundreds of celebrities and poker personalities traditionally come together under one roof at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles to play head to head in an exciting Texas Hold ‘em poker tournament.

The developer of the innovative Electronic GameCard has shipped off the first batch of Poker Winning Seat Electronic GameCards to Poker Winning Seats Ltd.

A company with which it teamed up with to create the newest piece of technology in the poker world.

Michael McDonald, from Waterloo Canada may be, at first glance, your typical eighteen-year old.

This teen wears braces, loves watching “The Simpsons”, teasing his kid sister and hanging out. In the United States and most Canadian provinces, he is not legally allowed to enter a live poker tournament.

Texas Hold ‘em is undoubtedly the most popular form of poker available today.

The hysteria surrounding this game is mainly due to the high level of publicity it receives in televised live poker games and its status as the official game in events such as the World Series of Poker tournament.

PartyGaming, the publicly listed online gambling company, revealed its revenues for the last quarter of 2007.

Showing that while its growing casino business was booming, its poker sales took a slight dip, compared to the previous quarter of the same year.

Poker players who love to combine their (poker) business with pleasure may be happy to hear the following news:

The British entrepreneur and creator of the successful Nuts Poker League has announced that he has partnered with a travel company in the United Kingdom with the intention of building tailor-made poker tours to fun destinations and resorts around the word.

While the European Union is trying to create a uniform policy for the continent’s online gambling activities, it is finding laws such as the recent German ban on internet poker and casino gambling particularly frustrating.

As such, nobody was surprised this week when it was announced that the European Union would not be waiting long to take the necessary steps in this matter.

In an action packed finale to this year’s Aussie Millions Main Event, the winning title was finally handed to Alexander Kostritsyn after he took down Erik Seidel and another five participants around the final table.

The 2008 Aussie Millions took place in Melbourne, Australia at the Crown Casino and attracted a varied group of participants and spectators alike.

Created to produce unity in a continent very much divided, it seems that the European Union is facing a tough challenge when it comes to the issue of online gambling.

One of the basic polices of the EU is to ensure free trade across member state borders, yet many countries are shying away from this part of their treaties and insisting that internet poker and casino playing should not included in the deal.

After years of making significant contributions to the poker industry, women players are finally being honored for this role, with the opening of the Women’s Poker Hall of Fame.

Inauguration will take place at Binion’s Casino in Las Vegas on February 2nd, in a ceremony that will pay tribute to four of the industry’s most powerful women players.

The European Deep Stack Poker Championship, which is due to take place in Ireland at the beginning of February this year is drawing big names in the poker industry and thus generating much excitement.

The event’s organizers have confirmed that a good number of high profile players have signed up for the 1,500 Euros main poker event.

Someone in the industry has finally sat up and realized that women deserve an equal break when it comes to tournament play.

The World Poker Tour announced that it was revamping its offerings to female poker players and introducing an official WPT Ladies League and a No Limit Texas Hold ‘em circuit.

Online poker rooms are certainly upping the antes when it comes to tournaments and prizes this year as we are seeing with Titan Poker.

Compared to this time last year, when the industry was still reeling from the anti-gambling UIGEA legislation in the United States, the poker market seems to be on its way to a full recovery.

One of the many reasons for the increase in the popularity of poker in recent years has been because of the role of the media.

Like many other mainstream sports that are shown on television, poker has also found a niche for itself in programs such as PartyPoker Late Night Poker.

Poker rooms and casinos in the gambling industry are picking up on the buzz that the future of the game is looking brighter than ever.

With the recent news that an online poker room recently beat the industry record for the most number of simultaneous ring players (over 20,000!), it seems that finally poker fans are putting their UIGEA shock behind them.

It was announced this week that the Canadian based Kahnawake Gaming Commission has completed its investigation into the alleged cheating scandal at Absolute Poker.

The Commission said in a statement that it will take another two weeks for its people to review the report and thereafter it will present its findings and make a decision regarding the future of Absolute Poker’s operations in the industry.

Despite mounting pressure from internal and external sources, the German government has announced that its State Gambling Treaty will come into effect as planned on January 1, 2008.

The new law will effectively ban foreign casino and poker operators from accepting wagers from German citizens.

One of the poker industry’s leading media resources for news and information about the game, Card Player Media, has announced the winner of this year’s Poker Player of the Year (POY) title.

David “The Dragon” Pham won the title for the second time in his poker career, after beating other top players in a point-ranking system.

The online gambling world changed the face of many traditional games, not least of all poker.

Where once players needed to physically make their way to a brick and mortar casino to play a round, today anybody who has computer access can enjoy a multitude of gaming options from the comfort of their own home.

Since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law by the Bush administration in October 2006, there have been moves by several politicians and organizations to create new laws.

These new laws would either counter the UIGEA, or exclude certain sectors of the gambling industry from the general law.

After years of speculation and meticulous planning, the Gambling Act that came into effect in the United Kingdom earlier this year was seen as a major milestone in the country’s gambling industry.

For the first time, the entire market, including online casino and poker rooms, was regulated by one umbrella organization – the UK Gambling Commission – whose job it is to ensure that all things relating to gambling are done according to the new law.

After months of negotiations, the European Union and the United States have finally signed a compensation deal over the US’s policy on online gambling.

The sides had until Friday of last week to reach a deal, after which it was expected that the European Union would have asked the World Trade Organization to step in and allow an arbitration panel to decide on the case.

A 28-year old Sydney man is still in a state of shock after managing to beat a field of over 500 players in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour this week.

Grant Levy, a physical education teacher, had an amazing streak of luck and, combined with his cool demeanor, managed to grab the title and an amazing prize of no less than $1-million.

The schedule of one of the gambling industry’s most prestigious events, the World Series of Poker (WSOP), has been announced for the coming year.

The operating company, Harrah’s Entertainment Ltd. announced that the 39th WSOP would feature no less than 55 buy-in events – a record number for this competition – and that other features had been changed and added to make the event more convenient for players.

Swedish poker company, Svenska Spel, has confirmed that Austria is following in Sweden’s footsteps by launching a similar, state-run poker site.

The CEO of Svenska Spel, Mr. Jesper Karrbrink said that his company, in collaboration with the leading software provider, Boss Media, would be cooperating with Austrian industry leaders.

Ultimate Bet, currently boasting over two million registered players, took the world by storm last year with its highly successful Ultimate Bet Online Championship.

For ten incredible days, players enjoyed thirteen landmark events, tournaments and promotions that culminated in a million dollar grand finale and one of the best poker happenings the industry has known for a long time.

It was douze-points for Norway this week when the country’s teenage poker prodigy, Annette Obrestad grabbed some of the industry’s most illustrious prizes.

Obrestad walked away from the European Poker Awards with the title of “Tournament Performance of the Year”, making this 19 year old the youngest player to ever win the award.

The poker industry mourned the loss of one of its greatest players, David “Chip” Reese who died early Tuesday morning at the young age of 56. Reese was apparently suffering from pneumonia complications and died in his sleep.

He was discovered by his son in his Las Vegas home. Reese is survived by his two grown children, a stepdaughter and his ex-wife.

Interim financial reports from the iconic online gambling house, Party Gaming, have shown just how much of a fall the game of poker has taken since the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006.

Recently, the company reported a global downfall in revenue of over 68% from last year’s figures. Translated into money, that means that Party Gaming dropped from a market capitalization worth $12-billion, to just under $2.5-billion.

Players wanting to put themselves in line to qualify for lucrative poker jackpots sometimes need to wait a while once the jackpot has just been won. However, this wasn’t the case with the popular Bad Beat Jackpot at the Absolute Poker site a couple of weeks ago.

It was reported that within twenty four hours of a lucky player grabbing the jackpot, the prize money had once again reached six figures and was up for grabs.

The following is a brief synopsis of the discussion over internet gambling held by Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee.

Please excuse any typos as we are reporting on this issue through a live broadcast. The breakdown is what each person talked about and emphasized. For updates and the Q&A sessions please read our US poker updates section.

MHKogan Group has retained Fulltilt.com Solutions (not the internet poker domain) and have decided to put it up for sale. Fulltilt.com is currently a product information management site which gets lots of accidental type-in traffic because of Full Tilt Poker.

The asking price the owners are expecting is in the 7 figure range due to the high traffic generating gaming site Full Tilt Poker has become.

The following is a brief "cliff note" version of the proposed regulations that the US Treasury released today.

This is not a legal interpretation but merly a brief synopsis of what we deemed important points of the 52 page report. Please view the entire document for complete and the most accurate information.

Calivn Ayre releases news that they will not get back their domain name and have settled on a new permanent domain name, Bodoglife.com, essentially dropping the old "newbodog.com" domain.

A reputable online gambling lawyer posted an article about his views as to whether it was safe to play poker online in the United States right now.

The following is a brief of the main points he mentioned.

The following is a press release issued by iMEGA.org. The court date previously set for Sept. 4 will now be pushed back to September 26.

This new court date in where to iMEGA seeks to place a temporary restraining order on the UIGEA will come 9 days after Attorney General Gonzales officially steps down.

Along with the release of 8.0, Absolute Poker will now allow players to transfer money to their sister site UltimateBet. Both sites joined forces shortly after the UIGEA was passed.

Along with transfering money to your account, the sites will also make way for "friend" transfers.

After countless delays and over 6 months of waiting Neteller released a statement saying that US customers can withdraw their funds.

Customers are allowed to withdraw via bank wire or check but are only allowed one cashout and you no longer have to look at Neteller again.

Neteller has finally resolved investigations with the USAO and announced they will release US funds within 12 days, no later than July 30th.

Player funds were restricted from being withdrawn for almost 150 days but soon players will be able to cash out all of their funds.

As we reported earlier, the stakes increased at local card rooms in Florida. At the Hardrock Casino in Hollywood Florida there were reported No Limit games up to $10/$25.

After word spread of the abnormal and "illegal" stakes they were swiftly shut down.

The games are now up and running in Florida with raised stakes. Poker Rooms have been reported to have stakes as high as $10/$25 No Limit.

The question is, how long will it take for the legal battles to commence. Poorly written legislation may lead to long court battles over stake increases.

The Sunshine State officially signed a Bill into Law without the Governor’s signature on June 13, 2007 to increase betting limits in Florida. Along with increased stakes, favorable revisions were made to hours of operation, addition of No Limit games, and added Cardroom prize giveaways.

The Bill HB 1377 which combines CS/CS/S752 & CS/S1192 will become affective July 1, 2007.

Thirty-eight years after it began in Nevada, the WSOP for the first time
is expanding geographically--into Europe!

The new World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) will kick off in September in London, England, with its inaugural tournament, and is expected by tourney organizers to become an annual affair.

We all know by now that Senator Kyl, one of the Senators behind the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, is considered a hypocrite for wanting to block online gaming transactions in the US unless it’s for horse racing. No we’re not going to beat a dead horse, no pun intended. Even more hypocrisy was uncovered about the Senator.

On Thursday of next week, May 10th 2007, Pacific Poker plans on beefing up their poker software. In total the changes will include player avatars, a new lobby, rebuy tournaments, backgammon and finally the ability to choose your own password.

The download software will receive these changes but it is still unsure if the Mac online poker software will have all the new upgrades.

On April 16th, 2007 many followers and ex-customers of Neteller expected to hear the fate of the two Neteller co-founders. This was the set date for the arraignment hearing for John Lefebvre and Steve Lawrence.

Twoplustwo.com is no doubt the largest online poker forum. It began many years ago and at any time you can find thousands of people viewing the poker forums.

Not only is online gambling under pressure, so is gambling at the workplace. Anti-gambling groups are looking to bring to light “Office Space Gambling.”

There are many charitable groups around the world that give huge portions of their income to needy people and organizations.

Hollywood gives millions to the crisis in Darfur and to many environmentally friendly organizations.

The game of poker has seen many highs and lows over it's history. Non higher than when Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event which caused an explosion in the poker world and possibly none lower than when the US Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.

Doylesroom has designed a website called Nouspokerroom to associate the bad news with which they will be giving their US players. Ex-Doylesroom players seek out US accepted sites.

Youteller.com an ewallet expected to begin operations in March will follow the Gmail model. The following in a press released expected to be released tomorrow.

When the “Sh#* hit the fan” so to speak, also known as the UIEGA, Linux users were pretty much left hanging. Absolute Poker is now one of the only US accepted poker sites in the mix with the release of the “Absolute Poker Instant Play”.

We contacted Full Tilt Poker to ask what was causing the delays in checks. The operations manager, Mike, contacted us in regards to ours and players concerns.

From Neteller causing mass confusion to the constant changing online poker companies, players begin to show their frustration.

We have seen the same questions on forums and in emails hundreds of times so we thought we would put together the top 8 most frequently asked question in 2007 by online poker players.

The runaround at Neteller continues for its US customers. The Neteller support team continues to avoid the subject, "Is there a chance US customers will never get their funds"?

The founder of Youteller, Florian Schweitzer, contacted Compatiblepoker.com about false claims by Egaming Review that said Youteller was falsely claiming to have been given approval by the FSA to operate as an ewallet.

In a desperate attempt to find more deposit providers, Full Tilt poker makes deal with MywebATM and dumps Wirecard.

The long awaited no-download version of Absolute Poker’s Mac software has been pushed back. The release date is not known.

As of today the state of ways poker players can deposit and withdraw money is in dismay. Every time you blink your eyes it seems something dramatic happens.

What seemed like a one country ban, the USA, has turned into a more global spread epidemic while many casino operators seek UK players and beyond.

Online sportsbetters woke up this morning to find the mega sportsbetting site, Pinnacle Sports has closed to US betters.

The two sites in a heated battle for the US market are Poker Stars and Full Tilt poker with Full Tilt trying to close the gap.

Harrah’s Entertainment was bought out by Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management for $16.7 billion.

German based gambling operators who were living in fear that an internet gambling ban would reach Germany can sleep a little better this week.

Full Tilt Poker adds a new way to play online poker called their Mixed Games and adds a 2nd view called the Racetrack View.

Neteller has issued a press release regarding their wire transfer problems. They will now only use Euros as the currency for wire transfers (not EFT's).

Microgaming has stopped the RAF or refer a friend rakeback promotions for all gamblers.

Despite the huge loss of players coming from the Tribeca Network USA departure, Doyles Room continues on an upward climb.