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Who came out on top in the weekly $100,000 guaranteed online poker tournament held this past Sunday, October 30th? Muck_You_34 took first place this week, earning $23,600. They were followed by JohnnyDunder ($13,600) and landersp , who rounded out the top trifecta while earning $9,100. Here's the rest of the final table results: rajake ($7,000.00); ClayRaiken ($5,700.00); Acala47 ($4,500.00); median ($3,300.00); SamSpirit ($2,200.00) and kenos03 ($1,300.00).

In addition to our show-stopping Sunday events, Bodog hosts its regular weekly tournaments for players, and here's the winners of last week's events!

October 24 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: lil_jim88 ($3,690.50)
October 25 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: xiankash ($3,822.50)
October 26 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: jimbo007 ($3,698.75)
October 27 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: soggyvag2 ($3,726.25)
October 30 • $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack: cbolt211 ($3,561.25)
October 30 • $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack whoishe ($5,225.00)

Bodog's guaranteed tournaments mean that there's always a big cash pool and with more players getting in on the action every week, that means there's more to be won Play poker online at Bodog and get your share!

Through Sunday, November 13, Boog Poker is rewarding players who think small with our Mega Micro Stakes promotion! You can earn extra money and get a chance at $10,000 in freerolls when you sign up with this promotion today!

How do rewards work?
Just earn 30 Poker Points in a week at our micro stakes tables to get a $10 bonus. You'll earn a $20 bonus in your bankroll when you earn 50 Poker Points in a week. After you've earned 30 points in a week, you'll get a tournament ticket for that week's Mega Micro Stakes $2,500 freeroll, running every week on Tuesday at 8:40pm.

What are micro stakes tables?
At Bodog, we define micro stakes tables in three categories. For single table and multi-table tournaments, any tournament with a buy-in below $5 countras as a Micro Stakes Event. Fixed limit ring games with blinds below $.25/50 and No Limit/Pot Limit games below $.10/$.25 also count as micro stakes games.

How do you get started?
Visit Bodog Poker

When the poker craze began circa 2003, it seemed America's favorite card game took over the airwaves. Even the Travel Channel began running poker coverage.

I used to scoff at this surfeit of televised poker, derisively comparing it to watching bowling on TV. Then I tuned in and found poker addictive. Here's why: When broadcasters installed hole-card cameras, we viewers suddenly had more knowledge than players.

We weren't sure how the mystery would unfold on the flop, turn and river, but we knew what cards each player was holding and who was ahead. It made for enthralling drama.

ESPN soon became the king of poker coverage, with its snappily produced versions of the World Series of Poker and irreverent commentary from Norman Chad, leavened by smooth play-by-play man Lon McEachern, a Santa Clara resident.

Though the produced shows appear several weeks to several months after the cards hit the felt, they focus on the make-or-break showdowns that knock out players or give others big stacks, or are simply entertaining for their trash talking and celebrations. The shows are akin to watching ESPN's flagship highlight show "SportsCenter." Events that spanned several hours get condensed and viewers see the best few minutes.

For the WSOP this year, ESPN tried something new: virtually live coverage of the entire tournament. But hole cards weren't shown until the end of hands. I tried watching some of it - boring would be too kind. Most hands lacked drama, with all but one player folding.

So I waited for the produced versions, which have been shown weekly for the past couple of months. Fantastic television, like "Survivor" but much more genuine and with a bigger prize: $8.7 million.

That brings us to the final table, dubbed the November Nine. This is the culmination of the WSOP - the nine survivors from a field of more than 6,000 square off next week.

ESPN will be showing final table action with a 15-minute delay. Coverage begins Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN2 and continues until the field is down to three players, which ESPN estimates could take 12 hours. The finale is Tuesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN and will be aired until a champion is crowned.

For the November Nine, hole cards will be shown during the hands, a dramatic upgrade over ESPN's almost-live coverage earlier this year.

White said a two-hour produced version of the final table will air about two weeks after the event.

So you can have it both ways - watch the live version if you have the time, or wait for the highlights toward the end of the month.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) has firmly supported legalization of online poker in a recent statement released for consideration by the subcommittee that held a hearing last week debating the issue of whether online poker legislation can safely protect consumers.

The hearing before the House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade was chaired by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and heard testimony from a witness panel that included Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Chairman Alfonse D’Amato, Keith Whyte, Executive Director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, and Chairman Ernest L. Stevens of the National Indian Gaming Association. The hearing was entitled “Internet Gaming: Is there a Safe Bet?”.

In the statement issued by the AGA, President and Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. answers the topic question by stating “yes, that safe bet can be found in the licensing and regulation of online poker.” The unsafe bet would be not changing the current law that fails to protect “consumers, minors and those with gambling problems vulnerable to unregulated offshore companies,” Fahrenkopf said.

Although the subcommittee’s intention was to debate internet gaming as a whole, the vast majority of the hearing centered on internet poker, and the AGA’s statement followed suit by addressing online poker almost exclusively. Fahrenkopf explained this by comparing poker to other forms of gambling.

“Poker is substantially different than other forms of gaming. First, it is a game that vast numbers of Americans have historically played and that millions of Americans still play. In fact, the jargon of poker is woven throughout our language with phrases such as blue chip, pass the buck, high roller, wild card, poker face and up the ante. Second, unlike other forms of Internet gambling, poker is primarily a game of skill. And, poker is played between or among individuals, whereas in other forms of Internet gambling the customer is playing against the “house.” Finally, the support we’ve seen around the country is really focused on online poker and not on other forms of Internet gambling.”

The statement further said that the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed in 2006 was not effective in prohibiting online poker as was intended because, although some poker sites did adhere to the statute and leave the U.S. market, other sites sprang up to take their place. The AGA supports strengthening the UIGEA and allowing the licensees of new regulations to be based in America so that consumers can be protected and not subject to the risks of depositing money in offshore locales.

The AGA believes that a regulated internet poker industry would generate 10,000 good-paying, high tech jobs that are desperately needed in the stale U.S. economy. Legalization of online poker could bring $2 billion in tax revenue. The AGA is not backing any specific proposed legislation at this time, but feels that any new regulations should include the following:

Each state should have the right to determine whether online poker should be legalized within their jurisdictions.
Federal guidelines should be established that the states must follow to ensure a consistent regulatory and legal framework.
U.S. law enforcement should be provided with the ability to go after illegal operators and successfully prosecute them.

Any online poker sites licensed in the U.S. must adhere to the current strict regulations that land-based casinos comply with. Casinos historically have had a good track record of regulatory compliance. Tough regulation is seen as the best way to operate and regulations currently followed by casinos are time-proven and would ensure that U.S. consumers are putting their money in a secure environment run by a respected operator, the statement said.

The AGA did not always support online poker, but is now convinced that new technology can accurately identify those wishing to play online to prohibit minors and those with gambling problems to log on and gain access to poker sites, a problem which deeply concerns many critics. Facial or voice recognition confirmation procedures could be put in place to verify players.

“The safe bet is to allow states to license and regulate online poker following federal guidelines. Such action would protect U.S. consumers, keep children from gambling on the Internet, and provide the tools law enforcement needs to shut down illegal Internet gambling operators. It would also create new jobs and tax revenue at a time when both are sorely needed,” Fahrenkopf said.

Daniel Santoro beat some of the biggest names in poker to take down the World Poker Tour World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. Santoro defeated a final table that took over 200 hands to settle, with more than half that total coming during a lengthy heads up battle.

For his victory, Santoro took home $449,910 – but he had a few big names standing in his way once the televised final table of six was reached. Perhaps the biggest name remaining was Andy Frankenberger, the defending WPT Player of the Year, who had spent most of the tournament hovering around the top of the leaderboard.

But Frankenberger ultimately would go out in 5th place, earning just under $100,000 for his efforts. In the head, heads up play came down to a battle between Santoro and Christian Harder, a regular at final tables who had already won over $2 million in his live tournament career.

The battle raged for over 100 hands, with both players taking the chip lead multiple times. Towards the end of the match, Santoro appeared to have an overwhelming chip lead – but Harder battled back, winning several pots and doubling up to climb back into the match.

Finally, as many big events do, this tournament came down to a coin flip. Harder moved all in with TT, only to be called by Santoro’s AK offsuit, setting up a hand where Harder was at risk of elimination. Things went well for Harder until the river, when a king hit, pairing Santoro and ending the tournament.

While not exactly a household name, Santoro has been a consistent performer in the poker world in recent years. While this is his first major win and his biggest cash, the New York poker pro had over $260,000 in lifetime cashes earlier in his career.

Laurent Tapie, CEO of Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) – the company seeking to take over Full Tilt Poker – has confirmed that a deal reportedly struck between representatives of GBT and the US Department of Justice to repay ex-players of the suspended online poker site should be confirmed within two weeks.

Speaking in an interview with the French poker magazine, iGamingFrance, Tapie claimed that the status of the agreement would be changed from “tentative” to “final” once the Full Tilt Poker directors and shareholders have agreed to the acquisition of the company by Groupe Bernard Tapie.

Unclear on How Players Will be Paid

Details of how the frozen funds will be distributed back to players are still unclear. Although it is known that the Department of Justice will be handling refunds to online poker players based in the States, while GBT have agreed to deal with outstanding balances for the rest of the world, nothing has been said about whether players will be allowed to withdraw balances immediately or whether the funds will be released over a period of time.

Other Issues Exist Before Repayments can Begin

There are many other issues involved in the repayment of player´s funds – most importantly to RoW players that cashouts requested after Black Friday were never received, and the DoJ will experience its own problems trying to identify which players benefitted from Full Tilt Poker´s “oversight” of not being able to accept payments made through certain payment processors.

Full Tilt Poker Still Needs a Licence

There is also the question of where the new Full Tilt Poker will get their licence from. Groupe Bernard Tapie may be able to pull some strings with the French poker licensing authority ARJEL and pay a substantial sum to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission for a temporary license, but if the company wants to been seen as credible and attract online poker players back onto the site, they are going to fulfil the licensing requirements of the AGCC and segregate players funds in a secure account. This may cause a problem for Tapie, who has demonstrated that he wants to put as little of his own cash into the venture as possible.

A Step in the Right Direction on a Slippery Path

Tapie´s claims of a defined payment structure being confirmed once the Full Tilt Poker shareholder´s vote goes in his favour is a step in the right direction, but the path to raising Full Tilt Poker from the ashes has a long way to go yet. Laurent Tapie had previously announced that he intended to have the Full Tilt Poker web site up and running again by January 2012. This now seems unlikely and, with the past history of the Full Tilt Poker directors, it is no foregone conclusion that they will accede to the terms of the GBT takeover. Watch this space!

It was always difficult to tell what was legal and what was not in the US online poker industry post-UIGEA, 2006. We had massive brands such as Party Poker leaving the country and some very big business behind; while Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet and others were only too happy to step up to the mark and fill the gap that Party Poker had left. Since then Black Friday has happened, and the DoJ has closed down the biggest poker sites to US traffic. There are some serious indictments outstanding against these companies and there is massive drama regarding whether members of these sites will ever get their money back, and there have always been questionable elements regarding UIGEA, apparent ‘grey areas’, and what is legal, and what is not.

After Black Friday in April this year, when these domain names were seized, the Merge Poker Network stopped accepting US players. However, it has come to light that some of the sites on this network are again accepting US players. Whether or not this is in opposition to their licensing agreement with Merge, is not as yet known; no official statement has been released. According to reports, online poker sites such as Carbon Poker has started bringing in new US players.

When Black Friday shook the US online poker industry; Merge Poker sites saw a massive surge in new sign ups from US player. However, fearing the same action being taken against them, some sites stopped accepting any more new US players, while still allowing existing members access to their sites. That having been said, a 79% increase in player traffic is not easy to ignore. When Merge decided to no longer accept US players, this did cause problems for payment processors, but at the time, the measure was believed to be temporary, although just how temporary was unclear.

Rumours are now rife, that they removing the ban on accepting new US players. The Merge network is currently ranked as the 12th most popular in this industry.

Poker player Christopher Barnaby was handed down a life sentence by a judge in London after being found guilty in the stabbing of another player. Christopher Barnaby stabbed his opponent, barber Lennox Peart four times after a game at Battersea's Beaufoy bar in August of last year.

The two players clashed when Barnaby asked Peart why he was taking money off the table when he hadn't bought into the hand. A local newspaper reported that Barnaby had told Peart "I don't want to hurt you, barber boy," but Peart had understandably laughed off the threat, believing that Barnaby was just drunk. After the two left at around three that morning, Barnaby went to his car and retrieved a knife that he used to stab the other man in the shoulder, back, arm and abdomen. It was only he timely arrival of a taxi driver who offered to drive Peart to the hospital that ended the attack.

During the sentencing, Judge Nicholas Price said, "Knife crime in this city and in this capital has reached epidemic proportions. It seems having one is seen as a fashion accessory amongst young men. I do not believe this was spontaneous as you had time to go to your car and get the knife."

Price sentenced Barnaby to life in jail with a minimum term of 15 years, with 250 days deducted due to his period in remand.

Poker is one of the most popular card games enjoyed in both casinos and online casinos. Poker games are won through a combination of skill and chance and there are a number of tips which can help people to have a successful and enjoyable game. Follow these top five tips for finding the best online poker and online casino websites.

Online casinos are great places for entertainment and money-making. With more and more people discovering the thrills provided by casinos on the web it’s not surprising that more sites are being launched every week.

The games you find online are the same you’d find in Las Vegas or Monte Carlo and often the most popular games online are the same ones that are the most popular in these casino hot spots.

Tip 1

If you wish to have the best possible online poker game then always go for the most respected online poker websites. Websites should always be licensed and should offer you assurances over fairness and quality of service.


Tip 2


To make the most of your initial stakes you should choose your game carefully. This means you should look at the different jackpots and statistics relating to certain games. You should also consider bonuses and incentives which are offered too. Taking a look at Casino Reviews can help you to establish what online provider is offering the best value by analysing these deals.


Tip 3


If you need to know how a specific website plays, you could look for any free options first and play for a restricted period. By doing this, you can test the interface and know if it's easy to use or not.


Tip 4


Check the type of poker games on offer. You will need to look into the site completely and have it evaluated before you decide to invest your hard earned cash. Look online while doing so; confirm that the casino you wish to use has the right payment methods that they are suitable to your needs.


Tip 5


Read and know the rules of online poker websites to make sure that everything you do online is genuine and legitimate. Most respected online casino sites will have full terms and conditions on display and full contact details. Online gambling will also be subject to usual restrictions, meaning that you will need to be over the age of 18 to play.


With hundreds of online poker and casino websites to choose from the biggest problem today is selecting which online casino to visit. Casino Choice Casino Reviews offer important information on different sites and can recommend the best sites which are operating. The information they provide will offer details on those sites as well as details about their offers as well. This information can help you to make informed decisions over your online gambling, ensuring you achieve the best possible experience.

Thanks for all the update :thumbsup

Boyd Gaming Corporation and MGM Resorts International have agreed to join Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc in a bid to form the world’s largest online gaming company and grab the opportunity when the US finally legalizes and regulates its online gaming industry. According to the agreement, the Gibraltar-based Bwin.Party will provide the technology along with its World Poker Tour (WPT) and Party Poker brands to a form a brand new company to be jointly owned by MGM, Boyd, and Bwin.Party. The new company, which is to be based in the US, will offer online poker gaming services as soon as online poker becomes legalized in the US.

According to Jim Murren, the CEO of MGM, 25 percent of the new company will be owned by MGM, 10 percent by Boyd, and the rest by Bwin.Party. Keith Smith, the CEO of Boyd, said that each US casino business will use Bwin.Party gaming technology to run their online poker gaming services. Jim Ryan, the co-CEO of Bwin.Party, labeled it as “preparing for the eventual opening of the market” and added that, “there’s been an awful lot of momentum at the state and federal levels.”

The US federal government is mulling over the idea of regulating the online poker industry while the state governments are exploring their options. Meanwhile, gambling companies in the US are lobbying for proper gambling laws that will increase tax revenue and protect players by checking money laundering, fraud, gambling addiction, and underage gambling.

In a telephonic interview, Murren revealed his opinions regarding these developments. He said, “We do know that millions of Americans are gambling online, we do know that they’re gambling billions of dollars, we know that the U.S. government is deriving no benefit from this, no job creation, no tax revenue, and we know that many are at risk from unregulated websites.”

Bwin.Party was formed in March when two giant gaming companies Party Gaming Plc. and Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG merged to form the largest gambling company in the world. Bwin.Party’s revenue last fiscal year was $1.13 billion, and the company has around 3,100 employees.

This April, the US federal government cracked down on online poker giants Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and PokerStars, seized their domain names, and indicted their CEOs on various counts under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. Discouraged with this development, Wynn Resorts Limited gave up its idea of forming an alliance with PokerStars.

A French investment group may be close to securing an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that would allow the group to take control of the assets of the beleaguered poker website Full Tilt Poker and resume the site's operations outside of the U.S., an attorney for the investment group said.

The attorney, Behnam Dayanim, who represents French businessman Laurent Tapie of the investment group, Groupe Bernard Tapie, said the deal, which would involve settling a civil case by the Justice Department hanging over the company, hadn't been completed.

"We have an oral agreement that is in the process of being reduced to writing and expect to resolve all outstanding issues," Mr. Dayanim said Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment. Barry Boss, an attorney for Full Tilt, said, "We have made significant progress towards a settlement but there are still issues to be resolved."

If an agreement is completed, it could help bring to a close one chapter in an eight-month-long battle between online poker sites and the U.S. government, which says online gambling is illegal. Until a crackdown by the government, the sites were at the center of a thriving global industry in which tens of thousands of people wagered billions of dollars in poker games over the Internet.

On April 15 the Justice Department shut down the U.S. business of Full Tilt, once the world's second most popular online poker site, along with its bigger competitor, PokerStars, and another company. The government also indicted executives at the companies on criminal charges and filed a $3 billion civil suit against the three companies, seeking $1 billion from Full Tilt.

The government alleges the companies engaged in bank fraud, money laundering and ran illegal gambling operations. The companies have denied the allegations and say the U.S. laws don't specifically outlaw online poker, which they say is a game that involves skill, in contrast to other gambling that is purely chance.

While PokerStars returned money it owed to players in the U.S., Full Tilt at the time of the crackdown was nearly out of cash and unable to pay back the $150 million it held in accounts of its U.S. players. In June, regulators shut down the rest of the company's operations, leaving thousands of poker players world-wide unable to access their money, which the government says is about $300 million.

The government later amended its civil suit to allege the site's owners violated the trust of players and defrauded them while taking $444 million in payments for themselves. Attorneys for the company and its owners denied it constituted a "Ponzi scheme," as a U.S. attorney alleged, but acknowledged the company may have been "mismanaged."

A person close to the situation said that under the terms worked out in the tentative agreement for the civil suit, Groupe Bernard Tapie would pay an amount of money to the Justice Department to resolve the civil dispute with the Justice Department and pay back money owed to players based outside of the U.S., where it plans to restart the Internet poker site. The amount the Tapie investment vehicle would pay to the Justice Department couldn't be determined.

If the current plans are approved by both parties, U.S. players seeking their funds would likely have to file claims to the Justice Department, this person said. The company has said Justice seized players' funds of $115 million from third-party payment processors affiliated with Full Tilt.

In addition to final approval by the Justice Department, the deal would also have to be approved by two-thirds of the company's shareholders, who are mostly prominent poker players, according to the person close to the situation.

One possible sticking point is that the deal with the Justice Department may not also release Full Tilt's owners from personal liability to the site's users or to the government, the person said.

Early last month Mr. Tapie emerged as a potential buyer for the assets of the once high-flying Internet poker company.

The attorney, Mr. Dayanim, who began negotiating with the government in early October, said at the time that Groupe Bernard Tapie may address Full Tilt's liabilities by offering equity in the company to some of the poker players who are owed money.

The provisional agreement reached by the group to acquire Full Tilt Poker requires that the Web company be able to get a license to operate outside of the U.S. Last month its main licensing body, which is based in the U.K.'s Channel Islands, revoked Full Tilt's license to operate. The regulators said the revocation didn't prohibit the company under new ownership from getting licensed in the future.

The deal could allow the site's current owners to continue to hold a small stake in the new company but only if that is agreeable to the Justice Department, people close to the deal said last month.

The second day of the World Poker Tour's stop in Amnéville, France kicks off today. 118 players have survived Day 1a and 1b of the event, which drew 379 people from across Europe to the small tourist town in the northeastern part of the country. The tournament is taking place at the Seven d’Amneville Casino, which boasts a "huge range of games and excitement in exceptional surroundings," according to the promotional materials we've seen.

Some big names are taking their stacks into Day 2. Joseph Cheong and Arnaud Mattern both made it into the top ten chip counts with six-figure stacks and other notable survivors include Liv Boeree and Jamie Rosen.

Five flights are taking place on Day 2 with 36 players total making it into the money. The top 18 are guaranteed a five-figure payout and the final winner is going to be earning €310,633 (plus a $25,500 seat to the World Poker Tour World Championship) with the runner up earning a very tidy €170,365 (plus a €10,000 package to the 2012 WPT Grand Prix de Paris).

Overall, entries are down compared to the 2010 season,w which saw Sam El Sayed take on 542 players to earn €426,425.

This week the Poker Players Alliance is encouraging its Florida members to contact Governor Rick Scott as well as their respective federal legislators, to support two federal bills ( H.R. 2366 and H.R. 1174 ) which would license and regulate online poker. Currently Americans are not legally permitted to play poker online for money and there are severe penalties for companies administrating poker websites accepting American players.

The pure libertarian stance on the subject would be to simply leave it to the free market without use of licensing and regulation - clearly the best solution overall. However the PPA feels the government would never go for that, so they are encouraging a grassroots effort to get these two bills passed so its members can begin playing online again as well as keep those who shirk the law, out of jail.

It is not clear if Florida legislators and Rick Scott would support such a measure as there are strong pressures here in Florida to get visitors to the state, enticing them with casinos and other gambling facilities. In fact there are two bills in the Florida legislature which would expand gambling operations in the state. Having addtional competition online may be seen by some as counterproductive to the government's efforts to bring vacationers to Florida.

They were the cards on hand when online poker fired its opening salvo across the bow of the establishment and now they can be yours. Tying in with the hype associated with this weekend's final table, the deck of cards used in the World Series of Poker* Main Event in 2003 in which online poker player Chris Moneymaker defeated Sam Farha, has been put up for auction on eBay.

If you don't know the story, Moneymaker won a seat in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event via a $40 satellite tournament on an online poker site. The field in 2003 consisted of just 839 players. Following Moneymaker’s dramatic win, 2004 saw the field dramatically jump to 2,575, an increase of over 300%. The player buy-ins also shot up in 2005 with 5,619, doubling the number of entries in 2004 and increasing by seven times the number of players in the year Moneymaker took home the bracelet.

The seller is said to be a former employee of the casino, "working behind the scenes at Binion’s Horseshoe." According to the listing, after receiving permission from his bosses to take the deck, the smart employee "carefully placed all of the cards from that final hand on top of the rest of the deck, kept in sequence, along with the dealer’s cut card, and put the complete deck back into the double Kem box along with the unused deck."

The auction is currently on eBay with a starting bid of $7,500. Nobody has plunked down the money yet, but it's got three days to go

In complete contrast to the kind of year the 888.com gambling business endured in 2010, 2011 seems to have turned around for this online gambling operating giant. Together with a new poker product which has done really well, 888 pulled out of merger talks with Ladbrokes early in the year, as business continued to pick up well. Apparently Britons are turning more to online gaming for their entertainment needs in a poor economy, and 888 has once again become a preferred brand.

Currently 888 Holdings Plc is expecting 2011 earnings to be ahead of market estimates – significantly ahead. With a slow economy, more British consumers preferring to stay at home where it is safe and warm, and entertainment does not cost an arm and a leg. Traditionally the third quarter in the UK is when business is slow as this is the period where summer holidays play havoc with the gambling industry – against all expectations to the contrary, trading actually remained robust.

888.com are not the only online gambling concern to benefit from this changing entertainment trend. Rivals, Bwin.party digital are one of the largest listed online gambling businesses in the world and they have announced that their third-quarter revenue has been the highest ever historically achieved. The business grew 42% to $86 million, and as of September 30th, 2011, they had 10.1 million registered casino, poker, sport and other betting real-money customer accounts. This is an increase of 24% over the same period during 2010.

Updates from consumer-facing UK businesses are saying the Britons are more cash-strapped than ever and are making a conscious decision to stay home. This news also comes amid fears of the country slipping back into a recession. 888 Holdings Plc Chairman, Brian Mattingly said, that they expected EBITDA for the full-year year ending 31st December to be something like $33.5 million.

For years a massive Internet poker industry operated in the U.S., arguing that facilitating for-money online poker play did not violate any U.S. law. The U.S. Justice Department, however, did not agree with that position and on Friday federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed the most detailed defense of their view that Internet poker is just plain illegal, invoking country music and suggesting that La Cosa Nostra had infiltrated the online poker business.

The 51-page document was filed by the government in response to the pre-trial motions of an indicted banker and payment processor, who both became unlikely warriors in the long legal battle over online poker in America when they filed legal papers in October arguing that online poker companies like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker were not gambling businesses. John Campos, a former vice-chairman of a Utah bank, and Chad Elie, who ran a payment processing business, are the only two individuals who have directly stood up to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s April crackdown on the online poker industry in the U.S., which included the indictment of 11 individuals. It is because of Campos and Elie that the government is being forced to litigate its case against online poker for the first time.

In asking a federal judge not to grant motions to dismiss filed by Campos and Elie, federal prosecutors claim “the conduct alleged in the Indictment – a scheme through which the charged defendants abused the U.S. financial system in order to fund their illegal operations – amounts to clear violations of the statutes charged.” The federal prosecutors also claim that Campos, Elie and the rest of the U.S. online poker industry, are wrong to argue that poker is a game of chance and not skill–and thus cannot be treated as illegal gambling.

Still, the government lawyers will have to hope that their understanding of the law is better than their knowledge of country music. In arguing that society treats poker unfailingly as gambling, even years ago when poker players in saloons were called gamblers, federal prosecutors in legal papers refer to “Willie Nelson’s classic poker song, about knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.” It will be up to a federal judge to decide whether poker is a form of gambling, but The Gambler is a single of country singer Kenny Rogers, not Willie Nelson.

In a more serious allegation, the government claims in its legal papers that a La Cosa Nostra associate involved in processing payments for the poker companies was at one point called upon to assist in collecting money that Elie was accused of stealing from an account used to process transactions for one of the poker companies. The allegation is a direct assault on the notion that the online poker industry in the U.S. was not connected to organized criminal elements that operated outside the world of poker.

Outside of the legal arguments, the government’s latest filing alleges some new facts, including that PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg, who was indicted in April, pursued Elie for stealing, after Elie transferred some $4 million from a poker processing account at the National Bank of California to himself. The legal document says Elie paid some of the money back, after which Scheinberg hired Elie to process more transactions. The government also claims that after it shut down various payment solutions used by the poker companies, PokerStars and Full Tilt started to pursue “transparent processing” that did not rely on lies to banks. Elie was tasked with the job and found SunFirst, Campos’ Utah bank, which processed $200 million of payments for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker in exchange for fees and an investment until the FDIC shut down this processing channel in November 2010.

According to the government, shutting down processing through the Utah bank put Full Tilt Poker in a bind, because the company owed players $150 million, but had little money in the bank because it had distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to its owners. To solve the problem, Elie found two distressed banks in Illinois, says the government, and promised them investments, but the FDIC shut down this transaction pipeline, too, leading Full Tilt to credit player even though it could not pull money from their accounts.

The key question is whether or not any of these facts violated U.S. law, like the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the Illegal Gambling Business Act. In their new filing, the feds claim that Congress did not intend to exclude poker from UIGEA and that if it wanted to do so, lawmakers would have done it in a clearer fashion. Federal prosecutors point out that lawmakers changed the wording of the bill so that it would apply to games “subject to chance” as opposed to “predominantly subject to chance” for this reason.

The government in its papers also does not agree with arguments made by Campos and Elie that the nine activities listed by the Illegal Gambling Business Act do not have much in common with poker, such as lottery or house-banked games like bookmaking. The feds claim that Campos and Elie are ignoring the commonalities between poker and these other games, saying for example, that sports bettors have an opportunity to employ superior knowledge of games and teams—and thus bettors do play a role in the outcome just like in poker.

Federal prosecutors also take aim at jurisdictional arguments made by Campos and Elie, who say the only conduct in New York, where the indictment was filed, was the betting and accepting of bets, which is not sufficient to be seen as conduct in the state. “The defendants are nonetheless incorrect on the law,” the feds say. “Defendants do not point to a single case that supports their contention that ‘conducting’ business in a particular state requires more than allowing players in the state to place bets on a gambling website hosted elsewhere.”

In another important argument, federal prosecutors disputed El

Once again, a new act of cheating occurred in the world of online poker. According to several sources, a German player from Munich, named Maximilian Ashkar, scammed successfully many players on cash game tables high limits. The player known by the nickname of "mexx86" defrauded about $ 400,000 by spying his opponent table's hole cards with a Trojan. Among his victims was a Swiss player who lost $ 350,000 and an Austrian poker player who was plucked a sum of about $ 40,000. Effectively, Maximilian Ashkar took advantage of the fact that he is close of the two players and installed the virus using a USB key.

The two players met Maximilian Ashkar at a stage of the Casino Austria Poker Tour tournament and forced him to admit the facts. Ashkar eventually plead guilty. Unfortunately, his confession was not taken into account by the security forces responsible of the investigation because they were obtained in a form of pressure. However, police seized computers and mobile phones of each player in order to establish further investigation. Still according to sources, Ashkar has more than twenty victims including his countryman Bernhard Braumandl and the famous champion of the European Poker Tour Tallinn, Ronny Kaiser. Braumandl told that through this scam, the German player collected more than $ 2,000,000.

A small Utah bank tied to a Las Vegas fraud lawsuit and April’s Internet poker crackdown failed on Friday.

SunFirst Bank in St. George, Utah, was closed by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver.

The FDIC said it arranged for Cache Valley Bank, Logan, Utah, to assume most of the deposits of SunFirst Bank.

In the April 15 indictment in Manhattan of the principals of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, prosecutors also gained an indictment against SunFirst Vice Chairman John Campos on charges he arranged for the bank to illegally process Internet poker transactions.

The indictment said he was induced into doing so by another defendant in the poker case, Las Vegas businessman Chad Elie.

SunFirst had earlier gained notoriety when the FDIC demanded that it stop processing funds for St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson, who along with several of his companies and associates had been sued in Las Vegas by the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC charged in the Las Vegas lawsuit that Johnson and his companies including I Works and Elite Debit had scammed consumers to the tune of $289 million by luring them into "trial memberships for bogus government-grant and money-making schemes, and then repeatedly charging them monthly fees for these and other memberships that they never signed up for.''

After the FTC lawsuit, Johnson was hit with criminal charges in the alleged scam.

Johnson, known as a high roller at Las Vegas casinos and a big Internet poker customer, has denied wrongdoing.

While Johnson was not named in the poker indictments, he and Elie had done business together and records show Johnson arranged for Elie to do business with SunFirst.

The legal problems at SunFirst, which had lost $2.7 million through the first half of the year, appeared to contribute to its downfall, the FDIC suggested in a statement today.

“The FDIC will retain approximately $15 million in deposits that may be subject to external litigation involving SunFirst Bank. The affected accounts were frozen prior to the failure of the bank,” the FDIC said.

As of Sept. 30, SunFirst Bank had some $198.1 million in loans and other assets and $169.1 million in deposits.

On Sunday, Nov. 6, after a 109-day hiatus, the remaining nine players from a field of 6,865 in the 2011 World Series of Poker main event will take their seats to play for the most prestigious title in all of poker.

Much of the attention will be on Ben Lamb, who could end one of the best summers in the history of the Series in epic fashion. Lamb already won a bracelet in June, to go along with a final table in the $50,000 Players Championship and a runner-up finish in another event.

He could also grab the No. 1 spot in Card Player’s Player of the Year race. He currently sits with 3,636 points, but could double that with a win. Chris Moorman is the overall leader in the standings with 5,875.

Here is a look at the chip counts and seating positions:

Seat 1 — Matt Giannetti — 24,750,000
Seat 2 — Badih Bounahra — 19,700,000
Seat 3 — Eoghan O’Dea — 33,925,000
Seat 4 — Phil Collins — 23,875,000
Seat 5 — Anton Makievskyi — 13,825,000
Seat 6 — Samuel Holden — 12,375,000
Seat 7 — Pius Heinz — 16,425,000
Seat 8 — Ben Lamb — 20,875,000
Seat 9 — Martin Staszko — 40,175,000

The chip average is 22.9 million, which is equivalent to nearly 46 big blinds. Play will begin at 250,000-500,000 with a 50,000 ante.

In late October, ESPN and the WSOP announced that every hand of the event will be broadcasted both online and on network TV, with holecards. The coverage will run on a 15-minute delay.

The WSOP will not attempt to sequester the members of the November Nine and are actually encouraging them to watch the broadcast and receive information from friends and family during the breaks.

Despite some concern from players regarding the availability of holecard information, Ty Stewart, Vice President of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, said that it’s in the best interest of the game and that all competitors are on a level playing field.

“It’s not something that’s lost on us that its a new dynamic,” said Stewart. “Some players think this will actually be a higher form of poker. You’re going to know and you’re going to be able to make ‘halftime adjustments’ or as I would call it, do your ‘Bill Bellichecking.’ All of this mental noise is going to be fascinating to watch.”

The broadcast will start at 3:30 p.m. EST from the Penn and Teller Theatre at the Rio Hotel and Casino. Card Player will be there every step of the way, churning out live updates, news stories and player interviews as the action progresses.

Action will stop when play becomes three-handed. The players will return on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 9 p.m. EST to battle it out for the bracelet.

All of the broadcasts will be made available online at ESPN3.com and WSOP.com and will feature commentary from pros such as Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari and Olivier Busquet.

The Prize Money

The $10,000 buy-in event will crown a champion that will, at the very least, jump into the top 20 all time for tournament earnings.

The total prize pool of the event is $64,540,858, about $28 million of which is reserved for the final nine players. Each has already received ninth-place money.

Here is a look at the payouts:

1: $8,715,638
2: $5,433,086
3: $4,021,138
4: $3,012,700
5: $2,269,599
6: $1,720,,831
7: $1,314,097
8: $1,010,015
9: $782,115