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Before the 2008 World Series of Poker began, tournament officials announced the introduction of a 117 day break between the determination of the final table participants and the Main Event itself which was played out in November.  The change was considered to be a success by most since television ratings and interest in poker went through the roof.  Now going into 2009, World Series participants may be facing yet another change, re-buy tournaments may be headed to the rail.

It has been confirmed that World Series of Poker officials are considering doing away with re-buy tournaments for the 2009 series. World Series of Poker Communications Director Seth Palansky said,  “For re-buys, we are simply in discussions on the benefits and drawbacks of having these events as bracelet events. We like re-buys and think they are a fun and exciting game for poker players, but at the same time, we are questioning their place in the World Series of Poker.”

In most cases, the re-buy period ends after two levels of play.  Since players can play loosely during the re-buy period and if their bankroll allows, just re-buy if they’re eliminated.  This fact has rubbed many players the wrong way and seems to imply that if you have a big enough bankroll, you can buy your way to a bracelet.

A few key examples are during Event #5, Suk Song re-bought 23 times.  In 2006, Poker Stars pro Daniel Negreanu re-bought an astounding 46 times and added on twice during a re-buy tournament.  In Event #18, Todd Brunson dropped $140,000 in re-buys and would have had to place in fourth just to break even though he didn’t even make it to the money.  In Event #28 Negreanu plunked down $85,000 though his gamble paid off for him since he finished in seventh place, earning $129,000.

The $1,000 re-buy tournament made its first appearance at the World Series of Poker in 2004.  In 2005 that number was increased to two $1,000 No Limit Hold’em re-buy tournaments were held and the trend has been on the increase ever since.  Palansky added, “The bracelet and its prestige are of paramount importance to us and we want to ensure that anyone who does win a bracelet does so because they played the best poker throughout an event.”

World Series of Poker and Harrah’s officials say they will take into consideration the views of its Players Advisory Council when they make their decision.  There has been no date set for an announcement of its decision and the 2009 WSOP schedule has not yet been released.

For a limited time, Ultimate Bet has increased the bonus percentage on their site to 200%. While many poker sites will advertise a big deposit match, they’ll cap the dollar amount and rarely top $500. Ultimate Bet however, has capped this deposit bonus at a staggering $1,100! You read right, one thousand, one hundred dollars in your bonus account just by signing up today.

The bonus is relatively easy to clear as well, with the clearance rate depending on your current rank in their VIP Club called “RAISE”:

Member - $1 worth of Bonus Dollars released for every 20 UltimatePoints™ earned
Player - $1 worth of Bonus Dollars released for every 40 UltimatePoints™ earned
Contender - $1 worth of Bonus Dollars released for every 60 UltimatePoints™ earned
Legend - $1 worth of Bonus Dollars released for every 70 UltimatePoints™ earned
Icon - $1 worth of Bonus Dollars released for every 85 UltimatePoints™ earned

New players will also gain entry into a new depositers free roll with a $1,000 prize pool! Make sure to visit Ultimate Bet today to learn more about these great offers.

Poker Pro, Marty Smyth has earned an impressive $3.5 million over the span of his career but his biggest win so far just might be the one he just earned, the Ladbrokes Poker Million VII.  But, he has been on an impressive run, making the final table at the Irish Open in 2002 and placed 16th last year.  He made 6th place at the Ladbrokes Poker Million in 2006 and last year made it to a record breaking third consecutive final before winning the million. His win seemed unlikely since Smyth was faced with clawing his way back to the top after a very rocky start. 
 
“I got off to a bad start - I played a big hand and thought I was winning but it turns out I wasn’t,” he said.
“At that stage, bookmakers were offering odds of 66/1.”

Four of the six players at the televised final table were also Irish and Smyth admits the cards finally turned his way as he drew off the competition.
 
“Poker is a mixture of skill and luck - I like to think I played quite well but certainly after that big hand lots of things went my way,” he said.
 
Despite the fact that he is a professional poker player, Smyth claims there is no chance of him squandering away his recent winnings in a hurry.
 
“I’m fairly sensible - I’ve enjoyed a lot of success in the last couple of years, but I’m aware that might not be the case forever,” he said. “Any time I get a big win like this, I try to be sensible with it and invest the lion’s share of it.”

The field of hopeful players was narrowed down to 32 as play on Day 3 began.  As the clock began to run, players also began falling in quick order.  Petr Samcenko was the last Czech in the event but also was the first victim of the day, taking home 11,000 Euro in the process.  John Riley was next up, leaving with the same amount.  Also taking home 11,000 Euro was Roy Van Der Locht in 30th place, Joris Jaspers in 29th and Haward Speer in 28th.  Shander De Vries fell victim to pocket nines who sucked out on the river against his kings, sending him home in 27th place and with 11,000 Euro.  
 
Players continued to fall quickly down to the mid levels.  The victims were:  Brian Jensen in 26th place earning 11,000 Euro, Georgios Gatselos went out in 25th place also earning 11,000 Euro, Phulippe Baa Carlier earned 13,800 Euro for his 24th place finish and Alexander Andermatt followed suit with 13,800 Euro with his 23rd place finish.  Also out were Ludovic Lacay who has finished eighth in the Polish Open and was hoping for his chance at a final table but ultimately was eliminated in 22nd place taking home 13,800 Euro.  The rest of the bust outs were:
 
10 - Jonathan Duhamel, Canada, €42,800
11 - Daniel Drescher, Canada, PokerStars player, €30,400
12 - Juan Maceiras, Spain, PokerStars sponsored player, €30,400
13 - Igor Rejdovjan, Slovakia, €22,100
14 - Domenico Iannonne, Italy, €22,100
15 - Rifat Palevic, Sweden, €16,600
16 - Dan Pedersen, Denmark, €16,600
17 - Jens Hansen, Denmark, €13,800
18 - Daniel Biro, Hungary, PokerStars qualifier, €13,800
19 - Manuel Bevand, France, €13,800
20 - Jakob Eberg, Sweden, €13,800
 
Play began to slow down considerably late in the day as everyone was waiting for the final table bubble to be determined.  There were several all ins but no one was eliminated until Sebastian Ruthenberg moved all in and Massimo Di Cicco came over the top.  Di Cicco was holding A-K to Ruthenberg’s K-Q.  The board to determine the bubble was 8-4-3-J-9, busting Ruthenberg out in ninth place with a payday of 42,800 Euro.  The final table line up at the end of Day 3 was as follows:
  
Salvatore Bonavena: 1,402,000
Alexiou Konstantinos: 1,382,000
Francesco Cirianni: 807,000
Fredrik Nygard: 666,000
Massimo Di Cicco: 429,000
Nasr El Nasr: 376,000
Raul Mestre: 309,000
Andrew Chen: 309,000

With the opening of the final table at the European Poker Tour Prague bringing a close to the European circuit for 2008, it was appropriate that the table was comprised of a varied mix of European players; three Italians, one Canadian, one German, one Spaniard, one Finn and one Greek player.
 
Raul Mestre of Spain with A-7 moved all in against Fredrik Nygard’s 9-9.  The flop showed J-8-3, putting Nygard ahead.  The turn was an A, putting Mestre on top, only to have the river show Q giving Nygard a nine high flush and sending Mestre home as the eighth place finisher, earning 71,800 Euro.  Nasr el Nasr was next to make his way to the cashier as he was eliminated by Andrew Chen in seventh place for 99,500 Euro.
 
Andrew Chen once again pushed all in with Q-2 against Fredrik Nygard who called with his A-8.  The board read: K-3-2-10-4.  The deuce did Nygard in putting him in sixth place and 130,000 Euro richer.  Andrew Chen then eliminated yet another table mate, Francesco Cirianni in fifth place and 166,000 Euro.  Konstantinos Alexiou then moved all in and Salvatore Bonavena called.  Alexiou held 3-3 and Bonavena held K-Q.  The board came 6-2-2-7-K knocking the Greek out in fourth place with 199,000 Euro.
 
Andrew Chen then faced his own demise when he went head to head against Salvatore Bonavena.  Chen held K-Q against Bonevena’s A-6.  The board brought 7-5-3-4-8 sending Chen to the rail in third place and earning 257,000 Euro in the process.  The final hand of the tournament had Massimo Di Sicco moving all in with A-4.  Salvatore Bonavena called with 8-7 and faced a board that read 8-3-2.  The turn was a 6 followed by a J.  Bonavena’s 8’s held up giving us the first ever Italian EPT champion.  He picked up a check for 744,000 Euro, the trophy, title and of course the honor.

At the start of Day 2 of the PokerStars .com European Poker Tour Prague 177 players returned in the 5,000 + 250 Euro main event at the Hilton Hotel Casino in the Czech Republic.  As the day wore on, players were busting out left and right and the tournament sailed through the bubble at 56 players and continued until 32 were left standing.  
 
One early casualty was Frenchman Antony Lellouche who recently admitted that Day 2 in tournaments either make or break him.  Apparently luck was not with him on this Day 2.  Another early victim was Noah Boeken who fell victim to those with larger chip stacks.  Chris Moorman was also headed to the doors early.
 
Even the chip leaders were falling by the wayside early in play including Christer Johansson.  He went from 108,000 to 50,000 in chips in the first few levels alone and then was moved to a table full of monster stacks which sealed his fate.  Johansson went all in against Shander De Vries who called with A-J.  Johansson showed his A-7 and got no help from the board and was sent packing.  
 
Erich Kollman of Austria was the unlucky bubble who held A-Q against Rifat Palevic’s K-K.  Despite a queen on fourth street he was quickly eliminated from play.  At that point the players left standing were in the money and the pay outs were:
 
49: Marcin Jan Jedruch, Poland — €7,000
50: Andreas Eiler, Germany — €7,000
51: Atilla Pohler, Hungary — €7,000
52: Henri Kettuen, Finland — €7,000
53: Henrik Ludstrom, Sweden — €7,000
54: Jeff Sarwer, Finland — €7,000
55: Oscar Silow, Sweden — €7,000
56: Paulo Grossi, Italy — €7,000

Well known Finnish player Juha Helppi busted out in 48th place earning 8,300 Euro followed by Dario Minieri in 47th place also earning 8,300 Euro. 
 
33rd: Yury Kerzhapkin — €9,700
34th: Martial Blangenwitsch, France — €9,700
36th: Steve Van Zadelhoff — €9,700
37th - Juan Manuel Pastor: €9,700
38th - Peter A Hedlund: €9,700
39th - Pavel Blatny: €9,700
40th - Tome Moreira: €9,700
41st: Alessio Isaia — €8,300
42nd: Petter Petterson — €8,300
43rd: Johnny Lodden — €8,300
45th: Riccardo Lacchinelli — €8,300
46th: Roberto Romanello — €8,300

Swedish poker pro Stefan Mattsson took home 9,700 Euro when he finished in 35th place after pushing all in with pocket twos against Brian Jensen’s A-5 which gave his A a pair on the river.
 
The top ten chip stacks going into the last day going into the final table are:
 
1. Fredrik Nygard (Finland) — 609,500
2. Ludovic Lacay (France) — 513,000
3. Rifat Palevic (Sweden) — 368,000
4. Alexiou Konstantinos (Greece) — 267,000
5. Juan Maceiras (Spain) 266,500
6. Dan Pedersen (Denmark) — 260,000
7. Jonathan Duhamel (Canada) — 253,500
8. Manuel Bevand (France) — 248,500
9. Raul Mestre (Spain) — 247,000
10. Daniel Drescher (Germany) 224,000

In a move similar to the United States government which passed a measure entitled the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, the Norwegian government has just passed a proposal which would ban Online Poker and all gambling transactions both to and from the residents of Norway.  Enforcement of the new legislation is not expected until the middle of 2009 though since the Norwegian government still needs to draft the regulations for the new anti-online gambling law. 
 
Opposition to the law’s passage came from Norway’s Financial Services Association along with several other prominent financial institutions who claimed that it would cause a multitude of problems for the Norwegian country as a whole but their protests fell on legislators deaf ears as they proceeded to vote it into law earlier this week. 
 
Echoing the United States governments claims when passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, Norway justifies its passage of their Online Poker and gambling ban claiming it will protect problem gamblers.  Those claims according to the European Commission and many expert analysts of the Internet gaming industry are being disputed.  They say the real reason behind the anti online gambling ban is to protect its own interests which is the state run gambling monopoly of Norsk Tipping.
 
Norsk Tipping is the national lottery in Norway and offers a wide range of lottery, sports and instant games and is owned by the Norwegian government.  It opened in 1948 with the idea that the profit from the company’s operations would be redirected back to the Norwegian people.  Over its 60 years of activity, Norsk Tipping has returned over 78 billion NOK to the sports and culture sectors and non-governmental organizations.
 
The European Union has already voiced its opposition and directed criticism at Norway’s Internet gambling ban and one of the country’s senior legal advisers is now anticipating the bill will end up in the European Court of Justice once it is approved.

As if all the things that make celebrating the holidays so great, Christmas parties, presents and of course the wonderful food, Bodog is stepping up to play Santa to its Online Poker players one more reason to celebrate.  The “12 Days of Poker” is an incredible series of 45 tournaments that runs from December 21 through January and to sweeten the deal, Bodog will add $100,000 to the prize pools.  Keeping track of the points players earn through the “12 Days of Poker” tournament leaderboard is easy.  The top players qualifying to play in the Grand Finale tournament will compete for a Bodog Poker Open 3 package which includes buy ins to all BPO3 events!  The BPO3 is set to be held during the first quarter of 2009.
 
The top four leaderboard finishers will earn a seat at the 27 player Grand Finale while the 5th to 100th place finishers will play in a semi-final tournament which sends the top 18 to the finale.  The last 5 spots in the Grand Finale will be randomly awarded to lucky players who participate in the “12 Days of Poker” tournaments.  From there the top three finishers in the Grand Finale will win a BPO3 package while 4th to 10th places will win a seat to a Bodog Flight Club Semifinal.

None other than the World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Peter Eastgate opened the day at the European Poker Tour Prague by announcing, “Shuffle up and deal!”.  He then joined the 297 other entrants at their seats of day 1b.  When combined with the 272 entrants from day 1a the total field came to 570 which is up from last year’s total of 555.  The record number of players at the Hilton Hotel Casino in the Czech Republic generated an impressive prize pool of 2,764,500 Euro.
 
Some names amongst the field that may be familiar to poker fans is Marino Serenello, Nico Behling, Ivo Doney, William Fry and Joao Barbosa, especially the last two names who are champions of the Hungary and Poland legs of the European Poker Tour.  Joining them in making the trek to Prague were more pros and familiar names such as Dario Minieri, Katja Thater, Roland de Wolfe, Nenad Medic, Noah Boeken, Juha Helppi, Praz Bansi, Alexander Kravchenko, Davidi Kitai, Andreas Krause, and William Thorsson.  A few up and comers and online notables in attendance were Anthony Lellouche, Ramzi Jelassi, Ricardo Sousa and Jonas Molander.
 
Ivo Doney was an early casualty who’s pocket queens couldn’t stand up to his opponents pocket kings.  Ramzi Jelassi went all in with pocket queens and found himself up against A-K.  He sang the familiar “one time!” tune but was forced to the rail when things didn’t go his way.  Roland de Wolfe who was admittedly a bit under the weather was eliminated early along with James Akenhead.
 
The former European Poker Tour season 1 winner Pascal Perrault was forced out when his A-K didn’t stand up to Nicholas Levi’s 5-2.  Another A-K victim was Peter Eastgate who hit his ace on the flop and went all in but faced with Stuart Rutter’s A-3 two pair he was shown the door.
 
At the end of the day’s play 94 were left standing and when combined with the 88 players from day 1a, 177 players will return to duke it out on day 2.  The top 10 players in chips are:
 
1. Christer Johansson (Sweden) –108,100
2. Manuel Bevand (France) — 97,200
3. Alessio Isaia (Italy) — 95,300
4. Ludovic Lacay (France) — 94,200
5. Fredrik Nygard (Finland) — 86,400
6. Mikhail Tulchinsky (Russia) — 81,400
7. Niko Hanninen (Finland) — 73,100
8. Dan Pedersen (Denmark) — 71,200
9. Constantin Cirstea (Romania) — 69,500
10. Lukas Gideon Schwartz Orbach (UK) — 69,200

Currently, Sports Book Poker is giving all new players a 100% deposit bonus match of up to $650.00. In addition, you’ll gain entry to a $500 Free Roll that’s open to new players only! This is a great time to try out Sports Book Poker and get a feel for the software and the players there.
 
If you’re a Monday Night Football fan, you’ll enjoy the Monday Night Football Free Rolls, where $100 is added to the prize pool for every point scored during the game. You can even multiply your wins from the sports book up to 10X by playing in the special tournament that they host during the week. If you’re one of the top 20 finishers you will get an extra multiplier on any bets won for that football weekend!

Finally, you can enter to win a trip to the Crown Australian Poker Championship on January 18th, 2009. Satellites are running daily as well as the occasional free roll, so head over to Sports Book Poker today!

An interesting observation from blogger Nat Arem today points out that Full Tilt Poker is building quite the portfolio of domain names. While domain squatting is nothing new and perfectly legal, it’s intriguing that Full Tilt is expanding far beyond just the “ Full Tilt Poker ” related URL’s that you may expect.

In fact, they’ve registered names of players that aren’t even sponsored by Full Tilt . People like Joe Ward and Terrence Chan (joewardpoker.net and terrencechan.net). While that’s not exactly news worth, perhaps this is: They own other names such as ansolutepoker.com and hallywoodpoker.com. Readers with quick minds probably already realize that those are typo domains for Absolute Poker and Hollywood Poker. Coincidently, those all point back to Full Tilt Poker if you type them in.

It doesn’t stop there either; they own the names of pro players at other sites such as PokerStars and Ultimate Bet . Adam Levy plays for UB now but Full Tilt owns the domain adamlevypoker.com. Even players that were banned for multi-accounting and aren’t even allowed at FTP anymore aren’t immune. Sorel Mizzi and Chris Vaughn, who were caught this year in a multi-accounting scandal are also victims of this squatting case. Sorelmizzi.net and chrisvaugnpoker.com are owned by, you guessed it, Full Tilt .

This is all public information that can be confirmed with any domain tools such as Register.com or whois.sc. The registrar is SAFENAMES LTD but you can easily see that they all redirect to the main page for Full Tilt when you type them in. If there’s any response from Full Tilt on this issue, we’ll be the first to report it back to you.