PokerStars has announced that the inaugural North American Poker Tour event, taking place at the Venetian in Las Vegas, will conclude with a $25k buy-in High-Roller tournament with a twist; certain pro players will have a $5,000 bounty on their head, and the player collecting the most bounties will receive an additional $100k from PokerStars!

Another unique feature of the tournament will be the payout structure. The prize-pool will be distributed in the following way: PokerStars will award each player at the final table $50,000, and the remainder of the prize-pool will be awarded to the winner of Read the rest of this entry…

One of the last bastions for US poker players has apparently been closed off. MasterCard has decided to block all online poker transactions from US players. The move is likely spurred by UIGEA legislation being enacted in June –unless the government overturns the legislation before then—and other payment processors having been brought to court and fined by the US government.

This marks the second time MasterCard has taken such action; after the first instance online poker sites changed their codes in order to process MasterCard deposits. However, this time it appears the online poker world is going to press on without MasterCard, as many online sites have removed MasterCard as a deposit option. Read the rest of this entry…

First there was Pennsylvania, then there was Delaware, and now Maryland legislators have introduced their own bill to legalize and regulate table games throughout the state, including poker.

The movement has caught fire since the recession hit, and states started looking for new ways to generate revenue. States that already offer casino games have gone so far as to bring up the possibility of legalizing and regulating the online poker industry at the state level.

Maryland’s bill, House Bill 608, would allow places that currently hold Video Lottery Licenses to add table games, such Read the rest of this entry…

It has come to the attention of the media that online poker rooms that are based within the United States of America are having an increased amount of difficulty with the processing of deposits made by their members from their credit cards.

The issues started to happen when the UIGEA was passed in 2006 and since that point, the online poker sites have been finding that more and more of the major credit card issuing banks are rejecting funding to be sent to the site in order to fall into line with the UIGEA.

This has meant that players are having to find alternative methods of placing their deposit into the sites in order to get their funds into their playing account.

The knock on effect of these issues has seen a number of players having to seek Read the rest of this entry…

The news that Cake Poker could soon be losing two of their sites that are homed within the networks branding could be confirmed by mid April this year.

Rumours that the network is set to lose PlayersOnly and SportsBook.com to networking rivals Merge Gaming Network could see Cake Poker lose a couple of their power sites who will take their members and players with them.

Although the move is been speculated by poker industry insiders, there is no time line that has been placed onto the proposed move and so it seems that Cake Poker Network will be looking to Read the rest of this entry…

Poker lovers in North America are about to be told that they are soon to have a new poker channel added to their list of things to watch, CanadianPokerPlayer.TV.

The new channel is to be created by HeadsUp Entertainment Limited and will be purely dedicated to poker, offering viewers the opportunity to get their fix of the game they love at any point in the day and night.

The channel will broadcast live feeds from Read the rest of this entry…

With a revamped lobby and filters, Full Tilt’s upgrades began last year and the site has continued making improvements in the early stages of 2010 with the addition of Rush Poker, and the announcement of a revamped VIP Rewards Program in the works.

The #2 online poker site recently made a series of small upgrades Read the rest of this entry…

The Borgata is one of the only US casinos that is going on the offensive to counteract the falling attendance numbers that have plagued US poker tournaments over the last two years. In late 2009 the Borgata dropped the buy-in of their WPT championship event from $10k to $3,500 and offering a guaranteeing prize-pool.

The decision worked out so well that the Borgata decided on a $3,500 buy-in for their Borgata Poker Championship with a $2 million guaranteed prize-pool. The event didn’t draw quite as many players as the WPT event –likely because of the WPT’s television exposure—but still exceeded their $2 million guaranteed prize-pool with 766 entrants; creating Read the rest of this entry…

Marcus Bebb-Jones, a British poker professional has spoken out to show that he fears for his life once his trial is over.

The professional poker player is accused of murdering his wife Sabrina in 1997 and then using the money that the couple had to start living a playboy lifestyle.

It was within this time that Bebb-Jones began to take to the poker tables, creating a successful return on his investments while playing poker tournaments and real money ring games.

It is speculated that Bebb-Jones used the funds that he acquired following the death of his wife to buy Read the rest of this entry…

With 31,000 of the 50,000 hands in the books, Tom “durrrr” Dwan is steadily pulling away from Patrik Antonius in their “Challenge Match”. The two players were able to log some 2,000 hands over two separate sessions with Dwan winning close to $150k over the two sessions; putting his total lead to $1,077,932.

There is still a long way to go Read the rest of this entry…