Of course, one cause for the success behind Ladbrokes Poker is its long-established reputation as a company valuing its clientele and operating with integrity. In other words, customers know and trust the Ladbrokes brand. Ladbrokes sets the standard for customer service online. Ladbrokes Poker ensures that cash outs are just as streamlined as the deposit process. Another notable reason why so many players try Ladbrokes Poker is its generous promotional structure that offers new poker players extra money rewards, beginning with the Ladbrokes Poker Welcome Bonus.

Ladbrokes Promotion Code

Use the Ladbrokes Promotion Code “TRYPOKER” in the Ladbrokes Poker room and enjoy a bonus of up to £1,000!

Ladbrokes Poker Bonus

The Ladbrokes poker bonus is available to all first-time players making their first cash in. In order to get the bonus, the new customer simply has to deposit a minimum of £5. Ladbrokes will match the deposit by 250 percent up to a maximum bonus of £1,000. To maximize the Ladbrokes Poker bonus, the new customer must cash in £400, which will provide £1,000!

Please note that Ladbrokes Poker does not award the bonus all at once. Rather, they award it in five increments. For example, with the maximum £1,000 bonus, the five increments would be £200 each.

Every bonus incremental payment would be rewarded once the player acquires a specific number of poker points – which are earned by playing real money ring games and tournaments. Cash tables provide you 10 points for every $1 in rake you contribute. And likewise, you receive 10 poker points for every $1 paid in tournament fees.

The wagering requirement is 32 poker points per $1 in bonus. With a £1,000 bonus ($1,500 USD), Ladbrokes.com would pay out £200 ($300 USD)every time the player reaches 9,600 poker points.

For (tournament|tourney} players, the Ladbrokes Poker bonus requirements provide a 3.2 to 1 ratio of tournament fees paid to bonus money earned, which is about average for the Internet poker sites.

Ladbrokes Poker Software

Ladbrokes Poker utlizes the Microgaming poker platform to power its poker site. Microgaming is one of the top gaming software providers in the industry, and has a reputation for being very fast and easy-to-use. The poker technology is safe, secure and stable. The interface is simple and uncluttered. Ladbrokes does not use avatars, unlike many other online poker sites, but it frees up a lot of space allowing for easier multi-tabling.

Ladbrokes Poker offers a vast array of player statistics and built-in features. The software automatically records every poker hand, and players have access to stats such as win percentage and flop frequency. Players can access and manipulate the statistics directly in the client. The poker software has a graphical replay system that offers a way for the user to watch a past hand play out again. Users can also download the information and keep it locally as raw data.

Read more about the Ladbrokes Poker download here.

New Player Freerolls

Ladbrokes Poker offers new player free-rolls and turbo tournies each week. Each new customer is allowed to participate in six freerolls, which cost nothing to play, and six turbo tournaments, which have a €1 + €0.10 buy-in. The prize pool for each of these freerolls is €500. The prize pool for each of these turbo tournaments is usually €500, but may reach €1,000 and sometimes higher based on the size of the player pool.

Ladbrokes Poker Player Club

Another important component when reveiwing the promotions of an online poker room is the existence of a loyalty program. The Ladbrokes players program includes four tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold and VIP. The players program currency is poker points, which Ladbrokes awards based on rakes and tournament fees. All Customers can convert poker points into cash, but also use them on tournament fees or gifts from the Ladbrokes shop.

The number of poker points also determine the Player Club Level.

See the chart below for perks provided based on the player’s Player Club Level:

VIP status delivers a number of benefits, such as poker points being awarded and converted to real money at a rate that is more favorable to the player, and entries into freerolls and special events.
Bad Beat Progressive Jackpot

One of Ladbrokes.com’s best poker promotions is the bad beat jackpot. The jackpot is available only to active participants in the hand, and requires at least a $0.50 contribution in the hand. It must also be a cash game with a minimum of four participants playing at the table. When the bad beat jackpot is won, 50 percent gets awarded to the losing hand, 25 percent gets awarded to the winning hand and 25 percent goes to the remaining participants at the table.

Bet365.com Poker offers an excellent welcome bonus – a 200% match bonus on your initial deposit for a maximum bonus of $1,000 (USD) when registering the Bet365 Bonus Code: CBC365

Bet365 Poker Bonus

For all new players, Bet365 Poker provides a 200 percent match bonus up to $1,000. So in order to maximize the full bonus, you should deposit $500, and then you’ll be awarded $1,000 in bonus money available. Bet365 places all bonus money in a pending account, and it pays the bonus to the customer in $10 increments every time the player accumulates 1,000 Merit Points. The member has 60 days to claim as much of the bonus as they can. After 60 days, the client keeps all the bonus cash they’ve achieved, but all unclaimed bonus money is lost forever.

In addition to the new depositor bonus, Bet365.com gives all new customers with a token to a $100 new depositors freeroll. These freerolls occur every week on Wednesday at 19:30 GTM.

Merit Points

Clients earn Merit Points (MPs) whenever they play for real money at cash tables and in tournaments. For ring games, Merit Point awards depend on the rake per hand, and the range is 0.32 to 17.6 Merit Points earned per hand. For tournaments, Bet365.com gives 15 MPs for each $1 paid in tournament fees. Bet365.com often runs higher rates as a promotion, such as the special tournament rate of 20 MPs per $1.

VIP Scheme

The Bet365 VIP scheme for the poker player uses merit points as currency, and consists of four tiers: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. The more you play, the more points you earn, the higher your tier. At higher tiers, players earn Merit Points at an accelerated rate.

Also, once a player achieves a new tier, Bet365.com decreases the requirements to maintain that tier level.

You can redeem your MP’s for tournament buy-in tokens or a cash bonus.

To successfully claim your award, you must have maintained the required VIP level or higher for a minimum of three months prior to the month in which you wish to claim. You must also have the required number of Merit Points in your account at the time of the claim.

Other Bet365 Poker Promotions

Bet365.com offers a wide range of additional poker promotions. Bet365.com offers premium tables, and each week there’s a new Premium Cash Ladder that awards $1,000 to the winner. Bet365 Poker has a monthly freeroll promotion, such as the $50,000 Freeroll Frenzy. Bet365.com also regularly runs online satellites that reward the winners with seats and travel packages to some of the most popular live poker events.

Bet365 is one of the largest private companies in the United Kingdom, and now the largest poker network in Europe. Bet365 has an integrated, single account platform, which allows Bet365.com to offer a total solution of online gambling services: sportsbook, casino, bingo and poker. For poker, Bet365.com uses the Playtech platform, and is a participant of the iPoker network of poker sites. Through this network, Bet365 can provide network specials, including jackpot sit-n-go tournaments, the ECOOP, GUKPT qualifiers and additional major live event satellites.

Bet365 Poker Games

The Bet365.com Poker room is a bustling poker destination running on the Playtech poker software, which has various cool features. It’s the original poker software client to integrate both a 2D and 3D view of the poker tables, and it has a full-screen viewing mode. Bet365 incorporates a sophisticated collusion detection system to ensure a fair game. The Bet365 Poker room delivers a vast range of poker games, multi-table play, advanced private tables, and a variety of tournaments, including multi-table, knockout, add-ons and re-buys.

In terms of game selection, Bet365 has No Limit Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Hi-Lo Omaha, 7-Card Stud, 5-Card Stud and Razz.

Bet365 also boasts four brand new poker games that are exclusive to Bet365 Poker – 13 Card Poker, Big 2, Super Big 2, and Fight The Landlord.

For all games, stakes range from $0.05/$0.10 to $100/$200. You can get higher limits on the premium tables, and you can set the stakes to whatever you prefer on the private games. Bet365 provides Beginner tables, which new customers can play at for up to 90 days, and Bet365.com monitors them for sharks to give the newbies a fair introduction to poker.

Bet365 hosts tournies every week with guaranteed prize pools ranging from a few thousand to the big $200,000 tournament on Sundays. In fact, Bet365 Poker offers $3,000,000 or more in guaranteed prize pools each week.

Read these instructions to get and install the Bet365 Poker download.

It’s an exciting time to play tournament poker with bet365’s amazing $50,000 Freeroll Frenzy.

There’s $50,000 on offer in cash and guaranteed tournament prize-pools which is sure to set your pulse racing. You can qualify for three $10,000 guaranteed tournaments through Heads-up Qualifiers, direct buy-ins or, best of all, 360 freerolls, meaning you could even book a spot at the table for free!

Get the Bet365 poker download here!

The three $10,000 guaranteed events run on 13th February, 24th February and 6th March and you have 10 days before each tournament in which to qualify.

But that’s not all, because bet365 is increasing the amount of merit points you can earn in the process, with 20 merit points, up from 15, for every $1 you pay in tournament fees. So this is also a great chance to boost your merit points at an increased rate.

With big money poker events, a whole host of ways to qualify and increased merit points, bet365’s $50,000 Freeroll Frenzy is the poker event of the year so far and one you won’t want to miss!

Also coming up:

bet365 are bringing back their fantastic Free Bet in Play offer for the big match on Monday night between Liverpool & Tottenham.

Enjoy a free In-Play bet on Liverpool v Tottenham with bet365

Kenny Dalglish and Harry Redknapp go head-to-head on Monday as Liverpool take on Tottenham. To add to the excitement bet365 are offering you a free In-Play bet on the big match.

To qualify for your free In-Play bet, simply place a bet with bet365 before kick-off, then once the game starts place another bet on any In-Play market. If your FIRST In-Play bet loses they will refund this stake, up to the same value as your largest pre-match bet.

With a great range of pre-match markets on offer and over 60 In-Play markets available throughout the game, you can make the most of this exciting Premier League clash with bet365.

About bet365

bet365 is one of the world’s largest online gambling groups with over seven million customers worldwide. bet365 offers a Sports Betting experience that’s unrivalled. The Group employs over 1,700 people and is the UK’s seventh largest private company.

In the 2011 eGaming Review Awards, bet365 was named In-Play Sports Operator of the Year and Sports Betting Operator of the Year. In both 2010 and 2011, bet365 came top in eGaming Review’s Annual Power 50.

The inaugural TCOOP will incorporate 50 different events across 11 days and guarantee $10 million in prizes. TCOOP buy-ins range from $5.50 to $2,100 and the series features a $700 main event, which has a guarantee of $1.5 million.

Team PokerStars Pro and self-confessed turbo tournament fan, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, was ecstatic about the announcement. “This is going to be so great. I love fast-paced online tourneys because there’s so much action, and there’s going to be several different events every day. It’s going to be perfect to come home from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and then get straight back into action online. Hopefully I can add a TCOOP title to my SCOOP and WCOOP ones.”

TCOOP is a fast-paced version of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) tournament series, which have been running since 2002 and 2009 respectively. The new tournament festival complements WCOOP and SCOOP perfectly by catering for players who want a quicker playing experience coupled with big prize pools.

With a significant amount of buy-ins below the $100 mark, and between four to six tournaments set to take place each day that will take no longer than a few hours to complete, TCOOP is expected to appeal to a wide spectrum of players, including many recreational ones.

Qualify for TCOOP
Satellites are running now at PokerStars.com, with qualifiers starting from just $1. For more information on how to register for the main events or satellites, click on ‘Events’ > ‘TCOOP’ > ‘All’ tabs in the PokerStars client, or check out the dedicated web page: www.pokerstars.com/tcoop.

As PokerStars players have come to expect, there will be a wide range of games available, including No Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, Pot Limit Draw, Triple Stud, Razz, Stud Hi/Lo, HORSE and 8-Game, along with several different tournament formats, including 6-Max, Knockout, 4-Max, Rebuy, Shootout, Big Antes, Heads-Up, 2x Chance, Hyper Turbo and more.

For more info, check out the full story on the PokerStars Blog and see below for the schedule of events:

Use the PokerStars Bonus Code 2012 and get up to $600 free for all new players!

About PokerStars:
PokerStars operates PokerStars.com, the world’s most popular online poker site, and serves the world’s largest poker community, with more than 48 million registered members since it launched in December 2001. It’s the first choice of the world’s top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else, and with the best security online. More hands have been dealt on PokerStars.com than any other site; that’s over 72 billion hands and more than 475 million tournaments played.

The details of collecting this bonus cash can be somewhat complicated, but we’ll describe it to you in simple terms.

To start with, create your new account with the William Hill Promotional Code “1250FREE” as seen below:

You are required to deposit £625 or $1,000 to qualify for the maximum 200% new player bonus of £1250/$2000.

Cash bonuses are then awarded to players based on WHPoints earned while participating in the real-money ring games and tourneys at WilliamHill.com. WHPoints are earned according to the amount of rake collected at each poker hand. WHPoints are also earned when tourney fees are paid by the poker player. You must be part of the hand at the cash table (by calling the hand, etc) or pay a tournament fee to achieve WHPoints.

The amount of rake taken at ring games or the buy in fee of the poker tournaments or SnG’s established the number of William Hill points awarded to players.

You must collect 350 William Hill player points to be awarded a $5 bonus. Since William Hill Poker explains its bonus in $USD, we’ll use that currency for our examples.

The William Hill Poker bonus is paid out in $5 chunks, up to the upper limit of $2,000. So you can earn 400 individual payments of $5 apiece, so you would need to earn a total 140,000 William Hill points to earn the entire $2,000 or £1250 bonus.

You have 60 days to cash out as much of the bonus as you can. Or all of it. It’s all up to you!

So exactly how are the points earned?

Regarding tourney play, 45 points are distributed for each £1 of tournament fee paid.

With regards to cash games, WH Points are distributed based on the Rake Range at any given cash table and the WH Points chart becomes much more convoluted. See the detailed chart at http://www.poker-bonuscode.eu/william-hill-promotional-code/. But as a quick reference, you receive 1.5 WH Points if the rake is £0.20, 9 points if the rake is £1.00, and 36 points if the rake is £3.00.

The real question is, how many hours do I need to play to earn my free £1250? Of course, this is all dependent on the table stakes, the number of players at the table, the average pot size, etc.

But we can estimate the number of hours using the following scenario of playing the £200 NL, £1-£2 blinds 10 player table. We can assume an average pot size of £20.00 which is pretty normal for these stakes. Assuming these details, the rake would be £0.05 for every £1.00 in the pot, so if the pot size is £20.00, the rake would be £1.00.

This means the poker player has collected 9 William Hill poker points for playing in the hand with a £1.00 rake. The average poker player can play about 70 hands/hour, so the player could potentially collect 630 WH Points per hour playing this particular table. Collecting the required 140,000 WH Points to cash in the full £1250 bonus would require about 222 hours of playing poker!

222 hours of playing poker sounds like a lot but it really isn’t once you start multi-tabling. William Hill allows you to play up to 16 tables at the same time. And don’t forget William Hill allows the new player a 60-day timeframe to achieve as much of the welcome bonus as possible!

When comparing the details of this bonus to other online poker welcome bonuses, it ranks as EXCELLENT. To earn $1 in bonus money, you would have to collect 70 William Hill poker points, or spend $2.33 in tourney fees. Both PokerStars.com and Party Poker have a ratio of 3:1, or you must spend $3.00 in tournaments fee to earn $1 in bonus money, so the William Hill Poker bonus is much easier to earn.

William Hill also offers several other promotions such as freerolls for new depositors, a VIP club that can reward even more cash bonuses, and much more. Read more about the William Hill Promotional Code “1250FREE” at http://www.poker-bonuscode.eu/william-hill-promo-code-1250free/ and how you can take advantage of these offers!

Achieving the $600 bonus is a relatively straight-forward process considering you are willing to deposit a total of $600 into your new PokerStars account, and play the required amount of real money cash games or tournaments.

First off, visit PokerStars and register your new account with the 2012 PokerStars Marketing Code of “PSA7201“. This special Poker Stars Marketing Code delivers further perks, which we describe at the bottom of the page!

New players qualify for the PokerStars.com 100% match bonus upon making their first real money deposit. The PokerStars new player bonus is a 100% match bonus, meaning if you deposit $200, your bonus will be $200. The largest bonus possible is $600, €465, £390, or CAD $625. Use the PokerStars Bonus Code STARS600 each time you make a deposit to take advantage, up to your first three deposits or up to $600. Type STARS600 into the “bonus code” field on the deposit screen before processing your payment!

The deposit amount can be of any size, but you are required to deposit a total of $600 within 3 deposits, and within the first 90 days to maximize the bonus of $600. The PokerStars download has recently added this feature – allowing 3 deposits within a 90 day period – to make it easier for new players to earn the complete $600 bonus amount.

Again, be sure to type in the PokerStars.com bonus code STARS600 upon processing your initial deposit and any subsequent deposits that qualify for the welcome bonus (first 3 deposits).

You can “cash out” the bonus, once you have earned the required number of VIP Player Points (VPP’s).

Players earn VPP’s by participating in real money tourneys and ring games in PokerStars. The real money poker games have a rake or an entry fee that the player pays, and this converts to VPP’s. Players earn more VPP’s by playing in tourneys and cash games with higher rakes. Each $1 spent on the rake earns the player 5.5 VPPs. The rake fee is dependent on the specific game. For example, a $20+2 tournament has a $2 rake. This means you pay $20 dollars towards to the total prize pool, to the pot and $2 to the house rake. Participating in this tournament earns you 11 VPP’s. A $5 dollar tourney has a $0.50 rake fee, so you would earn 2.75 VPP’s.

It isn’t necessary to win the game or tournament to obtain the VPP’s, every poker player automatically gets the VPP’s. Click the “Cashier” button and then the “Check My Bonus Status” button to view your VPP’s.

You must collect VPP’s equal to 17 times the bonus amount (based on $USD figure, see table below for VPP clearance rates in other currencies). In other words to earn the maximum bonus of $600, you would need to earn 17×600 or 10,200 VPP’s. The cash bonus is awarded in increments of 10 ($10, £10, €10 etc), each transferred into your account as you clear the needed VPP’ss (e.g. 170 VPPs for every $10 increment). You have six months after each qualifying deposit to collect all the VPP’s required to collect your bonus, which is plenty of time to get the maximum bonus of $600, €465, £390, or CAD $625!

The bonus rewards will automatically be paid into your cashier account and you will receive an email from PokerStars.com letting you know that a bonus has been deposited into your account. You may check your PokerStars account screen to see that the bonus is no longer listed as “Pending”, and then check “History” in the “Cashier” section to see that it has been applied to your real money balance.

When you break down the PokerStars welcome bonus for the tournament player, you must spend about $3 in tournament fees to earn $1 in bonus. This 3:1 ratio is average among the online poker rooms. But PokerStars provides more flexibility with its welcome bonus by allowing 3 separate deposits to count towards the bonus and 6 months to achieve the necessary VPP’s.

Now we also mentioned, opening your new player account with the PokerStars Marketing Code of “PSA7201” delivers some extra perks! Enter this in the Marketing Code field, and qualify to enter in $1,000 worth of freerolls and money added tournaments every month!

Below is a summary of the special tournaments you can play in, each month:

$500 freeroll – You must earn 200 FPP’s the month prior the freeroll, and you’re in to play for free! This freeroll is held on the 14th of every month!

$500 money added – $5 buy-in and restricted for ONLY those who sign up to play on PokerStars with the marketing code PSA7201 and then open a http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerforum/ account at our partners at FlopTurnRiver.com. The password is published in the FlopTurnRiver.com forums every month!

Not only can you get $600 of bonus cash, but also play in events that have $1,000 added to the prize pools every month!

PokerStars.com offers various other promotions that provide plenty of value. The VIP Program is one of the best in the industry allowing players to spend their frequent player points on electronics, tournaments, and even cash. The Multi-Table Tournament Leader Board gives away thousands of dollars in prize money. The leader boards rank the best tourney players each week, month and year, across all stakes. The PokerStars MTT Leader Board is the largest leader board promotion in the world.

Read more at http://www.poker-bonuscode.eu.

In addition to the Bovada Poker room, Bovada.lv delivers all the sports wagering opportunities across all major sporting events watched by the North American populace as well as a full Vegas-style casino with both web-based and downloadable casino games.

Bovada.lv is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, located in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Canada.

Bovada Poker offers several strong promotions to the new player. First off is the 100% new depositor bonus for up to $1,000.

The $1,000 new player bonus is handed out in increments derived from the number of poker points achieved, and poker points are earned by playing real money cash tables and tournaments and SnG’s. For every 5 poker points collected, you earn a $1 in bonus money. And you have 60 days to achieve as much of the bonus as possible. It is entirely feasible to earn the full $1,000 bonus. First, you must deposit $1,000 and that bankroll will get matched as the maximum bonus you can earn. The free cash is distributed as follows:

Poker points are achieved at both the cash game tables and tournaments. 3 poker points are rewarded for each $1 in tournament fees. So a $50 + $5 SnG would earn you 15 poker points. For ring games, poker points are achieved at the following rates:

For the tourney enthusiast, the poker bonus is calculated as a 5:3 or 1.67:1 ratio of tourney fees to bonus dollars. In other words, pay $5 in tournament fees (earn 15 points) and earn $3 in bonus money (5 points reward $1). This is a fantastic fee to bonus ratio, and is the absolute best we have witnessed among the internet poker sites.

Bodog Poker, Poker Stars, and PartyPoker provide a tournament fee to bonus ratio of approximately 3:1 so it becomes quite apparent of the great deal you get from the Bovada Poker welcome bonus. AND the bonus goes up to $1,000 which is also more than most other online poker rooms.

In addition to the new player bonus, Bovada offers some other strong promotions. As a new Bovada.lv Poker player, you’ll receive invitations to six exclusive qualifying tournaments for the Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed tournament. You can participate in $15k worth of freerolls every month. You can use your poker points and enter tournaments to win real money! Two $7,500 freerolls are scheduled on the first and last Saturday of each and every month!

Bovada.lv also promotes a Royal Flush bonus, Bad Beat Bonus, and a promotion they call “King of the Felt” for Sit-n-Go players, where if you win 3 SitnGo’s in a week, you enter a drawing into the King of the Felt tournament and freerolls.

Bovada Poker provides a fantastic bonus and regular occurring promotions that should encourage US poker players to try out this US friendly site.

Bovada provides some interesting and innovative poker features. First off, the Bovada poker room offers a variety of tournaments including Omaha tournaments, Shootout tournaments, Knockout tournaments, and Heads Up tournaments.

In home games, some players like “rabbit hunting”, which is seeing what the next dealt card WOULD have been so they can drive themselves crazy. For those players, Bovada offers a Rabbit Cam feature.

One of the better features offered is Anonymous Tables. If you’re concerned about getting targeted or other players figuring out how you play, you can play on one of the anonymous tables and remove that advantage from your opponents!

While multi-tabling cash games and SnG’s is unfortunately limited to 4 tables, multi-table tournaments are much more flexible to play. Multi-table tournament players can play 20 MTT’s at the same time!

Bovada conveniently offers in-client Blackjack to the poker room, meaning that you can sit down at a single player blackjack table and access the funds from your poker balance, rather than having to buy chips at the Bovada casino.

Bovada peaks at around 4,000 players. Because Bovada is one of the scarce options for US residents, volume should remain stable and perhaps grow. Bovada is the second largest online poker room available to USA poker players just below the Merge Network according to FlopTurnRiver.com.

Visit Bovada.lv today!

Day 1 commemorated the tenth edition of the first event ever on the World Poker Tour® as Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten, Kimberly Lansing, the Royal Flush Girls and Tournament Director Jack McClelland celebrated this legacy before announcing Shuffle Up and Deal. The most famous names in poker including PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Phil Hellmuth and the tournament’s namesake Doyle Brunson turned out in force as players registered through the opening eight levels. The money bubble burst during the middle of Day 3, and by the end of the day, five WPT Champions had hit the rail, including Will “The Thrill” Failla (93rd – $11,942) who picked up 50 more points to extend his lead for WPT Season X Player of the Year. WPT Raw Deal Analyst Tony Dunst made his first deep run at a WPT Main Event, busting late on Day 4 (18th – $31,845) to eventual champion James Dempsey. WPT Season IX Ones to Watch William Reynolds (13th – $39,806) and WPT Season VIII World Champion David Williams (10th – $47,767) couldn’t survive the final playdown day, and when Soi Nguyen knocked out Larry Wells (7th – $91,554), the WPT final table was set.

In World Poker Tour history, no player has ever won the same event twice, let alone in consecutive seasons, but defending champion Antonio Esfandiari nearly pulled off this heroic feat. During the WPT final table, The Magician came out swinging, and moved all-in on just the tenth hand. While Esfandiari’s Ah10s had James Dempsey’s Ad4h dominated, an unlucky Four on the turn eliminated The Magician in sixth place. The action had begun at a feverish pace and did not let up. Two hands later, Soi Nguyen busted Vitor Coelho in a three-way pot involving Vanessa Selbst. Vitor not only picked up $159,224 for his fifth place finish, but also 900 WPT Player of the Year points to push him into 2nd in the Season X POY race.

Vanessa Selbst was looking to become the first woman to win an open WPT Main Event, and soon after Coelho’s elimination, Selbst doubled through WPT Season IX Ones to Watch Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger. Once again, only two hands later Soi Nguyen eliminated another challenger as his pocket nines held up against Lichtenberger’s pocket eights. Three-handed play did not last long. Just fifteen minutes after “LuckyChewy” hit the rail, Vanessa Selbst would fall to Dempsey, ending her bid to make WPT history.

To get his name onto the Cup, James Dempsey had to overcome a strong challenge from Soi Nguyen. The two players entered heads up play nearly even as both held slightly over $8 million in chips. Nguyen went up early and maintained the lead during a stretch of back and forth action. However, after doubling up, Dempsey’s KhQc held up against Nguyen’s KcJd as Dempsey made a straight on the river. James Dempsey claims $821,612 for the win, in addition to receiving the Tiffany and Co.® WPT Champions Award, the WPT Champions Trophy, and entry into the WPT Champions Club.

Final Table Standings
1st – James Dempsey – $821,612
2nd – Soi Nguyen – $517,478
3rd – Vanessa Selbst – $338,351
4th – Andrew Lichtenberger – $218,933
5th – Vitor Coelho – $159,224
6th – Antonio Esfandiari – $119,418

Player of the Year Standings
1st – Will Failla – 1,650
2nd – Vitor Coelho – 1,500
3rd – James Dempsey – 1,400
3rd – Bobby Oboodi – 1,400
5th – Vanessa Selbst – 1,300
6th – Soi Nguyen – 1,250
7th – Andrey Pateychuk – 1,200
7th – Jin Hwang – 1,200
7th – Matt Waxman – 1,200
10th – Daniel Buzgon – 1,150

The final WPT Main Event of 2011 kicks-off tomorrow from Italy. WPT Venice runs from December 13 – 18 at Casino di Venezia. The €3,300 re-entry tournament is poised to attract a strong turnout of local and well-known professionals. For more information, visit www.wpt.com.

Coming up in 2012, WPT Season X will feature many of poker’s biggest events. WPT returns in February to Commerce Casino for the world-renowned Los Angeles Poker Classic. In March, Season X visits San Jose, CA for the popular Bay 101 Shooting Star. April will become a milestone month for Florida poker, as WPT arrives for back-to-back televised Main Events – the second-ever Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown and the debut WPT tournament in the brand new Jacksonville Poker Room. WPT Season X concludes in May with the WPT World Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Get the Party Poker download and you can qualify your way into a live WPT event by playing online at PartyPoker!

Visit http://www.poker-bonuscode.eu/pokerstars-bonus-code/ to learn how to get the welcome bonus of up to $600 from PokerStars.

Starting from hand 71.7bn, cash prizes will be awarded to all players dealt into every millionth hand based on the amount of VPPs accumulated at that specific table until the 72-billionth Mega Milestone Hand. For that final hand all players dealt in at the table will net $10,000 bonuses in addition to the cash earned via VPPs accumulated.

In total, more than $750,000 will be awarded to more than 1,000 players. The first few milestone hands have already hit, but there are lots more to come over the next few days, so check out www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/100-billion to find out the current hand number and the best time to hit the tables in search of a big cash prize.

Click here to read the full review of PokerStars.

10th Anniversary Double Battle of the Planets
For one week only, the Battle of the Planets Sit & Go Leaderboards will have double prize pools as part of the 10th Anniversary Celebration. From December 11-17, players can accumulate points across eight different divisions, via either low or high volume leaderboards, in a bid to share thousands of dollars in prizes.
For information about how to make the leaderboards go to the Battle of the Planets page, while details of the prizes available can be found at www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/10th-anniversary/botp.

Sunday Storm Special
Don’t forget that this coming weekend will see the $1 million Sunday Storm Special, featuring an $11 buy-in, a $1 million guaranteed prize pool and $100 bounties on the heads of all Team PokerStars members who compete in the tourney.
The tournament takes place on December 11 at 13.30 ET (19.30 CET) and has a guaranteed $150,000 first place prize. Satellite qualifiers into the event are running all week at PokerStars.com. For more information, go to www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/10th-anniversary/storm-special.

Sunday Majors
Last weekend’s $215 buy-in Sunday Warm-Up attracted 3,585 players and generated a prize pool of $717,000. In the end, “raulbcn” from the UK won the tourney and pocketed $83,683.90, although “3591omanyd” from Germany actually won more ($93,000) for second place as a result of a deal which was done when play became three-handed. Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero, from Argentina, came 14th for $3,226.50.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Million, which got under way a few hours later, garnered 6,899 players and a total prize pool of $1,379,800. Walking away with the first prize of $143,666.05 was “traxxart” from Russia, who came from behind heads-up to take the title. A four-way chop was done though, which resulted in second-placed “gabriel171” from Brazil, emerging as the biggest winner with $149,496.62.

EPT Prague
The latest European Poker Tour event is now under way in the Czech capital of Prague. The main event, which began Monday, December 5 and finishes on Saturday, December 10, is a €5,300 tourney that has attracted an EPT Prague record field of 722 players (a huge increase on last year’s 563 players) and generated a prize pool of €3,501,700. Several members of Team PokerStars are vying for the first prize of €750,000, including new World Champion Pius Heinz, former tennis pro Boris Becker, Jonathan Duhamel and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier.
As an additional event, the day before EPT Prague kicked off, PokerStars held a World Record Tournament media party in the Hilton Prague hotel, with several members of Team PokerStars, various members of the media, and other EPT players. PokerStars celebrated setting a new world record for largest ever online poker tournament when 200,000 players competed in the 10th Anniversary event.
For live updates from the EPT Prague event, follow the PokerStars Blog all this week.

PCA 2012
With a month to go until the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure shuffles up for action in the Bahamas, the total number of registered players now stands at 459, with 415 having qualified for a seat in the main event online and another 44 having bought in directly. It puts the prize pool at more than $4.5 million with still scores of online and live qualifiers to go over the coming weeks.
The PCA isn’t just about the No Limit Hold’em action of the main event though, with several mixed games tournaments taking place from January 9-11. The first is a two-day $1,100 H.O.E. event with $25k guaranteed, the second is a two-day $1,100 Omaha 8/Stud 8 tourney also with $25k guaranteed, while the third is a $5,250 8-Game Championship, which also takes place over two days and is sure to attract some of the world’s biggest players.
For a full schedule of the 41 PCA events, check out the PCA website

FPS SunFest Mazagan
The French Poker Series SunFest Mazagan event in Morocco took place last week, and at the end of three days’ play Anas Tadini was crowned champion of the €1,200 main event. The tourney saw 305 players compete for a share of the €320,045 prize pool.
For more information, see the PokerStars Blog at www.pokerstarsblog.com/2011/anas-tadini-wins-fps-sunfest-mazagan-089034.html.

Belgium Poker Series
Next week sees the BPS Grand Final take place at the Casino de Namur, with the €1,700 main event scheduled from December 10-18. That includes four Day 1s and two Day 2s, which should make for a big field of national and local poker players. In total there are 11 events across the nine days, with buy-ins to suit players of every level.
Check out www.belgianpokerseries.com/tournaments/bpsfinal for more information.

Like many successful poker players, Rowsome combines a full-time career with part-time play at the poker tables, working as an occupational therapist in Edmonton, Canada during the day and raking in the cash at the virtual tables at night. Over the past few years ‘talonchick’ has become a ferocious competitor at PokerStars, reaching the mid-stakes levels of the Omaha Hi-Lo cash tables, and achieving some notable success in online tournaments.

Her best result to date is a final-table appearance in a 2011 World Championship of Online Poker $320 8-Game tournament, where she won more than $13,000. She has also final-tabled the PokerStars Women Sunday event five times, and has accrued more than $250,000 in PokerStars’ online tournament winnings.

In the documentary, Rowsome explains how she balances work and poker, saying: “Online poker was an obvious choice for me with the time constraints I faced having a full-time career and a social life… I take great pride in my jobs, whether it’s taking care of patients or representing PokerStars.”

Rowsome also places an emphasis on how much fun poker can be when it’s not a job. She sees poker as a way to afford some of the luxuries in life like purses, jewellery, a car and even down-payments on a house. She’s also proud of the way women are represented on PokerStars, and the special tournaments laid on for them.

“The PokerStars Women’s Sunday is the tournament I make a real effort to get to every week. I love that PokerStars provides a tournament like this and as well offering different incentives to welcome female players to the site,” says Rowsome.

Rowsome’s next big challenge will be playing the PokerStars Canada Cup, live on television at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January 2012, having qualified for the final table. To learn more about ‘talonchick’ check out the short film here on YouTube from Thursday.

PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker site and serves the world’s largest poker community, with more than 49 million registered members. It’s the first choice of the world’s top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else, and with the best security online. More hands have been dealt on the PokerStars download than any other site; that’s over 70 billion hands and more than 450 million tournaments played.

PokerStars.com operates worldwide under license from the Isle of Man government. Recent additions to the PokerStars family include PokerStars.fr, which operates in France under the French government license, as well as PokerStars.it, which operates in Italy under the Italian government license, and PokerStars.ee, which operates in Estonia under the Estonian government license.

PokerStars.com stages some of the biggest online poker tournaments in the world, including the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), and is the official sponsor of some of the biggest live poker tournaments in the world, including the European Poker Tour (EPT), the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

PokerStars.com is also home to a team of sponsored players known as Team PokerStars Pro. This elite group of players travel the world competing in international tournaments. For a complete list, visit the Team PokerStars.com Pro home page.