Responding to the uproar from an assortment of professionals in the poker world, Harrah’s recently announced a major change to the lineup of events for this year’s World Series of Poker. Not only is it a definite concession to the desires of the players but it could lead to one of the richest poker tournaments outside of a World Series Main Event.

Nick Leeson, the man responsible for the collapse of UK’s oldest merchant bank, resurfaced as a professional online poker player for Celebpoker.com.

Cindy Margolis, themost downloaded woman on the Internet, and poker pro Cyndy Violette have joined forces to launch the Cindy Margolis Poker online poker room.

Bluff Magazine, in its January issue, has named the top 20 “Most Influential People in Poker”. Although in their article, the list was not limited to persons. Rather it also included organizations that helped bring poker further into the limelight.

PokerRoom, announced the launch of two separate tournament leaderboards, the Aces of Aces and the Centurion Cup, which ranks and rewards serious players all over the world based on tournament performance.

Spike TV will attempt to put a fresh touch on gambling broadcasts when it premieres “King of Vegas” on January 17th (10pm EST, 9pm Central). The show promises to present the most challenging gambling format that has been seen yet.

UK’s television giant Five has struck partnership with Party Poker. The online poker site will be sponsoring the network’s event-based poker programming.