Was it beginners luck or sheer skill? We may never know. One thing is for sure, though. Someone named Reimer Koester signed up for an account at online poker site Titan Poker on July 31 and ended up with thousands of dollars in cash a mere four days after. Sounds like a fairy tale but [...]

The third largest online poker network in the world was formed on Thursday, with UltimateBet and Absolute Poker combining user bases and features to launch CEREUS.

CEREUS is the result of more than 12 months innovation and development. Absolute Poker and UltimateBet will join the network and retain their unique assets to continue as individual brands, but they will now share more players, more action, more tournaments, incredible new features and massive promotions.

Paul Leggett, Chief Operations Officer of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, said:

Read more on Absolute Poker and UltimateBet launch the third largest online poker network, CEREUS

History will be made this summer with Bodog Poker’s $250K Guaranteed Poker Tournament. It gonna be the largest prize pool tournament ever and it on this Sunday, August 10 at 4pm EST.

A guaranteed $250,000 in total prize money will be awarded, no matter how many people register, and to give players of all skill sets and bankroll sizes the chance to get in on the action, Bodog is running around-the-clock qualifiers starting today for as little as $1, as well as offering a direct buy-in for only $250+$20.

Bodog that guarantees online poker players the absolute best value for their tournament dollars. Every month, Bodog guarantees its players millions of dollars in prize pool money in daily and weekly tournaments, including its popular Sunday $100,000 guaranteed which will be replaced with the $250,000 guaranteed tournament on Aug. 10.

Bodog Poker $250K Guaranteed Poker Tournament Runs This Sunday

Majority of players at the Las Vegas’ World Series of Poker are supportive of Barack Obama and his campaign for the White House.

A season poker player himself, Obama has expressed a desire to regulate and control online casinos, rather than outlaw online gambling. This move gained Obama the support of former WSOP champion Doyle Brunson.

“Poker players have to support Obama,” the former life-long Republican commented on his change in stance. “God help the internet gambling business if McCain does happen to win.”

“In poker you have to put yourself in the shoes of your opponents, get inside their heads and figure out what they’re thinking; what their actions mean; what they would think your actions mean; and reading people’s bluffs.”

Obama’s credentials as a poker player is a good indicator of his leadership skills. Obama was a regular at the low-stakes games — sometimes stud poker, sometimes draw — designed to break up the tedium of long legislative sessions. Poker, beer and cigars were staples; Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers and even the lobbyists who Obama sometimes rails against dealt the cards and placed their bets.

Poker players all-in with Obama’s campaign for the White House

PokerStars officially launched an interactive video portal this week, the PokerStars.tv that features leading edge video-based poker clips and instructional offerings.

PokerStars.tv already boasts numerous clips from several Team PokerStars Pro members, who share their expertise in specific poker hand or poker scenario situations and possible poker strategies.

Now available on the site is an introductory video on the four World Series of Poker bracelet holder and two World Poker Tour Championship titles, Daniel Negreanu, with feature videos on some Team PokerStars Pro members, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, Bill Chen and Dario Minieri.

The site has an extensive search function, which allow users to focus in on such topics as specific hand holdings, to better understand situational plays.

Read more on PokerStars interactive video portal, PokerStars.tv, officially launched this week

Full Tilt Poker unveiled four new high stakes cash game tables on Monday. All four of the tables were obviously suggested by newly signed Patrik Antonius, as he has a reserved seat at all four.

The first of the four tables is a $500/$1000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em table called RailHeaven. You need at least $50,000 just to sit down at this table.

The next is a $2000/$4000 Omaha Hi-Lo Six-Handed table called Patrik. Same thing with this table - $50,000 minimum is the buy-in.

Full Tilt Poker Unveils New High Stakes Cash Game Tables

The European Union opened an investigation into possible U.S. infringement on free trade. European companies complain that, since the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, they have been prevented from operating in a manner permisable to American competitors.

At the time of the passing of the UIGEA, the World Trade Organization ruled against the law as a matter of obstructing the free flow of trade as specified in various agreements. The United States responded by working out deals with the affected countries, including the European Union, Japan, and Canada, returning concessions to these countries in exchange for allowing the gambling block to stand.

The online poker industry as a whole has made a stand. Following the first incident of cheating, online poker rooms and the Kahnawake Gambling Commission, who in the opinion of many poorly mishandled the first case of cheating in poker rooms, are in this newest case of cheating poker players showing a united front.

On January 12th Ultimate Bet learned of a poker player who’s numbers just did not add up. NioNio a player on the popular poker website was showing irregular winnings, some suggested that a player could not have numbers that high unless he was playing with an unfair advantage, perhaps something similar to the case at Absolute Poker where certain players had access to their opponents hole cards.

Nearly two dozen online poker players this week brought a whole new meaning to the term “cheating in online poker” while playing at Europe’s BetFair site.

The online poker website operated by BetFair.com is demanding that users pay back winnings that were a result of a software glitch.

As much as $200,000 was paid out to players of the site’s Texas Hold ‘Em game. A glitch in the system caused players with losing hands to receive cash prizes. When multiple players made an “all in” bet, they all received the award for coming in second place, regardless of how they actually scored.

The glitch made its way around online gambling communities and within hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars was doled out to people with losing hands. Betfair quickly fixed the problem, and then sent out e-mail notices to everyone involved.

The first two operational venues under a white label deal between Kamay Holdings and 888.com have launched under the brands of online poker website LuckyAcePoker.com and online casino website LuckyAceCasino.com.

Elsa Sterckx, a marketing official from the new sites was canvassing possible affiliates this week through the new program Lucky Ace Partners.

In a deal announced in December (see previous Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa reports) the Limassol, Cyprus registered Kamay Holdings was accepted as a white label client by the Gibraltar-based online gambling group, joining other white label operations using 888.com technology such as Tower Torneos in South America, Rileys Poker in the UK and more recently a sports betting site with Rank’s subsidiary Blue Square.