Not satisfied by their poker haul, the robber then made off with Corkins’ customized 2005 Jeep, Yukon Denali (with Doyle’s Room branding), a white Harley Davidson motorcycle and a bunch of poker chips from popular casinos such as the Bellagio. The thieves were also able to get a credit card in his name by using Corkins’ office phone. In a statement to Las Vegas Channel 8 News, Corkins revealed that his losses were over $100,000 and still climbing.

In an interview, Corkins revealed that he was devastated with the robbery. He also asked the assistance of the poker community to assist in the recovery of the items lost. Since most of the personal items taken are one of a kind, the police are optimistic that the items once sold can be easily traced.

Concerned poker players who have information about the items or the crime itself should contact the Las Vegas Metro Police Department at (702) 828-3111. This should also serve as a lesson to everyone that no one is immune from this sort of crime—even if you’re considered one of the best poker players in the world.

Judith75 was playing in a $0.50/$1 Limit table. Yes, those tables where a $20 pot is considered monstrous. Anyway, Judith 75 found herself with two black nines and joined the flop with Shoulderguy (who had two red Kings) and Hiyall who had Ac-Qc. The flop hit Kc-9h-10c. Shoulderguy and Judith75 now had sets while Hiyall had a straight, a nut flush draw and a royal flush draw.

They say anything can happen in poker. And true enough, ANYTHING just happened.

The turn card brought a Jack of clubs giving Hiyall his royal flush. The river card was a nine of diamonds giving Judith75 quads. Shoulderguy had a King full house but who cares at this point, right? Naturally, the three players started betting like crazy and when the dust settled, the pot stood at a paltry $24 and everyone in the table got richer by thousands of dollars.

When the table was informed that they won the site’s bad beat jackpot (Party Poker’s bad beat jackpot rules states that four eights or higher needed to be beat by a straight flush), the celebrations started. Judith75 lost a $25 pot but she ended up with $354,000, a third of the record $1,013,381.63 pot. Hiyall got a sixth of the prize ($177,000) to add to his memorable $24 pot; and everyone else in the table got a little over $22,000 each.

Well, one thing is for sure, this is one bad beat Judith75 is not going to complain about.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act banned the transfer of funds from financial institutions to any Internet gambling site with a few notable exceptions (such as horse racing and online lotteries). Unfortunately, online poker was not named as one of the exceptions and this caused a lot of strain in the industry. A lot of gambling sites, particularly those that are public, have stopped taking in U.S. players and that resulted in tremendous loss of profit.

Poker buffs will remember Chan Poker as being fronted by the legendary Johnny Chan whose claim to fame includes ten World Series of Poker bracelets (and an energy drink aptly named, “All In”). The site was launched in 2006 to much excitement but the fervor didn’t last very long, thanks to the wet blankets who engineered the legislative event.

The poker site ceased operations on a Thursday, August 21, 2008. The site’s final daily freeroll was held August 19, 2008 and today, the site’s poker clients have been disabled. The site has promised to continue accepting withdrawals for as long as possible but has urged members to submit requests at the soonest possible time.

Chan Poker is actively seeking a partner (also known as another online poker site) who is willing to buy its database of players as well as honor the player’s non-monetary point balances. I think it’s safe to say that Chan Poker’s players should be able to find another Internet poker haven in no time.

It was only natural for PokerStars to train its sights on Kravchenko. He holds the distinction of being the first Russian citizen to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. He finished in third place at the Moscow Millions—a poker tournament that set the record for the largest prize pool in Russia. He also established credibility in the European poker community thanks to a fifth place finish at the 2007 WSOP Europe £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event. Furthermore, as of this year, Kravchenko’s live tournament winnings exceed $2,700,000. With such a poker resume, who wouldn’t want him on their team?

So expect more big things for Alexander Kravchenko as he joins a stellar poker cast headlined by such luminaries as Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Humberto Brenes, and Greg Raymer. The inclusion of Kravchenko, who also happens to be number one on the Russian all-time poker career earnings list, shouldn’t at all be a surprise.

For more information on Team Pokerstars, visit http://www.pokerstars.com

“We’d like to congratulate KILL_BILL for his win against such a talent-rich field that included some of the biggest names from across the online poker world. We have a feeling we’ll be seeing him back atop the leaderboard soon,” said Morris Mohawk Gaming Group CEO Alwyn Morris.

“We’re thrilled by the large number of online players who came out on Sunday to be a part of Bodog history. Many of these players took advantage of our daily satellites and were able to play for the $250,000 prize purse for as little as a dollar.”

The final-table results from the $250k Guaranteed were as follows:

German poker player Koester registered for his very first tournament on Titan Poker last August 3 hoping to get a piece of the prize pie at the $250,000 Guaranteed tournament. With a tough field of almost 2,000 players, Koester was clearly not a favorite to win. Seven and a half hours later, Koester has defied his odds and was playing heads up.

Koester was well on his way to a win but he ended up short when his opponent hit the board hard on his last hand. Still, it was a good payday for the German as he took home a staggering $27,000 for his second place finish.

As expected, Koester was very enthusiastic about his win on his very first tournament at Titan Poker. His quest for a victory may not be far behind as Titan’s $250,000 Guaranteed tournament is held every Sunday night. The tournament has a $200+$15 buy-in but people who are short on cash can win a seat into the guaranteed tournament through satellites.

Titan poker also has tournaments that send players to events all over the world including the European Poker Tour and Aussie Millions. In September, Titan will increase its pay-out (already over $16 million every month) with a $2.5 million guaranteed tournament.

The poker pros set to make an appearance are some of the best and most colorful personalities in the game. Scheduled to play are Phil Hellmuth, Dave Ulliot, Tony G, Jamie Gold, Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Townsend, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Jennifer Tilly, Andrew Feldman, Sammy “Any Two” George, and Robert Williamson III.

The third game is going to be even more tasking for the seasoned veterans. While the first two Big Games were held for 24 hours, this year, the Big Game will run for 36 hours. “The Poker Den has come a long way since we started back in the summer of 2005,” noted Eddie Hearn, head of online gaming at Matchroom Sport. “The Big Game has been such a huge success, and the two series so far have attracted the best players in the world.”

You can be sure you’ll see some great poker action since the stakes are high. Players will sit down with either $10,000 or $20,000 and deal with $25-$50 blind levels. As usual, there will be a lot of straddling, guaranteeing a lot of action. Players are free to leave the table at any time.

The show will be filmed September 30 and October 1; and will be shown on Channel 5 in the U.K. next year. Commenter Jesse May will be present during the entire duration of the event. To learn more about the cash game, go to www.matchroompoker.com.

Unfortunately for Natalie, who happens to be the sister of 2005 European Poker Tour winner Mark Teltscher, after being faced with overwhelming evidence of her wrong-doing, she had no choice but to drop the charges. Teltscher admitted during court proceedings that she never played in the online event but instead hired an “agent” to play on her behalf. The agent is said to have used “TheV0id” and several other accounts in an all-out multi-accounting effort to clinch the championship. To add drama and mystery to this already sordid tale, the agent in question was never officially named.

So what happened to the prize money? The full prize was awarded to the runner-up “ka$ino”. The other poker players who made it in the money were also bumped up on the pay scale. Wondering what happens to people who file frivolous law suits and then drop them? You should know that Teltscher wasn’t left unscathed. To make up for the wrong she’s done, she agreed to pay a sum of PokerStars’ legal fees. Well, at least the lawyers are getting a part of the action.

Naturally, PokerStars is pleased with Teltscher’s decision. In a press statement, PokerStars states, “The decision of Ms Teltscher to withdraw her claim fully vindicates
PokerStars’ decision to disqualify her from the tournament and subsequently defend the claim, actions which were taken in order to protect the integrity of the games on offer at PokerStars.”

The LAPT Punte del Este, which kicked off last August 7, attracted a total of 351 players. It was a $2,500 buy-in tournament and the total prize pool exceeded $850,000. This meant that the Spaniard Espinar took home a very respectable $241,735. This guy only started in late 2007? This is the stuff poker dreams are made of.

Espinar was third in chips coming into the final table but he soon emerged on top after eliminating Paulo Cesar Ribeiro and Jose Perez in quick succession. Espinar’s luck seemed unbeatable early in the game when he hit quads to bust Ribeiro and dealt Perez with an ugly bad beat after his A-J won against Perez’s pocket aces.

When the dust settled, it was Espinar and Alex Brenes left standing with Espinar holding a slight chip advantage. Heads up play lasted for several hours with both players choosing to play cautious. Unfortunately for Brenes, he ended up crippled after a hand involving A-10 and A-9. In an effort to double up, Brenes pushed in desperation with an A-10 but it was Espinar’s day when he hit the flop hard with his K-3. Brenes had to be satisfied with 2nd place and $127,675.

Lisandro Gallo finished in 3rd place for $93,630 while Alexandre Gomes came in at fourth place for $68,100. Other poker notables who made ITM at the LAPT Punte del Este were Alex Brenes’ popular brother, Humberto Brenes, who cashed in at 20th place and Vanessa Rousso who displayed a strong showing by coming in 10th.

With such a monstrous field, did the online poker wizards stand a chance? Once again proving that poker is a game of skill, online phenoms Andy McLEOD and Zach “nofingclue11” Clark emerged as chip leaders going into the final table despite the sheer number of poker wannabes in their midst. Unfortunately for both, despite their strong showings, Andy McLEOD and nofingclue11 ended up in 4th and 5th place respectively. Hey, don’t feel too bad for them. That was $75,879.00 for 4th place and a very respectable $59,017.00 for 5th.

The final three saw RProps, betofetus and Fred_Brink battling for glory with Fred_Brink dead last with only 13,553 in chips. The three discussed a possible deal and luckily for Fred_Brink, the deal was never agreed upon. With RProps having 43,391,921 in chips and betofetus having 27,284,169, Fred_Brink seemed to be well on his way out. But Fred_Brink doubled up against RProps and it was RProps who was out in third place with $93,584.10 burning a hole in his pocket.

Betofetus had a slight chip advantage over Fred_Brink during heads-up play and this went on for 51 hands. But Fred_Brink won a 70-million chip pot in hand 52 with a bottom set and the tournament ended four hands later with Fred_Brink sealing a thrilling come-from-behind victory. Betofetus still goes home with a $137,425.30 payday. Not bad for a day’s work at the poker tables.

For more information on the Sunday Million, visit http://www.pokerstars.com.