Recent events surrounding the US government and online poker industry have led many to believe that there simply is no hope left for the legalization of online poker in this country. But in reality, it could be just the push that American online poker players needed to force the issue into the senate in such a manner as to finally establish, one way or another, the legalities of internet poker in the US.

On April 15, 2011, now universally recognized as the ‘Black Friday’ of online poker, the largest poker sites facing the US market were effectively shut down by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) seized the domain names of PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, Absolute Poker.com and UB.com.

If you’ve been following the online poker world for a few years now, you likely remember a major headline story that ended with professional poker player, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, being banned from the online poker site Full Tilt. It was an unconscionable scandal four years ago, so why is Full Tilt suddenly changing their minds?

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It’s Valentine’s Day, and love is in the air, but it’s the love of money that prompts this writer to pen today’s blog. I’m talking specifically about money lost to an unknown online poker player by a regular face on the high-stakes virtual felt.

David 'Zanderfish' Saab, Robert 'remo_04' Alan Remeeus and Darren Francis Hughes are members of an internationally known group of gamblers known as the ‘Saab Squad’. While they are traditionally famed as elite blackjack players, poker players, casino hustlers and sports handicappers, a new light has shone down on their names in Australia this week.

An online dating fraud was uncovered recently, and oddly enough, it involves online poker, Facebook and a particularly handsome deceased soldier’s photograph.  Apparently a man by the assumed name of Dylan Sorvino was meeting women on Facebook by using the strikingly good looking photo of the dead soldier in uniform, then playing online poker with them while getting to know them better over the internet.

What are your favorite things about playing poker over the internet? Is it the variety of poker games; the chance to play with such a versatile crowd; the extensive selection of tournaments? Sure, these are all great qualities, but if given a choice, the number one answer will forever be free cash.

Titan Poker, the pride and joy of the iPoker Network, has reinstated its MT3 Multi-Table Tournament promotion. The new Tournament Race is awarding $150,000 in prizes that include WSOP Experience prize packages for the top competitors. Beginning February 1, 2011, members of Titan Poker will have another chance to participate in the phenomenally popular MT3 Tournament Races at the online poker room. The promotion will run through the end of May.

Experienced poker players are well aware of the importance of calculating the odds, knowing your outs and being able to make a value bet at any given time. For novice online poker players, however, it is a concept that can take some time to use effectively.

For the last few weeks, members of the leading online poker site Party Poker have had access to a brand new card game called Double Hold’em. The game was in beta testing mode, so to speak, available only for practice play, but was just recently introduced to the online poker room’s real money poker tables.

Imagine being seated at a poker table, playing in a tournament where you’ve spent hours protecting your chip stack, waiting for the perfect hand to make your move. That hand finally comes, and just as you prepare to push your stack, or a substantial part of it into the pot, the lights go out.

For more than four years, proponents of online poker in the United States have argued the legality of playing real money poker over the internet. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) does not specifically criminalize the activity, but rather the responsibility of financial institutions to prevent transactions between online poker sites and US citizens.

Double your pleasure, double your fun, double your prize pool at Full Tilt Poker! The world’s second largest online poker room is launching a week-long promotion that any internet poker fan can truly appreciate.

The UBOC (Ultimate Bet Online Championship) has always been a thing of wonder for online poker players, awarding millions in guaranteed jackpots over a multitude of events. This weekend, the UBOC poker tournament will offer something members of the online poker room have never seen before – a $750,000 GTD High Roller NL Hold’em Deep Stack event.

Two major online gambling groups have just launched new online poker apps designed for the Apple iPhone. Bwin, developer of online poker and sports betting opportunities, released its iPhone poker app last week, while Microgaming, the world’s leading online casino software developer, unveiled its iPhone poker app just yesterday.

Andrew “Foucault” Brokos is a professional poker player who focuses most of his intention towards online cash games. Over the last few weeks, he has drawn attention to his blog by alluding to a big announcement, but it wasn’t until today that he finally let the cat out of the bag. The celebrated online poker player finally revealed that he will be joining Team PokerStars Online throughout 2011.

Chris “moorman1” Moorman has been attracting the attention of the online poker world since he was raised to the position of one of the elite Brunson 10 back in September of 2009. Doyle’s choice was clearly the right one as the young UK poker pro just scooped up a record breaking 11th Triple Crown victory playing online poker.

If you’re an avid poker player, whether it be online, at home or in a live casino poker room, chances are you have suffered from at least one emotionally devastating bad beat. It can be enough to make a player question their entire poker strategy, or even whether they should be playing poker at all. But what if bad beats didn’t exist in poker?

After a lengthy period of speculation as to who belonged to the online poker nickname Isildur1, Viktor Blom has finally admitted his association with the moniker. Not many were surprised by the confession, but the Swede may have a twinge of regret now that the government is aware his alter-ego.

Many of us used to gather round the kitchen table and play poker with our best buds, but lives can become hectic. We get married, we have children, time seems to slip away and those delightful, good natured home games become a thing of the past. But not anymore…

PokerStars made exceptionally bold headlines recently when the world’s largest online poker room signed the likes of Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in December of 2010, but the poker room didn’t stop there. 2011 is a brand new year, and with it comes additional Team PokerStars Pros, including the most recent signing of Jonathan Duhamel.

Full Tilt Poker has spent the last seven years innovating the online poker industry. The second largest poker site in the world, Full Tilt has introduced a number of popular ways to play the game, including cashout tournaments and Matrix sit’n’gos. Their latest advancement, known as multi-entry poker tournaments, is just another prime example of their superiority in the business.

Full Tilt Poker has for years been the biggest online poker room in terms of signing pro poker players. PokerStars has been the most vigorous rival in that department, thus the acquisition of Isildur1 – recently confirmed to be 20 year old Swedish poker pro Viktor Blom – has left Full Tilt Poker with a bit of a void to fill.

While many have suspected the identity of the illusive Isildur1, an exceptional online poker player whose bankroll fluctuates by the millions, confirmation of his identity has caused great waves in the online poker community. At last, we know for certain, Isildur1 is, in fact, Viktor Blom.

The online gambling industry is a very competitive one, consisting of nearly 2,400 operators, all contending for online casino, poker, bingo and sports betting enthusiasts from every corner of the globe. But this latest attempt at customer acquisition went far beyond the boundaries of legal campaigning.

Just one week after pro poker players Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke both ended their sponsorship contracts with UB.com, Full Tilt Poker has already had a sit down with the ‘Poker Brat’ to discuss possible terms of a new contract with the top leading poker room.

The United States Department of Justice is continuing to magnify its stance against illegal online gambling, this time focusing on the state of Washington, where internet gambling is officially criminalized by state law. The DOJ seized about $8 million from Washington financial institutions; money said to be filtering through online payment processors for the purpose of online gambling.

Microsoft has been in the development stages of a new online poker tournament game that will be available on Xbox Live sometime in spring of 2011. Set to replace the mildly successful “1 vs 100” live online gaming experience, players will soon be able to participate in real live poker tournaments on their Xbox.

As the November Nine dwindled its way down to the final heads-up showdown between Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener – a rigorous battle in which Duhamel finally won the 2010 WSOP Championship Bracelet – there were other festivities taking place. The Poker Hall of Fame was preparing to induct its latest legendary poker players into the esteemed hall of fame.

Every December, Card Player Magazine takes a little extra time out of their busy schedule to mull over the accomplishments of all poker players over the last 12 months. One of those players – the one who stands out the most – is awarded the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year Award.

The new-gen online poker site PKR was proud to announce the signing of its first German professional poker player, Sascha 'locodice' Walter, this week. At 25 years of age, hailing from Stuttgart, Germany, Walter is the latest member of Team PKR Pro.

PokerStars announced just recently that the online poker room intends to change its VIP Club program details for the coming 2011 year. The world’s largest online poker site, this could potentially affect thousands upon thousands of users, which has a lot of eyebrows raised in waiting for the new VIP guidelines.

The French online gambling market has been expanding greatly since deciding to legalize and regulate the industry. The latest addition to this growing market is Titan Poker, the pride and joy of the iPoker Network.

Peter Eastgate, winner of the 2008 World Series of Poker Championship, shocked the world last summer when he announced his untimely retirement from an intensely successful professional poker career. He did it again last week when he decided to auction off his 2008 WSOP Championship Bracelet on eBay.com.

Ladbrokes, the UK's largest bookmaker, revealed its earnings for the third quarter and realized a 128% increase in revenue from last year’s Q3 reports, a fantastic rating considering its overall progress as of late. Ladbrokes attributed the overwhelming swell to “higher net revenue performance and lower operating costs.

The online poker industry has become fiercely competitive of late, not that it wasn’t always competitive before, but it seems all of the major online poker rooms are vying for licenses in once restricted or isolated territories. The most recent regional penetration comes in the form of a sister site to Party Poker as its parent company, PartyGaming, just received a license to legally operate in Venezuela.

Poker pros are known to cash in big and drop massive chunks of change in a very short amount of time. It is the nature of their profession as high rolling gamblers. The best poker pros win more often than they lose, but this week, one ill-fated green-felt specialist suffered a tremendous downswing that cost him $1.5 million – in a single week!

Want to be a part of the World Poker Tour’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic come this December? Want to get there without spending a single dime out of pocket? UB.net is offering just such an opportunity via its new Freeroll Series, dangling a $12,000 WPT prize package at the end of the rope.

It was a long and fortuitous weekend for online poker players, including some well known poker pros, as the biggest online poker tournaments brought sizeable profits to their wallets. A multitude of poker pros finished deep in the money at the largest online poker tournaments of the holiday weekend.

According to a recent press release from leading online poker network Cake this week, the network has incorporated online blackjack tournaments into its current menu of gaming opportunities, increasing the value for players exponentially.

PokerStars has been the world’s largest online poker room for several years running, and the online poker site only continues to see more rapid growth. The latest expansion for PokerStars comes in the way of a new geographical license obtained in Estonia.

Since the United States government imposed the UIGEA in 2006, land-based casinos have, for the most part, held a strong stance against legalizing any form of online gambling in the US. Four years later, that attitude seems to be turning around as more and more casinos would like to integrate at least online poker into their current commodities.

A new bill was recently passed in the state of Washington that forced PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room, to discontinue acceptance of its Washington based poker players. What was once considered the most liberal of all poker sites is now being watched with a wary eye as industry analysts wonder whether other states will incorporate similar laws.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan always seems to be making the headlines in online poker industry news, and he’s done it again this past Sunday, making up for any losses suffered in London in recent weeks by racking up $1.5 million on the cash tables at Full Tilt Poker.

Industry leading online poker room PokerStars finally wrapped up its special Lamborghini Freeroll competition over the weekend, awarding the breathtaking Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 to Brazilian poker player “marciocid”.