Many states seem to be lagging behind in terms of passing legislation that would legalize online poker, but Illinois appears that they’re eager to legalize online poker in the state for the added revenues. Most details are still unknown, but what we do know is that the Illinois Lottery will be the only operator to begin with. The Illinois Lottery would be able to partner with a software provider so that they could begin operating as soon as possible.

Cullerton is trying to make Illinois one of the 1st states to legalize online poker and that’s why he decided to add an amendment to another bill rather than introduce a new bill. State legislators in Illinois will be done their current session at the end of May and that means we should find out soon whether online poker could become a reality in Illinois.

Zoom Poker is out of Beta

Zoom Poker at PokerStars is now out of beta. During the beta stage Zoom Poker became the most popular way to play online poker and it has been reported numerous times that 25% of online poker hands are now played on the Zoom Poker client. To celebrate the official launch PokerStars has made Zoom Poker available to Android mobile users at PokerStars Mobile. You can now play Zoom Poker on your mobile, which means you can get a few hands in practically anywhere.

Blaze Poker Launching Soon at Microgaming

It has just been announced that Blaze Poker is about to launch at Microgaming. Blaze Poker is another new “fast-fold” poker game, but this time Microgaming developed the client. Stan James Poker is apparently going to be the 1st poker room to launch the new Blaze Poker game, which is basically identical to other fast-fold poker games like Zoom Poker. If you’re currently playing on the Microgaming Network it shouldn’t be long before Blaze Poker is available at most of the top poker skins.

Many poker rooms have been adding fast poker games to their clients lately and it won’t be long before the majority of online poker games are played on fast folding tables. Poker rooms earn more rake and poker players are able to play more hands in a shorter period of time, so it’s a win-win for everyone. Betsafe Poker is the latest poker room to implement Fast Poker from Relax Gaming, which is another one of the popular fast-folding poker games on the market right now.

How Does the Championship Challenge Work?

During the promotion players will earn 1 random player card every time they earn 10 Party Points although your 1st player card is rewarded to you after earning a mere 5 Party Points. Everyone is allowed to earn up to 100 random player cards daily and there are currently over 3 million player cards to be rewarded during the Championship Challenge promotion. Certain player cards have instant prizes associated with them while other cards are used towards collections that can earn you extra prizes.

The biggest prize is $100,000 and players will only receive this cash prize if they collect each of the 64 player cards. Some of the player cards are extremely rare and it won’t be easy to complete a full set of player cards. Thankfully, there are also other prizes available for collecting certain collections of cards. There are various cash prizes that you can win for collecting the player cards from Group A, Group B, Group C and Group D. You can also win a cash prize for collecting the player cards from a certain team.

Some of the player cards that you can collect during the promotion have instant prizes. For instance, anytime you collect the Poland Goalkeeper card you earn an instant $20. A total of 7 player cards offer instant cash prizes and 7 other player cards will offer players a ticket to a special freeroll. There are a total of 7 freerolls that will run at the end of the promotion and the prize pools in the freerolls vary from $1000 – $10,000. If you signup for party poker rakeback you will still be eligible to earn with this promotion.

Make sure you read over the Championship Challenge promotion page at Party Poker. They list the player cards you need to collect in order to win the different cash prizes. You can also find out what player cards offer instant cash prizes or freerolls by checking out the prize list at Party Poker for this promotion. You can start earning points today and with a bit of luck you’ll be able to add some money to your bankroll without having to do anything except play poker like you usually do.

Earlier this week State Senator Raymond Lesniak stated that online gambling may not become a reality anytime soon in NJ due to the fact that Governor Christie has decided that he may not be for online gambling anymore. Governor Christie has flipped back and forth a few times now on his stance on online gambling. Some people believe that Christie has changed his mind again because the Atlantic City casinos don’t seem onboard with the idea of online gambling.

If you live in New Jersey I would cross your fingers if you want online gambling because it appears like there is still a lot of issues that need to be settled beforehand. New Jersey could become one of the leaders in online gambling in the USA if they can work through the political process, but the longer it takes the longer other states have to pass legislation. Once the bill goes through a full vote we’ll make sure we update players with any news.

WSOP.com Streaming 60 Final Tables in 2012

We just reported that ESPN will have extensive coverage of the 2012 WSOP again and the official WSOP.com site has just stated that they’ll be streaming 60 final tables this year. The final table live streams will be run on a 5-minute delay and players won’t be able to see the hole cards of the players when viewing the live streams due to gaming regulations. If the ESPN isn’t enough WSOP coverage for you this summer make sure you tune into WSOP.com everyday to watch the latest final tables.

Belgium Blacklists European Gambling Sites

A number of the biggest European gambling sites have been blacklisted from operating in Belgium this week. Belgium has been cracking down on sites offering online gambling without a license. There are fines in place for operators that don’t oblige and Belgium players also need to be careful because they can be fined up to €25K for playing on blacklisted sites. A few of the recent brands blacklisted in Belgium include Betfair, William Hill, Stan James, Betsson and several more.

In total there are about 30 operators on the blacklist in Belgium and it’s important if you live in Belgium to stay up to date on where you’re allowed to play. Right now there are only a handful of poker rooms where Belgium players are allowed to play with the best being PokerStars.be.

Two events this year will be aired near-live at the 2012 WSOP on ESPN. The main event final table will be aired with a 15 minute delay on October 30th 2012 at 9PM and the Big One for One Drop will be aired near-live on July 3rd from 3PM – 8PM. The huge $1M buy-in tournament should draw a lot of spectators, as there has never been a tournament with a bigger buy-in. I personally can’t wait to watch the live coverage of the Big One for One Drop, as the playing field is small and there is a huge prize pool.

ESPN will also have 12 weeks of coverage leading up to the final table. The 1st week will cover the WSOP National Championship and the remaining weeks will cover the main event. Lon McEachern and Norman Chad will be providing the commentary plus we’ll see Kara Scott in Vegas providing commentary. Each week ESPN will be airing the WSOP show on Tuesday and the time will either be 8PM – 10PM or 9PM – 11PM most weeks.

PokerStars SCOOP Results

If you haven’t heard yet Viktor “Isildur1” Blom won the 2nd event and 3rd event at the PokerStars SCOOP. Blom won Event #2-M, which was a $215 NLHE Freezeout tournament with a $1M guarantee. Blom won $250K and this was the 1st time that Blom had won a major poker tournament. Blom is famously known for destroying high-limit cash games, but he hasn’t built a reputation for being a great MTT player.

Blom also won event #3 at the PokerStars SCOOP for another $160K. If this is a sign of things to come Blom may be a player to look out for this year at the 2012 WSOP. Shaun Deeb is another big name that won a SCOOP event. Deeb won Event 8-H today and this was his 2nd SCOOP title although I’m sure there will be more in his future. The SCOOP is just heating up at PokerStars, so make sure you try playing in some of the events. You may even get to play against the likes of Blom or other PokerStars Pros.

Several important factors are also still unclear when it comes to the Spanish market. Licensed poker rooms in Spain will need to operate on a DOT.es domain and Spanish players will be segregated from international player pools. What we still don’t know is whether or not international players will be able to join the new Spanish poker rooms. Player liquidity may become a problem like it has in other segregated markets (France) and it’ll be interesting to see whether international players can join or not.

Bwin.Party Inks New US Partnership

Bwin.Party has already signed partnership agreements with Boyd Gaming and MGM, but now the online gambling giant inked a new deal with the United Auburn Indian Community (UAIC) in California. If intrastate online poker is regulated in California the two parties will partner together to operate an online poker room. Bwin.Party will provide the software capabilities while the UAIC will bid on potential online gaming license in California if legislation is passed.

Party Poker has very strong brand awareness in the United States and would become huge if online poker becomes regulated at the federal or state level. Bwin.Party is confident that regulation will happen at either the federal or state level in the USA soon and that’s why they decided to partner with UAIC. Now Bwin.Party has a foot in the door whether online poker is regulated at the state or federal level due to their numerous partnerships within the USA.

Daniel Negreanu Vows to Never Play LHE Even Again

We told you everyone last week about the upcoming Superstar Showdown at PokerStars. On Saturday Daniel Negreanu and his opponent rUaBot both put up $75K and played two tables of LHE at $200/$400 stakes. Negreanu was destroyed by rUaBot, but he also ran very badly throughout the match. At one point Negreanu couldn’t buy a hand and had lost nearly 20 hands in a row. At the end of the match Negreanu vowed to never play LHE HU again on 2+ tables.

Lock Poker will be leaving the Merge Gaming Network, but the move is expected to be seamless. On May 31st Lock Poker will be updating the software and balances will be moved over to the new network at that time. Revolution Gaming will launch on June 1st 2012 according to the press release from Lock Poker. Jennifer Larson (Lock Poker CEO) stated that Lock Poker has outgrown the Merge Network and they needed to make a shift in order to satisfy player needs in the future.

We recently reported that the LockOPS was cancelled by the Merge Network and that could be one of the reasons why Lock has decided to make this big move. Lock Poker stated in their press release today that they’ll be implementing a richer tournament schedule, which could mean that the LockOPS could be coming back this summer. Lock Poker will also be offering rakeback again once the new network opens and the rakeback rates will be even higher than before they had to discontinue rakeback.

Although some of the details are still fuzzy it appears that Cake Poker and Intertops Poker won’t be apart of the re-branding of the Cake Poker Network. The rest of the poker skins on the network are welcome to move to Revolution Gaming and continue offering the same product that they’re currently offering with an enhanced tournament schedule and much more.

Cake Poker stated in their press release that the big reason they sold select assets to Lock Poker was because Cake Poker wants to focus on other markets including Europe, South America and Asia. Cake also stated that they’ll be making an announcement shortly with details on what they plan on doing next.

The good news for poker players at Lock Poker is that there won’t be many changes. Lock Poker runs a standalone cashier and they’ve stated that they’ll continue to run their cashier system. Deposit and withdrawals will be handled the same as they are now and that means that players won’t have to worry about their money. Lock Poker will also be implementing some great features including rakeback and much more. Once more details are released about this deal we’ll make sure we let you know.

EPT Season 9 is going to have a total of eight stops on the tour, but each stop will feature more tournaments. The EPT has been able to scale down the number of stops on the tour and that means players will get to travel less. Some of the events that have been cancelled for EPT Season 9 include the event in Copenhagen, Tallinn, Loutraki and Campione. We’ve posted the entire EPT Season 9 schedule below so make sure you mark your calendars. The 1st event isn’t for a few months, but you should plan early.

EPT Season 9 Schedule

• EPT Barcelona – Aug 15th – Aug 25th 2012 – Main Event Starts on Aug 19th 2012 – €5300 Buy-In
• EPT San Remo – Oct 3rd – Oct 11th 2012 – Main Event Starts on Oct 5th – €5300 Buy-In
• EPT Prague – Dec 5th – Dec 15th 2012 – Main Event Starts on Dec 9th – €5300 Buy-In
• 2013 PCA – Jan 6th – Jan 15th 2013 – Main Event Starts on TBA – €10,300 Buy-In
• EPT Deauville – Jan 3rd – Feb 9th 2013 – Main Event Starts on Feb 3rd – €5300 Buy-In
• EPT London – Mar 6th – Mar 16th 2013 – Main Event Starts on Mar 10th – €5250 Buy-In
• EPT Berlin – Apr 24th – May 4th 2013 – Main Event Starts on Apr 28th – €5300 Buy-In
• EPT Monte Carlo – May 6th – May 15th 2013 – Main Event Starts on May 6th – €10,600 Buy-In

For the 9th season of the EPT each stop on the tour is going to be longer and there will be more tourneys to play in. Most of the stops on the tour will be four roughly 10 days and include multiple tournaments and festivities. Limiting the stops on the tour and playing more poker on each stop is a much better plan moving forward in my opinion. You can only do so much traveling every year and having more than 8-10 stops is too much with the other poker events around the world.

PokerStars Zoom Poker

Zoom Poker has taken over at PokerStars and has quickly become extremely popular. NLHE seems to be the only game available on a constant basis, but other games will pick up steam I’m sure. There was an update to the Zoom Poker client last night and one of the updates was to allow players the ability to play on up to 8 tables. Initially players were limited to playing 6 tables at the same time, but as long as you can keep up with the action you’re allowed to play 8 table simultaneously.

The 1^st major hand on the final table of the EPT Grand Final Main Event was a 3-way pot. Castelluccio raised preflop with K/K and the short stacked Gomez pushed all-in with A/Q off suit. Caprioli woke up with pocket jacks (J/J) and called the all-in as well. By the time the board ran out Castelluccio had a full house and won the massive pot. He took the lead in the tournament and Gomez was the 1^st player to be eliminated. Caprioli was almost wiped out, but managed to stick around and finish in 5^th place.

By the time the action went heads-up it was down to Charania and Lucille Cailly. There was little doubt that Cailly had the crowd support throughout the final table, but Charania pulled off the victory in only a few hands. Both players cut a deal, which left a total of €300,000 in the prize pool for the winner. On the 5^th hand of the heads-up battle Charania had Q/Q while Cailly had A/K and the board didn’t help Cailly, which meant that Mohsin Charania was crowned the 2012 EPT Grand Final Main Event Champ.

2012 EPT Grand Final Main Event Results

1. Mohsin Charania €1,350,000
2. Lucille Cailly €1,050,000
3. Bernard Guigon €545,000
4. Sergio Castelluccio €400,000
5. Rodrigo Caprioli €315,000
6. Michael Dietrich €245,000
7. Clayton Mozdzen €185,000
8. Daniel Gomez €130,000

A total of 665 players took part in the EPT Grand Final Main Event including some of the world’s best poker players. Phil Ivey was one of the players to participate along with other pros such as Daniel Negreanu and Patrik Antonius. The EPT Grand Final ME is easily one of the biggest tournaments in the world and most prestigious poker tournament in Europe.

2013 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific

The World Series of Poker and Crown Casino have joined forces to offer the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) in 2013 from April 4^th – April 15^th 2013. With the poker market growing in Asia and Australia this is a big move for WSOP. It’ll solidify the WSOP as the #1 live poker tournament series in the world. The entire schedule hasn’t been finalized or released yet, but it has been announced that in the first year there will be a total of five tournaments that offer WSOP bracelets.

We’re still waiting to find out whether or not the deal between PokerStars and the US DoJ will go through. Eric Hollreiser who is the head of corporate communications at PokerStars released a brief statement to settle down the rumours. Hollreiser stated that PokerStars is in settlement talks with the US DoJ, but that PokerStars couldn’t release anymore information. I hope this deal doesn’t stall like the last deal, but I don’t think PokerStars would have thrown themselves in the mix if it wasn’t a sure thing.

Change Your Passwords

You may have noticed that the industry’s favourite forum 2+2 was down today. The 2+2 Poker Forum is down right now because a hacker has hacked the website. The hacker has accessed the emails and encrypted passwords of members at the forum and the hacker has shown that he’s able to decrypt the passwords. I know most people don’t use the same password nowadays, but if you happen to use the same password elsewhere you should change your passwords immediately.

There haven’t been any reports yet of the hacker accessing people’s accounts, but it’s better safe than sorry. 2+2 has reached out to members and wants everyone to change their passwords, as passwords at 2+2 have been compromised. 2+2 will remain offline for the time being until the security breach has been fixed.

PokerStars Mobile Now Available in More Countries

PokerStars Mobile is now available in several European countries and PokerStars plans to launch the mobile apps in even more countries in the future. PokerStars is compatible on iOS and Android mobile devices/tablets. Initially PokerStars Mobile was only available in the UK and Italy, but now the mobile client is also available in France, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and a few other countries.

PokerStars also released a play money Android app that PokerStars.net players can use now in numerous countries. PokerStars also said that an iOS app will be released for play money players. It appears that PokerStars is set on going mobile this year and they’ve been making a lot of progress quickly. If they can continue launching their mobile apps in other markets it won’t be long before they takeover the mobile poker rooms that have been open much longer.

Reports have been stating that the rest of the money is payment for charges that have been outstanding against PokerStars and apparently the payment will settle the outstanding charges against Scheinberg. The great news is that if this deal is confirmed it means that players will be repaid their balance in full. As soon as concrete details are released about the deal we’ll make sure we post everything we find out on the blog for everyone.

Laurent Tapie has already confirmed today that the GBT / Full Tilt Poker deal was off the table. Tapie stated that he felt there was “external sabotage over DOJ negotiations” that prevented the deal. GBT was going to purchase Full Tilt for roughly $80M and repay player balances, but the deal has been lagging for months now. According to GBT’s lawyer (Behnam Dayanim) the DoJ wanted player balances paid within 90 days of a deal being finalized, but GBT wasn’t willing to make that happen.

Based on early reports it appears that PokerStars is interested in running Full Tilt Poker as a separate entity. With PokerStars owning FTP it would mean that PokerStars would have a massive market share once FTP picks up again. In the short term this deal is great because the poker players that have been waiting a long time will get paid their Full Tilt Poker balances. In the longer term future outlook some players are concerned that PokerStars will have a monopoly on the industry.

This story is still developing and we’ll update everyone as details are released about the deal. I’m sure it will take a bit of time for details of the deal to emerge, but at least everyone can begin to expect to receive their money. PokerStars has stepped up to the plate by finalizing this deal after over a year has gone by. If this deal is confirmed I’m sure PokerStars will want to open FTP as soon as possible, so that could help speed up the deal and getting repaid.

PokerStars will now also be able to integrate their assets if they wanted. Full Tilt Poker had an amazing software suite and now that PokerStars owns the assets they should be able to upgrade their current platform. By purchasing FTP PokerStars also ensures that a competitor doesn’t scoop up the assets at a discount from the US DoJ.