Luckily the pain was short lived as Gedney received a monster $276,979 for meeting the Bad Beat Jackpot payout requirements which was 50% of the full $553,958 paid out to the table. Dobrzanski took $138,489 (25%) with the remaining 7 players at the table netting $19,784 each.

To say that Ivey began the year badly is an understatement, as Poker-King.com reported that he had lost just under $2.1 million and lost $1.1 million in February alone. It was also reported by Poker-King.com that many of Ivey’s losses came when he was playing in heads up matches against poker pro Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro. Ivey recently had his luck change, as it was recently reported by Aintluck.com that he had won some really big pots off LarsLuzak in his big $1 million day. Most of the money that Ivey won came at the expense of Durrrr.

It was reported by HighStakes.com that the big wins from Ivey and the second biggest pot of the night came while playing Pot Limit Omaha heads up against Durrrr. The biggest pot of Ivey’s big night came when Ivey hit on a two-pair having pocket Aces and took home a cool $328,790.

Two teaser trailers of the show have recently been released. The first trailer was uploaded to GSN’s official YouTube channel and the second trailer on the High Stakes Poker Podcast. The first clip shows the new titles of the TV series and after that a poker hand taking place between poker pros Phil Laak and Patrik Antonius. In the hand Laak, aka the Unabomber, bluffs 3 times and then is called out by a lowly pair of 4’s that Antonius is holding.

In the second teaser trailer Peter Eastgate, who is the WSOP 2008 Main Event champion, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan battle it out for a pot where each player has three 6’s. The lineup for season 5 of High Stakes poker includes the Internet players of durrrr, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Dario Minieri.

The LPC is a series of live poker tournaments that will take place at 3 hotels in London between the dates of March 16th and November 11th of this year. The hotels that will host the events are the Westbury Mayfair, the Kensington Close Hotel and Spa, and the Hotel Covent Garden. The events will take place over 7 days along with 2-day high roller events that will have a £10,000 buy-in with some of the largest prize pools this year in Europe.

Matt Robinson, Vice-President of Brand Marketing for 888.com recently stated,

888Poker.com is delighted to have joined forces with the London Poker Circuit and we look forward to delivering a successful land-links partnership. 888Poker.com customers can qualify for these prestigious events through a series of online satellites and it’s just another example of 888Poker.com putting our customers first.

The report stated,

A federal judge has ordered the forfeiture of nearly $10 million of bank account money linked to Bodog, the once-dominant but illegal under U.S. law Internet gambling site, amid indications authorities are making headway in building a criminal case.

The accounts that are in question belong to the company of ZipPayments and its owner Edward Courdy. ZipPayments is a credit card payment processing company an a Catherine C. Blake, who is a United States district court judge, signed an order that would see the U.S. government claim the amount of $9.87 million out of $9.87 million, as the remaining amount of $200,000 would be returned to Courdy.

Forbes has recently suggested that Michael Garone, as well as Courdy, who both had money-laundering charges levied against them in September of last year, may be close of agreeing to a plea bargain, as the charges were only filed through court papers and not from an indictment from a grand jury. The U.S. government is also returning some of the money that was forfeited.

Also, Forbes has stated that the order from judge Blake gives instructions for when the $200,000 has to be returned and Garone and Courdy have not been asked to either post bail or make a court appearance.

John Pappas, executive director of the PPA, stated, “We are humbled by Judge Duffy’s thoughtful decision and applaud the effort put forth by the legal team defending these poker players. The positive language in this ruling comes on heels of other key legal victories for the rights of poker players in Kentucky, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. It’s becoming quite clear the legal community agrees that this great American pastime is a game of predominant skill, not luck, and should not be considered gambling under the law.”

The defendants in the case were charged with card playing in a “house used as a place for gambling” and under state law in South Carolina the term “gaming” also means “gambling.” The PPA made the argument that the Court should adopt other court’s rulings where it was ruled that gambling is seen as games of chance and not skill.

Expert testimony was provided by the PPA, which made a more compelling case that poker is, in fact, a game of skill and making poker decisions involves skill and because of that it is not illegal gambling. The Court in South Carolina found that the testimony given persuaded them into making the decision that poker is a skill game and not one of chance.

The survey asked players the question, “How much do you trust online poker sites?” A press release read, “Just 12.55 percent of respondents were prepared to respond with ‘I trust them, they provide a good service.’ That compared with 36.95 percent who said they ‘mostly trusted them’ with one or two doubts. However 19.45 percent said they mistrusted poker sites, having ‘a lot of doubts’ while 31.05 percent said they did not trust them ‘at all.”

When asked about why they did not trust Internet poker websites, 33.24% stated that they did not believe the cards were random, 32.38% stated that they had worries about personal information and account security, 21.3% stated that had concerns about regulation, and 13% stated they worried about “software bots.”

Also, 51% stated that customer service at these sites was not better than average and that 75% of Internet poker sites used “house players”, even though the sites deny that this takes place.

However, 36.7% of those surveyed still chose the Net as their destination of choice to play at. 57.75% chose house poker games and a minority of only 5.55% stated that they played at casinos or poker clubs.

The inaugural NBA Legends tournament is an 18-hole golf tournament and a Texas Hold ‘em No-Limit poker tournament all rolled into one event. Hall of Fame athletes, celebrities from Hollywood, and pro poker players will be taking part in the event. The event is open to the public and the poker tournament will have big prizes, as well as the chance to win seats to the prestigious WSOP Main Event.

Greg Raymer stated about the event that, “As my third Par and Poker appearance, I’ve enjoyed playing with poker enthusiasts and celebrities alike. I invite the public to join me for a great cause and good times!”

In the 2004 $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold ‘em WSOP Main Event, Raymer won the tournament and won an impressive amount of $5 million for his first-place finish. This win, as well as other high finished in other WSOP events and the British Poker Open, vaulted Raymer to one of the more popular poker professionals the world over.

The first PKR Live took place in November of last year and was a popular event, as poker players came from as far as Canada and Russia order to put a face to an avatar name. The spirit of the event was very high and there were hundreds of positive player comments.

Stacked Magazine Editor Rick Dacey said about last year’s event,

I’ve been to tournaments in Monte Carlo and Las Vegas, the Bahamas and Barcelona, but I’ve never experienced such a sense of goodwill and enjoyment as I did at PKR Live.

PKR Live II participation will be limited to various satellite qualifiers, as well as invited guests. Satellites are currently going on at PKR.com, which allows poker players to win prize packages worth $1,000. These packages include buy-ins to all 3 poker tournaments that take place over the weekend of the event. Also available are $600 “seat only” packages, which give players entry to all of the tournaments at PKR Live II.

Marketing Director at PKR.com Simon Prodger recently stated,

We’re delighted to announce our return to the live arena! PKR Live was great fun to be a part of and showed that PKR has the most vibrant poker community anywhere online. We look forward to providing another 150 of our players with a weekend to remember!

Go Daddy CEO & Founder Bob Parsons recently said,

The popularity of poker has grown thanks in large part to television and the Internet. Being an industry leader for domain names and Web sites, we only sponsor the most exciting events. NBC and Caesars Palace are assembling a top-notch tournament with world-class players and I look forward to seeing some great action.

Slated to appear at this year’s National Heads-Up Poker Championship are some of the top poker professionals, such as last year’s winner Peter Eastgate, who was also last year’s World Series of Poker champion. Other well-known poker players that are to compete are Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, and the legendary Doyle Brunson. TV personality and model Leeann Tweeden will again be the sideline reporter and interviewer and providing commentary for the event will be Craig Hummer and Ali Nejad.

We are using this opportunity to present a picture of Danica Patrick, the ‘GoDaddy Girl’ as she appears in the just out Sports Illustrated.