PKR TIPS

2010 July 30, Elaine Chaivarlis

Your weekly grind is over. Kick off your shoes, fire up an poker table or two on your favorite online poker site, and check out the day’s top stories. Taking you into the weekend, PokerStars is launching a women’s poker league, the World Poker Tour is searching for the poker version of Simon Cowell, and more.

In Case You Missed It

The PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour is gearing up for its Florianopolis (Brazil) Stop. In the latest PokerNews Jet Set, Lynn Gilmartin gives you a little scoop on what to expect if you’re headed to Brazil.

Wondering what’s going on in the gaming world? Inside Gaming has the scoop on the PartyGaming merger with Bwin, and more.

Does Mark Vos think Mel Gibson is more intimidating than Phil Ivey? Off the Felt has the answer.

Do You Have What it Takes?

Ever watch American Idol and think, man, I can be just as opinionated and snarky as Simon Cowell? OK, maybe that’s just us, but if we just planted that little thought in your head, then you’ll want to keep reading. The World Poker Tour has changed things up a bit for its ninth season, you remember, Kimberly Lansing, the Royal Flush Girls, etc. Well, a new on-air segment has been added called “The Raw Deal,” and it needs a host.

Brutally honest, opinionated, fearless, and loves poker. These are just some of the traits you’ll need to have to fill this spot. Think you have what it takes? You can audition in person at The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles on August 19 from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. PST or you can submit a video online that will be voted on by fans. You have until August 15 at 11:59 p.m. PST to come up with your best shot.

Head on over to WorldPokerTour.com to find out more.

PokerStars Women’s Poker League

Remember when all the men dressed up like women, and the hullabaloo it caused at the Ladies Event at this year’s World Series of Poker? That’s certainly not deterring PokerStars from starting a women’s poker league. Sorry boys, but it looks like your “protest” didn’t make too much of an impact.

The PokerStars Women’s Poker League will run until the end of the year, with points being awarded. The top earners monthly, and at the end of the year, they will receive prizes, cash, and event packages. The way to get the points is to play the two tournaments that will run daily, one at 13:10 EDT and the other at 21:10 EDT.

Ladies, you’ll need a PokerStars account to play, so sign up for one and find out more about the Women’s Poker League here.

Slots on the Farm?

With the passage of Barney Frank’s bill in the House Financial Services Committee, everyone is hotly anticipating the legalization of online gambling in the U.S., and we’re not talking just online poker sites and online casinos; you could very well see social gaming companies venture into the world of online gambling too.

Zynga, a company that hosts a play-money poker app on Facebook doesn’t seem opposed to the idea according to a quote from the Business Insider saying a “source close to Zynga” as saying that the company “would be excited to move into real-money poker given the opportunity.”

The World Series of Poker has also launched a Facebook app. Who’s to say that, or even Farmville, won’t head in the real-money direction when all is said and done.

The Games.com Blog has more.

Great Idea – Not

And in our not-too-smart pick of the week, two men were hanging out having a brewski (or two, and you’ll see why we said this after you keep reading), and playing poker in Fort Mill, S.C., when one of them decided to show off his Beretta. Maybe not such a good idea. His friend, thinking the gun wasn’t loaded, pulled the trigger. Fortunately, this story doesn’t have the ending it could have. The bullet went through the wall and into a neighbor’s townhouse.

No one was injured, but the neighbor, who was upstairs at the time, heard the noise and went to check it out. Upon getting downstairs, she found a gash in her hardwood floor and a bullet hole in the drywall. Here’s an idea: drink, play poker, take your friends’ money, but don’t bring out the semiautomatics.

Read more here.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and be sure to add us on Facebook.

2010 July 29, Elaine Chaivarlis

PartyGaming and Bwin have announced a merger, which would create the largest publicly traded online gambling company. On top of that, Beth Shak is apparently going to be on Millionaire Matchmaker. And it’s only Thursday.

In Case You Missed It

We reminded you, but we’re sure some of you didn’t heed our advice when we said, “Set your DVR for ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker.” No big deal, we watched it, and recapped it. Mizrachi Grinds to a Win in $50,000 Player’s Championship has more.

Usually, Full Tilt Poker houses the high-stakes games online. This week, however, there was a bit more high-stakes action on PokerStars than normal. The Online Railbird Report will keep you up-to-date on who’s up and who’s down this week.

What do you do with small pairs early in a tournament in early position? We sat down with Christian Harder recently to get his General Guidelines on Small Pairs.

Huge Party

The biggest publicly traded online gaming company in the world. That is what will be created in the reverse takeover of Bwin by PartyGaming. The merger is valued at about $1.76 billion.

“From an industrial point of view this is both an offensive and a defensive move,” Gianmarco Bonacina, an analyst with Equita SIM SpA in Milan said. “In Europe, Bwin and PartyGaming are losing market share in poker versus Pokerstars and Fulltilt, so the combination will protect them. In the U.S., the move is offensive. They want to attack that market and are in a better position if they combine.”

The merged company, which had reported sales of 682 million euros, will be 51.6 percent owned by Bwin with the rest in PartyGaming’s control. Although Bwin shareholders will have a majority stake, all of Bwin’s assets and liabilities will be transferred to PartyGaming. The company is positioning itself for when markets such as the U.S. open up. “We will immediately be a leader in these markets as they open up,” PartyGaming Chief Executive Officer Jim Ryan told reporters on a conference call.

Bloomberg.com has more.

Set Up

Although Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Phil Hellmuth weren’t on Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker looking for love, it seems that one poker player is enlisting the help of Patti Stanger to do just that. Filming for the next season of Millionaire Matchmaker is under way in New York City and Beth Shak will be one of the hopefuls. You can catch the show when it returns in the fall.

The New York Post has more.

UBOC 5

The UB Online Championship is set to kick off August 18 and run through August 29. Twenty events are on the UBOC5 schedule, with one featuring a $1 million guarantee.

UB is running satellites to get you into the events cheaply. There are also three separate guaranteed super satellites with 40 seats to be given away for the UBOC5 Main Event. The first one of these is Sunday, August 1 at 20:05 EDT.

UB is offering you plenty of ways to get in on the action, so sign up for an account today!

New to the Team

CardRunners has a new instructor on its roster and with that, comes a new Full Tilt Red Pro. Andreas “Skjervøy” Torbergsen, a pot-limit Omaha master from Norway has signed on and will be making high-stakes PLO videos for the CardRunners members.

“When asking around the poker community about the best PLO players in the world, Andreas’s name consistently came up as someone we need to have at CardRunners. He represents the first pro from outside North America on Team CardRunners as well as our first team member who exclusively plays PLO,” founder of CardRunners Taylor Caby said.

Torbergsen’s first video will be released July 30. Head on over to CardRunners for more.

Not Just Any Promo – Win a Lambo

Vanessa Rousso has one, but she had to buy hers outright. Why not get your own, too; it won’t cost you nearly half as much. PokerStars is running a new promotion whereby one player will end up becoming the proud owner of a Lamborghini Gallardo.

This promotion has already begun and is running daily through September 25. Every hour, PokerStars will run a freeroll that will see the top 18 players win a seat into the Weekly Final, which plays out on Sundays through September 25. On top of the freerolls every hour, there are also a $1.10 and an $11 satellite running every two hours in which the top 27 players will win entry into the Weekly Finals.

The top 2,000 of the Weekly Final will win seats into the Grand Final where they will play for the Lambo. The Grand Final will be held on October 3 at 14:30 EST.

Want to learn more? Head on over to PokerStars, but how about signing up for an account first. You can’t get the car without one.

2010 July 28, Elaine Chaivarlis

In tonight’s Nightly Turbo we’ve got the scoop on Bruce Buffer showing off his poker skills at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the World Series of Poker has launched a Facebook app, and more.

In Case You Missed It

PartyPoker and Matchroom Sport have announced the dates of the PartyPoker World Open VI. Click this for more. You didn’t think we’d leave you hanging did you?

Looking for a way to build your online bankroll? Freerolls are one way. Check this out for more.

Wondering how Jason Mercier is curing his World Series of Poker hangover? We talked to him recently and got his predictions for the November Nine, among other things. Read it here.

It’s Time!

Bruce Buffer is showing off his skills on the felt. He recently opened his own poker room inside the Luxor in Las Vegas, and on Tuesday, he won the Grand Slam of Poker Main Event at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. The $200+$25 buy-in tournament saw 1,484 players enter, creating a $286,600 prize pool.

Buffer took home $75,000 for his efforts, which according to his Twitter, ended at 5:30 a.m.

Heavy.com has more.

WSOP Facebook App – Like

While your friends are picking tomatoes while playing Farmville on Facebook, you can pick off your opponents on the felt with the World Series of Poker’s new game.

The game lets players compete against their friends and players from around the world in play-money ring games, as well as tournaments. Players will also have the opportunity to win trips to Las Vegas as well as seats to WSOP events.

Check out the App here.

Eugene Todd Bro

Eugene Todd has launched his own website and will be bringing us his own little Flip Cam shows. During the 2010 World Series of Poker, his “blogfessionals” were posted on PokerRoad. The shows are raw and funny, as Todd doesn’t exactly hold anything back.

Also on EugeneToddBro.com, is a tips section, which doesn’t have anything yet, but we’re sure will house some gems. You can also “Ask Eugene,” and he’ll be blogging and might even start up a podcast.

For more, head on over to EugeneToddBro.com.

888 in 3D

888poker got a makeover. Its 3D software has officially launched and will give players a totally new playing experience. The new software offers the first web-based 3D poker experience, user friendly table layouts, new graphics and avatars, and a personalized lobby.

The 888poker Rewards Store has also launched, giving players the opportunity to redeem their points for a myriad of things.

Want to play in 3D? Sign up for an 888poker account today.

I’m Late, I’m Late, for a Very Important….

On his way to play in the $1,350 buy-in Main Event of the Heartland Poker Tour at the Majestic Star Casino and Hotel in Indiana, Paul Davis made a pit stop at a restaurant for a job interview he had lined up. The interview wasn’t as short as Davis would have liked, causing him to almost miss the tournament. “I was so distracted, I think I might have blown the interview,” he said.

Luckily, he didn’t miss the tournament, and luckily his focus paid off. Davis bested the 396 person field and went home with $140,184. “I won’t feel as bad now if I don’t get the job,” Davis said after winning.

Wonder if he took the job after all? HeartlandPokerTour.com has the rest of the results.

Following us on Twitter is a really good idea. Another good idea? Facebook.

2010 July 27, Elaine Chaivarlis

What’s in the lineup for tonight’s Nightly Turbo? Poker Table Ratings has discovered an issue on the Cake Poker Network, the ESPN Inside Deal team is bringing you another episode, this time, David Williams joins them, and we’ve got a little eye candy for you, courtesy of Heavy.com.

In Case You Missed It

The Las Vegas poker scene has calmed down a bit since the 2010 World Series of Poker ended, but Matt Savage and the Hard Rock Poker Lounge are bringing you a series that is sure to help you detox from the seven-week stretch that was the WSOP. The Vegas Grinder has the scoop on that and what else is going on in the Las Vegas card rooms.

We’re a little over halfway through the year, and so much has already happened in poker this year that it’s tough to say what is coming next. PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis does his best at fortune telling and brings you his Five Predictions for the remainder of the year.

Inside Deal

Laura Lane, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman are back in Bristol and bringing you the latest episode of ESPN’s Inside Deal. David Williams joins them, and they quartet discuss Williams’ new sponsorship, Internet gambling legislation, and the 2010 World Series of Poker.

We know we reminded you yesterday, but we’re nice so we’re going to remind you again. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Taking the Cake

According to a recent report on PokerTableRatings, a security flaw has been found on the Cake Poker Network. It is almost the same flaw as the one found on the Cereus Network, in which players’ accounts and hole cards were vulnerable to theft.

The PokerTableRatings sleuths have embedded a video of them successfully stealing hole cards as they were dealt. They’ve been able to steal passwords and user names from multiple Cake Network skins.

There are a few differences between this security risk and the Cereus Network risk and you can read up on it all at PokerTableRatings.com.

Cake Poker Cardroom Manager Lee Jones posted a response on TwoPlusTwo about the issue.

“Sure, when the issue came up in May, I asked our software management team. They told me that we were more secure than Cereus. When this all came to light a few hours ago and they got down into the actual code, it turned out they were wrong (as one of the senior managers just admitted to me)…I owe the entire Cake poker community an apology: I am very very sorry.”

Read the entire statement here and Lee answers questions from concerned community members in this thread.

Online Poker on the French Front

Full Tilt Poker is one of the latest online poker sites to be approved for a license to operate in France. Including Full Tilt, nine online gaming operators were granted licenses. PKR, land-based casino Barrière, AD Astra and Full Fun were the poker sites granted licenses, the rest were sports and horse betting. With the nine licenses that were just granted, the total issued by the French regulator ARJEL comes to 27.

Read more about it at EGRMagazine.com.

Commerce Million Dollar Tournament

The Matt Savage hosted Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament at the Commerce Casino has concluded and bragging rights go to Richard Bakovic from San Pedro, Calif.

Bakovic bested a field of 3,300 and took home $173,500. The $335 buy-in tournament had five starting days, giving players the opportunity to re-enter if they went busto. On the sixth day, the top 27 of each field began to play down to a winner. “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Nam Le, and “Miami” John Cernuto, were among the 315 players that cashed.

Check out the results at CommerceCasino.com.

Eye Candy

You already know that we like lists. We’re not the only ones though. The guys over at Heavy.com do, too. They broke down their picks for the 20 Hottest Sports Reporters. Hot chicks covering sports? Is there anything else you guys could ask for?

ESPN Inside Deal’s Laura Lane comes in at number 10 on the list, while Poker After Dark’s Leeann Tweeden comes in at number 20.

Is your favorite sports anchor on the list? You’ll have to head on over to Heavy.com to find out.

2010 July 27, Elaine Chaivarlis

What’s in the lineup for tonight’s Nightly Turbo? Poker Table Ratings has discovered an issue on the Cake Poker Network, the ESPN Inside Deal team is bringing you another episode, this time, David Williams joins them, and we’ve got a little eye candy for you, courtesy of Heavy.com.

In Case You Missed It

The Las Vegas poker scene has calmed down a bit since the 2010 World Series of Poker ended, but Matt Savage and the Hard Rock Poker Lounge are bringing you a series that is sure to help you detox from the seven-week stretch that was the WSOP. The Vegas Grinder has the scoop on that and what else is going on in the Las Vegas card rooms.

We’re a little over halfway through the year, and so much has already happened in poker this year that it’s tough to say what is coming next. PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis does his best at fortune telling and brings you his Five Predictions for the remainder of the year.

Inside Deal

Laura Lane, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman are back in Bristol and bringing you the latest episode of ESPN’s Inside Deal. David Williams joins them, and they quartet discuss Williams’ new sponsorship, Internet gambling legislation, and the 2010 World Series of Poker.

We know we reminded you yesterday, but we’re nice so we’re going to remind you again. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Taking the Cake

According to a recent report on PokerTableRatings, a security flaw has been found on the Cake Poker Network. It is almost the same flaw as the one found on the Cereus Network, in which players’ accounts and hole cards were vulnerable to theft.

The PokerTableRatings sleuths have embedded a video of them successfully stealing hole cards as they were dealt. They’ve been able to steal passwords and user names from multiple Cake Network skins.

There are a few differences between this security risk and the Cereus Network risk and you can read up on it all at PokerTableRatings.com.

Cake Poker Cardroom Manager Lee Jones posted a response on TwoPlusTwo about the issue.

“Sure, when the issue came up in May, I asked our software management team. They told me that we were more secure than Cereus. When this all came to light a few hours ago and they got down into the actual code, it turned out they were wrong (as one of the senior managers just admitted to me)…I owe the entire Cake poker community an apology: I am very very sorry.”

Read the entire statement here and Lee answers questions from concerned community members in this thread.

Online Poker on the French Front

Full Tilt Poker is one of the latest online poker sites to be approved for a license to operate in France. Including Full Tilt, nine online gaming operators were granted licenses. PKR, land-based casino Barrière, AD Astra and Full Fun were the poker sites granted licenses, the rest were sports and horse betting. With the nine licenses that were just granted, the total issued by the French regulator ARJEL comes to 27.

Read more about it at EGRMagazine.com.

Commerce Million Dollar Tournament

The Matt Savage hosted Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament at the Commerce Casino has concluded and bragging rights go to Richard Bakovic from San Pedro, Calif.

Bakovic bested a field of 3,300 and took home $173,500. The $335 buy-in tournament had five starting days, giving players the opportunity to re-enter if they went busto. On the sixth day, the top 27 of each field began to play down to a winner. “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Nam Le, and “Miami” John Cernuto, were among the 315 players that cashed.

Check out the results at CommerceCasino.com.

Eye Candy

You already know that we like lists. We’re not the only ones though. The guys over at Heavy.com do, too. They broke down their picks for the 20 Hottest Sports Reporters. Hot chicks covering sports? Is there anything else you guys could ask for?

ESPN Inside Deal’s Laura Lane comes in at number 10 on the list, while Poker After Dark’s Leeann Tweeden comes in at number 20.

Is your favorite sports anchor on the list? You’ll have to head on over to Heavy.com to find out.

2010 July 27, Elaine Chaivarlis

What’s in the lineup for tonight’s Nightly Turbo? Poker Table Ratings has discovered an issue on the Cake Poker Network, the ESPN Inside Deal team is bringing you another episode, this time, David Williams joins them, and we’ve got a little eye candy for you, courtesy of Heavy.com.

In Case You Missed It

The Las Vegas poker scene has calmed down a bit since the 2010 World Series of Poker ended, but Matt Savage and the Hard Rock Poker Lounge are bringing you a series that is sure to help you detox from the seven-week stretch that was the WSOP. The Vegas Grinder has the scoop on that and what else is going on in the Las Vegas card rooms.

We’re a little over halfway through the year, and so much has already happened in poker this year that it’s tough to say what is coming next. PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis does his best at fortune telling and brings you his Five Predictions for the remainder of the year.

Inside Deal

Laura Lane, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman are back in Bristol and bringing you the latest episode of ESPN’s Inside Deal. David Williams joins them, and they quartet discuss Williams’ new sponsorship, Internet gambling legislation, and the 2010 World Series of Poker.

We know we reminded you yesterday, but we’re nice so we’re going to remind you again. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Taking the Cake

According to a recent report on PokerTableRatings, a security flaw has been found on the Cake Poker Network. It is almost the same flaw as the one found on the Cereus Network, in which players’ accounts and hole cards were vulnerable to theft.

The PokerTableRatings sleuths have embedded a video of them successfully stealing hole cards as they were dealt. They’ve been able to steal passwords and user names from multiple Cake Network skins.

There are a few differences between this security risk and the Cereus Network risk and you can read up on it all at PokerTableRatings.com.

Cake Poker Cardroom Manager Lee Jones posted a response on TwoPlusTwo about the issue.

“Sure, when the issue came up in May, I asked our software management team. They told me that we were more secure than Cereus. When this all came to light a few hours ago and they got down into the actual code, it turned out they were wrong (as one of the senior managers just admitted to me)…I owe the entire Cake poker community an apology: I am very very sorry.”

Read the entire statement here and Lee answers questions from concerned community members in this thread.

Online Poker on the French Front

Full Tilt Poker is one of the latest online poker sites to be approved for a license to operate in France. Including Full Tilt, nine online gaming operators were granted licenses. PKR, land-based casino Barrière, AD Astra and Full Fun were the poker sites granted licenses, the rest were sports and horse betting. With the nine licenses that were just granted, the total issued by the French regulator ARJEL comes to 27.

Read more about it at EGRMagazine.com.

Commerce Million Dollar Tournament

The Matt Savage hosted Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament at the Commerce Casino has concluded and bragging rights go to Richard Bakovic from San Pedro, Calif.

Bakovic bested a field of 3,300 and took home $173,500. The $335 buy-in tournament had five starting days, giving players the opportunity to re-enter if they went busto. On the sixth day, the top 27 of each field began to play down to a winner. “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Nam Le, and “Miami” John Cernuto, were among the 315 players that cashed.

Check out the results at CommerceCasino.com.

Eye Candy

You already know that we like lists. We’re not the only ones though. The guys over at Heavy.com do, too. They broke down their picks for the 20 Hottest Sports Reporters. Hot chicks covering sports? Is there anything else you guys could ask for?

ESPN Inside Deal’s Laura Lane comes in at number 10 on the list, while Poker After Dark’s Leeann Tweeden comes in at number 20.

Is your favorite sports anchor on the list? You’ll have to head on over to Heavy.com to find out.

2010 July 27, Elaine Chaivarlis

What’s in the lineup for tonight’s Nightly Turbo? Poker Table Ratings has discovered an issue on the Cake Poker Network, the ESPN Inside Deal team is bringing you another episode, this time, David Williams joins them, and we’ve got a little eye candy for you, courtesy of Heavy.com.

In Case You Missed It

The Las Vegas poker scene has calmed down a bit since the 2010 World Series of Poker ended, but Matt Savage and the Hard Rock Poker Lounge are bringing you a series that is sure to help you detox from the seven-week stretch that was the WSOP. The Vegas Grinder has the scoop on that and what else is going on in the Las Vegas card rooms.

We’re a little over halfway through the year, and so much has already happened in poker this year that it’s tough to say what is coming next. PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis does his best at fortune telling and brings you his Five Predictions for the remainder of the year.

Inside Deal

Laura Lane, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman are back in Bristol and bringing you the latest episode of ESPN’s Inside Deal. David Williams joins them, and they quartet discuss Williams’ new sponsorship, Internet gambling legislation, and the 2010 World Series of Poker.

We know we reminded you yesterday, but we’re nice so we’re going to remind you again. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Taking the Cake

According to a recent report on PokerTableRatings, a security flaw has been found on the Cake Poker Network. It is almost the same flaw as the one found on the Cereus Network, in which players’ accounts and hole cards were vulnerable to theft.

The PokerTableRatings sleuths have embedded a video of them successfully stealing hole cards as they were dealt. They’ve been able to steal passwords and user names from multiple Cake Network skins.

There are a few differences between this security risk and the Cereus Network risk and you can read up on it all at PokerTableRatings.com.

Cake Poker Cardroom Manager Lee Jones posted a response on TwoPlusTwo about the issue.

“Sure, when the issue came up in May, I asked our software management team. They told me that we were more secure than Cereus. When this all came to light a few hours ago and they got down into the actual code, it turned out they were wrong (as one of the senior managers just admitted to me)…I owe the entire Cake poker community an apology: I am very very sorry.”

Read the entire statement here and Lee answers questions from concerned community members in this thread.

Online Poker on the French Front

Full Tilt Poker is one of the latest online poker sites to be approved for a license to operate in France. Including Full Tilt, nine online gaming operators were granted licenses. PKR, land-based casino Barrière, AD Astra and Full Fun were the poker sites granted licenses, the rest were sports and horse betting. With the nine licenses that were just granted, the total issued by the French regulator ARJEL comes to 27.

Read more about it at EGRMagazine.com.

Commerce Million Dollar Tournament

The Matt Savage hosted Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament at the Commerce Casino has concluded and bragging rights go to Richard Bakovic from San Pedro, Calif.

Bakovic bested a field of 3,300 and took home $173,500. The $335 buy-in tournament had five starting days, giving players the opportunity to re-enter if they went busto. On the sixth day, the top 27 of each field began to play down to a winner. “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Nam Le, and “Miami” John Cernuto, were among the 315 players that cashed.

Check out the results at CommerceCasino.com.

Eye Candy

You already know that we like lists. We’re not the only ones though. The guys over at Heavy.com do, too. They broke down their picks for the 20 Hottest Sports Reporters. Hot chicks covering sports? Is there anything else you guys could ask for?

ESPN Inside Deal’s Laura Lane comes in at number 10 on the list, while Poker After Dark’s Leeann Tweeden comes in at number 20.

Is your favorite sports anchor on the list? You’ll have to head on over to Heavy.com to find out.

2010 July 27, Elaine Chaivarlis

What’s in the lineup for tonight’s Nightly Turbo? Poker Table Ratings has discovered an issue on the Cake Poker Network, the ESPN Inside Deal team is bringing you another episode, this time, David Williams joins them, and we’ve got a little eye candy for you, courtesy of Heavy.com.

In Case You Missed It

The Las Vegas poker scene has calmed down a bit since the 2010 World Series of Poker ended, but Matt Savage and the Hard Rock Poker Lounge are bringing you a series that is sure to help you detox from the seven-week stretch that was the WSOP. The Vegas Grinder has the scoop on that and what else is going on in the Las Vegas card rooms.

We’re a little over halfway through the year, and so much has already happened in poker this year that it’s tough to say what is coming next. PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis does his best at fortune telling and brings you his Five Predictions for the remainder of the year.

Inside Deal

Laura Lane, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman are back in Bristol and bringing you the latest episode of ESPN’s Inside Deal. David Williams joins them, and they quartet discuss Williams’ new sponsorship, Internet gambling legislation, and the 2010 World Series of Poker.

We know we reminded you yesterday, but we’re nice so we’re going to remind you again. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Taking the Cake

According to a recent report on PokerTableRatings, a security flaw has been found on the Cake Poker Network. It is almost the same flaw as the one found on the Cereus Network, in which players’ accounts and hole cards were vulnerable to theft.

The PokerTableRatings sleuths have embedded a video of them successfully stealing hole cards as they were dealt. They’ve been able to steal passwords and user names from multiple Cake Network skins.

There are a few differences between this security risk and the Cereus Network risk and you can read up on it all at PokerTableRatings.com.

Cake Poker Cardroom Manager Lee Jones posted a response on TwoPlusTwo about the issue.

“Sure, when the issue came up in May, I asked our software management team. They told me that we were more secure than Cereus. When this all came to light a few hours ago and they got down into the actual code, it turned out they were wrong (as one of the senior managers just admitted to me)…I owe the entire Cake poker community an apology: I am very very sorry.”

Read the entire statement here and Lee answers questions from concerned community members in this thread.

Online Poker on the French Front

Full Tilt Poker is one of the latest online poker sites to be approved for a license to operate in France. Including Full Tilt, nine online gaming operators were granted licenses. PKR, land-based casino Barrière, AD Astra and Full Fun were the poker sites granted licenses, the rest were sports and horse betting. With the nine licenses that were just granted, the total issued by the French regulator ARJEL comes to 27.

Read more about it at EGRMagazine.com.

Commerce Million Dollar Tournament

The Matt Savage hosted Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament at the Commerce Casino has concluded and bragging rights go to Richard Bakovic from San Pedro, Calif.

Bakovic bested a field of 3,300 and took home $173,500. The $335 buy-in tournament had five starting days, giving players the opportunity to re-enter if they went busto. On the sixth day, the top 27 of each field began to play down to a winner. “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Nam Le, and “Miami” John Cernuto, were among the 315 players that cashed.

Check out the results at CommerceCasino.com.

Eye Candy

You already know that we like lists. We’re not the only ones though. The guys over at Heavy.com do, too. They broke down their picks for the 20 Hottest Sports Reporters. Hot chicks covering sports? Is there anything else you guys could ask for?

ESPN Inside Deal’s Laura Lane comes in at number 10 on the list, while Poker After Dark’s Leeann Tweeden comes in at number 20.

Is your favorite sports anchor on the list? You’ll have to head on over to Heavy.com to find out.

2010 July 26, Elaine Chaivarlis

The Rio has shut its doors to the World Series of Poker but don’t think it’s out of your life until November. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 WSOP gets under way Tuesday. James Dempsey is the latest pro to be added to Full Tilt Poker’s Red Pro roster, and we’ve a “dumb criminal” story for you, all in tonight’s Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Five players pocketed six figure scores in this week’s Sunday Majors. Want the results? Check out the Sunday Briefing.

Last week, we brought you Part I of our Live Reporting Team’s WSOP Awards. Not to leave you hanging, we’ve brought you Part II today.

Barney Frank’s bill on Internet gambling regulation is headed for markup on Tuesday. What could this mean? Find out here.

Did you miss the Aussie Millions on GSN? We didn’t. Here’s the recap.

WSOP on ESPN PSA

ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker kicks off Tuesday night at 8 p.m. EST with the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. Set your DVR.

You’ll catch two hours of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship this week. Next week, you’ll have a two-hour block of the 2010 Tournament of Champions. Then your Main Event coverage begins August 10, and for 13 weeks, you’ll catch all the action leading right up to the November Nine Final Table. And just in case you don’t remember to set your DVR, even though we just told you to set it, we’ll be coming at you with stellar recaps like we always do.

Head on over to WSOP.com to get a preview of Tuesday’s show.

On the Team

James “Flushy” Dempsey has been added to the Red Pro roster over at Full Tilt Poker. Dempsey won his first World Series of Poker bracelet at this year’s WSOP in a $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event. He then recorded three other cashes, including a second place finish to Sammy Farha in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 Championship.

He has over $1 million in online tournament earnings and is a PocketFives Triple Corwn winner. His debut as a Red Pro will come in Full Tilt Poker’s Poker Million, which began airing this month on Sky Sports in the UK.

“I couldn’t be more excited. This is a such a dream of mine.  I’ve worked very hard for this over the years and to have won a bracelet and now this – it’s just fantastic,” Dempsey said.

Play with the pros at Full Tilt Poker.

Cincinnati’s Big Game

Derek Ragan, along with about a dozen others, was arrested this weekend in a raid on a gambling house in the West End of Cincinnati. Ragan is the owner of Duke’s Place, an after-hours gambling house, and is being held on $1.12 million bond. Among weapons, drugs, and stolen goods, $1 million in cash was recovered. “He had his own neighborhood casino operation going,” Cecil Thomas, a Cincinnati Councilman said. “It speaks to the elaborate setup he had.”

Ragan wasn’t on site when the raid took place but turned himself in to authorities on Sunday, according to his lawyer. Complaints by neighbors spurred the investigation, which took several months.

Find out more here.

Ceraous Poker Player

We may have another actor-turned-poker player in the making. It urns out that George Michael, or Michael Cera for those of you who didn’t get on the Arrested Development train, is quite the poker player. While on location filming his upcoming movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Cera plays poker with his co-stars.

“I wouldn’t say I’m great,” Cera told People Magazine at San Diego’s Comic-Con International. “I play in a really good game in L.A. with really good players, people who are a few levels above me.” Of course, like any good poker player, he didn’t let his co-stars in on this little secret, saying that they “didn’t know what they were getting into.”

Cera’s co-star Johnny Simmons said, “He’s a damn good poker player, and he takes all your money. Michael and Keiran Culkin are shark-level. I lost so much per diem to those guys.”

Someone has to teach Cera to hold on to those poker winnings though. “We went to the casino a lot while making this movie, and I lost a lot of money there,” he said. “Anything that I won in poker I lost at the casino.” Not that this isn’t something that plagues some of the game’s best.

People.com has more.

Facepalm

There is a lesson to be learned here, everyone. If you find yourself in the slammer (we hope you don’t), and you manage to escape, do not, let us repeat this, DO NOT try and organize a poker game on Facebook. Australian Justin Grant was serving a five-year sentence for armed robbery and managed to escape from correctional officers while being treated at Townsville Hospital in north Queensland, Australia.

During his week on the run, he frequently updated his Facebook page and left messages to his friends. He also tried to organize a poker game for his friends. Grant was caught, and we’re not surprised. We’ll just file this one under “not smart.”

ABC News has more.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and be sure to add us on Facebook.

2010 July 26, Elaine Chaivarlis

The Rio has shut its doors to the World Series of Poker but don’t think it’s out of your life until November. ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 WSOP gets under way Tuesday. James Dempsey is the latest pro to be added to Full Tilt Poker’s Red Pro roster, and we’ve a “dumb criminal” story for you, all in tonight’s Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Five players pocketed six figure scores in this week’s Sunday Majors. Want the results? Check out the Sunday Briefing.

Last week, we brought you Part I of our Live Reporting Team’s WSOP Awards. Not to leave you hanging, we’ve brought you Part II today.

Barney Frank’s bill on Internet gambling regulation is headed for markup on Tuesday. What could this mean? Find out here.

Did you miss the Aussie Millions on GSN? We didn’t. Here’s the recap.

WSOP on ESPN PSA

ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker kicks off Tuesday night at 8 p.m. EST with the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. Set your DVR.

You’ll catch two hours of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship this week. Next week, you’ll have a two-hour block of the 2010 Tournament of Champions. Then your Main Event coverage begins August 10, and for 13 weeks, you’ll catch all the action leading right up to the November Nine Final Table. And just in case you don’t remember to set your DVR, even though we just told you to set it, we’ll be coming at you with stellar recaps like we always do.

Head on over to WSOP.com to get a preview of Tuesday’s show.

On the Team

James “Flushy” Dempsey has been added to the Red Pro roster over at Full Tilt Poker. Dempsey won his first World Series of Poker bracelet at this year’s WSOP in a $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event. He then recorded three other cashes, including a second place finish to Sammy Farha in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 Championship.

He has over $1 million in online tournament earnings and is a PocketFives Triple Corwn winner. His debut as a Red Pro will come in Full Tilt Poker’s Poker Million, which began airing this month on Sky Sports in the UK.

“I couldn’t be more excited. This is a such a dream of mine.  I’ve worked very hard for this over the years and to have won a bracelet and now this – it’s just fantastic,” Dempsey said.

Play with the pros at Full Tilt Poker.

Cincinnati’s Big Game

Derek Ragan, along with about a dozen others, was arrested this weekend in a raid on a gambling house in the West End of Cincinnati. Ragan is the owner of Duke’s Place, an after-hours gambling house, and is being held on $1.12 million bond. Among weapons, drugs, and stolen goods, $1 million in cash was recovered. “He had his own neighborhood casino operation going,” Cecil Thomas, a Cincinnati Councilman said. “It speaks to the elaborate setup he had.”

Ragan wasn’t on site when the raid took place but turned himself in to authorities on Sunday, according to his lawyer. Complaints by neighbors spurred the investigation, which took several months.

Find out more here.

Ceraous Poker Player

We may have another actor-turned-poker player in the making. It urns out that George Michael, or Michael Cera for those of you who didn’t get on the Arrested Development train, is quite the poker player. While on location filming his upcoming movie Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Cera plays poker with his co-stars.

“I wouldn’t say I’m great,” Cera told People Magazine at San Diego’s Comic-Con International. “I play in a really good game in L.A. with really good players, people who are a few levels above me.” Of course, like any good poker player, he didn’t let his co-stars in on this little secret, saying that they “didn’t know what they were getting into.”

Cera’s co-star Johnny Simmons said, “He’s a damn good poker player, and he takes all your money. Michael and Keiran Culkin are shark-level. I lost so much per diem to those guys.”

Someone has to teach Cera to hold on to those poker winnings though. “We went to the casino a lot while making this movie, and I lost a lot of money there,” he said. “Anything that I won in poker I lost at the casino.” Not that this isn’t something that plagues some of the game’s best.

People.com has more.

Facepalm

There is a lesson to be learned here, everyone. If you find yourself in the slammer (we hope you don’t), and you manage to escape, do not, let us repeat this, DO NOT try and organize a poker game on Facebook. Australian Justin Grant was serving a five-year sentence for armed robbery and managed to escape from correctional officers while being treated at Townsville Hospital in north Queensland, Australia.

During his week on the run, he frequently updated his Facebook page and left messages to his friends. He also tried to organize a poker game for his friends. Grant was caught, and we’re not surprised. We’ll just file this one under “not smart.”

ABC News has more.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and be sure to add us on Facebook.