With all of their legal pieces now in place, IGT announced yesterday that the Entraction Poker Network would be rebranded, and is now known as the IGT Poker Network. Entraction (now the IGT Poker Network) is the 14^th ranked online poker room/network according to PokerScout.com with peak traffic of over 2,200 real-money cash-game players, and features such prominent poker sites as Devilfish Poker, NoIQ Poker, and 24h Poker.

According to an IGT spokesman, the company is hoping to attract more online poker rooms to their network with their new brand and potential Nevada license. In a recent press release issued during the ICE Online Gaming Expo in London the company explained how it would begin its expansion:

“IGT is well known for innovation in gaming and at ICE 2012, we will prove that we are redefining the gaming industry yet again with an expanded online and mobile lineup highlighting the best products for our global casino customers,” said Gideon Bierer, executive vice president of IGT Interactive, “This is the first show where we will be able to demonstrate the full range of products and services which our recent acquisition of Entraction has enabled us to do. All Entraction products will be shown under the IGT brand [and] conference attendees will see how IGT’s poker network is a serious and competitive alternative for existing poker operators.”

Here is a look at some of the Tweets from the WSOP Twitter account on Tuesday/Wednesday:

“The 43rd Annual WSOP will take place from May 27 to July 16, 2012 at @RioVegas. Full schedule comes at 1 PM ET Wednesday.”

“For the 2012 WSOP, an expected 470 poker tables will be utilized…nearly 100 more than last year!”

“The WSOP Main Event this year will be 3 days shorter without compromising structure at all. #winallaround”

“New start time at WSOP in 2012…10 AM. Okay, just kidding, EXCEPT for Seniors Event which will begin at 10 AM this year”

Perhaps the biggest change to the 2012 World Series of poker, or what will surely be the most talked about, is the WSOP’s decision to do away with the November Nine; which became highly expendable now that ESPN and the WSOP has moved to a “live feed” format for the final table.

“A few hints on WSOP schedule coming tomorrow…you won’t find the November Nine returning.”

The WSOP plans to release the full schedule for the 2012 WSOP at 1 PM on Wednesday; we’ll keep you posted on any other exciting new changes as well as what tournaments have been added or subtracted.

The contest, called the 6.912 MIT Pokerbots Competition, will be held on February 6^th, 2011, where the teams of students will watch their poker bots do battle in a tournament with $30,000 in prizes on the line. Here is how the competition’s homepage describes the challenge:

“The 6.912 MIT Pokerbots Competition is a computerized poker tournament, where teams have 1 month to program a completely autonomous “pokerbot” to compete against other teams. Poker has become a cultural phenomenon as as an inherently complex game of incomplete information, brings many interesting problems and challenges to players. Competitors must learn and apply concepts in economics, mathematics, and computer science not normally developed together in academic settings to conquer their opponents and emerge victorious.

“Over $30,000 in prizes and attention from some of the most prestigious tech and trading firms out there await the best competitors. This IAP, channel your programming ability and strategic quantitative thinking skills to become the inaugural pokerbots champion!”

So how did this idea come about at one of the most prestigious schools in the United States? MIT is currently offering a special three-week course in online poker where the 200 students who registered will learn about everything from mathematical strategies to software development.

The MIT course is being run by Will Ma, a former World Poker Tour (WPT) Champion with over $1.7 million in career tournament earnings. Ma is also a top online poker player (playing under the witty PokerStars handle “cutiepi314’) and a former instructor at the online poker training site Cardrunners.

There are currently 51 teams registered for the contest.

The hand took place at a $100/$200 PLO game where Isildur1 was seated along with high-stakes regulars “1Il|1Il|1il|” and “patpatman” when the following hand occurred:

Pre-Flop: patpatman opened to $600 from 1^st position; Isildur1 3-bet to $2,260 on the button; 1Il|1Il|1il| made the call from the Small Blind; patpatman 4-bet to $10k; Isildur1 made the call; 1Il|1Il|1il| decided to 5-Bet; patpatman called; Isildur1 called.

Flop: Ts-4s-3d: 1Il|1Il|1il| bet $114,235 (leaving himself only $4,125 left in his stack); patpatman folded, and Isildur1 put 1Il|1Il|1il| all-in with a raise. 1Il|1Il|1il| tabled Ad-Ac-5c-6s for a pair of Aces and an open-ended straight-draw: Isildur1 tabled As-Qs-Qh-Td for a pair of Queens and the nut-flush-draw.

The Turn was the Jack of Spades, locking up the hand for Isildur1. The inconsequential River card was the 8 of Spades.

Despite the massive pot, Isildur1 is currently down over $330k for the year thus far at the online poker tables, but he did win over $1 million at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) after winning the $100k Super-High-Roller tournament.

For more information on the ultra-high-stakes online poker games you can check out highstakesdb.com.

According to reports, PokerStars is preparing a beta launch of the new product in late February. Very few specifics are known about Zoom Poker, or how closely it will resemble Full Tilt poker’s Rush Poker (which after numerous assertions of its patentability appears to NOT fall under patent laws).

Rush Poker was revolutionary to online poker, allowing players to stay in constant action. Instead of joining a table, players would join a pool of players and after every fold (or win) would be transported to a new table with other players from the same player group, and a new hand ready to begin.

Rush Poker allowed players to participate in up to three-times as many hands per hour as a normal online poker ring-game (which of course is about 4-5 times as fast as the typical live poker game) and if you were insane (like me) and played four Rush Poker tables at a time you could easily get in 1,200-1,500 hands an hour! For comparisons sake, it would take me about 60 hours of live play to play 1,500 hands!

Players have been pining for sites to create their own versions of Rush Poker since Full Tilt Poker went offline in late-June, 2011, and it now seems that we are only weeks away from this becoming a reality.

The highlight of the series was the Main Event, a $5,000 NLHE tournament with a $1 million guaranteed prize-pool (in the end the Main Event would narrowly eclipse the guarantee, topping off at 1,018,500). A total of 210 players registered for the event, with the winner of the tournament was set to receive a $336k payday.

Among the players who made the money in the Million Dollar Heater Main Event were Brandon Stevens, Allen Kessler, Matt Stout, Ryan Welch, and 2010 November Niner John Dolan. Stout, Welch, and Dolan were among the final table participants in the tournament. Dolan would go on to win the tournament, scoring his biggest payday since his 6^th place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event where he pocketed over $1.7 million.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the Million Dollar Heater Main Event:

1. John Dolan — $336,105
2. Glenn Poole — $185,367
3. Kirill Kruglov — $101,850
4. Mark Rose — $81,480
5. Ryan Welch — $61,110
6. Matt Stout — $50,925
7. Daniel Clemente — $40,740
8. Habib Jahangard — $30,555
9. Mark Flowers — $20,730

Among the winners were 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Pius Heinz, who won the Best Tournament Performance category; WPT and EPT Champion Andrey Pateychuk who won the Rookie of the Year Award; and Sam Trickett who won the coveted Player of the Year Award for his remarkable 2011 tournament and cash-game success.

Jesse may was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by last year’s recipient and this year’s host Nic Szeremeta. Unlike the other awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award winner is selected by the panel only, and is not open to voting. May joins a very exclusive club of past winners like Marcel Luske, John Duthie, and David Ulliott whose contributions to European poker have now been immortalized.

Here is a look at all of the 2011 European Poker Award winners from last night’s ceremony:

• Player of the Year: Sam Trickett
• Best Tournament Performance: Pius Heinz
• Rookie of the Year: Andrey Pateychuk
• Europe’s Leading Lady: Natalia Nikitina
• Staff of the Year: Warren Lush (bwin.Party)
• Internet Player of the Year: Ilari Sahamies
• Poker Personality of the Year: Bertrand Grospellier
• Event of the Year: WSOPE Cannes
• Lifetime Achievement: Jesse May

For more information on the European Poker Awards or to take a look at past winners (the EPA’s have been going strong for 11 years now) you can visit their website at EuropeanPokerAwards.com

Adelson, who has known Gingrich for many years, is one of online poker’s staunchest opponents, but the donations are far more likely to have to do with Israel, who both Adelson and Gingrich are adamant supporters of. Adelson runs his own Israeli newspaper in the country, and has been extremely critical of a Palestinian state in the past.

However, the fact that Adelson is against online poker shouldn’t be lost in the story, and with months to go before the election the $10 million already given may be just a drop in the bucket for the billionaire.

With the potential for an online poker bill at the federal level in coming years, control of the issue from the executive branch is of the utmost importance –consider that any online gaming legislation that passes will be by a slim margin; slim enough to not be able to override a presidential veto should it come. If Adelson can put a staunch opponent of online gaming in the Oval Office it would all but guarantee that online poker legislation would not be passed in the US for four, maybe eight years!

The major update is of course the new lobby design, which now opens 1,000×700 pixel lobby. Players will now find quick listings of their favorite games, tables, and tournaments, which coupled with the new quick seat feature allows Titan Poker players to be sitting at an online poker table in record time.

Titan Poker is also allowing players who are more comfortable with the old lobby design to switch between the old and the new layout with just the click of a button (much like Full Tilt Poker had done when they overhauled their lobby just a couple of years ago).

Here is a look at all of the enhancements players will find in the new Titan Poker update include:

• Quick Seat Function
• Redesigned Lobby with new look and layout
• My Favorite Functions feature
• Bonus redemption Progress Stats –including statistics on hands played, point accumulated, and bonus redemption status

Titan Poker is one of the flagship sites on the massive iPoker network. As one of the largest online poker rooms in the world, on the largest online poker network, Titan Poker traffic is measured in the tens-of-thousands at peak hours.

Eight of the previous nine Aussie Millions Main Event winners were in attendance for the Tournament of Champions, with only Alexander Kostritsyn absent while he awaits the birth of his son. And as fate would have it, the youngest player of the eight competitors (and therefore the player with the most to gain from the prize, which amounts to $10,000 a year for the rest of your life) would come out victorious, as Australian native, and 2010 Aussie Millions Champion Tyron Krost defeated the tough field.

Here is a look at how the players were seated at the eight-person table:

• Seat 1: Tyron Krost 2010 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 2: Peter Costa 2003 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 3: Gus Hansen 2007 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 4: Stewart Scott 2009 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 5: Jamil Dia 2005 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 6: Lee Nelson 2006 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 7: Tony Bloom 2004 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 8: David Gorr 2011 Aussie Millions Champion

And here is a look at how the eight players finished the event:

• 1^st place: Tyron Krost – Lifetime entry to the Aussie Millions Main Event
• 2^nd place: Tony Bloom
• 3^rd place: Lee Nelson
• 4^th place: Gus Hansen
• 5^th place: Peter Costa
• 6^th place: David Gorr
• 7^th place: Jamil Dia
• 8^th place: Stewart Scott