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Update on Merge Poker Network PIC-Club Issues

It has been noted that the Merge Poker Network currently owes a total of $64,000 to PIC Club, the poker payment platform. It seems that this money has been owing for quite a bit now, July but the final deadline has just been issued last week.

The Merge Network is expected to pay the amount in full according to the deadline. Head of PIC Club; Chuck Kidd commented; “Merge had a contract with us and we were giving them plenty of time to pay what was owed.”

We have seen many high profile online poker rooms losing their companies or going bankrupt in the past months, and it seems like Merge might have to go down that road. Just 10 days ago, Merge Network was said to have totalled a low average of 415 real cash players on its total network.

When this is put into perspective and compared to Poker Stars’ giants current 26600 we do expect a bad turnout for them.

Foxwoods World Poker Finalists: Watch Out for the Pretty Lady at the Table

Poker now has yet another pretty face to grace its tables. Fitness model Christina Lindley will compete this weekend in the $10,000 NLH Foxwoods World Poker Finals that will take place in Connecticut. Twenty-six-year-old Lindley, from Atlanta, Georgia, was first discovered at the age of 14 when a photographer saw her at a mall and registered her in a Seventeen Magazine/JC Penney cover model contest.

Lindley grew up to become even more attractive and took the fitness world by storm with her feminine but muscular physique. She appeared regularly in multiple fitness magazines and was featured in a 25-page spread in an issue of Muscular Development magazine. She’s also appeared in Maxim and Playboy.

Also an actress, Lindley started getting interested in poker when she moved to LA to pursue her acting career. She says, “During the writer’s strike I was super bored. There was no work and I went back to Tennessee to visit my Dad, and he took me to a casino and we played poker together. I fell in love with it.”

Her poker strategy consists of using all her assets to gain ground over her opponents, which includes utilizing her good looks as a distraction technique against other players. She explains, “I tend to wear fitted clothing, but it’s always classy,” and as for the sunglasses, she says, “I have one move where I take them off and just look at you. I’ll just stare at you.” Her opponents this weekend better watch out, and anyone who finds them self seated against her in the future, as it is likely she will be popping up pretty often with her very successful poker game and strategy tactics.

You can also catch Lindley on an upcoming television series that will showcase online poker card sharks, called Grinders, for which she says she has a development deal with a production company and is working with a ghostwriter.

bwin Attempts to Redefine Online Poker with $45 Million in Software Upgrades

Those of you who enjoy social networking as much as you love playing online poker will be interested in the new online poker software developed by bwin. This new platform will redefine online poker and create a lively and social online realm for poker players. Using popular online social communities like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, bwin is attempting to transform online poker into a more social experience.

The new software will feature multiple new tools and options. Shoutbox, the first tool they will be introducing, will work like an instant messaging system, that will allow comments to be made, as well as replies, regarding bets being placed, hands played, hands lost, etc. You may think Shoutbox sounds like a fancy name for a chat box, but it’s more than just chat. These messages will be viewable by all players and will include invitations to add friends to their tables and other unique options. Wins will be acknowledged as well, and alerts will let you know when your online casino buddies have signed on to play.

Thomas Kiessling, Chief Technological Officer of Bodog, is confident that supplying these at-home online capabilities is the direction web gambling is headed in the very near future. Capturing a live casino atmosphere in the comforts of your own home will enhance individual’s poker skills and the overall online gambling experience.

The stakes can only go higher with quality player experience being bwin’s top priority, as Kiessling says, “It’s really the customer experience that’s key. That is a major priority for me.”

While online poker will be the first to be impacted by this new technology since bwin has spent $45 million on their new cutting-edge poker platform, which pretty much wiped out the entire tech portion of the budget for bwin, the multi-faceted online gambling brand also offers players casino, sportsbetting, and other gaming options, so perhaps this technology will spread.

PKR Nominated for Impressive Awards

PKR Poker has been one of the most cutting edge online poker rooms in terms of technology since day one. While it’s not the most popular online poker site, partly due to slow action and it’s unusually large software size, it’s one of the most unique poker software applications to date. The true 3D graphics that allow players to animate their avatar players as they themselves might behave at a land-based casino is perhaps one of the most innovative accomplishments of online poker software yet. Characters can express emotions and use techniques that are typically only available in live arenas like poker tells and a poker face.

After three successful years of steady growth, PKR has been recognized as a contender for eGaming Review’s “Poker Operator of the Year” award for the second year in a row, an honor that acknowledges the single most accomplished online poker operator that has made “the most advancement in the poker sector over the last 12 months.” Also nominated in the same category is PartyPoker, Ladbrokes, Gaming Media Group, and 888. Last year, PKR received honorable mention in the same category.

PKR is also up for both the “Online Marketing Campaign of the Year” and the “Offline Marketing Campaign of the Year” awards this year.

Malcom Graham, PKR’s CEO, says, “We are very pleased to be in the running for Poker Operator of the Year for the second consecutive year. And to be nominated in three categories by EGR and to be recognized by the APA is a remarkable achievement.”

PKR is also being acknowledged alongside some very big name brands in advertising by the APA (the Association of Publishing Agencies) for their “Best Digital Solutions” award nomination, which distinguishes “excellence in customer publishing across both print and online.”

All about the November Nine

Tomorrow it is finally time for the final table of the 2009 WSOP to start. Just like the name is suggesting it is the final nine players that will return the Rio in Las Vegas to fight for the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event title.

The rookie of the year in the 2009 WSOP is without a doubt Darvin Moon who is the chip leader out of the November Nine with $58.930.000 in chips. The question is if that is enough to take down the poker pro Phil Ivey who is currently holding $9.765.000 in chips.

What is the November Nine?
The November Nine is the nickname given to the final nine players of the World Series of Poker Main Event. They are given this name because there are nine players left who will fight it out for the WSOP Main Event title on the final table. The road to the final table is a long one and it started back in July. On the 15th of July the 10th place finisher was knocked out and the WSOP went in to hibernation mode for a couple of months. A total of 6.494 players paid the $10.000 buy in for the 2009 WSOP Main Event which made the price pool end up at a total of $61.043.600. Out of this money there is a total of $27.219.668 that is going to be devided up amongst the November Nine players.

The 2009 WSOP Main Event Prize Pool
All of the November Nine players are guaranteed to become millionaires. These are the prizes paid for the top 9 finishers of the 2009 World Series of Poker.

1: $8 546 435
2: $5 182 601
3: $3 479 485
4: $2 502 787
5: $1 953 395
6: $1 587 133
7: $1 404 002
8: $1 300 228
9: $1 263 602

Who are the November Nine?
Just in case you have been living under a rock for the last couple of months we thought we would update you on who the November Nine players actually are.

The 2009 WSOP Main Event Final table players are:

Jeff Shulman
Antoine Saout
Joseph Cada
Eric Buchman
Steven Begleiter
Kevin Schaffel
Phil Ivey
Darvin Moon
James Akenhead

Bet on the 2009 World Series of Poker
There are a couple of sportsbooks out there that are smart enough to see the potential in offering odds on the winner of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. Most of these sports betting site has been getting huge wagers on Phil Ivey to win the 2009 WSOP Main Event which means there is a very good value in betting against him as the winner.

Below are the odds for the 2000 WSOP Final table taken from the PlayersOnly sportsbook:

Darvin Moon – 3.50
Eric Buchman – 5.00
Phil Ivey – 6.00
Steven Begleiter – 6.50
Jeff Shulman – 7.00
Kevin Schaffel – 13.00
James Akenhead – 13.00
Joseph Cada – 13.00
Antoine Saout – 16.00

Sportsbooks offering odds on the 2009 WSOP Main Event

Below you can find a good selction of sportsbooks accepting wagers on the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

• Betfair
• Expekt
• Bet-at-Home
• Bodog
• BetUS
• Sportsbook.com
• PlayersOnly
• BWIN
• BetCris
• Unibet
• Betsson
• Bet24
• Bet365
• BetFred
• WillHill
• Ladbrokes

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies gets a tattoo after losing a prop bet

Prop bets are very common in the poker world. Usually the big poker players are making wagers on just about anything and they bet big money. The high stakes poker player Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies recently lost one of these prop bets but instead of having to pay up a big chunk of money he had to get a tattoo.

Ziigmund was at a hockey game featuring the two finnish teams HIFK and JYP with a couple of his friends. They made a bet that if HIFK won the game his friend would tattoo the logo of JYP on his chest and if JYP won Ziigmund would tattoo the logo of HIFK on his chest.

They made this bet when the score was 3-3 and we are guessing you can all figure out which team won since Ziigmund is now showing of a brand new HIFK tattoo to the online poker world.

This is what Sahamies had to say about his new tattoo:

It’s no big deal. I have been a fan of HIFK since i was nine years old so it really does not bother me that I lost the bet.

Scotty Nguyen Playing Poker Under Water

Since Scotty Nguyen became an ambassor for Expekt Poker he has been shooting a couple of web-TV spots for them.

Here are some outtakes from the latest Expekt.com advert featuring Scotty Nguyen playing poker under water.

Someone should probably tell Scotty that online poker is not played using the QWERTY keybord. It’s pretty funny to see him trying to act like he is actually playing poker by pressing just about all the keys on his keybord.

Another funny thing about this advert is that Scotty is living in the US which means that he is not allowed to play poker at Expekt. So one has to wonder what poker room he is pretending to play at.

Poker Players Arrested in Thailand

The police in Pattaya got an anonymous tip about an illegal casino at the Encore Bar and Hotel in Thailand. Early on Monday morning the police raided the place, police officers from three different departments where present during the raid.

The police found ten people sitting around a poker table with a lot of casino chips, but they also found around 120.000 baht ($3600) in cash and a lot of additional casino chips and decks of cards. The raid resulted in the ten poker players being arrested. The nationalities of the people arrested were Thai, Swedish, Finish and Israeli.

The arrested foreigners are being held suspected for participating in illegal gambling and the 27-year old Thai, Khun Pornpansar is also suspected of having hosted the casino nights that were being held at the second floor of the bar and hotel. The trial is going to take place later this week.

Doyle Brunson’s Autobiography to be released next week

Doyle Brunson has been playing poker forever, and he has been working on his autobiography for a very long time. Next week it is finally time for the book about Doyle’s life to hit the book stores that will go under the title “Godfather of Poker“.
Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson is a true living legend in the poker world. He has lived a life full of gambling and exciting events. His autobiography has been a work in progress for a long time but now it is finally ready and all of you out there who are interested in an inside look in to Doyle’s amazing life will have you chance to buy the book next week.

The book is going to be released in stores on the 11th of November 2009. This is a 372 page book full of exciting events from the legends life. It also contains a lot of stories and pictures that has never been shown before.

Here at Online Poker News we have already placed a pre-order of the book at Amazon at the bargain price of $17.79 and we will be posting a full review of this book as soon as we have read it.

Phil Hellmuth Poses Naked?

Yes! Or maybe the response should be No! In ESPN the Magazine’s latest issue, Phil Hellmuth appears with about 80 other male and female athletes from different sport genres, who agreed to pose nude for the magazine.

This special edition “Body Issue” showcases such hot bodies posing tastefully nude as baseball’s Ivan Rodriguez and Joba Chamberlain, football’s Torry holt and Adrian Peterson, basketball’s Dwight Howard, hockey’s Zdeno Chara, race car drivers, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin, boxer Many Pacquiao, MMA fighter Randy Couture, tennis player Serena Williams, golfer Christina Kim, and many others.

“We’ve always been committed to showing fans a different side of the sports and athletes they love,” said Gary Belsky, editor of ESPN the Magazine. “This issue, from the amazing photos to the innovative journalism, is just our latest effort to do that. We’re very happy with the results.”

Hellmuth isn’t the only poker player in the shot that pays tribute to the beloved sport of poker. Alongside him are fellow professional poker players, Scotty Nguyen, Jennifer Harman, and Daniel Negreanu, who only agreed to the shoot after he learned that his co-workers would be there to support him.

“I can fit in with this group,” Negreanu said. “It’s not like they were going to have Patrik Antonius or Gus Hansen in there. I worked out. I had a nice tan going. I sucked my belly in and I was good to go.”

The four seemingly naked players are posed seated around a poker table, private parts hidden, unless you count Hellmuth’s man boobs, which are clearly visible.

ESPN the Magazine is owned by the Walt Disney Company, so all shots are done in a classy pose and a tasteful and artistic way. It’s good for poker though, to be represented as a sport by the official authority on sports in the US, ESPN, especially with all the negativity that is shed on the game by online legalization critics.

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