The Main Event will also be scrunched up, shaving three days off the preliminaries in order to accommodate more players, reduce the cost of stay, and cut down on down time between play. The WSOP statement has made it clear that the structure will remain in fact remain intact.

The 43rd annual WSOP will begin on May 27, 2012, and the first open event will take place on Memorial Day, the 28th—a $1,500 NLH tourney. This year’s series will encompass 61 events and will wrap up on July 16th. Again, it will take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel in Las Vegas and will be covered exclusively on ESPN.

Jack Effel, WSOP tournament director, says, “This year’s WSOP schedule is very exciting. We’re introducing some fantastic new events, while bringing back many successful stalwarts that our players love. We will expand our footprint this year to include extra tables dedicated to cash games, as well as plenty of satellite and single-day tournament space, so players will have an easy time finding a desirable game without ever having to leave the Rio Convention Center.”

Also, 100 tables will be added to the tournament area making it even bigger than ever before.

There will be five new major events including the $1,000,000-million buy-in event, Big One For ONE DROP for which 11.1% of the buy-in will go to onedrop.org.

Beginning on February 1st and running through February 28th, the Card Rush promo will give out 1.8 million prize cards to PartyPoker players. There’s enough to go around, so that everyone can win instant cash this month. To earn a Card Rush card, collect 15 points. Each card will reward you with a prize, which can be anything from cash to freeroll entries to Card Rush Race points. The more race points you earn, the higher you’ll go up on the Card Rush Race leader board. Rank 1 will earn you a $9,000 cash payout!

Your first card will come at just 5 points, so there’s no excuse to not go collect one now, and you can earn up to 50 cards per day. It’s quite addictive.

To win this promotion, all you need to do is be at a cash game table when a millionth hand is dealt between 74,700,000,000 and 75,000,000,000 (for example, 74,902,000,000). If you win the hand, you will earn a cash prize worth thousands. If you find yourself dealt into the 75 billionth hand and win, you will win at least $20,000 automatically.

The current hand number is displayed at PokerStars.com and is currently at 74,797,598,578.

PokerStars offers some tips on its website to up your odds of being dealt into a milestone hand. First of all, play on more than one table. The more tables you play at, the more likely you’ll be dealt a millionth (or billionth) hand. Secondly, play longer sessions. The prize amount is dependent on the VIP Player Points (VPPs) points you earned during the session that the milestone hand was dealt to you. The more time you’ve spent at that table, the more money you will have contributed to the pot, and the more VPPs you will have earned. By sitting down at a table long before a milestone hand will drop, you’ll have more time to vamp up your VPPs, and thus increase your prize value if you do happen to be in the right place at the right time. And finally, Stars recommends that you play an action game, such as Limit Hold ‘em or Pot Limit Omaha because they generate VPPs at a faster rate.

All you have to do is be there. If you win, you will of course earn a bigger prize, but all participants will win something.

Both Gorr and Gray have earned more than $1 in career tourney winnings and have been loyal to their country, making a majority of their bets in Australia, Gorr winning the 2011 Aussie Millions and Gray winning the 2007 Victoria Poker Championship.

Like the Poker Hall of Fame, the Australian counterpart requires that nominees meet certain criteria before they are considered for induction. First of all, the candidate must be a current or former resident of Australia or New Zealand. Also, he or she must have demonstrated outstanding and extended service to poker, bringing credit to Australian Casino Tournament Poker and/or having displayed significant player excellence.

Gorr found out about his acceptance into the APHOF just five minutes before receiving the exclusive title. Past inductees include Tony G, Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, and Jeffrey Lisandro. The first inaugural class was in 2009 and included eight poker pros who met the criteria of the APHOF. The 2010 class consisted of one woman, Marsh Waggoner, and the 2011 class included Leo Boxell and Danny McDonagh.

The event will take place on January 31 at 7:00 p.m. at Binions in Downtown Vegas. Ante4Autism is sponsored by home furnishing execs and raises money for autism research.

Co-host and PMD Furniture Direct exec Jerry Williams says, “We are very excited to have Karina Jett help us at our event. She is one of the top professional poker players in the world.”

The event will also include a silent auction carried out by the Pacific Auction Co.

Co-host and PMD Furniture Direct exec Scott Graham says, “We will have approximately 30 fine art, sports, celebrity and other collectibles, photography, antiques, jewelry and ladies accessories and travel and leisure items. We encourage everyone to bring their checkbooks and credit cards to bid and buy these incredible items.”

This event is open to the public and Las Vegas Market attendees. Interested parties may register online and/or make donations at ante4autism.com.

Karina has more than $140K in tourney winnings and has placed 4^th in two WSOP events—the 2003 Lades Stud and the 2004 Ladies Limit Hold ‘em events. She has also appeared on GSN’s Poker Royale Battle of the Sexes, and in London at the 2005 London Open, Karina and her husband, also a poker player, Chip Jett, became the first married couple to make the same televised final table.

The winning bidder was later identified as William Haughey, who recently granted an exclusive interview to PokerNews. In the interview, Haughey explains that he’s interested in organizing a charity event with the WSOP in which he will match raised funds up to $1 million. He also admitted that the reason he bought Eastgate’s bracelet was because it was for charity, as he himself has donated more than £5 million to various charities.

Haughey and his wife, who made their money via his refrigeration company, became fascinated by poker, so it only makes sense that he would combine his love for charity with his passion for poker. Using the WSOP bracelet he bought on eBay, Haughey hopes to raise about $2 million for charity ($1 million from the said event and $1 million matched by Haughey. He wants to give the bracelet back to the WSOP in hopes that they would put it in the Hall of Fame in an effort to “protect the integrity and the worthiness of the bracelet.”

His idea is that if an agreement can be made between himself and the WSOP, Haughey would like to donate $1 million to a cancer hospital in the UK and $1 million to a charity chosen by WSOP. He has a lot of good ideas and is very excited about raising money, though he is clear that he is not doing it for exposure. In fact, that’s why he’s remained unidentified as the buyer of the bracelet for two years now.

Keep an ear out for more on this exciting venture. Poker has always been a great vehicle for raising charitable funds, and it is because of the benevolent nature of poker players in general, like Haughey.

A spokesman for the new WPN says, “It’s more than a name, it’s a mantra. Our promotions are better, our guarantees keep getting bigger, and our software delivers everything players ask for. Players who love to win are hitting our network in record numbers and the entire poker world has good reason to be excited about what’s ahead.”

The Yatahay Poker Network grew after DoylesRoom took up residence on the network, but after the Black Friday meltdown of online poker as we know it, the network formerly known as Yatahay was able to reposition itself for the US market as a safe place for US players to play online poker without the risk of losing their accounts to the feds.

The Winning Poker Network is home to TruePoker, Americas Cardroom, BetCris, along with others and is thriving with tourney prize pools growing larger every month, especially over the past six months.

Yatahay was originally established in 2001, so only the name is new. They still offer industry leading online poker software for Internet poker, as well as online casino games with impeccable customer service offering a full-service online gambling operation.

Campos joined PokerStars in June of 2010 after leaving 888.

A short statement from Stars said, “Gabi Campos has decided to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer, effective February 1, 2012, to pursue other opportunities.

“The company thanks Gabi for his hard work and commitment and wishes him the best in all his future endeavors. A search for Gabi’s replacement is underway.”

PokerStars traffic has also been low in comparison to other big online poker sites. For instance, while PokerStars has had a 5% increase in traffic over the past couple weeks, PartyPoker has had a 25% increase and iPoker a 12% rise in online poker traffic.

Other effects of the boycott can be seen in the PokerStars.fr traffic results. Whereas PokerStars was the top online poker site in France, and it saw a 10% rise in traffic, Winamax.fr is now getting more player traffic by French poker players. In addition, more than 100 high-stakes players, many of which were Supernova Elite players (the highest level of VIP), have organized a protest of PokerStars.fr via ClubPoker.net. This protest is based on the alterations of the VIP Player Points (VPP) system. The new terms reward players on a weighted contribution basis, where they receive rewards based on how much they contribute to rake. Before the changes, anyone dealt into the hand would receive equal parts rewards based on the size of the pot.

Tighter players, who don’t contribute as much to the pot as loose players, are now earning less rewards than players who contribute more money to the pot. Online poker analysts say that in the long run, this change will not be beneficial to PokerStars. Whether or not PokerStars will amend their decision to change things will be seen. After all, in any business model, if the customers (the players) aren’t happy, then the business will suffer.

If they so believe that they have been the victim of a crime, the AGCC has advised these players to contact law enforcement officials to take further action.

While the statement from the AGCC did not mention anything regarding the buyout of Full Tilt Poker by French investment group Groupe Bernard Tapie, it is still believed that GBT will acquire the online poker brand and assets from the US Department of Justice in exchange for one $80 million payment. Upon transfer, the US DOJ will drop all charges and civil complaints against the Full Tilt name. It is still unknown whether or not players will ever be reimbursed for their confiscated accounts, though many are still hopeful that once the takeover is finalized, the new owners will make their best effort to pay back some or all that is owed to the disgruntled US players.