Another Record at the WSOP

The 38th annual World Series of Poker saw another record being broken with more than 3,000 entries into the event. The official record breaking total of entrants is 3,151 which surpasses the old record of 2,998 entrants earlier this year. This WSOP event is the third largest in history and will pay out an impressive $722,914 to the winner. 324 players in all will walk home with money in their pockets.

Big Names looking at Online Poker

After the UIGEA was passed in October of last year it was thought that the larger entertainment companies would shy away from the subject of online poker. But it has been rumored that some of the bigger companies are interested in the online poker industry. Giants such as Columbia, Apple, Yahoo, Time Warner, Sony, and Universal have been watching closely waiting to jump in the market as soon as online poker becomes legally regulated. 

Fantasy Poker

Fantasy sports are usually for the bigger team sports especially football. But that is not the case any longer as Fantasy poker is here. There are some poker rooms on the Internet that offer fantasy poker to their members. The people playing the fantasy game can choose from a list of pro players for various poker tournaments. The each dollar that the professional player earns equals one point to the fantasy player.

Chivas Whiskey Poker Cruise

Chivas Whiskey is sponsoring a cruise on the refurbished Silver Sturgeon cruise liner on July 18th that will be full of poker players and live entertainment. There will be live jazz and magic acts as well as some big poker games going on. This poker cruise sponsored by Chivas Regal Whiskey and is part of their Discover Poker program. To get more information about the cruise and to register for it visit Chivas-Discover-Poker.co.uk.

ESPN's extended coverage of the WSOP

ESPN's coverage of the WSOP will start before the tournament finishes. This is a first for the all sports network. The coverage will begin July 10th at 8 pm Eastern time. ESPN will also offer a live Pay Par View package for $20. Every Tuesday after the 10th of July viewers can see brand new WSOP events as well as a special two hour broadcast of Event #7 with coverage of the final table.

Record broken at the Ladies World Poker Championship

The Ladies World Poker Championship broke their record for participants as 1,286 ladies lined up for the $1,170,260 in prize money with $262,077 going top the winner. This marks the second record breaking attendance poker event as a recent WSOP event broke their participant record as well. This ladies event has been held every year during the WSOP event since 1977. Last year's winner of the even was Mary Jones.

New WSOP bracelets

The coveted WSOP bracelets will get new stylish look. There have been four different models made for this years WSOP by Swiss watchmaker CORUM. There is even a special bracelet being made for the main event studded with 120 diamonds. The player who wins the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event will receive a bracelet with 91 black diamonds and two rubies. Designer Jamie Gold has designed all 55 bracelets this year with a special emphasis trying to give them a look of everyday jewelry.

New Cards for the WSOP

The new playing cards to WSOP events this year are Bicycle Pro's "PokerPeek" cards that has card suits and values on the four corners. Many times the games at the WSOP the players would only peel up the corners of their cards to look at the value of them. The PokerPeek cards are supposed to be of help with that but their have been some negative reactions from some of the players.

PartyPoker.net is back at the WSOP

Poker.net is back at the WSOP as one of the official sponsors. PartyPoker.net is just one of many sponsors but it will be their name that will displayed on the felt tables of the events. This is great exposure for PartyPoker.net as they will get a lot of airtime with all the WSOP events that are aired on ESPN. Partypoker.net was reported to have paid a hefty price to be one of the main sponsors of the WSOP.

International Poker News

Harrah's Entertainment announced recently that the WSOP would be traveling to Europe later in the year. Three events of the WSOP will be taking place in the United Kingdom. These three events will be held at different casinos but all are managed by London Clubs International. The popularity of poker in the United States has spawned interest from around the globe and the WSOP events in Europe are only the beginning.