A celebrity poker tournament to benefit a charity for blind children is to be held on Saturday, January 17, 2009, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California, USA.

Confirmed for the event are celebs Brad Garrett, Judd Nelson, Daniel Baldwin, Adam Baldwin and Chris McDonald, who all play poker regularly. (more…)

Poker legend Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson is blasting Party Gaming Ltd. co-founder Anurag Dikshit for kowtowing to the U.S. government.

Dikshit last week agreed to pay a $300 million fine to the Feds for illegally facilitating online gambling in the U.S. Party Gaming Ltd. is the parent company of online poker room Party Poker (www.partypoker.com), which used to service the U.S. but no longer does. (more…)

The innocent game of poker can make criminals out of anyone, it seems.

Even a highly religious monk. (more…)

A con man who operated an illegal poker room in Arkansas that he claimed was legal has been sentenced to three years probation for running a prohibited gambling operation, media reports said.

Logan Wight Dungan operated the National Poker Challenge, a poker club in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, which was raided in November of 2007 following an undercover investigation by police.

Five people were arrested in that raid, but the 38-year-old Dungan was the only person charged with a crime. (more…)

Poker’s main lobbying group the Poker Player’s Alliance (PPA), quick to criticize anything that does not promote or forward its pro-online poker agenda, is blasting an Internet poker mogul’s decision to cooperate with U.S. officials.

Anurag Dikshit, co-founder of Party Gaming Ltd, the parent company of online poker room Party Poker (www.partypoker.com), last week agreed to forfeit $300 million to the U.S. Justice Department for violating a U.S. law called the Federal Wire Act, which prohibits using telephones to faciliate gambling. (more…)

Professional hockey player Mats Sundin is being investigated by the National Hockey League for his connection to an online poker room, according to media reports.

Sundin–the former Quebec Nordique and Toronto Maple Leaf who recently became a Vancouver Canuck–is a paid flack for online poker room Poker Stars’ free, play-for-fun website, www.pokerstars.net. He has no connection to Poker Stars’ real-money website, www.pokerstars.com. (more…)

Internet poker room Zosoz (www.zosoz.com), which went out of business this week just two months after going online, most likely had cash flow problems that caused it to fold.

At least that’s the opinion of one industry insider. (more…)

The co-founder of the parent company of online poker room Party Poker (www.partypoker.com) has pleaded guilty to violating the Federal Wire Act and agreed to forfeit $300 million as part of a cooperation deal.

According to media reports, Indian national and Party Gaming Ltd. co-founder Anurag Dikshit, 37, now of Gibraltar, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in New York City Tuesday to charges that he used the Internet to transmit interstate and foreign wagering information. (more…)

Online poker room Zosoz (www.zosoz.com) has abruptly shut down, just two months after it opened.

Zosoz was one of a new breed of so-called “legal” online poker rooms that claimed it didn’t violate U.S. anti-online gambling laws because, technically, it didn’t offer gambling. (more…)

Usually mild-mannered poker pro Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson is lashing out at fellow poker pro Layne Flack over Flack’s criticism of Brunson’s poker skills.

In a recent interview in Card Player magazine (www.cardplayer.com), Flack dismissed Brunson’s career total of 10 World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship gold bracelets because some of the bracelets were won in tournaments involving only a few competitors. (more…)

In response to the national trashing the game of online poker received on American television recently, poker lobby the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) ran ads this week in three Washington, D.C. newspapers, urging Federal legislators to enact laws embracing online poker.

The PPA is a lobbying group that advocates for Internet poker. It looks to repeal laws that restrict online poker and lobbies for laws in favor of the game. (more…)

Justin “Lockdown Tex” Allen is the winner of the 2008 Winter Bayou Poker Challenge Championship Event, a poker tournament held at Harrah’s casino in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

The three-day event was a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tourney that had a buy-in of $5,150 and a total prize pool of $488,550. (more…)

For the third year in a row, the word “poker” was the most commonly searched for word or phrase at the Internet search engine Lycos (www.lycos.com).

Lycos this week announced its ninth annual list of the Top 50 search terms for the year, based on actual worldwide search requests in 2008. (more…)

If you celebrate Hanukah or know someone who does, a novel new gift idea for the holiday is the No-Limit Texas Dreidel.

A traditional dreidel is a four-sided top-like toy that one uses to play a gambling game commonly associated with Hanukah. (more…)

Once again, the game of poker has shown itself to be a vital part of American life=A0 by being connected to a big story in the news.

Poker, part of the fabric of America, has some tangential connection to almost everything of consequence that happens, it seems. (more…)

A charity poker tournament to benefit cancer victims will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on Friday, December 12, 2008.

The event, officially dubbed the Poker Jingle at the Hard Rock Lounge, is a $200 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that is scheduled to get underway at 3 p.m., organizers said. (more…)

Olympic swimming champ Michael Phelps, who’s pondering a new career as a professional poker player, is wasting no time in gaining experience at his newfound passion.

According to media reports, he was seen at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, over the Thanksgiving holiday, playing poker. (more…)

Professional poker player Hoyt Corkins will be the special guest celebrity at a charity poker tournament on Tuesday, December 9, 2009, at Ebro Greyhound Park in Ebro, Florida, USA.

According to event organizers, the proceeds from the tourney, officially called the Charity Poker Challenge, will benefit the American Cancer Society. =A0 The tourney will get underway at 7 p.m., they said. (more…)

The Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, has announced the dates for the fourth annual Borgata Winter Poker Open.

The Open is a poker competition consisting of 46 separate poker tournaments, culminating with the Borgata Championship Event, a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tourney with a buy-in of $3,000 and a total prize pool of $2 million. (more…)

A school board member in Greenville, North Carolina, USA has admitted to running an illegal video poker operation.

According to media reports, Billy Ray Peaden, a member of the Pitt County Board of Education, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pitt County Superior Court to possessing gambling machines at his businesses. (more…)

It’s not just professional sports teams who go around raiding other teams’ players.

The same thing happens to professional poker players. (more…)

A poker seminar featuring noted poker author David Sklansky will be held from 2-5 p.m. Thursday, December 11, 2008, at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The event is open to the public and costs $150 a head. (more…)

The Indians are on the warpath!

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), a regulatory agency made up of Canadian Indians that oversees online gambling operations run by the Kahnawake tribe, was not too happy about the report on American television this week about two online poker rooms the KGC regulates. (more…)

Never one to miss a chance to publicize itself or its causes, a lobbying group looking to change U.S. laws affecting online poker has issued a statement about the report that aired on American television this week regarding cheating in online poker.

The American television news program “60 Minutes” aired the 12-minute report, called “The Cheaters” and dealing with recent cheating scandals at online poker rooms Absolute Poker (www.absolutepoker.com) and Ultimate Bet (www.ultimatebet.com), last Sunday. (more…)

A report about cheating in online poker that aired Sunday on the American television program “60 Minutes” contained no new information for PokerHelper.com readers.

PokerHelper.com readers learned months ago about the cheating scandals at two popular online poker rooms, Absolute Poker (www.absolutepoker.com) and Ultimate Bet (www.ultimatebet.com), that were featured on the “60 Minutes” report. (more…)