SA Poker Open that for the first time took place in South Africa has proved to be a success with poker champs veterans and international online qualifiers. The tournament was held at Montecasino.

105 players took part in it. The prize pool came to $3,500,000, and the first 10 players came in the money. The tournament was broadcast by a roaming TV crew that did their best to catch all the action. The crew also made close up shots of the final table. Jaime Vilela became the 2007 SA Poker Open Champion.

Having won a trip to South Africa and a SA Poker seat in the final online SA Poker Main Qualifier, PokerTime player, Ryan S from the US, was extremely excited. But luck was not on his side. After a bad beat he left the tournament. Still, the player was not desperately frustrated. He tried African cuisine, visited Nelson Mandela’s house, took part in the horse back safari and the lion tour. So, after all he is planning on coming back for the next poker tournament and taking his family with him.

The biggest bonus in the history of online poker is reported to have been launched by IntertopsPoker.com, a member of the Microgaming Poker Network family. The online gaming company is offering a 500% Match-Up Bonus up to a maximum bonus of $10,000. All new poker room customers will be able to get it.

This strategy is considered to be an excellent idea to attract new players. Having tried the company’s software and having got a great poker experience, players become loyal customers.
 
IntertopsPoker.com is considered to be very popular thanks to some of the biggest progressive jackpots like Major Millions, Fruit Fiesta and Cash Splash. The current progressive jackpot to be won is claimed to be over $3,500,000.

Virgin Games in association with Betfair is launching Virgin Bets where players will be able to find not only standard sportsbetting but also novelty wagers. An array of popular themes that relate to entertainment media in the UK is said to be covered there. Such sports as football, motor sports, greyhound racing, rugby and others won’t be forgotten either.

The focus of Virgin Bets is reported to be on digital arena. And as soon as TV entertainment reaches the pick of activity of its viewers, what is expected to happen in autumn, the marketing push will kick off. As a result reality TV experts will be able “to back their favourite contestants and share the winning feeling”.

As it has been reported, PocketFives.com has partnered with PokerSourceOnline.com. This mutually profitable partnership gives members of PocketFives.com access to a set of resources, while PokerSourceOnline.com gets one of the largest online poker communities – the second largest poker forum – what will make possible for the company to provide a better product for their customers.

The partnership is said to be very promising for both sides as it will help grow the community and improve the experience. As for the customers, this partnership will bring nothing, but only positives.

The companies have just started working together, but they are proud of having already a lot of interesting and exciting projects.

This month’s special preview issue of Bluff Europe shares its hopes for the WSOP that will take place in Las Vegas. Such names as Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Roland de Wolfe, and John Gale, a WSOP bracelet winner in 2006, are among them. The issue of the magazine will be available on the UK newsstand on June 1st.

The players mentioned are considered to be the best ones in the UK. Thus, Roland de Wolfe who has recently appeared in the poker world has already won WPT and EPT titles. Besides he was the second in the Irish Open over Easter. As for John Gale and Praz Bansi, they became winners of bracelets at last year’s WSOP.

Bluff Europe also offers its readers an interview with the Devilfish, a WSOP bracelet winner in 1997 and WPT winner in 2003.

The PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup that took place in Cardiff witnessed a huge success of the Swedish team captained by Sehlstedt. Other members of the team were Anders Henriksson and Mats Rahm, as well as Johan Storakers, William Thorsson and online qualifier Hans Isoz. All together they won $100,000 in this unique televised tournament.

The battle appeared to be really hard from the psychological point of view. Nothing promised success for Sweden, as they had only 12,000 chips compared to 88,000 for the USA. So, the game seemed to be over, but Henriksson doubled up once and won. But that was not the only dramatic point during the tournament. The team from Great Britain who were considered to be one of those to go into the final, failed. The US team had been mauled from the Europeans all week until Williamson III won the night before the final, thus giving them a very small chance.

The succession of those who left the tournament was the following: Germany was the first to live. Then they were followed by Denmark and Holland. Great Britain was the next to leave.

There was one PartyPoker.com qualifier alongside five poker pros in each team from the same participating nation. The exception was the US team where Tilly was instead of an online qualifier. Each player played once to score points for their team. The points were taken into a “tag” final. There, each team’s captain was able to make substitutions and “time outs”.

The series was over on the 15th of May. The show was produced for Channel 4 in the UK by Presentable. Next week poker fans will be able to see the start of PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker, produced by Matchroom Sport. It will start on the 22nd of May at 11:50 pm, Channel 4.

According to the survey conducted by online gaming group St Minver 63% of bingo players would spend much more time playing internet bingo starting from the 1st of July when the smoking ban comes into force.

During the survey 3,000 bingo players have been questioned. Their answers have proved that online Bingo is getting more and more popular in the iGaming market in the UK where thousands of sites operate.

The question of the sector’s growth will be discussed at the second annual Online Bingo Summit [www.bulletbusiness.com/bingo] held at Regents Park Marriott hotel, London on September 25th and 26th.

BingoPort.co.uk (http://www.BingoPort.co.uk) is the UK Online Bingo Monitoring and Ranking Portal. Being recently launched, this website enables online bingo players to get real-time data on the leading bingo sites in the UK and Europe as well as historical data showing the growth of individual bingo sites and the UK bingo industry. BingoPort.co.uk is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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To say more, BingoPort.co.uk offers an opportunity for visitors to chat with other bingo fans via its forums, comments and rating features. And being a part of BingoPort.co.uk online bingo community, a visitor can get cash and prizes. Cash and prizes will be given to those playing forum chat games.

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Zero36 Mobile Casino operating in such European countries as Spain, Belgium and The Netherlands now can work in the UK. It offers O2 i-mode mobile service users unlimited access to internet betting services. A joint agreement between Zero36 and O2 i-mode has made such Microgaming’s online casino games as Blackjack, Video Poker, European Roulette and a wide variety of slot machines available to subscribers to the O2 i-mode mobile service.

The player must be of age, and having signed up through an online portal at the O2 i-mode website or directly at the Zero36 Mobile Casino website, he or she can play for real or play money.