Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, UltimateBet’s owners, have admitted the second time in less than a year that cheating has gone on in their poker room. What happened is that UltimateBet security had been breached by former employees and accounts with access to opponent’s hole cards that were used to cheat in high-stakes games. The fraudulent activity took place from March 7, 2006 to December 3, 2007.

The investigation was launched in January after the online poker room was notified that the “NioNio” account might be involved in unfair play.

In February preliminary findings indicated high winning statistics for the suspect accounts. Later on, it was confirmed that the suspected accounts were associated with the individuals who had worked for UltimateBet under the previous ownership, and the online poker site discovered the unauthorized code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The unauthorized code was removed.

In March, six player accounts were confirmed to have participated in the fraudulent activity, and it was noticed that some account names had been changed several times. NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen are the account names that have been used un the fraudulent activity.

Finally in May Gaming Association has certified that the software code that enabled unfair play was removed from UltimateBet servers in February of 2008. Moreover, they have identified customers affected by this incident, now, UltimateBet is able to refund them.

To note: UltimateBet customers will no longer be able to change account names unless they’ve suffered from “abuse” in the chat rooms.

“During the course of the next 5 weeks everyone will be focused on the Euro 2008 Championship. This momentous football event will be seen everywhere. On Television, in newspapers and magazines, on the Net and more importantly it will be on the lips of millions of people all over the world. A large percentage of these football fans will also be Poker Players. This Poker league is for them,” said a spokesperson for RedKings.com.

The spokesperson has mentioned EuroKings 2008 tournament introduced by Redkings.com. It’ll kick off with the Opening Ceremony of three $1,000 freerolls on May 27, 29 and June 3. Participating in the tournament, players can support the team they wish to play in based on who they will support during Euro2008 and the winning poker team will be awarded the honor of having the best poker playing fans in the Tournament.

The top 50 players who’ll take part in the individual competition will get amazing prizes, and ten top players in the League will win prizes like a Nintendo Wi, Sony Playstation and Nokia Phone with the overall winner travelling to Vienna to watch the Final. In addition to the prizes, players can use the bonus code EUROKINGS when making any deposit and get a football shirt of their choice plus $400 in cash bonuses.

John Tabatabai is reported to have joined Team Betfair.

A 23-year-old member, the game’s latest rising star, is from Cardiff, but now he is living in London. Before turning to poker, Tabatabai played chess.

In 2007 Tabatabai almost defeated Obrestad, Betfair-sponsored pro, at the WSOPE 2007. thus he first hit the headlines. Later he won the All-Africa Poker Tournament.

Big things are expected from the new member of the Betfair team. They consider him to be a very aggressive poker strategist and an absolute class act at the table.

Tabatabai would be playing for Team Betfair at World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, in July.

The start of the next season of the online poker league the FTR Gauntlet took place on May 18, 2008, at 3:00pm ET.

It must be noticed that it is already season VII of the Gauntlet, but with every season it’s been getting more popular and bigger.

For those who don’t know, the FTR Gauntlet is a series of $11 buy-in private tournaments held by FlopTurnRiver.com and hosted on PokerStars. Anyone may join the league for free, but you must be a registered FTR Poker Forum member with a PokerStars account.

This season there are 16 out of 32 tournaments to choose from, and there is also a mixed-games format. Players can enjoy different varieties of poker: full-table or 6-max no-limit Hold’em, heads-up Hold’em matches or pot-limit Omaha/8 tourneys.

At the end of the season, 3rd place wins free FTR gear and $75, 2nd place receives FTR gear and $150, 1st place gets the FTR gear and $300, plus the beautiful and coveted FTR Gauntlet crystal trophy. During the Gauntlet games, there will be special bonus or bounty prizes announced.

After the season, the top 10 players from Season VII and each of the past seasons are eligible to play in the FyrFytr Tournament of Champions (TOC) invitational tourney.

Since all Gauntlet games are hosted at PokerStars, all new players should register their account with the PokerStars Marketing Code “flopturnriver” and PokerStars Bonus Code “First2008″ to gain the maximum deposit bonus and access to exclusive PokerStars events hosted by FlopTurnRiver.com.

After months of hard work DevilfishPoker.com has been re-launched on the Entraction network (formerly 24hNetwork) – a great and successful network with outstanding software. Now, the website has a contemporary look and offers its players a number of promotional activities such as a sign up bonus of 150% up to €666, a daily €666 freeroll, daily “Beelzebub Breakfast” and “Lucifer’s Lunch” freerolls, a cash game bad beat jackpot, and a monthly €100,000 guaranteed tournament.

In “Bad Beat” Jackpot losing hand receives 40%, while winning hand receives 20%. All players dealt cards split 20%, and as for the rest 20%, it is kept back for the new Jackpot.

Players can also participate in €100,000 guaranteed tournament held last Sunday of each month. Players can buy-in directly for €200 or qualify from €2 – €20.

The 2008 WSOP will soon start, but the players from all over the world are already sharpening their skills before going to Las Vegas.

Some players will go to Vegas to play in the Hold’em events, others will have their skills tested in other forms of poker. To improve the card playing skills, some players have been taking classes.

So, there are two weeks left before the beginning of the tournament, and within this time players will be taking time to ensure they are ready for the tournament or not.

There is an opinion that Bodog qualifying tournaments are the best way to WSOP 2008.

The opinion is based on the fact that Bodog has been guaranteeing 6 x $12,000 main event prize package to the winners of their online tournaments for the last few weeks. The number of players in the games does not matter. Thus, only 66 players took part in the last two Sunday $250 Main Event Semi-final games, but despite this Bodog awarded a seat at the main table to the winner.

It is obvious that Bodog are running some of the tournaments at a loss, but being good to their word helps gain better reputation. And good reputation has been made over the last few years of being one of the most proactive Poker companies.

A player will be pleased to find more ways o win at Spin32Poker.com – Bounty Tournaments, a different way to play with Shootout Tournaments, plus the massive Bad Beat Jackpot on specially labeled ring games.

Having eliminated another player in Bounty Tournaments, a player will be rewarded with extra cash. As for the Shootout Tournaments, players will have a nice chance to test their skills there by progressing successfully through several qualifying rounds before the battle in the grand finale. Speaking about the Bad Beat Jackpot, it collects 50c from every pot of selected games thus contributing to the total sum of Jackpot. As soon as the Bad Beat Jackpot is won, every active player at the table will get a portion of the prize money.

There is one more feature to be discussed – Deal It Twice. It “allows two All-In players the option to deal the turn and the river cards twice, giving more chances to hit more outs and to improve their hand”.

Judging the quality of the new features, it is clear that Spin32Poker.com has managed to retain quality.

Online Poker players from the USA are still welcome. Every first time depositor to the site will get a Welcome Bonus of up to $500.

For more information go to Spin32Poker.com.

Michelle Orpe, well known as a presenter on Sky Poker, reached the final table of the European Ladies Poker Championship in London on May 4th. It is another step in her professional poker career.

At stake were a guaranteed Prizepool of $100,000 and a top prize of $30,000.

Lots of experienced professionals took part in the Championship, but even they failed. Michelle was outlasted among others. She cashed at her 2nd sponsored event.

After the event, Michelle fells even more confident, in great shape and ready to take part in new competitions.

The event will be broadcast in six one-hour shows during the late summer on Sky Sports in the UK.

Michelle is thought to be possessing poker skills. They hope she’ll take part in new tournaments, and her star will shine for a long time.

The World Poker Association has announced that a teach-in will take place this year prior to the 2008 WSOP event. The conference will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, on the 28th and 29th of May. The teach-in will be moderated by Mike Caro, poker celebrity.

Lisa Adams (LIPS Tour champion), Ken Adams (Lawyer and well known Poker player) and Francois Montmirel (from the French School of Poker) will give advice and tips on the game.

Hopefully the tech-in will become a regular event in the future.