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June 20 - Players are set to enjoy a new lease of life to Paddy Power Casino’s popular Tour de France themed rake race, after the online casino site announced an extension of the promotion.

While players stood in line to win a total prize pool of 75,000 Euro in the May competition, the site said that the June leg will see 100,000 Euro up for grabs.

Players can register for the competition that begins on June 18th and runs until the end of this month.

During the May 10 day race, players were rewarded with thousands of Euros in prize money, plus a VIP to Monte Carlo was also given away.

The winner of the overall May leg, GD of Leatherhead described the feeling of winning Paddy Power’s great prize. “I was thrilled to have won the competition!” he said. “After coming in the money positions last time, I really went for it on Download this time and was rewarded with the top prize.”

The previous competition referred to by GD was the April 50,000 Euro race to win.

Players hoping to get their hands of some of the 100,000 Euro this time around should know that they are being rewarded, firstly, for the total number of games they play and, secondly, for the total amount wagered.

This type of dual track format has proven especially popular for players as it allows penny pinchers to try the route where they are rewarded for many low stake games, and high rollers who prefer to wager big and attempt the second track.

Prizes that include all expenses paid trips to luxury destinations are always popular among players. May’s Monte Carlo winner, SO’B, noted that he was still over the moon about winning. He need needs to decide whether he is taking the trip for two to Monte Carlo, or whether he will take the 5,000 Euro cash prize alternative instead.

Try out this great online casino competition at Paddy Power.

The annual Wimbledon tennis championships get underway this weekend with British player Andy Murray second favourite with most online bookmakers behind Roger Federer to take the men’s singles title.

Murray triumphed last weekend at the Aegon Championships held at the prestigious Queen’s Club in London, the first British player to do so since Bunny Austin in 1938, and is currently listed at odds of 5/2 with ToteSport.com to win the men’s Wimbledon singles final on July 5.

Austin was also the last Brit to reach a Wimbledon men’s singles final and BlueSq.com, 888Sport.com, Ladbrokes.com and WilliamHill.com are also going with odds of 5/2 that Murray will win next month. Slightly longer, BoyleSports.com, Bet365.com, SportingBet.com, SkyBet.com, StanJames.com and Coral.co.uk currently list the Scot at odds of 11/4 while BetFred.com, PaddyPower.com and ExtraBet.com show 3/1 followed by WBX.com with 18/5.

In top spot with most online bookies is Switzerland’s Federer and punters can get odds of 10/11 with Bet365.com, BoyleSports.com and VictorChandler.com. ToteSport.com is offering Evens for last year’s beaten finalist as are BlueSq.com, PaddyPower.com, SportingBet.com, StanJames.com, 888Sport.com, Ladbrokes.com, ExtraBet.com and Coral.co.uk. More competitive, BetFred.com currently shows 11/10 as do SkyBet.com, Expekt.com and WilliamHill.com while customers can get 23/18 from Betfair.com.

Defending champion Raphael Nadal is being offered at odds of 3/1 by Bet365.com, Coral.co.uk and WilliamHill.com followed by 7/2 at BetFred.com, PaddyPower.com, Ladbrokes.com and ExtraBet.com. ToteSport.com has the Spaniard at 4/1 to win the men’s singles title alongside SportingBet.com, VictorChandler.com, BlueSq.com, StanJames.com and 888Sport.com while BoyleSports.com lists 9/2 with SkyBet.com.

Other notable players that may be worth a flutter include American Andy Roddick, listed at odds of 20/1 with Bet365.com, BlueSq.com, 888Sport.com and Ladbrokes.com, while Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko is 125/1 with 888Sport.com, BlueSq.com and Bet365.com.
 

Following in the footsteps of fellow Poker Pack member Steve Sung, JC Tran captured the second World Series Of Poker (WSOP) bracelet of his career over the weekend by winning the $2,500 pot-limit Omaha event.

The Poker Pack is a team of specially selected players of Asian origin that serve as ambassadors for the Asian Poker Tour. Comprised of Tran and Sung as well as Nam Le, Quinn Do, David ‘Chino’ Rheem and Kwang Soo Lee, the Pack has combined live tournament winnings of approximately $24 million and will be attending the Asian Poker Tour event in Macau from August 12 to 23 at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel And Casino.

Tran won Sunday’s Event 30 at the 40th annual WSOP, his third cash at the Las Vegas tournament, after his full house on the final hand left runner-up Jeff Kimber’s pocket pair and failed straight draw in the dust. With the victory, the Poker Pack pro picked up $235,685 along with a coveted gold bracelet.

“It’s been great for us so far,” said Tran.

“Steve’s won one and made another final table and, today, I got my second bracelet. Now we’ll look to keep this up all the way to the main event.

Apart from the remaining events at the WSOP, Tran revealed that the win he is most looking forward to adding to his resume is at the Asian Poker Tour event in Macau this August.

“It’s definitely going to be fun in Macau,” said Tran.

“The Asian Poker Tour has some great events planned that you won’t see anywhere else. We’re also ambassadors of the Asian Poker Tour so it would be twice as good to win there.”
 

Authorities in Belize have recently shut down an online casino ring responsible for money laundering and identification theft. Instadollar and Moneygram, two companies offering online fund transfer services for several online casinos has recently been busted for their illegal activity. Both companies were operating within the US, Turkey and Peru.  

Coye Money Exchange was at the heart of the fraud, having the money pass through the phony company before being dispersed in Belize. Players would deposit their money through their online casino and it would change hands once in Belize. Authorities believe Coye Money Exchange was a front and fake company name for a gang of local money launderers carrying out the illegal operation. Legit names and identification numbers were associated with the deposits; however the address and signatures were fakes.  

Local authorities are still trying to determine how local drivers’ license numbers were associated and in the control of the Coye family, the one’s responsible for the fraud. Fultec Systems, software designers responsible for developing the license database deny any connection to the Coye family and botched data.  

Fulten confirms that they had been notified by Belize City Council that there database had been comprised several times. Members of the Coye family were arrested in a December raid and police seized more than $1.5 million in cash found on the premises. The investigation will continue until all those involved are caught. 

Following a series of impressive wins and strong finishes in some of the world’s biggest events, professional poker player Brandon Cantu has joined UltimateBet.com’s Team UB.

By joining Team UB, the 28-year-old American nicknamed ‘The Bounty Hunter’ will rub shoulders with Phil Hellmuth as well as some of the world’s most respected online poker players.

‘This is an exhilarating time for Team UB,’ said Annie Duke, Card Room Consultant for UltimateBet.com.

‘We’re constantly on the lookout for poker players who have real integrity, unquestionable talent and an incredible passion for the game and we’ve found it all in Brandon Cantu.’

Born in Vancouver, Washington, Cantu first came to the attention of the poker community during the 2006 World Series Of Poker by winning a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. Later that year he took first place in an Ultimate Poker Challenge event.

Since then, he has amassed 14 top-ten finishes in a number of major online poker tournaments and land-based events including a ninth place finish at the 2009 Five-Star World Poker Classic in April, a fifth spot in the 2008 Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December and he earned sixth in a 2008 World Poker Tour Championship event.

Cantu’s biggest victory so far came in March of last year when he took home one million dollars for dominating the World Poker Tour’s Shooting Star Championship Event Two. He is currently representing UltimateBet.com at this summer’s World Series Of Poker in Las Vegas where he is hoping to improve on last year’s 20th place finish in the Main Event that saw him take home $257,334.

Online poker players at UltimateBet.com can use the site’s free UltimateBuddy feature to discover where Cantu, who will play under the username ‘brandon_cantu’, is seated.
 

A quick look at the current WSOP leaderboard shows that a single big win just won’t cut it this year. Instead, the top ten points leaders currently boast anywhere from two to five major cashes. Eight of those ten have won bracelets in this year’s competition, and John Brock Parker and the legendary Phil Ivey have both claimed two bracelets only halfway into the 2009 World Series of Poker events.

At the top of the board is Finnish sensation Ville Wahlbeck. Prior to this year’s tournament, Wahlbeck’s total WSOP earnings were a collective $25,389 from four cash finishes in 2006 and 2007. His best placing had been 20th in the 2007 World Championship Seven Card Stud event. Wahlbeck’s performance at the 2009 WSOP has been nothing short of a meteoric rise to fame. He has thus far had four cash finishes, three final table finishes, and took the bracelet in the World Championship Mixed Event. His 2009 WSOP earnings are currently at $849,785 and his consistently high placings have earned him 255 points, putting him 35 points ahead of Parker and Ivey who are tied for second with 220 points and five and three cashes respectively.

Vitaly Lunkin’s bracelet win in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Holdem event earned him $1,891,012 and made him an early leader for total cash winnings, and he has since posted a second cash finish in the World Championship Mixed Event, but with only 110 points for his two cashes he is still sitting just outside the top ten on the WSOP POY leaderboard.

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This year’s World Series Of Poker (WSOP) tournament is nearly half complete but Poker Pack member Steve Sung is already running in high gear with a bracelet win and a final table showing.

The Poker Pack is a team of specially selected players of Asian origin that serve as ambassadors for the Asian Poker Tour. Comprised of JC Tran, Nam Le, Quinn Do, David ‘Chino’ Rheem, Steve Sung and Kwang Soo Lee with combined live tournament winnings of approximately $23 million, the team will be attending the Asian Poker Tour event in Macau from August 12 to 23 at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel And Casino.

Sung closed out the month of May by winning Event Four at the 40th WSOP after outlasting a field of 6,102 other players. For triumphing in the no-limit hold’em competition, which was the largest non-main event tournament in the history of the WSOP, the Poker Pack member took home $771,106 along with his first bracelet.

A little over one week later, Sung made his presence felt again by finishing third in Event 23, the $10,000 World Championship in no-limit two to seven draw lowball. Although he missed out on his second WSOP bracelet this year, the Korean professional player did pocket $112,042 to bring his total winnings for this year’s tournament to almost $900,000.

The other members of the Poker Pack have also been playing well this year with JC Tran and Quinn Do both cashing twice at the WSOP while Nam Le has one. In total, the Poker Pack has combined for seven cashes in Las Vegas totalling $974,421.
 

Online poker players are being given the opportunity to compete head-to-head against some of the sport’s biggest names with thousands of dollars up for grabs.
The world’s largest non-US online poker network, the iPoker Network, is hosting a celebrity bounty tournament during this summer’s World Series Of Poker (WSOP) tournament offering 21 amateur players the chance to compete for big bucks.
The special event will feature some of the biggest names in professional poker including Tony Guoga, Neil Channing, Jamie Gold, Marty Smith and Scotty Nguyen alongside celebrity competitor Montel Williams. Each star will have a $13,000 bounty on their head while the overall competition winner will walk away with $20,000.
The iPoker Network includes some of the most popular virtual card rooms in Europe including TitanPoker.com, Expekt.com, PaddyPower.com and BoyleSports.com and the 21 qualifying players will face off with the stars on July 9 at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.

 

Last month a casino fire that resulted in 10 casualties drew new criticism in the Ukraine. In an emotional response to the incident, the Ukraine parliament pushed through a blanket ban on all gambling establishments in the country. Just last Friday Ukrainian President Yushchenko exercised his veto and rejected the bill, a move that allowed area betting halls, casinos, and slots vendors to reopen their doors this Monday.

Yushchenko’s plan was to allow limited operations while new legislation for better governance of the country’s gambling industry is being developed. The president cited the significant value of the industry in light of the current world recession as the basis for his veto.

Tuesday the Ukrainian debate over the legality of gambling took another twist when their legislature announced its intention to override Yushchenko’s veto and revive the ban. Prime Minister Tymoshenko has threatened that to bypass Yushchenko if need be and go straight to parliament to ensure that the ban is upheld. For their part, owners and operators in Ukraine’s gambling industry have voiced their concerns over the new bill and have vowed to strike should it be reinstated.

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June 12 - It was dinosaur sized luck all round for Christopher T. who spent a very rewarding evening playing at Intertops RED online casino.

The player decided to try out the newly launched site that started out on the Real Time Gaming platform only a fortnight ago.

Intertops decided to create the new RED site in order to allow US players to enjoy all that this brand has to offer. The RED online casino was to complement Intertops GREEN that worked off the Microgaming platform and which could not, unfortunately, accept US players.

Christopher T. started off his evening playing at the 5 reel, 25 pay line T-Rex slot game with $300. A hunch told him to keep playing at the one machine, which he did steadily for several hours. By the middle of the evening, he had already accumulated an incredible $70,000 by simply playing the regular jackpots and not even attempting progressive jackpot playing.

By the time his credit score reached five figures, the player felt that he needed to walk away from the casino a while to catch his breath. “I decided to take a break,” he said. “But after a while I wanted to continue my winning streak and I finally ended up wit $200,090!”

Christopher was all smiles and jokes regarding this fantastic win at Intertops RED. “Maybe I should use some of my winnings to go to Washington and check out the dinosaurs at the Smithsonian!” he said.

Intertops RED offers players an all round gaming experience, having over 300 games to choose from in the remarkable Real Time Gaming games portfolio.

Players can try their luck at a wide range of slot games, ranging from classic three reel slot games to multi line video slot titles. In addition, there are regular casino games such as three card rummy, blackjack and roulette with huge prizes just waiting to be won.

Visit Intertops today.