Blom, who plays under the famous screen name ‘Isildur1′, has been busy representing Team PokerStars at the recent SCOOP tournament series. He has now become the toast of the online poker forums thanks to his incredible tournament skills, which helped to secure him victory at two SCOOP tournaments on successive days.

The first of Blom’s wins came at Event Number 2; a mid buy-in $215 tournament. The game had a huge field of players (with over 8,000 competing in total); however, by the end of the first day, Blom had already managed to begin to assert his dominance and show some signs of what was to come. Day 2 continued where Blom has managed to leave off; he built up an impressive chip lead going into the final table, then showed no mercy – finishing the game in style. The win marked the first major online tournament victory of Blom’s young career – however, that was not the end of Blom’s SCOOP story.

Blom then turned his sights to Event Number 3, where his was one of a much smaller field (featuring a relatively poultry 486 competitors). The buy-in for this tournament was $530. Blom did not falter on his mission to dominate the SCOOP Series; he put in a repeat performance of Event Number 2 and was leading again going into the final table. Spectators were treated to a little more competition at this table, with Blom’s rivals managing to stifle his advance more successfully that the previous event’s players.

Despite this, it was ultimately Blom who managed to overcome all obstacles and set the poker world aflutter with his most impressive achievement to date.

Full Tilt Poker was once the world’s second largest online poker provider; however, since the events of ‘Black Friday’, the poker operator has been indicted by the United States government. The United States Department of Justice even went as far as to describe the running of Full Tilt Poker as being akin to a giant ‘Ponzi Scheme’ – this accusation led to several key board members of Full Tilt Poker being prosecuted.

For a while, the shamed poker operator appeared to be a stagnant entity; however, new life was breathed into the famous domain by a new deal with Groupe Bernard Tapie. The French investment group was renowned for turning around the fortunes of struggling businesses, and looked set to take on the massive task of sorting out Full Tilt Poker. However, in a shock twist, it transpired that several famous professional spokesman owed Full Tilt Poker million of dollars in debt – amongst the famous names were such poker stars as Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey.

After a few months of waiting, it appeared that the potential deal had fallen through.

Then suddenly, a new deal emerged between the United States Department of Justice and the world’s largest online poker operator, PokerStars. Owners of Full Tilt Poker, Dublin-based Pocket Kings, even looked to be a customer service recruitment drive to re-launch the popular domain.

Since that news, the deal has once again fallen into silence.

This has left many former Full Tilt Poker players wondering if they will ever see the funds that were frozen when the website was initially indicted.

The news that PokerStars could now be purchasing what was once their biggest rival within the online poker sector has come as a shock to the poker community as a whole. Following the revelation, players have now been asking exactly what it would mean for them is the deal between the two companies was to go ahead.

More specifically, PokerStars has reached an agreement with the Untied States Department of Justice (the government body which was responsible for the original indictment of Full Tilt Poker on ‘Black Friday last year), which will see them purchase the disgraced poker operator.

If the unlikely deal does actually manage to go through, players are thought to be able to claim a 100% refund of the fund that were frozen in their Full Tilt Poker accounts at the time of its closure.

Further to this, both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker will go back online as separate entities and continue to serve the public with distinct promotions and offers.

Meanwhile, the speculation of a deal between the two parties has been further strengthened thanks to a statement by Groupe Bernard Tapie, which read: “We understand from press reports that the Department Of Justice may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the Full Tilt Poker’s assets. If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with Department Of Justice.”

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (issuers of the original gambling license to disgrace online poker operator Full Tilt Poker) found themselves approached by Orinic in order to obtain a higher level operating license than they currently posses. Orinic are a subsidiary company of Full Tilt Poker, so naturally the online poker community was aflutter with speculation about the impending reopening of Full Tilt Poker’s doors to customers. However, it no appears that the Swiss-based subsidiary firm has withdrawn its application to the Alderney Gambling Control Commission during the closing stages of March – Orinic will no longer be seeking approval for a Category Two gaming license.

This has also meant that the subsequent hearing regarding the application which was scheduled to be held on May 3rd has also been cancelled.

Meanwhile, it appears that PokerStars could be the unlikely new owners of Full Tilt Poker following rumours that they have struck a new deal with the United States Department of Justice. This means that Groupe Bernard Tapie are no longer the favourites to conclude a purchase of Full Tilt Poker; the French investment group struggled to meet stipulations outlined in the deal with the Department of Justice.

If the deal with PokerStars goes ahead, it is thought that players funds will be returned in full, and that both websites will return to regular operation – both will offer individual promotions and continue to operate under different branding.

Rumours have begun to circulate that Full Tilt Poker are getting ready to relaunch their operations following over 372 days in limbo.

Full Tilt Poker were formerly the world’s second largest online poker operator, until the events of ‘Black Friday’ saw them indicted by the Untied States Government. The Department of Justice seized the operations of Full Tilt Poker and later accused the company of being operated like a giant Ponzi scheme.

It was thought that there had been irreparable damage to the Full Tilt Poker brand; however, it looks as though a sale of the company could now be reaching its closing stages. The new owners of the company are looking increasingly likely to be Groupe Bernard Tapie – a French investment group with a knack for turning around the fortunes of failing companies.

The sale has been hampered in recent months by a number of revelation; the main revelation was the fact that several of the top professional poker players turned out to owe in excess of $15 million to the company – amongst these players were top professionals Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey.

It now seems that a subsidiary company of Full Tilt Poker has been found to be applying for a advanced poker license with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. In addition to this, there have also been job vacancies advertised by Full Tilt Poker for customer service-based roles within the company.

While Full Tilt Poker are declining to comment on the significance of the reported activity, many industry analysts believe that it is only a matter of time until the poker rooms are again operational.

The latest confrontation has been between a website called Poker Table Ratings, and the world’s largest online poker operator Poker Stars. For those players who are not aware, Poker Table Ratings is a website that collects data from numerous online poker players from across an array of the top networks currently operating on the Internet. This is done so that the data that has been collected can then be sold to interested parties, so that it can then be collated and used as a database (this activity it usually undertaken by high-volume, winning players). The desire of the database is that it allows players who have possession of it to work out winning strategies to use against their regular opponents; it also aids in the identification of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, so that players who are more likely to yield an ‘easy win’ can be more effectively targeted.

This activity (as well as being generally unscrupulous) is highly frowned upon by the vast majority of online poker operators. Chief amongst them is Poker Stars, who have even gone as far to have the ISP of Poker Table Ratings block them to avoid being the victim of data mining activities. However, following a change of ISP provider by Poker Table Ratings, it appears that Poker Stars have had to take even more potent action by threatening legal action against the data collection website.

Initial reports suggest that the threats have been taken extremely seriously by Poker Table Ratings; it is thought that this will be enough to discourage such activities – however, many industry analysts believe it will only be a matter of time before the issue flares up again…

Of course, it should be mentioned at the outset that online casinos do make money, and whilst some of that comes from advertising a lot of it actually comes from people losing cash. Still, if you’re serious about being successful and winning money, there’s always the opportunity to earn a little bit.

There are two different ways of consistently winning in an online casino, and we’ll touch on them both briefly.

The first way is to make the most of sign up bonuses offered by an online casino like Sky Vegas. Although this is advertised as ‘free money’ it’s not actually because you can’t withdraw it or use it for anything except playing in the casino. Still, it represents gaming credit and that means that you can play money games without risking any of your own cash.

Couple this with hunting for free cash games which most casinos offer from time to time and you have a risk free method of playing. The more you play, the more likely it is that you’ll win eventually, so by being patient and sticking to these bonuses and rules, you can earn a fair bit of money.

This is the safer, but slower, method of winning a lot of money. A better method is to pick your games carefully. All games have a certain element of skill involved in them, but some are more luck. If you carefully select the games that involve more skill – and playing against other people – then you give yourself a greater chance of winning.

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So, even arcade games like Bejeweled can be potential money spinners if you play enough and get extremely good at it. By focussing your efforts on one or two high skill games, you’ll soon get good enough to start winning fairly consistently.

Of course, the casino game that has the highest element of skill is poker, and this is the best way to win money because you pit your skill directly against the cards and the people you’re playing against. Unfortunately, learning to play poker well takes years and a lot of practice and is somewhat beyond the scope of this article.

The Microgaming Poker Network is well known for offering some innovative and potentially lucrative bonuses and deals to its many customers; chief amongst them is the ever-rising Bad Beat Jackpot, which has managed to reach staggering new heights.

The poker network is operated by the world’s largest provider of online gaming software; it has one of the biggest player-bases on the Internet – this looks to be growing significantly in recent months as new of the progressive jackpots continues to spread to new and hopeful players.

Amongst the most popular of Microgaming’s prizes on offer is the luck recouping ‘Bad Beat’ jackpot. This jackpot is awarded to players who are “unlucky” enough to lose with a seemingly unbeatable hand- the Microgaming Poker Network Bad Beat Jackpot now stands at an enormous 500,000 Euros, making it one of the most enticing pieces of “bad luck” on the Internet.

The Bad Beat jackpot available at Microgaming is much larger than those offered by any of its competitors, and as a result of this fact, it has been gaining a great deal of attention from players – many of whom are hoping that they can become the “most unlucky player on the Internet” by losing with Full House hand of kings and aces.

Meanwhile, Microgaming have announced an increase in content in their online slot portfolio; as well as striking up a new deal with Mr Green casino, which has been dubbed by many online gaming analysts as the ‘deal of the year’.

The Unibet Paris Open is scheduled to be held from May 3rd-6th; it marks the first of such events from one of the world’s most popular online poker providers. The tournament will be held in the Cercle Cadet Poker room; lucky Unibet winners will also be put up on the luxurious Hotel Concorde La Fayette for the duration of their stay in the ‘City of Love’.

The competition’s Main Event will be a 1,500 + 150 + 30 Euro buy-in, which will allow players to face off against some of the most promising poker players currently touring the European poker circuit.

Unibet’s Sit & Go satellite games are currently giving players the opportunity to qualify for the Paris Open for as little as €0.80; victory in these games gives players access to the incredible step system, which could see them playing their way to one of the top poker tournaments in Europe. Once past the first stage, players will have to perform well in €2, €5, €11, €30, €55 and, finally, the Weekly Sunday Final to secure their place at the Paris Open.

Those who do manage to achieve the improbable and play their way from start to finish will also be awarded within a 2,500 Euro package which includes: accommodation for four nights, 250 Euro travel expenses and meals provided on a daily basis – giving some lucky poker players the opportunity to sample some of the finest cuisine and poker that France has to offer.

The new tournament is being brought to customers by both Poker Royalty LLC (one of the industry’s premier marketing and representation agencies) and famous, independent, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power. In the new collaborative format, punters will be given the ability to place wagers during games featuring some of the poker circuit’s top competitors.

The opening game will feature a 10,000 Euro buy-in; it will be a 10-person, winner-takes-all tournament to herald the opening of the iSeriesLIVE – the inaugural event is scheduled to take place on April 6th 2012.

Some of the top names currently active in professional poker have already been confirmed for the new tournament; these are thought to include Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Dave Ulliott and Carlos Mortensen.

During the new format, punters will be able to place bets on various real-time scenarios as they unfold between some of the game’s best players, right before their eyes.

“For poker to continue to grow, the game needs to become more immediate to our fans,” commented poker legend Phil Hellmuth.

“By allowing fans to view a poker event as it actually happens with hole cards exposed and bet on the action just as they would on football or horse racing, iSeriesLIVE can help take our game to the next level.” he added.

The opening event of the iSeriesLIVE has already attracted a great deal of attention within the industry; so much so, in fact, that Poker Royalty have already announced their intention to host future events.

“We’re all about finding new ways to help players make money,” said Brian Balsbaugh from Poker Royalty.