With 8,504 participants, the $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool for the Sunday Million was boosted to $1,700,800, with 1,260 getting paid in the event.

The first PokerStars Sunday Million bubble player of the year was tobededope, who left in 1,261st place while RSRMCA became the first player to cash in the Sunday Million for 2009. The big winner to kick off the year, however, was stoledog.

After a three-way deal that left stoledog with $150,793.55, he went on to defeat Prom Queens and USA_20080920 to pick up the remaining $30,000.

Here's how the money looked after the chop:

• stoledog (40,017,372 in chips) = $150,793.55
• Prom Queens (35,701,174 in chips) = $150,000
• USA_20080920 (9,321,454 in chips) = $108,182.93

USA_20080920 may have been the short stack when the money was chopped, but he was not going quietly. After doubling through stoledog with pocket aces, USA_20080920 was back in the game and it was Prom Queens who ended up taking the third-place position.

By the time Prom Queens was out, USA_20080920 had turned the tables on them and was sitting with the chip lead when heads-up play began.

Stoledog chipped up with a few sizeable pots and retook the lead. The lead would change a few more times before stoledog finally got the best of USA_20080920.

On the final hand stoledog made an initial raise to $2.4 million, which USA_20080920 countered with $4 million and stoledog called.

They saw a flop of #6s#9d#Ah, and USA_20080920 led out with a $5 million bet. Stoledog raised to $21.6 million and USA_20080920 shoved all-in.

Stoledog made the call with #Ts#9s for middle pair, while USA_20080920 showed #As#3s for top pair. However, the #Js on the turn gave stoledog more outs, and when the #Th fell on the river, stoledog had two pair for the win.

The final-table results including the chop were:

For more information about the Sunday Million or other events at the poker site, visit PokerStars.

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The poker site said it is making the change in the schedule of the UltimateBet Online Championship in an effort to make the series more accessible to more players.

"We've listened to our players, modified our UBOC tournament schedule and repositioned one of our championship tournaments within reach of more online poker players," said Annie Duke, UltimateBet's cardroom consultant.

There's a slight downside to the change. The event, which will be a six-handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship, will now have a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool rather than the $1 million prize pool it was scheduled to have before.

However, there is still another $1 million event on the UBOC schedule, the $1,000+$50 UBOC Championship event scheduled for Jan. 18.

"With a $1 million championship event and a $300,000 championship, our new UBOC schedule promises to thrill more players looking to be a part of the most exciting online championship series in poker," Duke said.

The 2009 UBOC gets started Friday, Jan. 9, and will have 22 events spread over 10 days with close to $2.5 million in guaranteed prize pools. The series will include variations of No-Limit Texas Hold'em, H.O.R.S.E., Pot-Limit Omaha and more.

For those players who don't quite have the bankroll to spend on a seat in an event, UltimateBet has several ways to qualify for the UBOC.

Plus the poker site is hosting a Mini UBOC that will run parallel to the larger online series. The difference is there won't be the two championship events, and the buy-ins will be 10% of what the buy-ins are for the corresponding UBOC events.

For more information about the UBOC or to find out what else the poker site has to offer, visit Ultimate Bet.

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That winner was Rory Rees Brennan, who topped a field of 255 players to earn a €160,000 top prize.

The event took place at the Radisson Hotel in Galway. With its €3,000 buy-in for the main event, players were looking at earning a piece of a €464,000 prize pool.

Some big names flooded the tables for the year's first event, including Mike Sexton, Kenna James, Marty Smyth and last year's winner Jude Ainsworth.

Day 1 of the tournament saw 131 players fall by the wayside, and on Day 2 only 26 players emerged to return to Day 3. Those 26 players were in the money but still battling for a spot at the nine-man final table.

The players who would earn that honor were Peter Murphy, Derek Murray, David Curtis, Krzysztof Gwvszko, Rory Liffey, Rory Brennan, David Poole, Chris Dowling and chip leader Ben Vinson.

Liffey was the first to go, claiming the ninth-place position, while Murray, one of the locals at the table, was out in eighth, and Murphy was out in seventh.

The Polish player at the table, Gwvszko, was out in sixth place, and behind him was Curtis, the other Galway resident.

Poole turned in a fourth-place performance, and Vinson finished third when he wasn't able to convert his chip lead into a win. That left Brennan and Dowling to play heads-up for the big prize.

Their battle lasted two and half hours before Brennan finally put Dowling down for the count. Dowling had gone all-in with 9-6 offsuit, and Brennan called with an A-T. The board fell Brennan's way, making him the new IPC champion.

The final-table results were:

See what's next on PartyPoker's live poker agenda or in their online poker schedule by visiting Party Poker.

Dwan is quoted in several online sources as saying that he'll put up $1.5 million to a challenger's $500,000 playing four tables at a time heads-up with minimum $200/$400 stakes. They'll play a minimum of 50,000 hands and whichever of them finishes on the profitable side wins the bet.

Basically, if the player ends up even a dollar more than where he started when the matchup began, he wins durrrr's $1.5 million. If durrrr ends up on the winning side instead, he gets the player's $500,000.

Dwan confirmed the challenge in a 2+2 thread Friday, adding some more details and stipulations. He wrote:

ya i mean this wasnt supposed to be posted yet but w/e. Anyway... there are obv a few conditions, im out of it- but off the top of my head:

1) 200-400min (nl/plo obv)
2) can change tables anytime eff stacks are >250bb
3) have to reload when stacks are <75bb
4) $$ won in the challenge is kept obv (if i win 750k in poker, i get that PLUS your 500k- if i lose 750k in poker you get 2.25m total).
5) same stakes the whole time
6) not open to phil galfond

hmm probly some other stuff but im out of it b/c i jus got owned @ some scrabble. I was gonna think up official 'terms' and post em or something, but thought i had another week or two b4 it became public.

Nobody has taken up the official challenge yet, but durrrr was still getting plenty of action over the past few days to put him at the top of the Online Money Makers list already for 2009. Early Sunday and today, luckexpress10 took on the Dwan and they traded a few hefty pots.

On Sunday, two hands with triple-digit pots went down between the two, and this morning they were at it again.

The first big hand on Sunday morning saw durrrr take down a $131,193 pot in heads-up play against luckexpress10 at Full Tilt Poker. The two locked horns at a $200/$400 table.

#HandHistory:9848157413:1901:Click play to watch the hand play out, or read the history below.:embed#

Game: $200/$400 - Hold'em Table: Ahern (deep hu) Players: durrrr, luckexpress10 Date: Jan. 4, 2009 5:33:55 a.m. ET Hand ID: 9848157413

Table Setup

durrrr: Seat 1 - Stack size: $94,393. luckexpress10: Seat 2 - Stack size: $65,597. luckexpress10 posts small blind of $200. durrrr posts big blind of $400.

Pre-Flop

Dealing down cards. luckexpress10 raises $1,000. durrrr calls $800.

Flop [#9h#6d#2h]

durrrr checks. luckexpress10 bets $2,000. durrrr raises $6,300. luckexpress10 raises $62,397. durrrr calls $58,097. luckexpress10 shows #6s#2s. durrrr shows #7h#Ah.

Turn #9h#6d#2h [#8d]

River #9h#6d#2h#8d [#Ts]

durrrr wins $131,193.

A little more than 10 minutes later, luckexpress10 turned around and won the second triple-digit pot the two played for on Sunday.

durrrr raised it up to $1,000 from the small blind with luckexpress10 countering with $4,400. durrrr made the call, and they saw a flop of #2d#Jd#3s.

Luckexpress10 bet out $7,600, and durrrr called. The turn brought a #Th, prompting another bet from luckexpress10, and durrrr countered by going all-in. luckexpress10 called to find durrrr holding #Jc#5c to his own #9h#Jh.

The river brought a #Ts and luckexpress10 walked away with a $139,982 pot. You can watch the hand play out in our hand replayer.

Today the two came together again at Full Tilt Poker in the early morning hours. This time around, their biggest pot was $95,992, which was also shipped to luckexpress10.

#HandHistory:9866119985:1901:Click play to watch the hand play out, or read the history below.:embed#

Game: $200/$400 - Hold'em Table: Ahern (deep hu) Players: luckexpress10, durrrr Date: Jan. 5, 2009 6:06:33 a.m. ET Hand ID: 9866119985

Table Setup

luckexpress10: Seat 1 - Stack size: $47,996. durrrr: Seat 2 - Stack size: $71,998. luckexpress10 posts small blind of $200. durrrr posts big blind of $400.

Pre-Flop

Dealing down cards. luckexpress10 raises $1,000. durrrr raises $3,200. luckexpress10 calls $2,400.

Flop [#2d#Kc#2h]

durrrr checks. luckexpress10 checks.

Turn #2d#Kc#2h [#Qc]

durrrr checks. luckexpress10 bets $5,200. durrrr raises $17,500. luckexpress10 calls $12,300.

River #2d#Kc#2h#Qc [#7d]

durrrr checks. luckexpress10 bets $26,896. durrrr calls $26,896. luckexpress10 shows #Ac#2c. durrrr mucks. luckexpress10 wins $95,992.

For more high-stakes action, visit the MarketPulse section. You can also head to Full Tilt Poker to get in on it firsthand.

Club Titan will have something to offer for poker players at all levels. The VIP club will feature various rewards and special tournaments for its members throughout the year.

VIP members will also benefit from faster points accumulation, special reload bonuses and loyalty cash bonuses. Players can potentially earn tens of thousands of dollars if they put in a decent amount of time at Titan Poker.

To celebrate the launch of the program Titan Poker is running the Million Dollar Race, which is an ongoing promotion awarding $1 million in cash prizes to Titan players.

The Race gets started in mid-January and will run through the end of April 2009. A series of races based on the play at Titan Poker's cash game tables will be staged simultaneously, dealing out cash prizes to top finishers and to those players who hit specific hot spots in the leaderboard standings. Titan Poker has already announced there will be several more tournaments available to Club Titan players throughout the year.

Players will be able to win multiple prizes while at the same time cashing in on their benefits at Club Titan and building their bankrolls.

Titan Poker is one of the world's largest online poker rooms and the biggest site on the iPoker Network. Titan is well-known for sending numerous players around the world and also runs its very own European Championship of Online Poker, which sees millions of dollars awarded to skilled online players every year.

To learn more about the site check out our exclusive review.

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Already one of the largest poker tournaments outside of the World Series of Poker, the PCA expects to draw better than 1,000 rounders to the Atlantis Casino on Paradise Island for what is now being called a "Festival of Poker" from Jan. 5-10.

More than 750 online qualifiers have already grabbed seats in the $10,000 buy-in main event, won by Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in January 2008.

The former professional StarCraft player grabbed all the glory and a $2 million first-place prize defeating Hafiz Khan heads-up after making his way through a formidable final table that included David "The Dragon" Pham, Joe "bigegypt" Elpayaa and Christian "charder" Harder.

A total field of 1,136, including 845 PokerStars qualifiers, set the record for PCA attendance in 2008, and insiders expect the main event to be even bigger this time around.

But the main event isn't the only draw in Nassau this week. The Battleship of Online Poker, the World Cup of Poker Final and a wide range of sit-and-go, satellite and side events are also planned.

Plus, a $25,000 high-roller tournament set to start Jan. 8 is sure to draw some of the biggest names in the game.

As always, PL.com will be on the scene braving the sand, surf, bikini-clad poker hotties and more than our share of fruity tropical beverages to bring you live coverage of both the high-roller tournament and the main event.

Our comprehensive coverage begins Monday and you can follow it all right here.

Several celebrity gossip sites are reporting that Pamela Anderson will make the trip to Melbourne to get her poker on at the Aussie Millions.

The former Baywatch star has a long history in poker, and even launched her own online poker site at the 2006 WSOP. Pamelapoker.com was a sister site to Doylesroom.com, but was shut down after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed later that year.

Anderson was also briefly married to film producer and poker player Rick Salomon. Anderson mentioned on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that the two began seeing each other after Salomon agreed to pay off some of her poker debt.

This is actually the second year it's been rumored that Anderson will play the Aussie Millions. Last year she dropped out of the tournament for unknown reasons, although celebrities like Michael Vartan (Alias) and Shannon Elizabeth filled the tournament's actor/poker player quota.

The 2009 Aussie Millions main event will take place Jan. 18-24. Last year Russian player Alexander Kostritsyn outlasted 778 players and then won a hard-fought heads-up battle against Team Full Tilt member Erik Seidel to take down the $1.4 million first-place prize.

Maybe it's the time of year, or the major tournaments starting up in the next few days, but the online action is on the slow end today. For all of you action-junkie railbirds, don't get too upset, as it won't be long until things heat back up again.

At the moment, the only serious action is a $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha table on Full Tilt, currently playing as a heads-up game between the two high-stakes giants.

Unfortunately, the only pot large enough to be worth mentioning also happens to have completed before showdown, meaning we don't get to see the cards either player was holding. Instead, we get to speculate.

#HandHistory:9829866603:1901:Click play to watch the hand play out, or read the history below.:embed#

Game: $200/$400 - Omaha Table: Antonius (deep-six) Players: Patrik Antonius, durrrr Date: Jan. 3, 2009 4:17:01 ET Hand ID: 9829866603

Table Setup
Patrik Antonius: Seat 3 - Stack size: $74,598.
durrrr: Seat 4 - Stack size: $85,398.
Patrik Antonius posts small blind of $200.
durrrr posts big blind of $400.

Pre-Flop
Dealing down cards.
Patrik Antonius raises $1,000.
durrrr raises $3,200.
Patrik Antonius calls $2,400. 

Flop [#2h#5c#2s]
durrrr bets $4,800.
Patrik Antonius raises $15,600.
durrrr calls $10,800.

Turn #2h#5c#2s [#4s]
durrrr checks.
Patrik Antonius bets $21,200.
durrrr calls $21,200. 

River #2h#5c#2s#4s [#9s]
durrrr checks.
Patrik Antonius bets $34,198.
durrrr folds.
Uncalled bet of $34,198 returned to Patrik Antonius.
Patrik Antonius mucks.
Patrik Antonius wins $80,800.

These two players have played countless high-stakes hands against each other. The pre-flop raise and call were standard; there is really no information we learn from them other than that neither player is holding absolute garbage ... just possibly mostly garbage.

durrrr's flop bet could mean any number of things: he could be betting for information, attempting to steal the pot on the rainbow low-paired board, or betting for value after hitting the flop.

Once Patrik Antonius raises, durrrr now believes that there is a decent chance that he's behind in the hand, but either feels that Antonius could have been bluffing, or that he has enough outs to make the call worthwhile. Hence durrrr calls.

#img: tom-dwan_25226.jpg:left: Fresh face belies a durrrr-ty mind.#

On the turn, durrrr checks, Antonius bets and durrrr calls. We are still under the same assumption as on the last street: durrrr is either hoping to hit, or believes Antonius might be bluffing. There is also a very good chance durrrr is hoping for a scare card on the river to make a bluff on.

The river comes bringing a backdoor flush, not the scare card durrrr needed. Once Antonius ships, it becomes obvious to durrrr that he's beat in the hand, and mucks his cards, as the odds of this being a three-barrel bluff from Antonius are almost nil at this point.

All in all this was a completely standard, average and uneventful hand. The only difference between it and the hundreds of hands you and I will play over the next week is that this pot was worth $80,000. For the players involved, $80k is almost nothing. I guess you could say that Tom Dwan trying to suck out in the hand was a durrrr-ty deed done dirt cheap.

If you want to watch the action yourself, download and sign up to Full Tilt Poker, or head over to our MarketPulse section to keep an eye on the action.

For years the Czech gambling proprietors have been fighting for the right to provide their service online and compete with foreign sites that target Czech players.

"There is no legal restriction. So, basically they operate in this country illegally. So we want to have the same opportunities as foreign companies," said Tomas Bahnik from Fortuna Group.  Bahnik estimates that the Fortuna Group loses several hundred million euros a year due to its inability to compete online.

The rumors are that Bahnik may be legally allowed to offer online services as early as Monday Jan. 5. "Internet betting is officially allowed from January 5, so I hope we will be prepared and ready to start right from this date," said Bahnik.

The Czech government has always chosen to deny requests to legalize online gambling, afraid that doing so would cause underage and problem gambling to proliferate. Fortuna has come up with a new measure of control to all but eliminate the risk of underage gambling:

"Every person, including teenagers, can use Internet betting without control. Our main goal is to control this situation. If someone wants to bet through Fortuna on Internet, they must register in a bricks and mortar office and show their identification. Only then they are allowed to play."

In an effort to help prevent problem gambling, the Fortuna Group has come up with another tactic. "We don't accept credit cards but only regular payment cards because we don't support gambling and gamblers and we don't want people to become addicted to Internet betting. That's something foreign companies don't do."

If all goes according to plan, and the Czech Republic does legalize online gambling, the ramification for the fight for online poker in the rest of the world will have one more rock to push against. It's to be hoped that this is just the first step of many to come in 2009.

Its unique format means the WCoP is a team-based tournament using a "team score round" system to determine a winner. In this round of play, there are five single-table tournaments played, each with one player from each of the nine teams. Teams score points depending on what place each player finishes in on their table of play.

The team finishing with the most combined points take home the first-place prize of $100,000 (split evenly among all five players on a team) and the prestigious trophy and bragging rights that go along with winning the World Cup of Poker.

Each team is made up of four qualifying online players and one PokerStars pro, to be announced. Last year's winning team came from the U.S.A., with Greg Raymer taking the role of team captain.

Surprisingly, one of the qualifying players from last year's winning Team U.S.A. was Shaun Deeb, who has made it through the thousands of other hopefuls to qualify for Team U.S.A. for the second year in a row.

With eight other teams looking to take away first place from Shaun Deeb and his U.S. team, the action should be intense in the Atlantis Resort and Casino. Each division had multiple teams one could compete for a spot on, with each team fighting for the rights to represent the division. The roster looked like this after the online qualifying dust settled.

For your shot at making a team to represent your country next year, sign up to PokerStars now and get yourself in the action.