NBC’s Poker After Dark will be increasing the stakes in a special high limit episode with a buy-in for a $50k. This is an increase of $30k from the normal Poker After Dark buy-in. The show will begin airing on Monday, October 8th. The line up includes, David Benyamine, Allen Cunnningham, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein and Eli Elezra.

Jeff Madsen is ahead of the pack at the US Poker Championship after Day 3. There are currently 27 of the 164 entrants left. Day 4 will begin early tomorrow. Madsen’s good buddy Gavin Smith is right behind in 2nd place. However, Jeff has a huge 300k chip lead on Gavin. First place prize at this event is over $600k. Other notable remaining players are Bill Gazes, Allen Kessler and Victor Ramdin.

The Bart Simpson charity poker event was a huge success yesterday at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. The tournament brought out over a 145 players and celebrities to the re-buy event. A few big names that were in attendance were, Jennifer Harman, Jamie Gold, Sammy Farha, Men Nguyen and Marco Traniello. Jamie Gold finally placed in a tournament since the 2006 WSOP Main Event! He finished 5th and was awarded a satellite seat at next years WSOP. More info at Pokernews.com

On January 25-26, 2008, the World Series of Poker Academy will host a Ladies Only event at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Participants will be given handbooks, shown live hand demonstrations, and have the opportunity to attend in-depth seminars and interactive workshops.

Experts who will be on hand to help guide the ladies will include poker tells expert Joe Navarro, poker instructor Alex “The Insider” Outhred, and WSOP bracelet winner Annie Duke. As only the second event of its kind held by the WSOP Academy, they hope it will surpass the results of its predecessor which produced Sally Anne Boyer, won the Ladies World Championship at the 2007 World Series.

Brandon Rosen of Post Oak Productions (the company that produces the WSOPA) states that he expects more graduates from the Academy to win bracelets in 2008 and chalks up last year’s success to the level of instruction provided by the teaching crew. However, we still refuse to accept that producing the 2007 Women’s World Champion should be considered true success, as it is obviously not a true WSOP event. Women only??? We’ll let one Jose Canseco piss on that picnic, as he no doubt will continue to do.

We sincerely hope he shows up to this Academy event, if for no other reason than it will provide great material to re-write a couple of our previous articles. For you, Jose, or anyone else to enter this event it will cost $1,699 and will be capped at 100 participants.

Related Links: Jose Canseco Enters Womens Only Event

Swedish poker has taken a hit. In what was billed as the European Poker Challenge, six men have been indicted on charges of operating an unlicensed poker tournament. The event had attracted a field of 700 who ponied up the 250 Euro buy in, plus 30 Euro which went to the organizers as fees. For those of you who may be mathematically challenged, that resulted in a prize pool of 175 000 Euro which equals just shy of $250,000 USD.

However, the Swedish authorities had something to say about the awarding of a 50000 Euro first prize, as they raided the joint not long after the first hand had been dealt. Also charged in the incident were the two men who rented out the facility, as providing a venue for illegal gaming is treated the same as operating the gaming under Swedish law.

The highly publicized event being interrupted is just another chapter in the ongoing battle within a Swedish government trying to deal with a game that has swept the nation. The authorities have promised to be more aggressive in regards to dealing with underground poker, which is rampant across the nation. Prosecution declares this as “one of the largest cases of this kind”, and trial has been set in November. All accused have denied the accusations, which carry a maximum prison term of four years behind bars.

Well at least the Swedes have a lot of hot chicks, can’t say the same for the UK however in this link.

The Sunday main event of the WCOOP was highly anticipated and nearly 3,000 players joined in on the action at PokerStars. The total prize pool was just under $7.5 million, which makes this one of the biggest online poker tournaments ever to be played.

The final table began well into Monday and another PokerStars team member made the final table. Vanessa Rousso is not only a BIP Poker Babe, she is also a PokerStars team member. She plays under screen handle as LadyMaverick and was seated in seat 1 when the final table began. PokerStars were banking on Vanessa to win this event as Greg Raymer won the WCOOP Omaha Rebuy tournament a little while back.

Vanessa Rousso played a great game and wound up finishing 3rd taking down nearly $464,000 for 3rd place. TheV0id from the United Kingdom took first place and was paid over $1.2 million. It has also been rumored that 6th place finisher was Josh Arieh who was playing under screen handle ‘nitbuster’.

And of course there is always seems to be some sort of controversy in these big events, like there was with the Greg Raymers’ win. He was disconnected, then came back and gave everyone a foam finger. Any who, posters at 2+2 and pocket5’s are saying that Rousso and poker player/announcer Chad Brown were colluding. Well, we aren’t exactly buying into this one, but it made a good read at 2+2.

The winner of the event ‘TheV0id’ is rumored to be under investigation. One poster at 2+2 said that Mark Teltscher and his ’sister’ were both playing in the tournament under the same IP address. Another poster had something similar to say that Mark Teltscher was playing 5 different accounts and the winnings have already been frozen and there is ongoing investigation. We will bring you more information as this story develops.

Related links: Vanessa Rousso Pics + Bio – PokerStars – Greg Raymer Wins Omaha Rebuy

Betfair poker and casino has announced that its annual revenues increase 30% up to £182 million this past year. The new success has be associated with the re-launch of the poker room, which was originally on the Cryptologic network and the awesome new online casino. As of October 1st Betfair claimed they have over 1 million registered members and 443,300 active players.

Although, there have been some relation to new sign ups and hiring Annette Obrestad, 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event Champ, as a spokes model. Who would of thought players would be more impressed with a site, sponsoring a young prodigy rather then a super model. Other girls that are spokes models for poker sites are: Tina Wallman (Carbon Poker), Joanna Krupa (Former Titan Poker Babe) Tila Tequila (Tila Poker).

Anyways, Annette is a damn good poker player and Betfair is a solid poker room.

Related links: Betfair – Betfair Poker Review – Annette_15