The world's highest profile poker tournament is under way at the Rio Hotel & Casino, with 55 championship events and a twist to its main event that will keep players in suspense until November.

The World Series of Poker started just after noon Friday with the start of a $10,000 pot-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament.

The most expensive buy-in will be US$50,000 for a tournament called H.O.R.S.E, where players rotate between five poker games according to a time schedule.

Seven other tournaments will cost $10,000 to get in, including the main event, a no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament that likely will carry the highest prize.

Last year's winner, Jerry Yang, won $8.3 million. Tuan Lam of Mississauga, Ont., placed second and took home more than $4.8 million.

This year, the field of thousands will be whittled down by mid-July to a final table of nine, who then will take a four-month break before finishing the tournament in November.

By Sarah Polson
The home of Chris Ferguson, reigning NBC National Heads-Up Champion, announced this week that it will host a $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship of its own.

The tournament will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday with the final two rounds taking place on Sunday, starting at 4 p.m. ET. With a $25,000 buy-in per player, Full Tilt Poker is touting the event as the largest heads-up tournament ever held either live or online.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson will play host to the event, and several of Full Tilt Poker's top pros are expected to participate. Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman and Gus Hansen will be in the mix of the up to 64 players allowed for the tournament.

The Heads-Up World Championship will feature a series of single-elimination, heads-up poker matches until a final champion is determined. Players can buy in directly with $25,000 in cash or with tournament dollars.

For players who don't quite have the $25k to spare to play, Full Tilt Poker is also offering online qualifiers for the event. For $500+$35, players can take part in a heads-up qualifying tournament today at 3 p.m. ET or Friday at 9 p.m. ET to win their way into the Heads-Up World Championship.

Poker fans can also just log in to watch the action as some of their favorite players take on each other and the online players who dare to take them on.

Full Tilt Poker will also give players the opportunity to watch key hands or matches they may have missed with post-event commentary and analysis by Ali Nejad and Ferguson.

Full Tilt Poker offers players the unique opportunity to learn, chat and play poker with some of the best poker pros in the game.

Along with Ferguson, Ivey, Lederer, Hansen and Harman, Team Full Tilt includes Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, John Juanda, Mike Matusow and Allen Cunningham. Collectively, the team has won 32 World Series of Poker bracelets and banked millions in poker winnings.

Visit Full Tilt Poker to join in the poker fun and take advantage of all the special offers available to Wise-Gaming players

By Sarah Polson
The ladies got their turn at the felt on Monday in the World Series of Poker Circuit events taking place at Caesars Palace. It was only fitting that one of poker's royal females would win the tournament nicknamed the Cleopatra Open.

Barbara Enright braved the field of 165 women who anted up the $340 buy-in for the tournament. Enright wasn't the only inaugural inductee into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame to enter the tournament either. Marsha Wagoner and Susie Isaacs were also in attendance.

While Wagoner and Isaacs were eliminated during the nine hours of play it took to get to the final table, Enright survived and was sitting third in the chip count.
Third in chips, however, still left Enright holding less than half of what the chip leader, Donna Dougherty, was holding.

Dougherty held onto that lead during the final table up until play got down to four-handed. Four-handed play dragged on for an hour as Dougherty's lead was chipped away.
A big blow for Dougherty came against Linh Vuong, who took half of her chips during one hand. Then Dougherty called an all-in move by Enright.

Dougherty seemed to be sitting well with pocket fours against Enright's 9-8, but Enright spiked a nine on the flop and her bigger pair held up to eliminate Dougherty in fourth place. Next out was Bea Hinton, leaving Enright and Vuong to battle heads-up.

When heads-up began, Vuong had a slight chip lead over Enright, but after getting lucky and catching a five to pair her K-5 against Vuong's K-T, Enright took the lead. Several hands later, Enright was finally able to finish the match as well.

Enright called Vuong's all-in bet with pocket fives against Vuong's 6-2. On a board of K-J-3-4-2, Enright's fives held up for the win.

The clock is ticking toward our Avalanche Online Final!
On May 10, you could be competing for a piece of $1
million and a trip to Ibiza.

Hurry, there are only four remaining Round 3 tournaments
that will get you into this premier event:

With the 2008 World Series of Poker only months away, there has been a marked increase in seat sponsorship promotions...and not just at the top independents like Poker Stars and Full Tilt who as usual are offering a slew of WSOP entries as tournament prizes

This week Ultimatebet was offering tournament activity leading to $12,000 Main Event prize packages featuring the $10 000 WSOP buy-in and $2 000 for travel accommodations. One promo alone this week had 25 WSOP seat sponsorships in the prize pool.

Titan Poker is offering executive seat packages of a $10 000 buy-in to the Main Event as well as registration fees and a 14-night accommodation (July 3rd - July 17th) for two in a luxury suite along with money for flights and spending, together with executive perks like two tickets to the "Blue Man Group" show in the Blue Man Group theatre at the Venetian Resort, dinner for two at the exclusive "SW Steakhouse" at the Wynn Hotel, and limousine pick-up to and from the Las Vegas airport.

Main and Side Events Super Satellite Series, each offering prize packages worth $14 000 and $6 500, respectively are also available.

A company spokesperson said "we are thrilled to offer a prize package of this magnitude. We want our players to have the experience of a lifetime while being a part of poker's most premier yearly event."

From Gibraltar, 32Red Poker has announced that they will be offering seats at the World Series of Poker to their players, in packages worth over $16 200 each. The WSOP seat promotion includes the $10 000 buy-in fee, $3 000 in travel expenses to Las Vegas and 32Red Poker are giving an extra $3 200 to the first seat winner.

32Red Plc CEO Ed Ware says, "It's exciting to think 32Red Poker could be taking players to the WSOP to play against the world's best. We're confident our players would be competitive, having honed their skills and become winners with us at 32Red Poker."

The competition to win the WSOP seats through 32Red Poker involves a series of satellite tournaments. The winners progress through the 32Red Poker tournaments and join one of the six finals. The winners of each will be jetted off to Vegas and the WSOP.

Chili Poker is also among the websites offering opportunities to fly to Vegas for the 2008 World Series of Poker, trips to Monte Carlo, $20 000 poker jackpot opportunities, and other tournament offers.

Even non-poker websites are offering WSOP seats. PoolStars is giving poker players a chance to walk away with a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event. The online billiards site offers a virtual version of the popular recreational game...and is attracting players with a WSOP promo.

These, and many other websites offer online poker fans a multitude of opportunities to win through to Vegas and the poker world's biggest event, rubbing shoulders with the top players on the planet in the unique ambience of the traditional gambling capital of the world.