In its first weekly newsletter of the year, the Casino Rewards group of online casinos announced the names of some big winners at the online casinos.

The first big winner, according to the newsletter, is S.F. who was wagering on the 5 reel, 30 pay line slots game Deck the Halls at the Microgaming powered Villento Casino when he won a whopping EURO 20,660.

The Deck the Halls logo in this slot game is the Wild symbol that substitutes for all the other symbols with the exception of the Bell symbol. The jackpot of 4,000 coins is won when five Wild symbols appear on an enabled pay line.

Villento Casino is powered by software from Microgaming and offers players more than 300 casino games.

The second big winner at Casino Rewards online casinos is M.H.

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Have you seen that Blockbusters is coming back to television this year? Although it was announced a while ago that this was a possibility it has only just been confirmed.

40 episodes if an all new Blockbusters have been commissioned by Talkback Thames and the show will be broadcast on Challenge TV. Challenge TV have been testing the water by running the old shows, but one fundamental change that has been made is that this will be a Blockbusters that will feature adult players and not schoolkids.

The childish innocence was part of the charm of the original show, but most are so streetwise these days that would probably be lost anyway.

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A Retro Cash Blast slots promotion which runs at PartyCasino until 23:59 ET on Sunday 16 October will pay out $90,000 in prizes to hundreds of participants. The promotion is running to celebrate the launch of Joystick Generation, a slots game which boasts the same kind of graphics that were common in video games during the 1980’s, though the event does allow participants to play almost any of the other slots games available at PartyCasino, including big money jackpot slots titles.

You have to Opt In to take part in this promotion and you can do that by visiting the Retro Cash Blast page at the PartyCasino website and clicking the Opt In button. T

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bet365 began its life as a single portable (trailer for you US folk) situated in a car park, occupied by a handful of techies in the year 2000.

According to their latest  annual report they now employ over 1,700 staff, having put on almost 400 in the 12 months to March 2011!  I wonder how many portables they have now?

According to founder Denise Coates, we continue to invest heavily in the business to keep growing. If

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David Shallow entered final table play at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Ireland Main Event as the overwhelming chip leader.  It is commonplace to see someone with a healthy chip advantage to begin the final day – maybe a couple million chips – but leads like Shallow’s are something to see.  With 6,155,000 chips, he lorded over the other four competitors (a double elimination to end Day 3 created a 5-handed final table), who had just 4,310,000 combined.  If a mad scientist would have fused them all into a single, mutant poker player, Shallow still would have been a significant favorite.  So that means David Shallow won WPT Ireland, right?  Exactly.

Here were the chip counts to start the final table:

David Shallow 6,155,000 Steve Watts 1,600,000 Patrik Vestlin 1,100,000 Charles Chattha 835,000 Ronan Gilligan 775,000

While the final table was very short by World Poker Tour standards, coming in at under three hours, it wasn’t a totally smooth ride for Shallow.  Right off the bat, he doubled-up both Patrik Vestlin and Ronan Gilligan, causing his chip stack to fall to 4,276,000.  Gilligan rode the momentum, eliminating Steve Watts in 5th place.  Watts had moved all-in pre-flop with T-T for his remaining 1,130,000 and Gilligan called him with A-K.  The flop was Q-J-7, which was generally good for Watts, but it did give Gilligan a straight possibility if he could hit one of the remaining two Tens to go along with the 6 outs he already had.  No dice on the turn, but the river produced one of those Tens, allowing Gilligan to knock Watt out with a Broadway straight.  That pot took Gilligan up to 2,898,000, which was still a good chunk behind Shallow, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.  It looked a whole heck of a lot better than the more than 5,000,000 chip deficit he faced about a half-hour earlier.

Just a few minutes later, Gilligan continued his hot streak.  Patrik Vestlin raised pre-flop and Gilligan called from the big blind.  The two saw a flop of 9s-7s-3s and Vestlin made the first bet with As-Qc, giving him the nut flush draw.  Gilligan check-raised to 450,000 with Js-9d – top pair and a flush draw – and Vestlin shoved for 1,750,000.  Gilligan thought a bit about his decision, but decided it was worth the risk and called.  The turn was the Tc; black, but the wrong black.  Another tease presented itself to Vestlin on the river in the form of the 8c and Gilligan’s hand held up.  Vestlin was gone in 4th place and just like that, less than an hour into play, Ronan Gilligan, the shortest stack to start the final table, was the chip leader.  He had 4,852,000, Shallow had 4,259,000, and Chaz Chattha had 1,029,000 chips.

After that, though, it appeared that Gilligan’s confidence may have gotten too high, as he began making some reckless raises and calls with marginal holdings.  Having watched his stack take several hits, he once again made a call of a David Shallow pre-flop raise with just 3-4 in the hole.  Shallow had T-9 and the flop was friendly to both, giving top pair to Shallow and an open-ended straight draw to Gilligan.  Shallow led out on the turn for 215,000, Gilligan raised to 525,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Gilligan called.  Gilligan couldn’t find the outs to complete the straight on either the turn or river and he was eliminated in 3rd place.

Going into heads-up play, David Shallow once again had a large chip lead over Chaz Chattha, 7,280,000 to 2,860,000.

Shallow was very aggressive heads-up, a style for which he is known, but that style came back to bite him less than 20 minutes into the one-on-one match.  Looking at just K-3 suited, he watched Chattha raise pre-flop to 140,000 and decided to three-bet it to 360,000.  Chattha took it up to 600,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Chattha quickly called.  And no wonder.  Holding pocket Queens, Chattha was a big favorite over most hands.  Shallow hit a 3 on the flop, but nothing else materialized and all of a sudden, Chattha had a slight chip lead, 5,180,000 to 4,960,000.

Just after that, Shallow regained a small edge, taking a couple small pots, and that was all he needed when the big hand was dealt.  With Q-Q, Shallow raised pre-flop to 135,000, only to see Chattha re-raise him to 380,000 with 9-9.  Shallow raised him back, making it 825,000 and Chattha moved all-in.  Shallow made the call.  The flop ran out K-K-2, pretty much as bad as it could get for Chattha without a Queen showing up.  The turn 8 and river 3 sewed it up for David Shallow, who won WPT Ireland along with the €222,280 first prize and a $25,000 seat in the season-ending WPT World Championship.

World Poker Tour Ireland – Final Table Results

1.    David Shallow €222,280 ($289,031) 2.    Charles Chattha – €111,130 ($144,502) 3.    Ronan Gilligan €74,090 ($96,339) 4.    Patrik Vestlin €52,600 ($68,396) 5.    Steve Watts €39,270 ($51,063)

Tasty Bingo has made itself known for its food theme layout that is has proven to be wholesome for online bingo players.  Along with the 90 ball, 75 ball and free bingo rooms, Tasty Bingo is a site that has a wide array of bingo bonuses on offer.

The welcome bonus package at Tasty Bingo is innovative and entertaining. Tasty Bingo is offering a 200 % Bonus on first deposits from £5 to £100.  On top of that an extra £10 is given to bingo players after their first deposit. This offer is valid for the first deposit made and gives ample opportunity for new bingo players to enjoy all the games offered by Tasty Bingo.

Tasty Bingo also has a variety of slots games much to the pleasure of avid slots players. Slot

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WSOP supremo Phil Hellmuth has been airing his views on a whole load of poker related matters recently, and last week hinted that online poker legalization in the US may be just around the corner.

Talking on Short Stacked Radio with show’s host Mark Hoke, the 47 year-old pro who resides in Palo Alto, California, said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if online poker were passed in the next five days. I wouldn’t be surprised if it passed before Feb. 1st. I think there’s going to be the biggest explosion in poker history the minute [online poker] is legalized.

Previously a sponsored pro for UB Poker, Phil Hellmuth left the site in late 2010, shortly before Black Friday occurred in the USA on April 15, 2011. Almost

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