This past weekend, at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, the WPT ladies league title was won by political consultant, Nancy Todd Tyner.

Todd Tyner is a relative newcomer to the game compared to her fellow competitors. She is a WPT Boot Camp graduate and only started playing poker 18 months ago.

Off the table, Tyner Todd has an impressive 98% success rate as a political consultant (with most of her candidates being the underdog) and has been a part of 196 political campaigns in six different countries.

She said drawing on her background helped her move successfully into the poker world. She won her seat to in the WPT event by winning a ladies-only satellite at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles and successfully made it to the final round at the WPT ladies event eventually competing in a heads-up battle with runner-up Vanessa Selbst – regarded as one of the worlds’ best women in poker. Tyner Todd however was able to keep a cool-head during the aggressive and at times overwhelming final round and played like a pro.

“I’m very proud to have been able to hold my own at the table,” she said. “I’ve been a fighter all my life!”

The final results saw Tyner Todd win $68,640, Selbst taking $40,815 and third place finisher, Cindy Kerslake, taking $20,405.

Another lucky player has hit it big in the online casino world. The UK-based online gambling group, SportingBet, announced that a Greek online player has won the largest payout in its history.

The lucky winner, K Vasileiadis, hit the jackpot on SportingBet.com’s Super Seven progressive slot playing in the online Paradise Casino and will take home a total of 1.47 million dollars!

A spokesperson for SportingBet said “This is a huge win and we are delighted for Mr. Vasileiadis. He is a loyal customer and, despite the loss for SportingBet, we are delighted to show how our customers can be true winners. I am sure that Mr. Vasileiadis will enjoy spending the money and we hope that the experience of this win will stay with him for a long time.’

SportingBet is quickly becoming an award-winning gaming destination as it continually upgrades products and puts its customers first.

‘We are determined that the journey for the customers from depositing to winning provides them with the ultimate gaming experience,’ said the spokesperson.

With over four million registered customers it is becoming quite a popular site within the online casino world and offers betting and gaming products including poker, sports betting and traditional casino games like slots, roulette and backgammon.

Cantor Fitzgerald made history as it became the first financial company to launch an online casino. Following the success of Cantor Gaming’s white label B2B offering is their new site CatorCasino.com which was launched through Cantor Gaming.

The blue-chip financial company offers a great variety of old and new casino games and is giving players a low house edge, 15% cash back and lists paying players quickly as a high priority.

Manu Gambhir, Managing Director of Cantor Gaming, said: “As a company that has always been associated with innovation and has had a deep experience in operating mission-critical systems that can process tremendous volumes of transactions, stepping into online gaming is a logical step for Cantor. It’s not about being the biggest; it’s about being the best. We’re confident that our customers will find the new advanced betting games as well as our traditional casino games perfect for their needs and tastes.”

CantorCasino.com offers all the classic casino games from baccarat to blackjack to slots but has also added new and innovative games such as SlatJack, Xtra Odds Baccarat and even new ways to bet on stock for as little as £1. Why not head on over and try out a few of the new offerings!

Everywhere you surf these days, online casinos are offering lots of different ways to win a host of trips to world poker tour events around the world. The next seat up for grabs is for the Asian Poker Tour from the innovative 3D online poker room PKR.

The hard to come by seats are worth $5,000 to the APT, running from May 27th to June 1st and will take place in Manila, Philippines at the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel.

If you’ve never visited PKR.com you’re in for a treat. It’s the world’s most advanced online poker room and offers amazing 3D graphics, fully customisable characters, and unique ‘Emote control’ technology. This is most likely enough to intrigue you but add the seat giveaway and you’ve got to be crazy not to head over and start playing!

Players can enter for as little as $2.20 in the stage MTTs where players will compete in progressively higher-stakes tournaments, culminating in the grand finale on May 12th.

PKR manager Neil Wright said: ‘The APT is a new and unique event. It showcases the global popularity and growth of poker. We are looking forward to seeing PKR players get a shot at a fantastic all round experience and a slice of the guaranteed $1 million.’

The Manila portion of the APT will be the largest poker event to take place in Asia with 400 players expected to compete and with at least three coming from PKR.

Online casino PokerStars.com has launched their new video website, PokerStars.tv. The site has been compared to the likes of YouTube and features a video tutorial by Canadian professional poker player, Dan Negreanu.

The new website is a great way for members to access video for everything ‘Poker’ from live webcasts of major events to a great range of poker footage (such as the European Poker Tour). The site contains several types and ways to view video content including live-play video, instructional comments, interviews and behind the scenes action. Users of the site will have the ability to email links to other users, embed videos on their websites and personalize their pages by creating video ‘channels’ and selecting preferences.

The site has over 500 video’s available with a searchable database with videos categorized by player, even or type of hand. The site also offers channels dedicated to each team PokerStars.com professional player. Other entertaining functions include Online Action, Sweat the Hand and Fun Stuff.

The site mainly offers videos in English but will also offer alternating live feeds from different tournaments in six languages, English, German, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish making their site accessible to many around the world!

It’s every poker enthusiasts dream to qualify one of the many poker tour events around the world. While a great number of poker players attempt to win a coveted seat online for events like the European Poker or World Poker Tours, only a select few actually manage to win themselves a seat. This was the case for Glenn Chorny, a business student from Timmins, Ontario who qualified online at PokerStars.com by playing in their steps satellites. Chorny beat out 841 other players from around the world at the fourth annual EPT Grand Final (sponsored by InterCasino) and managed to win himself a total of $3,198,500!

This wasn’t the first win for Chorny, who previously won a World Poker open pot-limit Omaha event and also finished 13th in the PokerStars.com EPT Caribbean Adventure.

Chorney went head to head for 14 hours with runner up Denes Kalo from Hungary who ended up taking a $1,864,116 cut of the pot. Fellow Canuck, Maxime Villemure finished third and took home $1,130,487.

The European Poker Tour took place in the gorgeous Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino Resort and was reported to be one of the best EPT events.

BlackjackBallroom.com made history this past Friday as they awarded their largest slot jackpot ever to one lucky player, Klaus E. from Finland. Klaus placed a $0.50 bet on the Mega-Moolah Progressive slot machine and hit it BIG as he won $5,556,753.68 dollars!

Klaus was both stunned and shocked by the win and said he will use some of the money to pay off his apartment and go on vacation. He’ll be able to do a lot more than that with his winnings!

A CasinoRewards representative has said, “Klaus has just become part of an elite community of online casino players who have ‘hit it big’ and joined the exclusive CasinoRewards Millionaires’ Club. We congratulate him on his win and look forward to joining him in his celebrations.”

Klaus become the thirteenth millionaire on the popular slot machine but was by far the biggest jackpot winner of this elite group and will get to accept (and celebrate) his check in Sydney, Australia as Blackjack Ballroom plans to fly him out there for the festivities.

Blackjack Ballroom is a proud partner with well established CasinoRewards and Microgamming groups and offers over 250 online games. This is the biggest jackpot win for both groups and has pushed the total progressive wins across the CasinoRewards Network to over $27 million dollars! Even more proof that you don’t have to play big to win big!

After releasing the highly anticipated and first-ever slot game based on the Street Fighter II arcade game last week, Cryptologic Inc. has released six more new and exciting games into the online casino world.

Justin Thouin, CryptoLogic’s Vice President, Product Management and Business Development commented on their great design team by saying, “CryptoLogic’s latest casino games showcase the player knowledge, creativity, and talent on our software team — and the innovation that will help our licensees attract and build player loyalty.”

The new releases include a suite of four-level jackpot slots called Movie Mayhem which is based on classical film genres and includes exciting animations and huge jackpots for its players. The new slots, Silent Screen, Fantasy Realm, Outta Space Adventure and Sunday Afternoon Classic, take each player through many different settings ranging from the 1920’s to outer space and back to rolling green hills. The range of characters is equally varied from centaurs to astronauts, to directors and leading men on horseback. The slot series also includes random jackpots, free spin rounds and interactive bonuses.

If that’s doesn’t satisfy your appetite or if your like more humour in your slots I would give the new Roamin’ Gnome or Dad’s Day In slots a try. Both are entertaining, have high paying symbols and bonus rounds and include some hilarious characters!

Irish online casino site PaddyPower.com is offering several chances to win some incredible packages to the World Series of Poker at Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas in June and July.

PaddyPower.com’s three contests include the Main Event qualification package, the Side Event Package and the Executive package.

The Main even qualification package is worth $14,000, includes the $10,000 buy-in, 10-nights accommodation, registration fees and $3,650 for flights, spending money and additional accommodation and takes place from July 3 to 15 through sit-and-go satellites. If you’re one of the lucky few to win a package you will also qualify to play in an exclusive tournament for your chance to win yet another package to play in the main event of the Irish Winter Festival (valued at $3,500)!

The Side Event package, worth approximately $10,000, includes $6,000 for buy-ins, 8-nights accommodation and $3,400 for flights, spending and additional accommodations.

The Executive package is awarded to the winners of four consecutive $24 sit-and-go events, is valued at $20,000 and includes $10,000 buy-in for the main event, 2-weeks in the Palazzo Suites of the Venetian hotel for two, tickets for the Blue Man Group, dinner at the Wynn Hotel, registration fees, return limousine transport from the airport and spending money of up to $5,450.

Why not try out your luck with the Irish today!

PlayboyGaming.com, founded in 2004, has managed to secure a sponsorship with one of today’s hottest online (and offline) players, Dennis Plejdrup. Plejdrup, also known by his online alias “Dazzy”, resides in Aarhus and previously worked as a financial adviser. He has quickly made his mark in the poker community with his skill and high stakes play, since becoming a pro in January 2005 and has had several online poker sites vying for his signature.

Plejdrup however found it an easy decision to sign with PlayboyGaming.com as he stated, “PlayboyGaming offers a range of tables with a variety of skill levels allowing me to stay challenged and enjoy my game. Playboy are a well trusted international brand and I know they look after their players well. I’m looking forward to having a long and profitable relationship with them.”

Plejdrup has also been making a name for himself offline as he recently won the 500 EUR No Limit Hold ‘em event at the EPT Grand Finale in Monte Carlo and also made the final table at No Limit Hold ‘em events at EPT Prague & Warsaw.

PlayboyGaming offers both casino and poker in GBP and USD with more than 200 online casino games (including adult slots). They have several one-of-a kind features including “Bunny Money”, tradable for gifts and experiences like a lunch with the playmates at the Playboy mansion, Playboy magazine subscription or poker chips.