When you play in tournaments at Absolute Poker, you can qualify to the WSOP and receive special bonuses from AP for doing so. You can qualify for the WSOP through Steps Sit ‘n Gos or in the site’s regular MTT qualifiers. When you qualify and show up in Las Vegas to play, AP will put up at least $1,000 for you just for showing up.

Better yet, if you win multiple packages to the WSOP, Absolute Poker will add $12,000 playing money to your account. In order to entice people to actually shop up in Vegas and play as part of the team, AP is offering several incentives.

In particular there will be a prize pool. The pool will be divided among all player who play for team AP, with 75 percent of the money being cashed out among players who play in Vegas, and 25 percent being paid to players who qualify to play in the WSOP main event. If all players end up at the main event, the entire prize pool will be distributed evenly among all the players.

To get all the details on this promotion, visit Absolute Poker at www.absolutepoker.net.

The first promotion awards a dream job in Australia to the lucky winner. Called, appropriately, “Dream Job Australia”, this promotion will award one lucky winner the chance to play at their choice of stops on the Australian New Zealand Poker Tour, $40,000 for tournament entries and $5,000 a month salary for the year that the winner lives in Australia.

While you can get to the final round by playing in free daily tournaments at PokerStars (www.pokerstar.com), the final 10 players will have to prove to the poker playing community their worth as an international poker player in order to win the grand prize.

How can one of the 10 finalists become the Dream Job Australia winner? They will be asked to spend six weeks as a finalist during which time they will blog, tweet and Facebook their poker experiences. They will also complete a poker knowledge test and meet with Team PokerStars Australia at the Australian New Zealand Poker Tour Sydney. The poker community will choose the big winner.

The next big promotion that PokerStars is offering is for women only. Called “Luxury Ladies Poker Club”, this promotion will award one lucky winner a trip to Monte Carlo where she will play in a ladies tournament, earn a spot at Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso’s poker bootcamp, get a manicure and other pampering treatments and enjoy her stay at one of the best hotels in Monte Carlo.

Women can enter this promotion by playing poker at PokerStars and by entering daily freerolls.

The site is hosting the two-week event in an unusual way and one which will allow players of all sized bankrolls to fully participate in the tournament however they choose. While you can buy in for as little as $5.50, you get to share in the overall $36 million in prize money, no matter your buy-in amount. There is also a $5 million guarantee on the 2-day Main Event hand with the highest buy-in.

Unlike the World Championship of Online Poker, the Spring Championship of Online Poker tournament (SCOOP) offers buy-ins on a tiered system, allowing anyone to play in at least the lowest tier of buy-in hands. These buy-ins range from $5.50 to $10,300 on a low, medium and high buy-in range. You might choose to play a medium hand one day and a high buy-in hand another day.

The tournament kicks off on May 3 with a six-handed No Limit Hold’em hand (including re-buys) and will continue to the 16th. Other games include Razz, HORSE and Badugi events.

Prize amounts are also based on the low, medium and high premise. Winning hands might be worth $109, $1,050 or $10,300, with the tournament pools worth $1 million, $3 million and $5 million.

PokerStar.com (www.pokerstars.net) is sponsoring the event, which is designed to raise money for Three Square, a Las Vegas charity that aims to provide food to more than 270 other non-profit organizations that help to feed the hungry in the Las Vegas area.

Some of the celebrities slated to play in the charity event include Team PokerStars pros Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso and Daniel Negreanu, along with other celebrities like Jason Alexander, Joanna Krupa, Tony Hawk, Christian Slater, Slash, Marlon Wayans and Montel Williams. Other celebrities who were expected to play in the $500 buy-in Texas Hold’em tournament include Brad Garrett, Orel Hershiser, and Donnie Wahlberg.

The winner of the tournament – whether pro poker player or celebrity player – will win a prize package that includes a trip to the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas in 2011. The Caribbean tournament kicks off the annual North American Poker Tour. The second place winner will win a prize package which includes a trip to the NAPT Mohegan Sun stop in April of this year.

The site is calling this promotion the F40; the focus is on thanking the many players who have made Poker Stars the standout poker playing website that it is. Including cash prizes, the site is offering guarantees, milestone rewards, and many freerolls, as well as a special VIP club instant cash credit.

In the cash games category, one of the most exciting games will be the F40 milestone hands. This is a bit complicated, but here’s how Poker Stars is awarding cash. Players who are dealt into every millionth poker hand will be awarded money based on their play in the previous 40 hands played at that table. Every player playing at that table during the millionth hand dealt will be eligible to win this extra cash.

Let’s use the Poker Stars example to explain how this will work. If you’re playing at a table and you get dealt into a milestone hand, Poker Stars will automatically calculate how many VPPs you have earned at the last 40 hands at that table. As an example, let’s say you earned 31 VPPs. Every player in that millionth hand will be awarded one extra VPP. Now you have a total of 32 VPPs. Every player is awarded at least $40 per VPP just for playing in that millionth hand.

If your win is $40 with 32 VPPs, you would win $1,280. The player who wins the hand at that millionth table will see his or her winnings doubled, so using the same 32 VPPs scenario, that player will now be awarded with $2,560.

Once the 40 billion mega milestone is reached, every player dealt into that 40 billionth hand will be awarded $400 for every VPP earned in the previous 40 hands played at that table. If you went into the game with 31 VPPS, and got your extra VPP (32), times $400 for every VPP, you would win $12,800 just for being dealt into that 40 billionth hand. If you were to win that hand, you would win $25,600.

The site will also offer bonuses at multi-table tournaments, sit and go’s and to members of the site’s VIP club.

The Los Angeles component of the WPT features two segments that Party Poker players can participate in. Players can win a spot to the Celebrity Invitational on Feb. 20 and 21, and they can also win a spot to the LA Poker Classic main event.

The Celebrity Invitational is held before the LA Poker Classic main event and is considered a fun and entertaining part of the poker contest. It’s not yet known who will attend the celebrity event, but since poker has become such a popular hobby for so many people and many stars are known to play, it’s likely that there will be a few favorite faces in the crowd.

There are 14 spots to the celebrity invitational up for grabs and players can be entered by simply using PartyPoints to enter the daily qualifiers. The winners will receive a package worth $3,000, which includes entry to the event, four night’s hotel stay and $2,250 in spending money.

PartyPoker is also awarding a $14,000 prize package to one lucky player to the main event at the LA Poker Classic. That package, available to the winners of daily freerolls who get entered into the grand prize drawing, includes the $10,000 entry into the LA Poker Classic main event, seven night’s hotel stay and $2,500 in spending money.

Krost beat out a field of nearly 750 players and outlasted the final table of eight after more than 13 hours of play.

As Krost played on, chants of “Aussie! Aussie!” went up throughout the arena. Though the tournament was on Australian soil and featured many Australian players, Krost was the only Australian in the final round. His win was particularly sweet for the Australians in attendance.

The Aussie Millions Poker Championship ran over several days at Melbourne’s Crown Casino and featured more than 20 championship events. Most players offered up AUD$10,500 for the buy-in, while some won spots in the tournament by winning events at various online poker sites. Overall, the tournament offered more than AUD$15 million in prize money.

The AUD$2 million prize pot for Krost was one of the largest prizes ever offered in a live poker tournament anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere. The second-place winner, Danish player Frederik Jensen, won AUD$1.1 million for his efforts.

Other winners of the main event tournament (and their winnings) included:

* Sorel Mizzi (3rd place) – AUD$715,000
* Kosta Varoxis (4th place) – AUD$450,00
* Peter Jetten (5th place) – AUD$350,000
* Steve Friedlander (6th place) – AUD$250,000
* Annette Obrestad (7th place) – AUD$175,000
* Stephen Shelley (8th place) – AUD$125,000

The network, the brainchild of HeadsUp Entertainment International Inc., will begin its broadcast career by broadcasting more than 20 hours of programming. The programming will feature highlights of major poker events in Canada. Players featured include Joe Hachem, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Hellmuth, Gavin Smith, Huck Seed and Antonio Esfandiari.

In a statement, HeadsUp noted that there are an estimated 3.5 million poker players in the country of Canada and that the new poker site will allow these poker players to watch streaming programs and to choose from archived programs through an on-demand basis.

CanadianPokerPlayer.tv is also going to partner with Canadian Poker Player Magazine to provide in-depth coverage of the Canadian Poker Tour.

“There are so many amazing players and stories that we find on tour,” said Kelly Kellner, president and CEO of HeadsUp Entertainment. “Both the magazine and our online network will give players from across the country a forum and showcase as we strive to build new poker superstars.”

One of the top online casinos 888.com will serve as one of the first sponsors of the network and organizers hope that more sponsorships will follow.

Though the tournament was just in its third year last year, it has quickly become one of the most prestigious tournaments in Europe. Held at the famed Empire Casino in London, England, the tournament ran from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1, 2009.

Some of the biggest names in the poker business will be seen playing the tables, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Annette Obrestad, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen. To add to the allure, the tournament featured Ryder-Cup style events which included a Team Americas vs. Team Europe series of matches.

Episodes will air from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28, with the Main Event action airing on Feb. 7 at 10 p.m. ET. The Main Event featured a prize of nearly $1.3 million and concluded at 5 a.m. after more than three hours of action.

The schedule is as follows. All times noted are Eastern Time.

* Sun., Jan. 31 – 11 p.m.
* Mon., Feb. 1 – 12 a.m.
* Sun., Feb. 7 – 10 p.m.
* Sun., Feb. 7 – 11 p.m.
* Mon., Feb. 8 – 12 a.m.
* Sun., Feb. 14 – 11 p.m.
* Mon., Feb. 15 – 12 a.m.
* Mon., Feb. 15 – 1 a.m.
* Sun., Feb. 28 – 9 p.m.
* Sun., Feb. 28 – 10 p.m.

The Aussie Millions Poker Championship is being held at the Crowne Casino in Melbourne. It features many players who have qualified through tournaments at major poker sites and players who have participated in various buy-in events.

The first part of the tournament was held Sunday and scored more than $200,000 AUD for the winner. That tournament was a $1,100 (AUD) no-limit Hold’em poker tournament. There were more than 1,000 players in that tournament, which made it the largest poker tournament in Australia ever.

The Aussie Millions Poker Championship attracts some of the world’s most famous poker players as well as people who are new to the game. The well-known players that are expected to play this year include Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Joe Hachem.

The Texas Hold’em tournament awarded winner Matthew Ephraums $200,025 AUD, but even the last finisher of the final table did well. That person took more than $13,000 AUD from the tournament.

The Aussie Millions Poker Championship is considered one of the big tournaments and the play in Melbourne during Australia’s summer is a nice respite from those coming from winter climates.