The action happened last Friday morning. A relatively short session of 780 hands included a  $127,000 super-pot as the players stride on the the head-to-head action. The Million Dollar Challenge is open to any member of the poker community except Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and stipulates requires to play Dwan over 50,000 hands of $200/$400 or higher on four tables at a time. If a player drops below 75 big blinds in their stack at any point, they must reload. At the conclusion of the Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold’em hands, a winner will be crowned. If Dwan is ahead by $1 or more, his opponent must fork over $500,000. If Dwan’s opponent is ahead by $1 or more, the youngster has offered to pay $1.5 million. The winner will also get to keep the winnings from the sessions.

Cates made $270,000 from this session ansd is now up $1.2 million overall with 18,236 hands having been played – 32,000 more hands still remain in this, the second of the durrrr challenges. The 780 only took one-and-three-quarter hours and was played at 4:15am ET to 6:00am ET with Dwan appearing to be on a plane at the time.

Cates held on to four of the five largest pots for a combined haul of nearly $400,000. This Challenge is now 18-sessions old and was begun in August 2010.

Avid poker players will enjoy double rewards for their game play in May. Players will receive instant cash bonuses, issued to them as they generate Titan Poker Points. Special player benefits for May are up to $2,000 per player. In addition, players will be able to use these Points to make purchases at the Club Titan Store.

“It is certainly worth my time to play exclusively at Titan Poker,” commented one of the poker room’s most active VIP players. “When I do the calculation of the return on investment for my online gaming activities, I see that the best benefits are available to me at Titan Poker.

In January 2009, Titan Poker launched Club Titan, the most generous rewards program available to keen online poker players. The Club Titan VIP program is easy to use and rewards all of its players, novices to big-time poker enthusiasts alike.

The excitement was palpable as players arrived at the new five-star Alpine Palace Card Casino. Players mingled pre-tournament in first class accommodation that included an open bar gala party, with acclaimed Fashion TV photographer Erwin Gabriel.

On April 4th, day three of the tournament, the top 9 players put on their best poker faces and took their seats at the Final Table. It came down to two players – Andreas Schmidt, from Germany; and Jacob Chen from Australia.

After a heated battle, Jacob Chen emerged as champion of the ECPokerTour Salzburg 2009 with a prize of 47,302 Euros. Chen, who previously represented www.titanpoker.com at the Asian Poker Tour in Macau, was barely able to contain his excitement and his only words were: “I am breathless.”

Review the complete report on the ECPoker Tour website: ECPoker Tour

After his win Pierpaolo said: “This is after almost a year of trying…I thought it was impossible, but it happened! Five consecutive Maui Jackpots in order to pocket $99,000 was really fantastic! All thanks to a big dose of chance and above all to Titan Poker… many thanks!”

In offering advice to his fellow poker players, Pierpaolo says that “I am not an aggressive player and I try to study the competitors during the game….but you need to believe that it’s possible to win.”

Titan Poker’s jackpot sit ‘n’ go tournaments are extremely popular and attract veteran and novice poker players alike. The Maui is a ten-player, $5 + $1 Sit ‘N Go tournament. The game begins once ten players sit down at the table. As this is a progressive jackpot tournament, the prize money grows larger every week until there is a winner.

As you may recall, this was the law that had the online gaming community running for cover and eventually some very popular rooms, such as Poker, banned US players and had online poker players in panic about their funds. The situation only got worse as eWallets like Neteller also pulled out. The next thing you know online poker site owners are getting yanked out of airports and charged with money laundering! People were literally worried about Big Brother knocking down their door and getting busted just as they clicked on the all in button.

While this bill was initially supposed to be introduced in March, it was pushed back until the Week of May 4. While it is unlikely that the actual version of the bill that Barney Frank (D-MA) is going to introduce will be passed, there is a ton of money being thrown around to ensure that it goes through in some form. This is nothing new as bills are often amended as the process gets completed.

The PPA is on record that they are going to do everything that they can to get his passed into law. Rumor had it that over $4 million was bookmarked for exactly this cause. The lobbyists will be busy next week and here is hoping that they are successful.

The boom in online poker is unbelievable and we can only imagine what it can do to our economy if the bill passes. You would have to think that amount of jobs and revenue that would be generated in US regulated sites would be an incredible boost to an economy that has yet to turn around.

It all starts the moment you get into your car. For arguments sake, let’s assume that you live about 60 miles from the closest casino. Depending upon the type of car that you have, you are probably going to burn anywhere from 8-12 gallons of gasoline up and back. With a price of about $2/gallon, you just dropped about $20. Current Trip Cost or CTC as we like to call it (-$20).

That trip on the open road is not for free either. Depending where you live, you are going to be facing some tolls as well. You may even have to pay for parking. Give a generous estimate and figure that you cover both of those costs for about $12 total. CTC (-$32).

I can see you squirming in your chair right now as you are starting to see how your little daily jaunt to the local casino is starting to hit a little harder than you thought. But guess what, it’s not over! You know that cute little waitress that you look at and like to be a little extra generous to? Get her social security number because she is killing you! Figure you play a 10 hour session and order a drink about every 45 minutes from her. You probably throw her at least a buck every time she drops off a drink. If you are trying to get her number you throw her a bit more than that! For arguments sake, we will pretend you are a cheapskate and only count the low end of the scale. Regardless, you have just dropped another $15. She isn’t so cute anymore is she? CTC (-$47).

Now let’s take a look at the dealer that is dealing you bad beat after bad beat. Even though he is putting the screws to you, you still have to tip him out when he deals you a winning hand. It kills you to throw that dollar chip his way, but you don’t want the rest of the table looking at you either. On average, a live dealer will throw out about 30 hands an hour. You can reasonably figure on winning at least one hand per turn. That is a minimum of $3 per hour for 10 hours, another $30 down the drain. CTC (-$77).

We won’t count rake, because you would be paying that as well on the internet. However, if you are playing that long, you are going to have to get something to eat. Most poker rooms don’t exactly throw the comps around for poker players, so you are going to have to go to the cafeteria or restaurant. Prices aren’t exactly user friendly in these joints so figure at least $20 for a sandwich and soda. CTC (-$97).

That is almost $100 that you are down before you ever walk into the casino to play a hand. The average person would consider $100 win a great day. However, you get home and for some reason you have the same amount of money that you left with. Or worse, you lose $100 and have $200 less than you left the house with. Talk about taking a kick to the groin!

Now let’s take a quick look at the alternative. You stay home and play from the convenience of your own home on the net. If you don’t like your table, you get up and go to a new one. Keep switching tables in a live game and watch the floor managers reaction. You have no dealer to tip and you are also getting more hands in! Let’s not forget that you can multi-table and offset the natural variance. Everything that you need to eat and drink is already in your fridge and figured into your monthly family budget. That makes it FREE!

Are you ready for the other shoe to drop? One simple word, rakeback. This is the percentage of the money that you contribute to the rake that is returned to you at the end of the month. Now if you break even at the tables with 8 trips to the casino, you are down $800. If you break even at the tables in online poker, you may be getting back $800 in rakeback at the end of the month!

How much more proof do you need that online poker is the answer to your poker recession blues? When your wife tells you that you can’t afford to play, show her this and tell you can’t afford not to play! When everyone asks you your political views on the current economy, you finally have the answer, ONLINE POKER.