The online network Cereus was created after Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet merged to form the world’s 3rd biggest poker network. Since November, one player has been on an incredible winning streak on the network and has managed to turn an $11 investment into $833,193 to the amazement of poker enthusiasts around the globe.

The identity of online player ‘XBLINK’ is uncertain, but Two Plus Two member ‘89blist’ has claimed to be ‘XBLINK’ and has described how he was able to accomplish such an incredible feat, after taking 1st place at an $11 MTT on the 11th November. He then took his $745 top prize and hit the PLO tables, where his winning run continued and 5 days later he had turned the money into a six figure sum. By day six, he had progressed to $25/$50 up to $200/$400 PLO tables and had made $578,579 in a little over one month.

An extract from ‘89blist’ on the Two Plus Two forum describes his meteoric rise up the poker ladder, and reads:

1. $11 tournament won 1st place —> $750 (all I had on my account, was going to redeposit if i lost the tournament)
2. $750 grinding low stakes omaha.
3. $750 –> $4k the next day, move up to 2/4 and 3/6 PLO, then to 5/10.
4. 4k –>$16k, played 5/10 and 10/20 PLO
5. For the next 2 days, I was bouncing from $20k – $60k playing 10/20 PLO.
6. 5th day: Start 25/50 PLO , I see 6 digits now.
7. 6th day till now – play 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400 PLO, and NL when there’s no PLO.

“Went busto 20+ times by now for $500 each. Hope I dont go busto this time.”

After his incredible wins, the poker community has been awash with fans offering their own individual take on the subject, with many strongly recommending he should avoid emulating the antics of players such as Isildur1 or Martonas, who invariably end up losing everything after an initial burst of good fortune.

One fan posted “stop playing ASAP. I railed some of ur matches. Most notably vs S ON MY CHEST (U are terrible) take the bulk of the $$ and run/play lower” while another suggested “Cash out half and play with the rest. At least then you’ll have something to show for it when you go bust.”

In any case, ‘XBLINK’ was not about to play it carefully having been on the poker ride of his life, and continued to drive his bankroll up to $833,193. However, since then his one way graph has taken a downward turn and is now $214,870 off  its peak at its present $618,323, so maybe now would be the time for him to reflect on his good fortune and exercise a more cautious bankroll management system after all.

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The explosion in betting has spawned an explosion in the last decade in the number of betting books.

Here are the best hints of the last decade.

1. “I never go looking for a sucker – I look for a champion and make a sucker of him.” (Amarillo Slim In A World Full Of Fat People).

2. “If a cheat wanted to devise an instrument for the express purpose of robbing people under the guise of a friendly get-together, he could have done no better than invent the playing card. A deck of cards in the hands of a cheat is a weapon of unsurpassed criminal possibilities.” (Phantoms Of The Card Table)

3. “Odds about the draw in a cricket match are on average the worst possible of the three options and yet however short the bookies go the evidence suggests that the madding throng of punters will follow them in. It’s as if punters believe cricket market-makers have some special insight into the weather.” (Betting To Win)

4. “A losing gambler is an albatross to everyone around him. he doesn’t get those warm glowing smiles rom his family. In a crap game he leaves the dice so damp with defeat that the stick man pushes them clinically to one side as though they were infected.” (Christmas In Las Vegas)

5. “There is a golden rule in betting on reality TV shows – avoid backing people from ethnic minorities. For whatever reason – perhaps Britain is more a racially intolerant nation than it lets on – non-white contestants rarely prosper.” (The Definitive Guide To Betting On Sport).

Shalen Edward House, 28, of Waterloo, pleaded to a single count of cheating at a gambling game Nov. 30 in Black Hawk County District Court. He was sentenced to five years in prison suspended to five years of probation. A fine was suspended.

He also pleaded to a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from an Aug. 6 incident and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and one year of probation.

Authorities said House cheated by moving chips during a craps game at the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo on June 14 after he was twice warned that doing so was breaking the rules.

He wasn’t arrested until Aug. 27. A week after the arrest, he was shot in the leg while he was outside apartments in the 1200 block of West Mullan Avenue.

No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting.

The Rev. Andrew Trapp has become somewhat accustomed to getting stopped at the supermarket, now for more than his priestly garb.

The most recent grocery store query: “Aren’t you that priest that plays cards?”

The Aiken native won $100,000 on Fox’s PokerStar.Net Million Dollar Challenge in October. Last weekend, the 28-year-old priest competed against four other $100,000 winners during a taping of the show for an additional $100,000. That game of Texas Hold ‘Em and the finale poker game between the winner and poker champion Daniel Negreanu for the $1 million prize will air at 4 p.m. Dec. 27 on Fox.

“I can’t say who won, but I will say I’m happy with the way I played,” the Rev. Trapp said. “It’ll be an extremely exciting and emotional show.”

The priest, his family and his church family watched the airing in October at his parish, St. Michael Catholic Church in Garden City, where he is an associate pastor.

His goal in participating in the game show was to donate his winnings to the church’s building fund.

“I requested that the money be sent directly to the church. That way they get the entire amount since it’s charitable giving,” he said. “What was I going to do with it (the money)? A priest doesn’t need to drive around in a BMW. I have everything I need.”

The Rev. Trapp, who was ordained in 2007, said he has enjoyed being able to help his church and change the image of the priesthood. He honed his poker skills while in seminary in Ohio. These days he spends his free time playing card games with friends and watching movies.

Strangers and friends have sent him several e-mails about the positive effect his poker playing could have on the image of priests.

“People can have fun and have their interest and still give their lives to God,” he said. “Some people have told me they thought serving God wasn’t something a normal guy could do, but I am a normal guy. I hope this makes people think twice.”

Bingo club operators celebrated as the Chancellor said the duty on their earnings would be reduced from 22 per cent to 20 per cent in the spring.

Bingo companies, which have been hit hard by the smoking ban and changes in machine regulations, were furious when Alistair Darling raised the tax on their gross profits from 15 per cent to 22 per cent in April.

The industry lobbied hard to get him to reduce the burden in line with what other gambling businesses pay. While the increase in duty was somewhat offset by the Government ditching VAT on playing bingo and other forms of gaming in the April Budget, the industry said the 22 per cent duty had cost it several million pounds and was responsible for a drop in clubs from 700 to about 590.

Paul Talboys, the chief executive of the Bingo Association, said: “We are pleased that the Treasury has listened and digested the actual ‘facts’ of bingo tax and revised the gross profit tax rate.

“But the reasons for its delayed implementation until the next Budget is not apparent and will mean that the much-needed benefit, particularly for smaller independent clubs, will not be felt until April 2010. I only hope that they can all make it.”

Rank Group, which runs 103 Mecca Bingo clubs, said the reduction would add £2.5m to its full-year operating profits. Ian Burke, the chief executive, said: “This is a step in the right direction, but it is still not clear why Britain’s bingo clubs should be subject to a higher tax rate than that applied to other gaming and betting.”

David Trunkfield, head of gaming at PricewaterhouseCooppers, added: “This change will be welcomed, though it falls short of the cries for duty to be slashed to 15 per cent.”

Associated Press reports indicate that the online gambling operator BetOnSports have been put on probation for five years and fined with $28.2 million on Tuesday,when a federal judge in St.Louis has sentenced the company.The lawyers on both sides belive that the fine is less likely to be paid.

BetOnSports legal defenders claim the company has more liabilities than assets and still owes U.S. gamblers $7 million to $8 million.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Holtshouser told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the amount owed to U.S. gamblers is probably much higher and supposably only half of those gamblers went through the steps to verify money owed to them.

Gary Kapla,the company founder was convicted last month to 51 months in prison after he has pleaded guilty,in August to conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy and violating the Wire Wager Act for running what once was one of the world’s largest offshore sports gambling companies and he agreed to forfeit  $43.65 million.His brother and sister have been convicted to ten months house arrest and having to turn over $6 million held in offshore bank accounts.

David Carruther,former CEO has also pleaded guilty and is remaining under house arrest awaiting sentencing.

The FA has charged Mr.Burgess with two counts due to him betting on the outcome of matches that he played while at Rushden & Diamonds.

It is asserted that the games were played last season against Mansfield on the 28th February 2009 and versus Kidderminster Harriers on the 15th November 2008 and that both games were at Nene Park and ended in a 1-0 loss for Diamonds.

Mansfield Town were familiar with the accusations previously of him signing the loan from Luton Town.

A club representative declared: “We were aware of this prior to Andrew joining us”.

“We have spoken to Andrew about the matter and the charges are being refuted. We don’t anticipate any issues arising as a result of this.”

“All players at Mansfield Town Football Club are aware of the rules and regulations when it comes to betting on football matches.”

A Leeds mum has gone from bingo winner to life on the breadline after blowing her jackpot in just 12 months. Cheryl McCann won £49,998 at Mayfair Bingo in Leeds in August 2007. She says she split the prize with family friend Linden Hudson who had lent her £20 to play.

She says spent the money on driving lessons, a car, a new TV, new sofa and other furniture and on holidays and weekends away. She also gave money to her family and friends.  She used the rest of her share of the money to live on – her previous benefits stopped when she won the cash .

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Within 12 months the money was almost all gone. For the past year she has been applying for benefits but has repeatedly been told she doesn’t qualify and Cheryl now faces eviction from her home because she can’t pay the rent. She says she is so broke so has to rely on her mum for handouts and some days can’t afford to send her children to school.  She has stopped paying the council rent and has had her phone cut off. Much of her money is swallowed up by debts with power companies and she has had bailiffs at her home for non-payment of council tax.

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But, despite her perilous financial state, she is being denied benefits because work and pensions bosses say she acted irresponsibly in squandering her winnings.  A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said “While we accept reasonable spending of savings or similar resources when calculating entitlement to means-tested benefits, we have to be sure the taxpayer is not being asked to pay someone who has deliberately spent money or used up resources that could have provided an alternative income.“

Cheryl, 33, said: “I don’t have a penny left. I just don’t know what to do, I’m so desperate.  It’s a mess.”

“Yeah, I’m burntout,” Deeb wrote. “I hate them. I’m done with them. I’m gonna take rest of year off, hopefully, and go do something else. Yeah, poker was good for a while but **** I hate what I’ve become.”

The poker community has been  astonished to observe that regardless of winning a 3rd place spot on the Card Player Online Player of the Year ranking and accumulating $788,451 in OPOY tournament this year and being one of the strongest players, Deeb is no longer enjoying the poker games and he is fully retireing from tournaments.

Even though it seems that the player is regreting,he had scheduled a game in the PokerStars EPT Vilamoura, from which he busted out in the first day and so Steve “Gboro78″ Gross and David “Sir Sands”Sands will be competing for the grand prize.