The amfAR Charity Event will run as part of the PCA Festival of Poker at the Atlantis in The Bahamas with celebrities, sports stars and top pro players among those set to take part. The tournament will have a $5,250 buy-in and half of the entire prize pool will go to amfAR to support their innovative research to help fight the global AIDS epidemic.

This star-studded event will welcome major PokerStars-sponsored sports stars such as NHL star and Olympic gold medalist Mats Sundin, tennis legend Boris Becker and French rugby player Sebastien Chabal as well as members of Team PokerStars Pro – including newly-crowned World Series champion Joe Cada.

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu is a big supporter of PokerStars charity initiatives and has pledged his support. “PokerStars is bringing a truly innovative and fulfilling cause to the PCA this year through their partnership with amfAR. As a member of Team PokerStars Pro, I feel very lucky to be able to participate in, and contribute to, such a worthwhile cause in the name of AIDS research.”

Founded in 1985, amfAR is dedicated to ending the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research. With the freedom and flexibility to respond quickly to emerging areas of scientific promise, amfAR plays a role in accelerating the pace of HIV/AIDS research and achieving real breakthroughs. amfAR has invested nearly $290 million in its mission and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide.

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.

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.”

Full Tilt Poker features the best software platform for playing poker. You are able to choose from a wide variety of avatars (player icons) as well as settings and background themes. You can then change the mood of your avatar depending on how you are doing or feeling. There are over 50 avatars to choose from, ranging from cowboys, to monkeys, to rocks. The FullTilt Pros that endorse the site each have their own personal avatar – making the pros easy to spot while surfing through the tables.

Play Online Poker

Other features available on FullTiltPoker.com include note taking ability. This allows you to keep tabs on your opponents and enables you to refer back to your notes when you play the same person again at a later date. This will help you remember who is a rock and who is a fish. The stats feature shows a percentage layout of how many hands you are playing and how many you are winning. This feature will help you learn from your mistakes and will make you a better player.

Play Online Poker

Full Tilt offers a new player match deposit bonus of 100% up to $600.  Once you have cleared your initial deposit bonus, FullTilt.com will continue to send you reload bonus offers, typically consisting of a 50% bonus up to $300.  The bonus money is set aside in a secure bonus account, and the funds are released as you play in real money ring games as well as tournaments.

The Full Tilt Poker points reward program is the best in the industry.  You will earn one point for every dollar in rake that is collected, including fractional points.  You can also earn points by playing in tournaments and Sit & Go’s.  You will earn 7 points for every $1 in entry fee.  You may use your points in many different ways, including entries into exclusive tournaments, as well as purchasing merchandise in the Full Tilt store.

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Coral Poker is part of the world`s largest poker network (meaning that there are up to 100,000 players online at any time). The poker room is supported in 16 languages and 8 currencies, with professional 24/ 7 customer support.

Offering the most popular poker games, and with up to 100,000 online playing cash games (from $0.50 to $2,000) and tournaments (daily freerolls, freeze-outs, and rebuys, with a $15,000 (and growing) guaranteed tournament every Sunday), you will always find a game to suit. Plus there is a sign-up bonus of $600.

Coral Poker benefits from massive cash-game play, so there is plenty of opportunity to make some tidy money. And of course, you can start off by playing for free. Coral Poker operates a refer-a-friend programme.

The $600 promotion surely has to be one of the best offers you will ever get! Sign-up up with us today, select the Sign-up Bonus that suits you, and we will match your first deposit or transfer into poker, up to a value of $600! Because we know that every poker player is different, we have designed 4 great Sign-up Bonuses for you to choose from – simply take your pick!

Gala Poker is growing from strength to strength since its launch and the player traffic is ever increasing ensuring that you will always find the right game for you to join.

The graphics at Gala Poker are pretty nifty and they make it really easy for you to get started with a number of FAQ’s available, online guides and step-by-step walk throughs.

Customer support is of the highest standard and the payment methods that are available are credit card, debit card, bank transfer, Quickpay and Moneybookers. You can also withdraw from your account via cheque.

The scheduled tournaments at this site are generally at the lower end of buy ins with fewer bigger tournaments. Bet 365 Poker have some great sit n go tournaments which are popular and with a good prize structure.

The software is easy to use and fast, it’s also great software to use if you like playing multiple tables at once, as the tables can be toggled within one window as opposed to having a separate window for every one table. The software provider Prima Poker has a high security measures, so you can always rest assure that you’re in a safe poker room.

The competition of poker players at this site is average, it used to be a site with a lot of soft players but it has become harder recently, I think that’s due to generally the game has developed over the last couple of years and the average poker player is of a higher standard than they use to be a couple of years ago.

Bet365 Poker has a good customer service and you can get hold of an assistant quickly.

Bet365 Poker offer a $500 bonus to new players the bonus can be released every time you earn a 100 loyalty points a player receives $5 in bonus money.

In addition to sign up bonuses, Bet365 Poker has several promotions. They have a bad beat jackpot as well as magic hand bonus. There are several daily freerolls, as well as a weekly $5,000 freeroll.

The 32 Red team are listed on the site and you can contact any of them directly, making this one of the most trusted sites around.

The 32Red Multiplayer Poker Room enables you to play online poker games against real players from around the world. Over $750,000 in prize money is won every week through playing tournaments, freerolls and satellites.

You can play all the favourite poker card games including Texas Holdem. To suit the needs of every player, you can play no limit, fixed limit or pot limit betting with a selection of stakes and buy-ins.

The site uses Prima Poker Network software which provides reliable and high quality game play.

They are a growing site and in the last year the active number of 32Red Poker players increased by 6.6% (14,586 players).

Betfred Poker runs on the Playtech network like many other big names such as Titan Poker. It is simple to download, simple to deposit and simple to withdraw with pretty much every option available to the user. The minimum deposit is only £5 so if you just want to test it out there is no need to deposit your life savings.

$600 sign up bonus with Betfred

The tables at Betfred fill up quickly, so no waiting around for any sort of game you maybe after. There seems to be plenty of traffic coming through the site.

The Betfred poker rake is around the industry average which is between 0% and 5% of each total pot and they don’t charge a rake if the hand has ended before the flop.

The bonus amounts vary and match up to most other sites. But remember sign up bonuses have to be cleared by collecting your poker points. Please see the site for bonus information as they change regularly. Betfred often have special promotions for players as well.

$600 sign up bonus with Betfred

The main benefits of the site have to be that Betfred Poker offer impressive customer service along with being easy and quick to deposit and withdraw and always being able to find a game is another bonus.

Betfair Poker was originally launched in 2004 and is growing faster than most online poker rooms. Their new poker software was released in October 2006 on their own poker network. This means they can react to what their players want. They have games to suit everyone’s ability and bankroll with some great value poker tournaments.

Betfair.com

Betfair Poker is a great value site, offering the chance to play your favourite games in some fantastic tournaments as well as offering great promotions and a number of interesting features unique to their own site.

Betfair Poker

Betfair Poker is offering a welcome bonus of up to $600 when you make a minimum deposit of $20. It is open to all new Betfair Poker players. So if you have an existing Betfair account, you are also entitled to the bonus the first time you play in the Betfair poker room.