February 15 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

While we might be in a candy heart coma today, we’re not going to leave you hanging. WSOP.fr got word on its license in France, the rumor mill is buzzing about PartyPoker’s return to the United States, and more.

In Case You Missed It

The World Series of Poker Circuit in Tunica, Mississippi, played down to a final table on Monday. Want to find out which player is that much closer to a WSOP-C gold ring? Check out the WSOP-C recap.

Didn’t make it to Foxwoods for the November Nine Reunion? That’s OK. We did and we have the photo blog to prove it.

The World Series of Poker Europe is moving to France. Allons en France: A Dissection of the WSOP Europe’s Move to Cannes gives you a few reasons why this could be a good thing.

If you aren’t able to catch the soap operas during the day, no worries, the drama between Stanley Ho and his family will get you your fix. Check out Inside Gaming for more.

The high-stakes action heated up over the weekend with Patrik Antonius and Scott Palmer battling it out, as well as Gus Hansen, and Rui Cao. The Online Railbird Report has some of the biggest hands from the matches.

WSOP.fr Gets There

The French online gaming regulator ARJEL has granted an online gaming license to WSOP.fr, the poker site created by the partnership between Caesars Entertainment and Groupe Lucien Barriére.

WSOP.fr is a skin of Barrierepoker.fr and will offer real-money poker and WSOP-branded tournaments. Also, players will be able to qualify for WSOP events in Europe and the United States.

EGRMagazine.com has more.

Rumor: Party in the USA?

The rumor mill is buzzing regarding PartyGaming’s return to the U.S. According to reports in London’s Daily Mail, PartyGaming has signed a deal with at least one major U.S.-based casino so that once the U.S. has regulated online gambling, PartyGaming will be able to provide an online poker platform.

No casino has been named, but Boyd Gaming, MGM, Las Vegas Sands, and Caesars have been mentioned.

You can read more at GamblingOnlineMagazine.com.

Raise Your Hand for Africa

On February 19, poker pros and celebrities alike will get together for the Raise Your Hand for Africa charity poker tournament. The event, which is being held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, will benefit two organizations: Starkey Hearing Foundation, which helps the world’s hearing impaired, and Pros for Africa, which helps provide basic needs for the children in Africa. The Heartland Poker Tour will be televising the event.

Plenty of you favorite poker players will be there including, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Johnny Chan, Liz Lieu, and more. Joining them are NFL stars Adrian Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Roy Williams, and Larry Johnson among others. Don Cheadle, Steve Martin, and Verne Troyer, will also be in attendance.

If you want to find out more, head on over to the Starkey Foundation’s Raise Your Hand for Africa page.

Chilipoker DeepStack Open

Season two of the Chilipoker Deepstack Open has released its 2011 schedule. Seven events are on the docket, each with a €550 buy-in. The first event kicks off on March 31 at Gran Casino Costa Brava in Spain. Next up is Cannes in April and then Marrakech in June. The rest of the year finishes up in Paris, Malta, Vienna, and Marrakech again for the final stop on the season two DSO schedule.

The site is also giving three sponsorship opportunities, which will give players the chance to become a member of the Chili DSO Team complete with a full year of sponsorship for the 2012 DSO.

If you want to win your way to one of these stops, you’ll have to sign up for a Chilipoker account.

Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for up-to-the-minute news.

Right now, not only can you get a free $50 bankroll from PartyPoker and PokerNews, you will also get a free month at PokerNews Strategy. Hurry because this is a limited offer, but the great thing is you do not even need to make a deposit at any stage, just go to our PartyPoker Free $50 Page and follow the walk-through.

March 11 2011, Matthew Kredell

An Internet poker bill introduced in the Nevada state assembly Thursday is the most player-friendly bill ever proposed in the United States.

The measure specifies that it would not discriminate against existing operators. Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas said he has heard online poker leader PokerStars is supporting this bill and that he believes PokerStars would be in good position to get a license should it pass.

“Nevada wants to be on the forefront of this,” Pappas said. “They saw what’s happening in New Jersey and said, ‘Anything you can do, we can do better.’”

All of the problems that poker players had with the proposed Harry Reid federal legislation, like the 15-month blackout or the exclusion of existing operators, are not an issue with this bill.

The bill also specifically mentions that the Nevada Gaming Commission would be authorized to enter into compacts with other jurisdictions where interactive gaming is not prohibited, and that Nevada and these other jurisdictions would share tax revenues. Pappas said Nevada would rely on these other jurisdictions in order to have the liquidity for successful online poker, beginning with compacts with foreign governments that already authorize online poker. New Jersey had a similar idea but removed the wording after objections from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Some of the issues regarding liquidity are much better addressed in this legislation than any other state legislation,” Pappas said. “They are not seeking to exclude anybody. They are seeking an open, competitive license system and I think that is in the best interest of the consumer. We are honestly inclined to be favorable to this legislation but we have not yet made an official position.”

The bill already is running into the same problem that may have derailed the New Jersey legislation — opposition from Caesars Entertainment, which supports Internet poker but is focused on a federal solution. New Jersey State Sen. Raymond Lesniak said he believed Caesars’ opposition was one of the main reasons the New Jersey bill was vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie. Caesars has even more influence in Nevada.

But supporters of this bill are looking to do more than create intrastate poker in Nevada. The plan is to grow into a national and even international Internet poker network with the gaming mecca at its center. Other states could authorize Internet poker and join the program already being offered by Nevada to bring in tax revenue with no start-up required. Eventually, any states that would choose to be part of a federal bill could get involved, although it could be slow going. There’s also the possibility that states like California and New Jersey wouldn’t want to join with Nevada but rather create their own, competing systems.

“Our strong preference remains a federal solution for this,” Pappas said. “We hope it is something that the U.S. Congress sees and says, ‘We need to act quicker.’ They are not acting quickly enough. We hope this can speed up action on the federal level. Nevada may pass a bill this year, but we’ll still have a problem in the other 49 states and the PPA’s interest lies in making licensed and regulated poker for all our members, not just those who live in Nevada.”

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.