Tom ” durrrr” Dwan and Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom haven’t had any epic battles at Full Tilt Poker since 2010, but that’s about to change this weekend. We’re bringing you that story, plus the return of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Zynga is making a move to enter the real-money gaming market in Nevada. Get the full story here at PokerNews.com.

The 2012 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic resumed Wednesday in Las Vegas. Michael Mizrachi finished Day 2 as the leader, but several notables were right on his heels.

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) resumed on Wednesday. Who took down the biggest score? Find out in our FTOPS XXI Day 4 recap.

Phil Hellmuth is moving up the Global Poker Index after his impressive run at the World Series of Poker this year. Did he do enough to crack the top five in this week’s rankings? Mickey Doft breaks down the biggest movers and shakers of the GPI.

Day 1c of the 2012 World Poker Tour Prague Main Event took place on Tuesday. Yannick Bonnet was the leader with 197,200 chips, just 7,000 more than Kevin MacPhee.

Clash Of The Professionals

Online railbirds will have good reason to log into Full Tilt Poker on Sunday. At 15:00 ET, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom will face off at the site for the first time in nearly two years, each putting up $100,000 across four tables for a winner-take-all heads-up match.

Blom announced the terms of the match via Twitter on Thursday:

Dwan and Blom make up two-thirds of The Professionals, Full Tilt Poker’s pro team (Gus Hansen is the other member). But the two cash-game specialists have battled for millions of dollars in the past, playing some of the biggest pots in online poker history. Blom has gotten the best of Dwan for the most part, taking more than $4.5 million from his nemesis during their previous encounters at Full Tilt Poker, according to Poker Table Ratings.

During a four-day stretch in 2009, Dwan lost more than $3 million to the Swede. At that time, Blom’s real identity was unknown; it wasn’t until the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that Blom was revealed as the mysterious Isildur1.

Although this doesn’t quite have the feel of some of their previous battles, we still expect some eye-popping action at Full Tilt Poker on Sunday. Be sure to check out PokerNews on Monday for the results.

NBC Brings Back National Heads-Up Poker Championship

After a one-year hiatus, the popular NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship will return in 2013, according to a Twitter post by POKER PROductions on Thursday.

The $20,000 buy-in event will run from Jan. 24 through 26 at Caesars Palace, the same venue where the event was held from 2005 through 2011. POKER PROductions announced Thursday that episodes will arrive in March and run for six consecutive weeks. Each episode will air for two hours.

The event posted a respectable 1.5 rating during its seven years on NBC, but the network pulled the plug after PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, two of the show’s biggest advertisers, were removed from the U.S. market.

The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is mostly an invitation-only event featuring 64 of the world’s top poker players and celebrities. Phil Hellmuth won the inaugural event in 2005, and he was followed into winner’s circle by several heavy hitters, including Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Annie Duke, and reigning champ Erik Seidel.

The show is produced by Poker PROductions, the same company that produces the World Series of Poker for ESPN, as well as Poker After Dark. In an interview with PokerNews in February, producer Mori Eskandani said there was a “90 percent chance” that the event would return to TV in 2013.

“That’s a very fun event and I know it’s going to be sorely missed this year, but it’s coming back,” Eskandani told Chad Holloway. “All these shows are coming back, it’s just that things got murky out there, and like I said, all of a sudden there were dark clouds up there. I know it’s still there and all of us are hoping it’ll go away. I’m confident, I have a lot of faith in our justice system, and I think things will get worked out.”

Aria Introduces Multi Action Poker

The Aria poker room might be on the brink of something big. On Wednesday, the room launched a new poker format dubbed Multi Action Poker, a new format intended to increase the action of live poker – similar to the multi-table options you’d find online.

Photo c/o John Kim

The table may look odd and unique, but the concept is simple: each player is dealt two hands, each of which will be placed over a red spot and a blue spot separated by a wooden plank to distinguish hole cards and chip stacks from each player. The table will remain a nine-handed game with two dealers facing each other in the middle of the table with two decks in play. There will also be different colored chip stacks, but for the time being, Aria has not implemented this technique.

Aria officials explain that the games will start off as limit hold’em but are open to the players wants if there’s interest. “For speed, it’s definitely better suited for limit games,” Timothy Frazin, creator of the game, told PokerFuse. “But it’s not called multi speed poker; it’s called Multi Action Poker. If you want action, it’s built for action.”

Many players have tweeted photos and posted mixed reactions on the TwoPlusTwo forums. Frazin initially thought of the idea in 2007 but didn’t act on it until recently. Using trial runs, he has already worked out the quirks to run a smooth game.

“I love the action,” said Frazin. “And if you’re a casual player, this could draw you in.”

PokerFuse has more.

Celebs, Poker Pros Go All-In for CP

On Saturday, Dec. 8, the Fifth Annual All-In for CP charity poker tournament will be held at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The event, co-hosted by actress Cheryl Hines and poker pro Karina Jett, aims to raise funds toward easing the lives of those with cerebral palsy.

The charity tournament kicks off at 2 p.m. PST and features a $500+$40 buy-in with $200 rebuys for the first 90 minutes. Among the celebrities and poker pros scheduled to attend are Donnie Wahlberg, Sam Simon, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Jonas, Rick Tocchet, Mekhi Phifer, Scotty Nguyen, Mike Sexton, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari, Patrik Antonius, Andy Bloch, and Phil Laak.

Players who reach the final table will receive a share of more than $25,000 in cash and prizes. There will also be on-site raffles with rare and collectible memorabilia.

The One Step Closer Foundation has raised more than $460,000 in the first four All-In for CP charity poker tournaments, including $290,000 in 2011 alone. The event is the brainchild of Jacob Zalewski, who copes with cerebral palsy and serves as president and CEO of the One Step Closer Foundation. Over the years, Zalewski has made friends with many of poker’s biggest stars, many of whom support his foundation by playing in the event.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights from last year:

Get more information about the great event at the One Step Closer Foundation website.

Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com

October 18 2011, Brett Collson

Aside from playing a few major events in Las Vegas and Australia, Patrik Antonius has been virtually absent from the tournament circuit over the past year. But the high-stakes legend has returned for the World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, and people are wondering where he stands in regard to the downfall of Full Tilt Poker. In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we bring you Patrik’s latest comments about Full Tilt, an NHL goalie endorsing an online poker site, and more.

In Case You Missed It

The poker world lost a popular television program last week, but learned that the upcoming 2011 WSOP Main Event Final Table will be aired in near-real time by ESPN. In our latest Five Thoughts piece, we discuss the November Nine broadcast, the loss of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and more.

Thinking about moving out of the United States to continue playing online poker? Chad Holloway takes a close look at Toronto and what it has to offer poker players.

The World Series of Poker Europe has been breaking records in Cannes this year. Find out why we think the move to France has been such a success.

The WSOPE Main Event was closing in on the bubble Monday night. Read about all the action from Cannes in our daily WSOPE recap.

But How Much Did He Lose?

A recent interview featuring former Team Full Tilt member Patrik Antonius has generated speculation within the community about how much money Antonius could potentially lose from the site in the wake of Black Friday.

While in Cannes for the World Series of Poker Europe, Antonius told PokerTube that he would end up being one of the biggest losers if Full Tilt went down, saying that he had “a lot of money stuck there.”

Antonius was an employee of the site but was also one of its most prominent high-stakes players. He raked in several million-dollar pots while playing at the highest stakes available and is generally regarded as one of the biggest winners ever on the site.

However, upon seeing the interview, TwoPlusTwo moderator Noah Stephens-Davidowitz claimed on TwoPlusTwo that Antonius has less than $100 in his Full Tilt Poker account and could even owe the company a “smallish” amount. We’re not sure how he knows Antonius’ account balance though.

“(Patrik Antonius) is not a U.S. resident, so he had 2.5 months to get his money off the site. I don’t know if that’s what happened, but it seems reasonable to assume,” Stephens-Davidowitz said.

A representative for Antonius then told Finnish site Pokerisivut.com that most of Patrik’s losses are related to outstanding debts with players, and that Antonius still has “a significant financial interest in Full Tilt Poker.”

We’ll have more on this story as it develops. In the meantime, check out the PokerTube interview with Antonius. We’d normally embed the video here, but we don’t like when things auto-play.

NHL Star Endorses Online Poker Room

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo is the latest sports star to endorse an online poker site. Luongo has signed a sponsorship deal with a government-owned online poker site in British Columbia, and was recently seen shooting commercial ads for the poker room PlayNow.com.

Luogo, who guided the Canucks to the Stanley Cup finals last year, has been a poker enthusiast for a long time. In 2009, the netminder competed in the PokerStars.net NHL Charity Shootout during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He, along with NHL stars Alex Ovechkin and Jeremy Roenick, got a chance to rub elbows with some of the best players in the poker world.

“It’s poker, it’s one of my passions,” he told CBC News on Monday. “It’s a great endorsement and this site is licensed by the government and so it’s really exciting for me.”

His ties to online poker haven’t come without criticism, though. Candace Plattor, a psychological counselor who specializes in addictions, told CBC News that Luongo is endorsing something “potentially dangerous” and that he is not serving as an appropriate role model for fans, specifically young children.

“I’m very disappointed that he would do this,” Plattor said. “I think he doesn’t have his facts. I think he might have made a really poor choice.”

Read the full story at CBC News.

William Hill Walkout

Around 200 employees of William Hill walked out of the company’s support center in Israel in protest this week amid rumors that the company would be moving operations from Tel Aviv to the United Kingdom or Gibraltar.

Reports circled over the weekend that William Hill executives flew to Israel for “peace talks” to prevent the strike action which could potentially damage the company’s online gambling business operations. Tel Aviv handles nearly all of the marketing and customer relations operations for William Hill, and employees have grown increasingly concerned about their jobs.

A statement from William Hill, however, said there is “no intention” of relocating its sales and marketing teams.

Read more from our report earlier today at PokerNews.com.

PartyPoker on the Mac

In exciting news for Apple users, PartyPoker has launched a real-money downloadable client that is compatible with the Mac operating system. The downloadable software is an upgrade from a limited Flash browser version that has been available to Mac users.

The new client has more features than the Flash-only version and will continue to add options that are already in place on the Windows version. The software release comes just in time as PartyPoker’s Pokerfest kicks off in less than a week.

Check out PartyPoker.com for more information.

Tony G Cashes In

On Monday, we told you that Tony G had placed a $20,000 bet (at 5-to-1 odds) on himself to cash in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. On Tuesday, with the elimination of bubble boy Barry Greenstein, Tony G secured his place in the money, and delivered a message to Matchbook.com sponsored pro and defending WSOPE Main Event champ James Bord.

With his $100,000 payday (plus another “20,000 for cashing) locked up, Tony G’s focus now centers on the “1.4 million prize for first place in the WSOPE Main Event. You can follow his progress live here at PokerNews.

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Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson