Top News – Big Comebacks, Rewards and Promotions

Last week saw some big things in poker and we're here to tell you all about it. The weekend in Paris was hot as all the top poker pros have gathered in French capital for the 10th annual European Poker Awards. The ceremony took place at the Queenie Club just a few steps away form the famous Aviation Club.

Some big comebacks were also on the spot recently as the 2008 WSOP champion Peter Eastgate came back from retirement to take part in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Another big return, although is only rumored, has made the news as the soon to merge with bwin, PartyGaming have announced their plans to try and once again conquer the US online poker market. And finally, we're gonna tell you all about the big new promotions running on OnlinePoker10.

The Best in Europe

The 10th annual European Poker Awards have taken place last weekend at the Queenie Club in Paris nearby it's former home Aviation Club de France, the most famous poker room in Paris. Many of the poker stars were nominated for the awards and even more of them came to the event to congratulate their piers and, of course, to have a good time. However, only seven of them came out holding the prestigious trophies with Jake Cody, definitely the biggest star of the night, holding two, one of which for Player of the Year.

So here's the list of Europe's best in 2010:

• Rookie of the Year: Jake Cody
• Europe's Leading Lady: Liv Boeree
• Outstanding Tournament Performance: James Bord
• Internet Player of the Year: Andreas Torbergsen
• Poker Staff Person of the Year: Gerard Serra Retamero
• Poker Personality of the Year: Tony G
• Player of the Year: Jake Cody
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Nic Szeremeta

Our good friends, the PokerNews live reporting team were at the awards to congratulate the winners and ask them a few questions. Check out the beautiful Gloria Balding in action:

Easgate's Back?

Last week the whole poker community was in a mild shock when they've heard the news about the recently retired 2008 WSOP champion Peter Eastgate coming back to the big arena. Eastgate who announced he got tired of the life of a poker pro back in July last year and even sold his bracelet on ebay for $147 million agreed to play the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship while wearing his former sponsor's, Poker Stars badge.

Here's what Eastgate had to say for himself on the PokerStars Blog:

“Sometimes in life a person can feel lost and wake up one morning not recognizing who he is. Last summer that was how I felt. Prior to winning the WSOP in 2008, my life was very much a good solid routine of playing online poker and hanging out with my friends and family. Winning the WSOP changed that. I relocated to London and started a new life, the life of a high profile poker pro. For almost 2 years I was in a constant spotlight, travelling from poker tournament to poker tournament, doing thousands of interviews and never had a chance to catch my breath. In the whirlwind that followed winning the WSOP I lost track of the most importing thing in my life, myself....I do not consider this a comeback, as I always knew there was a good chance I would play poker again. During my hiatus from poker, PokerStars have been very supportive. Therefore, I am pleased that I will start out with playing two events where I will be sponsored by PokerStars.”

However, this is just one tournament, so we'll just have to wait and see whether the former world champion will actually come back into poker and start playing big cash games as well as major tournaments and wouldn't change his mind again.

Party Plans to Invade the US

While the US online poker market is showing some signs of liberation, poker sites are getting prepared to take advantage of it once (if) the big decision’s made. Florida is currently getting ready to break the ice as it's preparing the plan to legalize online poker which should set the example for other states of how to exploit online gambling and collect the taxes.

PartyPoker, which used to be the world's leading online poker provider before the UIGEA was introduced back in 2006 and forced Party to retreat from the US market and cede their positions to PokerStars and Full Tilt is now ready to take them back. The company is currently undergoing big changes in connection to their merge with one of the biggest online betting providers bwin. Once the merge's complete the new body should become the biggest online gambling, betting and poker provider in the world.

What's more is that PartyGaming have already signed a deal with one of the major US casinos to provide an online poker platform for the US market once it's regulated. Although no names were mentioned the rumor has it that it is one of the big shots, such as Las Vegas Sands, MGM, Boyd Gaming and Caesars. PartyGaming claim that this is the first but not the last of the signings.

More news on this to come once we've got something to report.

OP10's New Promos

Ok, so this week we've launched some BIG new promotions on few of the top online poker sites and therefore decided to tell you a little bit more about them so that you would know what to do, how to take part and win.

First, of course, is the $15,000 PokerStars Sunday Million Freeroll series giving away big cash prizes as well as tickets to the Sunday Million events at PokerStars. What you need to do to qualify for these freerolls is to download PokerStars through OnlinePoker10, sign up for a new account using the PokerStars marketing code ONLINEPOKERTEN, make your first deposit and then earn 75 VPPs during the month prior the tournament. Both new and existing PokerStars via OP10 players are welcome to play as long as they've met the 75 point requirement in time. The freerolls run on March 13 and April 10 both starting @ 14:35 EST. This means that in order to play in March you need to meet the qualification requirements during the month of February and to play in April you need to qualify in March.

Each tournament features a $15,000 prizepool which is divided in the following way:

• 1st: $1,000
• 2nd: $750
• 3rd: $600
• 4th: $450
• 5th - 50th: $215 Sunday Million Ticket
• 51th - 260th: $11 Sunday 1/4 Million Ticket

Two more free tournaments will take place on 888Poker. Each one of them features $5,000 in prize money as well as the sexy 888 pro Leo Margets at the online tables. To play these events you need to get yourself an 888 Poker via OP10 account, make at least a $30 deposit and earn 15 points. This must be done before the end of the qualification period which is February 22nd. The first $5,000 Leo Margets Freeroll will take place on February 24 @ 19:00 GMT. The requirements for the second freeroll are the same, only the qualification period starts on March 1 and ends on the 8th. The second tournament will take place on March 10 @ 19:00 GMT.

And last, but not least is the $34,000 Monster Pot Series on Poker770. To play it you need to download Poker770 via OnlinePoker10, make your first deposit and collect 20 points. The first freeroll has already taken place on February 12, but three more are coming and you can play each and every one of them. Here are the dates: February 26, March 5 & 19 all starting @ 20:00 GMT.

And these are all the news we had for today. Good luck and see you next week!

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