The news, however, about the popular unknown Swedish high stakes player do not stop just there as this weekend Isildur1 will go one step further in building up his win or lose way of thinking by taking his seat in the first Super Star Showdown hosted at PokerStars.com were Isildur1 will face Isaac ‘philivey2694′ Haxton at 6pm ET in a game that is predicted to bring major attention to both railbirds and online poker critics.

Isildur1’s playing pattern is yesterday’s news so we should expect nothing less than fully loaded action against Haxton which is an excellent online and live player with experience at the highest levels of online cash games. Haxton’s best results up to date were second place in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event in 2007 with a win of $861,789 and the WSOP 40th Anniversary $40,000 event in 2009 were Haxton took home $1,168,565!

PokerStars SuperStar Showdown

Haxton and ‘Isildur1′ will compete online Sunday on December 19 at 18.00 ET on a heads-up cash game which will count 2,500 hands of $ 50/$ 100 No-Limit Hold’em, with each player participating with a bankroll worth $150,000.

To watch the SuperStar Showdown you will have to maintain an account at pokerstars.com regardless if it is funded or not on Sunday evening. The tables will be located in Hold’em> No Limit / Pot Limit> All and table names will be called ‘Showdown’.

If you may not have an account at pokerstars.com you can select to issue on today by using the PokerStars Bonus Code STARS600 after coupling it with PokerStars Marketing Code PSP13011 as shown in the image to the left in order to claim the full 100% sign up bonus for all deposits up to $600.

Our editors will be watching the game and comments will follow on luckyroom.com on late Sunday evening.

Changes to fonts

The lobby has undergone some visual changes. PokerStars changed the main font theme to another which is more legible. The cash tables that have a waiting list now appear highlighted in bright blue and italic. Similarly, the cash table(s) where the player is already seated are displayed in bright red and italic. In any tournament the player is registered the column ‘state’ will be in bright red and italic.

Find Seat – A great convenience for multi-tablers

Multi-tablers should be delighted as PokerStars has made easier the process of finding a table of a specific type. So when a player chooses to play on an already full table now there is a button labeled as ‘Find Seat ‘ instead of the old ‘Seat Me’. When you click it, PokerStars will find for you a vacant seat in a table of the same type! Players also have the opportunity to press Ctrl + S (keyboard shortcut) which has the same effect. Pressing Ctrl + S multiple times will allow players to choose more available tables of the same type making the multi-tabling poker experience easier than ever.

Sliders to adjust the intensity of sounds

There are also some other points that PokerStars has improved in the latest upgrade. A general slider was added where you can adjust the volume of all sounds (Master Control) while there are also separate sliders for each type of sound for perfect tuning. This is accessible under the Options menu  Sound Settings.

Graphical Heads-Up Tournament Representation

PokerStars is now offering the possibility of a graphical representation of the Heads Up tournament in the Lobby, which shows the pairs of opponents and their progress in the tournament (winners / losers). This feature is currently available only when a tournament of this type has 64 or fewer poker players.

New mixed game

A new mixed game that combine the two most popular variations of poker; the No Limit Hold’em and the Pot Limit Omaha will begin to appear gradually during the month of December so don’t miss it. Also, in late December there will be announced some changes to the PokerStars VIP system so stay tuned with us here in Luckyroom.com for the latest details regarding world’s leading online poker room. New players can sign up at pokerstars.com with the latest PokerStars Bonus Code STARS600 after they have coupled the bonus code itself with the PokerStars Marketing Code PSP13011 in order to claim the full 100% sign up bonus offered by pokerstars.com to all new players.

After the midterm elections in November the legislature of the U.S. is in a transitional period, which means that there will not be many bills, which is why Harry Reid is pushing to pass the law on online poker before the Republicans take the reins; as the specific group are surely not famous for their sympathy towards online poker in a whole.

“We will know for sure by the end of next week whether the online poker will be part of a bill that will pass this time”, said the executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) John Pappas. “Whether it becomes a law or not will be something that we will find out in the coming days”.

The greatest concern, however, for poker players is based on the fact that the senator is supported and influenced by the interests of land based casino owners (mostly in Nevada). The final version of the bill has not been published yet but it is expected to occur within the next few days. However, a version of the bill has already leaked towards the public and it does include provisions that do not look very good for online poker players.

Many existing car room websites that will receive the necessary permits including Full Tilt and PokerStars will probably be allowed to maintain the level of the rake and reward programs but there will be a cost of taxation of 20% on all deposits. This is acceptable but the issue with the bill is that in order to give the time to casinos and new businesses to create their own software and their own websites to strike towards the internet based poker market there will be a delay of full 15-month period in which no online poker room will be legal in the United States,

If the above mentioned bill does pass through professional poker players might find themselves stuck in to a 15-month blackout period which could be disastrous as they will not have the opportunity to earn money by playing poker via the internet and many of them have reported that they would move to different countries in order to continue to play poker online.

“It doesn’t makes sense for the player or the poker industry”, says Pappas. “I do not know why some companies will want to enter an industry decimated and the players have moved to other sites. There will never earn back these individual players. If anyone cares to run an online gaming site they would like to see a far smoother transition”.

Another point of concern is the so-called three-year trial period. The main concept is that the first three years the Americans and non-American players will be divided between them. The American websites will not be allowed to accept non-US citizens and PokerStars, for example, should open a new poker room exclusively for American citizens by the end of that period.

Pappas asks players and members of the PPA to support the bill because if the bill will not pass during this transitional period the majority of Republicans will force a total ban of online poker in the United States.

“There will be obviously parts of the bill that the players will not like and we should push for corrections. Perhaps, we have to push now to pass the bill and then to correct some points. I think the most important is to provide a clear framework and to establish a long-term institutionalized online poker market. There will definitely be Harrah’s on the scene and some new entries in the field perhaps may be Google, Yahoo and even Facebook in addition to the existing companies. There will be a dynamic market with strong consumer protection and competition which will ultimately prove beneficial for the players”, states Papas.

Although the beginning for Isildur1 was quite exciting when he won the biggest portion of Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s bankroll the next events were disappointing as Isildur put his bankroll on fire In a heads up game of $500/$1.000 Pot Limit Omaha played against Phil Ivey, “Ziigumnd” and Patrik Antonius, all at the same time. After gradually losing much of his money, he faced Brian Hastings at a session that cost him his presence at online poker games of these stakes. The $4 million which were lost in one night was enough to make him stop and to switch to smaller stake games.

For some time now there have been rumors that the personality called “Isildur1″ will join a well known online poker room as a member of the Pro’s team; early last night rumors had reached their peak, but as of this morning it is official that as from today the online poker phenomenon is an official member of the professional team of Pokerstars after an announcement made to all partnering websites from pokerstars.com. The card room is celebrating this by conducting a cash game, where there is an open challenge/invitation to anyone who wants to play against him.

The popular online card room said also that they MAY reveal the actual name of Isildur1 before January at the PCA, but until then he will be playing on Pokerstars under the name “Isildur1″.

“I decided to respond positively to the invitation to join the team of Pokerstars because it is the largest site and it will be a great challenge for me”, said “Isildur1″. “It’s a very good deal and I will now play against the Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri and Johnny Lodden. My goal is to improve my game especially for live tournaments as I will take part in some of the following events while I will focus on the Heads up NL Hold’em and to the Pot Limit Omaha”.

We are confident that the true identity of “Isildur1″ will be revealed in the PCA next January, the largest celebration of Pokerstars, so that he can represent pokerstars.net in the next live events that follow. The official announcement made by pokerstars.com follows:

“We are pleased to announce that one of the most mysterious online high-
stakes players in the world “Isildur1” has joined Team PokerStars Pro. The
enigmatic player, who has still yet to publicly reveal his identity, shot
to fame in the poker world in 2009 when he took on and beat some of the
biggest heads-up players in the game. But with a place on Team PokerStars
Pro now confirmed, Isildur1’s real identity is set to be unveiled in the
near future.

In a bid to prove that Isildur1 is the best heads-up cash game player in
the world, he will be playing a series of high stakes heads-up matches at
PokerStars.com. The specially developed SuperStar Showdown format consists
of a single session of 2,500 hands at stakes no lower than $50/$100. His
first match will take place at 6pm ET on December 19, with the opponent to
be named in the coming days.”

The challenge is open to both new and existing players at pokerstars.com with the latter having the opportunity to join the worlds largest online poker room by using the new updated PokerStars Bonus Code which unlocks 100% up to $600 in super sing up bonus. Read more how to claim the bonus under the PokerStars Bonus section.

Mike Johnson of Pokercast.tv, started a thread in popular poker forum “2 +2″ in which there are chances that Phil Hellmuth will withdraw from Ultimate Bet. Johnson believes there is a conflict between the site and the popular player, which could result the end of their cooperation. As Johnson states – whose opinion is always respected because of its position and experience – Hellmuth does not wear the logo of the Ultimate Bet for several weeks now. This happened in the recent NAPT Bounty Shootout – which was filmed for television broadcast. Johnson believes that perhaps Ultimate Bet is not willing to meet the financial demands of Hellmuth who will remain – possibly – without a sponsor in the near future.

Many believe that Hellmuth is no longer the player who he was once, and that the fact that he states that he is is the “best player in the world” is a fact that can true only in his own complicated head which is what drives him to do what he has done during recent years in land based poker appearances! Even so, however, Hellmuth is one of the most famous players in poker worldwide which, itself, raises his value in the marketing of the game.

The scenarios discussed in this thread, after the eventual departure of the “Poker Brat” from Ultimate Bet (ub.com), were many. The main were a possible integration of the dynamic Hellmuth to one of the two giants of online poker, PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker as their increasing popularity lacks Hellmuths contribution which does have a big audience behind him.

Of course, given the personality and character of Hellmuth, it is not sure whether he would like to share the focus of “spotlights” with other professionals who are already part of the teams of the aforementioned poker rooms. For this reason, a good choice for Hellmuth seems that would be PartyPoker – if and when, of course, the poker room returns to the U.S. market. As Party Poker doesn’t have a “No. 1 Professional” on its team, Hellmuth would be the” No. 1 Poker Pro of the poker room.

However, there is another scenario that Hellmuth can follow – if he eventually stops cooperating with Ultimete Bet as he can always follow in the footsteps of Doyle Brunson and set up his own poker room – although, as someone pointed out very successful, “Few European poker fans will want to play at a poker site, whose owner called some customers ‘idiots from Northern Europe’! All this of course will remain only in the realm of fantasy, until the rumors / suspects of Hellmuth’s departure from the Ultimate Bet will be confirmed.

It is worth mentioning that several problems with security during the recent past with the overall network hosting UB.com and Absolute Poker have of course driven players away and have downgraded credibility of the network in a whole. During this period pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com have increased their player volume and their overall online exposure with pokerstars.com increasing is sign up bonus from 100% up to $50 to 100% up to $600 with the new PokerStars Bonus Code while fulltiltpoker.com has introduced a patent pending product coming under the name Rush Poker which has changed the overall concept of poker online. Just recently the latter has announced that its patent pending game has been released for mobile play which is also expected to increase the overall popularity of both its name as an online poker room and its new product.

As far as a possible migration of the Poker Brat to any of the above mentioned online poker rooms we personally would like to comment on the threads posted on 2+2 as we don’t believe that Hellmuth would take the hit on moving to pokerstars.com or fulltiltpoker.com as his way of thinking is just not fit to be confronted with Ivey or Negreanu; as far as opening his own online poker room we again think that its just not going to be a profitable business with the way things are evolving with processing in the USA. We would put our money on a possible retirement or a possible reinforcement of Hellmuth to Party Gaming as the brand is said to be preparing for a possible entry to the US later in the New Year.

In cash games, the offers will apply from the hand numbered 49.7 billion (49,700,000,000). On that hand and afterwards, each player who participates in any one millionth hand (e.g: 49,701,000,000, 49,702,000,000) will take $50 for each VIP Player Point (VPP) received in the last 50 hands on the table. The minimum bonus is $50 which will be doubled for the player that will win the pot in this hand.

Sign up at PokerStars Here

For the 50 billion numbered hand, each player that will receive pocket cards will win $500 for each VPP won during the last 50 hands. The winner of the pot also receives a double pokerstars bonus! Additionally, players that will participate in this important hand will win a seat in the 2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event which is scheduled for the 26th of September of this year which is a prize worth of $ 5,200. Finally, the winner of that hand will earn additionally $50.000.

Pokerstars offers are not limited only to cash games players as from the 10th till the 25th of September, there will be a special Sit and Go tournament with various buy-ins: $1.10, $5.50, $11, $22, and $55. The winners of the tournaments will share the amount of $50,000. The Special Sit & Go tournaments can be found at the tab ‘Sit and Go’  ‘All’.

Poker players who do not currently have a strong enough bankroll to participate in the above tables and tournaments shouldn’t worry as PokerStars gives the opportunity of a PokerStars Bonus Code offer using the code “50BN”. For first time depositors there is also a special bonus code which will have to be entered at the cashier section which is “FREEROLL50″. All the players that will deposit using any of the aforementioned bonus codes will also receive a ticket for one of the three freerolls worth of $50,000 which will be held on 25th of September. Finally, if a player has 3.000 Frequent Player Points on his account can redeem them for $50. This offer is available only once for each player.

It is important to note that new players should not confuse the PokerStars Bonus Code with the PokerStars Marketing Code as they are two entirely different codes that unlock an entirely different result. If you are a new player we recommend you follow the full guide on how to use the PokerStars Marketing Code and the PokerStars Bonus Codes at the relevant section of luckyroom.com. If you would like to have more information about the rakeback ratio which can be claimed through the PokerStars Loyalty program we should advise that you reach out to the PokerStars rakeback equivalent.

Team PokerStars Online was created last year after gathering more than 2,000 PokerStars Supernova VIP players. Ultimately, 23 players were selected and this number has reached now to 26 after Schmidt’s latest addition.

Dusty said he was very busy lately, writing a new book on poker and playing on more live poker events than ever before, but is planning to now focus on pursuing a SuperNova Elite status further in 2010. Commenting on the perks of becoming a player with that status, Schmidt said: “It is a huge case. All grinders are aware that winning the SuperNova Elite status can secure more than $100,000 a year as income, even with 0 profits at the tables!

The benefits are amazing. Even when you go to the WSOP as a Super Nova Elite everything is fantastic. This year we participated in the PokerStars party as VIP guests with Snoop Dogg.”

Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt is primarily an online multi-tabling No-Limit Hold ‘em specialist and in his career features more than 8 million hands played till this day while he managed to raise $3 million in profits without suffering a single losing month!

If you care to read more about the Super Nova Elite status and the PokerStars VIP program reach out to the PokerStars rakeback equivalent section.

Commerce Casino employs more than 20,000 people in California. Commerce Casino administration claims that it wants to protect internet poker players from California: “We will either protect the rights of online poker players or we will allow the operation of illegal businesses from abroad channeled millions of dollars outside the country and dominate the U.S. market”. During the filing of the HR 2267 bill, Malkasian didn’t hesitate to compare the legalization of online gambling with the legalization of marijuana! Commerce Casino issued a press release claiming that also other poker rooms in California such as the Bicycle Casino, the Hawaiian Gardens Casino and Hollywood Park Casino have come alongside the Commerce Casino and oppose the bill issued by Senator Barney Frank.

The Poker Players Alliance responded directly to Commerce Casino by a publication on PlayersBeforeProfits.com. John Pappas, director of the PPA has made it clear that this bill contains a condition in which 50% of businesses must be located within the country: so there is no particular reason to protect players from anything.

John Pappas believes that the Commerce Casino “does not want to compete with existing online businesses such as Harrah’s, Wynn, Google or anyone else who wants to involve in the field of Internet gambling. PPA hopes to gather 10,000 signatures in the publication and they have 6800 already!

Famous poker players like Phil Ivey of US Poker Rooms fulltiltpoker.com, Tom Dwan, Mike Caro, Annie Duke of ub.com, Daniel Negreanu of pokerstars.com, Phil Laak, Patrik Antonius , Erick Lindgren , David Williams and several others have already endorsed the publication with the hope that more will follow. Some players even went further boycotting California’s casinos – PPA does not officially support the boycott. Nevertheless, it is rumored that the PPA may change the attitude of the boycott (issuing a formally request towards its members0) if the Commerce Casino will not change attitude. The approval of HR 2267 still has many obstacles in its path, but the outlook is optimistic as the Poker Players Alliance and other similar online poker organizations look set to win the race.

The Feds have accused Ahmad Khawaja and his two firms of accepting to process funds for online poker play for the worlds largest online poker room pokerstars.com licensed in the Isle of Man. The funds had been traced to be linked to overseas banking facilities rumoured to be settled in Cyprus. The popular poker room from its own point of view remains strong behind its position and claims that they are not doing anything wrong as all their business practices are properly licensed and the associated institutions with pokerstars.com follow all relevant protocols for licensing, integrity and fair practices.

“PokerStars does not condone efforts by processors to conceal the nature or purpose of funds used to play online poker,” PokerStars said in a statement. “PokerStars has taken steps to ensure that processors properly disclose the nature of their business to their relevant financial institutions.”

Even after the above case the Feds have stood unable to go directly after the online gaming establishments for reasons that still remain silent but can be understood to be either diplomatic or based on loose tie of an amendment which can back up allegations. As the online gaming industry is expected to be opened soon in the US the above clearly presents a scenario of diplomacy from the US authorities against US facing gaming establishments which can prove to be future tax payers if the UIGEA is amended and revised in the following year.

The Feds once again have proved unable to back up the grey UIGEA and have once again shown that they are unable to stop the online poker from running in the US. It is noteworthy that pokerstars.com is more than likely to continue to run its operation as is today even if the UIGEA is revised and if a French gaming model is introduced as the industry talks about thoughts coming from Uncle Sam’s representatives to block gaming establishments that had continued to accept wagers from US citizens after almighty president Bush thought that he had found the solution to the tax losses coming from online gaming when he introduced the UIGEA in 2006.

The above accusations and prosecutions all lay under the Wire Act of 1964 which has found broadband internet escaping from its paragraphs and gaming companies taking advantage of the lack of clarity of the particular Act. At the same time the US government has realised that a possible strategy of blocking gaming altogether might end up to be very costly in terms of tax losses which is why 5 years have passed and a solution is still being searched for.

More information about the UIGEA

Why US Poker Rooms Cannot be Affected by the UIGEA

Sign up at PokerStars for Free Here Claim 100% Bonus for Deposits up to $600.

The promotion will be playing out at the tables of the popular carde room from August 9 through out to September 8 and will enable all players that register for the VPP League to have their VPP total listed on a league table. Players which manage to finish in the top 500 at the end of the qualifying period will secure their share of a $40,000 prize pool, with $5,000 split between those that finish in the top 50 ranking positions.

It is very, very important to note that the VPP league is open to players of the below mentioned regions after they have registered for a dummy tournament in the actual poker lobby; players that wish to enrol will find the tournament on list in the PokerStars Lobby under the VPP League under Tourney and Private Tab. Regardless if you originate from any of the qualifying regions or not if you are a new player to pokerstars.com grab on to the opportunity to claim a 100% sign up bonus for deposits up to $600 by using the PokerStars Bonus Code and the PokerStars Marketing Code as explained in the relevant tab of luckyroom.com under PokerStars Bonus; additionally read more about the PokerStars Loyalty Program and how you can be earning up to 40% indirect PokerStars Rakeback Equivalent by taking advantage of the revised PokerStars VIP Program.

Instructions on how to play for the VPP League

Please note that before you sign up to participate on this particular promotion you should know that the VPP league is open for players that originate from the following regions: Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Balkans; players from the rest of the regions of the world cannot enter this particular promotion but can still sign up for an account with the PokerStars Bonus Code and the PokerStars Marketing Code as shown to the left and claim a 100% sign up bonus for deposits up to $600. Players are allowed to qualify for the promotion will have the opportunity to frequently be updated on their ranking on the rankings page for the VPP league which can be found at Pokerstars.com or under the link in the Pokerstars Lobby.  

In addition to their share of the main prize pool, players finishing in the top 50 will also win extra cash as follows.