Catching the attention of poker fans around the world, the last two days has seen the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe main event unfolding in London, with a good turnout from international poker aces.

346 players, among them the best in the business, entered for the £10,000 buy-in epic. Entering like a lion, but busting out on the first day like a lamb was US player Phil Hellmuth, who as usual created something of a stir, making an entrance on a red double decker bus, accompanied by a 16 member band, 11 models dressed like Lady Gaga singing Poker face.

Other top players who did not make it past Day 1a, from which French player Nicholas Levi emerged as chip leader, included Howard Lederer, Michael Mizrachi, Allen Kessler, Vanessa Selbst, Andy Bloch, Chad Brown, Scott Seiver, James Dempsey.

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Bookmakers Ladbrokes have revealed the latest betting odds for England’s Ashes squad with heartache predicted for pace bowler Chris Tremlett and flamboyant batsman Ravi Bopara who at odds of 2/1 are outside of the favourite 16 to get the call.

Monty Panesar at betting odds of 1/4 looks set to take the back-up spinner position ahead of 7/2 James Tredwell and 10/1 Adil Rashid. Read the full post …

The UK newspaper The Sunday Times has reignited rumours that online gambling giant Betfair is about to go public, reporting that the group is to announce a £1.5 billion public offering within the next two weeks. If true, this would make the flotation one of the largest in Britain this year.

The exact price of shares is apparently yet to be determined, but Japanese technology investor Softbank paid £355 million for a 23% stake in 2003, from which the estimated value of £1.5 billion is derived by the newspaper.

Founders Ed Wray and Andrew Black would be the largest beneficiaries of the float; they own a combined stake of 25% of the company.

With the international break now complete, the fourth round of the English Premier League takes place this weekend beginning with Manchester United travelling to Liverpool to take on Everton.

Manchester United currently sits in third spot in the table two points behind defending champion Chelsea and go into Saturday’s game featuring a fit-again Rio Ferdinand.

Coral.co.uk has Manchester United at odds of 4/6 to win followed by StanJames.com with 8/11 and Bwin.com, Bet365.com, WilliamHill.com and VictorChandler.com offering 4/5.

Manchester United lost last season’s corresponding fixture by three goals to one but SportingBet.com, BetFred.com, PaddyPower.com, BlueSq.com, Bodog.com and 888Sport.com do not think that history will repeat itself and are showing odds of 5/6 on an away win while punters can get 6/7 at Betfair.com.

Everton has had a bad start to the 2010/11 English Premier League season after only managing to pick up one point from its first three matches. Read the full post …

Online gambling is not the only platform of gaming to be digitized, as a new form of baccarat has hit the card rooms in California. Offering players a simplified version of baccarat, these devices were made to bring a new level of gaming to the tables.

Designed by DEQ Systems, a leader in the industry of providing extras and bonusing to live gambling, the new device to be incorporated into California’s card rooms is the EZ Baccarat system. Accompanied by the EZ Trak system, this system is meant to revolutionize the way baccarat is played.

The EZ Baccarat system has brought one of the best gambles to more players around the world. This system has even made it so baccarat can be played by lower stakes.

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Yet another incident of bank over-blocking under the authority of the UIGEA surfaced this week in the publication “The Consumerist”, which reported that the US bank Chase chose to treat a credit card customer’s New York Lottery subscription payment as a cash advance, with the $10 fee and astronomical interest rate that goes along with it.

The customer charged a annual subscription to the New York State Lottery Mega Millions game on his Chase MasterCard in the amount of $98, subsequently noticing that his monthly statement carried a $10 cash advance fee and a $1.24 interest charge for that cash advance fee, along with the $98 charge to the New York State Lottery.

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The Isle of Man-based online gambling software provider Microgaming.com has announced the launch of its highly anticipated flagship game, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at its online casino licensees.

The company is developing a series of graphic rich online video slots based on this popular movie trilogy and will use animation material, themes, and characters, from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy motion pictures, including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

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When Hurricane Earl had reached Antigua, the small island nation was given cause for concern. The possibility of property damage had been a prevalent idea, and some infrastructure had ultimately damaged.

In the damage, one of the world’s leading online gambling sites had been affected. Intertops, a sportsbook that has been operating online since 1996, had taken a blow in the outage.

During the outage, Intertops had issued a statement via e-mail to inform players that they were aware of the problem and were working diligently to recover from the damage that Hurricane Earl had caused.

Pummeled by the hurricane, the online gambling haven of Antigua had experienced one of the worst encounters with nature in years.

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This preseason has not showcased the offense, that most predicted would do well during the 2010 NFL season, by the New York Jets. They have produced just two touchdowns in their three preseason games.

On Friday, they did not get that second touchdown until late in their game against the Washington Redskins and suffered their second loss of the preseason 16-11. Not only did their offense sputter, they committed four turnovers to go along with just 288 yards of total offense.

“You’re not going to win too many games, if any games, if you turn the ball over four times,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said.

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Coming off a pre-season win against last year’s AFC champions the Indianapolis Colts, the Buffalo Bills will host the Cincinnati Bengals in their third pre-season game. After finishing 6-10 last season (2-4 in the AFC East) the Bills are showing that they may be ready to take the next set towards a winning season.

The Bengals have bounced back nicely from their opening week loss, and have won two straight games against teams that contended last year. They are focused on getting back to the playoffs after suffering a defeat to the New York Jets in the AFC Wild Card round last season.

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