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Of the six entities that have applied for an online poker license in Nevada it seems that South Point Casino has the initial head-start according to a report in Card Player Magazine. The reason South Point Casino feels they have a leg-up on their competitors is because they have already developed their own play-money online poker room, so all of the basics are in place for the switch to real-money online poker as soon as they are granted a license.

According to the article, South Point Casino’s decision to forego a partnership with an existing online poker site (such as the 888 Holdings and Caesar’s Entertainment partnership) will give them an easier path to one of the coveted online poker licenses. Companies not currently regulated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board are likely to fall under more scrutiny than Brick & Mortar casinos with a proven track record that are already licensed and regulated by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

In addition to South Point Poker and 888 Holdings, several other companies have formally submitted an application to the Nevada Gaming Control Board including, International Game Technology, Bally Technologies and Cantor Gaming.

The stakes are extremely high when it comes to procuring the first Nevada online poker license, since it will not only give a company a leg-up in terms of branding in Nevada, but thanks to the recent ruling by the Department of Justice –which clarified the 1961 Wire Act as only applying to sports-betting—the doors have been opened for inter-state online poker, and not merely intra-state online poker. So, the first company to offer online poker in Nevada is likely to be the first company to offer online poker to the entire US population down the road.

If a report on the pocketfives.com website is to be believed, the liquidation of the Cereus Poker Network (made up of UB Poker and Absolute Poker) could see enough of a cash infusion to repay the thousands of players who currently have money locked in their Cereus Poker accounts –unfortunately it appears that these players will only receive pennies on the dollar for their account balances.

The article cites two reliable sources within Absolute Poker and UB Poker as saying that Blanca Games, the parent company of the Cereus Poker network, is going through with the liquidation they proposed, which would see players at Absolute Poker and UB Poker receive in the neighborhood of $.15-$.20 on the dollar for their account balances. The article goes on to say that the payments would be made over time and the exact method is still unknown.

Although nobody likes taking an 80% hit on their money, the fact that there is any payout coming from the beleaguered online poker sites is likely to be seen as good news –it also makes all of those people willing to pay between $.10-$.20 on the dollar for players’ UB and Absolute Poker account balances in the days following Black Friday look like quite the prognosticators!

These reports are all in the preliminary stages, and as we have seen with Full Tilt Poker, advancements on these fronts can take quite a long time, with little in the way of updates for the affected players. We’ll keep you posted on any future developments on this front.

The 2011 tournament year is all but over, and with really no tournaments remaining on the schedule that could change the outcome, the Player of the Year races at BLUFF Magazine and Card Player Magazine are all but “officially” decided.

So here is a look at how the two Player of the Races concluded, and a look at the two men who will add their names to the POY winners list alongside top poker players like Daniel Negreanu, Men Nguyen, Sorel Mizzi, Eric Baldwin, and Tom Marchese.

Card Player Magazine 2011 Player of the Year standings:

1. Ben Lamb — 6,036 points
2. Chris Moorman — 5,875 points
3. Oleksii Kovalchuk — 5,494 points
4. Marvin Rettenmaier — 5,056 points
5. Sam Stein — 4,505 points
6. Jason Mercier — 4,396 points
7. Elio Fox — 4,320 points
8. Galen Hall — 4,284 points
9. Eugene Katchalov — 4,258 points
10. Steve O’Dwyer — 4,174 points

BLUFF Magazine 2011 Player of the Year standings:

1. Eugene Katchalov — 1,089.28 points
2. Bertrand Grospellier — 1,071.67 points
3. Ben Lamb — 988.10 points
4. Matthew Waxman — 968.20 points
5. Stephen O’Dwyer — 964.77 points
6. Sam Trickett — 938.32 points
7. Marvin Rettenmaier — 935.14 points
8. Chris Moorman — 925.88 points
9. Elio Fox — 920.45 points
10. Pius Heinz — 892.75 points

If you’re interested in knowing which players earned the most money in  2011 (another way of measuring success in the poker world), here is a look at the top 10 according to www.thehendonmob.com:

1. Pius Heinz — $8,830,087
2. Erik Seidel — $6,530,154
3. Martin Staszko — $5,462,876
4. Ben Lamb — $5,352,970
5. Sam Trickett — $4,598,039
6. Matt Giannetti  –$3,365,430
7. Galen Hall — $3,054,778
8. Elio Fox — $2,669,313
9. Eugene Katchalov — $2,572,726
10. Jason Mercier — $2,416,013

Just before the Christmas Holiday poker advocates (and advocacy groups) got a bit of an early Christmas present when the Department of Justice made a ruling on precisely what the 1961 Wire Act covers. In the legal opinion submitted by the DOJ they ruled that the “interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a ‘sporting event of contest’ fall outside the reach of the Wire Act.”

While this doesn’t change much as far as the legal landscape for poker, or in terms of the skill vs. luck aspects of the game, it does give poker players a small glimmer of hope that poker could eventually land outside of other online gaming. However, the ruling does fly in the face of the DOJ’s previous opinions that the Wire Act covered all forms of gambling on the Internet.

The clarification of the Wire Act was applauded by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which released a statement after the ruling where PPA Executive Director John Pappas stated:

“This is a much needed clarification of an antiquated and often confusing law. For years, legal scholars and even the courts have debated whether the Wire Act applies to non-sporting activity. Today’s announcement validates the fact that Internet poker does not violate this law,”

The clarification may also lead the DOJ to clarify an even more convoluted piece of legislation, the UIGEA –but don’t hold your breath on this one!

This week PokerStars announced three additional stops on the European Poker Tour that will take place in the springtime. Two of the stops, in Berlin, Germany and Madrid, Spain, will see the return of the EPTY, while the third announced stop in Campione, Italy will mark the tour’s first stop in the Italian city.

For the second straight year the EPT will host a tournament in Madrid (the city played host to the EPT Grand Final last year) with the EPT Madrid taking place from March 12^th through the 17^th, 2012.

The Northern Italian town of Campione is no stranger to poker tournaments (having hosted multiple Italian Poker Tour events this year) but this will be their first foray into a major international poker tournament. The EPT Campione will take place from March 26^th through the 31^st, 2012.

The EPT Berlin will take place from April 16^th through the 21^st, 2012. This will be the third straight year the EPT has hosted an event in Berlin, and despite the infamous robbery that took place during the inaugural Berlin tournament, the EPT Berlin has grown into one of the most prestigious stops on the EPT in its short history.

Here is a look at the current PokerStars EPT Season 8 schedule for 2012:

• PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) – January 4-January 14, 2012
• EPT Deauville –  January 31-February 6, 2012
• EPT Copenhagen – February 20-February 25, 2012
• EPT Madrid – March 12-March 17, 2012
• EPT Campione – March 26-March 31, 2012
• EPT Berlin – April 16-April 21, 2012

For more information on these events you can head over to the PokerStars EPT website.