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By the third official day of action at the European Poker Tour San Remo (after two Day 1 starting flights), the initial field of 879 runners had been whittled down to just 482. The pace of play only became more brutal as Day 2 went on, with noted pros constantly hitting the rail and the tournament nearly reaching the money bubble within seven levels of play.

After over 300 eliminations, Joseph Cheong was in the lead with approximately 632k chips at 1:00am. He’ll have a comfortable lead and over 150 BB’s to play with on Day 3.

Cheong made his biggest poker headlines in 2010 when he finished third in the World Series of Poker Main Event, bagging $4 million in the process. He also scored a runner-up finish in the Season 7 EPT London Turbo High Roller, winning an additional $250k. A victory at EPT San Remo would represent his first money finish in an EPT Main Event.

Vanessa Selbst of Team PokerStars Pro had a successful day as well, maintaining a solid stack until the later hours of the day when her endurance paid off. She’ll be among the 144 players returning for Day 3, bringing 497k chips along with a whole lot of momentum.

Other pros that could pose a danger to Cheong on Day 3 includes Chris McClung, Nick Yunis, Sergey Tikhonov, William Thorson, Mustapha Kanit and Daniel Neilson, all of whom are carrying stacks between 400k and 585k.

Elio Fox, who won the WSOPE Main Event just a few days ago, is currently in 11th place with 346k chips. A number of Team PokerStars Pros aside from Selbst, including John Duthie, Johnny Lodden and Lex Veldhuis, will return as well, albeit with slightly smaller stacks. Only 16 eliminations must be made before the money bubble is broken, a certainty for Day 3.

The past several weeks have been a veritable hotbed for live tournament poker, with the World Series of Poker Europe and the Latin American Poker Tour Columbia taking center-stage in the minds of many professional poker players. Regardless, high stakes online poker has been thriving at PokerStars, with some of the biggest names in the game continuing to battle over massive pots. The past week focused on big-bet PLO cash games, although some could argue that NLHE is making a comeback with the richest online poker players.

Ta-Chih Geeng, aka socutiesf, kept a relatively low profile this past week, making room for other online stars to make their marks. The biggest winner of the week was Ilari Sahamies, formerly known as Ziigmund and now known as Ilari FIN. Sahamies exceed $270k in earnings over the course of 24 sessions comprising 2,536 hands. Davin “mTw-DaviN” Georgi was the second-most successful player, bagging over $175k in a relatively paltry 15 sessions and 1,300 hands.

One of the biggest pots of the week came in a heads-up battle between Sahamies and Rui Cao in a PLO game. Cao assumed a victory was certain with a pair of aces until Sahamies revealed a flush, giving the Fin a massive $126k pot. Cao was able to make back most of his losses over the course of the week, keeping him out of the loser’s circle.

The biggest loser of the week was Terje “Terken89″ Augdal, who lost just under $250k. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as he played over 4,500 hands across 67 sessions. Ben “Ben86″ Tollerene’s bankroll dwindled considerably as well, losing around $125k over a similar number of hands and sessions.

Other movers and shakers this past week included Ragen70 (up $151k), ChaoRen160 (up $144k), LiangYu (down $155k) and Kanu7 (down $115k).

Gus Hansen, who has been completely elusive in the online scene since Black Friday, remains the year’s biggest online poker winner with over $3.9 million in profit. Barring a breakout performance from another player, Hansen will remain untouchable throughout 2011.

This coming Tuesday the latest effort to pass some form of legislation that would legalize and regulate online poker will begin its journey through the houses of Congress, which more often than not end in roadblocks and dead-ends.

Earlier this year Representative Joe Barton (R-TX) introduced HR 2366, which seeks to legalize and regulate online poker. Unlike previous attempts the bill will attempt to make a clear distinction between poker and other forms of gambling like slot machines and roulette –which would still remain under UIGEA sway.

Barton is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee which will first take up the matter of the Barton Bill in a sub-committee on Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. Until Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives (which gives them committee chairmanships and it’s the chair who decides what will be discussed) all pro-online gambling legislation had originated in the House Financial Services Committee, which was chaired by Barney Frank (D-MA) an outspoken advocate of legalizing and regulating the online gaming industry.

Now that the House Financial Services Committee is chaired by the anti-gaming Spencer Bacchus (R-AL) it was necessary to find a new online poker advocate in another committee that could take up the online poker cause –which the PPA found in Rep. Barton. When asked about the upcoming hearings Barton told the Hill newspaper: “It’s a first step to showing why the current law is a lose/lose for everyone – the public, the taxpayer, the banking industry, and the people who want to play poker openly and honestly on the Internet. I look forward to an open exchange of ideas.”

According to a recent Forbes Magazine article, bwin.Party CEO Jim Ryan has been in the US making a serious push to bring new investors on board as the company looks ahead to the day when online poker is legalized and regulated in the US. Ryan told Forbes, “My focus is on the U.S… Even though there is no guarantee that online gaming will ever regulate in the U.S.”

Party Poker left the US market in 2006 after UIGEA legislation was passed, and is one of the very few online poker sites that have settled with the US DOJ and in doing so admitted to violating US law –Party Poker handing over just over $100 million, while former owner and founder Anarug Dikshit coughed up some $300 million to avoid prosecution.

Now the company is eyeing a potential return to the US market, as talks of legislation heat up in the wake of online poker crackdown on Black Friday. Ryan remarked that due to Black Friday it’s unlikely either Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars will be allowed to enter the US market, which makes Party Poker the most recognizable brand in the US, even though they haven’t operated in the US since 2006!

In addition to merging with online gaming giant bwin earlier this year, Party Poker also purchased the World Poker Tour last year –perhaps the most recognizable poker tournament series in the US besides the World Series of Poker.

Ryan and bwin.Party have no illusions about the potential to secure a license, which is why they are looking for a partnership with an existing US gaming company. Ryan explained his vision of the future US online poker market to Forbes in the following way, “We had to be realistic about where we sat in the food chain… We figured if the U.S. regulated it would be unlikely that we would secure a license directly, that the laws of the land would be written to allow existing land operators and equipment manufacturers in the U.S. to secure the licenses.”

You can read the entire Forbes article by clicking here

When you think of the word “rich,” one of the first things to pop into your mind is probably Donald Trump, the infamously wealthy real estate magnate perhaps best known as the host of reality TV show “The Apprentice.” Trump always seems to have his hand in a new lucrative venture, including an entertainment company, hotels, bottled water, a vodka brand and a clothing line. A couple of months ago, Trump even threatened to join the 2012 presidential race if a “proper Republican candidate” didn’t arise.

Although Trump has since abandoned his presidential hopes, it appears that he has once again turned his attention to profitable business dealings, this time in the form on an online gaming site.

Bloomberg reports that Trump has partnered with Marc Lasry, a similarly-wealthy hedge-fund manager, to lay the initial plans for an online gambling company that would go live if and when the legality of real money online gambling is finalized in the United States. The company would be formed and funded through a partnership between Trump Entertainment Resorts and Avenue Capital Group, Lasry’s company.

The announcement comes thanks to the revealing of a regulatory filing lodged with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). Trump’s company would own just 10% of the new online gambling site.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Trump’s daughter Ivanka said that the legalization of online gambling in the U.S. is “just a matter of time,” and that such progress would represent a “tremendous source” of revenue for the federal government, the states or both depending on how online gaming income would be taxed. That point is pretty difficult to argue against, especially given the ongoing budget crisis faced by the federal government.

This coming Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade will hold a meeting under the topic of “Internet Gaming: is There a Safe Bet?” Although online poker legalization in the U.S. could be months or even years away, it’s encouraging to know that lawmakers are currently exploring the possibilities.