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While the poker world’s eyes have been firmly focused on Melbourne, Australia over the past week another poker tournament was taking place in Biloxi, Mississippi, as the Beau Rivage Casino hosted the Million Dollar Heater tournament series. The Million Dollar Heater featured 33 tournaments and awarded over $1.7 million in prize-money when all was said and done.

The highlight of the series was the Main Event, a $5,000 NLHE tournament with a $1 million guaranteed prize-pool (in the end the Main Event would narrowly eclipse the guarantee, topping off at 1,018,500). A total of 210 players registered for the event, with the winner of the tournament was set to receive a $336k payday.

Among the players who made the money in the Million Dollar Heater Main Event were Brandon Stevens, Allen Kessler, Matt Stout, Ryan Welch, and 2010 November Niner John Dolan. Stout, Welch, and Dolan were among the final table participants in the tournament. Dolan would go on to win the tournament, scoring his biggest payday since his 6^th place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event where he pocketed over $1.7 million.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the Million Dollar Heater Main Event:

1. John Dolan — $336,105
2. Glenn Poole — $185,367
3. Kirill Kruglov — $101,850
4. Mark Rose — $81,480
5. Ryan Welch — $61,110
6. Matt Stout — $50,925
7. Daniel Clemente — $40,740
8. Habib Jahangard — $30,555
9. Mark Flowers — $20,730

The 2011 European Poker Awards ceremony took place last night at the Aviation Club de Paris in Paris, France, and some of the poker world’s biggest names managed to walk away with some more hardware to add to their trophy cases.

Among the winners were 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Pius Heinz, who won the Best Tournament Performance category; WPT and EPT Champion Andrey Pateychuk who won the Rookie of the Year Award; and Sam Trickett who won the coveted Player of the Year Award for his remarkable 2011 tournament and cash-game success.

Jesse may was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by last year’s recipient and this year’s host Nic Szeremeta. Unlike the other awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award winner is selected by the panel only, and is not open to voting. May joins a very exclusive club of past winners like Marcel Luske, John Duthie, and David Ulliott whose contributions to European poker have now been immortalized.

Here is a look at all of the 2011 European Poker Award winners from last night’s ceremony:

• Player of the Year: Sam Trickett
• Best Tournament Performance: Pius Heinz
• Rookie of the Year: Andrey Pateychuk
• Europe’s Leading Lady: Natalia Nikitina
• Staff of the Year: Warren Lush (bwin.Party)
• Internet Player of the Year: Ilari Sahamies
• Poker Personality of the Year: Bertrand Grospellier
• Event of the Year: WSOPE Cannes
• Lifetime Achievement: Jesse May

For more information on the European Poker Awards or to take a look at past winners (the EPA’s have been going strong for 11 years now) you can visit their website at EuropeanPokerAwards.com

Multiple new outlets, originally reported by Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, are reporting that Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has donated another $5 million to the Newt Gingrich Super-Pac. The donation, given in the name of Adelson’s wife, comes after Gingrich’s dominant win in the South Carolina Republican Primary, and matches his original $5 million donation to the Super-Pac after Gingrich’s fourth-place finish in Iowa.

Adelson, who has known Gingrich for many years, is one of online poker’s staunchest opponents, but the donations are far more likely to have to do with Israel, who both Adelson and Gingrich are adamant supporters of. Adelson runs his own Israeli newspaper in the country, and has been extremely critical of a Palestinian state in the past.

However, the fact that Adelson is against online poker shouldn’t be lost in the story, and with months to go before the election the $10 million already given may be just a drop in the bucket for the billionaire.

With the potential for an online poker bill at the federal level in coming years, control of the issue from the executive branch is of the utmost importance –consider that any online gaming legislation that passes will be by a slim margin; slim enough to not be able to override a presidential veto should it come. If Adelson can put a staunch opponent of online gaming in the Oval Office it would all but guarantee that online poker legislation would not be passed in the US for four, maybe eight years!

The home of two of poker’s top poker pros, Sam Trickett and Marvin Rettenmaeir, Titan Poker, has just released their latest software update which has a variety of goodies for online poker players including faster load times, a complete overhaul to the software lobby including a new sleek look, and a number of features like quick seat and favorite functions.

The major update is of course the new lobby design, which now opens 1,000×700 pixel lobby. Players will now find quick listings of their favorite games, tables, and tournaments, which coupled with the new quick seat feature allows Titan Poker players to be sitting at an online poker table in record time.

Titan Poker is also allowing players who are more comfortable with the old lobby design to switch between the old and the new layout with just the click of a button (much like Full Tilt Poker had done when they overhauled their lobby just a couple of years ago).

Here is a look at all of the enhancements players will find in the new Titan Poker update include:

• Quick Seat Function
• Redesigned Lobby with new look and layout
• My Favorite Functions feature
• Bonus redemption Progress Stats –including statistics on hands played, point accumulated, and bonus redemption status

Titan Poker is one of the flagship sites on the massive iPoker network. As one of the largest online poker rooms in the world, on the largest online poker network, Titan Poker traffic is measured in the tens-of-thousands at peak hours.

In honor of their 10^th anniversary hosting the Aussie Millions (previously known as the Australian Poker Championship before becoming the Crown Australian Poker Championship or Aussie Millions for short) the Crown Casino in Melbourne held a special Tournament of Champions, inviting the previous nine winners of the tournament to take part in a special event that would see the winner receive free buy-ins to the Aussie Millions Main Event for the rest of their life.

Eight of the previous nine Aussie Millions Main Event winners were in attendance for the Tournament of Champions, with only Alexander Kostritsyn absent while he awaits the birth of his son. And as fate would have it, the youngest player of the eight competitors (and therefore the player with the most to gain from the prize, which amounts to $10,000 a year for the rest of your life) would come out victorious, as Australian native, and 2010 Aussie Millions Champion Tyron Krost defeated the tough field.

Here is a look at how the players were seated at the eight-person table:

• Seat 1: Tyron Krost 2010 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 2: Peter Costa 2003 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 3: Gus Hansen 2007 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 4: Stewart Scott 2009 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 5: Jamil Dia 2005 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 6: Lee Nelson 2006 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 7: Tony Bloom 2004 Aussie Millions Champion
• Seat 8: David Gorr 2011 Aussie Millions Champion

And here is a look at how the eight players finished the event:

• 1^st place: Tyron Krost – Lifetime entry to the Aussie Millions Main Event
• 2^nd place: Tony Bloom
• 3^rd place: Lee Nelson
• 4^th place: Gus Hansen
• 5^th place: Peter Costa
• 6^th place: David Gorr
• 7^th place: Jamil Dia
• 8^th place: Stewart Scott