The Irish Poker Awards, presented by Bluff Europe and sponsored by BoylePoker.com, were held at the Regency Hotel, Dublin, on Sunday night, with the cream of Irish poker in attendance to honour their peers and celebrate a great year for Irish poker. Bluff Europe editor Philip Conneller and former Irish Open Champion Neil Channing were on hand to call the shots and distribute the gongs, with Eoghan O’Dea picking up the coveted "Player of the Year" award and an emotional Padraig Parkinson voted "Irish Poker Legend".

Also among the awards winners were Chris Dowling, who took "Best Cash Player"; Jason Tompkins, "Best Tournament Player"; Jude Ainsworth, "Best Online Player" and Niall Smyth, "Breakout Player". Dara O’Kearney was on hand to pick up two awards, "Best Blogger" and "Best Social Media User", while Phil Baker won "Personailty of the Year" and JP McCann took "Best Tournament Director". Lastly, "Irish Poker Boards" won "Best Forum" while The Fitzwilliam took "Best Card Room".

Host Philip Conneller said, "The Irish poker scene is unique in the sense the sense of fun and the party atmosphere that surrounds the tournaments. Everyone else takes themselves way too seriously. It’s that uniqueness were here to celebrate, as well as praising the skill of the Irish. The winners were voted for online, completely democratically, which is important because it means there are no politics involved in the event and that gives the awards credibility. The people have spoken and congratulations to all our winners."

A brand new Facebook Poker app seems to be hot in the news – driven by actor Kevin Pollak and his apparent love for this game. For those of you who don’t know who Kevin Pollak is don’t feel alone, neither did we. However, after conducting a little research we found that he certainly has a very well-known face; claims to fame roles in A Few Good Men, The Whole Nine Yards, The Wedding Planner and more. He hosted the first season of Celebrity Poker Showdown, and regularly invites friends over to his house for poker nights.

Anyway it seems he is also the host for the brand new Facebook poker app, which has been aptly named – Hollywood Poker. The app debuts on the 8th October, 2012, and basically offers players a chance to win into star-studded poker games. This is not a “play for real money” game, but apparently does offer great prizes.

So far the names being dropped include: James Woods, Dennis Quaid, Peter Facinelli of Twilight fame (he plays Dr. Carlisle Cullen), John O’Hurley from Seinfeld, Scott Baio, Tim Busfield of The West Wing, Dean Cain of Las Vegas, Rob Riggle of 21 Jump Street, and of course plenty more. While we did not see Ben Affleck or Matt Damon on the list, and they are well-known for their celebrity poker antics, there is still a whole load of shining stars who seem keen to participate in this game, and have also committed themselves to playing Hollywood Poker.

While Hollywood Poker launches on Facebook on the 8th October, the tournament won’t start right away. Members will be playing their best game of poker to win entry into the first tournament which takes place on the 20thOctober. It offers a "rare and exciting chance to play Texas Hold’Em Poker" with Kevin Pollak and his chosen celebrity friends. Three lucky winners will get to play in this single table event. What a rush?!

This is one of the first poker games to be launched by Facebook themselves, and no poker player worth their salt is going to want to miss out on the chance. It is their first ever celebrity games, and over 160 stars of movies, TV, Sports and Media have pledged to play Hollywood Poker. Films and shows such as Too Big to Fail, Saturday Night Live, Vegas, Vampire Diaries, Revolution, News Radio, Charles in Charge, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, 30 Rock and more to be confirmed will be represented.

Hollywood Poker is easy to use – its designed this way – and fun for everyone. Fans get to interact directly with stars, rub virtual shoulders and chat with them, while playing poker. Visitors can follow the action, as well as become a member, and prizes include trips to star-studded events. This game is playable on most devices which includes mobile for iPad, with support for iPhone and Android being well on their way.

The Gauselmann Group is a German gambling and gaming giant; they have taken a huge leap of faith to get into the British gambling market. Their target is the UK amusements market with the purchase of Praesepe from private equity firm – Marwyn Management Partners. Gauselmann is best known for their Merkur brand, and it is this division that will take control of Praesepe’s 159 adult gaming centres, nine bingo clubs, five family entertainment centres, and Beacon Bingo online. The new company vehicle for this is Merkur Casino UK.

The current Merkur Casino compliment includes 240 arcades throughout Germany, and also has venues in Central and Eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Spain. There is also Merkur Win outlets in Italy. They are best known for their supply of slots, AWPs, Server-based gambling systems and VTLs. The vvast majority of employees is based in Germany; this is a staff compliment of somewhere around 6300.

The Chief Financial Officer of Gauselmann – Ulrich Wuseke – now becomes chairman of Merkur Casino UK. Nick Harding who is the founder of Praesepe, remains in the CEO role of the new company – at least for the time being. Wuseke commented that Praesepe has a good reputation in Britain across the markets it serves. They own the largest land bingo club in Europe and the UK, as well as the Crystal Rooms in London’s Leicester Square; this venue is world-famous.

At the moment the merge is examining a progressive philosophy which is where their investment efforts will take place; they believe they have a unique approach to gambling entertainment in the UK. They also have Blueprint Gaming on-board – another UK subsidiary – these people develop both games and devices. This means that Gauselmann now has a complete range of products to cover the UK market.

Gauselmann is one of the most inspiring business stories in the gambling/gaming industry; the company was launched in 1957, and fast grew into a €1.7bn internationally recognised enterprise. It is a business with back-bone which has survived the double-dip recession, and the Praesepe/Gauselman merge is set to cement this company into UK gaming history.

We mentioned the fact that the largest bingo club in Britain is also part of the Praesepe/Gauselman deal, so, feel that now might be an appropriate time to mention a little bingo aside. The future of UK bingo is also about to change, with the resignation of Paul Talboys from the Bingo Association. Miles Baron is the new appointee, and hopefully with this new blood will come some radical changes in what we believe we have seen become a stagnating representative body for bingo.

Bingo has been enjoying a new breath of fresh air online for the past ten or more years, and we would like to see the same happening in the land version of this game. Miles Baron takes up the post today – Monday 8th October – he has a wealth of industry experience, after leading as Sales and Marketing Director of Mecca Bingo since November 2006, and is no stranger to the Association.

Fast-fold Poker is finally taking a-hold at more than one well-known website; PokerStars is now also attempting to stop its feverish spread on the World-Wide Web by pending patent rights. The game started more than a year ago at Full-tilt Poker, and with this websites’ downfall, copies have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Players are getting the hang of the game, where the appeal is its difference to normal paced poker online. Because it is fast, it reduces waiting time – a player can fold, then simply be moved to another table, and take part in another game. The additional appeal is that the game is a natural fit for mobile, and opponents barely get to know the game of the people they play against, so, this makes it fabulously fair. It is an action-focussed game with an almost arcade game-type feel.

Full-tilt introduced fast-fold in 2010 – calling it "Rush Poker". At the time, no other poker product was interested in exploring the possibilities that this form of the game seemed to offer. This gave FTP almost a complete year with exclusivity on fast-fold poker. Whether or not this shows lack of competitive vision, or fear of patent infringement, on the part of other online poker software developers, we actually do not know. But what we do know is this, as soon as Full-tilt was out of the fold, there was a mad rush to develop software which emulated fast-fold.

PokerStars have their own version of the game, and now that they own FTP – lock, stock and their backs over a barrel, they also want their hands on any patent rights they may be entitled to. Their version is called Zoom Poker, but they were in fact not the first to offer real money fast-fold poker after FTP. InstaDeal was the first fast-fold poker competitor online.

This software provider soft- launched a flagship product called "Terminal Poker" back in late 2010. They were the first online network to exclusively host fast-fold style poker with low stakes Hold ‘em games. They expanded with white-label skins on PokerTube as well as at an online poker portal – Vegas365. This product still receives consistent players, even if only in very small numbers.
When it seemed as though Full-tilt would never rise from the ashes of their ruin, let alone ever be able to competitively defend a patent rights legal brougha; “Fast Poker” from Maltese developer – Relax Gaming was the next to hit the Net. This game can be found at Unibet and iGame.

Zoom Poker came from PokerStars in March 2012, and is still ostensibly wearing the "Beta" banner. However, it has hit the tables hard, there are various stakes and multiple game types available already, and now PokerStars has nothing to worry about, their lawyers have taken the problem of "Patent Pending" away from FTP lawyers, and are letting their lawyers handle the issue, as though they developed this product for themselves. Good on them, they paid enough money for FTP; might as well get it back one way or another!

It is that time of years again, the time when poker gets serious, and looks at the names of players and people who deserve recognition for the part they have played in poker. The WSOP Hall of Fame is the name of the game, and it is not only Players who are acclaimed, also non-players who underwrite the success and growth of poker have an opportunity of being inducted. The criteria are:

1. Must have played against accredited competitors
2. Minimum of forty (40) years old when nominated
3. Must have been a high-stakes player
4. Gained the respect of peers – played poker consistently well
5. Stood the test-of- time
6. Non-players, – contribution to the overall success of poker. Must have indelible and positive results.

There are ten finalists this year, and there are also only ever a maximum of two winners. Mostly only one person wins. The induction class takes place during the course of the World Series of Poker Main Event, and all nominations were gathered during a public nomination process. The finalists will be decided upon and approved by the Governing Council of the WSOP Hall of Fame.

The Finalists are:

1. Jennifer Harman
2. John Juanda
3. Tom McEvoy
4. Scotty Nguyen – these first four have all been nominated before
5. Six first-timers — Chris Bjorin a sixty-four-year-old Swedish-born player residing in London. Bjorin’s earnings are over $5 million, and he is a two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner – has seven WSOP Main Event cashes.
6. David Chiu – moved to the US as an eighteen year old exchange student from China. He started in poker as a dealer – was originally a Colorado restaurateur. Chiuin – now fifty-two years old – has transitioned into one of the most successful tournament players in recent poker history. He is a four-time WSOP gold-bracelet winner, with cashes in fifty-four events.
7. Eric Drache – a poker career which stands head and shoulders above many. He has made five WSOP final tables, ending in the top three each time, but also served as the tournament director at one stage. He is responsible for various innovations in the WSOP event, and has worn many hats in the Las Vegas poker industry. Our money is on this man receiving induction.
8. Thor Hansen – A Norwegian poker pro who has cashed in a mahoosive one-hundred and seventy- five tournaments and earned $2.9 million. Known as the “Godfather” of Norwegian poker in Europe, he has 2 WSOP gold bracelets and has contributed massively to the EU poker scene.
9. George Hardie – The only non-poker player, but has never-the-less left a lasting impression on the character of the game. He stood at the centre of the poker boom on the West Coast, and built-up the largest poker club in the world during the 1980’s.
10. Brian "Sailor" Roberts. Was nominated at the final hour, in writing, but another Hall of Fame inductee. He is well-known as one of the “good guys” of the game, and apparently there aren’t all that many.