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."

The road to poker stardom is underway at Bodog with the first three days of the Bodog Poker Open IV in the books and lots of prize money already awarded, including $25,000 in added money from Bodog. Both the lower-stakes "Contender Series” and higher-stakes "Championship Series" have seen impressive numbers each day, and the action is only just heating up as players contend for seats in the Bodog Poker Open IV Championship Event on Sunday, Nov. 8, when one player will be crowned champion and receive international media exposure.

"The chance to become a poker superstar and pocket some serious cash is why so many online poker players have turned out for the Bodog Poker Open IV this week, and there’s still time to get in on the action," said Bodog Poker Pro Justin Bonomo. "Every poker player wants to make a name for themselves by winning a major tournament, and the Bodog Poker Open IV Championship Event this Sunday guarantees this and more with the winner receiving major exposure in an international poker publication and extensive coverage on Bodog."

The Championship Series of the Bodog Poker Open IV continues tonight with Event No. 4 ($50 + $5 with Rebuys – No Limit Holdem). The series runs for the next two nights at 8:30pm with Pot Limit and Limit Holdem events, both featuring a $150 + $12 buy-in. Winners of these events will receive an automatic T$500 buy-in to the Bodog Poker Open IV Championship Event, held on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 4pm EST. Bodog is adding $25,000 in cash to the prize pool of the $470 + $30 buy-in Championship Event.

Running concurrently with the Championship Series, the lower-stakes Contender Series carries the same opportunity for winners to receive a T$500 buy-in to the Bodog Poker Open IV Championship Event. So far three “Contenders” have moved up to the ranks of potential champions and by the end of the week, a total of seven players from the Contender Series will have earned a shot at poker stardom by winning seats to the Bodog Poker Open IV Championship Event.

While it is the top spot that players are gunning for in each Contender Series tournament, the remaining eight final table players from each event earns an automatic seat to the Contender Series Championship Event, held on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 5pm EST. The $46 + $4 buy-in tournament features $2,500 in added prize money from Bodog.

Finally, those not lucky enough to win a seat to the Championship Event in either series can still win their way in on the cheap when Bodog.com hosts a full day of satellite qualifiers on Saturday, Nov. 7.

For more details and the full remaining Bodog Poker Open IV schedule, visit: Bodog Poker.

Two Microgaming Poker Network players have won a whopping $120,000 by hitting the Bad Beat Jackpot.

The two players from Ladbrokes, which has recently joined the Network, both hit four-of-a-kind hand, which is the requirement for Microgaming’s innovative Bad Beat Jackpot. Both players were on Bad Beat Table 1 and the stakes were $1/$2.

The Bad Beat Jackpot has been a mainstay on the Network since it began, the last Bad Beat Jackpot in poker was hit in October last year. A Bad Beat in poker is when you have a great hand, which is easily the favourite to win, but this is then beaten by another hand.

The Ladbrokes players’ alias Tjv1964 and alias Carrotkid, have both been playing regularly on Ladbrokes site for over two years. They have now reaped the benefits of the Microgaming Poker Network Bad Beat Jackpot, which is already growing again.

Nigel Blower, Head of Events and Promotions at Ladbrokes Poker comments, “It’s great to see that Ladbrokes players are already taking advantage of network promotions such as the Bad Beat Jackpot and reaping the rewards just six weeks after us joining forces with Microgaming.”

Microgaming is the world’s largest provider of poker, casino and bingo software. Since Ladbrokes joined the network in February this year, Microgaming’s Poker Network, which powers 40 of the world’s leading poker rooms, has continued to grow in strength and recently reached eighth position on Poker Scout’s prestigious ranking – leaving their competitors trailing behind.

The high suspense action continues to hit new heights on the felt at Titan Poker as the second week of the world’s most prestigious online poker tournament series, the ECOOP III, draws to a nail-biting close. The first half of the series was a resounding success, played out in a dazzling display of talent and skill. But it was players from leading online poker room Titan Poker who dominated last week’s winners list and continue to lay claim to the much coveted cash prizes.

So far three talented Titan Poker players have taken home prestigious ECOOP bracelets, representing well over a third of the ECOOP events that have passed. Italian hairdresser Lorenzo Savallo, kick started the winning tide with his $24,518 success at the ECOOP #2 $100,000 GP. Three days later, young Canadian player “ch0ppy”, followed suite with prize winnings of $91,770 after a hard-won triumph at the ECOOP #5 $350,000 GP.

But it is talented young Titan Poker player Jochum Weenik, 22, from the Netherlands who has claimed the most recent and lucrative victory yet, after his remarkable tournament play earned him a $100,000 first prize at the ECOOP III #7 $500,000 GP. The architecture student, who played his first game of online poker a year ago, used his love of sports to help maintain his stamina and drive home his first win in the final stages of the game.

“During the final table, it was running hot and I just focused on eliminating my competitors from the table,” Jochum said. “I’ve had a couple of deep runs in big tournaments before, but was very lucky this time in that I won some important coin flips and had some good hands after the flop.”

Two other Titan Poker players finished a close second at ECOOP Events # 8 and #3. Austrian Titan Poker player franzferl and German player Drusel will take home $80,000 and $24,409 in second prize money respectively. Scores of other Titan Poker players have also finished in the money in runners-up positions.

With this Sunday’s $1.5 million GP Main Event looming on the horizon, ECOOP II fever is set to reach a new pitch as players up the pace on the felt and contend for their stake of remaining ECOOP bracelets and lucrative cash prizes.