The two new additions include Jason Lee and Tim West, who will now add to an already incredible team that features the likes of Chris Moorman, Leo Margets, Pedro Maia, Melanie Weisner, and Kevin Vandersmissen for starters.  Moorman is probably the most well-know pro on the roster, but Margets is a pro from Spain, Maia is a new addition from Portugal, Vandersmissen is a pro from Belgium, and Weisner actually spent time as a Full Tilt Poker pro.  Lock is simply expanding to all over the world with their many additions lately.

Jason Lee is a huge online poker player, as he has won over $3 million in his career online, but also has hauled in over $400k on the live tournament circuit as well.  Overall, Lee’s game is impressive, but he should be a slam dunk at Lock Poker because online poker is definitely his strongest point.  Tim West on the other hand started off by winning the Wynn Poker Classic back in 2011, and also finished in second place at the World Series of Poker Circuit event’s Regional Championship in San Diego.  He was a hit after that, and overall has pulled in more than $1.6 million in his career on the live tournament circuit.

It’s  hard to put into words exactly what Lock Poker has done in recent months, but one thing that they have definitely done is picked up the pace when it seems that everyone else in the online poker world is relaxing.  Lock Poker started off 2012 with a bang, and we expect them to keep it going through the year.

Among the highlights in PokerStars’ new guaranteed tournament schedule are the Sunday Majors, with the $$75k Sunday Kickoff now paying out $100k, the $200k Sunday Rebuy now paying out $225k, the $200k Sunday Storm now paying out $300k, the $250k Sunday 500 now paying out $300k as well, the $125k Sunday Second Chance now paying out $175k, the $60k Sunday 6-Max now paying out $100k and the $40k Sunday Supersonic now paying out $125k.

Next is the Saturday Line-up, with the $30k Saturday 6-Max now paying out $35k, the $30k Saturday Micro now paying out $35k as well, the $40k Saturday Eliminator now paying out $75k, the $50k Saturday Splash now paying out $100k, the $10k Saturday Countdown now paying out $15k and the $50k Saturday Speedway now paying out $65k.

Then are the Daily Bigs, with the $5k Big $3.30 now paying out $6k, the $10k Big $16.50 now paying out $$15k, the $15k Big $33 and Big $5.50 now each paying out $20k, the $16k Big $8.80 now paying out $25k, the $25k Big $22 now paying out $50k, the $50k Big $109 now paying out $100k, the $50k Big $11 now paying out $75k, the $100k Big $55 now paying out $125k, the $50k Big $162 now paying out $75k, the $8k Big $4.40 now paying out $15k, and the $7.5k Big $27.50 now paying out $15k.

These are just some of the highlights. Visit your Pokerstars software to see the increases in the guaranteed prize pools in some of your favorite tournaments.

The Poker Maximus starts on March 4, 2012 and satellites in No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha are running now through the end of the 2012 Poker Maximus on March 25. That’s the day of the $10,000 Mini Main Event. There are 67 events in the Poker Maximus in all. Ticket prices range from $11 on up, and players can win coupons worth various ticket amounts at diferent Carbon Poker satellites for buy-ins as small as $1.10. Some qualifiers offer more than one coupon while some are rebuy / add-on events.

Players can use existing tournament tickets in their accounts for Poker Maximus events. However, any tickets specific to the Poker Maximus won in this particular satellite series must be used at the Poker Maximus between March 4 and March 25 or be forfeited.

The kickoff event of the 2012 Poker Maximus is a $7,500 NLH Freezeout on March 4, for an $11 buy-in. That day also sees 3 other Poker Maximus events: #2, a $175,000 NLH freezeout for a $109 buy-in; #3, a $15,000 NLH freezeout for a $33 buy-in; and #4, a $75,000 High Roller event for a $215 buy-in.

Whether you win them at Lock Poker or Carbon Poker, the Poker Maximus is the same.

But is it true? What is his analysis based on? According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s report on February 17, 2012, the analyst, one Chad Benyon of Macquarie Securities, says that if online poker were on the table in Washington, it would very likely have appeared as a bill tacked onto the recently passed extension of the payroll tax cut. But it was not. In fact, it was specifically addressed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in a press statement, when he stated that it definitely would not be attached in the bill presented for a vote (and passing) the following day.

This doesn’t rule out the possibilities that online poker could cross Congress’s desk some other way, including by a bill all its own, like the ones spearheaded by now retired Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank.

It also doesn’t rule out the possibilities of individual states legalizing and regulating online poker on their own, without the support of the federal government. Take Harry Reid’s own Nevada, for example, which just put the final touches on legislation to loosen the restrictions on online gaming in the state to minimum enforcement standards. That may go into effect as early as next month.

Membership at Drag The Bar usually costs $30 per month, but as a Carbon Poker player you can get it for free, simply by meeting certain rake requirements. All you have to do is pay $1 in rake while playing online poker at Carbon Poker and you’ll not only earn membership for the remainder of the current month for free, but membership for the successive month as well. To get a third free month of Drag The Bar, just rake $500 in that second month ends.

You will not lose any points in redeeming this offer, nor are there any playthrough requirements as there are with many bonuses.

In other online poker news, 888 Poker is celebrating this year’s Rio Carnival taking place Feb 18 – 21 by offering its players a $10 Samba Bonus. Just deposit at least $30 by February 21 using the promo code SAMBA888. What’s more, make that deadline and you also get a ticket in a $3,000 Rio Rumble tournament taking place February 22. That’s an exclusive $3,000 guaranteed tournament with no other way to enter.

This was a particularly fortuitous win for Vogel as Day 1 of the event was actually his birthday. In Day 2, Vogel shot into the chip lead by knocking out Nachman Berlin from the running, and along with the eventual runner-up, Lou Procopio, maintained the top position all the way through until the final table was set.

And when that final table whittled down to the top two in heads-up play, Vogel and Procopio were neck-and-neck in chips. But in just the first two hands of heads-up competition, Vogel shot up to a 7:1 lead over Procopio in chips. Procopio claimed $43,928 for his runner-up finish.

Not only was this event the first Western New York Poker Championship ever to take place in the DeepStacks Poker Tour, but this is also inaugural running of the DeepStacks Poker Tour.

The other four players in the final table at this event were (in order of finish, worst to best): Steve Przybyl ($13,359), Tom Krol ($17,802), Mike Wachowski ($22,245), Nick Goetz ($31,161).

This inaugural season of the DeepStacks Poker Tour will also make stops in Quebec, Canada and up and down the U.S. West, including California, Nevada and Oregon.

Here’s how it works: Simply publish a post on your own blog explaining what you’d do with $5k if you were named the WBCOOP 2012 Best Blogger. Posts must be approximately 500 words. After it’s live on your blog, submit the permalink to Poker Stars. There’s also a checkbox to tick if you want your post shared with co-sponsor Poker News.

The next step is to share the link for each post with all your friends. Every blogger’s entry earns them 10 tickets into exclusive WBCOOP online poker tournament events. There are 31 events in all in the 2012 WBCOOP, with 3 events per day, running at 10:00, 14:00 and 18:00, except on the last day, March 4, when the final, Main Event is scheduled. The WBCOOP 2012 schedule includes events in No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Stud and Triple Stud, 8-Game Mix, HORSE and more. There is an equally wide variety in tournament structure as well, including 6-max, turbo, big ante, hi/lo, deepstack, heads-up and more.

Poker Stars will also be keeping a leader board for WBCOOP with big cash prizes up for grabs for the highest finishers. There are also large cash rewards for the series’ Best Live Tweeter and Best Blogger overall.

When you first go to Poker Wiki you’ll find that there is a bio of one of the biggest names in pokers history, Doyle Brunson, and an article about the World Series of Poker for this coming year.  For the opening release of the site, they have decided to post many different types of articles to help show the wide range of topics that they will cover on Poker Wiki.  A few of the topics that they covered include a player bio for well-known players like Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dario Minieri, strategy articles such as how to adjust to strong and weak opponents and creating a table image, and also articles about the biggest online poker sites in the game in Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.  There is also information about some of the best poker players out there today, and a PKR Heads UP Grand Slam to give information about some games running on PKR’s site.

One of the most interesting parts about this new site though, is the fact that they also allow people to contribute to the site with their own articles and information.  They are calling this site the “online poker encyclopedia created by players, for players”, which allows you to upload your articles onto thepokerwiki.com.  Overall, this site is looking to become the most informative and interesting poker website in the game today, and from the looks of it they definitely have a chance to be able to!

Lock Poker already has a strong roster overall, and they are definitely one of the most talked about online poker sites in the United States these days as well.  Overall, Lock ranks first in the US for online poker for many different reasons.  They are a part of the Merge Network, and teamed with Carbon Poker they have turned into a fan favorite for US players.

To look at Maia and his play to this point, you’ll see that he is a huge multi-tabler, and brings in an absurdly large amount of rake back consistently as well.  He’s a very strong tournament player and has brought in impressive results in Portugal in recent years.  Lock Poker’s addition of Maia is a proving point that they are hoping to get strong talent from all over the world as well, and expand world wide.  Maia is the second pro on the roster from Portugal also, as the other is a good friend of his in Francisco “yuranpt” Santos.  Santos said he’s incredibly excited to have Maia added to the roster, and hopes that one of the two of them can be the first Portugese players to take down a bracelet as well.

On top of the many names listed above, Lock Poker also has strong pros including Matt Stout, Brett Jungblut, Casey Jarzabek, and Eric Lynch as well, just to name a few.  Lock Poker offers a great range of poker tournaments and constant running cash games, so if you are searching for a site regardless of if you are a United States player or not, don’t overlook Lock Poker!

The PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker 5 is coming to Vienna, Austria on March 31, 2012 and runs through April 10, 2012. This fifth incarnation of PartyPoker’s flagship WPT Special Event sees 14 top poker pros from around the world sitting in with 9 amateur qualifiers all vying for the biggest share of a $2 million guaranteed prize pool.

There are nine PartyPoker Premier League 5 prize packages up for grabs. Every winner of one gets a $10,450 seat at the playoffs, four nights of accommodations while in Vienna for the event and $1,350 to spend as you like. All totaled it’s a value of $13k per prize package. In addition, two of the prize package winners will receive a $125,000 entry into the Premier League Poker V final event.

The PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker 5 satellite series includes freerolls and subqualifier speed tournaments that lead into the satellite qualifiers that seed players into the final Premier League 5 satellite at which the actual prize packages will be given away. Over the course of the series, Party Poker will run six satellites total.

Both the Premier League 5 playoffs and the final will be broadcast on live television. Party Poker is offering no cash redemption on the $13,000 prize packages, so if you win one and cannot attend, you lose out.

In recent posts, we’ve alerted you to numerous big money-winning opportunities at Bovada Poker, including the Cash PerSuit for the site’s cash ring game players and the $750,000 Guaranteed Bovada Black Diamond Poker Open, running now through April 1, 2012. Now we’ve got another one for you: this a new regular on the Bovada Poker calendar, a pair of monthly freeroll tournaments each promising $7.5k guaranteed in prize money, for a total of $15k in monthly freeroll tournaments.

Rather than accepting cash to buy into the monthly freerolls or the qualifiers awarding seats in them, BovadaPoker is taking Poker Points, or PTS for short. Each $7.5k freeroll has a 1k PTS buy-in. But players can win seats in a $7.5k freeroll for much less. Pay just 25 PTS and enter a daily turbo qualifier, from which the best 15 will advance to the $7.5k freeroll. For 150 PTS, you can play in a sit and go freeroll qualifier, running around the clock, with 6 players per event. Or pay 200 PTS and enter a turbo qualifier, also from which the best 15 players will advance.

The $7.5k freerolls themselves take place on the second and last Saturdays of the month and twenty percent of the playing field gets paid out.

There are also the usual collection of prize-winning opportunities on the Match and Win Game board for February of 2012 for other Gold Cards and Gold Card combos above and beyond the big-paying hearts.

And remember, what with it being a leap year there’s an extra day to this month, which means an extra day to earn Gold Cards and win extra cash at Juicy Stakes Poker and Cake Poker. Only Gold Cards earned from February 1 at midnight GMT through the minute before midnight on February 29 are eligible for prizes in this game.

Players earn Gold Cards when they pay toward the rake in cash games. Gold Cards are distributed randomly, so you never know which Gold Card you’ll be dealt next. One Gold Card is dealt at random to one of the players in the hand (whether or not they won, lost or folded) every time a set rake is reached. Only Gold Cards earned at the ring game tables at Cake Poker qualify for this game, meaning that Gold Cards bought at The Exchange do not qualify.

There are multiple Gold Cards of each value in the monthly vault, and each individual player is free to win the same prize repeatedly as many times as they can.

There are two series’ making up the Bovada Black Diamond Poker Open. Between March 5 and 18 there’s the $100k Guaranteed, lo-to-mid stakes Contender Series and between March 19 and April 1 there’s the $600k Guaranteed mid-to-hi stakes Championship Series. Each series has its own main event: the Contender Series Main Event offers $25k guaranteed and the Championship Series Main Event offers $250k guaranteed. Win the Championship Series Main Event and you’re guaranteed $50,000 cash, at least.

It all starts on March 4, 2012 with a $20k Guaranteed Kick-Off event.

Players can either buy-in directly to these events or win themselves seats through Bovada Poker’s Black Diamond Poker Open Satellite Tournament Series, made up of more than 2,000 satellite qualifiers for BDPO events.

Each BDPO tournament has a path of satellites starting with buy-ins as low as $1 and increasing gradually as the path to the BDPO event shortens.

The complete calendar of all fifty-two Bovada Black Diamond Poker Open tourneys can be found at the Bovada Poker website, while the full satellite calendar can be found in Bovada Poker’s Scheduled Tournament lobby under the Special tab.

Stay tuned later this week for information on another new offering at Bovada Poker, $15k in Monthly Freerolls.

The Poker Maximus schedule features an $85,000 Guaranteed High Roller Main Event with a $215 buy-in, a $100,000 guaranteed Deepstack Main Event with a $530 buy-in, and a $200,000+ Guaranteed Main Event with a $109 buy-in and at least $50k going to the winner. Lock Poker will also hold a Tournament Champions open exclusively to all winners of Poker Maximus events. And there’ll even be a Player’s Choice tournament in which the players themselves will decide the structure.

Buy-ins for the Poker Maximus range from $1.10 to $530 with more than $25k added in bonus prizes for players who either play in the Tournament of Champions or finish in the top 10 on the Poker Maximus leaderboard.

In all, Lock Poker will be hosting 70 events in this year’s Poker Maximus. In addition to a Tournament of Champions entry and their prize and bonus money, each event’s winner will also recieve a Poker Maximus Event Winner accolade for use with their Lock Poker player avatar.

Lock Poker will also be holding satellites awarding free seats in the various Poker Maximus events. These Satellites take place daily, and some are hourly, for buy-ins of $0.55 to $60. There are also ongoing SNG satellites with buy-ins of $1.91 to $73.30. Different satellites award seats of different cash values that can be used to buy into any Poker Maximus event with that buy-in.

America’s Cardroom is holding LSOP Super Satellites daily throughout the month of February, with two satellite qualifier series’: one into a $50 + $5 Super Satellite and one into a $125 + $12 Super Satellite. Qualifier buy-ins are as low as $7 + $0.70. And there are even $6 + $0.60 Super Satellites taking place now and again. Different satellite qualifiers offer 1, 2 or even 5 seats in a Super Satellite, while all Super Satellite promise 1 LSOP Peru prize package a piece.

America’s Cardroom’s LSOP Peru prize packages include not only the buy-in into the main event but as much as $800 in air travel costs round trip, hotel accommodations in Lima for 5 nights and transportation to and from the airport and hotel.

In a rare move for an online poker room, America’s Cardroom is allowing prize package winners who are unable or uninterested in attending the LSOP Peru to trade in their prize packages for a discounted cash value of $2,300.

Earlier in the week we also told you about America’s Cardroom’s $40k Sprint, and now it comes into play with the LSOP Super Satellite series as well, because when you play in the LSOP Super Satellites taking place Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in February, you also receive as a bonus just for playing, between 200 and 500 points toward the $40k Sprint leaderboard.

Various skin operators on the network have taken steps to assure players that their money is safe.  No one knows for sure how US players will be refunded their money, but there are supposed to be  negotiations with the United States in progress now to facilitate that return.

This is all breaking news.  Check with Holdem Poker Chat frequently for updates as the situation develops.  Luvin Poker was the only Everleaf Network skin that Holdem Poker Chat promoted.  Other sites on the network included Minted Poker, Poker4Ever, Raider Poker

Every week in February, from Wednesday to Wednesday, 4 pm to 3:59 pm ET, Intertops Poker will be holding a Frequent Player Points Race worth $6,250, paid out to 100 top finishers. Multiplied by four weeks, making for four such race periods, that combines to $25,000 in cash rewards.

Remember, success in the FPP Race is not about whether you win or lose the poker games you play, be they tournaments or cash games. It’s about how many FPPs you earn while you play and that’s simply a matter of playing more often, for longer durations and at higher stakes.

Starting the 1st of February, Intertops Poker is also holding more Knock Out Challenges. These are bounty tournaments taking place each Monday, Wedneday and Friday. There are two ways to win cash in these events: firstly by finishing in the money, of course, and secondly by knocking your fellow players out of the running. For every player’s $5 + $0.50 buy-in, $2 will go to the bounty on their head. The prize pool at each Knock Out Challenge is $1,000, on top of the bounty rewards. There’s even a third way to win money through the Knock Out Challenges. Every player you knock out also earns you a point on a monthly Headhunter leaderboard, with the 10 top finishers receiving a share of another $1,000 prize pool.

The Freeroll Super Series (FSS) is broken down into four stages, or rounds. Pass through all four of these and win a cash guaranteed as well as, possibly, one of 3 prize packages to the 2012 Punta Cana Poker Classic.

For Round One, America’s Cardroom is holding hourly qualifiers every day. At 8pm nightly is a Main Event Freeroll for 50 Round Two tickets and at 12am nightly is a Midnight Daily Second Chance Freeroll for 25 Round Two tickets. For each of the other 22 hours of the day, the site will host a freeroll on the hour awarding 3 Round Two tickets.

For Round Two, America’s Cardroom is holding weekly qualifiers every Saturday. In addition to the main prize of Round Three tickets to 1 out of every 5 competitors, the site also offers a $750 cash prize pool guaranteed at each. Finish in the final 100 and win a share.

For Round Three, America’s Cardroom is holding a monthly event on the Saturday after the month ends, in this case that’s the 4th of March. Besides being the final opportunity to earn enough FSS Special Points to get to the Grand Finale Freeroll, this monthly event also offers a guaranteed $3,000 cash prize pool, again going out to the highest 100 performers.

The fourth round is the Grand Finale Freeroll, open to the 500 highest Special Points earners over the entire month-long course of the FSS. It happens on October 13, that’s also a Saturday, and offers a guaranteed prize pool of $25,000 in addition to three Punta Cana prize packages to the first, second and third place finishers.

For the week lasting from Monday, February 6 through Sunday, February 12, America’s Cardroom will be hosting another Double Guarantees Week. That means every Guaranteed Tournament scheduled this week will have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That includes dozens of tournaments with guarantees ranging as high as $5k, $7.5k and $15k normally, now doubled to $10k, $15k and $30k, respectively. It includes rebuy and addon events, bounty tournaments, deep stack events, turbo tournaments, freezeouts and more.

While Double Guarantees Week last, obviously, for just one week, America’s Cardroom’s $100k Points Race last the whole month long. For all of February 2012, players can win a share of $100,000 in cash through the combination of a $60k marathon and four weekly $10k sprints.

The $60k Marathon lasts all February long and it tracks players on a leaderboard by points earned, paying out to the top 275 finishers, with the top finisher getting $8k. Additionally, each week America’s Cardroom hosts a $10k Sprint from Friday to Sunday. The site will pay out the top 125 finishers on these weekly leaderboards, with each week’s first place finisher getting $2k.

As with the $60k Marathon this is a points race, but unlike the monthly event, these weekly sprints only count points from Ring Game play. Points earned playing tournaments, whether MTT, satellite or Sit ‘n’ Go, do not count for the $40k Sprint, though they do count for the $60k Marathon.

The charity event is going to be done for the pediatric unit at the Halifax Health Medical Center, called Speediatrics.  It is an invitation only tournament which will feature more than 200 total players, with a buy-in of $500.  As far as current names who will be participating, Duke will be the honorary tournament director, Betty Jane France, who is the NASCAR Foundation Chairwoman, and Rusty Wallace, who is the NASCAR Foundation Board Member will all be a part of hosting the event.

In total there are 22 different tables set up, and the plan for the celebrities involved is that there will be one at every single table.  A few people who are already locked in for the event are Brad Daugherty, who is a former NBA player, and Dale Jarrett, who is a former NASCAR champion.  As far as the award that will be given to the winner of the charity event, they will automatically win a spot into the $1,500 Epic Poker League Pro/Am event.  Players can also win their way into the event by registering online at eventsatmgonthehalifax.com.

Speediatrics is a great charity, and this event should raise over $100k just from buy-ins, but there will also be different auctions and ways for people to be a part of the cause.  This company was founded back in 1999 and works with more than $2,000 children per year!  Don’t forget to go online and register for the chance to be a part of this tournament for a great cause!