Thanks to Andrew Lichtenberger’s deep run in last year’s World Series of Poker main event — wherein he benefited from a lot of ESPN air time en route to his 18th-place finish — he is one of the few online pros who has made it into the mainstream poker public eye.

Now, likely because of that high-profile finish along with a number of impressive scores in the last couple months, Lichtenberger has signed with Full Tilt Poker to become the site’s latest Red Pro.

“I became a Full Tilt red pro today so now I stand out in the chat box. Hopeful

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The state of Florida has been struggling with gaming laws for many years, but 2010 marked a new day for its casinos and an expansion of poker therein. As the state still may consider the legalization of intrastate online poker, per a bill introduced by State Representative Joseph Abruzzo, Florida has the ability to set the standard for poker laws around the United States.

The most recent development in Florida gaming laws involved a pact with the Seminole Tribe, which will allow them exclusive rights for their seven existing casinos, one of which is the very popular Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, to host games like poker and blackjack, along with slot machines. Read the full post …

Paul Liu took down the $500,000 Guaranteed series opener at the Commerce Casino’s Cal State Poker Championship this week.

The innovative $220 No-Limit Hold’em event, which allowed players to buy-back in to all four starting day’s even after they busted out, was the biggest guarantee ever for a low-stakes poker tournament.

With 3,220 entrants helping create a $611,800 prize pool, Liu, from nearby Irvine, California, managed to walk away with $125k in first-place cash.

A regular at Commerce, Liu also won a NLHE event at the 2007 Cal State Championships for $131,024.

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PokerStars is filming a new high-stakes cash game TV show this May that will air on Fox five days a week starting in June.

The PokerStars.net Big Game will feature a table filled with some the world’s best poker pros, including Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer.

Each week, top amateurs, a PokerStars SuperNova Elite player and one PokerStars.net qualifier, dubbed the Loose Cannon, will join the table.

Plus, to increase the action, the Loose Cannon will bring a $100,000 stake to the game and only be able to keep what he or she makes over that amount.

Should the qualifier turn a profit, he or she will then be given the choice to walk away or return for one more make-or-break session.

Four online qualifiers are running daily on PokerStars.net.

“This show has all the necessary bells and whistles to make it a monster success on television,” said Negreanu.

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A final table of ten was set at the World Series of Poker Circuit Las Vegas main event at Caesars Palace Wednesday.

And when the fight the $190,137 first-place prize begins Thursday, 2009 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic finalist Steve O’Dwyer will have the chip lead.

Holding on to that lead will be a difficult task, however, with players like 2009 WSOP Main Event 18^th place finisher Andrew Lichtenberger, two-time 2009 WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker, and PokerListings Blogger Matt Stout all threatening.

The rest of the final table includes veteran pros Dan Casetta, Thu Nguyen and James Carroll, Diego Sanchez, Aaron Been and former poker reporter Anthony Yeh.

A total of 150 players entered the $5,150 event, creating a $717,500 prize pool.

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A new iPhone poker game plays on an old idea. The Dogs Playing Poker app is from Candywriter software developers. Candywriter is known for fun poker games where players can chose interesting characters to play, and Dogs Playing Poker is no exception. In the new iPhone application players have 18 types of dogs to choose from and a couple of bonus creatures like a fox and a walrus. Players will then enter a five-round Texas hold’em tournament held in venues like a junkyard or dog pound. Dogs Playing Poker costs $1.99 from the iPhone app store

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The final television table of six has been decided at the World Poker Tour Championship for season VIII and some of the biggest names in poker are still in contention. David Benyamine (pictured right) leads the way with 4,705,000, and he is joined by 2009 Card Player Player of the Year Eric Baldwin, David Williams, Shawn Buchanan, John O’Shea, and Billy Baxter. These professionals will return tomorrow at 4 p.m. PDT to decide a champion that will walk away with $1,530,537 in prize money.

Day 6 was a slow and long affair.

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Finally.

That’s what many poker players in Florida are inevitably saying as both the Florida Senate and the Florida House passed a new deal this week that will transform the poker landscape of the state. Once the governor signs the new compact and the U.S. Department of Interior approves the new legislation, Florida should finally have uncapped poker.

In some ways, Florida has been the laughingstock of live poker in the U.S. D

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Online poker room Full Tilt Poker has introduced their Rush Poker game type as tourney play. Before this week only cash game players could experience Rush Poker. Now players of all types can get in on the new game type, which keeps the games running very fast. In Rush Poker once a player’s action in a hand is done (they go through the showdown or fold) they are moved to a new table. Players on Full Tilt Poker looking for a Rush Poker game in either ring game or tournament style should look for black “R” symbol in the Full Tilt lobby next to the game.

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In his first session since April 6th Phil Ivey returned to Full Tilt last night to take on Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies at $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.

The session lasted just 71 hands, but despite the short duration the action was anything but lacking.

The largest pot of the match saw both players get it all in on the flop, Sahamies with a straight draw and the nut flush draw, Ivey with just the same straight draw.

Sahamies hit his flush on the river, shipping the massive pot worth $395,988.

Not only did Ivey lose the largest pot of the night, but he also lost the second largest pot of the night (worth over $306k), just two minutes earlier.

Ivey stuck around for just six more hands after taking both of these losses, going from being up over $200k in the match, to logging off down exactly $120,000.

Meanwhile Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro continued his efforts at staying in the black for 2010, making $68,608 across his 1,900 hand session.

Below are the three largest pots of the night. To

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