photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

October 1 marked the start of almost full time tournament poker in Las Vegas that will continue through the holidays. Bellagio's Festa al Lago, Binion's Poker Open, 2nd Annual Caesars Palace Classic, The Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza, and the Poker Employees Championship at the Sahara fill the calendar from October through December.

We begin with the biggest tournament, the Bellagio's Festa al Lago. On the calendar from October 1- 26, the Festa al Lago is capped by a World Poker Tour sanctioned $15,000 buy-in final event guaranteed to create another WPT millionaire.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Moving on to Binion's Poker Open scheduled for October 15 thru November 3. Take a nostalgic trip to the place where poker tournaments originated, Binion's Casino located in historic downtown Las Vegas. Binion's is currently building a new poker room centrally located in the recently remodeled downtown landmark.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

In 2007 the Caesars Palace Poker Classic set records for numbers of players and prize pools. Caesars has always been a favorite poker room among cash game and tournament players looking for a spacious, comfortable poker room with all the amenities expected from the world renowned casino. You too can enjoy playing major tournament poker at Caesars Palace during the October 16 - 30 Poker Classic.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Next stop in the Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza. These very popular poker events are the results from the Venetian Poker Room asking poker players what they wanted in a tournament - bigger starting stacks, longer play levels, moderate buy-ins, and smooth blind increases - and then designing the Deep Stack series to provide exactly that. Stop by the Venetian during the November 1 - 25 run of final Deep Stack Extravaganza scheduled for 2008 and find out first hand why players prefer the Venetian.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Finally, we have the Poker Employees Championship at the Sahara Resort in Las Vegas. Four days and four events December 1 - 4. Complete details are available at Poker Player Newspaper and you can register online to ensure you'll have a seat in this year's poker employee tournament. If you've ever been a part of the poker industry then you probably meet the prerequisites for entry.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Another Tuesday night means two hours of 2008 WSOP Main Event poker on ESPN Sports TV. Tune in tonight at 8:00 PM ET for the start of the big poker show on ESPN2. Be sure to check listings for exact times in your viewing area. As we count off the weeks leading to the November 9 final table of the Main Event check out a new group of Flipchip photos taken last summer on the tournament floor at the Rio Resort in Las Vegas.

All photos were taken on Day #4 of the 2008 Main Event. More after the jump.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

photo courtesy BodogLife.com

This weekend Bodog will be running its richest guaranteed ever at $300,000. The buy-in for the Main Event is $500 so if you're looking to get in for less there are plenty of qualifiers running that can get you there for as little as 50 Bodog Poker Points.

Check out the BPO II's entire list of online poker satellites to find the one that's right for you. Or simply visit the Bodog Poker Software. All of the BPO II scheduled poker tournaments can be found by clicking on the "Scheduled Tournament" tab. To only see the BPO II Tournaments, select the "BPO" tab that is under the "Scheduled Tournament" tab.

And while you're working on earning your Main Event seat be sure to check out the other BPO II tournaments happening now and through to Sunday including:

• Event #6 NL Holdem with rebuys. $110 buy-in and $75,000 guaranteed. Starts Thursday, October 02 at 8 p.m. ET.
• Event #7 FL Holdem. $162 buy-in with $20,000 guaranteed. Starts Friday, October 3 at 8 p.m. ET.

And don't forget about their Bounty Events. There are 19 bounties in each tournament that payout T$109. Players with money on their heads include Evelyn Ng, David Williams, Justin Bonomo and Jean-Robert Bellande.

• 6-Handed Bounty NL Holdem. $36 buy-in with $15,000 guaranteed. Starts Thursday, October 2 at 9 p.m. ET.
• Bounty NL Holdem. $27.50 buy-in with $10,000 guaranteed. Starts Friday, October 3 at 9 p.m. ET.

Head over to Bodog for more information on their richest guaranteed online poker tournament ever.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

A Senate bill has been introduced to allow and regulate online poker and other games of skill. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced this first ever Senate bill (Internet Skill Game Licensing and Control Act, S. 3616) to to eliminate the ban imposed by former Senate Majority Leader Frist's legislation (UIGEA) that essentially killed online poker by making bank and credit card money transfers with online casinos illegal.

A similar bill got a 30-16 Yea vote to move out of the House Financial Services Committee. The house version of the bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) requires federal agencies to define unlawful Internet gambling before writing banking regulations to enforce the UIGEA legislation.

Keep those cards, letters, telecons and emails coming to your Senators and Representatives offices. Apparently some of the are listening and reacting to once again return legal online poker to your computer screen. Playing games of skill is more than just fun and profit, it's one of your rights of freedom. If your one of the millions of Americans that once enjoyed playing poker online you should consider sending a note of support and thanks to Senator Menendez.

photo courtesy BodogLife.com

The Bodog Poker Open II is underway with its eight Championship events and six Bounty Tournaments. Online poker players have already been enjoying the extra value that Bodog Poker has been infusing these tournaments with.

Last Sunday saw the start of the BPO II and along with it the first Bounty event.

There were 16 players with bounties on their heads with each one paying out T$109 (buy-in to a BPOII Main Event satellite). Bodog also juiced the prize pool by adding $5,000 giving the field of 242 players plenty to battle over.

By the time it got down to heads-up all the bounties had been collected but one. Online poker player iLLNuGWichee fought to keep his own bounty against bstu24. But it was not to be as bstu24 took down the first place prize worth $8,030 as well as the T$109 that came with knocking out iLLNuGWichee.

Here is a breakdown of the final tablists and their payouts:

1. bstu24 - $8,030
2. iLLNuGWichee - $5,110
3. snarlcakes - $3,387
4. Paz5050 - $2,336
5. WillyNilly - $1,752
6. THEBULL108 - $1,314
7. BuschInCans - $1,022
8. JanM - $759
9. L Rocketz - $496

Get complete details on the Bodog Poker Open II tournament schedule and get a seat in these high value poker tournaments.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

Start the week with a dozen unpublished poker faces from the 2008 Main Event. All of today's Flipchip photos were taken on Day 3 at the Rio resort in Las Vegas. Player's chip stacks are becoming large as the checks are consolidated following the mass of player eliminations.

More photos after the jump.

photos by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com

PokerStars is offering a chance to win a piece of the November 9.

The November 9, of course, is the World Series of Poker's final table comprising the nine remaining players that will duke it out on Nov. 9.

Stars has invested in six of the players, and will be hosting a $100,000 freeroll (500 FPP required for entry) for each player every Sunday beginning Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. ET.

In addition, if you make it to the top 100, you'll receive 0.01% of that player's eventual winnings from the final table.

Freeroll schedule (all begin 4 p.m. ET):

Oct. 5: David "Chino" Rheem
Oct. 12: Darus Suharto
Oct. 19: Ylon Schwartz
Oct. 26: Peter Eastgate
Nov. 2: Ivan Demidov
Nov. 9: Dennis Phillips

Let's see... every player is guaranteed to take away $900,670. So if you make the top 100 in any of the six tournaments, you'll receive an extra $90.07.

First place to this year's WSOP winner is $9,119,517, so if you're in the top 100 for that player's tourney, you'll get $919.52 extra.