The new stop for the UKIPT is in Edinburgh, Scotland. The 2010 UKIPT Edinburgh will take place August 19 – 22, which is the same time that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival will be taking place. The schedule will include many side events, culminating in a main event with a £500+£50 buy-in.

The reduced buy-in is for the UKIPT Dublin stop in Dublin, Ireland. The UKIPT Dublin main event now only costs €500+€60 to enter. The prize pool remains unchanged at €250,000.

Satellites into these UKIPT main events are running throughout the season at PokerStars, with the current satellites being for the UKIPT Brighton, which takes place on July 15 – 19. The UKIPT Kilarney, meanwhile, just started today June 24 and runs through June 27.

The event is the $1,000 Seniors’ No Limit Championship, and for the 2010 WSOP it was event #34. Minimum age to enter is 50. The oldest player registered this year was 92.

The record set in 2008 was 2,218 players. Then in 2009 it was beaten with a 2,707 players, a 22% increase. And this year, the trend continues, with 3,148 players registering for the seniors event, this time a 16% increase over the previous year.

This event this year also broke the record for the largest player field ever to sit down in a single day during a World Series of Poker.

Following closely on the heels of FTOPS XVI will be the MiniFTOPS XVI, from May 7 to 16, squeezing itself in there in just enough time to be over and done before the 2010 WSOP starts. The guaranteed total prize pool for the MiniFTOPS XVI is $7 million.

Full Tilt Poker is hosting satellite tournaments that offer free seats into the various FTOPS XVI and MiniFTOPS XVI events as their top prizes, including seats in the $640 buy-in FTOPS XVI Main Event.

Along with these satellites, FullTilt is holding Satellite Challenges, FTOPS Challenges, and Leaderboard Challenges for extra winning opportunities.

During the Full Tilt Poker Take2 promotion, players at all FullTilt’s regular cash ring game tables can earn double the FTPs by playing on at least two tables at once. Play on two tables at the same time and earn double the FTPs at both. You will also earn double the FTPs during the Take 2 promotional period when you play at any Rush Poker table.

Whichever way you go for double the points, the more you do it, the more of a bonus cash prize you make yourself eligible for. Accumulate a minimum of five Take2 bonus points during any five days of the Take2 promotional period and receive a $5 cash bonus. Do it on all 9 days of the Take2 promotional period and receive an extra $20, making for a total bonus of $25.

And today it is not either of Rep. Frank’s online poker bills making headlines, but a new bill crafted by 2 senators: Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Judd Gregg. And in truth, the bill is about a lot more than just legal online poker for U.S. residents.

The Tax Fairness and Simplification Act aims to make it easier for peole to files their taxes. That’s what its main goal is. But the bill is filled with addons including one that permits legal online poker gambling in the U.S. (presumably for the intelligent reason of bringing the state revenues to perhaps cover the costs of the bill).

Whatever the bill’s main or primary aims, we can only hope that the part about legalizing online poker in the U.S. finally gets through.

Other differences notable on the 2010 WSOP schedule from years before include a $10,000 HORSE championship instead of a $50,000 one, the $50,000 event becoming an 8-game mixed event. There will also be a $25,000 six-max event in NL Holdem for high-rolling fans of short-handed play.

Who will be the next Joe Cada?

Last Thursday, Frank et al held a preliminary hearing on one of the bills in particular, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (also known as H.R. 2267). Support for its passage seemed overwhelming, with one unfortunate exception.

That came, of course, from the head of the opposition to legal U.S. poker, congressman Spencer Bachus who had the FBI put together a report answer 6 questions pertinent to the subject, including: protections from cheating and collusion, underage gambling, and money laundering. The findings of the study, as reported by the FBI Assistant Director of the Cyber Division, Shawn Henry, lend weight to the anti-poker argument. How much weight? We’ll just have to wait and see.

But because of several bills on Congress’s desk now, waiting for review, including 2 from Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts (one of online poker and online gambling’s biggest and most vocal supporters), the Senate and House have voted to extend the Dec. 1 deadline by 6 months. That means poker sites have more time to prepare their systems for this crackdown, online poker players have more time to enjoy playing on their favorite sites, and most of all, it means that the online poker movement has more time to convince those in power to forget about the UIGEA and make online poker in the U.S. legal.

But Antonius bounced back from that $1 million loss on Full Tilt Poker nicely, taking down the record-breaking largest sized pot in online poker history. And to make the $878,959 pot even sweeter for Antonius, the opponent he won it from was none other than isildur1 himself.

The previously record, appropriately enough, was set by durrrr himself, $723,000 won off Di “Urindanger” Dang in October of 2008.

This time, the game was heads-up Pot Limit Omaha and the table stakes were $500/$1,000. When they sat down at the table, both players started with over $400,000 each.

And now, finally, one of the premier online gaming industry accolades, the 2009 e-Gaming Review Awards, has short-listed PKR Poker for 3 awards, including the Poker Operator of the Year, for which it got an Honorable Mention last year, and for which it will this year be competing against Party Poker, Ladbrokes, Gaming Media Group and 888.

PKR Poker has also been nominated for 2009 Online Marketing Campaign of the Year and 2009 Offline Marketing Campaign of the Year.