As the only 3-D poker room online, it seemed inevitable the PKR Poker would eventually receive the acclaim it deserves. Over its three year history, the site showed a steady increase in its membership with the PKR Poker player pool jumping to 1 million around the 1 year anniversary, up to 2 million by its 2nd year anniversary, and reaching its 3 millionth player just in time to celebrate its recent third anniversary.

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.

If you’re a fan of PokerTracker then you’re going to want to read this. If you use the leading online poker aiding software yourself, then you already know that it’s compatible with most of the major online poker rooms, including Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, Party Poker, Titan Poker, and Everest Poker (among a few others).

But now there’s PokerTracker 3 which, in addition to some new features, has added support for two more leading poker sites: Bodog Poker and Cake Poker.

While pokerbots are making a big stir in the online poker world, far less controversial and more universally loved is software like PokerTracker that helps you play better online poker without actually playing the game for you.

Players at Full Tilt using the software will also enjoy the new support for its Super Turbo Matrix tables and recognition for Heroes. Also improved with the latest update are hand histories for iPoker rooms (like Titan Poker) and better accounting for PokerStars tournament rakes.

When Team Poker Stars launched the Million Dollar Challenge t.v. show on FOX television October 11, they probably never imagined that one of the top winners of the televised heads-up poker tournament series’ inaugural season would be a preacher playing for charity.

The preacher is Father Andrew Trapp and the charity that he’s playing for is his church’s building fund. When not ministering to his flock, Father Trapp has a friendly home poker game. It was by being one of the top 10 finishers in a PokerStars online qualifier for the Million Dollar Challenge t.v. program that he landed an opportunity to audition for the show. His audition, a short video, took him the final stride to the studio where he earned $25,000 and then $100,000, besting even show headliner Daniel Negreanu. Now he will face the 3 other $100,000 winners at the December season finisher for the $1 million winner-takes-all grand prize.  This is much higher than any casino signup bonus he could have received.

Churches are nothing new to using gambling as a means to raise money.  However, many have not tried to play keno online yet.

A big name in profession poker has just come out saying that he approves of poker bots being allowed at online poker tables. With a caveat, of course. But first, the poker pro: it is Barry Greenstein, the world-renowned philanthropist of poker who gives away his winnings to charity.

Now the caveat: What Barry Greenstein suggests is that poker sites have specific poker tables (and possibly tournaments too) that are labeled as poker bot friendly sites. Who knows? Maybe this will attract a whole niche of player who enjoy pitting their wits against a machine. Lots of people wanted to test their mettle against the Deep Blue chess laying program.

And it’s likely to bring out a whole breed of poker bot developers wishing to pit their programs against others made by other developers. At the very least, these would be fun to watch.

Poker bots, for those who don’t know. are programs designed to play poker equal or superior to that of human players. Results have so far been mixed. Which is probably why Barry Greenstein doesn’t see much of a threat in permitting them seats at the felt.

The World Poker Tour put out a press release last Wednesday announcing that it has agreed to be bought out by Party Poker. That means that Party Poker will be the new owner of all WPT operating assets. It seems like a perfect match being that Mike Sexton is an element in both – he is the official spokesman for PartyPoker.com and he is, and has been for years, one of the two official commentators, along with Vince Van Patten, for the televised World Poker Tour events. How much Mike Sexton actualhad to do with the transaction, though, is questionable.

Whoever instigated it and for whatever reason, PartyPoker is adding the WPT to its gaming properties for a little over $12 million with revenue sharing of at least $3 million paid out to the WPT organization once every 3 years.

Fans have every reason to believe that the World Poker Tour circuit, schedule, and format will remain the same throughout and after this transition, as it is a formula that PartyPoker knows works. We’ll probably just be seeing the PartyPoker logo on more WPT tables, and paraphernalia, and of course more satellite tournaments into WPT events offered on PartyPoker.com.

The Mini-FTOPS XIII is almost underway. It starts September 9, and offers up the same 25 events at a fraction of the buy-in (1/10th) for a total $3 million guaranteed prize pool, including a $500,000 main event.

That main event caps the Mini-FTOPS XIII series on September 20 at 5 pm ET for a $55 buy-in, following the two-day event, a $266 tourney starting the day before, on September 19 at 1 pm for a $400,000 prize pool.

A $7,500 prize package, including a free entry into every FTOPS XIV event, is up for grabs as well – for whoever tops the leaderboard that’ll be running throughout the series. Prizes will also be awarded to several of other top finishers as well.

Full Tilt still has Mini-FTOPS XIII satellites going on now, daily, up through the start of the series, for buy-ins starting at $0.50 or 50 Full Tilt Points, awarding free seats in various events, including the main event.

A Judge in the Southern District of NY ruled today in favor of the request made by the online poker community (in the form of Costigan Media which owns, among other relevant properties, Gambling 911) that all of the warrants and related affidavits regarding the recent seizure of over $30 million in Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars player funds from bank accounts in that district may no longer be kept secret but must be unsealed so that all parties involved can become fully abreast of all the details of the case and the investigation leading up to it.

Judge Laura Swain determined that the Government (in the form of the FBI) did not produce enough evidence to merit her allowing those records to remain sealed. This is a big courtroom victory for online poker in a time when it is direly needed. And it bodes well for the affected players receiving back all of the money wrongfully taken from them.

There seems to be a lot of changing of hands in the online poker industry these days. For one, it was just announced (after rumors had been circulating for a little while now) that the World Poker Tour has been sold for $9 million to a company called Gamynia Limited. Players and fans can rest easy, though, that the WPT’s new parent company says it plans to continue operations as normal, including proceeding with the current WPT schedule as it stands.

In online poker news, meanwhile, Titan Poker is getting a new sister as its network, the iPoker Network, buys out CelebPoker from BossMedia. The move will be official on August 12, at which point CelebPoker will make the shift to the same Playtech Poker Software that Titan Poker fans are familiar with. And players at Titan Poker will be able to compete with their same bankroll on Celeb Poker (and participate in its promotions) and vice-versa.

Full Tilt Poker has decided to increase the ante in its schedule of monthly guaranteed tournaments with the introduction of the Full Tilt Poker $1,000,000 Monthly Guarantee Tournament.

The tournament itself has a $535 buy-in, but players can satellite in throughout the month, with buy-ins for $1M Monthly Guarantee satellites at 50 Full Tilt Points or $1 and up.

If you win more than one satellite, all those after your first land you $535.

Full Tilt is running multiple ongoing 4 player, 9 player, 36 player, and 54 player Sit ‘n Gos daily, as well as schedule tournaments every few minutes throughout the day. All at a wide array of buy-ins.

And here’s a nice bonus: the $1M Full Tilt Monthly Guarantee Tournament Satellite Challenge, a side-bet of sorts. Just keep winning those satellites and climb up the leaderboard. Whoever ends the month atop the leaderboard for the most number of $1,000,000 Monthly Guarantee Satellites won, wins $1,000. Second gets $500.

Full Tilt Poker issued its most currently updated lists of poker software programs banned from use on its site, and thankfully, the list also reveals some non-prohibited software too.

The list of prohibited software includes poker bots, table selection software, odds calculators, data mining programs, and hand history compilers (though Full Tilt does now offer its own in-table Hand Replayer). Player are also not allowed to visit websites that tell them any pertinent information about a particular opponent while they are seated at a table (presumably against that opponent). Being caught using any of these programs is cause for termination of one’s Full Tilt Poker account and the possible seizure of funds from your FullTilt bankroll.

On the flip side, permitted at Full Tilt are poker instructional programs as long as you upload only your own histories and no shared histories. Same with Heads-Up Displays, so long as it’s only using data that you have compiled on your own.

And one exception to the odds-calculator prohibition are those that don’t just run constantly, automatically during live play, but require you enter in a specific situation in order to get your result.

For more info on Full Tilt read our favorite Full Tilt Poker Review.