I’ve got another video for you to watch from those awesome guys at CommonCraft.

This one explains social media and social networking in plain english… it focuses a little too much on ice-cream, so if you’re watching your waistline and can’t resist the temptation of a great double-choc, caramel swirl, then you may want to wait until you know you can beat it…

Social networking (and the use of social media sites) is one of the key concepts I want to hammer home at Gamblz.com, through use of sites such as Twitter and FriendFeed, we can create a community that is tailor made for each and every one of you - it’s about connecting with the people you trust… some of you may want to hear from the casinos and poker rooms themselves, others may just want to connect with similar minded friends… it’s all about value to YOU, and it’s all controlled by you, if there’s someone you can’t stand listening too, it’s easy to block them out.

It really is the way of the future, and it makes so much sense from a gambling point of view that I know you’re going to benefit from using social media communities.

Ok, here’s the video - enjoy… any questions, ask them in the comments below.

Always an exciting time of the year for poker players as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) gets under way at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This is the 39th annual running of the tournament and one that has a little twist this year.

55 events are set to be run, with the $10,000 buy-in main event in July the big finale… but this year we have to wait a little longer to find out who wins. Controversially, things have changed, once the final table is confirmed, things stop for nearly 4 months before we get the final table played live on ESPN in November.

On one hand, it’ll add a new dimension as all players at the final table (including the ones no one had heard of before), get a chance to secure sponsorship deals and really hit the big time before being shown live in front of a prime time audience, but on the other hand… the flow of the game will totally change, any reads players might have on one another will be nearly invalid by the time the final comes around. What if one of the players gets sick and can’t make the new time?

Whatever view you take, it’ll be exciting. Plenty of stories will emerge from the events - Gamblz will be covering as much as we can here on the website, via Twitter and we’ve just created a room on FriendFeed. As always, the more you can join in on the conversation the better - add your thoughts in the comments section on any post, chat away on twitter or discuss and share things you find via our FriendFeed room. If you have no idea what Twitter or FriendFeed are, check out our welcome page for an introduction.

This year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) will see the debut of ‘Green’ - as in environmentally friendly, poker tables… the winner of the tournament also gets to take one of these fantastic tables home.

Manufactured by New Jersey based EGM Green, the new poker tables are made from 98% sustainable materials and are part of a push to bring eco-friendly gaming products to the casino and luxury markets.

Some details of the poker table:

• Substrate is Urea Formaldahyde Free MDF (Medium Density Fiber Board)
• 100% FSC Certified
• Certified to Contain No Added Urea Formaldehyde
• 100% Pre-Consumer Recycled Content
• Moisture Resistant
• Wood armrest ring is FSC certified veneer core hardwood plywood.
• “Track” is FSC Urea Formaldahyde Free MDF
• Foam is “Rebonded Foam” (bits and scraps of foam are “rebonded” to form a density suitable for gaming tables. This product is also used for carpet padding.
• Table felt material optional 100% wool or customer choice

More information can be found on the manufactures website.

Absolute Poker has launched new buddy-finding software that makes finding your friends (or the fish you’ve tagged) an easy task across their network.

The “Absolute Buddy” is designed to be like an Instant Messenger client that tells you when your friends are online and which tables they are playing at. It also lets you keep notes about each player.

Personally, I find these tools quite helpful, especially in a sociable game such as poker… but if you don’t like the idea of other players tracking your movements on the network, you get the option to block data, either to individual players or the whole network.

You can find out more information on the Absolute Buddy here.

For those of you who don’t know, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is for many people an essential part of their daily online routine.

A lot of websites that have regularly updating content (like Gamblz.com!) have an RSS feed, they are usually easy to find - look for the orange RSS icon, or just a link that says ‘RSS’… some recent browsers automatically detect RSS feeds and display the icon in the address bar.

What can you do with an RSS feed?

An RSS feed is just an XML file that is constantly publishing the websites content so that you can make use of it in external applications. The most common way is to use an RSS reader to aggregate all the RSS feeds you’re interested in and have them push that information to you in way that you find convenient. Subscribing to an RSS feed means that you don’t need to visit the website to read their content… think of it as a ‘home delivery’ service.

Here is the RSS Feed for Gamblz.com

This video, put together by the team at CommonCraft will give you a good idea about what RSS can do to make your online time easier.

You’ll need to get yourself a free RSS reader, here are two I recommend:

FeedDemon - Desktop application that syncs via the web (so that you can access your data on multiple computers)… this is what I use, great program.
Google Reader - Web based reader (access your data from any computer just by using your Google account), has some additional ’share’ features that make it a popular choice.

FreindFeed is a social network aggregator - it’s also a great place to start conversations, especially now that they’ve added ‘rooms’ to their feature list.

A FriendFeed Room is kind of like a forum/message board in that it keeps track of threaded conversations from a specific group of users… where it differs from a regular forum though is that there are many more ways that you can interact with it and integrate it seamlessly with your other online activities.

For instance, applications can use either the room’s RSS feed or gain access via the FriendFeed API to make use of this information in many different ways - you can read content via the FriendFeed website, or desktop applications such as Twhirl or AlertThingy along with all your other lifestream content (blog posts, twitter messages, flckr photos, StumbleUpon recommendations etc.) posted by your friends from the one location.

Think of it as a ‘forum with flexibility / RSS aggregator’ and a way for you to keep up with everything that is important for you.

Sign up for a free account with FriendFeed and head over to the Online Gambling Room, join the group and post an introduction. It’s a great place to discuss everything happening on Gamblz.com and to join in on the conversation. The room is moderated (by me), so hopefully we can cut back on the spam - if you see something that’s inappropriate in there, let me know (direct message or @ reply via Twitter is a good) and I’ll do what I can to keep it tidy.

I don’t think you need to commission a study in order to come up with a conclusion like that, but nevertheless, that’s what the latest survey by Jupiter Research and Everest Poker concludes.

Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Poland topped the list of countries showing the greatest increase in young players (18-24) over the previous year.

The survey also identified an increase in female poker players - Norway (46%), Spain (44%), Finland (38%) and Sweden (37%) were the countries with the highest current percentage of women players, while Hungary (28%) and Poland (27%) had the lowest.

This is the second year that Everest Poker and Jupiter Research have collaborated on a survey that identifies the demographics and behavioural characteristics of poker players. Approximately 3000 poker players took part in the survey.

SportingBet.com have paid out €940,966, their largest casino winner so far, to a Greek accountant who staked €27 on the Super Seven’s Online Slot Machine.

Mr K. Vasileiadis and five of his friends/family were flown to London by SportingBet.com to receive his winnings at their London office.

So what’s the first thing Mr Vasileiadis is going to buy with his winnings?

“I would like to buy a car, a Peugeot 307, 1600cc. I just love them.”

There’s nothing better than winning a large online slot jackpot, but I’d even settle for something a bit smaller personally! What’s the most you have won on an online slot? let us know in the comments.

Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott’s DevilfishPoker.com relaunched today on a the Entraction network (formerly 24hNetwork), and to celebrate they’ve set things off with a host of new promotions.

Including:

• 150% First Deposit Bonus up to €666
• Daily “Hellacious” freeroll with €666 prizepool
• Daily “Beelzebub Breakfast” and “Lucifer’s Lunch” freerolls
• €100,000 guaranteed tournament on the last Sunday of each month. Players can buy-in directly for €200 or qualify from €2 - €20
• “Bad Beat” Jackpot — losing hand receives 40% of Jackpot, winning hand receives 20%, all players dealt cards split 20% and 20% is kept back for the new Jackpot

Dave Ulliott is one of the more colorful pro’s on the Poker circuit and it’s great to see him getting behind an online site… he had this to say on the launch

“I can’t wait to get stuck in to playing at my new home. No doubt there’ll be a few guys out there who think they can take on the Devilfish and win but I’ve got news for ‘em: come and have a go if you think you’re good enough!”

DevilfishPoker.com is licensed in Malta.

I’ve mentioned it a little before, but I think everyone has a lot to gain by using Twitter… especially if you like playing poker or winning big at the casinos.

Why?

Twitter is like an early warning system - it’s collective intelligence and it’s a great place to network… it can also be a little noisy and a bit of a time sink if you let it (that’s not necessarily a bad thing though!).

Here’s a great little video made by the guys at CommonCraft that explains exactly what Twitter is and how to use it:

Do you have more of an idea now? The best thing you can do is create a free account and start using it, here’s a few tips to help you make the most out of Twitter:

• Download a desktop client such as Twhirl - you can use Twitter via their website, but you’ll miss out on a lot of the interaction and you need to ‘remember’ to use it… a desktop client makes things 100% easier and is essential to getting the most from Twitter.
• Follow every interesting person you can find - the more ‘relevant’ people you have in your network, the better the information you’ll get. Following more people will create more noise for you to sift through, but you’ll be rewarded with a richer experience.
• If someone follows you, and they seem to have something to say on Twitter, follow them back. It’s always nice to grow your network with mutual contacts and participate in two-way conversations whenever possible.
• Have fun and don’t be afraid to join in on the conversation. Nearly everyone I’ve met on Twitter has been very approachable and more than happy to help out and chat.

Twitter has exploded in popularity over the past few months, and it’s not hard to see why… join now and see what all the fuss is about, follow me on twitter here: @gamblz