As the clock ticks down to the starting time of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, controversy continues to grow over the changes that have been made to this years tournament.

As I posted in the WSOP Friend Feed room, this year sees a break of almost four months between players reaching the final table and actually playing it. The major reason for this change is to suit the ESPN Prime Time TV Schedule and take the tournament to a whole new level, gaining exposure and (presumably) many $$$ to the organizers. Such a large break does cause some problems though and that’s what’s getting people upset.

Four months break is a long time, here are a few of the arguments (for and against) doing the rounds:

• Any professionals at the table will likely use that time to study the habits and playing style of the people they are up against and make changes to their games accordingly.
• Players who have a read on one of the other players may lose that advantage over the four months break.
• Amateur players can use that time to secure valuable sponsorship before playing out the final table on prime time tv.
• What if one (or more) player(s) can’t make the new date… they could be hospitalised - or worse…

What do you think? Any other reasons for or against you think are vitally important? Do you think there is any chance of collusion (two players forming a partnership and dumping all chips to the one in the best position?) or what about intimidation… four months is a long time to play mind games with your opponents.

Personally I think it’s a bit odd for their to be such a long break in the one tournament, but overall I think the positives may outweigh the negatives… I guess we’ll see soon enough, hopefully it will all go smoothly and the prime time, live tv schedule will turn it into a truly great event.

Red Flush Casino has launched this month using the popular Microgaming software, is licensed in Kahnawake and accepts USA players

With over 300 casino games that you can download or play using the no-download flash version, there is sure to be something here to interest everyone, and because they are using the industry leading Microgaming software, you can’t go wrong as far as a quality gaming experience is concerned.

Current sign up promotions for Red Flush Casino are:

• 100% Match bonus to $100 (available in 8 different currencies)
• Red Letter Day: Every Friday (between 6am and 6pm EST) 10 players at random are selected from all logged in players to share $200 in prizes.
• Red Flush Slots: Each week $1,000 is given away to people who have been playing slots (highest wagering player for the week gets $200, 2nd highest gets $100, highest number of bets gets $100 and 30x $20 random draw prizes).
• Red Flush Poker Champs: Each fortnight, video poker players share in $500 of bonuses.

New casinos often have a lot of additional bonuses and prizes for registered players, so head on over there and check them out.

Yep, I’ve talked about Twitter before, in fact I talk about it quite a lot… why? Because it is one of the best ways I know to stay in the loop and be part of the conversation.

For those not up to speed, Twitter is a bit like an instant messenger, although instead of sending a message to one person, it’s broadcast to every person who has signed up to follow your updates… you can ask your followers a question about anything and get instant feedback, you can run polls - or you can just keep in touch and join in chatting about the topics being discussed… oh, and you’re limited to only 140 characters per post, so make sure you get to the point quickly!

Here’s an example of what goes on (click for a bigger pic), this is my Twhirl window - Twhirl is a desktop application for Twitter which makes things so much easier to follow and jump into a conversation. I highly recommend using a desktop client over the Twitter website, it’s far more engaging and immediate.

Twitter is a lot of fun, and IMO is the ultimate social network - it’s so easy to stay in touch with a lot of people at once and a great way to let everyone know what you’re doing… even if you don’t think you’re interesting enough, you’d be surprised at what other people like to pick up on. If you’re looking for a sense of community, or just want to keep up with the late breaking news in your field, Twitter could be just what you’re looking for.

Come and follow me @Gamblz.

Ok, I know this has nothing to do with online gambling, but being a tragic fan of 80’s TV this is one gadget that’s right at the top of my wish list… take a look at this little beauty:

Yep, in a couple of months time we can all have our own personal KITT navigating for us as we drive around the city… anyone who is a fan of the old (and soon to be reborn) Knight Rider series will find it hard to resist the electronic sounds of Knight Rider’s KITT guiding you towards the location of your next poker tournament.

Complete with a range of voice overs by William Daniels, you’ll be greeted each time you turn the unit on with phrases such as “Michael, where would you like to go today”… you can even customize it, with one of 200 other names besides Michael, so if you have a fairly common name, there’s a good chance it can address you directly, MIO are currently adding even more.

A picture doesn’t quite do it justice, here’s a little video of it in action, watch it, love it… add it to your shopping list! Head over to Knight Rider Online for more info.

Sebastian Ruthenberg, playing his first year at the World Series of Poker has absorbed plenty of pressure by taking out event 33, $5,000 seven card stud hi-low at the 2008 WSOP.

Ruthenberg had to hold off names of the calibre of Chris (Jesus) Ferguson (2nd), Marcel Luske (4th), Annie Duke (5th) and Howard Lederer (9th) to take out his maiden WSOP Bracelet and $328,756 in prizemoney.

In the final hand, heads-up with Chris Ferguson, who was rather short-stacked at this stage was in front on 5th street with a pair of aces and Ruthenberg holding nothing, a 4 on sixth street gave Ruthenberg a pair of 4’s and a 7 on the final card gave him two-pair which was enough for the win.

Layne Flack - WSOP Event 34 Winner, $1,500 PL Omaha w/rebuys

Popular pro Layne Flack won his 6th WSOP Bracelet taking home $577,725 and beating Daniel Makowsky heads-up in event 34, $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys.

In the final hand, after a bit of raising, Makowsky was all-in before the flop. Layne Flack turned over KKJ2, and Makowsky AK44. The flop produced T57, turn a 6 and the river a K giving Layne Flack trip Kings to win.

Slots lovers rejoice, as two new games are on the way from both Microgaming and Playtech.

Casino Beacon is reporting Microgaming will release their two new slot games on the 8th of July, along with ‘French Roulette Gold’, a new high tech version of the popular table game.

The two new Microgaming Slots are Big Kahuna Snakes and Ladders, a five-reel online slot game in the style of the current Big Kahuna game, and The Jolly Jester, also a 25-payline, five-reel slot.

Playtech also have two new slots, Wild Spirit and Silent Samurai. Wild Spirit is a five-reel, 9-line slot game with a Native American theme, while Silent Samurai is a 20-line, five reel slot game where players need to throw Ninja stars to hold off an army of 20 Ninja warriors.

Look out for these new slot games at your favorite casino soon, they’re sure to be a lot of fun.

A few days ago Mozilla released the long anticipated FireFox 3 web browser.

I’ve been using the beta version for months and I can assure you that FireFox 3 is a good upgrade with heaps of handy new features. If you’re still using Internet Explorer then now really is the time to download FireFox and experience surfing the net as it should be (if you are still using IE - especially IE8, I’d love to hear why in the comments?)

Here’s a quick run down of some of the cool new features in FF3 (with over 15,000 improvements on FF2, I won’t be listing them all!):

Smart Location Bar

Now this is very cool - it might throw you a little the first few times you use it, but I can assure you it is so handy you’ll wonder how you ever managed to find anything with the old-school address bar. You can start typing anything and the smart location bar will start giving you suggestions on where it thinks you want to go - it bases its info on domain names, page titles, your bookmarks (which you can setup with smart tags) and just about any other info it can get its hands on… makes finding those webpages you visited a week ago but have no idea what the site was called a breeze - I use this one a lot!

Improved Performance

Faster javascript loading, improved memory management, faster page loading, better graphic rendering… faster, faster, faster!

Improved Bookmarks

Not that I use bookmarks as much as before since I rely on the smart location bar most of the time, but bookmarking has been completely overhauled with one-click bookmarks, smart folders, tagging and of course, integration with the smart location bar.

Dynamic folders can be placed in your bookmarks menu or on the toolbar and give you easy access to your favorite sites. One of the cool default folders they’ve already setup for you are your ‘most visited sites’, this will dynamically update and show the websites you visit most frequently… how cool is that?

Customization

There are thousands of ways to customise FF3… really. FF2 users will be familiar with add-ons, well the add-ons manager has been improved, you’ve got look and feel  controls and a huge array of variables that you can tweak. Even if you think you’ve tweaked it all, you’ve probably only scratched the surface. Check out Lifehacker’s FF3 Power User Guide for a few hints.

Over 12 million people have downloaded FireFox 3 in the two days since it was released… are you one of them? Let me know what you think of FireFox 3 in the comments - it’s a big thumbs up from me, what say you?

Are you a big Tennis fan? Are you excited that Wimbledon is less than a week away?

I know I am!

For many, the grass court championships at Wimbledon is the pinnacle of Tennis entertainment.. it has that elusive quality that makes even non-tennis fans want to watch and follow the progress of players they take little interest in for the other 11 and a half months of the year.

If your local TV coverage just doesn’t do it for you, then maybe Wimbledon Live is for you - they stream every match over the two weeks (up to eight courts at once) and you can view them online, when you like. Watch the matches you want to watch, as well as plenty of player interviews, highlights and archived footage for only $25… if you’re a keen Tennis fan, that’s a small price to pay.

You can test it out by watching some free archived footage from last years tournament… although when I tried it just now, windows media player wouldn’t play the files for some reason - could be a codec issue on my end, not sure… I’ve got a few days to sort it out though - can’t wait.

It’s been a few days since I last updated the 2008 World Series of Poker, and in that time we’ve seen another 10 winners crowned (too much time playing Full Tilt Poker, and not enough writing!).

Here are the events that have wrapped up over the past few days and all the WSOP Bracelet winners that earned their stripes:

2008 WSOP Event 19: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
Winner: Vanessa Selbst ($227,965)
Runner-up: Jamie Pickering

2008 WSOP Event 20: $2,000 Limit Hold ‘em
Winner: Daniel Negreanu ($204,874)
Runner-up: Ugur Marangoz

2008 WSOP Event 21: $5,000 No Limit Hold ‘em
Winner: Scott Seiver ($755,891)
Runner-up: Dave Seidman

2008 WSOP Event 22: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E
Winner: Jens Voertmann ($298,253)
Runner-up: Douglas Ganger

2008 WSOP Event 23: $2,000 No Limit Hold ‘em
Winner: Blair Hinkle ($507,563)
Runner-up: Mark Brockington

2008 WSOP Event 24:$2,500 Pot Limit Hold ‘em / Omaha
Winner: Max Pescatori ($246,471)
Runner-up: Kyle Kloeckner

2008 WSOP Event 25: $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold ‘em
Winner: Kenny Tran ($539,056)
Runner-up: Alec Torelli

2008 WSOP Event 26: $1,500 Seven Card Razz
Winner: Barry Greenstein ($157,643)
Runner-up: Chris Klodnicki

2008 WSOP Event 27: $1,500 No Limit Hold ‘em
Winner: Vitaly Lunkin ($628,417)
Runner-up: Brett Kimes

2008 WSOP Event 28: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys
Winner: Philip Galfond ($817,781)
Runner-up:Adam Hourani

It’s been a busy few days, but there’s still plenty more to come, we’ve only just reached the half-way point of the 2008 World Series of Poker - stay tuned for more updates in another few days.

Since we’ve had a heap of new visitors lately, I thought it would be a good idea to go back and highlight some of the more important posts on Gamblz from the past few weeks - if you’ve missed some of these posts, now would be a good time to catch up with them.

Social Networking

One of our aims at Gamblz is to promote social networking tools in the online gambling community, so plenty of the posts have focused on that… here’s a few that are worth checking out:

• Why you should be using Twitter
• Twitter conversations: 5 ways to find and track them
• Social networking - what’s it all about?
• Online gambling ‘room’ on FriendFeed
• RSS - save time, be informed

Online Gambling

Online casinos and poker rooms are at the heart of Gamblz, so obviously you’ll expect to see plenty of content relating to that. Apart from our regular World Series of Poker updates, here are a few stand-alone articles that you might want to catch up on:

• Which casino or poker room? how do you make your choice
• Full Tilt Poker, my experiences so far
• Everest Poker trends survey

…and finaly, everyone loves a bonus, so it might be a good idea to check out the latest Bonus Roundup (June 11th), there are 15 different bonuses for you to claim, including a $10 no deposit poker offer and five casino no deposit bonuses - enjoy!