The kickoff of the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event is only a few weeks away, and major online poker site Full Tilt Poker is giving out 100 free WSOP seats and sending players to Las Vegas!

Last year’s 100 Seat Main Event Guarantee tournament was so popular that Full Tilt is once again offering the $12K Main Event prize packages in a single tournament.

Professional poker player Phil Ivey heads to the Final Table of the Mirage Poker Showdown World Poker Tour Event with chip lead.

Finishing up Day Four in first place, Ivey (1,395,000 in chips) holds only a slim lead over online poker hotshots Cory Carroll (1.235), who is also coming off a WSOP Circuit win, and Darrell “Gigabet” Dicken (1.203), who has held the lead for a substantial portion of this tournament. Rounding out the final table are Jonathan Little (956k), Richard Kirsch (810k) and Amnon Filippi (571k) any of whom could make a move with the accelerated WPT final table blind structure.

Bodog Poker has released its 2007 odds to win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) as the poker tournament series gets underway in Las Vegas starting June 1. Props include bets on bracelet races and several Main Event “last longer” props that pit countrymen, family members and even the “Phils” against each other.

The 38th edition of the WSOP will have a total of 55 bracelet events - an increase from last year’s 46 - and while most players are aching just to win their first, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan are each hoping to stand alone atop the bracelet count by winning a record 11th title this year.

Top female poker player, Annie Duke, teams up with actor Don Cheadle for the Ante Up for Africa, a fund raising poker tournament to help the survivors of the Darfur crisis. It will be part of the World Series of Poker’s (WSOP) list of events.

The event is scheduled on July 5, 4pm in the Amazon Room at the Rio. The event carries a $5,000 entry fee, with participants also invited to a private party held at the Rio’s rooftop Voodoo Lounge the same night.

The biggest online poker site, Poker Stars has announced that it will make a $1 million donation to the Dafur humanitarian crisis in Africa in support of a major fund raising effort by the stars and cast of the upcoming gambling movie “Ocean’s 13“

The donation will be presented during the Cannes Film Festival in France. Furthermore, Poker Stars has created a series of special events to generate additional contributions for the fund in the coming weeks.

PokerStars 100% First-Time Deposit Bonus

From now until the end of 2007, if you make your first-ever real money deposit, PokerStars will give you a 100% bonus up to $50. Use the bonus code “First2007″ to begin earning your extra cash. To earn this bonus, you will simply need to play on Poker Stars and collect the number of Base FPPs equal to 10 times the bonus amount. You have six months after your first deposit to earn all the FPPs you need to cash out your bonus. Visit the PokerStars.com deposit page page for full details. This promotion ends on December 31, 2007.

The World Poker Tour has announced full schedule of tournament events for Season 6. The schedule includes 19 regular tournament stops and a WPT staple themed event, Ladies Night V. Other additional themed events will be announced at a later date.

Additional tournaments to the line-up include a stop at the Caribbean’s Turks and Caicos Islands September 25-30, 2007, and the October 12-16, 2007 event in Barcelona, Spain…

(Edited from Press Release) Good news to all poker players who will enter the 2007 World Series of Poker, most players who finish in the money in the WSOP events will receive a higher percentage of the prize pools than last year, WSOP officials has announced.

“We are increasing the return to players who, after hours or days of grueling competition, are able to reach the money,” said Howard Greenbaum, regional vice president of specialty gaming for Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. “Our goal is to keep more money circulating among more people in the poker community.”