After getting down to the final nine, a familiar face was knocked out on the bubble in Vanessa Rousso, and another Vanessa was quick to take her place as she would take over the chip lead going into the final table.  Vanessa Selbst, a major online poker pro and instructor (this chick is the real deal at $550+ an hour folks, lol), used her aggressive play to roll over her opponents en route to an 8 to 1 chip advantage when it got down to heads up play.  It only took a few hands before her Ace-High (A 8 os) held over the Queen-High (Q T) of Mike Beasley – as the board would brick out after they shoved it in before the flop.

Selbst took home a whopping a $750,000 for her efforts and solidified herself as one of the top up-and-coming women poker players in the game today.

This is more amazing news for the Merge family of poker rooms and players, especially when you consider that the player base of Carbon Poker will be seeing some HUGE traffic in the coming months with the addition of Sportsbook.com and PlayersOnly to their network recently.

The recent moves by Merge signify that they’re now ready to compete with the bigger time poker sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as a merge as big as this one probably isn’t just for shits and giggles.  Carbon Poker will be packing some serious punch now, and with 35% rakeback to offer it’s no wonder why the traffic has been hitting some big numbers in the last week.

To cash in on 35% Carbon Poker Rakeback, visit one of our related sites at CarbonRakeback.org.

By playing at real money ring games and tournaments at PlayersOnly Poker you accumulate points that, when you accumulate enough of them, to into a Gold Chip. The more Gold Chips you earn, the faster you earn points toward your next Gold Chip. Earn 5 Gold Chips in a month, get a 6th Gold Chip free.

Now, you can convert these Gold Chips into great prizes – like a TV, an iPod, or Super Bowl tix – or you can convert them to cash through Gold Rush Tournaments and Gold Chip Satellites

Gold Rush Tournaments have all different sorts of prizes. Some are guaranteed tournaments with minimum guaranteed cash prize pools, like the PlayersOnly $250K Guaranteed. Some are qualifiers into major live land-based tournaments like the Aussie Millions. And don’t let the difference in names confuse you. Gold Chip Satellites are basically the same thing. Get a $250K Guaranteed Seat, a $100K Guaranteed Seat, or a free seat in a World Poker Tour main event.

In addition to all this, there are also Gold Cards, basically another name for poker bonuses or rewards, which are awarded at random at real money ring games (not tournaments). The higher the stakes, the more Gold Cards rewarded in a given period of time. Gold Cards are a yearlong promotion, and the 2009 Series Gold Card promotion is almost at an end. Get a leg up on the 2010 Gold Card Leaderboard by being there on day 1 of the New Year to start accumulating 2010 Series Gold Cards.

Gold Cards offer many opportunities to win cash and prize bonuses each day, week, and month. There are Gold Card Daily Lotteries, the Gold Card 500 Tournament, 2010 Series Guaranteed Prizes, and $52,000 Grand Prize for the PlayersOnly player who earns the most number of unique Gold Cards in the series.

All this is to say that there’s gold to be had at Players Only Poker.

New players will need to sign up for a new account at Bodog Poker and make a deposit. Players will then get an instant 10% in an upfront cash bonus. Players must then get to the poker tables and for every ten poker points earned a player will earn an additional $1 in bonus money up to a 100% match of the first deposit up to $500. Players must earn the poker points in the first thirty days of play.

For example if a player deposits $500 then that player will earn $50 in upfront cash. So the player will have $550 to start with. Then during the first thirty days of play that player must earn 5000 in poker points to earn 100% of their bonus.

Players must remember they have only thirty days to earn the bonus so make sure you get plenty of table time in during your first thirty days at Bodog Poker. The registration process is very easy and once you are done and have made a deposit, you will be on your way to earning the 110% signup bonus.

To keep yourself up to date on all the action going on right now at the site and claiming your $30 FREE CASH BONUS, I recommend checking out WilliamHillPromotionalCode.com. This is a super great informational site that keeps tabs on what’s going on at this Euro gaming powerhouse and will also feature some great poker referral codes for you when it comes to getting an account and receiving a sick little deposit bonus as well.

It can be hard keeping up with all the new bonuses and news going on over at William Hill, so this resource will always keep players in the loop, as well as give incentive to new players wanting to check out the site a reason to sign up for an account and get to betting on sports, playing some poker, or taking a shot at all the casino games they have to offer on top of that. As mentioned before, you get $30 just for signing up – and you can use that to check out the site’s software and get a feel for the environment.

When you’re ready to make that first deposit, you just have to enter your William Hill Promotional Code at signup, and you’ll be credited with your free money and also be eligible for a huge bonus of up to $1,000 – which is of course dependent on how much money you load onto your account.

Players at UB has unlimited potential to earn some SICK poker bonuses. Currently the online poker room is offering a UB Referral Code which can be used to get such a sizeable poker bonus. The current high bonus for the month of December is a 111% bonus for their first deposit to UB up to $1100.

The UB Referral Code for December 2009 is CASH110. This code can be entered when new players sign up at UB. Players who use this code will earn up to $1100 in free money just for making their first deposit.  A player’s first deposit will be matched by 111% up to $1100. Players can figure out how much bonus cash they will receive by multiplying their initial deposit by 1.11.

UB also has the new Power Hour reward program which allows players at their online poker room to earn extra UltimatePoints. This is another one of UB’s cool poker bonusdes. Players can play specific poker games at UB during special gaming hours to earn double the Ultimate Points. This is a very easy way for players to earn points quickly to then use the Points to buy items or tournament seats.

Full Tilt is the second largest online poker room and although they do not have a VIP program they do have a great Points Program. The online poker room offers players the chance to earn Full Tilt Points and in exchange for the points, players can earn items from the Full Tilt Poker Store or enter into Points Tournaments.

Players begin earning Full Tilt Points by playing in any qualifying raked real-money hand in a ring game or a real-money Multi-table Tournament as well as Sit & Go with a tournament fee. In ring games every player will earn a Full Tilt Point (FTP) for each dollar raked from a pot if they were dealt cards for that hand.

In Multi-table tournaments and Sit & Gos players will earn 7 FTPs for every dollar paid. Full Tilt example of this is if you enter a tournament and pay a buy-in of $10 plus $1 then you would earn 7 points. If you play a tournament with a $200 plus $16 buy-in then you will earn 112 points. Players will earn their points once the tournament is finished or at the end of the hand.Once players have earned the Full Tilt Points then they can go to the Full Tilt Poker Store and use them to purchase items such as clothes, books, electronics and DVDs. Players can also use their points to enter into exclusive Full Tilt Point tournaments where they can earn entries into satellite tournaments and other prizes.

Full Tilt also hosts Happy Hour which is a way for players to earn double or triple Full Tilt Points. Players should look for specially designated tables with the ‘smiley face’ next to them and they can participate in those to earn extra points. Just imagine the comps they could give out if they added an online casino to the mix?!

The reload bonus is paid out in $5 increments and players need to earn 250 VIP Points per $5. So, essentially that is only 50 VIP points per $1. So players who deposit $100 they would earn a deposit bonus of $100 added to their account. Players will then have sixty days to complete the bonus.

Players can make a minimum of $20 deposit and a maximum of $200 and it is a onetime bonus.  Players can earn VIP points from side games but they are not counted toward the reload bonus. Players need to stay away from the blackjack, roulette, Caribbean stud, video poker, backgammon and euchre when trying to earn VIP points for the Reload bonus.

The reload bonus is a great way for players to earn extra cash while playing at Aced poker. Players will find that Aced poker offers a great deal of bonus options for their players. Players new to Aced poker can simply sign up and create an account to take advantage of the reload bonus.

A rakeback, for those who are unfamiliar, is a way for players to earn back a portion of their rake, which is the fee that the players pay to play at an online poker room. Poker rooms take a fee paid by the player during each game. Players can earn a percentage of money back as they play at online poker rooms.

StackTheRake.com gives players the information they need to find the best deals on rakebacks at a variety of online poker rooms. Stack The Rake gives players a list of online poker rooms as well as the percentage of rakebake information they will earn at each poker room.

Players can also get the latest rakeback news at Stack The Rake.  A ticker sits on the right side of the site that shows players all of the latest news going on in the poker industry for rakebacks. The site also has a rakeback calculator which can be used to determine how much money a player will earn from playing on various online poker rooms.

Poker players can become a member of StacktTheRake.com for free to take advantage of all the rakeback information. Players can sign up for the service quickly and easily. It takes only seconds to sign up on the site and players will be sent to the information page which gives monthly statistics of the poker player’s rakeback account.

PKR Poker and Betfair Poker are two online Poker rooms featured on the Stack The Rake website. Plaerys will find that both poker rooms offer a 30 to 40 percent rakeback as well as welcome bonuses for new players.

PKR Poker is offering a welcome bonus of 100% up to $800 which will help players have more funds to earn rakebacks. PKR Poker Rakeback offers a 30% rakeback and rakebacks can be earned during tournament play. players will have their PKR Poker rakeback money deposited into their account by PKR and payments are made on a monthly basis.

Betfair Poker is also offering a welcome bonus and theirs is worth $1,500. Betfair Poker Rakeback offers a little better percentage at 30 to 40 percent in rakebacks. The online poker room deposits the Betfair Poker rakebacks into players accounts as well but deposits are made twice a month instead of just monthly.

New players to Raider Poker will find that the poker room offers a 100% first deposit bonus up to $500. Players will earn the extra cash for making their first deposit. Players must earn 80 times the bonus amount in PokerPoints in the first thirty days after the first deposit to earn the extra cash.

Players can earn PokerPoints by playing poker at Raider Poker. One PokerPoint is awarded each time ten cents is contributed to the rake. So for those who play a lot of poker it should not take long before the PokerPoints will be earned to cash out the bonus cash.

Raider Poker also offers an instant play version. This is a great option for players who want to check out the poker room before making a deposit. So check out the instant version and if you like Raider Poker, then open an account to take advantage of their first deposit bonus.