Justin Pechie won $167,060 in the $1,500 limit hold 'em Event 41 at the WSOP and obtained his first WSOP bracelet. In order to do so, he had to outlast a field of 538 players and fight with pros like Eugene Katchalov or Alan "BodogAri" Engel. The bracelet is his first, however, it’s his third cash in this year’s WSOP and his 14th altogether. Pechie is a renowned online poker player and has accumulated more than $1.5 million over his poker career. High as this sum might seem, he welcomes his last first-prize money – because of the repercussions of the Black Friday where many online players basically lost their deposits and winnings.

This whole shakedown of online sites PokerStars, FullTilts and the two "other" brands has really turned the world of poker upside down in the USA. In terms of PokerStars, they are not only an online brand - they are also massive sponsors for live poker tournaments. Where there is big prize money - the massive stars in this game go! Where big names are - the press is always present. Not for ESPN so it seems; they have foregone the big online brands altogether, and like downing rats off a ship; have dropped PokerStars viewing from their broadcast agenda on the turn - faster than you could say flop!

The recent DOJ indictments of these big poker brand names caught people as well as broadcasters unawares. Both the U.S cable TV network as well as ESPN now have plans in place to expand WSOP coverage. While plans to broadcast online brands have been scuttled, the World Series of Poker will benefit big-time. In fact the WSOP will benefit to such an extent that an additional 32 hours of cover will be tagged onto previous broadcast times. This will obviously be broadcast to the US and the rest of the world.

The additional 32 hours (or more) of TV cover for the 2011 WSOP main event, can be found on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. It takes place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas; for six consecutive days, starting July 14th and ending on 19th July. Again, this is a collaboration between Caesars, which owns the WSOP brand - and the WSOP Players Advisory Council, as well as ESPN. Barry Greenstein - poker professional and member of the WSOP Players Advisory Council; said that “this is a long-awaited step to get live poker on television, and it represents another good collaboration between Caesars etcetera…" The challenge is, as always, to maintain high standards of integrity in terms of the tournament; while at the same time offering poker fans the type of sports entertainment they wish to see.

After the Black Friday in online poker when the three biggest poker websites have been closed down and seized by the FBI (officially, for lying to financial institutions about the nature of their transactions passing them off as transactions related to purchases of common goods through the internet rather than to online poker or gambling), the Feds are gradually becoming subject to public mockery as players who formerly played at Pokerstars, Full Tillt or Absolute Poker have simply moved to offshore gambling companies, effectively shifting all gambling revenues from the U.S. to countries where not event the VAT is required. Amidst these developments doubts are rising about the sagacity of the move that ultimately prevented Americans from playing online within the boundaries of their home countries.

The poker lobby at the Bellagio in Las Vegas is filled with excitement as the WPT Championship is drawing to an end and it seems like the cards have been almost dealt, just waiting to see who will finally be the lucky one taking the first prize. The two main rivals are currently in possession of an almost equal amount of chips, together holding almost a half of all chips in the game. Gallen Hall and Scott Seiver are full of hope and enjoying a one-day break that has been announced after organisers realised that the field of players has been cut down much faster than expected and the tournament will only take six days instead of a week. The 24-year old Gallen Hall made the headlines in January this year for the first time after winning the PCA in the Bahamas. His rival Seiver already has experience in winning a WSOP bracelet event, but this WPT final table is his first one. The final six further include Justin Young, Tony Gargano, Roger Teska, and Freddy Bonyadi.

Today, the WSOP begins and we have one month and a half of exciting action ahead. This year, some new thrilling events will be added and there will be more TV coverage than ever. WSOP.com will offer a nearly live streaming of 55 final tables, on just a 5-minute delay, whilst also the ESPN channel will cover more WSOP action that it did ever before. The most eagerly awaited matches, apart from the main event which will play down to a final table to create the November Nine, there will be the re-enactments of famous historical plays, the Grudge matches, and we will see Chris Moneymaker playing against Sammy Farha again, Johnny Chan against Phil Hellmuth and Chan against Erik Seidel. Further on the schedule there is the Poker Player’s Championship featuring a $50K buy-in, last year won by Michael Mizrachi. Leading the bracelet count are Phil Hellmuth (11 bracelets), Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson (with 10 bracelets) and Phil Ivey and Eric Seidel (8 bracelets each). Considering Seidel’s unprecedented success this year, most of the time he is the one in the centre of attention.