Poker player wins gold after outlasting 2,828 players. The latest winner is Kirk Caldwell who took his first WSOP win. The 31-year-old is an amateur poker player who won his way into the World Series of Poker by winning a satellite tournament put together by himself and his friends. Caldwell's his first-ever WSOP cash means a $688,276 cash purse as well as a coveted gold bracelet. Caldwell is the fourth Canadian to win a title at the 2011 WSOP. Ben White took the 2nd place prize of $414,918.

Sam Stein continues to prove his worth at the WSOP. The 2011 World Series of Poker has served up a first win for Stein. While Stein is a poker player who has cashed a lot and made a lot of money playing live poker, he had yet to have a big win at the WSOP. This year changes all that as he claims his first bracelet. Event 31, the $3,000 Pot-limit Omaha, put up $1,870,050 in prize money, and after outlasting 3,752 player Stein walked with $420,802.

While the world of online poker continues to find it's heading amidst the US Government attack, one poker company ha reported a substantial increase in its revenue. HeadsUp Entertainment International made the positive announcement on Friday that they are doing well. HeadsUp Entertainment International owns the Canadian Poker Player Magazine as well as the Canadian Poker Tour, which hosts poker games across the country. The Canadian Poker Player Television Network is also part of the company, and it announced that poker revenue was more than $517,000 USD in the first quarter of this year.

One of the largest first place prizes of the season was won yesterday at the 2011 WSOP. The World Series of Poker Event 18 paid out $735,400 for first place. The winner was Foster Hays, who outlasted five tough players in the final day of play in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. Hays is an amateur poker player from Dallas, Texas where he works during the day as a medical researcher. Hays is only the second player to win a bracelet this season that is an amateur, with all the rest being poker pro

The latest WSOP poker champ is the latest poker players from Russia to hit the big time. In the last few years  it seems at least one Russian poker player turns poker pro at the WSOP. This time it was Viacheslav Zhukov, the winner the $10,000 buy-in Omaha high-low split eight-or-better world championship of Event 10 at the WSOP 2011.The 22-year-old earned $465,216 after outlasting the 202 players. This is the first WSOP win for this player, who now joins the ranks of Russian WSOP champs like  Vladimir Shchemelev and Vitaly Lunkin

Sam Barnhart has been named the WSOPC National Champion. Barnhard won the poker event at Caesars Palace and $300,000 as a first place prize. This event was the end of the World Series of Poker Circuit season for 2010 and 2011. Barnhart has made nearly half a million dollars in prize money in the last four months. The WSOPC is the extended series that builds off of the WSOP, which will begin next week in Las Vegas. Sam Barnhart is a 50 year old software analyst that may also be considered a poker pro.

One Canadian poker pro tried to claim his losses at poker as losses in a business for his tax report and was found wanting.  Steven Cohen left his law firm to play professional poker, but after failing to get a tax advantage has returned to practicing law. On a 2006 tax form he listed nearly $200k as business expenses, but they were actually his losses when playing poker, both in live tournaments and online poker. The poker player's tax report was not approved by the tax authorities because his poker playing was ruled as a hobby, not a business.
 

Despite the shut down of some major poker rooms one poker player is having a decidedly good year. Gus Hansen has turned his online poker hours into a massive profit. At online poker room Full Tilt Poker he made $410,000 in one night, a feat that pushed him close to a $1.5 million profit in a week, nearly $4 million for the year. Known as the Great Dane, the poker pro has been a fan favorite for years, especially after his unpredictable style of play was showcased in the early days of the World Poker Tour.

Online poker room Lock Poker has added a new poker player as a sponsored pro. Casey "Bigdogpckt5s" Jarzabek is the latest poker pro to find a home in an online poker room. Online poker rooms have been in the news in the last month for firing poker pros in conjunction with the US government crackdown on online poker, so the news that one online poker room is hiring suggests possible good things for the industry. The LockPRO team has sixteen members, and the LockPRO ELITE has twelve.

The poker player of the year from Card Player poker magazine is Taylor Von Kriegenbergh. The poker pro recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. The Card Player player of the year award is a hot victory for any poker player, garnering them attention that often results in lucrative player contracts and invitations to big prize pool poker tournaments. Von Kriegenbergh moved up to player of the year in part because of his win at the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown , the first WPT event in Florida.