NEWS UPDATES

•  Private WSOP tournament

Mansion Poker is the place to qualify for the WSOP Main Event this year! They have been kind enough set up a private tournament for Oddschecker users (old and new) who've signed up to Mansion Poker through Oddschecker Poker to win one of three places into the Mansion Super Satellite. If there was ever an excuse to sign up to a new poker room, this is it!

The Special Oddschecker tournament Will be held on the 8th June at 20hrs BST and costs only $1 + $0.10 to enter. The tournament guarantees 3 seats for the WSOP Satellite worth $320 each !!!

The tournament can be found in the lobby now and the password for entry is: WSOP0806

And rememeber if you fail to qualify via our tournamnet for the WSOP satellite, there are plenty of other ways to qualify for the tournament where Mansion will give away 10 packages.

•  John Tabatabai joins Betfair

John Tabatabai has become the latest rising young poker star to join Betfair Poker's elite team of talent. The 23 year old takes his place alongside Sorel Mizzi and Annette Obrestad as Team Betfair continues to build a roster capable of beating the very best in the world.

Originally from Cardiff but now living in London , Tabatabai's passion before Poker was Chess and he even played in European and World Championships. He later turned to poker whilst at University and used the skills he picked up on the chess board to enhance his poker play. He first hit the headlines when taking Betfair pro Annette right to the wire at the 2007 WSOPE and has since proved himself by winning the All Africa Poker Tournament. Tabatabai has now been playing poker for nearly five years and can regularly be found dominating cash tables in casinos around the world as well as on Betfair Poker.

Director of Poker, Bruce Stubbs, sat next to John on day one at World Series Of Poker Europe 2007 and had this to say: "John is a very aggressive poker strategist, who also is an absolute class act at the table which is very refreshing to see. Although he came just short in the 2007 WSOPE, he managed to win in South Africa to prove he has what it takes. Like our other young guns John is making things happen right now, and we expect big things from him!"

John Tabatabai will be joining Betfair Poker at the WSOP in Las Vegas after which you will find John playing regularly on Betfair.

•  888.com WPC Final

The final table of the $3 million 888.com World Poker Crown will be broadcast live on the Internet this afternoon at 3:30 CET (2.30 p.m. BST / 9.30 a.m. ET ) at www.worldpokercrown.com.

The tournament, which saw over 2,200 players take part in the no limit hold'em freezeout at 888.com on Apr. 26, played down to the final eight online and today reconvenes in Peralada Castle, Spain, to play out for the $1 million first prize in a live environment.

The event will set two 'world firsts' For the first time ever on a poker tournament streamed live on the web viewers can bet on the action at www.888sport.com and viewers will also be able to see playe rs hole cards during the stream for the first time ever.

Players from Canada , Netherlands , Poland , and Germany make up the final eight in this unique online/live hybrid tournament which had an overlay of $800,000.

The final table consists of:

•  Jack Hinchey ( Canada ) - 365,000

•  Michael Lawson ( Canada ) - 255,000

•  Bart Wetsteijn ( Netherlands ) - 123,000

•  Piotr Skiba ( Poland ) - 87,000

•  Mark Castonguay ( Canada ) - 78,000

•  van Bavel ( Netherlands ) - 70,000

•  Gijsbert van Doesburg ( Netherlands ) - 68,000

•  Arjan Mark Rossler ( Germany ) - 65,000

Viewers can tune in to www.worldpokercrown.com before the webcast to bet on the winner and be in with a chance of winning four World Series of Poker packages in restricted tournaments during the game.