Starting this coming Monday, August 3, (one day after the next PartyPoker Monthly Million) Party Poker is starting its new Cash Rush promotion. In it a player will earn a scratchcard for every 20 Party Points they earn playing real money ring games, tournaments, and Sit ‘n’ Gos at PartyPoker.

The prizes that players can win on these PartyPoker Cash Rush scratchcards come in the forms of both cash and more PartyPoints. Cash prizes range from $5 to the one card that’s worth $50,000. A player can win an unlimited number of cards while the promotion is in effect.

Rather than expiring on a set date, the Cash Rush promotion will run until 1 million scractchards are distributed.

In the meantime, qualifiers are running now for this weekend’s PartyPoker Monthly Million, coming up Sunday, August 2 at 12:45 ET. Buying-in directly costs $640 so it’s well-worth at least trying to win your seat first.

One way to play winning online poker is to do whatever you can (within the rules, of course) to up your odds and get the most for your bankroll. One way to do both of those things at once is to seek out tournaments prone to overlays, and enter them. Aced Poker is one site experiencing some serious overlays in its regular tournaments.

An overalay is when not enough players have signed up and paid the buy-in to cover the guaranteed prize pool amount in a guaranteed tournament. When that happens, the site itself has to come up with the rest of the money.

In an tournament with an overlay there are fewer players competing for the prize money than anticipated (increasing your odds) and a greater value dollar-for-dollar on your buy-in (getting the most for your bankroll).

Aced Poker is having recurrent overlays at its regular Sunday $50K Guaranteed Tournament.  To learn more about Aced Poker we recommend this Aced Poker Review so that you can find out if this is the right room for you.

Two of UltimateBet’s Star Players team, and what’s more two of the newest players to have joined the team, have translated their online poker success to the offline poker world with major 2009 World Series of Poker accomplishments.

One is Brandon Cantu, who has only been a member of the Ultimate Bet Poker family for a few weeks. He came in runner-up in Event #39, $1,500 No Limit Holdem, against a field of 2,715 players, for a $403,951 payday. Cantu’s previous poker accomplishments include finishing 20th in the 2008 WSOP Main Event and winning the $1 million top prize in Event #2 of the World Poker Tour Shooting Star Championship.

The other is Matt Graham who won Event #40, Pot Limit Omaha, for a $679,379 payday. Matt was only just signed to UB’s Star Players Team this past March. Graham’s prior poker accomplishments include a $2.5 million total career winnings, including winning both the 2008 Five Diamond World Poker Classic and the 2008 World Poker Challenge.

In recent WSOP news, Event #12 ($10,000 Mixed Game World Championship) favorites Doyle Brunson and grandson Todd Brunson were outlasted by the 24-year-old who became the first Finnish player ever to win a WSOP bracelet, Ville Wahlbeck. With the historical significance of his accomplishment washing over him, you’d think Wahlbeck had altogether forgotten about the $492,375 prize that came with it.

Runner-up David Chiu had just come off of winning last year’s WPT season finale, the World Poker Tour World Championship for over $3.3 million, and beating Gus Hansen in heads-up play to do it.

A similar 2009 WSOP upset followed in Event #14 ($2500 six-handed Limit Hold’em) where favorite Daniel Negreanu was beaten at the last minute by online magician “t_soprano” aka former Magic player Brock Parker.

Sandwiched between those two events was Event #13 ($2500 No Limit Hold’em) where Keven “Stamdogg” Stamen took down the $506,000 prize. And most recently, Brian “ship_the_perc” Lemke won Event #15 ($5,000 No Limit Hold’em) for $692,000.

Players can start warming up for the upcoming 2009 World Series of Poker by heading to Titan Poker to participate in its fourth European Championship of Online (ECOOP IV) which started today, Monday, May 25, with a $250,000 guaranteed tournament.

By the end of the two week long series of daily tournaments, Titan Poker expects to give away some $4.5 million ($2 million more than was given out at the first ECOOP in December of 2007).

With events in Texas Holdem, 7-Card Stud, Omaha, and Omaha Hi/Lo; with No Limit, Limit, and Pot Limit events; and with turbo tournaments, 6-max tournaments, and events with rebuys and add-ons – ECOOP IV has something for everyone.

Midway through the series, on June 1, there’s a high-rolling $2,500 + $100 event with a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. And the ECOOP IV Main Event on June 7 is a $1.5 million guaranteed tournament with a $1,500 + $80 buy-in.

The best way to play winning online poker is for free. That is, to win something for nothing, and the only way to do that is with freerolls. With this in mind, Hollywood Poker may be the place to go after a tumultuous workday. That’s because Hollywood Poker has initiated a freeroll series specifically with Monday through Friday nine-to-fivers in mind.

They’re calling it clubHOLLYWOODpoker Weekly Freeroll Series and it runs, predictably, every Monday through Friday at 5 pm ET. At stake: as much as $3,000. club HOLLYWOOD poker, incidentally, is HollywoodPoker’s player loyalty program which, among other benefits, offers members Prize Pool Boosters, an opportunity to multiply your tournament winnings by as much as 200%.

This of course is far from the only freeroll series Hollywood Poker offers. They also run a Red Carpet Welcome Freeroll every Monday night, accessible by way of their Feature Freeroll Series. It works like this, be one of the top 20 players in the Feature Freeroll and make it into the Quarter Freeroll. Be one of the top 20 finishers in the Quarter Roll and make it into the Fifty Roll. The top 20 from the Fifty Roll make it to the Red Carpet roll and a shot a $100, free.

Poker Stars has added another incentive to its selection of World Series of Poker satellites – a reload bonus, so you can fatten your bankroll just in time to get in the satellite games and win your way into the WSOP.

The reload bonus is open to any Poker Stars player who has already made at least one deposit into their PokerStars real money account before (that means anyone for whom this will not a first deposit). The reload bonus is 20% of your deposit, up to a maximum bonus of $120.

If you haven’t made a deposit into your PokerStars account, though, and this would count as your first deposit, that doesn’t mean the WSOP reload bonus isn’t available to you. It just means that after you claim the 100% first deposit bonus (up to $50), you can then make a second deposit and claim the PokerStars World Series of Poker reload bonus.

Last year, PokerStars sent some 2,000 players to the 2008 WSOP.

There’s a new VIP program in town and it’s held at Carbon Poker. Long-lacking a player loyalty program, Carbon Poker is now proud to introduce Carbon VIP Points, a points-based rewards system similar to that of other leading poker sites, whereby a player accumulates VIP Points for participating in raked hands of real money poker ring games and qualifying tournaments which can then be redeemed for free tournament entries, prizes, and cash. Players advance through 5 status levels (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Ether) based on frequency and stakes of game play, with each level of status offering a greater amount of rewards for points redeemed.

This at the same time as Carbon Poker–and its parent network, the Merge Network–gets a welcome software upgrade in version 4.5 of its poker software. The upgrade includes table customization features for changing up elements like backgrounds, card backs, table rails, and floors. It also includes a “Poker Game Mini-Mode” for multi-tabling that minimizes the screen to the smallest possible size while still being readable. Players can also choose a Grid mode for multi-tabling instead, and select up to a 5×5 grid for simultaneously displaying their various games.

PokerStars has once again launched an exciting new online poker series called the Spring Championships of Online Poker – All Stakes.  This event will take place from April 2-12 and will feature a total guaranteed prize pool of $30,000,000!

The best part about this new series is that it is not reserved for only the high rollers.

Each event will include three tournaments – one for low-stakes players, one for those who play medium-stakes, and finally one for those that play in our high-stakes games. The huge prize pool guarantees in each tournament means that even low-stakes players have the chance to win big.

There will also be two High-Roller events, and the series ends with the Main Event on Sunday, April 12 – including a $1,000,000 guarantee for the lowest stake level tournament, and a $5,000,000 guarantee for the high-stakes tournament!

Low stakes players start on April 2nd with a $5.50 buy in tournament with a guaranteed $50,000 payout!  High stakes players max out at a $10,300 buy in with $5 million in guaranteed cash given out by PokerStars on April 12th, 2009!

So go get involved in the biggest online tournament series of the spring at PokerStars Spring Championships of Online Poker – All Stakes.

Start Playing in the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker by CLICKING HERE.  Use PokerStars bonus code pawsub20 to get up to $50 FREE on your first deposit.