Russian poker player Maxim Lykov is the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro. Officials from the world’s largest online poker site announced Lykov’s membership on Friday, noting that it took just two deposits of $40 for the Russian to become a global poker superstar.Lykov got his start in poker five years ago as an engineering student in Moscow. Text found on the PokerStars Blog recreates his journey from there: “It was only a year later that his two $40 deposits had become a big bankroll, one that is now – even by a conservative estimation– huge. He is listed as one of the highest-earning Russian live tourney players of all-time.”

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi entered Day 6 of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event second in chips and took his seat at the feature table alongside poker pro Peter Jetten. A total of 122 players remained including Mizrachi’s brother, Robert.Breeze Zuckerman exited in 121st place for $57,000 as this year’s Last Woman Standing. In her final hand, Zuckerman ran K-10 into UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin’s pocket aces

Betsson is to delay its decision on whether or not to apply for a licence in Denmark until uncertainty has been removed over the Danish government’s proposed “black period”, requiring applicant operators to cease all activity in the market until approved.Betsson AB chief executive Pontus Lindwall told eGR: “Betsson opposes strongly the proposed 'black period' and we have notified..

Poker operators will be free to tap into international liquidity when the regulated Danish egaming market opens in 2011, however licences looks unlikely to be approved until March or April at the earliest, industry experts there have suggested.Ladbrokes Nordic country manager for Denmark, Richardt Funch, told eGaming Review“In terms of poker, it’s proposed operators can still keep international liquidity, unlike Italy and France, which makes it much easier for us to set up

London-based Sportingbet PLC has agreed to pay $33 million to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to keep the online gambling operator out of court in the States. Sportingbet was under investigation for illegal internet gambling operations between 1998 and 2006.The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that Sportingbet offered internet gaming to players in the U.S., including real money online poker, as well as wagering on sports and casino games.

At the time of writing, 15 players remain in the £10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event. Arguably the two biggest names in the field, Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey and Viktor Blom, the person many believe to be behind the “Isildur1” moniker, both found the rail on Monday.Blom 3bet all-in before the flop with pocket eights and received a call from Brian Powell, who held K-Q to set up a race situation. The flop came 7-7-Q, giving Powell queens-up and the lead in the hand

Online poker traffic saw an increase of 5.2% last week according to PokerScout.com’s Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update. The site, which monitors real money cash games, reported a traffic increase for all of the top 10 sites and networks for the second week in a row.PokerScout’s weekly report also revealed a rise in traffic over this time last year for the first time in a month. According to PokerScout’s ACES indicator, online poker traffic is growing at an annual rate of 1%.

Sports news website BleacherReport.com published a list of the “Top 30 Sexiest Female Poker Players of All-Time” over the weekend, proving, if nothing else, that anyone can make a list.Bleacher Report is an “open source” sports network, a sports news site that allows anyone to post an article.  Its goal is to “empower the most hardcore of experts – the fans – who would otherwise be shut out of the mainstream debate.”