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The Aussie Millions is the only major global poker event held in Australia. It is hosted by Crown Casino in Melbourne. The poker tournament is held alongside another global sporting event which is the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam Event. These two events were combined last year by the pairing of poker professional Gus Hansen and tennis professional Caroline Wozniacki. That affair is now over.

Two of the biggest events of the Aussie Millions are currently in progress. The first is the $10,600 buy in Main Event that will run from January 22 to January 28. One of the notable entries is Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. Dwan was closely associated with Full Tilt Poker. He has maintained a low profile ever since Full Tilt was hauled through the coals after Black Friday. Then Dwan had promised to part with a million dollars of his own money to pay the stranded Full Tilt players, should the online poker room default on its commitments. Full Tilt Poker has not yet paid its players, though it is in the process of striking a deal that would hopefully see the players getting their money. Dwan has therefore stated that he will wait another year to see how the saga unfolds, but has reiterated that his promise stands. On a happier note Dwan is in Australia with his girl friend. They were spotted in tourist hot spots like the Sydney Opera House (see picture). Dwan’s girl friend has apparently been Tweeting the not so personal details about their Australia trip.

Meanwhile the $100,000 Challenge for the high rollers is drawing to a close. At the time of writing five players remain. Gus Hansen is at the number five spot and will need to pull out something special to survive. His ex-girl friend Wozniacki is through to the quarter finals in her sport. Mikhail Smirnov is way ahead of the pack followed by Joe Hachem.

Maria Ho, the poker babe, has also entered the Aussie Millions Main Event. Maria has been the last woman standing in two major poker tournaments, WSOP and WSOPE. Can she repeat that feat in the Aussie Millions Main Event?

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) is the first big event on the poker calendar for 2012. As usual it is being held at the luxurious Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island in The Bahamas. The $100,000 Super High Roller has just been completed and it was a fitting beginning to the New Year.

The final table of eight players was the most star studded one seen in a long time. The poker fans have been dreaming of such a table at the WSOP Main Event for years. At the top of the table was Galen Hall, the winner of the 2011 PCA Main Event, hoping to create history at the Atlantis with back to back wins. Jonathan Duhamel, having put aside the home robbery by his ex-girl friend, was in the second spot. The veteran Daniel Negreanu, the leader in the all time live tournament earnings, was in third spot. Viktor Blom was next. As Isildur 1, Blom has ruled online poker rooms, but has yet to make a mark in live tournaments, where he has only one cash to his name. He finished 16th at the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event. Dan Shak was the last player with the million plus chips. The last three were Scott Seiver, Mike “Timex” MacDonald and Humberto Brenes.

Brenes was the first to get eliminated, followed by McDonald and Seiver. All this while, Blom was grinding away making small but steady gains. Of the biggest names Negreanu was the first to go. His live tournament earnings will go up by a minuscule $250k. Soon after Duhamel was eliminated, Blom seized the top spot and things were tight from then on. Hall went next and Shak lost to Blom in the heads up.

It was a different Blom at the PCA Super High Roller. The aggressive raises were replaced by a patient waiting game. There is a list somewhere of top class poker players who have not won a major event. That list will now have one name less. Blom is a member of Team PokerStars, the sponsors of the event and this is what the PokerStars blog says. Famous among fans and infamous among the media for his reticence, Blom nearly escaped after his victory without saying a word. Instead, he gave a rare on-camera interview during which he said, in part, “It feels good to succeed.”

When the Epic Poker League (EPL) took members it issued a card to each. The members of the poker community with the highest stature were given a 5 Year Card. The cards in decreasing order of ranking were 3 Year Card, 2 Year Card Category A and 2 Year Card Category B. Now the EPL has created the highest card, the lifetime player card, and conferred it to Doyle Brunson. This will make him automatically eligible to play all future EPL tournaments. Doyle has $6.1 million in lifetime tournament earnings and 10 WSOP gold bracelets, but the honor was not really meant just for that. EPL Commissioner Annie Duke said that this was an acknowledgement of the efforts pit in by Doyle over several decades to make poker popular and accessible.

In his inimitable style Doyle responded, “It’s unnecessary but I guess it’s nice to be remembered for what we went through to get poker to this point.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Doyle reminisced that at one time poker was looked down upon in Las Vegas. Then he and a group of card sharks known as the Texas Rounders came to Sin City and popularized Texas Hold‘em games at the Golden Nugget.

Earlier Doyle had been given one of the two year cards under league eligibility rules, which are weighed to emphasize recent success. Jeffery Pollack, executive chairman of FS+G that owns the EPL, said that Brunson’s contributions to poker are timeless, making him the game’s statesman. “The modern history of poker is Doyle’s life,” he added.

Doyle did not play in the EPL’s first two main events. Reading between the lines it is evident that the EPL goofed up in giving Doyle a low rated card and he was not amused. Now they have made good their error in the most suitable way. However, Doyle is not likely to play significantly more tournaments because of the lifetime card. He said, “As I’m getting older, these tournaments are getting too hard to come through. It’s probably not worth it to me anymore to really go on the tournament grind, so I don’t plan on playing a whole lot of tournaments the rest of my life. I much prefer to play cash games.”

WSOP 2012 will have a new event with an unprecedented $1 million buy-in. Titled “The Big One for One Drop”, this event is the creation of One Drop Chair and Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberte. Laliberte had worked on this concept with Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber. The idea was to combine poker players’ charitable nature with WSOP’s global reach to create an unparalleled poker event for raising the awareness to the acute shortage of water in many parts of the world.

The Big One for One Drop will take place from July 1 to July 3, 2012. Already 22 poker professionals have committed their participation. 22 is the minimum requirement for a WSOP official bracelet event. From each $1 million buy-in, $111,111 will be donated to One Drop towards raising funds for a legacy project of providing clean water access in a needy country. The balance amount will go to the prize pool. With 22 participants the expected prize pool will be nearly $20 million. The event will be capped at 48 players. The expected first place prize would very likely be $10 million or more and the winner will also receive a specially-designed WSOP platinum bracelet. A record 20% of the field will be in the cash. The event will be played as No-Limit Hold’em. WSOP is planning for ESPN to televise this event.

The players who have confirmed and have allowed their names to be made public are Guy Laliberte, Bobby Baldwin – four times bracelet winner and CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts, Phil Ruffin – owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas, Andy Beal, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony Guoga, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Daniel Shak. Some others players have confirmed their participation but wish to remain anonymous for the present. Seats will also be offered through the following satellite events: The Montreal Group seat, Loto-Quebec seat, Caesars seat and European satellite seat.

Duhamel (in picture), who is a spokesperson for One Drop said that he was thrilled to participate in the biggest poker event ever organized. One million dollars is a lot of money but the cause is a great one. “Life starts with water and because of its uneven distribution a person dies every 20 seconds.” He further committed to give 5% of his winnings from this tournament to One Drop.

Lisa Hamilton is a poker babe who has been there, but in the background. She has not done anything on the tables like Liv Boeree or anything off the tables like Lacey Jones. She is currently in the news because she made a flutter at the World Poker Tour Jacksonville event. At one point during the tournament she appeared set to take the first place and etch her name in poker history, but flattered to deceive. Ultimately Lisa was eliminated in thirds place behind Anthony Ruberto and Sam Soverel.

Lisa originally hails from Honolulu Hawaii but moved to Las Vegas in 2005 to play poker. Her bio says that she is well-known as a high stakes live cash game player. At one time the poker babe’s PokerStars alias was “omgfml”, which for the uninitiated means Oh My God F*** My Life. PokerStars pro ElkY convinced Lisa to play live poker tournaments.

Her first one was the 2009 WSOP $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em World Championship in which she bested a field of 1,060 and won the bracelet and her first live tournament cash of $195,390. At that time Card Player wrote, “The 37-year-old Hawaiian didn’t have to endure a long final table, as play for the final nine lasted just under four hours. … Strictly a cash game player up until this WSOP, Hamilton now has a bracelet, lots of cash, and a reason to enter in some more events this summer.”

Lisa has four WSOP cashes, including two earned this year. Her total WSOP earnings are $222,869, which is nothing really to write home about if you take away her first win. Excluding her current WPT cash of $112,657 her total winnings have been $363,758 from 7 cashes. Money wise her second best performance was at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January 2010 in the No Limit Hold’em High Roller 8 Max event, where she finished 5th and won $133,770. That made her the highest grossing woman player at PCA.

Lisa Hamilton has the experience and the ability. The question is will this poker babe break out of the background to become a luminary. Only time will tell.