We are into the 2nd week of August, the WSOP is on hold until the November Nine return on 6th November to Las Vegas to battle it out for the $8,944,138 first prize and the title of WSOP Main Event Champion.

In the online world we have the FTOPS XVII taking place at Full Tilt Poker running through to the FTOPS Main Event on Sunday August 15th. Followed by the WCOOP with $50 million guaranteed at Pokerstars from 5th to 26th September.

The Live Poker Circuit switches its attention to London with the London Poker Festival starting 30th August with the WPT London sponsored by Partypoker.

Tomorrow sees the start of the Full Tilt Poker hosted FTOPS XVII tournament series as the seventeenth run of the FTOPS begins. The event promises to guarantee a total prize pool of $19,000,000 across 33 events including the $600 Main Event with a $3,000,000 prize pool.

Last year, FTOPS was made up of thirty events making it the largest FTOPS to date. This series of FTOPS tournaments is the largest ever seen at Full Tilt Poker. The first event is a $216 NL event, the same as FTOPS XVI – this opening event last time saw a field of 3,673 with a first prize of $130,000.

New to the series will be the introduction of six Rush Poker tournaments. Rush Poker is Full Tilt’s new signature game, in which players are moved to a different table after each hand is dealt. This way, playing one table can yield a rate of over 200 hands per hour and always keeps your opposition fresh.

If Texas Holdem isn't your preferred poker game you can try your hand at Rush Poker featuring in PLO, PLO8 and Limit Hold ‘em tournaments. The proceedings begin on Wednesday August 4th at 21.00 ET with the $200 + $16 NL event guaranteeing $750,000. Don't miss it!

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Unless you have been under a rock for the last 3 years Tom "durrrr" Dwan has been one of the biggest Online Poker winnings at the nose bleed tables of Full Tilt Poker and the High Stakes Cash games on TV. This includes the record for the largest pot won in a recorded live game at $1.1 million on the fourth season of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game.

According to a recent interview Dwan is planning to play as many of the events at this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2010 in pursuit of his first WSOP Gold Bracklet. This doesn't sound anything out of the ordinary for any Poker Pro however he has taken a series of Side bets which if he is successful would net him "His biggest Payday ever."

Stay up to date with all the latest World Series of Poker (WSOP) News at LTDPoker.com, Top Poker Room Reviews including Betfair Poker, Bwin Poker, PokerStars and our exclusive Online Poker Bonuses.

Tom Dwan may have started out his path to notoriety known only as "durrrr", a FullTilt Poker player who just continued to outshine opponent after opponent at table after table in tournament after tournament. Now the proven online poker champ has put out the call to all players online and off, amateur and pro, to try and best him in a 4-table, 50,000-hand, $200/$400 minimum, heads-up match.

So far, four players have taken Dwan up on his challenge, all three among the most familiar names in the high-rolling poker world, online and off:
1. Phil Ivey
2. Patrik Antonious
3. David Benyamine
4. Barry Greenstein (the philanthropist who donates all his winnings--presumably included those potentially forthcoming here, to charity)
If all three of these pros come out on top, Dwan stands to lose, at this point, $6 million.

 The challenge: 3-to-1 odds, any opponent's $500,000 to Dwan's $1.5 million.
That means Dwan is so confident of his win that he's willing to offer $1 million free to anyone who can beat him.

Although FullTilt Poker has not yet been announced as the venue for these matches, there is little doubt that it will wind up being the chosen host. It's only right. After all, if it weren't for FullTiltPoker, Tom "durrrr" Dwan may not be in a position to make such a million-dollar challenge.

We mentioned yesterday that the nosebleed tables at Full Tilt Poker must surely be less than a year away from a $1 million pot and now we have news on the big winners and losers from the biggest online games of 2008. Rather unsurprisingly, Phil Ivey is the biggest winner on the site, with over $7.5 million in winnings across all the biggest games online and every popular discipline of cash poker. Right behind him are Phil 'OMGClayAitken' Galfond and Thomas 'Durrrr' Dwan on just under $7 million and just over $5 million respectively.

David Benyamine and Patrik Antonius also made the top ten and a big result for the UK, as Richard 'CHUFTY' Ashby also broke into the top ten, with $2.36 million for his year at the big PLO tables.

Big Winners 2008
Phil Ivey +$7,54 million
OMGClayAiken +$6,97 million
durrrr +$5,36 million
Urindanger +$3,68 million
trex313 +$3,45 million
David Benyamine +$2,93 million
howisitfeellike +$2,66 million
CHUFTY +$2,36 million
La Key U +$2,14 million
Patrik Antonius +$1,90 million

The top ten biggest losers list is very intriguing indeed, as 5 of the accounts are rumoured to belong to the same person, billionaire Guy Laliberte. Over $17 million has been lost from the accounts named 'lady marmalade', 'patatino', 'elmariachimacho', 'Bleachbum' and 'noataima' and $24.8 million lost the year before it. Laliberte seems to be single handedly fuelling the high stakes games online and in many ways he is a bit of an unsung hero of Full Tilt Poker.

Big Losers 2008
lady marmelade -$6.6 million
patatino -$4.32 million
elmariachimacho -$4.16 million
Bleachbum -$1.09 million
SteveSung -$1.01 million
PostFlopAction -$999k
noataima -$990k
John Juanda -$988k
MSampoerna -$945k
ahtata -$926k