Barely a week after he surrendered to US authorities at JFK international Airport in New York, the Full Tilt Poker Chief Executive Officer accused of stealing money through a Ponzi scheme is free … sort of. The embattled Ray Bitar had to deliver $2.5 million to keep from sitting in prison until his next ordered court appearance. Nearly $1 million of that had to be secured, and he provided that in the form of $280,000 worth of cash and $715,000 in real property. The balance of $1.5 million was provided in the form of the real value of a California warehouse Bitar owns.

Online poker is a hobby for the vast majority of poker players who enjoy the excitement and rush which is delivered with each turn of the cards. Actually gambling one’s life savings in an online poker game or tournament requires a very special mindset, and is definitely not for everyone. Two players which have made a well-known name for themselves are the Dang brothers Di and Hac. Risking hundreds of thousands, and sometimes even millions of dollars playing online poker is just another ho-hum part of their everyday job.

Way back in March of this year it was rumored that the defunct Full Tilt US online poker web entity would be purchased by PokerStars, and that the new buyers would honor all the IOUs held by previous Full Tilt players still waiting for Ray Bitar and other Full Tilt owners to refund money that is rightfully theirs. The buyout rumors claim to be a part of the United States Justice Department deal that only allows the sale to go through if the new owners replace the accounts and monies owned by individual online poker players when that site was shut down by the same US DOJ.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship owners’ favorite tag line about the UFC fighting league is that the brawling is “As Real As It Gets.” They hope that the upcoming virtual poker experience they are going to provide for free on their new ultimate poker website in Las Vegas, and on social networking behemoth Facebook, is also as realistic as possible. The owners of the UFC also own the Station Casinos chain in Las Vegas, and they’re launching a free Internet poker site that they hope develops a large and possibly profitable player pool in advance of receiving one of the initial Vegas Internet gaming licenses.

Spanish native Rafael Nadal is undoubtedly one of the top two or three male tennis players currently, and also one of the most recognized sports stars worldwide. Known as a competitor in everything he does, Nadal recently gave his endorsement of online poker in general, and one online poker site specifically. Obviously, this is a paid endorsement, but having such a recognizable and universally admired athlete playing at the top of his game come forward and endorse online poker is great for the Internet poker community at large.