A little more than a year ago, conspicuously close to another US Federal bad news day, the online poker landscape in the United States changed forever. On April 15, 2011, just two days before the dreaded annual tax deadline, Federal Department of Justice authorities officially indicted three of the top online poker sites that operated in the United States. Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and UltimateBet/Absolute Poker were all issued immediate cease-and-desist orders, and were told they were in violation of several US banking laws. American online account holders with those three companies were not charged, but were stuck in a Catch-22 situation nonetheless.

While it may be challenging to trot over to Churchill Downs while simultaneously engaging in sizzling hot poker action, online gambling enthusiasts manage to combine both venues seamlessly at some of the hottest gambling sites offering both a high quality poker room and a robust sportsbook all under one convenient account. Poker enthusiasts involved in brick and mortar poker action are also enjoying a variety of Kentucky Derby poker events, some charitable and some for big time payouts. Its definitely in the cards that poker fanatics also know how to enjoy a good race.

April kicked off the WSOP 2012 Main Event qualifiers at both Bovada Poker and Intertops Poker, two of the premium USA friendly online poker sites featured here on The Poker Grind. While there are players who live comfortably enough to easily set funds aside to participate in the extravagant WSOP events, there are many players whose only shot at being a part of the Series is through wining less costly events at online poker sites which provide qualifiers to events such as the WSOP Main Event. If playing in this famous and lucrative tournament is only a dream for you, there are a few ways to make that dream come true.

There’s a new poker face in town folks, and its a pretty face indeed. Its the new Bovada Poker site, complete with a nice 100% match bonus up to $1000 for their new players. Launched by the renowned Bodog brand of online gambling, Bovada is similar in many ways to the Bodog Poker room. There are design and game format similarities, however Bovada offers a fresh new take on your online poker action with some great new software features, brand new tournament formats, and juicy promotions. The Poker Grind is giving this new poker site a big thumbs up, and we’d like to point out that all of Bodog’s expertise and experience shine through on their new USA poker room. 

After being on the market for just a few weeks, and free of viable tracking and analysis programs, Full Tilt Poker’s ‘Rush Poker’ has some new accompaniments.  The Full Tilt Poker team was originally pleased with the prospect of leveling the playing field by eliminating the edge provided by poker tracking software programs.  However, I’m sure they fully expected this to be short lived and for the poker tracking software industry to eventually catch up with the new technology.   In regards to poker tracking software, PokerTracker and Holdem Manager are the industry leaders.  Both have released usable patches to allow players to use their software solutions when playing with the Rush Poker at Full Tilt, but it is PokerTracker’s solution that has come out on top.