Trickett, from England, had an incredible year representing Titan Poker in live tournaments in 2011. In the first month of the year, he won the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Aussie Millions and then followed that up with a runner-up finish in the $250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event there just a few days later. His combined haul for the two tournaments was just under $2.9 million. Then, in September, he won the Partouche Poker Main Event in Cannes, France, good for $1,364,666 (€1,000,000). In October, Trickett made the final table of the High Roller event at European Poker Tour (EPT) London and the €5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the 2011  Europe WSOP, earning himself more the $200,000 total. He won $4.6 million in live tournaments last year and has won over $6.3 million in his career.

Trickett also plays nosebleed cash games and has been a fixture lately in the gigantic cash games in Macau. He recently won pot there worth more than $2 million.

Marvin Rettenmaier, a native of Germany, seems to play anywhere and everywhere. In 2011 alone, he had 25 live tournament cashes for a total of more than $600,000. Just a couple weeks ago, he won the €2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the EPT Grand Final, banking €118,300, or $156,186 for people on the west side of the pond. Rettenmaier’s biggest win to date was in the  FinaleFrance Poker Series Paris, where he finished on top of the field of 567, earning €244,036 ($332,470).

The iPoker Network ranks as the second largest poker network or room on the internet in terms of cash game traffic, according to PokerScout.com. With a seven day average of 3,350, it sits comfortable ahead of PartyPoker (3,000). Of course, it would take a miracle to catch PokerStars, which boasts a seven day average of 29,800 cash game players.

This year’s coverage plan includes 29 one-hour episodes of three different bracelet events. The WSOPC National Championship, the Big One for One Drop, and the Main Event will all be featured. The million dollar buy-in Big One event will kick off the 2012 television season with four episodes of coverage spread over two weeks. That will be followed by one week of National Championship coverage with two one-hour episodes.

The Main Event coverage begins on August 14th and will run two hours of coverage each week until October 23rd. On October 30th, the final able will air live with hole cards on ESPN with a fifteen-minute delay. Lon McEachern, Norman Chad, and Kara Scott will be back as the broadcasting team for the season.

The only other event that will get the live treatment on ESPN is the final table of One Drop, which will be shown on ESPN3 on July 3rd. Unlike last year, where there was extensive live Main Event coverage, this year only the final table will get such treatment and the rest of the action will only be shown in the packaged programs airing on Tuesdays. In the WSOP conference call on Tuesday, WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart indicated that there was concern the live coverage was cannibalizing viewers of the packaged show.

While ESPN will be cutting back on live coverage, don’t think you won’t be able to watch the bracelet action in real time. Thursday the WSOP announced plans to stream the remainder of the bracelet events on WSOP.com. The two camera coverage with audio of the tournament director calling the action will be used for most of the non-flop games, while the WSOP will be stepping up their livestreaming game for the No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha action.

The new “primary” stream will feature a six camera setup as well as commentary on all the action. David Tuchman will be serving as the anchor on the primary stream and will be joined by a rotating panel of guest commentators.

The final table for the primary stream will be housed on the Amazon Room Main Stage, while the secondary and, in some cases, tertiary tables, will be set up on the Pavilion Stage and Amazon Press Box respectively. Most days there will be two streams running, but in some instances there will be three final tables going in order to accommodate all the bracelet action.

“It doesn’t get bigger or better than the World Series of Poker,” said Tuchman. “I am excited and humbled to be working with the WSOP to bring the live stream to a hungry and growing audience.”

The livestream will premiere on Memorial Day, May 28th, with the $500 buy-in Casino Employees Event.

Here is a look at the ESPN broadcast schedule for the 2012 WSOP. All times listed are ET:

Tue, July 3

3 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop Live on ESPN3

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop on ESPN

Tue, July 31

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop on ESPN

Tue, Aug 7

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: WSOP National Championship on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: WSOP National Championship on ESPN

Tue, Aug 14

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Aug 21

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Aug 28

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Wed, Sep 5

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Sep 11

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Sep 18

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Sep 25

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 2

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 9

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event ESPN

Tue, Oct 16

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 23

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 30

9 pm - 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event Final Table Live on ESPN

Bertrand Grospellier has been steadily climbing the ranks, moving up from fifth to third place in the Power Rankings last week, but one of his biggest career wins lost half of its value for being more than a year old. The win in the 2011 EPT Grand Final High Roller was worth 240 points, and losing half of that caused him to drop one spot to fourth.

The biggest beneficiary of his slide is Marvin Rettenmaier, who jumped five spots last week and continues to rise up the ranks in taking third in this week’s Power Rankings. Both he and Rettenmaier (and everyone else on the list for that matter) are currently looking up at Jonathan Duhamel and Will Failla, still separated by four one-hundredths of a point in first and second, respectively.

David Sands continued to fall in this week’s Power Rankings, going from sixth place a few weeks ago all the way down to 21st. His fourth place finish in that same EPT Grand Final High Roller lost half of its value as well, with more than 50 points eliminated from his score to drop him five additional spots from last week.

Sands is one of two players to drop out of the Top 20 this week. Allen Kessler was hanging on to the 20th spot last week, but a handful of lost points this week drops him down to 22nd overall. That makes room for two new players to enter the top 20. Andrew Badecker final tabled the WPT Bay 101 Shooting star in March and followed it with four cashes in Europe in April, good enough for him to debut in 19th place. Justin Young has been hovering around the top 20 for the last several weeks, and Sands’ drop puts Young back in 20th.

Preliminaries are already underway at Bellagio with the $25,000 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic less than two weeks away. There’s also action on the IPT, the California State Poker Championship at the Commerce, and the final WSOP Circuit event of the year in New Orleans that could shake up the Power Rankings before the WSOP begins.

Here is the list of the current top 20 in the BLUFF Poker Player Power Rankings:

1. Jonathan Duhamel – 1,380.38
2. Will Failla – 1,380.34
3. Marvin Rettenmaier – 1,306.75
4. Bertrand Grospellier – 1,237.91
5. Steve O’Dwyer – 1,209.01
6. Shawn Buchanan – 1,150.39
7. Chris Moorman – 1,097.48
8. Ben Lamb – 1,073.18
9. Vanessa Selbst – 1,045.67
10. Sam Trickett – 1,032.70
11. Matt Waxman – 1,016.54
12. Daniel Negreanu – 1,007.97
13. Eugene Katchalov – 1,002.82
14. Pius Heinz – 971.79
15. Elio Fox – 943.85
16. Oleksii Kovalchuk – 914.17
17. Jason Mercier – 905.22
18. Philipp Gruissem – 901.48
19. Andrew Badecker – 888.05
20. Justin Young – 881.09

Serock notched a live win at the first-ever PPC Aruba Main Event, but the payday actually paled in comparison to his recent third place finishes in $10,000 WPT events. The $3,000 buy-in event in Aruba didn’t draw the largest crowd, so Serock bested a field of just 31 players to pick up the win and a $40,000 check.

While the turnout in Aruba was relatively small, the Grand Final of the Italian Poker Tour (IPT) drew quite a crowd with 418 players taking part in the €2,200 buy-in Main Event. The €810,000 prize pool equated to more than $1 million US dollars. The biggest payday went to that of winner Davide Biscardi, who pocketed €200,000 for his win. American Scott Baumstein also made the final table, finishing sixth.

Another American fared well in the IPT High Roller event. Faraz Jaka picked up another score in San Remo, taking fourth in the €5,000 High Roller event. While the event does not give Jaka any BLUF POY points, the €19,900 payday marks his eighth cash so far this year. Borge Dypvik booked the win in the High Roller, picking up €73,500 for his efforts.

The IPT Grand Final wasn’t the only show in Europe this week either. The latest Unibet sponsored live event in Paris drew nearly 440 players for its €1,500 buy-in event. Jaroslaw Barglik bagged the win in the event not to mention over €140,000. EPT winner Kent Lundmark took second for a healthy €98,051 payday.

Down under, the ANZPT continued its season with a visit to Perth for an AUD1,100 event. Mathew Carlsson conquered the 310 player field to earn the trophy and AUD78,275. Next week there will be some major prelim action from the Bellagio as the Las Vegas casino revs up for the WPT Championship.

Cates, who re-activated his online account in the last couple weeks, finally put together a few winning sessions and hammered home a $152k win on his w00ki3z account on PokerStars.

The Maryland-native didn’t show any rust in his return to the high-stakes games on PokerStars is already up $291k in profit on the site since returning.

Meanwhile perhaps Viktor “Isildur1” Blom could use a break from the cash games on PokerStars. He lost nearly $200k this week. Despite winning two SCOOP events and the PCA Super High Roller, Blom has had a miserable year online and is down more than a half a million.

Check below for more information on the high-stakes games from this week:

Top 10 Online Winners this Week

The criminally underrated EireAbu smashed his way to an impressive $298k profit to top the charts this week.

It’s getting harder to ignore EireAbu as he’s now up to $1.6 million in profit this year, which puts him in second place overall.

Meanwhile Aussie David “Deldar182” Eldar returned to the high stakes games for another massive profit this week winning $267k.

Eldar is up $725k this year despite playing considerably less hands than some of his colleagues.

Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky added yet another $245k in profit in what has already been an incredibly successful online poker campaign in 2012.

Sulsky is now officially your biggest winner in 2012 with $1.7 million in profit.

Here are the complete top 10 winners this week according to HSDB:

1. EireAbu: +$298,000
2. Deldar182: +$267,000
3. Sauce123: +245,000
4. LUFCBas: +$211,000
5. !P0krpartyi: +$204,000
6. H@££INGGOL: +$187,000
7. Terken89: +$163,000
8. Dan “w00ki3z” Cates: +$152,000
9. Terryhsu: +$133,000
10. Glosik: +$121,000

Top 10 Online Losers this Week

While one Ben had a very successful outing this week, Ben “Ben86” Tollerene was routed for $336k.

Tollerene has been hot this year, peaking at over $1 million in profit, but got into trouble over the last couple weeks and is now well short of a million.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom (-$181k) and Benny “toweliestar” Spindler (-$220k) continue to drop like rocks in the high-stakes games.

Blom has seemingly been unable to win a session over the last few weeks while Spindler is down over $700k in 2012.

Randy Lew, better known as Nanonoko, recorded one of his worst weeks ever dumping a total of $192k into the high stakes games.

Finally Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond, who’s been money since returning to Vancouver to play online poker, finally hit a speed bump and lost $115k.

Here are the complete top 10 losers this week according to HSDB:

1. Ben86: -$336,000
2. Tsubi87: -$250,000
3. Toweliestar: -$220,000
4. Nanonoko: -$192,000
5. Isildur1: -$181,000
6. Nutsinho: -$176,000
7. Doncarignano: -$124,000
8. EDWARDHOPPER: -$123,295
9. Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond: -$115,000
10. Horho: -$102,000

Defeating a field of 8,240 to win Event #2 (medium buy-in) yesterday for $247,200, Blom shocked the online poker world today by knocking off 486 players to win Event #3, 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em (high buy-in), for another $160,000.

The two SCOOP wins are Blom’s first. They also put him first on the overall 2012 SCOOP leaderboard with 210 points.

Adding to his win at the PCA $100k High Roller in January, Blom now has over $1.3 million in tournament earnings this year and has firmly established himself as a top MTT player to watch entering the WSOP this summer.

Action Hour Tops Prize Pool Up to $800k

While Blom was busy winning Event #2 yesterday, he was also busy stacking up chips in Event #3 as he entered Day 2 play in third with 46 players remaining.

He used those chips wisely, hanging around the top of the leaderboard right until the final table where he busted a couple of players early to move into the lead.

Sputtering slightly before entering heads-up play with Ruxandescu down about 3-2 in chips, Isildur was on the ropes for a while before a fortuitous double up got him back in contention.

With Blom sinking under 1 million in chips, Ruxandescu opened to 36k and Blom raised to 108k. Ruxandescu called to see a J♠T♠ 8♦ flop.

Blom checked, Ruxandescu bet 90k and Blom shoved only to see Ruxandescu call and be in front with his queens to Blom’s T♦4♦.

The 4♥ on the turn changed everything though, and Blom was back on his way.

Featuring an «action hour» for re-buys with an extra 740 units added, the event smashed its $400k guarantee and hit $800k for the total prize pool.

Blom was the major beneficiary, earning $160k for the win.

The rest of the final six below:

1. Viktor «Isildur1″ Blom — $160.000
2. Ruxandescu — $118,400
3. BiatchPeople — $88,000
4. Sussie Smith — $60,800
5. B4d3m3!st3r — $44,400
6. snake8484 — $28,400

PokerStars pros Ana Marquez and George Lind finished 26th and 16th, respectively. Bertrand «ElkY» Grospellier (56th) and Eugene Katchalov (64th) just missed the money.

Four events in this year’s Spring Championship of Online Poker are done, with three tiers of buy-ins for each, and a handful of big-name pros have already scored victories.

In addition to Viktor Blom, titles have been picked up by Brazil’s Alex Gomes, and recent EPT Monte Carlo final tablist Rodrigo Caprioli.

All told the SCOOP has generated $11,959,830. That’s over the first five events, three of which will conclude this afternoon.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom Destroys Massive SCOOP Field

Fearless high-stakes online pro Viktor Blom has broken into the world of MTTs in a big way, beginning with his victory in the $100,000 Super High Roller event at this year’s PCA and continuing now with a big SCOOP win.

Blom went wire to wire, crushing his way through a field of 8,240 to win $247,200 in the medium tier buy-in of Event 2: $215 No-Limit Hold’em.

Not surprisingly considering the size of the field, the final stages of this event were devoid of familiar names.

Blom carried a big chip lead into his heads-up match with Canadian RaisingRay91. The two wasted little time getting the money in with Blom’s A♦ J♥ holding up against K♥ 8♥all-in preflop.

Here are the full final table payouts:

• 1st: Viktor «Isildur1″ Blom (United Kingdom) — $247,200
• 2nd: RaisingRay91 (Canada) — $181,889.76
• 3rd: szwindel (Malta) — $131,840
• 4th: Fred_Brink (Denmark) — $87,344
• 5th: vikAAAA (Russia) — $67,568
• 6th: rzr900rzr (Antigua and Barbuda) — $51,088
• 7th: cloaknet (Russia) — $35,432
• 8th: Gusparo (Hungary) — $19,776
• 9th: lubor74 (Czech Republic) — $12,772

Not counting Blom, the best performance from Team PokerStars Pro came by way of a 55^th finish by Romanian Toni Judet. Sandra Naujoks, meanwhile, finished 637^th.

Alex “Allingomes” Wins Event 1 — $2,100 Buy-in

This year’s SCOOP began with a No-Limit Hold’em event of the six-handed variety and the highest tier boasted a $2,100 price tag.

784 players competed, more than doubling the $750k guarantee, and after two days of poker it was Brazil’s Alex Gomes all alone in the winner’s circle.

Taking place on June 16, the PokerListings $6,000 WSOP 2012 Package freeroll will give the winner a seat in Event 59, $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em at this year’s WSOP.

The winner will also receive $2,000 for travel expenses, seven nights accommodations at the Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, access to the 888poker players’ lounge and an invite to the 888poker VIP party.

Entry is free for any player signed up via PokerListings who makes a deposit from May 8 through June 14.

The freeroll is already listed in the “restricted” section of the 888poker lobby. Registration opens June 16 and there will be a cap of 3,000 players.

Players who create a new account at 888poker will get an instant $8 free plus entrance to the $100k First Depositors’ Challenge and $3,500 in freerolls during their first month.

PokerListings players also receive a 200% bonus match up to $888.

The 888poker software has benefited from extensive upgrades over the last two years with new 3D graphics, webcam tables and user-generated private tables.

Last year 888poker won the EGR Magazine award as best poker operator.

According to the announcement Lock Poker will leave the Merge network to become a member of Revolution Gaming by June 1.

“We are very excited at the prospect of driving the product, marketing and overall vision of the network. It is a dream come true,” said Jennifer Larson, CEO of Lock.

“Merge was a great stepping stone for us but we have outgrown them. We really need to forge our own path to continued success. The only way to do this is to stay true to our core philosophy: partnering with our players.”

The move is expected to be seamless and players should have their bankrolls and VIP statuses switched to the new Revolution Gaming network in a software update on May 31.

According to Larson players will benefit from an improved loyalty program, rakeback and a faster cashout structure on the new Revolution Gaming network.

The site is also set to add more Lock Pros although it already has a very respectable stable with Annette Obrestad, Melanie Weisner, Chris Moorman, Leo Margets and Matt Stout all on board.

Lock Poker, Cake Poker, Bodog and the Merge Poker Network are among the few online poker sites that still accept U.S. poker players.

The William Hill WSOP Rake Race will award $30,000 in 2012 WSOP packages from May 3 to June 3.

Players have the option of generating WSOP points in either cash games or tournaments.

At the cash game tables players earn 10 WSOP points for every $1 in rake generated, or in the case of tournaments, for every $1 paid in tournament fees.

The leaderboards are divided by stake level, which means low stakes gamblers will also be able to get in on the action.

Anything below a $1 big blind counts as low stakes in the cash games while any tournament entry below $20 counts as low stakes in tournaments.

First place in the high stakes division will walk away with a $13,500 Main Event package to the WSOP Main Event. Second provides a $6,000 WSOP side event package. Places 3-18 all award various amounts of cash.

Meanwhile the low stakes leader as of June 3 will receive a $3,700 WSOP experience package with the other 19 places pay cash.

PokerListings players who sign up for William Hill Poker currently benefit from a 200% deposit match up to $2,000. It’s one of the highest bonuses in the industry.

William Hill Poker players also get to take part in the massive iPOPs poker series which is currently taking place across the iPoker network.