Poker News in Brief: Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 2009

Not only did the 2009 WCOOP, the biggest online tournament series in the world, kick off on Thursday, but the always popular Barcelona stop on the PokerStars EPT began on Friday. There's always a list of stories that don't make the front page, however, and as part of our ongoing Poker News in...

There's always a list of stories that don't make the front page, however, and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature we've compiled a list of those stories below.

This week we'll take a look at a sweet ride that can be won via a popular poker site, a reason for lumberjacks and hockey players to rejoice and some good news for a poker software company.

Play at ((UltimateBet)), Win a Mercedes

UltimateBet continues to celebrate their 10th anniversary by giving its players a chance to win a brand new Mercedes ML-350 at this year's Aruba Poker Classic.

The Mercedes Giveaway is an exclusive one-table 10-player tournament for UltimateBet players with the winner driving away in a fine piece of German engineering.

There are two ways to participate. Players who haven't already qualified for the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic can pay the $200+$15 buy-in for the Mercedes Satellite on Sept. 27 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

The top five finishers in this No-Limit Hold'em event will win $2,000 towards travel, plus their seat at the Mercedes Giveaway in Aruba on Oct. 8.

Meanwhile players who have already qualified for the Aruba Poker Classic will have the opportunity to play a dedicated $500+$30 satellite at 5:30 ET on Sept. 27. This online qualifier will award the top four players with entry into the Mercedes Giveaway in Aruba. Each seat is valued at $6,200.

Of course that only accounts for eight seats. One UltimateBet player feels so confident about the Mercedes Giveaway that he has already purchased his seat with 1.5 million UltimatePoints.

((Bodog)) coming to Canada, eh!

For years Canadian citizens had to be content with the fact that Bodog was essentially the only online poker room they weren't allowed to play.

That all changed this week.

Bodog officially launched the Canadian version of its site, www.bodog.ca, and it appears that everything is virtually identical to the dot-com.

Canadians can deposit using credit cards and UseMyBank.

Bodog remains one of the only rooms where you can deposit as little as $20.

Good first half for Playtech

According to a story by Reuters, online casino and poker software firm Playtech posted a 33 percent rise in first-half earnings.

Perhaps the biggest boost comes from a joint venture with online poker room William Hill that is starting to gain momentum.

In the past, Playtech has helped develop poker software for rooms like Betfair Poker, Titan Poker, CD Poker and the rest of the iPoker network.

Shares in Playtech have gained 15 percent since reaching an 18-month low in July.

WCOOP breaks records

It's safe to say the 2009 WCOOP has had a fantastic start on PokerStars.

Event 6 $109 No-Limit Hold'em on Saturday garnered the attention of 15,674 players and, in doing so, became the most attended WCOOP of all-time.

The gigantic field of runners created a prize pool of just over $1.5 million and eventual first-place winner vakAAttack took down $183,334.

In other WCOOP news, well-known online player Daniel "djk123" Kelly took down his first WCOOP bracelet in Event 2 $215 Razz on Thursday.

Kelly already had an FTOPS title he claimed in 2008. so this just helps cement his reputation as an elite MTT player.