UNbelieveable: If you love France (and playing poker), as I do…  this might be the time to consider a trip to Cannes.

The end of August will see one of France’s largest live poker events being played, as the Partouche Poker Tour (PPT) takes place on the French Riviera.

The event will be held at the Palm Beach resort in Cannes, between the 28th of August and 6th of September.

If you would like to participate, please be advised that bwin is already running qualifiers since earlier this month.

Now, a lot of you might be wondering, what is bwin. [you can google it, of course, as I did.]

bwin (formerly betandwin) was founded in 1997 and is one of Europe’s biggest sport betting agencies.

The company is based in Vienna, Austria.

The Ongame network is the world’s 5th largest with an average of 3,000 cash game players online. As many as 6,000 players can be found in the evening hours. No Limit players can find a table day or night in anything from micro to mid to high stake games. The micro to mid limits ($5/$10) are particularly appealing to Fixed Limit players. There are also plenty of SnGs in the low to mid limits ($50).

bwin is considered to be a very profitable place to play, mostly because many gamblers (and poor poker players) make their way to the tables.

The guaranteed prize pool for this event is €3,000,000 (euros), and the first place finisher will be cashing €1,000,000. There are two ways in which you can gain entry to the Partouche Poker Tour Final:

$15,000 Partouche Final: every Sunday at 19:00 GMT until the 15th of August, bwin will host a $300+$20 tournament, where the winner will get a $15,000 tournament package. Satellites for these tournaments are running more than 20 times a day, starting from $2.

$160,000 Partouche Final: on the 15th of August, 18:00 GMT, bwin will host a $93+$7 tournament where 10 of these tournament packages will be up for grabs. On top of that, the runner-ups will get a share of an additional $10,000 in prize money. Qualifiers are already running around the clock and they go as low as $1.

Good luck.

I hope to be there to report on the action.

And watch the girls on the beach.

The $15,000 Partouche Poker Tour package consists of the following:

$10,500 entry buy-in

$1,300 for travel and spending

Accommodation at hotel 3.14 from 28.08. to 06.09.2010

bwin Team hospitality & activities

It’s pretty awesome to think that Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court Justice is known not just for her intellect (OK, she’s one of the Harvard crowd), but her poker playing and the fact that she smokes cigars.

So what?

I think it’s pretty cool.

It seems to be a big story in the media that she is not only smart, but can “play with the boys.”

And then some.

Yeah. Turns out Kagan is known amongst her posse as something of a poker player. The news about her poker playing always seems to be part of what commentators say about her.

CBS’s insisted “her interests reflect her openness. She loves softball and poker” (poker reflects “openness”?).

NBC’s Pete Williams hailed her as an “accomplished poker player, opera lover.”Kagan also plays poker and drinks beer, according to another news source, who described her as “someone who from early on has focused on the law’s impact on people’s lives.”

Well, I would hope so.

Welcome to the big time, Elena.

When she appears before Congress do you think Senators will ask her when it is proper to go “all in?”

Should be interesting.

Well, the World Poker Tour plans to stage a London event this summer have come to fruition.

We can confirm that the WPT London Poker Classic will happen between Aug. 29 and Sept. 5 at the Palm Beach Casino and Mayfair Hotel.

The £5,300 event will have a field of up to 400 runners.

“London is a great poker destination and has always been a major target in our ongoing expansion,” said WPT President Adam Pliska, in a press release.

“We’re thrilled to have found amazing partners in The Palm Beach Casino, Genting UK and The May Fair Hotel London. This is sure to be a highly anticipated WPT event on the international schedule.”

What big news this is for UK poker, when you consider that the WSOPE and EPT London immediately follow it, we have a genuine triple crown in the capital in just over one month.

Take that, Vegas.

Well, hell…it’s over 100 degrees at that time of year in Vegas. So why not come to London?

Sounds like a great idea to me.

As you know I rarely reprint press releases (I get them all the time and folks, they are so FREAKING SELF SERVING)…but this one caught my attention so I thought I’d let you read it.

HeadsUp Entertainment announced today that it is in pre-production of a poker reality television series.

Casting calls will screen thousands of potential contestants and HeadsUp producers will choose 12-16 contestants to be part of the reality series’ inaugural season.

Over the past 5 years, the press release notes, poker has become one of the most profitable genres on major television networks. NBC, Fox, ESPN and the Travel channel have all produced poker-based television shows.

Kelly Kellner, President and Chief Executive Officer of HeadsUp Entertainment commented, “There is no question that television audiences in at least 20 countries throughout the world have shown an overwhelming interest in poker television. Our market study has concluded that we can sell the series in at least 10-12 English speaking countries.”

Kellner added, “We are now negotiating with potential sponsors for the series and we believe we can complete production of the series for broadcast in this falls’ television schedule.”

Gotta tell you. I’d watch this. Say what you will about reality TV…this one could be very very cool.

I’ll keep an eye on what happens. Remember, I used to work for TV Guide…. so I know TV.

Did you see what happened in Germany recently?

When armed robbers hit a Berlin hotel where a poker tournament was happening and stole $1.1 million?

Much of it was actually caught on tape.

One report said the gang – armed with assault rifles and hand grenades – made off with the tournament jackpot of 800,000 euros ($1.1m; £726,000).

Several people were injured.

It happened during a five day tournament.

About 1,000 people were in the tournament.

“Several masked, armed individuals entered the Grand Hyatt Hotel and fled with a haul of money,” police spokeswoman Heidi Vogt said.

One participant, Tobias Reinkemeier, told the BBC that there was panic when the robbers broke in.

“We didn’t know what was going on. Then there was panic and everyone jumped underneath tables before they tried to escape through the emergency exit.”

Officials said most of the injuries were caused by panic.

The tournament – organised by the European Poker Tour (EPT) – resumed about four hours after the attack, German media reported.

As more news develops about the perps (as the cops say), we’ll let you know.

I hope they nab the bastards.