The World Series of Poker (WSOP) season is really picking up the pace with the news that Alan Cunningham has won one of the tournament’s prized bracelets.

Cunningham whittled down from 752 other competitors made only one rebuy in the whole tournament, pokernews.com reports.

Howard Lederer, a fellow poker pro, said: “By winning his second, large-field No-Limit Hold ‘em event at the WSOP in as many years, Alan has proven that his name should be mentioned any time there is a discussion about who are the best players in the world.”

Cunningham beat Chino Rheem at the final table to win $625,830 with an ace-queen combo.

Other players who contested the $2.3 million prize pool included Andy Bloch, Steve Wong, Tom Franklin, Tim Phan and Alex Jacob.

InterPoker has a number of high-class players competing in this year’s WSOP, including recent recruit Scott Fischman.

Scientists have created a poker-playing robot which is a dab hand at Texas Hold’em, new reports suggest.

The robot, called GS1, was built by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and has already beaten two of the other strongest ‘pokerbots’ in heads-up Texas Hold’em.

However, according to technology website vnunet.com, the pokerbot is not quite good enough to go up against the best human poker players.

The project is the brainchild of Professor Tuomas Sandholm and Andrew Gilpin, a granduate student. The pair took part in the Computer Poker Competition in Boston, Massachusetts earlier this month.

A new model, the GS2, is now in the pipeline for development.

One man from Yorkshire in the UK is set to leave his home town for the trip of a lifetime – with a potential £10 million prize waiting for him!

Property developer Wayne Marsh has landed a dream ticket to the World Series Poker in Las Vegas thanks to a wildcard entry and the Brit is now heading across the Atlantic to take on the cream of American and world poker players.

The father of four has won a wildcard entry into the tournament, despite only turning semi-professional 18 months ago!

Now he and his family are on for the trip of a lifetime as he looks to take on the biggest names in poker when the game starts in July.

And Wayne is determined to make the most of his wildcard entry. He told the Star in Sheffield: “I’ve been in training for a while now.

“I haven’t been going out boozing and I’ve made sure I’ve got to bed early. I’ve also been working on my attention and focus. I’ve been reading about self-hypnosis and zen.”

So watch out Las Vegas, this is one serious poker player on his way to shake up the traditional poker hierarchy and put Britain’s Yorkshire Dales on the poker playing map!

Poker brat Phil Hellmuth has set yet-another record by recording his 52nd money finish in the first week of the 2006 WSOP tournament.

Hellmuth already held the record for the most in-the-money finishes and by taking his total to 52, he is now three wins ahead of Men ‘the Master’ Nguyen and Berry Johnston.

He is looking to expand on his current winning run by taking his total number of WSOP bracelets to ten – the current world record held by Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson.

The poker pro told Casino City Times: “I have a good chance to take it all. My game is in tip top shape.”

Hellmuth, whose career winnings are in the region of $7 million, beat Johnny Chan in 1989 to become the youngest world champion at the age of 24.

Louisiana will host the first round of the Small Town Poker Tour (STPT) at the end of July.

Players will amass in Monroe for the first tournament and with the prize money at the $10,000 mark, competition is set to be fierce.

First prize will be a $3,000 visa gift card as well as a seat at the SPT World Amateur championships in Las Vegas.

Mark Fracalossi, STPT executive producer, said: “Poker is a great sport and I can’t wait to see the talented players we find in the south.

“We want our events to be affordable, so the average player can get the big time event experience without the cost, plus raise as much as possible for the local charities.”

Russ ‘Dutch’ Boyd, the Californian poker ace, has won his first-ever World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet.

Boyd enjoyed a strong finish in the WSOP $2,500 short-handed No-Limit Hold’Em event to beat Australian card shark Joe Hachem and win the bracelet.

Hachem, who won last year’s WSOP main event and $7.5 million in the process was disappointed at the result

He told the Courier Mail: “I had him right where I wanted him. I was going to bust his ass but that’s poker.”

Boys took home $475,712 for his troubles.