The Durrrr Challenge might be two-thirds completed, but at this point a lot of players are beginning to think that Patrik Antonius is fully cooked. According to our good friends at DurrrrChallenge.com, there have been 33,303 hands played out of the 50,000 total with Tom “durrrr” Dwan up over $1.9 million.

Online poker training site DragTheBar.com announced Thursday that lead instructor Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt has been added to the PokerStars Team Online. Schmidt joins an elite 26-player roster.

According to CNN Money, there is a potential deal being offered for sponsorship of the Canadian Poker Tour or an outright purchase of the organization by an unnamed online poker company.

Poker News Daily can independently confirm that Steve “gboro780” Gross has signed with DoylesRoom to become the sixth member of the Brunson 10. The legendary Doyle Brunson, the site’s namesake, has handpicked the group of rising poker stars.

Microgaming, one of the world’s foremost developers of online casino and poker software, announced Monday that it launched a new poker network exclusively for the Italian market.

Over the weekend, the Bay 101 Shooting Star World Poker Tour event came to a close with Phil Hellmuth primed to take down his first ever WPT title. Doyle Brunson was firmly in the corner of the UB.com sponsored pro, tweeting, “go Phil…show the boys some “old school” poker!”

Annie Duke and UB.com are once again looking to give back to those in need. The online poker site, with the help of the always benevolent Duke, is introducing Second Sundays, a new series of events benefiting charities.

Almost nine months have gone by since the Pitbull Poker scandal was blown wide open and to date, justice has yet to be served. The small poker site, formerly part of the Flash Poker Network, was first put under investigation by members of the TwoPlusTwo forum community.

PokerStars, the world’s leading online poker site, has announced the cancellation of its Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) Chile event in Vina del Mar from March 19th to 23rd. The cancellation comes as a result of a massive earthquake that rocked the South American nation on February 27th.

On Wednesday at 21:00 ET, the Mini version of the 15th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) will kick off. The schedule features 27 tournaments, culminating in a $55 No Limit Hold’em Main Event on March 21st.

Whether across the Atlantic taking part in the European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Berlin or the National Heads Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas, there was action not only on the felt, but also away from the tables.

On April 4th, Full Tilt Poker and PokerGives.org will team up for a $5+$5 charity tournament. Half of each player’s buy-in will build the tournament’s prize pool, while the other half will be donated to charity through PokerGives.org.

Recently, gossip site TMZ reported that embattled professional golfer Tiger Woods, fresh off a highly publicized marital tiff, turned down a $75 million sponsorship offer from the online sports book, casino, and poker site Paddy Power.

The CEREUS Poker Network is offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to players this summer through its two online poker sites, Absolute Poker and UB.com. CEREUS announced its “Show Up, Get Paid” promotion that pays every qualifying player who shows up at the WSOP Main Event at least $1,000.

The Microgaming Poker Network announced the addition of longtime sports book GoldBet on Wednesday, bringing its roster of poker rooms to almost 50. GoldBet, founded in 2000 in Innsbruck, is one of Europe’s leading online bookmakers and had not had a poker offering until now.

Five-time National Basketball Association (NBA) champion Dennis Rodman has officially signed with Only Poker. An anonymous employee of the site confirmed the news to Poker News Daily and Rodman now appears on Only Poker’s website.

Not a college basketball fan? Don’t fret. Full Tilt Poker has its own version of March Madness to help pass the time this month. The world’s second largest poker site will unleash its popular Sit and Go Madness on Friday, March 5, giving players a chance at more than $125,000 in cash and prizes just by playing single-table Sit and Gos.

PokerStars, the world’s leading online poker site, tried something a little different for its upcoming Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). After releasing the SCOOP schedule last week, the site went to the forums and asked for feedback from its loyal players.

Starting today, PokerStars has announced a new poker club for women only that will give them an opportunity to be at the tables when the Grand Final rolls around in Monte Carlo.

Online poker site DoylesRoom announced this week that Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis is the newest member of the Brunson 10, a group of up-and-coming poker stars handpicked by Doyle Brunson himself.

The winner of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event, JackQKA, has denied being 16 years-old and having a backer, according to a thread on the popular forum TwoPlusTwo. JackQKA remains atop the FTOPS XV Main Event leaderboard.

PokerStars announced the eagerly anticipated schedule for the 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on Monday, revealing a tournament slate with $36 million in guaranteed prize money. SCOOP is unique in that each event features three tournaments with three different buy-ins, so that players of all bankroll sizes can participate.

The PokerStars Sunday Million regularly boasts a guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million. On Sunday, that sum was lifted to $4 million. However, the total purse ultimately swelled to well over $7.2 million after a field of 36,169 players turned out.

A total of 5,645 players entered the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event on Sunday. In the end, the $535 No Limit Hold’em tournament featured a seven-way chop, with JackQKA ultimately coming out on top for $237,000.

With plenty of action on the felt and away from the tables, the crème of the poker world’s Twitter accounts were buzzing about their activities. Poker News Daily has gleaned the best of these Tweets to let you know what is going on in many poker players’ lives.