We hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving enjoyed some time with your loved ones, stuffing your face with turkey reflecting on those things and people for which you are thankful. Meanwhile, the poker world keeps turning, and we're here to keep you abreast of what's happening.

UNICEF had 147,500 reasons to be thankful this week, as Peter Eastgate's 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet sold on Ebay to an anonymous bidder. Eastgate has promised to donate all proceeds to UNICEF. Also thankful (we think) is Tony G's dog. The gregarious poker player had promised to submit the winning bid and use the bracelet as a dog collar. We suspect when Eastgate gets older, he'll look back on his decision with regret.

Swede Kent Lundmark may not celebrate Thanksgiving like his American friends, but he certainly had a week to be thankful for, as he took home €825,000 and first place at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona. The €5,000 main event drew an astounding 758 players competing for a prize pool of over €3.7 million.

Also underway is the World Poker Tour Marrakech, sponsored by Chilipoker. Some of the notable players include Surinder Sunar, 2008 WSOP final table player Antoine Saout, and WPT Bucharest winner Guillame Darcourt. As always you can keep up with all the latest news at the WPT's official site.

In charity tournament news, Phil Hellmuth announced that he will be hosting a poker tournament in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin on December 18th. Tickets to the tournament cost $300 (VIP tickets go for $500) and proceeds will go to HospiceCare. Prizes will include a $10,000 seat in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event.

In legal news that should probably surprise nobody, eWalletXpress announced that the feds have begun seizing funds. The company is no longer accepting funds from US players. Online rooms that have used eWalletXpress include Cake Poker, Carbon Poker, and Bodog.

In more positive legal news, on Monday New Jersey’s senate passed 490, a bill which would allow the establishment of legalized online gambling for New Jersey residents. Under the terms of the bill, those games which are legal in land-based casinos would also be legal for online players within the state of New Jersey. Next the bill goes to the New Jersey Assembly, where it is expected to pass. Though it is difficult to read the tea leaves in these uncertain political times, we at CaseJack believe that intrastate legislation concerning online gambling will proliferate, forcing the federal government’s hand.

In his little ditty about Romeo and Juliet (two Italian kids growing up in Verona), the greatest bard of them all asked, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Four centuries later we might be tempted to ask the same question of Harrah's Entertainment Inc, who announced today that they have officially changed their name to Caesars Entertainment Corp. Chairman Gary Loveman gave the standard corporate spiel about new opportunities, but an interesting correlation was made over at Pokerati between Harrah's recent public moves (on again, off again IPO for example) and their stated desire to expand their online gaming presence.

Meanwhile, legalized, regulated online poker, to borrow yet another Shakespearian phrase, tantalizingly "hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear."

Yesterday Case Jack sent John and Libby to the Teemu Selanne Youth Sports Foundation & Power Balance Celebrity Poker Tournament in Laguna Beach, California, hosted by Annie Duke. There were many celebrities in attendance, and poker was the main event of the evening.

Libby interviewed Annie Duke on the red carpet. You can see the interview on our home page, and on our You Tube Channel.

John and Libby were also able to capture plenty of great photos and videos of the evening's events, including some great video of speed painter David Garibaldi. Garibaldi gave a very touching and heartfelt testimonial of his transformation from street graffiti artist to world famous speed painter who changed his life around to become a philanthropist. His goal is to raise $1 million for charity before he turns 30 (he's currently 26 years old and has already raised over $600,000 - over $30,000 was raised on his 3 paintings that evening!). We wish you the best, David.

Videos and photos of the night's events are up now.

The Championship Open of the Heartland Poker Tour has reached the final table at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Just missing the television cut was pro player Tiffany Michelle, who finished 7th and will take home $19,927 for her efforts.

Michelle was not the only pro at the event, however. Joining her were her good friend (and new UB pro) Michelle Ho, Scottie Nguyen, Darvin Moon, and Bernard Lee. Nguyen and Moon were both eliminated in day 1, while Ho finished in the money. Lee, meanwhile, finds himself at the final table, where he is playing for $176,865 and first place.

For additional details, follow our good friend @Scarlet_lv who is reporting live via Twitter and also on Pokerati.

Congrats to Joe Tehan, who won the North American Poker Tour Los Angeles main event at the Crystal Casino in Commerce. In an amazing display of good fortune, Tehan took out all the other players at the final table, winning a number of races in the process. At one point he took out two players (Ahn Van Nguyen and Ray Henson) when his K5 beat AQ and AJ. It was that kind of a night for Tehan; if he had pocket Jacks, they held against an Ace. If he had the Ace he beat out pocket Jacks.

The NAPT was actually held at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, but the televised final table was moved to Commerce due to contractual issues regarding televised events at the Bike. For the best writeup of the event, check out the incomparable Tao of Poker.

Check out this excellent article by Gary Wise for ESPN. The article does an excellent job of pointing out the hubris of Washington state's legislators who voted to make it a felony to play online poker.

Senator Margarita Prentence's response to those who dare question the state's law: "Let them go pump gas." I think it just might be time for someone to explore the relationship between Senator Prentence and the native gaming interests in the state of Washington. Or perhaps explore the juxtaposition of the state's anti gambling stance with the lottery.

Did you ever wonder how much a World Series Of Poker Main Event bracelet is worth? Well now you can find out. 2008 WSOP champion Peter Eastgate is auctioning off his bracelet on eBay. If you're wondering what could possibly compel anyone to sell their bracelet, the answer might surprise you.

According to Eastgate, the reason for the sale wasn't financial issues, or a bad beat on a prop bet. Nope. Eastgate's just not into jewelry. All proceeds go to UNICEF.

We've been a little behind with our blogging due to travel to and from the World Series of Poker final table, and some computer issues. So we'll get you caught back up with what's going on in the world of poker.

First, on the tournament scene the WSOP was not the only major event to take place last week. Vanessa Selbst, who has been playing very well lately, took down first place and €1.3 million at the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes. However, almost overshadowing her impressive play was the disqualification of Ali Tekintamgac for using a team of phony bloggers to relay hole card information. This was not the first time cheating rumors had swirled around Tekintamgac, as he was believed to have used similar tactics at the EPT Tallinn earlier this year. During that event several media credentials were revoked but the German pro was not disqualified and finished 36th.

Elsewhere, this weekend the North American Poker Tour Main Event kicked off at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens. Over 700 players showed up at the Bike for the tour's first Los Angeles stop. As of the end of day 1B, the chip leader was Kim Frederiksen. Some notables still in contention include Joe Cada, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Laak, Dwyte Pilgrim, Allan Kessler and 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassella.

In online poker news, Full Tilt has joined PokerStars in blocking players from playing online in Washington state. However, in a slight twist from the PokerStars decision, Full Tilt will allow Washington residents to play they are out of state.

Chiligaming announced this past week that they will enter the US market with a subscription-based plan. Under this system, no money is exchanged on the virtual felt; rather players pay a monthly subscription fee. Several subscription-based sites have floundered, but Chiligaming hopes to follow the success of the World Poker Tour's ClubWPT which has over 16,000 subscribers. The move also implies that Chiligaming execs foresee a favorable year for US online poker regulation and are jockeying to position themselves in the US market in the event the UIGEA is overturned.

Finally, popular pro Mara Ho was signed by Ultimate Bet, where she joins Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth and her friend and Amazing Race partner Tiffany Michelle, among others.

Case Jack just returned from an exciting weekend at the Rio, where we witnessed WSOP history as Jonathan Duhamel became the first Canadian to take down the coveted title. Upon returning home, however, we experienced some minor technical difficulties and the fossil Mac is out of commission for now. My guess is it was a particularly uber exuberant airport Nazi TSA agent getting a little rough with the equipment, so to speak. (Both of) Our regular readers have asked us why we've been so quiet, so we thought we'd pass along the 411.

Also, since we've sort of adopted the Heartland Poker Tour for being so hot our favorite local poker tour, we thought we'd share another, even more interesting and helpful piece of information. For the inside scoop on the recent HPT event featuring former November Niner Darvin Moon, please check out our friend, Scarlet_LV's YouTube channel.

Finally, we'll have an exclusive interview with Jason Senti up shortly; in the meantime while working through our computer issues, we'll just have to "make it work."

Jonathan Duhamel has just won the 2010 World Series of Poker! Immediately after the win, he went crowd surfing as his jubilant fans, dressed in red Canadiens jerseys, swarmed him. Duhamel then draped himself in the Canadian flag, clearly proud of becoming the first Canadian to win the World Series of Poker.

During heads up play, Duhamel put relentless pressure on Florida native John Racener, who entered play at a 6:1 disadvantage. He was only able to double up once with pocket Q's but otherwise seemed card dead. Finally Racener looked down and saw K8 of diamonds and called Duhamel's shove. Duhamel held AJ and when neither player paired up, the rest, as they say, was history.

After an interminable shuttle ride last night, we finally arrived at the Rio, Ground Zero for poker players and afficianados. Shortly after arrival, we learned that WiFi would cost a king's ransom. But it gets better: upon firing up the fossil Mac, we were introduced to a vivid light show, the colors more dazzling than any performance downstairs. But we got it resolved and ended the night on a high note, enjoying some libations with the poker media degens. This morning is all business, though, as we will be covering the World Series of Poker November Nine for Minnesota Poker Magazine. Please follow us there for updates throughout the day.

Click here to see photos from the "November Nine."

USA Today is the latest mainstream media to show some love to the World Series of Poker. This article marvels at the youth of the November 9, with all the players except Soi Nguyen in their 20's. For his part, Nguyen, a 37 year old amateur, hopes his maturity, level headed play, and life experiences will help him overcome his young, aggressive opponents.

If you haven't read it yet, there's an interesting article in Bloomberg about Ann-Margaret Johnston (or if you prefer her online poker nom de plume, EvilCPA). For $250 per hour Ms. Johnston helps over 200 poker players, including November Niner John Dolan, navigate the murky waters of taxes and financial planning.

Johnston gained the players' confidence in large part due to her own poker expertise, having recently placed 3rd in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Ladies' Event.

If you've visited us before, then you know we're big fans of the Heartland Poker Tour. They're based out of the Midwest, like CaseJack, they're genuine people, and, well, it doesn't hurt that they're all hot. So we were disappointed to read Scotty Nguyen's Tweet earlier today announcing that he would be unable to attend the HPT event in Tama, IA this coming weekend due to illness.

However, not all news was bad news. Annie Duke will join the HPT to kick off next season's opener at Red Rock Casino Resort in January. Duke will raffle off 50% of any money she earns in the main event to benefit the Disabled American Vets, the HPT's charity of choice. The kickoff event is almost certainly going to sell out, so contact Red Rock to book your tickets now.

We'd like to introduce you to our first installment of Poker's Past, where we will from time to time explore poker's colorful past in short but interesting nuggets. We hope you'll enjoy reading them as much as we enjoy researching and presenting them.

By the late 1800's ocean steamers had become increasingly popular, and a particular concern voiced by "the better class of travellers" was the proliferation of gamblers in the first class smoking rooms of the steamers. An article in the North American Review (volume 150, no. 403, June 1890) sought to answer the question of why gambling was allowed on the steamers.

After posing the query, the author expounds on the twofold problem. First, it seems card sharps were preying on some of the more naive passengers, leaving them penniless before they disembarked. Secondly, certain passengers of a more delicate disposition or "refined tastes" were offended by the sundry invictives and obscenities emanating from the "lowest class of men that cross the Atlantic."

Why, then did the steamship operators not only allow, but encourage, these peripatetic poker playing louts? The author concludes, in a word, alcohol. After all, "men who gamble drink; and largely so."

This post relies on information found in the North American Review and is reproduced courtesy of Cornell University Library, Making of North America Digital Collection.