The acquisition of Chiligaming's iGaming platform - an open architecture, business-to-business solution for online poker, bingo, casino, and sports betting was announced today by Bally Technologies (BYI).

John Connelly, vice president of business development at the Nevada-based company, said, "This acquisition provides an open, cloud-based platform for Bally Technologies to offer an integrated traditional and online casino solution to operators worldwide. Equally as important, Bally Technologies has also obtained an experienced team of industry veterans from within the online gaming industry, which will help our customers optimize their use of this platform."

In December, Card Player revealed Bally's had applied to offer online poker in the state of Nevada. Bally's was founded in 1968 as Advanced Patent Technologies and is a manufacturer of slot machines and other gaming technology.

There was significant value in the iGaming platform solution's ability to give customers seamless integration with their Bally slot-management and casino-management systems.

"I'm very proud of this agreement between our two companies. We are excited to develop our technology, knowledge, and experience with Bally to bring the best value for land-based casinos." Alexandre Dreyfus, chief executive officer of Chiligaming, added.

The Latin American Poker Tour 2012 (LAPT) Grand Finale began on Friday, February 17 in the poker room of Casino Punta del Este, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The main event of Reias 4,000, a sum equivalent to $ 2,330, brought together 367 participants, which generated a total prize pool of $ 1,343,100. The event is already in its third day of competition and it remains only 24 players. Some well known players have been already defeated during the second day of competition and didn't even managed to access the list of paid places. Nacho Barbero, Jorge Periera, Bill Gazes and Felope Ramos were among them. The local poker pro Felipe Ramo also had the misfortune to be in place of the bubble boy. The Champion of the World Series of Poker Europe Elio Fox, Leo Fernandez and Patrick Mahoney accessed for their part the money list.

However, the public will still have an opportunity to see an interesting final because players such as Mayu Roca Uribe, Felipe Morbiducci, Carlos Ibarra, Humberto Brenes, Joshua Ewing and Daniel Negreanu are still in the race. Negreanu is at the 9th position and holds a stack of 398,000 chips, enough to allow him to race up to the final table. Taking the place of chip leader, Caio Cesar Pimenta who has 607,000 chips is the favourite player and Vincenzo Giannelli follows him at the second position with 538,000 chips in hand. Note that apart from the trophy, a prize of $ 324,600 awaits the winner of the tournament.

Kurt Jewell finally won the title of champion of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Harrah's Tunica, Mississippi, after three days of intense. 647 participants attended the $ 1,600 buy-in main event. It was a great success compared to last year's tournament. During the third day of competition, Kurt Jewell showed his best poker, which proved to be profitable and propelled him to victory among the 16 survivors. However, it took him nine hours to reach his goal. With his efforts and talent, this player finally won the trophy, the first prize of $ 192,984, a place for the National Championship and his third gold ring.

Kurt Jewell is not in his first feat in the WSOPC circuit. He has already won the same title in 2010, which earned him a gain of $ 242,909 and his first bracelet. He won his second gold jewelry at the inaugural tournament of the WSOPC St. Louis. Jacob Benzeley is one of the favorite of the final table but he had to settle for the fourth place. Other well-known players present at this tournament are Kyle Cartwright, Doug Carli and Sam Barnhart were part of the money list. After this successful step at Harrah's Tunica, fans of this poker circuit will gather at Palm Beach Kennel Club of Florida from February 25.

The EUR4,950 buy-in tournament at the Casino di Venezia reached its final table and four of them were from Italy. In pole position was Andrea Dato (1.591m), followed by Denmark's Simon Ravnsbaek (922K) and Rinat Bogdanov. Also hoping to capture a WPT title were Alessandro Longobardi (558K), Andrea Carini (347K) and Gianluca Trebbi (343K).

The local crowd hopes that their fellow countryman Alessandro Longobardi would win the competition in Italy, but then, Alessandro Longobardi failed to win the title. However, for being runner-up he won $146,826, while Rinat Bogdanov walked away with the title plus a $25,500 ticket to the WPT Championship in May.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) brought together 155 participants composed of many top players. After the first day, the field was quickly narrowed to 89 survivors. Filippo Candio reached the place of chipleader with 227,900 chips during the day 1. He triumphed in front of well-known players like Mike Sexton, Tony G or James Akenhead.

The Day 2 started on Tuesday, February 7, with 89 survivors. The first elimination happened just a few minutes after the kick-off and Melanie Weisner was the first victim. Other famous players also joined the bench of eliminated as Guillaume Darcourt, Dario Alloto, Roberto Romanello, Marvin Rettenmaier, Mike Sexton and the Day 1 chipleader Filippo Candio.

At the end of the day, only 27 survivors remains and will try to reach the final table. Marcel Bjerkmann is the player who gets the place of chipleader. Marko Neumann, James Akenhead, Kara Scott and Andrey Gulyy are also in the top of the list. Note that the winner of this event will receive a prize of EUR 229,800 and will have access to the main event of the WPT Bellagio. The runner-up will receive EUR 111,700 and the third in this poker tournament will go home with a premium of EUR 72,275.