It’s been a busy couple of weeks in poker with notable tournaments running in locations as diverse as London, Aruba and… Blackhawk, Colorado? To keep you up with who’s winning around the world, our crack staff is everywhere. We think.

Barry Shulman
WSOPE Main Event
London, England

With more than $1.3 million in first-place money and a WSOP bracelet on the line, the match had Academy Award potential as Shulman, father of November Niner and up-and-coming poker bad boy Jeff “Happy” Shulman, bettered perennial fan favorite and all-time tournament money winner Daniel Negreanu.

For full play-by-play of the epic 17-hour, big-name final table, click here

Aaron Gustavson
EPT London Main Event
London, England

Across town at the Grosvenor Casino, it took just seven hands of heads-up play for 23-year-old online pro Aaron Gustavson to knock off defending WSOP main event champ Peter Eastgate and claim the £850,000 first-place prize at the EPT London Main Event.

More details at EuropeanPokerTour.com

Brandon Hall
Aruba Poker Classic
Aruba

A little rain couldn’t dampen Hall’s spirits as the 20-year-old online qualifier from Littlestown, Pa., beat out 474 other players to claim more than $753,000 and the title of Aruba Poker Classic Champion after defeating Robert Mizrachi in heads-up play. He plays online as “AreTheseUtz”.

Read more about him at the UltimateBet Blog

William Givens
HPT Mile High Poker Open
Black Hawk, CO

24-year old William Givens won nearly $145,000 and his mother’s respect after taking down the Heartland Poker Tour’s Mile High Poker Open at the Golden Gates Casino earlier this month. Givens, who has been playing professionally for just over a year, won his way into the $1,650 main event through a $360 satellite. Using cash game winnings from the weekend, he actually won two satellites and sold the other seat for additional profit.

Read more about his biggest win to date on the Heartland Poker Tour here

The defendant, Kevin Raley, has already been found not-guilty … but the state’s appeal succeeded in getting the testimony of Robert Hannum, Professor of Statistics at the University of Denver, thrown out on the grounds that Colorado law had already put poker in its gambling place. So now Raley is moving forward, even though he’s already — and still — in the clear.

From thePPA.org:

Poker Players Alliance Supports Appeal to Colorado Supreme Court

Washington, DC (August 12, 2009) –The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide and more than 13,000 in Colorado, today expressed its support for efforts to appeal a ruling in state intermediate court that poker is predominately a game of chance as part of Colorado v. Kevin Raley.

The defendant, Kevin Raley, will file a petition in Colorado Supreme Court requesting an appeal of the intermediate court’s ruling that poker is gambling under Colorado law.

“The PPA is going to do everything in its power to support Mr. Raley’s efforts in order to protect PPA members and all poker players in the state of Colorado,” said Gary Reed, PPA’s Colorado State Director. “I am especially alarmed because this ruling ignores the abundance of research that proves poker is a game of skill and confuses rather than clarifies the matter for law enforcement that may use their scarce resources to raid and arrest poker players instead of investigating real unlawful activity in the state.”

More…

Frank Frisina of Life’s A Bluff has notified friends and followers through his Twitter account that his niece has been found safe and returned home. (Thanks, KevMath, for sending this great news to a non-Twitterer.) Jennifer had been missing since Saturday, but it seems we have a very positive outcome to a scary situation.

WE FOUND HER!!!!! SHE IS OK!!! I JUST BROUGHT HER HOME!!!! WILL POST DETAILS SOON ON LIFESABLUFF.COM – thank you everyone!!!!

UPDATE: In response to speculation in the blogosphere that it was a runaway situation, Frank Frisina posted a response in his latest blog:

At the request of my niece and for the sake of her privacy, I have one final statement regarding last week’s ordeal;

She is safe and at home, she did NOT run away, and we are not releasing any more information at this time.

Age 14, approx 5′ 5″, 120/130 lbs, brown hair/eyes

This is a rather unusual post, and one that is not pleasant to write except to help in some way. Frank Frisina, one of the main dudes over at Life’s A Bluff and poker industry friend, is in desperate need of help. His 14-year old niece, Jennifer, is missing in Colorado, and Frank is beside himself with heartache. The Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office are involved, but it sure can’t hurt to get her picture out to the public and try to spread the word to our Colorado readers.

More…

Talking about actual magic here, not the Magic the Gathering… The Colorado kid found himself “addicted” to poker and subsequently became intrigued by magic tricks. He even invented a new one. And the story about finding an alternative to the “unhealthy” habit of poker evidently warranted a piece on a local television station. Guess real news about people losing their jobs and homes is in short order…

This week we look atthe possibility that the UIGEA will be repealed in sometime in 2009. Plus, great news for online gambling from the US, as the state of Colorado joins Pennsylvania in declaring poker a skill game!