Though there hasn’t been any official announcement yet, nor do we have any insider knowledge … Pokerati’s exclusive screengrab journalism (and an iPhone that seemed to be buzzing moreso than usual this weekend) can confirm that the world’s largest online poker operation — and the only one with enough cash to buy up Full Tilt AND PokerStars (and Steve Wynn’s personal art collection should they want it) — will be back in Las Vegas for live action poker soon.

Lol to think I was wearing this T-shirt a couple months ago when someone noticed that a full year since the first ever Zynga Pokercon had come and gone with nary a mention, let alone much talk of a second such tournament event.

Gaming Social: Perhaps surprisingly, this photo was not taken with Instagram.

Kinda surprising considering that Zynga’s top executives had been chattering incessantly all Q1 about the company’s future in online gambling … almost as if their stock price depended on it!

But then, players learned this weekend …

Technically no purchase is necessary … but Zynga seems particularly interested in people motivated to spend real money online simply at the mention of the phrase “Las Vegas”:

It must be a sign:

Seriously, even though I’ve never played for real money on Zynga (I got drunk and tried to once –almost bought chips, but struggled with my paypal password and failed to get 10 million for $5 or whatever the going rate of exchange was at the time) … this weekend, Zynga really tried to excite convert me with the idea of something closer to real money play.

Ahh, a raffle. Now I get it. Unless this whole time we’re just talking about a virtual trip to virtual Vegas in a game where people spend money on virtual beer.