While Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars (the two to beat, if you ask most folks) are offering a respectable $650 and $600 match, respectively, two sites have upped the ante even further.

PKR, the one-of-a-kind 3D poker site, has a new $800 welcome bonus maximum and William Hill Poker has a £400 max.

Some sites, by the by, offer no deposit bonuses, albeit of much smaller amounts, but nonetheless something-for-nothing. One of the best casino signup bonus running right now is at Ladbrokes as is for £25.  You can find other bonuses by doing an online poker search here.

• the Main Event, and its $453,663 prize, was won by Matthew “Poligraph” Waxman, winner of Event 15 in the last FTOPS XII; he also made another final table inthis latest FTOPS XIII, at Event 56
• Jake Toole had the biggest takedown, though, with $453,687 for winning the 2-day $2,500 event; runner-up was FullTilt Pro Brian Hastings
• the $300 Razz Event, #21, and its almost $40,000 prize was won by Billy Kopp, who finished deep in this year’s WSOP Main Event; Kopp just got signed by UltimateBet Poker
• the Ante Up For Africa charity poker tournament earned $50,000 more for the humanitarian cause
• coming up September 9 is the $3 million guaranteed Mini-FTOPS XIII, with the same lineup of events as the FTOPS XIII but with 1/10 the buy-ins

And on an interesting side note, chopping the pot (or deal-making at the final table) has become quite popular in online poker, and it sure showed here, with several final pots being amicably split (almost) evenly between the two heads-up players remaining at the final tables’ end.

Some of the FTOPS XIII hosted some of the Best Poker Satellites that we have seen to this years main events.  In order to qualify yourself for the next FTOPS finals, you may want to consider taking a poker test to see if you meet the standards.

And this is on top of the minimum $1,263,602 Joe makes for making it to the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table. Like all of the “November Nine”, including the crowd and odds-makers’ favorite Phil Ivey, Joe is hoping for that $8,546,435 top prize

Joe says that between now and Nov 7, besides playing online every Sunday, he will also be entering the WPT Legends of Poker event at the Bell Gardens, California Bicycle Casino from August 22 to 26.

For $200 + $16 up to 81 players at a time can compete in a twice-daily shootout (at 3:30 pm and 9:30 pm ET) with the top prize being a seat in the 2009 World Series of Poker main event. For a varying range of buy-ins and stakes, Full Tilt will also be running 5 weekly WSOP qualifiers, one each on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

There will also be ways to win one of 50 free seats in the 2009 World Series of Poker main event for free, with an ongoing series of daily freerolls. Win a round 1 freeroll and then place in the top two in a round 2 freeroll and you’ll qualify to compete in the Main Event Race Finals Freeroll held each Sunday. A $12,000 WSOP main event prize package will be awarded to the players coming in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each.

And finally, on Sunday, June 21, Full Tilt will be running a one-time only tournament awarding $12,000 main event prize packages to the 150 top finishers. Buy-in is $500 + $35.

Party Poker WSOP Satellites are also running now to give you even more opportunities to qualify for this years Main Event.  Party Poker has slightly different WSOP qualifiers and you can find more about them at this post: Party Poker WSOP.

Starting February 4, 2009, the 11th installment of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (known this year as FTOPS XI) promises more players, more opportunities to win free seats, and–most excitingly–more cash prizes to be awarded than ever before.

The FTOPS is one of internet poker’s most popular online poker tournaments, attracting many of professional poker’s most esteemed players to the online tables. At the very least, you can certainly expect to see all or most of the members of Team Full Tilt in attendance.

The opening event on Feb 4 will be a No Limit Holdem tournament with a $216 buy-in and a $1 million guaranteed prize pool.

The main event–25 thrilling FTOPS XI events later–takes place on February 15 and will be another No Limit Holdem tournament, this with a $535 buy-in and a $2.5 million guaranteed prize pool.

Perhaps the most anticipated event of this year’s Full Tilt Online Poker Series, though, will be the two-day No Limt Holdem tournament with a $5,200 buy-in and a $2 million guaranteed prize pool.

If you haven’t yet played at this great online poker site, then read these poker site reviews to find the poker room that is a perfect fit for you.