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In a recent press release, it was announced that Titan Poker will be showering its members with $1,000,000 for competing in the ongoing Million Dollar Race. The only requirement to compete in the Million Dollar Race is to play poker online at the internet poker room, Titan Poker.

Members of Titan Poker, the pride and joy of the iPoker Network, can win their share of the $1 million prize pool simply by participating in cash games. The more members play, the higher their chance will be of taking home a slice of the lucrative cash pie.

TitanPoker launched the Million Dollar Race on January 12th. The competition will continue through April of 2009 with a series of races based upon the various aspects – regional standings, VIP standings and overall cash table poker play. All of the top finishers on the Titan Poker Million Dollar Race Leaderboards will share in the prize pool, but there are other ways to win as well.

The Leaderboards contain what TitanPoker.com is calling ‘Hot spots’. By falling into one of these hot spots, even without finishing high enough to rank as a winner, players can claim a significant chunk of change. All prizes will be awarded when the four-month Titan Poker promotion comes to an end in April.

Just a few days ago, UltimateBetPoker announced a change in the schedule of its UltimateBet Online Championship series. That change involved Event #5, originally featuring a $5,000+$200 buy-in with $1 million guaranteed. To make it more accessible to online poker players, the tournament was reduced to $300+$20 buy-in, $300k GTD.

We cannot say whether Ryan “RYAWELCH16” Welch would have chosen to participate in the UltimateBet.com event with such a hefty $5k buy-in, but he was certainly up to the challenge with a $300+$20 buy-in that resulted in his routing the competition and winning the 1st place prize of $66,000.

The 6-max No Limit Hold’em action drew a field of 793 participants; enough to cover $237,900 of the guaranteed prize pool. It was up to UltimateBetPoker.com to fork over the remaining $62,100 in overlay funds. The top 102 finishers would see a piece of the prize.

The final table came down to 6 commendable online poker players, but only one could walk away truly victorious.

“ERIKTHEKING7” was the first to go, taking with him a 6th place cash of $12,600.

Next on the departure docket was “MADMAX91”, whose honorable efforts earned a 5th place purse of $15,600.

“UPAYMYMORGAGE” became the 4th place victim, collecting $18,600 – surely enough to ‘pay the mortgage’ for quite some time!

3rd place went to the respectable skills of “JBLAZE20”, pocketing $27,060 for a trail-blazing performance.

Finally, it came down to heads-up between “WHITHERED” and the 25-year-old American, Ryan Welch. The cards fell in the young Tennessee native’s favor, awarding “WHITHERED” the 2nd place prize of $38,550.

“RYANWELCH16” was crowned the UBOC Event#5 Champion, taking home the 1st place prize of $66,000.

It was a long, tedious, and monumentally lucrative year for some FullTilt Poker players, especially those taking on the incredibly expensive nosebleed cash tables. After 365 days of online poker mayhem, the year has come to a close, and none could be happier than Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey.

The 5-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Bracelet winner has earned more than $9 million in live poker tournaments over the course of his sensational career, but in the last year, Ivey has raked in an astounding $7.54 million on Full Tilt Poker. These incredible profits place Phil Ivey at the very top of the Full Tilt Poker Profits list for 2008.

Coming in a close second is Phil “OMGClayAiken” Glafond, whos online poker exploits have earned him more than $6.97 million at Full Tilt Poker. It would be interesting to discover just how much of those winnings came from the 3rd place finisher, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, with an impressive $5.36 million finish.

Claiming the 4th spot is Di “Urindanger” Dang, cashing in for a little over $3.68 million, followed closely by his brother Hac “trex313” Dang, finishing 5th with $3.45 million. In the 6th position comes ex-Full Tilt Pro David Benyamine at $2.93 million.

Rounding out the top ten finishers of 2008 are “howsitfeellike” in 7th with $2.66 million, the UK’s Richard “CHUFTY” Ashby in 8th with $2.36 million, “La Key U” in 9th at $2.14 million and finally FullTilt.net Pro Patrik Antonius bringing up the rear in 10th place with $1.9 million.

Full Tilt Poker Biggest Winners of 2008

Phil Ivey – $7.54m
OMGClayAiken – $6.97m
durrrr – $5.36m
Urindanger – $3.68m
trex313 – $3.45m
David Benyamine – $2.93m
howisitfeellike – $2.66m
CHUFTY – $2.36m
La Key U – $2.14m
Patrik Antonius – $1.90m

There is a flip side to every coin, and in this case, it is the biggest losers at Full Tilt Poker in 2008. The interesting story here is that 5 of the top 10 losing accounts are rumored to belong to the same person – the not-so-frugal billionaire Guy Laliberte. The 5 suspect accounts are “lady marmelade”, “patatino”, “elmariachimacho”, “Bleachbum” and “noataima”, amounting to a grand total of more than $17 million in losses. These same 5 accounts racked up a $24.8 million loss on Full Tilt Poker in the previous year.

Full Tilt Poker Biggest Losers of 2008

lady marmelade – $6.6m
patatino – $4.32m
elmariachimacho – $4.16m
Bleachbum – $1.09m
SteveSung – $1.01m
PostFlopAction – $999k
noataima – $990k
John Juanda – $988k
MSampoerna – $945k
ahtata – $926k