So the new loyalty system is now in place!

If you haven't taken the time to check the "My Rewards" page yet, what are you waiting for?!

The sooner you get to the tables, the sooner you can be earning points to start climbing the Status ladder and earn more rewards.

This weekend 888 is offering a very generous Double Points all weekend!

What does this mean? It means if it costs you 500 points to climb from Bronze status to Silver status, then this weekend you will only need to earn 250 to achieve that goal!

Also it means double the rakeback! So for your VIP's who are earning cash at a 27% rate, get in there this weekend as you'll be seeing a MASSIVE 54% return!

How do you find out how much money you are making or how many FPP's you have earned so far? Same way as always! Click on the "My Bonus" section in the cashier to convert those FPP.

But I personally wouldn't jump the gun on converting any money unless you absolutely need it. I'm interested to see what the 888.com store will have available once it is up and running, so saving up all those points earned on Double Weekends like June 5th-7th may come in handy!

Also, check the multi-table tournament lobby for special freerolls restricted to your status ladder: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These satellites will give you the opportunity to play in a VIP race where the winner will achieve VIP status for a year!

The much anticipated Loyalty program has finally arrived, and it looks very exciting!

888 has always been one of the few sites to allow a conversion of Frequent Player Points directly to Cash. Now they have taken it even further by instituting a tier system to earn those points faster.

Players will progress through Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, VIP, and VIP Diamond statuses to gain added bonuses, specialized tournaments, and FPP multipliers to earn those player points and dollars even faster!

Players FPP will also be available to purchase items from the 888 Online Store which is coming soon.

For in-depth details and breakdown of the Status Ladder and how to climb your way to the top, click HERE

888 is playing this one very close to the chest, but if the countdown found in the lobby is any indication, players should have something to look forward too on June 1st.

Having a good reward program in place for the players is one of the best ways a site can attract new customers, and any player who is spending money playing poker should definitely take these programs into consideration when choosing a site.

Some things to look for in a reward scheme:

Frequent Player Points
Most sites will offer frequent player points in some form or another. What you as a player can look for is how you earn these points. Consider the amount of rake that you must pay to earn 1 point.

The next thing to look at is what can you use these points for? Right now Pacific allows you to convert your FPP directly to a $ amount. Most sites won't allow you to convert these points directly to dollar value but will offer FPP tournaments.

Poker Store
Another way to use those player points that you've earned from those long hours at the table.

Using them to buy discount electronics or unique poker apparel is a benefit that many poker players like taking advantage of and use as a reason to play at a particular site.

Bonuses
Every site has different deposit and reload bonuses, so make sure that you investigate these fully when deciding where and how much to buy into a site. As well as what are the necessary requirements to clear a bonus.

888 has for a long time had a unique deposit method where 25% of your deposit is available immediately. As well, make sure that you take advantage of the monthly reload bonuses offered at 888 - another program that is relatively generous.

Make sure that you have thoroughly investigated all of the bonus programs that are offered at your site, because you might just be missing some great opportunities.

Stay tuned for June 1st!

888 has decided to vary it's daily tournament offerings with the following changes:

Monday Challenge
Buy-In $50+$5
GNTD $25,000

Tuesday Challenge
Buy-In $100+$9
GNTD $10,000
20 minutes blinds.

Wednesday Challenge
Buy-In $25+$2.50
GNTD $10,000
Turbo

Thursday Challenge
Buy-In $12+$1.20
GNTD $10,000
Rebuy

Friday Challenge
Buy-In $30+$3
GNTD $15,000
DeepStack 5,000 starting chips.

Saturday Challenge
Buy-In $75+$5
GNTD $50,000
5,000 starting chips, 20 minute blinds.

Sunday Challenge
Buy-In $50+$5
GNTD $25,000
Short Handed

Stay tuned for satellite opportunities as well as a new player reward system coming at the beginning of June!

Huge congratulations to Ben Leblond who won the '09 Canadian Heads up Poker Challenge!

Ben not only won, but he did it in epic style, beating Richard Webb, Phil Hellmuth, Brad Booth and Jeff Madsen in the finals.

The final match was anything but easy. Madsen taking an early 1 match to 0 lead over Ben, Ben was forced to win the next two games back to back.

This was made even more difficult when during the second match Ben took a monster blow to his chip stack looking at an enormous 19k to 1k chip defecit. Having to win two games, and recover from an impossible short stack, Ben did the impossible and won the match within the next 10 minutes!

Madsen, understandably devastated from not closing out the finals with a 19:1 lead was visibly distraught in the final match. Ben rode his momentum taking an early chip lead in the final match.

The chips found their way into the middle and Ben's 44 is in a race with Madsen's AT for the Canadian Open title.

With a 4 out the door, Ben hit his set and Madsen was unable to catch up!

The young phenom from Quebec tops all his big name opponents and takes home the '09 Canadian Open title!

Unfortunately the hail storms are too ferocious for our international media friends and getting some up-to-date reporting has proven very difficult.

However I do have a few updates for you:

Jack "Papajac" Hinchey, Joe - our Toronto Edge qualifier, as well as our online 888 qualifier have all suffered first round casualties. Such a well-structured tournament will always attract some very tough competition and our 888 players were unlucky to run into some rigid opponents in the early rounds.

Jack tells us he will be participating in a few of the side events though so hopefully we will have some good news to report.

On a positive note, online player Spektah from Quebec is demonstrating some great natural ability in the HU arena with a 6-0 record over his first three matches and has moved into the next round to square off against Hellmuth. Good luck Ben!

Papajac Hinchey and Toronto Edge Qualifier Joe Hinckley have made their way to Calgary to join a long list of who's who in the poker world at the Canadian Open.

Phil Helmuth, Layne Flack and Antonio Esfandiari are amongst the notable players, so at the very least we should have a loud and entertaining event.

Unfortunately there hasn't been any word yet from Jack on the pairings or if he was playing in day 1 of the main event which took place yesterday.

Today is day 2, so hopefully after today concludes we will be able to get some news on some of the pairings and action that has taken place.

Over 10 hours of play and 554 players have been eliminated.

The blinds are 20k/40k with a 4000 ante

stu21riv limps on the button and swaizey shoves all in for just over 600k. Stu quickly makes the call and turns over pocket aces. Swaizey is holding J9 offsuit.

The flop is a quick A 3 5 leaving swaizey only a running 2-4 to save his tourney. The turn gives him a flash of hope with a 4, but the river pairs his Jack leaving him second to collect $15 000.

Stu21irv finishes first of 556 players and takes home the $24 000 first prize.

Congrats Stu, and congrats to our three Canadian final table finishers.