The $25,000 Heads-Up Omaha championship on Full Tilt Poker this past weekend attracted some of the biggest names in the poker world. The event brought in a plethora of Omaha’s biggest cash game players and online tournament specialists, all hoping to get a shot at winning the $560,000 first-place prize.

Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier raised a few eyebrows at APT Macau with his ode to the Joker from the popular Dark Knight movie. Even more shocking was Johnny Chan choosing to dress as Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character from the same movie. Kidding.

ESPN gets started with coverage of the mammoth main event of the 2008 World Series of Poker tonight at 8pm EST. Of course, since coverage can only cover what’s actually happened, it will be quite awhile until you’re seeing the final table of the event, but the two hours of programming tonight will at least get us started on the path to the November Nine. The program should cover most of day 1A and day 1B

One of the more unique takes on the online poker format came to a halt today with the closing of Duplicate Poker. Duplicate, which operated openly in several US states as a result of it’s original approach to poker, announced the closing in a brief statement on the room’s website: Duplicate is sadly bidding farewell to its players. Caught in the middle of the global financial situation the company is not able to continue to provide service.

I don’t think there’s a way you could possibly write and perform a rap song about poker without it inspiring comparisons to (insert the most awkward thing you’ve ever experienced here).

The PPA is hailing it as a major lobbying victory, and while it may not be the silver bullet online poker players have been waiting for, Senator Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) Internet Skill Game Licensing and Control Act represents a major step forward for the industry. Introduced yesterday, the bill (full text on the PPA website here ) seeks to do basically what the title suggests – explicitly legalize wagering on online games of skill and create a regulatory and licensing framework for the skill game industry. PPA Executive Director John Pappas broke the news on the 2+2 forum.

It’s a little strange to see these opinions from a generally sober corner of the pokerverse, but after the last year with the scandals at UB and Absolute, it’s pretty hard for anyone to not have had their faith in the integrity of online poker shaken.