Bodog Reaches Billionth-Hand Milestone --  Bodog became the latest online poker room to reach the billion-hands-dealt plateau, topping that mark on Sunday night as the conclusion to its festivities marking the occasion.  Boog gave away tens of thousands of dollars in cash and tournament entries in the promotion, including about $11,000 worth in the magic billionth hand itself.  That hand, coincidentally, saw all U.S. players at the table, each of whom now has an enriched bankroll just for being in the right spot at the right time.

Dinh Le Takes APPT Macau --  The rushed-together Asia Pacific Poker Tour stop in Macau, the first major poker tounament (and no, World Poker Tour, traktor is not generally recognized as a poker game) to be held in mainland China, produced a great result in marketing terms.  Not only did Asian players dominate the final table (that also included stars Joe Hachem, Liz Lieu and Bertrand Grospellier) but the crown iself was captured by Dinh "Daren" Le.  Le’s win was worth $222,640 and promises to be the first of many Chinese poker events.

The MasterCard Wouldn’t Have Worked, Either -- One big name who was supposed to attend the APPT Macau festivities but couldn’t was 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang.  Yang was all set to go, but discovered only when he reached the L.A. airport that he would not be able to pass through Hong Kong on his way to Macau, as scheduled, due to Yang’s lacking a special visa needed for Asian travel because of Yang’s own refugee status as an emigrated Hmong from Laos, via Thailand.  Yang discovered the oversight too late to reschedule.  How much responsibility should be placed on the head of the agent who signed Yang at the WSOP, Oliver Tse, is unknown.

Bellagio Five-Diamond World Poker Classic Begins --  One of the biggest stateside live events in the last part of the year is undoubtedly the Five-Diamond at the "O" in Las Vegas, which began its run of events on Monday and concludes with a $15,000-buyin event in mid-December.  (Joe Hachem won that one last year.)  Attendance at the first event, a $1,500 NLHE looked solid.

Swedish Government Attacks MultiPoker Over Tax Issues --  It looks as though Sweden, in its attempts to deal with online poker, is trying to do the governmental version of taking its ball and going home.  After blocking all attempts to date by state-run gambling monopoly Svenska Spel to expand its presence on the online scene, Sweden is pressing forward in prosecutions against the owners of the site www.multipoker.com, alleging that multipoker’s offshore headquarters were a simple sham designed to evade Swedish tax responsibilities.  Some Swedish nationals seem to have been involved with the site, which was later sold to PartyGaming in an unconnected matter.