Who would’ve thought the day would come when we’d feel nostalgic about certain things in the online poker industry? But here it is – an apparent end to an era as the industry says farewell to one of the oldest sites around, PokerRoom, after it shut down operations yesterday.

PokerRoom sent out an email to its affiliates this week saying: “I would like to inform you that the option to play poker on PokerRoom … will be disabled on Tuesday the 14th of April. The remaining players will only have the option to transfer to bwin after they log in.”

PokerRoom has worked until now off the Ongame Network, owned by bwin, and it is only natural that players have been re-directed to bwin’s poker site.

So why the nostalgia? For one, PokerRoom was one of the more popular online poker sites in the heady days of internet poker playing before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act took care of that. PokerRoom left the US market when the controversial law kicked in and tried to refocus on other areas around the globe, to no avail.

PokerRoom was also one of the first sites out there to boast three dimensional graphics, a concept that ushered in a new era to online poker playing and created a gaming experience that was more realistic, more entertaining and – in the long run – more rewarding.

But, on a more optimistic note, the end of one thing is always the beginning of another, and loyal PokerRoom players will be happy to find some great options on the bwin site.

Besides being the official sponsor of the land based World Poker Tour that will kick off in Italy next month, bwin offers an amazing online poker experience, complete with caricatures around the table, a great variety of games and smooth interface.

Bwin’s Ongame Network is considered the fifth largest in the industry and incorporates top sites such as Bettson, Eurobet, RedKings and Hollywood Poker. The network boasts a 24 hour peak of 5,500 players.

PokerStars, the big boys in the industry recently signed on two big names to join their dream team of sponsored players. Peter Eastgate, World Series of Poker winner and his runner up Ivan Demidov both joined PokerStars.com as players to represent the site at tournaments, both offline and on, bringing more glam and action to an already exciting collection of players on the team.

And then we heard that PokerStars landed another two interesting players, both South Americans and both with their own tales to tell.

Take the rags to riches (well, almost…) tale of Maria Mayrinck, for example. This lass, considered to be the most successful female player in Brazil, has just achieved the windfall of her career by landing the honor of being part of the PokerStars team.

With a degree in sociology, the newly graduated Mayrinck set off to forge a career for herself in scriptwriting. But her love for poker pulled her into the online world of blogging and she soon earned herself the reputation of a connoisseur in the industry. Today, Mayrinck’s blog is read regularly by over 200,000 poker fans.

PokerStars picked up on Maria’s expertise and invited her to act as a blogger during some of their live tournaments. The rest, as they say, is history. Caught up in the action of the competitive side of poker, Mayrinck soon took to the felt in 2007, cashing out three times in the World Series of Poker event.

Last week, Maria Mayrinck – ‘maridu’ to her online fans – signed on the dotted line, together with fellow South American chess-player-turned-poker-pro Leo Fernandez, to join the PokerStars family.

In her famous blog, Mayrinck wrote:

“I guarantee on my end that I will always do my best to honor the name of the best poker site on the planet which I respect so much, and I am very aware of the great privilege this is and I won’t take any of it for granted. I would also like to thank my agency Poker Icons for their great contribution in bringing me and PokerStars together.”

A Young Turk is more likely to win the WSOP 2009 Main Event than a legend. And it would mean great things for the sponsor whose shirt he is wearing. Hence in the pre-WSOP months there are a lot of young poker pros, who have been identified as potential Main Event winners, being signed up by online poker rooms. One such player is the 25-year-old Matt Graham. Ultimate Bet, the sister site of Absolutepoker just signed him to its Star Players team.

Hailing from New Orleans, Graham was studying medicine in Connecticut. He first started playing poker in small dorm games in college. He then began to play low stakes games online at Ultimate Bet. He turned an initial investment of $50 into a sizeable bankroll. It was then that he decided to give up medical school in favor of full time poker. He first took the online poker world by storm playing as “mattg1983” and then made his presence felt in live tournaments.

In 2008 Graham had three prestigious wins. He first won the 2008 World Poker Challenge; then his first and only WSOP bracelet in the Limit Hold’em Shootout event and finally the 2008 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. This made him jump to the 36th position in the Player of the Year (POY) Rank for 2008 as compared to the 178th position he had secured in 2007. He has again fallen to the 175th place in the 2009 POY Rank but enjoys the 46th place in the Bluff Power Ranking. His live tournament earnings to date are $978,118, just short of a million.

He now lives in Las Vegas. On the personal front Graham is single and his favorite celebrity is Jennifer Aniston and his favorite place is Norway. Apart from poker he plays hockey.

Annie Duke, designated as Ultimate Bet’s Cardroom Consultant welcomed Graham by saying, “I am so thrilled to have Matt Graham on the team. Matt epitomizes the all-around poker player. He has great results in all the games, live or online. Matt is an amazing addition to the Ultimate Bet team.”

On his part Graham expressed his delight at being with Ultimate Bet. He said, “I look forward to the opportunity to represent Ultimate Bet both online and in the live arena. I never would have thought I would be a site pro when I began my online poker career at Ultimate Bet four years ago, but now here I am. I am very excited to be a part of the future of this site.”