The poker world learned with surprise this week that the Cereus Poker Network, which incorporates UB.com and Absolute Poker, and is one of our main sponsors with bad beat jackpots, has been purchased by Blanca Games. Both sites on the network have been involved in cheating scandals in the past, and it is hoped that the new acquisition will be a clean break from these problems.

Blanca Games has CEO Stuart Gordon at its helm, and is headquartered in Costa Rica. Stuart has been instrumental in creating groups such as Helix Gaming International and BingoMania.com.

Joe Sebok, sponsored professional player for UB.net, spoke to PND and said that he couldn’t be more excited about the news. “It’s a further break from the past and the former owners of Ultimate Bet, not to mention my own excitement about brining Blanca into the fold and beginning something new,” he said.

“Gordon has a proven track record and I think bringing him into the poker arena is only going to breathe some new excitement into our business,” he added.

Sebok said that the move would hopefully allow UB.com to bury its demons from the past. “I always knew that we needed to deal with the past, which we continue to do, but the really exciting period was always going to be growing the company and turning it into what we would like it to be. Soon, UB won’t be known for the scandals of the past, but rather for helping lead online poker into the future,” he predicted.

According to reports, the entire operation at Cereus Poker will remain unchanged, including sponsorship deals and management. In addition, Sebok said that “The player experience should not change one bit, except for all of the improvements that will come from us being bought by Blanca.”

“I think we are really going to be able to do many more exciting things now,” he said.

Despite my despise of Victory poker and the owners/poker pros I’m obligated to publish news for anyone interested about the poker website.

If we are to heed the speculation in the online poker world in recent days, Victory Poker may soon be moving to the Cake Poker Network. Unidentified sources were quoted as saying that the move could come about as early as next month.

The industry got wind of the news in a rather roundabout way. A reliable source apparently heard Dan Fleyshman, owner of Victory Poker (as well as Who’s Your Daddy energy beverage company), boast that he was due to make a major announcement regarding the future of Victory Poker on his birthday in September.

CalvinAyre.com carried a story saying that Fleyshman would be making ‘an exciting Victory Poker announcement’ at his birthday party in London September 1st. Dan has been spending an usually large amount of time in Vancouver over the past month, and two major poker networks – Cake and Merge – have offices in Vancouver.”

So who is Victory Poker and where is this site positioned in the grand scheme of things?

The site launched at the Hard Rock Café in Vegas earlier this year in a dazzling event that had many of the top echelon of the poker world attending.

The poker room debuted on – and is currently working off – the Everleaf network, which merged with UPN to carry Victory Poker. The network currently incorporates Minted Poker, Poker4Ever, Everleaf Poker, as well as Victory Poker.

It is speculated that that Victory Poker is keen to move away from Everleaf in search of greater liquidity for its players.

PokerScout ranks the Everleaf Network as 22nd in terms of real money ring game traffic, while the Cake Poker Network is ranked 16th.

Victory Poker, for its part, is particularly pro-player and uses this strategy in its high profile marketing campaigns. So called Professionals such as Antonio Esfandiari are part of Victory’s team of sponsored players, as well as Lee Markholt and Paul Wasicka.