The seminar will include instruction on cash-game strategy, sit-and-go tournament strategy and multi-table tournament strategy. There will also be time for a question and answer session.

Participants will also be treated to a $300 gift bag of items, a chance to win a seat to the 2008 Aruba Poker Classic, as well as lunch and a meet and greet with the UltimateBet pros on hand to provide their poker expertise.

That team of pros will be led by Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth and includes Shawn Rice, James “Krazy Kanuck” Worth, Gary “DeBo34″ DeBernardi and Mark “POker Ho” Kroon.

Hellmuth brings to the table his 11 World Series of Poker bracelet wins as well as more than $10 million in tournament winnings over the years. Duke is one of the top ranked female players in the world with a WSOP bracelet of her own, more than $3.5 million in tournament winnings and extensive cash-game experience.

While Rice, Worth, DeBernardi and Kroon don’t have quite the impressive poker resumes that Hellmuth and Duke have, they do offer expertise gathered from both the live and online poker worlds as well.

The team will be making their way to five cities in Canada during the Cross Canada Tour, starting with Toronto on Saturday, March 8. The full schedule is as follows:

Registration along with a light breakfast for participants begins at 9 a.m. the day of the seminar, and then the classes begin at 10 p.m. and last until about 6 p.m. Space is limited, and people wishing to participate can reserve their seats now online at UltimateBet.net. The seminar costs $299 per person.

Visit PokerListings.com

Under such a setup, there’s no poker paraphernalia (chips, cards, etc.) or dealer. Players sit at individual electronic screens around a table, and a computer program divides up the chips, keeps track of all the action and determines the winner.

As much as this innovation may appear to be the wave of the future, a war is brewing that could have repercussions for automated poker.

In what could be a pivotal battle for the future of automated poker tables in casinos, Lightning Poker, which owns and sells the Lightning Poker gaming table, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against PokerTek and its PokerPro automated poker tables.

On March 4, Lightning Poker, a subsidiary of Shuffle Master, Inc., filed a complaint in the United States District Court in New Jersey alleging that PokerTek’s development infringes on the patent that was filed by Lightning Poker in 2004 for electronic poker tables.

PokerTek is accused of using, selling and offering for sale poker tables that infringe Lightning Poker’s U.S. patent. The complaint is seeking unspecified monetary damages from PokerTek as well as a permanent nationwide injunction barring the use and sale of all of PokerTek products.

“Although Lightning Poker recognizes and respects the constant innovation in gaming technology, we cannot permit willful infringement of our valuable intellectual property. PokerTek has exploited the innovations covered by our patent for its own benefit in the face of our patent,” said Brian D. Haveson, president and CEO of Lightning Poker.

“Lightning Poker is a pioneer in automated poker and annually invests millions of dollars in research and development to create technologies that bring significant value to our customers and players. We are determined to remain a leader by leveraging our superior functionality and high reliability, and by vigorously defending our intellectual property,” Haveson continued.

Responding to the lawsuit yesterday, PokerTek CEO Chris Halligan stated that the case is without merit and that PokerTek looks forward to defending its interests in court.

“This is not the first time Lightning Poker has sued us,” Halligan commented. “Its last lawsuit was unsuccessful and we will work to ensure a similar outcome here. We remain focused on growing our business and extending our lead in the marketplace.”

Halligan noted that PokerTek has more than 40 patents itself and will use those patents to prove that it hasn’t violated Lightning Poker’s intellectual property rights.

Timing could prove pivotal in the case. Lightning Poker filed its application in 2004, but it wasn’t granted until December 2007. PokerTek’s patent application for the PokerPro table was filed in March 2005 and was also granted in 2007.

Thus, resolution of the dispute may require that a patent arbitrator determine which of the two companies holds the intellectual property rights or, alternatively, that they simply developed a similar product independently of each other.

With both companies traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange and a loss in the courts potentially affecting their trading prices, the battle between Lightning Poker and PokerTek for the future of automated poker tables could be a major one.

Visit PokerListings.com

I am stillawe struck as to the popularity of No Limit Hold’em. I walk into Commercecasino and there are literally dozens of poker tables that areinhabited by Travel Channel (now GSN) watchers, and the waiting lists are offthe charts. I often ask myself where all the money is coming from.