BLUFF Magazine, the poker industry’s leading publication, today released their annual list of poker’s most influential and powerful entities, the BLUFF Power 20, in their February issue. The entity at the top of the list should be no surprise to anybody who’s watched the growth of the game and the industry over the past five years; the World Series of Poker.

“Every year the World Series of Poker is the highlight of the calendar,” said Eric Morris, co-founder and publisher and BLUFF. “The fact that the rest of the poker industry bases their operations around what Jeffrey Pollack, Ty Stewart and the WSOP are doing makes it the easy pick for the top spot.”

Sitting in second position is another name familiar to the top end of the list, online poker giant PokerStars.com. In the past 12 months PokerStars has launched professional poker tours in Latin America and Australia/New Zealand while continuing to dominate the online poker industry.

“An operation of that size is impressive enough, but PokerStars keeps finding ways to increase their player base while expanding the overall reach of the game of poker,” said Morris. “They’re the world’s largest poker room and it’s hard to imagine that won’t continue – even as more and more markets move to a regulated environment.”

The 2009 list also recognized a blog for the first time. Poker gossip site WickedChopsPoker.com was ranked #20, marking the first time a non-traditional media outlet was recognized in the Power 20.

“The work done by WickedChopsPoker to develop a large audience and regular following in the poker industry is no different than that of TMZ in the entertainment industry,” said Morris. “They regularly break stories and have developed an insider’s take on the industry. Most of the pros read wickedchopspoker.com on a regular basis.”

The complete Power 20 is available in the February issue of BLUFF Magazine which is on newsstands now. Also featured in this issue is a cover story on online poker cash game phenom Tom “durrrr” Dwan and his Million Dollar Challenge.

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