For anyone who doesn’t know how a wide-area online progressive jackpot works, it is essentially a networked jackpot between multiple online casinos, each contributing a percentage of every wager made on the progressive game. There is no extra “cost” for the online casino. In fact, the player receives a smaller payoff overall in order for this percentage of their wager to go toward the jackpot. Therefore, if an online casino happens to be the host where a lucky player hits the “big one” so to speak, you can bet your bankroll that casino is going to advertise the win.

As mentioned, the latest, notable jackpot wins took place on the Rival Gaming network. Although it hasn’t been identified just yet which Rival Gaming licensee was the host for the jackpot, records show the game was “One Million Reels BC” – a popular progressive video slot, which in many respects, has been one of the Rival Gaming’s hottest slots this year. Just six months ago, it paid out nearly $250,000 to one player, as well as several multi-thousand dollar wins this month.

One Million Reels BC can be played at all Rival Gaming Casinos, which get two thumbs up by the online casino review team here at OCS. Although smaller than the likes of Microgaming and Playtech, Rival Gaming has a fast growing number of licensees, most all of which are still open to U.S. players. The Top Rival Gaming Casinos reviewed at Online Casino Suite include SlotoCash, Paradise 8 and Cocoa Casino.

Antonius recently won the two biggest pots in the short history of online poker cash games, including the first million-dollar pot ever recorded. Earlier this week, Antonius played another online high roller, known only by his screen name “isildur1”, in a heads-up pot-limit Omaha match. “isildur1” was on the button during the big hand, where the blinds at this table were the highest available at the site: US$500/1000.

Before the flop, the two combatants raised and re-raised the maximum until each player had over US$81,000 in the pot. The flop came as a nondescript two, four and five with three different suits. Antonius led out for US$91,000 into the US$162,000 pot. His opponent considered the bet, just over half the pot, then raised the full amount, US$435,000. The bet left “isildur1” with only US$162,000 in his stack, thus committing the rest of his chips to the hand.

Antonius’ next bet forced his opponent all-in, which was called. Antonius showed (Ah, Kd, Ks, 3s) for a five-high straight on the flop. His opponent showed (9s, 8h, 7d, 6d) for a potentially higher straight draw. A three would give “isildur1” a seven-high straight, while a six would give him an eight-high straight, giving him a forty-five percent chance to win with two cards to come.

The odds tilted in Antonius’ favor after the turn card showed (5h), making him nearly a three-to-one favorite. The river was the (9c), giving Antonius the hand and over US$1.3 million, the largest cash-game pot in online poker history. This hand surpassed the record that the two players set last week, when Antonius hit a gutshot straight on the river to take down a pot worth almost US$880,000.

Understandably, slots are the most popular of all online casino games with players. Furthermore, it’s no surprise how much casinos embrace anything related to slots, whether it be slots bonuses or tournaments, for these entertaining and loaded games are indeed the “one-armed bandits”. In other words, online casinos make more money overall off slots than they do on other games.

Being that Blackjack actually offers one of the lowest House Edges (when played with perfect blackjack strategy), let’s just say that online casinos typically do not like to encourage unbridled action on the Blackjack table when they can do the same for slots. Nonetheless, some online casinos are willing to “take a hit” and offer online blackjack tournaments to the base of players who truly love the game of “21″.

The blackjack savvy online casinos, like Cherry Red, will even offer Mano a Mano tournaments in addition to multi-tournaments (multiple players, multiple table and multiple tournament rounds). Mano a Mano is similar to online poker tournaments in that players compete directly against each other in head’s up play.

So, going back to the original quandary of US players finding a varied selection of online blackjack tournaments (other than Cherry Red Casino and Rushmore), I am happy to report that the Club World Gaming group should be added to the list of reputable U.S. facing online blackjack tournament destinations. Specifically, it’s Club USA Casino that is gaining momentum from the U.S. crowd – steadily building up a demand for online blackjack tournaments, and as such, greater prize pools altogether.

Club USA also offers a “blackjack compatible” welcome bonus and reload loyalty bonuses, meaning that blackjack wagers (penny for penny) will go toward the play-through requirement. Unlike most other bonuses that either exempt blackjack from meeting the wager requirement (going so far to disqualify bonus money if exempted games are wagered on before the entire play-through has been met), or only counting a very low percentage of wagers toward the play-through (sometimes as low as 5%), Club USA Casino offers a true blackjack bonus, imposing a moderate 50x on blackjack wagers with the only game restrictions being imposed on Craps, Baccarat, Roulette and Sic Bo. The bonus (claim code NEW100) is worth 100% up to $150 Free, and can also be used on Video Poker. The maximum cashout is 5x the bonus amount ($750), which is also a favorable term.