UltimateBet Pro and 11-time WSOP Bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth has announced a new mobile poker promotion worth $2,500 and a chance to go heads up with Hellmuth himself at UltimateBetPoker.net.

To take part in the promotion, poker fans will need to download ‘Texas Hold’em with Phile Hellmuth’ to their mobile phone, available for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Alltel, T-Mobile, Western Wireless, Midwest Wireless, Bell Mobility, nTelos, Telstra and Telus Mobility mobile phone service customers.

Once logged in, players can participate in the contest, playing mobile poker games against other poker enthusiasts. Each participant is given one entry to the contest drawing. For every virtual dollar earned on the Texas Hold’em with Phil Hellmuth leaderboards, players will earn another entry. At the end of the promotional period, a single player name is drawn.

The winner of the contest is immediately awarded $2,500, along with the opportunity to take on UltimateBetPoker Pro Phil Hellmuth in a heads up competition at the UltimateBet.net online poker room.

Developed by Oasys Mobile, the latest edition of Texas Hold’em with Phil Hellmuth presents a 3D graphical interface and several new features, including the ability for players to create their own custom avatars. The promotion is expected to be a great success as Texas Hold’em with Phill Hellmuth is already the best selling poker game in the world designed exclusively for mobile phones.

Calvin Ayre, owner of BodogLife.com Entertainment, shocked the online gambling industry this weekend after offering a full scale interview for the July edition of Fast Company Magazine, upped and retired before the feature could even be published.

According to Sue Schneider of Interactive Gambling News, who has knows Calvin for more than a decade, Ayre is “on the lam”. Schneider believes the heat of the DOJ (who declined comment) is becoming too much for the full-time partier.

Calvin is known for numerous photographs depicting himself surrounded by women and/or showered with $100 bills; obviously not a shy nor modest man. His sudden retirement and disappearance from the limelight has brought about much speculation, especially since the Fast Company article boasted many new plans for Calvin and his BodogPoker.com and BodogSports business ventures.

Headlines are even suggesting that Calvin Ayre is actually gay, even though previous stories have stated his past relations with more than 8,000 women. This writer wonders if such accusations are mere attempts to make Ayre talk with the press.

No one seems to know what is really going through Ayre’s mind at the moment or why he has suddenly retired from a booming company profile. All eyes and ears will be on the situation until more information comes to the surface.

UltimateBet.com is hosting its 2nd annual Ante Up For Africa charity poker tournament at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, scheduled for July 2nd, 2008. All tournament fees will go to assist the victims of the crisis in Dufar, Sudan.

This past weekend, UltimateBetPoker decided to ‘up the ante’, so to speak, by hosting a string of NL Hold’em tournaments, again with all fees going to Ante Up For Africa. In addition, UltimateBetPoker.com auctioned off a multitude of desirable items and services, including autographed CDs by Scott Ian of Anthrax and personal poker training lessons from Annie Duke.

Last year, UltimateBet’s inaugural Ante Up For Africa tournament brought in an impressive $700,000 to assist the survivors in Dufar. The evnt drew multiple A’list celebrities from the woodworks, including Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, Matt Damon, Shannon Elizabeth, Cheryl Hines, Kevin James, Adam Sandler, and Montel Williams.

“We all know poker is about making money,” a spokesperson for UltimateBet relayed, “ but this is a great chance to throw in a little charity with the chips. We hope to assist in beating last year’s total donations and are calling on all our players to dig deep for this very worthy cause.”

Hosted by UltimateBet’s own Annie Duke and Don Cheadle, with commentator Phil Hellmuth at the mic, the 2008 Ante Up For Africa poker tournament will begin Wednesday, July 2dn, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.