A lot of us never thought we would have seen the day. Just two and a half years ago marked the infamous Black Friday, which essentially shut online poker down in the US.

However, times have changed and a number of states took steps to legalize and regulate Internet poker in 2013. The first of those was Nevada, where an online poker market was officially launched in April.

Ultimate Poker made history by becoming the first legal poker site to launch in Nevada and it was soon followed by WSOP. The states of Delaware and New Jersey also subsequently launched online gaming markets in 2013 and other states are currently considering regulations of their own.

Ryan Riess Wins WSOP Main Event

The biggest event of 2013 that poker had to offer was won by Ryan Riess, who became the first player born in the 1990s to take out the WSOP Main Event. The American beat a total field of 6,352 to win poker's most prestigious tournament, along with the $8,361,570 cash prize and his first ever WSOP gold bracelet.

Jay Farber was the runner-up in this year’s Main Event and won a highly respectable $5,174,357 for his solid play throughout the tournament, his highest poker cash to date.

WSOP Expands to Asia-Pacific

This year marked the first ever WSOP Asia-Pacific, which took place in the Australian city of Melbourne  A total of five events were held during the eleven days of festivities, which included a $2,200 Mixed Event won by none other than Phil Ivey.

Bryan Piccioli made history by being the first ever WSOP Asia-Pacific gold bracelet winner. It came after he took out the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator event, which was the most popular event in the series with 1,085 entrants.

A $10,000 Main Event also took place, which was won by poker superstar Daniel Negreanu. The Canadian beat a total field of 405 entries to win the first ever WSOP Asia-Pacific Main Event and the $1,038,825 cash prize that went along with it.

Doyle Brunson Turns 80

He is a living legend in the game of poker, having played the game before many other professional poker players were even born. Doyle Brunson celebrated his 80th birthday on August 10 this year, just one month after achieving his 35th WSOP in-the-money finish.

The man known as Texas Dolly is one of the few living pioneers of poker, so it was no surprise that he received an enormous number of birthday wishes from the poker community.

Full Tilt Poker Remission Process Gets Underway

It was a bit over two years coming for those U.S. players waiting to claim reimbursements of funds from their Full Tilt poker accounts. But in September, the process to receive those funds got underway, a two-month operation that ended in November.

The Full Tilt remission process was not without its share of problems. But claims administrator Garden City Group eventually communicated better with claimants, resolving concerns that initially had frustrated those players filing petitions. Uncontested claims will likely be reimbursed by March 31, with those long-dormant funds finally making their way into the pockets of U.S. players.

It will be a long time coming, but hopefully one piece of news that will be contained in PokerUpdate’s Big Poker News of 2014 feature will be that of players finally receiving their funds.