The rumors of the demise of the WSOP online poker operation have been greatly exaggerated, or so things seem after the most recent series of events unfolded in the world of online poker.

WSOP.com is set to go live shortly with online poker functionality built right into the website. This has been expected for some time now considering the previous news reported that WSOP had entered into a contract with 888.com. The latter is an online gambling mega corporation that amongst other things created and continues to maintain Pacific Poker, one of the longest running online poker operations in the history of the industry.

When it was reported that 888 had agreed to furnish software for the WSOP.com future operation, many people suspected that WSOP.com was getting ready to enter the online poker market. When Harrah’s was relatively quiet in the period of time following that leak, some began to speculate that the rumors were nothing more than just rumors. The announcement of the imminent launch of WSOP.com appears to have put those rumors about rumors to rest once and for all.

Even though the online poker community has begun to celebrate the launch of such a high-profile online poker operation, at the same time there are some points of reality that need to be used to bring people back to Earth. For starters, WSOP.com has no plans to make any real money gaming action available to US players with the looming deadline of UIGEA implementation coming up. At the same time however, WSOP.com is friendlier to US players than other non-US poker sites as it will at least allow them to get in on the play money action that the site will make available to everyone regardless of nationality.

Another point worth mentioning is that WSOP.com for now is restricting real money gaming action to tournaments. Harrah’s is of course one of the most recognizable names in poker tournament action, so for now it appears as though they’ll stick with what they know and maybe phase in the cash game action at some point in the future.