Personally, I would put a banner (probably a half one, considering the space) above the numbers and under the red writing, and perhaps a vertical unit under/over the poll if you put one under the poll title.
I agree with ad under red writing. If you put one under new games listed and above counter that is fine.
First make sure you get good title, description and meta-tags on each page. Unique, for the content on that page. For now you have too little textual content for google to know what the ads would even be about. For targeting purposes you need text. And if you don't put text on the site, put it in the meta tags.
I think, that the best is to put a horizontal link unit on the top of the page. Like a menu bar. Its working great for me.
Maybe you could use three small blocks between menu on the right. Something like that - menu/ad/menu/ad/menu.
are there any good resources on the the internet that cover ad placement in depth - its something I would like to read up on.
It is really about testing. Create channels and track your ads. Move ads around and compare the results. Google heat map is a good guide, but different site perform differently in terms of the best ad placement.