InStash Magazine recently released their list of 2013 “Top 10 Most Gorgeous, Unstoppable Women of Poker” list and we thought it just might be something F5 readers would be interested in.

Fearsome on the felt, and looking fantastic at the final table these 10 ladies of poker will take your money and steal your heart.

Unlike the poker chips in his recent rap game video shoot, the chips Dan Bilzerian has in front of him from the Aria and Bellagio certainly look authentic.

If they are, then Dan decided to show off the fact that he was recently sitting at the felt with roughly $1.3-1.5 million dollars in front of him (plus a $100 card protector). Is this a recent shot or the money he used to haul in his $10 million dollar score?

Jason “The Golden God” Mercier has got it all. A brilliant poker career, a home in sunny Florida and now, a 35ft. fishing vessel.

All of that and he doesn’t even have to be a part of that pesky PokerStars Last Longer promotion like all those other top tier pros.

“Don’t You Ever Forget!”

We all know cats are evil incarnate. Here’s undisputed proof as former 2011 World Series of Poker November Niner Matt Giannetti posted this short, but satisfying video of what a true attack cat looks like.

The two time World Poker Tour champion, posted:

Was playing with my cat while son was watching a little too close, looks bad but he is fine.

What’s that? Who’s Matt Giannetti? He’s only got over $4m lifetime earnings and a stacked resume, you’ve seen him before. Just in case you need a refresher though, here he is at the 2013 WSOP Main Event talking about taking swings with your chipstack.

Enjoy, once again, the best poker video of all time.

High stakes online poker pro “samrostan” is in the midst of, what for most, would be a life-changing heater. The Macau based Full Tilt Poker player sat at the 8-Game Mixed tables across from Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, who is generally considered one of the most prolific poker minds on the scene, in a series of high-profile online clashes.

Not only did “samrostan” hold his own, over the course of 8.5+ hours he took Galfond for roughly $705k and then when the pair met again for a bit of a rematch, Galfond dropped another $140k to his Macau counterpart.

That wouldn’t be the end of it either. The pair tussled one more time as they put in nearly 600 more hands over another 3.5 hours. While Galfond didn’t end the session at a peak loss, he did surrender an additional $111+k to “samrostan”, putting him in the hold nearly $950k to this one player and helping “samrostan” accumulate $1.3 million in earnings over the course of the past 9 days.

For all of the action, visit the Full Tilt blog where they detail the high-stakes battle of these two online heavyweights.

While June is traditionally wedding season, officials at the World Series of Poker have sent the poker world a “Save The Date” for something far more exciting – the 45th Annual WSOP from the halls of the Rio All- Suite Hotel & Casino.

The world’s largest, most prestigious poker festival kicks off on May 27th and extends all the way to the final nine players in the main event on July 14th.

Everything you want: 60+ bracelet events, cash games, satellites, sickening bad beats and, of course, the popular thrice daily deepstacks will be back in roughly 5 months time.

The main event is a 10-day affair starting on July 5th with three consecutive starting days.

While that’s the overview of what you need to block out, the WSOP would like to point you to a few other dates during the festival that you may want to circle:

May 31 – The 2nd Annual “Millionaire Maker” where for $1500 someone will walk away a guaranteed millionaire (before taxes).

June 29th – The return of the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop.

July 3rd and 4th – The return of the the Little One for One Drop. A $1,111 buy-in that has a two-day start and unlimited re-entry thru 4 levels all in the name of charity.

This is just the beginning, of course, as the full slate of tournaments are expected to be released in January. So, who’s going to the WSOP this year?

We know our F5 readers are super savvy in the ways of social media. I mean, how’d you stumble upon the greatness of F5 in the first place? Well, we’ve got your back and so we’re passing along yet another opportunity in the wide wide world of poker.

This time it’s online giant PokerStars who needs a little help in the social media department. Best part is you can work from almost anywhere and you get to travel to their London HQ once a month to check in. But this is PokerStars, they don’t take any scrubs who can’t form a complete thought in less than 140 characters so you gotta make sure your social media game is sharp.

So if Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus and poker is your jam, this may be your entryway into a brand new career. So, take a shot and tell them F5 sent you.

Note: Telling them F5 sent you will get you absolutely nothing. It may even be a mark against you.

Like poker? Like sick licks from electric guitars? Like professional poker players giving you a look that tells you that they take themselves very very seriously? Then this is the promo video for you.

PokerStars is gearing up for one of their biggest events of the year, the 2014 PCA and they want you to play along, even if you can’t make it to the Atlantis Hotel yourself. It’s undeniable that PokerStars has the largest, most recognizable stable of professionals and now they are pitting them against each other in one massive last longer competition all for your benefit.

The 2014 PCA Last Longer Competition includes Daniel Negreanu, Andre Akkari, Vanessa Selbst, Eugene Katchalov, Liv Boeree, Jonathan Duhamel, Barry Greenstein, Fatima De Melo, Chris Moneymaker and Bertrand 'ElkY’ Grospellier,

Back your player and then if your pro lasts the longest, you can get a ticket into a $5k freeroll. For all the details, check out the PokerStars Blog.

Ultimate Poker Pro Jason Somerville gets recent World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic champion Dan “KingDan” Smith into the #RunItUp booth to talk about his recent win, his 7-figure scores and how he got his start in poker.

It’s a solid video podcast that, in terms of podcasts, is short, sweet, to the point and pretty educational. If you have the time, it’s worth a watch.

Phil “The Unibomber” Laak has caught the attention of the taxman. That’s right, it looks like everyone’s favorite hoodied poker pro owes on some back state taxes and you know the Franchise is going to get theirs!

According to monster gossip site TMZ.com, Laak allegedly owes exactly $24,874 in unpaid California taxes for 2010 and 2011. According to documents filed by the state tax board, Laak is now hit by liens on his assets so they can recover the money.

Laak, who was our 'main man’ in the F5 Thanksgiving Top 10 , can probably find a way to rustle that $25k up. Besides being a top tier poker player, he is best friends with “Mr. One Drop” Antonio Esfandiari and his betrothed is movie star Jennifer Tilly so we won’t pass around the collection plate for him just yet.

Pandante is a new social-style poker-ish game that it looking for Kickstarter support to get off the ground. With a Texas Hold’em style of play, the new game uses Pandas as their mascot and lying as the key to victory.

With about 16 hours to go Pandante has more than surpassed their initial funding goal, so this is not a sales pitch to get you to jump in. In fact, F5 has nothing to do with this, but it looks like an interesting fun variation of the game we all know and love. The creator of Pandante claims in the Kickstarter video that while it’s not like traditional poker, it’s sure to be something you can bet on.

To see how this bizarre bluffing based game works, watch the video below:

Someone out there must know what this luncheon was about or how the #TruthSpeaker of poker, AsianSpa got close enough to snap this pic. What we do know is that it’s a shot of “Texas Dolly” Doyle Brunson breaking bread with his agent, Poker Royalty’s Brian Balsbaugh, and the legendary Jack Binion.

Endorsement deal or “high-steaks” [bam! – Ed.] luncheon? Perhaps Jack needed a favor…

We have known each other many years, but this is the first time you’ve come to me for counsel or for help. I can’t remember the last time you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let’s be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. And you feared to be in my debt.

Maybe it’s just a pic and so we’re on to the next one…

Poker players aren’t always looking to scoop the pot for themselves. Online poker player and Deepstacks Poker Tour Champ, Billy Vogel, wanted to do something nice this holiday season. He reached out to other poker players and asked them to donate, then pooled their money and bought $2500 worth of toys to donate to the Atlantic Country Toys for Kids program.

NBC40.net

Self motivated kindness deserves a little recognition and from the looks of those toys, it’s really going to make a difference. With that, the poker world officially forgive Billy for his haircut in the following post-win interview:

Previously unknown Julian Track outlasted a tough final table at the EPT Prague Main Event to with the first-place prize—And all while battling the flu.

“I’m very tired. I just want to take a 16-hour sleep. I guess in the next four days I’ll be very, very happy,” said the exhausted German champ.

Not far behind in prize money was George Sotiropoulos from Greece, who finished in second place and took home €700,000 thanks to a deal struck between the two that divvied up the lion’s share of the remaining prize pool.

Behind them, the pay table includes some expert competition, including UK pros Stephen Chidwick and Max Silver, SuperNova Elite Ka Kwan Lau, and GPI Player of the Year Ole Schemion.

Check out the short interview by PokerNews with Track and a final table highlights vid from PokerStars, below, and read all the updates on PokerStarsBlog.com. There’s also a solid update from GPI.

Famed Hollywood director/actor Nick Cassavetes (”John Q“, “The Notebook“, “Alpha Dog“), an avid poker player and rumored regular in the star-studded Hollywood Home Games which included a plethora of A-list stars, is suing mad over an alleged poker debt.

According to TMZ.com, Cassavetes friend and sometimes poker opponent L.A. business mogul Kevin Washington was supposed to pay a healthy sum of $72,600 for which he wrote Nick a personal check. Problem being that before Nick could get to the bank, Washington allegedly put the kibosh on the check and cancelled it.

Now Nick is looking to get legal over the poker payment and is suing his former friend for 3 times the amount of the check, just to teach the supposed welsher a lesson.

Check out Nick acting as a director on the beloved (pro poker) series Entourage:

Welcome to the 21st Century, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire’s legislature voted 19-0 to recommend the passage of a bill that would finally legalize no-rake home games in the state. That’s right, as of today – in the state that bears the motto “Live Free Or Die” – it is currently illegal to hold a standard home game with you and your friends.

“An informal game among friends has been illegal in New Hampshire,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield as reported by the Eagle Tribune.

While cops may not be busting down doors like they were in Arizona, lawmakers still recognize the need to get this outdated law off the books.

“[The police] could come in to arrest you for a nickel-dime-quarter game.” Lambert said

Should all go according to plan—and the bill has little opposition—a no-rake, no-admission, not-advertised game of skill will no longer land you in the pokie.

House Bill 459 is set to be heard by the House during its session on January 8th.

Sarah Grant from PokerNews is up to no good once again as she corners a number of poker media personalities and poker pros to get them to play “Name That Christmas Movie.” Ike Haxton, Michael “Timex” McDonald, PokerStars broadcaster Joe Stapleton and more take their hacks at guessing the movie title of some of the more obvious holiday lines out there.

Fair warning: this has very little to do with poker and should only be watched if you truly have 2:33 to spare. Which, let’s face it, you probably do.

Numerous reports came out this week about the continued growth of the newly regulated New Jersey online poker marketplace. Both PokerScout and Online Poker Report broke news this week which shows slow and steady growth in the Garden State including the impressive stat that nearly 100k iGaming accounts have been created in the first 3 weeks.

As reported by Chris Grove over at Online Poker Report, 91,531 accounts spread over the various brand offerings have been created.

The number is current as of December 15th. It reflects the total number of created (not necessarily active) accounts. A player making accounts at two sites would be counted as two accounts for the purposes of this total.

This latest total represents a solid increase – slightly over 20,000 – from last week’s total of 71,486.

At the same time, PokerScout reports that over this past weekend, just about all of the operators saw a healthy dose of increased traffic on their sites.

After two weeks of slow but steady growth, the combined average player count jumped by 32% on Saturday, almost reaching 600 players. The Party Borgata Network, WSOP.com and 888’s All American Poker Network all set new highs for daily average player counts.

With all of these new players slowly seeping into the market, there’s a new found need to reach them. With need comes opportunity, just ask the resourceful Jacques LeDisco, who is soliciting the services of his car to be a travelling billboard at $2k a month.

When it comes to marketing though, New Jersey is far from seeing the type of money that was thrown around in the old days of Full Tilt and PokerStars. Grove writes that the current slate of NJ operators are taking a slow and steady approach. With operators like WSOP.com taking a “controlled approach.”

To see more about the new heights of the New Jersey iGaming market, including some of it’s challenges read the report over at Online Gaming Report as well as the Weekly Online Poker Traffic Update over at PokerScout.

Allen Kessler just took his social game up a notch. Apparently, the well-known nit and Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Player of the Year has a wild and crazy night the other night. So crazy that when he woke up in the morning, a lovely lady was wearing his name on her chest. Well, this, of course, blew the collective minds of poker people worldwide and they responded in kind:

#publicitystunt #worked

It’s been one hell of a year for Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu and if the claiming the World Series of Poker Player of the Year award (and being the first person in history to do so twice) by winning his 6th bracelet in the WSOPE high-roller event wasn’t enough to convince you…then check out his stats.

He’s paid the cost to be the boss and just in case his haters were gunna hate, he’s decided to show off what has got to be a career year for him.

How’d you do in 2013?

See why Daniel Negreanu was named in our F5 Thanksgiving Top 10.

From the sidelines at EPT Prague, Head of Poker Communications for PokerStars, Lee Jones, talks with PokerNews’ Sarah Grant about the “experimental” switch to Zoom-only poker for all NLHE and PLO tables at $50/$100 stakes.

Looking to cut down on bumhunting and predatory practices seen online and to make the game more fun (and move faster), the online outfit is forcing players at these stakes to only use their fast-fold format if they want a seat in the game. No more game selection, no more seat selection, and no more sitting out—if you want to make money in these games you gotta play whoever is in the player pool.

In the video Jones talks about this as a trial, though they seem confident of its success. (Side note: Lee Jones states in the vid that it is $50/$100 staes and up, though we’ve confirmed with PokerStars that initially it will be $50/$100 only. Expect a rollout to other stakes if the experiment is deemed a success).

To read more about the new changes at PokerStars, check out the full article from our big brother site, pokerfuse.

When we slapped an “alpha” on the logo at the top, it wasn’t just to be hip and all web 2.0. Things here are broken. We know that, you know that. We’re working on it.

Like just this weekend, we pushed up a big update that substantially reduces the suck-factor for browsing the site on mobile. F5 is exactly the kind of site you want to be browsing on your phone, whether you’re at the poker table, bored at work, on the can, or anywhere. That’s why mobile is a big priority for us. It’s still a work in progress, but you should find it’s a pretty nice, simple browsing experience on both phone and tablet now.

You know what else sucks? Clicking on buttons. That’s effort. So we’ve dumped the old “read more” button at the bottom; now things just load up as you scroll.

We’re pushing up changes on a daily basis, so things are in flux. What else should we be fixing and improving? Let us know in the chat.

Twenty-two players returned today for the EPT Prague Main Event, and already they’re done for the day—marking perhaps the fastest Day 5 in the event’s history.

The action broke around lunch break at the Hilton Hotel, Prague to set up the last table of the main event for the remaining nine players. But that wasn’t the official “final table”—as with all EPT Main Events, they play down to eight players for the final day.

It took barely an orbit for that elimination. Norwegian pro Sigurd Eskeland, who started the table with the short stack of 610,000 chips, approximately 15 big blinds, lost it to Georgios Sotiropoulos when his flush draw failed a materialize on the river. He takes home a handsome €66,050.

Chip leader tomorrow is little-known Julian Track. As PokerStars' blog reports, “Not much is known of Julian Track, mainly because he won’t tell us anything.” All they could rustle up to profile the player: “Track is the one in the grey hood. He’s also the one who fidgets a lot and looks largely uncomfortable with everything going on.”

Better known is the second stack, Brit pro Max Silver, who sits at 210 in the Global Poker Index (GPI) worldwide rankings with total live results at close to $1m. Second stack is fellow Brit Stephen Chidwick, a big winner live and online who sits at #61 on the global GPI list. Online SuperNova Elite Ka Kwan Lau is 4th in chips.

Play resumes tomorrow where players will fight over the €889,000. As always, live stream is on PokerStars.TV, live updates on pokerstarsblog.com and F5 will keep you updated with all the action tomorrow.

One of the reasons people love Bilzerian is you never know what’s coming next. For today’s “Daily Dan”, Beardo is on set for the video for the new Mally Mall/Tyga song “Wake Up In It” (feat. Sean Kingston, French Montana and Pusha T).

Here we see champagne on ice, stogies on the felt and Blitz dragging a big pot of chips surrounded by (what we’re sure are) recently discovered “actresses.”

For another view, former Victory Poker, CEO Dan Fleyshman is on hand to get a snippet of the surroundings.

Since we all have nothing but time and, chances are our lovable F5 readers are saying to themselves, “What’s a Mally Mall?” Check this out:

On to the next one.

Speculation on the Two Plus Two Forums led to confirmation by PokerListings today that the one-time king of online poker Tom “Durrrr” Dwan is no longer a sponsored “professional” of online site Full Tilt Poker.

Dwan, who was part of Team Full Tilt before Black Friday and was then re-signed by the site last year —along with fellow pros Gus Hansen and Victor “Isildur1” Blom—as a sponsored pro has been removed from the FTP website.

Officials from Full Tilt Poker gave the good people at PokerListings the following statement:

Full Tilt Poker and Tom Dwan have agreed to part ways following the recent expiration of Dwan’s contract. To have one of the most respected names in poker on our team has been a great pleasure. We will continue to watch Tom at the tables and wish him every success in the future.

Speculation is that Dwan is spending all of his time in the high-stakes Macau cash games, where Phil Ivey recently travelled to in order to play.

Pokerlistings took the story a step further and reached out to Dwan nemesis Daniel 'Jungleman’ Cates to get his thoughts on the dropping of Dwan and the future of the much delayed Durrrr Challenge II.

You already know that Jeff Gross had a blast at Antonio’s Friday the 13th Birthday Bash, now you have some more photographic evidence that the $18 million dollar man knows how to work hard and play hard. Happy belated Antonio!

Daniel Negreanu is unfiltered. That’s why he is loved and, on occasion, loathed. Sometimes though, even the most popular poker player on the planet needs to check himself before he wrecks himself.

In what is an otherwise pretty standard Negreanu interview with PokerStrategy Poland, where a relaxed Daniel graciously answers some of the same old questions – about being vegan, who he hates playing against, how to maintain enthusiasm for poker – one question and answer sticks out like a sore thumb.

Around the 5:55 mark Daniel is asked if he notices any particular stereotype when playing against Polish players, the Team PokerStars Pro cracks a bit of a bad joke, not maliciously mind you, where he references a “saying” in America which is pretty insulting to the entire Polish people.

It’s probably not meant as an insult but it was a poor choice of words and, honestly, it’s simply bizarre. Check it out and decide for yourself – not cool or whatevs?

This news item comes from last week when high-stakes heads-up specialist Daniel “Jungleman” Cates went toe-to-toe with NLHE pro “bajskorven87” on PokerStars in a 2100 hand, three-tabling match that, according to HighStakesDB, lasted over 5 hours and found the emotionally volatile Cates a loser to the tune of roughly $130,000.

Jungleman, rather than quitting “bajskorven87” with a standard “gg” opted to vent his frustrations in the chat box, like a true professional. Here’s the transcription:

bajskorven87: can u reload?

w00ki3z.: die

w00ki3z.: need to make a transfer

bajskorven87: u sitting at PLO?

w00ki3z.: go f yourself

w00ki3z: hope you die seriously

w00ki3z: llucky piece of ****

w00ki3z.: insane how lucky you are

bajskorven87: broke piece of **** :)

How inappropriate is it for a high profile player like Cates to behave like a random internet troll? So much so that Ross Jarvis, editor of Poker Player Magazine in the UK wrote an opinion piece today, calling him out and putting him on full blast:

It’s a disgusting read and Cates should be ashamed of himself. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, or how bad you’ve been running, there is zero excuse for saying, ‘hope you die seriously’, to another human being – even if via the safety blanket of an online poker chatbox. Would Cates say this to his opponent’s face in a live game? Probably not, but this doesn’t make the practice OK just because it takes place online. Abuse is abuse and it’s one of the biggest problems in online poker right now.

[You should check out the full editorial at Poker Player Magazine online.]

While it may be no big deal, especially after Cates lost more in 5 hours than most of us will make this year, when you accept the terms of the game you must realize you may, even if your name is Jungleman, come out a loser. In this case that’s exactly what happened to Cates. He came out a loser.

Note: according to HighStakesDB, Cates is still up over $500k in 2013 in online cash.

New Jersey, Nevada and, yes, even Delaware – online poker in the USA is heating up once again. After the news last week that PokerStars is likely to have to sit out of the regulated New Jersey market for 24 months or so, the online giant might feel a little left out.

But with one of their premiere events on the horizon, the 2014 PokerStars PCA that comes with a $10 million guarantee, PokerStars pushed out a little infographic to remind Americans of why they loved PokerStars so much in the first place.

Touting the exceptional cashing rate, the high profile US champs and the total amount of money won by US players, PokerStars just wants to make sure you remember that while it’s nice to have a Sunday $50k guarantee in New Jersey, their lucrative tournament is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the mainland for US players.

Plus, the PCA has water slides.

Rounder 2 looks like it’s going to be a go.

According to Deadline.com, The Weinstein Company and Miramax have forged a new alliance to “exploit the creative properties in the library that the brothers left behind when they exited Disney” and this, of course, includes the classic poker cult film Rounders.

One of the most powerful men in the film industry, Harvey Weinstein, spoke generously on the future of Rounders 2.

I’ve discussed making Rounders 2 with Matt Damon and I would say that’s going to be instantaneous.

He continues to talk about the possibilities of the film:

The guys [writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman have a great idea, a way to make it more international where you start the card game in Paris, that’s all I want to say. There might be a certain beautiful Parisian actress involved in it, and then we’re off to the racetrack and Vegas with Matty and Edward Norton, and a new supervillain to replace John Malkovich.

Supposedly, Weinstein is considering acting legend Robert De Niro for that part.

Check out this smart segment from PokerNews' Sarah Grant as she baits a variety of poker personalities, including Daniel Negreanu, Liv Boeree, David Williams, David Vamplew, Dominik Nitsche, Mickey Petersen and Jonathan Duhamel (who looks like he had a little too much “egg nog”), into singing their favorite Xmas tunes on camera.

How’d they do? Let’s just say that, while it’s a fun clip, no one is going to be dropping a “Now That’s What I Call Christmas” record featuring these vocals anytime soon.

There’s a lot to hope for when playing slots. Loose payouts. Double jackpots. But “The intensity & uncertainty of the Siberian wilderness” is rarely one of them. It only takes one second to realize that no one in their right mind would want that. In fact, if you were in the Siberian wilderness, the only thing you’d be gambling with: your life.

Take for instance the tale of 4 men who traveled into the Siberian wilderness: Only 2 returned and one of them WAS EATEN by the others. That’s right, cannibalism in the Siberian wilderness. You can have that experience all for yourself, in one fantastic online slot.

So enjoy that. Don’t say they didn’t tell you that you’d be eaten alive.

Go behind the scenes with Nolan Dalla and the Poker Night In America (PNIA) creative team as they try their hardest to make Reno, Nevada look like a place you might want to visit.

Brief shots of the PNIA Main Event from the Peppermill Reno, the “star-studded” cash game and of course, the laughs and gags from the travelling circus of invited featured players like Todd Brunson, Scotty Nguyen and Danielle “dmooongirl” Anderson.

Jason Mercier does what Jason Mercier wants. Instead of heading over to the near arctic temperatures they have in Prague right now, Jason opted to stay in Florida and root on his beloved Miami Dolphins.

In an “Almost Famous” moment, Mercier, shirtless and shoeless, perched upon his BMW decides to take his tailgate party to the next level. Should he make this his new profile pic??

When will it end?

This weekend, a new Guinness World Record has been achieved by the Asian Poker Tour (APT) – Resorts World Manilla (RWM) for the longest continuous poker tournament. The $700 buy-in Iron Man Challenge had 115 sickos take their seat and play, without a single break, until a winner was crowned a full 48 hours, 55 minutes and 58.5 seconds later.

With all of the play under constant surveillance to satisfy the record requirements, it was American player Damon Shulenberger (far right in photo) who would be the tournaments super hero. Shulenberger outlasted them all in the epic two-day adventure at the end of which he was rewarded with the $18k+ first place prize and the title of the ultimate Iron Man.

After his victory he spoke with an APT-affiliated reporter: “I don’t think I’ll play poker again for at least a month.”

Team PokerStars Pro Henrique Pinho is into the money at EPT Prague and, while on break, PokerNews’ Sarah Grant caught up with him to talk about his day at the table, the size of his bladder, his partying habits and, potentially most importantly, what he thought the optimal strategy is for grinding a 10bb stack is when you are just off the money, especially in a big field event.

Solid question make it’s well worth the quick watch.

Authorities from the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG) went off-the-reservation late last week when they raided five different social poker clubs after a months long investigation where proprietors were under suspicion for the Class 1 misdemeanor crime of illegal gambling.

For-profit poker is completely legal in Arizona, so long as you are playing inside one of the tribal card rooms. Not happy with the games there, poker enthusiasts have taken to playing low-limit tournaments in strip mall card rooms, which are also legit as long as no rake is taken. Despite the low stakes, apparently they were high enough for authorities to crack down hard and confiscate a whopping $5k in cash, sending a stern warning to recreational players in the state that fun will not be tolerated.

The Arizona venues include: Pocket Rockets, Cracked Aces, AZ Poker Supply, Poker Play , Joker Social Club. It should be noted that highest advertised buy-in for the Pocket Rockets card room is a $40 deepstack.

Get caught up on all the action from Day 1A of the $2700 + 300 buy-in World Poker Tour Korea stop. Tournament director Matt Savage takes Raw Deal host (and recent WPT champion) Tony Dunst aside to talk about the soft field and the dating scene.

Media Director for the World Series of Poker and Creative Director for Poker Night in America, Nolan Dalla, has been around the poker world for over 20 years and he’s seen a lot of people put their stamp on the game. This year, as Time Magazine announced Pope Francis as their “Person of the Year”, Dalla reflects on who might be the “Poker Person of the Year” with the same qualifications used by Time Magazine. He’s compiles a list of nominees and he’d like your help to narrow it down…

Dalla is quick to point out that to be a candidate for “Poker Person Of The Year” the person doesn’t need to be “Good For Poker”, they just to had to have cast the longest shadow on the game in 2013.

His list of nominees includes a pair of politicians, a pair of “political activists”, 4 professional players and a tournament director. Can you guess his list before you click over and check out his post?

He leaves one space blank for you to help him out. Who do you think would be the “Poker Person Of The Year?” Check out Dalla’s full list on his personal blog and then tune back in on Dec. 20 to see who he picks.