New to poker? Take a few moments to let Sky Poker guide you into some basic strategies so you don’t rely completely on luck to get you through your tournaments and cash game sessions. More videos after the jump.

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With the “California Swing” put to bed the World Poker Tour switches coasts to kick off the WPT Jacksonville bestbet Open. The $3200+$240+$60 ($3500) unlimited re-entry buy-in saw 111 players take their shot into Day 1a.

A whole host of notable names made the trek to Jaguar territory and still have chips including Jason Mercier, Jonathan Little, Faraz Jaka, Shannon Shorr, Marvin Rettenmaier, Anthony Zinno, John Racener, Will Failla, and Thayer Rasmussen to name a few.

Are we moving into the era of the poker “shot clock?” As previously talked about here on F5 and, well, all over the pokerverse the World Poker Tour sent a survey to players looking for feedback of possible inclusion of a designated time in which you must make a decision about your hand. According to a recent blog post by WPT commentator Mike Sexton, the outcome favored the shot clock and…

I’m guessing/hoping you’ll see some type of ‘shot clock’ incorporated by the WPT for Season 13.

“Read: Mike Sexton – The ‘Shot Clock’ Is On The Way!

But is it a good idea? Bluff Magazine EIC Lance Bradley guest writes over at ESPN and thinks that the solution to time wasting tankers is NOT a shot clock, but something that’s already in place:

The problem of excessive tanking isn’t a new one. There is already a way to handle these players: Call the clock. The problem lies in the fact that calling the clock has a stigma attached to it. Do it against somebody you’re in a hand with and you’re seen as a jerk for not letting your opponent think his options through. It’s “unsportsmanlike,” in some eyes. Call the clock on somebody at your table when you’re not in the hand and you’re going to spend the rest of the day dodging daggers from the player you called the clock on.

Read: Should poker have a shot clock?

In the new editorial, Bradley lays out the foundation for why a shot clock may be great for those big name pros, but perhaps it’s just another barrier of entry for those who want to take a shot at a big buy-in. The pressure of playing in large events like the WPT would be compounded with the multi-level game of dealing with time in massive spots.

Poker is a game of making decisions; that’s part of its appeal. But there has been growing discussion in the past year about making sure that the experience players — in particular, recreational players — have is a great one and free of anything that will cause them to consider not coming back. The shot clock idea creates more pressure points for pros to take advantage of and could leave amateurs with a pretty sour taste in their mouths.

Bradley sets up a situation, not far fetched by any stretch, and then shows how and why a shot clock may not be the answer, but the time tested (and likely original) solution to tanking of calling the clock should be revisited by players as something that’s not, well, a dick move.

You gotta know when to walk away, know when to run.

A home poker game got out of control in Marathon Florida early yesterday as Issac Vargas, 21, found himself handcuffed and facing a felony charge of aggravated battery (use of a deadly weapon). According to the story first reported on Florida’s Local10.com Vargas, his roommate, the roommate’s brother and some friends were playing poker in the early morning hours of Thursday when a fight broke out and the cops were called.

When Deputy Deanna Torres arrived she found the roommate’s brother outside who told her that his brother had been hit in the head with a Corona bottle and was “bleeding heavily.” He then warned her not to go in solo as people were “acting crazy.”

Two more deputies arrived on the scene, Garrett Test and Danielle Malone, and the trio entered the house to find shattered bottles and a trail of blood leading to the blood soaked victim. The victim was taken to the hospital while Vargas was hauled away in cuffs…likely facing a multiple round penalty.

Read: Sherrif’s Blog – Poker game leads to beer bottle attack

Watch big names play for high-stakes during the Season 10 EPT London High Roller event. James Hartigan dished out the play-by-play while Joe Stapleton cracks wise (and offers strategy) in yet another well-producer offering from the PokerStars production team.

Go ahead, kill a little under an hour watching some of your favorites check, raise and fold their way through Day 1 action.

It’s not official because Daniel Negreanu needs to shake the money trees a little before he can really commit – but with people wondering why he wasn’t on the official list of the 2014 Big One for One Drop $1 million buy-in tournament Kid Poker essentially promised to be in the mix.

Yesterday, the initial list of heavy hitters putting up the massive buy-in was released and 23 of the 56 allotted seats were taken. The two biggest names NOT on the list were Daniel Negreanu and 13-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. While we expect both to be on the list at some point, Daniel let the world know today that he’ll be there. No word yet from Hellmuth.

Who else do you expect to show up on that list that’s not already there? (Tweet @F5Poker)

Last week we published a piece about the comments of Diamond Flush predicting that Jesus Ferguson would once again walk the halls of the Rio during the World Series of Poker.

Read: Chris 'Jesus’ Ferguson To Resurrect His Poker Career

The post spawned a lot of conversation in the poker media about whether “Jesus” would be accepted back into the fold now that the funds from Full Tilt Poker have been, for the most part, repaid. In the latest opinion piece over at Pokerlistings, poker scribe Lee Davy talks with well-known poker personality Jesse “The Voice Of Poker” May about what the temperature in the room is when it comes to forgiving Ferguson if he saw him tanking at the tables.

Obviously he is entitled to attend but I wouldn’t welcome him. Personally, people like him, and especially Howard Lederer, have disgraced themselves and I’m not personally satisfied with the answers they’ve given about what happened at Full Tilt.

Jesse goes on to say that while he’d rather turn his back on Ferguson than awkwardly shake his hand, he wouldn’t go so far as to outright ban him. When asked if Ferguson should be allowed to play May replied:

I don’t see why not. I don’t think they are the only two pariahs in the poker world, and legally they haven’t been charged or convicted with anything.

Lee Davy on the other hand servers as both the jury to May’s interview but also his own opinionated judge and executioner – making the case for having the WSOP, EPT and WPT all place bans on the pair.

They have betrayed the trust of the entire poker community and have set our industry back 20 years. They are responsible for the ruin of thousands of people’s lives and, so far, have yet to admit to any wrongdoing other than “mismanaging” a business.

Perhaps Davy got a little worked up – setting back 20 years may be hyperbole. while “the ruin of thousands of people’s lives” is a bit strong...but yea, Ferguson and Lederer did more than “mess up big time” for sure. So what would Davy ultimately have happen?

There is no way that Ferguson should be allowed to play at the WSOP. His sheer presence will produce enough emotion to create a whirlwind of problems for players and the WSOP alike.

Imagine the outcry should Ferguson take his seat and get punched on the bridge of his nose by a player whose life was ruined by his inept decision making. A player who would then be subsequently banned by the WSOP whilst a blood-stained Ferguson would be able to check, raise and fold?
bq. This cannot be allowed to happen.

What’s your take? Ban these guys for life, give them a sentence or live and let live? Either way, there’s a chance we’ll find out how the poker community will handle this soon enough.

Want to get the full picture from May and Davy’s perspective? Check out Is it Time to Ban Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer For Good?

Megaupload founder and notorious German businessman Kim Dotcom is playing a high-stakes game of poker with the legal system in New Zealand and the US in regards to copyright infringment.

In case you didn’t know, Kim Dotcom is the, some would say notorious, hacker and businessman who founded the global sharing site Megaupload which allowed people to “share” copy written content from anywhere in the world.

Now, from his home in New Zealand, he’s facing extradition to the U.S. and possible copyright infringement charges that his massively popular site cost those rights holders somewhere in the range of half-a-billion dollars. So, Kim Dotcom is used to playing for high stakes and apparently, he likes it.

At least his associates in this photo, one of which is his own personal Barack Obama look-a-like (as well his NZ Prime Minister John Key stand-in), were smart enough to makes sure if they were going to play with him, they play with him in person. He’s probably really good at online poker.

The internet community is looking to see how this hand against the US & New Zealand Governments are going to play out as well.

Officials for the Eureka Poker Tour, the partner tour for the Season 10 EPT Vienna poker festival, have got to be pleased with the turnout for their main event. The beautiful Hofburg Palace in Vienna is, by all accounts, crawling with poker enthusiasts looking to take their shot at the €1,000 + €100 buy-in Main Event.

Chris Hall over at the PokerStarsBlog writes that it the number of runners is going to land somewhere in the 1400-1500 range, making it the biggest poker tournament Eureka has ever run. A record 457 players, showed up for Day 1a (the most Eureka has ever had for a Day 1) and there looks to be almost twice that sitting down for Day 1b with time left to register (as of this writing).

Great photo of the main playing area

All of this bodes well for the outlook of the EPT Vienna Main Event which gets underway on Sunday.

In his usual keep-it-classy style Dan “Jungleman” Cates got into a verbal altercation with the blonde bomber Victor “Isildur1” Blom whist in the heat of battle the other day.

Here’s the chatlog (which comes from HighStakesDB, according to Cardplayer):

jungleman12: i cant describe how annoying it is to lose tyou viktor
Isildur1: 2 pair
Isildur1: biatch
jungleman12: scum
Isildur1: too easy
Isildur1: eat this
Isildur1: ty
Isildur1: u suck
Isildur1: easy money
Isildur1: gus on the other hand
jungleman12: pay your debt scumbag

According to an interview Cates conducted with Cardplayer, Blom (like everyone) owes Cates some cash. $100k to be exact.

Well, I was kind of tilted at the point. It’s not really a secret that he owes me some money. He owes me like a little over $100,000, but he’s been making some small payments here and there. He’s going to give it back to me, it seems, but it’s taking some time and it’s a little frustrating. He has borrowed money before on multiple occasions and paid back for those.

Cates on Blom’s skill level:

I mean, he is one of the only high-stakes players who doesn’t user Poker Tracker, study the game, or run simulations and things like that. He’s really an anomaly in that way. He knows what he’s doing apparently. He like copies off what he sees from other people.

Are there hard feelings?

Yeah, it was kind of funny. I thought he was drunk. He was being all emotional afterward and stuff. Yeah, we made up.

It’s a solid interview with a candid Cates that you should take a moment or two and check out courtesy of Brian Pempus over at Cardplayer. (Just don’t click on their Lock Poker links!)

Earlier today Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree announced that she is going to be one of the featured hosts of a new show, airing worldwide, on the Discovery Channel. “The Mind Control Freaks” is a new show that, according to Televisual, demonstrates “how psychological techniques from hypnosis to peer pressure, conformity and obedience to authority can influence people.”

Boeree, a professional poker player, is but one of four different mind bending on-air specialists. The show will also include hypnotist Lewis Le Val, slight of hand expert Pete Wardell and, from The Real Hustle, Alexis Conran.

Sarah T. Davies, VP of Development over at Discovery has this to say about it:

The Mind Control Freaks is an exciting new series for us which plays in a new space for Discovery Channel. We’ve been exploring the reinvention and fusion of genres with a lot of success – and The Mind Control Freaks is set to take that to the next level as we blur the lines between science, psychology and trickery in an all-new format. We can’t wait to see how audiences react to this thought-provoking and entertaining series.

The season is set to air in April and looks to be 10 30-minute episodes.

So, can Liv Boeree control people with her mind (and looks)? If you haven’t seen this classic clip of her mental manipulation, then enjoy.

Sacramento native J.C. Tran just keeps getting better with age. Already a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, last night Tran added his 2nd World Poker Tour title to his trophy case (not to mention his massive $2.1 million dollar score this past November as a part of the WSOP Final Table). In short, Tran is on fire.

So, what advice would Tran give to those who are up and coming: “...pick up more hands.”

Here he sits down with WPT Tournament Director Matt Savage after the dust has settled and the “California Swing” is put to bed.

The Sacramento Kings superfan karmically held a king in his hand as he claimed the over $300k first place prize and took his victory photo with pocket kings for good measure.

Here’s the rest of the finishes from the Final Table:

1. JC Tran – $302,750
2. Preston Harwell – $200,030
3. Quoc Pham – $127,140
4. Mimi Luu – $100,240
5. Benjamin Zamani – $80,130
6. Ken Jorgensen – $60,180

[Editor’s note- It’s important to know, before reading this article, since the time of this publication Dewey Tomko has come out and said he knows nothing about this published op-ed. You can read about that right here: Dewey Tomko – Subject of Op-Ed Hoax? ]

Poker Hall of Fame member Dewey Tomko and professional poker player Bill Byers delivered a now published Op-Ed to the Press of Atlantic City in which they, essentially, beg for further security stress testing of the newly regulated real-money poker sites in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware.

In the co-authored piece, the pair raise the fear of all the security leaks that may be present including hacking, collusion and, of course, the Sheldon Adelson Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling raised issues of potential terrorists funneling funds from Americans to hurt Americans.

In fact, we are concerned that an even more damaging scandal than one involving underage players could emerge, and that it will tarnish and even ruin the game. What worries us is well-organized teams of cheaters using hidden technology to steal from novice players now that Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have gone live with legalized Internet poker.

All scary stuff, right? They seem to be concerned that the game, if not tested correctly, can be permanently damaged. The piece zeros in on the problem of collusion – people chatting or using “cell phones” or the well-defined “hacker technology” to cheat people out of their hard earned money.

Hey, this is a real concern for sure.

It is disturbing that the industry, regulators and organizations purporting to protect the interests of players have not addressed the issue, despite their claims that the game is safe. Rather than being comforted by the industry touting that there have been zero problems in Europe, New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada, we find that analysis less than credible. A more realistic view is that collusion and cheating are indeed occurring but going undetected.

Wait, WHO finds that less than credible? You two?

That’s right it’s these two guys who want more testing and that sounds like it could be a legitimate request. There should be no limit to the lengths to which we’ll go for consumer safety.

But why are these the guys calling for it? Why now? Oh…here it is:

Realistic tests of the Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey online-poker regulations should be conducted. But David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, did not even respond to a letter we sent offering to stress-test New Jersey’s real-money poker websites.

That’s right folks. They want the job. The Op-Ed, no matter how legit a claim in wanting consumer safety, is really them calling out the fact that they offered to do the job – probably for money, right? – in an open letter and were snubbed. So, while it’s a concern, they opted to write another open letter, this time as an Op-Ed, where they blame the industry for not choosing their security stress test solution in order to apply more pressure.

They call out David Rebuck, by name, in hopes that you will read this and get his office phones ringing asking him why he didn’t allow Byers and his team to put the industry through the paces.

Maybe they do have the best collusion detecting system on the planet. Who knows? But they definitely have a poor strategy for getting the right people to take them seriously. An open letter followed up by an accusatory Op-Ed is not likely to ingratiate themselves to those in charge of online poker security. Not many people respond well to being called out in public.

If you are interested in what Tomko and Byers are selling, check out their website: UndetectableLaundering.com

Antonio is back in another episode of Ultimate Poker's Strip Magic and this time he strips an onlooker of some jewelry and won’t give it back until she guesses where it is.

Spoiler alert: she has no clue where it is. Enjoy!

St. Patrick’s Day, a worldwide excuse for getting s***faced, was this past Monday and the pros from Utimate Poker did what any respectable Las Vegas team of professional poker players would do – go out and get down.

The newest member of Team U, Danielle “dmoongirl” Andersen posted this shot footage of teammate and at no time frontman for Genesis, Phil Collins shaking his Chris Moneymaker in the non-dance friendly confines of strip casino O’Sheas.

Update: danobrienpoker gets to keep his 'O' and uscphildo earned one #PhilOCollins #MovesLikeJagger http://t.co/VJJk5hTqUc

All’s well that ends well though as by all accounts, the three shook off their collective hangovers and survived the Irish holiday.

If you want to plunk down $1 milly for a seat at the 2014 Big One for One Drop this summer at the World Series of Poker you’d better act fast. The capped seating is going fast with only 33 seats left as 23 seats are spoken for.

Some of the biggest names in poker will be joined by some of the most anonymous names in business to battle over what is likely to be the richest prize poker has ever seen (potentially $20 million first place prize).

One Drop defending champ Antonio Esfandiari, 2012 One Drop runner-up Sam Trickett, the People’s Champ Phil Ivey and Team PokerStars pro Jason Mercier headline the list of 17 known players who have already committed to the high-stakes, high-pressure tournament.

Check out the full list of the already committed right after the jump!

Here’s a list of all the seats spoken for – no take backs.

1. Antonio Esfandiari
2. Guy Laliberté
3. Bobby Baldwin
4. David Einhorn
5. Phil Galfond
6. Philipp Gruissem
7. Phil Ivey
8. Jason Mercier
9. Paul Newey
10. Bill Perkins
11. Vivek Rajkumar
12. Brian Rast
13. Andrew Robl
14. Erik Seidel
15. Brandon Steven
16. Sam Trickett
17. Noah Schwartz
18. Anonymous Businessman
19. Anonymous Businessman
20. Anonymous Businessman
21. Aria Resort Satellite Seat
22. Bellagio Resort Satellite Seat
23. World Series of Poker Satellite Seat

• Copies/pasted from the WSOP website – the full press release you can read right here.

All 17 of the committed named players played in the 2012 event. The WSOP has stated that they will strictly enforce the new 56-seat cap so start selling pieces of yourself right away!

The whole “asking for a friend” gag just took another step forward as Phil Galfond tweeted this needle at himself yesterday in the wake of a massive thrashing at the high-stakes tables as the hands of the dangerous Victor “Isildur1” Blom.

In case you hadn’t heard, it was just a few days ago that Galfond and Blom tangled over at the nosebleed tables of Full Tilt Poker. According to HighStakesDB, the pair 4-tabled at the $300/$600 PLO tables for almost 12 hours where Blom ran hot and closed out the session having taken $883k profit off of Galfond.

While anyone would sweat a downswing of that magnitude, it’s likely that Galfond is still going to have a roof over his head tonight as, according to his results chart, he’s still roughly a $7 million dollar online winner to date despite his $1.2 million dollar 2014 deficit.

So how will Galfond get back on track? Bluff Magazine editor Lance Bradley has an idea…

PokerStars is back in the capitol of Austria for the first time in 3 years to hold the sixth stop of Season 10 of the European Poker Tour – EPT Vienna! The poker festival kicks off today with the €1,000 + €100 Main Event of their partner tour, the Eureka Poker Tour, as well as some side events just to get the action warmed up.

The EPT Main Event, a €5,000 + €300 buy-in, has two Day 1’s the first coming up on Sunday, March 23. Not coincidentally, that’s the same day and time that the popular EPTLive broadcast will be back on the air bringing you feature table action (without hole cards) with commentary from James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton.

Ready to go! The EPT Vienna Poker Festival is about to begin. Today we kick off with Day 1a of the the €1,100 Eureka Main Event.

The last time the EPT came to Vienna, 578 runner participated generating a prizepool worth over $4 million. Daniel Negreanu took 4th place and German student Michael Eiler nabbed the €700,000 ($976,712) first place prize.

For all the info on EPT Vienna, visit the EPT Homepage right here.

Here’s one for all the oldies out there:

The bros at PokerStrategy complied a short list of the totally cool talents of some of the biggest names in poker. From Daniel Negreanu being a pool hustler to Liv Boeree shredding on guitar, it goes to show you that the elite rounder talent can also take their laser-like focus and channel it into something good for mankind – like throwing cards at high speed.

We’re not going to post all the videos here, that would keep you from clicking over to PokerStrategy to check them out but we will post our other favorite….after the jump.

This is easily the most normal ElkY has ever looked, right? Anyway, on March 20 @ 12:00CET the World’s #1 French poker player, Bertrand Grospellier will be answering anything and everything by taking over the PokerStars twitter account.

Ask him about Starcraft, extreme dieting or getting kicked in the head. Hell, you can even ask him an actual poker question or two and he’ll probably be down to answer it. Just make sure you use the correct hashtag – #AskElky – when submitting your query, oui?

Maybe you want to ask him about this:

On Wednesday, those lucky enough to have the ability to play on Full Tilt Poker will have a new, quickfire way to make it into the money. Full Tilt will be debuting their new Flipout Tournaments where players will know, pretty much right away, if they are going to make a profit or hit the rail.

According to Donnie Peters over PokerNews these new flipaments work like this. Right off the bat everyone is forced, no matter the cards they are dealt, to go all in. Nine players, blind shove and the winner moves on. So picture 9 tables of 9 players all shipping it on the first hand and then the 9 players that win each of their tables, combine to a single table – all of whom are in the money – and play a standard style tournament to climb the money ladder.

It’s being framed as no more wading through the early parts of a tournament, no more grinding to the cash. It’s a win-and-your-in situation in which volume will be key.

Sarne Lightman, the head of marketing for FTP, talked to (or emailed with) PokerNews and had this to say:

The time saving of a Flipout is obvious, but a bit less obvious is what happens after the flip round. You’ll be in the money of a potentially large tournament and nobody has actually played a hand yet. This means the average skill level when you hit the money will be the same as the average skill level at the start of the tournament, which is very different from a standard tournament.

So, is your head spinning yet? The luck and variance factor is going to be incredibly high up top as you are going to lose that flip way more times then you are going to win. So when you do win, you are going to really need to make the most of it.

The only real downside to Flipouts that I can think of is how often you won’t make it past the flip round. If I was playing these, and I’m sad I can’t, I’d probably drop down a couple of stake levels and just play a bunch of them until I made it through.

To get you hooked though, FTP is holding a 4-day Flipout Festival starting on March 21 where they will add $25k over the course of 100+ tournaments.

Sky Poker is offering more strategy 101 videos. In their previous offering, they showed how to play medium strength hands in a multi-way pot. Now, they show you how to take a strong hand and put the pedal to the metal and just go with it.

It’s not brain science or anything, but if you are looking for some really basic strategy when you are in one of the most ideal spots in poker, Aces on the button and facing a raise, you should check this out.

The inagural World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder from the Thunder Valley Casino just outside of Sacramento is considered a success. With nearly 500 runners, the $3500 buy-in tournament is steamrolling to a final table and while there’s a few big names left in the field of 24 – including Michael Rocco, JC Tran and Ryan D’Angelo perhaps no name is bigger than that of Michael Crabtree.

Wait! You mean the talented San Francisco 49er receiver that Seattle Seahawks Richard Sherman clowned on in the NFC Championship game this past year is top 10 in chips and headed for a WPT Final Table?

Psyche! Fun loving Tournament Director Matt Savage is, once again crying wolf and trolling the world as there is a Michael Crabtree still in the tournament, but alas:

Don’t let that stop you from following poker’s Michael Crabtree and the rest of the field of 24 as they play down to a final table today starting at 12:00pm PST.

How much would you spend to have an hour with 2-time World Poker Tour Champion and tournament strategy author Jonathan Little? It would be private time where you can ask him anything you want about poker and he’ll give it to you straight?

Well, that number isn’t a mystery – it’s $300 for one hour of one-on-one poker coaching and if you are going to the WSOP, you can book that hour right now.

While he’s not planning on doing it everyday, should Little book most of the days, his coaching could bring him upwards of $12k over the course of the WSOP, if the demand is there. Not bad for an hour a day!

Wasn’t it just a few days ago we saw Phil Ivey talk about being careful about who he hangs with? Well, here we have Ivey playing the part of Entourage's Vinny Chase (Adrian Grenier) hanging with a rag-tag group of poker’s most wanted including Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, WSOP bracelet winner Joe Cassidy and David “Chino” Rheem.

With my boys and Chino backstage at David Guetta #brokefamily #brokebackstage

Jean-Robert Bellande snapped the photo with that carefully phrased caption which spawned lurkers to wonder if that implies that Chino actually isn’t one his “his boys.”

Oh Yea! Oh Yea!

Team PokerStars Pro Live Boeree dropped a little Bing Blang Blaow reference in her recent promo for the upcoming PokerStars Micromillions series.

Liv Boeree delivers a motivational message for those hoping to hit it big in the latest #MicroMillions.

Wait, what!? You’re not familiar with the epic Bing Blang Blaow reference or video? Well, just your luck – it’s real and it’s fabulous.

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Bonus material: Liv Boeree is rapping with the side pony which was an early trademark for UK rapper Lady Sovereign. Here’s her biggest hit (probably):

It’s a well-known fact that poker players will take action wherever they can get it and one of the best off-the-felt places to get it is the golfing greens.

Watch as WPT commentator Vince Van Patten (VVP) and World Poker Tour Champion Scott Clements partner up and putt around the Whitney Oaks Golf Course. While the WPT camera crew is cruising around, they run into WSOP 2010 runner-up John Racener and the gregarious Will “The Thrill” Failla who are already on the back nine, clowning around at $1k a hole.

In poker if you aren’t getting better, you’re getting worse. Sky Poker wants to help those who are just getting into the game learn a trick or two with some basic strategy videos including this one where “we’ve gone multi-way!!”

How should you handle a medium strength hand, out of position in a multi-way pot? Well, in this cookie cutter example in which everything works out perfect for our hero, you’ll see an example of what happens when you have the 2nd best hand, spike your card and find hat no one gets out of line or applies too much pressure.

It’s poker night at Sam’s house and a few of his good friends stopped by to play. Sadly, Sam Simon, recent Writer’s Guild Award recipient, co-creator of the beloved The Simpsons and well-known poker enthusiast is fighting what has been diagnosed as terminal colon cancer.

Throughout his fight his very good friend (and ex-wife) Jennifer Tilly has been by his side with her partner, the loveable poker pro Phil Laak and together they have been there to support Sam. That includes on this evening when some good friends got together for some fun and competition at Simon’s house. While it’s unlikely that any real money is on the line, as Sam doesn’t need any and he’s been actively giving his vast fortunes away, the competition and bragging rights were probably stakes enough to have fueled this Hollywood Home Game.

Inspiring to see Simon looking so good, having some fun, surrounded by friends.

The last time we saw Mike Leah he was prop betting Phil Ivey on who could sink a bucket from way downtown. Well, spoiler alert – he bested the best to win that bet.

Now, Leah is back but instead of lucksacking his way to a nice payday he used the poker skills that made him a Team Ivey Pro in the first place to make some mad money and earn some hardware.

This weekend Mike Leah amazingly won TWO World Series of Poker Circuit rings in a 24 hour period. From the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, Leah entered and bulldozed Event #9, a $580 NLHE tourney, for just a shade under $17k.

Having destroyed the Event #9 final table in under 3 hours, Leah didn’t waste any time celebrating. He jumped into Event #10, quickly went busto, and then entered right into Event #11, a $365 NLHE Turbo.

No mystery on what happened next: Leah took that Turbo down for another $15.4k and his 2nd WSOP Circuit ring in under 24 hours.

With his back-to-*almost*-back victories Leah has the “Casino Champion” title on lock down and will be given a seat into the 2014 WSOP National Championship. For the full rundown on Mike Leah’s two ring circus, check out the WSOP Circuit Blog.

Chris Moneymaker is back in the winner’s circle. The 2003 World Series of Poker Champion and Team PokerStars Pro was crowned the winner of the $1800 buy-in Hollywood Casino St. Louis Regional Hollywood Poker Open.

Moneymaker, who is also coincidentally the sponsored Tour Ambassador for the HPO, didn’t have quite the same challenge as he did in 2003 when he bested 839 players to change the face of poker, as the field at the HPO topped out at a mere 67 runners, only 15 of which came back for the Day 2 finale.

Still, the man who is generally considered responsible for the poker boom found himself on a heater and, according to PokerNews, accumulated over half the chips in play at the start of the final table.

Chris also did the dirty work and was responsible for the elimination of 7 of his final 9 opponents, including his heads up opponent Frank Wyville who walked with $22,395 for his 2nd place finish. For his part, while it’s not the $2.5 million score he walked with for his championship run in 2003, Moneymaker made just over $36k for his victory this weekend plus another minor title to add to his resume.

On the heels of James Carroll’s Bay 101 Shooting Star $1.25 million victory, the World Poker Tour party bus continues into the third leg of the WPT’s newly minted “California Swing.” The first ever WPT Rolling Thunder event attracted 465 runners to Sacramento’s Thunder Valley Casino just outside of Sacramento for their $3200 + $300 event.

With an almost $1.5 million dollar prize pool, the winner of the inaugural Rolling Thunder event will take home just over $302k while those who sneak into the cash (54 players paid) will roughly double their cash at $6770 for a mincash.

While some of the top tier players like Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Will “The Thrill” Failla and Jonathan Little have gone busto, there are still plenty of notable players headed into Day 2 with healthy chip stacks.

Joe Serock leads the way, but is followed closely by WPT Champions Andy Frankenberger, Mohsin Charania, Scott Clements, Scotty Nguyen, Nam Le and Brandon Cantu. Big names like Jason Koon, Jeff Madsen, Allen Kessler, Pat Lyons, Amir Lehavot, Candice Collins, and LAPC Final Tablist Michael Rocco are still in the hunt.

No word on if this nice lady is still in.

Action picks back up today at 12:00pm PST when the two days combine and it’s expect that the 190 returning players (combined fields) will play down into the money. For all the action, check out the World Poker Tour Live Updates page.

Over the weekend, at the World Poker Tour Venice event, the camera crew sat some of the more notable poker players down in front of the camera to have them read some not-so-nice things about themselves. Much like the popular Jimmy Kimmel Live! segment, some of the biggest names in the game agreed to read “mean tweets” directed right at themselves.

Kara Scott, Charles Chattha, PartyPoker Pro Jamie Kerstetter, Roberto Romanello and new Everest Poker ambassador Sam Trickett each take turns reading a half-hearted “mean”, but moreso confusing, tweet for the very first time while on air. Seeing as how none of the tweets are really so offensive, the pros take it in stride, laugh it off and show that while perhaps they are serious on the felt, they have a good sense of humor about themselves away from the tables.