The report states thatI Ivey contacted the Borgata in advance to arrange for a few special conditions under which he would play high stakes Baccarat.

Ivey, whom ESPN and USA Today have called the world’s best poker player, contacted the Borgata in April 2012 to arrange a visit to play Baccarat. He agreed to make a $1 million deposit to a maximum bet of $50,000 per hand.

At his request, Borgata provided a private “pit” in which to play and a casino dealer who spoke Mandarin Chinese. Ivey was allowed to have Sun at the table while he played and to have an automatic card shuffling device used.

Apparently it’s the automatic card shuffler that’s the key as it keeps all the cards facing in the same direction, allowing “edge sorting” to take place for those who can identify it.

Ivey then embarked on a 16-hour session, two years ago today on April 11, 2012, where his female partner, who is also named in the suit, Cheng Yin Sun, gave instructions to the dealer on how to handle the cards. During that session Ivey walked with $2.4 million.

The pair came back to the Borgata less than a month later, on May 3, where, over the course of a few days, Ivey played 56 hours and took home $1.6 million. Again, Ivey retuned on July 26, where over the course of 17 hours he won another $4.8 million.

On October 7, Ivey returned for another session, but by then news of his troubles with UK’s Crockfords Casino had surfaced and he was confronted by Borgata officials. As previously reported by pokerfuse, Ivey was accused of using “edge sorting” at Crockfords playing Punto Banco where he won £7.8 million (roughly $12 million) and is currently embattled in a lawsuit, as they have withheld payment from him.

Read: Phil Ivey Admits to “Edge Sorting,” But Contends He Did Not Cheat in £8 Million Punto Blanco Win

Along with Ivey and Sun, the original card manufacturer and designer, Gemaco Inc, is also named in the lawsuit.

According to the PokerNews Live Reporting team, the current chip leader is New York native Philip Neiman, who is one of three players to return with over 6 million chips to his stack (roughly 10% of the chips in play). Right behind him is Adam Pace and John Yanni, both within striking distance of taking the chip lead.

Plenty of notable names entered the day looking for a big payday but were forced to leave empty handed including actor-turned-poker enthusiast James Woods. Poker pros Brett Richey, Scott Baumstein and Chris Tryba all of whom managed to squeak into the cash, with Richey wrapping up the deepest run of the 3, taking home just over $3k.

The final 18 will battle it out starting today at 1pm.

If you haven’t made your plans to get to the Borgata Spring Open yet, there’s still time. The World Poker Tour Championship event is holding qualifiers on BorgataPoker.com!

For all the action from the floor of the Borgata Spring Poker Open, check out the live updates over at PokerNews.

A massive number of entries, 479, ponied up the $3500 buy-in putting the WPT about $1.7 million into their $5m guarantee with many more expected to jump in over the next two days of this re-entry tournament. The star power in the field rivaled that of any tournament in a calendar year and included 2013 World Series of Poker Champ Ryan Riess, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Brian Hastings, Faraz Jaka, Amanda Musumeci, Eugene Katchalov, Noah Schwartz, Kathy Liebert, Matt Salsberg, Loni Harwood and Will 'The Thrill’ Failla just to name a few.

Of the 479 entries, there were no fewer than 25 previous WPT Champions in the mix.

There is no slowdown in sight as there are a constellation of stars seated as Day 1b begins. Allen Kessler, Candace Collins, Mike Sexton, David’ ODB’ Baker, Cliff 'JohnnyBax’ Josephy and James Mackey have all been spotted at the table and the list is expected to grow exponentially.

For all the updates on Day 1b at the SHRPO (it’s really not the Open, but the Showdown) visit the live updates page over at the World Poker Tour.

Bonus: Unable to make it through Day 1a, both Phil and Jen are back at it on Day 1b

Here’s his well-worded, sentimental post in full:

Love is not always bed of roses and my Love journey took me a while. Love is about sharing the good and the bad. Love is not about Ego – its about asking yourself the rights questions. Love is not a Game – its about Building Together. Love is to have plans in the unknown. Love is so easy and so difficult, Business is soooo much easier I found Love only few times in my life, but I felt in love again 4 months ago … with the same – exceptional – woman I felt for, few years ago. That was unlikely, that’s was not expected, it was supposed to be impossible but it happened. This time it will be for the better AND the better (with some bumps on the road). She is a ball of energy, she is always joyful, she is always smiling (after being fed), she is trustful, she is driven and always knows what she wants, she is curious, she is a geek (yep – she knows what is SEO), she is a smart ass (and a nice one), she is laughing every single day (I make her laugh), she cares, she shares, she looks at me like nobody in this world (sorry mum), she is Polish (so what ?), she understands my english and she understands my differences, she drives me to succeed and she supports me when it doesn’t work, she is a Gift and she will be my Wife the 4th of September 2014 : see you there Marta Starzyk.

Of course Dreyfus is Facebook friends with many people in the poker world, so as expected, there would be some comments of both congratulations and poker wit spread throughout.

Liv Boeree Wowwww congrats guys!!!

Joe Stapleton Congrats, Alex. Does she have a sister?

Steve Chops Preiss Wow—the GPI Dating App works fast!

Matthew Salsberg Does she know what an asshole you are?

Congratulations to Alex on his impending wedding, we’ll be waiting by the mailbox for the F5 invitation!

Read: Phil Hellmuth Goes Toe-To-Toe With The GPI

Starting flight 1c, which began at 11:00am EST, proved to be the monster field as 885 runners poured into the Borgata and took their seats. According to PokerNews live reporting, the rush was so great additional tournament tables were brought out to accommodate the demand. By the time starting flight 1d was ready to go at 7:00pm, there were already 1,713 entries recorded so they would have only needed 287 to meet the $1 million.

The excitement was turned up when over 700 more entrants jumped in the field pushing the prize pool well past $1m by roughly $200k. The unofficial number was 770 runners in the final flight and an estimated 2,483 total buy-ins.

Despite that massive number a scant 525 players or so will return for Day 2 at noon EST to play into the money. Plenty of big name players are part of that crew too – rappin’ Brett Richey, Victor Ramdin, Micah Raskin, former Cardrunners exec Lana O’Brien, WSOP Bracelet winner and former November Niner Eric Buchman, partypoker pro Scott Baumstein, Amnon Filippi, Chris Tryba and, of course, the legendary actor James Woods all will be returning with chips and chairs (so to speak).

For all the action from the 2014 Borgata Spring Open – Event 1 – check out the live updates from PokerNews.

If you are in the Garden State and still looking to get a piece of the action and satty your way into the World Poker Tour Championship? You can do that over at Borgata Poker.

While he’s entertaining the masses, the latest member of “Team U”, Danielle 'dmoongirl’ Andersen stops by to chat (and drink) it up with Jason. It’s a lengthy video, over 3 hours, but here’s a link that starts right when Danielle stops by. If you opt to start at the beginning you can watch key hands and see how Somerville turns $400 into just about $1800 in an hour at 2/4.

So much fun crashing the #RunItUp set with a bottle of booze. Corruption at its finest!

That’s right. Bracelet #13 goes to Hellmuth’s “best friend” Chamath Palihapitiya, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist famous for his work with Facebook, previous Big One For One Drop participant and part owner of Bay Area NBA franchise Golden State Warriors.

Hellmuth followed up his announcement with a detailed explanation of where each of his beloved bracelets have befallen.

As a token of thanks for the symbolic gift, Palipapitiya was kind enough to retweet Hellmuth’s tweet.

Read: Daniel Negreanu Shows Off!

More on Palipapitiya from the 2012 WSOP Big One For One Drop:

Bonus: On Phil Hellmuth’s 13 Bracelets and the 13 People He Follows on Twitter

In a recent two-part article from the (still!) Lock Poker loving folks over at Cardplayer, the staff breaks down the best poker playing cities in the United States and takes a in-depth look at what makes each city great. While you may think you know the top 5 and how they rank, you may be surprised with some the order and some of the facts that Cardplayer came up with to help you make your decision on where you should lay your head when worrying about your fragile bankroll.

In addition to the top cities, and those that just missed the cut, Cardplayer buries some pretty interesting stats about poker in America.

On an average weeknight, there are upwards of 500 $1-$2 or $1-$3 no-limit hold’em cash games running in the U.S. at any given time. There are nearly 150 $2-$5 games, around 50 $5-$10 games, and usually around 15 $10-$20 games. Those numbers increase by about 25 percent on weekends.

also…

High stakes games, which are no-limit games of $25-$50 or higher and limit games of $100-$200 or higher, exist with regularity at only 15 casinos nationwide, the majority of which are in California or Nevada. The biggest games occur at the Borgata, Parx Casino, Commerce Casino, Aria, and Bellagio.

Both parts are well-worth a read, even if you aren’t considering turning pro (as almost none of us are). Packed with interesting info and a surprise twist in the Top 5, the pair of articles doesn’t disappoint.

Fun times: Here’s all ten states (5 of which, the cities are included in the article)...rank them before you look and see if you can nail the Top 5 States, in order, and which 5 fell outside the list.

California
Connecticut
Florida
Maryland
Mississippi
Nevada
New Jersey
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania

Read: The The Top Five Cities To Launch Your Poker Career – Part 1 & Part 2

Underground Poker NYC actually aired on the National Geographic channel, to mixed reviews, but we thought that there’s gotta be a bunch of people who either don’t have that channel on their cable package or missed it the first time around.

So let Mikey Tats take you through the ins and outs of the, still illegal, poker underground that resides in the Big Apple. Then, just when you think that looks cool, listen to this story…

Bonus: Underground Poker Room Robbery

Well, you would know all these incredibly random life details about Linda if you checked out her latest article on the aforementioned Cardplayer. She literally just lists a seemingly random list of bizarre facts that she thought you should know…and there’s some pretty good items to be gleaned from her like…

Kenya is my favorite vacation spot; Thailand is second.

I love to shop – especially at swap meets, garage sales, and the 99-cent store.

I’ve been on almost 200 cruises.

Lasagna is my specialty when it comes to cooking.

and…

I’m ready to retire!

She may be ready to retire, but clearly the poker world is not ready for her to do so. The well-liked Johnson continues to be a core member of the new Senior Poker Tour team and the charity organization PokerGives.org.

Day 1b is the second of third starting days, but only the 2nd starting flight (as there are two flights tomorrow), and it’s looking more and more like tomorrow’s double starting time will pack the house. With 469 additional runners seated today, some of the biggest names in poker find themselves in action. Spotted in the field was poker enthusiast and big-time actor, James Woods, Bellagio Cup Champion Amnon Filippi, John D’Agostino, World Series of Poker Bracelet Winners Chris Reslock and Kenneth Lind (busted) and EPT Berlin Cup Champion Micah Raskin.

As noted by PokerNews’ live updates team, the total entrants through the first two flights come to a total of 827, so it’s looking like – as players rush to enter on the final day tomorrow – that the guarantee may in fact be smashed.

For those of you livin’ it up in New Jersey, you can still satty your way into the World Poker Tour $15k Championship over at Borgata Poker.com. Sure, you can get in on the action for a little as a $1, but you know, you can take multiple shots at a bunch of buy-ins.

Live coverage of Event 1 of the BSO can be found over at PokerNews.

As noted by the good folks at Bluff Europe, Sandhu is hoping to use her intellect and charm to bring viewers the inside scoop on all things poker, including her upcoming travels to the 2014 WSOP.

Check out her very first vBlog for PokerTube (in an official capacity):

The cops also grabbed a few stacks of poker chips, a couple decks of card as well as the suitcase they all were probably transported in. It seems though that the poker game was just one piece of the big-time bust as the underground club also didn’t carry the proper insurance, allowed folks to smoke indoors and even allegedly allowed “patrons to consume drugs.”

Read More Poker Justice: Facebook Poker Game Organizer Narrowly Avoids Jail Time

The government isn’t taking this poker game lightly, despite the little amount of money that is involved, and they are planning on prosecuting the case.

The Junta de Andalucia regional government is prosecuting the case as it infringes, among others, the gaming and gambling laws as well as fraud for not paying taxes on winnings.

Read More Poker Justice: Busto! Cop Caught Playing Online Poker While On Duty

An exciting and challenging new role has been created within our Global Support department for a manager who will be responsible for building, publishing and maintaining our global schedules across all time zones and local offices.

Of course, there’s no way to be sure, but you have to think that the poor guy who cost his company $260k was at least demoted, if not outright terminated on the spot. While there’s been a few whispers that this is indeed the job, you have to keep in mind that PokerStars is a massive company always looking for people to do a variety of jobs at any given time so it could be coincidence.

But if it IS that job in particular, you have to figure whoever gets it is going to have a little leverage on salary, I mean the last guy cost them no less than $260k this month alone!

The Borgata Spring Open boasts 17 events including the $1M Guarantee, the $2500 Borgata Spring Open Main Event, a $1k 6-max event and, of course, the World Poker Tour World Championship marking the first time the WPT has held this big-time event outside of the comfy confines of Las Vegas.

You can even satellite your way into the WPT Championship at BorgataPoker.com for little as 10 points or $1 if you buy into step 2!

Live coverage of Event 1 of the BSO can be found over at PokerNews.

Individual Player Stats

On the internet, however, those hands are more than just hands, they’re numbers. And those numbers are real, interpretable data. If you’ve played 10 hands pre-flop, folded 7 of them, called 2 and raised 1, your Voluntary Put Money in Pot (VPIP) is 30, and your Pre-Flop Raise (PFR) is 10. This is the statistical poker equivalent of learning the first three letters of the alphabet. Every single event, every choice you make at a poker table, is a recordable statistic and reflects the quality of your play. An experienced poker player can immediately spot weaknesses in another player’s game with a cursory glance at their numbers.

Proof That Poker Is A Skill Game

Because of the advent of poker databases, trying to prove poker skill went from live tournament players saying ‘hey, look, I’ve made a bunch of money for a long time’ to actual hard, recorded data that is undeniable proof. So to all those out there who call poker gambling, I hazard you should ponder your definition of the word a bit. I’ve been playing poker for six years and I don’t gamble.

The Online Pro

Players with the means, time and dedication to refine their craft online came onto the scene and would influence poker in a nearly overwhelming way, much like the way a Mongol horde might change history. Names like Tom Dwan and Phil Galfond came out of seemingly nowhere, exploding onto the live poker radar and having a profound influence on the game. As they brought new strategies and different viewpoints to the table, so to speak, the great live pros did what any pro would do; learn and adapt.

For all 10 ways, and a pretty nice read, check out 10 Ways the Internet Changed Poker Forever

Read: Jesus and Howard – The Case For Expulsion

Howard, looking to invite a bunch of his peeps to his “annual barbecue and charity tournament” emailed…pretty much the entire company of Full Tilt, most notably all the pros (if you remember there were a ton). Well, when Celebrity Poker commentator Phil Gordon replied and noted that Howard must have been sweating a bracelet bet with top pro Phil Ivey, Howard replied with the following:

I had to hear a all bullshit today about how he willed his victory. All I saw was a guy getting all in for his last three bets, like ten times and winning every time. I’m sure he played well, but sheesh.

Of course, when he replied to Gordon, he pulled a “freak and very weird dude” moment and hit reply all which means that the email was to hit the IN Box of Ivey too.

Coolest thing you’ve ever done together? Most annoying thing? What do you like the most about each other? This comes off like a bizarre double dating promo outtake video. Robl even acknowledges that, out of context (hell, even IN context) it looks like the buddies are filming an excerpt from “When Harry Met Sally.”

But hey, beggars can’t be choosers – you can either watch this 4-minute exercise or actually get back to work. It’s a close call. Maybe Part 2 will be better.

I’m i really out again? Skrillex has XS on FIRE! #brokesicko

Despite being such a big guy, JRB finds his way into small tight places…like backstage with his pal, Dim Mak Record Label founder and musician Steve Aoki

If you are a fan poker’s boy-king, this revealing interview takes you back into some of the Unibomber’s best moments.

Q: My impression is that when you first sat down to play, you were definitely considered a pro but not a seriously accomplished one. Then, by the show’s final season, everybody viewed you as a guy who knew what he was doing.

Laak: I remember a stray comment. Daniel Negreanu was playing on the show when a weird hand unfolded in which I did something right that was counterintuitive. Daniel saw it and he said, ‘Wow, you really are a poker player.’ He had been thinking what other people at the table might have thought: Here’s goofball Phil who made money on Wall Street and is now trying to play poker but he can’t be as good as me. Some of the professionals may have believed they were better than me and maybe they were, but it was by inches instead of miles. I was able to exploit what they thought I didn’t know.

Read: Phil Laak on Chan, Viffer and why the televised cash game was so juicy

Plus Laak breaks down an amazing laydown he makes against Johnny Chan during the Norm McDonald era HSP.

Q: Do you wish you had done something differently on that hand?

Laak: What I should have done, before Chan mucked his cards, was make the greatest statement of all time: ‘Chan, don’t say anything about your cards. I’ll bet anybody my $30,000 to your $20,000 that he had A-J or better.’ Somebody would have made that bet and it would have been the sickest recoup of 20 dimes. Not only would I have shown that I made a nit fold, but I would have shown that I totally felt it. It was the sickest missed opportunity ever.

Check out this nice piece on one of the game’s most engaging superstars.

With more than a million accounts, Winamax is hanging the 'help wanted’ sign hoping to add to their already robust team of 80 cigarette smoking Gérard Depardieu fans that work there. While that’s a cheap shot, it actually looks pretty cool – providing you bring the right skills to the office. These Frenchies like to work hard, but play hard as well with employees partaking in a whole host of activities and game nights.

Focused on community, Winamax is looking to hire the following kinds of people:

The Paris office is looking to recruit profiles capable of accompanying the startup in developing the future features of the platform, using a variety of technologies such as JavaScript/HTML5, AS3/Flex, iOS and PHP. The applicants need to be experts in their fields yet not forget to be humble. Being proactive and dynamic and know how to share and collaborate are also key qualities applicants should have to work at Winamax.

At the very least, they take some cool photos.

Holden, who as racked up more than 1.1 million in live tournament earnings since 2010, will not be altogether absent, as he’s planning on playing the “odd live tournament” but now it will be without the responsibility that comes with being sponsored. The opportunities afforded Sam are not lost on him.

I’ve spent four incredible years playing poker full time and I never dreamt that my favourite card game could give me so many opportunities and experiences. Being able to travel the world, record television programmes, meet people from every corner of the globe and enjoy some of the best restaurants and clubs, all while earning money playing a game, is a privilege not lost on me, and a journey that has taught me a lot.

Holden started his poker career, not really sure what he wanted to do with his life at the time and he found the life of a pro player appealing. But nowadays, he’s not as concerned with financial security and in the long run he’d “never really seen poker as a long term option.” Additionally, Holden found that the “baller” lifestyle may have been a little lost on him.

he fancy clubs, restaurants and hotels were a lot of fun but I realised quickly that the things that matter most to me, are the relationships with my friends. Their company and intelligence, their insight and their humour. The truth is that I couldn’t really care less where we go, as long as the company is good. A cheap pub will do just fine.

In the end, Holden is just looking to improv himself as a person and his life in general and, for him, he feels that another field, perhaps academia, he can find a passion in while being able to make a difference.

For Holden’s entire statement and to read more of what’s next, check out his 'resignation post’ over at 888.

Read More: Former WSOP November Niner Filippo Candio Calls It Quits, Retiring From Poker

“PokerStars apologizes for the lack of a late registration period in the Sunday Warm-Up. This was a technical issue, and was not deliberate,” a PokerStars representative told pokerfuse. “PokerStars will honor the guarantee of the event.”

With a scant 1204 players who actually showed up on time, that left roughly $260k that was needed to be ponied up by PokerStars to honor their guarantee. That’s about 3 years worth of the average US family’s yearly income. Pokerfuse points out that when you pull out the registration fees, PokerStars only took a $240k bath, so whatever.

As a general rule, PokerStars needs 2500 runners to meet the guarantee and when they do, they make $37,500 on player fees for running the tournament.

One person who is an obvious WWE fanboy is that of Bluff Magazine's Tim Fiorvanti. In his column for Bluff he takes some of the biggest, and strongest, names in poker and assigns them their pro wrestling counterpart. Who is Hulk Hogan? Who is…that other guy? Only Tim knows for sure. But be forewarned, Tim goes deep into the pro wrestling lexicon to pull out matches for some of these guys so if you don’t remember Scott Steiner or The Brooklyn Brawler, some of the fun might be lost on you.

But c’mon Tim…The Iron Sheik? Pretty obvious.

Read: ‘HellmuthMania’: The Poker World and WWE Universe Collide

1. Select a good software solution

bq.Don’t settle for a basic antivirus program you found for free or already bundled with your operating system.

2. Up the password strength

A strong password is at least seven or eight characters long, has a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and mixes upper and lower cases. It’s also a good idea to avoid real words or phrases.

3. Step one-two

As the name “two-step authentication” suggests, in addition to a standard username and password you’ll also need a code that’s sent usually via text message to your mobile phone, or revealed in an app.

4. Don’t log-in as admin

It’s fairly straightforward to set up a new account outside of admin on your machine, call it Poker, perhaps, and log into this before playing poker.

5. Don’t play in public (hotspots)

Some Wi-Fi networks can appear to be legitimate — like a wireless network called “Hilton” or “McDonald’s” — when in fact it is a fake. Nearby criminals can create rogue networks that often contain the name of the store, hotel or airport, but actually will direct your information to their own computer.

So if you are planning on getting back in the game sooner than later, check out these 5 tips in full over at USA Today.