A consummate entertainer, European Poker Tour lead colour (it’s Europe) commentator, Joe Stapleton, routinely accepts challenges from the viewing audience where he is put into difficult situations.

Sometimes it’s a physical challenge but in Monte Carlo, his adoring fans forced him tried to put his ego to the test. Stapes was forced to dress up like a princess and take photos with tourists – challenging him to not only swallow his pride and say yes to the dress but also get 30 snapshots in under an hour.

It was never a question IF he would do it…it was only how hard would he crush it. Check out the fun results.

More Stapes: PokerStars Fans Want Joe Stapleton Dead

Poker-friendly actor, award-winning director and star of the upcoming mega-movie “Batman vs. Superman”, Ben Affleck was, reportedly, banned for life from playing at the blackjack tables at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Casino last night.

CNN reports that a “source close to Affleck” said that Affleck was not booted from the casino but rather was told to stand down from the blackjack tables as security told him “You are too good at the game.”

TMZ.com reports that Affleck was indeed banned for being deemed an “advantage player” when security spotted Ben counting cards at the high roller table. Of course, while counting cards is not illegal, it’s not something the casinos look favorably upon and, if caught, will get you the same treatment Affleck received.

Apparently Affleck was taking a romantic trip to sin city with his movie star wife, Jennifer Garner, for a little R&R before the internet, once again, turns on him for taking the role of Batman.

Bonus: Ben Affleck playing with the pros in at the WSOP

If you missed Part 1 of Poker Game of Thrones – go check it out now.

So the F5poker casting office has been flooded with headshots and suggestions from “agents” since yesterday and we appreciate all of them. We have cast a few more critical roles, but with so many fantastic suggestions (three of which we had the exact pics) we though we’d throw up the rest that we had and then share all the great casting from our internet pals.

Welcome, once again, to the Poker Game of Thrones!

Cersei Lannister to be played by Gaelle Baumann

Icy cold stares and long flowing blonde locks are what made the Winamax pro clinch a pivotal role.

Podrick Payne (Tyrion’s squire) to be played by Marvin Rettenmaier

A floppy haircut and a do-good attitude made this an easy call.

Craster (from over the Wall) to be played by Nolan Dalla

Dalla really embodies the “it’s my way or the highway” attitude of the daughter-marrying Craster.

Margaery Tyrell to be played by Sofia Lövgren

Youth, beauty and the desire for more. Lövgren, the former PKR, now 888poker pro, has what it takes to rule the Poker Throne.

Bronn the Sellsword to be played by Steve O’Dwyer

In a controversial casting move, O’Dwyer takes the role of Bronn rather than the popular choice of Sandor the Hound.

The internet is now flooded with some amazing Poker Game of Thrones photos, so check out Twitter – just search for @f5poker and you should see them and make sure you give us a follow if you like this.

[Also #GoTPoker]

The internet moves pretty fast so probably by tonight everyone will be over this, but we’re going to collect the other submissions and put them in one place – here, duh.

Looking to attend the 2014 WSOP? Looking to play high volume? Do you have a past history of success online? If you answered yes to these questions then let us introduce you to 2-time World Poker Tour Champion “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier (like you need an intro…) – a man looking for a few good men (or women).

Marvin is a businessman and is, according to his Facebook page, interested in forming an army of financially backed grinders to attack the tables of the 2014 WSOP. Check it out:

That’s right, you can get staked for the series provided he likes what he sees. Who knows that that deal will be, but if you want some grind time with the mentorship of a World Champ and a young guy considered to be at the top of his game – then go get it!

H/T to Part Time Poker for finding this gem…go check them out!

With Super High Rollers being all the rage and poker players putting up $10k, $25k and even $100k – on the regular – for tournaments, the massive price tag associated with the premiere WSOP fantasy league for poker’s elite cool kids has, maybe, lost a little of its shine. The fun of it on the other hand, has only grown in recent years. Now the date is set for the 2014 $25k Fantasy Draft to take place.

For the uninitiated, some of poker’s brightest stars nerd out, pony up $25k and bid on their fellow poker players in a results oriented fantasy game where the team that performs the best, takes all the cash.

Check out the rules of the $25k Fantasy Draft

In years past, along with host Daniel Negreanu, team captains have included Jason Mercier, Todd Brunson, Matt Glantz, Eugene Katchalov, Mike McDonald, Mori Eskandani, Barry Greenstein and last year’s champ Matthew Waxman.

The teams will be getting together in Las Vegas just a couple days before the WSOP kicks off later this month (yes, THIS MONTH!).

In the past QuadJacks had broadcast the Draft , no word yet on if there will be a live feed from inside the room but rumor has it that media, in some form of another, will be on hand.

After Victoria Coren Mitchell became the first player to win two EPT Main Events, Pokerstrategy decided to compile some of the best “poker doubles” in modern poker history. Of course, Vicky is on the list but check out which other players have done something so significant, not once but twice, to make this top 5 list.

For one player, Mr. Daniel Negreanu, it’s all about the distance in time.

He is the only person to win the WSOP Player of the Year twice, having won the first one in 2004 and the most recent one in 2013.

While for others, like Mr. Marvin Rettenmaier, it’s about doing something miraculous in back-to-back fashion.

He won the $25,000 WPT World Championship in May 2012 for $1,196,858 and followed that by winning the very next event, the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic in August 2012 for $287,784.

The surprise comes at the end though with the #1 pick. Go ahead, try and guess what it is – then check it out:

Read: The Top 5 Greatest 'Poker Doubles’

If you are looking to get into the glamorous, elegant world of poker media then perhaps this can help you get your foot in the door. Online poker traffic tracking site PokerScout is in need of a few people to join their ranks so check it out and maybe if you have the skills, you can help them out.

They are looking for both a freelance writer/analyst that has experience with online poker and can use a spreadsheet as well as a “market monitor” for the Italian market with some basic math skills and a willingness to get info from Italian online sites. According to the PokerScout post, the “pay is generous for a small amount of work.”

So hop on it before they are snapped up by less qualified applicants with a worse work ethic!

Go get a job with PokerScout!

The 4th season of the hit HBO show Game of Thrones is well underway and, as always, there are twists and turns coming with every episode. But with the majority of actors having their contracts coming up at the end of this season (this is not true) and HBO really looking to appeal to the poker demographic (this is especially not true) they’ve asked us here at F5poker to help them re-cast some key roles, from both past and present seasons, with notable poker players.

Of course, we were happy to oblige. Welcome to the Poker Game of Thrones!

Part 1 – The Co-Stars

When it comes to casting, it’s easiest to start with the supporting roles (again, not true) so we’ve compiled some pretty great ideas for some of your favorite supporting roles.

Samwell Tarly (Jon Snow's faithful friend) to be played by David Tuthill

The F5poker casting office didn’t deliberate about this one too much. Tuthill was a shoe-in on looks alone.

Brienne of Tarth (Jaime Lannister's one time captor turned friend) to be played by William Reynolds

That’s right, we did a little gender bending here but Reynolds not only brings those flowing yellow locks but he’s quite the bowstaff aficionado as well.

Melisandre the Priestess of the “Lord of Light” to be played by Melanie Weisner

Sure, the seductive glares and flaming red hair caught our eye in the casting office, but c’mon the “Lord of Light” may as well be a online poker site that doesn’t pay it’s players.

Varys to be played by PokerStars’ Lee Jones

A minister of information, Jones always has little birdies whispering in his ear.

Petyr “Little Finger” Baelish to be played by Layne “Back To Back” Flack

Flack really knew what this character was all about.

Khal Drogo to be played by Dan Bilzerian

One of them is a savage barbarian who would sleep with every woman in the desert, ride a horse until it dies and destroy someone for dishonoring him, the other is Khal Drogo. They both have beards.

Walder Frey to be played by David “Devilfish” Ulliott

Both of these guys like to shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to being slighted.

What do you think? We’ll be getting into the main cast soon and if you have suggestions – we might just use them! Hit us up in chat or on Twitter: @f5poker

Winter is coming! Check out Part 2 of Poker Game of Thrones

—

Read more F5poker awesomeness: How To Resurrect Your Dead Poker Career Part 1 – So You’re Busto

For everyone who loves nosebleed action, you’re going to want to check out this cool article from Chad Holloway over at PokerNews. Macau nosebleed player Chun Lei Zhou claims ownership of the well-known, massively losing online account of “samrostan.” With millions upon millions racked up in online losses (about 6.2 million), his downswing is comparable to that of the Great Dane, Gus Hansen, himself.

Read about how Zhou “never sleeps”, takes every bit of action he can get, has the utmost respect for Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and, through it all, just simply loves to play poker.

Read: Macau’s Chun Lei Zhou Steps Out as Man Behind 'samrostan’ & 'patpatpanda’

Sometimes everything falls into place. Such was the case when Team PokerStars Pro Victoria Coren Mitchell became the first two time EPT Main Event Champ. It would almost need to be scripted as to how fortuitous this was, not just for PokerStars but for poker in general. Victoria, one of the smartest, most well-spoken poker personalities in the game, saw a floodgate of press come along with her win and, who knows, maybe even a mini-poker boom as well.

In an exclusive interview with PokerStratgy she talks about when she first became buddies with her online poker sugar daddy.

Actually, I had started my PokerStars deal at EPT London. I wasn’t sure about the scale of the commitment. I wasn’t sure if I was good enough and frankly neither were they. We were at the point where I said to them, “You know what? Why don’t you put me in the EPT in London? It’s my hometown; it’s where I’m most comfortable. Why don’t you put me in that event? We’ll see how it goes.”

The first tournament I played in the PokerStars logo, I won. I think ever since then I thought PokerStars are lucky for me and maybe they think I’m lucky for them.

We’ve been a very happy team. Obviously from that point of view, it’s nice to win another one and reassure them they might be right.

Take a few moments and check out this new interview with Pokerstrategy's Barry Carter as she talks about the significance of the victory, her longtime partnership with sponsor PokerStars and how she might be responsible for a few extra people taking a seat in the game.

Legendary UK poker player David “Devilfish” Ulliott took a brief break from winking at the camera to go on a Twitter tirade last night to express some outrage over the latest televised episode of EPT London Season 10. Not necessarily a regular viewer of televised poker, Devilfish got his first taste of the popular broadcasting duo of #EPTLive’s Hartigan and Stapes (James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton) and apparently, he didn’t like what he saw or heard.

Apparently Devilfish is a little sensitive about his age. But it doesn’t stop there.

It didn’t take long for one of Devilfish’s fans to steer him in the direction of Stapleton (@Stapes on Twitter) and that’s when the WSOP Bracelet winner took direct aim.

It seems though that while you may be able to make fun of Devilfish, when you make fun of a high ranking poker player with the career of Phil Hellmuth …then you’ve really gone too far.

Devilfish, perhaps a little “out of touch”, didn’t realize just how popular Hartigan and Stapes actually are in poker and some fans came to their quick defense.

In the end, Stapes replied by taking the high road:

Want to check out two of the best doing their thing? The live broadcasts of EPT Monte Carlo with Hartigan and Stapes are going on all this week!

If you’re the kind of table captain who likes to argue with the tournament floor staff and show everyone you know what’s what, then you may to want to peruse the 2014 WSOP Official Tournament Rules. It’s all 123 rules, plus subsections, that deal with Entries, Scheduling, Prizes, Seating and Integrity…and of course, the Rules of the Game.

Read PDF: 2014 World Series of Poker Official Tournament Rules

So get hyped up! The WSOP starts in under 30 days and this handy guide will not only get you excited for some big game action, but maybe save your butt some embarrassment when you try to kill a dude’s hand citing “First Card Off The Deck.”

Looking for some “Top 10” action? We’ve got you covered (for today). Sure, it may be the scourge of “journalism”, it’s an easy out for an article to simply pull together a few items, listify them and hit the publish button. The fact remains – people love them!

Whether it’s a top 10 for the purposes of ranking or just easy to follow bullet points, a quick consumable article that can spark a conversation makes for decent coffee talk. Here’s a few in the poker world that came out over the past few day and so we thought – if you like lists, these are for you.

The Top 3 Top 10 Lists of The First Part Of This Week!

The Top 10 Assholes In Poker

FlopTurnRiver compiled a pretty good list of some of the games most notorious names when it comes to on (and off) the felt etiquette. Not everyone on the list is a genuine asshole mind you, but they have portrayed one on TV. Ranked from 10 to 1, the list includes a young champion, a french fry eating vixen, a rappin baller, a couple of young guns and two of the most popular names in the game. Make your own list and then compare.

The Top 10 Observations From Covering My First Poker Tournament

Dan had never been on the floor covering a major poker tournament in his 4 years of sports reporting. His first time was the most recent WPT World Championship at the Borgata and he learned a thing or two, especially the difference between sports and poker journalism. From Mike Sexton's hacky jokes (which WE love) to taking a piss next to the people he’s covering, Dan lets the public behind the poker press box curtain.

The Top 10 Most Hated Poker Pros

There’s a distinct between being an asshole and someone worthy of hate, right? Hellmuth may be an asshole sometimes, but not too many people HATE him. The people on this list are the target of some serious hatred for crimes against the greater poker community. Sure, attitude has something to do with it but for the people on this list so does online cheating, chip dumping, major degeneracy, cheating in major tournaments and large scale multi-accounting collusion. Surprise surprise – Ferguson does not make the cut. Go ahead, make your own list and compare.

Let PokerNews take you on a tour of the EPT Monte Carlo tournament floor just as the money bubble approaches. Take a short lap around the remaining tables as players asses their stacks and decide what moves they have to make in order to make the money.

PokerNews’ Jennifer Robles sets out on a mission to find out what some of the more stylish pros think is acceptable attire at the felt. Two-time EPT winner Vicky Coren Mitchell, WPT Alpha8 commentator Olivier Busquet and Team PokerStars hard rocker Liv Boeree give their personal views on what they would like to see worn while playing in a big tournament.

The trio also chime in on what they do not like and when Coren implies that people wear their underwear too low, the PokerNews film crew sets out on a creepy mission to show you exactly what she means.

Read: Smart, Well Spoken Personality Makes EPT History— Entire Poker Industry Lucks Out

Go behind the scenes with Phil Ivey Inc. as All In Magazine sits down with the professional poker player everyone wants to be. Diversifying his poker portfolio, Ivey takes All In behind the scenes on his new boxing promotion gig, talks about his rising celebrity status and and doesn’t sweat how he can’t control every aspect of his image. To Ivey – either like him…or you don’t.

All of this, plus a prediction of a new poker boom on the horizon.

High-rolling Alpha8 London participant Erik “Seiborg” Seidel joins Lynn Gilmartin on a UK excursion to the indoor lawn bowling alleys. Watch as the pair bet big dollars (pounds) on the felt of a different sort.

Casey “BigDogPckt5s” Jarzabek is one of these pros who is perpetually on the fence of becoming a massive name in poker…if he’d only leave his house.

The longtime online poker pro has some of the sickest results in all of online poker, one of the most popular tournament training sites and, yet, can still, as a 40-year old poker professional, be mistaken as an “old man” recreational donk.

Read: Casey Jarzabek Interview

For me, when I first started playing MTTs online, I was really good friends with ‘Dipthrong’ (Mark Herm). He was friends with ‘DJK’ (Dan Kelly), ‘Jymaster’ (Jordan Young) and ‘Pokerjamers’ (Jamie Armstrong) – all of the young sickos! We used to grind Sundays and all be in the same chat-room. Whenever an interesting hand came up we would stick the hand history in the chat and discuss that amongst literally 15-20 sickos. So I was able to get that young player mentality, because I just happened to be in that group. So I feel like I’m a different type of older player, because I was brought up on the young guys’ style.

Here he talks with Bluff Europe about (almost) everything from his start playing online to his near legendary back-to-back Sunday Millions final table runs and of course, they get a plug in for Tournament Poker Edge.

Good interview with a guy who is always on the verge of making live tournament waves…maybe even at WSOP 2014?

Scott Clements takes a few moments in the middle of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event to chat with PokerNews' Chad Holloway about traveling to play poker, his plans for this summer at the World Series of Poker and why the $50k Poker Players’ Championship is his favorite event.

When you play poker at the highest of levels, risking more money in a single session than some people make in ten years (or more), the results of successes and failures is bound to effect your family. Isaac Haxton, one of poker’s more successful young pros, has been playing online poke for 10 years and has seen massive sums of money come and go, much to his parents thrill and despair.

Now, Issac’s father, Brooks Haxton, a writing teacher at Syracuse University, is releasing his own memoir about living his own risk adverse life along side that of his nosebleed playing son.

The NY Times excerpt of Haxton’s new book 'Fading Hearts on the River: A Life in High-Stakes Poker’ tells the story of the hard fought early days of Issac battling with hyperbilirubinemia.

Francie and I like to avoid risk as much as we can, and Isaac’s detachment from our sense of money makes us queasy. But 28 years ago, three days after he was born, we risked as much as we could imagine. The pediatrician sent Isaac directly from a routine checkup to the neonatal intensive care unit of Albert Einstein Medical College, in the Bronx. From work, I sped to the hospital in tears.

Read the story of how Isaac’s parents had to, unfortunately, play the cards they were dealt in a hand they could not afford to lose: Playing the Cards

Read More Ike: Issac Haxton vs. Isildur — Ike Posterizes Blom In Nosebleed Action

It seems like Phil Ivey was all the talk of EPT Monte Carlo this morning. Not just his soaring and ultimately toppled top 5 chips stack, but also what he says to whom.

The guys over at the PokerStarsBlog go into how, as opposed to years past, Ivey’s been privately chatting it up around the table this year. Not making a spectacle of himself but engaging people one-on one.

Read: The Ivey effect… 'Please, call me Phil’

His approach is more personal. He talks to everyone. But instead of publicly asking how to say the swear words in the native land of each player, Ivey addresses each like a good politician might, talking close up, very quietly, sharing a joke, taking them into his confidence and bringing then into his close circle of tournament friends.

At the same time PokerStars suggests he likes to keep things private…

But you get the impression that Ivey likes to keep his correspondence private, such as when he spoke to fellow super high roller Talal Shakerchi. Ivey seemed to plan this to coincide with a loud speaker announcement about the prize pool that drowned out polite conversation around the room.

Even thought it was reported that Ivey was trying to keep that exchange with Shakerchi to himself, it didn’t escape the ears of the tournament reporters of PokerNews, which promptly published that what Ivey told Shakerchi.

We overheard Talal Shakerchi asking Phil Ivey about his future poker plans. Ivey confirmed that he will be playing the One Drop and all the WSOP events this year but also said it would be the last time he would do such a heavy WSOP schedule.

This year would be the end of a three-year WSOP bracelet bet and from next year on Ivey stated that he planned to play cash and maybe eight or so bracelet events.

So while Ivey will be grinding out the WSOP, it seems that – at least today – his days of being a big game bracelet hunter may be winding down.

Everyone loves a good prop bet, especially one that involves poker endurance, a good deal of money and the result is not clear cut on which way it’ll go down. Noted Brazillian PLO sicko Marcelo “Urubu” Freire, who has a reputation as being a degenerate of the highest order and a guy who loves to flip for big bucks, has whipped up a challenge for himself that has big name players lining up to bet against him.

Urubu’s challenge is pretty straight forward: in 45 days he needs to play at least 500,000 hands of PLO at 1/2, 2/4 or 3/6 and he needs to be profitable at the end. No Zoom poker allowed, no big flips. So he’ll be grinding the standard play tables day and night, trying to get mad volume in while playing optimally.

As soon as it posted players poured in to take his action, even at 2:1. That includes 26k from Christian 'charder30’ Harder, 5k from SCOOP bracelet winner “DonkPredator” and another 10k from André “Sira Al Aziz” Santos.

Read: PROP BET: 500k hands in 45days at midstakes [Two Plus Two thread]

The bet gets underway starting today, April 28, on PokerStars and will last until 500k hands are hit, 45 days or a buy out is offered and accepted. Keep up to date with his progress in the thread above.

Read More about Urubu from Nutblocker

Interested in more? Check out this video podcast breaking down the challenge from propbet judge ChicagoJoey:

It seems that UK poker “professional”, Tony “The Hitman” Hakki, isn’t enough of a poker pro to support a family, or even his kids according to a UK court. The ExpressStar reports that long time poker player Hakki was taken to court by his baby mama because he “declines to support his children” and after taking a look at his career on the felt, the three judge Appeals Court let him off the hook.

You see while the mother of his children, Devrise Blair, called Hakki’s professional poker play akin to that of a professional sports player, Hakki argued that poker to him, in fact, was not gainful employment and therefore he shouldn’t have to pay the asked for child support.

While details of the case were sealed, so we don’t know if she was asking for something standard or a sum of that of an athlete, we do know that the court has put to bed this 4-year case.

“ On the facts found I do not consider that it can be said that Mr Hakki had a sufficient organisation in his poker playing to make it amount to a trade (or a business) let alone a profession or a vocation.”

Perhaps the Court of Appeal took a look at Hakki’s Hendon Mob page, where his last recorded tournament cash was in 2012 for about $1k and determined that he was not a professional poker player after all.

Read: Poker player wins court battle