With two starting days, there’s still time for the East Coast grinders to make their way to the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa to take part in one of the biggest non-WSOP events of the entire summer.

The Borgata Poker Summer Open, brought in part by BorgataPoker.com, $2000+$200 Main Event starts today and with a $500K guarantee officials are expecting a massive turnout to vie for what will undoubtedly be a 6-figure first place prize.

Also, event with the Main Event starting the Summer Open is not complete. With an additional 5 events taking place while the Main Event plays out, you can still hop on BorgataPoker.com and win your way into some of the remaining events. You know how this goes, super low buy-in, crush your opponents, get a seat in a live event for next to nothing.

So if you are in New Jersey, hop in your vehicle or however you get from place to place and check out the Main Event. If you have too much on your weekend todo list, pretend like you are cleaning the garage and go win your way into an upcoming event.

Read: Borgata Poker Giving Away $1K Per Day All Month Long

No account yet? No biggie. BorgataPoker is incentivizing you with all sorts of awesome stuff like $1K a day giveaways, deposit bonuses, newbie freerolls and whatnot.

To the victor go the spoils and former WSOP World Champ Joe Cada is currently flush with spoils. Check out this great photo of Cada bringing home the gold after vanquishing the Champion’s Curse with his $10K 6-max win.

Read: Joe “The Kid” Cada Crushes WSOP Champion’s Curse, Wins 2nd Bracelet

He’s said it himself, Ryan Riess is the best in the world. At the 2014 PokerStars PCA he proved it once again by winning a hand of poker, which is something the best poker player would likely do, right?

Here he battles tournament sicko Bryn Kenney in a hand where he flops top pair with a semi-weak holding, out of position and needs to navigate a series of streets in hopes of winning the hand. Pretty nice breakdown, especially the part where he checks to induce a bet, but isn’t happy about it.

Maybe after this hand, they’ll really know his name.

Read: WSOP Champion Ryan Riess’ Name Spelled Wrong On His 2013 Main Event Banner

Watch this video and still say that table talk is bad for the game. With today being Danzer’s day with his double bracelet win last night, we thought this video was a pretty great timewaster.

Read: Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer Doubles Down On $10K Championship Bracelets

It’s a highlight reel of all of young George Danzer's 2006 World Series of Poker run where he first came into the public eye with a 305th place finish for just under $40K. His nemesis on this day was table talker Dmitri Nobles who, despite his limited results, made a personality impression on the post 2003 ESPN broadcasts.

Good news for those of you looking forward to more poker on TV — the wait is almost over. The team that’s looking to “make poker fun again” over at Poker Night In America have at last announced the when and where you can watch the full episodes of their personality laden programming.

Starting on June 29th, less than 2 weeks, you can catch Poker Night in America over on the CBS Sports Network. The CBS Sports Network home to Arena Football, Professional Lacross and Professional Bull Riders welcomes PNIA and with them some of the biggest names in the game into their schedule.

Wanna be ON Poker Night In America? Poker Night In America Casting, Yet Again, For Televised High-Stakes Cash Game

Antonio Esfandiari has yet to cash in the 2014 World Series of Poker but that’s no matter. He’s declared that he’s going to deliver a victory in the Big One For One Drop $1M Buy-in tournament.

Actually, he’s pretty level-headed about his confidence, just wanting to put it out there, he thinks it’s important to know for himself that he has what it takes to best the businessmen and overcome the tough spots in the (likely) 56-person field.

Watch as he chats with Bluff Magazine about all things One Drop.

ABC US News | ABC Celebrity News

As “Molly’s Game”, the Hollywood Home Game tell-all book that has a few A-listers in fear, gets closer to release (available on June 24th), poker hostess Molly Bloom is finding herself ready to step into the spotlight herself.

This week Bloom hit the big time when she appeared in a televised piece for U.S. nationwide morning show Good Morning America and she gave the States a taste of what’s to come in this book about the underground high-stakes red carpet poker game.

Read: Tobey Maguire Gets Grilled In Molly Bloom’s Hollywood Home Game Tell-All

This photo comes across the Twitter-verse from entrepreneur, Model Citizen Fund organizer and former Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman.

FORBES Magazine rated CEO</a> the #1 Twitter&#39;r in world &amp; he just text me his 1st <a href="https://twitter.com/WSOP">WSOP hand he won in 10k Heads Up 😝 pic.twitter.com/BAxbAmdzjU

— Dan Fleyshman (@DanFleyshman) June 19, 2014

If we got it all correct (and maybe we don’t) Brandon Hampton used this hand to defeat Jose Garcia and then Brandon went on to defeat Timothy Adams shortly thereafter. Finally, his luck ran out against Max Silver and his colorful shirt which saw Hampton bust out just one opponent before the money.

Still this is a pretty sweet looking hand (assuming it’s not a setup).

Instant Bad Beat Diaries Classic – Playing With The Queen Of Hearts

It happens just about every year. Some poker wizard runs super hot and hoards more than their fair share of World Series of Poker gold bracelets.

This year, Germany’s Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer gets the honor of being the first 2014 double bracelet winner of the summer series by claiming victory in Event #38, the $10K Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Championship.

Not only did Danzer do it twice (so far) this series, but both are within a week of each other and in $10K events. Sure, the fields are smaller but the competition is at its peak and Danzer has proved to be worthy and extremely humble champion.

Watch this – here’s George’s winner’s interview with PokerNews' Sarah Grant

Never an easy road in these big buy-in events, Danzer bested the stacked field of 134 runners to also take home the $352,696 paycheck, pushing his series total up over $770K. He’s also pushed his points lead out over Justin Bonomo and holds a commanding grip on the Bluff/World Series of Poker Player of the Year race .

The final table was a marquee of poker hotshots including runner-up John Racener, recent bracelet winner Calvin Anderson (3rd), Brian Hastings (4th) and tough-guy Jeff Lisandro (5th).

For runner-up Racener, this is, of course, the 2nd time he’s come second in a big-time WSOP event. You may remember the first was when he played 2nd fiddle to the eventual World Champ Jonathan Duhamel in the 2010 Main Event.

More Danzer? You got it.

pokerfuse: George Danzer Wins Two Bracelets in Two Weeks

Bluff Magazine: George Danzer Wins Second Bracelet of WSOP in $10K Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship

PokerNews Video – Before his victory, Danzer talks about being in the hunt for the WSOP POY.

Sarah Grant from PokerNews quickly tracks down Jesse Martin after the poker drama that ensued in World Series of Poker Event #41, the Dealer’s Choice Event, where Brandon Cantu got a little physical with Martin over some name calling and angle shooting accusations.

Read: Brandon Cantu Fights Jesse Martin In The Amazon Room

If you haven’t seen Brandon’s video, where he calls Martin a “piece of $#!+” and “a scumbag”, you should check that out as Martin not only defends himself and his friend (Matt Szymaszek) he uppes the ante and takes every shot he can at Cantu – including, seemingly out of nowhere, playing the UltimateBet card.

Read more about the Argument In The Amazon over on the Two Plus Two Forums.

If you ask Brandon Cantu, this is a whole lot of nothing.

In the middle of Event #41 at the World Series of Poker, a debate over the action in a hand that involved between Cantu and Matt Szymaszek spilled over into the room leading to a heated verbal and physical exchange between Cantu and poker pro Jesse Martin.

PokerNews was on the scene:

With the floor called to Brandon’s table and words being exchanged between Cantu and Szymaszek, Martin, from tables away, decided to get involved and stand up for his pal Szymaszek.

Jesse Martin, from the next table over, shouted to the tournament director, telling him that Szymaszek “plays draw games every day,” knew the rules, and was not attempting to angle shoot.

“Shut the f*** up,” retorted Cantu, bluntly.

The arguing then turned from Cantu and Szymaszek about the hand to Cantu and Martin. The exchange between the pair escalated when finally Martin apparently touches a nerve with Cantu.

“You’re an angle shooter, Brandon,” said Martin. “Nobody f***ing likes you.”

He was calling my very good friend (& most honest person alive) a liar & angle shooter. Obviously the only reason I spoke up ChadAHolloway</a></p>&mdash; Jesse Martin (MazeOrBowie) June 20, 2014

Cantu then moved to Martin, apparently getting a punch or a push in before the floor staff and security could intervene.

Cantu was restrained and given a one round penalty for the incident. Additionally, according to the interview conducted by Sarah Grant over at PokerNews, he was also forced to apologize if he wanted to get back in the tournament.

Reactions to the incident have not been favorable for Cantu thus far…

Although, Bluff Magazine's Minister of Information, Kevin Mathers, had this to offer from a thread currently taking shape on the Two Plus Two Forums:

If you notice, the interview was broken into two parts. After completing the first segment, Kessler (who was watching the interview off to the side) was talking to Cantu and said he’s never seen Cantu angleshoot in his life. Cantu then asked him to go on camera and say that. For whatever reason, Kessler doesn’t do that and then Cantu does the second part of the interview.

See what Jesse Martin has to say about this right here: Jesse Martin Counterpunches Cantu In Escalating War Of Words

It’s a long video from the good folks at PokerNews and it addresses a number of topics, but here’s the quick and dirty: Poker pro Ari Engle wants a few changes made for the everyday poker player at the World Series of Poker.

He wants the Daily Deepstacks at the Rio to be more manageable when it comes to time spent playing (they can run 17 hours straight), he’d like a lower buy-in bracelet event (even lower than a $1k) to attract even more to the game and he wants Barry Shulman from Card Player to know that it was most certainly not cool to affiliate for Lock Poker looooong after it was known that Lock was the worst and allegedly a super scam.

In fact, when playing at the WSOP, Barry and Ari were seated at the same table and Ari thought that it was the perfect time to simply speak his mind about what he (and many others) thought was a pretty big misstep from Card Player in continuing to promote Lock Poker well after the reports of non-payment were widely known. The two got in a verbal tussle that ended with a dealer warning and nothing more came of it but as Ari puts it (roughly) – the WSOP is the poker player’s house and when at home, you speak your mind.

Bonus: In the above video Ari talks about his own video blog…which we’ve got for you right here.

Bluff Magazine's Thomas Keeling talks with Ultimate Poker pro Dan O’Brien about the bracelet allure of the $10K limit events and how, even though those aren’t his specialty, he’s picking his spots to gamble it up this summer.

Watch: Dan O’ Brien Forgets To Look Before He Leaps, Dives Headlong Into Jet Ski

Speaking of gambling…it wasn’t that long ago that Dan posted a clip of him jumping off the side of a boat, without looking, and flying headfirst into a jet ski piloted by Allen Bari. Thankfully, Dan emerged relatively unscathed. While he says his face was gushing blood and he’s got a few teeth that may be on their last days, he never even bothered to go see a doctor.

Mostly, he felt like an idiot. Jumping off the side of a boat without checking it out first is a hugely -EV play.

It’s hard to imaging that nobody noticed a 2nd Queen of Hearts peel off on the river in the $1500 PLO event that Chris Ruby played in the other night, but that’s exactly what happened.

Read: Bad Beat Diaries – Playing With The Queen Of Hearts

A subdued Chris talks about the experience with PokerNews and while he wishes something can be done, he confirms that the World Series Of Poker's hands are tied. It’s put a damper on the WSOP for Ruby and he may just “boycott” the events…or maybe not because he’s a poker player and there’s more poker to be played.

Oh well. On to the next one.

With two-thirds of her three-and-a-half year sentence completed, Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, the ex-girlfriend of 2010 World Series of Poker Champion Jonathan Duhamel is being forcibly paroled.

Rojas-Latraverse was called the “mastermind” of the 2010 in-home beating and robbery of the Canadian WSOP Main Event Champ where he was bound and beaten, threatened and robbed with thousands of dollars in cash, a Rolex and his Main Event Championship bracelet taken from him.

According to the Winnepeg Sun, Rojas-Latraverse asked the parole board if she could finish out her sentence behind bars, rather than be paroled.

The 22-year-old said she wanted to “do her time and her sentence,” telling the board that she hoped it would “reduce the pain” of Duhamel, her ex-boyfriend and 2010 World Series of Poker champion.

The parole board denied her request, “granting” her parole for her revenge fueled crime. She is slated to be released from prison and free, barring any broach of the conditions of her parole, until the end of her sentence is complete.

More – read Duhamel’s description of original events from ESPN: Jonathan Duhamel describes robbery

Regular readers of F5Poker will know that it was just a couple days ago that (now former) Team PokerStars Online Pro Dale “Daleroxxu” Philip was given a career red card and terminated from his position as an online representative for, what we’ll call, “excessive celebration” during a World Cup match.

For all the details: Team PokerStars Online Pro Dale “Daleroxxu” Philip Dropped For Excessive Celebration…of Football

Now, who knows if this is the entire story as while you can read Dale’s side of the story, PokerStars has (to our knowledge) simply confirmed his departure from the team.

Nevertheless, the online giant soldiers on with their campaign of hoping their Team Pros get the chance to celebrate their favorite teams victory.

Will Liv be celebrating tonight? What do you think the score will be?

Maybe PokerStars is looking for a way to cut costs by encouraging their pros to get out of line during the World Cup. That’s silly, of course, as Liv wouldn’t have to worry about that anyway. Besides being an upper echelon brand ambassador, if PokerStars were to let her go you know Team888 would swoop in and sign her before the next round of the World Cup.

What kind of response on Twitter did this advert get? Here’s a few of the replies:

Sick needle Stars.

More PokerStars: Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst React To The Purchase of PokerStars

The Borgata Poker Summer Open is in full swing as players sit down today for the popular $5K Survivor tournament. It’s a pretty basic strategy, everyone puts in $200+$30 for the buy-in and there’s only one prize to win – $5K per survivor. Everyone who survives to split the prize pool makes $5K, which the Borgata estimates to be roughly 1 out of every 25.

No winner take all, no top heavy prize pool…if you can gut it out and stick around, you’re $230 is turning into 5 grand.

Don’t forget East Coast grinders that the Borgata Summer Open Main Event is taking place starting this Saturday so make your plans as it’s $500K guarantee is likely to be the largest outside of Las Vegas all summer.

Borgata Poker Summer Open Schedule

Plus, there’s still time – you lucky New Jersey residents – to win your way in to some of the remaining events. Just hop on BorgataPoker.com, crush some souls at the online felts and you may find yourself playing live for a super small buy-in.

No account yet? No problem. Borgata is really hoping you’ll give them a shot by practically throwing cash at you. Check out new deposit bonuses, freerolls and even the $1K a day giveaway.

Looking for some material to really kill some time? Want to kick back and enjoy some longform articles and interviews about some of your (soon to be) favorite poker pros? We got you covered. Poker media junkies rejoice, it’s another compilation of worthwhile articles that you can sink your eyeballs into.

This time, as it happens, we’ve got a collection focused on some of the female superstars of today and tomorrow. The Ladies’ Event kicks off next Friday and you just might see some of these names sitting atop the chip counts.

Enjoy.

Selbst eschews gender labels, seeks greater goals at WSOP

Vanessa Selbst needs no introduction and when it comes to poker, she doesn’t need a gender modifier. She’s one of the best and with her bracelet win this summer, bringing her total to three, she’s etched her name into elite status and now, she wants it all. [LVRJ]

From Model to Musician to Poker, Dee Dozier Hits Her Stride

Musician, poker player and gambler at heart the Atlanta native finds herself living on the West Coast (after coming up in the New York underground games) Dee talks about her rise into the ranks of making her money both in the studio and on the felt. [Pokerlistings]

Northern California Pro Candace Collins

Bay Area entrepreneur turned poker fanatic, Candace gains a little bit of notoriety from her deep run at the 2014 Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament and, although she’s been playing poker for quite some time, she’s looking at turning that run into more of a career by following tours, playing events, hoping to bink a bracelet and gaining the respect of her fellow players. [Card Player]

Want more reading? Check out these past entries:

Poker Profiles From The WSOP

Even More Poker Profiles From The WSOP

As you may have heard, the World Series of Poker announced that another 11 seats have been claimed in the 2014 $1M buy-in Big One For One Drop. One of those names on the list: the 2013 WSOP Player of the Year, Daniel Negreanu.

Always expected to play, Daniel’s participation is now official as the money has changed hands. Even with the One Drop being such a massive tournament, with an estimated $20M first place prize, Daniel’s just not that excited about it.

Watch Negreanu talk with PokerNews' self-proclaimed fanboy Frank Op de Woerd about becoming a financial big boy, playing mixed games at the WSOP and what he would do with the money should he win the Big One.

All of that plus Daniel answers the burning question:

“Why are you wearing a shirt with your own name on it?”

More Daniel: Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth Speak Up For The Mouth

Since he’s doing a great job…More FRANK: Phil Hellmuth – So Focused He Forgets His Own Mother’s Birthday

Veteran poker reporter Frank Op de Woerd draws the assignment of interviewing Phil Hellmuth while on break yesterday from Event #36, the $1500 2-7, to find out if he’s planning on playing in the 2014 $1M One Drop.

Before they get to that though, Phil pulls his mom on camera and talks about how it’s her birthday…only it wasn’t and the next couple minutes we watch Phil try real hard to recover from the small snafu of not knowing his own mom’s birthday – despite having just celebrated it.

For your amusement, PokerStars recently released a compilation video of their top 5 moments of the 2012 PCA. Daniel Negreanu vs. Mike McDonald, Tony Gregg vs. Faraz Jaka and Viktor Blom vs. Jonathan Duhamel headline the highlights.

More PokerStars Programming: PokerStars EPT 2014 PCA Super High Roller – Episode 1

Check this out.

From the World Series of Poker, Christopher Ruby tweeted this photo out today claiming that it’s the hand that crippled him in last night’s Event #37, the $1500 PLO.

Holy shit I busted the 1500 PLO last night set of aces vs set of QQ and took pic for proof. There was 2 Qh!!!!

In the photo it appears that a turned set of Aces gets quaded out on the river when the Queen of Hearts hits…only problem, the Queen of Hearts was also on the flop.

Apparently, he snapped the photo out of disbelief and didn’t take a look at it again until the morning, when he noticed the small detail.

While we have no proof that this photo is legit (despite that is seems authentic), it looks as if the WSOP acknowledged that it could have happened…but it was from last night, no one noticed in the moment and so really there’s nothing to be done.

Bad beat indeed.

Short and sweet, Bluff Magazine dishes out random World Series of Poker trivia by having top tier pros face off against the wealth of poker knowledge that is Kevin Mathers. Can one of the smartest kids in the game, Mike “Timex” McDonald give Kevin a run for his money? Could you??

Watch and find out.

The game of poker is ready for it’s close-up, again.

At least that’s the positive sentiment coming out of the Global Poker Index camp as Alex Dreyfus, master of the house over at GPI, takes to his blog to talk about how important online poker coming back to the great state of California is.

In fact, “The Golden State” it may just bring poker back into a golden era.

Poker has been growing both as a game and an industry over the past 10 years, but Dreyfus feels that it’s time for the game to take yet another step forward. With legal online poker slowly coming back into the US, Dreyfus surmises the real change will be when a state with massive liquidity and a hungry player base can lead the way to show the market what they are missing.

A situation which may have a bit of a butterfly effect for the rest of the industry: California.

Online poker is getting back to California, after so many years of negotiations and discussions between stakeholders, its happening. Yes. Its good ? Sure. It’s actually much more important that it sounds. It will drive a new poker boom, in US and in the world. Poker needed a decent size market ($500m+ for California) to have hungry investors and operators to jump in. and the best of it, it’s the fact that whatever will be invested in California, will eventually fuel poker, globally.

Dreyfus and the GPI are investing heavily into poker’s future and he thinks that when online poker comes back to California the entire game is going to change, again.

Read: Poker – The California Dream And The Buttery Fly Effect

In the midst of all the amazing fun and drama of yesterday, the World Series of Poker threw their hat into the ring by announcing another 11 names of players who have committed to putting up $1M to buy-in to the 2014 Big One For One Drop tournament.

The expanded list includes a number of people that the poker world had been expecting to play but had yet to confirm: Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, 2012 WSOP Champ Greg Merson, bracelet winner and World Poker Tour Champ Scott Seiver, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates and Issac Haxton all were included.

Recent bracelet winner and lover of fun Doug Polk is a high-stakes monster and he had previously mentioned that he would be playing when talking with Bluff.

Here’s the list that you may not know as well: CEO of Winmark Corporation John Morgan who famously got his opponent to fold quads in the 2012 One Drop, poker pro Daniel Coleman who won the SHR in Monte Carlo this past April for over $2M, businessman Tom Hall, return participant UK businessman Talal Shakerchi and of course…

ANONYMOUS BUSINESSMAN – no ethnicity specified this time around!

Here’s the full list (to date) of who’s crazy enough to take a shot at a $20M 1st place payday.

Because this is basically a press release, we have no problem copying and pasting the details of the event for you right here.

ESPN cameras will be on hand throughout the three-day event to document the drama over three consecutive weeks on ESPN beginning July 29. ESPN will air two-hour blocks as follows:

• TUESDAY, JULY 29 – 8-10 P.M. ET – Day 1 and Day 2 action
• TUESDAY, AUGUST 5 – 8-10 P.M. ET – Day 2 action, and final table bubble
• TUESDAY, AUGUST 12 – 8-10 P.M. ET – Final table action through to winner

There’s a 56 player cap and only 15 seats remain…who else do you think will grab a spot?

Headlining the action at the World Series of Poker yesterday was the finale of Event #33, the $1K NLHE, where embattled poker pro Dutch Boyd bested the field of 1,688 to win $288K+ and his 3rd gold bracelet.

Dutch has, pretty much always, been a controversial figure in poker and he made headlines this summer by doing some epic trash-talking about Two Plus Two head honcho Mason Malmuth.

Here’s the backstory: First Boyd lost a lawsuit which led to Mason and Dutch trading barbs. Dutch then really unloaded on Mason which even Daniel Negreanu agreed with.

In his winner’s interview with Remko Rinkema from PokerNews Dutch explains that right before he was going to make some serious money at the Final Table, Mason Malmuth alledgedly filed a writ of garnishment, just to make sure that he got his!

Boyd, putting that frustration behind him, talks about the tense final table and how his rail really helped propel him to victory. Winning his 3rd bracelet is nice validation for Dutch – as he joins a number of repeat bracelet winners this summer – but the money, especially after Mason’s cut, is not enough for him to ride off into the sunset as such we’ll be seeing more of Boyd at the Rio this summer.

Want more Dutch? Check these links out:

pokerfuse: Dutch Boyd Captures Bracelet Number Three & Eric Buchman Wins His Second

Bluff Magazine: Dutch Boyd Wins Third Bracelet in $1K No Limit Hold’em

I wasn’t saying “fuck you” and making a 'fuck you’ gesture, I was saying “get it round ye” and getting it right round them with the 'get it round ye’ gesture.

As you may have read yesterday, PokerStars terminated the contract of popular Team Online Pro Dale “Daleroxxu” Philip yesterday for an excessive celebration of a Dutch goal in their match vs. Spain…while Philip was watching the match in Spain.

Read: Team PokerStars Online Pro Dale “Daleroxxu” Philip Dropped For Excessive Celebration…of Football

Now Dale himself has decided to write about the entire incident, including uploading the piece of video that was cited as the reason for his termination.

You can read the entire account of what happened from Dale’s side on his blog – right here.

Like I say, I wasn’t trying to offend anyone, just have some standard football banter with lads from the rival side. It’s not tennis or golf, I’m not going to politely clap or tip my cap. It’s football and I’m a passionate football fan.

Everyone was drunk off the free drink and it was a good friendly atmosphere right up until the equalizing goal. The Spanish fans were basically friendly up to the point where they stopped winning, then turned into a bunch of butt-hurt bastards.

Dale goes on to explain the situation got pretty hostile after his celebration and those hostilities continued through the week. He finally was finished with his duties in Spain when he received an email stating that PokerStars needed him to contact them.

[17/06/2014 20:51:44] Chris J: ok
[17/06/2014 20:51:48] Chris J: well, sorry to ruin your flight
[17/06/2014 20:52:00] Chris J: but i’ve had a lot of complaints on this video
[17/06/2014 20:52:12] Dale: Is the video public?
[17/06/2014 20:52:21] Chris J: no, internal complaints
[17/06/2014 20:52:31] Dale: Can I see it?
[17/06/2014 20:52:38] Chris J: sure will forward it now
[17/06/2014 20:53:20] Chris J: bottom line is, it’s the strong opinion here that this is not acceptable for a brand ambassador
,,,,,
[17/06/2014 18:54:49] Chris J: we’re terminating the contract
[17/06/2014 18:54:55] Chris J: i am sad about it, you’ve been a key part of the team
[17/06/2014 18:55:10] Chris J: but the view here is that’s just not excusable from someone representing the company

Dale had been a Team PokerStars Pro for 4 years prior to this incident.

Again, you can read Dale’s account, and some of the details of his contract, of how it went down on his blog.

World Series of Poker Managing Editor (for WSOP.com) Jessica Welman puts a little context around the fact that many of the 2014 WSOP bracelet winners, have been to the promised land before.

Looking to win your way into bracelet events for super low buy-ins? Check out all the sick promotions and satty opportunities you can find on WSOP.com.

Long time poker strategist, founder of Crush Live Poker and regular commentator on Live At The Bike, Bart Hanson, degen’d it up at the Rio yesterday.

This time, it wasn’t in the high-limit poker room or the pits (which he routinely avoids), he was betting big on his country in the World Cup and as the U.S. squad shocked the world with their defeat of an amazing Ghana squad – Bart got straight paid.

His $7,000 bet on his home country paid him $18,200 in total, for a pure profit of $11.2K. How lucky was Bart for that 86th minute goal?!

A happy Bart clearly was going to take that lucky money to the bank, right?

Run good Bart…

In the middle of the World Series of Poker one of Team Ivey's biggest sponsored players has left the roster of patch wearing pros. PokerNews reported yesterday that 2012 WSOP Champ Greg Merson has put his days of promoting Ivey League behind him.

He was removed from the roster of pros in the middle of the day yesterday and his profile page displays and Error 404, but as of the time of this writing, his image and quote is still being used on the main page.

Poker pros come and go for a variety of reasons when it comes to endorsements and the reason for the split has yet to be made public. Merson isn’t the first Ivey pro to walk out the door (we’d be hard pressed to imagine that Merson was fired) as earlier this year Christian “Charder” Harder also departed the massive stable of pros.

When you talk about “personality in poker” you must mention Will The Thrill.

The outspoken World Poker Tour Champ, and, ok, ok Monster Headphone spokesperson, never has a shortage of things to say about…well, everything.

Here he talks with Thomas Keeling from Bluff Magazine about Matusow’s hotly debated “outrageous behavior” penalty from the World Series of Poker and as far as Will’s concerned, as long as your not taunting other players, the fiery personalities that arise with winning and losing big pots for a bunch of cash should be allowed and celebrated.

Read: He Said, She Said – Shulman Contradicts Matusow Over Series Of Events

Let’s not act like cowards and bitches, ok? As for Failla, this penalty will not stop him from loudmouthing it up at the tables – in fact, he’s even more fired up than before. If you don’t have the fire, get out of the game.

It took a little time, but 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Joe Cada has finally proved that he’s no one-pump chump. Cada broke a decade long curse of Main Event Champs who were unable to get back to the winner’s circle after winning the big one.

Not since Carlos “The Matador” Mortenson won a bracelet in 2003 has a Main Event Champion picked up a piece of WSOP hardware after winning the main. Many have come close, including Mortenson (who bubbled the final table of the Main Event in 2013), Jonathan Duhamel (who took 8th in the $50K Poker Players Championship in 2013) and even Cada himself who had to settle for runner up in a WSOP event in 2012. But there seemed to be a curse on the Main Event winners as if they’ve used their “one time” – forever. Until now.

Former Team Ivey Pro Greg Merson, in fact, was the only other Main Event winner to win 2 two bracelets in the past ten years, but he won his first before he won the Main Event.

Cada bested a stacked final table in Event #32, the $10K six-max, which included Jeremy Ausmus, Max Silver, JC Tran and Erick Lindgren for which he took home a massive $670K+ bankroll boost.

More on Cada’s victory…

pokerfuse: Joe Cada Adds a Second Bracelet to his WSOP Main Event Win
Wicked Chops Poker: Joe Cada Breaks Through for Second WSOP Bracelet
ESPN: 'The Kid’ is a champ once again
PokerNews: Joe Cada Collects 2nd Bracelet in $10K Six-Max; Shaffer Wins

Bonus: Champ is gunna champ.

Team PokerStars Pro Humberto “The Shark” Brenes is a cash machine at the 2014 World Series of Poker. The 63-year old Costa Rican is ahead of the pack in the cash stats having made money in 7 events and is currently on pace to break the record of 11 cashes set back in 2012.

Read: Shark Week – Humberto Brenes goes 4 for 4 (So Far) at the 2014 WSOP

But all that grinding is a lot of work for the poker vet and while in real life sharks need to keep water moving through their gills in order to receive oxygen and therefore don’t fall into a deep sleep, “The Shark” could use a little shut eye.

Read: Humberto Brenes On Pace To Break Record For Most Cashes At A Single World Series Of Poker

Classic Brenes:

Details are coming out right now, and F5Poker has confirmed, that longtime Team PokerStars Pro Dale “Daleroxxu” Philip is no longer a member of Team PokerStars Online. It looks as if Dale was sacked from his promotional position on Team Online for over celebrating the Netherlands domination over Spain in the World Cup….at the PokerStars UKIPT event in Marbella, Spain.

The Netherlands squad dismantled the Spanish club and all the while Dale was, seemingly, pretty vocal about his anti-sweat of the home team. Things got a little rowdy…

Dale seemed to rile up the Spaniards as there were multiple “mean-spirited” tweets sent his way about his allegiances and his supposed form of celebration. You see, someone thinks that Dale used the “two-finger solute” in his celebration, which when used palm in…is the big F.U.

Dale seemingly apologized for riling up the audience and tried to move on.

For the entire heated breakdown of this Twitter exchange, check out this link.

The situation eventually blew over and the Dale went on to perform his PokerStars dutites. Apparently though, PokerStars did not appreciate the dust up at all as he announced today, he is now no longer a Team Online Pro.

While some thought the penalty was too harsh:

At least one person, Alex Hernando from Poker Red, was happy with the result.

Dale, for his part, is headed back to Thailand, where he lives, and promised his full side of the story in a day or two. We’ll be on the lookout for it.

Read Dale’s PokerStars Bio (while it’s still available).

It’s got to be a pretty good sign that the World Series of Poker is going pretty smoothly if there is still chatter over a one round behavior based penalty that happened a few days ago. If you are not familiar with the original story, check out the following:

Read: Mike “The Mouth” Matusow – Bulldozered By WSOP Floor For “Outrageous Behavior”

It didn’t take long for some of the biggest names in the game to come out in support of Matusow, including Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth.

Now though, Card Player Magazine’s own Allyn Jaffrey Shulman has come out with a very different account of events that does not paint the same picture as the one that originally emerged.

She insists that from the moment she got seated with Matusow, the Mouth couldn’t stop uttering profanities:

I was moved to a table with Mike Matusow. From the moment we were seated, the players were subject to Mike’s constant stream of profanities. Whatever subject he was discussing included expletives such as Mike saying he had the worst F***ING* luck or some other F***ER did this or some ASSHOLE did this F***ING BULLSHIT.

She talks about how this behavior goes on, for over 10 minutes, and she started looking for a floorman – but there were none in sight and the dealer didn’t do anything.

When Mike won the hand in question, she claims things went from bad behavior to extreme.

After Mike won the pot, he started screaming he was the greatest F***ING player in the world, no one F***ING deserved this like he did, etc. He pounded on the table making the chips shake and then started running around the room whooping, hollering, yelling, jumping and swearing.

Here’s yet another detail – Shulman claims that rather than the players coming to his defense, the players were the ones actually complaining.

IT WAS THE PLAYERS WHO COMPLAINED. Now why would the good folks at the table do that? Clearly Mike had been out of line since the redraw. So after he won the pot and continued his loud, foul-mouthed unruly behavior, some players finally had enough and complained.

Then floorman Dave Lamb, who many have come to the defense of noting his well-respected tenure in the industry, came over and, according to Shulman, calmly asked what had happened…that’s when Matusow lost it on him.

Dave calmly, quietly but firmly asked Mike a number of times to step away from the table. Not only did Mike refuse to move from the table, he was up in Dave’s face yelling and cursing with his normal diatribe of vulgarities bellowing something like you can’t F***ING give me a BULLSHIT F***ING penalty; that would be the worst F***ING ruling in the history of poker. (with emphasis on the word F***ING.) It was only at that point that Dave Lamb quietly said NOW I am giving you a one round penalty.

Boom! Shulman cites that Matusow had already been given a warning earlier for profanity and he was given his penalty based on his use of profanity.

What was also not reported was that during the one round penalty, Mike came back to the table STILL swearing, threatening and saying it was the worst F***ING BULLSHIT penalty in the history of the WSOP.

Read Shulman’s entire account of events over at Card Player – WSOP: The Matusow Penalty

If you think Matusow is going to take this account lying down, then you don’t know “The Mouth.”

Brett Collson, Managing Editor at PokerNews, asks:

Will others come out to corroborate Shulman’s side of events? Who do you believe?

Nothing to see here, just a goofy Vine of someone attempting to deal a round of Hold’em using a deck of super sized Card Shark cards.

Old school: Anyone remember Card Sharks?

(h/t @RemkoMedia)

It is hard to eat good when you are on the road and while the Poker Kitchen situatated right next to the Pavilion and Brasilia Rooms at the World Series of Poker has tried over the years to make things better for you while still being fast, when you are spending all your time grinding – you can get a little sick of chicken fingers and $16 salads.

Poker Player Newspaper took their tastebuds on a trip around the Rio and broke down the best places for you to eat when you’ve finally had enough of Snickers bars and $5 sodas (yep, pure extortion at $5, ya’ll).

Seafood to burgers, Italian to American comfort – the Rio does their best to appeal to a wide variety of distinguished diners. Let’s face it though, if you are on the grind – this is the one you’re most likely going to end up at:

Hash House A Go-Go

When you are really hungry , you will get ginormous portions from 6AM to 3PM. The average entree price is $15 and you will enjoy an endless menu of Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch and Dinner selections. Here you will find the famous one-pound stuffed burger. Attire is casual and comfortable.

Check out all your other option over at Poker Player Newspaper, and , no Burger King did not make the list.

If you think that Dan Bilzerian is so rich that he might just take a gamble on you in a big buy-in tournament, see what happened when his old pal, and sometimes horse, Jean-Robert Bellande asked him to take a sweat piece of him in the upcoming One Drop.

For those thinking to ask danbilzerian to buy piece of $1,000,000 One Drop Wsop he might send you this reply: pic.twitter.com/AtINWLnIQp

Actually though, a random guy off the street might have better luck with Dan. It wasn’t that long ago that Dan parted ways with Bellande as a backer citing that he lost $1.7M with Bellande and called Jean-Robert “mentally slow.”

You might also remember the, now semi-famous, photo of Bellande buying into the One Drop with bricks of cash (despite the World Series of Poker readily accepting cashiers checks)

Look: Jean-Robert Bellande Buys Into WSOP One Drop With $1 Million In Cash

Would you invest in JRB if you had the money to burn?

Sarah Grant corners poker pro Aaron Massey on the final day of his twenties to play a game of “Explain This.” Here she looks up some items of Massey’s social media accounts and asks him for the story behind his public sharing. And boy does he public share in this video from PokerNews...

World Poker Tour's Raw Deal host and bone fide ladies champ, Tony Dunst is a world traveller and, as he talks to Bluff Magazine, it’s clear he’s learned a thing or two about what it takes to climb to the top of Mount Poker. You see, this sharply dressed man is a WPT Champ and lifetime earner of just under $1.5M so when he says that, while taking care of your body is important, your poker mind can only be refined through studying.

Sure, the poker health craze is good for you. Juice cleansing, dead lifting and consuming as many All-American Dave burgers as possible may make you feel better, hell, it may even give you more energy, but it will not make you a better poker player. You gotta hit the books to do that.

Dunst, always a solid company man, pimps the massive WPT 500 taking place at the Aria at the same time as the WSOP Main Event. So, if you go busto on Day 1 of the Main at the Rio, there’s one.last.chance for you to hit a big score.

Tony, Tony, Tony: Tony Dunst Breaks Down Charania’s Short-Stacked Secrets

Not sure if serious.

Pierre Milan is in Las Vegas for only his 2nd year in a row and, as he tells Caitlyn Howe from PokerNews, it was about time that he nabs his very first bracelet.

Read over at Bluff: Pierre Milan Wins First Bracelet, $536,768 in $2,500 No Limit Hold’em

Milan, who notches the first 2014 win for the French, is “feeling amazing” and isn’t done yet either. With three cashes under his belt, the Frenchman is already looking ahead to a possible second bracelet this year, while enjoying his first victory with his rowdy rail.

Maybe he’s tired or maybe he’s just subdued, but as the former PocketFives #1 online poker player in the world wins his first bracelet, he is most certainly humble.

Read from ESPN: 'cal42688’ takes talents to the WSOP

Although Calvin has been participating in WSOP’s since 2010, this is the year that his name really resonated with players and the media. Thus far, he hasn’t disappointed. With three cashes, all for over $50K, Anderson has put his stamp on the 2014 series with his latest victory in the $ 1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo (Event #30) where he needed to beat poker vet Joe Tehan to cinch the win.

Here he talks with Caitlyn Howe, who give him some reassurance on his talent, about how “great” it feels to take home the prestigious prize of a WSOP bracelet.

Perennial table captain Antonio Esfandiari is always the life of the party. In this instance, “The Magician” convinced a long-haired fellow to take $800 to shave his head in the middle of the Brasilia Room during the World Series of Poker $1K event.

The crowd gathered, the barber arrived and the prop bet was on! But, as PokerNews' Sarah Grant is about to find out, there’s only one thing missing from making this hair raising transaction go down…

More Antonio: Antonio Esfandiari Goes Busto!

When you are a start up, like F5Poker...everything counts. Every fan, every follower, every visit…and we super appreciate those of you who check us out on a, sometimes daily, basis. With that in mind, we wanted to have some fun with those of you who have stuck by us in these first few months and so we put what few dollar bills we have into some sweet new shirts.

Want one? We want you to have one…but you gotta earn it!

Caption this photo we took of Phil Hellmuth and Vanessa Selbst and we’ll give out a shirt or two to those of you who makes the big bosses chortle.

(The big bosses don’t just laugh, they “chortle.”)

Sound good? Get it to us however you want – on our Facebook page, via Twitter, hell – shoot us an email [contest @ pokerfuse.com] if you are shy.

Just make us laugh, don’t be horribly disgusting and we’ll get you a shirt (in person if you are at the WSOP!).

Go! Go! Go!

Great shot by PokerNews of the over t$1M chipstack held by Event #31 chipleader Matt Stout.

The field comes back at 1pm PST where Stout, and the 14 others who are gunning for him, will be playing down to a champion where over $418K (and a gold bracelet) are at stake.

More action? Cliff’s Notes – France Scores First 2014 Bracelet & Other WSOP Action

Bonus: PokerNews' Caitlyn Howe talks with Matt Stout about his “pretty easy day.”

Wanna get caught up on the WSOP but don’t need every detail to do so? We got you. Here’s what you need to know in 300 words (or less).

—

Event #29, the $2.5K NLHE, ended with Pierre Milan besting the field of 1,165 to win $536K+ and his first gold bracelet. World Poker Tour Champion Matt Salsberg ended up busting in 3rd for $207K, while 2013 WSOP bracelet winner Justin Oliver had to settle for runner up.

Top tier online grinder Calvin Anderson took down Event #30, $1500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, for his first gold bracelet and $190K+. Anderson had to beat World Poker Tour Champion Joe Tehan heads up to complete the victory, and recent F5 interviewee Jimmy Fricke went deep with a 7th place finish.

Only 15 players survived Day 2 of Event #31, the $1500 NLHE tournament. Matt Stout claims the chiplead headed into the final day of play. Players reconvene at 1pm PST to crown a champion.

Event # 32, will also be playing down to a bracelet winner today as only 13 remain in the $10K NLHE Championship. This ridiculously stacked field has Max Silver holding the chiplead and a list of sickos trying to take it from him including Joe Cada, JC Tran, Scott Clements, George Danzer, Layne Flack and Erick Lindgren. 2pm it all goes down.

Amit Makhija, Martin Finger and Faraz Jaka all hold top 10 chipstacks in Event #33, a $1K NLHE. There’s only 119 left from the original 1688 and they return at 1PM PST to play down as close to a Final Table as they can.

The $1500 Seven Card Stud event (#34) also has a ton of noteables with chips up top. Steve Sung, Bryan Campanello, Brian Hastings, Steve Albini and Marcel Luske all hold top 10s as 60 return at 2pm to whittle the field down.

Two new events get off the ground today: Event #35 $5K NLHE 8-handed and #36, a $1500 2-7.

—

Really bored on a Monday? Want to read even more? Ok, ok…we get it. Check these out:

pokerfuse: All Five Weekend WSOP Bracelets Go to First Timers

PokerNews: Calvin Anderson Snares Stud Hi/Low; Pierre Milan Wins One for France

Bluff: Anderson Crushes the Competition; Milan Wins a Bracelet; Cada Cruises

post by Cliff.

It’s been over six month since former PokerStars Team Online pro opted to leave his position as a sponsored player for the online giant and move back to California from an isolated existence in Mexico. Now he’s back on the felt and talking with Remko Rinkema at PokerNews about keeping poker in his life as a hobby and his new turn as podcast host of the semi-controversial internet talk show 'Dope Stories.’

Read: Shane “Shaniac” Schleger – Former PokerStars Pro Confesses Crack Habit

Schleger, one of poker’s more renown bloggers in his heyday writing, has launched a new podcast to have an open dialog about drug, drug use and the controversies that go along with the taboo subject. Along with well-known poker writer and author Pauly McGuire they tell tales and address the issues surround the drug culture in the U.S.

For now, “Dope Stories” is Shane’s passion and while poker is still in his life, you’re likely to only find the former pro at the table on the weekend.

Philipp Gruissem has a lot of things, including money, but while he’s won a WSOP event – he still doesn’t own a World Series of Poker bracelet.

The captain of poker’s German squad, Gruissem has amassed over $9M in lifetime tournament earnings, making a name for himself by crushing the highest of rollers in tournaments but now he’s in Las Vegas to try and acquire the most coveted prize in poker.

Here he talks with Remko Rinkema from PokerNews about how the money doesn’t matte as much as the competition and as long as there’s chips in front of him, he’s going to try and collect them all.

Team888 pro, Australia’s Jackie Glazier has arrived at the World Series of Poker and she talks with Thomas Keeling from Bluff Magazine to try and do just a little bit better than her famous deep run in the 2013 Main Event.

Now though, she’s picked up a 2nd game where she might just be able to make a little cash as her golf game is getting better all the time and if they don’t watch out, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu might just end up on the losing end of a sick hustle.

Speaking of hustle, the bracelet winner will be participating in the 2014 WSOP Ladies’ Event and she’s throwing it out there that if any guys want to be douchebags (our words, not hers) and pay $10K buy-in just to play – she’s all for it, dudes.

Jason Mercier had a good chance to win the inaugural Big One For One Drop $1M buy-in tournament back in 2012, but a cooler of fate – Jason ran Kings into Antonio Esfandiari's Aces – changed the course of history. It turned Antonio into an even bigger star while Mercier was forced to wait 24 months to try and get back to the nosebleed promised land.

More Mercier: Jason Mercier Has Money To Burn

Now, Jason’s as hyped up as ever to get back into the ultimate high-rolling tournament and he’s fresh and ready to go. Mercier talks with Thomas Keeling over at Bluff Magazine about how, while he’s still a prop betting fool, he opted out of bracelet bets just so he could take days off if he wanted to.

Living in the mountains of Austria, the UK’s first 2014 WSOP bracelet winner John Kabbaj, tells Thomas Keeling from Bluff Magazine that it had been a long dark road before he was able to make it back on stage to accept his 2nd World Series of Poker bracelet.

A divorce, a change in countries and two years of destroying himself came before Kabbaj was able to pick himself up, dust himself off and begin to dream again about winning WSOP gold. Now here he stands, a man with a new beginning and some new hardware (and cash) to get him underway.

PokerNews's Remko Rinkema grabs a seat with World Series of Poker Media Director Nolan Dalla to reminisce about stories of future Poker Hall of Famer, Phil Ivey

Dalla recalls the first time he met Ivey in Atlantic City, back in the “No Home Jerome” fake I.D. days when Ivey would crush the highest stakes of 7-Card Stud. Nolan even theorizes that if Stud were still the prominent game today that it was back in the early 90’s, that Ivey might be an even bigger star than he already is.

Furthermore, when Ivey first came to the WSOP in the 90’s, he was given no respect by legendary gambler Amarillo Slim and when they two went heads up for what would be Ivey’s first bracelet, Slim quickly learned that there was new school of poker pro about to take over the game.

Finally, Dalla recounts a story of Ivey making a remote golf bet with Chip Reese and when Ivey is through, the pair settle up without any verification except the word of Phil himself.

It’s another fascinating storytime about one of the most popular, and still mysterious players, on the planet.

During last year’s World Series of Poker the most heartbreaking story came to light when young professional poker player Kevin Bourdrau collapsed in the Rio parking lot due to, what Bluff accurately calls, “complications from a cerebral arteriovenous malformation.”

As you may recall, the poker world rallied by Boudreau’s and his family’s side helping them with medical expenses and transportation from Las Vegas back to Colorado.

After a long, hard year of fear, uncertainty, hope and recovery – Kevin found his way back into the halls of the Rio and along with his family and friends, took part in a sit-n-go in the Pavilion room yesterday.

Read: Kevin “Phwap” Boudreau Hanging With Friends, Making Strides In Recovery

It’s a heartwarming sight and even though there’s is still plenty of work for Kevin in the future it’s fantastic for him, his family and the poker community to see Kevin return to the Rio and back to having a little fun on the felt.

Read More about Kevin’s recovery from Bluff Magazine: Your Greatest Asset Is Your Future

Honestly, we’re not sure how we feel about this one. It’s both wacky and probably somewhat sexist – we’ll let you decide.

Unknown and self-proclaimed “cash game pro” Jennifer Miller created this video as a sales pitch for potential advertisers to chose her body as a prominent place to put their product. In what many women will probably consider an affront to women in poker, she’s using the old adage sex sells to try and pick up some extra bucks.

Citing the free-flowing cash patch-me-up days before Black Friday, she points to an example of a lump on a log getting $5K to wear a patch because he was seated next to a big time pro on a TV table. She feels like that was a bargain compared to what you’ll get with her.

Is there any chance someone will take her up on this?

It’s undeniable that dreams of playing in the World Series of Poker has helped boost participation of Nevada’s WSOP.com's during the summer series.

The totally legal online poker room is pushing hard to get you to try their online platform, including helping people to satty into live events. It’s a pretty sweet deal, as detailed out by old school grinder Stephen Kaufman as he talks to PokerNews' own Sarah Grant, you go online to play in smaller buy-in events for the chance to participate in the live event of your dreams during the WSOP.

That’s just one of the ways that WSOP.com is trying to convince you to sit your ass in the “Grind Room” for hours at a time. Deposit bonuses, registration bonuses and freerolls are all there for the taking, just to get you to do what you love anyway.

Then there’s guaranteed cash every night of the week all leading up to the 25 Guaranteed Main Event Seats tournament on July 5th.

So, whether you are in Vegas right now or your trip is around the corner, check out some of the promotions of WSOP.com and maybe you’ll find yourself in an unexpected bracelet event!

If you ask Ansky, Pot-Limit Hold’em is’t even a real game. With dwindling participation numbers and a general bad rap for being a tighter game PokerNews' Remko Rinkema quizzes a few pros on whether this discipline of poker is the least liked event on any given World Series of Poker schedule.

Dani Stern gives the merits of Pot-Limit Hold’em a straight up beating while other pros like Issac Baron, Christian Harder and the newly braceleted Justin Bonomo all weight in on how $10K could be better spent at the series.

Read: Justin Bonomo’s Bridal Shower – It’s Victory In Event #11 For WSOP Gold