If you ask Daniel Negreanu, this whole 25/50 online challenge has gotten a little out of hand.

Read: Doug “WCGRider” Polk Calls Out Negreanu, “You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About”

In fact, that’s what Remko Rinkema from PokerNews did and he got a slight scolding from Kid Poker about the origins of this misunderstood beef with the high stakes online community.

Daniel isn’t exactly backtracking as much as clarifing – he was tweeting, not thowing down the gauntlet when he said he could beat the big time online games. He’s not positive that he could, but he totally believes in himself and with the help of a few friends, is pretty sure he could be a winning online player again.

Of course, that’s not going to happen anytime soon for the 6-time bracelet winner as he’s living a pretty cushy life in Las Vegas and until poker becomes regulated in Nevada (it is) and PokerStars becomes available there (it isn’t) Daniel has no plans to move out for 3 months to bother to attempt this.

One good thing to come from this. Daniel has yet another poker mission to set his sights on – eliminate seat scripting to protect the high stakes fish from getting eaten alive.

The biggest bromance in nosebleed poker right now is that of One Drop winner Daniel Colman and his buddy, EPT Barcelona Super High Roller champ Olivier Busquet. Here is their origin story.

From their matching outfits in Barcelona to the alleged staking relationship for the One Drop, the pair have been side-by-side, collecting all the money in poker, for the past month. Now, here’s the guys, giving the quick backstory on how the dynamic duo teamed up in the first place.

Sure, Daniel Negreanu was recently issued a challenge by the online poker community but while he’s contemplating that offer – he’s taken to his blog to issue a challenge of his own, to tournament directors everywhere.

I’m asking, I’m pleading for a change in focus in these types of situations. More leniency, more understanding, more player friendly. Less rigorous, less harsh, and less cold blooded.

Read: A Softer Warning System For Poker

Always an advocate for the players, Daniel provides a couple recent examples he’s seen at PokerStars events where, he feels, a warning makes more sense than a penalty. In fact, he asserts that the harshness with which TDs are doling out the infractions to noobs are hurting not only the enjoyment of the game, but the growth itself.

I understand the need for rules to protect the integrity of the game, I also don’t see why we can’t enforce these rules by first giving a warning.

Never a fan of the “First Card Off The Deck” rule, Daniel has spent a lot of time voicing his opinion that the game should belong more to the players and reflect their wants when it comes to being govern. Here’s yet another cry for player friendly, common sense decisions when it comes to doling out penalties for the uninitiated.

Almost no one listened to the first episode and even fewer should bother to check out this, the second installment of two guys – one from F5 and one from pokerfuse – talking in circles about stuff that happened in poker in the past 24-48 hours.

It’s a program about programming and there’s next to zero professionalism included. The only thing better about Episode number 2 is that it’s even shorter than the first.

Maybe it will get better with time.

This fantasy poker stuff just got real.

Eric Danis, the Global Poker Index's leading expert when it comes to all things Fantasy Poker Manager, hosts the first in a web series designed to help players get advice on how to manage their fantasy poker squad.

But rather than some low rent audiocast, the GPI guys have put together a pretty sweet package that has the look and feel of a clip that was taken from ESPN or the NFL Network.

Not playing fantasy poker yet? Check it out.

Grandpa Mike's at it again.

partypoker ambassador and World Poker Tour mouthpiece, Mike Sexton has the full attention of his fellow sponsored pros as he passes down tales of degeneracy from poker’s past.

This time Sexton turns his attention from the green felt to the putting greens and digs up stories of the legendary Stu Unger. According to Mike, the one time mob employee, as much as he was a cards savant, was a super golf fish and his pals seemingly had zero problem exploiting his uncontrollable gambling habit to line their own pockets.

Right, Vince?

More Mike: Mike Sexton Prefers The Comfy Confines of Home

Here’s another post where we try to hook up the potential poker position with the qualified candidate.

This time, the job is a doozy and for the serious minded poker applicant only. partypoker New Jersey is looking for the poker passionate to apply to be their new Poker Room Associate.

While they’d like someone with experience, there may be a little wiggle room provided you have what it takes to do things like create tournament schedules, working with a marketing staff and tackle the tough questions posed by forum trolls.

So, if you have the ultimate poker and business background and love of the smell of New Jersey, go get that new career in poker with the folks over at party.

Check it out: Poker Room Associate (USA)

Happy and humble, Olivier Busquet recognizes that he is incredibly lucky to be the 2014 EPT Barcelona Super High Roller Champ.

Read: Bad Beat Diaries – The Poker Gods Intervene On Behalf of Busquet

Coming back from a “questionable” shove which left him as a way under 1% dog to escape to the man hoisting the trophy, Busquet talks with PokerNews about his incredible run and one of the purest of feelings in poker – outright winning a tournament.

For those that follow poker industry closely, Annie Duke is pretty much a persona non grata.

After the hit-and-run that was the Epic Poker League failure and years of shilling the corrupt Ultimate Bet, for many, she essentially wore out her welcome on the poker scene and hasn’t cashed in an open event since 2010.

That’s not going to stop her from repping the poker set when explaining “emotional decision making” and the concept that “we” call tilt while trying to get herself booked as a public speaker on the concept of “decision science.”

So if you don’t know what “tilt” is, let the former commissioner of the EPL – the one who was in charge and made roughly $300K while the league went bankrupt – explain it to you.

All In Magazine puts their talented video production crew to work on creating a very nice package for what was the Chad Brown memorial and memorial poker tournament.

First the All In cameras capture the thoughts and feelings of some of those that attended the memorial, such as Nolan Dalla, Phil Hellmuth and *Vanessa Russo. Then the video switches gears seamlessly between the heavy tone of his memorial and the inspirational charitable effort bestowed upon the tournament in his name. Good stuff.

Olivier Busquet was left for dead in this hand against then chip leader Sven Reichardt when the pair got it all in pre and Busquet went from bad shape to out the door…that is until the poker gods determined that it was not his time to go.

Reichart flops the 2nd nuts with Kings full.

Just as Scott Seiver calls for a sweat card. An Ace appears on the turn.

Busquet, less than a percent to pull this off after the flop, sits with the sullen look he taught to protege Dan Colman.

Boom. Lightning strikes in the form of runner runner Aces to not only keep Oli alive in the tournament but propel him to 2nd in chips, which he would carry on to victory and the €896,434 first place prize (in a deal he struck with Colman.)

FInally, a reason for Busquet to be happy. Here’s his happy face.

Want the lowdown on the whole EPT Barcelona Super High Roller? Read: Olivier Busquet hands out one last lesson on young protege

Our pals over at HighstakesDB got this one on lock yesterday and it’s pretty good, so we had to share.

According to HighstakesDB, nosebleed elite online grinders Daniel “Jungleman” Cates and Noah Boeken got into a a verbal tussle in the chatbox of one of their heads-up matches recently and the accusations began to fly.

First it was Jungle (who plays on PokerStars as 'w00ki3z’) who accused Boeken ('Exclusive’) of account sharing—a form of cheating—by letting Patrik Antonious play under his user name. This basically set Boeken off.

Exclusive: “whenever u lose u just think people cheat”
Exclusive: “haha”
w00ki3z.: “you admitted patrik played”
Exclusive: “u played so fckin bad that day my sister woulda beat u”
Exclusive: “patrik has his own account”
Exclusive: “r u fcked”
Exclusive: “u think i need people to use my account”
Exclusive: “pathetic”

Of course, that’s not the end of it. Why would it be? Boeken and Cates keep up the jib-jabbing and this time Boeken hints about a story that involves…“hitmen??!”

w00ki3z: “you can go **** yourself”
Exclusive: “ya”
Exclusive: “just dont sent me a hitman for christmas”
w00ki3z: “youre making it tempting”
Exclusive: “guy wasnt even alone”
Exclusive: “his whole family there”
Exclusive: “ur sick”
w00ki3z: “oh that?”
w00ki3z: “i dont know anything about that guy”

But he clearly does know of whatever incident Boeken is referring to. A “hitman”?? One has to wonder if the man who couldn’t even find his way to the correct San Jose airport would be able to locate a hitman to do his bidding in the first place. If he can, should we delete this post?

More good stuff from the kids at HighStakesDB, go check it out.

In this episode of the PokerStars produced-for-tv highlight reel of the 2014 PCA 151 people are looking to survive one of the biggest bubbles of the year and squeak their way into the money.

James and Joe bring you the blow by blow as players grind their way to the $17,600 min cash.

Miss Episode 2? We got you.

“Some people have the monkey gene, some people don’t…I have it.” – Sorel Mizzi

The better the pros are the less they know. Words from Phil Laak as he, Brian Rast and Jesse May call partypoker Premiere League action from Canada’s Playground Club where Scott Seiver, Jeff Gross, Daniel Colman, Jason Koon and Sorel Mizzi look to decide who is going to win the PL7 trophy.

Looking for more Premiere League? Here’s the previous episode: partypoker Premiere League 7 – Episode 20

Poker pro Allen Kessler is a poker tournament structure stickler and when he found out that the World Poker Tour was planning on implementing their unique 'quantum reload’ feature into the $4M guaranteed Legends of Poker Main Event, he said “enough is enough.”

This year, I have made the decision to boycott their series. It was not an easy decision, but I cannot support their concept called “quantum reload”.

Kessler authored a lengthy post, aimed at WPT officials, over at mega-forum Two Plus Two railing against the patented re-entry formula that lets players pay a premium to enter a tournament at a deeper stage, with some number of chips, even if they’ve been busted out. Here’s how Kessler explains it:

Players at the Bike are able to enter once per $3500 flight with 30000 starting chips. Players who don’t make it through to day two, or who simply don’t want to play day one at all, have an option to buy in directly to day 2 for $10,000 and join the advancing player field from day 1. The bike has changed what this $10k will buy several times. I’ve seen 100k in chips, “avg stack” and 60bb stack all mentioned.

So essentially, you pay a higher price, you get the advantage of advancing to a later stage. It juices the prize pool but also gives a free pass to those who can afford it.

Kessler’s not having it. He thinks that this is one of those “bad for poker” inventions that is going to kill the game long term. It de-incentivizes grinders to take on the pros…

Imagine you are a local l.a. grinder. You win a satellite, you’re playing day 1c and knock out a tough opponent, Brian Rast. You have slightly less than an average stack but are pleased to have made day 2, and to have eliminated a tough opponent. You come back for day 2, find your seat, and there’s Brian directly to your left, and with more chips than you, even though you already eliminated him.

This scenario will happen multiple times. Players that made it through to day 2 will have to knock out the higher echelon players an extra time, and this time the skilled players have bought an even bigger stack.

Read: My open letter to Adam Pliska (WPT president) regarding quantum reload in wpt sponsored events

What do you think? Is “quantum reload” a big poker money grab from those who can afford it or an option akin to a level of service? Let us know.

Online vs. Live – the Hatfield and McCoy style feud that rears its head in the world of poker from time to time has bubbled to the surface once again.

Last week, “Live Pro” Daniel Negreanu essentially said that, with two weeks of intense study, he could re-learn to beat the 25/50 online cash game on PokerStars.

Read: Daniel Negreanu Would “Bet A Million” On His High Stakes Online Ability

Online wizard Doug Polk on the other hand, respectfully disagrees and, in an interview from EPT Barcelona with PokerNews, essentially calls out Daniel for not understanding the current landscape of the state of online cash games, that he does not “have the skillset” to win right now and, generally coming across like he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Polk does believe that the online community was slighted and, when cornered, issued an official challenge to Daniel to see if he can beat the high stakes online game here in 2014 like he did in 2010…provided they can hammer out the details of the prop bet.

Question is: will Daniel accept?

Sure we give out trophies. Yes, we rank the players. We even have team events like the Caesar’s Cup. But no one, really, has ever been fooled into thinking that the beloved game of poker is sport.

But, just in case you did, a user on Reddit conducted his own, private, poll asking participants to classify 53 different so-called “fringe” activities as sport or no sport. According to Deadspin, the user received 460 replies and put them into this handy chart.

There’s some very interesting percentages to be seen from water polo to chess but of all these activities, the one that received the lowest percentage: poker.

Poker – it may be dead last in sporting classification, but first in our hearts.

Read: Poll Results: What’s A Sport And What’s Not?

The fact is that some, like Joan Rivers, might say that poker tends to attract an unsavory kind of person to the table.

The kind of person for whom “etiquette” is some kind of fancy word that fancy people use rather than a code to subject yourself to. Well, be that as it may the crew over at Big Slick Poker Academy say that there’s a lot of things you can do at the poker table that go against poker etiquette, but there’s one that is the absolute worst. What it is? It’s the….

Slow roll of course!

Writer Sean Hansen, doesn’t hold back when he unloads on those deliberately malicious slow rollers.

But if you are the kind of a$$hole that isn’t satisfied with winning a hand, but wants to behave in such a way that inflicts the most possible emotional distress on your opponent, two things are likely. First, you’re a hack who knows nothing about what the game is about, and you are probably so excited about beating someone because you rarely do it. Second, you’re very likely the kind of person no one wants to be around, ever, in any setting, and the game of poker is better off without you.

Like the bad boys? Read: Ryan Eriquezzo Temper Tantrum Ends In Tournament DQ

Blig Slick is instituting a new rule at their school too. You slow roll, you get DQ’d from their events. Too harsh? Check it out and see if they can sway you into thinking that the absolute worst thing you can do in poker is unveil your hand like a jerk.

Read: The Worst Thing You Can Do In Poker

Watch: Poker Night In America – The Slowroll and The Aftermath

The ALS Ice Water Bucket Challenge has just about run its course through the world of poker. We’ve seen Antonio Esfandiari, Adam Pliska and even Phil Hellmuth dump buckets of ice water on their heads while donating money to ALS research.

Hellmuth, in his video, challenged World Series of Poker Executive Director Ty Stewart who not only accepts, but give the Poker Brat the needle by chowing down on a Carl’s Jr. hamburger in the process.

Of course, the challenge is like a chain letter where someone new gets challenged in the end and Ty tossed the gauntlet to ESPN commentators Norman Chad and Lon McEachern as well as every member of the November 9.

PokerNews’ Remko Rinkema nabs Dan Shak for a quick minute to ask him what exactly is he doing playing the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller.

Shak had previously publicly declared himself finished with the SHR until they got rid of unlimited re-entries, which he felt had a negative effect on the game.

Well, PokerStars does what they always do – whatever they want, dummy.

They kept the policy of unlimited re-entries and the the world of SHR poker moved on without Shak. But Shak’s a poker player and explains here why he’s back and just couldn’t stay away.

Some people take photos of their food. Others take selfies of their feet. The general consensus number one poker player on the planet Ryan Rie…we mean Phil Ivey... has recently taken to snapping photos of himself hanging with various animals, and we don’t mean his fellow poker pros.

First, Ivey poses with a bear.

Then Ivey poses with a bull…

Then Ivey poses with a dog…

Finally, Ivey poses with some cougars.

Except for Ivey’s MOM, of course, who appears in the final photo.

Came by my Mom’s poker social gathering. Good practice for adapting to different poker styles, lol.

Next up for Ivey…he’s expected to be in the field at EPT Barcelona where he’s sure to get photographed with some sharks.

Mike from pokerfuse and Jeff from F5 decide to try out recording a short form program where the audio is bad, the opinions are worse and they generally waste everyone’s time.

Good thing though, the time wasted is under 15 minutes and you don’t have to bother to download and sync anything. This program would be an affront to your “smart” phone anyway.

Check it out and Tweet at us. Help us with a better name.

As the European Poker Tour's 100th event in Barcelona gets underway, the biggest and brightest poker stars in the poker galaxy have ponied up €50k to participate in the Super High Roller event. That includes a pair of guys looking forward to taking their turn in the WSOP spotlight and a shot at $10M in cash at the Final Table of the Main Event in November.

Jorryt van Hoof and Martin Jacobsen take a little time to talk with PokerNews' Remko Rinkema about their early preparations for the WSOP and how their lives have changed (or not) in the face of surviving the biggest bubble of the year.

Above, van Hoof is subdued to the point of verbal exhaustion in his role as Final Table chipleader and below, Jacobsen talks about how he feels less pressure headed into the event being in the bottom third of the chipstacks.

Vanessa Selbst has accomplished a lot in poker including earning more than $10 million in live poker tournament winnings in her career,  but one thing she has not done is run an online poker site, but that was news to Bloomberg TV reporter Trish Regan host of “Street Smart.”

When the misinformation came to light Selbst jokingly replied, “It’s possible, I did a lot of things I don’t remember.”

Check out this Bloomberg video where Vanessa and Brian Koppelman, co-writer of “Rounders”, talk about some image problem Atlantic City faces along with some of the other challenges that have decreased interest in the East Coast gambling town over the years.

Are you tired of these yet? It’s another ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video but this time it comes from the top of the World Poker Tour.

WPT President, and presidential look alike, Adam Pliska of the WPT takes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge both seriously and in good fun and ships a video all the way from the gambling hotbed of Macau. In top tier style, Pliska suits up for the challenge and shows off his high quality choice of ice bucket – a hotel quality leather wastebasket.

Watch: Phil Hellmuth Takes The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Of course, he’s got to extend the challenge and he calls out WPT personalities Ali Nejad, Lynn Gilmartin and Vince Van Patten, who we’re sure will accept it as long as it gets him away from the Mike Sexton storytelling hour.

Watch: Antonio Esfandiari Takes A Cold Shower for ALS Research

Long time readers of F5 will know that we’re always looking to help out when it comes to hooking up job seekers and those in need in the poker community. A recent post on the Modesto Craigslist has a “professional poker player” looking for an assistant – that could be you!

It doesn’t sound like a bad gig either. Travel paid for plus $500 a week and it looks like the area covered is mostly California and Nevada. So if you are rotting away in some desolate Central Cali or Nevada town and looking for a change, hit this anon player up and see if in addition to picking up a steady gig you can also pull some poker pointers.

Go get it: Assistant to Professional Poker Player

It’s time for Season 11 of the European Poker Tour and the tour’s 100th event.

It looks like PokerNews may be done experimenting with new on-camera personalities and have brought in WSOP veteran Remko Rinkema to bring you the sights and sounds of the host city of Barcelona.

Remko gives you the lay of the land from casino to the main drag and just when you thought this video was going to be some poor man’s Anthony Bourdain episode , he takes you and the camera crew to the topless beaches of Barcelona. Woof.

News from the 888poker camp has them bucking the industry trend of giving walking papers to team pros and actually signing up one of the 2014 November Nine.

Brazilian Bruno Politano may be sitting on the shortest stack headed into the WSOP Main Event Final Table but you can bet he’ll bring the loudest, craziest, Scooby Doo filled rail to the ESPN broadcast and his new Team888 patch.

Bruno will have an uphill climb when it comes to besting the talent-stacked final table but it’s likely that 888poker is banking on his outgoing personality to bring them some always needed international exposure to their brand of online poker. Seems like an OK move, especially when the number one guy, PokerStars, is cutting ties with many of their Latin American pros.

This weekend poker pro Jason Koon posted this shot of himself leaping off the tallest bungie jump platform on the planet.

Did the world’s highest bungee jump today (764 feet) off of Macao Tower!

The jump is currently holds the Guinness World Record for the Highest Commercial Bungy Jump in the world. It turns out though that Jason found out that, in Macau, bungie jumping isn’t the only way to get high…

This was the garnish on our sushi.

Good luck at those nosebleed cash game tables Jason.

Here’s another full length episode of the made-for-TV poker cash game, Poker Night In America, Episode 6 picks up right where the last one leaves off, with Phil Laak, Will The Thrill, David Williams, Layne Flack and more jockeying for position at the Turning Stone felt.

In this episode though, PNIA Creative Director Nolan Dalla makes a bold creative choice – he features himself. The man from behind the camera decides to get out in front of his own story and we get to meet the man who, essentially, dubbed himself “the most interesting man in the world of poker.”

Looking for more PNIA? Check out episode 5 right here.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is making the rounds in poker and now it’s Antonio Esfandiari who gets doused in blistering cold ice water. So cold in fact it takes his breath away for a moment.

In the aftermath Antonio does what needs to be done and passes along the chain-challenge to pro poker player Jeff Gross and Olympian Michael Phelps...who will be next?

Watch: Phil Hellmuth Takes The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Update: Here’s the full video which was posted about 12 hours after our post.

Phil Hellmuth may be a brat, but he’s a good-natured, charitable one at that.

Here he shoots a quick video of himself accepting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge is easy: when called out – shoot a video of yourself dumping a bucket of ice water on your head in 24 hours or make a donation to the ALS Foundation.

Hope though, those that participate, have opted to do both.