New to Twitter? if you read F5poker, probably not.

But just in case you are, Twitter is a great way to keep up with all your favorite poker pros (as well as pick us some fun poker drama on occasion).

In this short video, PokerStars talks to some of poker’s elite to see if you’re following them, then who are they following?

Daniel Negreanu, Ryan Riess, Liv Boeree and more offer suggestions of who, both in the poker world and out of it, you might want to click the follow button for.

Apropos, if you aren’t following F5poker – well, you should be and you can do so right here.

Two Plus Two mod ProfessionalPoker brought this to our attention and we think it’s entertaining enough to bring to yours.

A self-confessed poker scammer started a thread on the Two Plus Two forums the other day, seemingly out of nowhere, where he explains that after having found God, he wanted to confess his previous poker transgressions – including scamming online poker players for roughly $280K.

How’d he do it? However he could. But now, in the cold hard light of day, he’s ready to repent.

I have repented seriously with God in July and cried hard. I feel really bad for what I’ve done and wish that all my victims give me a chance to make things right. I’ve come a long long way to get to this point. My last scam was last year around August for $8000 to young_bluffkin.

Please forgive me, I was desperate, lacked self control, and didn’t know the seriousness of what I was doing.

Do you think the online community would welcome him with open arms? Well very few thus far have. It has mostly been a gauntlet of prison wishes and doubters. Is this the long con or a serious attempt to right mistakes of the past? Don’t know, don’t care. But we think you’ll find it worth killing a few minutes of your time before you head out for the weekend. Just don’t send him your personal info…

Suggestion: this is a LONG thread now – over 300 posts right now – so if you have an account, #protip set your posts per page to 100. If you don’t, sign up – it’s free – set your posts per page to 100 and tell Mason that F5 says hi! Happy trolling!

World Poker Tour commentator Mike Sexton takes a couple minutes to talk with Bluff Magazine's Thomas Keeling during the Borgata Poker Open about his feelings on tournament re-entries/rebuys.

In 2011, UN Resolution 2023 directed Eritrea to stop using illicit methods for collecting a “diaspora tax” from its foreign nationals.

The Canadian government in Ottawa threw out the Eritrean Consul after he continued to try to collect the 2% income tax on expat Eritreans.

As recently as June this year, Adam Hodge, a spokesman for Foreign Minister John Baird released a statement.

“We have made our position on this matter clear to the Eritreans, and we expect them to abide by it. Should Eritrea fail to comply with our demands, Canada will take decisive action.”

Which has what to do with online poker?

Well, there is one other nation in the world that collects a diaspora tax—the USA. And online poker players who relocated from the US have to pay up—a lot more than 2%.

Don’t fill in the FBAR forms, and the civil penalty for non-compliance is the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the value of the account for each account for each year.

Any optimism that the UN or Canada will treat the US the same as Eritrea is likely to be misplaced—Eritrea lacks nuclear weapons, has no drone strike capability, and isn’t likely to provide the world’s reserve currency for some time.

But if you need pointless political activism in your life between online poker sessions, campaigning for Canada to treat the US the same as Eritrea sounds like fun.

The number crunchers at PocketFives have just moved Sweden one spot up the global online tournament rankings to take second place behind Canada.

The rankings system uses the scores from the top twenty players playing in each country. Scores are tracked at 22 different networks and poker rooms —but not at Svenska Spel.

Finally the secret romance between 2012 World Series of Poker Champion Greg Merson and legal U.S. online poker site WSOP.com can be finally be shared with the world.

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, especially since we were the very first to let you know about this back in July, WSOP.com today officially named Merson as their very first brand ambassador.

It’s always nice when a sick beat comes with a little payback. That’s what seems to have been the case a couple days ago at the Peppermill in Reno when the Bad Beat Jackpot was realized when a rivered quads was bested by the turned Royal Flush.

Nice photo of the beat posted by Jed Hoffman

What’s that worth? In some places it’s big money but according to our pals over at HoldemRadio, this one looks to have been $5K. But, hey, who can’t do without a little extra unexpected scratch.

Looking for more of the worst beats on the planet? Check out the well-traveled pages of the Bad Beat Diaries.

A few days ago we ran a post about the resurfacing lawsuit of Iraj Parvizi against the Les Ambassaduers casino which finally named the names of the pair of poker pros accused of collusion. Roland de Wolfe and Josh Gould were reportedly seen on the casinos closed circuit television doing something akin to collusion by Richard Marcus, a self-proclaimed “expert in cheating.”

Read: High Stakes Hobgoblins – UK’s Roland de Wolfe Accused of Collusion In Parvizi Lawsuit

That’s all fine. But it should be noted that this is a story that, right now, should be taken with a grain of salt. Everything from the reasons of the lawsuit to the expert witness is subject to just as much scrutiny as the play of those at the table. Who better to point out some area of examination than one of poker’s more established detectives Haley Hintz. Having some personal experience, and therefore a little bias (which is acknowledged) Haley just wants to remind everyone that perhaps not everything is as it seems.

Another sponsored pro parts ways with their brand as Sacramento based poker pro J.C. Tran finds himself like 99.9% of the rest of the runners in any given tournament – a free agent.

Unlike the recent departures of pros from the PokerStars and Ultimate Poker rosters, this probably didn’t come as a surprise for Tran. When Tran was originally signed it was in late August of 2013 as a result of him being the chipleader at the November Nine. Now, one year later it’s not too hard to speculate that he signed a one-year deal which has now come to an end.

Plus, the big-time Sacto Kings fan is currently living in a no-internet poker zone and as he’s never made a secret of his dedication to family, a deal with 888poker might not make much sense for either side.

Fear not though, as previously reported, Team 888 will have a patch wearing pro at poker’s big dance in the form of the recently signed Brazilian Bruno Foster Politano.

Read:Ultimate Poker Slashes Half Of “Team U” Roster

According to a tweet by poker pro Allen Kessler, he may have tried not to be a tool…once…. maybe.

Kessler admitted such in response to a tweet sent by popular poker journalist AlCantHang after Kessler seemingly randomly called out the World Poker Tour Live Updates Team for what he deemed was an incorrect listing of tournament results for the WPT Main Event of the Borgata Poker Open.

He’s a triple crown winner who’s climbed to the top of poker mountain only to have to restart his career from the ground up. Gavin Griffin has been there and done that, so when he has some words of advice, as he does in his latest column on Card Player, you’d best be listening up.

In his latest column, Gavin tackles the topic of facing the music when you play your hands. Whether that means turning up a bluff gone wrong at showdown or an embarrassing pre-flop shove, you shouldn’t be shamed into feeling like an idiot at the table. There’s no value in feeling embarrassed, in fact it may hinder your growth.

Hot and heavy poker action from the 2014 PCA as at the start of episode 7 as only 20 runners remain. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of big names left in this small field: Max Silver, Isaac Baron and Mike “Timex” McDonald lead the way in the charge to the final table.

In one of the biggest, most shocking prop bets the poker world had even seen, 6-time WSOP bracelet winner Ted Forrest was victorious in a $2,000,000 weight loss prop bet which saw him go from 181lbs to under 140, back in 2010.

Forrest made the bet with Mike “The Mouth” Matusow who at the time, having lost, declared that he would be paying Forrest off in $5K increments for the next 18 years.

It’s 4 years later and if that plan held true Matusow should be about $240K into his payment plan but according to Forrest, Mike is only $70.5K into payment and it seems that Ted is tired of waiting.

Todd Brunson recently hosted his Montana Poker Challenge at the Marina Cay Lodge in, you guessed it, Montana.

Not only did Robert of the House Mizrachi attend but Todd’s dear ol’ dad, the Godfather of Poker himself, Doyle did too. From the looks of it, Doyle took first in the Shootout event.

As episodes of Poker Night In America hit double digits (this is number 10) we find the gang in a new location, Maryland Live! Casino and with a new cast of characters including World Series of Poker Champion Greg Merson, RunItUp host Jason Somerville, Gavin Smith, David “ODB” Baker and Ultimate Poker pro Danielle Andersen.

The made-for-tv cash game format works best when there’s tough spots or big hands. In this episode, which showcases the hands of Danielle, the cameras were lucky to capture both big money pots and crazy flops.

So if you have yet to check out PNIA, this isn’t a bad episode to jump in on as the production seems to hit a nice stride and the hands are worth watching.

Looking for more PNIA? Check out episode 9 right here.

It’s another episode of Grandpa Mike’s fireside chats with the rest of the partypoker pros. In this episode, poker ambassador Mike Sexton remembers a visit to one of Bob Stupak's joints in the old days when legendary degen Stu Ungar was looking to get a little action at the blackjack tables.

Las Vegas’ limit poker bot got a little upgrade in the form of 13-time WSOP Bracelet Winner Phil Hellmuth.

F5Poker favorite Jimmy Fricke took a pic of the new look limit bot in the Venetian Casino from International Gaming Techology (IGT) that was announced a year ago at G2E. In addition to a 2% rake, you get the pleasure of having Hellmuth speak to you in Madden-like quotes as you battle it heads-up for limit poker supremacy.

If you don’t like Hellmuth, there’s always the Johnny Chan one located right next to it.

We’re not sure how long this machine has been out, it may have been sitting here for some time, but this is the first we’ve seen of it and we’re guessing that might mean it’s a first for a lot of you, too.

Jonathan Little is nothing is not a self-improver.

On-and-off the felt the multi-time poker author is seemingly a big fan of learning, teaching and getting better in just about every aspect of life. Here, from the Borgata Hotel and Casino during the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open, he talks with Bluff Magazine about the dynamics of coaching and being coached in poker.

Who makes a good coach? How should a player distill the info given to them? Hell, he even reminding people to keep it in the back of their mind that not everything a coach says is worth a damn.

The deck is definitely stacked against Ultimate Poker pro Dan O’ Brien in the latest episode of “Me vs. U”. He and fellow pro Danielle Andersen somehow end up at a “pole fitness” studio in Las Vegas ready to compete against each other on the merit of who can master the best stripper moves.

When it comes to getting better at poker, something that most top pros learn to do is disassociate themselves from the money being lost and won and focus on making the most correct play at the best possible time. What comes along with this is sometimes going to be a devaluing of money and even an emotional detachment to protect yourself from the vast emotional swings.

Andrew Seidman, aka BalugaWhale, took to his blog to talk about just this concept where he poses the question – does becoming a better poker player take away from our emotional connections with our family and friends?

Former Ultimate Poker Director of Player Operations Terence Chan is at a loose end. He has been a professional poker player, and tried his hand at professional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), but after his job at Ultimate Gaming came to an end, he hasn’t yet found his next life-direction.

In the meanwhile, and to get some ideas from others who have trodden the same path before, Chan has started a series of podcasts on “Life After Poker.”

The first came out at the end of August, and interviewed Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko. Matt made a mountain of money playing Limit Hold’em online and picked up a WSOP bracelet before turning his life in a completely new direction.

Matt is now studying for a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology at Harvard. Chan tackles him on issues in psychology including how to optimize life decisions.

As he tries to find a way to optimize his own life decisions, Chan has taken the first step—being persistent, and completed his second podcast of the series. He teases with a tweet, but it should be uploaded to his podcast site soon.

People are strange.

The good people over at poker forums Cardchat, the un-Two Plus Two, recently asked some of their members a series of seemingly random questions like, if they play strip poker and which historical figures they’d like to have at their home game. The result of 400 responses led to this incredibly random infographic which gives a snapshot of their ever-growing online community.

Check it out after the jump.

It looks like partypoker Premiere League Champion Sorel Mizzi has “bombed the river” one too many times.

His latest trip to the airport found him getting “swabbed” while passing through security and according to Mizzi’s Twitter account, the results were explosive.

Two separate incidents bear similar results as a pair of private poker games get raided by authorities and their organizers end up in cuffs.

Here’s another jaw dropping, stomach turning, nightmare inducing entry into the Bad Beat Diaries. At the Bay 101 monthly $550 (the 2nd Saturday of every month) the best of the local grinders mix it up for what usually turns out to be a $30K first place prize.

How’d this hand go down? We got the story from our hero, Neil...check it out:

Luckily for Neil, this happened in the first three levels which means…rebuy!

Thank you for sharing your pain, Neil. (And to loyal reader Scott Y for sending this in) Got a great bad beat that everyone needs to see? Hit us up.

Poker Fraud Alert’s Todd Witteles is not bothered by naming names and almost embraces the occassional poker drama. So when he got into a little kerfuffle with a pretty big name pro poker player while in action at Los Angeles’ Commerce Casino he decided to play a little “guess who?” with his followers and shine a spotlight on events as he saw them.

High stakes online poker pro Justin Bonomo was just one of many poker pros who took a week off from the grind to travel out into the middle of the Nevada desert to enjoy some self-exploration and possible some anonymous sex at Burning Man.

For Bonomo though Burning Man meant much more than that, it was a game changer – it’s an eye opening life experience that he tries his best to share in one of his latest blog post.

Read: Justin Bonomo’s Burning Man

The Main Event of the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open is underway and Bluff Magazine's Thomas Keeling is on location, talking to the pros.

Here he catches up with East Coast grinder/Monster Headphones spokesperson Will Failla about the impending death of Atlantic City and the rise of poker in the Empire State.

Sweden’s government has been desperately trying to prevent offshore online gambling operators from competing with monopoly gaming provider Svenska Spel.

This makes it more than a little embarrassing for Jimmie Åkesson.

The 35 year old leader of the Sweden Democrats, was not only caught gambling and losing large sums of money—he was doing it at sites licensed in Malta, and not in Sweden.