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.

When it comes to tournament poker, Sexton seems interested in leveling the playing field. That means making it so it doesn’t matter how big your bankroll is outside of any given tournament, if you buy-in he’d like everyone to have a fair shake with a single bullet. But, on the other hand, understanding that people travel from near and far for some events, it would really give players pause to get on a plane to play poker if they thought they could bust on hand number one without any recourse to have a second chance at it. So for that reason, Sexton totally gets why a single re-entry is acceptable.

It’s a battle of what is best for the player. With unlimited re-entries, as Sexton explains, people with little concern for money can simply exploit those with cash limitations as they push and push with marginal hands looking to simply double-up or buy back in. On the other hand, poker tours and larger poker series are counting on the poker community to make travel arrangements to participate in their large guarantee Main Events.

For Sexton, the single re-entry seems to be the happy medium. Another option would be to take a page from PokerStars big Sunday online tournaments and offer a 2nd Chance tournament.

Sure, everything is easier online, but inevitably when there is a large tournament going on, as it whittles down to the final table there’s not just space but plenty of hungry players looking to get back in action. Another, non-Main Event tournament with a significant buy-in would give those that suffer an early exit another crack could likely do pretty good business.

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.

But Svenska Spel is the only poker room licensed in Sweden—and Swedish players are not supposed to play anywhere else—those naughty Swedes!

Recreational players get cheap online poker at Svenska Spel. The cash game rake is just 3.5%, but there are hardly any VIP benefits to speak of, although restaurant discounts are available.

The top Swedish online grinders continue to have unlimited access to offshore poker rooms, and they’ve made the most of it.

The US diaspora—poker players forced into exile after Black Friday—is flourishing in Canada, and Mexico which is ranked number six.

If only the Feds could copy the Swedish regulatory system, America’s finest exponents of the national game could return to the land of the free.

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.

The relationship was a poorly hidden affair as Merson spent the better part of the summer posting pics of his WSOP.com online exploits and took the World Poker Tour to task (where you can read that we first hinted at a deal) all the while WSOP.com were all like “baby, not yet, let’s just keep this between you and me. Soon though, baby, I promise…”

Finally now WSOP.com is out and proud about it’s dealing with Merson. WSOP.com Head of Online Poker Bill Rini had some super nice words to say about the former champ.

“Greg is a terrific ambassador for the game of poker,” said Rini. “He loves the game, is passionate and opinionated about its future, and he will help us spread the word about our offerings and ensure the poker playing community has a respected, experienced voice to help shape WSOP.com moving forward.”

As for Merson, he’s a dedicated online grinder so he’s unlikely to be an ambassador in name only. If you want to take a shot at the champ, he shouldn’t be hard to find…well except for an hour here or there in the middle of the day.

Classic Merson:Greg Merson Registers For 2014 One Drop In Style

Also related: J.C. Tran Parts Ways With 888Poker

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.

The new role in this of Marcus, who has proclaimed himself somewhere (perhaps in the court documents) as the world’s “best professional poker cheat,” has to be evaluated as well; he’s a veteran huckster at the periphery of the gambling world, and his claims of being an expert in certain areas relevant to this case are, in this writer’s opinion, suspect.

It’s an interesting take and one that, if this story is on your radar, is a complimentary piece to the puzzle. Who really knows what’s true? A wealthy, yet embattled financial figure – implicated in an insider trading sting – looks to sue a casino in which he lost millions playing high stakes. As Vanessa Selbst hinted at, it seems like – without all the facts – it could be another story of amateur player and sour grapes.

Still interested? If so, then you gotta check out this expansion of the story + OpEd from FlushDraw: ‘Expert’ Cites Roland de Wolfe, Gould in UK Casino Cheating Allegations

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.

Kessler took exception to the alleged omission of Sarah Tolagson from the winners list after busting out in 94th place. However, @WPTLive explained that because Kessler had seen the 93rd place entry and the 95th place entry on the list, that he must have loaded the webpage while tournament officials were in the process of updating the list.

Much ado about nothing, perhaps, but Allen Kessler has always favorited the ladies…

Read: Allen Kessler: Playa Of The Year

Let it be known that we at F5Poker really like Alan, but we sure would hate it if he were on the board of our condominium association.

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.

I always wonder why some people muck their cards when they are caught bluffing. First of all, you never know when you might have the best hand or your opponent might have misread their hand. The equity from those two situations is certainly high enough for you to justify showing a losing hand most of the time. Second of all, if you muck your cards, everyone knows you’re bluffing anyways, what’s the difference if they get to see the two cards you had on that specific hand. If you’re playing well, you shouldn’t really care if they know in this particular instance.

The honesty of how you play your hand will help you self-examine and improve and in the instance of presenting information to backers…misrepresenting bustout hands is straight up lying.

Another solid read from Team Big Slick’s Gavin Griffin: Looking Like An Idiot

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.

It’s everything you love about televised tournaments – James, Joe, hole cards and highlights. So get a fake spreadsheet ready to click over to and spend 48:33 pretending to work while watching the latest PokerStars production.

Miss Episode 6? We got you.

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.

In fact, not only is Forrest tired of waiting, over the past few days he’s been straight calling Mikey out in a series of heated tweets (on his unverified Twitter account), looking for…nay, demanding!…some form of payment.

Forrest didn’t stop there. He began retweeting past comments from Mike about all the scores he’d had and places The Mouth was going…all while not settling up with Ted. Plenty of good drama, including Forrest threatening to sue Mikey for the unpaid money.

It took a couple of days, but eventually Matusow caught wind of the online egging on and offered his side of the story, as well as what looks like, him putting an end to payments.

NOTE: It looks like Mike Matusow has since deleted the tweets mentioned in this post.

Mike’s lifestyle included healthy Full Tilt Poker paychecks at the time. Matusow goes on to state that he felt like if he lost, he could pay Ted out of his paychecks and it would be no big deal…

Mike also mentioned that there were stipulations that Ted complete the weight loss without any assistance like drugs, which he never ended up taking a drug test for. In subsequent tweets Matusow reveals that Justin Smith, who had 10% of the bet, paid Ted and that Mike himself has paid roughly $93K (and that he would pay 10%) but due to Full Tilt “destroying his life” – this was a fair amount for Ted to receive.

And then…the end? Matusow indicates that he’s done with this matter, about $1.7M shy of completion.

Before he signed off though he did offer Ted one way to get his money…

By the way, both of these men are 2014 finalist for the Poker Hall of Fame.

There’s sure to be more on this, if it’s any good, we’ll post it up.

Bonus: For your consideration…

Want more weight loss bet?

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.

The event, which looks like a bit of a low key affair, got a little extra attention this year when Todd had the production crew from Poker Night In America, a show he’s previously appeared on, come up, brave the near freezing temperature and film the 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.

Banned from just about all the casinos when it came to playing 21, Ungar tried to talk Bob into letting him play a little at his place. Instead, Bob Stupak had a different offer…a 10K bet that tested the legendary photographic memory of the World Series of Poker champion.

Pretty cool story, bro.

Make sure you catch Mike, Vince and the whole World Poker Tour team at the Borgata Poker Open this week from the Borgata Hotel and Casino.

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.

JLittle isn’t just about getting better on the felt though. Poker can be an isolating activity that includes hours and hours of sitting around and, let’s face it, getting fat. Not everyone can find the time to exercise like Jason Koon or Eugene Katchalov. So, Jonathan takes to his blog to talk about how you can really effect your health in diet. So if you are interested in shedding a few lbs. and picking up a few bbs, maybe Little is your man.

Read: How I Lost 40lbs And Got In The Best Shape Of My Life

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.

Dan, who we’ve already seen in multiple episodes has demonstrated a severe lack of body control and dexterity – after all, this is the same guy who dove headlong into a JetSki – has an uphill battle against Danielle who admits to having taken a pole class in the past.

To the winner glory, to the loser more pain on the Las Vegas strip.

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?

Becoming a winning poker player at any level (not just high stakes) requires a significant amount of emotional control. If you’ve ever seen a graph of a poker robot  or a Scandinavian person (I discuss these here), it displays very few downswings because said robot/scandinavian feels no emotions, doesn’t tilt, doesn’t consider the real-world implications of his poker-related decisions. So, in order to become good, we aspire to put our emotions down into a box and be the glorious little button-clicking chip-slinging machines that we need to be if we want to get paid.

Seidman discusses his journey from losing his shit over $50 as a student to being able to get over $100K swings in a matter of hours as he tackles the question of if in his journey to never tilt, he now never feels anything as strongly.

Can it be that in order to win the One Drop, one must be so detached that they have a difficult time even enjoying that win?

Good read: Zen and the Art of Not-Winning a Million Dollars

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.

No really,“explosives detected” appears as the results of the swabbing. While security probably wouldn’t be too thrilled at the notion hat Mizzi was able to grab this photo, they likely had little reason to detain him as the result could be from any number of things not having to do with handling explosives…including hand lotion.

Maybe though security was right on point and Mizzi’s mitts are indeed lethal weapons when handling chips. Who knows what he’ll do with them next?

More Miz: Sorel Mizzi Appreciates Timely Information From Dan Colman

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

First up – 42 year-old, Staten Island mortician Joseph Fumando got popped by authorities for hosting a game of Texas Hold’em in a building that used to house a printing press, un-ironically dubbed “The Press.”

According to the New York Daily News, the man known as “The Undertaker” (with zero ties to the WWE) was found guilty in a mere 20 minute in a Brooklyn Federal Court and faces 12 to 16 months…for poker.

Fumando is not alone in his poker procecution though. Oklahoma firefighter Aaron Boatright was also nabbed by the long arm of the law when his private poker game was busted by the cops.

In Boatright’s case, it’s actually hard to be sympathetic as authorities were tipped off about the game and actually went to the building where it was to be housed (using a building solely for gambling is a felony in OK) and warned him ahead of time that it was a big no-no.

Boatright apparently moved ahead with the game anyway and according to KTUL, police went back later to check and subsequently arrested Boatright and 8 other participants on the spot. They also seized poker paraphernalia and $4500.

Authorities told KTUL that, just to be clear, this is not the same as hosting a poker game in your house.

KTUL.com – Tulsa, Oklahoma – News, Weather

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.

Who could it be? Los Angeles live pro but he’s not known for his antics? Some of the guesses included Barry Greenstein, Men The Master and even Gavin Griffin. Are they close?

Check out that call out.

Not just naming names, but also dropping an @ mention to make sure that ODB sees the fury of Todd. Oh, you thought that ODB was going to take this accusation lying down?

Nope.

Now it’s out there. These guys just don’t like each other.

Who’s right in this case? Who knows? It seems like maybe these guys already didn’t care for each other and there’s going to be two sides of every story. But limit players beware: if you get in a game with Todd and he thinks your acting sideways towards him, you best bet he’s not going to be shy in naming names. The bigger the better.

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

What does this have to do with poker? Very little. Except for the fact that a growing number of poker pros, like Antonio Esfandiari, Liv Boeree, Sorel Mizzi, Jeff Gross and Jason Koon, are passing the experience around. It’s the Choice Center of desert festivals.

For those of you wondering just what the hell it is. Justin Bonomo is happy to explain.Check out just some of the things that happened to Justin:

I participated in an event on sensual eating, but left early in a lust-filled spontaneous trip to the Orgy Dome with my partner. I watched gladiatorial battles at the fire-filled Thunder Dome as spectators climbed to the top of the elaborate jungle gym, shouting and cheering for the warriors below. I visited an architecturally gorgeous temple dedicated to recently lost loved ones and then joined 50,000 others in a solemn dead silence as we watched for an hour as it burned to the ground. I ventured miles into the desert to the furthest lights I could see to find mobile dance stages and cream cheese hot dogs.

While there’s low poker content in this one, it’s a pretty fun read. He’s obviously so passionate about his experience one can’t help but be happy for him to find something he can really get in to off the felt. Even if there’s a preponderance if weiners to be seen.

Take a few and share the love.

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.

At first our Jimmy was dismissive of the issue. “I have no gambling debts. I have not committed any crime, I have not been using someone else’s money than my own. I have not been affected by this in my life in any way, I have not been influenced in my political role in any way. I think this is important to highlight.”

Social media and the opposition quickly savaged him, and his tune has now changed.

He now says that all the calls from the media have made him reassess his position, and he has admitted that he might have a gambling problem. Åkesson said “when you call and ask questions about this, it becomes clear like an alarm clock.”