It’s getting close to crunch time so if you plan on playing the FanDuel $3 Million Sunday Million you better get your entry now or risk being locked out!

Lucky for you, we have some clutch recommendations on wide receivers so that you can hopefully fill out the winning lineup and pocket a cool $500,000. But hey, even if you don’t win the top prize they are still giving out $3 MILLION to more than 26,400 entrants so don’t let this fun opportunity pass you by.

We already told you who we like at the QB position and who we like at the RB position. Today, we round out our recommendations with people we think will be the top pass catchers and excellent value picks this weekend.

Antonio Brown

Pittsburgh is coming off a two-game stretch where they have scored 12 touchdowns through the air. We don’t expect any that the change this week as they face the New York Jets, a team that many fantasy football players target with the passing game week in and week out.

Odell Beckham Jr.

in what could be considered a breakout week last week, Beckham torched the Indianapolis secondary 456 yards on eight receptions. Can we expect the same type of performance in Seattle? Possibly. The Seahawks have been generous with fantasy points to wide receivers and with a veteran QB like Eli Manning behind center any game can be a big game for this talented rookie.

Torrey Smith

Outside his no-show in Cincinnati two weeks ago, Smith has been hot in the red zone scoring four touchdowns in his last three non-Cincinnati games. At a price point of $5900 Smith makes a great value play with tremendous upside at home against the Tennessee defense.

Brandin Cooks

The Saints have some injuries on offense at both wide receiver and running back positions. This should translate into a big game for Cooks. Sure TE Jimmy Graham will get lots of looks, but on the New Orleans offense there’s more than enough balls in the air to satisfy to pass catchers, and we saw what Peyton Manning did to the 49ers a few weeks ago.

Cecil Shorts

Dallas is in the best at defending the pass in defending slot receivers is probably the most vulnerable spot in the defense of secondary and that just happens to be where shorts will be playing this weekend. Shorts will only count $5900 against your salary-cap and provides the opportunity to score big points and multiple touchdowns.

There you have it. With your F5 run good and our recommendations you should do quite well in the $3 Million Sunday Million at FanDuel.

What that you say? You haven’t gotten your F5 run good? No problem, we’ve got you covered. Just click on this link right here and sign up for an account through us to help support the poker content you know and love and have the fantasy football gods shower their luck down upon you (well at least we think that’s how it works).

Hopefully everyone faded the disaster that was the Cincinnati Bengals offense in the Thursday Night Football game and can now focus on crafting your lineup for the $3 Million NFL Sunday Millions on FanDuel. First prize is $500,000 and a massive 26,405 lineups submitted will make at least double the $25 entry fee.

Before you save that lineup, let’s look at some ideas on how to fill out that roster.

On Wednesday we brought you the quarterbacks that we recommend for this week’s action, and today we will focus on running backs.

Here’s a quick list of some of the ball carriers that we think will have a big weekend:

Matt Forte

Along with being the most highly used running back in the league, Forte has a great matchup this week against the Green Bay Packers. The Packers give up tons of points to running backs, and even if the Bears get behind early, which we suspect they might, Forte leads the team in receptions.

DeMarco Murray

With Tony Romo dinged up we expect Murray to be the workhorse, yet again, this Sunday in the UK when the Dallas Cowboys face-off against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. In addition, Jacksonville ranks near the bottom of the league in fantasy points given up to running backs this year so expect Murray to have a big day.

Ronnie Hillman

The Broncos are bringing their high-powered offense into Oakland this weekend. We doubt The Black Hole can stop Peyton Manning and company, so expect Hillman to be featured heavily in the second half as the Broncos look to run out the clock and secure the blowout victory.

LeSean McCoy

With Nick Foles out with a broken collarbone and Mark Sanchez coming in off the bench, the stars seem aligned for McCoy to finally have a breakout game this season. After all, the best way to protect your quarterback from making bad decisions is by handing it off, and when you’re facing the team with a run defense bad as the Carolina Panthers, there’s even more reason to lean on your stud running back.

Tomorrow we will look at the wide receivers that we think will lead a team to fantasy football victory this weekend. But don’t dilly dally, ok? There is $3 Million being awarded in a single contest this week and on FanDuel, so you won’t want to miss our picks.

It looks like Liv Boeree is looking for better results.

Just another night at the Boeree household where a certain someone is taking a bath, reading a best selling self-help book about achieving a more productive life while someone is snapping photos of them doing that and putting them online.

Sure, we know you’re probably focused on the fact that Boeree is taking (or having someone take) selfies of her in the tub but if you sickos bothered to check out what book she’s reading you’d notice that it’s a NYT Best Seller called “The ONE Thing.”

It’s a book about improving your results in life and your profession and about blocking out all the things and people that bring you down.

Perhaps this book is why Liv Boeree has had such a successful year amassing over $212K in tournament earnings this year. Perhaps if you stopped staring at Liv in tub and started working on your game you could do that too.

So, get on that you animals.

The Borgata Fall Poker Open boasts $1,000,000 in guaranteed prize money and the crew over at BorgataPoker.com want you, so badly, to get a piece of it – they’re giving new signups free shots at it.

So listen up, New Jersey! Here’s the play – go to BorgataPoker.com by clicking on this very line and make a small deposit so you can try out the games over on BorgataPoker.

No need to go overboard, you can deposit as little as $30. Use the deposit bonus code: BFPO14 and when you do the Borgata will give you a free $30 entry into the Fall Poker Open online qualifier on November 12th.

That’s it. The rest is up to you and the poker gods. But you know that already.

So, log in, sign up, type the code and take your shot. At the end of the rainbow there’s a $2700 seat into the Main Event of the Borgata Fall Poker Open with somebody’s name on it – maybe you?

The best part is – you love poker anyway! So play a little, get lucky, give some other fist pumping guy from New Jersey the sickest beat you’ve ever laid on someone and perhaps you can take your talents to Borgata to shuffle some chips in person. Get out of the house for once.

Let’s do this. Sign up here, use the bonus code BFPO14 and, oh yea, get 100% first deposit matching up to $600. The minimum deposit is $30 for the ticket but you’ll receive 100% matching on a max of $600 for those of you that like to dive right in.

The Borgata Fall Poker Open Main Event is set to kick off on November 16th so don’t go into the tank on this one because the offer for the freeroll ends on November 11th!

Must be nice to be Mike “Timex” McDonald.

One of our favorite Canadian professional poker players continues to run sick good when it comes to life. He’s got a yellow Lambo, a piercing stare and millions upon millions in poker tournament earnings. Now he’s even got random people sending him thousands of dollars in cash…and he has no idea what for.

Of course, Timex isn’t some guy who just takes unsolicited money without questioning where it came from. So, he politely writes back to find out what what this money is for.

Is it from a forgotten prop bet? A staking deal? A percentage swap?

He gets a reply in the form of this photo:

It doesn’t stop there.

Another day, another gift. Timex then reported that he received another lump sum and by all indications he has as of yet to know (or reveal) what he did or why he deserves the cash.

So what is Mike going to do with his new pocket change?

Again, must be nice.

UPDATE – Mystery Solved!

Don’t worry gang, it’s almost over.

After months of waiting for the WSOP on ESPN to play out, this coming week we’re finally going to find out who will be the 2014 Main Event Champion.

With this being the week to wrap up the 2014 poker season, there’s no shortage of people telling you what you can and should expect to see this week. We decided to pick 9 links that will make you an instant expert in all thing November 9…so consume these quickly and then settle in as a new poker ambassador is thrust upon us.

Back in July, right after the final table was set, Andrew Feldman over at ESPN wrote up mini bios of each of the participants in descending order by chip counts.

Meet The November Nine

Now that you know who these nine guys are, PokerNews decided to take a statistical look at how they play the game.

Statistical Insight Into the 2014 World Series of Poker November Nine

Great, but what’s the atmosphere going to be like in Las Vegas during the final table? PocketFives has got you covered.

What to Expect at this Year’s WSOP November Nine

If the poker and the drama isn’t reason enough to tune in, then maybe you need a little side action to motivate you to pay attention. All In Magazine knows where you should put your money if you are looking to wager on the outcome.

Money On The Main

Now that you’re all geeked up to watch, you’re going to want to check out when to tune in.

Schedule, TV coverage for World Series of Poker November Nine in Las Vegas

Just in case you haven’t been able to watch all of the episodes of the WSOP on ESPN, if one were to look in the right places, we don’t think you’d have a hard time finding them online.

What’s the best way for these guys to reach the finish line? More PokerNews love as they ask former champs to dish out some unsolicited advice to the wannabe millionaires.

Hellmuth, Negreanu, Hachem and Others Give Advice for This Year’s November Nine

Want to know who the experts think will walk away with the crown? A couple poker know-it-all’s chime in with who they think can climb the mountain and why they think they’ll do it. Watch GPI's Eric Danis and bracelet-winning tournament reporter Chad Holloway pick a winner.

For the final link of the November Nine of course will be something to remember them by and nothing will help you remember this momentous occasion quite like internet trading cards.

We already can’t wait for WSOP 2015!

About a week ago we brought to you a much ignored post about how Alex Dreyfus and our pals over at the Global Poker Index were looking to “sportfy” poker. Well, if you know anything about sports, you know that to organize them – you need a league.

Here comes the “GPL”. The Global Poker League.

What is it? Well, we’re not exactly sure just yet. We do know it’s the name of the latest product/idea from the GPI to mainstream the game of poker and what it hopes to do is create a watchable, followable structure for poker complete with team stats and a league schedule.

Dreyfus expanded on his idea in his GPI blog:

The initial vision is to have a series of live events akin to a sports season co-hosted by international poker events, with between six to eight different franchises (poker teams) competing against one another with initial seasons lasting a short three to four months.

You get the idea. Johnny Bax will be poker’s version of Jerry Jones. PokerNews will webcas Vanessa Selbst’s “The Decision”. Team uniforms with names like 'MONSTER DONG’ printed on the back. Daniel Negreanu will be sideline interviewed by Kara Scott about how he’s just taking the game “one hand at a time.” (ok, this already happens.)

GPL teams will consist of “draftable” players from GPI’s Rankings and wildcard entries. I’ve already presented this concept, and terms for participation, to a number of prospective future team owners. It’s been an extremely positive experience – reception has been warm across the board and we’ve already had a number of commitments from intrigued future ‘franchise’ owners. Commitments from leading figures from both in front of and behind the felt are rolling in too.

Maybe we can ever see the return of the controversial “ethics committee”! That epic idea went over well the last time someone tried it.

So, are you ready for some poker? Tweet at us, let us know if you’d be excited to see a new poker league. Also, what team names would you propose?

Read: The Global Poker League, next piece in the puzzle to Sportify Poker

Great power, great responsibility, etc.

Six Tennessee police officers face up to 40 years in connection to a million dollar illegal high stakes poker game after getting pinched, in a five year investigation, by the FBI.

The police officers were allegedly used as money movers for the game, using their position and at times their uniforms and vehicles to transport and protect a total of approximately one million dollars for the game. According to WBIR former Knox County deputy Robbie D. Flood plead guilty to accepting money, about $550, for the services while the other five officers have been indicted.

Video after the jump.

The other five officers supposedly received roughly $500 and for that face two counts of extortion each, which could land them all behind bars for a long, long time.

Court documents show an undercover FBI agent contacted the six men apparently involved in 2009, asking if they could move money for an illegal $1 million poker game in Knoxville. Flood, who pleaded guilty Wednesday, also admitted he agreed to wear his uniform and use his patrol car to make sure the gambling money was transported safely.

Watch more:

So if you haven’t caught the daily fantasy sports bug forgo the vaccinations and check out the rush you will get with $3 Million up for grabs in a single tournament that only costs $25 to enter. That’s right for the cost of a SNG you can have a shot at the $500,000 first place prize. And, all you have to do is finish in the top 26,405 and you will at very least double your money.

But you have to have some skill and pick the right players, and of course you need a little luck. You can use our expertise to help craft the winning lineup, and rumor has it that if you sign up through F5poker, the fantasy football gods will shower you with run good.

Today we’re going to look at the quarterback position and give you our recommendations for who we think will have a big week.

This week it’s hard to go against Aaron Rodgers. We know he’s the second highest salaried player on FanDuel this week, but he’s at home against the Bears, and the both teams are coming off a bye week. Look for Rogers to impose his will on his lowly division rivals.

Another high priced quarterback that we expect to do well this week is Peyton Manning. Yes, he’s the most expensive player on the board, and, yes, he is on the road, but the Raiders offer little in the form of defense. Expect Manning to have a big day.

Just because he’s had 12 touchdowns in the last two games, is there any reason to believe that Ben Roethlisberger can do it again? Yep there most certainly is, and that reason is that he is facing the New York Jets who consistently give up big fantasy football numbers to opposing quarterbacks. This week will be no different.

If you’re looking for a value pick at the quarterback position, take a look at Mark Sanchez. Yes, that Mark Sanchez. He is taking over the high-powered Philadelphia offense for the injured Nick Foles, and he is facing a Carolina team that has given up tons of points this year.

If you like somebody that we haven’t mentioned, Tweet at us or shoot us an email to let us know and perhaps we will post it as an update later on in the week.

Also, if you want to know who to start at running back, wide receiver and tight end, check back tomorrow and Friday for our recommendations at those positions.

The Poker Night In America crew is still holed up in Reno to bring you $25/50 cash game action from the Peppermill.

This week, in addition to the standard bad beats and jibber jabber, the PNIA personalities head out to get a couple frames of bowling in at the National Bowling Station where Todd Brunson and Scotty Nguyen get a little side action in as The Prince sees if he can pick up a spare, baby.

Looking for more PNIA? Check out episode 16 right here.

It’s time, yet again, for another poker themed movie to horrify movie goers.

This time, it looks as if the movie is not so much about poker, but about the valuable life-saving lessons that can be learned while playing poker with a crew of buddies.

A nice find by Lance Bradley over at Bluff Magazine, the new flick “Poker Night” starring Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) has filmmakers hoping to lure you into a dark thriller with a poker themed twist.

Check out the plot summary from over on IMDB:

When you become a detective in Warsaw Indiana – you go to Poker Night, where you play against some of the best cops in the business. They tell you stories about their time on the job – their successes and failures. When new Detective Stan Jeter leaves the game, he is caught by a vicious psychopath and locked in a basement. Using the stories he heard at Poker Night, he must match wits against his captor – and save not only himself, but the young girl trapped in the basement with him. Like Seven and Usual Suspect, Poker Night combines thrills and twists and turns that will leave you guessing till the very end.

Spoiler Alert: The twist is obviously that one of the cops (or all of them) in the game is the villain. Right? C’mon man.

Bonus Bluff: Looking for more long-form content in your life? Check out this nice – completely unrelated – piece on Brandon Shack-Harris having nightmares over some of his POY decisions.

Ultimate Poker's top ambassador Antonio Esfandiari issues a decree: if you want to be the best at poker, you gotta play short handed.

Don’t like short handed play? Tough. But have no fear – Antonio provides a couple tips and some inspiration to get you playing what he calls “the purest form of poker.”

PokerNews’ Chad Holloway put his iPhone contact list into good use this week to track down a hodgepodge of professional poker players to get their gut reaction to the vast array of changes, including the recent rake hike, over at PokerStars.

The result is what looks to be a candid view, from the player’s perspective, of a sea change in the perception of the PokerStars brand.

Holloway got comments from big-timers like Phil Galfond, Shannon Shorr, Jonathan Little, Ola Amundsgard, Andrew Seidman and more and, not surprisingly, many of these one-time grinders expressed some serious disappointment.

It’s a great job by Holloway and while we have some excepts from the article after the jump, should it interest you, you should check the whole thing out.

Read: Galfond, Amundsgard, Fitzgerald, Shorr, and Others Comment On PokerStars Rake Increase

Article highlights:

From Phil “Gandolf” Galfond

It’s important to understand that PokerStars is a business, and that they can charge whatever they please for their service. I don’t like the changes thus far and more than that, I fear for what’s yet to come if this is an indication of Amaya’s business strategy. They have a monopoly and if they want to press it, they don’t have any obvious incentive not to at the moment. The lack of a legitimate competitor is the major issue here.

From Ola aka “Odd_Oddsen”

I feel like there have been a lot of drastic changes at the cost of the players in a very short period of time, so I am a bit worried that Amaya is going to kill online poker. They for sure have the power to do it. I really hope PokerStars will get competition in the near future, and I for sure wouldn’t mind seeing a poker client/company for the players, by the players.

From Alex “Assassinato” Fitzgerald

I do think this diminishes the PokerStars brand. When I heard they weren’t willing to give Main Event winners something as simple as 100-percent rakeback, I knew we were going to see more of these shortsighted decisions.

From Andrew “BalugaWhale” Seidman

Essentially everything Amaya has done since purchasing PokerStars has diminished their brand — robbing their players via foreign exchange fees especially — but this is a pretty big statement that says, 'We’re no longer the world’s best player-first site. We’re now like many other sites — shortsighted, money hungry, and not overly concerned with customer service.

From Jonathan Little

This is terrible for the players, especially those who play on a regular basis. While this initial rake increase is fairly small, I can foresee other sites increasing their rake as well. Also, in the future, PokerStars may decide to further increase their rake, making the games unprofitable for even the best players.

“I do not think the rake increase diminishes the PokerStars brand. In most industries, you have to pay a premium for the best product, and PokerStars currently has the best product by far.

Rough stuff.

Much like a re-entry tournament, it looks as if Phil Ivey is firing another bullet at his £7.8m lawsuit against Crockfords.

According to Matthew Dowd of Archerfield Partners LLP, aka Phil Ivey's lawyer, Ivey has filed the papers to formally appeal the decision of Justice Mitting in last months hearing citing that Ivey simply believes that there was no cheating going on in th edge sorting case.

“I can confirm that Phil Ivey filed papers at the Court of Appeal last week. Phil is seeking to appeal the decision on the basis that the Judge was incorrect in both fact and law to conclude that “edge sorting” was cheating, particularly in circumstances where the Judge made it very clear in his judgment that he considered Phil to be a truthful witness and that he accepted that Phil genuinely believes that his actions during the game at Crockfords did not constitute cheating.”

High on Ivey? Read more: Phil Ivey OK’d For Las Vegas Medical Marijuana Dispensary License

PokerStars and director Ryan Firpo are at it again. The filmmaker and his corporate client continue to make interesting mini-docs on the chosen few that occupy a space on PokerStars’ Team Online.

In this video we travel to Greece where Katerina “Katerina289” Malasidou talks about her journey as a one-time French teacher to living in Lisbon and practicing her Grecian formula on the felt. For this online grinder though the hardest part about playing poker for a living isn’t the dedication to the game, it’s not learning the math or even studying her opponents.

It’s the swings.

When she takes a loss, she takes it hard and that’s when it’s TIME. TO. DANCE! When losses devastate Malasidou she takes it out in the dance studio, breaking out some modern moves to a light electronic beat.

So, get to know Katerina (and her fiancee Andre) here in the latest movie from PokerStars.

If you are a WSOP on ESPN junkie (like we are) then you might remember the name Mars Callahan.

Mars is the writer/actor/director of the movie “Poolhall Junkies” and, at the time of his stint on the WSOP broadcast, he was working on the film 'Poker Junkies’ (which he supposedly raised $8M to make).

Well, it seems this poker playing Hollywood actor, who has appeared on ER, The Wonder Years and Cagney & Lacey to name a few, may be in over his head as it came to light that he is being sued — big time.

According to the website Court House News Service, Callahan’s former company, Gawk Inc., is taking him to court for a myriad of things not the least of which is threatening to “put a bullet in the head of the current CEO of Gawk.”

After they were fired, Callahan and Hermansen “fabricated a $3 million contract and inserted a $1 million default provision, and threatened to put a bullet in the head of the current CEO of Gawk and also threatened the teenage son of one of Gawk’s consultants, for the purpose of extorting a favorable severance package,” the lawsuit states.

In addition to that it seems as if Mars and his business partner John Hermansen are also being sued for other stuff like security fraud and racketeering. Gawk Inc. which produces online content, says that Callahan raised the $8M for the feature “Poker Junkies” and an additional $3.3M for two shows, one of which was to be about poker players, but did not end up producing either.

Instead, Mars supposedly got some work done on his house with the cash.

While all of this (and more) is one side of the story, Gawk feels their case is strong enough to take to court and is looking to put a pretty bad beat on the entertainment entrepreneur going after quite a bit of restitution.

Gawk seeks punitive damages for fraud, RICO fraud, conspiracy, securities violations, breach of contract, breach of faith, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty.

Remember Mars? Check this out: 'Poolhall Junkies’ Director Accused of Threatening to Kill Businessman

Bonus: Mars Callahan stops by fellow poker enthusiast Kevin Pollack's web chat show just last month.

Now that everyone has had experience playing both live and online – are there really any reliable live tells anymore? Back in the day (like just a few years ago), people used to categorize players as a “live” or an “online” player and one advantage given to the old pros was the supposed advantage of being able to read another player based on how they acted.

Nowaday, everyone is familiar with tells and those who have gathered enough experience at the felt are usually adept at being natural or even-keeled no matter what they have but if you ask Dara O’Kearney over at PokerPlayer, there’s still some advantage to be gleaned when observing your opponents patterns – especially those that may not necessarily have as much experience as they let on.

My view is that while the importance of live tells was undoubtedly overstated in the past, disregarding them entirely is giving up an additional edge. Experienced live players tend to give little or nothing away, but inexperienced players are often complete tell boxes.

Whether you are the consummate pro or coming up and looking for an edge, take a few moments to check out this article about the tried and true tells that still have a place in poker.

Read: Telling The Story

Ever since the recent selling of online behemoth PokerStars to the Amaya Gaming Group, there’s been more than a few changes at the premiere online poker site that have gotten some players in the community talking.

Not all of that talk has been nice.

Perhaps understandably, there have been more than a few vocal players being extremely unhappy about the announcement of an increase in rake on the site.

Now, the face of PokerStars, future Poker Hall of Famer and a guy viewed as an advocate of the players, Daniel Negreanu took to his blog over at Full Contact Poker to let you know where he stands on many of the recent changes and offerings that have come to pass at PokerStars in in recent months and weeks.

It seems as though, for him, these charges are all a part of a bigger plan to grow the game.

It’s imperative that we attract new players and I do believe the company’s strategy will do that. If that strategy works, that could mean more profit for online grinders in the long run. Of course, that remains to be seen over the next couple years, but I’m confident in the company’s vision and I am fully aligned with the direction they are going.

Daniel address the rake increase, the new Spin & Go tournaments and PokerStars continued pursuit of marketplace regulation. He also, smartly, directs you to read a little piece pokerfuse editor Nick Jones published over on our big bro’s site should you want to see our analysis of the situation.

For the whole enchilada, read: My Two Cents On The Pokerstars Changes

It’s Monday morning…time to get to work!

Or…you can pull up a fake spreadsheet, kick back and watch the latest episode of PokerStars Shark Cage. Episode 2 features a new quintet of popular players to take on the lone online qualifier as Jennifer Tilly, Faraz Jaka, Theo Jorgensen, Philipp Gruissem and Scotty Nguyen navigate shot clocks and cage infested waters to try to advance to the next round.

So, don’t be a cog in weekday rat race – tell your boss “I’m busy!” and start your week off right.

Miss that first episode? We got you: Shot Clocks And Super Wizards – Shark Cage Episode One