Let’s be honest, our running back pics didn’t go so well last week.

Matt Forte fell flat on his face, as did Ronnie Hillman while DeMarco Murray had a good game and LeSean McCoy got in the end zone.

This week we’re focusing on middle tier running backs. You know who all the big names are, and they should do well. But here are some middle-of-the-road guys that will provide you value and points. Check it out:

Mark Ingram

Though is officially listed as questionable Ingram will likely play on Sunday barring a setback in practice during the week. This beast has posted hundred and 72 100 and 120 yards in his last three games, not to mention five receptions for 32 yards. Cincinnati is reeling, New Orleans should win big, Ingram will benefit and you will profit.

Alfred Morris

Morris scored three touchdowns in the last two weeks. He hasn’t topped 100 yards yet this year but look for in the break that streak this week against the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home. Plus he has a starting quarterback back, so the Bucs defense will be kept honest.

Ahmad Bradshaw

New England isn’t bad against the run, but Bradshaw’s multifaceted and catches the ball out of the backfield. He is one of Luck’s favorite targets in the red zone and in this high-scoring affair you can expect Bradshaw to get his share.

Shane Vereen

Same game, same concept, different team— though Vereen is more of a pass catcher and runner he gets the snaps because of his versatility and his ability to block, which gains him a lot of yards on screen passes. Look for high-scoring game and Vereen to be in the end zone.

Frank Gore

Also listed as questionable so watch his status as game time approaches. Gore will need plenty of oxygen this week because I’m sure he will be tired from running up and down the field all over the Giants defense or lack thereof. And he is cheap! Don’t miss out on this value pick.

Get these backs in your lineup so you can have a chance to win $1 million playing fantasy football at DraftKings. What, you don’t have an account there? No problem, we’ve got you covered just click right here to sign up and support your favorite poker news site.

Or, you can play flatter pay structure at FanDuel. First place is $300,000, but they hand out more money by paying more places. This week the Sunday million will be awarding $2.5 million in cash for its $25 entry fantasy football tournament.

So go sign up through F5 (it helps us, you know) and don’t miss out on the fun or the profit. And as always, let us know how you fare!

Check back tomorrow for our recommendations on wide receivers and tight ends.

Yesterday, after One Drop winner Daniel Colman took to the Two Plus Two Forums to verbally tear poker pro Phil Hellmuth a new one, we here at F5 speculated that Hellmuth both would never even see Colman’s comments and if so, Hellmuth would not give a care.

Well, we were wrong.

Phil not only saw the comments but was pretty open about how it made him feel on the live broadcast of the Poker Night In America cash game that was being broadcast at the time. He really seemed unnerved for…about an hour. Those watching heard Hellmuth talk about how he believes that “99%” of all poker players love him and he couldn’t ever recall a time when he called out another player on a public forum.

As Phil Hellmuth was processing the comments, so was Daniel Colman who came back into the thread and actually backed off his original “cancer” statements.

Maybe a bit too harsh, not exactly a cancer to society but it definitely doesn’t do us any good when people like him shamelessly self-promote and try and sell themselves to you. Listened to 5 minutes of that podcast and it got me upset listening to him prop himself up, and the interviewer was definitely feeding the ball to him. It brought back the bitter taste I had in my mouth when he came up on the stage after the one drop win and actually said “congratulations, welcome to the poker world kid.” Never met him apart from that but I am sure hes an overall nice guy, just really not a fan of how he conducts himself.

He returned not long after, once again, to try to soften the blow by putting his attack in some kind of context.

I understand I come off poorly attacking Phil in the way I did, let’s agree that I was harsh and over the top and didn’t do myself any favors. Im happy to have a dive taken in my almighty twoplustwo street cred as long as we can focus some parts of the discussion on PH’s overall behavior and his representing of UB.

The media has rewarded him for his antics where he is always belittling the other players and constant talking about how he is the greatest. I am sure this has had a positive effect on his bank account, but I am not willing to go cheer him on as a savvy businessman for it. If you are going to profit off being a classless whiny brat there should be some repercussions such as people calling a spade a spade and telling it like it is, with hopes of putting enough pressure on person to change their ways without isolating them further (which I may have done).

As for his time at UB, if I was him I don’t know how I could live with myself being the face of a company whose owners were superusing and stole millions from players, and then shutting down and not paying out its users. I would love to have him come on twoplustwo and answer questions about everything.

But the die had been cast and the conversation started bringing back to light the layer of contempt that some people still have for the fiasco that was Ultimate Bet (not Ultimate Poker) and Hellmuth’s role in the loss of, what some estimate, 100’s of millions of dollars.

Noted poker pro Dani “Ansky” Stern posted his thoughts where he believes that Hellmuth simply didn’t answer enough questions. The following is pulled from his post:

The main problem with Phil Hellmuth is that he either is, or was, close friends and associates with the main culprits of the UB cheating scandal and cover up. Afterwards, he continued to represent the site, which after Black Friday, stole the rest of our money that they hadn’t yet cheated us out of. To be clear, I don’t think Phil was complicit in the UB cheating scandal, and I think he may very well have known nothing about it. The point is that he has never sat down and answered hard questions with anyone about his knowledge of the events, or the characters involved. If my memory serves me, it wasn’t until the “smoking gun” tapes were leaked that he issued any public statement or apology addressing his association with the company.

Greg Merson, 2012 World Series of Poker Champion, also took time to weigh in. He though, wanted to shed a little light on the positive side of Hellmuth’s character. Here’s an excerpt:

I got to spend a bit of time with Phil off the table over the past year and have to disagree with some of the comments in this thread. I stayed a couple nights at his house and was able to meet his kids and see him in a much different light then the public eye. He is much more humble then he comes off in interviews or on camera.

Hellmuth did, in 2013, comment – way after the fact – about his big time “misread” on Ultimate Bet (posted by Kevmath, which you can check out here) but there’s still a vocal group that want more from him.

Brandon Shack-Harris, who burst onto the WSOP scene this year, also took time to comment, but he rather than commenting on the present situation, predicted the future of this poker cagematch.

I can save everybody a bunch of time and just post the future for you all. This thread dies off, and some day down the road Dan sees Phil and says 'Hey man, sorry about what I said on 2p2. I crossed a line.’ Phil 'Thanks, and sorry for taking away from your moment after you won the 1Drop, that really wasn’t my intention.’ Then they shake hands, and maybe someone makes some dinner gesture that never comes to fruition.

Get caught up and chime in on the original thread on Two Plus Two. You can also listen to the podcast appearance that started it all.

What do you think? Does Phil Hellmuth owe poker more information for his involvement in Ultimate Bet? Tweet at us, son!

Jorn Walthaus spent a year grinding out the notorious high stakes live games in Macau and in a pair of videos created for PokerNews reflects on his time, his routine and the how the game in Macau have gotten worse over time.

Wake up, sign up and grind all day. This was a daily routine for Walthaus who says that after spending a ton of time at the tables he woke up one day and asked himself “What the fuck am I doing?” and eventually departed.

Since that time, he’s had time to reflect on the $1k/$2k games he sat in and while, sure, to us mere mortals they have a certain fascination but to Walthaus, they just aren’t as crazy as everyone thinks.

Part 2 of his talk with PokerNews can be seen after the jump.

We have no idea what this is for and frankly, we don’t want to know.

Professional poker player Luca Pagano is somehow forced to play head-up against a comic that can best be described as the Italian version of 2006 Humberto Brenes.

If you figure out what is going on here, feel free to let us know. Or don’t.

(h/t The PokerStars Blog)

Daniel “mrgr33n13” Colman absolutely verbally eviscerated 13-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth in a post on Two Plus Two earlier today in response comments made about Hellmuth’s recent appearance on Brian Koppelman’s podcast “The Moment.”

In what looked like a standard thread where Phil’s online critics and supporters simply expressed their longstanding feelings on the polarizing poker player, 2014 One Drop winner and #3 on the All-Time Money List, Daniel Colman, posting under his screen name mrgr33n13, had something to get off his chest.

Its embarrassing that we have to share our profession with whores like this guy. After I win one drop, he immediately comes on stage to shake my hand in front of a camera and congratulate me. As if he’s the gatekeeper to the poker world and welcoming me inside.

It is truly pathetic that a 40 year old would behave the way he does at the table, not to mention how spineless he is, just willing to take any sponsorship regardless of the company’s integrity. Hey, anything for a payday! Really makes me sad to think there’s a chance some people may look up to this charlatan. People of his attitude and character are a cancer to this world.

Woah.

Those are some strong public words directed at The Poker Brat. “Embarrassing”, “pathetic”, “spineless” and “charlatan.” (that means “fraud”, you guys.). Not to mention being a “cancer on society.” Those sound like some strong, angry words from a guy who does not like being used as a publicity prop—for Hellmuth, who is well-known to do just about anything to get exposure.

Back in July, after Colman won $15M in the One Drop, Hellmuth talked to Bluff Magazine about what he thought about Colman’s indifference to the media and his own role as an inspiration to others:

“My counter argument is that we inspire millions and millions of people, everybody knows this, its not just Phil going off. Think about it; Tiger Woods inspires people, Lebron James inspires people… you look at me and think, ‘wow, look what he’s doing…’ I inspire people. So, I think it’s good for poker when we inspire people, and its good for poker when we let people into our lives,” said Hellmuth.

No idea if Hellmuth has seen Colman’s comments and we seriously doubt if he ever does that he will care, right? (Update: he DID hear and it DID hurt him) Apparently, Hellmuth has inspired Colman as well…just not in the traditional sense of the word.

Of course, you may recall, this isn’t the first time Colman has spoken his mind. It wasn’t that long ago that he opened up and basically called Tom Dwan a scammer.

Want to see the rest of the thread and the reaction he receives? Just go over to Two Plus Two and check it out. If you want to listen to Hellmuth’s interview on Koppelman’s Grantland podcast, we’ve got that for you too.

It’s that time of the week again.

I really hope you guys are making some money off these pics because they have been pretty good if I do say so myself.

Last week I gave you Aaron Rodgers-six touchdowns, Peyton Manning-five touchdowns, Mark Sanchez who had a decent night on Monday, and one stinker, Ben Roethlisberger. But who didn’t think that he was going to have a huge game against the hapless, and at that point winless New York Jets??

I usually like to give you a mixture of guys at different salary points, but this week don’t go cheap at the QB position. There are too many big-name guys in great situations. This is a position you’re gonna want to focus on this week for sure.

Aaron Rodgers

Fresh off his six touchdown performance against the Bears, Rodgers will be taking on the pass-friendly Philadelphia defense this week. At home against the weak defense is the exact match up you want when starting this stud.

Drew Brees

Everyone knows the Brees accelerates at home. He loves to play in front of the home crowd, and the home crowd is going to love him this week as he lights up Cincinnati. The Bengals couldn’t even stop the Browns last week, how on earth they think they’re going to contain Drew Brees is beyond me.

Philip Rivers

Another big-time quarterback at home facing a poor defense, are you starting to see a trend here? Fresh off a bye week Rivers and Co. welcome the Oakland Raiders into town. Yes, the same Oakland Raiders that gave up five touchdowns in three quarters to Peyton Manning last week.

Tom Brady

This man has been on fire for the second half of the season, and in what promises to be the marquee game of the weekend, Brady takes on Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. With both teams coming off a bye week, look for this one to be a shoot out.

Andrew Luck

Not wanting to be outdone, Luck will be fired up to play future Hall of Famer Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. While they may have had some extra time to game plan against him, Luck is at home and should rise to the occasion to put up big numbers on Sunday night.

Ben Roethlisberger

Yes this guy stunk it up big against the Jets last week, and yes I’m telling you to pick him again this week. Monday night in Tennessee, Roethlisberger will make amends.

I told you that you wouldn’t want to go cheap at the QB position this week.

Sign up for an account at FanDuel today so that you can play for your share of $2.5 million this weekend.

Or, if a $1 million first place prize is more your thing, then sign up here to play on DraftKings where the buy-in to the millionaire maker has been reduced back down to just $27.

And don’t forget to check back later in the week to get our picks on running backs wide receivers and tight ends.

Everything’s coming up Europe.

In the fanfare that was the crowning of a new World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, PokerNews' Sarah Grant nabbed WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart for a quickie (interview) where he spilled the beans that in 2015 the WSOP will again be headed back to Europe.

With Germans taking the high stakes poker scene by storm and the thirst for the game in Deutschland as great as it’s ever been, the WSOP has selected Germany (Berlin specifically) as the third country (behind the UK, France) to host the mini WSOPE festival.

According to PokerNews, it’s looking like 10 bracelets will be captured during the event and WSOP officials are going to try and sync it up with Oktoberfest giving players extra incentive to travel and officially turning poker into a giant sausage party.

Read more from the PNews: 2015 World Series of Poker Europe To Be Held in Berlin, Germany

Oscars. Emmys. Grammys. Now…there’s the Pokies!

We don’t know if “Pokies” will be the name of the awards handed out (obv choice) at the 1st ever American Poker Awards on February 25, but we’d like to at least nominate it.

On that date, in Beverly Hills, CA the Global Poker Index will play host 200 poker industry guests (players, industry folk, media members) as they dish out the hardware in categories like:

Poker Player Of The Year (congratulations in advance to Daniel Colman)
Female Poker Player of the Year
Challenge Cup Champion
Rookie Of The Year (congratulations in advance to Daniel Colman)
Tournament Performance of the Year
Event of the Year (over and under $2k)
Poker Innovation Of The Year
Charitable Initiative Of The Year
Industry Person Of The Year
Media Person Of The Year
Poker’s Best Ambassador
Poker Media Content Of The Year
Jury Award For Lifetime Achievement

It should be a fun night of drinking, prop bets and either Phil Ivey or Daniel Colman leaving with everybody’s money. But, be forewarned poker industry (as, you know, some of those “types” read this site) if you plan on going to the APA’s you had BETTER GO REGISTER.

Poker players in general like to wait until the last minute but 200 peeps is not a lot of room and you should assume that it’s already only 199 as we expect to see THIS GUY show up. sigh

Also, don’t worry Europe. We’re well aware that the World Champ is on the other side of the Atlantic and so, for that reason and that reason alone (this is unconfirmed), there will also be a European Poker Awards this year on March 25. That too requires you to RSVP.

Do it.

Critically acclaimed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, one of Hollywood’s most notable scribes, has been tapped to adapt the private memoirs of the “poker princess”, Molly Bloom through her book “Molly’s Game.”

The poker world should be familiar with the story of Bloom, the one-time Los Angeles waitress that went on the be the notorious hostess for the famed Hollywood Home Games which allegedly featured big time A-list actors like Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon.

Sorkin is an Oscar winning writer for his work on adapting Ben Mezrich's book “The Social Network” as well as cranking out other crowd pleasers you may have seen like “Moneyball” and “A Few Good Men” as well as the critically acclaimed HBO drama “The Newsroom.”

Bloom, of course, found her poker hosting gig come to a grinding halt when she was busted and arrested in New York, copped a plea, forfeited $125k and got probation. Her book, “Molly’s Game” came out on June 24 of this year and, so far, is mostly noted for calling Spider-man a “loser.”

Read: Poker Princess Molly Bloom Cops A Plea, Faces Up To 6 Months In Jail

More from Deadline Hollywood: Mark Gordon & Aaron Sorkin Team On Molly Bloom High-Stakes Poker Memoir

Before his ninth place exit from the World Series of Poker Final Table on Monday night, back-to-back November Niner Mark Newhouse had a TV package shown where he candidly stated that he thought that this year’s final 9 was “a softer field” than the final nine of 2013.

According to WSOP.com, when this short clip was shown to the fans in the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio, the boo-birds came out and the opposition voiced their displeasure over Mark’s opinion.

Newhouse’s candid opinion didn’t go over too well.  The remark drew jeers, followed by a massive “boo” from the crowd.

The boos are understandable as every player at the 2014 final table had their own fans there to root them on to victory. But were the boos warranted? Despite exiting in 9th place, once again, was Newhouse correct in his assessment that the 2014 was indeed “softer?”

Since the 2014 final table had yet to play out, one would have to look at perception and player comparison (which is hard) to get an idea. As an exercise – that’s what we decided to do.

We welcome the haters to chime in on our “flawed” logic as we try to compare the toughness perception of both the 2013 and 2014 WSOP Main Event final tables to determine which table seemed tougher.

In order to consider Newhouse’s position, we could use a refresher on the class of 2013, which is an obvious favorite in terms of major titles alone. In 2013 J.C. Tran, Amir Lehavot and Mark Newhouse brought a total of two World Poker Tour titles (Tran has won another since) and three WSOP Bracelets to the table. In 2014 despite a number of 2nd place finishes and victories in side events from Jacobson, Newhouse was the only one to have reached the tournament mountaintop with his World Poker Tour title.

Titles aside, in terms of pure dollars coming into the final table, the players of 2013 also outpaced the crew from 2014. Obviously helped by the longstanding career of JC Tran, the total earnings of the 2013 final nine amounted to over $14M (which included a goose egg from eventual runner up Jay Farber) while the 2014 field, which included Newhouse’s boost from the year before and Jacobson’s impressive live grind, came in at around $8.8M.

In 2013, the three players that had previously earned titles also all previously recorded over $1M in earnings. Another glance at the 2013 earnings shows that the next three on the earnings list (Marc-Etienne McLaughlin, Michiel Brummelhuis and David “Raptor” Benefield) all have over $600K as well. In 2014 after Jacobson and Newhouse the next three earners (van Hoof, Larrabe and Sindelar) all were roughly in the $350K range.

That’s just a few easy comparison points that we feel poker players can wrap their brain around as a kind of base layer. We know, we know – these are just live cash numbers, it doesn’t take into account online success, single luckbox victories and cash game prowess which was constantly mentioned on the ESPN broadcast.

We wanted to do a little more speculative comparing by taking a closer look.

At first we thought to match players position by position – stack vs. stack. But then we thought it would be more fun to try and match each of these tables with their final table foil from the opposite year. Again, we know this is a little data skewing but this is what made the most sense to us.

We’ll countdown from the chip position of the 2014 table.

Jorryt van Hoof & Michiel Brummelhuis

With both of these players hailing from the Netherlands and both having a very healthy resume of live tournament action prior to their ascension at the final table, this seemed like a natural matchup. Last year Brummelhuis’ bio called him one of the most respected well-liked players in the Dutch community. Van Hoof on the other hand had a beastly online reputation and the looks of a classic Bond villain. Not only does Jorryt have a decade in the industry but he’s good enough to train others as well. Perhaps that’s what swayed us.

Toughness edge: Jorryt van Hoof (sunglasses edge Brummelhuis)

Felix Stephensen & Marc-Etienne McLaughlin

A pair of young guns, both in their early twenties (23 & 25 respectively) with a ton of national pride, we paired these two up for their poker intensity and volume of playing online. There’s not much to compare here when it comes to live tournaments as Felix specifically stayed away from tournaments in his young career choosing to focus on online PLO while McLaughlin had cashed in 3 of the past 5 WSOP’s before sitting at his final table. Stephensen is a fantastic player, no doubt, but in pre-game perception there’s a big edge to Marc-Etienne.

Toughness edge: Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (NFL cap edge Stephensen)

Mark Newhouse &… Mark Newhouse

Even though we’re looking at this from Newhouse’s POV you need to consider him when considering the overall toughness of the field. The Mark from 2013 was a WPT winner, sure, and a well-traveled grinder. But the 2014 Newhouse had just been the first person to make back-to-back November Nine’s and with that, his cred and WSOP veteran status went through the roof. Easy call.

Toughness edge: Mark Newhouse 2014 (resurrection edge Newhouse 2013)

Andoni Larrabe & Ryan Riess

This match up felt right. Two young, serious professionals who cut their live tournament teeth playing side events of big time tours and both came to the final table almost equal in previous tournament cashes. Larrabe’s career score had come from a $5K at the PCA while Riess took 2nd in a WSOP Circuit event. Razor’s edge in terms of pre-game toughness. Andoni had a seriousness about him and Riess had a much talked about WSOP circuit grinder rep. But we’re going to give this one to the Champ because as you may remember…the kid called his shot and took it down.

Toughness edge: The Champ Ryan Riess (coolness edge Larrabe)

Dan Sindelar & Amir Lehavot

Dedicated grinders both, while this is the best match-up for each other that we could come up with, there’s a clear winner. Of course, with the weight of being one of the WSOP bracelet winner in 2013 Lehavot, by experience alone, is going to edge out Dan. To his credit, Dan had over $300K in prior winnings and being a Nevada local pro brings with it a sense that it could have been him to take it down, but Lehavot’s time on the felt and past accomplishments makes him the right call.

Toughness edge: Amir Lehavot (“everyman” edge Sindelar)

Billy Pappas & Jay Farber

Jay Farber is to partying as Billy Pappas is to Foosball: champions. They both though also called themselves amateur poker players. Yes, Farber went farther and yes, he had Dan Bilzerian by his side but Pappas was a part-time poker dealer and had climbed the mountaintop in his chosen sport of Foosball. We see this as a clear edge to Billy as just about everyone could remember when Farber made the November Nine and having to explain that there is indeed luck in poker.

Toughness edge: Billy Pappas (beer bong edge Farber)

William Tonking & Sylvain Loosli

Unassuming New Jersey online grinder meets the unassuming French online grinder. Both men about the same age and both were said to cut their chops playing online. While Tonking boasted about $90K in live tournament earnings and clipped a $50K score playing in New Jersey, Loosli had almost no live tournament cashes to speak of ($3K) but allegedly played $25/50 cash games online. That’s a big big game. Still, neither one of these guys went into their final tables with a ton of heat behind them so we think it’s a coin flip. We’re picking one though.

Toughness edge: William Tonking (hoodie edge Sylvain Loosli)

Martin Jacobson & J.C. Tran

This is the big one. The two most accomplished members of their respective final tables and it’s so close. Both have millions in earnings and both had hit the live circuit hard producing results year in and year out. But really, is it that close? Now that Martin is the champ perhaps it’s making it feel like a closer call, but this is JC Tran – bracelet winner, WPT champion walking into the final table of the Main Event with what was close to double the career earnings of Jacobson when he made his. Jacobson is as deserving a champ as there is, but before the play went down, Tran was the scariest with the most experience.

Toughness edge: JC Tran (determination edge Jacobson)

Finally we’re left with one matchup and it’s not very close…

Bruno Politano & David Benefield

Everyone loved Bruno when he was snapping his fingers and petting Scooby Doo. He’s a big personality with a lot of love to give his homeland and with that (and before the constant tanking) this poker pro was a fan favorite that spectators were rooting for. His foil is David “Raptor” Benefield and while they have not too much in common except that they both came in to their respective final tables as the short stack. Benefield a former Full Tilt Red Pro, Cardrunners instructor and noted online savant appeared on Poker After Dark. There’s no comparison here. Benefield is a beast and even without a ton of live results was someone everyone was weary of from hand #1.

Toughness edge: David Benefield (pride edge Politano)

So we think that’s it both super close and very very difficult to compare but we’re calling it for Newhouse – on paper 2013 is a tougher field to fade. Of course, as we know, for Newhouse, both tables were equally difficult as we know what happened to him. As for how they played out, one would be hard pressed to say that there was a better final three in recent history than in 2014 with van Hoof, Stephensen and Jacobson – three European players – at the peak of their powers playing some damn fine poker.

If you made it this far and still want to tell us how dumb we are, we’ll own it, just hit us up on Twitter. Yes, this is speculation and off the cuff analysis, and if you don’t like our matchups, let us say that we ran these by a few different people to get their feedback and critiques – including Eric Danis from the Global Poker Index who knows more than any of us (even likely you) about these players.

But if you are anything like the staff of F5, all this talk is just getting us excited for what WSOP 2015 will bring. It can’t get here soon enough.

Martin Jacobson, the Swedish poker pro who was the Main Event Day 1A chipleader way back in July, completed his WSOP journey with a Final Table victory netting himself the massive $10M first place prize and the title of WSOP Main Event Champion.

Jacobson, who entered the final table 8th in chips, utilized his who’s who of “talented friends” to carefully craft a plan to work his way up from the bottom and then executed it to perfection. Martin came into the final 9 with far and away the most tournament experience and success amassing over $8M in earnings prior to this victory. Jacobson will of course enjoy his new big time payday (which propels him into the top 10 of the All Time Money List), but according to WSOP.com, what was was really after was the personal accomplishment of becoming World Champ.

“This is what I played for, this is all the mattered to me,” Jacobson said afterward as he flashed the gold and diamond prize designed by Jason of Beverly Hills and valued at $500,000, but worth a lot more in terms of sentiment and personal accomplishment.

Of course, his Final Table Day 2 opponents, Jorryt van Hoof (3rd) and Felix Stephensen (2nd) didn’t fare too badly themselves. Both players walk away from this tournament with life changing money. Runner-up Stephensen can return to Norway with $5,147,911 while future Bond villain van Hoof takes home over $3.1M.

Wanna see how it all went down? There’s plenty of long form coverage of the new poker ambassador and here’s a couple we think you’ll like,

Read: Martin Jacobson Wins 2014 WSOP Main EVent and $10 Million [WSOP.com]

Read: Martin Jacobson Wins 2014 WSOP Main Event, $10M [Bluff Magazine]

Watch: PokerNews talks with Jacobson right after the win.

Screenwriter Brian Koppelman (“Rounders”, “Runner, Runner”) take the time to grill Phil Hellmuth on everything poker on his Grantland podcast “The Moment.”

Fresh off another successful charity poker tournament in New York, Hellmuth and Koppelman run the gambit of topics related to poker in this in-depth interview with the 13-time WSOP bracelet winner.

Enjoy!

STOP!

Before you watch the above movie of Daniel Negreanu's Poker Hall of Fame acceptance speech, you may want to first watch the induction speech that came right before this by his friend, lawyer and agent Brian Balsbaugh.

If so, and we recommend it, then watch the below video first as Brian does a very nice job of extolling and telling stories about the kind of man that Daniel is. Then, you can watch Negreanu take the stage, above, as he humbly and emotionally accepts his new role as Poker Hall Of Famer.

Watch Brian’s video…

At the end of play early on Tuesday morning, the shock of seeing Mark Newhouse finish in 9th had worn off a little and one by one players met their final table fate until only three were left with a return ticket to the final day of the Main Event.

Here’s a cliff and some media from last night’s action:

8th place Bruno Politano – $947,077

The first Brazilian to ever make a WSOP final table laddered one position before busting, but it was his constant tanking pre flop that was getting the most attention. While people loved his big personality and rowdy rail, every time it came to him to act the game came to a stand still.

Read more from Bluff Magazine on the elimination of Poliatno

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7th place Dan Sindelar – $1,235,862

The Las Vegas (by way of Nebraska) poker pro found himself getting 3-bet when he just couldn’t defend and his chipstack took continuous hits. Having a hard time with the stop-start-stop nature of the final table, Dan bowed out in 7th.

Here’s more from Bluff on the elimination of Sindelar.

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6th place Andoni Larrabe – $1,622,080

After a fast start, perhaps Larrabe’s most notable play involved in a hand in which he checked back the river to Mark Newhouse after turning a set and that had people buzzing. After doubling up foosball king Billy Pappas, Larrabe could not recover and the young Spaniard settled for sixth.

Read more about Larrabe’s final table journey on Bluff.

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5th place Billy Pappas – $2,143,174

The team on ESPN said that Billy mentioned that there’s no money in foosball. A champion in that sport may make $30k/yr. Billy played snug early, doubled through Andoni and then flipped for his stack against Jacobsen and lost for the critical hit. Yoshi would be proud as Pappas goes home in fifth.

Read more about the elimination of Billy Pappas from Bluff

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4th place William Tonking – $2,848,833

The New Jersey online grinder was all business and he was the man who made the call to knock out Newhouse to climb to the chiplead in early action. It was downhill from there though as over the next few hours Tonking would be unable to hold on to his stack eventually getting it in crushed against Jacobson. Tonking, seemingly uninterested in the fanfare, appeared very disappointed to have come in fourth.

The “rise and fall of William Tonking as told by Bluff Magazine.“http://www.bluff.com/news/how-and-why-will-tonking-was-eliminated-in-4th-place-62121/

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Now play is suspended for the night as the three European players come back to settle this tournament once and for all. Jorryt van Hoof, Felix Stephensen and *Martin Jacobson( return at 5:30pm local time to play down to determine who will be the 2014 WSOP Main Event Champion.

A gutsy play or massive mistake. Professional poker players and the viewing public will likely be debating the extraordinary 9th place bustout of Mark Newhouse from the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event for quite some time.

Of course, the finish doesn’t diminish the massive accomplishment of Mark Newhouse, the first player to make back to back WSOP final tables in the November Nine era, but it must be noted that if there was one thing that Newhouse was adamant about it was that above all, he didn’t want to finish 9th again.

After the river double paired the board, it looked like Newhouse turned his pocket tens into a bluff in an attempt to take down what had amounted to a massive pot (roughly $22M before the shove). William Tonking, holding pocket Queens, couldn’t resist the price of the call (as he had Newhouse covered) and gave the poker world the biggest case of deja vu they’d ever had as they watched Newhouse, once again, finish the WSOP Main Event in 9th place in heartbreaking fashion.

The initial reactions found many on the rail feeling for the plight of Newhouse.

But some took the opportunity to also critique the hand.

No matter how history looks back on the pair of 9th place finishes, it will always remember Newhouse as having accomplished a feat that we may never see again.

Newhouse after the fall

Not the story poker fans expected. Mark Newhouse out in 9th place. He’s with friends and just ready to move on…

With the final table of the WSOP set to resume and play down to the final 3 players tonight there’s the hope that we’ll see something historic: a big time bluff, a well-played hand, maybe witness a grown man cry real tears about poker. You know, something special

Barry Carter is way ahead of you and in anticipation of the history that’s going to be made here in 2014, he’s taken a look back at some of the biggest and best Final Table moments in recent WSOP history.

Here’s a taste from his list:

Without doubt the most bizarre Main Event final table ever, where Jerry Yang proved that with a little help from the man upstairs, anyone can win.

Now get excited for tonight and watch the rest over at PokerStrategy: Five Memorable Main Event Moments

This weekend, the day before he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, All-Time Money Leader Daniel Negreanu co-chaired a charity poker tournament at Vdara in Las Vegas designed to benefit the local chapter of the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

The night brought out a number of poker stars to pitch in and play poker with an aim to help those that help children with catastrophic diseases.

In addition to Negreanu, poker pros Jason Somerville, Jeff Madsen, Ryan Riess and Antonio Esfandiari were on hand playing and, actually, winning some of the nights top prizes. Somerville went on to win a $15K PokerStars PCA package while Hellmuth took home the top prize (bought in by his agent Brian Balsbaugh) a sick Corvette Stingray.

Here’s some pics from the night and if you want to read even more on the charity event, check out another nice write-up by Robbie Strazynski over at CardPlayer Lifestyle.

Day 3 of #14daysofcourage – time connecting with a friend dnegspoker janesta10 at the St. Jude’s children’s hospital charity event!

having fun at Negreanu’s charity event benefitting St. Jude’s — busted my table so now I’m just dranking

not only did I have a great time at tonight’s St. Jude’s charity event, but I won a $15,000 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure package AND got a pic with my second favorite Phil H!

Before you settle in to do some serious Monday morning spreadsheeting, take a little time for yourself and check out Episode 3 of PokerStars Shark Cage.

Five new pros and one new “joe” all looking to take down this single table sit-n-go without having to spend to much time in poker jail. Two-time EPT winner Victoria Corn-Mitchell, Maria Ho, the Great Dane Gus Hansen, David Williams and Patrik Antonius take their seats in hopes not to be bluffed on the river.

Miss episode 2? We got you: Shark Cage Episode Two

While most eyes were on the stage as Daniel Negreanu and Jack McClelland were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame last night, there were a few pair of eyes that were on him.

Who’s that “him”? Howard “The Professor” Lederer.

Up from the underground, Lederer took a seat at inside the ceremony room at Binion’s Horsehoe Casino in Las Vegas to honor the newest pair of Hall of Fame members. How’d he get the invite? We’re not 100% sure but we’re guessing it wasn’t from his long time, well-documented nemesis Negreanu who is on record time and time again as being anti-Annie Duke (Howard’s sis) and no big fan of Howie either.

Thanks to the heroes over at Brazil’s Superpoker.com who snapped this pic:

and WickedChopsPoker who nabbed this shot (a little tough to see):

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It wasn’t the first time that Lederer was spotted this week either…

So poker world – are you ready for the return of Howard Lederer?

Last night was a big night for the World Series of Poker. Not only did the final episodes of the 2014 Main Event air on ESPN but one of it’s brightest stars received the honor of being placed in the poker hall of fame.

Held downtown at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu and long time tournament director Jack McClelland heard their names called for the Poker Hall of Fame last night. At the ripe old age of 40, the minimum eligible age for the Hall, first-ballot inductee Negreanu is now the youngest HoF member.

According to Bluff Magazine, another Hall of Famer, 13-time WSOP bracelet winner, Phil Hellmuth took the podium to help induct McClelland while Brian Balsbaugh, Negreanu’s agent, gave Daniel’s induction speech.

Congratulations to both Daniel and Jack on their induction to the Poker Hall of Fame.

More: Nolan Dalla takes you inside the Poker Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Also: PokerStars compiled this video, and wrote this, for Daniel’s induction.

While today may be the WSOP’s day, there’s no way one can ignore that history was made on Friday over in the World Poker Tour when Darren Elias became the first player to win back-to-back WPT Main Events in the same season.

Just days ago Darren pocketed over $127K for his victory at St. Maarten during the WPT’s Caribbean stop. It was just last month Darren found himself hoisting the trophy at Borgata when he won The WPT Borgata Championship for $843K which was the score that pushed his lifetime earnings to over $2M.

You will possibly remember that while it was a historic win, it wasn’t the first where a player went back-to-back. The context of Darren’s win is that it occurred in the same season as “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier went back-to-back in 2012 but the victories were the last event of Season X and the first of XI.

According to the World Poker Tour blog, Elias’ win this past week gives him a virtual chokehold on the Season XIII Player of the Year race, despite there still being months left in the season.

Want to know key hands and more detail? Bluff Magazine will be happy to break it down for you.