How painful can it be to lose a penny? Try asking Viktor Taranenko.

Thanks to the excellent PokerNews reporting, we know that Taranenko won his seat to the WSOP Europe Main Event—a tournament that usually costs more than €10,000 to enter—by playing a satellite online for just one cent.

Quite the score, so off he flies to King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic and sits among 341 other hopefuls. If he can last until 81 people remain, he’s going to walk home with over €15,000. First place prize is over €1 million.

Then people start getting knocked out. He makes it through Day 1, and the field has already shrunk to 221 players. He makes it through Day 2—there’s now only 165 players. He has a healthy 30 big blind stack going into Day 3. He only has to outlast 84 more players and he’s going home with a five figure score.

Players start dropping, but his stack is dwindling. One by one they fall. Then all of a sudden there’s a palpable tension in the room. The money bubble! There’s only 82 players left in the tournament! If just one more person is knocked out, our hero is taking home a prize.

But there’s a snag. He’s only got 1 big blind left. And he’s in the big blind. He makes his mandatory post and is all in. He keeps his cards face down. Gary Hasson, a big stack, makes a raise under the gun. Everyone else folds. Our hero is all-in, heads up for his life. And he keeps his cards face down.

The flop comes 622—not a great flop for an early raiser. The turn’s a jack—that’s a bit scary. A five on the river is seemingly innocuous. The raiser flips over his hand—AK—just the board’s pair with an ace high. All our opponent needs is to match the board in some way to stay in and assuredly lock in his five figure score.

For the first time, slowly, Viktor Taranenko flips over his hand to see his fate.

Ten four offsuit. Nothing.

“Taranenko … was bitterly disappointed to not have made the money,” PokerNews reports. “He quickly left the tournament area, clearly upset, while the rest of the players celebrated their min-cash and rushed to the buffet to enjoy their 60-minute dinner break.”

Brutal.

It’s week 4 of the Human Lie Detector contest and Daniel Negreanu this week asks three questions to PokerStars Team Pro Jeff Gross—one of which is a lie.

If you can spot the lie and Tweet the answer with the hashtag #HumanLieDetector with your Stars ID, you’ll get entry to a freeroll where you have the chance to win PokerStars coveted Platinum Pass worth $30,000.

Yup, that’s all you have to do (plus, also win the freeroll).

The freeroll takes place on Sunday, November 11. In addition to the Platinum Pass, there are $3000 worth of runner-up prizes to be won too.

Watch: Dnegs the 'Human Lie Detector’ ask three questions to Jeff Gross and see if you can guess which question Jeff is bluffing or lying.

On October 21, PokerVR (not to be confused with PokerStars VR) hosted the first-ever and “biggest poker tournament in Virtual Reality“. The First Edition of PokerVR Championship awarded $5000 in prizes and was also streamed on Twitch.

Phil Hellmuth, 15-time WSOP bracelet winner was also invited to this event and competed along with 70 other qualifiers.

Poker VR from Mega Particle is a free-to-play multiplayer Virtual Reality Poker game available on Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Go.

Watch Phil Hellmuth play in the PokerVR Championship event here:

In a recent Reddit AMA with Chris Moneymaker & Norman Chad, Moneymaker revealed some of the secrets of his success over the years.

He detailed some of the things he has done to help improve his game by saying that he has watched Run It Once videos, is a student of Chip Leader, coaching and working under Joe McKeehen and has “spent some time in Doug Polk’s lab” which is known as Upswing Poker.

Moneymaker also reveals he has worked with a mental coach to improve tilt issues and patience over the years.

For a more detailed look back on Moneymaker and his road to the WSOP Main Event title, check out the ESPN 30 for 30 podcast.

But Moneymaker isn’t the only pro who is happy to go back to the book to study & improve his game.

This year Daniel Negreanu went back to the books to improve his game which only saw him go from strength to strength.

As you are probably aware, Arlie Shaban, a popular Poker streamer and Run It Up ambassador, has been tasked by PokerStars to complete “12 Labours of Arlie” (mimicking 12 Labours of Hercules from Greek mythology) where he has to complete several challenges including literally capturing PokerStars team pros.

If he does complete all the challenges by the end of the year, Arlie will be awarded a Platinum Pass worth $30,000 by PokerStars.

Well, he’s already reached halfway mark but while pursuing his seventh challenge, poor Arlie ended up in an emergency room.

Wait, how did it happen?

The Poker Gods tasked him with capturing the “Cretan Bull” father of the minotaur.

“... The Cretan Bull is responsible for “The Minotaur Effect” and “The Mythology Boom.” You remember that time your ancestors played the Minotaurmaker Tour? Good times,” wrote the Poker Gods while presenting Arlie his seventh challenge.

The bull referred to here is none other than Chris Moneymaker, the man responsible for the poker boom and Arlie had to drive up through the dense forest and chase Moneymaker who was wearing a horned helmet.

Here’s the footage of how Arlie ended up landing in a hospital:

Argentinan online poker player “tatuni75,” grinder of 10 cents and 2 cents Sit & Gos, hit the PokerStars’ “The Deal” Jackpot on Monday morning, which had accumulated close to a staggering $120k.

He takes home half of the jackpot which is around $60k. The other half was shared among the players who played at least one hand of this mini-game in the last 12 hours.

Quite a payday for somebody who grinds 10 cents tournaments!