I have recently been asked to write a column on how life can change, when you become the world champion of poker. I know firsthand that it changes many things! Sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst. In this blog, which I will split in three parts, I'll...more

In case you didn't know, poker players tend to like to gamble with their money, and I'm not talking strictly in cash games or poker tournaments. Prop betting offers another way for poker players to be in action and have their money on the line. Working in the industry, oftentimes...more

I had a lot of travel problems getting to the PCA. I got stuck in Miami for one night, and had a lot of other flight problems. I showed up at the tournament very tired, which is not the way you want to be at a $100,000 tournament. I ran...more

Editor's note: If you are not yet aware, Team PokerStars Pro and 2010 World Series of Poker champion Jonathan Duhamel was attacked in his home this week by men who beat and robbed him. We are respecting Duhamel's desire to begin his necessary recovery in private. During that time, he...more

I was very excited when I heard about TCOOP. Turbos are some of my favorite tournaments to play. There is a lot of action and decision-making involved. They also don't take all day, which I find very pleasant. The cool thing about a turbo tournament series is also that you...more

In any given year, the people who make $1 million playing tournament poker is very small. If you look at live tournament results alone over the past couple of years, it's usually sixty or so people who crest that seven-figure mark in a calendar year. It's an elite group by...more

On December 18th PokerStars will be holding an absolutely amazing event. For its 10th Anniversary, they will boost the Sunday Million guarantee to an incredible $10 Million prize pool. What this means is that there will most likely be 50,000+ players all paying just $200 for a chance to win...more

There's no being Jason Mercier unless you actually are Jason Mercier. I know this, because I've tried. I've stopped shaving for a few days, worn a Miami Heat jersey, and stayed up for days at a time playing poker. I am not a rich man. Meanwhile, Jason Mercier, as near...more

He had lit up the online poker world by seemingly coming from nowhere to play the nosebleed stakes cash games, enduring wild swings along the way by winning or losing in the biggest pots poker had seen. But what was also remarkable was that Isildur1 was an enigma. Quite simply,...more

Shanghai born, Melbourne raised, and currently living in Macau, it's no wonder that Celina Lin has a love affair with travel, cultural fusion, and food. It's also fortunate that her role as Team PokerStars Pro allows the opportunity to combine these passions into a way of life. We chatted with...more

In 2009, two Team PokerStars Pros, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Lex "RasZi" Veldhuis got into a friendly confrontation that led to the two making a prop bet where they would square off against each other in the ring -- mixed-martial-arts style. The two agreed to fight it out, seriously, but...more

Editor's note: As part of the PokerStars 10th Anniversary celebration, we and members of Team PokerStars Pro are taking a look back at how PokerStars has looked over its ten years. Chris Moneymaker, 2003 WSOP champion and no stranger to PokerStars live events over the years, shared this memory of...more

When migrating from cash games, I really like to play the Sunday tournaments or the big daily guarantees. They have good structure and big player pools. These fields also tend to be soft. Apart from the fact you always have to adjust to the table, generally I played a lot...more

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst is one of the most successful and respected tournament players in the world, with over four million dollars in tournament winnings and a World Series of Poker bracelet in Pot Limit Omaha (2008). Vanessa's victories include the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour and back-to-back North American...more

PokerStars Team Pro Celina Lin's third place finish this week at the Macau Poker Cup Championship Event #1 is just the latest in an impressive career. That cash for $145,800 HKD is the most recent in a string of final table wins dating back to 2004. That was the year...more

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing fine. I write to you from Mexico City to talk a little bit about the LAPT. For Season 4 of LAPT, it has been announced that Colombia will be its next stop, this time to host the Colombia National Poker Championship. In a...more

After a great party week on Ibiza, the best island in the world, I finally returned home to get back to business and play the PokerStars WCOOP. The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker has always been a very exciting tournament series for me, one I look forward to a...more

Of course I'm going to favour London as a venue for both the UKIPT and the EPT; it's my adopted hometown. I don't feel that I'm betraying my roots by flying the flag for this festival (I'll always be a Yorkshire man at heart), but it's where the EPT was...more

As I'm writing this blog, it's Friday August 26th and I'm preparing to leave for Europe. Finally, here we are. My three weeks of "vacation" has just ended. In a few hours, I'm flying to Barcelona, thus starting a tro-month trip across Europe! Two very, very busy months! PokerStars European...more

There will be a new World Champion this year at the WSOP Main Event! Unfortunately I was not able to successfully defend my title this summer. If you think this will affect my confidence or my will to win, you are absolutely wrong! Late May, departure for Vegas. I only...more

I think some people scale down their poker playing in August. The big tournament circuit goes quiet: it's the gap between the end of the World Series and the start of the EPT. The card room at the casino is quieter, which makes me wonder whether the regulars are off...more

I am happy that WCOOP is coming. It's going be the largest series of online tournaments worldwide and there will be 62 chances to win the title. And 30,000,000USD guaranteed - which is a great figure! For me it is my first WCOOP where I'm going to play more events...more

Back in 2000 and 2001, when I was still at my previous job as a corporate finance advisor (actually, I was just starting after graduation), I had a chance to make a valuation and privatization project of one of the biggest Estonian companies. I travelled there and back a few...more

With a record of eight wins and two losses, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom had certainly gotten the best of his opponents across his first 10 SuperStar Showdown matches as he took just over $500,000 from them. He came into today's match riding a three-match winning streak dating back to April against...more

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom seems to have missed his role as the king of the high-rollers. After a two month break, he came into his last SuperStar Showdown and dismantled his opponent in fewer than 2,300 hands. Now, just a couple of weeks later, Blom is ready for another go. PokerStars...more

Just before midnight Las Vegas time, Jason Mercier was in the bathroom. No story should have to start like that, but this one does. It's important. To understand the scene, imagine a long convention center hallway with scuffed tile floors. About a hundred yards short of the back exit is...more

The WSOP is upon us and for me personally, it's the most exciting time of the year. It's six weeks of hardcore poker, mostly tournaments for me, but also some great cash games, too. It's also nice to have home court advantage. Most of the time I'm travelling to another...more

How to spice up the SuperStar Showdown even more? Just add a heaping dose of PLO and one of the year's top high-stakes cash game earners. Chinese-born, Paris-dwelling poker pro Rui "PepperoniF" Cao has been riding a serious hot streak in the front half of 2011, but his desire to...more

Coming off fresh from my cash at the EPT Grand Final in Madrid, I was feeling very confident going into the Macau Poker Cup series. I faced off against some of the best in the world in Madrid and ended up doing well and along the way picked up a...more

After six weeks of rolling around in piles of money without anyone trying to take it away from him, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom is about to return to the SuperStar Showdown ring. This Sunday (June 19) at noon ET, Blom will give Rui Cao his long-awaited shot. Cao (known as PepperoniF...more

I remember playing my first live tournament. It was a $200 freezout in a local casino. I've been playing poker for a year already, but only online. My hands were shaking, and though I knew what I should be doing with my cards, at a real poker table everything seemed...more

I was walking out of a professional tennis match in February when I received a call from ESPN. They wanted to know if I would like to relive one of the biggest days in my life and play Sam Farha heads up again on the WSOP stage. Under the lights....more

Though I enjoy Stud and was looking forward to playing the $1,500 WSOP Stud event if the opportunity arose, that day I was definitely concentrating much more on the 5k no-limit hold'em tournament that I was still in. Alas, I busted out of that event at around 7pm, got some...more

The EPT Grand Final is always one of the most prestigious event of the year. I came fully prepared and very excited about the change of host city to Madrid. Even though I'm not superstitious at all, it's a bit frustrating when there is a place where you don't have...more

Hi again, poker fans! I've been very busy lately, and this explains why I could not write any new blog entry in the last two months. In my last column, I spoke about the long journey I spent in the United States west coast. I then participated in various charitable...more

After playing through a pair of multi-part high-profile matches over the last few weekends (scoring decisive victories over Daniel Negreanu and Scott "urnotindangr" Palmer), Viktor Blom took his second shot at an online qualifier in a special 1/10-sized edition of the SuperStar Showdown. Playing his way to a heads-up match...more

For the fourth straight week, PokerStars' resident heads-up warrior Viktor "Isildur1" Blom was back in action for another SuperStar Showdown, this time to continue his two-round match with the formidable Scott "urnotindangr" Palmer. And after another efficient session lasting just over four-and-a-half hours, Viktor was the victor yet again, besting...more

My March was pretty mad. It was crazy, and I just about wanted to punch Butler in the stomach for binking off the remainder of my NCAA bracket. But, it was a pretty fun month too. There is no greater sweat than the NCAA tournament (outside of poker), and speaking...more

The last month has been hectic for me with a long trip planned on the United States west coast. To refresh your memory, I finished my last blog by talking about the bet I lost against Matt Jarvis. He finished in a better position than I in our last tournament...more

Of all the opponents he's faced in the SuperStar Showdown thus far, Viktor Blom has probably logged the most hours at the tables with the man who took him on today, nosebleed-stakes fixture Scott "urnotindangr" Palmer. Although the 20 year-old may not be a household name yet, he regularly trades...more

Viktor Blom isn't the type of guy who seems like he considers danger. Depending on the day, he's either the Roadrunner or Wile E. Coyote. On neither day, however, does it appear he gives one diddly-damn whether he's in peril. As he told me a couple of months ago over...more

Just call him KidComeback. Last week's SuperStar Showdown was nothing less than a disaster for Daniel Negreanu. A terrible run in all-in pots ended with all $150,000 of his challenge bankroll in Viktor "Isildur1" Blom's pockets after only 1,439 hands. What was supposed to be a two-part, 5,000-hand challenge...more

The following blog post comes from Chris Moneymaker and was written in two parts: one before he started the NBC Heads-Up Championship, and one after he finished runner-up for $300,000. Before We had our draw last night. In the first round, I drew John Racener. This is probably the best...more

It's getting a little late here at PokerStars Blog HQ, but this is news that shouldn't have to wait for morning. We've just received word from Daniel Negreanu that he is 100% up for a SuperStar Showdown re-match with Viktor "Isildur1" Blom this coming Sunday. As you might have seen,...more

Daniel Negreanu knows that running bad is just a part of the game. Despite losing to quads in six-figure pots on three separate occasions on GSN's High Stakes Poker, a feat of sour luck that would lead a lesser player to swear off cards forever, he continues to play on...more

Well, it was a crazy three weeks beginning February 22nd. I flew straight into Vegas for the Big Game. I played in the last session and it was one of the most fun times I have had playing poker. Both Tony G. and Phil Hellmuth should get medals or statues...more

I spent the last month playing poker pretty close to where I live in the Los Angeles area. First there was the month-long tournament at the Commerce and I can't remember doing much of anything in the tournaments. I played the Chinese Poker Tournament and came in third out of...more

Say what you will about Joe Hachem's sauciness. Say what you will about Victor Ramdin's swingy-ness. Both men are fantastically nice guys, and both can play some poker. There was no greater evidence than what happened a few hours ago at The Big Event at The Bicycle Casino in California....more

It's nearly that time of year again; yes, the PokerStars SCOOP is fast approaching. This will be its third year, and judging by the previous two years, it's most definitely something worth getting excited about. What distinguishes SCOOP from any other online poker series is its appeal to every poker...more

Just around the corner is this year's instalment of one of the biggest online tournament series; The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). With bigger and bigger prize pools every year, this year's series is shaping up to be a bang! With a plethora of game types and buy-in...more