Poker Guru Blog

This summer, Eugene Katchalov skipped the World Series of Poker to participate in a Ukranaian TV show called "The Mole". Maybe that's why he is on the cover of a Ukranian magazine, but unfortunately we have no way of knowing for sure since we don't speak the language. What we know however is that in case he gets bored with poker, he likely has a bright future as a cover boy, having also appeared in Men's Fitness magazine last year and being considered to star in the Ukranian version of "The Bachelor".

While players are doing everything they can to make PokerStars remove the recently introduced Spin & Go tournaments, PokerStars has announced a new TV show revolving around the format, called Spin & Go Show.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, professional poker player Phil Ivey is amongst the first people whose request for the medical marijuana dispensary permit has been approved in Las Vegas. The news instantly gained huge interest in the poker community, and the forums are already flooded with "pot committed" and "pot odds" jokes.

Back in July, Macau high roller and businessman Wei Seng "Paul" Phua was arrested along with his son, Wai Kit "Darren" Phua, Richard Yong and other members from the Macau high stakes scene on the charges of running an illegal sports betting ring. They were arrested at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but according to new information, the FBI only managed to get evidence against the businessmen by using unlawful methods of getting into the suite.

The PokerStars PR Team has had it's fair share of embarassing mistakes, from sending promotional e-mails to customers with already fired Team Pros' recommending said promotion to a Grand Theft Auto themed spoof video of their new Spin & Go format was also posted and removed from their official YouTube channel recently. But making the definition of the week "Juice", which is a slang for rake, on the day that they announce huge changes in the rake system that the whole online poker community is speaking up against, well, that is probably their worst blunder yet.

Last week Phil Hellmuth tweeted about Mike "The Mouth" Matusow's spinal surgery, which was quite risky according to Matusow's tweets. After complications during the surgery, Mike is now all well and on his way to recover.

Last week, Full Tilt published an online survey in which they asked players about their experiences and impressions regarding GSN's hit poker show, High Stakes Poker. As soon as speculation started whether the company wants to bring back HSP, the survey was immediately removed from the web. High Stakes Poker was the most exciting poker show with star-studded field, the Season 5 lineup was extremely strong aswell. It consisted of young online wizards Tom "durrr" Dwan and Dario Minieri, old school live crushers like Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, David "Viffer" Peat and Phil Laak who all showed why they are amongst the best in the game. The two businessmen at the table, Mike "Silent Mike" Baxter and Alan Meltzer played very well also, and the great characters and agressive table dynamics made this season of HSP truly one of the best.

The regulars at PokerStars have had rough times in the recent months. The introduction of Spin & Go tournaments, the announced changing of the VIP system in 2015 and the departure of the two pros (Gus Hansen and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom) from their sister-site Full Tilt all received negative response from the poker community. But now PokerStars has announced that they are increasing the rake in almost every poker variant they offer, and the players on the forums are furious at Amaya, the company behind PokerStars. Check out all the details below.

PokerStars has recently published the schedule for their low buy-in online tournament series, the Micro Millions. In the 9th installment of the series, there will be a total of 100 events running between November 6 - 16 with a total of $5 million guaranteed.

Guy Laliberté is the founder of Cirque du Soleil, probably the most famous circus in the world. He's also a billionaire and an avid philantropist as well as a poker player and a philantropist. This time around he made the headlines after building 13 huge basalt monoliths on his property in Spain, for which he received a record-setting fine. Speculation regarding the statues ranges from ''weird art installation'' all the way to ''alien landing pad''. Laliberte has talked about how his time spent in space changed his perspective and about the strong magnetic force that the monoliths emit (especially the one in the middle which has the top covered in 23 carat gold)...

We have reported plenty of times about Phil Ivey's edge sorting lawsuit, and how a judge recently decided that the Crockfords casino is not required to pay out Ivey's winnings. Now the Borgata casino, which is also involved in a lawsuit with Ivey regarding the same matter (edge sorting) is hoping to use the verdict  to benefit their own lawsuit aswell.

Phil Ivey's brand launched as a Facebook app back in July 2013, and was closed down last Saturday. According to the Ivey Poker Team this is only temporary, and Ivey Poker will return in 2015 with a "bigger and better gaming experience".

Halloween is coming up shortly, and it's always good to have a little inspiration for a good costume. The key is being able to pull off said costume. Look at Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier for example: the dyed hair, the evil smile and the crazy eyes make him a perfect Joker. That creepy gaze is probably a great tool at the poker tables too...it must be pretty hard to make a tough call when you feel the French pro staring into your soul.

The Battle of Malta will run this November with plenty of great tournaments, and they are also the hosts of a heads-up showdown between Ken Lennaárd and Andreas Bergman aswell. The two Swedish poker pros will battle in four events: heads-up poker, chess, boxing, and a last longer bet in the BOM Main Event.

In 2012, Ray Bitar, the former CEO of Full Tilt Poker, has pled guilty to charges of violating the UIGEA and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. Bitar had to forfeit most of his assets, and the recently released details of his forfeiture show that a total of 18 bank accounts and $40 million have been seized from him.