Robbie Strazynski

What do Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel, and President Barack Obama all have in common? They will all be playing in a special poker tournament on Air Force One today. Obama, an admitted poker fan, invited the top 5 all-time WSOP bracelet winners to join him for some 6-handed action on a flight from Las Vegas to Atlantic City this afternoon.

Inflation seems to be everywhere these days – and the poker world is no exception. Full Tilt Poker has raised the stakes yet again by announcing the creation of the ONYX Cup poker tournament series. The series is comprised of 6 no-limit hold ’em tournaments each with a buy-in of at least $100,000 that will take place all over the world with the goal of recognizing the world’s best poker player.

In a stunning development, The World Series of Poker Europe has announced that it will be moving from London to Cannes, France, until 2014. Does this mean that for the next 3 years, poker’s top pros will be hearing things like “Big Blind S’il Vous Plaît” and “French only at the table sir”?

I thought that after more than half a decade of involvement in the poker industry and after tens of thousands of poker hands played live and online that I’d seen it all. Boy was I ever wrong! I recently came across an advertisement in CardPlayer magazine for something called the Poker Cube.

Readers of Daniel Negreanu’s poker blog know that he always sets himself goals for the year. His first goal for 2011 was to win $1 million. Incredibly, just a couple weeks into the New Year, Negreanu can already cross that off his list! While he didn’t win the $100,000 Super High Roller event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, second place was good enough to win Negreanu $1 million and catapult him into the all-time lead for money won in poker tournaments (around $14 million), ahead of FullTilt pro Phil Ivey.

That’s right. After more than 12 years “away from the felt” Matt Damon (as Mike McDermott) will ante up again in “Rounders 2” and try to win some serious “stacks of high society”!

Proving that her recent North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun $750,000 win wasn’t a fluke, Vanessa Selbst scored big again at the €8,500 buy-in main event of the Partouche Poker Tour. This prestigious win in a field of 764 players is Selbst’s biggest success to date, carrying a €1.3 million payday.

Jonathan Duhamel has won the 2010 WSOP Main Event. The 23-year-old professional poker player became the first Canadian World Champion and had a payday of almost $9 million. Duhamel enjoyed a memorable run to defeat the 8 other remaining November Niners, the most famous of whom was Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi, who finished 5th.

Lost in all of the hullabaloo of Michael Mizrachi making the final table of this year’s WSOP Main Event, with a chance to tie for Player of the Year honors, was the man who was already guaranteed to at least be the co-winner, Frank Kassela.

Inductions to poker’s Hall of Fame have become an annual ritual during the ceremonies surrounding the World Series of Poker main event final table. As the November niners prepare for combat on the felt, two legends of the game are preparing to be enshrined as poker Hall of Famers.

Perhaps London is where the poker pros shine brightest? Hot on the heels of Phil Laak’s 1st bracelet victory, 2009 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro scored his 5th career bracelet at the WSOPE in London, at the £5,250 Pot-Limit Omaha event.

The Unabomber? Wild? Crazy? Nuts? Insane? Call him what you will, but 1 thing is undeniable – Phil Laak is quite the character. Known more for his table talk, antics, prop bets, and friendship with Antonio Esfandiari, than his poker play, Laak had been atop an infamous list of “professional poker players without a World Series of Poker bracelet” – until now.