ESPN - poker blog

When action concluded late Tuesday night the final table was set. Among the eight players that remain, there was one very noticeable trend: youth and control of the chips. Sam "KingKobeMVP" Stein, a 22-year old professional poker player, takes in a solid chip lead heading into the final table. He has over $400,000 in live tournament winnings including a runner-up finish in the $5,000 no-limit hold 'em event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and a WPT televised final table. He entered Day 3 as...

Day 3 of the first North American Poker Tour event on U.S. soil concluded early Tuesday morning with only 24 players remaining in the hunt for the $827,648 first-place prize. While many notable players were eliminated during early play on Monday (Greg Raymer, Nam Le, Bill Chen and Tom McEvoy) it was Vanessa Rousso getting eliminated during Level 22 to finish the night. Despite her exit, the field still contains some extremely talented players who have put themselves in a great position for a run...

For the last eight years, "good for poker" has been a unifying rally cry. The game and the online industry built upon it, fought for growth and acceptance and while tribal lines were drawn, old Vegas connections seemed to keep everyone on the same page. Are we seeing the increasingly corporate mentality of the industry bring an end to that chapter?

There's been plenty of news recently regarding Full Tilt Poker guarding its player-brands from events controlled by other rooms. According to one member...

David Benyamine won the Party Poker Premier League IV and Isildur1 makes a strong return to the high-stakes tables.

When I was first learning about poker some years ago, there were two players I learned the game with who have since gone on to pretty stellar poker careers. Randomly, in completely separate conversations, they each told me one of their favorite stealing hands late in a tournament was 9-4 offsuit. In those late stages of a tournament, where stealing the blinds and antes are so critical to one's success, they said any time they got 9-4 offsuit they were raising.

I never settled on 9-4 offsuit as...

Bernard Lee signed an endorsement deal with Foxwoods Resort and Casino's WPT-branded poker room.

Tyron Krost won his first major title and 2 million AU$ with his victory in Australia.

Sirous Jamshidi leads the final 10 at the Borgata Winter Poker Open main event

Jeff Madsen leads the field of 135 heading into Day 3 at the Borgata.

Jeff Madsen, Gavin Smith and more have great starts to the $3,500 main event at the Borgata.

Annette Obrestad and Sorel Mizzi headline the final table of the Aussie Millions main event.

The end of January is one of the busiest times on the poker scene, with tournaments in action across the world.

Let me start by saying that I am not a professional poker player. However, I do feel qualified through my vast experience as both a player and an industry leader to engage in a conversation or debate if you will, as to what makes someone a poker pro.

Before we get deep into this often puzzling area of what is considered a professional poker player, let me tell you a little about myself and my poker background. I have been playing poker for over 25 years. I have evolved with the game from the backroom...

When I fully immersed myself in the poker world six years ago, T.J. Cloutier loomed larger than life. A man whose former football-playing frame perfectly suited his reputation to the eyes of those on the other side of the TV screen, Cloutier was constantly referred to in those days as the greatest tournament player to have never won the WSOP main event.

Cloutier's resume runs deep. In the WSOP alone, he's finished second twice in the main event, won six bracelets, cashed 56 times and won over...

In Episode Four of Line's Traveling Circus series, Will Wesson, Andy Parry, and Ian Compton look for rails to grind and tables to fly over in America's Flyover Region. Will Wesson is currently a Powder Award nominee in the "Best Jib" category. Wesson won the same award last year for a multifeature urban line during which he not only slams a Mountain Dew, but also properly disposes of the container. Head For The Hills, the 2008 release from East Coast movie company Meathead Films, features Wesson's...

With inch after inch of freshies piling up on the SLC landscape, the handrails are going off in Utah. But that's not the only place to get your shred on, Ghengis Khan.A little farther down south from SLC, farther from God, but closer to the beach, it's also dumping in Mammoth-Dumping like you've never seen, brother."It hasn't snowed like this in Mammoth in over 25 years," boasted long-time Mammoth local Sean Pennington. "And I should know: I've lived here since 1993."Mammoth area skiers began...

I'm not sure why World Series of Poker champion Joe Cada decided to help buy me in to a $1,100 tournament at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure this past weekend, but he did. It felt pretty cool being backed by the WSOP champ and his agent Dan Frank. Getting to play in a tournament at the PCA was definitely not on the planned schedule. In addition to my part of the buy-in, they each had me for one-third of the money. Sure, it was "just a ladies event" but poker pros Vanessa Rousso, Liv Boeree and...

Norman Chad falls in love with alarming regularity, so it shouldn't have been a shock when he was suddenly infatuated with Kara Scott during the 2008 World Series of Poker main event. Scott, the beautiful Canadian television personality, combined looks, table-side grace and enough expertise to last to 104th place in that tournament. What's not to love?

After that success, Scott intensified her focus on the table, a decision that netted her a $400,000-plua score in April's Irish Open and another...

The beauty of poker is that 10 players could play the same hand 10 different ways. Granted, most of us would raise with aces preflop, but the amounts might be different. Or maybe the way we would play them against different opponents would change our respective strategies.

The Debate makes a triumphant return with an interesting situation and this week, Brian Kornfeld joins me to analyze a situation from a recent online tournament. While some might believe this situation is a clear move one way...

New to the competitive ski scene this year is the Gatorade Free Flow Tour for amateur skiers and snowboarders. While it's no World Qualifying Series like they have in surfing, the GFFT is hopefully a viable answer to the lack of any true replacement for the event formerly known as the US Open of Freeskiing. Although no one wants a return to those 10-hour competition days with 200 competitors, there really isn't a fair way into marquee events such as the X Games or Winter Dew Tour. With eleven stops...