Because the guy can’t keep his mouth shut.

Has Tom ”durrr” Dwan taken on more than he can chew? After Dwan discussed a poker challenge where he would put up $1.5 million of his own money versus any challenger’s $500,000, both Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius indicated their interest in playing against him.

In his deal, Dwan stated that the challenger wins if he or she beats him heads-up in either No-Limit Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha with a minimum of 50,000 hands played simultaneously at four tables at $200-$400 stakes.

Phil Ivey, who has reputedly won more than $6 million last year solely through online play at ring games, has said that he would play anyone at every game there is. His acceptance of Dwan’s challenge isn’t really a surprise. After all, Ivey has had a history of accepting prop bets.

Patrik Antonius, like Ivey, takes pride that he plays anyone. In an interview, he explained that he also took on the challenge because he believed it would be interesting, and even if he lost, it would help his game a lot. When asked whether he would be playing Hold’em or Omaha, Antonius chose the latter.

During Barry Greenstein’s ”Tuesdays with Ivey” show on PokerRoad Radio…

Well, they’re hoping him to become a star anyway.

And although it’s quite a bit late for him to be a part of the 2008 World Series of Poker, this guy definitely has what it takes to make a name for himself in this game. After all, those guys from PokerStars won’t recruit him if he doesn’t have shit now right?

Who is it? A dude that goes by the name of Alexander Kravchenko. And although that name sounds more like a guy who plays football for Chelsea FC, he is the new member of Team PokerStars.

A former business investor, Alexander Kravchenko started playing poker in 1997 and I guess you can say he’s made a good use of his time on the felt. He made a name of himself when he made it in the money a more-than-impressive six times during the 2007 World Series of Poker.

Kravchenko even went so far as winning a World Series of Poker bracelet at the $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event on that same year. He also finished fourth at the Main Event ensuring television time and instant worldwide recognition.

It was only natural for PokerStars to train its sights on Kravchenko. He holds the distinction of being the first Russian citizen to win a…

Since the 2008 WSOP is still on, this is probably a good time to renew this poker TV show.

What do poker players do when they’re not grinding it out in online poker rooms or, if they’re THAT lucky, the 2008 World Series of Poker? Why, watch poker on television of course! So here’s some good news to poker aficionados out there, despite rumors to the contrary, ”High Stakes Poker” has been renewed by Game Show Network (GSN) for the fifth season.

Living under a rock and have no clue what ”High Stakes Poker” is about? It’s basically a show that features the most popular poker personalities putting up $100,000 or more of their own money in a ring game of No Limit Texas Hold-em. With pots so sick that it can reach over $1 million, you can imagine the magnitude of poker drama involved.

GSN was rumored to have plans to axe the widely popular show (one of the highest rated on the network) because the network has plans to gear toward targeting a younger audience. ”High Stakes Poker” attracts an older demographic and this cast some doubt on the future of the show.

Well, it seems that GSN is not willing to give up its cash cow yet, even if the show may not be skewed in accordance to the network’s future plans. According to AJ Benza, who co-hosts the show with Gabe Kaplan, the new episodes of the show will start filming in September.

Just in case you still have doubts on the…

Apparently, PokerStars want all the poker stars they can have.

His total live tournament winnings as of 2008 is over $1,800,000. He made a name for himself by appearing in two final tables at the European Poker Tour. He has also cashed four times at the World Series of Poker. Now, Swedish poker star William Thorson has joined poker notables Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Barry Greenstein at Team PokerStars.

With the 2008 World Series of Poker heating up the poker tables, PokerStars need all the help they can get. And they certainly didn’t go wrong with William Thorson.

Not bad for someone who started playing poker online at the play money tables. William Thorson has been playing at PokerStars since 2002 using his screen name ”William.” When he started playing with real money, his first deposit was a measly $50. He’s gone a long way considering that he can now afford to shell out $10,000 to join World Series of Poker main events.

Considered by many as the number one player on the Swedish poker scene, Thorson humbly admitted in interviews that despite his many accomplishments, he still considers being chosen for Team PokerStars Pro an honor.

”It’s a great team with many of the world’s greatest players and I’m…”

Yup, karma probably works after all.

If this is what good karma does to you, every poker player should start donating to charity more often. Or at least, that is what Barry Greenstein has led us to believe after collecting his third championship bracelet at Event No.26, the $1,500-buyin, Razz tournament at the 2008 World Series of Poker.

Barry Greenstein has simply been flexing his muscles at the 2008 WSOP. This is his second final table, having finished in third place at the $5,000 with re-buy No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw Event.

The former Symantec software developer has now accumulated around $6 million in career winnings. With that kind of money, it is no wonder that the so-called Robin Hood of poker can afford to donate his tournament winnings to charities.

The Razz tournament attracted a total of 413 players and a $618,345 prize pool. As with other less known poker games, meaning NOT Texas Hold’em, players found themselves facing a relatively small but tough field peppered with poker pros including Andy Bloch, Men ”The Master” Nguyen, Vanessa Rousso, Doyle Brunson, defending champion Katja Thater, Greg Raymer and Huck Seed.

In the end, Barry Greenstein found himself heads up with…

How about that, all that trash talking works after all.

As the 2008 World Series of Poker continues, another shining WSOP bracelet of the tournament was already won and this time, we have a big mouth that goes by the name Mike Matusow, winning the WSOP’s bling bling.

Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow needed 12 hours to outlast a stellar poker line-up to win his third World Series of Poker bracelet at Event no.18, the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Rebuys.

Every seat at the final table held a poker star and the players held eight WSOP bracelets between them. For his hard work, Matusow earned $537,862 for first place.

In one of the toughest final tables ever, Matusow found himself facing recent WSOP bracelet winner Erick Lindgren, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Barry Greenstein, 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider and fellow bad boy of poker Tony ‘G’ Guoga.

The event was one of the obscure games you’ll see in this year’s 2008 WSOP with a large enough buy-in to attract only an elite field of 85 players including Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel and Phil Hellmuth.

There were 272 rebuys and add-ons, building a massive $1,735,020 prize pool. After his win, Matusow ran up to the…

Whoever said poker is only a social disease didn’t live long enough to see how the game is raising millions of money to fund charities today that actually cure real diseases.

At the ongoing 2006 World Series of Poker alone, we’ve had at least two poker players donating their full winnings to non-profit, good-doing, and not getting much-needed government funding organizations.

This year’s Tournament of Champions winner and WPT host, Mike Sexton, decided to give away his $1 million prize to five different charities equally.

Then yesterday, WSOP Main Event 18th finisher David Einhorn announced that he is donating 100% of his WSOP earnings to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The amount is $659,730.

This trend of using poker money to help the needy was famous by poker pro Barry Greenstein, who is now referred to as the “Robin Hood of Poker” for his large tournament donations to charity. Phil Gordon is another philanthropist who chose to put his celebrity into good use by organizing poker fund raisers for cancer research.

His Bad Beat on Cancer is challenging America to raise $1 million in one year and help the Cancer Research & Prevention Foundation reach its ultimate goal of a cancer-free future.

And let’s not forget that no matter how crappy the plays we see at Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, that those stars are doing their best to win money for charities.

With all the money poker is making for charity, why are your…

World Series of Poker (WSOP) Champions from 2005-2001

Winners – By Year
Event Won
Prize Money

2005

Joseph Hachem
Championship Event
$7500000

2004

Greg "Fossilman" RaymerJames VoglTed ForrestAaron KatzCurtis BibbMinh NguyenGerry DrehoblChau GiangScott FischmanCyndy VioletteEli BalasScott FischmanThomas "Thunder" KellerHassan HabibDaniel NegreanuBarry GreensteinKathy LiebertPhi "John" NguyenAnnie DukeHuong DoanAntonio EsfandiariBrett JungblutTed ForrestJoe AwadaGavin GriffinTJ CloutierFarzad "Freddie" BonyadiGary GibbsJohn HenniganMike SicaTed LawsonNorm KetchumCarl "Coach" Nessel
Championship EventNo Limit [...]

The culmination of the Season 4 of the World Poker Tour is here. Begins today, April 18 and ends on the 24th when the new WPT king will be crowned along with millions to add in his/her greenback stash.

Once again the event happens at the prestigious Bellagio in Las Vegas, the 2006 WPT Championship with a buy-in of whopping $25,000, is final event for the world’s most famous poker tour. At least for the current season.

Poker News reported the WPT is expecting over half a million field vying for the totle this year: Expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 players to vie for the coveted WPT Championship, with nearly every "name" professional to be at the Bellagio in Las Vegas along with a multitude of online qualifiers and other unknowns looking to make their mark on the poker world.

Last year’s champ Tuan Le will go up against some of the top poker pros like Scotty Nguyen, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Barry Greenstein, Alan Goehring, and a lot more where these guys came from. But with hundreds of non-pros also trying their luck at the tables, it will not be surprising at all if…

Our former free pick guinea A.J. Benza has left our cheap-ass confines and moved on to better-paying pastures in the form of co-hosting the Game Show Network’s upcoming poker juggernaut "High Stakes Poker", which premieres on the network January 6th. Benza will serve as the show’s guido version of Norman Chad, adding witty commentary and pasta recipes between hands, or something. Benza has provided us with the list of players playing in the $100,000 buy-in cash game featuring professionals and rich amateurs that may(or may not) get your poker boners erected:

Doyle Brunson Barry Greenstein Freddy Deeb Daniel Negraneu Antonio Esfandiari Eli Elezra Todd Brunson Bob Stupak Sam Farha Fred Chalimar Daniel Aleisi Ted Forest Mimi Tran Jenniefer Harmon Sean Sheikahn Some guy named Amir who is a gynecologist Phil Hellmuth Jerry Buss