Of course, Ivey isn’t the only poker player with an awesome crib since there are plenty of other star players who live in houses that would make us jealous.  Doyle Brunson is one of these people as his lavish home is topped off by a fancy swimming pool with rocks around the side where he does his back flips off of.  Check out the Texas Dolly’s house right here!

David Benyamine also has a pretty sweet pool in his backyard and, as Benyamine’s hot wife pointed out, it kind of has a Pirates of the Caribbean theme.  Benyamine’s poker room is far nicer than most people’s living room since it has several leather chairs along with a giant wall-mounted TV where he can multi-table from 10 feet away.  Take a full look at Benyamine’s home here.

One more great poker player crib you should take a look at is Barry Greenstein’s house.  As soon as he opens up the door, you can see the Scarface-like staircase with a cool balcony above it.  And while Greenstein never busts out a machine gun or shoves his face in a giant mound of cocaine during the filming segment, it’s still worth looking at his entire mansion just for the fish tanks and bathroom/living room area alone.  Here it is.

The action started quickly as Lex ‘RaSZi’ Veldhuis won a $130,000 pot off of Eli Elezra after his two pair (9’s and 7’s) proved to be better than Elezra’s two pair (3’s and 7’s).  Elezra, who was down but definitely not out, came back strong after taking advantage of Phil “OMGClayaitken” Galfond’s maniac play.

Elezra had Galfond dominated from the start with pocket kings to Galfond’s K-5.  Elezra eventually got Galfond to call a $110k raise before going on to take $150,000 off Galfond.

Elezra wasn’t done there though since he got involved in another huge pot with Tom Dwan.  Over $225,000 was laying on the table when Tom Dwan (9-7) decided to go all-in, which left Elezra (Q-Q) trying to decide what Dwan had on a flop of 3-7-9 rainbow.  Elezra made a nice move by correctly guessing that Dwan had flopped a two-pair, and mucked his cards

After taking the huge pot off of Elezra, Dwan rolled over Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier in a huge $255,000 pot.  Grospellier (Ad-6d) made one of the more questionable calls of the evening when he called Dwan’s all-in move (Ac-As) on a board of 4c-6s-8s-Qd.  He thought Dwan had nothing more than a spade draw when he actually held top pair.

With Season 6 of High Stakes Poker coming to a close, it’s obvious that Dwan is on top of his game, Elezra is somewhere in the middle, and both Galfond and Grospellier need to work on their game before stepping onto this stage again.  Other strong performances came from Phil Ivey (of course) and Mike Matusow while Daniel Negreanu’s meltdown was quite a surprise.

This opportunity arose over a year and a half years ago when Hollywood producer Robin Schorr encouraged Ferguson to invest in a company called RCR Pictures.  Unfortunately for Schorr, convincing Ferguson wasn’t easy since it took up until now for him to agree to invest.

The money is definitely there now though since both Ferguson and his business partner Ray Bitar are both going to invest.  In fact, Schorr has estimated that the pair will be putting $5-$10 million into her company.  Schorr’s successful resume was a chief reason why both Ferguson and Bitar decided to invest in RCR Pictures; Schorr produced The Prince and Me as well as a documentary called Food Inc., which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Many people have speculated that the next step for RCR Pictures will be to make a poker movie.  However, Schorr’s first step with the new investors on board is to do a remake of a 1966 film called Nevada Smith.  In Nevada Smith, the main character’s parents are murdered, which prompts him to exact revenge on those responsible.

Since this movie has nothing to do with poker yet, it will be interesting to see when RCR Pictures will consider making a poker film.  It could be soon as Schorr said, “Yes, I would love to find a poker movie.”

Can we predict a second-coming of Rounders?

The premise of this poker show was that 4 online pros were living in a fancy Las Vegas house while trying to accomplish the tough feat of making $2 million in just two months of online poker.  In addition to the whole money making aspect, the trials and tribulations of the players was also an element to the show.  The players involved were Brian Roberts, Dani Stern, Emil Patel, and Jay Rosenkrantz.

Rosenkrantz was of particular interest since every major heads-up challenge saw him taking on some a poker pro.  In one episode, Rosenkrantz was pitted against David Benyamine in a heads-up battle that saw him lose over $60,000.  But Rosenkrantz redeemed himself in an online heads-up match against David “Viffer” Peat where he took Peat for over $351,000 after discovering a cyber tell.  Unfortunately for Rosenkrantz, he couldn’t redeem the whole four person team as they fell short of the $2 million in 2 month goal.

By the end of the 2 months the team earned a solid $676,000 total, which would definitely satisfy plenty of four-person online teams out there.  However, in the spirit of this challenge the money wasn’t quite enough to make ends meet.  And the ratings weren’t high enough to give the group a second chance at their goal since G4 made it clear that the show is done.  2 Months, $2 Million ended up lasting for 10, half hour episodes.

Democrats (Mayor) Stephanie C. Rawlings-Black and (Senate President) Thomas V. Mike Miller have issued their support for additional games to be added to the recently permitted slots casinos. These casinos are not yet open, but the powers that be are already looking to pump up this potential revenue stream.

Profits from the casinos will be used to fund public education – that’s a win for poker players and students in Baltimore (win, win).

States like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware offer legal poker, and state officials are worried that Maryland is losing out on local cash that is crossing state lines.

During trying economic times, states have fast-tracked the construction and legality of casinos, leaving gamblers (and kids) thankful.

As of now it’s up to the public to decide, but this is still America, right? Let people choose what they want to do. It’s not like Baltimore doesn’t have poker games going on right now. Regulate the games and start padding education funds.

Did I do this post to show a screen cap from The Wire? Yes. Yes, I did.

Mershon spoke about his new song by saying, “It’s just my way of saying ‘thank you’ to those fans who like my new song.”  Mershon continued by saying, “I wrote the song to humorously tell what it’s really like being a professional poker player, the sarcastic attitudes of many professional poker players, and the monotony of actually playing poker for a living and grinding out the long hours in a casino card room.”

And while the tone of Jason Mershon’s song may not be serious, the actual song itself is definitely getting some good praise from players and poker insiders who say it’s the best poker song in years.  Mershon has spent most of his working career in the entertainment industry, and he has already put out a hit song called “Rock and Roll Heaven”, which won two awards at the 2006 Los Angeles Music Awards.

Since winning the awards for Rock and Roll Heaven, Mershon has put much of his focus towards his professional poker career.  Jason commented on his poker abilities by saying, “I probably spend 90% of my time playing in cash games, but I’m also considered a pretty good tournament player as well.  So, I don’t want people to think I’m dead money in the World Series of Poker.”

Mershon finished summing up his chances at making a run in the 2010 WSOP by saying, “I think I’ve got as good a chance as any in making the Final Table.  I used to play with World Series of Poker champ Jerry Yang on a regular basis in California before he won the Main Event in 2006, and I’ve also held my own with many of the other well-known pros in tournaments and cash games alike.  I think the past few years have proven that almost anyone has a chance in The Main Event.”

The future of High Stakes Poker was in question last year after new management took over the GSN and canceled the World Poker Tour broadcasts. GSN officially announced its return in a press release last November.

The Golden Nugget reprises its role as the meeting place for the cash game goliaths. Returning for the sixth season are the familiar faces of Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Eli Elezra, Allan Meltzer, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, and Daniel Negreanu. New are the faces of many notable European names in the world of poker, including European Poker Tour winner Andreas Hoivold, Sammy “Any Two” George, Lex Velhuis, and 2009 WPT Championship event winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

The beautiful Kara Scott also replaces Gabe Kaplan’s commentating antithesis, A.J. Benza. In a format similar to other Poker PROduction shows (NBC’s Poker After Dark and National Heads-Up Poker Championship), Scott will be on the floor for hand analysis and insight from the pros, instead of reprising the play-by-play commentating role Benza leaves in his absence. How Kaplan leverages the brunt of the load without Benza as a crutch remains to be seen.

Relive one of the most memorable moments across five seasons when Barry Greenstein and Tom “durrr” Dawn battle for a $919,600 pot, the second largest in High Stakes Poker history.

Tom “durrr” Dwan vs. Barry Greenstein for $919,600 pot on YouTube.

Nejad was often the center of attention in his own show as he got involved in lots of action, and produced some really fun moments.  During one part of the episode, Nejad jokingly celebrated Joe Sebok’s appearance on TV by saying, “I had something special to do today in honor of Joe finally making a TV table.”

After delivering the quote, Ali Nejad gave each one of the players a champagne glass in order to toast Sebok’s ‘accomplishment’.  The joke is a reference to Sebok busting out right before the final table in numerous live tournaments.  Some of the tourneys where Sebok has busted out just before the final table include the Bay 101 Shooting Star, the WPT Fiesta al Lago, and the 2007 Legends of Poker.

All joking aside, the game was pretty competitive during Commentators III.  Each player began the game with 20,000 chips, and the blinds were set at $100/$200 so nobody was taking anything lightly.  Sebok quickly grabbed the chip lead after taking down a pot worth 7,900 chips against Gabe Kaplan.  Sebok hit trips queens during the hand, which prompted Kaplan to wisely fold.  The chip lead didn’t last long though as Mark Gregorich came out firing against Sebok with pocket aces.  Eventually, Gregorich forced Joe to fold with a bet of 3,000 chips.

This pretty much concluded the main action in the first episode of Season 6.  However, there is plenty of good poker to be played on Poker After Dark with 35 more scheduled episodes.

For years, poker players only appeared on TV if it was related to the actual game of poker.  However, we’ve recently begun seeing poker players appear in a lot of mainstream television shows and movies.  Daniel Negreanu appearing in the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, Annie Duke being one of the finalist on “The Apprentice”, and Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho appearing on the hit CBS reality series “Amazing Race” are just a couple of the latest examples.  Popular poker pro Erik Seidel added his name to the list this week.

Seidel made his mainstream television debut on the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” which revolves around the fictional life of Seinfeld producer Larry David.  The episode that Seidel appeared in was entitled “Officer Krupke”, and Erik is prominently featured in a shot where Larry and his onscreen wife Cheryl Hines are talking at a restaurant about a Seinfeld reunion.

Many have wondered how/why Seidel was on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  The 8-time WSOP gold bracelet winner explained that he is a huge fan of the show, and had been looking for a way to appear on it.  So basically, being able to appear on Curb Your Enthusiasm was a dream for Seidel since he is such a big fan of the show.

It has also been rumored that another poker pro might be making an appearance on a HBO show.  Daniel Negreanu will appear in an episode of the hit show “Entourage” along with fellow poker player/actor Ben Affleck.  Aside from his role as a poker player in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Negreanu also recently appeared in the “Body Issue” of ESPN: The Magazine.  Being on HBO’s “Entourage”, which is a drama based on the fictional life of a movie star and his friends, would only further cement Negreanu’s mainstream status.

According to many sources, GSN dumped Benza because they were looking to bring in an attractive female co-hostess.  At the time, rumors were swirling that poker pro Vanessa Rousso was the first choice by the network to fill Benza’s shoes.  Eventually, GSN would state that Rousso was not going to host HSP so former World Poker Tour hostess Shana Hiatt become another name thrown into the mix.

However, we now know that Hiatt won’t be the hostess either since it has been reported that poker pro Kara Scott will become the new commentator on High Stakes Poker.  Scott is one of the rising female professional players since she has earned $453,000 of her $500,000 career winnings in the last years and she’s also finished within the top 250 players in the last two WSOP Main Events.  In addition to her playing exploits, Scott has also done broadcasting work for the European Poker Tour and Poker Night Live.

The only thing that is standing in the way of Kara Scott being officially announced as the new HSP hostess is that she needs to obtain a permit which would allow her to work in the United States.  Without this permit, it would be illegal for Scott to work as the new HSP hostess according to US laws.  But it’s almost a given that Kara Scott will be able to get this permit since GSN is counting on it.