There are a few people that seem to be surprised by the fact that the WSOP Circuit Regional Championship in Rincon this week only drew 98 players. Some figured that the added TV time and potential guaranteed seats for the National Championship would be enough to bolster this struggling stop. I'm surprised they hit 98. The WSOP-C stop at Rincon has been among the worst stops on the WSOP-C the last couple of years.

If you want a look into the mentality of many poker fans, take a look at the results from today's Pokerstars Superstar Showdown Challenge. Daniel Negreanu took on Isildur1 for 2,500 hands and emerged a $26k winner. Everyone is congratulating him like he just accomplished one of the biggest feats in poker. At the same time, they are seeming to totally overlook the fact that he dropped $150,000 to Blom just a week ago.

What a difference six months make. On September 1st of last year, I wrote the blog Gus Hansen - Maybe It's Time to Retire. That blog was written after it was revealed that since 2007, Hansen had lost over $9. 23 million on Full Tilt Poker[http://www.

Cake Poker announced on Thursday that they had entered a "strategic partnership" with PokerListings. com. The translation for those of you that don't speak poker business speak is that the Cake Poker Network was sold to PokerListings. VictoryPoker.

On Thursday, PokerStars announced the EPT Tournament of Champions, and that will run up against the first ever Onyx Cup event in May. This is just another example of the online turf wars that have spilled out into the live arena. Can you imagine what would happen if more online sites started to participate in the turf wars? Just imagine the screener questionnaires that would accompany tournament registration. Of course, I have put some thought into it and here is what you may encounter.

If there is one person in the poker world whom you would want to learn poker from who would it be? We all know who my choice is in the matter. Today, I almost wet myself when I saw the following site: www. philivey. com[http://www.

In case you missed it this past Sunday, Daniel Negreanu took on Viktor Blom aka Isildur1 in the latest Pokerstars Superstar Showdown Challenge. More accurately, Daniel tried to take him on. For the first time since this challenge had been instituted, Isildur1 actually busted his opponent. It only took 1,439 out of the 2,500 hands for Isildur1 to defeat Negreanu.

While I didn't think I would do so, I have watched every episode this season of High Stakes Poker on GSN.   Here are a few of my thoughts on the season so far. 1.   Is it me or does Doyle look like he isn't having any fun in this game?  He seems like he would rather be anywhere than on the show.

Mike Sexton had to give up his final table announcing duties at the Bay 101 World Poker Tour event on Friday. The reason was that he actually made the final table. He wound up finishing in 6th place. Mike Matusow also made the final table and ultimately finished in 3rd place.

Often we see poker media or poker pros talk about doing things that are in the "best interest of the game" or in the "best interest of the poker community. "I was just reading a blog talking about the Onyx Series that Full Tilt is going to put on this year. They were talking about how that poker site rivalries are spilling over into the live arena due to the fact that poker sites are telling their pros not to play at other sites' live events. The comment was made that the people in charge of the sites should do what is in the best interest of the poker community.