One Dropped

There's bad beats. There's sick bad beats. And then there's astronomically-impossible-odds-working-against-you-at-the-worst-possible-time bad beats. First place in this year's One Drop was good for over $15 million. Connor Drinan had a good shot at it...until he didn't.

You know how your stomach hurts after watching a man take a swift kick to the nuts? Well, guys do. Ladies, just take our word for it; it feels roughly the same as you'll feel after watching this hand.

Bitter Beat Face

This is like standing atop a hill and watching below as a bridge collapses a quarter mile ahead of a train that's speeding down the tracks. You know it's going to end in tragedy, but you can't look away.

And Norman Chad and Lon McEachern's commentary afterwards are just swift kicks to the gut of a guy who's already laying on the canvas.

Xmas List 2012: MollaSpace Playing Cards

Here's something for your balla-ass card table. The faces of these cards are transparent, allowing you to see straight through them; but the backs are still opaque, keeping your hand hidden.

This new and unique deck of cards is transparent, allowing one to see through the poker face images, but also magically hides the back graphics so no one can cheat!!

$10 is expensive when it comes to a deck of cards, so don't half ass it; don't go dealing out these bad boys on the broken down old folding card table that your grandparents gave to you when they were clearing junk from the 1950s out their garage. These cards are for those sipping-cognac-from-big-ass-snifters-and-smoking-Cubans nights.

Or the playing-strip-poker-with-some-smoking-Cubans nights...

Shuffle Up & Deal

The World Poker Tour is back for season 9, and they’ve taking things up a few notches. They’re bringing more in-depth analysis of the players, of the hands, and of the early rounds of each tournament. And they’ve added Tony Dunst and the smoking hot Royal Flush girls (I’m feeling a Tail Report in the near future). Anytime you can incorporate expert insight and gratuitous shots of beautiful women & tiny dresses & bikinis, I call that good television.

Daily Dunk: Von Wafer

If you haven't noticed, Von Wafer came up this year. The former Lakers reject met up with the Houston Rockets early this season and became a legit scorer off the bench, especially when T-Mac got his annual injury.

Fast forward to the playoffs and Wafer is center stage in the Western Conference semi's against his former team. So who did I see playing poker last night at the casino in Inglewood? Von Wafer. Just passing time between games I guess. Hey, it's only the Western Conference semi's.

So I decided to look him up for the Daily Dunk and look what I found -- his highlights from the 2003 McDonald's All-American dunk contest where he finished second place to some guy named Lebron James.

Sick Bluff on High Stakes Poker

From episode 2 of the new season of High Stakes Poker on GSN: Tom "Durrrr" Dwan, a newcomer to the show, earns his stripes amongst the more established players at the table by taking down a pot even though he had the weakest of the three hands. [I haven't been able to find a shorter, focused clip, so you'll have to skip to 4:38 in this video.]

Michael Phelps makes final table at Caesar's

There's been a lot of buzz on the internets about Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps and his love for poker. Well, it looks like he's got some skill to go along with his love for the game.

From Cardplayer.com: American swimmer Michael Phelps, the world record holder for most medals won in a single Olympics, may be fish in the water but not at the poker tables. At event No. 2 of the Caesars Palace Classic, a $1,500 buy-in tournament, Phelps finished ninth out of more than 150 players for a payday of $5,000.

Learn how to play poker from Smooth Larry Appleton

This is a clip from Perfect Strangers, with Larry teaching Balki how to play poker. It's not that funny until Balki busts a nut over his hand at the end of the clip. That's not even that funny unless you play poker and have experienced that blissful Joy of hitting the nuts with three all-ins before you've even acted.

Sports Illustrated's Coverage of Poker

Sports Illustrated recently made it's entire archive available online and here are their stories that have covered poker. Thanks to Kevmath at 2+2.

THE POKER IN THE SMOKER, Poker on NYC trains.

Lowball in a Time Capsule, regarding the lowball rooms in Gardena, CA.

IT AIN'T JUST ALL HEAVEN, GAMBLING. THERE'S A LOT YOU GOT TO CONTEND WITH, an article on Johnny Moss from 1971.

A SAWYER TAKES THE POT ANYTIME, regarding home games being robbed, later in 1971.

HOUSE OF CARDS WORTH $220,000, on the 1976 World Series of Poker.

An amateur is burned at high stakes, an amateur takes on the pros in the 1977 WSOP.

CARE TO JOIN OUR LITTLE OLD GAME? on the original version of High Stakes Golf, the PGI.

Deep-sixed by a six in the hole, on the Amarillo Slim Classic in 1979.

YOUTH CAN AGE YOU, on Bobby Baldwin and other "young guns" of poker in 1979.

'LOOK UP AND HE'S GOT YOUR MONEY',a 1984 story on Billy Baxter.

IF YOU PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT, YOU CAN MAKE IT BIG IN TINY EMERYVILLE,a 1985 article on cardrooms in Emeryville, CA.

He Knows When to Hold 'Em,a 1994 article on Phil Hellmuth.

Five-Card Studs,a Rick Reilly column on Amarillo Slim from 2002.

THE PRIME-TIMING OF Texas Hold 'em, a 2003 on the WPT and the poker boom, mainly covering the Legends of Poker at the Bike.

Las Vegas' favorite celebrity caddie, Hellmuth caddying for Corey Pavin in 2004.

TV Poker's A Joker, 2004 Rick Reilly column on TV poker.

Online and Obsessed, the 2005 article on online poker at college campuses, with Jason Strasser, Vanessa Selbst and others.