A brain surgeon receives a phone call from a colleague on a Saturday night. "We need another poker player for tonight" the friend says. "I'll be there right away!" the doctor replies with a sense of urgency. As he puts on his coat and makes his way out the door his wife asks him "Is it serious?" and the doctor replies "Oh, very! There are 3 other doctors already there!" Known for nose-bleed stakes and million-dollar swings, Kelopuro has had a few close calls in live tournaments, including deep runs on the EPT and Partouche Poker Tour totaling over $234,000. This win marks his biggest MTT score to date. This SCOOP main event was a $10,300 buy-in event that drew a field of 380, building a prize pool of $3.8 million that far exceeded the $2.5 million guarantee. 45 players would get paid with the eventual winner earning $735,000. The tournament began on Sunday, taking the place of PokerStars’ regularly scheduled Sunday Million, and wasn’t finished until the following evening when Kelopuro defeated German player Tagult heads-up to become the 2011 SCOOP... rake in holdem online

Some people have luck that goes from good to bad in an instant. Take this one friend of mine for example. He almost always draws whatever card he needs to win a hand of poker, but almost always loses big at the horse races! I asked him about this and he once replied "Well, they don't let me shuffle the horses." Every year there are players who emerge from relative obscurity to make a name for themselves at the world’s biggest poker series. It’s what makes the WSOP such a compelling 50 days of poker.  You can even be a big name poker pro like Patrik Antonius or Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and still be waiting for your first WSOP bracelet. Meanwhile players like Brock Parker, Jeff Madsen and Brandon Cantu went from nobodies to WSOP superstars in various editions of the Series. Of course a list like this will always be subjective but we’ve done our best to put our ears to the ground and get an idea for who’s going to crush at this year’s WSOP. What follows is our stab at the top five players to... Freeroll poker online

A weekly Friday night poker game was going strong well into the midnight hour when one of the players from the game returned from a bathroom break with a shocked look to him. "David!" he said with urgency, "Come quick! Your wife is in the bathroom making love to your brother!". "Ok guys" David replied, "this is absolutely the last hand!" Just nine players bought in to this high-stakes Heads-Up Championship making it the only SCOOP event this year to come up short of its guarantee. PokerStars was forced to foot the bill for the extra $25,000, fulfilling their promise of a $250,000 prize pool. With nine players the heads-up format called for seven of those players to receive buys in the first round. K_0_S_T_Y_A and ChrisFun123 were the two unlucky players to miss the chance at a free ride through to Round 2. ChrisFun123 was able to dispatch his opponent in just five levels of play, winning a coin-flip to proceed to the round of eight. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom played this event but couldn't get past his first match with Also11... rake in holdem online

A woman walks into living room and sees her brother playing poker with their dog. "Wow!" she exclaimed, "You must have the smartest dog in the world!" and her brother replies "He's not all that smart. I've beaten him 3 out of 5 games so far." Hansen burned through 2,176 hands and played a massive $300/$600 PLO session against Patrik Antonius.  Despite being close friends in real life, Hansen and Antonius have been mortal enemies on Full Tilt since U.S. players were locked from the site. As two of the biggest fish left in the pond, Hansen and Antonius have locked horns numerous times in the last month with hundreds of thousands of dollars switching back and forth. Although O Fortuna PLS and Esvedra joined in on the $300/$600 PLO battle last night, the decisive blows were between Hansen and Antonius. This time around it was Hansen who had the hammer, as he would eventually leave the table with $686k. The win rockets Hansen back... Freeroll poker online

A man calls his wife at work and tells her "honey... I have some bad news. We just won the 3 million dollar state lottery." and the wife replies "Bad news? How is that bad news! We can finally live out our dreams!" to which the man responds "The payout is 3 dollars a year for a million years." Scott Seiver Wins WPT Championship 220 players bought in to the $25,000 WPT Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas and poker pro Scott Seiver finished in first place, earning $1,618,344 and his first World Poker Tour title. Seiver defeated Farzad Bonyadi heads-up. Bonyadi received $1,061,900 for his runner-up finish. Other notable finishes include Galen Hall in 3rd ($589,355), Justin Young in 6th ($225,654), David Williams in 14th ($53,095) and Doyle Brunson in 24th ($37,167). Erik Seidel Wins WPT $100k Super High Roller Erik Seidel has won more than $5.5 million since the year began, including his victory in the recent $100,000 buy-in WPT Super High Roller at Bellagio. 29 players entered... rake in holdem online

A man walks into a poker room and notices two men and a dog playing poker. The dog was playing exceptionally well and the man comments "Wow, that's one smart dog!". "Not too smart." one of the men at the table replies. "Every time he gets a good hand, he wags his tail." This week players will have access to the usual Cake Poker weekly $500 freeroll on Saturday but later in the day will also be able to play the epic PartyPoker monthly $2,000 freeroll. If you earned 100 Player Points in April, then you’re in.  Later in the week 888poker will be running its exclusive $500 free tournament for PokerListings players on Tuesday. If you miss that one you can always catch the Betfair $304 cash giveaway for PokerListings players on Friday. If you're not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site's name in the list to sign up. Cake Poker Cake Poker is running a $500 freeroll on Saturday for new players. Date: May 21 Value: $500... rake in holdem online

A man sits down at a poker game and consistently calls another man's bluff. The other man asks "how could you tell I was lying?" and the man replies "because your chips were moving." We’ve decided to bring that simple elegance to PokerListings.com by reducing the poker world's weekly happenings to two simple lists. Buckle up and get ready for this week’s In and Out List. Poker's In List - May 13-20 1. Hat Guy Prahlad Friedman dropped a new music video this week and unleashed a star on an unsuspecting poker world. The man who is now and forever known as Hat Guy may have questionable rapping skills and little to no coordination, rhythm or basic motor control, but what he does have is commitment. Anyone willing to commit to something like this as wholeheartedly as this guy did, and in the face of such obvious potential for ridicule, gets a spot on our “In List” every... holdem poker online

How is a women like a casino? Liquor in the front, poker in the back! In the past we were na

A man calls his wife at work and tells her "honey... I have some bad news. We just won the 3 million dollar state lottery." and the wife replies "Bad news? How is that bad news! We can finally live out our dreams!" to which the man responds "The payout is 3 dollars a year for a million years." Antonius fired off 664 hands of $3,000/$6,000 Omaha Hi-Lo and ran into some serious opposition from fellow Team Full Tilt member Gus Hansen. Although O Fortuna PLS and Esvedra stopped by for several hands, the real action was between Hansen and Antonius. Omaha Hi-Lo is widely considered Hansen’s best game and he certainly showed why last night. The Great Dane ended up finishing his session up $200k while Antonius finally called it quits when he hit -$353k. Thanks to last night’s action, Hansen is once again the biggest overall online winner in 2011 with $2.9 million in profit. Meanwhile it was still a fantastic week for Antonius with $740,000 in profit. Both Hansen and Antonius will be... Freeroll poker online

A man joins gambler's anonymous. He's given three-to-one odds he won't make it. 207 players bought in to the High-Level tournament of Event 28, $1,050 NL Hold'em Turbo with Big Antes. It was a two-day online poker event that saw seven players return for Day 2, chasing the $134,160 first-place prize. Banderivets came out on top to secure the cash and his first SCOOP title. Paolo69 was hunting his second 2011 SCOOP title in this event, but finished 3rd for $73,320. Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen finished 6th for $31,200. The medium-stakes version of Event 28 was also a two-day affair, with $66,606 on the table when the final seven returned to the final table. kluka of Holland led when play resumed Day 2 but by end of play OMGitshunt from Belarus was the only player... holdem poker online

A man joins gambler's anonymous. He's given three-to-one odds he won't make it. In years past we pushed our luck, spotlighting individuals and making brash predictions about those individuals winning bracelets. As it turns out it’s no easy feat to predict winners at the WSOP. So this year we’re going to do things a little differently. Rather than pick individuals, we’re going to throw darts at groups of individuals in the hopes one or two might stick. And so we continue with the 2011 WSOP Best Bets series with our next group: Sports stars. With more and more successful athletes turning to the game of poker, it’s really only a matter of time before this group begins dominating in yet another arena. One need only look at the last 12 months to see the stars of other... holdem poker online

A man sits down at a poker game and consistently calls another man's bluff. The other man asks "how could you tell I was lying?" and the man replies "because your chips were moving." Apparently Antonius was in the mood for online poker as the Finnish pro recorded a marathon 2,218-hand session against Rui Cao and Gus Hansen. Antonius took on both players at $500/$1,000 heads-up PLO and absolutely dominated Cao. Cao, who was born in China but currently lives in France, had been on a great run this year with nearly $1 million in profit. Antonius put a stop to that, eventually dragging over $700k from Cao. For his part Hansen actually put up a good fight against his fellow Team Full Tilt member. The Great Dane ended up taking $150k from Antonius before they both left to take on several players at Omaha Hi-Lo $3,000/$6,000.  Antonius and Hansen were both successful in... holdem poker online

How can you get a "professional" poker player to get off your front doorstep? Pay him for the pizza. Only catch for Hall is he's got esteemed high-stakes pro and final-table regular Scott Seiver right there with him this time. Day 5 began with 15 players remaining and several big name pros still in the hunt, including reigning champ David Williams, multiple WSOP bracelet winners Daniel Alaei and Freddy Bonyadi and noted pros Seiver, Nenad Medic, Shannon Shorr and Justin Young. Five levels and nine eliminations later, Hall still sits on top the chip counts but the gap between him and Seiver has closed substantially. Both players now sit at roughly 5 million chips with Seiver the big mover of the day, pecking away at Sam El Sayed's chip stack until finally cracking him with a few big... holdem poker online

How is a women like a casino? Liquor in the front, poker in the back! In the past we’ve picked out individuals, based on results, skill and our vast knowledge of the vagaries of the poker world. Frankly, our predictions have been less than accurate. That’s why this year we’re taking the shotgun approach, aiming at groups in hopes of scoring a few hits. So let’s continue the 2011 WSOP Best Bets series with our second group: Chess players. If there is a group of people more prepared for success at the 2011 World Series of Poker than chess players, PokerListings hasn’t found it. Two world-class female chess players dominated the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational in Los Angeles this year en route to making the final table. And while stars of the chess... rake in holdem online

A weekly Friday night poker game was going strong well into the midnight hour when one of the players from the game returned from a bathroom break with a shocked look to him. "David!" he said with urgency, "Come quick! Your wife is in the bathroom making love to your brother!". "Ok guys" David replied, "this is absolutely the last hand!" The Swede played 1,576 hands on PokerStars, the majority against noted online pro Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky at $50/$100 heads-up Pot-Limit Omaha.  Sulsky and Blom played over 600 hands against each other and Blom ended up taking a little over $100k from the U.S.-born pro. Apparently it wasn’t enough action for Blom who went on to play a series of $25/$50 PLO heads-up matches against adiprene1 and gavz101. By the time Blom called it a night he was up a total of $183k. Blom has not been especially active since U.S. players were locked out of PokerStars but he has started to trend upwards. He entered April down nearly $400k but he’s recorded a few nice sessions over the past two weeks and has... holdem poker online

How can you get a sweet and gentle old lady to say the word "fu@k"? Get another sweet and gentle old lady to yell BINGO! Despite a decent lead - Hall's the only player over $3m in chips and about 700k ahead of his nearest competitor, Sam El Sayed - Hall will need to be at the top of his game to make the final six as several well known vets are chasing. Among them: Reigning WPT World Champion David Williams, multiple WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Alaei and feared online and live grinders Scott Seiver, Shannon Shorr, Ashton Griffin, Nenad Medic, Justin Young, Freddy Bonyadi and Will "the Thrill" Failla. If that wasn't enough, there's also 22-year-old WSOP bracelet winner Steven Kelly and NAPT LA $5k Heads-up winner David Peters. Said Hall, in his end of the day video interview with WPT host Kimberley Lansing:... Freeroll poker online

How is a women like a casino? Liquor in the front, poker in the back! Event 24 – Triple Draw 2-7 Event 24 was a Triple-Draw 2-7 format and, just like all SCOOP events, it was available in High, Medium and Low buy-ins. The High-Level tournament boasted a buy-in of $1,050 and drew a field of just 81. The event lasted 13 hours and was won by Lance84 from Germany who took down the first-place prize of $24,300. This high-stakes event was well attended by professionals with players like Alexander Kostritsyn, Noah Boeken and Ivan Demidov all busting well before the money. There was only room for nine players in the cash and Patt Pezzin was the unlucky bubble boy, finishing in 10th place. Jude Ainsworth, Mike Watson and James Obst all made the money, finishing 9th,... holdem poker online

A man walks into a poker room and notices two men and a dog playing poker. The dog was playing exceptionally well and the man comments "Wow, that's one smart dog!". "Not too smart." one of the men at the table replies. "Every time he gets a good hand, he wags his tail." Traditionally, we use our vast knowledge, extensive contacts and unparalleled intuition to choose a stable of poker players we think are the best bet to take home bracelets from a summer in Las Vegas. And traditionally, with respect to Jason Mercier, very few of them ever do. So this year we’re going to do things a little differently. Rather than pick individuals, we’re going to throw darts at groups of individuals in the hopes one or two might stick. Today we’re kicking off the 2011 WSOP Best Bets series with our first group: Women. When it comes to poker, there is no reason women can’t be as successful as men are. The truth has always been that there are simply more men with more skill... rake in holdem online

A brain surgeon receives a phone call from a colleague on a Saturday night. "We need another poker player for tonight" the friend says. "I'll be there right away!" the doctor replies with a sense of urgency. As he puts on his coat and makes his way out the door his wife asks him "Is it serious?" and the doctor replies "Oh, very! There are 3 other doctors already there!" Marafioti has been dominating the $25/$50 No-Limit Hold’em games on PokerStars and last night he burned through 1,545 hands on his way to an $89k victory.  The Toronto-native is now up to over $200k in profit this year and seems to be on a serious upswing. He tends to stay around the $25/$50 level on PokerStars but has been known to play the odd $200/$400 session. Marafioti isn’t as well known as high stakes killers like Patrik Antonius or Phil Ivey but has made his own waves on the poker scene with ridiculous prop bets and a controversial reality show about his life. He has also had a great deal of success in live tournaments with final tables at the WSOP, NAPT and PCA. He’s earned... holdem poker online

A man joins gambler's anonymous. He's given three-to-one odds he won't make it. Event 19 kicked off Sunday with Low, Medium and High variations attracting players of all levels. Event 19 - High saw 495 players spend the $2,100 buy-in to create a prize pool of $990,000. 63 players got paid with Paolo69 of the United Kingdom finishing first for $188,100. Incredibly, eight of the 22 players who made Day 2 of this event were from the U.K. and five of them made the final table. Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis finished 8th for $22,275 and 2009 SCOOP Mixed Hold'em champion James "Andy McLEOD" Obst finished 17th. The Medium level of Event 19 built almost as large a prize pool as its high-stakes sibling, but it took 4,395 players to do it. With a $215 buy-in players were... holdem poker online