Baseball has always had its colorfully nicknamed players, from Enos “Country” Slaughter and Stan “The Man” Musial to Willie “The Say Hey Kid” Mays and Roger “The Rocket” Clemens.

Football has had its share of colorful nicknames, too, including William “The Refrigerator” Perry, O.J. “Juice” Simpson and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones. (more…)

Online poker room 32 Red Poker (www.32redpoker.com) is offering free seats to the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

But you have to earn them. (more…)

A Michigan woman was arrested Wednesday for leaving her children in a car while she played poker.

According to media reports, the 36-year-old woman from Grandville, Michigan, USA, whose name was not released, was charged with abuse and neglect, after police found her three children at 1 a.m. Wednesday in a car outside a bar in the tiny town of Wyoming, Michigan, USA, while she was in the bar playing poker. (more…)

Online poker room Ultimate Bet (www.ultimatebet.com) has hired top poker pro Annie Duke to be its new poker room consultant.

In that role, Duke will manage the room’s tournament schedule, the room announced in a press release. =A0 “Annie Duke has a proven track record of not only playing the game, but also knowing exactly what online poker players want to see in a tournament schedule,” said Ultimate Bet spokesman George MacLean in the release. (more…)

The son of a murdered poker pro is now a suspect in the murder.

According to media reports, investigators from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in northern California recently searched the southern California home of Ernest Scherer III, in connection with the killings last month of his parents, Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, a professional poker player, and his wife, Charlene, 57. (more…)

Two professional poker players in Scotland have each been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing more than $300,000 from automated teller machines (ATMs) to bankroll a Las Vegas poker excursion.

According to The Scotsman, a Scottish newspaper, brothers Mohammed Imran, 33, and Mohammed Irfan, 36, stole the money over three days in 2005. (more…)

Another professional poker player has died, this time by her own hand.

According to media reports, the lifeless body of Brandi Hawbaker, 26, of Playa Del Rey, California, USA, was found April 13 in her suburban Los Angeles residence. (more…)

Lee Jones, an executive host with the European Poker Tour (EPT) for the past year, has resigned to become chief executive officer of Card Runners.

Card Runners (www.cardrunners.com) is a website that offers instructional videos about poker for a fee. (more…)

World Poker Tour Enterprises (WPTE), owner and operator of the World Poker Tour (WPT), has announced that it has settled a lawsuit filed two years ago by a group of professional poker players.

Seven poker pros–Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Andrew Bloch, Annie Duke, Phil Gordon, Howard “The Professor” Lederer, Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer–in July of 2006 sued the WPTE, saying the WPT’s standard player’s release form violated Federal and State anti-trust laws. Hachem and Raymer dropped out of the lawsuit last year, but the other five pros remained. (more…)

An Internet poker site and a professional race car circuit are teaming up to offer poker players a chance to play championship poker at trackside.

Poker Room (www.pokerroom.com) and the FIA World Touring Car Championships (WTCC) are offering the chance to win seats at six first-ever live trackside poker matches that will lead to top prizes totaling a half-million dollars, Poker Room recently announced. (more…)

A private club in Bangor, Maine, USA, was raided by Maine State Police this week for holding a poker tournament without a license.

According to media reports, state cops raided the 24-Hour Club on Sunday afternoon and found about 30 people engaged in a Texas hold ‘em tourney that had a buy-in of $100. (more…)

Don’t look now, but yet another movie about poker is upon us.

This one is called “Deal,” and is set to open in movie theaters across the U.S. and Canada on April 25. (more…)

Television personality Leeann Tweeden has been named host of the fourth season of NBC-TV’s popular late-night poker show “Poker After Dark,” NBC announced.

She replaces Marianela Pereyra, who took over as host last year when the show’s original host, porn model Shana Hiatt, became pregnant. (more…)

Internet money-transferring service ePassporte (www.epassporte.com), one of the few so-called “e-wallets” that still allowed U.S. citizens to send monies to and collect monies from online poker rooms, has stopped doing so.

According to reports by numerous media sources, the U.S.-based e-wallet has discontinued processing payments to and from Internet poker sites for Americans, because of pressure from the U.S. governmnent. (more…)

A professional poker player with a history of medical problems is dead at age 36.

John Goodman, of Austin, Texas, USA, died Wednesday at a hospital in Austin, according to the Austin American-Statesman, a local newspaper. (more…)

Authorities in South Carolina announced last week that they have arrested 65 people and charged them with gambling offenses, after busting an illegal poker ring.

Among those arrested: a teacher, a police officer and a county prosecutor! (more…)

A poker player from Macon, Georgia, USA, is in custody after allegedly stabbing another poker player to death at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

According to media reports, Vincente Perez, 57, of Macon, is in an Atlantic City jail on $50,000 bond, after being charged with aggravated manslaughter, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. (more…)

In addition to losing your bankroll, there are other potential hazards to playing poker.

For example, a few weeks ago an Arizona television station reported that poker chips manufactured by a Nevada company contained unhealthy and possibly lethal amounts of lead. (more…)

Irish online poker room Paddy Power Poker (www.paddypowerpoker.com) will soon be dealing its one billionth hand of Internet poker.

And whoever wins that one billionth hand will win a special bonus prize of $50,000! (more…)

Poker Royalty, a management and marketing agency for professional poker players, announced last week that top poker pro Gavin Griffin has signed on as a client.

Griffin, 26, of Fullerton, California, USA, has finished in the money in 22 poker tournaments in his career, amassing a whopping $4.4 million, according to tournament records. (more…)

Professional poker player Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott has been selected to give the keynote address at an upcoming poker trade show.

The event, called the Poker Conference and Expo/Casino Affiliate Program Spring Break, is scheduled to be held May 19-24, 2008, at the Grand Resort in Limassol, Cyprus, according to a news release. Ulliot is to speak on May 21. (more…)

“Lucky You,” the poker-themed movie starring Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana that played in movie theaters last year, debuts on television tonight.

The film, about the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, is scheduled to air on cable channel HBO tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern Time in the USA. (more…)

A famous bumper sticker during the Vietnam War was, “Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?”

That can now be updated to, “Suppose They Gave a Poker Tournament and Nobody Could Come?” (more…)

“The Grand,” a new movie about poker that opened in theaters last month, is getting some grand–and not so grand–attention.

Since opening on March 21, the movie has been getting mixed reviews from film critics around the U.S. and Canada. =A0 Here’s a sampling of what’s being said: (more…)