On Thursday, David Doc Sands Sands (pictured) claimed his second $1 million live score of 2013. In January, he was the runner up to Scott Seiver in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller for $1.2 million. This week, the Bellagio in Las Vegas was the scene of the crime, as Sands took down the World Poker Tour Championship Super High Roller for $1 million.

On May 6, Owen ozzieowen Shiels (pictured) earned himself a few brownie points, literally. He took third place in the weekly Sunday Million on PokerStars for $116,000 and plans to use part of the funds to upgrade several areas of a newly purchased house, including the oven. Why' So he can indulge in brownies, of course. We caught up with this longstanding member of the England poker community to ...

It's rare to see a person jump 24 spots in the PocketFives Poker Rankings and land in the top 10, but that's exactly what happened to Portugal's Tomás Paiva (pictured), better known as T 54 T 97s on our site. When the Rankings were computed on Wednesday, he moved up from #29 worldwide to #5 and is just a few thousand dollars shy of passing $2 million in tracked online MTT cashes.

On May 8, Chris Big Huni Hunichen (pictured) booked his sixth online poker Triple Crown. He accomplished the feat after taking down the PokerStars $55 Rebuy, WPT Poker $20,000 Guaranteed, and Full Tilt Tyrannosaurus Rex all in a one-week period. His half-dozen awards are tied for the sixth most all-time on PocketFives and, as always, Hunichen made time for an interview about going where few have ...

Recently, the MiniFTOPS Main Event played out on the virtual felts of Full Tilt Poker. The tournament drew 13,000 entrants and $1 million was paid out. Over $140,000 in prize money separated first place from ninth, and taking second when all was said and done was André galatrixo Pereira (pictured), who calls Portugal home. He was the biggest winner among members of PocketFives that weekend.

In a conference call with members of the media last week, World Series of Poker officials outlined a number of changes and events on deck for this year's festivities, which start in two short weeks. WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart opened the call by lauding, "We are thrilled to be opening the doors to the 44th annual WSOP. The work is already underway at the Rio." The 2013 WSOP is Stewart's ...

The latest twist in PokerStars' attempted purchase of the Atlantic Club (pictured) in Atlantic City, New Jersey came down this week. According to , "The revelation that Isai Scheinberg – PokersStars' Israeli-Canadian founder and a target of a Federal criminal court case - was involved in the deal came as both sides filed a flurry of legal papers in advance of a hearing today in state Superior ...

Every player has his own unique story of how he got started in the game. Whether through freerolls, low-stakes tournaments, or a massive flash in the pan, each player built his bankroll in a different way. For Poland's debesciak69, an initial run online didn't go so well, but an affinity for freerolls kept him involved and eventually led to a win in an iPoker iPOPS $135 No Limit Hold'em event ...

Holding strong this week at #16 in the PocketFives Country Poker Rankings is the mighty nation of Finland, which is home to over 400 registered members of our site. The country has a combined PLB score of its top 20 players of nearly 72,000 points and can be found sandwiched in between the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Let's take a look at the top 10 players in Finland according to the ...

The latest version of the PocketFives Rankings was released on Wednesday, and Jon PearlJammer Turner (pictured) stood out from the pack. This week, he jumped 11 spots to #8 worldwide and is just 150 PLB Points shy of reaching #7. His month of May has included wins in the PokerStars Hotter $5.50, $55 Rebuy, and $109 No Limit Hold'em Turbo.

Following the release of tapes allegedly made by Russ Hamilton discussing the cheating scandal and its subsequent cover-up at Ultimate Bet, former UB pro Annie Duke (pictured) weighed in with her reaction. Duke's name was mentioned, in part, in the following context at one point during the recordings, which publicly came to light over the weekend: "The tools [that allowed the cheats to see ...

It was a very busy news weekend for the online poker community. Russ Hamilton was allegedly recording Ultimate Bet meetings, Phil Hellmuth was reacting to the tapes, and Ultimate Poker dumped Iovation, a company associated with UB. Not to be overlooked, longtime PocketFives member Steve MrTimCaum O'Dwyer (pictured) defeated one of the most talented EPT final tables we've ever seen to win the EPT ...

According to a statement posted by Kevin kevmath Mathers on Two Plus Two, former Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth (pictured) lashed out at Russ Hamilton and others associated with UB for keeping him "in the dark. They lied to me about their activities and I made a big mistake in trusting them for way too long."

The final Sunday in April was monumental for David davidv1213 Vamplew (pictured), who took down the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy outright for $61,000. There were over 1,000 entrants and the member of the Scotland Poker community defeated a final table that included six PocketFivers.

He's back! The last recorded win in a live poker MTT for Jason treysfull21 Mercier (pictured), according to the Hendon Mob, was back in December 2011 in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic High Roller Event for over $700,000. Fast-forward to May 2013. This week, Mercier came out on top of an Open Face Chinese Poker tournament that had a hefty €2,000 buy-in to earn $62,000 during ...

PocketFives has seen a considerable increase in traffic from Russia recently. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the massive nation is rising up the PocketFives Country Poker Rankings leaderboard. This week, it moved up from #5 to #4 worldwide with a combined PLB score of its top 20 players of 94,651 points, just ahead of the 94,483 belonging to Brazil. We thought it would be worthwhile this week to ...

According to Diamond Flush, PokerStars has filed a lawsuit against Resorts International Holdings, RIH Propco, Eric Matejevich, Irwin Apartment Trust, and Michael Frawley over a failed purchase of the Atlantic Club in Atlantic City (pictured). The deal reportedly died last week after certain deadlines were not met, but the lawsuit could resurrect the purchase. Read the Diamond Flush article.

How did you get into poker' Did you see the game on television and decided it looked exciting' Did friends challenge you to a $10 sit and go' For James jamerOK Cawley (pictured), Counter-Strike led to World of Warcraft, which led to poker. Recently, Cawley was the recipient of a PocketFives online poker Triple Crown after wins on Full Tilt, PartyPoker, and PokerStars for a total of 564 PLB ...

In light of the Boston Marathon bombings in recent weeks, a thread popped up on Two Plus Two recommending that World Series of Poker officials heighten security measures. The original post in the thread read in part, "The last hour or so on Twitter, an argument has started about safety at the WSOP. Someone Tweeted that they thought the WSOP should increase security and check backpacks and stuff ...

Last month, Spencer Hudson (pictured), known on PocketFives as UHBigTex, final tabled the Full Tilt Poker $350,000 Guaranteed for $18,000. He is a U.S. transplant now living in Mexico and told us the story about leaving on a cruise out of Miami on Black Friday. He has been a longtime member of PocketFives – June 2005, to be exact – and has more than $2.3 million in tracked online poker ...

There has been a ton of demand to have Winamax added to the PocketFives Rankings. Every time someone has asked whether PocketFives plans to add Winamax to our leaderboards, our response was always the same: "We're working on it." Well, we are pleased to say that Winamax has been added to the PocketFives Rankings effective May 1. And, you can boost your PLB score by playing in Sunday's €200,000 ...

The PocketFives Online Poker Rankings were recalculated on Wednesday. One of the biggest jumps of the week belonged to NeverScaredB, who rose from #22 worldwide to #10, cracking the top 10 for the first time ever. NeverScaredB had a rock solid April that included a win in the PokerStars Big $162 for $21,000. He also took down the same tournament on the second-to-last day of March for $25,000. ...

According to eGaming Review, Paul Leggett (pictured), formerly the COO of Tokwiro Enterprises, which owned and operated the now defunct Absolute Poker and UB, has resurfaced at Amaya Gaming as the company's Head of Online. Read the article (paywall). Leggett was embattled during his time as COO of Tokwiro and is now affiliated with Amaya, which oversees the Ongame Network. A source close to ...

"Disappointed there isn't an article about my win on @pocketfives yet. I'll let it slide if it's up by time I wake up with a killer hangover." That was the Tweet from longtime PocketFives member and former #1 ranked player Griffin Flush_Entity Benger (pictured), who took down the EPT Berlin High Roller Event on Saturday and banked €429,000. Ask and ye shall receive!

It's not easy to win one, single, solitary online poker Triple Crown on PocketFives. After all, a person needs to take down three $10,000 prize pool tournaments across three sites tracked for the PocketFives Poker Rankings in the same seven-day period. Then, there's Naza114 (pictured), who has now captured not one, not two, not three, but a ridiculous nine Triple Crowns, the third highest total ...

An online poker tournament gave PocketFives U.K. member Weland tlt17 Holroyd (pictured) $122,000. Yet, as he told us, his primary focus will remain on his "real world" job in the oil and gas industry: "My career first and foremost is within the oil and gas industry, but fortunately this affords me reasonable time off to play if I choose to."

Holding strong at #11 this week in the PocketFives Country Poker Rankings is Portugal, which has scored several big wins this week and now stands with a combined PLB score of its top 20 players of 79,812 points. Its 952 registered PocketFives members have recorded 11 Triple Crowns, so we thought we would take a look at the top 10 PocketFivers in Portugal according to PLB score.

One of the players PocketFives has constantly gotten interview requests for is Caio Pessagno (pictured), who calls Brazil home. Therefore, we wanted to give PocketFivers what they've asked for, an interview with the #4 player in the PocketFives Rankings. Pessagno's month of March included a win in the Full Tilt Super Sized Sunday for $55,000, a win in the Sunday Second Chance for $54,000, and a ...

He is a former #1 player in the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings. He joined PocketFives just over four years ago. And now, he has over $4 million in tracked online MTT scores. His name: Jordan Jymaster0011 Young (pictured), and you can now find him at #79 worldwide in the Rankings, a number that's likely only going to go up when the leaderboard is recalculated on Wednesday.

To close out last week, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond (pictured) made history. How' He became just the third person ever to record more than $10 million in tracked high-stakes winnings on Full Tilt Poker, according to HighStakesDB. Galfond joined Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius in that superlative and piled up nearly $800,000 in winnings last Thursday alone.

"Shiiiippp it! 1st for 10mil+ hong kong dollars. Photos coming soon." Those were the words of former World Series of Poker November Niner Joseph subiime Cheong (pictured), who came out on top in the Manila Millions on Friday for USD $1.3 million. He was out in front after Day 1 of the two-day event and the top four spots paid out.

Chris Big Huni Hunichen (pictured) is just the fifth member of the PocketFives community to score a $5 million cash badge in 2013. In fact, he is just the 15th player to accomplish the feat since the beginning of September. This week alone, he got over the hump in part by taking down the PokerStars $15,000 Guaranteed and PartyPoker $20,000 Guaranteed for a combined take of $11,000.

"I feel like I'm going to register for the $530 Monday PLO!" That was the response from Luke LFmagic Fields (pictured) when asked how he felt about winning the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl outright on April 7 for $40,000. The Brawl fell short of its $200,000 guarantee and Fields outlasted a field of nearly 1,000 players for the title. And then it was onto PLO.

Moving up one spot this week in the PocketFives Country Poker Rankings was the lucky nation of Ireland. Boasting a combined PLB score of its top 20 players of 73,308, Ireland has laid claim to five Triple Crowns. We have 826 registered members from the European island nation and also get a considerable number of visitors from Ireland every month. With that in mind, we thought it would be ...

According to PokerScout, online poker cash game traffic is down a staggering 38% worldwide since Black Friday, the second anniversary of which occurred on Monday. Of the 61 online poker sites and networks PokerScout currently tracks, the average seven-day real money ring game player count this week was 54,433. Year-over-year, online poker cash game traffic is off 9%.

Daniel Negreanu (pictured) scooped his fifth bracelet and first in five years after coming out on top of the pack in the first ever World Series of Poker Asia Pacific Main Event. He Tweeted when all was said and done, "I won!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! Very happy right now. Thanks to all my friends and family for giving me the confidence I needed! So happy!!!!" Yes, that Tweet had 18 exclamation points.

On Saturday, the quarterfinals and semifinals of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship aired on NBC. The action started in the round of eight, with Dan Cates facing off against Scott Seiver and Mike Matusow (pictured), who reached his first career quarterfinal match, battling John Hennigan.

In news that broke late on Friday, Black Friday payment processor Chad Elie has filed a lawsuit against his legal counsel, Jeff Ifrah (pictured). According to Forbes, "the lawyer misled [Elie] about the legalities of processing poker because the lawyer wanted to continue pocketing rich commissions."

In the first ever running of WSOP Asia Pacific, or WSOP APAC as it is commonly called, an AUD $1,100 No Limit Hold'em Accumulator event was held. Players could enter on each starting day and combine chip stacks if they made it to Day 2. There were over 1,000 entries when all was said and done and longtime PocketFiver Bryan theczar19 Piccioli (pictured), who was once #1 in our Online Poker ...

Stand down! If you don't, WrathOfRam is coming for you. It's one of our favorite PocketFives user names and belongs to Ram Siva (pictured), who took down the 888 Poker Sunday Challenge on the last day of March for $22,000. The 841-player tournament on 888 Poker had a buy-in of $90.

The latest installment of the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings was released on Wednesday. No movement occurred in the top four, but longtime PocketFiver Illini213 (pictured) moved up two spots and can now be found at #5 worldwide. Belarus' Legenden, who has been in the top spot since March 27, remains out in front.

It might have been a smaller poker tournament, but the second event of World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific still awarded a coveted bracelet. Its recipient was longtime PocketFives Jim Mr_BigQueso Collopy (pictured), who outlasted a field of 172 players in an AUD $1,650 Pot Limit Omaha tournament to scoop AUD $69,000.

Over the weekend, the first of three episodes of the 2013 National Heads-Up Poker Championship aired on NBC. The action started after the 64-man tournament had been trimmed down to a field of 16 and, in a departure from years past, players introduced themselves to the camera and some even talked a little trash. You'll recall that the tournament was not run in 2012 in the wake of Black Friday.

On Saturday, PocketFives published a feature article about Poland's matt86ck, who chopped the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up in February and March for $193,000 total. In the latter month, one of his chopping partners was Russia's aJarov (pictured), whose second place finish was worth $76,000. aJarov was camped out in Kiev, Ukraine when we talked to him and he dubbed the city the "capital of Russian ...

We're pretty confident that the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up is the hands-down favorite online poker tournament of matt86ck. Why' The member of the Poland poker community chopped the Warm-Up in back-to-back months in February and March. In February, his second place finish following a heads-up deal was worth $93,000, and in March, he took it down for $100,000 following a three-way deal.

In June, "Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker" will be released to the community. The documentary follows three interview subjects and is the brainchild of Taylor Green Plastic Caby (pictured) and Jay Krantz Rosenkrantz. The stars of the show are Danielle dmoongirl Moon-Anderson, a mother of a five-year-old and one of the winningest female cash game players in online poker history; World ...

Pura vida! Costa Rica has become a force to be reckoned with in the online poker world thanks in part to an influx of American transplants after Black Friday. Using services like Poker Refugees, U.S. players have made their way down to scenic and laid back Costa Rica and are now terrorizing the online poker community just as they did before from the States. Costa Rica is #10 worldwide in our ...

The finale of the 22nd Full Tilt Online Poker Series, or FTOPS, took place over the weekend. The Main Event was smaller than in years past, but still mustered a field of 3,653 entrants to create a prize pool of nearly $2.2 million. By comparison, the last two FTOPS Main Events, both of which were also $640 Multi-Entry Tournaments, had prize pools of $2.8 million.

Earlier this month, two separate PocketFives Opens were held to celebrate our online poker community, one on 888 Poker for non-U.S. players and one on HogWild Poker for U.S. players. Taking down the former was Suffolk's Andy McKenna, better known as amck1888 here on PocketFives. The tournament drew 235 players and McKenna banked $1,700 for first place, which included $1,100 added by 888.

Back by popular demand in April is the PocketFives League on HogWild Poker. Once again, $500 in cash will be on the line as well as plenty of PocketFives Gear and a bounty of Hog Bucks. The League will be held on Tuesday nights at 10:00pm Eastern Time and everyone, including those players in the United States, can take part. There's no cost to enter. Sign up for HogWild Poker here to be entered ...