This week, the PocketFives.com Podcast focuses its attention on the International poker market as we interview Australian poker player Tony G. – owner of www.pokernews.com. You may remember Tony from the final table of the WPT Paris Aviation Club event a few years ago when he made some controversial comments that garnered plenty of TV time on The Travel Channel. While offending a few Frenchmen at their local club may not have made a huge splash in itself, most poker players were somewhat shocked by the recorded footage of Howard Lederer busting out – then refusing to shake Tony G’s hand when it was offered (Howard was apparently offended by Tony’s etiquette at the tables).

Tony is a very reasonable person who conversed openly about what we all saw on TV, and expressed that he is never out to degrade any poker player – it’s just a game in which a player should use every opportunity available to accumulate chips. There is a serious side to Tony G., and our listeners will hear it on this week’s Podcast as he talks about everything from uniting the poker world to his disagreement with PokerStars.com through his claim that they don’t allow 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem to compete in some major events.

Nat Arem, who posts on our site as “N 82 50 24” will also join us and discuss how he began his tournament results tracking website, www.thepokerdb.com. While the website has certainly provided a service to many online poker players, it has definitely sparked a controversy about just how much player-tendency information should be available to the poker “public”. Data Mining, the act of storing complete Hand Histories from tables you are not seated at, has also become a very hot topic lately. While Nat doesn’t see any problem with it, Party Poker recently modified its software in an attempt to eliminate this practice.

A short segment on Sit & Go strategy will be featured on this week’s Podcast as we briefly chat about multi-tabling and using pre-determined formulas to beat the lower buy-in games. Feel free to send us your comments about the PocketFives.com Podcast either by leaving a voice message (206) 203 – 4730, or by e-mailing podcast@pocketfives.com.