If you haven't heard already Tom Dwan took a bit of a hit losing his first televised Million Dollar Challenge to Marigliano AKA "LuckExpress." Both players put $250k on the line and battled it out for hours until Marigliano finally took it down with an edge of $22k. Dwan was his usual aggressive self and kept the pressure on his opponent hand after hand. He especially applied lots of pressure from the  button as he should.

Yesterday a friend of mine asked me how I manage to cash 20% in large multi-table tournaments. I told him there were no secrets or anything that he hadn't heard before. I also told him that I have refined my game enough to know the right time to get my chips in the middle too. I also have a much better feel for the game every year. You can almost smell weakness now. Ultimately you still need some cards to fall your way but those come too.

The final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event has finally arrived, and on Saturday the nine players left from a field of 6,494 will take their seats in search of a coveted bracelet and $8,546,435 in cash.

You heard me right. Phil Ivey folded the best hand. I had heard about this situation from a friend of mine. He seemed so shocked that Ivey had folded his flush, on national TV no less. Finally, I caught the episode just the other night on ESPN. Personally, I don't consider it a major deal. Why? Because, contrary to popular belief , Phil Ivey is human. He is capable of being fatigued just like the rest of us. In this case he misread his hand. Nothing more and nothing less than what we all saw. Typically that comes from fatigue when a person of his skill level makes that kind of mistake.

For the second time in less than a year, there has been a major heist at a home poker game in Cleveland, Ohio. In the latest heist Monday, $11,000 in cash was taken from players by armed robbers.