The 8th most powerful name in poker.

Bluff Magazine has just released its list of poker's 2010 Power 20, the 20 most powerful and influential people in the world of poker. And no, they don't just make it up. They put together the list by polling more than a hundred players, agents, poker media types and others in the industry and then distilling the answers down to twenty.

We won't give the whole thing away, but check out a few of the more well-known names on the list:

#17 - Joe Sebok: This pro player has good game, but what he's really good at is multi-tasking. When he's not doing his own radio shows, he's running a company or finding the time to post enough interesting tweets to entice more than a million people to follow him on Twitter.

#11 - Phil Ivey: Though he was already one of the most famous faces in the game, his appearance at the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table helped make him the most marketable name in poker.

#10 - Joe Cada: ...and speaking of that particular event, its winner used his victory to become an ambassador of the game, making tons of well-hyped media appearances on everything from David Letterman to Monday Night Raw.

# 8 - Daniel Negreanu: This year Kid Poker became the winningest tournament player in poker history (if only briefly) and he starred in a new poker game show.

To check out the rest, and especially the final five, you'll just have to check out the article at Bluff Magazine.

A clear demonstration of the dangers of wagering tattoos.

Okay, the decade's only a week and a half old, but this poker prop bet should stand up as one of the most insane of all time. Professional poker players are known to make some pretty crazy prop bets. But most of the time, all that's on the line is money. In some cases a lot of money, yeah, but most of those guys can afford to lose $50,000 for, say, not standing neck-deep in the ocean for 18 hours. But a recent bet between Joe Sebok, Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen takes the prop bet thing to a whole new level.

The wager itself is a simple last-longer bet for the upcoming LA Poker Classic Main Event. But the stakes are where it gets interesting. Of the three players, the first guy out has to get a tattoo. And it's not just any random ink job. He has to get a tattoo of the faces of the two guys who outlast him. The second person eliminated has to get one too, of the face of the one who lasts the longest. And the lucky victor? He just gets to laugh at his dumb friends, and maybe take a picture or two.

Oh, and just to make sure nobody reneges on the bet, the tattooing will be done on the spot, right there at the tournament.

This actually isn't even the first prop bet between these guys to involve permanent skin decoration. A few years back, Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith made a similar last longer bet at the same event. The end result was Smith getting Joe Sebok's initials tattooed on his back.

The LA Poker Classic's coming in just a couple weeks, so it won't be long before we get to see photos and probably video of the tattooing.

Tom Dwan getting his solidarity shave (photo courtesy of PokerListings.com)

Most of the big name poker pros descended on Las Vegas for yesterday's Day 1 of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. And then a bunch of them forgot all about the fact they're opponents at the tables, and got together for a good ol' fashioned group head-shave.

The pros, including Tom Dwan, Joe Sebok and Barry Greenstein, took off their gorgeous locks for a very good cause. A fellow poker player named Thuy Doan has cancer, and recently lost all her hair as a result of her chemotherapy treatments. You can read about Doan's battle on her blog.

In a show of solidarity with Doan, a total of 19 players took razor to skull, or at least let the barber do it. And actually it was Phil Ivey's personal barber that did the shaving. The whole thing took place at his swank villa at the Bellagio. And yes, Ivey got a little trim too.

There are lots of sources for poker news out there in the world (though none as wise and well-spoken as this blog, of course) but there hasn't ever really been a televised "poker news" show. Until today, that is. Debuting in just over an hour (well, unless you're anywhere east of the Mountain Time Zone, in which case you already missed it) Poker 2Nite is a half hour weekly show on Fox Sports Net.

The new show airs on Wednesday evenings at 11pm, and then repeats on Thursdays at 4pm, and Fridays at 11am and 6pm. And, according to a recent Twitter update by one of the hosts, episodes of the show will soon find a home online too. 

Speaking of the hosts, the folks in front of the camera are Joe Sebok, he of the million followers on Twitter, and poker-podcast veteran Scott Huff. The two worked together previously on Card Player's The Circuit radio show, so they've both been keeping an eye on the poker world for awhile now.

Poker 2Nite will feature special guests - tonight's will Lon McEachern, one of the voices of the WSOP coverage on ESPN - as well as the latest poker news from around the world. And, maybe a bit surprisingly, the show won't just focus on the usual events and pros we already see plenty of on TV. Poker2Nite promises to pay lots of attention to online poker, with everything from player profiles to tournament updates and all kinds of other goodies.

If you've ever watched Mike Matusow play poker on TV, you know how much some players like the sound of their own voice. So it's not surprising that lots of them will take advantage of a forum where they can say whatever they want, as often as they want, and random strangers will go out of their way to listen.

That forum is Twitter. And there are lots of top (and not quite so top) players who regularly post their 140 characters of wisdom:

Phil Helmuth: As you would expect, the mouthiest player this side of Matusow has a rather well-used account. His 27,000 or so followers get to hear a steady stream of updates from the life and mind of Phil. The only odd thing about it is that he always sounds really enthusiastic and happy, and he uses a lot of exclamation points!!! The optimist will point to the fact that his table manner is not indicative of his real personality (after all, the man gives oodles of money to charity every year, so he must be alright) and so what's suspicious about him sounding nice and happy when he tweets? The cynic would say that he's probably hired some over-enthusiastic college kid to keep the tweets coming.

Erik Seidel: When he's not showing up on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Erik can be found huddled over his computer sending out surprisingly amusing messages, like his recent tweet: "My kids think the website and book "Stuff White People Like" is my unauthorized biography.

Barry Greenstein: He's a poker lover's poker player, and he has the tweets to match. This is bare-bones poker-nerd stuff, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.

Joe Sebok: He is the big Kahuna of poker tweeters. His updates on life, the universe and everything have earned him over a million followers. His rabid following has him in the top 200 for numbers of followers of anyone in the Twitter-verse.

Mike Matusow: He's not a great speller, he's kind of pissed off a lot of the time, and he forgets to tweet for months at a time, but you can't help love the guy.

And, as if that's not enough, your very own Cake Poker has an account. Keep an eye on it for timely poker news and frequent announcements about people winning free underwear.

It was a good run, but Joe Sebok has been eliminated from the 2009 WSOP Main Event in 56th place cashing for $108,047. (Image Courtesy CardPlayer)

Sebok found himself shortstacked through most of the day and forced to make a couple moves that didn’t end well for him. According to his father, Barry Greenstein’s Twitter update, Sebok lost half of his already small stack when he was all-in with J-J against A-10. Then the was forced to make a move as the big blind with A-9 and the small blind called with A-Q. The board gave Joe no love and he was sent home.

Six-figure payouts began right after Prahlad Friedman’s elimination in 64th place for $90,344 and are really starting to escalate nicely with some huge jumps at 36th place (going from $178,857 - $253,941) and then at 27th place which punches it up to $352,832.

The top four current chip leaders are Billy Kopp (14,340,000), Darvin Moon (10,350,000), Tommy Vedes (9,000,000) and of course Phil Ivey (7,400,000).

Stay tuned for more 2009 WSOP updates.