Wait, didn't the 2009 WSOP just end? (photo courtesy of AP)

It may seem like only weeks since the finale of the 2009 World Series of Poker, but believe it or not, the schedule for next summer's 2010 WSOP has just been released. And along with the schedule come some fairly major tweaks to the event that should get the attention of both pros and amateurs.

Maybe the biggest change is an adjustment to what is often called the "player's championship". Since it started in 2006, this has been a $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event, with the winner taking home not only a bracelet, but also the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. It also tended to award the winner the respect of their peers, since this mixed event has traditionally been thought of as requiring the broadest amount of true poker skill to win. But starting in 2010, the trophy and bragging rights will go to the winner of a new $50,000 mixed games championship, which will feature eight different games: Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball and, finally, No Limit Hold'em.

The final table of the mixed event will be all No Limit Hold'em, a plan which the WSOP and the Players Advisory Council hatched in order to get more heat for the event. Last year's $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship suffered a big drop in attendance after ESPN announced they wouldn't be putting it on TV, since nobody seems to watch poker that isn't NLHE. After the WSOP decreed that the final table will be nothing but Hold'em, ESPN immediately announced they will be airing it.

Other changes to the 2010 WSOP include a new $25,000 6-handed NLHE event, and the addition of some lower buy-in games. The first five weekends of the event will now each feature a $1,000 buy-in NLHE event, all that are anticipated to be popular enough to require two Day 1's. Okay, so that's not a really low buy-in, but it's affordable to a whole lot more people than that $25,000 bad boy, or even the $10,000 Main Event.

In a case that may not represent the stupidest possible thing someone could do, but comes pretty close, a pair of teenage men walked into the middle of a poker game in a small town in Texas and robbed the players. Texas, keep in mind, is one of those states that encourages allows you to keep a concealed firearm on your person. And this particular game was a long-running event frequented by lots of cranky sixty and seventy year old men. Miraculously, neither of the robbers was shot and killed, but they didn't get away with any money either.

The two alleged bandits, reportedly Chaz White (18) and Travis Thomas (19), were known to some of the other players. One of them had previously played in the 2/5 no limit Hold' em game, while the other watched the action. On the night in question, the two masked robbers burst in with guns at the ready. They got $7,000 stashed into a bag, then ran out the door and across a rain-soaked pasture, presumably towards a getaway car.

Two players from the game set off in pursuit with their own guns in hand. The two robbers spooked some horses in the pasture, and were distracted long enough for their pursuers to catch them. After a scuffle, the two young men were disarmed, de-masked and relieved of their ill-gotten money. The players held them at gunpoint until police arrived to arrest them.

This week Cake Poker is awarding the Bluff of the Week to a Japanese hidden camera show's sniper prank. (Video Courtesy Youtube)

Everyone loves a good prank, right? Play a little trick on someone, make the big reveal and then everyone has good laugh about it. Well it seems that they do things a little differently in Japan. Take this sniper prank for example.

In the above video we get to see a man who believes that he's hosting a documentary that is exposing telephone scam artists, when in fact he's the target of what seems to be world's cruelest TV show, "Panic Face King."

The show's "bluff" - if you will - involves a sudden attack of sniper fire that apparently kills everyone in the room leaving the victim alone to panic. Then it gets really cruel. Check it out to see what I mean.

Praying for bullets at the poker table? Be careful what you wish for.

Last night in West Toledo, Ohio a man, Thomas Phillips, was dealt the wrong kind of bullets during a poker game when he was apparently shot at by Billie Joe Hicks.

FOX News is reporting that an argument developed over a poker game the two were playing in at the Malibu Bar. The argument led to a gun being drawn and a shot fired. It doesn’t sound like there was an intent to kill or even harm here as the bullet was shot into the floor. Unfortunately for Phillips the bullet ricocheted into his forearm.

Hicks was later arrested at the sports bar across the street. Apparently shooting someone didn’t constitute a night-ending incident for him. Getting arrested and charged with felonious assault seemed to do it though.

Looking for a poker game that won’t get you shot at? Online poker at Cake tends to be significantly less dramatic. Check it out the cash games each weeknight as Cake sees some of the best-known poker players sitting down at the relatively affordable stakes of $5/$10 NL Holdem and $10/$20 NL Holdem. You’ll get a shot at playing against poker pros like Doyle Brunson, Ilari “Ziigmund” Samahies, Hoyt Corkins, Mike Caro, Eric “Rizen” Lynch, Phil Laak, Todd Brunson, Kenna James, Chris Moorman, Amit Makhija, Alec Torelli, Zachary Clark and more.

The pros show up at 4pm PST. Anyone can join them so be sure to download Cake Poker’s free poker software if you haven’t already, and get ready to tangle with the greats.

The Cake Poker Bluff of the Week didn't happen anywhere near a poker table. (Image Courtesy eHow)

This week isn't so much about the bluff as it is the ballsy call.

It’s one thing to have a guy reraise you all-in for a few thousand dollars, and you make the right call with bottom pair. But it’s a whole other ball of wax when it’s your life that’s on the line.

Last Friday in Haverhill, Mass. A robber walked into the White Hen Pantry and approached the cashier, 22-year-old Adam Alsarabi. The robber said he had a gun and demanded Alsarabi hand over the all cash.

Alsarabi, who it seems literally had The Nuts, denied the request and called the bluff asking the robber to show him the gun. The robber folded and fled the scene. He was later found by police hiding in the nearby woods. And no, he didn’t have a gun on him.

A detective Sgt. Robert Pistone warned others against making this kind of call saying, “We don't recommend this course of action. Why take the chance with your life over the loss of money? There is no need to be a hero."

Why Sgt. Pistone? Because when you got a read on a guy, you just have to trust your instincts.