Police still looking for EPT poker bandits. (photo courtesy of DPA)

After proclaiming that the poker bandits had left "mountains of evidence" behind during last week's dramatic robbery of the European Poker Tour Berlin tournament, German police arrested their first suspect on Friday night. Unfortunately, they released him today, citing a lack of evidence connecting him to the crime, as well as some new information that proved he wasn't involved in the crime.

He first got on the police radar due to his physical resemblance to one of the bandits seen on the video footage of the heist. As well, the suspect had served time in prison for his involvement in a somewhat similar robbery back in 2004, when his gang attempted to rob another German casino. But after a search of the man's apartment, and extensive questioning, detectives released him.

All this means that, so far, this armed gang is still at large despite the fact that they were filmed by multiple cameras, seen by dozens of witnesses and were, according to the police, completely amateurish. Maybe that 242,200 Euro jackpot they made off with was enough to buy them all plane tickets to somewhere warm, tropical and far away from German law enforcement.

Aashish Nanak with his (apparently wireless) keyboard.

It's a few weeks to go before April Fool's Day, but questionable poker stories seem to be flying around like crazy today. First there was the discovery of isildur1's blog, and now, there's the tall tale of an 8 year old poker prodigy who won half a million dollars in India.

His name is Aashish Nanak, and he is apparently a poker whiz. He started playing when he was just six years old and has already won a few smaller cashes. He was even using earnings as a poker affiliate to pay his family's rent. But after recently winning $500,000 USD playing on his uncle's account, things started to go sideways. The unnamed online poker company is refusing to pay out the winnings. As of this writing, the case is set to go before the courts in New Delhi.

Why the family chose to go public and admit it was an 8 year old playing, before claiming the half million dollar jackpot, is still a mystery. Of course, there are a few other details that call the entire story into question. Like, what online poker site offers jackpots of $500,000 for tournament winners? And exactly what kind of keyboard is that in the attached photo, and is it wireless?

The real Isildur1. No, seriously.

Ever since the online poker player known only as Isildur1 showed up on the scene late last year and started taking on anyone who will play him, speculation has run rampant as to who he actually is in the real world. Nobody knows for sure to this day just who Isildur1 is, but the poker world seems to have decided that the most likely candidate is one Viktor Blom of the Swedish town of Uddevalla.

Judging from the comments, at least a few people in the poker world think the mystery is solved now that a blog has appeared on the internet that's supposedly written by Blom/Isildur1 himself. The only problem is that, given what we know about Isildur1's grasp of Standard Written English from his taunts and rants in the chat box, this blog an obvious fake.

The Isildur1 blog might not be the real thing, but it really is classic stuff. First off, the writing sparkles - in place of the chat-speak you would expect from a young online poker player is the kind of English you usually get in notable novels, glossy magazines and, of course, the fabulous Cake Poker blog. Second, the amount of effort the writer has put into researching the obscure Swedish town of Uddevalla, and subsequently using all those details in the blog posts, is pretty astounding. And finally, for anyone who's been following the fortunes of the mysterious Swede, it's funny. Really, really funny.

"It was a real moral victory that the next day I didn't throw myself off Uddevalla Bridge," Isildur1 writes of his legendary loss to Brian Hastings slast December. "I spent most of the next month under the bedsheets listening to every album ever recorded by Bright Eyes, most of the EPs, and some of Conor Oberst's solo projects. Then I plotted my revenge on the Cardrunners guys."

Writing about his massive loss to Phil Galfond, Isildur1 says, "I can beat all of these guys from a clean start. I am better than any of them. But after ten, fifteen, twenty hours of play, when I am facing my sixth opponent, even I, the mighty Isildur1, can be slain by an ignoble opponent. Think of me as a prize bull, drugged, stunned, stabbed with darts, falling to a final puny matador."

And at the end of an insight into his painful childhood being bullied by schoolmates, the online poker star writes, "I guess that's when I took to my room. Sometimes I still think of them when I'm hurtling through my bankroll at the poker table. I want to kill my opponents but it might be easier to kill myself. All-in, all-in, all-in. Smash, smash, smash!"

There are only three posts on the blog at this point and it's hard to know whether its writer has the time to keep up the act, but if there's even a tiny bit more content on the way this blog should win an award. Maybe "Best Adapted Poker Blog"?

Alas, aspiring Massachusetts poker champs, this is not Dale Morrow.

The idea of a poker school is far from a new one. Internet video training sites have turned countless players into profitable online poker machines, and serving as a mentor to aspiring rounders is a viable second source of income for poker professional players who battle variance for a living.

But the Fifth Street Foundation poker school in Fall River, Mass., is a different creature for a number of reasons, the most obvious being that it’s a brick-and-mortar classroom with live people rather than a website with a bunch of videos. Then there’s the fact that, unlike the ubiquitous training sites, the Fifth Street Foundation is a non-profit entity. Its mission is to fund scholarships for at-risk kids in the local community. FSF set a goal of raising $20,000 by the end of the year and has already banked $2,000.

The minds behind this venture are Dale Morrow and Gregory Santos, two former corporate trainers turned pro poker players. The two say they wanted to settle down a bit more than the pro poker lifestyle would allow them and the poker school fit the bill. Besides helping to fund scholarships for local kids, the pair also emphasize the fact that poker helps people from all walks of life develop important skills and traits - critical thinking, basic math, patience - that the modern American testing-centered school system has mostly let fall by the wayside.

Whether those benefits will be enough to keep the school in operation remains to be seen. The Fall River City Council has already informed FSF that it can’t grant the poker school a license to operate, instead referring the foundation to the State Lottery Commission in Massachusetts. Morrow and Santos are confident that the Commission will see things their way but they're not waiting around to get down to the business at hand. Until their request is heard, the doors of the FSF school remain open.

Phil Hellmuth hopes the third time is the charm on the World Poker Tour

The TV table of the World Poker Tour’s Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament is now set, and all eyes are on the man sitting second in the chip counts.

Phil Hellmuth, the 1989 WSOP Main Event champ and winner of another 10 WSOP bracelets since then, entered yesterday’s action at Bay 101 with the chip lead and a bounty on his head. By the end of the grueling 15-hour day he would sit in second place and stand as the only remaining Shooting Star in the field thanks to the eliminations of Scotty Nguyen, “Miami” John Cernuto and Chau Giang. 

As well as things went for Hellmuth, they went even better for Andy Seth, known online as “BKiCe.” He entered the day in third place behind Hellmuth and Hasan Habib and lingered behind the leaders for much of the long day, but toward the end he was able to pick up some big dominating hands in perfect spots and as a result he jumped ahead of the pack. He even managed to tangle with Hellmuth once he'd secured the lead and come out the better for it.

If Hellmuth were to win this tournament he would bank $878,500. That would move him up on spot on the all-time money list to fourth place, jumping past Scotty Nguyen but still trailing Jamie Gold, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. Of course, the Poker Brat will have to get through some pretty tough competition - and overcome some history - if he wants to win this final table. He has previously made two W PT final tables - the 2003 World Poker Finals and the 2008 LA Poker Classic - but never finished better than third place. He also hasn’t won an open-field tournament since his last bracelet win at the 2007 WSOP.

The TV table is set to begin filming at 4 p.m. PT today, and Phil Hellmuth fans (there are still a few of those, right?) can get updates on his progress from the World Poker Tour live updates crew.

WPT Bay 101 TV Table Chip Counts

Andy Seth - 2,164,000

Phil Hellmuth - 1,433,000

Dan O'Brien - 1,129,000

McLean Karr - 1,112,000

Hasan Habib - 455,000

Matt Keikoan - 371,000

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are collectively worth $35 billion dollars.

It's been a long time since the first internet boom, and for years we've been hearing stories about people getting very rich off one little smart idea. But it's still pretty amazing, and kind of annoying, to see just how much money the folks at the top of the heap have to throw around. BBC just released its list of the richest internet entrepreneurs, and there are some shocking numbers on there.

Tied for number one on the list are the two founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They're both in their mid-30's, they both love collared shirts, and they're each worth $17.5 Billion US dollars. Though, to be fair, that's just their wealth on paper...if they had to raise cash for a big bender in Vegas, they could probably only rustle up five or six billion each.

The youngest, and therefore most jealousy-evoking, guy on any list of internet billionaires, is Mark Zuckerberg. By now you probably know the story. He created Facebook when he was just a young university student. Six years later, we all spend half our online life on his site while he tries to think of ways to spend his $4 billion dollar fortune.

Other familiar names on the list are Mark Cuban, who's turned his $2.4 billion fortune into a life of sitting courtside and screaming at basketball players, and Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon.com in his garage, about $12.3 billion dollars ago.

And is it just me, or does the thought of all that that cash kind of make isildur1's latest roller-coaster ride on the high-stakes tables seem penny-ante?

If extradited, Marcus Bebb-Jones will face life in prison with no parole.

A champion poker player from England is currently fighting extradition to the United States on charges that he murdered his wife some 13 years ago.

Marcus Bebb-Jones once lived in Grand Junction, Colo., where he and his wife Sabrina Bebb-Jones owned and operated the Hotel Melrose. But after Sabrina disappeared mysteriously in 1997, Marcus fled for Las Vegas and attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. He somehow failed in that attempt and subsequently returned to England.

There he raised the couple’s young daughter and became a noted poker player with multiple tournament wins and more than $240,000 in lifetime earnings. It wasn’t until years later that Sabrina’s body was found in a national park, leading to an investigation that culminated last year with the extradition process that is now being played out in English courts.

The defendant’s lawyer made a pretty extraordinary claim during his hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court: he says that if Marcus Bebb-Jones were convicted of his wife’s murder and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole, he would be facing a “grossly disproportionate” punishment that takes “no account of the gravity of the crime or the progress made toward rehabilitation” and violates his client’s human rights. American prosecutors, who elected late last year not to seek the death penalty in an attempt to speed up the extradition process, counter that their evidence demonstrates premeditation and an attempt to cover up the crime.

For the moment Bebb-Jones’ fate is in the hands of District Judge Howard Riddle, who will study the facts of the case and issue a decision on April 12. Even if the judge decides to approve his extradition to the United States, Bebb-Jones will still be able to appeal to a higher court.

The overnight chip leader in San Jose was none other than the Poker Brat

Ask Phil Hellmuth and he’ll tell you that he’s the world’s greatest tournament poker player. Ask anyone else and they’ll tell you that they root against him for no other reason than the fact that none of us will ever hear the end of it if he wins another poker tournament.

Those rooting against him at the World Poker Tour’s latest stop, the Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose, Calif., may end up being disappointed as the Poker Brat ended Day 2 in the tournament’s top spot. Stacked at 550,000 with just 27 players left, Bay Area resident Hellmuth seems to be taking the notion of a home-field advantage seriously and anyone who wants to claim the $5,000 bounty for knocking him out of the event - and possibly causing the greatest Hellmuth meltdown of all time - is going to have their work cut out for them.

A Hellmuth win at the Bay 101 Shooting Star, which would be his first on the WPT, is far from a guarantee. The field may be small at this point but it’s packed with accomplished tournament poker pros, including a number of Hellmuth’s fellow old schoolers. Other pros in the top ten chip counts include Hasan Habib (496,000), Andy “BKiCe” Seth (453,000), Dan O’Brien(439,000), Matt Keikoan (426,500), Nick Schulman (381,500), Faraz Jaka (332,500), Brian Rast (322,000), and Chau Giang (307,500). Meanwhile former WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little, former world champ Scotty Nguyen, three-time WSOP bracelet winner “Miami” John Cernuto and NAPT Venetian main event champ Tom Marchese still lurk further back in the field.

The chase for the $878,500 first prize (and a Phil Hellmuth bounty) will resume today at 11 a.m. PT on six-handed tables with blinds at 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante. You can catch the action live via the Bay 101 UStream channel.

Phil Galfond is $1.66 million richer after taking on Isildur1

You can’t really blame Isildur1 for wanting to press forward on the high stakes Pot Limit Omaha tables. After all, he wiped up Cole South and Brian Hastings earlier this week for a $2.2 million score and the notion of “playing your rush” goes back a long way. But the Swede’s decision to take on Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond last night in high stakes PLO ended up being a costly one as he lost it all back and then some.

First up was the man who played the role of Isildur1’s original benefactor from late last year, Tom Dwan. Though he claimed he didn’t really have time to play, Dwan still managed to sit down at six tables of $300/$600 PLO and book some 921 hands against Isildur1. That ended up being a solid last-minute decision, as Dwan claimed a $964,000 win before running off to his previous engagement.

Once Dwan hit the road, Isildur1 moved on to Phil Galfond and things went from bad to worse. The match started off on the $300/$600 PLO tables but quickly moved up to $500/$1,000, and the Swede’s tendency to chase his losses paid off big for Galfond. The former WSOP $5,000 PLO champ walked away from the his laptop some $1.66 million richer than when he sat down, leaving Isildur1 back at square one.

Luckily for Isildur1 he began the night by taking Cole South on again. In just 994 hands of $500/$1,000 PLO he managed to book a $463,000 win, giving him a bit of a cushion against the massive downswing he hit later.

As the legend of Isildur1 grows, it’s becoming more and more obvious that terms like “game selection” mean nothing to him. That willful charge into the world’s best competition is what makes him so fascinating to watch. With no indication that his resources are limited, it seems that even "going broke" wouldn’t be the end for this daring young online poker player.

Phil Ivey is still "The Nuts" on ESPN. (photo courtesy of ESPN)

In ESPN's latest monthly rankings of the top 10 poker players, Phil Ivey has maintained his position at the top of the heap. In the March installment of "The Nuts", the ESPN team rates the best players "of the moment". Yes, long-term legacy plays a factor, but just as important is recent results.

Phil Ivey is firmly in the #1 position, with his most recent success a second round result at the recent National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Jason Mercier is in the #2 position, having topped off a long run of recent success with a $141,780 cash for his third-place finish at the L.A. Poker Classic event. And #3 in this month's ranking goes to Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who's only won about $2.7 million in the last month or so playing online poker.

Rounding out the top 10 are:

#4 -  Daniel Negreanu
#5 -  Patrik Antonius
#6 -  Yevgeniy Timoshenko
#7 -  Daniel Alaei
#8 -  Eric Baldwin
#9 -  Cole South
#10 - Scott Seiver