Fedor Holz wrote his first tweet in 1.5 years:
After 6 good years, I’ve decided not to renew my ambassador role with GGPoker.
We are trying to have kids this year and I’m launching an investment fund, so that will be my full focus going forward.
I started playing poker exactly half my life ago and it has given me an incredible amount of freedom and opportunity. It allowed me to travel the world, meet amazing people and build the life I have today. It will always be very special to me.
Huge thanks to the team and to you, the community. It’s been a great ride and I’m very grateful.
"32 years old and retiring from poker for 2nd time!! Does anyone really give a damn?" one reader asked in surprise.
A bit like Floyd Mayweather, this is indeed the second time we've heard this type of speech.
Last week, a drunk Canadian tourist stole a live flamingo from the Flamingo Hotel and brought it back to his room.
CCTV footage shows Mitchell Fairbarn, 33, of Ontario, Canada entering the aviary around 5 a.m. and grabbing a bird named Peachy. He then returned to his room with the animal.
At the police station, the Canadian drunk explained his behavior by saying he felt sorry for the birds and wanted to save one of them. He felt the situation in the aviary was very stressful.
The offender was released on $12,000 bail in court. His passport was confiscated, he was given a GPS tracker, and he was ordered to remain in Las Vegas, but he was prohibited from approaching the Strip or animals. The hearing will continue this week; representatives of Caesars, the corporation that owns the Flamingo Hotel, told reporters they will seek the maximum sentence.
Peachy, who suffered an injured wing following the incident, spent several days under the care of veterinarians and is not in danger.
Owen Messer had a successful $50/$100 session.
"Unreal, Owen Messere is literally tearing the poker world apart," marveled RunItOnce coach Frank Carson. "He’s up 8 stacks at $50/$100 with a top-5 player in the world to his left (Kevin Paque) and newly minted High Stakes Cash Game Champion Pedro Toledo to his right."
"No rungood involved at all?" readers questioned.
"Absolutely none," Owen confirmed. "All skill babyyyy."
For the past six months, Rampage has been obsessed with Pokémon cards. At the end of February, a 2005 Rayquaza Gold Star card was added to his collection.
Ethan paid $340,000 for it:
"I started this Pokemon card collection journey just 6 months ago in August, 2024. Ever since, I’ve been hooked getting back into this franchise I once loved as a kid. It started with late nights researching what cards existed, then being completely overwhelmed with the catalogue of modern, mid-era, and vintage cards on the market, and finally flabbergasted at the prices of these little cardboard squares could amount to.
As the sticker shock subsided and my love for Pokemon reignited, there was one card that stuck out amongst all else – the Rayquaza Gold Star specifically PSA 10. At the time, rumors had it the card was worth between $150,000 – $200,000. An unimaginable number that prices out the majority of all people on this planet, including myself. But at least the beauty of this hobby is it can appeal to everyone no matter your income level. From $1 binders, $7 packs, all the way up to the grails of the high end market like $1M cards, there’s something for everyone who enjoys the hobby and it embraces you with open arms. So I started slowly, buying $25-100 slabs of some real cute pokemon (Azumarill) and learning more and more about this hobby that I’ve lost my relationship with for the better part of 20 years."
"I bought my first apartment for $52,500," Johnny Vibes said, "about 1/7th as valuable as your piece of cardboard."
Bencb won his own freeroll on CoinPoker .
Winning my own freeroll on CoinPoker for $2,000 ($5,000 total prize pool)
😂😂😂😂
A Texas poker club recently threw quads in a $10/$25 game.
On the river, the player with fours bet, call, the owner of sixes raised, the fours made another raise, They folded, and the sixes pushed and won the hand.
"You EVER folding QUADS? 😖" WPT Twitter asks.
There have, of course, been many such examples in the history of poker.
“I heard that JohnnyBax did this once and was right,” they recalled in the comments.
“It’s true,” confirmed Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, posting a hand from 2008 that Brian Devonshire had described vividly on his blog.
In a $5k tournament at the Bellagio, after several limps, 2008 WSOP finalist (Ed. – along with Ivan Demidov) Scott Montgomery squeezed 400 in the CO and received three calls.
On the flop It was checked to Scott, he bet 700, Devonshire folded, Bax called, Kevin Saul reraised to 2,100, Scott and Bax called. Effective stacks were around 15K.
“Bax, you flopped quads,” Saul said confidently, even before the turn was revealed.
Blackthorn Bax, saying "there's somebody else in the hand," bet 1,500, Kevin looked like he'd just seen his naked grandmother, but called; Scott also called.
River , Bax bet 1,500, Kevin shoved 10k, Scott after much thought made the call, Bax quickly folded and showed .
"I'm willing to bet that in the history of Texas Hold'em tournaments, no one has ever flopped quads and then bet/folded on the river. And old Scott called on the river against two quads and went off to order noodles for a good dozen scumbags , " Devonshire concluded his old post.
He still remembers the noodle bets with great warmth...
"I check-folded with quads once, and it was a pretty easy call," Mike McDonald wrote. "I think it was a $215 or $2,100 SCOOP. I bet with and three opponents on the board . One player called. Turn . I bet, he paid. River , I played a check-fold.
Pre-Black Friday, you could beat low-stakes SNGs with only the knowledge that you can open-shove anything decent off sub 15bbs. That's all it really took. Load up 25 tables and open-shove anything good. That was a $5k/month job.
"Dr. Craig wrote on 2p2 that he didnt understand why anyone would work at McDonald’s when you could make $20/hr playing $11 SnGs," wrote Sam Greenwood.
Reddit is also reminiscing about the good old days.
– I bought this TV in 2006 with my FPP’s on Pokerstars! And yes, it still works great!
– Only thing I have left is this screenshot.
– I remember when people started cashing in their FPP fo the Porsche and thinking that was just the pinnacle of online poker.
In February 2007, Dario Minieri became the first player to trade his FPPs for a Porsche Cayman S.
The PokerGo Cup series featured a tournament with straddles for the first time.
The new feature was tested on the first four levels of a one-day tournament with a $5,300 buy-in. Some players liked the idea and actively used the new feature.
Let the straddling begin!
— PGT (@PokerGOTour) March 6, 2026
Play is underway for @PokerGO Cup Event #4: $5,300 Single-Day NL Hold’em, with UTG straddles allowed for the first four levels.
Registration and re-entry are open until approximately 4 p.m. PT at the PokerGO Studio.
Updates on @PokerNews:… pic.twitter.com/2v0L9CQ774
"I've never heard of this before," writes Jeremy Ausmus, "but I've always found it odd that there are no straddles in tournaments. They're very common in cash games, and they don't do any harm. Just another example of PokerGo listening to their players. What do you think?"
"Allen Kessler certainly wouldn't approve of this new thing," Matt Salsberg suggested.
And he turned out to be right:
"It's a dumb idea if they're mandatory, and even dumber if they're optional. It just increases variance," Allen Kessler said, his tone predictable and blunt.
"Aren't straddles in MTTs always negative EV for the one doing them?" one commenter asked.
“Yes, just like in cash,” Osmus confirmed.
– What is the difference between a game with straddles and tournaments where three players post blinds?
– Straddles are optional. Any player under the gun can place one if they wish.
"I'm against adding them to all tournaments," Joe Ingram shared his opinion, "but I don't see anything wrong with adding them to individual tournaments for variety. Although I'm sure the regs would be strongly opposed."
The winner of the experimental tournament was Brock Wilson.
Daniel Negreanu named the players who define each decade:
70’s
Johnny Moss
Doyle Brunson80’s
Stu Ungar
Johnny Chan90’s thru 2010
Chip Reese2010’s
Phil IveyWho’s Next?
“Chip until '04, Ivey until '11, no comment after 2011,” Scott Seaver corrected.
"Maybe I'm biased where I was mostly a fan more than competitor in the mid-late 2000s," Timex admitted. "But I'd have thought Peak Ivey was pre 2011 rather than post 2010."
"Good point," Negreanu agreed. "I should have added him to that era also."
In late February, enterprising lawyer and poker enthusiast Tom Goldstein was found guilty by a jury on 12 of the 16 charges.
According to Bloomberg, jurors found in favor of prosecutors on one count of tax evasion, all four counts of willful and late payment of taxes, all three counts of making false statements on mortgage loans, and four of eight counts of aiding and abetting the preparation of a false tax return.
He faces the longest sentences for false mortgage information—up to 30 years for each count. Legal experts believe the actual sentence will be much lighter, but Goldstein will still have to spend some time behind bars.
In one of the SCOOP tournaments, Patrick Leonard fulfilled the dream of many regulars – he won the hand with a triple check-raise.
Ladies, gentleman grinders and most importantly GRANDMAs, we did it! Successful triple x/r and called!
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) March 3, 2026
IYKYK pic.twitter.com/2PUuL7gOPP
On the river, Pads made the nuts.
"I remember this being a pretty sick trophy to have on http://pokertableratings.com back in the day," one commenter recalled. "Miss that site a lot. nice work 👍"
