It was 2005 when someone led me into an audio booth in a London television studio. I was due to sit down next to James Hartigan to provide some color commentary for the World Cup of Poker II. While I waited my turn, I stared at the back of a woman's head as she analyzed the on-going game. What I thought as I listened to her voice is as clear in my head seven years later as it was that day:

"I would pay good money to listen to that woman read the telephone directory," I thought.

I didn't care what she looked like. She could've looked like Shrek after a bad night at the pub, and her voice alone would've made up for any physical abnormality. And then she turned around and I saw someone who looked like this:

And so, I was smitten. Yes, ma'am. A man who has been happily married since the time before PokerStars even existed was smitten with Victoria Coren.

So, imagine the collective gasp across the people of my ilk today when they learned Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren is getting married to well-known British actor David Mitchell. My e-mail box filled up this morning.

"There is many a British gentleman who cried a little bit into his cup of tea this morning," said one.

Another e-mail only bore the link to news with the subject line, "Oh, sigh."

Because it's our job here at the PokerStars Blog, we are forced to report this news.

Coren said simply via Twitter, "I'm very happy."

Vicky, we are happy for you, too, even if it means we henceforth must beat down our smitten hearts and turn you over to your true love.

So, congratulations to Vicky and David on their impending nuptials.

And, for what it's worth, I'd still probably pay to listen to you read the phone book. Please don't tell David.

So, you might have thought the presidential elections in Russia were going to keep the people of that country too busy to play good poker. That is, you might have thought wrong. For the second week in a row, Russians trounced the Sunday majors. Not only did they pound on the Sunday SuperSonic and Sunday Million, but they let one of their fearless leaders from Team Pro put on a clinic in the Sunday 500.

Max Lykov beat out more than 900 other players for a victory worth more than $80,000. It was no small feat in a field that's always full of experienced players. Lykov considers it to be one of the toughest Sunday tournaments available.

"There were difficult moments, but good luck at the right time helped me," he said.

Lykov is just the latest in a series of Russians to take over the Sunday majors. Last weekend, Russian Gorby3975 won the Sunday Million. This week, FairLaw (yes, also from Russia) took down the Million.

Congratulations to Max Lykov and all the other Russians on a presidential performance this Sunday.

Here are the final results from this week's Sunday 500.

Sunday 500 final table

1. Maxim Lykov (Russia) - $ 82,620
2. insanocut (Canada) - $ 58,889
3. Hustlaaaaaa (Canada) - $ 44,064
4. bearsfan775 (Mexico) - $ 33,048
5. goodvibe1 (Germany) - $ 22,950
6. Shhh00kem (Canada) - $ 18,360
7. Chinajune (Netherlands) - $ 13,770
8. gray31 (Canada) - $ 9180
9. achen (Canada) - $ 5508

Okay. Find the people who say poker isn't a game of skill and send them to my office right now. I will fight them. With my fists and fingernails. With my knobby little knees and infirm elbows. I'll fight until I can fight no more, and then I will show my bloodied, ignorant victim this post. This post? What's so important about it? How about this: Vanessa Sebst (who seems to win every tournament she enters) just crushed another very tough field for a first place spot. Second place? Some guy named Jonathan Duhamel (who has won a couple of tournaments you might have heard of, like, say, the WSOP Main Event).

Last night, two of the best-known young poker players and stalwarts of Team PokerStars Pro took first and second place in Event #45 of the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. After battling through a field of 98 players, Selbst and Duhamel cut a deal, and then played it out for the championship. Selbst's win earned her $140,295. Duhamel pocketed $121,115.

This is the point: Selbst and Duhamel win all the time. People might look at them as if they are on some hot streak or the luckiest people in the world. Alas, it simply isn't true. Someday, folks are going to have to admit that poker is a skill game, and Selbst and Duhamel are hoarding a lot of the skill in their heads.

Despite being on top of the game and among the best modern tournament players, Selbst told Tournament Director Matt Savage, "This is one of the toughest fields I've ever played in." You can check out the full interview (courtesy of the LAPC) below.

Congratulations to Selbst and Duhamel for yet another amazing performance. Now, if anyone needs me, I'm going to build an octagon out back for the Luck vs. Skill battle royale.

I think we all know who is going to win.

After four eager months of waiting for visa approval, Angel Guillen finally made his way Down Under to Melbourne, Australia -- a country he has wanted to visit for a long time. 

"Right now I'm in Melbourne, Australia, visiting my girlfriend in her hometown. I'm halfway through my three-week trip, and so far I love it here," Guillen said.

He arrived in Australia just in time to play in the Aussie Millions Main Event, although that was short-lived, busting out toward the end of Day 1C.

He said, "The first week we spent all day, every day inside Crown Casino. After busting out of the Main Event, I spent a few hours almost every day grinding on PokerStars. When I wasn't, there were countless things to do around Crown, so much that I could never get bored. Team PokerStars Pro Jose Ignacio Barbero was also here, so I went out a few times with him. We went to a nightclub in the city called Baroq, and had lunch a few nice restaurants inside Crown such as The Atlantic, Nobu and Koko's, all of them were amazing! Koko's location and view was particularly awesome."

Now that Angel has checked out of Crown, the country-Australian tourism begins.

"Earlier this week, my girlfriend and I drove to Phillip Island, about two hours from her house in Melbourne. We went to visit the Phillip Island Wildlife Park to see all of the Australian animals I've heard so much about. It's a free-range sanctuary where you can feed the roaming kangaroos, emus and wallabies. It was such a great experience and a lot of fun."

So, what's next?

"Next week we will go to the beach and also check out Sydney. I then fly to Brazil for the LAPT Grand Final. Yesterday, I ran a competition on Twitter where people had to send me funny or creative pictures of themselves making either a tilt face, a poker face or a celebration face. The prize was a ticket worth $215 USD to play in an LAPT Sao Paulo (Feb. 17 through 20) satellite running next Sunday with 10 packages guaranteed. Here's example that made me laugh:"

Speaking of which, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker, and other big names will also be at this Grand Final of the LAPT's fourth season. I'm sure it's going to be a huge event and undoubtedly a fun one too. Following the LAPT is the Brazilian Poker Tour final, which is, as the name points, a local tour which attracts a lot of players, so Sao Paulo in February is the place to be, not only because of poker but also because Carnival, the world-famous festival throughout Brazil, is also happening. So plenty of fun times are coming!

In case you didn't know, poker players tend to like to gamble with their money, and I'm not talking strictly in cash games or poker tournaments. Prop betting offers another way for poker players to be in action and have their money on the line. Working in the industry, oftentimes some of the members of the media enjoy feeling the same adrenaline rush from making a prop bet, especially when they're able to make such a wager against a player. The excitement is only greatened when that player is of a high caliber and well known, because then you're gambling with the best of them. Yes, we all know anyone, anywhere can plop down a certain amount of money and buy into a poker event to play with those players, but it's not so often you get to compete with them off the felt.

Last week, in Melbourne, Australia, a few of the members of the media, myself included, ventured out to dinner with two Team PokerStars Pros, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier. The venue of choice was Ichi Ni Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant down by the water in St. Kilda. The conversation was lively, the sake was flowing and everyone was feeling good -- maybe too good.

One of the members of the PokerNews team, Remko Rinkema, brought up the idea of challenging someone to a best-of-seven sports competition. Maybe it was the ego, maybe it was the sake or the vodka cranberries, maybe it was just something in the air; whatever it was, Rinkema decided to challenge Mercier.

Now, before we get into more specifics of the bet, let me give a little background on where the bet stemmed from. Rinkema made a bet last year against former Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken while at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. It was a weight-loss bet and at the time Rinkema weighed in at 128.5 kilograms. The details of the bet were that for every kilogram over 100, Rinkema had to pay $500 and for every kilogram under 100, Boeken owed him $500. Rinkema had just under one year before the final weigh-in took place during the 2012 PCA. When it was all said and done, Rinkema weighed 95.2 kilograms. Partial kilograms didn't count, which meant Rinkema lost four kilograms total and earned a payment of $2,000 from Boeken. That's quite the effort given that he had to drop 28.5 kilograms just to break even. Not too mention, Rinkema earned a nice little payday.

Given that background story, Rinkema would like to keep up his healthy, weight-losing ways and though this would be another reason for him to keep on the right track in getting in the best shape he's been in since his teenage years. Both he and Mercier discussed the terms of the bet and settled on a wager of $5,000. Yes, this was a little high for Rinkema's liking, but it was decided that it would ultimately give him the most drive to win. The amount also had to be enough that Mercier would actually want to try and win. After all, the guy has earned over $7.6 million in live tournament earnings and probably several million more in cash games.

After some debating and banter back and forth, it was decided that I would arbitrate the bet with Rinkema selecting four sports to Mercier's three. For each sport picked, I would decide the competition within that sport that the two would engage in. For example, if one of them selected basketball, I could decide that the competition would be a game of one-on-one with the first player to seven winning.

For the rest of the night, the two went back and forth a little bit about the bet. They even sought out the opinions of others in the party before taking to Twitter to get even more views. Right away, Mercier seemed pretty confident about the bet and tweeted the following.

@JasonMercier: "Booked a 5k prop bet last night against @happyfreaked we play best of 7 sports and he chooses 4 I choose 3 ... Think I'm -260 to win #mash"

Rinkema, though, didn't seem as confident in Mercier, even though he had the edge in sports to be picked, four to three. Here's what he first tweeted about the bet.

@happyfreaked: "So I made this silly prop bet with @JasonMercier tonight. Gotta think of 4 sports I can beat him at in 24 hours. Time to get some sleep now."

Mercier then went on to add even more words of confidence in the following tweet.

@JasonMercier: "@DWBenefield @happyfreaked pretty sure he's drawing dead in the 3 I'll pick, so I just gotta beat him in one of his 4"

In the details of the bet, Rinkema was supposed to pick his four sports first, but he seemed to have a bit of a hard time doing so.

@happyfreaked: "Having a hard time figuring out which 4 sports I will pick. Leaning towards tennis, cycling time trial, speed skating on ice and kickboxing."

After some back and forth banter on Twitter that included Mercier asking for my ruling on Rinkema's time frame for choosing his sports and plenty of players, fans and media members voicing their thoughts, Rinkema decided on his four sports as tug of war, cycling, snowboarding and speed skating on ice. But Mercier wasn't buying those and argued against a couple of them.

@JasonMercier: "@happyfreaked tug of war a sport? Also, assumed since we are supposed to do this in Vegas in the SUMMER snowboarding? @Donnie_Peters Plz"

I have to agree, tug of war was a bit of a stretch by Rinkema and I disallowed it. I also agreed with Mercier on the idea of snowboarding. This bet is supposed to take place during the summer and the World Series of Poker, preferably at the beginning. It's also supposed to be able to be completed within 24 hours. Having to trek up to a mountain and compete in snowboarding more than likely wouldn't be doable. I also disallowed speed skating on ice for the same reason as snowboarding. Speed skating in the summer in Las Vegas? Good luck with that. I also don't think it's overly fair to include a sport that each person much go out and buy some unique equipment for. Finding a basketball or some tennis racquets is one thing, but speed skates? Don't think that's going to happen.

Given all of that, the only sport that actually stood was cycling, leaving Rinkema to have to pick three more. Cue the Jeopardy theme song because this took some time for him to finally decide. Eventually, he chose shot put as another one of his four. Although Mercier tried to argue against shot put, as you can read in his following tweets, it's part of the Olympics, a sport involved in track and field competitions, so I allowed it.

@JasonMercier: "Shotput is just an event in track and field. If u can't make a living at it specifically... It's not a sport!! @happyfreaked @Donnie_Peters"

@JasonMercier: "That's like me picking half court basketball shots. Basketball is the sport. Donnie would choose what we do in the sport"

Sorry, Mercier, there are specific athletes who specialize in shot put and shot put only. It is a sport, although one more unique one, but it's still a qualifying sport.

Another day or so passed before Rinkema added his final two sports. It took him a lot of deliberating, Wikipedia research and consultation from friends, but he finally picked rowing and inline skating. He still wasn't that impressed about a couple of his first selections getting turned down, though.

@happyfreaked: "After long deliberation I pick Cycling, Shot pot, Rowing and inline speed skating. @JasonMercier @Donnie_Peters"

@happyfreaked: "Still not happy about getting turned down on the initial sports, but these are as legit as they get imo."

Then, it was Mercier's turn and he had to select the final three events of the competition. Shortly after Rinkema finalized his four picks, Mercier responded with his three to close out the drafting.

@JasonMercier: ".@Donnie_Peters @happyfreaked I choose basketball, racquetball, baseball guess I just gotta figure out which of Remko's sports I can win at"

With all seven sports now picked, it's up to me, as the arbitrator to decide what these two will compete at for the sports. After a little bit of thought, it's been decided.

For cycling, the two will compete in a 10-kilometer time trial. The person who competes the 10 kilometers the fastest wins this competition. For shot put, it was very simple -- distance. For rowing, I chose to have the two row for 15 minutes of elapsed time and whoever completes the most distance wins. For inline speed skating, the two will have a one-on-one race with the distance yet to be determined.

For the three sports that Mercier selected -- basketball, baseball and racquetball -- the following was chosen. For basketball, the two will play a one-on-one format with the first player to score 15 points winning. You must win by two in this event and all baskets will be worth one point. For racquetball, the two will play another one-on-one format and it will be best-of-three games. The first person to score 15 points wins each game. For baseball, the two will play home run derby with 10 outs allotted per side. A neutral pitcher will be used.

Those are the seven sports and the competitions that will be completed for each. With the event set to take place at the beginning of the WSOP, it's going to be something great to come out and watch if you're in the area. We'll be sure to keep everyone posted about the happenings of the bet and competition, so as always, stay tuned.

Team PokerStars Pro has been around nearly as long as PokerStars itself. During its 10 years in existence, the world's leading online poker room has signed many of the game's greatest minds and personalities ever seated at a poker table. While some have come and gone, a select few have spent much of their careers donning the PokerStars logo online and at live tournaments around the world.

We asked some of the most familiar faces at PokerStars why they decided to join the PokerStars team and how the relationship has changed their lives.

***

PokerStars Blog: What set PokerStars apart from other sites when deciding to represent an online poker room? And how did the relationship come about?

Daniel Negreanu: I'd already played most of my online poker at PokerStars and it was a really easy choice. I've known some of the key people involved in the company since I was a teenager, so trust was a big issue for me. I trusted wholeheartedly in the decision makers at the company, and the same couldn't be said about any other online site that I could have signed with. PokerStars was already the biggest and best site in the world, so it seemed like a natural fit for me.

Barry Greenstein: I was given the assurance that I would be able to be involved in the game offerings and other features on the site. I feel that PokerStars has proven to be the leader in the industry. It is easy to represent the best site, especially since it's the one with the best support and security.

Vanessa Rousso: After I made the final table at the 2006 WPT $25k World Championship I had some conversations with PokerStars about the possibility of sponsorship. At that time I had about $300,000 in winnings and was one of only a few young women with those kinds of results. Fortunately, we signed a deal later that year and the rest is history.

PSB: Vanessa, after you signed with PokerStars there were some critics that said you hadn't done enough in poker to warrant a sponsorship deal. Did that give you more motivation to improve and succeed in the game?

Rousso: For sure ... but I wanted to prove to myself more than to anyone else that I had what it takes to succeed in poker.

PSB: What do you have to say to those people now?

Rousso: I think results speak more than anything else. I have won over $4.5 million in tournaments ($1 million online and the rest live) and hopefully that's enough to appease those folks.

PSB: In what ways has your life changed since you decided to represent PokerStars?

Chris Moneymaker: When I first started playing poker I worked for Deloitte and Touche accounting firm and I hid the fact that I played poker altoghter. Poker and gambling were frowned upon by the conservative accounting profession. After signing on with PokerStars I am proud to say I play poker. I enjoy the opportunities PokerStars provides for me and my family. I get to travel, play poker and teach others about this great game. I am very fortunate.

Vanessa Rousso: Joining team PokerStars allowed me to network with some of the best players in the game. The many conversations I've had about strategy with other team PokerStars Pros have certainly helped me develop my game.

Negreanu: I was already pretty well known at the time, but the exposure globally that I received since being a part of PokerStars is astronomical. Since I've been regularly used in global ad campaigns, it took things to a whole new level in terms of exposure.

PSB: Today, what separates PokerStars from the rest of the online poker rooms? How has PokerStars changed the industry?

Moneymaker: For years it was and is their customer service. PokerStars listens to and responds to players needs and requests. PokerStars is very active in poker forums, listening to players desires and trying to improve their software and keep on the cutting edge in todays online poker market. Pokerstars changed a very shady industry by adding stability. They are really the only option I would trust with my money when playing online poker.

Negreanu: You can now play in a well-run live poker tournament in almost every corner of the earth. Initially, PokerStars hit pay dirt with the European Poker Tour, but since then, they have launched several other tours with various buy in levels across the globe. Before this spread of options, you really had to live in the U.S., or travel to the U.S. to play a regular schedule of quality tournaments, but that's just not the case anymore, and that is 100 percent because of the global tours sponsored by PokerStars.

PSB: Barry, you were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in November. Which members of Team PokerStars do you see following you into that elite group?

Greenstein: PokerStars normally signs people who have done well in tournaments, so most of them won't have the complete career, as far as cash games and ambassadorship is concerned. The only one who can make it based on current accomplishments is Daniel Negreanu. I'm sure a couple of the younger players will go on to have great careers, but it's too early to know which ones will stand the test of time.

When Eugene Katchalov looks back on his poker career, he will be hard-pressed to find a year better than 2011. It was the year he became a Team PokerStars Pro. It was the year he won his first WOSP bracelet. It was a close second for his highest-earning year.

As the calendar turned from December to January, the man who started his year with a PCA Super High Roller win and ended it with a cash at EPT Prague found himself with one more honor to go with his $2.5 million in 2011 winnings: the Bluff Player of the Year award.

The year 2011 saw Katchalov perform like few can. He put up 13 cashes, seven final tables, and two first place finishes, one of which was that WSOP bracelet. All the while, he was being pushed by fellow Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier who finished second in the Bluff rankings. When the year was up, Katchalov's 1089.28 points were enough to hold the top spot over ElkY's 1,071.67-point second place performance.

Katcholov shined in in a wide range of disciplines and has proven himself to be one of the game's most successful and well-rounded players. This year, he crested the $7 million mark in live tournament winnings. Here's a breakdown of how he earned his title this year.

Congratulations to Eugene Katchalov on an astounding 2011. We look forward to seeing what kind of performance you'll put up this week at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

In any given year, the people who make $1 million playing tournament poker is very small. If you look at live tournament results alone over the past couple of years, it's usually sixty or so people who crest that seven-figure mark in a calendar year. It's an elite group by almost any measure.

This year, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst has once again (yes, again) earned more than $1 million playing tournament poker alone. This weekend's third place finish at the WPT Five Diamond in Las Vegas for $338,000 pushed her into seven figures. Almost all of that money comes from live play. Her 2011 live results account for $974,423 of the cash. One only needs to add the $53,964 she won last January playing the Sunday Million to take Selbst over the $1 million mark. Again.

One could easily argue that Selbst had a better 2010 than any poker player in the world. Sure, she finished sixth on the 2010 live money list, but if you look at the top five players you'll note one thing: they all made the WSOP final table. Selbst, meanwhile, just toured the globe and crushed souls wherever she went. It was the kind of year few people have, and one most people would be happy to have once in their lives. Selbst had that year last year, and then turned around and banked seven figures again in 2011.

Indeed, there are few people who can take a $2.86 million year and back it up with another $1 million year. Selbst is one of those people, one of those few who can claim back-to-back seven-figure years.

Here's how she did it:

This kind of poker earning comes from a women who has split her time between poker and finishing her law degree at Yale. She's soon to have that part of her education behind her, leaving her to focus on whatever she decides is the right thing.

It all comes from a woman who wrote earlier this year, "I'm excited for what the future holds, but of course, as always with us poker players, it can change any minute, so who really knows? That's why I'm constantly trying to live in the 'now' and not feel bound by future plans."

Selbst's current "now" is a million-dollar "now." As for the future? Whatever it is, it seems clear she can afford it.

Congrats, Vanessa, on another big finish and another seven-figure year.

There's no being Jason Mercier unless you actually are Jason Mercier. I know this, because I've tried. I've stopped shaving for a few days, worn a Miami Heat jersey, and stayed up for days at a time playing poker. I am not a rich man. Meanwhile, Jason Mercier, as near as I can tell, is still Jason Mercier. I know this because I live vicariously through his Twitter feed, a news source that might as well read once a day, "I'm crushing souls, mashing everything else, and becoming much more wealthy than any of you."

The point is this: last night Mercier won another $700,000 in a $100,000 buy-in event at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The top five players in the event got paid. Mercier did a three-way chop with Isaac Haxton and Doc Sands that left extra money for first and second place. Of course, Mercier won for what he reported as a $683,767 plus a $25,000 WPT seat.

A few days ago, Mercier late-registered to the $100,000 event and said casually, "Mgiht as well win this one." Less than 48 hours later, he did. The victory and extra cash puts him near the $7.5 million mark in live tournament earnings. Furthermore, it makes it even easier for him to take a little of that money at put it toward the $100,000 Super High Roller at the PCA in a few weeks.

Of course, for now, Mercier has other work to do. Just a couple of hours ago, he reported via Twitter "Went straight to Bobby's room to play 8/1600 mixed after shipping the 100k... #anotherdayattheoffice."

It may well be time for me to shave and donate this Heat jersey to someone who could make better use of it. There is no being Jason Mercier unless you are Jason Mercier, in which case, you're sitting in Bobby's Room with heaps right now.

Congrats to Jason Mercier for winning another $700,000 another day at the office.

At the 2010 World Series of Poker, the members of Team Blog were pulled aside in the corridor and told, "Something is happening and you should see it." Suffice to say, we bloggers had seen a lot in our time, but nothing like this. Marcus Hellner, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in cross country skiing, was skiing across the Palms hotel parking lot.

Yes, skiing. In the desert. In the summer. In a casino parking lot. It was a sight to behold, even if it was on wheeled skis.

For many people at the WSOP, Hellmer was merely a curiosity. However, as it was put to me back then, Hellner can't walk down the street in his native Sweden. He's that big of a celebrity. Now, that king of skiing is PokerStars newest SportStar.

The year 2010 marked more than Hellner's entre into the World Series of Poker. It was also the year he started collecting Olympic gold. It happened in the 30k cross country event at the Vancouver Olympics. Skiing was his life, but in the off hours, it was all about cards.

"I started playing with friends on training camps and I liked very much to steal little bit money from the guys!" he said. "Then the internet poker came and I really enjoyed that."

Once he found PokerStars, that pretty much sealed the deal.

"I hope to learn more about poker and be a better player," Hellner said. "Perhaps I can meet professional poker players and maybe get a chance to play against them."

You'll now start seeing Hellner at more live events and playing on PokerStars under his screen name "M.Hellner."

For more on PokerStars SportStars see the Team PokerStars page.