Somewhere right now, Daniel Negreanu is eating tofu, and if we're to believe him, it tastes especially good tonight.

Kid Poker came into Day 5 with an average chip stack, but within a few hours, it had dwindled to less than half of what it had been. At once, it seemed like the crowd favorite would slip quietly into a list of also-cashes.

At the time, however, he declared it wasn't going to be a problem. His plan was to get it back, and so he did. It began with a double up with ace-king versus pocket sevens. Less than an hour later, he picked up kings versus ace-king. It sent him to dinner with 2,225,000 in chips (a healthy bit more than the 1.7 million average).

Meanwhile, Indian Team Pro Aditya Agarwal is nursing a stack of one million while he finishes up dinner. He's been in the unenviable position of having a big-stacked Justin Bonomo on his left for the better part of the day, and Bonomo did him no favors.

In any case, Agarwal is in better shape than Jake Cody. Just before the dinner break began, Cody ended up bluffing into the nuts with pocket jacks. It sent him packing in 113th place.

113th place. Guy played his hand really well I had pretty mandatory bluff spot but he had the nuts

— Jake Cody (@JakeCody) July 13, 2015

There are four more hours of play scheduled for tonight during which we can expect the once 6,420-strong field to dip below the 100-player mark.

For now, though, Negreanu's gotta wipe that tofu on his face and get back to work.

---

Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging. Photography by PokerPhotoArchive.com

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Online gambling is now licensed in Illinois, but that doesn't mean the UIGEA won't interfere with payment processing in the state.

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Few words muster as much anticipation and excitement as "World Cup of Poker". The ninth running of the Cup begins today, a highlight not only of the PCA schedule, but of the poker calendar in general, for few events can compete in levels of sheer unadulterated complication as this innovative favourite.

It's the tournament that defines complexity, bringing together nine national teams in the Bahamas for two days of seat-of-your-pants poker that often eclipses the main event for tension as it goes down to the wire.

The winner of the PCA main event will likely reach the pages of newspapers around the world, but World Cup of Poker winners can enthrall an entire nation. In the streets of Taipei they still talk about the side that won in Season six, the players given hero's welcomes as they hit the tarmac.

What's the appeal in an event dominated by amateurs rather than any high profile names? Well, something in it transcends regular poker tournaments. We've seen grown men laugh, cry and nearly come to blows. Sure, there's money to be won, a full $22,500 each to the winners, with prizes for everyone. There's even a $2,500 for the Most Valuable Player. But no one would say it was a life changing amount. Instead, national pride drives the competition, which is great, because it means people more readily overlook how complicated it sometimes gets.

The World Cup of Poker about to start

Rumour has it, that the rules to the World Cup of Poker were originally the result of an infinite number of monkeys hitting keys at random on an old typewriter for an infinite amount of time. The outcome, printed in black and white, is the format for this year's cup, which today will play out as follows:

At 12pm today the five-player shorthanded sit & gos will begin (nine in total)

At 3pm today nine player full table sit & gos will commence (five in total)

At 6pm today nine player full table sit & gos (five in total). Two of these will be played in pot-limit Omaha, with team captains choosing the participants.

Who are those participants? Let's meet the teams:

Team Canada - Captain Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome
John Schindler, Robert Hordejuk, Bradley E.Marsh and Justin Mackay

Team Brazil - Captain Andre Akkari
Tiago Cecilio, Victor Hugo Cativo, Douglas Ferreira Souza and Pablo Brito Silva

Team Germany - Captain Jan Heitman
Stefan Ludwig, Matthias Frost, Michael Forster and Pascal Hartmann

Team Bulgaria - Captain Svetoslav Yordanov
Stoyan Danailov, Velizar Yordanov, Tonyu Tonew and Mihail Stoykov

Team Belgium - Captain Christophe de Meulder
Kevin Callebaut, Philippe Daemen, Leandro Gaone and Quentin Dellis

Team Russia - Captain Ivan Demidov
Dmitriy Kulikov, Anton Yakuba, Ismael Erkenov and Maksim Tyurin

Team Tajikistan - Captain Maksimov Andrey Dmitrievich
Parvin Sharifovich Majidov, Akmal Sultanov, Firuz Khasanov and Shamshold Niyatbekov

Team Japan - Captain Naoya Kihara
Ippei Nishiyama, Susuma Toge, Yoshiihiko Kanno and Nobuyuki Tanaka

Team France - Captain Julien Brecard
Hugo Roger, Jerome Arnoux, Fabien Flahaut and Matthieu Holveck

The scoring is simple. No it's not. Each player will score points for their team depending on their finishing position. In the heads-up round a win is worth 5 points with 10 points for a team victory. If a team sweeps another it's worth 15 points.

The winner's trophy

In the sit & go rounds points will also be awarded to players according to finishing position, with 10 points to the winner, down to one point for the ninth place finisher. A similar system works in the short handed sit & gos, with levels in each round 15 minutes long and starting stacks of 3,000 chips.

Play will end for the day after each of the three rounds are completed. Players will then return tomorrow to play more rounds which will determine the new champions.

If it sounds fantastic it's because it is fantastic, without anyone being able to nail down why. Either way, it's game on.

Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter

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Here at Americas Cardroom, we are constantly asked for the ‘secrets’ of our success. After all, we recently moved up to become part of the No. 10 ranked poker network ...

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The Cavaliers have won 15 of the past 18 meetings with the Clippers, including a 115-102 home win on Jan. 21.

USA Today Images

Cleveland Cavaliers at Los Angeles Clippers (+1.5, 208)

Power forward Kevin Love will return after a one-game absence and the Cleveland Cavaliers look for their sixth victory in seven games when they visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. Love sat out Thursday's victory over the Los Angeles Lakers due to pain in both knees and he's looking to rebound from an 11-for-42 shooting slump over his last four outings.

Love's shaky play has contributed to the Cavaliers being unable to perform at the level that forward LeBron James is seeking. Cleveland's recent surge has been fueled by point guard Kyrie Irving, who is averaging 24.9 points over the last seven games after scoring 26 during Thursday's 120-108 win over the Lakers. The Clippers have won five of their past seven games as they make a run at catching the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference playoff race. The contest with the Cavaliers is followed by a five-game road trip that begins in San Antonio and concludes by visiting the Golden State Warriors.

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC

LINE HISTORY: The spread opened on Saturday afternoon with the Cavaliers pegged as 1.5 point favorites and has held steady. The total hit the board at 207.5 and rose slightly to 208 by Saturday evening.

INJURY REPORT:

Cavaliers - C T. Mozgov (Questionable Sunday, illness)

Clippers - PF L. Mbah a Moute (Questionable Sunday, eye)
                SF P. Pierce (Questionable Sunday, toe)

COVERS POWER RANKINGS: Cavaliers (-8.9) - Clippers (-8.8) + home court (-3) = Clippers -2.9

WHAT SHARPS SAY: "Cleveland will be playing an early daytime game on the West Coast after daylight savings time.  The Cavaliers have been in California since Wednesday, and they’ve had two days off prior to this game, but this is still a tricky scheduling spot.  Los Angeles has alternated wins and losses over their last four games; they won at home in their last game.  The Clippers’ defense has allowed 98 points or less in four of their last five home games." - Covers Expert Steve Merril

DANCE TEAM WAR:

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (46-18): Cleveland is vying to hold off Toronto for the top seed in the Eastern Conference and is 2-0 on a four-game road trip that concludes Monday against Utah. Center Tristan Thompson has posted back-to-back double-doubles during the excursion and is averaging 14 points and 14.5 rebounds in the two contests. Thompson has scored in double digits in a season-best six straight games and is averaging 12.5 points on 28-of-41 shooting during the stretch.

ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (42-22): Small forward Jeff Green has produced back-to-back strong efforts by averaging 20 points on 16-of-24 shooting against Oklahoma City and the New York Knicks. Consistency has been an issue for Green since he was acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies as he scored in double digits in only one of the previous four games, twice going scoreless. "It's great that I'm on the floor," Green said after playing 45 minutes against the Knicks on Friday. "I don’t mind it. It's all about competing. It's 5-on-5. I’m going to push through and compete."

 

TRENDS:

* Cavaliers are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 vs. NBA Pacific.

* Clippers are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 vs. Eastern Conference.

* Over is 4-0 in Cavaliers last 4 after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game.

* Under is 7-1 in Clippers last 8 home games.

COVERS CONSENSUS: The public seems to agree with our Power Rankings and is favoring the Clippers early on. The over is getting punched at a very agressive 71 percent and we can expect the total to move up, at least, another half point by gametime Sunday afternoon. "); h = d.getElementById(tid); h.parentNode.insertBefore(s, h); })(document);

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Back in 2013, I was fortunate enough to top a field of 898 players to win the World Series of Poker Event #1: $500 Casino Employees for $84,915 and a gold bracelet. While it may have been the “low-hanging fruit” (i.e., cheapest buy-in) of the WSOP — and something I get teased about quite often — it’s still an accomplishment of which I’m tremendously proud.

This coming Tuesday from 8-9 p.m. EDT (5-6 p.m. PDT), I will host a one-hour FREE webinar to talk about that victory, specifically focusing on turbo strategies I used on my way to capturing the title. The webinar is a part of Jonathan Little’s Excelling at No-Limit Hold’em Live Webinar Series, which is based on the book of the same name. If you recall, I wrote the opening chapter in that book, which I’ve discussed in this very column.

Check out the PokerNews book review of Jonathan Little’s Excelling at No-Limit Hold’em by clicking here.

Among the things I will talk about in the webinar are:

• Recovering from early setbacks
• Folding pocket queens
• Final table strategy
• Whether or not to make a deal

Sign up for the webinar absolutely free by clicking here.

Of course I’ll also be sharing some interesting and behind-the-scenes stories associated with my bracelet run, as well as taking an in-depth look at what I consider to be the biggest hand of my life — one which had I lost, I wouldn’t have won a bracelet.

To give you a glimpse at that hand, it happened at the final table in Level 18 (6,000/12,000/2,000) with eight players remaining. Michael Trivett (with 277,000 to start the hand) opened for 27,000 holding and I three-bet to 77,000 from the small blind with . After the big blind folded, Trivett four-bet all in and I thought for a long time before making the call. The board ran out and Trivett busted in eighth place for $8,146 while I chipped up to 660,000.

It was a huge gamble, but I had my reasons (right or wrong) for making the call, which I’ll be explaining in Tuesday’s webinar.

The live webinar will only be held once, and those who sign up will get access to the replay as soon as it’s made available. What’s more, those who attend and stay until the end will receive a special bonus – a one-page Hold’em with Holloway Cheat Sheet where I share 10 tips I wish I’d known when I first started to play poker.

You can sign up for my webinar for free here, and don’t forget to come back to the PokerNews Strategy section every Wednesday for my latest installment of Hold’em with Holloway.

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

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San Antonio's 31-0 start at home is two shy of Orlando's run of 33 home wins in a row to begin the 1995-96 campaign.

USA Today Images

Oklahoma City Thunder At San Antonio Spurs (-8.5, 210.5)

The San Antonio Spurs opened the season with a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but it has been a dominant run ever since. The Spurs will look to exact a measure of revenge and extend their lengthy home winning streak when they host the Thunder on Saturday in the first meeting since the season-opening encounter in Oklahoma.

San Antonio opened its five-game homestand with a 109-101 victory over Chicago on Thursday to improve to 31-0 at AT&T Center this season and extend its home winning streak to 40 games dating to last season. One more victory at home will give the Spurs sole possession of the third-longest run in NBA history as they enter this one tied with the Orlando Magic of the mid-1990s and four behind the Chicago Bulls of the same era. A meeting on the back end of the homestand with the Golden State Warriors - who pulled into Friday with an NBA-record 46 straight home wins and a three-game lead on San Antonio in the Western Conference - is looming, but the Spurs must first contend with what could be an angry Thunder squad. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 54 points but their teammates provided little support in a home loss to Minnesota on Friday, Oklahoma City's seventh defeat in 11 games.

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC

LINE HISTORY: The Spurs opened as eight point favorites at home and by early Saturday morning that line was already adjusted to -8.5. The total opened at 213 on Friday afternoon, wobbled throughout the evening, began falling overnight, and settled in at 210.5 near mid-morning on Saturday.

INJURY REPORT:

Thunder - SG D. Waiters (Questionable Saturday, personal)
               SG A. Robinson (Questionable Saturday, ankle)

Spurs - No injuries to report.

COVERS POWER RANKINGS: Thunder (-9.7) - Spurs (-16.4) + home court (-3) = Spurs -9.7

DANCE TEAM WAR:

ABOUT THE THUNDER (44-21): Starting guard Andre Roberson lasted 14 minutes before a left ankle injury knocked him out of Friday's loss. Anthony Morrow, who could pick up some of the minutes if Roberson is absent, was 1-of-8 from the floor against Minnesota and missed all six of his 3-point tries, falling to 1-of-11 from long distance over the last two games. Westbrook had 33 points and 10 assists against the Spurs in the season opener.

ABOUT THE SPURS (55-10): Only three players reached double figures in the win over the Bulls but all three - Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker - hit the 20-point mark. Parker, who also had a season-high 12 assists, was 10-of-16 from the floor after going 4-of-17 over his previous three games combined as he made a solid return from a toe injury. Thursday's high-scoring trio will hope for more support from the rest of the Spurs, who combined to shoot 14-for-43.

TWEET BEAT:

 

TRENDS:

* Thunder are 1-5-1 ATS in their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning straight up record.

* Spurs are 13-3 ATS in their last 16 vs. NBA Northwest.

* Under is 4-0 in Thunder last 4 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.

* Under is 7-1 in Spurs last 8 games following a straight up win.

COVERS CONSENSUS: Surprisingly, the public is betting against the top team on the Covers.com Power Rankings despite the numbers above indicating that the point spread is too low. 66 percent of the bettors are picking the Thunder to cover and 64 percent of them are betting on this game to go over the number. "); h = d.getElementById(tid); h.parentNode.insertBefore(s, h); })(document);

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San Antonio's 31-0 start at home is two shy of Orlando's run of 33 home wins in a row to begin the 1995-96 campaign.

USA Today Images

Oklahoma City Thunder At San Antonio Spurs (-8.5, 210.5)

The San Antonio Spurs opened the season with a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but it has been a dominant run ever since. The Spurs will look to exact a measure of revenge and extend their lengthy home winning streak when they host the Thunder on Saturday in the first meeting since the season-opening encounter in Oklahoma.

San Antonio opened its five-game homestand with a 109-101 victory over Chicago on Thursday to improve to 31-0 at AT&T Center this season and extend its home winning streak to 40 games dating to last season. One more victory at home will give the Spurs sole possession of the third-longest run in NBA history as they enter this one tied with the Orlando Magic of the mid-1990s and four behind the Chicago Bulls of the same era. A meeting on the back end of the homestand with the Golden State Warriors - who pulled into Friday with an NBA-record 46 straight home wins and a three-game lead on San Antonio in the Western Conference - is looming, but the Spurs must first contend with what could be an angry Thunder squad. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 54 points but their teammates provided little support in a home loss to Minnesota on Friday, Oklahoma City's seventh defeat in 11 games.

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC

LINE HISTORY: The Spurs opened as eight point favorites at home and by early Saturday morning that line was already adjusted to -8.5. The total opened at 213 on Friday afternoon, wobbled throughout the evening, began falling overnight, and settled in at 210.5 near mid-morning on Saturday.

INJURY REPORT:

Thunder - SG D. Waiters (Questionable Saturday, personal)
               SG A. Robinson (Questionable Saturday, ankle)

Spurs - No injuries to report.

COVERS POWER RANKINGS: Thunder (-9.7) - Spurs (-16.4) + home court (-3) = Spurs -9.7

DANCE TEAM WAR:

ABOUT THE THUNDER (44-21): Starting guard Andre Roberson lasted 14 minutes before a left ankle injury knocked him out of Friday's loss. Anthony Morrow, who could pick up some of the minutes if Roberson is absent, was 1-of-8 from the floor against Minnesota and missed all six of his 3-point tries, falling to 1-of-11 from long distance over the last two games. Westbrook had 33 points and 10 assists against the Spurs in the season opener.

ABOUT THE SPURS (55-10): Only three players reached double figures in the win over the Bulls but all three - Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker - hit the 20-point mark. Parker, who also had a season-high 12 assists, was 10-of-16 from the floor after going 4-of-17 over his previous three games combined as he made a solid return from a toe injury. Thursday's high-scoring trio will hope for more support from the rest of the Spurs, who combined to shoot 14-for-43.

TWEET BEAT:

 

TRENDS:

* Thunder are 1-5-1 ATS in their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning straight up record.

* Spurs are 13-3 ATS in their last 16 vs. NBA Northwest.

* Under is 4-0 in Thunder last 4 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.

* Under is 7-1 in Spurs last 8 games following a straight up win.

COVERS CONSENSUS: Surprisingly, the public is betting against the top team on the Covers.com Power Rankings despite the numbers above indicating that the point spread is too low. 66 percent of the bettors are picking the Thunder to cover and 64 percent of them are betting on this game to go over the number. "); h = d.getElementById(tid); h.parentNode.insertBefore(s, h); })(document);

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Day 1a of the Hollywood Poker Open St. Louis Regional Main Event wrapped up Friday night, and it was Bill Haner leading the way with 243,500 in chips. Ten players booked their ticket to Day 2, which will begin on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. local time.

Of the 74 Day 1a entrants, Haner had one of the biggest stacks all day, if not the biggest, and rode the wave all the way to the end. He won several hands against Cory Bogert, who finished on 203,500, including calling one hand with kings and thinking he was up against aces. He won that hand and a large pot, then seemed to always have the best of it when it came to Bogert.

Haner boasts $82,841 in live tournament earnings entering this event, with the largest score of his career being a third-place finish worth $61,021 in the 2015 Heartland Poker Tour St. Charles $1,650 Main Event. Of his six live cashes to date, Haner holds no victory, but he's in prime position to change that here in St. Louis.

Day 1a Survivors

Rank	Player	Chips
1	William Haner	243,500
2	Cory Bogert	203,500
3	Zal Irani	189,000
4	Donald McArthur	137,500
5	Ryan Tepen	131,500
6	Peter Brooks	131,000
7	Chris Moneymaker	125,000
8	Ed McPike	122,500
9	Michael Kamenjarin	119,000
10	Jeremy Scharf	77,000

The day could have ended with HPO ambassador and former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker leading the way, but after getting aces cracked in the final few hands against Peter Brooks, it wasn't meant to be. Brooks finished the day slightly ahead of Moneymaker's 125,000 in chips with 131,000.

Ryan Tepen was short stacked earlier in the day, but doubled up a couple times in quick succession and then was able to put pressure on people and work his stack up to 131,500 where he finished.

Zal Irani finished the day third in chips with 189,000, and he'll prove a formidable competitor going forward. He too doubled up late in the day, with aces versus the pocket nines of the chip leader, Haner. Irani has a long list of live tournament cashes to his name and over $750,000 in earnings.

With Day 1a in the bag, stay tuned for Day 1b on Saturday at 11:15 a.m. local time. PokerNews will be on hand once again for coverage, and this time we'll see who makes it through from Day 1b to join these 10 players on Day 2.

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

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Scientific Games Corporation announced the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma has selected its integrated BallySystems Suite, 300 player-favorite games and WMS and Bally cabinet platforms at its Thunderbird casinos in Norman and Shawnee, Oklahoma.

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IGT signs fouryear contract extension with the Michigan Lottery to continue offering lottery products and services through January 19, 2021.

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Slot hold levels are at unprecedented levels across numerous jurisdictions. A recent study shows how we got there and the impact it is having.

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