Since its inception in 2005, the Bellagio Cup championship event has been one of the biggest draws on the World Poker Tour. Last year, Kevin Saul steamrolled a field of 535 en route to a $1.3 million payday, but with the uncertainty of the WPT television deal and an exhausting World Series of Poker schedule, the 2008 edition of the tournament was able to muster a die-hard field of only 446, a 17 percent decline from last year's event.

Eric Drache's one-table satellites to the main event steadily had increased the number of entrants -- to 54 in 1979, 73 in 1980, 75 in 1981, 104 in 1982; '82 was also the year Jack "Treetop" Straus won after being down to a single chip worth 500, giving rise to the expression "all you need is a chip and a chair," the mantra of every player sitting behind a short stack. Meanwhile, next door to the Horseshoe, the Mint's poker manager, Jim Albrecht, followed suit by spreading World Series of Poker satellites of his own.

Lyle Berman is one of the players in the "big game," but only when he can find the time, which is not as often as he would like, due to his position as the chairman of the board of World Poker Tour Enterprises. He was first exposed to the game of poker as a child, and more than 20 years ago, he sharpened his skills by studying Doyle Brunson's book, Super/System. Berman is the epitome of both a professional poker player and an industry professional, and that is why, in 2002, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.

This hand comes from the 2008 World Series of Poker main event, day 1A, and is just unbelievable. I thought I busted out on a rough hand, but this is just plain dirty. The poker gods must have laughed themselves silly with this one. One good thing about the end of the WSOP is that no more bad-beat stories are being told from every direction. It is interesting to note that most of the stories are not true, or are greatly exaggerated. It is a rare poker player who says, "I just made a stupid play and got my money in bad."

At only 27 years old, Gavin Griffin already holds one of the most impressive collections of poker's most prestigious titles. The former poker dealer won the $3,000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event at the 2004 World Series of Poker, a win that, at the time, bestowed upon him the record as the youngest bracelet winner in history. Since then, he has accumulated more than $4.5 million in live tournament winnings, and made history again by winning the European Poker Tour Grand Final Championship, which boasted the biggest first-place prize in EPT history at the time, more than $2.4 million. Griffin continued his quest for major titles at the 2008 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Classic, where he snagged a triple crown by winning the coveted WPT title and the $1.4 million first-place prize.

The World Poker Tour has a new home. Fox Sports Network (FSN) has come to an agreement with World Poker Tour Enterprises to broadcast season seven of the WPT. FSN now has the rights to broadcast 26 one-hour episodes of the WPT in the United States, which are being filmed now.

If it wasn't for poker's phenomenal international growth, this year's World Series of Poker certainly would have experienced a drop in attendance. A large number of the 58,720 players who bought into WSOP events in 2008 were from abroad. And as these players continue to improve their poker chops, the winner's circle is looking more and more like an Olympic medal ceremony than a Texas road gamblers' convention.

Recently, The New York Times featured an article about professional poker players and their crazy side bets, often referred to as "prop bets." The article discussed Mike "The Mouth" Matusow's recent side bet with Ted Forrest, which saw Matusow betting $100,000 that he would hit his high-school weight of 181 pounds. Even though Matusow weighed 241 pounds when he made the bet, he managed to weigh in at 180.8 pounds in late May to win the bet. What do we poker players see in prop bets? These bets are a lot of fun to make, because they challenge our wits and perception. They give us a chance to win some cash, and in some cases, they provide a real challenge in a field outside of poker.

OK, it's back in the USSR, not USSA, but I'm back in the U.S., not the USSR, so what do you want from me? It's not that I didn't have a great time in Europe, but as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home." I'm ecstatic to be home. I've missed my dogs, American food, and my wife terribly; not necessarily in that order, but not not necessarily in that order, either.