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Fancy playing in a WSOP event but worried your skills are not up to the task? Some old school poker pros would say that describes most of the dead money coming into these events, but others are taking a bit more of a constructive approach and actually setting out to teach newcomers a thing or two about cashing in and winning a WSOP event. Enter the WSOP Academy.

It is not too early to get excited for next year's World Series of Poker, and you can plan on the exact dates the festivities will begin. The dates for the 39th annual WSOP have been released by the company that runs the world's longest running poker tournament series, Harrah's Entertainment. Things will be getting under way a day earlier than this year, May 30.

There is no question that commercialism and poker have become bedfellows over the years, but one question that could still be asked is, "Has the World Series of Poker stopped being "pure" poker?"

The original WSOP is to be held in Las Vegas again this summer, but the WSOPE won't kick off in the United Kingdom till the fall, which means that there is plenty of time to win seats at various satellites taking place now.

So you are planning on playing at the World Series of Poker this year - either you have set aside your buy ins or you are one of the lucky ones that won an entry, you are excited to go - but have you set out to plan your trip?

Each year the World Series of Poker continues to grow as more and more poker players seek life changing pay offs, and with the increase in players comes the demand for more and more dealers.

If something sounds too good to be true, starts a very old, very well known bit of wisdom, "it probably is." This is the case with the recent spate of "great" deals making their way around the poker community on websites, message boards, blogs and email lists - discounted WSOP Main Event seats.

Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok made a prop bet during last year's World Series of Poker that will certainly go down in the history of prop bets - Joe, as the loser, was made to wear a different super hero costume every day he lasted in the WSOP Main Event.

You did it! You worked hard at your game, you took note of which online rooms were offering seats to the main event of the upcoming World Series of Poker, and you sat down to play. Perhaps there were a few failed attempts, but you persevered and made it to the end and were awarded with a free ticket to the $10,000 event this summer. Now what? How about winning another seat?

It was a World Series of Poker event, and one would think that would be enough to summon the greatest amount of concentration a body could muster, but Phil Ivey seemed to be a bit unfocused. The commentators made mention that it could be Ivey was exhausted from staying up late playing in side games.