The riverboats on the Mississippi River were a hotbed of gambling, and poker was the game of choice. The man known as the King of Riverboat Poker was an Ohio man George H. Devol, who frequented the tables for over 40 years and was reported to have taken in $1 Million.

Devol ran away from home at the tender age of 10, and worked aboard a steamer, where learned to play poker. He spent years travelling up and down the river, taking money from opponents – but not all of them. He is reported to have enjoyed playing with ministers, and upon winning, would return their money and tell them, “Go and sin no more.”

He also travelled through the Wild West and played poker on trains, where it is said he bested a train director and was subsequently barred from the railroad.

The mystique behind the Dead Man’s Hand – Aces and Eights – began in the Wild West. Wild Bill Hickok was a gold prospector and gunslinger with a reported 36 kills under his gunbelt, when he rode into Deadwood, South Dakota. He took up his favorite past time of poker in the saloons of Deadwood, particularly Carl Mann’s saloon.

It was in this saloon on  August 2, 1876 that Hickok sat in on a game, bregrudingly taking a seat at the table which put his back to the door. Hickok was dealt Aces and Eights, without the fifth yet being dealt, and ”Crooked Nose” Jack McCall, a drifter, put a bullet in the back of Hickok’s head.

The Dead Man’s Hand lives on.

Eugene Katchalov, who in addition to being a great sounding Bond villian, has claimed the top spot on Bluff Magazine’s Player of the Year race, thanks to his runner-up finish at the  $10,000 North American Poker High Roller Bounty Shootout. The placing vaulted Katchalov from fifth to first, besting second place Ali Eslami and third place PCA Main Event winner Galen Hall. Eric Seidel, who is burning up the felt this year, entered the top twenty and climbed to seventh place with his second place finish at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open.

Rounding out the top ten are Marvin Rettenmaier, Annand (Victor) Ramdin, Alessio Isaia, Tim West, Vivek Rajkumar and Randy Dorfman.

For the full list click here.

I came across the video of this hand in my random travels, and it is beyond words. It is a trainwreck of epic proportions, until another train jumps the tracks! It’s from Spain and features Soccer-like commentary and “LOL” actually showing up on the subtitles.

Much like a Sergio Leone film, it features a showdown between Alfredo and Vicente. I don’t know who they are, and this hand may illuminate why. I have never seen such meltdowns, from both players. The loser thought he won and the winner thought he lost and we are left with a collective face palm.

See it for yourself here.

Contrary to popular belief, online play is alive and well, and Gus Hansen set out to prove that, and did, although perhaps not the way he would’ve liked to.

Hansen tangled with Patrik Antonius in just under 500 hands of  of $300/$600 pot-limit Omaha and $3,000/$6,000 limit Omaha hi/lo, with to Antonius coming away the victor with a $351,000 win.

Hansen was back Thursday, facing “ronnyr37617” at the $300/$600 PLO tables in six figure pots, and found himself once again on the losing side. Hansen would find some of his previous luck once “LokoIsBack” joined the fray to make it three-handed. At the end of play, Hansen had taken down several big pots, including a $140,396 win against the two. It wasn’t enough to recoup all of the week’s losses, however, as he found himself the week’s biggest loser with -$230,462. He can find solace in the fact that he is still the year’s biggest earner thus far with $4,257,000.

While the last week has been anything but calm seas in the world of online poker, there is one harbour from the storm still standing, GSN’s High Stakes Poker. The show will remain broadcasting, changing its air time to 11:00pm ET and PT on Saturdays.

The show will do away with sponsorship, and will continue to emanate from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Currently in it’s 7th season, the show is hosted by SNL alum Norm Macdonald, who recently replaced Gabe Kaplan, and Kara Scott conducts interviews with the pros throughout play. The lineup for the season consists of Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Robert Croak, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Bill Klein, Dario Minieri, David Peat, Andrew Robl, Phil Ruffin, Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Selbst.

While I’m loath to associate the term “athlete” with poker players, we’ll save that debate for another day, and accept it for this story. ESPN released its list of the highest earning athletes for the last year, and while there are familiar and expected names on the list, there is one notable addition - 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel.

Duhamel makes the list in 11th place with $9,443,519 in tournament earnings from April 4, 2010, to April 3, 2011. Alex Rodriquez and Manny Pacquiao tied for first on the list with a whopping $32 Million in earnings, and Duhamel was bested by names like Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning and Rafael Nadal.

ESPN also found:

Lowest-paying sport: women’s bowling.

Highest-paying sports (tie): baseball and boxing.

Gender breakdown: 32 men, 11 women.

Total money earned: $238,536,500.

Average amount earned per athlete: $5,547,360

Here’s another weekly installment of some choice tweets from the pros…

Eric Mizrachi

HAPPY 4-20 to EVERYBODY! 04/20/11. Should I make a quick flight to Amsterdam?

Matt Savage

8 poker players on our plane from Las Vegas, that has to be a good sign? @WorldPokerTour

After Gus Hansen’s impressive run of wins, he stumbled, suffering losses that set him back $1,346,194 in two weeks. True to his winning ways so far this year, though, Hansen rebounded, claiming the spot as top earner for the week with $673,202. He is followed by Scott “URnotINdangr2″ Palmer  with  $438,947, “FakeSky” with $351,996, “Seb86″ with $335,910 and Daniel Cates with $335,217.

Tom Dwan continues his downslide, claiming the top loser for the third week in a row, down $893,467 for the week and $2,474,309 on the year. Joining him are ”POKERBLUFFS” with $420,402, Alex Luneau with $308,90, ”Lance84″ with $296,329, and ”world1969″ with $282,834.