The professional Texas Holdem poker player has a variety of different goals and many of them are money orientated, but there is still a drive to be the very best in the business. Daniel Negreanu starts each year by setting a series of ten poker related goals and 2012 has been no exception. Goal number three on the Canadian’s wish list is to regain the top spot as the all-time money earner – a spot currently being kept warm by Erik Seidel. Maybe the all-time money list is an accurate portrayal of who the best in the business are? Maybe or maybe not but the list is deemed important enough to be turned into a goal for Kid Poker.

Goal number eight simply reads: to have a better year than Jason Mercier. This is an indication from Negreanu that he believes Mercier is the standard bearer in live tournament poker. Interestingly, Mercier will move to the top of the Epic Poker League (EPL) rankings in the next few weeks, so maybe the EPL is the latest way of keeping score in the world of poker? You would think so except Mr. Negreanu doesn’t count a listing on there as one of his ten goals for 2012!

So who is the very best in the business? That’s a tough one, but you can certainly count Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier and Kid Poker himself as three of the elite.

He beat out a record field of 592 in the €10,000 buy-in main event to take home the title, his first bracelet, and the top prize of €1.4 million ($1,927,310).

It’s not the first time the 25 year old has won. Earlier this year, he took the title at the Bellagio Cup VII, in Vegas.

The last stage of the main event was played inside the Hotel Majestic Barriére’s ballroom with hardly any spectators and no loud cheering sections, unlike that of the main event in Vegas.

When play got down to 12-handed Fox accumulated enough chips for the lead and kept it upon entering the final table. After nine hours, he finished what he started to take the top share of the €5,692,800 ($7,836,414) prize pool in his first WSOP Europe main event, but he had to withstand a final table weighed down by big names of the online and live poker world to get there.

So let’s here it for Elio.

Awesome play, man.

“We take this very seriously and have been investigating this matter since the initial allegation,” MLB said Wednesday in a statement. “As part of the investigation, the commissioner’s office will interview Mr. Rodríguez.”

So Alex like to gamble.

That was no secret.

Rodríguez also faced questions about his gambling habits in 2005, when a New York newspaper, The Daily News, reported that he went to games at an underground poker club in New York.

And A-Rod actually admitted it was true, and said (at the time), ”it wasn’t the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile, Star magazine (that paragon of journalism)  wrote  last month that several people saw A-Rod playing at one of the star-studded games that were hosted at Hollywood hotels and private residences.

Allegedly, A-Rod was seen at one time playing in a separate high-stakes game recently that had a $40,000 buy-in.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire reportedly participated in the games.

A spokesman for the Yankees declined comment when asked about Rodríguez on Wednesday. A message was left seeking comment from Richard Rubenstein, Rodríguez’s publicist.

The 36-year-old Rodríguez had right knee surgery on July 14 but is expected to resume baseball activities on Thursday at the Yankees’ facility in Florida. The three-time AL MVP is hitting .295 with 13 home runs and 52 RBIs this season.

Rodríguez ranks sixth on the career homer list with 626.

Travnik, you should know (at the age of 20) became his country’s first ever player to win a major live poker tournament.

The WPT Slovenia took place in the town of Portoroz, a picture-postcard coastal resort with just 2,849 residens.

However, despite becoming a local hero after winning the tournament, the young man seemed overawed by the attention and after shunning all interviews called his mother to collect him.

He played the game in an aggressive style throughout the tournament.

By the time the final table of six had been reached, Travnik was battling it out against three Italians, a Swede and a Romanian.

Eventually, after seven hours of play Travnik (1.204m) would go heads-up against Italian player Vincenzo Natale (3.15m)

However, Travnik soon went behind by a massive 10 to 1 as the Italian rode roughshod all over him, before he managed to mount an amazing comeback.

Travnik took a big lead after drawing level before then being 4-bet into while holding J-J to Natale’s 9d-8d. Soon after the final hand of the competition came with Natale all-in preflop holding K-8 to Travnik’s A J.

With the board then falling J-7-5-2-10 Natale collected $99,481 for his runner-up finish, while the top prize, plus a $25,500 ticket to the 2012 WPT Championship in Las Vegas went to the young Travnik.

That’s right.

The World Poker Tour, now in it’s tenth year, is better and stronger than ever, with six stops in Europe (so far).

The Tour competes with the European Poker Tour (EPT), but truthfully, as a reporter and amateur player, I love them both. And that’s not a cop out.

Here is the lineup:

WPT Slovenia — Casino Portorož Portorož, Piran, Slovenia, July 17 – 21, 2011: €3,300
WPT Grand Prix de Paris — Aviation Club de France, Paris, France, Sept 5 – 10, 2011: €7,500 (4 precent of prize pool withheld for casino and 2 percent for tournament staff)
WPT Malta — The Casino at Portomaso, Portomaso, St. Julian’s, Malta, Sept 20 – Sept 24, 2011: €3,500
WPT Amnéville — Seven Casino, Amnéville, France, Nov 1 – 6, 2011: €3,500
WPT Marrakech — Casino de Marrakech, Marrakech, Africa, Nov 24 – 27, 2011: €3,300
WPT Prague — Corinthia Casino, Prague, Czech Republic, Dec 1 – 5, 2011: €3,500

More European dates will likely be named as they come on board.