Roland de Wolfe makes another appearance under our masthead. Its the first time we've re-featured a player on the cover. Inside the issue you can get his opinion on the cost of tournaments these days. It was an incredibly busy issue for me, not only did I have to put all of the design together, as usual, but I also had to shuttle to London several times to cover the WSOPE. I got to meet a lot of the big star players, along with bagging quite a few for covershoots.

Features in this issue include:

• 16 pages of tournament coverage from the WPT at the Bellagio and the GUKPT Bolton.
• Pro on pro with Robert Romanello and Tony Cascarino
• Has poker killed off its gangster and Wild West desperado image?
• Why LAG is the new TAG
• Pros and cons of staking
• A cash game walk through with a pro

Buy it now!

As mentioned below the MPA has anounced its winner. Yawn!

How many architects would site Michael Schumacher as their inspiration. Hands up LAVA. The mind boggles!

The MPA awards for the best cover of the year are being decided as we speak. Here are the contenders. Some nice shots but as mag covers I'm not impressed. I know that the US market operated in a different way to the UK but none of these examples makes me think "Wow". Obviously Jessica here is rather alluring but it not that special a cover, is it? In terms of pure look I'd have to choose the "T" japanese cover, but I'm still left thinking "So what?"

I think its safe to say that the first issue AFTER a redesign is always difficult, this one was no exception. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into creating this little beauty. Despite the pain it turned out to be a great issue.

Joe Beevers of The Hendon Mob is our cover star. He was very obliging considering that the shoot was right after he had just busted out of his Poker Nations heat! Read his profile to see how he's become so successful (despite this hiccup!).

This month we have...

• World Series of Poker coverage (part one)
• WPT Bay 101 roundup
• GCBPT report from Bristol
• How to make the most of casino gamblers who wander in to the cardroom curious about poker
• Small Ball poker book extract from Daniel Negreanu
• What Evelyn Ng thinks of her fellow poker peers

Get down to your local stockist and pick up a copy now!

Its been a very busy last few months for me. Firstly I had to do a redesign of my magazine, WPT Poker. My colleagues and I have produced a more focussed product aimed at the established poker playing community. We've added far more input from professional players, giving the reader far more chance to immerse themselves in the practice and atmosphere of cardroom mentality.

The look of the magazine is now more sophisticated, with a whole raft of new features. We've given the cover a matt finish which make the whole package very tactile. New articles include: Action, our front news/analysis section; New regular columnists, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiairi and Jim Mcshane; Floor, tales from tournament directors; Every Question Answered, your chance to put your questions to a poker pro; Real Life, a stars chance to share a life changing event; and many more.

The cover star this issue is Neil Channing, telling us about his big win in the Irish Open and his preparation for the World Series.

If you want pick up a copy of the No.1 resource for serious players click here! On sale now.

The other project that has kept me up late is a new pattern site. Its for all those (kids through to pensioners!) who love to colour in abstract patterns. I used to love spending hours as a young'un filling in bookloads of these kind of designs. I did a websearch but found nothing beyond a few ancient sites with awful images on them. So I decided to create my own patterns for an eager audience to download, print and start colouring in. Its a great activity for when the weather is chucking stair-rods at the world.

Check out the blog for the full list of patterns you can download. More to be added regularly.

Colourlovers has put together a list of all of the crayola colours, which brings me right back to childhood when I had a huge box of the things. I remember going through them one by one, trying to use each of them equally, ending up with pages covered in abstract rainbows. The list helpfully gives you some print and screen colour values to recreate each one. Beyond this article, Colourlovers is a great place to immerse yourself.

James Dyson unveils his design school to be based in Bath, just a few minutes walk from where I live. Its an interesting plan. At the moment the whole face of Bath is being redeveloped, some good like this project, others bad like the Riverside development. The design schools aim is to give 14 to 19 year olds a foothold into the product design and engineering industry. It does seem a shame that its not going to cover other creative disciplines, but I guess there is only so much space on the site. The architectural plans of the building have been revised, quite rightly, to retain more of the original features of the warehouse that is to be converted into the school. More info about the project can be found on the Dyson site.

New to my blogroll is Smashing Magazine, a great resource for design inspiration. One of their posts is all about Beautiful Handwriting, Lettering and Calligraphy. Great eyecandy!

I've been so snowed under recently that I've been unable to update you on our latest issues. Well let me fix it by pointing out our latest corker of an issue. Cover star Liv Boeree kindly gave up some of her hectic schedule to do an exclusive photoshoot for us. The results were great as you can see. We recently went to a recording session of a Pokerstars televised event. We had a bundle of these copies with us and they barely saw the light of day before many interested parties whisked them away for closer inspection. So get one while you can. Inside we profile her career as well as get her to interview Andy Black.

In this issue you'll find articles on:

• Barry Carter tells us of his experiences playing a televised event.

• How to play Omaha if you're a main game is Texas Hold'em

• Carl Sampson relays a tale of his past on the backstreet poker circuit

• Tips to keep that ego in check when chasing a pot

• Is it a good idea to sit at a cash table for only half the max buy-in

Dash down to WHSmith right now.