It's been said that poker pros are the new rock stars, with tabloids mercilessly turning every stone to find new gossip about them - and even making up their own when there's nothing concrete to write about.

This is the case in Finland, at least. Recently young Jens Kyllönen, winner at EPT Copenhagen, made the mistake of joking about a Finnish Big Brother contestant called Henna in another player's blog. "If I wasn't dating, I would suggest a bet of €20,000 for who gets to bed Henna first," Jens wrote tongue-in-cheek after the fame hungry Henna had publicly said poker pros fascinate her. The tabloids picked it up immediately, only "slightly" distorting the facts in their headlines: "Jens is willing to pay tens of thousands to go to bed with Henna!" one tabloid screamed to the amusement of the poker community.

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies is of course a dream come true for these sensation seekers, and this week one of them reached a new low by publishing some made up gossip of Ilari getting mugged in the street in Helsinki. "He was very badly beaten and possibly robbed," Seiska magazine wrote, stating that this had happened on Thursday, April 23.

It so happens that Ilari was in San Remo playing in the EPT tournament on April 23 (something Seiska apparently didn't bother to check), so he has a pretty strong case when he says he has no idea where they came up with that story!

Another tabloid called him yesterday to confirm the story when he was playing in the EPT Grand Final opening day in Monaco. "I was dealt Kings just as I was in the phone with the reporter, so I had to hang up," Ilari says. "I won a big pot and then called back to the reporter. It took me a long time to convince him the story wasn't true," Ilari laughs.