The 38-year-old poker pro from Humble, Texas bested Jordan Griff — a 30-year-old amateur from Scottsdale, Ariz. — after more than three hours of heads-up play at the Horseshoe Las Vegas.

But $6 million for second place isn’t too shabby.

Before his win, Tamayo had accumulated $2.3 million in live tournament cashes and just over $1 million from online tournaments. The closest he previously came to winning the Main Event was in 2009, when he was eliminated in 21st place for a payday of $352,832.

Sweden’s Niklas Astedt — the online poker pro known as Lena900 — came into Day 10 with the tallest stack and the shortest odds of winning. Yet, owing to the unpredictable nature of the game, he was eliminated in less than an hour, holding top pair and a straight draw against a set of nines held by Griff.

He walked away with $4 million.

The $10K WSOP Main Event attracted a record 10,112 contenders, surpassing the previous record of 10,043 set last year.

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Antonius has booked almost $23 million in gross live tournament wins, according to the Hendon Mob database. But the bulk of his winnings have surely come from online cash games, which are less easily quantifiable.

“In the modern era of poker, few have been as bold and fearless as Patrik Antonius,” said Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker. “A force both online and live, we’re thrilled to see Patrik’s high-stakes career acknowledged by legends who have added the first international player to the Poker Hall of Fame in a number of years.”

New Wave

Antonius was part of the first wave of online players who demanded to be taken seriously.

Chris Moneymaker won the World Series in 2003 after qualifying via an online satellite. Subsequent fields were swollen by online qualifiers who believed they could emulate Moneymaker’s feat.

This new injection of liquidity pumped the prize pools to dizzying heights, which in turn attracted more players, kickstarting the poker boom of the mid-2000s.

However, “online player” was still a dirty word among the seasoned live pros, who understood — rightly — that Moneymaker was a stroke of luck, and — wrongly — that internet players were a flash in the pan.

Antonius — a promising tennis player until his career was cut short by injury — was arguably the leader of the pack, and his nosebleed online cash-game battles with the likes of Phil Ivey, Dwan, Viktor “Isildur” Blom, and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies were the stuff of legend in the late 2000s.

Antonius remains the winner of the largest online pot of all time. He scooped $1,356,947 in a hand against Blom in 2009.

Life Begins at 40

It’s incredible to think that this new wave of young players are all now pushing 40. Antonius is 43. It’s a condition that Hall of Fame nominees must be over 40, so expect more of their ilk to be inducted in the next few years.

Another condition for prospective inductees is that they must have stood the test of time, continuously playing at the highest level while maintaining the respect of their peers.

Antonius continues to be a dominant force in live high-roller tournaments and in high-stakes games online.

“This is a very big honor to become a new Hall of Famer,” Antonius said in a statement. “The last 24-25 years with poker went pretty fast. I think I’m going to stick around for a long time.”

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Adam Rude of Clarksville, Tenn. told the Poker News website he was briefly hospitalized on Thursday, before Day 5, which he ended up arriving in time to play in.

Rude Awakening

On Thursday, the 40-year-old said, he woke up shivering and took a shower ?to warm up. That’s where he collapsed as the alarm in his implanted defibrillator went off.

The instrument was surgically implanted due to a heart condition plaguing Rude since he contracted a virus similar to COVID-19 in 2014, he told Poker News.

“I went to the hospital and it was registering as a heart attack,” Rude said. “So, I mean, they didn’t see any damage, they did what they could do. They got my vitals, everything, looking good. And they gave me some strong medicines to get me through (Thursday).”

Is that dedication or ridiculousness? We can’t decide.

“I am getting a little negative feedback at the table,” Rude admitted. “One guy is a little outspoken that I shouldn’t be here. The reason I’m here — the only reason I’m here — is because I have two boys, and I want to give them $10 million.”

Unfortunately, Rude was robbed of what could have been the most remarkable story in the history of Main Event wins. He was sent to the rail in 194th place for $60,000.

Which should just about cover that hospital bill.

As of Friday, 160 players remain in the Main Event from a record field of 10,112. The final table is scheduled to start July 16.

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Daniel Weinman of Atlanta, who claimed last year’s $12 million Main Event first prize, barely finished his welcome speech when amateur Harlan Karnofsky of Sacramento, Calif. busted out Craig Issod of San Francisco.

Karnofsky bet 1,200 chips on a flop of jack-six-10 with two diamonds. Issod raised to 7,000, chasing everyone from the hand but Karnofsky, who called Issod’s next bet of 15,000. The river, ace of clubs, gave Karnofsky a straight to Issod’s set of sixes. After Issod bet 37,000, Karnofsky went all-in and doubled his 60,000-chip starting stack, becoming tournament leader.

Online poker pro Trip Darroch was also sent to the rails in the first hand by his opponent, amateur David Williamson, who joined Karnofsky at the top of the early leaderboard by placing a sizeable bet on quads that was met by Darroch, who had a full house.

It’s typical for one player to bust out on opening day of the Main Event, but two is a relative rarity.

Day 1A assembled a group of 1,300 poker notables including 2012 Main Event champ Greg Merson, 2016 champ Qui Nguyen, Michael Mizrachi and Freddy Deeb.

“This is the greatest poker tournament in the world,” Weinman told the players before the action started. “I see myself playing this tournament for the rest of my life. I’m just excited to see who gets their banner up on the wall next to me, if I don’t do it again.”

There’s no July 4th holiday for WSOP players, as Day 1B begins at 12 p.m. PT Thursday.

The final table is scheduled for July 16.

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Unfortunately for the 18-table poker room, it won’t emerge renovated after the renovation. That’s because the remodel is being done to the property’s high-limit slot area.

Casinos can do without poker revenue more readily than they can without the much greater revenue from high-limit slots. So the poker room will serve as the temporary high-limit slot room during the remodel.

The poker room will deal its last hand on or around July 17, though “nothing has been decided or set in stone,” according to the memo.

According to the Caesars Palace memo, Caesars Entertainment is searching for a place to open a temporary Caesars Palace poker room during the remodel. However, none has been found yet, and there’s no guarantee that one will be.

The current poker room at Caesars Palace opened 10 years ago, near the sportsbook and Mesa Grill, just before the property’s former poker room was encroached upon by an expansion of the former Pure nightclub.

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George Cottrell, 30, was reportedly playing in a private game at the Maestral Casino in Budva, Montenegro, which involved “Chinese billionaires, Hollywood celebrities, and some of the world’s best high roller poker stars,” according to the Mail.

The Maestral Casino is currently hosting the Triton Poker Series, a festival for elite players established by former junket operator Paul Phua, who has also had his fair share of legal troubles in the US and elsewhere.

British poker player and businessman Rob Yong, who was in town to play the Triton events, wrote in a now-deleted tweet on X that the cash games were “wild.”

“The big game way too big 4 me here, $200k + just to see the flop,” Yong marveled.

The Daily Mail source claimed Cottrell didn’t appear to be phased by his eyewatering losses.

“Despite George losing so much money, he appeared to be enjoying himself and didn’t step away from the table until 7 a.m. By that point he was $20 million down,” the source claimed.

Who is George Cottrell?

Cottrell’s mother is Fiona Watson, a former model who once dated King Charles. She’s the daughter of Rupert Watson, the third Baron Manton.

Born into a life of privilege, Cottrell became a banker and dated reality TV show celebrities. Later, he was an advisor to Nigel Farage, who led the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union.

Cottrell played a key role in the Brexit campaign, which achieved its goal following the EU referendum of June 2016.

Little did Cottrell know at the time, but the drug dealers he had attempted to blackmail in Las Vegas two years earlier were undercover FBI agents.

Flushed with the success of the referendum, in July 2016, he accompanied Farage to the Republican National Convention to watch Donald Trump accept the party’s presidential nomination.

As Cottrell attempted to return to the UK, he was arrested by federal authorities at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

21 Felonies

Cottrell had been advertising himself on the dark web as an offshore investment expert who could launder money in and out of the US. When two FBI agents posing as drug dealers reached out for his services, Cottrell agreed to meet them in Las Vegas to flesh out a deal.

He later admitted in his plea agreement that his plan was to keep the money for himself rather than launder it. Shortly after the Las Vegas meeting, he demanded around $80K in Bitcoin from the undercover agents in return for keeping quiet about the deal.

In June last year, Montenegrin authorities raided a bar in the coastal town of Tivat that hosted gambling machines and a “cryptomat,” used for buying and trading digital currencies. Cottrell has denied having a connection to the venue or the crypto industry via his lawyer.

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So said former Texas road gambler and Poker Hall of Famer Crandell Addington, who died last week at age 85. And he should know – until he retired from poker in the 1980s to devote his time to the oil and biotech industries, Addington was considered to be one of the best No-Limit Hold’ em players in the world.

Known as “the Dandy” because of his love of well-tailored suits (he sometimes changed clothes three times a day), Addington was one of the founders of the World Series of Poker.

First WSOP

In 1969, Addington won the Texas Gamblers Convention tournament in Reno, Nev., which was the forerunner of the World Series. The following year, the event was reincarnated at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas and given the name we know it by today.

Addington made the final table of the WSOP Main Event almost every year from 1972 to 1979. To this day, he holds the record for the most final table appearances – seven – although it must be said that the fields were somewhat smaller in Addington’s heyday.

Road Gambler

Previously, he had been a Texas road gambler, traveling the sometimes perilous underground poker circuit of his home state.

We did have weapons,” he said when he was invited to address students at Harvard University in 2007. “It was not really to use on each other. What we really wanted to be able to do was, if we won, we wanted to be able to get back to the car with the money. And so, not only did we have to beat a lot of really good players, but we had to dodge the hijackers and often times the sheriff of the county.”

Addington applied some of the strategies he learned at the poker table to business, when, in the 1980s he went looking for black gold in Texas. He built a successful oil business and later branched out into biotech, co-founding Phoenix Biotechnology in 2003, which develops plant-based medicines for treating human and animal diseases.

Addington was chairman and CEO of Phoenix until he was forced to retire because of ill health.

He supported many good causes in his life, animal charities in particular. He requested that his ashes be scattered among those of the many pets he had outlived, including his beloved black lab, Miss Joey, according to an obituary posted on Legacy.com.

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The club was the largest and most popular in Texas until it was raided by police in mid-tournament in October 2022. Dozens of employees were arrested, and 49 players were charged with the offense of “gambling — cards, dice, balls,” although most of the player charges were later dropped.

‘Inequitable’ Plea Deal

Vongkaysone will avoid jail thanks to the deal, but has agreed to forfeit $170K in penalties, plus interest. Authorities seized around $205K during the raid. This included the roughly $132K prize pool for the top finishers in the club’s Fall Classic Poker $100K GTD Main Event, which was in full swing at the time of the raid.

Vongkaysone said in a statement he had intended to fight the charges, but ran out of money after spending $195K on legal fees defending himself and eight staff members.

Making the tough choice to accept an inequitable plea bargain, surrender the forfeitures, and bear inflated attorney fees was far from easy,” Vongkaysone said. “… My heart goes out to every individual who got entangled in this unfair situation – the players, employees, and all my investors. Truly, it’s a regrettable predicament for everyone involved.”

It’s not immediately clear why Vongkaysone’s club was targeted while others in the Dallas area have been left unmolested.

Legal Loophole

In Texas, as elsewhere, all gambling is illegal unless specifically authorized by the legislature. But the state’s poker clubs argue they operate legally via a loophole in the law.

Chapter 47 of the Texas Penal Code states: “It is a defense to prosecution [for gambling]” if “the actor engaged in gambling [is] in a private place; no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings; [and] except for the advantage of skill or luck, the risks of losing and the chances of winning were the same for all.”

Detractors say the “private” carveout was intended for private home games, and the clubs are not private places because they can attract hundreds of players daily.

The City of Dallas is currently locked in a legal battle with several local card clubs. In December 2022, a Dallas County district judge ruled that the clubs could stay open until the matter of their legality is finally resolved in the State Supreme Court.

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The colorful Barstool Sports media personality had found himself as the chip leader in the $2.5K Moneymaker Tour Main Event at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida on Monday. He had? the chance to win $120K.

Happy days! Except when Mintzy was rivering those quads, he was supposed to be at the Barstool Combine, an annual frattish carnival of amateur sports and professional partying currently taking place 1,300 miles away in Chicago.

It seems Mintz didn’t expect to go quite as deep in the tournament as he did, which left him with a difficult decision.

Unfortunately for Mintz, Barstool’s brash founder Dave Portnoy wasn’t feeling the vibes and objected to his choice of poker glory over his regular job.

“BREAKING: Every cent Mintzy makes in this tournament will be deducted from his salary for him choosing poker over a mandatory corporate event,” he tweeted quickly in response to Mintzy’s post.

Portnoy’s Complaint ?

Later, Portnoy posted a video of a telephone conversation with Mintz in which the Moneymaker Tour chip leader offered a stuttering apology for skipping the event.

“So, if you win, do I not have to pay your salary anymore, since that’s why we pay you a salary – for these events that you’re just skipping?” spat Portnoy.

If you’re a professional poker player, go do that … We have a major sponsored event that you have a jersey for, that you’re supposed to be a part of, and you’re just skipping it because you’re doing well in a poker tournament,” Portnoy added. “Well, great! Go make your money playing poker then.”

In a previous life, Mintz was a professional poker player with gross tournament earnings of more than $600K, according to the Hendon Mob Database. He’s currently heading toward the biggest score of his career as we write. His best score is for just over 90K for a 75th-place finish at the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

Many on social media had sympathy for Mintz and questioned why his boss would shame him publicly on Instagram – a move that has presumably frazzled his brain as he chases that big score.

Not Mintzing Words

This isn’t the first time Mintz has been in trouble with his employer. In fact, he was fired by Barstool in May last year after rapping the song “1st of Tha Month” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, including the N-word, during a live stream.

On that occasion, Portnoy supported Mintz and disagreed with the decision. In August 2023, Penn concluded that Barstool and Portnoy were dangerous liabilities, and sold the company back to Portnoy for $1, having acquired it for around $550 million six months prior. That left Portnoy very, very rich and free to rehire Mintz.

——

BREAKING: Just as we were about to publish, Mintz busted the tournament in eighth place for $14,600.

“I ain’t happy,” he tweeted, adding that he was getting straight on a plane to Chicago.

The post Barstool Sports’ ‘Mintzy’ Skips Work for Deep Poker Run, Portnoy Mad appeared first on Casino.org.

Pending Nevada regulatory approval, the new poker room will feature 50 tables spread across 14,000 square feet.

The expansion of the poker room is a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts of reimagining the gaming experience at the Venetian Resort,” said Danny Ruiz, the property’s chief gaming officer, in the release. “The room was designed to provide an elevated playing experience and everything from design details to enhancements were made with the players in mind.”

Additional amenities in the new space, based on years of player feedback, will include dedicated bathrooms, USB charging ports at every seat, and a self-serve Coca-Cola fountain. Guests will also be able to order food online and have it delivered by the Grand Lux Café. The room will also feature kiosks for both the resort’s loyalty program, Venetian Rewards, and William Hill sports betting.

The new poker room will continue to provide cash games and the DeepStack poker tournament series. It will also introduce a dedicated streaming room, allowing players to coordinate vlogging sessions and to live-stream tournament final tables and cash games.

The Venetian’s original poker room opened in 2006 and will remain open until the new one is completed. No completion date has been specified.

The resort didn’t reveal what it plans to do with the space occupied by the current poker room, nor did it specify the cost of its relocation. However, it announced last year that a $188 million renovation of its convention center was part of a $1 billion capital investment project scheduled by Vici Properties, which owns the Strip resort, and New York-based Apollo Global Management, which operates it.

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The $5K No Limit Hold’em freezeout will be free-to-enter for all living former WSOP Main Event champions. Any regular player who knocks out an ex-world champ will win automatic entry to the main event.

Among the star-studded field will be reigning champion Daniel Weinman. He bested a record 10,043 field last year to take home $12.1 million, the largest Main Event first-prize payout in series history.

The Main Event

Organizers are hoping this year’s Main Event will be bigger still. The game’s most prestigious tournament will run from July 3 with four starting flights. Late registration will be available on July 7-8 through Level 7, or around 4:40 p.m. on Day 2 of each day.

As it was last year, the Main Event final table will return to the Horseshoe Las Vegas, the namesake of its spiritual home, Binion’s Horseshoe, on Fremont Street. The WSOP was conceived at Binion’s Horseshoe (now Binion’s Gambling Hall) by Benny Binion and his two sons, Jack and Ted, in 1970. The final was last held at Binion’s back in 2004.

This year’s final table will play out from July 16-17.

‘Bomb Pot’

Other notable events on this year’s calendar include a first-of-its kind, Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/ Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot event on June 15, where juicy pots and crazy action will be guaranteed. The eight-handed, three-day event will have a $1,500 buy-in, with a starting stack of 25,000.

In “bomb pot” events, every player at the table posts an ante to build the pot pre-flop. In a double-board format, the dealer deals two separate flops, turns, and rivers. Make the best hand on both boards to win the entire pot. If you win one board, but another player wins the other, you chop.

And if you want to take an even cheaper route to WSOP glory, a host of online satellites will be available on GGPoker and WSOP.com, with buy-ins starting from just $1.

“We’re proud to be Las Vegas’s original Main Event,” said?Ty Stewart, SVP & Executive Director of the WSOP, in an official statement. “Records are made to be broken, so our motto this year is bigger and better.

“With our best schedule ever and more than 100 additional poker tables, we look forward to welcoming legends, first-timers, and everyone in between. If you’re a poker player, there is simply no experience on earth like the World Series of Poker,” Stewart added.

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Janssen, who had been reported missing by his family on November 13 last year, was found zip-tied and covered in blood on a rural road outside of the city of Bad Axe, Mich., on December 16. He flagged down a passerby and told them he had managed to escape his captors.

According to a missing person’s report obtained by PokerNews, Janssen told a friend that before his disappearance, he had been terrorized and extorted by a criminal gang for approximately two years.

Extorted then Kidnapped?

The four-time?World Series of Poker (WSOP)?Circuit Ring winner claimed his ordeal started when a masked man held a gun to his head as he got into his car in the parking garage of a Detroit casino, according to the report. The man demanded $2 million, which Janssen said he did not have.

He was directed to drop-off points, where he was instructed to leave the cash in boxes provided by the criminals. Sometimes a new cell phone would be waiting for him in the box, and he was told to leave the old one with the cash, according to the document.

On the day of his disappearance, Jannsen’s car was found abandoned, with several $50 bills strewn on the floor.

Coded Message

On December 15, just over a month after he went missing, a family member received a handwritten letter from Jannsen, according to the report.

In it, Janssen inquired about the health of certain friends and relatives. But the letter included the names of six family members who did not exist: Kirby, Iggy, Daisey Noah, Anthony, and Parker.

The inclusion of the fake names appears to be a cipher, since the first letters of the names spell out K-I-D-N-A-P.

Jannsen’s finances were also scrutinized in the report. He had been a successful poker player, with $440,763 in gross tournament earnings, according to the Hendon Mob database. It was also claimed in the report he had been taking out loans on vehicles to sell through his car dealership that he could not repay. At the time of his disappearance, he was $2 million in debt to his bank, the report alleged.

The FBI is investigating the case.

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In addition to tweeting out his yearly numbers as usual, the six-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner also posted a YouTube video titled, How I Lost Over 2 Million Dollars in a Year.

“This is going to be my worst year that I’ve had,” Negreanu said in the 23-minute clip. “So what I do at the end of a year like that is, you know, I start to break down what exactly actually happened.”

Winner’s Tilt

According to Negreanu’s self-analysis, he suffered from “winner’s tilt” coming into 2023 after killing 2022 with $1.6M in wins.

I came into the year … feeling too good, probably, about where I sit and what that led to was me … being nonchalant, not caring about rebuying too much … When you’re losing, you tilt. Sometimes when you’ve won or you’re winning too much, you start to play poorly as a result … just gambling too much and being goofy and not caring enough, because the money isn’t life-changing.

“And when you start off the year being loosey-goosey, playing sloppy … you can dig yourself a big hole that you don’t necessarily get to just get out of by winning the Super High Roller Bowl at the end of the year.”

Too Many Games

Also, according to the 2004 and 2013 WSOP Player of the Year, he entered far too many tournaments with this reckless attitude.

“I played in … 145 events compared to 107 the year before, and less and less before that, all the way down to 60 events in 2018,” Negreanu said. “That’s the most events I’ve played in a single year … since I was much younger.

When I play too many tournaments, it leads to — well listen, I’m older, so it leads to some fatigue for sure, which leads to some weaker plays … some sloppiness where you just don’t care enough about each bullet (pair of aces) as much as you should.”

A third reason Negreanu offered up was “bad luck in the wrong spots,” which cost him nearly $1.9 million at the WSOP alone over the past two years.

“You don’t get to choose when you’re lucky and when you’re not,” Negreanu said. “And … because players are so much better, your edge is much smaller, which means luck is going to play a much bigger role.”

New Year’s Resolutions

So how does Negreanu intend to turn it around?

“First of all, I’m going to run better, that’s already been decided,” he joked while mock-praying to the poker gods.

In all seriousness, Negreanu declared that he will no longer chase the WSOP Player of the Year title, since it forces players to enter dozens of events each summer to rack up as many points as possible.

“All this stuff just to chase this title that is for no money,” he said. “Everybody’s burning money equity to win this picture-on-your-wall type thing. But you’re forced to play the online events while you’re playing live. I can’t do it … Dividing my focus like that does not bode well.”

Instead, Negreanu said, he will pass over many of WSOP’s online bracelet tournaments and focus mostly on high-stakes events.

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In a statement last Friday, GGPoker said a player with the username “MoneyTaker69” had been banned from the site, and the “unfair winnings,” equating to $29,795, would be redistributed to players who had been cheated.

“We sincerely apologize for the incident, which has caused many poker players to worry about the game’s integrity and shaken their trust in GGPoker to provide the best poker experience. We take this incident very seriously and continue to work hard not to disappoint poker players.”

Player Power

The operator claimed that its security team had “spotted unusual game patterns,” leading them to investigate the player. But the first to go public about MoneyTaker69 was a poster on the TwoPlusTwo internet poker forums.

Calling himself “GGPoker Superuser,” the poster noted that MoneyTaker69 had won 90 big blinds per 100 hands over 8,900 hands while playing at? a rate of 53% VPIP (voluntary put in pot). In layman’s terms, that means MoneyTaker69 had been on a winning streak over a large enough sample size of hands to make it almost impossible. And he did this while demonstrating a suboptimal preflop strategy, to say the least.

GGPoker Superuser also noted that MoneyTaker69 won a multi-table tournament for $47,586 “while playing an extremely volatile strategy, which aroused a lot of suspicion.”

GGPoker said it would also reconcile the payout for the impacted tournaments, along with the cash game victims. The site also praised the poker community and “the poker players’ hive minds,” adding that “constructive community feedback gave us great confidence in resolving the issue.”

Link to Hacking Group?

Curiously, “MoneyTaker” is also the name of a hacking collective that has orchestrated at least 20 attacks on banks and financial services companies in the U.S., UK, and Russia. However, there’s no indication MoneyTaker69 had links to the group. The moniker is likely to be a simple play on the name of 2003 World Series of Poker champion Chris Moneymaker — one that proved to be equally apt.

A similar incident occurred at around the same time on AbsolutePoker’s sister site, UltimateBet. This time, UltimateBet shareholder and former WSOP Main Event champion, Russ Hamilton, turned out to be the main perpetrator.

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According to?WJRT-TV/Flint, the 41-year-old Michigan father was discovered zip-tied and bloodied at the side of a rural road in Bad Axe, Mich. on Dec. 16. He told the passer-by he flagged down that he managed to escape his captors.

A member of Janssen’s family, which reported him missing on Nov. 13, told WJRT that he was abducted and driven by two or three people to the Toledo area, where he was tied up for 35 days in the basement of a home.

On Dec. 16, the news station reported, Janssen appears to have been driven back to Michigan.

“From what we gathered, he was being brought up here to recover some money that was hidden to give to these two assailants,” Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson told WJRT.

Janssen, the former owner of a Michigan car dealership, has four championship rings from the World Series of Poker Circuit, a series of casino poker tournaments held annually since 2005 as a build-up to the World Series of Poker.

Janssen’s family said that he had complained about repeated extortion attempts for at least two years. That’s when his cash wins, which date back to 2015, really started ramping up. Online and in person, his winnings now total just north of $200K — including his two career-best cashes, $83K and $80K, from Mid-States Poker Tour wins within 90 days of his disappearance.

Hanson told the news station: “We can’t substantiate whether it did happen or it didn’t happen. But there are a lot of things that need to be looked into.”

All reports from the Huron County Sheriff’s Department, Bad Axe Police, and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department have been turned over to the FBI, according to WJRT.

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According to the “Hustler Casino Live” stream regulars, Shen brought a trick card deck to a recreational private game in Yorba Linda, Calif. for about a year. Shen’s deck supposedly allowed him to see through the cards, presumably with the help of special contact lenses,

“I’m writing this statement to set the record straight on some false accusations that personally damaged my reputation,” Shen wrote in a statement to Poker News. “I have won and lost huge amounts numerous times in my poker career, but I have never cheated in a game, and I have always paid when I lost.”

Marked Difference of Opinion

“After a game, we found a cheating deck,” Fei told Poker News, stating his belief that Shen and two of his associates had brought it. “The deck is a very good cheating deck that you can’t find. But we went to a very dark room and we used a blue light and then you can see the numbers on the back of the deck.”

Shen continued: “When I arrived at the game, there was 6-7 people already sitting at the table. So there is no way that I could have switched or brought cards since everyone was there.”

Wild Card

More to the point, Shen claimed that the real cheater came forward to him three weeks after the game.

One of the players who went back to China confessed to me on the phone and said he was sorry for all of the players blaming me,” Shen wrote. “He went on to tell me he switched the cards because he was losing so much recently.”

The cheat’s name is Sun, according to Shen, who said that after he received the confession, “I went directly to the owner of the house and explained everything.” Shen added that “two other people other than me can confirm this.”

Harboring bad blood about being accused, Shen added that believes Fei accused him because he “is broke, desperate, and tries to not pay the money he owes me.”

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According to the “Hustler Casino Live” stream regulars, Shen brought a trick card deck to a recreational private game in Yorba Linda, Calif., where Arcot, Fei, and other friends played with blinds of $25/$50 and $50/$100.

Shen’s deck supposedly allowed him to see through the cards, presumably with the help of special contact lenses, according to the unsubstantiated allegations. For about a year, Shen supposedly won just over $3 million using this deck.

After a game, we found a cheating deck,” Wesley told Poker News, which broke the story. “The deck is a very good cheating deck that you can’t find. But we went to a very dark room and we used a blue light and then you can see the numbers on the back of the deck.”

Shen himself won about $1.6M, according to Wesley. However, along with his deck, he also brought to the games two co-conspirators whose winnings totaled $1.5M.

Wesley told Poker News that he has lost a total of $1M in the twice-weekly game, which he last attended in October. On X/Twitter, Arcot posted that he too was cheated out of $1M by “someone who I thought was a close friend of mine.”

“All details and what not will be released soon in more digestible format,” Arcot posted on Sunday.

Shen Denies Cheating

According to Wesley, after being confronted with the evidence, Shen admitted that the deck was marked. However, he denied cheating with it.

It’s a special deck and he admitted the deck has a problem,” Wesley said. Wesley said Shen told him he didn’t know who brought the deck to the game.

“Mars said, ‘Maybe you’re losing and you don’t want to pay, so you’re changing the deck,'” Wesley told Poker News. “If we are cheating, how can we lose?”

These allegations have nothing to do with “Hustler Casino Live,” which is still smarting over its own poker cheating scandal last year.

Shen has yet to acknowledge the allegations via his X/Twitter account, @Marsback2earth.

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Online poker media outlet Mundo Poker reported that Caiaffa violated a tournament rule during the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT), leading to a suspension from all Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) tournaments on Monday. The incident occurred early on Day 2 of the LAPT Mystery KO event, which had a buy-in of BRL5,000 (US$1,019).

During a table change where alternate players were being seated, a new table was set up with starting stacks already in the dealer’s possession. Caiaffa was given a seat at the table and inadvertently received an extra starting stack on top of the stack he brought to the table. At this point, it wasn’t too late to turn back.

Stashing the Stack

Realizing the error, Caiaffa stashed 100,000 in chips, equivalent to the starting stack, in his backpack. Later, during a table change and experiencing losses from his initial stack, he reintroduced the saved 100,000 chips.

However, all of his movements were caught on camera and by other players. They approached tournament officials and told them what happened, leading to Caiaffa’s prompt suspension.

Caiaffa has an established history of playing live and online poker. He appears as far back as 2008 in the World Series of Poker annals, and has also played on GGPoker. On the latter, he won a bracelet last year in the $2,500 NLHE Championship.

During an interview with Marcelo Souza, the editor of Card Player Brasil, Caiaffa admitted that he cheated when he kept the chips. He said he realized immediately that there had been a mistake and, according to his account of the story, told a friend that he would return the stack.

Following his disqualification from the LAPT event and suspension from the BSOP festival, Caiaffa admitted to the extra stack addition and conceded that the suspension was warranted. While the suspension covers the current BSOP events, it could become a more permanent ban.

Devanir Campos, BSOP’s Director of Tournaments, said that BSOP officials will get together after the series wraps up to discuss what needs to happen. That could mean a lifetime ban.

BSOP Becomes Huge Draw

The BSOP Millions has established itself as the pinnacle of live poker in Brazil, currently underway in S?o Paulo. Sponsored by PokerStars, this series began on November 15 and runs through November 29 at the WTC Sheraton Golden Hall, marking the largest poker festival in the country.

With 100 tournaments spanning 15 days, the series guarantees BRL40 million (USD$8.2 million) in cash, a substantial increase from the previous year. Renowned players, such as Sam Greenwood, Jose Ignacio Barbero, Fedor Holz, and Philipe Pizzari Pinto, have graced the event in the past.

The Main Event, already drawing over 2,315 participants, promises an enticing BRL10 million (US$2.03 million) guarantee, solidifying BSOP Millions as a must-attend spectacle for poker aficionados and top-tier players alike.

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Shane Thompson, also known as Shane Tamihana, enjoyed success at the poker tables in the mid-2010s. The highlight was winning the main event at the Sky City Casino’s Festival of Poker in 2016 for US$36,555. It was probably the only “honest” money he made that year.

Thompson was reportedly an aggressive poker player who liked to call out the phrase “Later Bo” as he knocked an opponent out of a tournament in an unpleasant breach of poker etiquette.

But his luck ran out in 2017 when he was nailed for dealing meth. When police raided his home, they found 2.6kg of the drug and more than NZ$170K (US$100K) in cash. In 2018, a judge described Thompson as “the most comprehensive methamphetamine dealer Hawke’s Bay has ever seen” before sentencing him to 13 years in prison.

Thompson made it 15 years Friday after he was found guilty of organizing a small quantity of methamphetamine to be smuggled in for another prisoner in January this year, The New Zealand Herald reports.

Illegal Cellphone

Judge Bridget Mackintosh at Napier District Court sentenced Thompson to 23 months, which will be added to the term he is already serving. That’s for supplying methamphetamine, smuggling, and unauthorized possession of a cell phone.

Thompson used the illegal cellphone to contact an unknown person to provide the drugs, which were handed to a woman who was due to visit another inmate.

Johnson’s lawyer, Eric Forster, argued that Thompson had done this “simply [as] a favor” to the inmate and not for any personal gain. But Mackintosh said Thompson’s behavior “undermine[d] any rehabilitation programs in prison and undermine[d] prison discipline.”

Meth Empire?

Prosecutors accused Thompson of being the head of a sprawling criminal network that flooded $4.2 million worth of meth into the Hawke’s Bay region over 11 months in 2016 and 2017.

In May 2023, Thompson attempted to have his sentence reduced in New Zealand’s Supreme Court. He argued that the no-parole period of six and a half years attached to his sentence undermined the established legal standard of granting discounts for guilty pleas. The bid was unsuccessful.

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Neymar, who allegedly once lost $1 million gambling online, came very close to winning the $5,200 Titans Event on PokerStars a little over a week ago. Although he received $66,056 as runner-up, he was probably disappointed that he couldn’t win the title.

A $5,200 buy-in doesn’t seem like much for a player who recently signed a two-year, $219-million contract. However, being as competitive on the feet as he is on the field, his only goal is to win.

Mykolaitis now has a story about defeating a soccer icon and the $91,663 he added to his bankroll. He doesn’t have a profile on Hendon Mob, but he has accumulated more than $350K in poker victories over the past seven years.

Not the First Time

This isn’t the first time Neymar, who transferred from French side Paris St. Germain to Saudi side Al-Hilal for $95.5 million in the summer, has spent time at online poker tables. In January of last year, during the PokerStars Winter Series, he finished third in the $1,050 Turbo event and won $23,884. Another third place in the $10,300 high roller earned him $125,678.

Six months later, he made his WSOP debut. He didn’t cash in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship. But in the $1,000 Super Turbo tournament, he finished 49th for $3,959.

He was injured in a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay and now faces a lengthy rehabilitation. Medical tests confirmed a meniscus tear in his knee and a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture.

Titans Events Continue to Draw Crowds

The PokerStars Titans Event is an online poker tournament that attracts some of the biggest names in the game. It’s the largest buy-in weekly tournament at PokerStars, with a standard buy-in of $5,200.

The event typically sees many players, creating a significant prize pool. For instance, one event saw 69 players create a $345K prize pool. The top finishers win a slice, with the champion taking home the lion’s share.

Rodrigo “seijistar” Seiji Sirichuk from Brazil won $93,118 in one event, and the recent win by Mikolaitis was also one of the biggest. The event is known for its intense competition and high stakes, with some players calling it the “temporary high-stakes championship.”

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On September 4, a WordPress website titled “Uncovering Wesley” claimed to be published by someone Wesley cheated out of $250K in a 2022 cryptocurrency scam. The blog also accused Wesley of sending “thugs” to burglarize his house.

The accuser then messaged Lee, Wesley’s well-known enemy, via Instagram. He said he planned to go public with Wesley’s misdeeds but needed financial help to do so. Initially, Lee trusted his gut and refused the invitation.

Always Stick With Your Gut

A few months later, however, Lee changed his mind when the accuser told him that Wesley had offered him $35K to expose Lee as the “originator of this campaign of character assassination.”

Once again, Lee turned him down and then changed his mind.

He reconsidered this time because Thamer told Lee he now faced threats, possibly from Wesley’s associates. Fearing for his safety, Lee hired security for his LA home and sent Thamer $28K in crypto to see the alleged immigration fraud evidence.

The evidence, of course, was phony.

Lee and Wesley both discussed the problem with Hustler Casino Live co-owner Ryan Feldman, who arranged a powwow. Comparing notes, the two players realized they had been played against each other.

Thamer had simultaneously attempted similar mind games on Wesley, however, he didn’t fall for any.

I provided funding and assistance to the author because I sincerely believed he was an innocent victim who had been defrauded of his life savings,” Lee said in a statement. “However, I have since discovered that the author is a professional fraudster who has attempted to scam, defraud, and extort both Wesley and myself.”

Lee said he apologized twice to Wesley for his part in the scam.

“His reputation has suffered for no reason other than that I was gullible enough to be manipulated by a fraudster,” he said. “I am now repeating my apology to him in public. I accept full accountability for my mistakes, and I should have done better.”

Because of their shared ordeal, according to PokerNews, Lee and Wesley have since buried the hatchet and become friends.

The post Former Felt Foes Unite to Expose Poker Scam appeared first on Casino.org.

Thanks to the still-controversial decision by the federal government to block online poker in 2011, the NAPT came to a grinding halt after just two years. With Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other states now legalizing online poker within their jurisdictions, the game is quickly making up for lost time and reversing what became known as Poker Black Friday 12 years ago.

The NAPT will be held from November 4-12, just ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 19. Poker players from beginners to pros have a shot at winning a seat in the NAPT Las Vegas High Roller event through the ongoing PokerStars promos.

Events For All Players

Resorts World Las Vegas will host the NAPT, which features nonstop action daily with 32 events in total. Buy-ins start at $250, and among the likely top candidates for players are:

To give the NAPT a boost, PokerStars is offering a number of special “Vegas Gold Passes” ahead of the event. These packages are worth $20K, and players in Italy, Spain, France, and in legal U.S. online gaming markets have a chance to pick one up.

There’s also a 10-day hotel stay for two, as well as $3,653 to help cover flights and expenses. The hotel package is good for November 9-19.

Going for the Gold

PokerStars players who use the “.com” site and those in Italy can enter the platform’s Power Path program for a chance at winning a Gold Pass. It’s free to enter and awards a step ticket to players who participate in real money games. Accumulating tickets can lead the player to win a Gold Pass, which can be used as an entry for an all-expense paid trip, or to play an online tournament.

Starting this Monday and running through October 26, PokerStars is taking the Gold Pass scheme to a new level. There will be 10 Vegas Gold Passes that include the NAPT package available for .com players, and two for Italy players.

France, Ontario, and legal online poker markets in the U.S. will join Spain in offering Vegas Gold Passes through different freeroll tournaments. All players who win any of the Vegas Gold Passes available must be at least 18 years old to collect the packages and play in Las Vegas.

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Poker player Rob Mercer, 37, made $12,500 from a GoFundMe page and is believed to have received an additional $18K from private donations. And in an extraordinary interview with The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday, Mercer says he isn’t going to give any of it back.

“I did lie about having colon cancer. I don’t have colon cancer. I used that to cover my situation,” Mercer told the newspaper. “What I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have told people I have colon cancer. I did that just as a spur-of-the-moment thing when someone asked me what kind of cancer I had.”

‘Dying’ Wish

In his GoFundMe page, Mercer described himself as a semi-professional player who had never had the bankroll to buy into the Main Event outright and wondered if he would ever fulfill his dream.

I found myself going back and forth wondering if I was ever going to do this [fundraiser] because my pride means a lot to me and I never like asking people for help,” Mercer wrote on GoFundMe. “But my dream has always been to play the World Series of Poker Main Event.”

He claimed he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in August 2022 and had been given between six to 18 months to live, and suddenly, the need to fulfill his dream had become more pressing.

‘Vindictive Villain’

Mercer told the Review-Journal that he lied because he believes he has breast cancer, although he admitted this hasn’t been diagnosed. He claimed he had colon cancer because he believed this was the least “embarrassing” of the two conditions.

Mercer added there was no need to repay the money since it had been given to him because he was ill, which he claims he is.

Among those who donated was Cody Daniels, a poker player who actually does have a terminal illness. ?

“They’re making me out to be some kind of monster, like this vindictive villain who planned this months in advance,” Mercer told the Review-Journal. “It’s just crazy. But I understand. I get it.”

Mercer was eliminated from the World Series Main Event within a few hours.

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The WPT World Championship attracted 2,960 entries last year when it wrapped up in Las Vegas. It carried a $15-million guarantee that eventually swelled to over $29 million because of the participation.

This year, the WPT, which is headed to Liechtenstein this month, believes it can do even better and is warning the Wynn casino to get ready to be inundated with players. It will put up $40 million in guaranteed cash for the event.

The WPT World Championship festival begins on November 29 and runs through December 23. Buy-ins range from as low as $600 for an NLHE tourney to as much as $1 million for the Big One for One Drop. Many events have guaranteed prize pools, although several, like the Big One for One Drop, will depend on the number of entries.

Dates & Buy-ins

The big Championship Event runs from December 12-21, beginning with four starting flights, and has a buy-in of $10,400. Most of the buy-in, $9,800, goes into the prize pool. That means at least 4,082 entries are needed for the WPT to avoid an overlay.

Since the 2022 event, attendance pushed the prize pool to $29 million.

Another big event will likely be the WPT Prime Championship. It first landed on the Las Vegas poker felt last year and attracted 5,430 entries in the battle for a piece of the $5.2-million prize pool. This year’s event will run December 7-12, with a $5-million guarantee. Stephen Song won it last year, pocketing more than $712,000.

More Championships on the Horizon

The WPT World Championship festival is just one of several big poker events still to come in Las Vegas this year. Among the upcoming options is a tournament hosted by the Vegas Golden Knights Alumni Association (VGK), and another PokerStars is putting together.

The VGK will show off their favorite NHL team in a tournament on October 13. Palms Casino Resort will host the event, which the organization puts together every year to raise money for charitable causes.

The PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) is returning after a 12-year involuntary vacation. It will make its first stop at Resorts World Las Vegas beginning November 4.

The NAPT debuted in 2010 as poker began to grab hold in the U.S. However, the arrival of the game’s “Black Friday” a year later, which saw the U.S. government controversially target online gaming, it was shut down.

There’s a $5,300 buy-in high roller event on the schedule for the upcoming series and a $1,650 main event. PokerStars is still finalizing the full details and schedule.

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The European principality, nestled between Switzerland and Austria, and the casino will play host to a gathering of poker enthusiasts and professional players. They are converging for a chance to showcase their skills and luck on the felt. The WPT Prime Lichtenstein begins on August 30 and runs through September 11.

At the beginning of the year, a group of anti-gambling pundits, known as IG VolksMeinung, tried to ban casinos in Liechtenstein. It attempted to drum up public support for the initiative, but failed miserably.

A Million Reasons to Visit Liechtenstein

In typical poker tournament fashion, the Main Event will likely be the biggest attraction. With a CHF1 million (US$1.13 million) guarantee on the table against a CHF1,100 (US$1,251) buy-in, it’s easy to see why.

The Main Event begins on September 6 with six starting flights. Day 2 will start on September 10, followed by the final table on September 11.

For players who want to warm up for the Main Event or simply want cheaper options, there are plenty to choose from. Among them are:

In addition to the on-location satellites, players can also compete for a chance to win a tournament seat online. WPT Global is offering a variety of satellite events through which the winners can participate in a live event of their choosing.

These online satellite events, Passport Qualifiers, have a buy-in of just $110 and are held every Saturday and Sunday. The winners receive a buy-in package worth up to $1,500, depending on the event and the location.

Hop to the Bahamas

For those U.S. players who can’t make it to Liechtenstein, or who don’t want to, there’s something closer to home later this year. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has announced its WSOP Paradise schedule in the Bahamas.

The series, the first in what the WSOP hopes will become a regular fixture, takes place at Atlantis Paradise Island from December 3-14. There will be 15 bracelet events and more than $50 million in guaranteed cash up for grabs.

Event buy-ins start as low as $800 for the Flip & Go, with no set prize pool, and go as high as $100K for the Ultra High Roller event. The latter has a guarantee of $5 million.

The WSOP is running the series in collaboration with GGPoker, which will be giving away Main Event packages through its online poker portal. There will be 1,000 available, all of which offer accommodations for 11 nights, meal passes, and the $5,000 Main Event buy-in.

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The event, which will last 15 days, will take place in Rio de Janeiro at the beachside town of Barra da Tijuca. Players will have a chance to participate in more than 70 events, including a BRL$100,000 (US$20,000) Super High Roller.

There’s also a BRL5,000 (US$1,000) Main Event, with a guaranteed prize pool of BRL10 million (US$2 million). The winner will automatically pocket BRL2 million (US$408,000) on top of his or her winnings.

Raising the Poker Bar In South America

The tournament series promises to “shake up the poker community like never before in Brazil,” according to a KSOP press release. It added that the Super High Roller will be the “most glamorous event” and will feature “Brazilian stars and international poker stars.”

BIG NEWS
We have just announced the largest ever Poker event in South American history.

-35M GTD across 70+ events
– 100k Super High Roller (first ever)
– 5k ME 10M GTD 2M to winner

Jan 24/2024 for 15 days in Rio de Janeiro at the best venue possible by the beach of Barra da…

— Felipe Mojave Ramos (@FelipeMojave) August 8, 2023

Felipe “Mojave” Ramos, fourth on the Brazilian all-time poker money list and a GGPoker ambassador, tweeted about the event on X, the newest iteration of Twitter. He said the tournament will be an excellent opportunity for players, especially since there would be no direct taxes on winnings. In addition, there will be events for all budgets, making them accessible to a wide range of players.

The upcoming series is a continuation of a partnership between GGPoker and KSOP that began at the beginning of the year. The first series took place in Rio de Janeiro from February 8 to 14, part of a planned schedule of seven stages throughout the year in different Latin American countries. Five of these are live events, while the other two are online.

Poker Calendar Filling Up

Despite a reduction in participation in certain events, the recent World Series of Poker (WSOP) series in Las Vegas, which reportedly set new attendance records, shows that there’s no shortage of interest. As a result, the global poker calendar is becoming increasingly packed with events.

The Maryland State Poker Championship is currently underway, and the WSOP Europe is coming this October. The WSOP Europe Main Event might not be ready to award the winner the $12 million the WSOP Vegas Main Event did. But it’s getting there.

The tournament, returning to the Czech Republic, offers a guaranteed prize pool of €5 million ($5.51 million). Last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event topped the guarantee by $2.3 million.

The PokerStars Live European Poker Tour (EPT), which has already completed stops in France and Monte Carlo, will also descend on Barcelona from August 21 to September 3. It then moves to Cyprus in October and Prague in December.

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Weinman beat Steven Jones, a 35-year-old real estate broker from Scottsdale, Ariz., in a battle of top pair (J-J-8) vs. top pair with a better kicker (J-J-K). When the ace of hearts hit the river, Weinman turned to his ecstatic rail to celebrate.

Jones still won $6.5 million, his first cash in a $10K event, and an extraordinary showing for an amateur player.

The final table restarted a little more than two hours earlier, with Weinman and Jones facing Las Vegas poker pro Adam Walton. Jones had been in first place with 40% of the chips with Weinman trailing and Walton, who had been the final table chip leader, in command of a short stack that wasn’t all that short. He held 83 big blinds to Jones’ 119.

Aggressive play sent Walton to the rail within an hour of the game’s restart. He finished the day $4 million richer than when he started when his pocket 8s failed to improve against Weinman’s pocket aces. This gave Weinman 74% of the chips in play, a lead he never relinquished to Jones.

With more than $3.7 million in career earnings, Weinman previously won the 2015 WSOP Circuit Cherokee Main Event. His previous best WSOP Main Event finish was 173rd place.

Weinman’s win ends the longest WSOP streak without an American Main Event champion: four years.

That ended the chances of a potential champ from Germany for the third time in the last five years.

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Organizers of the 2023 WSOP announced Thursday that the Main Event, officially the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship, eclipsed the previous record for the number of entries. The former record of 8,773 buy-ins set in 2006 when Jamie Gold prevailed for the $12 million first-place prize was eclipsed Thursday afternoon.

Good afternoon players. I wanted to inform you that a few minutes ago, we officially set the mark of 8,774 players,” Ty Stewart, senior vice president and executive director of the World Series of Poker, told Main Event players. “This is the biggest Main Event of all-time, and the richest live poker tournament of all-time.”

Calling it a “historic day for poker,” Stewart later said in a statement that he hopes the record is short-lived.

“This is a colossal day not only in the history of the WSOP, but for poker itself,” Stewart said. “We’re hoping this record is short-lived and we’ll be ready for another monster turnout next summer.”

The biggest tournament in poker history – The 2023 WSOP Main Event! pic.twitter.com/ofbAjPAMuZ

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 7, 2023

Horseshoe a Ringer So Far

The 54th edition of the WSOP marked the return of the iconic tournament to the Horseshoe. Benny Binion founded the World Series of Poker in 1970 and the annual no-limit showdown was held at his Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas until 2004.

The tournament’s return to the Horseshoe brand has so far been a roaring success. As of Friday afternoon, the WSOP Main Event has counted more than 9,300 entries for the $10K Main Event.

“It’s particularly special to make history in our first year at the new Horseshoe Las Vegas. I think today is a huge testament to the passion of the entire poker community who rallies around this event every year,” Stewart added.

Poker is Back

It was only a decade or so ago when some in the gaming community wondered whether poker, especially No-Limit Texas hold’em, was losing popularity. The game’s boom was sparked in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker, an accountant by day who gained entry into the $10K Main Event by qualifying online, beat 838 other entries to claim the $2.5 million first-place prize.

Entries for the 2007 Main Event dropped below 6,400. The field eclipsed 7,000 entries just once between 2007 through 2016.

2017 sparked yet another poker boom, as the field totaled 7,221. The Main Event topped 8,500 entries in 2019 before the pandemic.

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Hellmuth cut a swath through the 642-entrant field, which was the largest $10K Super Turbo Bounty No Limit Hold ‘em event by 53%, but found himself in the middle of the pack at the final table. There, he chased after Chris Savage, the LA player who commanded 40% of the chips in play after leaving Lawrence Brandt in 10th place. At one point in the roller-coaster action, Hellmuth was down to two big blinds ($60K at the 15K/30K blind level).

Hellmuth turned things around when his pocket aces left Ivey in 6th place with king-10 and a $133,461 payday. L.A. player Rick Savage’s time came next, followed by Brazilian player Kelvin Kerber and German player Tom Kunze.

This left Justin Zaki to battle it out with helmet for the $803,818 first prize and bracelet. Hellmuth felled his Floridian opponent after just one hand of head-up play, in which Hellmuth flopped two pair and called Zaki’s all-in bet, building a full house on the turn. Zaki walked away with $496,801.

Hellmuth has won a WSOP bracelet in five different decades since winning his first Main Event in 1989. His last was in 2021.

“This is the first year of my career that all the great players called me great or the greatest,” he told Poker News. “Shaun Deeb is one of the greatest players in the world. He finally understands and was giving me compliments like, ‘You’re the best player in the tournament.’”

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The US tops the WSOP bracelet list with 1,453, according to The Hendon Mob, with Canada (78) and England (60) in second and third. Even Morocco and Kosovo have been on the list for a couple of years.

Thanks to strong performances that included beating several high-profile players, Moldova and Poland now appear on the list for live tournament wins. With more poker ahead in the ongoing series, there’s still a chance for these two countries to add more hardware to their collections.

Poland Earns WSOP Bracelet Through Horecki

The WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Eight-or-Better event attracted 566 entries, including tournament regulars like Brian Rast and Sergio Braga. Another long-time regular was there, as well, still looking for his first WSOP title 17 years after his first live cash.

Horecki overcame considerable odds to get to the final table, and subsequently, take home the win. He was near the bottom of the standings when the last day of action began, but played smart to move up the pay ladder.

That included surpassing Rast, a six-time WSOP bracelet winner and three-time Poker Players Championship winner, who exited in seventh place. It also meant having to face Matusow in the final heads-up battle.

As players continued to fall and the field shrunk to just two, Horecki and Matusow locked horns. Horecki started off with a massive chip lead. But Matusow, a 2023 Poker Hall of Fame finalist, repeatedly clawed his way back to life.

Eventually, the end was in sight. Matusow was on the ropes with a chip stack that was dwindling quickly. An all-in shove and an answered plea to the poker gods didn’t deliver the right cards. He had to settle for second place and $95,957.

Horecki broke his dry spell in spectacular fashion, pushing his lifetime live poker winnings to almost $1.6 million. His last first-place win came six years ago when he won the €330 Seven-Card Stud tournament in the WSOP Circuit series in Rozvadov, Czech Republic.

Poland already had a WSOP bracelet, but through an online tourney. Dominik Panka won it in the $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em – Bounty Championship online event in 2021.

Moldova in the Books

Moldova never had a WSOP bracelet winner until Pavel Plesuv, although plenty of his compatriots have tried. Dragos Trofimov is probably the most recognizable, having spent a long time close to the top of the country’s all-time moneymakers.

When Plesuv sat down for the WSOP $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em event, he probably didn’t expect to emerge as the winner. He’s Moldova’s leading poker player and had around $5 million in winnings before the game. However, he’s never managed to find a WSOP bracelet event title.

After five days spent navigating through a field of 10,430, that all changed. Plesuv began to realize what was in the cards when he made it to the final table, and the potential outcome became clearer on one massive hand.

In a massive coup, Plesuv scored a straight holding A-2 when the board gave him the runners he needed. He was heads-up against Andreas Kniep, who had baited him into going all-in and began to gloat.

The German poker pro’s reaction turned solemn as the cards were revealed. He realized his pocket Aces were dead and was about to leave in fourth place.

Only a few short hands later, Plesuv hoisted the bracelet as he celebrated with his friends and family, $1.2 million richer. Ribouchon would take $1 million for his second-place finish.

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According to the Traverse City Record-Eagle, Rudy Gavaldon, a 36-year-old electrician from Traverse City, was arraigned on Aug. 1, 2022, on the charge of assault with intent to commit murder.

Six days earlier, Gavaldon’s account also won $2,858 for finishing third in WSOP Online Circuit Series Event #12. And on June 4, his account won $1,242 for a 10th-place WSOP online bracelet event finish.

The Alleged Attack

On July 29, 2022, according to the Record-Eagle, neighbors phoned police after Gavaldon knocked on doors after midnight, carrying his 9-month-old child and telling people he was dying.

The responding sheriff’s deputies found Gavaldon and his child walking in the road. He told them his wife was dying and needed medical help at their house up the road.

The officers took custody of the infant, who was later returned to its mother. They found Lara Gavaldon at the house with life-threatening injuries. She was transported to a nearby hospital and eventually medevaced to Grand Rapids Hospital.

The victim was treated and eventually recovered, though apparently without her right eye. According to a post on Lara Gavaldon’s Instagram account, she is being fitted for a prosthetic. The post also claimed her now ex-husband was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the alleged attack.

WSOP.com doesn’t release personal information about event winners beyond their names and places of residence. However, multiple public records searches confirm that no one else by the name Rudy Gavaldon resides in Traverse City, Mich.

Poker News reported contacting the Grand Traverse Correctional Facility, which verified that Gavaldon wasn’t in custody during any of the previously mentioned tournaments because he has been free, awaiting trial, since August 2022.

Gavaldon pleaded not guilty at a pretrial hearing in the 13th District Court in Grand Traverse County on June 23.

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So the San Antonino resident dropped to both knees and changed it more. He proposed to his girlfriend immediately following the $10K Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

“Don’t think any other time would be right besides now, because I don’t think I would even be right here without her,” Garza interrupted the winner photo session to announce, as a dozen of his friends captured video from the rails.

Garza dressed for the occasion in an unbuttoned sleeveless denim jacket, Christian Dior shades, and plenty of jewelry of his own.

“Man, that’s just me all day, any day, Monday, Tuesday, Jesus’ birthday, your birthday,” Garza told Poker News before his win or proposal.

It was Garza’s first career bracelet after several Top 20 WSOP finishes and a circuit ring he won in January 2018. His career earnings now total $1.8 million, according to Poker News.

Rally at (the Former) Bally’s

For a while, Garza no doubt thought, his proposal would have to wait for a better time.

Garza was dead last in a field of four when the four-day tournament opened its final day on Saturday. But a series of good plays turned his fortunes around. Garza faced fellow Texan Arthur Morris of Plano in a heads-up duel that caused several chants of “Let’s go Texas!” to erupt from the rails.

That action lasted only a few minutes, though — until Garza caught a third four on the river.

Morris, with six Top 10 WSOP finishes and his own circuit ring to his name, took home $809K.

The tournament began last Wednesday with 731 players competing for a $6.8 million prize pool — including poker heavies Stanislav Halatenko, who finished third; Sam Soverel, who finished sixth; and Kosei Ichinose, who finished seventh.

?

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Dwan scored the record pot with pocket queens against self-proclaimed cryptocurrency millionaire Wesley Fei, 31, who was bluffing.

Fei was sitting with $2.8 million when the hand began compared to Dwan’s $1.5 million. They were playing with $500 and $1,000 blinds plus an escalating big-blind ante that had grown to $3,000. Dwan also contributed a voluntary $2,000 third blind called a straddle. So $6,500 was in the pot before any of the eight players saw their hands.

I See You

Doug Polk, seated to Wei’s left, complicated matters. The three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner declared that he saw Fei’s cards. Fei was the last player to act preflop. A newcomer named LSG Hank raised ahead of Fei to $7,000, but when Fei looked down to see Ace-King offsuit, one of the strongest preflop hands in poker, he three-bet to $30K, despite Polk supposedly knowing his cards.

Dwan checked, prompting Fei to bet $125K, escalating the pot to $812K and rendering the previously chatty table silent. Dwan called. The turn again helped neither player, and Dwan checked.

River Deep, Mountain of Chips High

“Wesley’s hands are shaking,” announcer David Tuchman said. “He is loading up for another bet.”

That bet was for $350K and Dwan, without much hesitation, called it. The river didn’t help either player and Dwan checked again, leading Fei to move all in.

This time, Dwan hesitated. He stood up, grabbed a bottle of water, and began going over the hand out loud as he faced a bet for his entire stack of $786K.

So Doug saw his hand,” he said. “This is a weird f***ing hand. Doug saw his hand, tried to talk him out of three-betting, he three-bet anyway,” Dwan said while staring at Polk. “I mean, I guessed he flopped an eight, but it seems very hard to fold.”

After nearly four minutes, Dwan threw a stack of chips in the pot to make the call that won him the biggest pot in broadcast poker history.

“Ohh,” Fei said as more than $1.5 million of his chips changed ownership. “Can’t bluff Tom.”

Game Not Over

The record-shattering hand was only one of several big pots in the game that started at 3 p.m. PT Tuesday and went until nearly 4 a.m. Wednesday. Eventually, Fei won a big chunk of his money back on what turned out to be the second-largest hand in broadcast poker history, good for $2.25 million, which he won by turning three-of-a-kind to beat LSG Hank’s pair of queens.

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The Big One for One Drop has not been held in Las Vegas since 2016, and not all since 2018.

The competition hopes to raise money for the One Drop Foundation. The organization is dedicated to ensuring sustainable access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for communities worldwide.

The Big One for One Drop is such an iconic tournament in the world of poker. We are honored to put on this incredible event in conjunction with the One Drop Foundation and Wynn Las Vegas,” WPT CEO Adam Pliska said in a statement. “The $1 million buy-in is a testament to the heights this industry can reach and the continuous evolution of the World Poker Tour.”

Six percent of each buy-in, or $60,000, will go directly to the charity, lower than the $111,111 donated from each buy-in in years past.

Biggest Prize in History

First staged in 2012, the Big One for One Drop was the brainchild of the Cirque de Soleil founder and high-stakes poker player Guy Laliberte, who also established the One Drop Foundation. Antonio Esfandiari won the inaugural event, beating a field of 48 to win an eye-watering $18.3 million, more than tripling his lifetime tournament winnings in one sitting.

The event was next won by Daniel Colman in 2014. He took down a $15.3 million first prize in 2014, defeating Daniel Negreanu heads-up.

Next, the event moved to Monte Carlo, known as the Big One for One Drop Extravaganza, an invitation-only event closed to professional players. The then-unknown Chinese-Canadian player, Elton Tsang, topped the field of wealthy amateurs, taking home €11,111,111 (then US$12.2 million).

A less exclusive iteration of the tournament returned to the WSOP in Las Vegas in 2018, where Justin Bonomo bested a 27-player field to take home $10 million.

‘Incredible Feeling’

This year’s event is expected to attract the usual mix of unbelievably wealthy amateurs and the world’s top high-stakes tournament players, most of whom will have sold large chunks of their action to afford the buy-in and mitigate personal financial risk.

“It is an incredible feeling to be able to have the support of WPT and Wynn to run our fifth edition of the Big One. … The magnitude of the buy-in, of the prize pool, but also of the funds that are directed to the crucial cause of access to safe water makes the Big One the event of all superlatives,” said a statement from Alexandre Meunier, One Drop Foundation’s? chief marketing and events officer.

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Koon has three first-place finishes in Triton tournaments in just the past two months, according to Hendon Mob. When he took down the Super High Roller Series in Cyprus this week, he scored $2.45 million. With 32 Triton cashes, he has picked up $21.79 million of his $47.38 million total.

While he was busy celebrating his big win, the CEO of sports betting operator Pixbet, Ernildo Santos, was giving it a go at the Triton $200K No-Limit Hold’em Luxon Invitational. Things didn’t go as he expected, though, as he hit the rail before reaching the money.

Koon Strikes Again

At the Triton Poker SHR Series in Cyprus on Monday, the last nine survivors of the $100K Main Event gathered around the table. They were all that remained of the initial 101 registrations who sought a piece of the action.

The first to fall were Vlacheslav Buldygin, Stephen Chidwick, and Michael Watson in ninth, eighth, and seventh place, respectively. Next to go were Sean Winter, Dan Smith, and Henrik Hecklen.

Hecklen had gone into the final battle leading the pack, but ultimately couldn’t get past fourth. It was a different story for Koon. He went from being the second-shortest stack when the cards began to fly to winning the tournament and taking a new seven-figure prize.

After Hecklen bowed out, only Koon, Sam Greenwood, and Steve O’Dwyer remained in the battle. It didn’t take long for O’Dwyer to run into trouble. He fell after Koon picked up a straight, taking home $1.17 million in the process.

Koon is now almost ready to take over the top spot in the all-time poker money list. That spot still belongs to Stephen Chidwick, but maybe not for much longer. Koon is just $900K down, and 2023 isn’t even half over yet.

Grinding Halt for Santos at Invitational

Ernildo Santos started well in the Invitational, making it past the first day. The only Brazilian in the event, the Pixbet CEO continued his run alongside 53 other players.

As the field continued to shrink, Santos maintained his momentum. However, with just 28 players left, things took a turn for the worse.

Protecting his stack of 16 big blinds, Santos opened strong while holding A-K. Russian pro Arthur Martirosian, with 100 big blinds, and Turkey’s Orpen Kisacikoglu, protecting just eight big blinds, stayed in the hand.

The 2-3-8 didn’t seem to be trouble for Santos, and after Kisacikoglu checked, he went all-in. Martirosian exited, but Kisacikoglu, a WSOP bracelet winner with more than $14.5 million in live winnings, decided to ride it out.

That set up his exit a few hands later. Down to eight big blinds, he went up against Kisacikoglu once more, only to miss once again with a desperate play with J-9. Santos hit the rail with no cash while his conqueror bowed out in 10th place with $369,500. Azerbaijan’s Ramin Hajiyev ultimately won the event, taking home $4.12 million.

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“It is with a heavy heart we announce the passing of our father, Doyle Brunson,” Brian Balsbaugh, his agent, tweeted on behalf of the Brunson family at 6:12 p.m. Sunday. “He was a beloved Christian man, husband, father, and grandfather. We’ll have more to say over the coming days as we honor his legacy. Please keep Doyle and our family in your prayers. May he rest in peace.”

“Texas Dolly,” as he was nicknamed, won 10 World Series of Poker tournaments, including the Main Event in 1976 and 1977. That’s second to only Phil Hellmuth’s 16 WSOP wins.

Brunson’s 1978 book, “Super System,” which revealed strategies known only to professionals before its publishing, is widely regarded as the bible of poker.

There will never be another Doyle Brunson,” tweeted six-time WSOP champ Daniel Negreanu, one of hundreds of modern-day poker stars inspired by Brunson to dedicate their lives to the game, on Sunday evening.

“Can’t believe this day has come,” five-time WSOP champ Scotty Nguyen added. “You will always be held high in our hearts, the man, the myth, the legend & THE GODFATHER of poker…”

First Bad Beat

Born in 1933 in Longworth, Texas, Brunson was a star athlete who played basketball for Hardin-Simmons University. A bad knee injury crushed his dream of making the NBA, but not his spirit. In the early 1950s, Brunson discovered poker and was good enough at the game for it to fund his education and medical expenses.

Brunson won his last WSOP bracelet in 2005. His last Main Event cash was in 2013.

“Rest in Peace to the Biggest Legend of Them All,” commented the World Series of Poker’s Twitter feed. “Thank you for being the consummate player and gentleman. No one will ever fill your seat.”

“’Legend’ feels inadequate,” three-time WSOP champ Phil Galfond added, crystalizing the feelings of many in the poker world. “We don’t have a word for what Doyle Brunson is to poker.”

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The Main Event attracted 1,098 entries, setting a new record and pushing the prize pool to €5,325,300 (US$5.87 million). Although Watson ultimately emerged at the top of the stack, he didn’t have an easy road to get there.

The Monte Carlo Main Event had a buy-in of €5,300 (US$5,847) and 323 players doubled down to stay alive. By the time Jason Wheeler bubbled in seventh place, all were on the rail or heading home.

Experience Pays Off

Watson has proven himself on the virtual and online felt. He has amassed well more than $19 million in lifetime earnings since his first live cash in 2006, and has 10 Championship of Online Poker titles to his credit.

Heading into the final table, Watson was second in chips, only slightly behind Leo Worthington-Leese. The cards continued to fall in Watson’s favor, although the same can’t be said for Worthington-Leese. Players were able to chip away at his stack until they finally pushed him out in third place for €397,450 (US$438,506).

That left only Watson and Maue to face off in the final heads-up battle. The eventual winner was ahead in chips, but they decided to cut a deal instead of playing out the fight.

The deal gave Watson €716,085 and Maue €697,175 (US$790,056 and $769,193, respectively). The only thing left was to play for the title and the €33,340 (US$36,784) that was still on the table.

Maue continued to give up his remaining chips to Watson before trying a last-ditch effort to bluff while holding nothing. Probably feeling confident with his run, Watson called with a boarded two pair to take the game. The runner-up had tried to hit a straight and missed, and Watson didn’t fall for the trap.

Badziakouski Bounce Back

Last year, Belarusian poker pro Mikita Badziakouski fell to Adrian Mateos in the $100K EPT Monte Carlo High Roller event. He failed to fool Spain’s top player in a bluff, but found a little bit of redemption this year.

Badziakouski held 3-2, while Heath had 5-4, and a 3 on the flop gave the leading Belarus player a pair. Heath didn’t find any help on the turn or river, giving Badziakouski the game and €938,042 (US$1.03 million). Heath took home €801,068 (US$883,818).

Mateos was in the game as well, which probably brought back bad memories for Badziakouski. He had a deep run, but only made it to 12th place before being eliminated.

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Mintz immediately and profusely apologized on Twitter, saying he “made an unforgivable mistake” and “never felt worse about anything.” He received support from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who denounced what he called the company’s “wrong decision” in a Twitter video.

I think anybody who watched the clip was like, ‘There’s no way he meant to do that,’” Portnoy said in the video. “He’s just not the brightest bulb to ever come down the pipe. And he just screwed up. And he knew he screwed up. And there was no hatred behind it. No nothing.”

Portnoy, who, according to the New York Post, has courted controversy by dropping his own n-bombs during podcasts, admitted he has no authority to reverse the decision since his sale of the remainder of Barstool to PENN Entertainment closed earlier this year.

No Words Mintzed

Portnoy has faced his own criticism for the sale. In a separate Twitter video, he responded emotionally to critics: “I sold out. You’re just figuring that out? … ?Made hundreds of millions, made millions for everybody … Yeah, we sold the f*** out. And that’s what you do when you’re an entrepreneur.”

Mintz. a popular and skilled poker player with over $620K in live tournament wins, joined Barstool in 2020.

After his firing, he tweeted that he was “in good spirits” and that he is “def an idiot, but I am also a resilient one.”

Quick Update

I am in good spirits. I am def an idiot but I am also a resilient one. Will have a long video tomorrow thanking everyone. Way way too grateful to be too down.

— Mintzy (@BarstoolMintzy) May 3, 2023

The call to fire Mintz was reportedly made by Penn CEO Jay Snowden himself.

Emergency Press Conference – Ben Mintz Has Left the Building pic.twitter.com/31faJrI6Op

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 3, 2023

PENN’s Takeover

Portnoy originally sold 36% of Barstool to PENN in 2020 for $163 million, then the rest in February for $388 million.

In addition to owning Barstool Sports, PENN operates 43 brick-and-mortar casinos in 20 states under the brands Ameristar, Boomtown, and Hollywood Casino. Its relationships with the regulators who control its state operating licenses are its paramount concern.

Therefore, instances of perceived racism, intentional or unintentional, cannot be tolerated.

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David Hughes of Deltona, Fla., took advantage of a little-known state law that bars casinos and card clubs from preventing men from entering poker tournaments advertised as ladies’ events. Hughes decided to participate in the $250 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack event on Saturday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. The resort was hosting its annual Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.

After busting two times, Hughes bought in for a third time. It turned out to be a winning wager, as he eventually outlasted the 80 other entries to claim the event’s top prize of $5,555.

Poker pro Ebony Kenney, who herself was playing in the tournament, placed a $300 bounty on Hughes to entice players to target his pots. But the bounty perhaps helped Hughes, as others played aggressively against the poker amateur who has played live tournaments for years.

https://twitter.com/Ebony_Kenney/status/1652441213725986816

Hughes Outlasts the Ladies

Many of his female competitors didn’t take too kindly to Hughes’ participation. Along with Keeney issuing a $300 bounty, players scolded Hughes at the felt and regularly made gestures toward him, such as a thumbs down directed his way.

Kenney tweeted that Hughes, at one point, responded to his female critics, saying he “could pretend to identify as a woman because they allow anything these days.”

Hughes has cashed out 38 other times over the past decade, according to The Hendon Mob, an online poker database that tracks tournament results.

Hughes’ best result was a third-place finish at the 2021 Great American Poker Tournament’s $100,000 Summer Event at the Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club, winning $17,080. He also won $11,565 after placing second at a 2022 Winter Series Open event in Jacksonville.

Most of Hughes’ other cash wins have been small payouts of less than $1,000. His $5,555 victory at the ladies’ event marked his third-best live cash performance.

National Issue

Hughes’ poker win is just the latest controversy in the ongoing debate about transgender people participating in sports and/or competitions with genders that they might not have been aligned with at birth.

Florida lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2021 banned transgender females from participating in public school teams intended only for student-athletes born female.

“In Florida, girls are going to play girls’ sports and boys are going to play boys’ sports,” DeSantis said after signing the bill.

The public schooling athletics law doesn’t cover poker events. That’s because Florida doesn’t consider the casino game a sport. As such, businesses hosting such poker games cannot discriminate based on gender.

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In 2020, COVID-19 forced the cancellation or delay of numerous poker events and the transition of some to an online format. While the latter option was a viable alternative for some, the inability to properly read opponents kept some players away.

From Vegas to the Czech Republic and Singapore, poker events were off the table. They’re back now, and players are getting more live options than ever.

Poker Comes to Andorra

Andorra, the microstate that borders Spain, recently opened a new casino that can host international poker tournaments with up to 800 players. Now, the Unnic Integral Leisure Center will test those capabilities by hosting the first Gran Casino d’Andorra Poker Tournament this weekend.

Players who scratch can rebuy to continue participating in the tournament up to level 10. After that, they’ll only be able to catch the action from the rail. Registration begins Friday afternoon, although the casino has left out one element that might entice more people to play. As the casino confirmed with Casino.org, there doesn’t appear to be a guarantee, which means the prize pool may be small if the turnout isn’t that great.

This is just the first of many events the casino has planned. The goal is to organize them in the low season to boost tourism when traffic is typically slower.

WPT Takes to the High Seas

The World Poker Tour (WPT) already knows how to navigate at-sea poker tournaments thanks to its WPT Cruise events, and is now adding new options for players who like to travel. Virgin Voyages is set to launch a new WPT experience on its Scarlet Lady cruises.

There will be a WPT Prize Package valued at $5,000 in the main event, which can be used for any WPT event or a Virgin cruise. However, there’s a catch – the package won’t be available unless the event draws enough participants. A press release on the launch didn’t specify the minimum required.

Southeast Asia Gets New Events

PokerStars took its Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) to Cambodia for the first time last year, where the series proved to be highly successful. Competing for players is the long-standing Asian Poker Tour (APT), which announced new stops this year as it continues to enjoy success in the region as well.

Joining these will be a stop in South Korea at the Paradise City resort. The APT Incheon event will take place from August 25 to September 3.

Vietnam proved to be a success for the APT last year, and the tour hopes to build on its previous experience.

The APT said new additions to its schedule will replace the APT Ho Chi Minh 2023 event. The organization said it had to postpone that series “until there is greater clarity on the regulatory climate,” but didn’t provide clarification.

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