Is that a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!? There’s roughly three months left before Irish Open 2024 will take it to the tables at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin. With a very intriguing tournament schedule – featuring the hyped €1 150 Irish Open Main Event 2024 with a €1M GTD – there’s a lot of fun to look forward to.

Now, poker players are given an excellent opportunity securing their seat to the Main Event through online qualifiers on ChampionPoker. With a whopping 30 packages up for grabs, the time to qualify for some serious Dublin poker fun starts now!

€2 250 Packages up for Grabs

The collaboration between ChampionPoker and Irish Open is a good one, and players can now take it to the ChampionPoker tables and attempt to secure a spot for the €1 150 Irish Open Main Event.

As a player, you can participate in the €150 qualifiers that includes the €1 150 Buy-In for the Main Event as well as an extra €1 100 in spending real money, meant to cover your travel expenses. This satellite comes in two forms. Qualifiers for Main Event Day 1A (March 27^th) are running daily on the ChampionPoker client.

Every Sunday between January 14^th-March 10^th, qualifiers for Day 1B are running at 20:15 GMT (Day 1B is scheduled the 28^th). Except for the different starting flight in the Main Event, the qualifiers are identical. Considered there are 30 packages to be distributed through the online qualifiers, the chances to snag one should be good!

There’s also the opportunity to play seat-only qualifiers to the Main Event. These run daily 20:30 GMT with two different Buy-Ins, €50 and €100. No less than 70 seats are guaranteed and when winning an entry through these, the player can decide which Main Event start flight he/she wants to play.

When Is the Irish Open 2024?

The earlier mentioned Main Event has a total four starting flights. Another poker tournament that will receive its fair amount of contestants is the €200 Mini Irish Open. The “Mini Main Event” has €500 000 GTD and a whopping nine start flights, something that indicates this tournament will be one of the most popular ones during the event.

There’s also four Mystery Bounty tournaments. Mystery Bounty is perhaps the most interesting poker format during the last couple of years and Irish Open participators can choose between Texas NLH– and Pot Limit Omaha. Both disciplines have two Mystery Bounty tournaments each, one with a €550 Buy-In and one with a €1 100 Buy-In.

At the last day of the festival, there will be a €350 Liam Flood Memorial 6-Max Turbo Event. The legendary Irish bookmaker/poker professional passed away in 1997 and it’s so nice to see his memory being honored in such fitting fashion.

Good luck to all players hunting their Irish Open 2024 package through the ChampionPoker qualifiers; we wish you the luck of the Irish!

One of the biggest USPs with live poker is that it can take you all over the world. Live poker events are hosted in many different countries and some locations are absolutely incredible, with amazing atmosphere to accompany the live poker experience.

Malta is one of these paradises, and there’s no question that the island is a great place for live poker. Since its very first edition back in 2012, the Battle of Malta has been a much appreciated stop on the tour by many poker players and the event keeps getting better and better every year that goes.

If you’re eager to visit Malta and play some poker, good times are ahead. In April, Battle of Malta returns to Olympic Casino and we will once again see some intriguing live poker action!

€500 000 GTD in the Main Event

That’s right folks, the spring edition of Battle of Malta is not far away. Running April 3^rd-10^th, players will be treated with a week filled to the brim with live poker action. If you want to feel the thrill of live poker in one of the most exotic environments possible, you really should consider mark the dates in your poker calendar.

The Battle of Malta 2024 tournament schedule, which was released the other day, looks very promising. Considering there are buy-ins ranging from €120 all the way up to €1 000, there are poker tournaments for all players and the participation during the festival is expected to be big.

The €600 Battle of Malta Main Event 2024 features an outrageous €500 000 GTD, a prize pool that many players surely wants to take a big chunk out of. The Main Event has six start flights, before Day 2 kicks off April 8^th. Day 3 is following on the 9^th, before the final nine players will play the live-streamed final table on the 10^th.

Another tournament in the schedule that deserves the spotlight is the €450 Mistery Siege of Malta. Judging from the name, one can guess the Battle of Malta crew has picked up on the mystery bounty trend.

In terms of high roller action, Day 1 of the €1 100 High Roller Domus Bet commences the 8^th of April. High roller tournaments always brings that little extra thrill of excitement both to players and spectators, and it will be an absolute pleasure to follow the action.

Mixed Games enthusiasts are not forgotten and will enjoy games such as Sviten, H.O.R.S.E and PLO 4/5. Be sure to see the full tournament schedule below!

Battle of Malta 2024 – Full Tournament Schedule

Date & Time (CET)	Tournament	Buy-In
April 3rd, 17:00	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 3rd, 21:00	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 4th, 11:00	Main Event Satellite (Turbo)	€70
April 4th, 13:00	Main Event Day 1A	€600
April 4th, 16:00	Sponsor Event	N/A
April 4th, 17:00	PLO	€330
April 4th, 19:00	Mistery Siege of Malta Day 1A	€450
April 4th, 21:00	Progressive Bounty NLH	€220
April 4th, 21:30	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 5th, 11:00	Main Event Satellite (Turbo)	€70
April 5th, 12:00	Mistery Siege of Malta Day 1B	€450
April 5th, 13:00	Main Event Day 1B	€600
April 5th, 16:00	Sponsor Event	N/A
April 5th, 19:00	Sviten	€330
April 5th, 21:00	Full Bounty NLH	€230
April 5th, 21:30	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 6th, 11:00	Main Event Satellite (Turbo)	€70
April 6th, 13:00	Main Event Day 1C	€600
April 6th, 14:00	Mistery Siege of Malta Final Day	€450
April 6th, 16:00	Sponsor Event	N/A
April 6th, 19:00	PLO Knock Out	€330
April 6th, 21:00	Dark Knight NLH	€220
April 6th, 21:30	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 7th, 11:00	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 7th, 13:00	Main Event Day 1D	€600
April 7th, 16:00	Sponsor Event	N/A
April 7th, 19:00	H.O.R.S.E	€330
April 7th, 20:00	Main Event Day 1E (Turbo)	€600
April 7th, 21:00	Full Progressive Bounty NLH	€220
April 7th, 21:30	Main Event Satellite	€70
April 8th, 10:00	Main Event Day 1F (Turbo)	€600
April 8th, 11:00	High Roller Satellite	€120
April 8th, 14:00	PLO 4/5	€320
April 8th, 16:00	Sponsor Event	N/A
April 8th, 19:00	Main Event Day 2	€600
April 8th, 21:00	High Roller Domus Bet	€1 100
April 8th, 21:30	High Roller Satellite	€120
April 9th, 11:00	High Roller Satellite	€120
April 9th, 13:00	Main Event Day 3	N/A
April 9th, 14:30	High Roller Domus Bet Day 2	€1 100
April 9th, 16:00	Sponsor Event	N/A
April 9th, 18:00	PLO Knock Out	€330
April 9th, 20:00	Dark Knight	€220
April 9th, 21:30	Cash Your Seat	€120
April 10th, 14:00	Main Event Final Table	N/A
April 10th, 18:00	High Roller Domus Bet Final Day	N/A

Good luck to all players competing in the Battle of Malta spring 2024!

The second weekend of 2024 at JackPoker featured two interesting Main Events as the Winter Elf Series concluded, alongside several other winter warming tournaments. The action was mostly centered around low and mid-level buy-ins, offering good opportunities for new and older players JackPoker has managed to attract with its lucrative poker bonuses, cash games, and tournament options – all targeted perfectly for low-mid buy-in players. 

While there may not be much high roller action here, for semi-active poker enthusiasts like myself, $5 – $50 buy-in tournaments, just like the ones offered by Winter Elf Series, are a perfect passtime to earn some extra money and refine my skills for the bigger tables. Unfortunately, I could not join the action this time, but if you are interested (like myself), here’s a short recap of what went down at JackPoker during the weekend! 

Winter Elf Series Main Event & Mini Main Event 

The Winter Elf Series Main Event with a $50 buy-in and total prize pool of $37835 was played last evening/night between 9:30 pm and 4:45 am. 

The number of buy-ins was a shocking 827, considering that the daily maximum on their platform is, on average, around 1500–2000 players. 

For the top 100 players, the tough grind was totally worth it when, during those seven drooling hours, they managed to at least double their money. For the Top players, the Elf Series Main Event meant a real payday when that $50 ($100 with a re-entry) investment was turned into minimum over $400. 

The biggest winners of this bounty tournament were the top 5 players who all managed to win over $1,000 dollars. The tournament winner, TomDanicold, managed to hunt bounties for himself worth over $3,800, and when combined with the first prize of $3,725.99, his personal payday totaled $7,525.99. I bet Tomdanicold is happy for the re-entry. 

The second-best player, Winnero2, didn’t need re-entries and managed to win a total of $2,388.31 dollars, of which $450.79 was from the bounties. 

Here’s the Top 10 Players of Winter Elf Series Main Event:

PLACE	PLAYER	PRIZE	BOUNTY	TOTAL PRIZE
1.	TomDanicold	$3,725.99	$3,800	$7,525.99
2.	Winnero2	$1,937.52	$450.79	$2,388.31
3.	Axerte1404	$1,308.24	$357.04	$1,665.28
4.	PATYU	$977.04	$517.19	$1,494.23
5.	Hnogueira	$794.88	$338.28	$1,133.16
6.	Onerjg22	$612.72	$199.22	$811.94
7.	oCaracoll	$430.56	$90.63	$521.19
8.	Cleen66Z	$314.64	$85.94	$400.58
9.	MountuGUT78	$248.40	$260.93	$509.33
10.	bionico	$198.72	$259.37	$458.09

The other Main Event – $10 Winter Elf Series Mini Main, was even more popular. This should not be a surprise when the guarantee was set to $10,000, making it one of the best low buy-in / GTD bounty tournaments ever played at JackPoker. 

Jack Bonus Bonanza 100 

The Sunday night crawlers had their fill during the Jack Bonus Bonanza tournament finals that were part of the Jack Freeroll Festival, meaning they had the chance to play in these for free! The biggest of these – Jack Bonus Bonanza 100 boasted an impressive $15,000 prize pool that was credited to the winners as “INSTACASH.” Instacash is a form of JackPoker bonus money that can only be used in cash games until the wagering requirement is met, and it then becomes real money in your account. 

For some, this is a no-go, but around 100 players answered the call, and when all was said and done, Jack Bonus Bonanza 100 had total 115 buy-ins. 

Here’s Top 5 Players and Prizes of Jack Bonus Bonanza 100: 

PLACE	PLAYER	PRIZE
1.	DuskGot0o	$3,750
2.	Petker3mou	$2,325
3.	maniMymy	$1,185
4.	HerrFrey	$1,035
5.	Loopeymam	$885

NOTE: Jack Bonus Bonanza tournaments are daily tournaments at JackPoker, and only the Freeroll Festival tournaments have the prize pool credited as InstantCash. So, if you want to play there in the near future, most likely the winnings will be paid in real money rather than InstantCash bonus money. 

Other tournaments were regular tournaments from the weekly schedule where buy-ins range from low to high roller, and prize pools range from $600 to $10,000. 

Congrats for all winners. Keep on grinding!

It is crucial for online poker players to find a site that suits their poker needs. There are some essentials that an online poker site should offer, in order to make the poker journey as entertaining and enjoyable as possible for all their players.

JackPoker are doing a great job offering their players many benefits. They are always offering some kind of JackPoker welcome bonus that instantly will give new players a warm welcome to their site. They also have interesting and unique online poker tournament series, such as the JackPoker Freeroll Festival that ran during the last quarter of 2023.

The JackPoker crew are a very innovative group of people, and now they are once again delivering us big news. The very popular poker format BombPots is now available at JackPoker. To celebrate this, they are now initiating a series of BombPots Quests that will see players earning extra rewards. Participate in the quest hunt and win big!

JackPoker BombPots Quests – How Does It Work?

JackPoker – and presumably you – could not be more excited about BombPots reaching ol’ Jack’s domains. To really give BombPots the warm welcome that it deserves, the BombPots quests are now open for participation on JackPoker.

The concept is simple. There are three different quests divided into three tiers, all escalating in difficulty – an easy level, a medium level and a hard level. When completing the quests, players will be awarded with instant cash. If you manage to complete all three of the quests, you will receive no less than $200!

JackPoker BombPots Quests – Full Quest Breakdown

Level	Description	Reward (Instant Cash)
Easy Level	Win 10 hands with the bomb on the table	$10
Medium Level	Win 5 hands with banks of 300BB or more 0 generate $100 rake	$40
Hard Level	Play All In in 20+ hands with a bomb pot + generate $500 or more in rake	$150

What are BombPots?

Considering the explosive format of BombPots, there’s no doubt player will feel the thrill participating in the BombPots quests.

The BombPots format is available at certain cash game tables on JackPoker for Texas No Limit Hold’em and PLO5. At any random time when playing at these tables, players will see the special bomb animation. This indicates that it is time for a BombPot and the dealer button will randomly be given to any of the participating players.

All players are then forced to bet a certain amount into the pot (almost like a big ante). The preflop betting round is skipped and all players are treated with the flop. From there on it’s play as usual, but with a considerable amount of real money in the pot!

JackPoker BombPots Tables

Table Name
Blast Radius
Shockwave
Dynamite
Blow Up
Explode
Boom
Bang
TNT

Jack Has Something up His Sleeve

As previously mentioned, you never know what the good folks over at JackPoker have in store. They’re already teasing us with new promotions in 2024, and we know for a fact that more quests and new flop races are on the horizon.

Good luck all players who are participating in the JackPoker BombPots Quests; there’s no doubt that you’re in for quite the ride!

Everyone who fancies some poker in the UK ought to be excited, seeing as the UK Poker Championships is roughly two weeks away! That’s right, the very appreciated live poker event makes its return in 2024 and will take over the Dusk Till Dawn Casino, promising ten days filled with poker fun.

Let’s take a closer look at what there’s to expect from the UK Poker Championships 2024, as well how players can qualify for the event.

A Diversified Tournament Schedule

Considering it’s only January, there hasn’t been many live poker events in 2024 yet. With that said, the UK Poker Championships 2024 is surely a fitting start, running at the Dusk Till Dawn Casino 20^th-29^th of January. With buy-ins ranging between £100-2 500, there’s surely poker tournaments for everyone in the UK Poker Championships 2024 schedule.

What’s tickling a little extra is obviously the £500 UKPC Main Event. With no less than six different starting flights, the action in the main event (which has a £500 000 GTD) is expected to be intense. What’s even better is that two of the flights are played online on GGPoker. “On-live” events are increasing in popularity and is always an appreciated feature for poker players.

There’s also four starting flights for the £200 UKPC Opener Live tournament. This tournament, as the name indicates, will kick the whole festival off and players can directly jump into the action. Be sure to check the full schedule out seeing as there are many more interesting tournaments, for example the £2 500 Super High Roller and the £200 PLO Bounty.

Qualify to the Main Event

You can qualify to the £500 UKPC Main Event through GGPoker. The satellites will see players securing seats for any of the “on-live” starting flights. Considering the satellites are starting from a mere £1, players would be very wise taking their shots at the GGPoker tables.

As previously mentioned, the UKPC Poker Championships will set the bar for live poker events in 2024. We can’t wait to follow the action from Dusk Till Dawn casino, located in Nottingham. Good luck to all players participating in the poker festival!

Deposit and Get Your Ticket Today!

Between 12/01/2024 – 22/01/2024 you can get a £20 ticket to a UKPC Mega Satellite that runs on Sundays. All you need to do is to sign up through our link below and fulfill the Terms & Service demands.

Terms & Conditions

• Only UK players are eligible to participate in this promotion. 
• You must sign up by our link below.
• Make a minimum deposit of £10 (First time depositors only).
• The first 20 players that make their deposit between 12th Jan – 22nd Jan will receive a £20 UKPC Mega Satellite ticket within 24 hours of qualifying first deposit.
• Any tickets credited can be used on eligible UKPC Mega Satellites
• Tickets will expire at 18:00 UTC on Tuesday 23rd January. 
• Any unused tickets will expire and have zero value.

UK Poker Championships 2024 – Full Schedule

Date & Time (GMT)	Tournament	Buy-In
Saturday 20th, 13:00	UKPC Opener Live Day 1A	£200
Saturday 20th, 19:00	UKPC Main Event Satellite (10 Seats GTD)	£25
Saturday 20th, 20:00	UKPC Main Event Online Day 1A	£500
Sunday 21st, 13:00	UKPC Opener Live Day 1B	£200
Sunday 21st, 19:00	UKPC Main Event Satellite (10 Seats GTD)	£25
Tuesday 23rd, 20:00	UKPC Main Event Online Day 1B	£500
Wednesday 24th, 12:00	UKPC Opener Live Day 1C	£200
Wednesday 24th, 17:00	UKPC Super High Roller Day 1	£2 500
Wednesday 24th, 17:00	UKPC Opener Live Day 1D	£200
Wednesday 24th, 19:00	UKPC Main Event Satellite (10 Seats GTD)	£25
Thursday 25th, 12:00	UKPC Main Event Live Day 1A	£500
Thursday 25th, 12:00	UKPC Super High Roller Final Day	£2 500
Thursday 25th, 12:00	UKPC Opener Live Day 2	£200
Thursday 25th, 17:00	UKPC 7-Max	£100
Thursday 25th, 19:00	UKPC Main Event Satellite (20 Seats GTD)	£35
Friday 26th, 12:00	UKPC Main Event Live Day 1B	£500
Friday 26th, 14:00	UKPC Pot Limit Omaha	£100
Friday 26th, 17:00	UKPC Bounty	£100
Friday 26th, 19:00	UKPC Main Event Satellite (20 Seats GTD)	£35
Saturday 27th, 12:00	UKPC Main Event Live Day 1C	£500
Saturday 27th, 19:00	UKPC Main Event Live Day 1D (Turbo)	£500
Sunday 28th, 12:00	UKPC Closer Day 1A	£200
Sunday 28th, 12:00	UKPC Main Event Day 2	£500
Sunday 28th, 13:00	UKPC High Roller	£1 000
Sunday 28th, 17:00	UKPC Closer Day 1B	£200
Monday 29th, 12:00	UKPC Main Event Final Day	£500
Monday 29th, 13:00	UKPC Closer Final Day	£200
Monday 29th, 13:00	UKPC PLO Bounty	£200
Monday 29th, 15:00	UKPC Deepstack Turbo	£100

We may be early into 2023, but there has already been some entertaining live poker action. One of the earliest events to be played this year was the PokerGo Tour (PGT) Championship. As indicated by its name, the PGT itself were played in December, but the top 40 achievers during the tour were qualified to the PGT Championship.

These 40 players, alongside 14 “dream seat” winners, returned to the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas Wednesday January 10^th and would compete in the event for a slice of the $1 000 000 prize pool. Returning on Thursday were six players and when all was said and done, Daniel Smiljkovic could be crowned the well-deserved winner!

Smiljkovic Smiles

One can only assume the thrill the 54 players must have been feeling playing the freeroll tournament. Up top were a solid $500 000, surely a decent prize check for all poker players. All players entering the PGT Championship received a starting stack which’s size depended on their PGT results in 2023. There were some well-respected names in the field, such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Eric Seidel.

When Thursday came, six players returned for the final table play. At this point, German Daniel Smiljkovic held more than 40% of the chips in play. It’s safe to say he had put himself in a favorable spot. Artur Martirosyan were close to overtake the chiplead when there were five players left, but he ended up being the second one to bust after Darren Elias left in sixth place.

Reigning WSOP Main Event Champion Daniel Weinman were one of the four players remaining at this point. Eventually he ran into Smiljkovic’s trips and bid farewell in fourth. Suddenly there were only three players remaining and Leon Sturm now held the chip lead. Little did he know Hollywood star Arden Cho would display her impeccable acting skills and bluff him in some important spots. Cho kept taking chips from Sturm and eventually, Smiljkovic eliminated fellow German Sturm in third place.

It was now time for Heads Up between Smiljkovic and Cho. Cho held a considerable chiplead at this point and she must have felt she was writing the Hollywood script. At one point, she came this close securing the win being all in pre-flop with pocket nines against Smiljkovic’s ace-king, but it ended with Smiljkovic doubling up.

A rollercoaster begun with the chiplead switching back and forth. After some dramatic hands, Smiljkovic eventually acclaimed an overwhelming chiplead. Shortly after that, he saw himself all in with jack-five against Cho’s ace-nine. After a jack came on the turn and the river blanked out, Smiljkovic had done it. Daniel Smiljkovic from Germany is our 2023 PGT Championship winner!

2023 2023 PGT Championship – Results

Position	Player	Payout
1.	Daniel Smiljkovic	$500 000
2.	Arden Cho	$200 000
3.	Leon Sturm	$120 000
4.	Daniel Weinman	$80 000
5.	Artur Martirosyan	$60 000
6.	Darren Elias	$40 000

Haxton Also a Winner

Smiljkovic might have won the championship, but a winner also had to be crowned as “2023 PGT Player of the Year”. When the PGT leaderboard had been analyzed, it stood clear that poker legend Isaac Haxton had claimed the most points during the PGT 2023 season. Haxton had a great year 2023 as far as poker results goes and for his 2023 PGT Player of the Year award, he could add a $50 000 to his already impressive winnings.

As if we already didn’t know, it’s become evident that GGPoker really cares about their players. The biggest poker site in the world can look back at a very successful year of 2023 filled with awesome promotions, for example, the GGPoker welcome bonus and the Bounty Hunter Series that was one of the best online poker tournament series of the past year.

GGPoker only continues their quest on becoming the undisputed online poker site for all poker players, and they are certainly heading in the right direction. Through their promotions GGCare and GGCheers, they are watching out for their players by giving away $100 000 in Daily Flipout tournaments. It’s hard to say anything else than #ThanksGG!

What Is GGCare?

Supposedly, there are not many poker players who haven’t got their aces cracked by kings at least one time throughout the years. Let’s be honest: there are few feelings in poker that are worse than when something like this occurs. Luckily, GGPoker are there for you.

GGCare is an initiative by GGPoker that automatically activates after you have encountered a bad beat. Directly after you’ve been sucked out (which inevitably happens in poker) you’ll automatically be entered into the #ThanksGG Daily Flipout event, a Flipout tournament that runs every day and has a prize pool of $100 000.

The best thing about the #ThanksGG Daily Flipout tournament is that you don’t even have to be there. A Flipout tournament is one where each player is automatically forced all in each hand. After your bad beat, there may be a chance that you don’t feel like playing another poker tournament. Thanks to the flipout format, you can log off from the GGPoker client, go to sleep, wake up the next day and be greeted by free money on your GGPoker account. Truly a unique feature!

What Is GGCheers?

Alright, but what if you’re on the other side of things? There’s no better feeling than having a good session at the poker tables, making strong hands and scooping big pots. This is where GGCheers come in. The concept is really the same as for GGCare: when you win big, you’ll automatically be entered to the flipout. Same deal as before – do your thing, take a walk with the dog or clean the kitchen, the flipout tournament does all the playing for you. If you’re lucky when you wake up the next day, you might find that your winnings have increased even more.

#ThanksGG Flipout

There are some things worth knowing about the #ThanksGG Flipout tournaments. Not all players in the tournament will start with the same stack. GGPoker has done a great job with setting up GGCare and GGCheers, and the algorithm will actually analyze the pot size and severity of your cooler or suck-out. This will then determine how many chips you’ll go into the flipout with.

If you have more than one hand during your poker session that would be sick enough to qualify you for the flipout, you’ll simply get more chips on your stack.

There’s really no question about it: these are great initiatives by GGPoker. GGCare will surely be a lifesaver for many players and calm the inevitable tilt that can occur when facing a bad beat!

Mystery Bounty, also known as Secret Bounty, Secret KO, Mystery KO, and Mystique Bounty, emerged on the international poker scene as an experimental tournament format in live events in 2021 and transitioned to online poker in 2022.

The uniqueness of Mystery Bounty lies in the absence of fixed rewards for knocking out opponents.

Poker tournaments of this format can be divided into two main types:

• Single-day Mystery Bounty: random rewards for knocking out opponents are only revealed after the late registration or a specific blind level.
• Multi-day (multi-flight) Mystery Bounty: random rewards typically begin in Day 2, the Final Stage, or the Final Day, or during a combined day like the Main Event, when reaching the In The Money (ITM) stage.

The very first tournament of this format is considered to be the $2,200 Mystery Bounty held at the Wynn Poker Room in October 2021. The top bounty of $250,000 was won by Donald Nimneh, an amateur player who worked as a truck driver regularly.

Due to the excitement generated by the story of a “regular guy’s” big win, other poker rooms, both offline and online, gradually started experimenting with Mystery Bounty tournaments with varying degrees of success.

The first poker room to attempt tournaments with random bounties was PokerMatch. In February 2022, they introduced not Mystery Bounty but Mystique Prize tournaments, where random prizes were awarded for knocking out opponents, with the range fixed for different tournaments based on their buy-ins.

GGPoker then launched a full-fledged Mystery Bounty tournament, a multi-flight event with a $210 buy-in, a $1,000,000 guarantee, and a top bounty of $160,000, held in March-April 2022 as part of the WSOP Circuit Online.

By the way, it was GGPoker that became the online platform where the first $1,000,000 bounty was awarded in a Mystery Bounty tournament. This occurred in the $210 Million Dollar Mystery Bounty with a $10,000,000 guarantee, and the bounty was won by Scott “ItsRumcake” Ball.

In September 2022, single-day regular tournaments were introduced by 888poker, and throughout 2023, other rooms from WPN, iPoker, and Chico networks followed suit. One of the latest to introduce Mystery Bounty was PokerStars in January 2024.

Three Reasons for the Popularity of Mystery Bounty

1. Equal Chances for Amateurs and Professionals to Win Life-Changing Money

You don’t need to be the best player in the tournament to win the biggest prize. Only one knockout is needed. That’s why Mystery Bounty attracts amateur players. Where there are amateur players, professionals are also drawn.

2. Emotions

No other tournament format provides the same level of excitement as Mystery Bounty. It’s like a movie with multiple plot twists.

• Participants play Day 1 (or a few hours before reaching ITM).
• After the money bubble bursts, the most exciting part begins – Mystery Bounty for knocking out opponents. Each knockout ignites a spark of hope inside: the top bounty could be mine. Once you achieve your first knockout in Mystery Bounty, you’ll want to play these tournaments again and again.
• Disappointment when the top bounty goes to someone else (usually happening more often than winning the top bounty). Nevertheless, every player continues to hope that the biggest prize will be theirs – just not this time, maybe the next.

3. Media Appeal

Mystery Bounty tournaments are loved by the media. Beautiful stories are born in these tournaments. For example, the winner of the first $2,200 Mystery Bounty was 43-year-old truck driver Donald Nimneh from Omaha. After the tournament, he shared that he accidentally entered the tournament and felt he would pull the top bounty. Clips featuring moments where players reveal top bounties become popular on social media.

One thing’s for sure: the poker tournament supply of January 2024 leaves little to ask for. Online poker tournament series are running left and right, and every poker player ought to feel like we’re kicking off the new year in good fashion.

Global Poker are obviously joining the January race with their own tournament series, and oh boy, are we in for a treat! Global Poker got a lot of attention during the last half of 2023 with their Global Poker Celebrity Challenge, which saw four celebrities facing off against each other – and the Global Poker players – around the tables. Now they are once again sweeping us off our feet, this time with the Monsterstack Series III!

A Tournament Schedule Filled to the Brim

Like the name implies, this is the third edition ever of the Monsterstack Series on Global Poker. Considering the series has been a slam-dunk the previous years, there’s no reason to think there’ll be a lack of action in the third rendition.

The series is running on the Global Poker tables January 8^th-21^st, which means that poker players have no less than 14 days of poker goodness in the near future. It’s for sure a series you do not want to miss out on, considering a whopping 400 000 000 GC and a 1 000 000 SC in total prizes guaranteed!

The Global Poker Monsterstack Series III schedule features no less than 28 GC and SC events, and what’s tickling a little extra is of course the GC– and the SC Main Event. Both of the Main Events are scheduled January 21^st – the last day of the series – and with a 40 000 000 GC and a 100 000 SC, players would be very wise to mark the 21^st in the calendar right now.

Monsterstack Series III – Main Events Schedule

Date and Time	Tournament	Buy-In
January 21st, 16:30 (ET)	Monsterstack 14 H – Main Event – GC 40 000 000 GTD (Super Deep)	99 000
January 21st, 16:30 (ET)	Monsterstack 14 H – Main Event – SC 100 000 GTD (Super Deep)	99 SC

As if huge guaranteed prize pools were not enough to satisfy the Global Poker players, there is a lot more to play for than just GC and SC. Except for taking home the larger chunk of the prize pool, the winners will also be awarded with a Monsterstack Trophy, as well as some specially designed Monsterstack Merchandise.

To put the cherry on top, there’s also a leaderboard running throughout the whole series. Claim leaderboard points in order to take part of some awesome prizes and awards. For example, GC and SC Golden Scrimmage entries are up for grabs. These are entries for the Grizzly Games VII, which will be the first Global Poker Championship of 2024. There will surely be more information about the Grizzly Games VII soon enough.

As previously stated, Global Poker received a lot of attention during the last part of 2023 through the Global Poker Celebrities Challenge, which saw DJ Khaled, Michael Phelps, Karl-Anthony Towns and Paul George facing off against each other in a round of Heads Up-matches. It’s safe to say that Global Poker will continue delivering a lot of quality content for the poker community in 2024, and the Monsterstack Series III is most certainly the best way to start the year!

Good luck to all players participating in the Monsterstack Series III! Shuffle up and deal!

Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan. The list of poker celebrities can be made long. However, when it all comes down to it, there can be only one disputed GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The virtuoso of poker, Martin “Franke” Von Zweigbergk, is soon turning 50, and he has quite the celebration planned for all poker players. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to win a €2 000 Package to the Festival Rozvadov!

Franke 50 X-Mas

The legendary Franke is about to turn 50, and he celebrates in style. Being the founder of the Festival Series, Franke and his team are now hosting the “Franke 50 X-mas” tournament, which has no less than three €2 000 packages for the Festival Rozvadov guaranteed!

This poker tournament will be played on January 5^th and players can participate through various clients that are on the iPoker network (for example PAF, Coolbet, Betsson, Nordicbet…). The package includes:

• A seven-night stay for two persons at a 5-star hotel between June 2^nd-9^th.
• Daily buffet for both persons.
• One hospitality package.
• One Buy-In for the €550 the Festival Rozvadov Main Event.
• Two Buy-Ins for €125 poker tournaments of your choice.
• One Buy-In for a €125 casino tournament.
• A clean-looking the Festival cap.

Franke 50 X-Mas – Tournament Information

January 5th, 19:00 CET

The Festival Franke 50 XMAS*

€20 (unlimited Re-Buys+Add-On)

3x €2 000 the Festival Rozvadov Package

*The tournament can be played on the iPoker network, i.e. through clients such as Coolbet, PAF, Bettsson, Nordicbet etc.

PokerListings Raffle

PokerListings wants to get in on the fun! Hence, we’re doing a raffle for this qualifier. That means that we are giving away a total of 30 €20 online poker tournament tickets: 10 on Guts, 10 on Betsson, and 10 on Betsafe.

There are three ways you can join the raffle:

• Through Facebook: tag a friend and write the name of the operator that you would like the tickets for, as well as your nickname on that operator, on the PokerListings Facebook post that promotes the tournament/raffle. Also share the post!
• Through X/Twitter: tag a friend and write the name of the operator that you would like the tickets for, as well as your nickname on that operator, on the PokerListings X/Twitter post that promotes the tournament/raffle. Also retweet!
• Through Instagram: tag three friends and write the name of the operator that you would like the tickets for, as well as your nickname on that operator, on the PokerListings Instagram post that promotes the tournament/raffle. Also like the picture and repost!

NB: Only for countries where raffles are eligible.

The Festival Rozvadov

The Festival Rozvadov will surely be a live poker event in 2024 that players do not want to miss out on. The Event will be played at King’s Resort May 31^st-June 9^th. Contenders can expect more than 40 events ranging from poker-, roulette-, blackjack– and slot tournaments.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Festival made its last stop of 2023 in Bratislava, at the beautiful Banco Casino. It was a very appreciated event, not least by the Mixed Games fanatics: Franke fancies action and offered a variety of Mixed Games, including his new invention H.O.R.S.E.S, which adds Sviten Special as a sixth discipline to the popular game that is H.O.R.S.E.

Good luck to all players taking their chance in the Festival Franke 50 X-MAS tournament, and for goodness sake: do not miss out on the PokerListings raffle! Head on over to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram now!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a wild ride. 2023 brought incredible much joy in terms of poker, and we’re so grateful for being a part of an absolute blockbuster of a poker year.

During the past week, the PokerListings team have been occupied with the PokerListings Awards 2023. The awards consists of no less than 9 different categories. We have told you about the categories. We have revealed the nominees. Now it’s finally time to reveal the winners for each category.

Are you ready, folks? These are the winners of the PokerListings Awards 2023!

Category 1: Best Poker Operator (for Beginners) 2023

The award in Category 1 goes to the poker operator which is best for beginners. Good poker bonuses, liquidity and low rake are examples for key factors we’re looking for in this category.

And the Winner for Category 1 Is… JackPoker!

JackPoker has a site that is very attractive to new players. Players are greeted with an easily-navigated poker lobby where they easy can find their preferred game without any hustle. They also have many and frequent bonus offers available. This comes in the form of both welcome bonuses and deposit bonuses.

Through various poker promotions, new players can easily build their bankroll in a low-risk way. A great example of this is the JackPoker Freeroll Festival which was a very appreciated online poker tournament series amongst many players.

Overall we think that JackPoker checks all the boxes for being an excellent and welcoming site for never players. Congratulations JackPoker; keep up the good work!

All the nominees for Category 1 were:

PokerStars

TigerGaming

partypoker

888poker

JackPoker

WPT Global

Category 2: Best Poker Operator (for Grinders) 2023

Let’s switch focus from beginners to grinders. Grinders is a very important group of the poker community and they want to play on a site that can meet their demands. Essentially grinders benefits from the same things like beginners (good bonuses, liquidity etc.), but another crucial part is the player fields which must be just right in order for a grinder to get the best return of their investments.

And the Winner for Category 2 Is… GGPoker!

GGPoker truly is a worthy winner of category 2. Considering the numbers of loyal players on their network, there’s no doubt that grinders find GGPoker a fitting site for them. GGPoker has huge player traffic and grinders can always find a game that fits them. GGPoker keeps improving every year and every aspect of their site is more or less flawless; there’s little more to ask for if you’re a serious online poker grinder, no matter if you prefer tournaments or cash games. We applaud you, GGPoker!

All the nominees for Category 2 were:

PokerStars

GGPoker

888poker

ACR

BetOnline

Unibet

Category 3: Best Online Poker Tournament Series 2023

When it comes to online poker tournament series, there has been a lot to choose from in 2023. The most important aspects are various Buy-Ins, big events with many players, trophies/awards to the winners and more.

And the Winner for Category 3 Is… WCOOP!

WCOOP is a legendary online poker tournament series that ran for the first time way back in 2002. With Buy-Ins ranking from mere dollars all the way up to $25 000, there’s tournaments for everyone in the World Championchips of Online Poker which is hosted by PokerStars. What’s more, the Main Event winners are awarded with a beautiful trophy that can help them remember their achievements for years to come. WCOOP is still improving year after year and with high guarantees and huge player fields, they are surely a well-deserved winner for category 3!

All the nominees for Category 3 were:

WSOP Online (GGPoker)

WCOOP (PokerStars)

The Festival Online (888poker)

Bounty Hunter Series (GGPoker)

K.O Series (partypoker)

Freeroll Festival (JackPoker)

Category 4: Best Live Poker Tournament Event 2023

Let us move away from the computers for a little bit and focus on live poker events. Just as the case was with online poker tournament series, there’s been a swarm of good and attractive live poker events throughout 2023 all across the globe. Online or live, it doesn’t matter: poker players are attracted to events with high guarantees, awards/trophies, good structures and Buy-Ins, and many players which guarantees a good feeling around the event.

And the Winner for Category 4 Is… WSOP

The legendary World Series of Poker is still the live poker event that most players dream of one day attending. The Main Event may still be the crème de la crème, but WSOP has done a great job improving their event through time and there are nowadays many bracelet Mixed Games events featured in the schedule as well. Another very appreciated feature is that players have the opportunity to qualify to WSOP through online satellites. WSOP is the GOAT of live poker events.

All the nominees for Category 4 were:

WSOP

The Festival Series

EPT

APT

partypoker Millions

NAPT

Category 5: Best Software

An online poker entity is nothing without a good software. Optimal GUI, in-game features, a working chat with emojis, a well-structured lobby and an own app are key features in this category.

And the Winner for Category 5 Is… PokerStars!

We’ve selected PokerStars as the winner of Category 5. Their software is smooth and easy navigated, it’s has a good structure and there are no problems for players to find their preferred games. The software runs smoothly whether you’re playing on a Mac or PC, and they also have their own developed app on both App Store and Google Play which enables players on the run to enjoy some of their good poker action.

All the nominees for Category 5 were:

iPoker

EvenBet Gaming

PokerStars

GGPoker

888poker

SwC Poker

Category 6: Best Poker Innovation

The beautiful thing about poker is that it’s such a simple game in terms of rules and equipment. All you need is a deck of cards and you’re good to go. Even though the game is basic in its nature, people still find games to improve the phenomenon. This is of course crucial. It keeps the game exciting at the same time that it attracts new players to the wonderful world of poker.

And the Winner of Category 6 Is… Game of Gold!

When the GGPoker production Game of Gold was released a couple of months ago, the expectations were high. It’s safe to say that it did not disappoint. This new poker TV series could be described as a combination of the old classic Poker after Dark and your favorite drama series. Presumably, this mix was one of the key features the series was an absolute slam-dunk. Some even call it the best poker TV production of all time, and a lot of people who isn’t even interested in poker has found the series to be very entertaining.

All the nominees for Category 6 were:

Game of Gold (GGPoker)

Celebrity Challenge (Global Poker)

NAPT & The Big Game (PokerStars)

Sviten Special/Drawmaha (SwC Poker)

Queens of Tallinn (Olympic Casino)

Category 7: Best Poker Operator, Overall

Category 7, best poker operator overall, is maybe one of the most prestigious categories in the PokerListings Awards. In Categories 1 and 2 we identified the best operator for beginners and grinders, but what client is attractive to all players? The criteria’s for this is, of course, to check all the boxes we went through in Categories 1 and 2.

And the Winner of Category 7 Is… GGPoker!

When it comes down to it, GGPoker really has it all. They have great bonuses for all players, awesome cash games and tournaments with different Buy-Ins, HUDs enabled through their tool Smart HUD… the whole package. It’s really no surprise GGPoker has a huge player pool which all are reoccurring visitors. Congratulations on this award, GGPoker!

All the nominees for Category 7 were:

PokerStars

GGPoker

partypoker

Coolbet

JackPoker

WPT Global

Category 8: Best Poker Streamer

We’ve reached Category 8 where we will identify the best poker streamer. The main thing we’re looking for here is which streamer can keep a good interaction with his/hers chat through the streaming delay, while still delivering top tier poker content. God knows there are a lot of great poker streamers out there, but there can only be one winner in the PokerListings Awards!

And the Winner of Category 8 Is… GirafGanger!

Bert “GirafGanger” Stevens wins the award for best streamer 2023! The Belgian does a great job interacting with the crowd and keeping them entertained no matter the spot he’s in. The best example of this is when he won the WSOP Online Main Event earlier this year and shared the winning moment and joy with his viewers. To play Heads Up for $2 700 000 and still manage to keep his focus and read the Twitch chat is very, very impressive. Keep up the good work, GirafGanger!

All the nominees for Category 8 were:

CallMeLilja

KevinMartin

Girafganger

Tom_Poker_NL

LexVeldhuis

PokerStaples247

What About Category 9?

That’s right, there’s still one category left in the PokerListings Awards 2023: players favorite. You can right now vote on the PokerListings site for what poker client brought you the most joy in 2023. Be sure not to miss out on the vote, seeing as you have the chance to win tournament tickets to the site that wins!

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