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Canada bagged it’s second bracelet on the weekend, becoming the only country other than the US to win more than one so far this series, after Stephen Nahm won the $1k Pot Limit Omaha. Josh Arieh also picked up his fifth bracelet while denying America’s northern neighbor a 3rd bracelet. and David “ODB” Baker secured his third bracelet and cemented his mixed-game legacy with the Razz win.

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

The first-ever Badugi bracelet has now been won and, at least for this year, Portugal can claim the best live Badugi player in the world with winner Michael Rodrigues. It took Rodrigues an extra day to win this one as Day 3 of the event played slower than expected requiring an unscheduled Day 4 to finish it out.

In the end, this was a massive event. While it was hard to gauge the size of this one in advance given that WSOP had never run a Badugi game before, the final numbers likely had to be a pleasant surprise for the operators with 516 entries by the time registration closed. In comparison to other non-Hold’em events, anything that cracks 500 runners and isn’t hold’em or Omaha is worth a mention as a big field.

This was Rodrigues’ first bracelet and 22nd cash at the WSOP including Circuit and International games and basically doubled his previous WSOP earnings. It brings his overall earnings on the live felt up to just shy of $500k and represents his third live win after a win in a Daily Deepstacks game in 2022 and one on the Winmax Poker Tour in 2017 and it almost doubled be previous best score of about $75k.

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

The bodies of fallen Gladiators are strewn around the arena after Day 2 of the Gladiator played down to the final 14 players. This massive game drew more than 23,000 runners for a final prize pool of $5,679,648. nearly doubling the $3 million guarantee. That means the winner of this $300 buy-in will walk away with $499,852 at the end of Day 3 and five players will bag six-figure scores.

There were 3,173 players in the money in this one but a good chunk of those players got paid out Day 1 cash. Just 827 players returned to the felt for Day 2 and after 17 levels of play they are down to 14 players left now with American Eric Trexler leading the way with almost 100 million chips. Ciao Sobral also has more than 90 million, and pretty much all the remaining stacks are big enough to require building permits. However, with blinds on Day 3 starting at 1m/2m/2m, even the big stack is coming back with less than 50 bigs, while the short stack of Willie Smith doesn’t even have five bigs with 9.5m to start Day 3.

Among the cashers in this one was six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu. He looks to be bracelet hunting again this year, and he made a pretty solid run at this one, finally falling in 72nd place from the truly massive field. Other deep runs in this one included Melanie Weisner (62nd for $8,410), Brian Topp (50th for $10,199), Justin Ouimette (32nd for $15,229), Weston Pring (27th for $15,229), Dominick French (25th for $18,779), and Anatoly Zharnitsky in 17th for $23,298.

The final day of the massive Gladiator, the biggest field to date in this series by far, kicks off at noon on Monday and will be streamed on PokerGo starting at 3 pm with all times in local Vegas time.

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Canada is now the first country other than the USA to bag more than a single bracelet so far this year after Stephen Nahm emerged victorious in the $1k PLO game. Nahm doesn’t have a lot of experience in the tournament area with just over $300k in live cashes including this win of $267k, but he’s hardly a stranger to four-card poker as Nahm is regularly seen at the Omaha cash tables around Vancouver, British Columbia and his rail included a lot of faces that will be familiar to Canadian poker fans.

There were 2,017 entries for this PLO game, putting the prize pool just shy of $1.8 million and leading to a top prize of $267,991 for Nahm. That represented nearly 10% more than the field from 2022, so it continues a trend this year of year-over-year growth for repeat events. Among the other players to bag big money on the final day were bracelet winner Dan Matsuzuki. Ronald Keijzer, who is on a high right now after a couple of recent wins for almost $200k coming into this one, Zachary Peay, who recorded his biggest-ever cash, and Thomas Taylor, who was identified in the reporting on WSOP as “one to watch this summer”. Taylor has been within sight of a bracelet a few times in recent years, with final table performances in 2022 that included the $1,500 Stud game, and he is certainly on almost everyone’s list for “Best Canadian without a bracelet”. While Taylor is no slouch with two cards, he tends to prefer games other than hold’em at the WSOP, so expect to see his name deep in mixed games this summer.

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

It took a fourth day of play, but Josh Arieh picked up his fifth bracelet in the $10k Limit Hold’em Championship over the weekend after a two-hour heads-up battle against Canada’s Daniel Idema. Idema started the day as the big stack of the final three returning players, while Arieh was the shortest.

They played for about 3 hours on the unscheduled Day 4 with Japan’s Nozomu Shimizu bowing out in 3rd place fairly early in the day. That set up the battle of the 49th parallel between the Canadian and the American with Arieh reversing the start-of-day standings and taking a 2:1 lead into the final phase of the game.

It wouldn’t be easy to defeat Idema though, who has more than $2.2 million in live cashes and three bracelets to his name already, including one in this very event back in 2011. The Canadian managed to double up a few times and even take the lead but in the end, Arieh would prove too tough an opponent.

Arieh was talking openly after the win about the Hall of Fame, and rightly so. While he was humble in talking about all the other worthy candidates on the list for the coveted Hall, Arieh certainly has a solid claim on a spot. With almost $11 million in earnings and four bracelets going into this win, Arieh’s claim was already strong, but this fifth bracelet almost certainly makes him a lock for a spot in future years.

Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

When entries closed at the start of Day 2 of the $50k High Roller game, 124 entries had created a prize pool of $5,921,000 and after about eight hours of play on Day 3, Leon Sturm was the recipient of Germany’s first bracelet of 2023. It was Sturm’s first bracelet as well after 39 previous cashes at WSOP for prizes of just under $200k. This was Sturm’s biggest win to date, and gives him a bit more than $2 million in total earnings from tournament poker.

Five players came back to the final day of play and they were all names that are likely familiar to poker fans. Business mogul turned high-roller Bill Klein bagged second place while Jans Arends, Alex Foxen, and Seth Davies rounded out the final day’s stellar field.

While Sturm is well known on the live poker circuit, he is perhaps better known as an online crusher, as evidenced by the fact that he bagged another $1.5 million score earlier this month on GGPoker after taking down the Super MILLION$, and the final day of play was something of a live vs online battle. Sturm and fellow European Arends are known for their prowess on the virtual felt, while Americans Klein, Davies, and Foxen are familiar faces from the live felt but, given the legal situation for online poker in the US, are almost certainly less experienced on the virtual felt.

That battle between physical and virtual continued right to the end and even turned into an old-school vs new-school battle with the old-school live player Klein facing off against the young internet whizkid Sturm. This time it was the new-school virtual grinders who held the day, but that debate is far from settled here at the WSOP.

Event #24: $1,500 Razz

David “ODB” Baker is no slouch when it comes to live mixed games. He regularly features in the endgame of the less popular versions of poker with his two previous bracelets coming in Limit Hold’em and 8-Game. He also has a second from this very event in 2017, plus third-place finishes in seven card stud, the $10k Razz, the Poker Player’s Championship, and Triple Draw Deuce. Suffice to say, “ODB” knows his mixed games and he has now added a razz bracelet to his collection after taking down the $1,500 Razz event this year.

It was another record-breaking field for this one with more than 550 entries, making it the biggest $1,500 Razz game in WSOP history. The “original” Baker (so named as he has a namesake in David “Bakes” Baker) had to facedown Justin Liberto for the title, and in an interesting twist, it was almost a full reversal of his runner-up finish in this event in 2017. That year, he had a huge chip lead heads up against Jason Gola but couldn’t manage to finish it out. This year, he came into heads up at a disadvantage, but he was the one to come from behind for the win.

“ODB” has almost $7 million in total live wins now after this recent bracelet with more than $3.5 million of that coming from WSOP events of various kinds. This was his 119th cash in WSOP games including five international cashes and 14 Circuit cashes.

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Erik Seidel is among the chip leaders with 21 players to go in the $10k O8 Championship. Seidel is one of four players with a million or more to start Day 3, and he sits behind Mexico’s Jose Luis Velador and American Jay Kerbel. There were 212 total entries for this one, putting the prizes at just under $2 million with $492,795 up top for the winner.

Place	Prize
1	$492,795
2	$304,571
3	$211,715
4	$150,445
5	$109,340
6	$81,317
7	$61,919
8	$48,300
9	$38,620

Top 9 Payouts for Event #25: $10,000 Omaha H-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Among the other players returning for what should be the final day of play are Johannes Becker, James Chen, Kyle Cartwright, Ben Lamb, and John “Johnny World” Hennigan who all survived the Day 2 run from 128 players down to the final 21.

Event #26: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

Romania’s Cosmin Joldis leads the way after the opening day of play in Event #26. They ended the entry period with 4,747 entries and a prize pool of $3,341,888. That puts just over $400k up top for the winner of this one.

Thomas Boivin is also among the top ten stacks at the end of the first day and joining him on Day 2 will be Nate Silver (290,000), Ryan Riess (1,025,000), Loni Harwood (370,000), and Bryn Kenney (575,000). Just 339 players are returning for action on Day 2, and all of them can expect a payday. The money started getting paid out at 713th place on Day 1, and Day 2 players are guaranteed at least $1,728.

Event #27: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed

There were 789 entries for Event #27 and 218 of them will be returning to play for Day 2. Perennial PoY candidate Shaun Deeb is leading the way with more than 300k, and he is the only player with three centuries in front of him while there are 10 players with two centuries or more.

Among the double-century stacks is David “Bakes” Baker, trying to ensure the rival “ODB” Baker doesn’t get all the press today. “Bakes” bagged 238k for 6th place going into the second day of play. David Bach, Anthony Zinno, Benjamin Scholl, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Daniel Strelitz, Jennifer Harman, and Nick Kost are all among the bags with 100k or more. Daniel Negreanu also bagged a shorty in this one, but as long as he has chips he is dangerous.

Online Event #5: $400 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max

Entries: 1,488
Winner: Gary “SaquonNYG26” Belyalovsky
1^st Place Prize: $121,854
Total Prizes: $882,360

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Final Day

Start: 12 Noon
First Place: $499,852
Remaining: 14

Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem

Start: 10 am
Late Entry: 12 Levels
Start Stack: 25,000
Reentries: 0

Event #29: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Start: 12 Noon
Late Entry: 12 Levels
Start Stack: 600,000
Reentries: 1

Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

Start: 2 pm
Late Entry: 9 Levels
Start Stack: 25,000
Reentries: 1

Regardless of whether they like it, some people have a knack for making history in poker. Whether it’s Ryan Feldman, co-founder of Hustler Casino LIVE, the trailblazer for streamed poker cash games, or Tom “durrrr” Dwan, one of the golden boys of the early days of online poker and the nosebleed televised cash games.

The duo combined during HCL’s Million Dollar Game finale, creating a bang in cash game poker streams unlikely to be topped soon. Dwan is a long way from the nearly-teenage poker whizz who sat in between Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Phil Hellmuth, and the likes on High Stakes Poker, but the same ability to play in record-breaking pots is still very much there. In season 5 of High Stakes Poker, Dwan would win just shy of $1 million in a memorable and meaningful pot against poker legend Barry Greenstein, the biggest pot to be played on the original show.

Setting the Scene For The Greatest Poker TV Hand

When HCL came to the last day of their Million Dollar Game stream festival, it was improbable that a pot of any ground-breaking magnitude would happen. The first-day cash game would bring heat from viewers for overly tight play, despite having players like Rob Yong, Tony G, and Nik Airball at the table. The critique generated so much movement that Rob Yong altered the buy-in, making it a $500,000 buy-in for Day 2 of the Million Dollar Game to reduce the financial pressure on the players.

The third day sparked life into the series by introducing private game enthusiast Huss Onay, who, alongside poker vlogger, Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau, elevated the game for the viewers. Huss added to the drama and heat of the game by needling Wesley for his tight play, while Yau pulled off what was expected to be the hands of the streams; it would eventually be surpassed. His bluff against Handz was exceptional, a great moment for Yau, who was vlogging his $1/$3 games only a few years ago.

How Tom Dwan Made Poker History – Again

When you think of a Mount Rushmore of poker, it is almost sure to have two figures: Doyle Brunson and Tom Dwan. The first is obvious, but the latter is understated; someone who is not vocal and very retiring but has done as much for the growth of poker as most will recognize. It wasn’t attention he wanted or was necessarily comfortable with, but Dwan was the poster child of poker for the boom years. When he first made those outlandish bluffs on High Stakes Poker, battled Isildur in the online nosebleed games, or was the center of mythical poker stories in Macau, Dwan gave an allure and intrigue to poker that the fans love.

After warming up to the limelight in the past few years, Dwan was center stage in the Million Dollar Game and would be the biggest winner in the history of Hustler Casino LIVE with one deft hand.

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – Preflop – $562,000

The game started as a $500/$1,000 big blind structure, with a $3,000 big blind ante. Dwan would straddle this hand to $2,000, as LSG Hank would open larger to $7,000 as a result with his Ah8c in the Hijack. Wesley, who had previously found a 4-bet with 8s4s, would make it $30,000 on the Button with AdKh. Dwan would 4-bet to $100,000 with QsQc, and it would fold round to Fei, who 5-bet to $275,000. Dwan called, and we went to a flop.

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – Flop – $812,000

The flop comes out as a relatively innocuous board of 8s8d3d. When Dwan checks over to him, Wesley c-bets $125,000 into a pot of $562,000. Dwan opts for a call. Wesley’s sizing on the flop was pretty small, and a bigger bet is much more optimal. This is because you can begin to fold out the stronger portion of Dwan’s range when it comes to some pairs from 99-JJ and raise pressure on other portions of his range.

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – Turn – $1,500,000

When the turn comes a brick of the 5h, Dwan will feel a lot more comfortable with the strength of his hand. Checking in flow, he faces a turn c-bet of $350,000, just shy of half-pot into $812,000. Dwan called, and we had to a river. Wesley makes a perfectly standard turn bet with solid sizing, although he could opt for bigger. Tom’s range of TT-JJ will be forced to fold, and some QQ if he feels Wesley’s turn betting is not balanced.

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – River – $3,100,000

The pot is at $1.5 million; the SPR (stack-to-pot ratio) is quite uncomfortable for both players. Tom continues his checking, and Wesley thinks for a few seconds before moving all in for $786,000 and buries his head into his arms. Tom contemplates for a few minutes, worried about the potential of Wesley flopping trips with an 8 as opposed to him having KK or AA. This is interesting, as Wesley’s exposed a 4bet with 8s4s earlier in the stream, and this could be playing on Dwan’s mind. Dwan eventually flicks in the call and beats Wesley’s A-high, scooping the biggest pot in poker television history.

After an analysis, both played the hand exceptionally well. In the end, Dwan’s experience playing similar players to Wesley probably was the decisive factor, as he seemed unfazed in making the biggest call of his televised poker career.

Why The Hustler Casino LIVE Million Dollar Game Succeeded

As HCL co-founder Nick Vertucci tweeted not long after the $3.1 million pot happened: “mic drop.” It certainly felt like that, and when you really think about the journey Ryan Feldman has been on in his poker production career, it’s fairly easy to understand why he could not use one hand to drink a celebratory glass of champagne. He went from creating the $1 Million Dollar cash game with a total of $1 million on the table to organizing a cash game with a $1 million buy-in and a $3.1 million pot.

They broke poker history with the $3.1 million pot and created moments of pure poker entertainment that you can only find in certain private games and poker felt behind closed doors. You would have been in the wrong place if you wanted to watch Linus Loeliger sit and battle against Michael Addamo in a silent-yet-skilful battle of game theory and wits. If you wanted to see two crypto poker whales berate each other while playing pots exceeding $100,000+ each hand, you were in the right spot.

Whether it was the Huss-Wesley battle, Doug Polk showing incredible gamesmanship and making some fantastic poker plays while driving action, or everyone’s favorite poker introvert winning the biggest poker pot on TV (yet again), HCL served all of the above.

The finale and crescendo of a poker cash game broke HCL viewership records, having over 50,000 concurrent viewers at one point. Regardless of any criticism from the early days, people tuned in, which was the ultimate goal of this poker cash game epic. For Tom Dwan, it only added to his poker legacy that is firmly cemented after this pot.

The world of real money online poker continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. In a competitive sector of an industry that sees online poker operators do their utmost to outdo their rivals, it’s interesting to see what they come up with in their quest to continuously improve their offerings.

The latest promotion at WPT Global revolves around the guaranteed prize pools for online poker tournaments in a bid to add a bit of extra spice to proceedings. The idea behind the Bump It Up promo is – surprise, surprise – to ‘bump up’ prize pool guarantees across a selection of tournaments until the close of play on 9 July, when the promotion ends.

So – don’t hang around, and make sure that you dive into the action and watch those guarantees grow!

Bump It Up: How It Works

As with all successful online poker promos, it couldn’t be easier – simply enter eligible tournaments and, if the guarantee is met, it’ll be increased by at least 10% the next time it is held!

The daily WPT Global tournaments that are part of the Bump It Up promotion are:

$55 buy-in Lucky Escalator PKO
$22 buy-in Daily Escalator Turbo
$110 buy-in Nightly Escalator PKO

N.B. The ‘starting’ guarantees for these tournaments are $5,000, $2,000 and $5,000 respectively.
The Sunday tournaments to look out for are:

$110 buy-in Sunday Slam
$11 buy-in Mini Slam
$330 buy-in Grand Slam

N.B. The starting guarantees for these tournaments are $50,000, $8,888 and $20,000 respectively. Obviously, the more merrier, as they say, so by getting involved during the Bump It Up period you’re more likely to be battling it away for your share of more and more prize money as the promo progresses.

Incidentally, now would be a good time to check out WPT Global’s Sunday Majors which, not surprisingly, are proving popular.

Finally, while at PokerListings we’re spreading our wings to embrace poker across numerous platforms, our day-to-day quest is to help point our community in the right direction when it comes to making the most of their time at the tables… take a look at the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our regularly updated info section.

Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

See Part 1 to find out about my first two days at The Festival Series, Malta.

Day 3: 8-Game Tournament, More Cash Action

Portomaso Casino has a regular Saturday 8-game tournament when there are no festivals on, with an affordable buy-in of €40. This means that, along with other locals, I have had the chance to practice my live 8-game tournament skills more often than most poker players. Also, last Summer I was fortunate enough to be in Las Vegas and able to buy into the $1,500 8-game event, where I busted just short of the money and felt good about how I played against a tough field. At one point I even witnessed a Phil Hellmuth blow-up when he was busted at the next table by Josh Arieh! Phil came over to my table to tell Brandon Shack-Harris all about his misfortune.

Phil Hellmuth talking Brandon Shack-Harris through his bust-out hand in event #48 of the 2022 World Series of Poker

With all this experience relative to European fields, I was excited to be able to play an 8-game event in this series. The low buy-in of €110+€15 was enticing enough that there were several players who entered an 8-game event for the first time. It took me a little while to get going, but once in the zone, I was building my stack without any real resistance. There was even a hand of Razz where I had the bring-in with a Queen showing all the other 5 players at the table were holding 6 or lower, and I managed to receive a walk! The player to my right had been on his phone checking something and when it came to his turn to act, he quickly checked his cards and folded without looking up to see what else was going on…

The event attracted an impressive number of 93 entrants, and I was happy to make it to the final table.

8 Game Final Table Line-Up, The Festival Series, Malta, May 2023 — 8-Game Final Table Line-Up, The Festival Series, Malta, May 2023

Also at the final table was Scott Kenyon, sporting the same mixed games t-shirt as me from Bad Beat Clothing! My table mate from the Sviten Special tournament and Day 1’s cash game, Barrie Dear, was also present, as was German national and Maltese resident, Simon Ruckert. In fact, Bad Beat Clothing was also represented by Simon, who was sporting the “Mixed Games Rock” t-shirt that he had received at the Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Games Festival in Malta in Autumn 2022!

The big stack at the final table was held by Lithuanian Jonas Jurksaitis. Jonas had an aggressive style and was running well when players stood up to him. He had already ended the run of a few players before the final table and this continued. Simon’s tournament was ended in a hand of Limit Hold ‘Em when he had check-raised all in on the turn with the top pair and a 6 high flush draw against the second pair, ten high flush draw of Jonas. The club on the river sealed Simon’s fate.

I eventually found myself three-handed, meaning we would play three hands of each game before moving on to the next. This tournament ran the order of games in a different way to that adopted by the World Series of Poker, with No Limit Hold Em and Pot Limit Omaha one after the other. Starting the three-handed play with around 187k in chips I soon built it up to 487k in fixed-limit games. Then came the round of No Limit Hold Em, where I found no playable hands. On the second hand of Pot Limit Omaha, I found myself on the button with 362k in chips and AAJT, with three clubs. I raised, Jonas set me all in from the small blind and then winced when I told him I had aces. He needn’t have worried – he had a good double-suited hand and took the pot down, and me out of the tournament, with a flush. If I had won that pot, I felt I would have had a great chance to take down the tournament going into six rounds of fixed-limit games, but I was happy with how I had played and a nice cash for third place. And Jonas, who completed the victory shortly after, was a worthy winner for sure.

After the final table ended, I went out for a celebratory beer with Simon Ruckert then returned to the casino to sit down to play some mixed games cash. This time I managed to make a profit of €165 so it was a decent day’s work at the Festival Series for me!

During the day, I found out that another elderly family member, who had been staying with us in Gozo the previous month, had been taken ill and admitted to hospital back home in England. Another worry to add to the rollercoaster of emotions that would play out this week. This lady has since been discharged from the hospital, thankfully.

Day 4: HORSE Play

Before entering the HORSE tournament that would take place on Day 4, I checked in with my wife to make sure she didn’t need me to end my time on the Maltese mainland early and come home to help her cope with the mounting family issues. Ann is extremely supportive of my poker journey and reassured me that she was happy with me continuing the hunt for a poker trophy.

I registered for the €225+€25 HORSE tournament feeling a blend of optimism after my previous day’s good run and worry about family members struggling with health issues. There was a further factor at play that had an emotional impact: my football team, Sheffield Wednesday, were due to play the second leg of a League One play-off semi-final in England. The Owls have been a constant feature throughout my life, I was a season ticket holder for several years and watched them at more than 70 away grounds. The regular season ended with the club notching up 96 points, a record both for the club and for any team that didn’t achieve automatic promotion in the English game. The first leg of the play-off semi-final had just about ended our hopes of promotion, with Peterborough United registering a 4-0 win on their home ground. This left a mountain for Wednesday’s team to overcome in the home leg at Hillsborough.

Back to the poker.

The Author Playing in the HORSE Tournament while watching football on his mobile phone!

This poker tournament had a tougher, 67-player field, than the 8 Game event, the higher buy-in was probably too much for No Limit Hold Em players fancying a crack at something different. The previous day I had played well, and carried that form into this tournament, making good reads and gradually building my stack throughout the day. Some run good played a part in all this of course! But I faced some tough opponents and stood up to them with no fear and played all the way according to my reads, which were consistently accurate. I probably missed one value bet: must make sure I don’t make that mistake again…

Down to fourteen players and with eleven to be paid I was seated with a World Series of Poker bracelet winner, from a HORSE event no less, on my immediate right.

Jens was playing the bubble very aggressively while the rest of the table was tight and mostly passive.

Around this time the football match I referred to above kicked off and I followed it by streaming the game on an app on my mobile phone. An early goal for my team lifted my optimism a little: could we overcome a 4-goal deficit? Surely not!

The aggressive style Jens adopted looked like building him a stack for a while, but he started to run into some strong hands, and this gradually chipped away at his stack. He departed the tournament a little short of the money and wished good luck to everyone at the table. Jens is a resident of Malta these days and is always a gentleman: he takes his losses and gains at the table with the same smile on his face and is a pleasure to spend time at the tables with.

Sheffield Wednesday (The Owls) managed to score a second goal before halftime and my heart took another leap. It was a strange mix of emotions, but I had to stay focused on the tournament despite the excitement of the football match and the worry of two family members in hospital.

A Dealer Gets Creative During a Tournament Break!

I had a player on my left who was extremely hard to shake off hands. This was something I had noticed very quickly when I was moved to this table, and it had restricted my ability to attack pots without the best hand. I nevertheless tried to take down a pot in a hand of Seven Card Stud where I had the highest upcard showing (K) and he called with a 3. My hole cards were also high – A9 – but I didn’t improve on fourth street when both of us picked up an 8. I decided to keep up the pressure with another bet. We were on the exact bubble at this point, and I thought he might give up: but he called again. At this point I think his range is exactly one small pair – probably split 3s – and surely, he will fold to a bigger bet size on fifth street. He was given a 6, and me a ten, but my bet was met with yet another stubborn call. Time to get creative…

As the dealer put out sixth street, I got to my feet to look across the table at my opponent’s upcards. We both picked up nothing in particular – I think his card was a deuce, mine a seven. If I bet now and then bet seventh street, I believe he will call along with his pair of 3s. I checked he checked behind. Seventh street cards out, I sat and looked at my card – unimproved with a Queen – and confidently bet out. My opponent looked at his card, shook his head, tanked for a while… and folded. The act I put on was an attempt to convince him I had hit at least a pair, and if I had, that was going to be higher than his threes.

That pot put me in a very comfortable position.

Meanwhile, at Hillsborough, The Owls managed to find a third goal halfway through the second half.

Play continued in a very cagey fashion, but the money bubble finally burst.

Time was passing in the football match… six minutes of added time were announced. The opposition players took turns sitting on the ground and need treatment. It looked like my team was going to go out 4-3 on aggregate. But with all the time-wasting, the six minutes became eight, and with the last kick of the game, the equaliser was scored! I gave a loud cheer, and the players at the other tournaments in the room must have thought someone had hit a lucky river!

By now the other players at my table were aware of the football match that was distracting me and were all happy for me. Just as the match went into extra time, the final table bubble burst and we were moved to a different room.

Find out about how the final table went – along with the result of the football match – in Part 3 of this trip report.

Bulgaria bagged its first bracelet on Friday in Vegas when Valentino Konakchiev won Event #19 for more than $400k while the unprecedented Badugi event played down to the final three players. The third of four starting days for the massive Gladiator ran on Friday with the final shot coming on Saturday in Day 1d. And after his friend Isaac Haxton won a bracelet in the $25k High Roller recently, Justin Bonomo is leading the way after Day 1 of the $50k High Roller.

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

There were 1,137 entries in Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em, putting $2,534,275 into the prize pool. That was split 171 ways with the lion’s share, $435,924, going to the newly minted bracelet winner Valentino Konakchiev from Bulgaria. That marks the eastern European country’s first bit of hardware so far this year, and brings the total number of countries with a bracelet to six this year, including the 13 bracelets won by US players so far this year. No other country has yet won more than a single bracelet.

Konakchiev had a solid rail behind him to help celebrate the win, and he had to make it through some pretty serious challengers to take down the bracelet. When it got to heads-up, he was facing down bracelet winner Andres Kron from Argentina. In addition to Korn, there were two other bracelet winners at the final table, triple-crown winner Niall “Firaldo” Farrell and Alexandre Reard while the full field for the event included big names like 16-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, Justin Bonomo, and Humberto Brenes among others.

The win almost equaled Konakchiev’s total lifetime earnings before this event. With the $435k from this game, he is now sitting less than $15k away from $1 million in lifetime earnings. This was his first bracelet in 16 cashes on the WSOP and it dwarfs his previous best WSOP score of about $31k in 2017.

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

The Coliseum is filling up with Gladiators as three of four starting flights are now in the books and there are more than 14,000 total entries in the game now. Day 1c saw another 6,110 entries swell the prize pool up over the $3 million guarantee with the total prizes now sitting at about $3.6 million and there is still one more starting flight to play on Saturday before the final field is set.

Richard Gao from the United States leads the way from Day 1c with 3.105 million while Peter Lee is right behind him with 3.1 million. They are the only stacks of 3 million or more but there are six other stacks in the 2 million range.

With another full starting flight to play, this event promises to be truly massive, and may well be the first field this series over 20,000. Day 1d is expected to be the biggest flight and it doesn’t even need to match Day 1c to crack 20k runners. While the numbers on this one are still a bit lower than the final figures for Event #3, which ended at 18,188 entries, it’s a virtual lock that this will become the biggest game in the 2023 WSOP so far sometime on Saturday.

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

They didn’t quite make it down to the bracelet in the first-ever Badugi tournament at WSOP. The $1,500 game still has three players left with chips. Yingui Li of China has the biggest stack at 4.9 million, but there’s not a lot of space between him and the third-place stack of Day 2 chip leader Serhii Popovych with 3.35 million. Michael Rodrigues of Portugal sits between them with 4.6 million to start the final day of play.

Among the players who went deep in this one and bagged a final table finish were Matt Vengrin and Danny Tang. Tang actually asked for, and got, an extended dinner break at one point so he could rush over and reg the $50k High Roller. Vengrin took 4th place for just under $41k while Tang ended in 5th for a bit more than half the money he needed to enter the $50k.

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Canadians are #1 and #3 going into the final day of play in the $1k PLO game. Stephen Nahm leads the way with just shy of 10 million chips, and is a clear leader over second-place Ronald Keijzer of the Netherlands with just under 6 million. Thomas Taylor, who is surely on Canada’s “Best without a Bracelet” list, sits third with 5.34 million. The Day 3 field will also include Mike Gorodinsky, who surely knows his four-card poker with his two bracelets coming in the Dealers Choice and O8/Stud8 mixes.

Players who cashed out on Day 2 included Canada’s Ryan Smith, who won two Rings in a single Circuit event in Calgary in 2022, in 15th for $12,643, Mike Dentale and Ido Aboudi ($10,277 each), and Dario Sammartino and Eli Elezra for $6,986 each. Max Pescatori, Day 1 chip leader Suk Bang, David Williams, Mathyeu Provost, and Brady O’hara also picked up cash from the cage as they exited Day 2 play.

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

There were 134 entries to Start Day 2 of the Limit Hold’em Championship. They played into the money with seven players already collecting some cash including Koray Aldemir, Paul Volpe, and Mori Eskandani. 2015 Main Event Champ Joe McKeehan is top dog going into the final day of play as he starts play with 1,445,000. Josh Arieh is the only other player with over a million, starting the final day with 1.17 million. Nick Schulman is sitting third with just over 900k, and he’s looking for his second bracelet this year after winning the Seven Card Stud earlier last week.

Other big names still alive and kicking in the final 14 of the Limit Championship are Kevin Song, Nick Pupillo, Daniel Idema, and Ronnie Bardah.

Final 14 Stacks for Day 3 of $10k Limit Hold’em Championship

Place	Player	Chips
1	Joe McKeehen	1,445,000

2	Josh Arieh	1,170,000

3	Nick Schulman	905,000

4	Yong Wang	700,000
5	Kevin Song	685,000

6	Nick Pupillo	620,000
7	Daniel Idema	600,000

8	Joseph Beasy	515,000
9	Ronnie Bardah	475,000

10	Ben Yu	420,000

11	Motoyoshi Okamura	385,000

12	Louis Hillman	255,000
13	Nozomu Shimizu	255,000

14	Robert Como	250,000

Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

There were 111 entries on Day 1 for the $50k High Roller game, but with entries open until the start of Day 2, the $5.3 million prize pool isn’t quite set in stone yet. There are still 48 players left in the game and Justin Bonomo is the only player with more than 2 million chips at the end of the opening day. There are a slew of players in the 1 million range, including Talal Shakerchi in 2nd as well as Chris Brewer, Sam Sovrel, Chance Kornuth, Alex Foxen, Leon Sturm, and Jeremy Ausmus — and that’s just the top-eight stacks with more than a million.

Among the other players still alive to start Day 2 is Danny Tang, who jumped into this one while he was still alive at the final table of the Badugi event, as well as Isaac Haxton, Espen Jorstad, Seth Davies, Michael Moncek, John “Johnny World” Hennigan, Artur Martirosian, and Dan Smith, to name but a few.

Event #24: $1,500 Razz

It seems to be a year of record fields at the 2023 WSOP as the $1,500 Razz event also set a new record with 556 players in the game by the time entries closed. No previous edition of the $1,500 Razz has even cracked 500, so the increase this year is substantial.

There is $742,260 to play for and 84 players will split that up at the end of the game with the winner pocketing more than $150k. Maksim Pisarenko starts Day 2 with the biggest stack at 251.5k, but Vasilis Lazarou and Yuval Bronshtein are also both over 200k. Jeff Madsen, Michael Moncek, and David “ODB” Baker are among the other big stacks in this one at the end of Day 1.

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight D

Start: 10 am
Late Entry: 11 Levels
Start Stack: 30,000
Reentries: 2/Flight

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Start: 2 pm
Late Entry: Start of Day 2
Start Stack: 60,000
Reentries: 0

Isaac Haxton officially took his name off the “Best without a Bracelet” list on Thursday in the High Roller while the first-ever Baddugi event played into the money. As is expected, the USA is leading the bracelet counts, but Brazil became the fourth other country to bag a bracelet so far this year while Haxton takes over the lead as the player who has won the most from 1st-place prizes.

Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Rafael Reis, Winner of Event #15: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em for $465,501 — Rafael Reis, Winner of Event #15: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $465,501

Brazil picked up its first bracelet of the 2023 WSOP after Rafael Reis made his way through 2,454 runners to take down the top prize of $465,501. The final day of play took almost 13 hours to complete and the game generated a prize pool of $3,276,090.

Reis had to take down the hot-running Sarah Herzali from France. She bagged the big stack to start the final day of play and maintained that chip lead throughout most of the day. In the end, the Day 3 chip leader had to settle for 3rd place for a prize of $207,720, the closest so far this year for the first woman’s bracelet.

Spain’s Daniel Barriocanal was the runner-up but he did not go gently, battling Reis for the title for nearly two levels of heads-up poker before it was finally settled for good. Another notable at the final table was multiple bracelet winner John Monnette. Monnette ended up in 5th place after he got it in dominated against Herzali and couldn’t get there.

This was Reis’ first bracelet and brought his career WSOP earnings to just over $800k with just over $2 million in total lifetime earnings on the live felt.

Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

For many years, Isaac Haxton was one of the leading names on the list of the best players in the game without a WSOP bracelet to their name. That all changed on Thursday night after Haxton took down the $25k High Roller (Event #16) for his first-ever bracelet in what turned out to be a record-breaking field.

In total, 301 entries were recorded for this one, putting more than $7 million into the prize pool. Interestingly, “more than $7 million” is also how much Haxton has won so far in 2023 on the back of six big titles including this one, putting him on pace for a record-breaking year if he can keep it up. In total, Haxton has pocketed more than $37.5 million from the live poker scene now for the 14th-best total in history.

Haxton took down the title after a short heads-up with Ryan O’Donnell, and the whole final table was full of crushers like Darren Elias, Lewis Spencer, Roman Hrabec, Frank Funaro, Brian Rast, and Joao Vieira.

Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

It was a marathon for Jim “Mr. Big Queso” Collopy to pick up his second bracelet in Event #17 on Thursday night. He and second-place finisher Nik Kost battled heads-up for more than four hours before the game was finally decided at almost 3:30 am local time.

Of the 1,143 original runners, just 33 players remained to start the final day of action. They got to the final table pretty quickly, but then played for nine hours at the FT, about half of which was between just the final two players.

Runner-up Kost made a point of mentioning how tough an opponent Collopy was heads-up as Kost was only able to get back as far as even-stacked in the game, never capturing a lead. And while it took Collopy a while, he eventually ground down his opponent to take a bracelet for his other wrist.

The win gives Collopy just shy of $5 million in lifetime earnings with almost $1.5 million of it coming in WSOP events.

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

The $300 Gladiators of Poker played its second starting day on Thursday, and there were more than 4,500 entries for the second Day 1. That put more than $1m into the prize pool from Day 1b and they played down well into the Day 1 money as this event plays 22 levels on Day 1 no matter how many remain. Many players on each Day 1 will be getting paid small prizes, but most of the day’s prize pool money will roll over into the final prize pool when all the Day 1 flights combine.

Justin Arnwine leads the Day 1b counts with just over 3 million, and he heads a top-ten from Day 1b that is almost a full slate of Americans. There are two players not from the USA in the top ten from the second starting flight – Canadian Weston Pring from Calgary has just over 2 million in his bag for 9th place, while Mateusz Moolhuizen from the Netherlands has just 10k more than Pring for 8th place.

The total entries for this event are now closing in on 10,000 with only half the starting flights recorded so far. With much larger fields expected on later starting days, this game promises to be a truly massive field before entries close on Day 1d.

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

They are down to just 11 players left in the game for the final day of play in Event #19. There were 1,139 entries in this one for a prize pool of more than $2.5 million. Qiang Xu is on pace to take down China’s first bracelet of the series with the chip lead of 7.76 million, significantly more than the 4.8 million for second-place Alexandre Reard.

Jared Jaffee, Adrian Mateos, Marton Czuczor, Jason Acosta, Stephen Song, Jared Jaffe, and Day 1 chip leader Dinesh Alt were among the players to fall on Day 2 while triple-crown winner Niall Farrell has a short stack going into the final 11. The final day of play in this one gets underway Friday at noon, and PokerGO will be streaming the event starting at 4 pm.

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

There are 13 players returning for the final day of play in the first-ever Badugi bracelet event at WSOP. Serhii Popovych leads the way with 1.885 million to start the final day, but mixed-game crusher David “ODB” Baker isn’t very far behind with 1.4 million. They lead a final day that includes Jack O’Neill, Danny Tang, Matt Vengrin, and Terrence Chan.

There is a total of $688,860 in the prize pool for this one, and along with the honor of winning the first-ever Badugi bracelet, the winner with receive almost $150k.

Final Day Payouts for First-Ever Badugi Bracelet Event

Place	Earnings
1st	$144,678
2nd	$89,415
3rd	$59,879
4th	$40,996
5th	$28,710
6th	$20,577
7th	$15,102
8th	$11,356
9th	$11,356
10th-11th	$8,754
12th-13th	$6,923

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

There were just over 2,000 entries in the $1k Pot Limit Omaha game before entries closed which put $1,795,130 into the prize pool to play for. The winner of this game will pocket $267,991 along with the bracelet, and at the end of the opening day of play, Suk Bang has the best chance of taking that prize down. He bagged almost 1.5 million to end Day 1, more than 400k better than Israel’s Ido Aboudi in 2nd.

They were the only players over 1 million, but Mike Dentale, Amnon Filippi, Mike Gorodinsky, and Thomas Taylor all bagged top ten stacks. There are 117 players remaining in the game, and the bubble burst on Day 1. Players returning for Day 2 are guaranteed at least $2,463 but likely none of them will be satisfied with that payout at this point.

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

The opening day of the $10k Limit Hold’em Championship is now complete and Japan’s Nozomu Shimizu leads a field of 46 players returning from the starting field of 104. That number is still in flux however with entries open until the start of Day 2. If it holds, they’ll be playing for $967,200 in prizes.

It is hardly a surprise that the top ten in this one is chock-full of top-name players. Kevin Song follows Shimizu for second place, while Kory Aldemir, Cary Katz, Brian Lieberman, Nate Silver, Joe McKeehan, and Ronnie Bardah are among the crushers in the top ten to start Day 2 play. The prizes will be sorted out after Day 2 begins and entries officially close.

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight C

Start: 10 am
Late Entry: 11 Levels
Start Stack: 30,000
Reentries: 2/Flight

Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Start: 12 noon
Late Entry: Start of Day 2
Start Stack: 300,000
Reentries: 1

Event #24: $1,500 Razz

Start: 2 pm
Late Entry: 9 Levels
Start Stack: 25000
Reentries: 0

Sometimes it’s best to just keep things simple. The world of real money online poker is a vast and complex tapestry, with countless games and formats from No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha cash tables to the likes of PokerStars’ potentially life-changing Spin & Go offering. However, every now and then, simply stripping the game down to the basics makes for a refreshing change. Adding tasty prizes helps, too.

This is exactly what PokerStars has done with their latest promotion, which runs between 11-18 June, and for which the theme is the number 50. The 50/50 Series provides players with an exciting run of 50 online poker tournaments over the course of a week, with all buy-ins being $50!

This novel alternative to the usual range of buy-in levels is sure to generate considerable interest, not least because the consistency affords poker players a benchmark of sorts, yet across a range of formats, with various styles catered for.

It’s PokerStars, so Expect Millions in Prize Money

It should hardly be a surprise to anyone with even a passing interest in poker that, given we’re dealing with PokerStars here, there’s a lot of money at stake. To be precise, there’s a guaranteed $3,500,000 up for grabs during the series, with the 50/50 Series Main Event alone (on 18 June) boasting a $350,000 guarantee! As week-long festivals go, it’s a poker frenzy packed to the brim with action and cash.

As usual at PokerStars, whatever your bankroll you’ll get the opportunity to take part in the series at bargain basement prices, thanks to this player-friendly online poker giant’s overall outlook that features universally affordable qualifiers as standard.

Finally, check out our exclusive PokerListings selection of the best online poker bonuses and offers in our special info section.

Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

Thanks to the effectively borderless world of real money online poker it’s possible for fans to enjoy the game wherever they are, and Ontario is one of these places where poker is thriving, with the poker community spoilt for choice.

For the first time ever, the partypoker Micro Series is coming to Ontario, and whether you’re a bad beat-hardened pro, recreational poker player or newcomer, you can join the thrills and spills for as little as 11 cents!

The bankroll-friendly series runs from 11-25 June and promises to be an action-packed fortnight, boasting combined guaranteed prize pools of $200K across two weeks of non-stop, low-stakes online poker tournaments.

The poker-for-all ethos at partypoker continues with this admirably inclusive series, which is aimed at making tournaments with sizeable prizes nevertheless affordable for as many players as possible. Indeed, every tournament throughout the Ontario Micro Series has been designed with this in mind, including the two Main Events! The $25,000 GTD Main Event High has a $55 buy-in, while the $3,000 GTD Main Event Low needs an investment of only $5.50.

The idea that tournaments with big guarantees can have low buy-ins and therefore are ‘anyone’s to win’ is a nice approach in an era that is seeing online poker operators doing their utmost to not only welcome poker hobbyists but, importantly, make sure they continue to feel appreciated. It’s not unusual nowadays, for example, for players with the most modest bankrolls to be able to qualify for live poker tournaments – see partypoker’s MILLIONS Malta promotion for such an example.

Meanwhile, budding poker aces can hit the ground running by making the most of the Ontario Micro Series’ flexible buy-in set-up. For instance, the three series openers – the aptly titled PKOpener 7-max (who doesn’t like an exciting Bounty Tournament?) – on 11 June have buy-ins of $55, $11 and $0.55, with guaranteed prize pools of $5,000, $1,500 and $50 respectively!

Finally, it’s also with poker fans in mind that, at PokerListings, we’ve put together a selection of the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our dedicated and regularly updated info section.

Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

There was just a single bracelet awarded on Wednesday at the WSOP as the Seven Card Stud Championship finished action with Brian Yoon winning his fifth bracelet. The $25k High Roller played down well into the money with just the final 13 players left in the game fighting for the $1,698,215 top prize while the first-ever Badugi tournament at WSOP kicked off with a huge field of more than 500 entries.

Event #14: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship

Chad Eveslage, 12th in Stud Championship and current PoY Leader

Brian Yoon picked up his fifth bracelet on Wednesday, becoming one of just 33 players to win five or more bracelets, putting him in a pretty rarified group. This marks Yoon’s second bracelet in a game other than hold’em after winning his fourth last year in a deuce-to-seven game. Yoon said he’d been working on his stud game recently, and it shows.

Among the 111 entries, Yoon had to battle the likes of Chad Eveslage, who is red-hot right now after winning not one, but two, Dealers Choice bracelets so far this year. Eveslage wasn’t able to add a stud bracelet to his haul, falling just shy of the final table in 12th, but adding more points to his Player of the Year leading stats., In addition to Eveslage, Yoon was up against players like David “Bakes” Baker, Alex Livingston, Ben Diebold, and runner-up Dan Shak.

Yoon now has just shy of $6 million in total tournament winnings according to Hendon Mob, with almost $3.5 million of that coming from WSOP events. This marks his 54th WSOP cash, in addition to 8 cashes on the Circuit.

Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Sarah Herzali has a huge lead going into Day 3 of Event #15. She bagged 12.8 million at the end of Day 2, almost 5 million more than the second-place stack of Rafael Reis. There are just 15 players left in the game for the final day of play, and someone will have a bracelet on their wrist before they finish playing on Day 3.

Herzali won’t have an easy time of it as she faces several bracelet winners in the final 15 including John Monnette, Upeshka De Silva, and Ian Matakis with eight bracelets between them. Day 3 action resumes at noon local time.

Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

They are down to just 13 players left in the High Roller game with Roman Hrabec of the Czech Republic leading the way. He is the only player with more than 6 million chips, while Frank Funaro is second with just over 5 million. As one might expect, the final field for this $25k game reads a bit like a who’s-who of poker with Joao Vieira, Brian Rast, Isaac Haxton, Darren Elias, and Kristin Foxen among the players looking for glory on Day 3.

Full Day 3 Chip Counts from $25k High Roller

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Roman Hrabec	Czech Republic	6,050,000	60
2	Frank Funaro	United States	5,065,000	50
3	Aleksejs Ponakovs	Latvia	4,470,000	44
4	Joao Vieira	Portugal	4,090,000	40
5	Brian Rast	United States	3,965,000	39
6	Isaac Haxton	United States	3,820,000	38
7	Taylor Von Kriegenbergh	United States	3,280,000	32
8	Darren Elias	United States	2,790,000	27
9	Lewis Spencer	United Kingdom	2,705,000	27
10	Kristen Foxen	Canada	2,675,000	26
11	Jorge Consiglieri	United States	2,650,000	26
12	Michael Jozoff	United States	2,085,000	20
13	Ryan O’Donnell	United Kingdom	1,570,000	15

Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

It is a battle of the Kyle’s at the top of the counts in Event #17 with Kyle Burnside just edging out Kyle Cartwright for the chip lead to start Day 3. They are the only players to start Day 3 with more than 2 million chips, but several of the remaining 33 are coming into the day with 1 million or more. Among the other notables in the final day of play are bracelet winner James Obst, as well as Ryan Scully with a top-ten stack, Ben Vidal, and “Crazy” Mike Thorpe.

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

The $300 Gladiators of Poker got underway with its first Day 1 on Wednesday, and there were almost 4,000 entries for the game on the opening day. That puts close to $1 million into the prize pool already for this bargain-basement bracelet. They played a total of 22 levels on Day 1a with just 129 players left in the field at the end of the night.

Patrick White leads the Day 1a counts with just over 3.4 million, but Canada’s Daniel Negreanu is currently 4th on the list with 2.25 million. While this one is a bit below Negreanu’s typical buy-in range these days, by this point the top of his mind is likely his 7th bracelet with little consideration for other factors.

With nearly 4,000 entries on Day 1a and three more starting days to go, this event is on par to be a huge field that could easily cap 20,000 runners before the dust settles.

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

There were 1,139 entries on Day 1 of Event #19 for a prize pool of more than $2.5 million. Austria’s Dinseh Alt is the big leader after the opening day as the only player with more than a million chips. He ended the day with 1,212,000 compared to just 797k for second-place Byung Eun Shin of South Korea.

Jared Jaffee, Adrian Mateos, and Taylor Paur are among the other names to grace the top-ten list after the first day. Among the smaller bags at the end of the night are a few that could be dangerous, including triple crown winner Niall “Firaldo” Farrell, Maurice Hawkins, Matt Stout, and Alexandre Reard.

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

Likely no one knew what to expect when the first-ever Badugi bracelet was put on this year’s schedule but what happened was one of the biggest mixed-game turnouts of the whole series with 516 entries when registration closed. That put $688,860 into the prize pool with 78 players sharing in the money.

There is really no history on this event or format, so it’s hard to pick favorites based on past performances. Of the 183 players still left in action, William Toh has the best shot at the top prize with the chip lead of almost 240k, but there are two other players with 200k+ in their bags to start Day 2. British pro Adam Owen was among the top-ten stacks to end the day, and last year’s PoY winner Daniel Zack bagged a short stack as well as six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings. The final 183 players return to the felt for four-card lowball fun at 1 pm on Thursday.

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight B

Start: 10 am
Late Entry: 11 Levels
Start Stack: 30,000
Reentries: 2/Flight

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Start: 12 noon
Late Entry: 9 Levels
Start Stack: 20,000
Reentries: 2

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

Start: 2 pm
Late Entry: Start of Day 2
Start Stack: 60000
Reentries: 0

According to the great philosopher Pythagoras, “Numbers rule the universe” and, 2,500 or so years later, this couldn’t be any more true. Numbers and statistics are interwoven into all things poker, from being the foundation of the decision-making process when playing to putting in perspective the often breathtaking scale of the real money online poker industry.

Take any major sport, and we see big events attracting enormous sponsorship and rewarding the world’s best practitioners with barrel-loads of money. Poker is a unique animal in that, on the one hand, it’s prevalent around the globe, with literally millions of players while, on the other, many people simply don’t experience or see it in their everyday lives. Yet the numbers are staggering.

The recently finished SCOOP 2023 at PokerStars provided us with a mass of very interesting facts and figures that help us understand the extent to which online poker is enjoyed by so many, and the vast amount of money being paid out, week after week.

Two points should be made here, the first being that we’ve taken only a selection of stats from the series (that’s the thing about statistics – the world is awash with them…), and the second that we’re focusing on only one online poker room! PokerStars is a world leader, but don’t forget to factor in the state of play as a whole.

SCOOP 2023 Facts & Figures

SCOOP 2023 took place between 7 May and 1 June (Fridays being rest days), and featured 121 events, with the total number of online poker tournaments being 363 (compared with 106 events and 316 poker tournaments in last year’s edition).

Total Entries

SCOOP 2023 generated 1,277,595 entries, including 309,828 re-entries, equating to 967,767 unique entries. The average field was 3,519 entries (the 2022 figures were 1,294,099 entries, 294,573 re-entries, 999,526 uniques, and 4,095 average field size.)

Total Prize Pool

$91,906,701 – just let that figure sink in, given that this is just three weeks of poker.
$14,400,277.78 – this went to tournament winners (including bounties – see below). The average prize pool was $253,186.50 and the average first prize was $39,670.19 (including bounties).

Five Biggest Prize Pools

$5,870,000 – SCOOP 108 H: $10,300 NLHE [Main Event], $5M GTD
$4,206,000 – SCOOP 108 M: $1,050 NLHE [Main Event], $4M GTD
$2,266,300 – SCOOP 108 L: $109 NLHE [Main Event], $2M GTD
$1,418,600 – SCOOP 04 M: $215 NLHE [PKO, Sunday Million], $1M GTD
$1,361,500 – SCOOP 75 M: $530 NLHE [PKO, Sunday Million], $1M GTD

Five Biggest First Prizes

$1,036,200 – Felipe “lipe piv” Boianovsky (SCOOP 108 H: $10,300 NLHE [Main Event], $5M GTD)
$600,640 – rolandinjo (SCOOP 108 M: $1,050 NLHE [Main Event], $4M GTD)
$362,102 – Bruno “great dant” Volkmann (SCOOP 113 H: $25,000 NLHE [Super High Roller], $1M GTD)
$232,582 – Sodaski (SCOOP 108 L: $109 NLHE [Main Event], $2M GTD)
$215,928 – Richard “raconteur” Gryko (SCOOP 110 H: $10,300 PLO [6-Max, PLO Main Event], $800K GTD)

Bounties

There’s a reason why Bounty Tournaments are all the rage nowadays, and this is primarily because the rewards for eliminating opponents are independent of the main list of prizes. SCOOP 2023 didn’t disappoint!

Biggest Bounties (Gross)

Patrick “pads1161” Leonard (SCOOP 75 H: $5,200 NLHE Progressive KO Titans) picked up a first prize of $71,023, but $126,094 in bounty payouts!
Elias “SinKarma” Gutierrez (SCOOP 62 H: $10,300 NLHE PKO, Thursday Thrill High Roller) pocketed $86,814 for first, and $118,750 in bounties.
Allan “allan sheik” Mello (SCOOP 97 H: $5,200 NLHE PKO Thursday Thrill High Roller) collected the winner’s$71,484 as well as $93,496 in bounties.
manipulator (SCOOP 112 H: $1,050 NLHE PKO Series Saver Winner) won $79,507 for the first and $92,387 in bounties.
O Vulgo (SCOOP 75 M: $530 NLHE PKO Sunday Million Winner) – $85,000 for the first, $66,019 in bounties.

To reiterate the point, consider the poor fortune (well, it’s all relative) of Poland’s “PAX176“, who was runner-up in two of the above tournaments. He lost heads-up to both Patrick Leonard and Elias Gutierrez, resulting in bounty rewards of $10,312.50 (compared with Leonard’s $126,094) and $50,625 (Gutierrez bagged $118,750), respectively.

Lowest Buy-in

There were six tournaments costing only $2.20 to enter, but these boasted guaranteed prize pools ranging from $5,000 to a massive $125,000.

Five Biggest Fields in 2023

Perhaps not surprisingly, the biggest field – an eye-watering 65,731 – came in the $2.20 buy-in, $125,000 GTD SCOOP 01 L. The other top fields were 53,722, 22,663, 21,160 and 19,203.

Winning Habit

Five players succeeded in winning three SCOOP 2023 titles. These were Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser, Tobias “Senkel92” Leknes, Marius “DEX888” Gierse, Dalton “DaltonHB” Hobold and Andrei “Premove” Skortsov.

Meanwhile, there were 25 double-winners!

Nationalities

Once again, players from Brazil broke new records, cementing their dominance of prestigious major PokerStars festivals. Brazil-based poker demons, who had won 50 events in 2021 and 72 in 2022, managed a remarkable 89 this time.

Meanwhile, players from 41 countries won titles, with first-time winners from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Mauritius…

Finally, our regularly updated info section features the latest online poker bonuses and offers to help boost your bankroll… Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

The words ‘happy hour’ for many around the world tend to mean getting two beers for the price of one in a bar. Indeed, I’m sure poker fans as much as anyone else have enjoyed these special offers but, in the world of real money online poker happy hour has a different meaning.

Further cementing its reputation as an online poker operator which champions the cause of recreational players (the beating heart of poker’s eco-system), Juicy Stakes Poker is making an already enjoyable overall experience even better during its latest promotion.

Earn Rewards at Twice the Speed!

Frequent Player Points form a key part (across numerous levels) of the overall bonus set-up at Juicy Stakes Poker, so the more you earn while having fun at the tables, the better the rewards.

Until 11 June, it’s worth making the effort to coincide your sessions at the Texas Hold’em and Omaha cash tables at this progressive poker room with the magical Happy Hour periods. Unlocking cash bonuses at an even quicker rate than usual is certainly a worthy target to aim for. And it’s not literally just one happy hour – there are, in fact, a bunch of select Happy Hour periods to take advantage of during the promo.

Happy Hour periods (until 11 June)

12 pm to 3 pm ET (4 pm to 7 pm GMT)
6 pm to 9 pm ET (10 pm to 1 am GMT)
11 pm to 2 am ET (3 am to 6 am GMT)

The featured Happy Hour tables include ALL 6-max and 9-max NLHE and PLO cash game tables. Play at any of these tables during the designated Happy Hour time period and you’ll be able to rack up rewards at double the normal speed! There are no hoops to jump through – simply log in as usual, hit the tables during a designated Happy Hour time period, and you’re good to go…

And there’s more, thanks to a special Happy Hour Reload Bonus!

Bonus Details:

Bonus Code: HAPPYJS23
Bonus Amount: 100% up to $300 + 20 GOLD CHIPS*
Minimum Deposit: $25
Duration: 8-11 June
*Collect 83.335 FPPs to earn one Gold Chip

Finally, there’s always a way to add more earning power to your poker sessions, so check out our exclusive selection of the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our special PokerListings info section… Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

Each stop of The Festival Series offers a huge range of gambling opportunities, and the mixed games poker fan is rewarded with both a packed tournament schedule and amazing cash game action. I decided to play four poker tournaments and cram in as much time at the cash tables as I could.

The tournaments I decided to play were:

Number	Name
3	Sviten Special	€225+€25 buy-in
18	8-Game	€110+€15
26	HORSE	€225+€25
34	Open Face Chinese	€225+€25

I had only booked to stay in the area from Monday 15 to Friday 19 May. Although I do live in the Maltese nation, my home is on Gozo, Malta’s second island. If I attend a festival at one of Malta’s casinos I must stay somewhere locally because the commute via ferry would become pretty tiring: as readers might know, festivals can be pretty tiring already without adding in a heavy travel factor!

Day 1: Sviten Special, Two Entries, and Cash Action

Martin “Franke” Von Zweigbergke, the owner of The Festival Series, approached me before the tournament. Sviten Special is gaining popularity, particularly as a tournament game, but dealers and floor staff are still new to the game. Franke asked me to play a part as a support to floor staff if there were any disputes, albeit limited to those taking place at tables other than mine. He asked this because he is aware that I have written a book on the game and can be called upon as an authority.

For those who don’t know, Sviten Special (also known as Drawmaha) is a split pot game, half the pot being awarded to the best five-card Omaha hand, and the other half to the best five-card draw hand. Players get one opportunity to change cards, this comes directly after the flop betting action, and it is possible to change any number of cards, from zero to all five. If a player takes only one card, the dealer will offer one face open, visible to all players, and the player can choose to accept the card, pick it up and add it to the cards in hand, or decline the card. If declined, the dealer pulls the card into the muck and gives the player the next card from the deck, this time face down. Of course, here at PokerListings, we have an article giving you a comprehensive guide on how to play.

During this event I was largely a spectator, enduring a frustrating run of cards but enjoying the chat with my table mates. There were a few players from Sweden, the home of Sviten Special, plus a German friend of mine and fellow Maltese resident Marco Mein, and English, Gibraltar-based Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon.

"Franke" at the microphone about to get the Sviten Special Tournament Started, May 2023, Malta — “Franke” at the microphone about to get the Sviten Special Tournament Started, May 2023, Malta

Finally dealt a playable hand, I opened with two pair, aces up, but facing a three and four bet decided to let the hand go. Sure enough, I had run into both a pat flush and a pat straight, the two players ending up chopping the pot. Good fold on my part!

After another long wait during which I paid a few blinds and saw the blind levels increase somewhat, I look down at AJ333 and put in a raise. This was called by Marco in the big blind and an under-the-gun limper. When the dealer turned over the 754 rainbow, Marco led for about 60% pot: under the gun folded, and I thought for a short while. Marco clearly has 86, probably 8866x being a big part of his range, and my As3s gave me a back door nut flush draw. Having started the hand with about 15 big blinds, I decided to get the money in now while I believe my draw hand is ahead and with a little bit of Omaha equity. Or so I thought… Marco called and then stood pat! I never improved in my draw hand, Marco turned over a 10 high straight in his hand that had flopped the nuts and an off-suit queen on the turn sealed the pot in his favour. I shook Marco’s hand, gave him a hug and went off to the cashier to reload.

My second bullet put me on another table, with more Swedish players, another Maltese resident, Italian cash game pro Renato Messina, and Festival Series regular Barrie Dear, an Englishman who now lives in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, Scotland.

It was while I was at this table that Franke paused the tournament clock and took some time out to pay a moving tribute to the great Doyle Brunson, who had passed away earlier in the day. The whole room, with two poker tournaments in full swing, observed an impeccable, respectful minute of silence. Doyle was still playing in the big game, a mixed games cash game, at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, in the weeks before he passed away. A true giant of the game, always in the discussion when people talk about the game’s greatest-ever players and to still be competitive at the highest level at 89 years old is something I’m not sure anyone else will ever achieve.

The Poker World Says Goodbye to a True Icon

When the late registration period ended, it was confirmed that the Sviten Special tournament had attracted a new Festival Series record for the event of 79 entries. Even though this was Day 1 of the festival and not everyone had flown in yet.

Although my second entry saw me play more hands, win a few pots and even bust a player, I could never make any real move towards cash and I departed in something like 28^th place, well short of the 11^th place minimum pay-out. The eventual winner was Swedish player Thomas “Totti” Lind, who lived in Malta for several years and so is well known to the locals.

After busting I jumped into a “Super Dealers Choice” cash game. The leading “Super” means we will play any game if the players and dealer can understand the rules when explained by the person choosing the game. And it wasn’t strictly dealers’ choice – we played an orbit of each game, the next player choosing a game every time the dealer button reached seat one.

There were players from different parts of Europe, including France, Italy and England. Barrie Dear joined, having busted the Sviten Special tournament around the same time I did. This session didn’t go too well for me, I ended the night with a small loss of €150. A hand of Pot Limit Superstud did the most damage. Learn how to play the game by listening to me and my co-host in episode 28 of the Poker: All the Games podcast. With a 7 low on 6^th street that could not be beaten at that point given the open cards I could see, I shoved my remaining €280 euros at the time all in over the top of a bet from a player with two open pairs showing. Barrie Dear called behind me, as did another player! Only Barrie had any outs to beat my low, he needed a 7, 6 or a 4. As we were multi-way and there were not enough cards left in the deck to give us all individual cards we were dealt a community card for seventh street, and a 7 gave the low to Barrie. Reload!

Day 1 was not profitable but nevertheless enjoyable. The staff at Portomaso Casino, their numbers boosted by the travelling team from the excellent Ludus Academy, were superb, and the players all played in the best spirit.

Day 2: No Tournament at The Festival Series so I Played SCOOP! A Couple of Bad News Items

I woke up on Day 2 and decided to stay where I was staying and play online rather than make the trip to the casino to play cash there. The fact that the PokerStars SCOOP festival was in full swing played a big part in my making that decision, and I entered low buy-in events of Deuce to Seven Triple Draw and Short Deck Hold ‘Em. I made a minimum of cash in the Deuce event. At the same time, I played a small number of tournaments on Party Poker and managed to take down a $22 buy-in “Daily Legends” Pot Limit Omaha Hilo Eight or Better tournament.

During the day I found out that the Pokio app, which is where I have been playing Pot Limit Sviten Special cash games online for about four and a half years now, would be closing in early June 2023. This is sad news, it being the only place online to play that great poker game for real money. Or so I thought… a week or so later I discovered the game had been added to the options at the Bitcoin poker site SWC Poker.

Further bad news arrived for me personally: my mother and father-in-law arrived in Malta to stay with us at our home in Gozo for a month, and on her first day my mother-in-law was taken ill and admitted to the local hospital. Worrying times: Writing this just less than one week later, she is now thankfully out of the hospital and doing well. While playing The Festival Series I was never sure how bad she was, and this played a huge part in what would be a rollercoaster of extreme emotions throughout the week.

More about my week at The Festival Series, Malta, May 2023, in Part 2 of this trip report.

Chances are, most of you reading this will barely have heard much (if at all) about Liechtenstein, let alone played poker there. Now, thanks to the adventurous nature of those behind WPT Global you can win your way to what promises to be a unique experience, namely taking part in the Liechtenstein leg – hosted by Grand Casino Liechtenstein – of 2023’s prestigious WPT Prime series of events.

WPT Global is the online platform of the World Poker Tour (WPT) and, since launching in the spring of 2022, has already become a major force in real money online poker and deserves an already excellent reputation. An area in which the vibrant online poker room has made a massive contribution is in connecting online poker tournament players with major live poker tournaments via bankroll-friendly qualifying promotions.

Qualify for $5

And there are so many reasons to make an effort to win your way to Liechtenstein! One of the world’s only two doubly landlocked countries (bordering Austria and Switzerland, which are themselves landlocked), this principality, whose GDP is second only to Monaco, and whose population is around only 40,000, is the only country to be nestled wholly in the Alps. It’s the ultimate ‘chocolate box’ destination.

Despite its beauty, practical reasons (such as not having an airport) have contributed to it being Europe’s least visited country, but you can help up the average by winning a $1,500 WPT Prime Passport via WPT Global’s satellite set-up.

Regular Feeder satellites funnel would-be poker gods into $110 buy-in Passport Qualifiers which are held every Saturday at 2:00 pm ET, plus every Sunday at 6:00 pm ET. Simply check out the WPT Global Lobby and find Feeders – running every day – that cost as little as $5!

Here’s the latest WPT Prime schedule of stops around the globe:

Aix-en-Provence, France (3-6 August)
Liechtenstein (8-11 September)
Madrid, Spain (28 September – 1 October)
Las Vegas, USA (7-12 December)

Note that it’s possible to win more than one Passport! Winners must travel to the first event for which they win, while any additional passport may be used, or exchanged for WPT Global online tournament tickets.

Meanwhile, fans of Sit & Go games, Texas Hold’em or Omaha cash games and online tournaments can make the most of the best online poker bonuses and offers we’ve listed for you in our dedicated info section.

Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

Jeremy Eyer and Joseph Altomonte picked up their first bracelets on Tuesday, Event #17 set a record for attendance and prizes, and a brand new poker format is debuting at WSOP on Wednesday with Event #20: $1,500 Badugi.

Event #12: $5,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

Event #12 Jeremy Eyer and Runner-Up Felipe Ramos

Jeremy Eyer picked up the bracelet from Event 12 after about 10 hours of play on Day 3. It was his 12^th cash at the WSOP and the biggest win of his career by a long shot.

Eyer was in tough for the final day as well. He came into Day 2 with just 60k in chips and managed to limp into the money with a short stack before he got there with a dominated king for a double after the bubble. Then, when he got to heads-up, he was facing down Brazilian crusher Felipe Ramos and it took him three hours of heads-up play to best the Brazilian.

The win moves Eyer into second-place on Mississippi’s all-time money list, jumping up from his previous position of 10^th, and gives him just shy of $1.5m in lifetime poker earnings.

Event #13: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack

It took about 11 hours for Joseph Altomonte to make his way through the 117 entries to return for Day 2 play. The early action went quickly as they were down to just 69 players by the first break of the day, and at the final table before the 5 pm dinner break.

This was Altomonte’s first bracelet and his second career win overall. This was his best cash, more than doubling a 2^nd place finish at the Seminole Circuit in April.

Altomonte is back in the game this year after a bit of an extended absence, having quit the game for a few years while he was dating someone who wasn’t fond of gambling. Now single, he’s had a slew of results since hitting the felt again in Feb this year, and it looks like Altomonte is back with a vengeance.

Online Event #4: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Ultra Deepstack

Entries: 1,656
Winner: Danny “jackdaniels1” Wong, USA
1^st Place Prize: $130,648
Total Prizes: $894,240

Event #14: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship

Max Hoffman leads the final 13 players in the $10k Stud Championship event, and he heads up a “Max” top-two as Maxx Coleman is the only other player to start the final day with more than 1 million chips.

The Max’s will have a lot of competition on the final day, not least from Chad Eveslage who is looking for his third bracelet THIS series and with his first two coming in the Dealers Choice events to run so far, he’s a clear danger in a game like Stud. Along with Eveslage, David “Bakes” Baker, Dan Shak, Alex Livingston, Brian Yoon, Johannes Becker, and Ben Diebold are among the players with chips on the final day of play.

Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Brandon Hall is one of two players to bag more than 1 million chips after the first day of play in Event #15. Stevens Chen joined him with seven digits atop the 161 players returning for Day 2 play. There were a total of 2,454 entries for this one which put $3,276,090 into the prize pool. Among the other players to survive the opening day and get into the money are Maria Ho (409,000), Joseph Cheong (236,000), James Romero (170,000), and Shannon Shorr (561,000).

Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

There are 93 players left in the game after the first day of action in Event #16 and Calvin Anderson leads the way into Day 2 with just over 1.6 million. There are five stacks of 1 million or more remaining in the event that saw 264 entries for a prize pool of $6,204,000 including Freddy Deeb and Isaac Haxton. Those numbers are still a bit fluid, however, as entries for this High Roller are open until the start of Day 2, so they could see a few more entries before it all shuts down.

Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

With 1,143 entries, this was the largest Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better game in WSOP history, generating a prize pool of $1,525,905. There are still 394 players in action battling for the win worth $262,542 and among them is Phil Hellmuth, owner of a record 16 bracelets and still looking for more. Chip leader Adel Shakerian will also have to face down the likes of Mike Matusow, Max Pescatori, and Ryan Leng.

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight A

Start: 10 am
Late Entry: 11 Levels
Start Stack: 30,000
Reentries: 2/Flight

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Start: 12 noon
Late Entry: 12
Start Stack: 35,000
Reentries: 0

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

Start: 2 pm
Late Entry: 9 Levels
Start Stack: 25000
Reentries: 1

It’s always interesting in the world of real money online poker to look at the various associations’ operators make and the poker players happy to assume ambassadorial roles. Thanks to user-friendly technology nowadays, following top players with an online presence can be beneficial in numerous ways for poker fans. By forging such partnerships, online poker rooms are in a position to improve the poker ecosystem for everyone – especially the players themselves.

The latest example of this being put into practice is the teaming up of GGPoker with Brian ‘True Geordie’ Davis, one of the United Kingdom’s most popular and influential podcasters. The collaboration with a YouTube poker sensation will enable those who play at GGPoker to merge and engage with the larger-than-life True Geordie’s community for a veritable feast of poker fun.

Join the Fun With True Geordie at GGPoker

To help celebrate the partnership by hitting the ground running, True Geordie will host a weekly online poker tournament exclusive to GGPoker, and this Freeroll fixture will be every Thursday at 18:00 BST, running right through to the end of August. As an added incentive, as well as the prizes on offer, you can also aim for the bounty that will be on True Geordie’s head!

Free to Play!

Note that this latest promotional tournament is a Freeroll – taking part will cost you nothing! Simply keep up to date with True Geordie’s exploits as he will be releasing the tournament password on his YouTube videos throughout the week as well as via Twitter every Wednesday. Then go to Tournaments in the GGPoker Lobby, click the Private tab or search True Geordie Freeroll, and you’re good to go!

Already, a growing band of poker enthusiasts enjoys following True Geordie’s adventures, being entertained and enlightened along the way. Now, as well as a host of exhilarating games and tournaments available exclusively at GGPoker, True Geordie will represent the leading online operator at the prestigious World Series of Poker (WSOP) London event (beginning 27 July), so you’ll be able to see how the latest GGPoker ambassador gets on live tournaments against other top players and personalities.

Angela Martin, UK & Ireland Head of Marketing at GGPoker, had this to say about the latest partnership: “We are delighted to welcome Brian ‘True Geordie’ Davis to the GGPoker family. His exceptional talent and magnetic personality resonate with our commitment to providing an unparalleled poker experience to our players. We can’t wait to see him engage with our vibrant community and bring his unique style to the tables.”

Meanwhile, if you’d like to add to your list of favourite online poker rooms, take a look at the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our special PokerListings info section. Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

Sit tight, fasten your seatbelts, and be ready for yet another grand slam live event of the Kings of Tallinn Summer Showdown. As part of the Kings of Tallinn family, the Summer Showdown which knows its 7th edition, consists this time out of ten action-packed poker days. Once again, the event will take place at the glamourous Olympic Park Casino at the Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel, right in the middle of the capital of Estonia. This time it will all take place from July 21st until July 30th. We, from PokerListings, are beyond ecstatic about this event, as iconic live reporter Juhani Tyrisevä will be providing our Finnish audience with all updates, analysis and exclusive insights about the event, brought to you by Olympic Casino.

You can look at the history books to it, the event is being visited by poker players and enthusiasts literally from all over the world, with of course, the vast majority of them from nearby Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. All of them, with just one goal; To compete at one of the 53 amazing poker events, as well as the cash games being held around the clock. The previous event of the Kings of Tallinn, back in February, crushed all previous records, having players from over 35 different countries. It was eventually Priit Parmasto who kept the trophy in Estonia, as he managed to win the battle when the last three players concluded a deal and played on for the trophy. Alongside the eternal fame, he bagged a staggering first prize of €97,400, good for almost 100x the initial buy-in of €1,100.

Summer Showdown Schedule

Presumably, the biggest live poker event in Northern Europe, the Kings of Tallinn features tournaments for everyone. Well-known tournament poker director Teresa Nousiainen once again made it happen that the schedule is that well designed, that all feedback of players at previous editions is all being covered. With buy-ins from as low as €60 and all up to €5,000, every poker player is gasping for the official schedule. One of the flagship tournaments this time is the €5,000 One-Day High Roller event. Don’t worry, if that goes beyond your bankroll, there are also options to show your skillset for free, as some satellites will be absolutely free to play.

We all know that players nowadays love to play mixed games more and more, especially the Nordic countries that have a true hunger for formats such as Pot-Limit Omaha, 8-Game, Open Face Chinese, Sviten Special, and many more. Another high-valued tournament will be part of the schedule again in the name of GGPoker Flip&Go Mystery Bounty. This event made its debut during the Kings of Tallinn edition at the beginning of this year and was proven to be extremely popular.

The Main Event

A live event series won’t be a real series if there wasn’t a Main Event. Yet again, the buy-in is set at €1,100. Satellites are already up and running and hosted by Olympic Casino at their venues in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. Online satellites are available to you at Olybet Poker. The Main Event, having one-hour blind levels, besides the turbo flight (30-minute levels), will know his first flights on July 26 and 27, followed by three more playing days, before a winner will be crowned. With 30,000 chips starting stack and no limitations on re-entries, it is being promised to be a great show of fireworks. The Main Event days will end every day around 9 PM, leaving enough space for players to enjoy the wonderful evening in Tallinn, or to jump in one of the many side events or activities.

Olympic Entertainment Group Poker Director Christer Larsson said the following when talking about the upcoming event: “The Tallinn Summer Showdown is the most popular poker festival in Northern Europe during the summer as it offers amazing poker action with 53 events designed by world-renowned tournament director Teresa Nousiainen and a fun vibe for both recreational and professional poker players,”

“The festival offers something for everyone thanks to the many different poker formats at a variety of buy-ins, a team competition, cash games running around the clock, and a four-day Main Event that can’t be missed. The weather in Tallinn during the summer is fantastic for players that wish to take a break from the poker action with the sun nearly always shining day and night.”

Who will become the next player in a great Winner’s Hall Of Fame alongside Jukka Koskela, Jargo Alavali, Mathias Siljander, GG-Poker Ambassador Niall Farrell, Kristian Zitting, and Glen Gaines?

Team Competition

If this doesn’t pull you across the line of entering this amazing event, perhaps the Team Competition will. This unique feature, completely free to participate in, will yet again host a nice prize pool for teams consisting of four players. If you do not have a team yet, don’t worry, the organisation will be able to assist you and gather teammates around you!

Kings of Tallinn 2023: Summer Showdown Schedule

Kings of Tallinn will be offering a huge variety of events touching on several games, formats and buy-ins. Below we have gathered a few of them:

Date	Time	Event #	Event Name	Buy-in
Jul-21	7 p.m.	2	NLH Kings Of Tallinn Summer Warm Up, TOP 9 Receive €150 GGPoker Flip&Go Tickets!	€150
	10 p.m.	3	NLH Mystery Bounty 1A, 20 min, Plays 12 Levels Day 1, Mystery Envelopes Introduced on Day 2	€250
Jul-22	5 p.m.	5	NLH Deep Stack Opening Event, €555 ticket added for the winner!	€350
	7 p.m.	6	Rake Free Mega-Satellite, Road to The €5,000 NLH! 10x €150 5K SATELLITE SEATS GUARANTEED!!!	€20
Jul-23	1 p.m.	9	Championship 1A, Plays 11 Levels Day 1	€555
	3 p.m.	10	Open Face Chinese Pineapple, 3 Handed, Final 4 play with one sitting-out	€150
	5 p.m.	11	PL Omaha 4, 5 & 6 Cards, Button round each, 6 Handed, Final 3 play PLO5 only	€150
Jul-24	5 p.m.	14	PL Omaha Deep Stack 4 & 5 Cards, Button Round Each, 8 Handed, Final 3 play PLO5 only	€350
	7 p.m.	15	Rake Free Mega-Satellite, Road to The €5,000 NLH! 10x €150 5K SATELLITE SEATS GUARANTEED!!!	€20
	9 p.m.	16	Deuce to Seven Triple Draw, Pot Limit, 6 Handed	€250
Jul-25	12 p.m.	9	Championship DAY 2, Reg & Re-Entries open until 13:00! Playing Down to final 9	€555
	12:45 p.m.	18	GGPoker Flip&Go Mystery Bounty Day 1A – One hand flips Day 1, in the money Day 2 with regular play, €5,000 Envelope Guaranteed & €10,000 Added By GGPoker!	€150
	5 p.m.	20	PL Omaha Championship, Button Round Each, 6 Handed, Final 3 play PLO4 only	€1,100
	7:30 p.m.	21	Celebrity Special, NLH with Bounties on Celebrity Players	€150
Jul-26	12 p.m.	23	Main Event Day 1A	€1,100
	5 p.m.	25	NLH / PLO4/ PLO 5 Mix, Button Round Each, 8 Handed	€250
	5 p.m.	27	8-Game	€350
	7 p.m.	36	Five Card PLO & Draw, 6 Handed (Sviten Special)	€250
	10 p.m.	37	Satellite to The €5,000 High Roller, 3x €5,000 SEATS GUARANTEED!	€150
Jul-28	12 p.m.	23	Main Event Day 2, Reg & Re-Entries Open Until 14:15, End Of Level 10	€1,100
	3 p.m.	38	NLH High Roller, 6 Handed	€5,000
	5 p.m.	39	PLO 5 Cards, 8 Handed	€250
	9 p.m.	41	NLH Mystery Bounty Day 1, 8 Handed, Plays 12 Levels Day 1, Mystery envelopes introduced Day 2 at 12:00	€555
Jul-29	12 p.m.	43	Queens of Tallinn Freezeout Satellite! Ladies only, 5x €150 Queens of Tallinn seats guaranteed!	FREE
	3 p.m.	46	NLH High Roller, Complimentary Dinner, 6 Handed, Playing Down to Final Table or 02:00	€3,000
	3 p.m.	47	Queens Of Tallinn 2023, NLH, Ladies Only	€150
	5 p.m.	48	Olybet Bounty King with Mystery Bounties	€150
	5 p.m.	49	Finnish Five Card Stud, Pot Limit, Unlimited €50 Rebuys + Add On	€150
Jul-30	2 p.m.	53	NLH, Turbo Version of the Main Event, Last chance for the team points!	€150

Here you can see the FULL Kings of Tallinn 2023 schedule.

Chad Eveslage became the first two-time bracelet winner this series with his second bit of wrist jewelry in another Dealers Choice event. The massive Mystery Millions finished out and more than lived up to its name and there have now been a total of 11 bracelets awarded so far this year.

Event #3: $1,000 Mystery Millions – No-Limit Hold’em

The Mystery Millions game turned out to be bigger than anyone expected. So big in fact that there wasn’t just one $1 million bounty – There were two! With more than 18,000 total entries and a prize pool well in excess of $16 million, it was easily the biggest prize pool so far and as a result, organizers added the second million at the last minute.

Tyler Brown from the US was the player with all the chips at the end of the game to secure his first ring and the $1 million first place prize. There were two other millionaires from the game as well with Shant Marashlian and Patrick Liang drawing the big envelopes.

Big Bounties from the $1,000 Mystery Bounty

Bounty	Player
$1,000,000	Shant Marashlian
$1,000,000	Patrick Liang
$500,000	Klint Teveraei
$250,000	Eric Baldwin
$100,000	Noah Hovick
$100,000	Dan Shak
$100,000	Kenneth Mapoy

Event #10: $10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed Championship

Chad Eveslage has proven early in the 2023 WSOP that he is on his game, and not just the two-card game so popular on streams and poker broadcasts. Eveslage won his second bracelet of the series in his second Dealers Choice event, the $10k Championship. While winning any bracelet is an achievement, a DC bracelet shows a mastery of all forms of poker, and two of them, including the Championship, shows a player at the very top of the game.

Eveslage actually thinks his biggest edge in the DC fields might be NLHE, as he has oodles of experience in the two-card variety and likely more than many of the other mixed-game specialists in these sorts of events. None the less, his mastery of more esoteric games like Badeucy is not only clear to the audience, but is remarked upon by his opponents during play. Two bracelets so early in the series will also put Eveslage in the pole position for Player of the Year in the early going. It seems likely the series will hear more from Eveslage before the final cards are dealt.

Event #11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

It took two days for Kenneth O’Donnell to make it through a field of more than 6,000 entries and take down his first bracelet for $351,098. It was a pretty quick affair all around, as when O’Donnell got down to heads-up, it only took three hands to dispatch Colombia’s Jefferson Guerrero for the win.

Phil Hellmuth was in with a shot at his 17^th bracelet but fell a bit short this time. However, he managed 47^th place for his 190^th WSOP cash so he still managed to add a few notches to his already impressive WSOP resume. This was O’Donnell’s 11^th WSOP cash and the win pushes his lifetime cashes at WSOP to just over $400k and his total lifetime earnings over $900k.

Event #12: $5,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

There are just 16 players left in the game for the final day of play in Event #12. Jeremy Eyer bagged the big stack to start the final day of play, but Brazilian star Felipe Ramos is close behind with both players bringing more than 4 million to Day 3. Among the other notables on the final day is Yuval Bronshtein looking for his third bracelet.

Event #13: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack

There is more than $1.6 million to play for in Event #13 with Day 2 about to kick off. There are 117 of the 3,200 original runners still in action and busted players have been getting paid since 479^th place. Players returning on Day 2 are guaranteed at least $1,773 and there is $217,102 up top. Aaron Ang has the big stack to start the day, one of three players with at least 2 million.

Event #14: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship

There were 111 entries in the $10k Stud Championship on Monday, but with entries open until the start of Day 2, the prize pool is not yet set. David Williams leads the top counts on a list that includes Dzmitry Urbanovich, Brian Yoon, Matt Vengrin, Joey Couden, Frank Kassela, and Eli Elezra.

Online Event #2: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Bankroll Builder

Entries: 1,942
Winner: Ian “IanMa” Matakis, USA
1^st Place Prize: $120,686
Total Prizes: $873,900

Online Event #3: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

Entries: 987
Winner: Ryan “dna2rna” Hughes, USA
1^st Place Prize: $145,059
Total Prizes: $888,300

Upcoming Events on June 6

Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Start: 10 am
Late Entry: 9 Levels
Start Stack: 25,000
Reentries: 1

Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

Start: 12 noon
Late Entry: Sart of Day 2
Start Stack: 150,000
Reentries: 1

Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Start: 2 pm
Late Entry: 9 Levels
Start Stack: 25000
Reentries: 0

Online Event #4: $600 No-Limit Hold’em Ultra Deepstack

Start: 3:30 pm

Last weekend not only saw the start of the $6.4M Mini Online Super Series (with that kind of money – not mini at all!) at Americas Cardroom but, coincidentally, the end of the $40 Million Online Super Series which, not surprisingly, saw some chunky prizes being awarded alongside a few of the coveted titles (because, as we all like to claim – there’s more to the world of real money online poker than winning money).

With all poker fans nowadays given a crack at the whip thanks to cheap satellites, newcomers and poker hobbyists can have a go at prestigious events alongside more seasoned players, and so it was that the last exciting events lived up to their billing.

$500,000 GTD Sunday High Roller

High Roller tournaments often have small fields, but this event attracted 953 entries, thus padding the total prize pool to a tasty $571,800 that was split into 108 prizes.

Top three:

Love Mondays – $103,496
PeDeAnjo7 – $74,334
DoctorCoffee – $55,751

$200,000 GTD Sunday Special

Another guarantee was broken in the ($215 buy-in) $200,000 GTD Sunday Special – ‘build it and they will come’ goes the quotation, and in this case the vital stats were 1,106 entries and the $221,200 prize pool they generated.

Top Three:

chickenpastry – $39,816
Blufetronz – $28,756
ChrisPaulFTW – $21,456

Apestyles Sunday Banana, $250,000 GTD PKO

It must be nice to have a tournament named after you, which is the accolade that life has brought ACR Pro, Jon Van Fleet (aka “Apestyles”) in the form of the $250,000 GTD PKO event. The Bounty Tournament had a $1,050 buy-in and attracted 268 entries who battled it out for the $268,000 prize pool, which was split evenly into the regular prize money and juicy bounties. The beauty of the PKO format, of course, is that as well as (in this case) the 36 paid places, many others racked up financial reward by eliminating fellow competitors…

Top three:

SirCashal0t – $23,751 + $29,457 in bounties
sapepepe – $23,751 + $2,359 in bounties
Starsdown – $15,142 + $9,551 in bounties

Americas Cardroom PRO Jon Van Fleet. — Jon “Apestyles” Van Fleet

Get Involved!

Meanwhile, the MOSS #3 $1,000,000 GTD kicked off with Day 1A and 940 total entries for the $109 buy-in marathon. There are four more Day 1 fixtures still to be played, the first being this Sunday, 11 June, with Day 2 scheduled for 26 June. Hit the bargain priced satellites and throw your (poker) hat into the ring…

Finally, take a look at the best online poker bonuses and offers available in our very own PokerListings info section.

Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

With poker finally returning to business as usual – so that as well as real money online poker we once again have actual ‘bricks & mortar’ venues hosting live poker festivals around the world – a number of the leading players in online poker are getting back into the swing of things. And they’re making up for lost time!

If you have wanderlust and an urge to get the best of both worlds, and you’re looking to get away on an exciting poker trip, then partypoker certainly isn’t holding back in their quest to give players opportunities to convert online poker tournament success into live poker tournament experience.

MILLIONS by Name, MILLIONS in Prizes

With their MILLIONS live events, partypoker provide poker fans the chance to visit inviting locations at which to take part in big money events. And the good news for recreational players is that, thanks to a comprehensive and very affordable qualifying set-up, literally everyone, regardless of bankroll size, can have a go.

MILLIONS Malta

One for the diary is MILLIONS Malta which, as it says on the tin, will see loads of money up for grabs across a range of tournaments, all played out in the luxurious surroundings of the prestigious Casino Portomaso (23 September – 2 October).

Given that this will be the first partyoker MILLIONS event since June 2022, we can expect things to go with a bang. Whether you’re a live poker veteran or your experience until now has been online, there’s something for everyone.

The tournament schedule is yet to be confirmed, but a few of the highlights will include:

€400 buy-in, €1M GTD Grand Prix ‘Early Bird’ special offer (23-24 Sep)
€550 buy-in, €1M GTD Grand Prix (25-29 Sep)
€5,300 buy-in High Roller (26-27 Sep)
€3,000 buy-in MILLIONS Main Event (29 Sep – 2 Oct)

Remember not to be thrown by, for example, the €3,000 buy-in, above – you can start your quest to fame and fortune from as little as $0.01 if you so wish! There’s also more than one kind of package to aim for.

MILLIONS Main Event €5,000 Full Package

€3,000 buy-in to the MILLIONS Main Event
Five-night stay at the 5-star Hilton Hotel
€450 spending money

And

Grand Prix €1,000 full package

€550 buy-in to the Grand Prix
€450 spending money

Portomaso Poker venue for PokerListings Championship tournament

Meanwhile, here at PokerListings we also aim to help steer our community to an optimal poker experience, so check out the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our regularly updated info section.

Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

Flexibility and choice make life easier, and real money online poker is no exception. The more choice an online poker room gives its players, the more user-friendly the overall experience becomes.

For their part, the progressive Juicy Stakes Poker is enhancing its poker offering by giving players the option of using Gold Chips to enter the popular $10,000 Myriad Bounty tournament.

How to Collect Gold Chips

The so-called Gold Chip program provides a key way in which Juicy Stakes Poker rewards player loyalty. Essentially, when you play for real money at this online poker room – which has quickly earned a deserved ‘player-friendly’ reputation – you will pick up Frequent Player Points (FPP). Note that this facility is available to everyone, whether you prefer to hit the No-Limit Hold’em and Omaha cash tables, quickfire Sit & Go games or it’s online poker tournaments that float your boat.

FPPs accumulate to become Gold Chips, which in turn are redeemable for cash, free entry to tournaments such as the Gold Chip Nugget $500 GTD fixture or, with this latest tweak, the $10,000 Sunday Myriad.

Players even get a choice as to what level of Gold Chip Bonuses they want! These are:

$5 for only 20 Gold Chips
$25 for only 100 Gold Chips
$100 for only 400 Gold Chips

Bonuses are paid out in $5 increments and are credited to your account, the exchange process of FPPs to Gold Chips being automatic, accumulated FPPs turning into Gold Chips at a rate of 100 FPP = 1 Gold Chip.

Bubble Protection

Meanwhile, don’t forget to take advantage of the excellent Bubble Protection facility at Juicy Stakes Poker! The idea is simple but effective (and, for many, attractive) – when you register for an eligible tournament before the start time you’ll automatically qualify for Bubble Protection so that, should you finish ‘on the bubble’ and thus just out of the money, your buy-in and entry will be returned to your account!

Keep an eye out in the Poker Lobby for tournaments marked Bubble Protection Enabled and you’re good to go!

Would you like to broaden your poker horizons while adding to your bankroll? Have a look at the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our special PokerListings info section. Good luck at the tables, and have fun!

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

CoinPoker

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Stake.US Poker

Event #24: $1,500 Razz

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Event #26: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack

Event #27: $1,500 Eight Game Mix 6-Handed

Online Event #5: $400 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Final Day

Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Holdem

Event #29: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Event #30: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw

Clubs Poker

Setting the Scene For The Greatest Poker TV Hand

How Tom Dwan Made Poker History – Again

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – Preflop – $562,000

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – Flop – $812,000

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – Turn – $1,500,000

The Biggest Televised Poker Hand Ever – River – $3,100,000

Why The Hustler Casino LIVE Million Dollar Game Succeeded

Appeak Poker

Bump It Up: How It Works

Day 3: 8-Game Tournament, More Cash Action

Day 4: HORSE Play

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Appeak Poker

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

Final 14 Stacks for Day 3 of $10k Limit Hold’em Championship

Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Event #24: $1,500 Razz

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight D

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

CoinPoker

Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

Final Day Payouts for First-Ever Badugi Bracelet Event

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight C

Event #23: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em

Event #24: $1,500 Razz

It’s PokerStars, so Expect Millions in Prize Money

Event #14: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship

CoinPoker

Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em

Event #16: $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed

Full Day 3 Chip Counts from $25k High Roller

Event #17: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em

Event #19: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em

Event #20: $1,500 Badugi

Upcoming Events on June 7

Event #18: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-limit Hold’em – Flight B

Event #21: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed

Event #22: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship

SCOOP 2023 Facts & Figures

Total Entries

Total Prize Pool

Five Biggest Prize Pools

Five Biggest First Prizes

Bounties

Biggest Bounties (Gross)

Lowest Buy-in

Five Biggest Fields in 2023

Winning Habit

Nationalities