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Wruum Wruum! Summer at partypoker goes high-octane when the McLaren Turbo Series with combined prize pool of $2,500,000 guaranteed goes live online between July 22^nd and August 8^th 2022. Now poker players around the world can participate in 68 online events with buy-ins ranging from $0,55 – $215 and enjoy super-fast paced online poker. The Main Events follow “best stack forward” -policy, meaning, you can play in as many Day 1 Events as you want. If you progress to Day 2, only your best stack goes forward and the rest get forfeited.

Next to the Main Events, McLaren Turbo Series offers multiple 1-day tournaments called “Daily Sprints” and up to $125,000 GTD “The Weekenders”.

Outstanding poker news just keeps coming!

The first day of the Event offers three Opener Events:

The Opener Low – $0,55 buy-in and $1,500 guaranteed

The Opener Medium – $5,50 buy-in and $15,000 guaranteed

The Opener High – $55 buy-in and $100,000 guaranteed

On top of three Opener, there is also the Opening Day Freeroll, from where you can win tickets to the Main Events and an exclusive McLaren merchandise baggy full of quality goodies.

Keep your poker engine running, because partypoker McLaren Turbo Series starts in just TWO DAYS!

What to Expect

Total 68 online events
Combined prizepool $2,500,000 GTD
Micro Main Event $3,30 buy-in $10,000 GTD
Mini Main Event $22 buy-in $100,000 GTD
Main Event $215 buy-in $300,000 GTD
18x Daily Sprints with up to $30,000 GTD
Up to $125,000 GTD ‘Weekenders’

McLaren Turbo Series Main Events 2022

This year, McLaren Turbo Series Main Events come in three levels – Micro, Mini, Main, and all are played as progressive knockout tournament. The difference between these three is the buy-in and the size of the prize pool. Micro Main Event gives you opportunity to win biggest share of the $10,000 guaranteed with only $3,30 buy-in! Next in size, is the $22 Mini Main Event and $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. The official $215 buy-in Main Event offers a notable $300,000 guaranteed. Bag full of cash is not the only prize you can win from the Main Event. For the winner there is also all-expenses-paid trip for two to the Brazilian Grand Prix in November.

Main Event structure:

Chips: 150,000
Timer: 5min
Starting blinds: 15/30
Late reg. Ends: Level 12
Top 15% progress to Day 2
All played as progressive knockout tournaments

McLaren Turbo Series 2022 Main Events Schedule

Date	Time (CET)	Event	Buy-In
Sun 24 Jul	21:00	#09-H: Main Event Day 1: $300K Gtd	$215
	21:00	#09-M: Mini Main Event Day 1: $100K Gtd	$22
	21:00	#09-L: Micro Main Event Day 1: $10K Gtd	$3.30
Sun 31 Jul	21:00	#09-H: Main Event Day 1: $300K Gtd	$215
	21:00	#09-M: Mini Main Event Day 1: $100K Gtd	$22
	21:00	#09-L: Micro Main Event Day 1: $10K Gtd	$3.30
Sun 7 Aug	21:00	#09-H: Main Event Day 1: $300K Gtd	$215
	21:00	#09-M: Mini Main Event Day 1: $100K Gtd	$22
	21:00	#09-L: Micro Main Event Day 1: $10K Gtd	$3.30
Mon 8 Aug	18:30	#09-H: Main Event Day 1: $300K Gtd	$215
	18:30	#09-M: Mini Main Event Day 1: $100K Gtd	$22
	18:30	#09-L: Micro Main Event Day 1: $10K Gtd	$3.30
	20:30	#09-H: Main Event Day 1: $300K Gtd	$215
	20:30	#09-M: Mini Main Event Day 1: $100K Gtd	$22
	20:30	#09-L: Micro Main Event Day 1: $10K Gtd	$3.30
	22:15	#09-H: Main Event Day 1: $300K Gtd
	22:15	#09-M: Mini Main Event Day 1: $100K Gtd
	22:15	#09-L: Micro Main Event Day 1: $10K Gtd

Up To $125,000 GTD Weekenders and $30,000 GTD Daily Sprints

You can play top online poker during the weekends or week days, whatever suits you best. McLaren Turbo Series is fueled with amazing side events that are running day and night.

Experience Up To $125,000 GTD “Weekenders” – McLaren Style!

McLaren Turbo Series is running popular “Weekenders” format tournaments on two weekends, 29^th –31^st of July and 5^th – 7^th of August. Just like the Main Events, the McLaren style “Weekenders” are in 3 buy-in levels which makes it possible for everyone to play. In all tournaments Day 1 takes place on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Day 2 (Final) on the Sunday evening.

On July 29^th –31^st the buy-ins for the weekend tournaments are $1,10, $11, and $109, and guaranteed prizepools start from $3,000, $30,000, and $125,000.

On August 5^th – 7^th the buy-ins are $0,55, $5,50, and $55, and prizepools are $1,500, $15,000, and $100,000 guaranteed.

Daily Sprints One Day Tournaments

Daily Sprints are super-fast 1-day tournaments where the early stages and the final table is played on the same day. During McLaren Turbo Series, partypoker is running 18 Daily Sprints with guaranteed prize pools of $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, $25,000, $30,000. From every Day 1 event top 10% progress to the final.

All this and much more is waiting you at the partypoker McLaren Turbo Series.

The Tallinn Summer Showdown is known for being the biggest festival in Northern Europe each summer since its launch in 2017. The event is set for its glorious return at the luxurious Olympic Park Casino and the adjoining Hilton Tallinn Park from July 25-31 with a massive schedule of 33 events.

For the first time, PokerListings will be on the floor reporting the Tallinn Summer Showdown €1,100 Main Event from beginning to end while also providing highlights of the many side events and vibe of the festival.

“The Tallinn Summer Showdown is a can’t miss event for recreational and professional poker players alike as it is the biggest poker festival of the summer in Northern Europe,” said Olympic Entertainment Group Marketing Manager Karev Tralla. “The event provides something for everyone with many different poker formats at a variety of buy-ins, a team competition, cash games running around the clock, and, of course, a three-day Main Event that can’t be missed. We are thrilled that for the first time, PokerListings will be on hand to cover the action.”

The Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event

The Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event on July 28-30 is easily the highlight of the Tallinn Summer Showdown. The event kicks off with two opening flights on July 28 with Day 1a kicking off at 12 p.m. and Day 1b following at 8 p.m. local time. Each flight will feature eight blind levels with players starting with a massive stack of 30,000 chips.

The tournament will provide a deep structure with hour-long blind levels. The main exception to this rule will be on Day 1b, which is described as a turbo flight but still provides plenty of time to make moves with 30-minute blind levels. Players will bag their stacks after eight blind levels of play. The shorter days allow players to also enjoy the plethora of side events on the schedule.

Not only is late registration open with unlimited re-entries permitted throughout both of the opening flights, but will also be open for the first hour of Day 2 with late registration not closing until the conclusion of Level 9 (the first blind level of Day 2).

Of course, there are plenty of ways to get in cheaper than the €1,100 buy-in with satellites not only running at Olympic Park Casino, but also online at Olybet Poker.

History of the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event

Players were itching for something new during the summer as they didn’t want to wait a year for the popular Kings of Tallinn during the summer time.

Finnish tournament director Teresa Nousiainen, who coincidentally was also the tournament director of The Festival Series Tallinn a couple of weeks ago, saw the potential and created the Tallinn Summer Showdown in 2017. Unlike many other festivals that went on hiatus during the pandemic, the Tallinn Summer Showdown was able to host its event every year thanks to restrictions lifted throughout Northern Europe during the summer season.

Finland’s Jukko Koskela navigated through a field of 127 entries during the inaugural Main Event in 2017 to win the €33,200 top prize. Since then, three big names in poker with Jargo Alaväli, Mathias Siljander, and Scottish poker phenom Niall “Firaldo” Farrell were all crowned champions from 2018 to 2020.

Last year was the biggest Tallinn Summer Showdown event of them all when Kristian Zitting bested a field of 286 entries to win the €56,500 top prize.

Year	Entries	Prize Pool	Winner	Country	Prize	Notes
2017	127	€120,650	Jukka Koskela	Finland	€33,200
2018	165	€156,750	Jargo Alaväli	Estonia	€33,077	Three-Way Deal
2019	195	€185,250	Mathias Siljander	Finland	€46,700
2020	179	€153,045	Niall “Firaldo” Farrell	Scotland	€32,125	Heads-Up Deal
2021	286	€271,700	Kristian Zitting	Finland	€56,500

Side Events Galore!

While the Main Event might be the biggest attraction, many other players are coming solely for the side events. Of course, the way the schedule is structured, those that go deep in the Main Event will still have plenty of time to join into many of the side events as well. Players can also choose to play cash games on the main floor of the casino with many different poker variants available at a variety of stakes.

The schedule boasts many different multiday side events including the €250 Mystery Bounty on July 26-27, the €550 NLH SSD on July 26-28, the €250 Friday NLH Deepstack on July 29-30, the €2,000 Summer Showdown HighRoller 6-MAX on July 30-31, and the €120 Olybet Special on July 30-31.

There are tons of other no-limit hold’em events as well but those looking for something different will be pleased to learn that there are also Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), PLO Hi/Lo, Sviten Special, OFC, and Short Deck events littered through the schedule as well.

Ladies also have something special to look forward to with a low buy-in €60 Ladies Event taking place on July 30.

Team Competition

The vibe at the Tallinn Summer Showdown is noticeable to any player in attendance with rails taking place not only for the Main Event but the side events as well.

One big reason for this is the Tallinn Summer Showdown Team Competition. A total of 2% of each prize pool is reserved for the Team Competition. Each team consists of four players with any event which isn’t a satellite that has at least 12 players contributing points to those that cash. The top team on the leaderboard will walk away with 75% of the Team Competition prize pool while the runner-up team will be awarded the remaining 25%.

Don’t stress if you can’t find a team of four players ahead of time as the staff at Olympic Park Casino and the Tournament Director Teresa Nousiainen will assist you if needed to join a team.

Head to the Tallinn Summer Showdown website to read all the rules of the Team Competition and to sign-up for your team.

2022 Tallinn Summer Showdown Full Schedule

Date	Time	#	Event	Buy-In
July 25	3 p.m.	1	Rake free satellite to the Summer Showdown Opening	€20
	7 p.m.	2	Summer Showdown Opening	€350
	10 p.m.	3	NL Hold’em Satellite to the €550 SSD	€60
July 26	1 p.m.	4	Rake free satellite to the €550 SSD	€20
	3 p.m.	5	NLH Summer Showdown Mystery Bounty Day 1A	€250
	5 p.m.	6	NL Hold’em Satellite to the €550 SSD	€60
	7 p.m.	7	NLH 550 € SSD Day 1A	€550
	9 p.m.	5	NLH Summer Showdown Mystery Bounty Day 1B	€250
	10 p.m.	8	NLH Satellite to ME	€60
July 27	12 p.m.	7	NLH 550 € SSD Day 1B	€550
	2 p.m.	9	NLH Satellite to ME 1B	€120
	5 p.m.	10	Wednesday Progressive Bounty	€250
	7 p.m.	7	NLH 550 € SSD Day 1C Turbo	€550
	9 p.m.	5	NLH Summer Showdown Mystery Bounty Final Day
	9 p.m.	11	4 Card PLO Turbo KnockOut	€250
	10 p.m.	12	Wednesday Night Madness	€120
July 28	11:30 a.m.	13	Rake free satellite to the Main Event	€20
	12 p.m.	14	NLH Summer Showdown Main Event Day 1A	€1,100
	2 p.m.	15	NLH Satellite to ME 1B	€120
	3 p.m.	16	Pot Limit Sviten Special	€250
	8 p.m.	14	NLH Summer Showdown Main Event Day 1B Turbo	€1,100
	9 p.m.	7	NLH 550 € SSD Final Day
	9 p.m.	17	5 Card PLO Progressive KnockOut 6-Max	€440
	10 p.m.	18	NLH Short Deck 6-Max	€120
July 29	12 p.m.	14	NLH Summer Showdown Main Event Day 2	€1,100
	1 p.m.	19	NLH Rake Free Satellite to event #22	€20
	3 p.m.	20	NLH Friday Deepstack Day 1	€250
	5 p.m.	21	Open Face Chinese Pineapple	€350
	5 p.m.	22	NLH Satellite to Highroller Event	€250
	7 p.m.	23	NLH Progressive KnockOut	€1,100
	9 p.m.	24	4 Card PLO Hi/Lo	€250
	10 p.m.	25	NLH Hyper Turbo KnockOut	€120
July 30	11:30 a.m.	26	NLH Turbo Satellite to Highroller Event	€120
	12 p.m.	14	NLH Summer Showdown Main Event Final Day
	1 p.m.	20	NLH Friday Deepstack Final Day
	1 p.m.	27	NLH Ladies Event	€60
	3 p.m.	28	Summer Showdown HighRoller 6-MAX	€2,000
	5 p.m.	29	NLH Olybet Special Day 1	€120
	7 p.m.	30	NLH Progressive KnockOut Day 1	€440
	9 p.m.	31	PLO4 & PLO5 Card, button round each 8-Max	€1,100
	10 p.m.	32	NLH Win the Button Hyper Turbo	€120
July 31	12 p.m.	28	Summer Showdown HighRoller 6-MAX Final Day
	12 p.m.	29	NLH Olybet Special Final Day
	12 p.m.	30	NLH Progressive KnockOut Final Day
	1 p.m.	33	NLH Hyper Turbo version of the ME	€120

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP for short) will be held on PokerStars for the 21st time this year. The poker giant has now announced the dates for its most important online tournament series of the year. From September 4 to 28, around 300 tournaments will be held over a period of 25 days.

The exact schedule is yet to be announced, but it is expected that the tournament series will have a similar program as in previous years. Last year, PokerStars guaranteed a total of $100 million in prize money for the 20th anniversary of the WCOOP. That guarantee was easily surpassed with a total of $122 million in prize money played out. This year, it seems likely that the entire tournament series will be a little bit smaller. PokerStars has temporarily pulled out of several major markets, including Russia and the Netherlands, for legal reasons. Nonetheless, the WCOOP will continue to be one of the biggest tournament series of the year in 2022, offering many tournaments with million-dollar guarantees.

While the WCOOP will be a series with high buy-ins and expensive tournaments, PokerStars is currently running a tournament series that is far more affordable. Running until July 31, the MicroMillions guarantees a total of $4 million in prize money.

WCOOP by the Numbers

The WCOOP has been held annually on PokerStars since 2002. The Main Event of the series has been the biggest and most important PokerStars tournament every year since 2004.

Initially, the buy-in for the Main Event was $1,050. In 2004, it was raised to $2,600 and in 2008, the price was doubled to $5,200. Since then, the WCOOP Main Event has always had the same buy-in.

The player numbers for the WCOOP Main Event have always been at the same level since 2008, at around 2,000 entries. In the last two years, the target of 2,000 entries was not quite reached and the tournament had a small overlay as PokerStars continued to guarantee $10,000,000 in prize money.

This is how the player numbers and prize pool of the WCOOP Main Event have developed since 2002:

All WCOOP Main Events

Year	Entries	Prize Money	Winner	Country
2002	238	$238,000	MultiMarine	Sweden
2003	891	$891,000	Joseph “DeOhGee” Cordi	United States
2004	843	$2,104,500	Edgar “Ragde” Skjervold	Norway
2005	1,494	$3,735,000	Jordan “Panella86” Berkowitz	United States
2006	2,510	$6,275,000	J.-C. “area23JC” Tran	United States
2007	2,998	$7,495,000	Kyle “ka$ino1” Schroeder	United States
2008	2,185	$10,925,000	Carter “ckingusc” King	United States
2009	2,144	$10,720,000	Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko	United States
2010	2,443	$12,215,000	Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks	United States
2011	1,627	$8,135,000	Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen	Denmark
2012	1,825	$9,125,000	Marat “maratik” Sharafutdinov	Russia
2013	2,133	$10,665,000	David “PlayinWasted” Kaufmann	Germany
2014	2,142	$10,710,000	Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz	Germany
2015	1,995	$10,000,000	Kristof “Coenaldinho7” Coenen	Belgium
2016	2,091	$10,052,880	Jonas “llJaYJaYll” Lauck	Germany
2017	2,183	$10,915,000	Steven “SvZff” van Zadelhoff	Netherlands
2018	2,044	$10,220,000	Ezequiel “eze88888” Waigel	Argentina
2019	2,236	$11,180,000	Charles “BigBlindBets” Russell	United Kingdom
2020	1,977	$10,000,000	Andre “PTFisherman23” Marques	Portugal
2021	1,965	$10,000,000	Sergey “CrazyLissy” Denisov	Russia

Where do the WCOOP Winners Come From?

Although PokerStars has not operated in the US since Black Friday in 2011, most WCOOP Main Event winners come from the United States. From 2003 to 2010, seven out of eight tournaments were won by an American player.

In subsequent years, the winners came from a wide variety of countries, with only Germany (three winners) and Russia (two winners) recording multiple winners so far.

Country	WCOOP Main Event Winners
United States	7
Germany	3
Russia	2
Sweden	1
Norway	1
Denmark	1
Belgium	1
Netherlands	1
Argentina	1
United Kingdom	1
Portugal	1

The Most Famous WCOOP Winners

Only a few players who won the WCOOP Main Event were unknowns in the scene or were not able to celebrate further success in the live and online scene later on.

The most famous winners are Fedor Holz from Germany, who won over $30 million in live tournaments during his career, J.C. Tran, who won several major titles during his career and finished 5th in the WSOP Main Event in 2013, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko who had several WSOP deep runs and won one WPT title.

The craziest story of a winner certainly goes to Russian player Marat “maratik” Sharafutdinov. By profession, Sharafutdinov was a cab driver at the time and he played only tournaments with a buy-in of $4 or less until his phenomenal WCOOP run. He qualified for the WCOOP Main Event via satellite and when it came to negotiating a deal at the final table, he succinctly demanded, “I wont million” (sic!). He won, got his million and the next day he was back at the PokerStars tables – continuing to play the $4 tournaments.

These are the live winnings (via Hendon Mob database) and big live titles of all WCOOP Main Event winners:

Player	Country	Live Winnings	Big Titles
Joseph Cordi	United States	$722,176
Edgar Skjervold	Norway	$300,784
Jordan Berkowitz	United States	$17,200
J.-C. Tran	United States	$13,306,386	2 Bracelets, 2 WPT Titles, WSOP Main (5th place in 2013)
Kyle Schroeder	United States	$6,223
Carter King	United States	$432,453
Yevgeniy Timoshenko	United States	$7,826,896	1 WPT Title
Tyson Marks	United States	$358,682
Thomas Pedersen	Denmark	$672,770
Marat Sharafutdinov	Russia	$0
David Kaufmann	Germany	$36,501
Fedor Holz	Germany	$33,655,809	2 Bracelets
Kristof Coenen	Belgium	$19,168
Jonas Lauck	Germany	N/A	1 Bracelet
Steven van Zadelhoff	Netherlands	$2,519,800
Ezequiel Waigel	Argentina	$1,434,752
Charles Russell	United Kingdom	$7,477
Andre Marques	Portugal	$282,908
Sergey Denisov	Russia	$0

There are still about two and a half months until the start of the 2022 WCOOP. The exact schedule will be announced soon and there will be numerous affordable satellites for the tournaments. Until then, numerous other tournaments are running on PokerStars, such as the MicroMillions now and the Sunday Million (now a permanent Knock-Out-Tourney) every Sunday.

*Any mention of a bonus or discussion of such terms is not in relation to the province of Ontario.

Norwegian Espen Uhlen Jorstad has won the 2022 WSOP Main Event and bagged massive $10,000,000 and a brand new WSOP bracelet. The happy Norwegian poker player goes home with heavy hands after winning also the TagTeam Event with Patrick Leonard. However, even his both wrists carry now over 550 grams of gold and 55 carats of gemstones, I do not think the weight here is a problem of any kind.

The $10,000,000 main prize and the WSOP bracelet did not come easy. This year the WSOP Main Event had 8,662 players from all over the world. Before the Event 70# WSOP Final Table, Espen Jørstad had a shared chip lead with US player Mathew Su, who in the end took 8^th place in the tournament.

The Main Event lasted all the way to Saturday afternoon, where the last man standing was battled out between Espen Jørstad, Adrian Attenborough and 23-year old poker protégé Michael Duek. From these three gentlemen, Michael Duek took home third place and $4,000,000 earnings.

After heated heads-up with Attenborough, that according to Espen Jornstad “wanted to avoid”, the Norwegian player got a major chip lead after Attenborough folded a bottom pair. The final hand of the WSOP main event 2022 was played just a moment later when Espen Jornstad beat Adrian Attenborough with Full House on River.

By becoming WSOP winner Espen Uhlen Jørstad is now the only Norwegian poker player who has ever won WSOP Main Event.

After amazing victory, the first thing the fresh WSOP champion did, was to call his mother and told the good news with a tearful eyes. The moment was indeed emotional. Congratulations Espen!

Here Are the WSOP 2022 Main Event Final Results

Place	Player	Nationality	Earnings
1	Espen Uhlen Jørstad	Norway	$10,000,000
2	Adrian Attenborough	Australia	$6,000,000
3	Michael Duek	Argentina	$4,000,000
4	John Eames	United Kingdom	$3,000,000
5	Matija Dobric	Croatia	$2,250,000
6	Jeffrey Farnes	United States	$1,750,000
7	Aaron Duczak	Canada	$1,350,000
8	Philippe Souki	United Kingdom	$1,075,000
9	Matthew Su	United States	$850,675
10	Asher Conniff	United States	$675,000

Photo credits Poker News

The second big weekend of The Festival Online powered by 888poker is in the books as the Final Table of the $109 Progressive KO tournament finished Monday night with Germany’s DorianZimmer winning the event and taking home almost $14,000.

Result: The Festival Online Progressive Knock-Out

Buy-in: $109
Players: 879 players (plus 193 re-entries)
Prize Money: $107,200
1st place: DorianZimmer ($13,925.47)

The biggest Festival Online event of this weekend was the Progressive Knockout tournament with a buy-in of $109. It attracted 1,072 entries and played out more than $107,000 in prize money. On Sunday the tournament was stopped after the final nine players were found and they returned Monday night to play out the next big title of The Festival Online. The final table was streamed live on 888poker’s Twitch Channel with David Tuchman and Nick Wealthall commenting the action and offering several giveaways for all viewers.

After two hours of play, the last two players were found as Canada’s skelly929 was eliminated in third place when he jammed K-Q into A-Q and couldn’t find any help on the board.

The heads-up between dududantas95 from Brazil and Germany’s DorianZimmer lasted more than 40 minutes – a small eternity in the online poker world. In the end, the German prevailed and in the final hand (screenshot above) he was all-in with Q-Q against A-4. The board ran out T-8-4-K-7 – no help for the ace and DorianZimmer earned $7,177 in prize money plus all the bounties he collected during his run which added up to another $6,748.

Result: The Festival Online Progressive Knock-Out High Roller

Buy-in: $525
Players: 83 players (plus 16 re-entries)
Prize Money: $49,500
1st place: Raise1ln. ($14,763,09)

The High Roller version of the Progressive Knock-Out event was decided on Sunday as Lithuania’s Raise1ln. won against a field of 99 entries and took home a whopping $14,763.09.

Upcoming Events this Week

The Festival Online continues this Tuesday and Thursday with several smaller tournaments before the big 8-max weekend this Sunday. These are the tournaments that are scheduled for the coming two days:

Pot Limit Omaha 6-Max

Name: The Festival Online – PLO 6-Max
Date: July 19th
Time: 20:00 (CEST)
Variant: Pot Limit Omaha
Buy-in: $55
Guarantee: $2,000
Re-Entries: maximum 10
Late Reg: until 22:05 (CEST)
Structure: 10,000 chips (12 minute levels)

Turbo Knock-Out 6-Max

Name: The Festival Online – 6-Max Turbo PKO
Date: July 19th
Time: 21:00 (CEST)
Variant: No limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $44
Guarantee: $10,000
Re-Entries: Unlimited
Late Reg: until 23:05 (CEST)
Structure: 20,000 chips (12 minute levels)

Texas Low Roller

Name: The Festival Online – Texas Lowroller
Date: July 21st
Time: 19:00 (CEST)
Variant: No limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $22
Guarantee: $10,000
Re-Entries: maximum 8
Late Reg: until 22:00 (CEST)
Structure: 20,000 chips (12 minute levels)

Super Knock-Out

Name: The Festival Online – Super KO
Date: July 21st
Time: 20:00 (CEST)
Variant: No limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $109
Guarantee: $12,000
Re-Entries: maximum 8
Late Reg: until 23:00 (CEST)
Structure: 20,000 chips (12 minute levels)

The oldest European poker tournament series and second oldest in the world – Irish Open, teams up with Luxon Pay for the upcoming Mediterranean Poker Party at Merit Resort Cyprus, August 19^th – September 17^th 2022. The event is part of the grand opening of the brand-new Merit Royal Diamond Hotel which hosts an amazing poker room with a capacity for up to 200 poker tables. The ‘grand poker hall’ will get a true trial by fire when some of the best poker players in the world meet face to face on the beautiful island of Cyprus and battle it out in multiple live poker tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from $500 to $200,000 and prize pools starting from $200,000 GTD and going as high as $5,000,000 GTD!

Neil Barrett, Business Development Director of Luxon Pay said: “We are delighted that a diverse range of partners are hosting their own events at the Luxon Pay MPP. The idea is they use formats as close as possible to their most famous tournaments which players know and love. Look out for more exciting news in the near future about a further partner on the back end of the series.”

Songul Bekem, President of Merit Poker said: “Everybody at Merit is really looking forward to this event that will mark the opening of our new giant poker room and the new Merit Royal Diamond Hotel. With over 3 weeks worth of action there really is something for everybody in the schedule.”

Luxon Pay MPP 2022 – What to Expect

Here are some of the highlights what to expect from Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party 2022.

Official Luxon Pay MPP Events

29th Aug– 3rd Sep $5,300 Buy-in Main Event $5,000,000 GTD
19^th Aug – 23^rd Aug $1100 Buy-in GTD MPP Open $1,000,000
25^th Aug – 29^th Aug $2,200 Buy-in Warm Up Event $2,000,000 GTD

Luxon Pay MPP Irish Open

1^st Sep – 5^th Sep $1100 Buy-in NL Hold’em $500,000 GTD
3^rd Sep – 4^th Sep $550 Buy-in 6-Max

Other Side Events

Eurasian Poker Tour
Ladies First
Malta Poker Festival
La Notte Degli Assi & La Casa Della Carte
Triton Super High Roller Series

Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event

Even though Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party hosts amazing events with high buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools, by its nature the tournament is still aimed as poker entertainment and not just high-stakes poker. The $5000+$300 buy-in Main Event with $5,000,000 guaranteed starts at 29^th and runs till the 3^rd of September. All players start with a 100k chip stack, 1 re-entry, and every round lasts 60minutes. The winner should expect to win over 1 million dollars.

Luxon Pay MPP $5,000,000 Main Event Schedule

Date	Time	Event
Monday 29th August	12:00pm	#9 MPP Main Event Day 1A
Tueday 30th August	12:00pm	#9 MPP Main Event Day 1B
Wed 31th August	12:00pm	#9 MPP Main Event Day 1C
Thu 1st September	12:00pm	#9 MPP Main Event Day 2
Fri 2nd September	12:00pm	#9 MPP Main Event Day 3
Sat 3rd September	12:00pm	#9 MPP Main Event Day Final Day

About Luxon Pay MPP 2022 Side Events

Next to the official Luxon Pay Main Events, the Mediterranean Poker Party hosts multiple respected poker tournaments that include the honourable Irish Open, the most respected Italian poker tournaments by Imperium, Malta Poker Festival, Ladies First hosted by lady Ivonne Montealegre and streamed Triton Super High Roller Series with buy-ins between $25,000 and $200,000. Read about these amazing side events below.

Irish Open

Irish Open is the second oldest poker tournament in the world just after the World Series of Poker. Started in 1980 by legendary Irish bookmaker Terry Rogers, the Irish Open Main Event is usually played over Easter weekend every year featuring the best poker players in the world. After 2 years of lockdowns, Irish Open made a strong comeback and had a total of 2040 entries this year. While the iron is hot, the Irish Open returns on the vibrant Mediterranean island of Cyprus with two events, $1,000+$100 Buy-in $500,000 GTD and $500+$50 Buy-in 6-Max tournament.

Eurasian Poker Tour (EAPT)

Eurasian Poker Tour is mainly based in Russia and has a long tradition of hosting amazing poker tournaments. Eurasian players are well known on the island of Cyprus. This time the event runs from 22^nd to 26^th of August and guarantees $500,000 in prizes. Eurasian Poker Tour witnessed incredible plays at the online poker sites satellites and is expected to continue on top level in the Luxon Pay MPP.

Ladies First

Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party $100 buy-in Ladies First Event, hosted by poker industry wonder woman Ivonne Montealegre, is a promotional poker tournament aimed to active the female players and bring more ladies to the poker tables which are currently highly male dominant. The buy-in for the Ladies First event is $100 for female players and $1000 for male players, so there is plenty of cake for everyone who wants to take a bite. The event starts at 12:00 on the 27^th of August and is somewhat fast-paced with every level lasting only 20min.

La Notte Degli Assi & La Casa Della Carte by Imperium

La Notte Degli Assi and La Casa Della Carte are the most popular brands from the Italian poker operator Imperium. From these two Imperium events, the La Notte Degli Assi is the longest-running live poker tournament in Italy. The second event from Imperium is a $300+$30 Buy-in La Casa Delle Carte running from 27^th to 28^th of August. If you want to experience Italian poker culture, win prime cuts from a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool – Luxon Pay MPP is place to start from.

Malta Poker Festival

Malta Poker Festival is one of the most entertaining poker events in the world featuring everything from poker to various forms of gambling. The main location in the middle of the Mediterranean is known for its international atmosphere which is almost like a hub between players from all over the world. At Luxon Pay MPP, Malta Poker Festival hosts one $550 buy-in event starting on 28^th of August and the final table is played the next day.

Triton Super High Roller Series

As the name implies, Triton Super High Roller Series hosts tournaments with extremely high buy-ins but is also known from the biggest poker charity events in the world. First time ever at the Merit Royal Diamond hotel, Triton hosts an amazing list of super high roller events with buy-ins between $25,000 and $200,000! The Triton High Roller Series tournament are played on 5th of September – 17th of September and games include No-Limit Hold’em, Omaha, Short Deck, and much more.

How to Buy-in for Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party 2022

If you are planning a perfect poker holiday this year in Europe, Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party at the luxurious Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Resort offers everything you would want from a poker-filled vacation and more. You can buy-in and play in all Mediterranean Poker Party tournaments and also get discounted hotel packages by using Luxon Pay.

Check These Easy Steps on How You Can Buy-in and Secure Your Spot at Luxon Pay MPP 2022

Create Luxon Pay account and verify it.

Once you have our account verified. Choose a deposit method and transfer funds to your Luxon Pay account.

Go to “Transfer” in your Luxon Pay Wallet and choose “Transfer to merchants” and click “Merit Casino” and the Mediterranean Poker Party.

Choose the tournament/tournaments you want to play and proceed with a buy-in.

After the buy-ins are complete, you can simply visit the Merit Casino tournament desk upon arrival and get further instructions about your game day schedules.

If you wish to re-enter, simply go to your previous transactions, choose the event, and click ‘send again’.

Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party 2022 Full Schedule

Date	Time	Event	Buy-In	Guarantee
Fri 19th Aug	12:00	#1 MPP Open Day 1A	$1,000	$1,000,000
Sat 20th Aug	12:00	#1 MPP Open Day 1B	$1,000	$1,000,000
Sun 21st Aug	12:00	#1 MPP Open Day 1C	$1,000	$1,000,000
Mon 22nd Aug	12:00	#1 MPP Open Day 2	$1,000	$1,000,000
	12:00	#2 EAPT Day 1A	$1,000	$500,000
	18:00	#2 EAPT Day 1B	$1,000	$500,000
Tue 23rd Aug	12:00	#1 MPP Open Final Day	$1,000	$1,000,000
	12:00	#2 EAPT Day 1C	$1,000	$500,000
	18:00	#2 EAPT Day 1D	$1,000	$500,000
Wed 24th Aug	10:00	#2 EAPT Day 1 Turbo	$1,000	$500,000
	13:30	#2 EAPT Day 2	$1,000	$500,000
	18:00	#3 La Notte Degli Assi Day 1A	$500	$250,000
Thu 25th Aug	12:00	#2 EAPT Day 3	$1,000	$500,000
	12:00	#3 La Notte Degli Assi Day 1B	$500	$250,000
	12:00	#4 MPP PLO Day 1	$2,000	$200,000
	12:00	#5 MPP Warm Up Day 1A	$2,000	$2,000,000
	18:00	#3 La Notte Degli Assi Day 1C	$500	$250,000
Fri 26th Aug	11:00	#3 La Notte Degli Assi Day 1 Turbo	$500	$250,000
	12:00	#2 EAPT Final Day	$1,000	$500,000
	12:00	#4 MPP PLO Final Day	$2,000	$200,000
	12:00	#5 MPP Warm Up Day 1B	$2,000	$2,000,000
	15:30	#3 La Notte Degli Assi Day 2	$500	$250,000
Sat 27th Aug	12:00	#3 La Notte Degli Assi Final Day	$500	$250,000
	12:00	#5 MPP Warm Up Day 1C	$2,000	$2,000,000
	12:00	#6 Ladies First	$90	–
	14:00	#7 La Casa Delle Carte Day 1	$300	–
Sun 28th Aug	12:00	The One Drop Day 1	$10,000	–
	12:00	#5 MPP Warm Up Day 2	$2,000	$2,000,000
	12:00	#7 La Casa Delle Carte Final Day	$300	–
	12:00	#8 Malta Poker Festival Day 1	$500	–
Mon 29th Aug	12:00	The One Drop Final Day	$10,000	–
	12:00	#5 MPP Warm Up Final Day	$2,000	$2,000,000
	12:00	#8 Malta Poker Festival Final Day	$500	–
	12:00	#9 MPP Main Event Day 1A	$5,000	$5,000,000
	12:00	#10 MPP Mini Main Day 1A	$500	$250,000
Tue 30th Aug	12:00	#9 MPP Main Event Day 1B	$5,000	$5,000,000
	12:00	#10 MPP Mini Main Day 1B	$500	$250,000
	20:00	#10 MPP Mini Main Day 1 Turbo	$500	$250,000
Wed 31st Aug	12:00	#9 MPP Main Event Day 1C	$5,000	$5,000,000
	12:00	#10 MPP Mini Main Day 2	$500	$250,000
Thu 1st Sep	12:00	#9 MPP Main Event Day 2	$5,000	$5,000,000
	12:00	#10 MPP Mini Main Final Day	$500	$250,000
	12:00	#11 Irish Open Mediterranean Day 1A	$1,000	$500,000
	18:00	#12 MPP 7-Max Day 1	$5,000	$500,000
Fri 2nd Sep	12:00	#9 MPP Main Event Day 3	$5,000	$5,000,000
	12:00	#11 Irish Open Mediterranean Day 1B	$1,000	$500,000
	12:00	#12 MPP 7-Max Final Day	$5,000	$500,000
	18:00	#13 MPP 6-Max Day 1	$5,000	$500,000
	22:00	#11 Irish Open Mediterranean Day 1 Turbo	$1,000	$500,000
Sat 3rd Sep	12:00	#9 MPP Main Event Final Day	$5,000	$5,000,000
	12:00	#11 Irish Open Mediterranean Day 2	$1,000	$500,000
	12:00	#13 MPP 6-Max Final Day	$5,000	$500,000
	12:00	#14 Irish 6-Max Mediterranean Day 1	$500	–
	18:00	#15 MPP High Roller Day 1	$10,000	$1,000,000
Sun 4th Sep	12:00	#11 Irish Open Mediterranean Day 3	$1,000	$500,000
	12:00	#14 Irish 6-Max Mediterranean Final Day	$500	–
	12:00	#15 MPP High Roller Final Day	$10,000	$1,000,000
	18:00	#16 MPP 6-Max High Roller Turbo	$10,000	$500,000
Mon 5th Sep	12:00	#11 Irish Open Mediterranean Final Day	$1,000	$500,000
	14:00	#1 Triton NLH- 8 Handed Day 1	$25,000	–
Tue 6th Sep	13:00	#1 Triton NLH- 8 Handed Day 2	$25,000	–
	15:00	#2 Triton NLH- 6 Handed Day 1	$50,000	–
Wed 7th Sep	13:00	#2 Triton NLH- 6 Handed Day 2	$50,000	–
	15:00	#3 Triton NLH- 6Handed Day 1	$50,000	–
Thu 8th Sep	13:00	#3 Triton NLH- 6Handed Day 2	$50,000	–
	16:00	#5 Triton NLH- 8 Handed Day 1	$75,000	–
Fri 9th Sep	13:00	#5 Triton NLH- 8 Handed Day 2	$75,000	–
Sat 10th Sep	14:00	#6 Coin Rivet Invitational by Triton Day 1	$200,000	–
Sun 11th Sep	13:00	#6 Coin Rivet Invitational by Triton Day 2	$200,000	–
	16:00	#7 Triton Pot Limit Omaha Day 1	$25,000	–
Mon 12th Sep	13:00	#6 Coin Rivet Invitational by Triton Day Final Table	$200,000	–
	13:00	#7 Triton Pot Limit Omaha Day 2	$25,000	–
	16:00	#8 Triton NLH Main Event Day 1	$100,000	–
Tue 13th Sep	13:00	#8 Triton NLH Main Event Day 2	$100,000	–
	16:00	#9 Triton NLH- Turbo	$50,000	–
Wed 14th Sep	13:00	#8 Triton NLH Main Event Day Final Table	$100,000	–
	16:00	#10 Triton SD Ante-Only Day 1	$30,000	–
Thu 15th Sep	13:00	#10 Triton SD Ante-Only Day 2	$30,000	–
	15:00	#11 Triton SD Ante-Only – 1 Bullet (PL PF) Day 1	$40,000	–
Fri 16th Sep	13:00	#11 Triton SD Ante-Only – 1 Bullet (PL PF) Day 2	$40,000	–
	15:00	#12 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 1	$50,000	–
Sat 17th Sep	13:00	#12 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 2	$50,000	–
	17:00	#13 Triton SD- Main Event Day 1	$100,000	–
	13:00	#13 Triton SD- Main Event Day 2	$100,000	–
	17:00	#14 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only	$25,000	–
	13:00	#13 Triton SD- Main Event Day Final Table	$100,000	–
	13:00	#14 Triton Short Deck Ante-Only Day 2	$25,000	–

If you are looking for some hot poker action this weekend, look no further than The Festival Online, which features three action-packed events on Sunday, July 17 at 888poker.

The Festival Online guarantees $750,000 across more than 20 events from July 7 to August 1. While the $150,000 guaranteed The Festival Online $215 Main Event from July 31 to Aug. 1 is easily the highlight of The Festival Online, there are many other amazing events. Read on to learn about the three events you can win big in this weekend at 888poker.

The Festival Online $109 Texas Progressive KO

Progressive Knockout (PKO) events are one of the most popular tournament formats. If you also enjoy these events, you have a chance to win big bounties and prizes in The Festival Online – Texas Progressive KO on July 17 at 8 p.m. CEST.

This event provides tons of value as it boasts a whopping $100,000 guarantee for just a $109 buy-in.

Even if you don’t make the money, you can still win big with each player sporting a $50 bounty to start the event. In case you haven’t played PKOs before, for each bounty you win, half of it goes straight into your online poker balance at 888poker, and the other half gets added to your own personal bounty. This allows bounties to grow to huge amounts, especially at the end where players will not only be playing for a huge amount of money in the prize pool but the bounties will be mouth-watering as well.

The structure of this event also allows for tons of play with players starting out with 30,000 in chips, equating to 300 big blinds. Blinds increase slowly at every 12 minutes and if things don’t go well off the bat, the tournament allows for five re-entries during the four-hour late-registration window.

Keep on the lookout for many cheap satellites to get into this event for a fraction of the cost. Our friends at 888poker even have a handful of freerolls where you can potentially score big without even touching a penny of your balance.

The Festival Series Online $525 Texas High Roller PKO

If a $109 buy-in with a $100,000 guarantee is enough to get you excited, you can also play even bigger this weekend with The Festival Series Online – Texas High Roller PKO boasting a $525 buy-in along with a $40,000 guarantee on Sunday, July 17 at 8:30 p.m. CEST.

This event also provides tons of action with players starting with 10,000 in chips for 167 big blinds and blinds increasing every 12 minutes.

The bounties will be huge from the start with $250 on each player’s head and will increase from there. Players will also be able to re-enter up to 10 times during the three-hour late-registration period.

Additionally, 888poker is hosting a trio of satellites for this event where you can potentially snag your seat for as low as $22.

The Festival Online Main Event Feeder

If PKOs aren’t your thing or you want to play a few tournaments at once, you should put The Festival Online – Main Event Feeder – 30 Seats onto your calendar.

The mega satellite kicks off on July 17 at 9 p.m. CEST and guarantees 30 seats into the $150,000 guaranteed The Festival Online Main Event on July 31 to Aug. 1 for just a $22 buy-in. The event plays a bit faster than the others, which is natural considering it is a satellite. However, there is still tons of play with six-minute blind levels and players starting off with a big stack of 167 big blinds with their 5,000 opening stack if they get from the start. Don’t stress if you are a little bit late, with the satellite boasting a one-hour of late registration, during which players can re-enter up to five times.

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

The Festival Online is a series of 26 tournaments on 888poker that will run from July 7 to August 1. Buy-ins range from $1 to $525 and a total of $750,000 in prize money is guaranteed.

To participate in The Festival Online, all you need is a real money poker account at 888poker. You can find all the events under the Tournaments tab in the lobby.

» Details about The Festival Online and full schedule
» More about 888poker

One of the biggest nights of the poker year of is upon us when the final table of WSOP 2022 $10,000 NL Hold’em World Championship Main Event kicks-off this Friday at the legendary Bally’s Events Center Las Vegas.

Ten players, over 30 million dollars in prizes, and only one WSOP bracelet. Who will win and take home the massive $10 000 000 main prize and claim the most wanted title in the world of poker? This all comes down tonight!

Did you know?

WSOP 2022 bracelet has a brand new design that is nothing less than EPIC – featuring 500 grams of white and yellow gold and 55 karats or 2,767 various precious stones including rubies, and black and white diamonds.

Who is in the Arena?

This year the final table table chip lead goes to 34-year old Norwegian gentleman, Espen Jorstad and Matthew Su from the United States, both with 83,200,000 chips totalling in 69 big blinds.

Espen Jorstad is rolling steady, aiming for double bracelets after winning the $1,000 Tag Team with Patrick Leonard. For Matthew Su WSOP final table is once in a lifetime opportunity to win WSOP bracelet in his first ever WSOP event, which happen to be one of his first major live poker tournaments also. Behind the chip leaders comes Matija Dobric, Aaron Duczak, John Eames, Adrian Attenborough, Michael Duek all nearing 50k chips. Last but not least Jeffrey Farnes, Asher Conniff, and Philippe Souki, who need to grind little bit more to reach the top positions.

See Full WSOP Event 70 Final Table lineup and chip count here:

1. Espen Jorstad	83,200,000
2. Matthew Su	83,200,000
3. Matija Dobric	68,650,000
4. Aaron Duczak	56,000,000
5. John Eames	54,950,000
6. Adrian Attenborough	50,800,000
7. Michael Duek	49,775,000
8. Jeffrey Farnes	35,350,000
9. Asher Conniff	24,400,000
10. Philippe Souki	13,500,000

Event #70 WSOP 2022 Final Table Prizepool

PLACE	PRIZE
1st	$10,000,000
2nd	$6,000,000
3rd	$4,000,000
4th	$3,000,000
5th	$2,250,000
6th	$1,750,000
7th	$1,350,000
8th	$1,075,000
9th	$850,675
10th	$675,000

Where To Watch WSOP 2022 Main Event?

If you want to be there online and watch when the final hand of this WSOP event is played go to PokerGO and subscribe with a code WSOP30, you get $30 off from the annual subscription and can watch all WSOP main event live and much more. Regular price for subscription is $99,9/year or $14,90/month. With a subscription you can watch all the best WSOP events live and much more. For more information, go to how to watch WSOP 2022 live.

*Photos courtesy of PokerNews

Do you have six minutes? Because that’s all you need to play the BLAST tournaments on 888-Poker. These are offering payouts of up to $1,000,000 for buy-ins starting at $1.

During The Festival Online powered by 888poker, those BLAST tournaments come with a special incentive. 888poker is running daily BLAST leaderboards with $10k added. You just have to play BLAST tournaments. After each game you win ranking points – 2 points for a win, 1 point for second and third place. Your points are multiplied by the BLAST multiplier of the tournament.

There are two leaderboards, one for your first 10 games and one for your first 30 games. You need to join the leaderboard before your points are counted towards them. You can choose to join either of the two or even both of them.

How Blast Sit and Go Tournaments Work

888poker‘s BLAST is a super-fast Texas Hold’em Sit & Go with three players and random prize pool multipliers that can allow players to play for large amounts of money for a small buy-in.

Multiplier: The prize pool multiplier of each BLAST Sit & Go is determined by a draw that takes place at the start of each BLAST tournament. This multiplier can be anywhere from 2 to 10,000 times the buy-in of the selected BLAST Sit & Go.

Timed Action: Every Blast tournament only lasts a few minutes. When the tournament starts, the BLAST timer begins its countdown. When it expires, all remaining players are all-in until only one winner is left.

The blind structure and prize pool distribution of each BLAST Sit & Go will be determined according to the multiplier that was assigned to the BLAST Sit & Go. The higher the multiplier, the longer the BLAST timer will run until the all-in stage is reached.

How to Register for a BLAST Sit & Go

To register for any BLAST tournament, simply open the 888poker lobby. You will find the BLAST tab in the left-hand side menu of the 888poker lobby. On this tab, you will find all available buy-ins for all BLAST Sit & Go tournaments.

To register for a BLAST Sit & Go, simply click on the buy-in you wish to play and select the number of BLAST Sit & Go tournaments you want to register for. You can register for multiple tournaments simultaneously. Once three players have registered, the prize pool draw will take place, the BLAST timer will start and the game will begin.

» More about The Festival Online
» More about 888poker

The next edition of the popular MicroMillions tournament series starts this Sunday on PokerStars. From July 17 to 31, the series will guarantee over $4 million in prize money, with buy-ins aimed primarily at micro-stakes players. Read all the details about the MicroMillions on PokerStars here.

PokerStars is playing a total of 208 tournaments during the MicroMillions series over two weeks. The buy-ins of over 99 percent of the tournaments are $11 or less. In fact, most tournaments cost $5.50 or less.

Of course, a vast amount of cheap tournaments is running on PokerStars every day even outside this tournament series. But as part of the MicroMillions, the tournaments come with some hefty guarantees, and the MicroMillions offers numerous tournaments in slightly off-the-beaten-path poker variants – variants that are rarely played in tournament format elsewhere. There are MicroMillions tournaments in Stud, Single-Draw, Triple-Draw, 5-Card-Omaha or Badugi variants – all with very affordable buy-ins.

Highlights of the MicroMillions 2022

Every day there are at least 12 tournaments and every day there are non-Hold’em tournaments on the schedule as well. The smaller tournaments have guarantees ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

Six larger highlight tournaments with moderately higher buy-ins have also been scheduled by PokerStars:

July 17: $11 Sunday Special with $100,000 guaranteed
July 23: $11 Saturday Special with $100,000 guaranteed
July 24: $11 Sunday Special with $100,000 guaranteed
July 30: $11 Saturday Special with $100,000 guaranteed
July 31: $22 Main Event with $500,000 guaranteed
July 31: $55 High Roller with $200,000 guaranteed

The Main Event in particular will attract a lot of players, guaranteeing a significant amount for a still very moderate buy-in of only $22 – with up to four re-entries allowed.

Knock-Out Edition of the MicroMillions

The majority of the tournaments running during the MicroMillions are in the progressive knockout format. In this format half of the buy-in is used as a knockout bonus, and players have increasingly higher bounty bonuses with each player they knock out.

The knockout format enjoys great popularity on PokerStars. Recently, the provider converted its most important and best-known tournament, the PokerStars Sunday Million to the progressive knockout format. The Main Event and the other major Saturday and Sunday MicroMillions tournaments are also held in this format.

To find the complete PokerStars MicroMillions tournament schedule, visit the “MicroMillions” tab in the lobby of the PokerStars client.

*Any mention of a bonus or discussion of such terms is not in relation to the province of Ontario.

» More about PokerStars

Online poker has been around for over 20 years and poker providers have always had to deal with various forms of fraud. Apart from the super-user scandals once surrounding Ultimate and Absolute Bet where the fraud came from within the company, fraud attempts almost always come from the users. A5 Labs, a California-based company now suggests how poker operators can combat this fraud using NFTs.

The hottest topics regarding online poker cheats right now are the use of bots, real-time analytics using computationally intensive software, ghosting, and collusion. A software pioneer from Silicon Valley now wants to counter these cheating attempts with modern technology. A5 Labs is the name of the software company and it develops AI-driven software that verifies the integrity of games. The company is calling on online poker providers to strengthen existing safeguards. More security, transparency and modern technologies are needed to ensure the safety and integrity of online poker in the future.

The Most Common Cheating Methods in Online Poker at the Moment

Use of poker bots: A poker bot is a piece of software that is able to imitate a player at an online poker table. Using mined data and based on game theory and machine learning, such a bot automatically makes decisions and acts without human supervision. Over the course of the last few years, bot networks have been discovered several times at various poker providers. For almost a decade, bots have had sufficient computing power to beat average human players.

Real-Time Analysis (RTA): When a player uses RTA, he receives real-time advice from software during the game. This software usually relies on a database of solutions generated by a so-called GTO solver. GTO means Game Theory Optimal. Given the cards, the board and the previous actions, the software finds the best move and offers support against all opponents.

Ghosting: Ghosting is when a player does not make his own decisions but is advised by another player during the game. This occasionally happens when a mediocre player reaches the finals of a major online tournament and consults a coach at the final table. Ghosting is generally not allowed and is usually recognizable by a sudden drastic change in the way someone plays.

Collusion: When two players engage in collusion, they coordinate their actions with each other and use the additional information to their advantage. A simple example of collusion is exchanging information of the players’ hole cards. If you know the cards of another player at the table, you can calculate your chances more accurately and have better estimates of the actions of other players.

How can A5 Labs Help Fight Online Poker Fraud?

A5 Labs is a company that uses artificial intelligence to help companies solve security problems. Online poker sites have huge databases with enormous amounts of information about both individual players and entire groups of players. It is possible to use this data to identify so-called “bad actors” (i.e. potential cheaters). The company has recently published a paper revealing how to find intelligent ways to sift through poker provider data for signs of cheating.

Purchasable NFT Poker Avatar

One very new concept in the paper is the idea of what A5 Labs calls a “holistic platform solution.” In this, a player’s identity is linked to an NFT (Non-Fungible Token). Using this NFT, which can act as an avatar, for example, it would be possible for a player to play on different platforms and remain anonymous, but it would still be possible for operators to exchange security-related information with each other about the player. The use of NFTs to identify players could – according to A5 Labs – also entail that lengthy verification processes become a thing of the past. Once verified via an NFT with one provider, players could immediately play with the same NFT on all other poker sites without the need to send their proof of identification a second time.

Risk profiles of players can be linked to NFTs, similar to a check for credit. In this way, players could build their reputation on each site simultaneously. A5 Labs focused on the opportunities NFTs offer for online poker security in a comprehensive paper for the Future of Online Poker. The first provider to use NFTs is currently WPT Global, a licensed partner of the World Poker Tour. WPT Global allows players to purchase NFT avatars that are uniquely assigned to the player through their Poker Heroes Club. Currently, players only get a few minor benefits from having an NFT avatar, but A5 Labs shows how this technology could shape the online poker landscape in the future if all providers pull together.

You can read the entire paper here: » A5 Labs white paper: Advanced Technologies for Secure, Fair and Fun Online Poker (Englisch)

The first really big tournament of the Festival Series Online powered by 888poker has ended last night. For a buy-in of $109, the tournament offered a $100,000 guarantee and the Swedish player Angelegot secured first place and over $14,600 in prize money after a deal between the final two players.

The Festival Opening Event Goes to Sweden

With a $100,000 guarantee, The Festival Online’s two-day opening event was by far the biggest tournament of the series last Sunday. The final table was played Monday night and the whole final could be watched live on the Twitch channel of 888poker with David Tuchman and Nick Wealthall commenting. After a little under two hours, the Swedish player Angelelot prevailed in the heads-up against his British opponent DarioPourzan.

Results of The Festival Online Opening Event

Buy-in: $109
Players: 796 players (plus 204 re-entries)
Prize Money: $100,000
1st place: Angelegot ($15,692.29)

With exactly 1,000 entries, the Opening Event hit the $100,000 guarantee. On Sunday the tournament was stopped after the final nine players were found and they returned Monday night to play out the first big title of The Festival Online.

The final table was an intense battle and after the Brazilian DantonGomes was eliminated in 3rd place, only two players remained: Sweden’s Angelegot and DarioPourzan from the United Kingdom. Both quickly agreed on a deal that left a little over $2,000 on the table to play for. DarioPourzan began the heads-up with slightly more chips. However, after a massive all-in before the flop, Angelegot was able to double up with JJ against A-9.

After that hand, DarioPourzan was left with less than two big blinds which he managed to double several times. But he ended up losing all his chips in a slightly unlucky way when he was all-in preflop with A-Q against J-5 and Angelegot hit a 5 on the flop. This is the final hand of the tournament:

The Festival Online Opening Event - Final Hand — The Festival Online Opening Event – Final Hand

Results of The Festival Online Opening High Roller

The Opening High Roller ended on Sunday and this tournament had a significantly higher buy-in and was completed in just under seven hours. Without a deal, TrustMeBRO managed to win this tournament while NL_sport from Lithuania came in second. Incidentally, the bubble boy in this tournament was 888 brand ambassador Dominik “888Dominik” Nitsche.

Buy-in: $525
Players: 67 players (plus 18 re-entries)
Prize money: $62,500
1st place: TrustMeBRO ($11,900)

Results of The Festival Online Opening PLO

The Opening Pot-Limit Omaha tournament hosted by The Festival Online started Sunday evening and finished in the little hours of Monday night. The Opening PLO was the shortest event of The Festival Online this Sunday. After a little under four hours, fanat5371234 won the event ahead of orbanviktor and took away $2,109.

Buy in : $109
Players : 46 players (plus 11 re-entries)
Prize money : $5,700
1st place: fanat5371234 ($2,109)

Upcoming Events this Week

The Festival Online continues this Tuesday and Thursday with several smaller tournaments before the big knock-out weekend this Sunday. These are the tournaments that are scheduled for the coming two days:

Texas Deep Stack

Name: The Festival Online – Texas Deepstack
Date: July 12th
Time: 19:00 (CEST)
Variant : No Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $55
Guarantee: $10,000
Re-Entries: maximum 10
Late Reg: until 23:00 (CEST)
Structure: 30,000 chips (12 minute level)

Snap

Snap Poker is the 888poker variant of Fast Fold Poker.

Name: The Festival Online – Snap
Date: July 12th
Time: 21:00 (CEST)
Variant: Snap No-Limit Hold’em (Fast Fold)
Buy-in: $33
Guarantee: $5,000
Re-Entries: maximum 8
Late Reg : until 23:30 (CEST)
Structure : 10,000 chips (10 minute level)

PLO Deep Stack

Name: The Festival Online – PLO Deepstack
Date: July 14th
Time: 19:00 (CEST)
Variant: Pot-Limit Omaha
Buy-in: $55
Guarantee: $2,000
Re-Entries: maximum 5
Late Reg: until 23:00 (CEST)
Structure: 30,000 chips (10 minute level)

Texas 6-Max

Name: The Festival Online – Texas 6-max
Date: July 14th
Time: 20:00 (CEST)
Variant: No Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $160
Guarantee: $15,000
Re-Entries: Unlimited
Late Reg : until 23:00 (CEST)
Structure : 20,000 chips (10 minute level)

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

The Festival Online is a series of 26 tournaments on 888poker that will run from July 7 to August 1. Buy-ins range from $1 to $525 and a total of $750,000 in prize money is guaranteed.

To participate in The Festival Online, all you need is a real money poker account at 888poker. You can find all the events under the Tournaments tab in the lobby.

» Details about The Festival Online and full schedule
» More about 888poker

This weekend the Battle of Malta Online commenced on GGPoker. This tournament series guarantees a total of €25 million until the end of the month and offers four big tournaments with seven-figure guarantees.

The first edition of the Battle of Malta Poker Tournament ran in 2012 and was hosted live in Malta for many years by PokerListings. In 2019, the tournament attracted 4,657 players in Malta. The next edition will take place from October 4 to 12. For a buy-in of €555, the event will guarantee one million euros in prize money.

In the meantime, an online edition of the Battle of Malta will be held on GGPoker. The online giant is offering numerous events as part of the series, guaranteeing a total of $25 million in prize money over the next few weeks.

Highlights of the Battle of Malta on GGPoker

The first major highlight of the Battle of Malta Online will take place next Sunday when the final of the Global MILLION$ European Cup will be played. This tournament with multiple starting flights has a buy-in of only €50 and guarantees €1,000,000.

The following weekend, on July 24, the final of the Siege of Malta will take place. This is a bounty tournament for only €105 with a guarantee of €1,000,000.

On the last weekend of the Battle of Malta Online, GGPoker offers two huge tournaments. First, for the players with bulging bankrolls, there is the Royal Championship, which costs €1,050 and guarantees €1,000,000. The biggest event of the series, the final of the Battle of Malta Online Main Event starts on July 31. This tournament costs the same as the live edition at €555 and guarantees a whopping €2,500,000.

In addition, there are numerous other tournaments on the schedule, such as Omaha, 6-Max and Bounty tournaments. These are the highlights of Battle of Malta Online:

Date	Time	Event	Buy-In	Guarantee
July 10	18:00	#1 King’s Landing Opener €110	€110	€250,000
July 10	20:30	#2 Charge to Glory Bounty Turbo €52.50 [Ultra Deep]	€52.50	€100,000
July 12	18:00	#3 Omaholic Knight Crusaders €550	€550	€100,000
July 14	18:00	#4 Bounty for the Knight €210	€210	€200,000
July 16	18:00	#5 Tallinn Summer Showdown €55 [6-Max]	€55	€100,000
July 17	18:00	#6 Kings of Tallinn Main Event €220	€220	€400,000
July 17	20:30	#7 Global MILLION$ European Cup, €1M GTD [Final Day]	€50	€1,000,000
July 19	18:00	#8 Iron Throne Marathon €110	€110	€125,000
July 21	18:00	#9 Bounty for the Queen €315	€315	€250,000
July 23	18:00	#10 Three-Cities Challenge €330 [3-Stack]	€330	€150,000
July 24	18:00	#11 Grand Harbour Superstack €550	€550	€500,000
July 24	20:30	#12 Siege of Malta Bounty MILLION$, €1M GTD [Final Stage]	€105	€1,000,000
July 26	18:00	#13 Gladiator 6-Max €330	€330	€200,000
July 28	18:00	#14 Bounty for the King €525	€525	€300,000
July 30	18:00	#15 St. Julian’s Bounty Feast €105	€105	€125,000
July 31	17:00	#16 GGMasters Royal Championship €1,050	€1,050	€1,000,000
July 31	18:00	#17 Omaholic Crusaders Bounty Quest €210	€210	€100,000
July 31	20:30	#18 Main Event, €2.5M GTD [Final Day]	€555	€2,500,000

All times are CEST.

Battle of Malta Live Qualifier

GGPoker is offering its players the chance to win packages to the live event via the online Battle of Malta. As part of the Road to Malta, numerous satellites are offered to guarantee a total of 75 packages (main event buy-in plus hotel) to the Battle of Malta in October.

Furthermore, GGPoker is giving away 25 packages to the Battle of Malta via the online series’ leader board. Diligent players can collect points for this leaderboard, especially via the many small tournaments of the series, and thus secure a chance to win a free package.

The first event of The Festival Online Powered by 888poker was finished this Thursday. The tournament played out 25 tickets to the main event and the buy-in was rather affordable at $1 – the cheapest buy-in of the whole series.

After a little more than three hours of play, 25 lucky players picked up their Main Event ticket and secured an entry to the $215 tournament with a $150,000 guarantee which will run later this month.

The Festival Online – Kickoff | Results

Date: July 7th
Time: 20:00 (CEST)
Buy-in: $1
Prize money: 25 tickets to the Main Event worth $215 each
Players: 635 plus 342 re-entries
Winner: 25 players

The kickoff event felt almost like a freeroll with a buy-in of only $1. The tournament had a noticeable overlay of several thousand dollars which was not unexpected as the tournament’s purpose was above all to give players a headstart to the Main Event and promote the series.

With a re-entry phase of 60 minutes, players were able to play loose and aggressive, as there were another 5,000 chips for just $1 should a player lose all chips. During the later stages, however, the game tightened significantly as the bubble loomed. After a little over three hours, the tournament was a little while after 11 p.m. and 25 players can now look forward to the Main Event which they earned a seat for.

This Sunday: Big Opening Event

The first of the huge tournaments of the Festival Online powered by 888poker with six-figure guarantees takes place this Sunday. The $109 Opening Event with a $100,000 guarantee starts in two days.

Details and structure of the Festival Series Online Opening Event

Name: The Festival Online – Opening Event
Date: July 10th
Time: 20:00 (CEST)
Variant: No Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $109
Guarantee: $100,000
Re-Entries: unlimted
Late Reg: until 23:45 (CEST)
Structure: 30,000 chips (12 minutes per level)

The opening event has a gradual structure and allows unlimited re-entries within the first 3 ¾ hours. It will be played until the final table is reached which will be played on Monday from 21:00 CEST and broadcast starting half an hour later on the 888poker Twitch account with open cards.

In addition to the opening event, there are two other tournaments this Sunday:

Details and structure of the Festival Series Online Opening Event High Roller

Name: The Festival Online – Opening High Roller
Date July 10th
Time: 20:30 (CEST)
Variant: No Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $525
Guarantee: $40,000
Re-Entries: maximum 10
Late Reg: until 23:30 (CEST)
Structure: 10,000 chips (12 minute level)

The High Roller Opening Event is relatively expensive at a $525 buy-in but it offers a scrumptious $40,000 guarantee while ending within one day.

Details and structure of the Festival Series Online Opening PLO

Name: The Festival Online – Opening Event PLO
Date: July 10th
Time: 21:00 (CEST)
Variant: Pot-Limit Omaha
Buy-in: $109
Guarantee: $5,000
Re-Entries: unlimited
Late Reg: until 23:05 (CEST)
Structure: 10,000 chips (12 minute level)

In addition to two NLH tournaments, there is also a PLO tournament coming up on the first weekend of The Festival Online. This event guarantees $5,000 in prize money and allows two hours of unlimited re-entries.

Affordable Satellites to The Festival Online

Satellites with buy-ins as cheap as one cent are running for all tournaments around the clock. The biggest upcoming satellite will be on July 10 at 5:30 p.m. CEST. This satellite tournament will guarantee 30 tickets worth $109 each for the Opening Event for a buy-in of only $16.50. All tournaments can be found in the 888poker lobby and the easiest way to filter for The Festival Online tournaments is to enter the term “festival” in the search field in the 888poker lobby.

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

The Festival Online is a series of 26 tournaments on 888poker that will run from July 7 to August 1. Buy-ins range from $1 to $525 and a total of $750,000 in prize money is guaranteed.

To participate in The Festival Online, all you need is a real money poker account at 888poker. You can find all the events under the Tournaments tab in the lobby.

» Details about The Festival Online and full schedule
» More about 888poker

The new provider WPT Global offers its players a fantastic welcome bonus of up to $1,200. We explain here how this bonus works, how to make the most of the bonus and what to look out for.

The WPT Global Welcome Bonus

These are the basic conditions of the bonus:

Every player is entitled to the bonus with their first deposit.
The bonus amount is 100% of the first deposit up to $1,200.
The minimum deposit is $20.
The bonus is released by playing real money poker games (cash games and tournaments).
For every $20 in generated rake, $5 bonus will be credited to the player account.
Each player has 90 days to clear the bonus.
The bonus amount not released after 90 after the first deposit will be forfeited.

How Good is the WPT Global Bonus?

WPT Global’s deposit bonus is good to very good compared to other poker sites. The total amount of $1,200 is bigger than what most other providers offer. For example, PokerStars, partypoker and GGPoker only offer up to $600 bonus.

The bonus is released in $5 increments for every $20 rake paid. Meaning, that while you clear the bonus, you effectively get 25 percent cash-back. This is a good rate. Many other providers have a release rate in a similar range between 20 and 28 percent.

The duration of the bonus is 90 days, which is equal to what other providers offer. Every player has about three months to clear the bonus. Thus, even with only moderate volume, you have ample time to play a lot of hands and tournaments and thus receive a big bonus amount.

The games and stakes offered at WPT Global are still comparatively low. Primarily, you will find low-stakes cash games and small tournaments. Of course, you pay only small amounts of rake in these games and it takes a long time to clear the bonus. If you want to earn the full $1,200 bonus, you have to be prepared to spend a lot of time at the tables over the 90 days after your first deposit.

The good thing about the WPT Global bonus is that you don’t have to clear it completely. Not all providers offer this luxury. Many casino providers, for example, have the condition that the entire bonus needs to be cleared before it is released. Not so with WPT Global. For example, if you deposit $1,200 and receive the full bonus amount, but only clear $800 after 90 days, then only the remaining $400 will be forfeited and you can use the earned $800 freely.

The bottom line is that WPT Global’s bonus is very good and should be used by every player.

About WPT Global

The poker provider WPT Global went live in April this year and is a licensed partner of the World Poker Tour. The poker room is available in over 50 countries and caters to an international pool of players worldwide – including Asia and South America.

WPT Global is the first poker site to offer the revolutionary concept of NFT avatars. Through the Poker Heroes Club, players can secure one of only 9,999 unique avatars. Depending on the level of the avatar, these give access to additional features and VIP areas at WPT Global.

» More about WPT Global in our WPT Global Review
» All WPT Global News

The Canadian poker community just received exciting news when PokerStars announced their full registration to operate in the province of Ontario. Accepted and regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), PokerStars CAON lands in the province with three gaming products – Poker, Casino, and Sports. Covering over 5000 games, tournaments, sports betting, and bringing the best services only this industry-leading giant can provide.

“In many respects Ontario is our home market, given the first ever hand of PokerStars was played here over 20 years ago, so we are thrilled about the new regulated environment within which our players can play”, said Tom Warren, MD – Marketing. “A lot has changed in that time, but our commitment to offering our players the most epic and thrilling experience in the market hasn’t – and we can’t wait to get started.”

Poker players in Canada can now enjoy world-class gaming entertainment, but also soon localized rewards and more – created in close partnership with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.

Play in the PokerStars $1 Million GTD Ontario Platinum Series

To celebrate this launch, PokerStars CAON hosts a special launch series, Ontario Platinum Series with $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The online tournament series is set to run from 10^th to 18^th of July and is available exclusively for those in Ontario.

If you are in Ontario this summer, prepare to play and get rewarded. PokerStars offers new weekly flag-ship – the New Sunday Majors –tournament with $100k guaranteed prize pool every week. Fantastic reward program and double rewards throughout July and August.

For players outside Ontario PokerStars is running better than ever before providing you world’s best online poker services 24/7.

PokerStars CAON – What to expect?

Over 5000 games
Poker, Blackjack, Casino, Sport Betting
Localised schedule and offerings
Special events
New Sunday Majors –tournament $100k GTD
Fantastic reward program and double rewards from July to August
Special launch series: Ontario Platinum Series $1 million GTD (10th to 18th of July)

*Any mention of a bonus or discussion of such terms is not in relation to the province of Ontario.

Today, July 7, the first edition of The Festival Online commences on 888poker. The tournament series is the first collaboration of The Festival with an online provider to bring the successful live tournament series to an online environment. Over the next 4 weeks, the series guarantees $750,000 in prize money across 26 tournaments.

The Festival Online starts today with the most affordable tournament of the whole series. It costs just one dollar to play and the event guarantees 25 tickets to the Main Event.

The Festival Kickoff

The Kickoff Event is the cheapest direct satellite in the Festival Online Main Event. For a buy-in of just $1, a whopping 25 Main Event tickets worth $215 each are guaranteed. That means at least $5,375 in prize money will be played for in this tournament.

These are the details:

Name: The Festival Online – Kickoff
Date: July 7
Time: 20:00 (CEST)
Buy-In: $1
Re-Entries: 5 Re-Entries(á 5,000 Chips) in the first hour
Late-Reg: until 21:00 (CEST)
Structure: 5,000 chips (6 minute levels)

The tournament allows re-entries during the first hour, limited to a maximum of 5 per player. The structure allows for plenty of post-flop poker in the first hour, with the blinds picking up noticeably after that, so there won’t be an eternally long time until the winners are found.

More Satellites

At the same time, numerous satellites to the Festival Online are taking place regularly today and in the coming days on 888poker. These have buy-ins from 1 cent up to $16.50 and guarantee tickets to the $109 opening tournament taking place on Sunday.

The biggest upcoming satellite starts on July 10 at 17:30 CEST and guarantees 30 tickets to the opening event worth $109 each for a buy-in of only $16.50.

If you want to try to qualify for little money and play the first big tournament on Sunday, you will definitely find plenty of options on 888poker.

Looking Ahead: The First Big Festival Online Weekend

The coming Sunday features three tournaments of The Festival Online:

$109 Opening Event with $100,000 guaranteed at 20:00 (CEST)
$525 Opening High Roller with $40,000 guaranteed at 20:30 (CEST)
$109 Opening PLO with $5,000 guaranteed at 21:00 (CEST)

The Opening Event has a slow structure with 12-minute levels and a starting stack of 30,000 chips (300 big blinds). Due to the great interest in the series and the event, the final table of this tournament will be played on Monday starting at 21:00 CEST and will broadcast cards-up on 888poker’s Twitch account beginning half an hour later.

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

The Festival Online is a series of 26 tournaments on 888poker that will run from July 7 to August 1. Buy-ins range from $1 to $525 and a total of $750,000 in prize money is guaranteed.

To participate in The Festival Online, all you need is a real money poker account at 888poker. You can find all the events under the Tournaments tab in the lobby.

» Details about The Festival Online
» More about 888poker

The online poker site GGPoker announced last week that it will introduce a so-called Poker Integrity Council (PIC). This is to spearhead an industry-wide initiative to protect the integrity of the poker game. The function of this council is to investigate allegations of cheating, conduct fair reviews and enforce sanctions for convicted cheaters.

In an official statement, the company describes the panel as consisting of respected community members. They are said to investigate suspicious behavior at the GGPoker tables independently of the provider.

Process and Actions of the PIC

Each case brought to the panel is to be investigated through the following process:

Detection: suspicious behavior such as collusion, use of bots or supporting software (known as Real-Time Analysis), or ghosting will be flagged for review.
Review: The relevant hand histories will be reviewed by members of the panel. The player data in the hand histories is anonymized.
Ruling: Panel members vote on whether or not action is required.

If the PIC panel decides to take disciplinary action, the player will face a warning, temporary account closure or a permanent ban, depending on the severity of the offense. The latter may be accompanied by confiscation of the player’s funds.

In the most serious cases, it may also be decided to blacklist the player. The PIC and GGPoker have already partnered with the biggest live poker tours and casinos to enforce bans away from GGPoker. Partners include the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, Triton Poker, the Poker Go Tour, Kings Casino and the Battle of Malta.

Members of the Poker Integrity Council

The voting members of the Poker Integrity Council are highly respected and accomplished representatives of the poker community. Jason Koon was already hired as GGPoker’s integrity ambassador last summer. Other members of the PIC will be Andrew Lichtenberger, Fedor Holz, Seth Davies and Nick Petrangelo.

High time for an integrity board?

In recent months, there have been an increasing number of apparently well-founded allegations of fraud against well-known players on the scene. Among the very big names on the scene facing allegations of cheating are Ali Imsirovic, Bryn Kenney and Jake Schindler. All three are banned on GGPoker. GGPoker released no details in this regard, but people close to both of them suspect that Imsirovic and Schindler used so-called Real Time Assistance software – programs that can calculate the optimal move in any situation. Kenny is accused of running a collusion and ghosting scheme at GGPoker.

Considering the increasing number of cases of cheating allegations, it seems high time that GGPoker, as well as other online providers, become more active and transparent against these. Even though it will be impossible to completely prevent any cheating, at least a step in the right direction can be taken with the newly founded Poker Integrity Council.

Further Reading: Alex Foxen Accuses Ali Imsirovic of Systematic Cheating

Norway’s Eirik Kristiansen became the second-ever winner of The Festival Series Main Event champion after defeating Finland’s Jari Mähönen heads-up to win The Festival Series Tallinn €550 Main Event for €56,100 at the luxurious Olympic Park Casino and the adjoining Hilton Tallinn Park.

Kristiansen began the day as the chip leader and despite coughing it up multiple times throughout the final table remained calm, cool, and collected throughout the final day en route to hoisting the coveted trophy.

The victory was easily the biggest live poker tournament success story for Kristiansen who came into the event with five relatively small poker tournament cashes as tracked by The Hendon Mob, each under $1,000, for a total of $2,209.

Despite Kristiansen being near the top of the chip counts throughout the day, he came from behind against a formidable opponent in Mähönen, who regularly plays tournaments in Tallinn and has amassed more than $500,000 in lifetime tournament earnings, to win the title.

The Festival Series Tallinn Final Table Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Eirik Kristiansen	Norway	€56,100
2	Jari Mähönen	Finland	€36,120
3	Kristoffer Winterstein	Sweden	€22,040
4	Mikael Viggander	Sweden	€16,200
5	Jero Keitaanranta	Finland	€12,100
6	Rando Liiber	Estonia	€9,100
7	Toivo Ojasoo	Estonia	€6,700
8	Gregory Partridge	United Kingdom	€5,100
9	Sascha Manns	Germany	€3,950

The Festival Series Tallinn Main Event was a smashing success after attracting 552 entries to generate a juicy €264,960 prize pool. The top 71 players were awarded at least a €1,100 min-cash with five players collecting at least a five-figure prize.

Final Table Action

After four opening flights along with two more days of play, the action-packed Main Event was down to a final table of nine hopefuls with WPT Global online qualifier Oleksandra Shenderei hit the rail on the final table bubble after her fives failed to win a flip against the ace-jack held by Estonia’s Rando Liiber.

Germany’s Sascha Manns and Estonia’s Toivo Ojasoo, who qualified via Coolbet Poker, entered the final table as the short stacks. The day didn’t last long for Manns. In fact, it just took one hand to the rail in ninth place. To the disappointment to the tremendous community at the Malta Poker Fish community, who were also rooting on Sweden’s Mikael Viggander, Manns was unable to win a crucial early flip with eights against king-jack to be the first player to live the lights and cameras on the live-streamed final table.

Ojasoo managed to ladder one more spot after doubling up. Instead, it was the United Kingdom’s Gregory Partridge to hit the rail next in eighth place when his ace-queen was out-flipped by the fishhooks held by Sweden’s Kristoffer Winterstein. Partridge won more than what will be officially reported on his The Hendon Mob profile as he also won the last longer contest for those entering the tournament via Luxon Pay to give him his buy-in back on top of his tournament earnings.

Not too much later, the two Estonians remaining in Ojasoo and Liiber were out. Ojasoo got it in with top pair but was unable to hold against the nut-flush draw held by Viggander. Meanwhile, Liiber’s jacks ran into Winterstein’s queens and a short while later the first chip lead change occurred at the final table with Winterstein as the captain.

Before long, Kristiansen regained the lead before eliminating both Viggander and Finland’s Jero Keitaanranta and had approximately double of the stacks of his two remaining opponents shortly after the three-way handed began.

The momentum shifted to Mahonen shortly after that as he doubled through Winterstein before taking the chip lead with a flush against Kristiansen. On the other end of things, Winterstein was down to crumbs before doubling up twice to get a little bit of breathing room. However, his king-six proved to be worthless against Mahonen’s king-queen and Mahonen began the heads-up action with double the stack of Kristiansen.

Despite players holding deep stacks during heads-up play, the action was fast and furious. Kristiansen doubled-up into the chip lead when his ace-seven held against king-jack. Shortly after, Kristiansen jammed with queen-deuce after the five-four-three landed on the flop and was called by Mahonen’s nine-five. A blank king came on the turn and it appeared likely that Mahonen would double back into the chip lead. Instead, an ace spiked the river and the rest was history.

Congrats to Eirik Kristiansen from the team at PokerListings on his epic win in The Festival Series Tallinn Main Event!

Side Events Galore

The Festival Series boasted around 40 different events from June 27 to July 3. While most of the events were in no-limit hold’em format, there was plenty for mixed game players as well with events in H.O.R.S.E., 8-Game, Sviten Special, PLO, OFC, and more.

There were plenty of ways to qualify for these events both before with a plethora of online partners and during with a handful of satellites along with rake-free flip sit-and-go’s frequently running where players could win seats to upcoming events.

In addition, The Festival Series hosted plenty of fun casino events as well with multi-day Blackjack and Roulette tournaments on top of a fun slots and sportsbook events as well.

Some impressions from the Festival Queens event:

Impressions of the Festival Queens event

The Festival Series Online

For the first time, The Festival Series will move to the virtual felts with an amazing series at 888poker from July 7 to August 1. The Festival Series Online boasts $750,000 in guaranteed across 20 events with buy-in for everyone ranging from as low as $1 to as high as $215 as will be the case for what promises to be an amazing $150,000 guaranteed Main Event.

Read more about The Festival Series Online

Qualify for The Festival Series Bratislava

The Festival Series Online isn’t the only thing to get excited about as The Festival Series soon enough will head back to where it all began with The Festival Series heading back to Banco Casino, located in the heart of the Slovakian capital of Bratislava from October 10-16.

The full schedule will be released shortly, but let’s just say that The Festival Series has stepped it up several notches for this event as it will guarantee a €500,000 prize pool for its €550 Main Event, representing nearly double that of the successful Main Event this week.

Head to TheFestival.com for more information about The Festival Series Bratislava

The nine finalists of the Main Event of the Festival in Tallinn have been determined. Eirik Kristiansen leads ahead of Jari Mähönen. Tomorrow, the nine players will come back to play the final starting at noon local time. The winner will take home over €56,000.

It was just a short third day at the Olympic Casino in Tallinn. The day started with 30 players, but many of them had only a rather small amount of chips. Accordingly, the eliminations in the first levels of the day went quickly. After just one hour, there were only 20 players left in the casino and shortly after that, the field had reached two tables.

At this time, the players’ decisions took a little longer. Nobody wanted to lose a hand so close to the final because of a suboptimal decision and although many actions were only raise and fold, many hands took several minutes to complete.

The last player to be eliminated in Day 3 and just one seat away from the final table was WPT Global qualifier Oleksandra Shenderei. She had a rather small stack the whole day and was fighting for survival most of the time. In the end, however, her fight was unsuccessful. With 5-5 she lost a flip against Rando Liiber who held A-J. The board immediately gave Liiber a full house: A-7-7-J-J. With that, Shenderei was the last player eliminated before the final table and also became the “Last Woman Standing” in the tournament.

In the lead is now Eirik Kristiansen with almost 4.4 million chips. This gives him a sizeable lead over Rando Liiber, who will enter the final table in second place in the count with 3.1 million chips.

Finalists’ Chip Counts

Name	Chips	Big Blinds
Eirik Kristiansen	4,390,000	88
Rando Liiber	3,120,000	62
Kristoffer Winterstein	1,970,000	39
Jari Mähönen	1,955,000	39
Mikael Viggander	1,800,000	36
Gregory Partridge	1,255,000	25
Jero Keitaanranta	1,225,000	25
Sascha Manns	445,000	9
Toivo Ojasoo	390,000	8

Full Payouts

Place	Player	Prize Money
1		€56,100
2		€36,120
3		€22,040
4		€16,200
5		€12,100
6		€9,100
7		€6,700
8		€5,100
9		€3,950
10	Oleksandra Shenderei	€3,950
11	Mikael Zackariasen	€3,050
12	Inigo Naveiro	€3,050
13	Agris Noviks	€2,400
14	Alberigo Stellanello	€2,400
15	Jyri Merivirta	€1,980
16	Juhana Leinonen	€1,980
17	Ronny Albrigtsen	€1,980
18	Jeroen Aarts	€1,980
19	Stefan Bittger	€1,980
20	Svante Nilsson	€1,980
21	Vasilijs Aleksejenko	€1,980
22	Pal Oygarden	€1,980
23	Eric Wasylenko	€1,980
24	Kiu Jin Ha	€1,980
25	Peder Behr	€1,730
26	Vambo Laud	€1,730
27	Lars Eklund	€1,730
28	Johan Palokangas	€1,730
29	Torsti Kinnunen	€1,730
30	Henri Wagner	€1,730
31	Maksim Petrov	€1,730
32	Thor Dahlbeck	€1,730
33	Tobias Napel	€1,520
34	Tihomir Yanev	€1,520
35	Anne Standal	€1,520
36	Jarkko Kuusisto	€1,520
37	Juho Heiska	€1,520
38	Lasse Laukkarinen	€1,520
39	Greger Larsson	€1,520
40	Jari Hurri	€1,520
41	Totti Lind	€1,350
42	Meelis Ahman	€1,350
43	Erki Andressoo	€1,350
44	Heikki Huhtala	€1,350
45	Juris Hlibovs	€1,350
46	Totti Matias Arosuo	€1,350
47	Edvin Ström	€1,350
48	Terje Sirnes	€1,350
49	Marlon Andrey Lopez Martinez	€1,200
50	Per Lindström	€1,200
51	Aleksandr Kuperman	€1,200
52	Madis Ormisson	€1,200
53	Massi Mirza	€1,200
54	Oskar Engvall	€1,200
55	Krzystof Budka	€1,200
56	Johan Alen	€1,200
57	Rune Hastrup	€1,100
58	Hanno Kerem	€1,100
59	Taago Tamm	€1,100
60	Oyvind Kildal Stangnes	€1,100
61	Alex Lianes	€1,100
62	Krystian Nalepka	€1,100
63	Phenporn Laatikainen	€1,100
64	Benny Hagberg	€1,100
65	Lars Hole	€1,100
66	Aleksiy Baranovskiy	€1,100
67	Jani Tuovinen	€1,100
68	Gregory Bregy	€1,100
69	Maria Ling	€1,100
70	Pyry Kekäläinen	€1,100
71	Teemu Kailasvuo	€1,100

All remaining players are already assured €3,950, but there is a big difference between this amount and the €56,100 to grab for first place. Who will win the lion’s share of the prize money and the winner’s trophy? There will be a live stream from around 1.30 pm.

There are more side events on the schedule tomorrow, including the €1,050 Open Face Chinese High Roller at 12pm (EEST) and the highly anticipated The Festival Queens event at 1 pm.

You can follow all the action over at TheFestival.com and read up on our daily recaps here.

Go to The Festival in Tallinn Live Blog

What to Expect

McLaren Turbo Series Main Events 2022

McLaren Turbo Series 2022 Main Events Schedule

Up To $125,000 GTD Weekenders and $30,000 GTD Daily Sprints

Experience Up To $125,000 GTD “Weekenders” – McLaren Style!

Daily Sprints One Day Tournaments

The Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event

History of the Tallinn Summer Showdown Main Event

Side Events Galore!

Appeak Poker

Team Competition

2022 Tallinn Summer Showdown Full Schedule

WCOOP by the Numbers

All WCOOP Main Events

Where do the WCOOP Winners Come From?

The Most Famous WCOOP Winners

Here Are the WSOP 2022 Main Event Final Results

Clubs Poker

Result: The Festival Online Progressive Knock-Out

Result: The Festival Online Progressive Knock-Out High Roller

Upcoming Events this Week

Luxon Pay MPP 2022 – What to Expect

Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event

Luxon Pay MPP $5,000,000 Main Event Schedule

About Luxon Pay MPP 2022 Side Events

Irish Open

Eurasian Poker Tour (EAPT)

Ladies First

La Notte Degli Assi & La Casa Della Carte by Imperium

Malta Poker Festival

Triton Super High Roller Series

How to Buy-in for Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party 2022

Check These Easy Steps on How You Can Buy-in and Secure Your Spot at Luxon Pay MPP 2022

Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party 2022 Full Schedule

CoinPoker

The Festival Online $109 Texas Progressive KO

The Festival Series Online $525 Texas High Roller PKO

The Festival Online Main Event Feeder

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

Who is in the Arena?

Event #70 WSOP 2022 Final Table Prizepool

Stake.US Poker

Where To Watch WSOP 2022 Main Event?

How Blast Sit and Go Tournaments Work

How to Register for a BLAST Sit & Go

Highlights of the MicroMillions 2022

Knock-Out Edition of the MicroMillions

The Most Common Cheating Methods in Online Poker at the Moment

How can A5 Labs Help Fight Online Poker Fraud?

The Festival Opening Event Goes to Sweden

Results of The Festival Online Opening Event

Results of The Festival Online Opening High Roller

Results of The Festival Online Opening PLO

Upcoming Events this Week

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

Highlights of the Battle of Malta on GGPoker

Battle of Malta Live Qualifier

The Festival Online – Kickoff | Results

This Sunday: Big Opening Event

Affordable Satellites to The Festival Online

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

The WPT Global Welcome Bonus

How Good is the WPT Global Bonus?

About WPT Global

Play in the PokerStars $1 Million GTD Ontario Platinum Series

PokerStars CAON – What to expect?

The Festival Kickoff

More Satellites

Looking Ahead: The First Big Festival Online Weekend

About The Festival Online Powered by 888poker

Process and Actions of the PIC

Members of the Poker Integrity Council

High time for an integrity board?

The Festival Series Tallinn Final Table Payouts

Final Table Action

Side Events Galore

The Festival Series Online

Qualify for The Festival Series Bratislava

Finalists’ Chip Counts

Appeak Poker