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According to an Aug. 4 SCCG piece summarizing a Gambling Insider investigation, the WSOP’s 2026 patch-approval process gave host properties wide discretion and appeared to favor some sponsors over others. The report said patches were approved for GGPoker, BetMGM, Winamax and Americas Cardroom, while CoinPoker, Phenom Poker and ClubWPT Gold were denied.

The same report said the backdrop was NSUS Group’s 2024 purchase of the WSOP brand from Caesars Entertainment for $500 million, split between $250 million cash and a $250 million five-year promissory note secured against intellectual property. NSUS is incorporated in Canada and based in Toronto, with ultimate ownership tracing through a UK affiliate to a British Virgin Islands holding company whose shareholders are not public.

The 2026 rulebook replaced earlier blanket bans with Rule 52 for the series that ran from May 26 to July 15. Players had to submit any proposed logo, patch or promotional language in writing at least 24 hours before appearing at a streamed table, and approval rested at the host properties’ “sole and absolute discretion.”

CanadianPoker said no logos would be approved once a tournament day had started, while Poker.org reported that a player who refused to remove an unapproved patch could be disqualified. The updated rules also said logos could be blocked if they were deemed injurious or prejudicial to the interests of the host properties or the WSOP, and the number of representatives a single entity could have at a TV table was cut from three to two.

A crowd-sourced tally compiled by Shaun Deeb and broadcaster Joey Ingram matched the split described in the investigation, with approvals for GGPoker, BetMGM, Winamax and ACR and denials for CoinPoker, Phenom Poker and ClubWPT Gold. Poker.org also reported that Ingram called ACR and BetMGM approved partners at the WSOP.

Patrick “Pads” Leonard said his CoinPoker ambassador patch request was denied. On X, he said he was not sure how much he would play at the WSOP and warned that the rule could complicate things, adding that sites are less motivated to invest in players when the flagship series restricts outside investment.

CardPlayer linked the tougher patch policy to the 2025 ClubWPT Gold controversy, when a promotion offered certain players a gold ticket and an extra $1 million if they won a bracelet while wearing a ClubWPT Gold patch. After allegations of collusion in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, WSOP withheld the bracelet from Jesse Yaginuma, split the money between the finalists and later banned Yaginuma and James Carroll from future events.

That same reporting said 2026’s Rule 40(e) was meant to stop third-party payouts tied to WSOP results, while Rule 40 still bars illegal, unethical or collusive conduct. WSOP did not respond to detailed questions about ownership or the patch process, and no disqualifications occurred during the 2026 series.

Ivor Parker has been signed by GGPoker as a full-time ambassador, and one report described the 100-year-old as the world’s oldest paid professional poker player. A later account added that he worked as a production operative for East Midlands Farmer until he was 98.

The new role began at a VIP event with Grosvenor Casinos ahead of Goliath 2026. LBBOnline said guests got an exclusive masterclass from Leah Hauer before a winner-takes-all showdown with Team GGPoker UK ambassadors and invited talent Mark Labbett and Rory Jennings.

Parker’s own poker story goes back to 1940. He said he started playing at 14, and a later account said he played his first hand in a pub in Boston, Lincolnshire that year. He also said he has played all over the world, especially during the war.

He said every game is different and every table has its own stories, and that poker today is far more strategic than when he began. Parker also said he has played with hundreds of people over the years and believes poker has kept him sharp.

Angela Martin, GGPoker’s head of marketing, said poker is about bringing people together, learning and challenging yourself, and said Parker perfectly embodies what the brand loves about the game. Leah Hauer called sharing the table with him incredibly inspiring and said it shows why poker is such a unique game.

GGPoker says it will sponsor more than 50 poker festivals a year across most of Grosvenor’s 35 poker rooms, with live cash boosts and added-value rewards for players who qualify through GGPoker or buy in through the client. Those boosts can be worth up to 20%.

Goliath remains the bigger backdrop. PokerNews said the 2026 edition carried an estimated £2 million prize pool, nine scheduled flights and a nine-day live stream across Facebook, Twitch and YouTube. More than 1,300 players had pre-registered.

The event has grown every year since its 2011 debut apart from the COVID-era online editions. The first Goliath drew 1,765 buy-ins, Lee Rawson won £32,705, last year’s attendance record hit 12,961, and Paul Worsley turned a £200 buy-in into £316,640 in 2025.

WSOP removed the shot clock from the 2026 Main Event final table before play began Monday evening. The final nine started action on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET, with Lucas Jumalon holding a huge chip lead and nine players still chasing the $10 million first prize.

According to PokerNews, the series introduced the timed structure on Day 6, after Loren Klein spent 15 minutes in the tank on Day 6 trying to lock up a pay jump. The earlier setup gave players 20 seconds preflop and 30 seconds postflop, with time-extension chips available.

The final table is not being played under that clock, though standard clock calls still apply. WSOP said it decided not to use a shot clock after talking with players and tournament staff, and said it would keep the option to bring one back if repeated stalling starts to hurt the pace of play. The goal, as WSOP put it, was to create the most natural playing environment possible.

Barny Boatman praised it as a very good decision, while Ragzy X argued the real problem was floor staff not policing the stall. Harry Gandia also pushed back, saying it looked like changing the goalposts as the tournament went along.

Early action suggested the switch had not slowed anything down. PokerNews reported minimal tanking at the time of publishing, with players acting quickly both preflop and postflop. Jumalon still looked in control with a little more than 129 big blinds after Day 8.

Michael Gagliano took one of the bigger early pots off the chip leader with ace-high after Jumalon, who was bluffing, could not fire a final barrel. Greg Mueller had only played a couple of hands, while the short stacks Evagoras Evagorou and Han Feng had yet to find a spot to make a move.

The remaining nine were guaranteed at least $1 million, and the final table continues through Aug. 5, with ESPN2 handling the early coverage and ESPN airing the conclusion.

Genfinity’s password-protected post said nine of crypto’s biggest creators will play the Solana Series of Poker on the WSOP Final Table stage on Aug. 4. The teaser also said Solana and MoonPay buy-ins have passed $20 million.

The post lands against the backdrop of WSOP’s June deal with Solana. The official announcement said the World Series of Poker named the Solana Foundation its Presenting Sponsor for the 2026 WSOP in Las Vegas and the 2026 WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas.

The crypto buy-in option went live on June 10 at the 57th annual summer event at Paris Las Vegas and Horseshoe Las Vegas. Players can buy tournament tickets directly with Solana using MoonPay’s payment infrastructure, and the new option carries zero processing fees.

The integration will expand at WSOP Paradise in December, where tournament winners can receive settlements in stablecoins on Solana. The company also said this was the first time in WSOP history that players could purchase tournament tickets directly with cryptocurrency, and that the Solana Foundation would sponsor a select group of poker player ambassadors.

Jason Koon was named the sole inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame class of 2026, even though the Hall’s revised system had opened the door to multiple players getting in this year.

The announcement came during a break in WSOP Main Event final-table action, with Jeff Platt delivering the news.

Under the new process, the public helped narrow the field to eight finalists, and the 33 living Hall members each got four votes to split among them; any finalist clearing a two-thirds threshold would be inducted automatically, while the top vote-getter would take the lone spot if nobody got there.

He was third on poker’s All Time Money List with more than $77 million in career earnings, and close to $2 million of that came less than two months earlier when he won Event #32, the $50,000 High Roller, for his second WSOP bracelet.

His first bracelet came five years earlier in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship. Between those WSOP wins, he served as an ambassador for PartyPoker and GGPoker, and he now plays as a PokerStars Team Pro, the site where he first played online poker.

Koon has also been a Triton Poker ambassador since 2019. He owns a record 12 Triton titles, five more than anyone else, and his biggest score came in the 2018 Triton Montenegro HK$1,000,000 Short Deck, where he won more than $3.5 million.

Last year, when asked about his chances of making the Hall, Koon told PokerNews he would “see what the people in there think.” He had turned 40 last August, which the Hall treats as the age prerequisite for nomination.

The 2026 finalist group also included five first-time nominees: Shaun Deeb, Isaac Haxton, Chris Moorman, Justin Bonomo and Koon. Among the holdovers, Isai Scheinberg missed out for the seventh time, Scott Seiver fell short for the second straight year after first becoming eligible in 2025, Ted Forrest had eight nominations, Matt Savage had 10, and Mike Matusow had 12 without induction since 2013.

The Hall itself dates to 1979, when Benny Binion created it to preserve the game’s biggest names and bring tourists to Las Vegas. Caesars Entertainment took over stewardship of the WSOP and the Hall in 2004, and the induction rules have shifted over time, from the old two-per-year pattern to a one-person rule in 2020 before this year’s broader ballot change.