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North Dakota Legislative Management is set to meet Monday, Aug. 17, at the State Capitol’s Roughrider Room. The 10 a.m. meeting includes a 10:10 a.m. look at a Gaming Commission appeal over a proposed rule on poker tournament fees.

The committee also plans to approve minutes from Jan. 14, Jan. 20, Jan. 27 and June 11, 2026. It will also choose a replacement for the vacancy created by former Sen. Josh Boschee’s resignation.

Later in the day, Legislative Council staff are scheduled to present proposed rules amendments and agendas for the House, Senate and Joint Rules for the upcoming special session at 2:45 p.m. The meeting is set to adjourn at 3:15 p.m. after miscellaneous administrative matters.

The appeal lands with a committee whose stated duties include determining whether an administrative rule is void under North Dakota Century Code Section 28-32-18 and receiving notice of an appeal of an administrative agency’s rulemaking action under Section 28-32-42. That makes it the body that can review the Gaming Commission’s challenge to the Administrative Rules Committee’s decision.

Under the current administrative code, a licensed organization may conduct poker on two occasions per fiscal year, from July 1 through June 30, and each occasion is limited to 72 hours. A restricted event permit holder may conduct poker one event per year.

For tournaments, the rule says each player must pay an entry fee and total fees per player cannot exceed $300, including the buy-in or entry fee plus rebuys, add-ons and bounties. Those fees are treated as gross proceeds, and qualifying satellite tournaments can also charge up to $300 per player. Total prizes for one poker tournament, including satellites, cannot exceed 90% of gross proceeds.

The same rule also keeps the bookkeeping tight. Recordkeeping may not be combined for multiple tournaments during the 72-hour poker occasion, a non-tournament occasion and side game are each limited to 24 hours, and non-tournament play is capped at $2 per half hour of playing time, collected in advance. The maximum single bet is $1, with no more than three $1 raises in a betting round.

Paulius Vaitekunas won the Onyx High Roller Series $10,200 Bounty at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus, taking the trophy, the $32,200 first prize and $20,000 in bounty value after a little more than three hours of play.

As covered earlier in the week when Boris Kolev won the $10,400 Mystery Bounty, the Cyprus stop was already moving through its closing stretch at the same venue.

According to PokerNews, the $10,200 event drew just seven entries. That left the full $32,200 regular prize pool for the winner, with each elimination worth $5,000. The setup was quick from the outset, with 100,000-chip stacks, 200/500 blinds and a 500 big blind ante, 20-minute levels, unlimited reentries and late registration open through Level 6.

The field began with five players and grew to seven when two late entrants joined in Level 4. Vaitekunas was one of those late arrivals, which meant he played more than an hour less than the players who had been there from the opening hand.

He scored the first bounty by busting Manig Loeser in seventh place, then watched Moussa Ahmad fall to Aleksandr Kirichenko before the break. Felipe Ketzer went quickly after play resumed, Chengyu Liao followed, and Kirichenko later slipped after Vaitekunas pulled in a substantial pot and then sent Vladas Tamasauskas out in third with a rivered three-outer.

That left Vaitekunas with a near three-to-one chip lead for heads-up play. The title ended a few hands later when Kirichenko moved all in on an ill-timed bluff and Vaitekunas called it down to secure the win.

Vaitekunas said it was probably the quickest live tournament he had played, pointing to the jump from Level 4 to Level 11 in a single session. He said his Spin & Go background helped him handle wider ranges and short-handed dynamics, and he also praised the venue and the series, even if he said the festival had not really been a success for him until the trophy arrived.

Waleed Mian turned Day 1b of the Potomac Summer Poker Open $3,000 Main Event into a runaway, bagging 1.185 million chips and finishing as the only player to clear the million-chip mark. He ended well ahead of the 38 players who survived the flight, and the second starting day pushed the event to 280 total entries.

As covered in the earlier Day 1a report, David Van Noy led that opening flight with 655,000 after 20 of 100 entries advanced. According to PokerNews, Mian did most of his damage early, knocking out three players in the first hour before closing the day by busting Justin Arnwine.

The last hand was a clean one for Mian. His ace-nine held against Arnwine’s ace-eight when the chips went in for 131,000 from the cutoff.

Kyle Lin finished second with 586,000, and his run came with some extra heat attached after he entered the Main Event fresh off winning the $1,100 High Roller the day before. He also picked up a big double-up with two pair, while Kyle Smith was next on 565,000, followed by Changfeng Fan on 488,000, David Kinane on 477,000, Yonnas Banteamlak on 440,000, and Dejan Ristov on 250,000.

Michael Bohmerwald finished with 216,000, Tim Pool had 210,000, Russ Dunlevy bagged 120,000, and Elia Ahmadian moved on with 111,000. Among the players sent to the rail were Daniel Iachan, Lucas Vergara, Aaron Pinson and Matthew Su.

The 38 survivors from Day 1b will join the 20 Day 1a finishers for Day 2 at noon local time. Play resumes on Level 16 at 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante, the levels stretch to 60 minutes, and the plan is to keep going until the final table is reached after play starts; the official prize pool should be announced shortly after the cards get back in the air.

Kenya Jackson won the Potomac Summer Poker Open’s $300 Women’s Event at MGM National Harbor, taking $5,444 after beating Eva Ghirmai heads-up. Ghirmai earned $3,198 for second.

The event drew 63 runners and built a $15,120 prize pool, well above the $10,000 guarantee attached to the Women’s NLH tournament. PokerNews said the final table also included Jennifer Oar in third for $2,003, Jinkie Basilio in fourth for $1,361, and Kerry Kriener in fifth for $1,058.

After a few eliminations caused the bubble to burst, Linda Swears finished seventh for $680 and Elena Currence took eighth for $544. Swears was also the player highlighted earlier in the series for a card protector with special meaning.

The win added $90,191 to Jackson’s Hendon Mob earnings, and she was described as a “local crusher in MGM National Harbor”:https://www.pokernews.com/tours/potomac-poker-open/2026-potomac-summer-poker-open/daily-tournament-highlights/chips.856305.htm’s poker room with more than ten previous victories there.

On MGM National Harbor’s series page, the Potomac Summer Poker Open was billed as a reimagined continuation of a long-standing poker tradition. The page listed 23 trophy events, 13 days of tournament action, and more than $1.5 million in guaranteed prizes.

The Women’s NLH event was listed as Event #19 with a $300 buy-in and a $10,000 guarantee, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15 at 2:00 p.m. The series runs through Aug. 17.

Yang Zhang defended his King’s Debut title at the King Poker Cup in Jeju, South Korea, topping a 282-entry field for $238,700. The $5,000 buy-in event generated a $1,292,300 prize pool. The festival concluded in Jeju and ran in partnership with the K Poker Cup at Les A Casino.

According to PokerNews, Zhang returned as the defending champion after winning the January edition of King’s Debut for $330,500. PokerNews described him as a WSOP bracelet winner and said the latest result was the third-largest cash of his career. It also said the win extended what it called his most productive live year in 2026, when he had already recorded $898,099 in tournament cashes.

SoMuchPoker’s earlier report said that edition drew 362 entries across three starting flights and built a $1,658,900 prize pool. It said 54 players moved on to Day 2, and a double knockout on the Day 1B bubble meant everyone who came back was already guaranteed a slightly larger share of the money.

Zhang said he had been playing poker for more than 10 years, mostly in U.S. tournaments or in Jeju when he comes to Asia. He said the key hand came when he had queen-jack and raised on the river, which changed the momentum, and he picked out Ryan Plant as the most impressive foreign player at the table.

He also said he felt “happy, but also quite calm,” and thanked his friend Hui Chao, who watched the livestream and gave advice while he was playing. Zhang said he planned to watch the video later to see whether anything in his game could be improved. SoMuchPoker also said he ranked 18th on China’s all-time money list with more than $3.6 million in live earnings.