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Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park, California, will host the RunGood Poker Series NorCal Poker Championships from Aug. 20 to Aug. 30. The stop spans 11 days and includes 19 trophy events.

PokerNews said it will live-report the Main Event from start to finish. The opening day begins with the $250 Series Opener, a no-limit hold’em tournament scheduled for 11 a.m., and later the same day players can jump into Day 1a of the $400 PokerNews PowerStack at 5 p.m.

The PowerStack carries a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. The rest of the schedule mixes in a $300 PLO/NLH event on Aug. 23, a $200 Double Board Bomb Pot PLO event on Aug. 24 and a Mixed PLO event on Aug. 26.

The biggest event is the $1,100 NorCal Championship Event. The official RGPS schedule lists Day 1a for Aug. 28 at 10 a.m., Day 1b for 5 p.m. that day, Day 1c for Aug. 29 at 10 a.m. and Day 1d for 5 p.m., with the finals set for Aug. 30 at noon.

The Graton stop comes after earlier RGPS action at the casino this year. Graton’s press release said the series returned from Feb. 28 to March 8 for 22 events, including a $250,000-guaranteed $800-buy-in main event that started March 3. That same release said Kulwant Singh won last year’s Graton main event with 1,144 entries and a $100,070 top prize, the first RGPS main event to top 1,000 entries.

Poker pros dissected Lauri Saaskilahti’s river call with J-3 in the 2026 WSOP Main Event. Lucas Jumalon had already won the title and the $10 million first prize, while Saaskilahti finished second for $6 million after a heads-up duel that came out of a 9,208-player field.

PokerNews broke down the key hand as Jumalon limping Q♠5♦ on the button and Saaskilahti checking J♦3♦ in the big blind. The flop came A♠K♠4♣, Jumalon bet 4,000,000 into 12,000,000, and Saaskilahti called.

The turn brought the J♠, which gave Jumalon both straight and flush draws. Saaskilahti checked again, Jumalon fired 40,000,000 into 20,000,000, and Saaskilahti called once more.

The river was the 6♠, completing Jumalon’s flush. After Saaskilahti checked, Jumalon overbet 180,000,000 into 100,000,000, and Saaskilahti called. He said the spot was basically “To hero or not to hero?”, and added that if he called and was wrong he would be down to eight big blinds and facing a 12:1 chip disadvantage.

Saaskilahti told himself he had a jack and that it “could be good.” After the call, he was shown the bad news, but the hand did not end his tournament. He bust two hands later, then called the result “an amazing tournament” and a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

“I made a hero call, it didn’t go my way this time,” he said. “My goal was to win,” he added, before noting that second place and $6 million was “not too bad.”

The pro reaction was mixed, but several prominent voices leaned toward Saaskilahti. Ben Lamb said great players going with their reads is part of what makes them great, even if the read is wrong or they get “lost in the sauce” a bit, and he echoed Scott Seiver’s point that a blank river can make a third-pair call look brilliant.

Patrick Leonard went deeper into the ranges in a since-deleted post and argued that J-x-3-x blockers can be better than some stronger-looking hands. He also said the jack was “pretty ok,” because Jumalon never bluffs with a jack in his hand on the turn, and that it was “probably better to call this hand than a lotttttt of hands” because it was a bluffcatcher.

Pokerfuse also said many pros were posting their reactions on X after the Main Event wrapped, and that a majority did not think Saaskilahti’s call was that bad from a GTO standpoint. Others objected more to the chanting and noise from Jumalon’s rail, while Mike Matusow praised the “old-school approach” to the rail noise.

The hand came during heads-up play, which PokerNews said was only the third time the Main Event’s last day began heads-up. Jumalon entered with 328,000,000 chips to Saaskilahti’s 225,000,000, and PokerNews noted that since 2001 the player leading at the start of heads-up has lost five times.

White Rock, British Columbia resident Greg Mueller finished third in the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas and earned $3.75 million. He outlasted 9,208 entrants, and the result was the deepest Main Event run by a Canadian in 16 years.

The finish also left him two places short of becoming Canada’s first WSOP Main Event champion since Jonathan Duhamel’s 2010 victory. The article said the 9,208-player field was the fourth-largest Main Event field in history.

Earlier in the final-table run, Mueller had already locked up at least $1 million and was set to return on Aug. 3 with the fourth-highest stack at 48.5 million chips, according to Peace Arch News. He was one of two Canadians at the table, alongside Rami Hammoud, who held 79 million chips.

PokerNews described the endgame as a river showdown against Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti. Mueller got to the river with a pair of fours but could not beat Saaskilahti’s pocket kings, and his elimination left Lucas Jumalon and Saaskilahti as the last two players chasing the $10 million top prize.

PokerNews also said Mueller’s rail was the loudest at the final table and that he picked up two double-ups before the finish. Afterward, Mueller said the love and support around him mattered more than the poker or the money. The $3.75 million prize was by far the biggest live tournament score of his career.

Stake is marking its ninth birthday with a one-off poker special built around a $90,000 guaranteed bounty tournament. The event has a $9 buy-in, pays a $5 bounty on every player, and is capped at 10,000 entries.

According to SoMuchPoker, the Stake 9th Birthday Poker Special runs once on Aug. 8 and is described as a birthday bounty tournament built for value. Every player in the field carries a $5 bounty, including the entrant, and when someone is knocked out, that bounty is credited instantly and kept on top of any finish-position payout.

BankrollMob puts the start time at 17:00 UTC and says seats are first come, first served. It also says the tournament can be found in the poker lobby under “9th Birthday Poker Special,” and that players are encouraged to register early.

Stake is also tying the event to its sign-up offer. Using code SMPBONUS is described as unlocking a 200% first-deposit casino bonus up to $2,000, plus 3.5% weekly rakeback on poker play. The bonus carries a 40x wagering requirement on the deposit and bonus combined, and poker is locked while that wagering is active.

The article says poker action feeds straight into the rakeback deal. It also says Stake is crypto-first, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and Litecoin listed as the fastest funding options, while MoonPay lets non-crypto users deposit with Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay or Google Pay inside the account. SoMuchPoker also notes that Stake.com is not available to US players, though USA players can access Stake US Poker.

CoinPoker has scheduled a special CoinMillion GOPC Edition for Sept. 6-7. The $215 two-day tournament carries a $1 million guarantee and sits inside the company’s Global Online Poker Championship lineup.

The same weekend also includes a $55 CoinMinion with a $250,000 guarantee and an $11 Mini CoinMinion with a $100,000 guarantee.

CoinPoker made CoinMillion a monthly event after its first two editions generated a combined 9,062 entries. The opening two runs produced 9,062 combined entries and paid $248,000 to the champions.

The format stays the same for the monthly version. Players go through a two-day structure, the field plays down to the final seven on Sunday, and those seven return on Monday to finish. The event starts with 100,000 chips, 10-minute levels and late registration open through Level 19.

The first CoinMillion ran on May 10 during the World Poker Masters and drew 4,278 entries. DaniC1994 won $126,500. The July 12 edition drew 4,784 entries, and monc took $121,500.

The broader GOPC runs from Aug. 23 to Sept. 28 with $50 million guaranteed, three time-zone-specific schedules for Europe, Latin America and Asia, and three buy-in tiers. CoinPoker also says players can chase Gold, Silver and Bronze medals while competing as part of regional GOPC teams.

Sportscasting reported more than 700 Medal Events across the series, plus a $530 Main Event with a $3 million guarantee, a $55 Global Main with a $1 million guarantee and an $11 Mini Main with a $250,000 guarantee. It also said the festival carries $350,000 in promotions, and CoinPoker says it will have paid out more than $133 million in tournament prizes across its 2026 series by the time the GOPC wraps.