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PokerStars’ $5 Spin & Go has produced a third $1.2 million prize pool in less than a month, with the latest hit coming on Aug. 12. The three-player table played for the full top-end jackpot, and the winner was Gwaugh1 from the United Kingdom, with Kepes897 of Hungary taking $120,000 for second and g3t real finishing third for $80,000.

As covered in July, the run began when Denmark’s dillerfar19 turned a $5 entry into $1 million on July 17, with Brazil’s malakaio300 taking $120,000 and Belarus’s KuCoH collecting $80,000.

Nine days later, Argentina’s Anatsuk334 hit the same $1.2 million prize pool again in another $5 Spin & Go. Hipther reported that the second-place finisher was Switzerland’s StephanShakes for $120,000 and that Ukraine’s GrozovaIra earned $80,000 for third.

Pokerfuse said the Aug. 12 result meant it was the third time in less than a month that PokerStars had awarded a $1.2 million Spin & Go jackpot, and that all three hits in the streak came in the $5 game. It also noted that PokerStars had logged just two $1.2 million Spin & Go jackpots in all of 2024 and only one in 2025, so the recent run matched that combined total in under a month.

The rarity is extreme even by Spin & Go standards. Pokerfuse said the 240,000x multiplier carried one-in-10-million odds, and that under a simple assumption of 100,000 $5 games a day, the 27 days from July 17 through Aug. 12 would add up to 2.7 million games, or only 0.27 expected jackpots. On that math, the chance of seeing three or more would be about 0.27%.

The $5 game normally pays far less. PokerNews had previously noted that more than 87% of $5 Spin & Go entries land in 2x or 3x prize pools, and Pokerfuse said the regular top prize at $5 is $50,000, compared with $20,000 at $2 and $100,000 at $10.

Pokerfuse also reported that PokerStars has now removed the 240,000x jackpot from the $5 Spin & Go, restoring the maximum prize there to $50,000. Million-dollar jackpots remain available at $100 buy-ins and higher, and it is unclear whether the promotional change simply ended on its own or whether the recent streak played any role in the timing.

Joe McKeehen won the 2026 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship, the $5,300 flagship event in Hollywood, Florida, for $462,600 and the SHRPO Guitar Tower trophy after beating David Greufe heads-up.

As reported in the earlier update, McKeehen had already doubled through Artem Metalidi in the Championship. The Championship ran August 7-11 as the 43rd event of the series, drew 673 entries, and built a $3,262,704 prize pool with 85 players paid.

The final table began with Greufe leading on 130 big blinds, Loni Hui on 108, and McKeehen third with 59. Hui grabbed early momentum by taking three of the first four knockouts, while McKeehen said the table draw and chip distribution were awkward and that he did very little until five-handed, when he caught a bluff for a big pot.

Heads-up turned into a long, swingy match. The official recap said the duel lasted more than three hours and saw McKeehen build an early 20-to-1 lead, only for Greufe to surge back and even leave McKeehen at nine big blinds before the comeback flipped again. The pair agreed to an ICM chop first, then kept playing for an extra $40,000 and the trophy, and McKeehen finished it with a pair of queens.

Loni Hui finished third for $250,000, Eddie Pak took fourth for $188,000, and Frankie Rivera was fifth for $142,000. The results list also showed Jose Nadal seventh for $83,000, Robert-Andrei Burlacu eighth for $65,000, and Darren Rabinowitz ninth for $51,000. One local report put McKeehen’s biggest comeback at 11-1 down, but the official recap framed it as a sequence of repeated chip swings. The win pushed his live tournament earnings past $22 million.

Andrew Chang won the Potomac Summer Poker Open $500 Monumental Stack at MGM National Harbor after the final five agreed to a chop and then settled the trophy with a high-card draw. Even as the shortest stack in the deal, Chang ended up posing for the winner’s photo after drawing an ace to clinch the title.

PokerNews reported that Jack Arnal, who held the chip lead when the deal was made, took the biggest share at $22,882. Chang’s locked-in payout was $16,600, which was still enough to leave him with his first career trophy.

The tournament drew 403 entries and built a $167,245 prize pool. As covered in the Aug. 13 report, Shahab Shirazi led the event into Day 2 with 2.2 million chips, the only stack above the 2 million mark, while 52 players returned already in the money.

Day 2 restarted at 11 a.m. local time with about 25 minutes left in Level 23, at blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante. Levels were stretched to 40 minutes, and the field thinned quickly as Dennis Backhaus went out in 37th, Matt Mullins in 22nd, Kash Corpening in 17th, and Shirazi in 18th.

Chang also picked up queens to bust Linda Swears in seventh, and the final five first paused the clock after Valentin Lita made two queens to send Timothy Conrow out in sixth. The group initially could not agree on a deal, played another 20 minutes, and then revisited the numbers before a 45-minute dinner break, reaching the chop on the second attempt.

Chang had 10 final tables on his resume before this win, including a runner-up finish in Las Vegas in 2024 and a third-place finish in the $3,500 High Roller at the 2023 Potomac Poker Open at MGM National Harbor. He said he had been fortunate to get there and felt lucky to come away with the trophy after the high-card draw.

World Poker Tour is heading back to The Venetian Resort Las Vegas this fall with another Championship event carrying a $2 million guarantee.

A separate Season 24 press release says WPT will kick off the new year with the launch of Season 24. It also says the tour has additional stops planned in Hollywood, Florida, for the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship, and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the WPT Prime Cambodia Championship and WPT Cambodia Championship.

As covered in July, the last WPT Venetian Las Vegas Championship produced Nico Betbese as champion. He topped a 1,153-player field, agreed to a heads-up deal with Francis Cruz, and collected $706,960, along with a $10,400 seat into the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas this December.

PokerNews also reported that Betbese’s win earned him a place on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, and that the final table was broadcast live from The Venetian. After the victory, WPT CEO Adam Pliska called it an exceptional performance and said it was always an honor to celebrate those moments with The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.

Raoul Kanme will take the chip lead into the final table of the Onyx High Roller Series $25,500 Main Event after a fast-moving penultimate day in Northern Cyprus. The tournament is down to nine players from a 255-entry field, with $6.12 million in the prize pool and $1.25 million reserved for the winner.

As covered earlier in the series, Kanme had already bagged 1,325,000 chips from Day 1b before his push on Day 2, according to PokerNews. The penultimate day started with 38 players and lasted just about four hours before the field was whittled down to the final nine.

The pace was relentless from the start. By the first break, roughly 90 minutes in, only 20 players were left, and several familiar names had already exited, including David Coleman, Matthew Wantman, Sondre Stormyr, Nicholas Seward and Mikalai Vaskaboinikau.

Aleksejs Ponakovs, Boris Kolev, Sergio Aido, Eelis Parssinen and Weiran Pu all fell in a short burst that left the field two eliminations short of the official final table, before Danilo Velasevic went out in 11th.

The bubble then became a Ravi Sheth story. Sheth doubled through Anze Smajd once, survived an hour of hand-for-hand play, and then ran into Kanme again. Kanme first won a preflop five-bet pot without seeing a board, taking a little over a million chips, and then sealed the final-table lineup by busting Sheth just short of the nine-handed stage.

In the 10th-place hand, Italo Modena opened, Sheth three-bet, and Kanme cold four-bet from the small blind. Sheth shoved with A-K, Kanme called with pocket jacks, and the board ran out safely for Kanme to send Sheth out with $120,000.

Kanme was one of only two players to finish the day with more than 100 big blinds. Daniel Rezaei ended on 10,210,000 chips, close enough to keep the pressure on, while Manuel Fritz bagged 6,880,000 for third place on the leaderboard.

Jordan Woodall, who had started the day as chip leader, finished with 4,785,000 and landed in the middle of the pack for the final day. Italo Modena bagged 2,750,000, which was good for 28 big blinds, and Fahredin Mustafov came back with just 2.5 big blinds after winning this same event 12 months earlier.

The nine finalists are all guaranteed $143,000, with eight eliminations left before someone turns that into the $1.25 million top prize. The final day is set for 1 p.m. local time on Aug. 14.