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ACR Poker is bringing back Second Mortgage Week for a second run in 2026, slotting 10 nosebleed tournaments across five playing days from Sept. 21-28. The high-stakes stretch sits inside OSS XL and is built around no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha, with both 6-max and 8-max formats in the mix.

As reported in late August, OSS XL is ACR’s 24-day September festival, running Sept. 6-29 with 336 events and more than $50 million in guarantees. The Sept. 9 announcement says Second Mortgage Week is scheduled during OSS XL, and ACR’s OSS XL schedule page separately describes the nosebleed slate as running from $5,000 to $25,000.

The newer announcement puts the Second Mortgage Week buy-ins at $5,200 to $25,500. It also says two of the 10 events use rebuy/add-on structures with no fee on rebuys, and that a player entering all 10 events once would put $97,800 in initial buy-ins on the table before any extra bullets or add-ons.

One notable wrinkle is a Sept. 23 PLO day, with $10,300 and $5,200 options. The schedule also builds toward Sunday, Sept. 27, when the biggest buy-in on the card is a $25,500 NLH 8-Max.

That same Sunday also lines up with OSS XL Main Event action, including Day 1B of the $2.5 million guaranteed $2,650 Main Event and the $2 million guaranteed $1,050 Main Event. The $500,000 guaranteed $66 Main Event reaches Day 2 that day as well.

The run ends Monday, Sept. 28 with a $15,400 NLH 8-Max and a $5,200 NLH 6-Max R/A. ACR Pro Chris Moneymaker said players will get to watch top-level names such as Alex Foxen and David Peters, and every completed final table can be replayed with hole cards exposed.

PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel’s Maryland State Poker Championship wrapped up at Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland after nearly two weeks on the felt. The 16-event series ran from Aug. 26 through Sept. 7 and produced 3,032 entries and $1,491,760 in prize money, which put the festival almost 40% above its combined guarantees.

As covered in July, PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel had backed the series with more than $1 million in guarantees. This year was the eighth MSPC, and it was the first time the championship carried the PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel branding.

The headliner delivered the clearest turnaround. According to pokerfuse, the Main Event drew 380 entries at a $1,700 buy-in, built a $570,000 prize pool, and finished 14% above its $500,000 guarantee. The buy-in had been cut from $2,200, and the lower price point helped the event exceed the guarantee after the 2025 Main Event drew 228 entries and fell short of the same mark.

The final table ended in a three-way deal among Justin Arnwine, Daniel Iachan and Aaron Pinson. PokerNews reported that the remaining prize pool was split by ICM, with Arnwine taking $86,167, Iachan $78,112 and Pinson $76,221, while Iachan kept the trophy.

The rest of the schedule also fed the final numbers. Event #2: NLHE drew 728 entries for a $373,464 prize pool, the Mini-Main brought in 651 entries and $113,925, and the Seniors event attracted 175 entries and nearly doubled its guarantee at $58,450. The festival also saw 90 runners in H.O.R.S.E. and 55 entries in R.O.S.E., and Filippos Stavrakis was the only player to win two trophies, taking Mixed Omaha and Big O.

Several players reached the Main Event through online qualifiers on PokerStars on FanDuel, giving the platform a direct hand in the live series. One more prize was still to be awarded by random draw from the 16 trophy-event winners, an all-expenses-paid EPT Main Event package, but the recipient had not yet been named.

Grandview Foundation has set a poker fundraiser for Friday, Sept. 18, with the Grandview Poker Tournament, also called the Team Up For Recovery tournament, planned for La Casita del Arroyo in Pasadena.

Registration is open online through the foundation, and it is still seeking sponsors for the event. The Poker Seat listing says the evening runs until 9:30 p.m. PST and includes dinner, drinks and a 1,500-chip starting stack.

The foundation is also adding a new community partner in End Overdose, a national organization focused on opioid overdose training and certification, plus the distribution of naloxone and free test strips through regional chapters and volunteers, according to Pasadena Now. Grandview said it has invited End Overdose’s team to work with both staff and patients every other month.

Executive Director Shelly Wood described the program’s approach as collaborative, not dependent on any one person. The foundation said recovery is “strengthened through connection, collaboration, and community.”

That message fits the way Grandview says it runs its treatment services. The foundation said its residential program pairs evidence-based groups with care coordination and individual counseling, staffed by substance use disorder counselors, care coordination counselors, group facilitators and technicians.

Grandview also said it treats adults regardless of ability to pay. Its programs for men 18 and over include residential care, outpatient services and sober living.

The foundation’s homes are in Pasadena’s Garfield Heights neighborhood and have room for up to 33 men in residential treatment, 22 in funded residential bridge housing and 22 in self-paid sober living.

Russell Westbrook’s Why Not? Foundation is hosting its annual poker fundraiser on Friday, Sept. 18, with the sixth edition set for Fontainebleau Las Vegas’s members-only Poodle Room.

The event will once again be presented in partnership with the WPT Foundation and will be hosted by Russell and Nina Westbrook. The night will be led by Poker Reporter Drea Renee, with Vince VanPatten serving as co-host.

This year also marks the event’s debut at Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The schedule starts at 5:30 p.m. with a Poker Refresher, followed by the official Poker Night and Entertainment at 6 p.m.

The fundraiser has raised more than $2 million to date, and all proceeds go to the Why Not? Foundation’s work in educational access, workforce development, and mental health and wellness programs in underserved communities. The foundation describes the poker night as a signature part of its effort to open up new opportunities for underserved youth.

Westbrook linked the event to his recent retirement announcement from the NBA after an 18-year career, calling it “a new door opened for impact at the highest level.” He also said that since 2012 it has been an honor to build new pathways to success for young people in his hometown of South Los Angeles.

The release also framed the poker night as a long-running partnership. Adam Pliska, CEO of World Poker Tour, said the event has become an annual tradition entering its sixth year, and WPT Foundation has supported key charities through more than 50 events and raised more than $50 million since launching in 2012.

Paul Klann took the lead into Day 5 of the CA$5,000 WSOP Super Circuit Canada Main Event at Playground, where the field is down to its final 30 players. He bagged 11.3 million, with Guoyan Li next on 8.1 million and Nicholas Palma third on 7.6 million.

As covered in our Sept. 7 report on the record prize pool, the event had already blown past its CA$10 million guarantee and reached CA$13,082,400 from 2,844 entries. Reaching the final 26 locks up CA$65,000, the final 13 are guaranteed a six-figure score, and the champion will take CA$1.5 million.

Day 4 began with 116 players and ended with only 30 moving on. Daniel Negreanu and Michael Mizrachi were among the big names to fall, and Negreanu went out in 99th place for CA$14,500 after Chance Kornuth called his river shove with ace-king. In the key hand, Negreanu had tens, the board ran out 5h 6s 5d 3c, and the river ace ended his run.

Kornuth is still in the hunt, sitting sixth with 6.6 million, and Jack Salter returns ninth with 5.7 million. Will Givens also missed the bag after a huge bluff into Klann’s nut flush cost him a big chunk of his stack. Klann, who won the 2013 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Main Event for $1,004,090, now has a shot at another seven-figure payday. The final 30 will play six more levels Wednesday before returning Thursday to decide the ring and the CA$1.5 million top prize.