The competition is heating up in Pennsylvania as WSOP.com launches its real money online poker platform in the Keystone State.

It now becomes the third poker network to go live in the state and certainly one of the most recognized poker brands in the US.

WSOP is known for running big-profile tournaments in the US—both live and online platforms and Pennsylvania players will not be disappointed.

WSOP PA’s flagship Sunday tournament is one of the highest weekly guaranteed online poker tournaments in Keystone State.

It sports a $75,000 guarantee and comes for a buy-in of $215.

The first-ever WSOP PA Big Sunday tournament will run on July 18. To help players qualify for the big event for free, the operator is running multiple freerolls giving away five seats to the $75,000 guaranteed tournament.

WSOP PA Sunday Flagship Tournament Overview:

• $215 Buy-in
• 4 PM Eastern Time
• $75,000 Guaranteed
• Unlimited Re-entries
• Late registration available for 175 minutes
• 10,000 Starting Stack (250 Big Blinds)
• 12 minutes blind levels

Old skool luminary Phil Hellmuth, is full of his trademark chutzpah in a recap of his recent High Stakes Duel (HSD) triumph over Daniel Negreanu. In the video Hellmuth chats through the final session with Remko Rinkema, as part of Poker Go’s Run it Back series on YouTube.

In the video, Hellmuth is predictably bullish about his performance, which saw him complete a 3-0 victory over his Canadian foe. It was his second consecutive HSD whitewash, having dispatched Antonio Esfandiari 3-zip last year.

As well as analyzing the game, Phil covers many of his favorite topics: his “white magic” reads; the “dogma” of GTO theory; and where he stands in the greatest-of-all-time rankings.

Hellmuth will be playing a third series of HSD matches soon. Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan are being touted as prospective opponents. If you know Hellmuth, then you know what to expect—and he certainly doesn’t disappoint.

The latest content from Jaman “The Drawing Dead” Burton was posted this week, but actually chronicles a session from May of this year. The poker vlogger, who can be found on Twitter at @kilogram is joined by his cat at the beginning of the latest installment apologizing for the late delivery.

The show is closer to a slickly produced TV program than a traditional vlog, with very high production values. Comic book effects and pacing merge fluidly with narrator voice-over, and animation to create a very visually appealing product.

Poker pro Matt Berkey, who makes an animated appearance in the latest video in a strategy session of sorts, was very complimentary.

The quality is so good, it really is a crime to call it just a vlog. Check out the latest edition of this very entertaining show at the link below.

Popular Canadian Twitch streamer, and partypoker Team Online member, Jaime Staples has jumped back into the vlog game with new content for Instagram and TikTok.

Staples recently compiled some of the daily vlogs from the mobile-friendly platforms to add to his YouTube channel, and it provides an interesting insight into the highs and lows of a professional poker streamer from day to day. A viewer might get a similar effect from watching each daily show in sequence on the original platform, but the compilation provides a nice look at a larger arc.

If you’ve ever wondered what the daily life of a sponsored poker streamer look like, Staples lets fans get a peek behind the curtain in his daily vlogs. Check out the compilation on YouTube below, and follow his socials above for fresh content daily.

Doug Polk announced his retirement from poker in 2018, but he seems unable to actually retire from the game. Of course, Polk is fresh off an epic heads-up battle against Daniel Negreanu, which he won with more than $1 million in winnings.

While Polk hasn’t announced any more challenges or actual poker action, he’s jumping back into the poker podcast game with a new podcast, currently simply named Doug Polk Podcast. In the opening episode, Polk gets down and dirty on a subject he knows well—high profile heads up matches.

Polk uses his first episode to dig into the recent aborted battle between up-and-comer Landon Tice and veteran businessman Bill Perkins. In a match that many in the poker world thought Tice would win handily, Perkins put on a stronger showing than many expected, forcing Tice to back out of the match early.

Check out the new podcast below as Polk welcomes Jason Mo and Bill Perkins, as well as Kevin Rabichow, to discuss aspects of the match.

It’s a huge July at WSOP.com in New Jersey and Nevada as three huge series are set to run. The WSOP 2021 Online domestic bracelet series has been running since the beginning of July, and the Online Championships has been running since July 7.

Now, there are Circuit Rings on offer as well, as the Summer Circuit Online Series gets underway on July 16. There are 12 Rings on offer through July 27, with an average buy-in of just over $450 per event.

There is more than $1 million guaranteed throughout the series. Added to the $2+ million value in the Online Championships, and 33 Bracelets in the WSOP Online 2021, WSOP.com is loaded with tournament value in July. Find your spot to grab a Gold Ring from the schedule below.

WSOP Summer Circuit 2021 Schedule

It’s been a few years since KidPoker accurately described veteran player Daniel Negreanu. From the moment he burst onto the poker scene as a fresh-faced young kid in 1998 with his first win in a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em game for more $169,000, he started racking up an impressive resume of wins.

In his third decade in the game now, with six WSOP Gold Bracelets and more than $18 million in wins, his position as one of the greats of the game is unquestioned. But for the past eight years, he’s been battling a bit of an unlikely monkey on his back—he hasn’t been able to book a win since his 2013 WSOP-E bracelet wins.

It’s not like he hasn’t been playing well and going deep. David Lappin recently did the research on DNegs’ unlikely streak. “He has been ratcheting up cashes, finishing in the money 95 times and making the final table 37 times,” Lappin admitted after pointing to the losing streak.

More recently, Doug Polk, another of DNegs’ critics, put up a video documenting the anti-run further. In it, Polk claimed that Negreanu has lost more than $12 million in value through that time by missing the gold medal spot.

However, that unlikely streak has now come to an end after the 46-year-old KidPoker booked his first win in more than seven years. Dnegs took down a $50,000 High Roller No Limit Hold’em event at the Poker GO Cup for $700,000.

While it wasn’t a huge score from his perspective, the win did mark an end to the losing streak he’s been on. It must be nice to get the monkey off his back.

Catch the highlights of Negreanu’s recent win on YouTube, courtesy of Poker GO.

From modest beginnings in 1997, the 2+2 poker forums have grown into the go-to place in the poker world for gossip, news, strategy and more. Now, after 24 years, founder Mason Malmuth has announced he has sold the www.twoplustwo.com website to Hand2Note HUD.

Malmuth announced the sale in a post on the very website he founded. “I have an important announcement to make. This website, www.twoplustwo.com has been sold.

It’s hard to believe that it was 24 years ago when twoplustwo.com was launched, and at that time when we started with just one forum, we thought it was only fifty-fifty we would get a post. But here we are many years and over 60 million posts later, and it’s time for new younger people to take over and make this site better than it has ever been.”

That opening led into a post that gave a few reasons for the sale. Malmuth suggested it was just time to move on and let younger blood invigorate the site again. “Those of us, including myself, who run this site are getting old,” he said. He went on to describe the new owners as “new younger people who are on top of all the latest programming technology“ who he expected to “make this site better than it ever was.”

He finished by thanking all the people involved in the site’s growth, and noting that “Mat Sklansky, Chuck Weinstock, and myself will certainly be active for some time to come.” It will be interesting to see what the future holds for 2+2.

Details for the rest of the series are still a bit sparse, but players know what the international Main Event on GGPoker will be worth. The operator recently announced that this year’s Main Event for the international WSOP Online 2021 will be worth at least $20 million.

That’s down $5 million from last year, but 2020 was a unique year that no one really expects to be replicated in a 2021 that is emerging from the pandemic lockdowns. Last year’s lockdown-fueled event blew past even the $25 million guarantee, eventually generating more than $27.5 million for the largest online tournament ever.

Even before the tournament runs, the $20 million guarantee this year puts the game as the fourth biggest online tournament ever. It only needs to exceed the guarantee by $2 million to move into second place.

3. Largest Online Poker Tournaments in History

Players are still awaiting a full schedule of events for the international leg of the WSOP 2021 Online, but no doubt they are excited to know the Main Event will be, at the very least, the fourth biggest online game in history.

If you don’t have a GGPoker account yet and want to learn more about how to sign up and get the best Welcome Bonus, how to download the GGPoker mobile app, what games are offered, and why it is ranked one of the top online poker sites globally, then check out the comprehensive GGPoker Review on our sibling site pokerfuse.

PokerStars’ most prestigious online poker series, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is coming much earlier this year.

WCOOP 2021 will kick off on Sunday, August 22 and run until Wednesday, September 15, spanning a little over three weeks.

Last year, the series fell just shy short in paying out $100 million in prize money. This year, it is certain the series will breach the magical nine-figure payout as PokerStars has set a whopping $100 million in guaranteed prize money for the fall edition of its Championship series.

This represents a $20 million increase on last year’s WCOOP series which had guaranteed over $80 million.

But this won’t be the operator’s first $100 million guaranteed tournament series this year. The spring version Championship series (SCOOP) had also guaranteed :$100 million. It ultimately paid out close to $140 million over 306 tournaments.

Curiously, there has been no word on Stadium Series which PokerStars had debuted last year. In 2020, it ran in July with guarantees of $50 million. However, the series ended up being costly as the operator had to pay over $2 million from its own pocket to cover the missed guarantees.

It remains to be seen whether PokerStars will bridge the gap and run Stadium Series ahead of the WCOOP.

More details on WCOOP 2021 including the full schedule are expected to be announced soon.

One of the biggest questions in the US poker landscape recently has been when WSOP.com would expand outside the familiar confines of its unique multi-state network combining players from New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware. That question has now been answered with the soft launch of WSOP PA.

The online poker market in PA extends back to 2019 when PokerStars opened the first poker room to service the Quaker State. They held a monopoly on the virtual felt in PA until earlier this year when BetMGM jumped into the fray with two skins running BetMGM and Borgata brands.

WSOP and 888poker, who supplies the software WSOP.com runs on, have hinted at opening new rooms sometime in 2021, but it was unclear if it planned to wait until the Wire Act situation was resolved and shared liquidity was an option. With WSOP PA now open, it shows the operator has decided to go ahead with the stand-alone option as the multi-state situation clarifies over the next few months.

Beyond the launch of a new WSOP room itself, the big news here is the first-look at 888poker’s Poker 8 platform in the US market. To date, the WSOP.com room in the NJ/NV/DE market has been running on the previous version of 888poker software, while the new Poker 8 platform rolled out across the world.

Now, for the first time ever, players in the US will have a chance to play on the new platform at WSOP PA. It’s an exciting new world for the WSOP and 888poker in the US market—see the slick new look in PA below.

For the past few years, the US poker landscape has been in turmoil over confusion the the state of inter-state gaming in the US. Now, with the expiry of the appeal period in the Wire Act case, it looks like the door is open for states to get together and share player pools.

There’s already the Multi State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) that states could join, or set out on their own, but with the door wide open now, more shared liquidity seems a question of when, not if. And the prospect of sharing player pools begs a very big question—how big will a USACOOP series be when it finally happens?

WSOP.com obviously has the lead in the US with multi-state player pools, running its network on 888poker software sharing New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware player pools, but PokerStars is no stranger to shared liquidity globally.

It seems likely one of those two operators will be the first to establish a multi-state network linking NJ, PA, and MI.

Given that PokerStars has a huge lead in the PA and MI markets, it may well the one to do it. If so, it will no doubt debut a USACOOP tournament, and that could be a massive series. A combined pool with PA, MI, and NJ would have more than 31 million people in it. making it one of the biggest networks in the world.

So how big would a USACOOP be?

In three recent SCOOP series run in the existing segregated markets, more than $5 million was guaranteed. The three series combined ended up with $6.35 million in total prizes, but that’s only the beginning.

With the added juice of the shared liquidity—that is, a larger pool is more attractive and tends grow faster—a USACOOP series could easily see guarantees of $6+ million with total prize money possibly going as high as $9 million when the dust cleared.

Check out pokerfuse's breakdown of how the shared liquidity might work, but it seems clear that USACOOP could be the biggest online poker event the US has seen in a very long time.

This week, DAT became RAT as the D portion of the DAT Poker Podcast, Daniel Negreanu, bowed out for the week and was replaced by producer “Rosco P. Coltrane”. Terrance Chan and Adam Schwartz resume their normal spots on the roster for a wide-ranging show.

The highlight of the show, starting at 36:45, is a breakdown of the end of the Landon Tice heads-up match against businessman Bill Perkins. Tice is an up and coming star on the poker scene, but perhaps bit off more than he could chew giving Perkins generous terms for the battle.

Perkins showed up ready to play, and after a few sessions, Tice decided to cut his losses and back out of the deal on the pre-arranged exit terms. The DAT crew break down the match and aftermath in their usual adept fashion.

Other topics up for discussion this episode include the current heat wave, the recently ended NHL playoffs, and round three of the High Stakes Duel.

Catch the full episode below.

Hall of Famer Jennifer Harman is one of the best poker players in the world, and her skills are on display in a new video produced by PokerGO. As the first woman to appear on the classic High Stakes Poker, Harman came to the show to play.

The video is a compilation of Harman’s highlights from the show, and they clearly show why she’s one of the best. Playing against fields of exclusively men, she puts all the skills on display, with deft value bets, audacious bluffs, and even a few suckouts.

Notably, in the first hand of the video, she raises pre-flop with rags and ends up busting Phil Hellmuth's queens with a straight on the river. She also pulls off a couple of amazing bluffs against Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari.

It’s great to see the classic footage from High Stakes Poker, complete with Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza on commentary. But it’s also a nice reminder that Hall of Famer Harman has been crushing the game of poker for quite a while now. Check out some of her best hands at the link below.

In just a couple of hours, WSOP will launch in Pennsylvania, its only third state in the US.

As exclusively revealed by our sister site, pokerfuse, online poker players in Pennsylvania will get to experience 888poker’s new Poker 8 software which is quite an upgrade to the classic 888 desktop and mobile apps currently being used in New Jersey and Nevada.

This will be the first time that US players will have access to the new 888 software—the only market where it is yet to roll out.

So what’s all the fuss about the new Poker 8 software?

Well, the ability to play Omaha games on mobile app, something which New Jersey and Nevada players have always been deprived of. Secondly, they will be able to play up to four tables concurrently on mobile phones.

Thirdly, the new Poker 8 software will also support the ability to run the ultra-popular progressive knockout (PKO) tournaments—a format that allows players to make cash even before reaching in the money.

Besides, players in the Keystone State will get to experience various new aspects of the app:

• New revamped lobby
• Portrait mode on mobile
• Cleaner tables
• Biometric login on mobile
• Slick new layout
• New Hand replayer on the Desktop app
• New avatars, sound effects and animations
• Improved filters

When is the new Poker 8 software deploying in New Jersey and Nevada?

F5 understands the new Poker 8 software will also be deployed in New Jersey and Nevada. However, the timeframe is not known, but it is likely to follow the Pennsylvania and Michigan launch.

Want to learn more about the WSOP PA launch and details on the new app? Check out our sister site’s articles:

Breaking: WSOP.com to Go Live in Pennsylvania on July 12, with Segregated Player Pool for Now

First Look: WSOP PA’s New Mobile Poker App

Welcome Week Offers, Soft Launch Schedule, Desktop Details: Everything You Need to Know Ahead of WSOP PA Launch