Lex Velduis went all-in on PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) this year, but it paid off with a small profit. With the very real possibility going in that it could be the biggest WCOOP ever, the PokerStars Pro and popular streamer had good timing for his bet.

Veldhuis has long been a member of Team PokerStars, streaming his play on the site for many years. He’s currently the number one poker streamer on Twitch, according to the September 2021 stats at TwitchMetrics.

The streamer is also the face behind the Lex Live festival. He was all set to run Lex Live 3 when the pandemic shut him down, but it just morphed into the Lex Not Live and became an online festival as so many others did.

All-in on WCOOP

Veldhuis picked a good time to go all-in on buy-ins for a WCOOP. As he said, he “fired pretty much every tournament.” As it turned out, he was firing every game in the biggest WCOOP in online poker history.

There was more than $120 million in prizes handed out in the end, a significant increase over the $100 million guarantee, and according to his tweet, Veldhuis supplied $455,000 of that himself. There were 306 total tournaments, and once again, it sounds like he was in the lion’s share of them.

Overall, he says he came out $30k up after the dust settled, so while he likely wasn’t thrilled with the result, he won’t be too disappointed with it either. Check out the video below to watch highlights of one of his biggest days of the festival with $25k at stake on the tables.

The big games really do come in the lottery sit & go (LSNG) games that are becoming so popular across the online poker landscape in recent years, as three Italian players recently found out on 888poker. The two women and one man sat down for a $1 BLAST game, and the $1 million prize pool came up!

Everyone dreams of the big prize when they sit down for a LSNG game, but it never seems to happen. Most players have to be satisfied with the odd 10x prize pool to soothe their nerves. But that all changed for three Italian players when they spun up a $1 million prize pool in a $1 BLAST game.

As it turned out, the three players in the game, “ilaria200651”, “ele76m”, and “Adria74”, were majority female and it was the man who went out first. “Adria74” went down in 3rd place, but still picked up a cool $100,000 for his efforts.

That left the two ladies battling it out for the huge prizes. Even second place wouldn’t leave the game too unhappy, with $200,000 in their pocket, but the $700,000 top prize was on both woman’s minds.

In the end, it was “ele76m” who had to settle for the $200k consolation prize while “ilaria200651” won $700,000 for a few minutes work.

Life Changing Money

The winner, identified as A.M., a 54-year-old from Mentana, was understandably excited when they hit the $1 million. “I started screaming, so much so that my son got scared. I couldn’t believe it!” she said about the moment the big score came up.

$700,000 is a life-changing sum of money for most people, but A.M. seemed mostly unfazed by it. “We are a family of workers, and we will continue to work. But, at least, now we can realize our dreams.”

“We have four children; the eldest is 35, the youngest, 15. So, it’s important for us to give them everything they need – to send the youngest to a good university and to help the eldest with the house loan. And we can have a bigger house now, too.”

It was a huge win for all three players involved. Second place finisher E.M., from Civita Castellana (Viterbo) said she planned to renovate her house with the winnings.

Read all about the amazing game at 888poker Magazine.

Wiktor Malinowski who goes by the screen name “Limitless” has been signed up by top online poker room GGPoker as their newest ambassador.

Malinowski is representing the operator’s newly created Team Poland roster and is the first Polish player to be signed up by the operator.

He is well known across the poker world as the “high stakes end boss.”

Starting his career primarily as a cash game player, Malinowski recently transitioned to the high-stakes live poker tournament field in 2019. According to the Hendon Mob, he has over $4 million in total live earnings with his big success coming not too long.

Last month, the Polish pro took down the Super High Roller Bowl Europe Main Event for over $3.6 million prize money. He also holds records for winning one of the biggest online cash game pots. Prior to poker, he formerly played handball professionally.

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

The venerable poker media website Cardplayer Lifestyle is giving away the first Platinum Pass awarded in more than a year. Originally scheduled for 2020, the pandemic postponed the big Mixed Game Festival, but now it is back on, running from October 4 to 7.

Cardplayer Lifestyle founder Robbie Strazynski put together the homage to the lesser-played forms of poker as a way to promote mixed games, as well as give away some amazing prizes. When the festival is finished, one player will be the proud owner of the first Platinum Pass awarded for the upcoming 2022 version of the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC).

There is still no scheduled date for the next edition of the PSPC, but it is planned for 2022, and the winner of the closing tournament in this series will be attending the massive event for free. The free Platinum Pass ticket will be part of the first place prize for the closing event in the festival.

Mixed Game Festival Details

The plan is for something of a mix between cash and tournament poker. The festival kicks off with the cash game component of the series, three days of low-stakes Dealer’s Choice cash games, and ends with a $200 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament, but one with a twist.

While the H.O.R.S.E. will play as a regular H.O.R.S.E. multi-table tournament, not every player will start with the same starting stack. Players can earn as much as a double start stack by playing in the cash game component leading up to the finale game.

For every five (5) hours of Dealer’s Choice cash game time logged leading up to the start of the H.O.R.S.E. tournament, players will get extra chips in their start stack for the final game. Players who log 25 hours or more on the cash tables will start the final H.O.R.S.E. game with double stacks.

If you love mixed games, take your shot at the first Platinum Pass to be awarded in more than a year in Cardplayer Lifestyle’s Mixed Game Festival. Action takes place at the Westgate Las Vegas from October 4 to 7, and details on the games, the side activities, and special room rates, can be found here.