Dan Smith is one of the best-known names in poker, with over $38,000,000 in live tournament earnings, and that number is only likely to grow in the coming years. Before he turned to poker full time, Smith was also an expert chess player, and it seems he still has a love for the game.

Just recently, he accepted a challenge from Alexandra Botez to play a few games of blitz chess on a live stream, betting $20 a game to add some spice to the affair. After four games, the results were tied, so the two decided to play the fifth and decisive game for $50, and Smith actually managed to book a fancy win, promoting his pawn to a rook and delivering a checkmate to Alexandra’s destitute king.

At this point, her sister Andrea, who played the role of the observer and poked fun at Dan during the match, took over to try and save the Botez family honor. She did so successfully, besting the poker pro in an endgame.

Thus, the match ended with no winner on the board, but it was a great watch, so you could say that all fans of poker and chess won. It was just positive vibes all around and we are certainly looking forward to a rematch of some sort.

After all, it is only fair for a poker pro to go and challenge Alex on her turf after she did so at a recent Hustler Live stream, winning close to $500,000 in a game featuring legends like Tom Dwan and Phil Hellmuth!

As most poker fans know, Joey Ingram, everyone’s favorite YouTube content creator, has been off the grid for some time. Ingram pretty much disappeared out of the blue, with only an occasional tweet indicating he was okay and that he was pursuing interests beyond poker.

It seems that Joey’s hiatus is finally over, though, as he resurfaced a couple of weeks ago and was welcomed by longtime friend Doug Polk, who hosted him on his podcast to talk about what he has been up to as of late and what his plans for the future were.

Joey was clearly eager to hit the tables as well, as he joined the Charity Series of Poker event on Saturday, rocking a completely new look that we certainly would not expect from Papi.

This is quite a big shift from his trademark tank top, but there is no denying that Joey looks better than ever and we could definitely get used to this new style. After taking some time away to put things into perspective, perhaps this is Papi 2.0, and we are eager to see what he has up his sleeves (now that he has some sleeves to begin with).

Check out the PokerStars Pro’s video below.

Doug Polk has made an impressive run in the Lodge Main Event, busting out in 4th place and banking $142,000 for his efforts. Regularly, this would not be much of news for a player of Polk’s stature, but the fact he is a part-owner of the Lodge Card Club has made it a bit controversial.

The ambitious $2M guaranteed Main Event ended up with quite a bit of an overlay, but Polk’s deep run will soften the blow somewhat.

While Doug’s tweets about the tournament were meant primarily as trolls (something he’s become quite notorious for), some of his followers expressed genuine concerns about one of the club owners playing in the tournament.

While these complaints have some merit, Polk has become the main face of the Lodge, and his presence at the club is a big draw for many poker fans out there, so this is not much different from sponsored pros playing in events organized by online poker sites.

As for Doug, his only complaint will probably be about failing to go all the way and keep the first Lodge Championship title in-house!

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is into its second week. For those unaware, the PokerStars flagship online tournament series is guaranteeing $78.5 million in prizes over 318 tournaments.

You can watch all the highlights from PokerStars Team Pro, Spraggy, as he struggles to make it a successful series.

Michigan has made it official. It has joined MSIGA, joining Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey in an interstate internet gaming compact. Simply put, this means operators in Michigan can link up their MI player pools with ones in the three other MSIGA states.

The addition of Michigan means the total combined player pool nearly doubles!

“I am happy to announce Michigan has joined the multi-state poker compact, and much of the increased tax revenue from multi-state poker will go to support K-12 education in Michigan,” Henry Williams, Executive Director of the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB), said in an announcement on Monday. “By joining, Michigan will almost double the potential pool of participants in multistate poker games.”

Read the full story over on pokerfuse and learn more about US Multi-State Poker in our complete guide!