The WSOP Main Event put a shot clock, also called an Action Clock, into play on Day 7 for the first time in the tournament’s 57-year history. Pokerati reported that the change went in at the start of Day 7 without prior announcement, Joe Stapleton announced the new system on the WSOP livestream, and PokerNews said live coverage started about an hour later. At that point, 62 players were left, and the new structure gave them 20 seconds preflop, 30 seconds on each postflop street and six 30-second time-bank cards at the start of the day.

The move followed a Day 6 tank involving Loren Klein and Tyler Gaston. Klein had one chip behind, was chasing a $20,000 pay jump and was allowed to stall for more than 15 minutes before the floor stepped in. He later called with K♣4♥, lost to Gaston’s A♣6♦ and finished 72nd for $105,000.

Poker.org’s David Fenigsohn argued that the new clock was already allowed by the rulebook. He pointed to language saying Host Properties reserves the right to implement an event-wide player shot-clock into any tournament at any point, and said the better fix is to change the rules and incentives rather than accuse players of cheating.

Fenigsohn also wrote that stalling can raise a player’s EV because the rules permit it, and that tournament floor discretion already exists when a table is not playing fast enough. He called the shot clock an extreme but permissible action, and said that if everyone stalled to Klein’s degree, tournament poker would be unplayable. He also noted that at the time of the incident there were only eight tables left and the players at Klein’s table alone had paid a combined $6,300 in rake.

Players offered different takes on the fix. WSOP commentator David Williams called it a bad idea and said the floor should use discretion in egregious spots instead of applying a blanket clock. Chris Brewer called the move completely awful and insanely unfair to recreational players, while Galen Hall backed it and Andrew Lichtenberger was not on board. Maria Ho said shot clocks give pros an advantage over amateurs who have never used them.

Shaun Deeb was firmly in favor. He said pros take way more time than recreationals, that very few recreationals tank, and that the clock is a necessary evil that keeps one table from costing other tables time. Card Player quoted him saying it should have been implemented a lot sooner, and Deeb also said stalling is effectively stealing from the other tables.

The debate also touched on how often players actually call the clock. Todd Brunson said he had rarely, if ever, done it before, but might have on Klein’s hand, and PokerNews noted that pay-jump pressure and the stigma of being the caller can keep players quiet even when they want a hand sped up. A player elsewhere in the room also called the clock on Ike Haxton, showing the option was available to anyone in the field.

Other ideas came up too. One option was giving dealers more discretion instead of a blanket field-wide clock, while another was a chess-style clock that gives each player a full-day time bank; Daniel Negreanu called that an innovative game changer for poker, and Phil Hellmuth said players sometimes need extra time to think. PokerNews also pointed to the European Poker Tour Main Event model, where the shot clock starts at Level 11, players get limited time-bank cards that are replenished through the event, the first decision gets 15 seconds, later decisions 30, and deliberate abuse can bring a five-second shot clock on future hands.

The Main Event’s final table of nine is set for Aug. 3-5 at Paris Las Vegas, with ESPN2 carrying Aug. 3-4 and ESPN airing Aug. 5 instead of the subscription app.

Maurice Hawkins won the WSOP Circuit Choctaw $1,100 Mini Main Event for $76,380, and the victory pushed his all-time WSOP Circuit gold-ring total to 26, a new record.

The event drew 400 entries and generated a $390,000 prize pool. Brian Green finished second for $50,900, Will Givens was third for $35,450, and Ari Engel took fourth for $25,170.

The final table did not come easily. SpadePoker said Hawkins was down to his last 6 big blinds in the final showdown before he regrouped and finished the comeback. After the win, Hawkins told Poker.org, “I’ve got the recipe, and I’m spreading it all over America,” and said he had figured out things about his own game and other players’ games before applying them.

The new title also stretched his lead in the Circuit ring race. Hawkins now has a six-ring cushion over the nearest competition, with CardPlayer noting that Ari Engel and Daniel Lowery are tied for second on 20 rings apiece.

The Choctaw win added 720 Card Player Player of the Year points, lifting Hawkins to 4,512 overall and 12th place in the CoinPoker standings. CardPlayer also said he now has 15 POY-qualified final-table finishes and career earnings of about $7.7 million.

The Choctaw result came after Hawkins had already taken his 25th ring earlier in the year. CardPlayer reported that he filed for bankruptcy in April and then picked up his 25th WSOP Circuit victory shortly afterward at Harrah’s Cherokee, where he beat James Calderaro heads-up in a 631-entry $1,100 no-limit hold’em event for $113,233.

The RunGood Poker Series Passport Season Finale $600 The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship was underway at Thunder Valley Casino Resort, with three starting flights in the books and Day 1d just getting started. PokerNews’ live updates said 59 players had already taken seats for the fourth flight, while 29 players had already punched tickets to Day 2 after the first two flights.

The broader festival, according to PokerNews, ran at Thunder Valley in Lincoln, California from July 13 to August 3. It featured 20 ring-awarding events over 22 days and more than $2.3 million in guarantees, including a $500,000 guarantee for the Mid-Major Championship.

Day 1a drew 118 entries and ended with 12 players advancing. Ricardo Lazo bagged the biggest stack at 572,000 after a key hand against Arthur Abraamyan helped his kings hold against pocket queens and push him past 200,000. Cirilo Esnardo finished second in chips with 472,000, Baljinder Bhupal took 470,000, and Esnardo closed the flight by busting Linwood Bailey when ace-queen made a full house.

The opening flight also sent home a few players still hoping to make an early bag. Tyler Patterson missed out when his king-high could not hold against Sok Chean, who hit a jack on the river, and Sasha Sabbaghian did not find traction on Day 1a either, though five more starting flights remained available.

Day 1b added 166 entries and 17 more qualifiers. Jarod Minghini topped the flight with 575,000, Jedidiah Hoffman followed with 560,000, and Tsztak Ho bagged 472,000. Through the first two flights, the field had reached 284 total entries, with 29 players moving on to Day 2.

Minghini entered the event with more than $2.5 million in live earnings on The Hendon Mob and still had not won an RGPS championship at that point. Hoffman helped end the bubble by knocking out Allan Capurro with a straight flush, and his own career earnings were described as nearly $1 million.

Day 1c brought in 119 more entries and 12 more Day 2 bags. Yang Lu led that flight with 694,000, Jane Bahk followed with 519,000, and David Larson finished with 474,000. Bahk had already won an RGPS ring at Thunder Valley and was chasing a second, while Larson’s resume included more than $500,000 in earnings and a 14th-place finish in the 2022 RGPS Contenders Thunder Valley Main Event.

Day 1d began at 11 a.m. local time with players starting on 30,000 chips. Blind levels were set at 30 minutes on the starting flights and were scheduled to stretch to 40 minutes on Day 2, where play would resume eight-handed and the final table would be nine-handed.

The structure also allowed one reentry per flight, with registration closing at the start of Level 9. The top 12.5% of each starting flight would cash for $1,100, and the top 10% from each field would advance to Day 2.

ACR Poker says more than 85% of the 1,500 guaranteed Venom Fever seats are still open as the site moves toward its $15 million Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms. The qualification campaign runs through Aug. 30, while the target events begin Aug. 13.

According to ACR Poker’s promo page, the Dual Venoms are part of the site’s 25th Anniversary celebration. The pair includes two $2,650 buy-in tournaments, a $12 million guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em Mystery Bounty Venom and a $3 million guaranteed Pot-Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty Venom.

Each knockout in those events unlocks a Mystery Bounty worth at least $5,000. The NLH event carries a $500,000 top bounty, while the PLO event’s top bounty is $250,000.

This weekend’s qualifying slate guarantees 60 seats across four events. A $55 Mega Satellite runs Saturday, July 25 at 1:30pm ET and awards five seats, while Sunday, July 26 at 1:30pm ET brings a $290 Mega Satellite for at least 20 seats and a $109 Mega Satellite for 10 more.

A $95 Beast Tournament follows on Sunday at 5:05pm ET and guarantees 25 seats. Players can enter that event directly or qualify through the Beast and Sit & Crush weekly leaderboards.

An earlier ACR Poker news post said Venom Fever officially began July 13 when Venom Madness satellites got underway. Lower-cost routes remain in place through $16.50 Venom Madness multi-flight satellites, where the top 15% from each Day 1 flight move on to Sunday’s 4:05pm ET Day 2 and each weekly final guarantees 10 seats. Survivor Flips start at $0.80 and Spin to Get In starts at $0.01, and the schedule expands again on Aug. 3 with $109 and $290 Direct Satellites.

GGPoker has released the first details of the 2026 WSOP Online Bracelet Series, setting the international online festival for Aug. 16 through Sept. 29. The schedule calls for 33 gold bracelet events and $5 million in added promotions.

According to Pokerfuse, the announcement arrived as part of GGPoker’s $18 million August Giveaway, but the operator had not yet posted the full schedule or updated its official WSOP Online landing page with the 2026 details.

The side promotions include a $1 million WSOP Country Competition and $3 million in Continental Flipouts. Every bracelet winner is also set to receive a $30,000 Super Pass bonus.

That Super Pass prize carries entry into the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event, which is set to return to the Bahamas in December.

The 2026 series is the seventh international WSOP Online Bracelet Series hosted on GGPoker. The partnership began in 2020, when the live summer WSOP in Las Vegas was canceled during the pandemic, and the inaugural online festival awarded 54 bracelets and nearly $150 million in prize money.

Since live WSOP returned in 2021, the online series has settled into a 33-event format, with bracelet count steady while participation and prize pools have climbed. Last year’s series ran from Aug. 17 through Sept. 30, generated more than $119.5 million in prize pools across almost 165,000 entries, and saw the $5,000 Main Event pull nearly 6,000 entries into a prize pool above $28.3 million. Benjamin “bencb” Rolle won nearly $3.9 million after reaching the final table for a second straight year.

Separately, Caesars Entertainment said its own 2026 WSOP Online Bracelet schedule will run alongside the live World Series of Poker in Las Vegas from May 30 through July 14, with 30 online Gold Bracelet events, more than $7 million in guarantees, and a returning leaderboard paying $50,000 to top performers.

PokerStars is bringing Sunday Million Live back to Italy this October, after a nine-year break from live tables, as part of its 25th anniversary year. The hybrid event at Casino di Campione carries a €250 buy-in and a €1 million guaranteed prize pool.

The tournament will mix online and live qualification. PokerStars says the format is meant to integrate online and live poker, with three online Day 1 flights and six live starting flights feeding into the later stages.

The online flights are set for September 13, 20 and 27. The live Day 1s will run at the PokerStars Live room inside Casino di Campione on October 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9.

The top 12.5% of each starting flight will advance with their full chip stacks and a guaranteed €500 minimum cash. Once a player qualifies for Day 2, that player cannot re-enter another starting flight.

Survivors return for Day 2 on October 10, with Day 3 on October 11 and the live final table on October 12. PokerStars has not yet announced whether any side events will run alongside the main event.

PokerStars Italy Customer Acquisition Director Germano Martucci said the event celebrates the community’s “passion, determination, and a competitive spirit.” He added that PokerStars wants players “from all over the world and all realities” to feel part of something special, and said the event is designed to bridge geographical and digital boundaries.

This will be only the second live Sunday Million in the series’ history. The first ran in 2017 at PokerStars Live at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, with a €220 buy-in, a €1 million guarantee and the same basic hybrid structure.

That 2017 edition drew 5,045 entries and missed the guarantee by roughly €50,000. PokerStars says it never brought the live version back after that run, even though the Sunday Million continued as an online series.

The online Sunday Million has since expanded into regulated markets including Italy and the Southern European shared-liquidity network, and reached the U.S. through FanDuel Poker with two separate $500,000-guarantee tournaments. PokerStars also marked the online series’ 20th anniversary this year with a special $5 million guaranteed edition, while the 2026 online anniversary event used a lower $109 buy-in and daily Day 1 flights on a summer schedule. The flagship dot-com Sunday Million is now reserved for selected occasions rather than running every Sunday, and PokerStars also hosted a $50 million guaranteed Anniversary Series earlier in 2026.

Ante4autism’s 18th Annual charity poker event is scheduled for Saturday, July 25, at the Grandview Lounge next to the poker room at South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The tournament is open to players and spectators, with registration available at ante4autism.com and onsite, and a $200 buy-in for players. The event is free for the public to watch and carries a $15,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Randy Couture, Jeff Madsen and Chris Seneca are among the named participants. Norman Chad is also listed, and Doug Krinsky has said Chad has backed the fundraiser for years and is known for spending time with players and spectators throughout the evening.

Registration and check-in begin at 5:30 p.m., and tournament play starts at 6:30 p.m. South Point is also offering a special room rate for participants and spectators.

Alongside the tournament, the event features a silent auction with travel experiences, mattresses and other donated items. Bidding is available online and during the event, and one new 2026 sponsor, A Tini Bar, donated a coffee package for up to 50 people. Other sponsors listed include Bedding Industries of America, 3Z Brands, Furniture First National Buying Group, Ashley Furniture Industries, Carpenter, Serta Simmons Bedding, Leggett & Platt, Englander, Precision Textiles, Bread Financial, Coconis Furniture, Customatic Sleep Technologies and John McPhaden.

Proceeds from this year’s event will go to five autism-focused charities: AJ Foundation, Avenues of Autism, Bridgeway Academy, FEAT of Southern Nevada and the National Autism Association of Southeast Ohio.

Furniture Today described Ante4autism as an industry tradition and one of the furniture sector’s signature fundraising events. It said the fundraiser has raised nearly $1.7 million since it began, while Bedtimes Magazine reported that the 16th annual tournament in 2024 raised $162,957 and that the 14th annual event in 2022 raised more than $125,000. The event was created in 2008 by Doug and Kelly Krinsky through their not-for-profit Beat Autism Now to raise awareness about autism and money within the home furnishings industry, and the Krinskys are parents of a child with autism.

Pokerfuse reported that the first two ESPN2 documentary-style episodes of the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event averaged about 173,000 viewers in the first hour and around 186,000 in the second. Both episodes landed outside the night’s top 100 cable programs.

The second hour did a little better than the first, and both hours skewed slightly younger, with adults 18-34 tracking better than older viewers. Nielsen data cited by the report put the first hour at about 0.09% of households and ranked it 82nd among adults 18-49, while the second hour reached about 0.11% of households and made the top 100 cable chart.

Pokerfuse described the start as modest and said the numbers are harder to read in 2026 than they once were. The report pointed to changed viewing habits, with fewer people channel-surfing and more content being watched on demand, and noted that Nielsen now leans more heavily on electronic metering and smart-TV data after a major 2025 update.

The same report also framed the modern ESPN audience as a much smaller universe than it used to be. It said around 60 million homes carry ESPN in 2026, down about 30% since the beginning of COVID, and compared that with roughly 85 million American homes carrying ESPN in 2003.

That older era also looked very different for WSOP. Pokerfuse said episodes in 2003 averaged more than 500,000 viewers, while 2008 episodes often drew between 1 million and 2 million viewers and the finale spiked above 2.4 million.

The current package comes from ESPN’s March agreement with the WSOP to bring the Main Event back to ESPN platforms. ESPN said the deal restored a partnership that began with the network’s first Main Event broadcast in 1987, and Sports Video Group reported that Omaha Productions is handling the 2026 coverage in Las Vegas.

For 2026, the first eight days of the Main Event ran live on ESPN’s streaming platform before the cable rollout of hour-long episodes, and Pokerfuse said only four episodes are planned to tell the story of more than 9,000 entrants. Sports Video Group said the broader production uses more than 50 cameras and that the package includes more than 100 hours of coverage, with ESPN linear networks airing edited episodes.

Pokerfuse said fan reaction to the first two episodes was mostly positive, with the main complaint being that there was not enough content. The live linear finale is set for Aug. 3-5 from 9 p.m. to midnight ET.

Li Liang won Event #11, the Borgata Summer Poker Open $650 Super Deep 6-Max, and became the event’s first female champion. She beat Giorgi Arveladze heads-up to take the $41,150 first-place prize from a field of 401 entries that generated a $228,570 prize pool.

PokerNews described Liang as a local cash game and tournament regular at Borgata. The report said the win more than doubled her prior live tournament earnings, according to The Hendon Mob.

The final table was set after 65 players returned for Day 2, all already in the money with a minimum cash of $1,120. Arveladze led the pack into the final table with 4,495,000 chips, or 56 big blinds, while Liang advanced as the last woman standing with 2,330,000.

The final six played down to a winner on Friday. Day 3 started with Arveladze holding a substantial lead and Liang coming in fourth on the leaderboard.

Frank Costigan was the first final-table casualty after jamming 23 big blinds with pocket tens and getting called by Arveladze’s ace-king. Nearly 90 minutes later, Bin Weng went out after moving all in for his last 19 big blinds with ace-king and running into Arveladze’s pocket tens.

Ryan Syrko finished third after jamming his last seven big blinds with ace-three and running into Arveladze’s pocket sixes. Yuriy Kudrynskyy exited in fourth after getting outflopped by Liang’s jack-six. Heads-up play then began with Arveladze holding about a 2-to-1 advantage.

Liang chipped back with a few small pots, then won the key hand described when Arveladze shoved the turn for more than three times the size of the pot with an open-ended straight draw and Liang called with second pair and the nut flush draw. Liang improved to trips on the river after Arveladze missed, and the next hand ended it when Arveladze shoved with ace-four and Liang called with queen-six suited, leaving him drawing dead on the turn.

Afterward, Liang said she played hard and kept going through a long three-day battle. She said the title mattered as much as the money, added that she plays at Borgata all the time, and said the home-casino advantage worked in her favor and gave her more confidence.

Choctaw Casino and Resort’s World Series of Poker Circuit stop in Durant, Oklahoma, is in its final days, with the 13-day tournament set to wrap up Monday. More than 8,000 players have already come through, and the casino expects around 11,000 by the end of the weekend.

The series has been drawing players to the Durant property for about 15 years. Table Games Manager Lance Hicks said the main event stands out because it has the biggest buy-in, the biggest prize pool and the most glory attached to it, and he said winning it is different from taking any of the other titles.

The main event carries a $1 million prize pool. Hicks said the tournament is open to players regardless of experience, and that it brings in people from beyond the local area who stay, eat and spend time in the Texoma region.

He also said most players pay to stay at the hotel and get a discount for playing in the tournament. Veteran player Jason Moncier had a blunt warning for newcomers: “Hang on to your wallet.”

Even if people cannot make it before the tournament ends, Hicks urged them to still stop by the poker room. KXII reported a year earlier that Choctaw was hosting the circuit for the 14th time and had drawn about 9,000 players, and Hicks said the next circuit event is scheduled for the end of October.

Tom Goldstein, the former Supreme Court litigator and SCOTUSblog co-founder, was sentenced on Friday to six years in federal prison after his conviction on tax crimes and mortgage fraud tied to years of high-stakes poker gambling. He was also ordered to pay $3.1 million in restitution and serve five years of supervised release.

The sentence followed a six-week trial in Greenbelt, Maryland, where jurors found the 56-year-old Chevy Chase resident guilty on 12 of 16 counts. The convictions included one count of tax evasion under 26 U.S.C. 7201, four counts of aiding and assisting the preparation of false tax returns under 26 U.S.C. 7206(2), four counts of willfully failing to pay taxes under 26 U.S.C. 7203, and three counts of mortgage fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1014.

The trial included testimony from Tobey Maguire, who had enlisted Goldstein’s help recovering a gambling debt from a billionaire. Jurors deliberated for about two days before returning the guilty verdict in February.

In a June sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Goldstein’s conduct stretched from 2012 to the present and involved a multi-year effort to hide his real income from the IRS, delay payment, and obstruct the investigation. The filing said he concealed more than $25 million in income between 2016 and 2023, leaving more than $9.5 million in unpaid taxes and causing more than $16 million in harm to the government.

The government’s filing said Goldstein won about $50 million in 2016 in heads-up poker matches against Chairman, Alec Gores and Tango. It also said he created a new version of a poker ledger in October 2017 that added false poker payments, increasing deductions by more than $3 million and cutting his 2016 income tax by over $1 million.

The same memo traced the case back to a 2012 IRS audit of Goldstein’s 2010 return, which focused on unreported gambling winnings and told him to improve his recordkeeping. It said that by 2014 he had secured a $10 million line of credit from Stewart and Lynda Resnick to finance other players, then lied about how the money would be used and later admitted he quickly lost $9 million of it playing poker.

Prosecutors also said Goldstein hid his gambling activity from accountants until 2017, lied to mortgage lenders on three applications to buy and keep a $2.6 million home, and omitted a $15 million gambling debt from mortgage paperwork in 2021 while looking for a new house in Washington, D.C. At trial, Goldstein testified that he had repeatedly told his staff and accountants to classify personal expenses correctly, and a 2014 email he wrote said they always played completely by the rules.

The defense argued that the government had overreached and that prison would make it harder for Goldstein to repay debts and deal with what his lawyers described as a severe gambling addiction. In June, Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby denied his bid for a new trial, saying the case was not close and that the evidence was sufficient under both theories of tax evasion.

Goldstein has filed for release pending appeal, and his lawyers said he intends to seek expedited review in the Fourth Circuit.

Bin Weng was back in live tournament action at the Borgata Summer Poker Open after about seven months away from the tables because of health complications. He had already made a deep run in Event #11, the $650 Super Deep 6-Max.

According to PokerNews, the event drew 401 entries and built a $228,570 prize pool. Day 2 began with 65 players in the money, a minimum cash of $1,120 and $41,150 reserved for the winner.

When PokerNews caught up with Weng, he was among the final three tables. He later advanced to the final table with 1,930,000 in chips, and the official final table was set after Christopher Ackerman went out in seventh.

The final table resumed Friday at noon in the live-stream area inside the Borgata Poker Room. Action was shown live on the BetMGM Poker YouTube channel with roughly a 30-minute delay.

Weng said he was fine now and described the issue as a little medical problem from seven or eight months earlier. He said years of constant travel, too much poker, poor eating and not enough exercise probably caught up with him.

He also said his plan is to play a little less than before and spend more time with his kids and family. Even so, he said he loves competing, feels he can still play and prefers live poker to online.

Borgata remains his home casino, he said, and because he lives in Pennsylvania the drive is only about an hour, which makes the trip feel like a little vacation. His live cashes had topped $6.66 million in 2023, then fell to $519,146 in 2024 and $945,780 in 2025.

Alberta launched its regulated iGaming market on July 13, becoming Canada’s second regulated competitive online gambling market after Ontario. Twenty-two operators are now allowed to take bets, the province keeps 20% of gambling revenue, and Nally estimated the new rules will bring in about $76 million in the first fiscal year. Peer-to-peer online poker was notably absent on day one.

The province’s iGaming factsheet says the rollout traces back to Bill 48, passed in spring 2025, which created the iGaming Alberta Act and amended the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act. The same package established the Alberta iGaming Corporation to oversee market operations and named AGLC as the regulator, while amendments to the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Regulation were published in January to spell out the rules for a private regulated market.

The factsheet also says the transition period allowed operators to advertise and sign up prospective customers, but not add funds to accounts or take bets. Alberta said its final timelines were still being developed before launch, and Gaming Intelligence reported that final AiGC policies and the operating agreement were to be made available to operators that had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Pokerfuse said Alberta’s regulated poker market is ring-fenced, with any licensed operator initially limited to games between players physically located in Alberta and no shared liquidity with Ontario or international pools. It also noted that Ontario has more than 16 million people while Alberta has just over five million, and that poker’s dependence on player liquidity makes a stand-alone network a harder business proposition.

The regulator has not decided whether peer-to-peer games involving players outside Canada will be allowed. It said any future policy would depend on “a detailed evaluation of legal authority, regulatory oversight, operational controls and player-protection requirements.”

Instead of launching regulated poker rooms, many operators are still serving Albertans through their existing international dot-com platforms. PokerStars, 888poker, PartyPoker and many iPoker Network operators are registered with Alberta regulators and can use the transition framework, while GGPoker has not registered and cannot.

PokerNews said PokerStars will keep poker available in Alberta through its global site, even as its casino and sportsbook products are removed from the province. PartyPoker is also staying in Alberta for now, with residents able to keep playing on the international site until a dedicated Alberta platform launches. GGPoker, by contrast, did not apply for a licence and ceased operations in the province on July 13.

Player-protection measures were part of the launch from the start. Gaming Intelligence said system-wide self-exclusion, financial limits and time limits were available at launch, and licensed operators must provide activity statements, respond when they see signs of problem gambling and integrate with AGLC’s centralized self-exclusion system. CBC also reported that Alberta introduced centralized self-exclusion immediately and has stricter advertising rules than Ontario.

Nally said about 70% of online gambling in the province was happening in the black market and there were no player-safety controls. He said Alberta wanted “a legal, regulated framework that put player safety first.” The transition window runs until October 13, when operators must have Alberta-specific platforms live or leave the market.

888poker brought back traditional sit-and-go tournaments for one weekend only, with the Sit & Go Weekend running July 24-26 in the poker room lobby. The short promo revives a format that once sat near the center of online poker lobbies.

According to PokerNews, the lobby path is straightforward. Sit & Go appears at the bottom under Mystery Bounty on the left-hand side, and clicking it opens a dedicated Sit & Go Weekend SNG lobby.

From there, players can enter six-handed and heads-up No-Limit Hold’em sit-and-gos. The offered buy-ins are $1.05, $2.10, $5.25 and $10.50, and 888poker is cutting tournament fees by 50% for both formats.

The payout structure differs by format. Heads-up games are winner-take-all, while six-handed tournaments pay the top two finishers, with 65% of the prize pool going to first and 35% to second.

The revival is aimed at players who used to grind traditional sit-and-gos online. PokerNews said the format fell out of favor when jackpot sit-and-gos took over and many operators either reduced their SNG offerings or dropped them altogether.

The weekend offer also sits alongside 888poker Summer Fest Freerolls, which run from July 20 through August 16. Players can earn a weekly freeroll ticket by completing one of the listed challenges, and the top 100 finishers in each freeroll advance to an exclusive London Live Event freeroll.

That London freeroll awards four 888poker LIVE London packages worth $2,500 each. The 2026 edition of 888poker LIVE London is set for October 8-18 at Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London, although the schedule is still being finalized.

The same article pointed to last September’s £1,250 888poker LIVE Main Event as a size check on the series. It drew 367 entries, built a £383,500 prize pool, and saw Gang Wang beat Calogero Morreale heads-up for £86,600, with Morreale taking £57,200.

PokerStars is marking The Chip Race Podcast’s 200th episode with an $11 special bounty tournament. PokerNews says knockouts will pay the bounty plus a $109 Sunday Million Anniversary ticket, while Poker.org described the reward as Daily Heat Phase 1 entries.

The Chip Race Special Bounty Builder runs on Sunday, July 26 at 16:30 WET, or 11:30 ET, and carries a $20,000 guarantee. The bounty list includes hosts David Lappin, Dara O’Kearney, and Barry Carter, plus PokerStars ambassadors Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, Marle Spragg, and Sebastian Huber. Players in Germany, Sweden, Belgium, and Denmark are excluded because of licensing restrictions.

Poker.org reported that the podcast’s 200th episode airs on Friday, July 24. PokerNews said the milestone comes shortly after the Season 28 finale, which featured Jason Koon, Toby Stone, and PokerNews Podcast host Mike Holtz.

The show’s roots go back to a much smaller goal. Lappin said it was first meant to appeal to a couple of thousand Irish players by covering the local scene and to land sponsorship from PaddyPower Poker. He said the first goal was reached in seven episodes, while the sponsorship took more than 190 shows, and that the podcast’s growth came through word of mouth rather than paid promotion.

Over more than 200 episodes, The Chip Race has featured interviews with Phil Hellmuth, Mike Sexton, Jason Koon, Jennifer Tilly, Doug Polk, Stephen Chidwick, Shaun Deeb, Ike Haxton, Nick Schulman, Scott Seiver, and Vicky Coren, along with regulars Maria Konnikova, Jen Shahade, and Kat Arnsby. PokerNews says the show now has more than 25,000 listeners across 76 countries.

That ticket points into PokerStars’ Sunday Million 20th Anniversary, a $109, $5 million-guaranteed Progressive Knockout running in phases through September 6.

WSOP 2026 generated 378.3 million views and impressions across its social media channels, and the series added 222,828 new followers and subscribers during the 100 live bracelet events. The numbers came during the 57th annual festival and show how far the event reached beyond the live poker room.

According to Pokerfuse, Facebook and Instagram did most of the work. Facebook produced 127 million views and Instagram 125 million, and together they accounted for roughly two-thirds of WSOP’s total social media audience during the series.

Facebook also gained 56,800 new followers, while Instagram added 54,450. YouTube logged 38.7 million total views and led subscriber growth, with more than 103,000 new subscribers, which WSOP said was nearly half of all new followers added across its social platforms.

X added 36.6 million impressions and 8,450 new followers. The series also recorded nearly 252,000 entries across the 100 live bracelet events, which matches the scale of the summer on the casino floor as well as online.

WSOP chief Ty Stewart said the community expanded well beyond the physical walls of the casino floor. He credited the redesigned final table arena, the broader linear broadcast schedule and the digital push with bringing bracelet action to millions of new fans worldwide.

ESPN returned to WSOP coverage in 2026 under a new multi-year agreement after a five-year absence. ESPN said it first broadcast the Main Event in 1987, and this year’s package includes more than 100 hours of Main Event coverage beginning with Day 1A on July 2 on the ESPN App, plus edited episodes on linear networks. Edited broadcasts began airing on July 21.

Lon McEachern and Norman Chad reunited for the broadcast team, while Ali Nejad and newly inducted Poker Hall of Famer Nick Schulman led the live digital coverage and the Main Event final table. Jeff Platt, Joe Stapleton, Maria Ho and David Williams were also part of the wider team.

WSOP also signed a new three-year partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery that brings Main Event coverage to viewers in Europe, Asia and Latin America through Eurosport, TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, and HBO Max in select markets. The package includes six 45-minute highlight shows, and WSOP said its linear television and digital broadcasts were available in more than 300 million homes across over 70 countries, with Abema in Japan and Groupe M6 in France also carrying coverage.

The Main Event final table is set for a three-night live ESPN finale on Aug. 3-5 from 9 p.m. ET to midnight ET.

The second annual Aces for Autism Poker Tournament is set for Sept. 16 at Drive the Coast in Miramar Beach. The fundraiser will benefit Advanced Sacred Hope Academy, and it is being billed as a full day of raffles, poker, great food and community.

WKRG News 5 interviewed CEO and founder Julie Webb and community engagement officer Lauren Ewashko about the inspiration behind the event and the school’s mission.

According to Mid Bay News, Advanced Sacred Hope Academy is moving to a larger campus at 106 Racetrack Rd NE this fall. The school began in 2018 with seven students and had 75 students registered for the 2025-2026 school year, which the report said reflected growing demand for specialized education.

The new facility includes adaptive classrooms and dedicated therapy spaces. Plans also call for a sensory-friendly playground designed to support the specific learning and social needs of neurodiverse students.

The school is seeking Classroom and Playground Sponsors to support those adaptive spaces. Sponsorships include naming rights, recognition on campus and visibility at ASHA community events.

Robert Hruska, ASHA’s director of operations, said community support has been “the backbone” of the school’s growth. He added that the next chapter is about building more than a school and creating a comprehensive environment where students can grow, learn and develop skills for meaningful engagement in their families, communities and future workplaces.

Its move to the larger campus at 106 Racetrack Rd NE is set for this fall.

Americas Cardroom said its $66 Run Up Series Mystery Bounty Multi-Flight has reached 1,220 entries, while more than 200 Day 1 flights are still on the schedule before Day 2 on Aug. 17. The event carries a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, and the mystery-bounty phase starts once play moves to Day 2, when one knockout will reveal a $100,000 top prize.

According to the company’s press release, the $66 event is the multi-flight headliner of the five-week Run Up Series. The series runs through Aug. 17 and features more than $10 million in guarantees across 163 tournaments.

Players who advance from a Day 1 flight will compete for a share of the seven-figure prize pool. The remaining Day 1 schedule gives players repeated chances to qualify, with flights continuing until the series closes.

The Run Up Series wraps up with three Main Events on the final weekend. Those include a $1,050 event with a $750,000 guarantee, a $215 event with a $400,000 guarantee, and a $33 event with $200,000 on the line, with Day 1 set for Aug. 16 and Day 2 on Aug. 17.

Americas Cardroom is also running a $100,000 leaderboard contest funded entirely by the company. Prizes are split between High and Low divisions, and the top 25 finishers in each division will receive cash, tournament tickets, and seats to the Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms.

Those Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms begin on Aug. 13 with $15 million in combined guarantees, the largest total in Venom history. The schedule includes a $12 million No-Limit Hold’em event and a $3 million Pot-Limit Omaha event, both with $2,650 buy-ins and eight Day 1 flights, while the top bounty in the NLH event is $500,000 and the PLO top bounty is $250,000.

Venom Fever offers 1,500 seats with qualification routes starting from $0. A separate $2.5 million guaranteed 25th Anniversary Tournament is also underway, with a $250 buy-in, 21 Day 1 flights, and a cumulative stack format.

The World Poker Tour brought the Bay 101 Shooting Star festival back to Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California, running from Oct. 16 through Nov. 1. The $5,300 championship was slated for Oct. 23-27.

According to PokerTube, the main event kept the Shooting Star bounty format, with select players at each starting table carrying $2,500 bounties. WPT staff picked those players before the tournament, usually leaning toward well-known names or players with some personality, and knocking out a Shooting Star paid the bounty on top of the prize pool. The final six players advanced to a televised final table, and the winner received the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.

WPT CEO Adam Pliska said, “Few tournaments carry the tradition and prestige of the Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship.” The tour also said it was producing its 24th televised season and broadcasting in more than 150 countries and territories. PokerTube added that WPT had awarded more than $1.5 billion in prize money since its 2002 launch, with tournaments in 48 countries and more than 400,000 total entries.

The stop had been off the WPT schedule for eight years before returning last season, and this was the first time it had come back in consecutive years. Last season’s field included Chance Kornuth, who ran deep and finished sixth, while Kharlin Sued eliminated him on the way to a career-best $480,700 first prize.

Bay 101 has been part of the tour since Season II. WPT’s history page said the Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event opened as a $5,200 buy-in in Season II, rose to $10,250 in Season III, then sat at $10,000 through Season XI before settling at $7,500, a level the tour said worked well with the satellite structure.

The event has also produced several big fields and big paydays. In Season II, it drew 243 entries and built a $1.24 million prize pool, with Phil Gordon beating Chris Moneymaker heads-up for $360,000. Season IV drew 518 entrants and more than $4.7 million in prize money, with Nam Le winning $1.2 million, while Season XI set a record with 643 entries and a $1.138 million first prize. Season XIV reached 753 entries, more than $5.3 million in prize money, and a $1.298 million winner’s score.

Heading into Season XV, the WPT history page said the tournament had awarded more than $52 million in prize money and had given out at least a $1 million first-place prize 10 times in 13 previous WPT appearances.

PokerNews also listed a slate of Shooting Stars for the event that included Lily Kiletto, Xuan Liu, Kenna James, Erick Lindgren, Chance Kornuth, Nikki Limo, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Adam Hendrix, Matt Salsberg, David “ODB” Baker, Jeff Platt and Jesse Yaginuma.

Octopi Poker has relaunched Thomas Boivin’s Beyond The Solver as a self-paced online course. The updated version is available now, and it replaces the earlier cohort-based format with a product students can work through on their own schedule.

PokerOrg reported that the original version was a limited-intake, cohort-based course that closed registration ahead of the WSOP. After that first run, Boivin and Octopi went back through the syllabus, revised the material and added new content before bringing it back in a self-contained format.

The new course page now frames Beyond The Solver around 11 blueprints and more than 160 short video lessons. It is built around “structure and exploits,” with the first half focused on baseline play and GTO heuristics, and the second half on population tendencies and profitable adjustments.

The course also uses a “Baseline, Leak, Counter” framework. Students start from solver output, identify where the field deviates street by street, lock in counters through node-locking, and then drill the adjustments with quizzes and trainer reps until the response becomes automatic at the table.

A purchase includes one month of Octopi’s Professional plan, plus lifetime access to the video lessons. Trainer drills and broader platform access continue only while an active Pro membership is in place after that included month, and existing Pro members receive account credit.

The course is priced at $999 as a one-time payment. The page says all video content stays yours forever, while the drills and platform tools are tied to membership.

Boivin designed the curriculum and teaches most of the sessions, while Matt Hunt and Brian Hastings cover the concepts where they have the most expertise. Earlier PokerOrg coverage said Boivin joined Octopi Poker as Head of Content and Head of Octopi Academy, part of the company’s push to rethink poker coaching and study through content.

That same coverage said Boivin has more than $17 million in lifetime tournament earnings, and that he won more than $8.42 million in live tournaments in 2025 alone. PokerOrg also said the first course was a three-week professional-level program that sat between GTO and exploitative play, with Boivin explaining that the aim was to show the main exploits versus most player profiles so students would not leave money on the table.

Buyers who sign up before Aug. 1 get access to two special 90-minute small-group workshops with Boivin, scheduled for late August.

Americas Cardroom’s $1 million guaranteed Mystery Bounty Multi-Flight tournament had reached 1,220 entries, and more than 200 Day 1 flights were still on the schedule.

According to Americas Cardroom, the event has a $66 buy-in. Players who advance from a Day 1 flight move on to Day 2 on Aug. 17, where the Mystery Bounty portion begins and player eliminations reveal prizes that include a $100,000 top bounty.

The tournament is the multi-flight headliner of the Run Up Series, a five-week online poker series with more than $10 million in guarantees across 163 tournaments. The series runs through Aug. 17.

The Run Up Series closes with three Main Events. The schedule includes a $1,050 buy-in event with a $750,000 guarantee, a $215 buy-in event with a $400,000 guarantee, and a $33 buy-in event with a $200,000 guarantee, with Day 1 on Aug. 16 and Day 2 on Aug. 17.

Americas Cardroom also said it is funding a $100,000 leaderboard competition, which it called its largest leaderboard promotion to date. The prizes include cash, tournament tickets, and entries to the Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms, with the High division winner getting $10,000 plus Venom tickets and the Low division winner getting $5,000 plus Venom tickets.

Those Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms carry a record $15 million in combined guarantees, and players can qualify through Venom Fever, which guarantees 1,500 seats with paths starting at $0.

A separate $2.5 million guaranteed 25th Anniversary Tournament is also underway. It has a $250 buy-in, 21 Day 1 flights, and a cumulative stack format.

Arizona regulators sent cease-and-desist orders to five online gambling companies: BetOpenly, Bookmaker, Club WPT Online Poker, Kutt Inc. and Raffle Creator. The department said the cases involved alleged promotion of gambling, illegal control of an enterprise and money laundering.

According to KOLD, Club WPT Online Poker was also accused of enabling underage players in pay-to-play poker tournaments by using the phrase “no purchase necessary.” The department said the named companies were directed to stop all gambling operations.

Jackie Johnson, the department director, said Arizona was taking decisive action against illegal gambling operators that put Arizonans at risk, and that operators must stop promoting illegal gambling.

KTAR reported that the enforcement push was meant to address an increase in illegal gambling in the state. The same report said BetOpenly, Club WPT Online Poker and Raffle Creator were accused of enabling people under 21 to take part, and that residents were advised to make sure gambling activities are conducted through an ADG-approved operator.

Separately, CardPlayer reported that ClubWPT Gold announced a new business model that scrapped free-to-play games and Gold Coins. Players now buy poker training credits to play and redeem winnings for prizes.

The site also introduced a hand analysis tool that gives feedback on past hands, analyzes every action and shows how close a player was to game theory optimal play. Each Hand Analyses purchase comes with Chips that can be used to play games on ClubWPT Gold, and those Chips can be used for poker with real cash prizes.

Doug Polk said the shift made sense in light of the legal landscape for U.S. poker, and ClubWPT Gold said the launch was the latest step in its long-term vision for a training-and-playing experience unlike anything else in the industry.

Andrew Ostapchenko won Event #10, the $2,200 NLH High Roller, at the WSOP Circuit stop at Horseshoe in Las Vegas. He beat David Peters heads-up and took $115,890, while also collecting his second WSOPC ring.

According to Spade Poker, the event drew 260 entries and generated a $520,000 prize pool. The top 39 finishers got paid.

Peters finished second for $77,244 after recently winning his fifth gold bracelet in the $10K 6-Handed Championship. The result kept him from adding another major title at the festival.

Troy Mclean took third for $53,608, and Mingxi Zhu was fourth for $37,987. Christopher Hunichen ran fifth for $27,496.

Gerardo Rodriguez placed sixth for $20,339, Bin Duan was seventh for $15,383, Jason Wheeler finished eighth for $11,902, and Joao Simao took ninth for $9,425. Hunichen, Wheeler and Simao all reached the final table.

The report framed the win as part of the post-WSOP move into circuit events at Horseshoe while players waited for the Main Event final table. It also said this was Ostapchenko’s highest score of the current festival.

Jeff Dickerson won PokerOrg’s Pick 3 WSOP Main Event contest after choosing Josh Arieh, Brock Wilson and Shaun Deeb, and all three of his picks cashed. His prize was a $5,000 Moneymaker Tour Aruba package.

The contest let users pick three players, with each team’s score set by the combined prize money those players won. It was free for members of “The Org,” and registration stayed open until 11am PT on July 6, with teams editable right up to the deadline.

PokerOrg’s later winners post said the competition was over once no eligible player could add any more points. The race for first came down to Day 8, when Brock Wilson went out in 16th and Shaun Deeb became the last point-scoring player still alive.

Deeb then busted in 15th for $410,475, and PokerOrg said the next pay jump did not start until 13th, so the math was done. The outlet listed the top-scoring lineup as DeebsDoubleDs with 878,450 points, and said Deeb was on 48 teams while Wilson appeared on eight.

The winners post also said teams finishing 2-10 would get smaller prizes, including merch from PokerOrg and Faded Spade. When two teams, Iwinnow and Otoole’s Crew, tied for 10th with Big Al’s Locks, the tiebreaker was a guess on Main Event entries.

The actual field size was 9,208. Big Al’s Locks guessed 8,880, closer than Iwinnow’s 10,363 and Otoole’s Crew’s 9,655, so Big Al’s Locks claimed the last top-10 spot.

In PokerOrg’s profile of Dickerson, he said he found the site during a WSOP Circuit stop in Cherokee and that the Pick 3 contest caught his eye. He said Wilson had come through for him before, he had staked on Josh Arieh’s PokerStake site, and he rated Shaun Deeb as “probably the best in the world right now.”

Dickerson said he felt confident once all three players made the money, though he also said variance meant it was never a lock. Arieh bowed out earlier than he wanted, but Deeb and Wilson kept him in the hunt through seven full days of Main Event play, and Dickerson said he had a leg up because no other team owners had both of them on their roster.

He described himself as a recreational player who used to play Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars before Black Friday. After some of his children were out of the house, he started taking poker more seriously, signed up with PokerCoaching to sharpen his math, and later began working with Intuition Poker.

He planned to keep working with Intuition Poker into the WSOP Circuit stop in Cherokee in August and the Aruba trip, where the Moneymaker Poker Tour Main Event runs September 24-27 at The Casino Aruba in Oranjestad.

Denys Chufarin is the focus of a new Online Poker Millionaires episode that includes an exclusive clip and revisits his climb from a $65 bankroll in 2009 to nearly $200,000 in ready funds on his online balance. The piece also says he can spend around $50,000 on buy-ins in a single day, according to poker.org.

Chufarin is a pro player, streamer and content creator. He says poker can be both an escape and a job, and he argues that money is not an end in itself after seeing people with millions who are unhappy and people earning $50,000 to $100,000 a year who are happy.

He also says poker gives “freedom of will” and “freedom of thinking.” In the same conversation, he says he has lost with 95% odds before, which is why he treats improbable events as part of the game.

The episode turns to the war in Ukraine. Chufarin says he thought there was a chance Russia would attack, putting the odds at 5%, then spent time in Thailand with his family after the invasion began and eventually accepted they would not be returning soon.

With the war still raging, he relocated permanently to British Columbia in Canada, where he can keep playing on the site he represents as an ambassador. The GGPoker piece frames that move alongside his play for huge prizes in the GG World Festival.

Chufarin, a recent GGMillion$ co-commentator, had already broken through in GGPoker’s own coverage earlier in November 2025, when he won his first GGMillion$ title in the Super High Roller event. He started the final table with 29 big blinds and 12.72-to-1 odds, then beat Ilya Anatski heads-up for $336,740, while Anatski collected $264,033 after starting as the 98-big-blind chip leader and 3.46 favorite.

The broader Online Poker Millionaires docuseries premiered on GGPoker’s YouTube channel on 12 November 2025 and was produced with POKERfilms. The debut episode featured Alex Theologis, who was described as a GGMillion$ and WSOP champion with more than $9 million in GGPoker tournament earnings.

Day 1B of the WSOP Circuit Main Event in Las Vegas got underway.

The $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em event was listed as an Official WSOP Circuit Ring Event, and the WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Las Vegas page identified it as Event #11.

The structure sheet said Day 1B was scheduled for Friday, April 19, at 11:00am. It also set the Main Event’s Day 1 guarantee at $1.5 million.

Players started with 40,000 chips. Blinds increased every 40 minutes on Day 1, and each starting flight ran 17 levels or down to 5%, whichever came first. Payout began at 15%.

The event was 9-handed, and the final table began when 10 players remained. Late registration, including re-entry, stayed open until the beginning of Level 13 on each Day 1 flight, and the tournament allowed unlimited re-entries until the late-reg window closed.

If a player bagged multiple Day 1 stacks, the largest one carried forward and the other qualifying stacks were forfeited, with a minimum payout attached. Onsite registration was available 24 hours a day, and refunds had to be completed at least two hours before the scheduled start of the event in question.

The structure sheet also capped Day 1A, Day 1B, and Day 1C at 315, 405, and 603 players plus alternates, respectively. Players had to be 18 or older and free Playground members, and Official WSOP Circuit ring winners will qualify for the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Pokerface Ash has crossed 50,000 subscribers on YouTube. Pokerfuse’s Rail reported the milestone for the poker content channel.

Pokerface Ash is Ashley Frank, who describes herself as a professional poker player and content creator. Her channel’s About page says she has over 40,000 subscribers, and Poker.org previously described the account as close to 40,000 subscribers with nearly 300 vlogs.

Frank has also built a live poker résumé behind the online profile. Poker.org says she has $353,822 in cashes, and that her first live tournament cash came in the 2016 Colossus, where she finished in the top 10% of nearly 22,000 entrants. The same report says she later improved on that by finishing in the top 5% in the same event.

Her site also describes her as a two-time ring winner on the RunGood and WSOP Circuit tours. Poker.org said Frank recently announced a new role as a BetMGM Brand Ambassador.

In that interview, Frank said she started working with Above the Felt with Tom Wheaton, who connected the two sides to make content for BetMGM. She also said the game is growing, pointing to bigger turnouts at stops, record numbers from across the country, and more entrants in Ladies events.

PokerStars Exclusively on FanDuel has taken title sponsorship of the 2026 Maryland State Poker Championship. The series is scheduled for Aug. 26 to Sept. 7 at Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland and will feature 16 trophy events with more than $1 million in guaranteed prize pools.

The headline Main Event carries a $1,700 buy-in and runs Sept. 3 to 7 with a $500,000 guarantee. Buy-ins across the series start as low as $400.

Pokerfuse said four disclosed events already account for $860,000 in guaranteed prizes, and the remaining 12 trophy events are expected to push the total guarantee well past $1 million. The sponsorship material described the 2026 edition as the most ambitious yet.

PokerStars on FanDuel is also giving away a Player’s Choice European Poker Tour package valued at €10,000. The prize includes a €5,300 EPT Main Event entry, hotel accommodations and travel expenses to an EPT festival of the winner’s choice.

The Maryland State Poker Championship has been part of the live poker calendar since 2020. PokerNews noted that PokerStars has a long history with the event and pointed to the 2024 Main Event, which drew 245 runners and was won by Ben Gazzola for $110,578. That final table also included Xiaoqiong Liu in third for $53,832, Nicholas Verderamo in fourth for $39,868 and Isiah Ditoto in fifth for $29,952.

Aaron Dugan, PokerStars general manager, said the company was excited to bring its commitment to the series following PokerStars’ launch on FanDuel in April. Christopher Angelo, director of poker for Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland, said the venue was excited to welcome PokerStars exclusively on FanDuel as title sponsor and that the event continues to draw top players and solidify its place as a marquee tournament series. Casino Life Magazine described the sponsorship as part of continued investment in growing poker communities across regulated U.S. markets and creating chances for players to connect online and in person through live events.

Thomas Taylor ran through the same opponent twice at the WSOP Circuit stop at Horseshoe Las Vegas, beating David Simon heads-up in back-to-back Pot-Limit Omaha events. That made Taylor the series’ first multiple winner.

According to PokerNews, the first of those wins came in Event #3, the $600 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, which drew 451 entries. Taylor earned $44,586 and his fifth WSOP Circuit ring. Simon took $29,699 for second place, Eugene Moss finished third, and PokerNews live reporter Brett Slezak placed seventh for $6,185.

Three completed events later, Taylor and Simon met again in Event #6, the $800 Pot-Limit Omaha event. That one drew 247 entries. Taylor won another ring and $38,826, Simon picked up $25,549 for another runner-up finish, and Vivian Saliba finished third.

Across the two victories, Taylor banked more than $83,000. Simon turned the pair of deep runs into more than $55,000 in prize money.

The Horseshoe Las Vegas Circuit festival runs from July 14 through 25 and fills the gap between the end of the WSOP bracelet series and the Main Event final table, which is set to air live on ESPN from August 3 to 5. Pokerology noted that 17 of the stop’s 18 ring events fall entirely inside that stretch after the bracelet series ended, and that the series spent two days with both schedules sharing the floor at once.

The stop is also awarding a $5,000 WSOP package to each ring winner, redeemable toward either WSOP Europe or December’s WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas.

Other winners at the stop included Justin Arnwine, who took the $600 Monster Stack for $77,485 and his second circuit ring, Juan Maceiras, who won the $1,125 No-Limit Hold’em event for $54,978, and Andrew Ostapchenko, who earned $115,890 in the $2,200 High Roller by defeating David Peters heads-up. Peters had ended the 2026 WSOP by winning the $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship for $1,001,391 and his fifth career bracelet.

Brandon Mueller won Event #8, the $650 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, at the 2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open after beating Danny Chang heads-up. The event drew 197 entries and built a $112,290 prize pool, and Mueller earned $24,575 for the victory.

According to PokerNews, Mueller came into Day 2 second in chips and quickly moved to the top after winning a huge early pot when his aces held in a three-way all-in against two strong drawing hands. He said aces were a theme all day, adding that he had them at least 14 times and that they held every time except once.

Day 2 began with 25 players returning in the money, each already locked up for at least $1,525. Nine players busted in the first 30 minutes, the field then narrowed to the final two tables, and it took about another hour to reach the final table.

Mark Aridgides entered Day 2 with 1,205,000 chips, nearly double his closest challenger. Piotr Sowinski started with 584,000, Danny Chang with 295,000, and Mueller with 668,000.

Mueller kept control through the late stages, while Chang was caught bluffing on multiple occasions and at one point dropped to fewer than ten big blinds after another failed bluff. In the decisive hand, Chang check-raised on a king-king-five flop, but Mueller had flopped trips with top kicker, slow-played, and snap-called Chang’s river jam to secure the title.

Aridgides finished third, Terence Beaman was fourth, and Mario Damiao took fifth after failing to improve against Chang’s aces. Mueller called the win his first live PLO title and said he had no idea how he won.

He also said he plans to play the rest of the Borgata schedule over the next ten days.

Grosvenor Poker will stream nine days of the 2026 Goliath live across Facebook, Twitch and YouTube, with Phil “The Tower” Heald and Jay Harwood hosting. The coverage will include the crowning of the champion.

According to PokerNews, the first of nine scheduled flights starts at 11:00 a.m. BST on 25 July, as the festival runs in Coventry from 23 July to 2 August. The main event carries a £200 buy-in and an estimated £2 million prize pool.

The official Goliath page says the main event is £160+£40 on the Poker Live App. It also lists feeder satellites from £1 and a route of £1, £5, £30 and £200 seats, with Live Event Credit usable across the festival.

PokerNews also pointed to a May partnership between Grosvenor and GGPoker, which lets GGPoker players qualify through satellites and online Day 1s for major Grosvenor live events, including the Goliath. In some cases, GGPoker adds cash boosts of up to 20% for players who qualify or buy in using their GGPoker balance.

The event’s growth has been steady for years. The first Goliath drew 1,765 buy-ins, while Lee Rawson won the 2011 edition for £32,705.

More than 1,300 players had pre-registered when the July report was published. Last year’s field reached 12,961 entries, setting the current attendance record, and Paul Worsley turned that into a £316,640 win.

PokerStars is taking the Sunday Million back to the live felt for only the second time in the tournament’s history. The Sunday Million Live will run from October 2 to 12 at PokerStars’ poker room inside Casino di Campione in Italy, with a €1 million guarantee and a €250 buy-in.

According to Rakerace, the event is part of PokerStars’ 25th anniversary celebrations. It will also be the first live Sunday Million held in Italy, and it uses a hybrid format that lets players qualify through both online and live Day 1 flights.

Three online starting flights are scheduled for September 13, 20 and 27. Six live Day 1 flights will be held at Campione on October 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9.

The top 12.5% of each flight advance to Day 2 and lock up a minimum cash prize of €500. Players who already qualify for Day 2 cannot enter another starting flight, while those who miss can take additional shots in later flights.

Online qualifiers will travel to Campione for Day 2, which is split into Day 2A and Day 2B on October 10. Day 3 follows on October 11, and the final table is scheduled for October 12.

The only previous live Sunday Million was held in 2017 at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, where a €220 buy-in drew 5,045 entries and created an overlay of about €50,000. Since then, the Sunday Million brand has stayed exclusively online until this live return.

Artem Osmirko won GGPoker’s $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller, outlasting a 144-entry field for $303,531 and a $10,000 package for the live GGMillion$ at the 2026 WSOP Paradise.

The event built a $1,396,800 prize pool. According to PokerNews, the nine-handed final table began with Jeff Gross and Denys Chufarin in the commentary booth.

Aleksejs Ponakovs was first into the money in 15th for $23,279. Thomas Muehloecker finished 12th for $26,097, and Tobias Eichenseher bubbled the final table in 10th for $32,789.

Guillaume Nolet was the first finalist to go after starting the table on three big blinds. Brunno Botteon followed in eighth, with his ace-eight of spades running into Osmirko’s pocket jacks and a four-heart board giving Osmirko the winning jack of hearts.

Lucky-Nomad took seventh for $68,860, their first GGMillion$ cash, before Aleksei Borovkov exited in sixth when his pocket nines ran into Paul Hong’s pocket kings and Hong flopped top set.

Simon Beckmann began five-handed play as chip leader, but the lead did not last. He first lost a bluff to Hong, then slipped in a blinds battle with Vlada “Vlada2018” Stojanovic, and finally busted when his pocket-threes shove ran into Stojanovic’s ace-queen and an ace hit the flop.

Osmirko then pulled away in the three-handed battle. His trip sixes against leng321 took the field to three players, and later his pocket jacks held against Stojanovic’s ace-ten to send Stojanovic out and leave Osmirko heads-up with an 11,694,774 to 3,514,226 chip lead over Hong.

Hong drew level and briefly passed him in heads-up play, but Osmirko got back on top and led 13 million to 2 million when the last hand came. Hong limped pocket nines, Osmirko jammed ace-seven, and the board ran ten-nine-jack-eight-king to give Osmirko a jack-high straight and Hong the $237,045 runner-up prize.

KROXCE has grabbed the early lead in the High division of Americas Cardroom’s $100,000 Run Up Series leaderboard race, while CYRAXJR is out front in the Low division.

In the High standings, BUENAHISTORIA is currently second and ALGSXR is third. In the Low division, BIZZNESS sits in second and UNDAUNT3D is third.

The contest runs alongside the Run Up Series, a five-week online poker schedule of 163 tournaments that started July 12 and runs through August 17. The series offers more than $10 million in guaranteed prize pools, and players earn leaderboard points from their results in Run Up events.

The leaderboard is split by buy-in level. Events above $33 count toward the High standings, while tournaments priced at $33 or less feed the Low leaderboard.

Americas Cardroom is funding the full $100,000 prize pool. The contest will pay 25 players in each division, for 50 total winners, with rewards made up of cash, tournament tickets and seats in the $15 million Guaranteed Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms.

The top prizes are different in each division. The High winner gets $10,000 plus a $2,650 No-Limit Hold’em Venom ticket and a $2,650 Pot-Limit Omaha Venom ticket, while the Low champion receives $5,000 and tickets to both Venom tournaments.

The rest of the top three also get paid. Second place in the High division earns $7,500 and an NLH Venom entry, and third gets $5,000 and an NLH Venom ticket. In the Low division, second pays $3,000 plus an NLH Venom ticket, and third pays $2,000 plus an NLH Venom seat.

The wider schedule also includes a $1 million guaranteed Mystery Bounty Multi-Flight event with a $66 buy-in and a $100,000 top bounty. The series wraps with three Main Events, and Day 1 starts on August 16.

SharkScope Analytics has added tracking for Stretch Network and FanDuel Ontario, widening the poker-results coverage available on its platform.

The company says it measures both revenue and usage across 90+ networks and has more than two decades of longitudinal data. It also says its metrics are routinely cited in investor earnings calls, regulatory filings and strategic planning by major poker networks.

SharkScope says users can access real-time and historical data through an interactive analytics dashboard, automated daily email reports and XML or JSON feeds. It also says it offers anonymized player-level data for studying player ecosystems, retention dynamics, liquidity flows and cross-network migration patterns.

The platform has seen coverage changes before. Somuchpoker reported in 2023 that SharkScope stopped GGPoker tournament tracking, and PokerStrategy.com said new GGPoker results were no longer being tracked because of security and player-experience concerns.

CoinPoker’s Battle of Malta Online Series is running with a $565 Main Event that carries a $2.5 million guarantee. According to GamesHub, the festival runs from July 12 through August 3 and has $30 million in guaranteed prize pools.

The series has already crowned its first champions after an opening week led by the $1 million guaranteed CoinMillion. That event previously appeared in World Poker Masters, and the new run uses a $215 buy-in with Day 1 on July 12 and Day 2 on July 13.

The Main Event has Day 1 flights running through the rest of the series, with survivors returning for Day 2 on August 3. Most of those flights begin at 17:30 UTC, and $55 satellites offer a cheaper route into the field.

CoinPoker’s schedule also includes the $55 Main Challenger, which guarantees $500,000, and the $11 Main Crusader, which guarantees $100,000. Together with the flagship, the three Main Events carry $3.1 million in guarantees, and both smaller events run daily Day 1 flights at 17:30 UTC.

Players who qualify more than once in the Main Challenger and Main Crusader keep their best accumulated stack for Day 2. The $1,500 CoinMasters BTC High Roller is another $1 million event, and its first two Day 1 flights are already complete while Day 1C and Day 1D remain on the schedule.

The festival also includes 77 trophy events, each awarding a physical Battle of Malta trophy and a digital CoinPoker Trophy Cabinet award. The Main Event winner gets a unique physical trophy, and winners can collect trophies at the CoinPoker Trophy Ceremony during the live Battle of Malta Autumn Edition or have them delivered.

CoinPoker is also tying the online series to live Battle of Malta Autumn Edition packages. In total, it plans to award 100 packages, split between 75 Champions Trials seats and 25 more through Main Event promotions, for the live series in Malta from October 27 to November 4, which carries a $2 million guarantee. The Iron Throne starts July 26 at 18:05 UTC and returns on July 27, while Regs of the Round Table follows on July 30 at 16:30 UTC and is expected to draw poker names including Bencb, Kelvin Kerber, Jeremy Ausmus and Patrick Leonard.

Jourdan Baptiste became the standout name in ESPN2’s first condensed-for-TV 2026 WSOP Main Event episode. The broadcast leaned hard into table talk, and Baptiste ended up giving viewers a new personality to follow alongside one of poker’s most familiar old-school voices.

According to PokerNews, Baptiste had just one recorded live tournament cash before the ESPN2 appearance, a $1,750 min-cash in a World Series of Poker event this summer. In the first episode, he was seated at the feature table with Jamie Gold, the 2006 Main Event champion who won $12 million and built a reputation for speech play.

Gold, now 56, brought that style back to the screen. With pocket aces, he talked Baptiste out of calling with pocket queens, and Baptiste later talked an opponent into calling off an entire stack with a weaker pair.

Baptiste also built a big Day 1 stack in a way that echoed Gold’s 2006 run. Before the first session ended, he sent Gold packing when pocket aces held up against ace-queen after a queen hit the flop.

The production leaned into the era-crossing feel. Lon McEachern and Norman Chad returned as commentators, Omaha Productions featured Poker Boom names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Tilly, Chris Moneymaker and Erick Lindgren, and the show also mixed in newer personalities such as Martin Kabrhel and Jimmy D’Ambrosio, with Ali Nejad and Nick Schulman rotating through the booth.

Negreanu called the new episodes “exceptionally good,” and the article said plenty of players on social media liked the nostalgia and the return of table-talk-era energy. ESPN’s June 24 programming plan set edited Main Event episodes for July 21, July 28 and Aug. 10 on ESPN2, with the final table scheduled for Aug. 3-5.

Baptiste’s run ended in the second hour-long episode on Tuesday night, which covered Day 2. He flopped the nut straight against James Burns, Burns flopped a set of kings, and after Burns moved all in, the board paired on the turn to send Baptiste out a couple days short of the money. Episodes 3 and 4 air July 28 on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET.

World Poker Tour will bring WPT Seoul to INSPIRE Entertainment Resort from Oct. 30 to Nov. 9. The stop will be the first tournament staged in INSPIRE’s new second-floor entertainment space.

The event announcement comes through the tour’s official licensee Khartes and INSPIRE Entertainment Resort. INSPIRE operates South Korea’s largest foreigner-only casino.

Inside Asian Gaming reported that the festival will run for 11 days and include 46 events. Buy-ins will range from KRW 300,000 to KRW 8 million, and the championship event is set to open on Nov. 5.

That championship will finish with a final table on Nov. 9 and carry a KRW 1 billion guaranteed prize pool. Veteran tournament director Danny McDonagh will oversee the series, and players will get complimentary nightly entertainment at Ultra Lounge during the festival.

The series will be held at YY Poker Club, a 70-table room with a dedicated livestream studio. The new space also includes the Daia junket room and Ultra Lounge, which are being positioned as hospitality and nightlife spots alongside the poker floor.

AGBrief added that the championship event will have a KRW 1.75 million buy-in. World Casino Directory says INSPIRE soft-opened on Nov. 30, 2023, held its grand opening on Feb. 3, 2024, and now includes a 1,275-room hotel and a 15,000-seat arena.

The championship final table will be livestreamed globally for fans who cannot attend in person.

WSOP Circuit Tallinn is returning to Olympic Park Casino in Tallinn, Estonia with 12 ring events, more than 60 side events and a €1,500 Main Event that guarantees €1 million. The latest schedule material points to a July 23 warm-up day and an Aug. 2 finish, while an earlier OlyBet announcement had described a July 19-28 window and over 40 side events.

The festival opens with the €350 Mini Main Event, which has four starting flights across the opening weekend and awards a ring of its own. The ring slate also includes a €350 Queens women’s event, a €555 Pot-Limit Omaha 4/5 event, a €555 Sviten Special, a €1,100 8-Game, a €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Mystery Bounty and a one-day €5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event.

The Main Event has five starting flights beginning on July 28. Players can enter as many flights as they want, but only their largest qualifying stack advances if they bag more than once. Day 2 is set for July 31, and the champion will be crowned Aug. 2.

The side-event schedule stretches well beyond the ring events with mixed games, Open-Face Chinese Pineapple, bounty events, bomb pots and turbo tournaments. Olympic Park Casino is also set for 24/7 cash games throughout the series.

Registration comes with a few hoops. Players need an active WSOP LIVE account, must download the app before arriving and have a valid government-issued photo ID to register on the casino’s ground floor before heading upstairs to the tournament area at Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel. The minimum age for both the series and the casino is 21.

There is extra incentive on top of the rings and prize pools. Every Tallinn ring winner gets a $5,000 package to the WSOP Circuit Championship at WSOP Paradise 2026 in the Bahamas, and a Luxon Pay-linked raffle gives one entry for each qualifying buy-in with a randomly drawn €1,100 WSOPC ticket as the prize.

Tallinn has hosted the Circuit before. The first WSOP Circuit stop in Estonia came in 2023 with 12 gold-ring events and €1 million in combined guarantees. Last summer’s Mini Main Event drew 954 entries and re-entries, with Sweden’s Simon Persson winning €45,700, and the WSOP Tallinn Main Event later produced 888 entries, a €1,138,860 prize pool shared by 138 finishers, a €200,200 win for Jenny Westerlund and a €128,500 runner-up payout for Krzysztof Chmielowski. By the final table, the nine finalists had at least €14,200 locked up.

Daniel Negreanu won the 25K Fantasy Draft he created for the first time in 2026, taking the top spot and the $250,000 first-place prize. Team DNegs finished with 1,337 points, enough to beat David Baker’s Team Banana and end Negreanu’s 15-year wait for a win in his own league.

PokerStrategy explained that the draft runs every year at the start of the World Series of Poker. High-stakes players pay $25,000 to enter, then build a roster under a $200 budget, and many of them draft themselves.

Negreanu bought himself for $116 and scored 294 points. Josh Arieh was the main engine for Team DNegs with 356 points, while Ben Lamb gave the roster zero points after skipping the WSOP.

PokerNews said the 2026 league drew a record-tying 24 teams and created a $600,000 prize pool for the top five finishers. Team Banana finished second with 1,069 points and won $125,000. Team Wantman was third with 1,066 points for $100,000, Team Glue Factory was fourth with 1,013 points for $75,000, and Team Lang Gang rounded out the paid spots with 1,000 points and $50,000.

Naoya Kihara scored 510 points, becoming the first player to clear the 500-point mark in league history. Baker bought him for $1, and Kihara also racked up 18 cashes over the summer.

PokerNews also said 192 players were drafted and only six failed to score at all. It added that 33 of the series’ 100 gold bracelet events were won by players drafted in the 25K Fantasy or listed as ODB Bonus Players.

DeucesCracked said Negreanu’s eighth WSOP bracelet came from a Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller in Las Vegas, which helped push his 294-point total. The WSOP Main Event final table is scheduled for August 3-5.

The 57th World Series of Poker closed after 51 days in Las Vegas with a record 251,899 entries spread across 100 live gold bracelet events at Paris Las Vegas and Horseshoe Las Vegas. The festival paid out $469.98 million in prize money, and 35,157 players finished in the money.

An analysis published by pokerfuse said players put just over $517 million into the live series through buy-ins. That left $47.3 million in tournament fees, of which about $33.1 million stayed with WSOP and $14.2 million went to dealers and tournament staff. By prize money, 2026 was the second-largest WSOP ever, behind last year’s $481 million total. Around 40% of tournaments drew bigger fields than in 2025, while about 60% declined.

The $10,000 Main Event drew 9,208 players and generated an $85.6 million prize pool. PokerStrategy, citing a referenced analysis, said it was the fourth biggest Main Event in WSOP history. The last nine players will return to Las Vegas from August 3-5 for the final table, which will be broadcast live on ESPN.

Pokerfuse’s international participation analysis said it was also the fourth straight year the Main Event topped 9,000 entries, and that competitors came from a record 111 countries. International players filled 3,574 seats, or 38.8% of the field, while U.S. participation slipped to 5,634 from 5,978 in 2025. The analysis noted that 2024 comparisons are imperfect because that year used residence, not passport nationality.

Female turnout also hit another modern-era high at 431 women, or 4.68% of the field, up from 369 and 3.79% last year. That was still a small share of the field, but it marked another step up from 2025.

Several events also set field marks. The $1,000 Mystery Millions drew 22,811 entries and became the largest Mystery Millions tournament and the biggest $1,000 buy-in event in live poker history. The Ladies Championship reached 1,368 entries, and the $1,000 Mystery Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha drew 4,764 to become the largest live PLO tournament ever held.

At the high-roller end, Rakerace said most buy-ins of $25,000 or more drew smaller fields than in 2025, with only the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller increasing participation. It pointed to weaker crypto markets, the U.S. tax limit on gambling-loss deductions and higher fees in some premium events as possible drags.

The festival handed out 41 prizes worth at least $1 million. Fifty-seven events generated prize pools above $2 million, and eight cleared $10 million. Among the headline winners, Daniel Negreanu captured his eighth WSOP bracelet in the $100,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha event for more than $2.2 million, Michael Mizrachi won his ninth bracelet in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship for $1.35 million, Kristen Foxen took the $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event and Alex Foxen won the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em event.

Coverage was available in more than 300 million homes across more than 70 countries through ESPN Networks, Eurosport, TNT Sports, Abema Japan and Groupe M6 in France. WSOP also introduced a redesigned Final Table Arena with upgraded lighting and digital displays, returned to ESPN and signed a new multi-year distribution agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery covering HBO Max, Eurosport and TNT Sports. Edited broadcasts began airing on July 21, and WSOP social platforms generated 378.3 million views and impressions while adding 222,828 new followers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X.

On the online side, Rakerace said the bracelet schedule produced $24.5 million in prize pools from 43,263 entries. It said average online prize pools fell below $820,000, participation dropped for a second straight year and only eight online events topped $1 million.

Ty Stewart said the series showed Las Vegas remains the 'undisputed epicenter of the poker universe’ and that the community expanded beyond the casino floor through the redesigned final table arena, linear broadcasts and digital engagement. The global player of the year race will conclude at WSOP Paradise at Baha Mar in The Bahamas from December 1-17, after earlier events in Prague and Las Vegas.

Clubs Poker added a No-Fee Daily Mix schedule for mixed-game players, with two mixed-game events each night at 8:15 p.m. ET and a different game mix assigned to each day. Pokerfuse reported that the weekday events came in 10 SC and 50 SC versions, both with 0% tournament fees and the full buy-in going into the prize pool.

The weekly rotation starts with Draw Mix, then moves to Omaha Mix on Tuesdays, Stud Mix on Wednesdays, TOE on Thursdays, Big Bet Mix on Fridays, 8-Game on Saturdays and HORSE on Sundays. The point of the schedule, according to the report, is to make sure players can find at least one new event in the week that fits their tastes.

The higher-buy-in side also gets a little extra. Pokerfuse said Clubs Poker is offering 10% more chips for early-bird registrations in the high buy-in events.

Early results suggested the format was getting traction fast. The first 10 SC event pulled 75 runners and generated 250 SC in added value, while the 50 SC event posted a $1,700 overlay.

Clubs Poker also tied the series to weekly and all-time mixed-game leaderboards, plus a Mixed Game Hall of Fame. The weekly leaderboard only counts points earned in that week’s No-Fee Daily Mix events, with 200 SC in No-Fee Mix Tickets and an exclusive chip protector for the winner, 100 SC in tickets for second place and 50 SC for third. The long-term boards track the most mixed-game wins and the most Player of the Week titles, but they do not pay direct prizes beyond the recognition itself, although Pokerfuse said they could still help players get staked for bigger mixed-game events or land sponsorships.

Clubs Poker’s general tournament rules say a standard tournament entry includes a fixed buy-in plus an entry fee, and only the buy-in goes to the prize pool. In a June review, Pokerfuse described Clubs Poker as the only sweepstakes poker site offering mixed games, operating under promotional sweepstakes law with a no-purchase-necessary route to Sweeps Coins that can be redeemed for real cash prizes or gift cards. Gold Coins are used for standard play and have no cash value.

RunGood Poker Series is bringing its Gateway Poker Classic to Hollywood St. Louis in Missouri from Aug. 4-9, with the festival anchored by an $800 Main Event that carries a $200,000 guarantee.

PokerNews reported that the series is moving into St. Louis after wrapping up its Passport Season stop at Thunder Valley Casino in California. The Main Event will have four starting flights and play down to a winner on Aug. 9.

The opening day on Aug. 4 includes a $250 Seniors Trophy Event with a $10,000 guaranteed prize pool, plus a $300 Series Opener and a $300 Tag Team event.

The following day brings the start of one of the bigger side events, the $400 Deepstack. That tournament has a $50,000 guarantee, three starting flights, and will be completed on Aug. 6.

Other events on the schedule include a $200 Ladies Missouri State Championship, a $500 PLO Trophy Event, a $400 Black Chip Bounty event, and a $250 Closer that wraps up the series on Aug. 9.

The return to St. Louis comes a few months after RGPS Passport Season stopped at Hollywood Casino St. Louis from March 3-8. That festival featured 10 ring events, and the $800 Main Event drew 647 players.

Gabriel Attoun won that March Main Event for $83,141 after defeating Bradley Young heads-up. Del Beiler finished third for $40,813, Jeremy Lass took fourth for $30,398, and Matthew Koch placed fifth for $22,905.

The St. Louis stop also fits into RGPS Passport Season’s wider 2026 schedule, which continues across the United States through regional poker rooms. Before the trip to Missouri, the team remains in California for the RGPS San Diego Poker Classic at Jamul Casino, running from July 30 to Aug. 9.

PokerStars is keeping the Sunday Million 20th Anniversary on the move this week, with another 15 Phase 1s scheduled from July 21 through July 25. The event is a $109 progressive knockout with a $5 million guarantee, and PokerStars says it needs 50,000 entries to reach that number.

Those heats run daily at 4:25 p.m., 7:25 p.m. and 10:25 p.m. BST. The phased setup gives players multiple chances to qualify before Phase 2 begins on September 6.

In its June announcement, Ashley Chase, PokerStars’ poker director, said the Sunday Million has been a major part of the site’s history for 20 years and that the anniversary edition was meant to offer a “summer-long road to Phase 2” with more ways to win a seat. PokerStars said Phase 1s would run for 10 weeks starting on June 28.

Each $109 Phase 1 starts with 10,000 chips and 10-minute levels, with blinds opening at 40/80/10. Late registration lasts 100 minutes, up to three re-entries are allowed, and each heat ends when only 3% of the field remains.

PokerStars is also offering satellites that start at $0.55, plus special $0.75 and $4 Spin & Go tournaments. Those Spin & Go routes can award $109 Sunday Million Anniversary tickets or satellite tickets worth between $1.50 and $22, depending on the buy-in and multiplier.

At the time of PokerNews’ July update, just shy of 12,600 players had already bought in across completed Phase 1s, with 403 through to Phase 2. Austria’s “go1vs1 legko” was the chip leader on 1,076,054, followed by Canada’s “getdamoney0” on 1,045,132.

PokerStars regulars “roo_400” and “P0TCHECKER99” also sat in the top 10 on 791,814 and 779,309 chips, respectively. The bounty figure is not consistent across the packet: the July update describes a $50 starting bounty, while PokerStars’ June announcement put it at $25.

The next checkpoint for survivors is Phase 2 at 8:05 p.m. BST on September 6, when the remaining stacks carry forward.

PokerStars has launched a Sunday Million Anniversary Ticket Machine promotion that will give away $800,000 in Phase 1 tickets for the Sunday Million 20th anniversary event. The weekly draw is tied to the $5 million guaranteed anniversary edition and is designed to help players win their way into the long build-up to Phase 2.

The promotion runs from July 13 through September 5 and hands out $100,000 worth of tickets each week. Players have to opt in through the Challenges window in the PokerStars client, then complete eligible poker challenges to earn raffle entries.

According to Pokerfuse, the weekly challenges can be played through regular formats including MTTs, Zoom, Spin & Gos and cash games. Pokerfuse also said the Ticket Machine uses six challenges each week, with each challenge completable up to four times, for a maximum of 24 entries in a single prize period.

Winners are entered into a weekly draw that takes place every Saturday at 00:05 ET, and the prizes are Phase 1 tickets for the anniversary Sunday Million. PokerListings described the Ticket Machine as aligning with the closing weeks of qualification, while Pokerfuse characterized the giveaways as $109 Daily Heat tickets tied to the event.

The Ticket Machine sits alongside other qualification routes for the anniversary series. PokerNews reported that Phase 1 flights began on June 28 and will run for 10 weeks, with Phase 2 set for the evening of September 6.

PokerNews also said Phase 1 entries cost $109, late registration lasts 100 minutes or about until the end of Level 9, and players can make up to three re-entries before carrying their stacks forward into Phase 2. The same report said satellites start at $0.55, while Spin & Go routes priced at $0.75 and $4 can also feed into $109 Phase 1 seats.

In PokerStars’ own framing, the Sunday Million is a major part of the site’s history. Poker Director Ashley Chase said the anniversary edition is meant to celebrate that legacy with a “$5 million guaranteed prize pool” and a “summer-long road to Phase 2” that gives players more ways than ever to qualify.

Alberta opened its regulated iGaming market on 13 July. Poker players did not get a live platform on day one, even though the broader market went live.

Pokerfuse reported in April that 13 July was the official launch date after a letter from Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction Minister Dale Nally. The same report said online poker and DFS would likely stay fenced off until Alberta and Ontario sort out shared liquidity, a problem made sharper by the lack of a confirmed pool-sharing date.

According to Alberta’s iGaming phase 3 factsheet, Bill 48 passed in spring 2025 created the iGaming Alberta Act, amended the Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act, created Alberta iGaming Corporation and made Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis the regulator. The rules set the minimum online betting age at 18 and, after January 2026 amendments, laid out the registration, advertising and social responsibility rules for the private market.

During the transition, operators can advertise and sign up customers, but they cannot add funds or take bets until they clear registration and due diligence with AGLC, sign a commercial agreement with AiGC and get launch notification. The factsheet also says Alberta is rolling out centralized self-exclusion, and people who self-exclude cannot enter an iGaming site or collect prizes. On revenue, 80% of net iGaming revenue goes to operators and 20% stays in the province for programs and services, while 2% of total gross gaming revenue, bets minus winnings and eligible deductions, goes to First Nations and 1% to social responsibility work.

Card Player reported 23 operators went live at midnight, with another 31 approved but waiting to launch. Brands pay a one-time $50,000 application fee, a $150,000 annual registration fee and a 20% tax on revenue, and Dale Nally framed the shift as channelizing play into the legal market.

PokerNews said Alberta’s launch made it Canada’s second regulated iGaming province after Ontario. The outlet also said PokerStars would keep its poker operation in Alberta after 13 July, while its casino and sportsbook products were expected to be removed; PartyPoker would stay until its Alberta platform launches; GGPoker did not apply for a licence and was no longer accessible in Alberta; and 888poker players could keep using the global site until an Alberta version arrives. It also noted Alberta has about 4.2 million residents, compared with Ontario’s 14 million, and that no shared-liquidity date has been confirmed.

CBC reported Nally estimated about 65% of online gambling in Alberta happens on black market sites, with the rest mostly on AGLC’s Play Alberta site. Critics, including University of Alberta student Kshef Kamran and Student Advocates for Public Health, said the bill did not go far enough on protection and pushed for a ban on iGaming advertising and a lower betting cap than $20,000.

Operators that need extra time can seek a case-by-case extension to 13 October, but by then they must either have Alberta-specific platforms live or leave the market.

The World Series of Poker added Solana buy-ins through MoonPay, with no processing fees. The change started at the WSOP in Las Vegas and will expand to WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas this December. In the Bahamas, winners will be able to take payouts in cash or stablecoins, with the stablecoin option running on Solana.

According to CoinDesk, the move brings cryptocurrency payments to WSOP’s global tournament circuit through the Solana Foundation. WSOP CEO Ty Stewart said the goal was to modernize payments for players, and he said Solana’s speed and efficiency match the pace of the tournaments. CoinDesk also said the rollout begins in Las Vegas before extending to WSOP Paradise.

PokerNews described the deal as a first-of-its-kind collaboration and said the Solana Foundation is the official presenting sponsor for both the 2026 WSOP in Las Vegas and WSOP Paradise. It also said players can pay buy-ins with cryptocurrency through MoonPay’s payment infrastructure, including through the WSOP LIVE app, which already let them skip cage lines. The report said the news came about two weeks into this year’s WSOP, which was underway at Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas.

PokerNews also said that, for the first time in WSOP history, players could buy into tournament tickets directly using cryptocurrency. It said the foundation will select a group of prominent poker pros to act as Solana ecosystem ambassadors and host exclusive community events in Las Vegas and the Bahamas. The press release also said WSOP and Solana are developing collaborative onchain poker products for release in the near future.

A 2024 University of Nevada, Las Vegas paper on crypto in gaming said cryptocurrency payments are still a new phenomenon, with only a few jurisdictions choosing to regulate them. It said volatility in coins such as Bitcoin has slowed wider use across gambling, while stablecoins have created some room for crypto payments.

The Borgata Summer Poker Open opened in Atlantic City on July 16 with the $600 Deep Stack Kick Off carrying a $1 million guarantee. The festival runs through July 31 at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and offers more than $4 million in guaranteed prize pools across no-limit hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and mixed games.

According to PokerNews, the series is powered by BetMGM Poker and it planned live reporting from six marquee events. The opener featured six starting flights, and the series’ million-dollar highlights included the $2,700 Summer Poker Open Championship, which has three starting flights and a share of a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, plus the $500 Borgata Almighty Stack with a $750,000 guarantee.

The Deep Stack Kick Off guarantee rose from $600,000 in 2025 to $1 million this year. Players could also qualify without buying in directly through online BetMGM satellites that started at $10, with $50 satellites into the Deep Stack Kick Off, Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, Borgata Almighty Stack and Monster Mirror Mystery Bounty, and $250 Championship qualifiers that paid a seat plus $500 in cash. Live satellites also ran inside the Borgata poker room, new BetMGM Poker sign-ups could get a 100% deposit match up to $1,000 and up to $75 in tournament tickets, and the schedule PDF said buy-ins were non-refundable and players had to be 21 or older.

Anthony Andino grabbed the early chip lead in Level 3 after a three-way cooler built to an 85,100-chip main pot. An early-position player showed 9♦9♣ for a flopped set, Jason Blank tabled K♠10♠ for top two pair with a missed flush draw, and Andino’s 7♠7♣ rivered a ten-high straight to scoop the pot.

The player with the flopped set salvaged a 3,800-chip side pot before moving all in blind under the gun on the next deal. Blank, sitting on about 30,000 chips after that hand, isolated with A♦K♥ against A♣8♦ and flopped a pair of kings to send his opponent to the rail.

Another opening-day hand produced a four-way all-in at the start of Level 7, with blinds at 400/800 and pots of 42,300 in the middle, plus side pots of 59,300 and 200. Kole Lekic, Daniel Leahy, Ben Weaver and John Dorsey all tabled sets on the K♥ J♥ 7♣ / Q♦ runout, and Weaver’s rivered queens won both side pots while Lekic kept the main pot for a quadruple-up.

A Pokerfuse player guide described the 2026 series as running July 15-31, with buy-ins starting at $250 and the championship priced at $2,700. It counted 29 events on the main schedule and 21 more on the secondary slate, with formats including PLO, Big O, HORSE, TORSE, and more.

Alberta’s regulated iGaming market went live on July 13, and PokerStars kept online poker available in the province while removing its casino and sportsbook products from the Alberta lineup. For now, players can keep using PokerStars’ global site until PokerStars Alberta launches, after which Albertans will have to use the provincial platform.

Pokerfuse reported on July 2 that a PokerStars representative told players, “for now, you will be able to continue to play poker.” The same report said sportsbook and casino products would no longer be available in Alberta from July 13.

The launch is ring-fenced. AiGC said shared liquidity arrangements with Ontario and other jurisdictions will not be in place for launch, so Alberta players will only be able to join player pools made up of other Alberta players.

That matters because poker lives and dies on liquidity, and Alberta is a relatively small market. PokerNews said the province has fewer than five million residents, while TheLines said Alberta online poker has not seen a single new provider enter even though more than 40 online sportsbook and iGaming providers are now operating there.

Alberta’s market structure came out of Bill 48, the iGaming Alberta Act, which created the Alberta iGaming Corporation. The bill also allows AiGC, with ministerial approval, to make agreements with other provinces or territories to develop, organize, conduct and manage online lottery schemes.

The government says it passed Bill 48 in spring 2025, later published regulatory amendments in January 2026, and designated AGLC as the market regulator. The factsheet also says operators in transition can advertise and sign up customers, but cannot add funds or take bets until they are registered with AGLC, have a commercial agreement with AiGC, and receive notice that the market has launched.

PokerNews said more than 50 operators registered with AGLC ahead of launch. The province’s factsheet says Alberta will launch iGaming with a centralized self-exclusion platform, keep 80% of net iGaming revenue for operators and retain 20% for programs and services that support Albertans, and set aside 1% of total gross gaming revenue for social responsibility initiatives and 2% for First Nations support.

The transition period gives operators a three-month window to adjust, and from October 13 they will have to be fully launched in Alberta or exit the market.

Lucas Jumalon, a 22-year-old from Spokane, went into the WSOP Main Event final table with a massive lead and 194 million chips. Nine players are left, and every finalist is already guaranteed at least $1 million while chasing the $10 million first prize.

According to the Review-Journal, Jumalon will return on Aug. 3 at Horseshoe Las Vegas with that stack, well ahead of Rami Hammoud’s 79 million and Jamie Shaevel’s 56 million. Greg Mueller, Michael Gagliano, Mario Boos, Lauri Saaskilahti, Han Feng and Evagoras Evagorou round out the final nine.

The run that built the lead came on Day 8, when Jumalon started with 40.8 million chips and turned it into a commanding stack. He won a huge pot from Malcolm Trayner by cracking pocket queens with pocket jacks and making a full house on the river, a hand worth more than 50 million chips.

That pot pushed him to 155 million by dinner. He later finished off Trayner in 10th place to set the final table, and Trayner’s payout was $750,000.

Jumalon’s path is even more striking because he is a recent Grand Canyon University graduate. Before this year’s Main Event, his biggest live score was $22,945 from a 2025 WSOP $400 PokerNews Daily Deepstacks event, and his total live earnings were just over $180,000.

If he closes out the title, he would become the second-youngest WSOP Main Event winner in history, behind Joe Cada, who was 21 when he won in 2009. At 22, Jumalon already has a deep chip lead over the rest of the table.

Action picks back up on Aug. 3 with 56:40 left in Level 39, blinds at 1,000,000/1,500,000 and a 1,500,000 big blind ante.

Daniel Negreanu won the WSOP $100,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha event at Paris Las Vegas on Thursday for $2,257,718, collecting his eighth career bracelet and beating Artur Martirosian heads-up. The result moved him into a tie for 10th on the all-time bracelet list with Nick Schulman.

The event drew 83 entries, down from 121 last year, and built a $7,968,000 prize pool. Only the top 13 finishers cashed, and the six-figure bubble burst on Day 2 when Naoya Kihara was the last player sent away empty-handed.

Negreanu came back for the final day as the second-largest stack among the last five players. Chris Frank led with 13,660,000 chips, while Negreanu sat on 12,320,000, ahead of Yosuke Miki, Philip Sternheimer and Martirosian.

Philip Sternheimer finished fourth for $705,448. Frank took third for $1,002,107, and Martirosian earned $1,477,434 as runner-up.

Martirosian began heads-up play with roughly a 3:2 chip lead, but Negreanu worked his way back and closed it out. On the final hand, Martirosian three-bet shoved with A♣9♦8♦8♥ and Negreanu called with K♦9♠3♦2♠, then flopped the wheel and the nut-flush redraw on A♦5♠4♦ before the Q♣ turn locked up the pot.

Negreanu said the game has suited him all summer, calling Pot-Limit Omaha the format best designed for his skillset. He also said he does not study PLO with solvers because the game makes sense to him and he plays by feel.

The win ended the bracelet drought that lasted until his 2024 Poker Players Championship victory, making this his second bracelet in three years. Poker.org said the result put him back in the Player of the Year mix, and Negreanu said, “That’s always a possibility. You never give up.”

CardPlayer listed his lifetime earnings at $59,697,774 and said the victory pushed him back into poker’s top ten on the all-time money list. The Hendon Mob tracked him past $60 million in live tournament cashes, and Poker.org said the event was not streamed because the Main Event was underway and ESPN wanted no competing broadcast.

The Tournament Directors Association used TDA Summit XII to signal restraint, not overhaul. The biennial meeting at PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on June 29-30 drew more than 200 tournament staff and operators, and the headline was that the rulebook got tweaks rather than a sweeping rewrite.

According to the TDA, the group is a voluntary trade association built around a uniform set of tournament rules worldwide. The summit has been held in Las Vegas every other year since 2001 to review and update the Official TDA Rules and respond to new problems in live poker. The association says membership has grown to more than 3,000 tournament staff in 63 countries.

The process is member-driven. Proposed changes are debated openly, then voted on, and they need substantial majority support to pass. That framework came through in the comments from Matt Savage, Kenny Hallaert, and Toby Stone, who all framed the event around standards, shared experience, and making live poker safer, fairer, and more enjoyable.

Savage said the goal is a standard set of rules that players, tournament directors, and card room managers can all reference. Hallaert said there were no major rule changes this time around, only good tweaks to existing ones, while Stone said the summit is about lifting the global standard together and celebrated Savage’s 25 years with the organization.

Coverage of the summit described a batch of practical updates. It said the TDA tightened table-talk language, clarified heads-up out-of-turn action, accepted random table breaks, let dealers raise blinds without waiting for separate floor instructions, added chip penalties as an extra disciplinary tool, and required players in streamed events to show their hole cards before the flop. That coverage also said stacks of 20 chips were made mandatory, although the current TDA rules page still describes clean vertical stacks of 20 as the standard.

The same coverage said the group spent a lot of time on mixed-game rules and expects that to remain a focus for the next several years. It also said there was no consensus on whether events should be called Women’s Events or Ladies Events.

The fine print was not always reported the same way. One guide said players can still leave one chip behind in an 'almost all-in’ spot, while another said that leaving a single chip behind is no longer permitted under any circumstance.

The TDA site still puts clarity and visibility at the center of the rulebook. Its rules page says players may not talk on a phone at the table, phones and other devices may not rest on the table, live hands may not use electronics or communication devices, betting apps and poker strategy tools are banned at the table, and players should keep clean vertical stacks of 20 same-denomination chips.

The same page says the best interest of the game and fairness come first, floor decisions are final, players, dealers, and the floor are entitled to a reasonable estimate of chip counts, and players must be clearly identifiable at all times. It also lists the standard betting terms as bet, raise, call, fold, check, all-in, complete, and pot.

Savage also said the TDA is creating a new website, a new interactive app, and updated testing and certification. The mobile app is already listed for Apple and Android, with multilingual versions and credits to Steve Piper and Bill Morrison.

The Level 1 certification exam is open to members online, has 40 questions, requires a 90% score to pass, gives two chances for $10, and uses a 300-item question bank. The certification page says the exam usually takes 40 to 70 minutes, allows 100 minutes to finish, and lasts two years or until a substantial rules revision, with those revisions historically lining up with summit meetings.

Arizona’s gaming regulator ordered five operators to stop alleged illegal gambling activity in the state, including Club WPT Online Poker.

In a July 10 press release, the Arizona Department of Gaming said the cease-and-desist orders went to BetOpenly, Bookmaker, Club WPT Online Poker, Kutt Inc. and Raffle Creator. The department said the enforcement actions allege conduct that could give rise to felonies, including promotion of gambling, illegal control of an enterprise and money laundering.

The orders direct the companies to immediately stop all gambling operations and activities in Arizona, whether through mobile applications, online or otherwise, and to stop any future illegal gambling in the state. The release said Arizona’s legal age to participate in gambling is 21, and that gambling is prohibited unless it is specifically authorized by law.

BetOpenly was accused of running peer-to-peer gambling in a way that prohibited third parties from benefiting, while the department alleged the company still benefited through a commission structure. It also said BetOpenly enabled event wagering and daily fantasy sports contests without the required state licenses, and that the platform allegedly made itself available to underage Arizonans.

Bookmaker was accused of facilitating wagering on horse racing, casino games and sports betting without an event wagering license or an advanced deposit wagering provider license. The release also said online casino games are not legal in Arizona.

Club WPT Online Poker was accused of allowing people under 21 to take part in pay-to-play online poker tournaments for prizes. The department also said the site used deceptive “no purchase necessary” language, while noting that online poker is illegal in Arizona.

Kutt Inc. was alleged to have allowed people in Arizona to deposit money into accounts and wager on sports, politics, pop culture and casino-style games. Raffle Creator was accused of letting people under 21 buy tickets for a chance to win prizes, and the department said it did not meet the requirements that allow Arizona nonprofits to conduct lawful raffles.

ADG Director Jackie Johnson said Arizona was taking decisive action against illegal gambling operators that put Arizonans at risk. She said the department was using cease-and-desist orders to put operators on notice that their conduct runs contrary to Arizona law and that they must stop promoting illegal gambling. Johnson also said the department’s intelligence unit, led by Chief Law Enforcement Officer Doug Jensen, supported the action.

The release said future steps could include criminal charges or civil action against entities, principals and employees. It also said operators could face restitution for people who lost money and forfeiture of money acquired through the alleged illegal conduct.

The department encouraged residents to use its Check Your Bet tool before participating in a gambling, event wagering or fantasy sports platform, and said people can report suspected illegal gambling by email or phone, including anonymously. It also said regulated gaming operators are subject to Arizona statutes and rules, including taxes or financial contributions that benefit the state, along with consumer protections such as fair play, data security, accountability and a safer overall experience.

The move lands amid broader scrutiny of sweepstakes-style gaming. An American Gaming Association memo said some operators have built business models around dual virtual currencies, free tokens and casino-like play to try to avoid licensing and regulation, and warned that the lack of oversight can create consumer, integrity and economic risks.

Alligator Blood has opened a waitlist for a new poker-focused social network and directory that is pitching itself as a single home for the game’s scattered online community. The project is branding itself as “Poker’s Home” and, in its early form, is aiming to work more like a searchable poker link hub than a full social feed.

The about page for the site, dated July 1, says the company is building “the first connected destination for the entire poker world.” It describes Alligator Blood as a social network and directory built specifically for poker, with the launch version designed so that anyone in the game can claim a profile in one searchable directory.

That first stage is meant to be a poker-centric listing service, closer to an IMDb-style directory or a Linktree-style profile page than a traditional social platform. The company says it plans to evolve from that directory into a more connected network over time.

The project’s stated purpose is to bring together poker players, creators, cardrooms, podcasts, tools, and operators in one place. The company says poker is fragmented across X, Instagram, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, and other spaces, while the about page separately describes the wider poker world as spread across X, Instagram, YouTube, Discord, and a dozen forums.

Josh Luber is leading the project. He is described as the founder of StockX and Fanatics Collectibles, and the about page says he helped turn Fanatics Collectibles into a $10 billion business. The site says he is a longtime recreational poker player.

Alligator Blood is also backing itself with an 11-person steering committee that doubles as investors and advisors. The names on that list include Phil Hellmuth, Alan Keating, Doug Polk, Michael Mizrachi, Jared Bleznick, Jeff Gross, Xuan Liu, Ryan Feldman, Benjamin Rolle, Kevin Martin, and Corey Eyring.

Hellmuth has framed the project as both an investment and a passion play. In a quote reproduced by PokerNews, he said he had invested in more than 50 startups and called the venture “the perfect synthesis of opportunity and passion,” adding that he and Luber would “change the future of poker.”

The project says users do not need to be professionals to sign up. Luber said, “Poker is already the one game with no barrier between the amateur and the legend,” and said the aim is to give “every player” a profile and “every fan” a way in.

The waitlist is open at alligatorblood.com, and the sign-up push includes a free-to-play PLO flip promotion tied to early access and referrals. The company says it is giving away up to $100,000 in total cash prizes over the next few months, but it has not announced a full launch date.

ESPN is rolling out its biggest World Series of Poker Main Event package yet, with more than 100 hours of coverage beginning July 2 and running through the live final table on Aug. 3-5.

The schedule follows a multi-year agreement announced in March to bring the WSOP back to ESPN platforms. ESPN described the return as part of its summer lineup, and the network said the tournament would again be one of its marquee poker properties.

The $10,000 buy-in World Championship Main Event is set at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. ESPN+ carries the early action, with live coverage from July 2-8 running from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET, then July 9-13 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. ET.

All four Day 1 flights and Days 2-8 are set for daily livestream coverage on ESPN+. The first pre-final-table stream starts July 2 with Day 1a, and the subscription app is the only place to watch that live early-round action in full.

The field will play down to the final table of nine, known as the August Nine, on July 13. Players at that stage are likely to be locked up for at least $1 million.

The live final table returns Aug. 3-5, with ESPN2 carrying Aug. 3 from 9 p.m. to midnight ET, ESPN airing Aug. 4 from 9 p.m. to midnight ET, and ESPN closing the run on Aug. 5 from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. ET.

ESPN2 will also air edited recap episodes of the Main Event on July 21, July 28 and Aug. 10, with reruns scheduled for July 22, 26 and 29, plus Aug. 11, 13, 15 and 19. The broadcast team includes Norman Chad, Lon McEachern, Ali Nejad and Nick Schulman.

ESPN said the coverage will reach more than 400 million homes worldwide. Outside the U.S., the Main Event will be distributed through Warner Brothers networks, with HBO Max carrying live final-table coverage and 45-minute highlight episodes in Europe and Asia, while TNT Sports, HBO Max and Discovery+ will show it in the U.K. and Ireland.

One wrinkle has been access. PokerNews reported that some U.S. fans complained about the paid ESPN App, which it said costs between $12.99 and $29.99 a month, while PokerNews Podcast co-host Mike Holtz said, “I just want the game to grow.”

Aylar Lie exited the 2026 WSOP Main Event on Day 1c when her ace-king ran into quad fours on the river. PokerNews called it likely the worst cooler in the event so far, and the hand ended her run before the first day of play was over.

The pot came together early, in the third blind level at 200/400, and Brazilian coverage said it happened shortly after Lie entered the tournament. Lie opened from an early position, Renan Revinthis called, and the rest of the table folded to leave them heads up.

The board ran A♠ Q♣ 4♠ A♦ 4♥. Lie checked the flop, Revinthis bet, and she called. When the A♦ arrived on the turn, Lie checked again, Revinthis kept firing, and Lie stuck around once more as the pot grew.

On the river, Lie led for about 10,500, roughly pot-sized. Revinthis moved all in, and Lie called off about 38,000 chips with aces full of kings, believing it would be good most of the time.

It was not. Revinthis tabled 4♦4♣ for quad fours after flopping a set and improving further on the river, leaving Lie drawing dead against quads when the cards were turned over.

The Main Event was still pulling a huge field around her. PokerNews reported more than 4,400 players registered by the Day 1d dinner break, with registration still open for two levels into both Day 2 flights and 10,000 entrants looking like a close call.

For Lie, though, the tournament was over on Day 1c, undone by a full house that could not beat quad fours.

A WSOP clock ruling tied to a Patrick Leonard hand has set off another round of debate over when a hand is truly dead. The flash point came after a floor person said “dead hand” and the player still answered “call,” which left plenty of players arguing over whether the table should have stopped right there.

In Poker.org’s breakdown of the clip, the clock was called after Leonard moved all-in and 30 seconds were counted down. The report said the floor person then said “dead hand,” the player said “call,” and the controversy followed because many viewers felt the hand should have ended once the deadline hit.

Card Player described the same dispute as happening near the bubble in a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event. It said Leonard was heads-up against an anonymous opponent who shoved the river after tanking for six minutes, and that the floor announced the hand was dead after the 30-second countdown ended. Card Player also reported that Leonard wrote on X that he called for another floor after the dead-hand ruling, and that the bracelet winner later lost the pot.

The ruling drew sharp reactions from players at the table. David Baker called it “ridiculous” and asked whether the floor was even paying attention. John Monnette said it had been “exceptionally bad this year,” and Scott Seiver said there was “no world” where he would not stop the tournament until the right ruling was made.

Justin Hammer said the better answer is to ask for another floor opinion, not to lean on phone replay. He said a floor person normally signals the end of the prior countdown, and once the words “dead hand” are said, the player has already used the whole clock. In his view, any delay after that point can make it look as if the player still has a decision to make, so the cleaner fix is to bring in another ruling at the table.

Hammer also said he would not want every player in the tournament using video to verify decisions, because that would create inconsistent rulings if one table could use replay and another could not. He added that the WSOP has generally been good about bringing in a second floor when players think a call was wrong, and he said he would give floor people some grace because they are working long hours, are deep into the tournament, and sometimes make mistakes.

The basic tournament rules line up with that approach. The Poker Tournament Directors Association says players should act in a timely manner, and if the TD thinks reasonable time has passed, the TD may call the clock or approve a clock request. Under those rules, a player on the clock gets up to 25 seconds plus a 5-second countdown, and if the player faces a bet when time expires, the hand is dead.

The dead-hand debate also landed while the WSOP Main Event was already dealing with shot-clock questions. PokerNews reported that after a well-publicized tank of more than 15 minutes on Saturday, the WSOP brought in an Action Clock on Day 7 of the Main Event for the first time in the event’s 57-year history. On that day, players had 20 seconds to act before being forced to check or having their hand ruled dead if facing a bet, unless they used a time extension chip, which gave them another 30 seconds. There were 62 players left when Day 7 began.

Michael Mizrachi carried a massive lead into the final day of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at the WSOP, sitting on 40.225 million of the 50.175 million chips in play when three players returned. That gave him about 80% of the chips, with Zarvan Tumboli on 5.5 million and Michael Hahn on 4.45 million.

The gap was so wide that conventional wisdom made Monday’s finale look close to a formality, though one report still noted that Omaha can swing quickly and that a short-stack rally would rank among the biggest comebacks in WSOP history.

The event drew 836 entries, and Mizrachi had been in control for most of it. He bagged the biggest stack on Day 1, then turned 946,000 into 5.655 million on Day 2 and finished that day 78 big blinds clear of his nearest challenger.

By Day 3, he was still the player to catch. He sat on 9.5 million, close to 20% of the chips in play, while the field had already been trimmed to nine players before the final-day three-handed setup.

The deep run also mattered because it came in what Mizrachi described as a relatively quiet summer by his standards. He said, “Right now it’s probably close to breaking even,” and added that moving a few ladders up would likely leave him ahead after the series.

The final table was about more than one title, too. If Mizrachi won, he would become just the eighth player ever to reach nine WSOP bracelets, and Benny Glaser had become the seventh player to do it the previous week in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Nick Schulman had also been on the verge of joining that club before finishing second in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship.

When play resumed, Mizrachi eliminated Hahn in third for $627,832 and moved into heads-up play with Tumboli. The Review-Journal reported that Tumboli then won a huge pot early in heads-up action when both players had a full house, cutting into the lead.

Mizrachi finished it in the last hand by making a straight and cracking Tumboli’s aces. He won the title, the $1.35 million top prize, and his ninth career WSOP bracelet, while Tumboli took $900,088 for second.

The victory came exactly one year after Mizrachi won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2025. Afterward, he said he had lost 40 pounds since his last Main Event, was training twice a day, and felt better than ever at 45.

Phillipp Mellon turned a $120 satellite into a seat in the WSOP $100,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha by running a three-step ladder that started with a Step 1 Landmark satellite, moved through a $850 Step 2, and finished with a $7,500 Step 3 win. He was not staked, had no recorded live tournament results, and does not even have a page on The Hendon Mob.

According to PokerNews, Mellon is from Miami, Florida, and his LinkedIn profile lists him as an organ procurement transplant coordinator/RN and associate partner for T-1 Med LLC. He declined an interview.

Event #76 was an 8-handed, $100,000 buy-in PLO event at the 2026 WSOP. It was billed as a three-day contest, started on June 30, used 600,000-chip starting stacks, and played 10 levels of 60 minutes on Day 1. Late registration stayed open through Level 12, until about 2:15 p.m.

By the end of Day 1, the event had generated a $4.8 million prize pool from 50 entries. Only 19 players were left after the full slate of levels, with Artur Martirosian bagging 5,815,000 chips and Sean Winter close behind on 3,695,000.

Mellon briefly made a splash before going out. The Day 1 recap said he became the first player to cross the million-chip mark, but he busted in level five after about four hours against Sergio Martinez Gonzalez. One account said he flopped two pair and ran into top set, while the Day 1 recap described his top two pair and flush draw that could not improve.

The event later grew into a much bigger prize pool as the final table picture took shape. The general event page put the field at 83 entries and $7.968 million, and Daniel Negreanu eventually beat Artur Martirosian heads-up for $2,257,718 and bracelet number eight.