Pablo Costorda took the lead in the San Diego Poker Classic $600 Main Event after Day 1b at Jamul Casino Resort, finishing with 699,000 chips. That is also the biggest stack in the tournament through the first two starting flights.

According to PokerNews, the fifth annual San Diego Poker Classic Main Event is playing out at Jamul Casino Resort with a $100,000 guarantee and the SDPC trophy on the line. Day 1b drew 105 entries and sent 13 players through, while Day 1a brought in 91 entries and advanced 11. Across the opening two flights, 24 players have already moved on.

The event has four starting flights. Day 1c is set for 11 a.m. local time, and Day 1d follows at 6 p.m. later on Aug. 8.

The format gives players a 30,000-chip starting stack. Day 1 blind levels run 30 minutes, then increase to 40 minutes on Day 2, with 15-minute breaks every four levels on Day 1, a 10-minute break after Level 14, and breaks after every three levels on Day 2. Registration closes at the start of Level 9, and players may re-enter without limit and play all Day 1 flights.

Matthew Gawel finished second on Day 1b with 219,000, and Ricky Barraza was third with 151,000. Gawel has already won three titles at Jamul Casino Resort, but he has not yet captured a San Diego Poker Classic trophy, while Barraza is still looking for his first Jamul title and has nearly $85,000 in live earnings from cashes dating back to 2016.

Last year, Sebastian Acevedo won the Main Event from a field of 375 entries and took $33,216 after an ICM chop with James Kozono and David Fernandez Sanchez. The report says the race is still open to become the first two-time Main Event champion in SDPC history. Through two flights, Costorda is the player everyone else has to catch.

APT Incheon 2026 opened with the Korea National Cup, which drew a record 709 entries from 28 nations and generated KRW 409,459,411. Tomoya Tsubouchi won the title over the record-breaking field at Paradise City Casino Resort in Incheon, more than doubling the KRW 200,000,000 guarantee and surpassing the event’s 2025 edition in both entries and prize pool.

The field included 451 unique players, and 101 returned for Final Day after the three opening flights. The Korea National Cup carried a KRW 700,000 buy-in and paid the top 14 percent of each flight through to Final Day and paying positions.

The broader festival is part of the Asian Poker Tour’s 20-Year Anniversary season and is the tour’s third series of the year. APT Incheon 2026 is the tour’s 18th visit to South Korea, its 7th stop in Incheon, and the 127th festival in APT history. The schedule includes 106 tournaments with buy-ins from KRW 200,000 to KRW 35 million and more than KRW 4 billion in total guarantees.

Flight A drew 236 entries and sent 34 players through, with Jeerasak Khumchanthuek bagging 626,000 chips, Mongolia’s Tuguldur Gantumur taking 552,000, and Haruna Matsumoto finishing with 438,000, which left her as the top-ranked woman and 8th overall heading into Final Day.

Flight B was the largest starting flight at 307 entries and produced 43 survivors. Ivan Govorov finished with 827,000 to take the overall chip lead, while Frank Zhang’s 600,000 put him fourth in the final-day counts. Flight C added 166 entries and 24 more survivors, with Yutao Zheng’s 610,000 good for third overall.

Tsubouchi came into the final table with a stack more than three times bigger than anyone else’s and never gave up the lead. He eliminated four of his eight final-table opponents, then closed the tournament in a three-way all-in that left Phuong Ngoc Nguyen second for KRW 47,710,000 and Ian Rudolph third for KRW 34,090,000.

The last hand saw Nguyen open from the button, Tsubouchi shove from the small blind, and Rudolph call from the big blind before Nguyen came along. Nguyen’s pocket sixes were ahead on the flop, but the turn and river gave Tsubouchi a runner-runner straight, ending the event without a single heads-up hand.

In APT’s live reports, Tsubouchi said the trophy mattered most to him. Poker.org also quoted him saying he had come for something closer to a Korean vacation with poker, and that the win left him wanting to travel overseas specifically to keep playing and improving. He said the final hand brought relief rather than excitement, and that finishing without having to play heads-up was just as he had hoped. The APT Main Event begins on Sunday, Aug. 9, with a KRW 1.5 billion guarantee.

Scott Aulds jumped out to the Day 1a lead in the 2026 San Diego Poker Classic $600 Main Event at Jamul Casino Resort, bagging 592,000 chips after a flight that drew 91 entries and sent 11 players on to Day 2.

Kyler Somer finished second with 500,000, and Robert Fortuno was third with 426,000. In the Day 1a recap, Somer was also the one who sent Robin Brown out on the bubble, while Fortuno used a late run to climb the counts.

PokerNews noted that Jamul Casino Resort has been kind to Aulds, whose The Hendon Mob page is loaded with first-place finishes. The report said he has won five RunGood Poker Series rings and four San Diego Poker Classic trophies at the venue, and Aulds said he is still trying to keep his success rolling on home turf.

“Last year I was chasing the trophies to prove a point to myself,” he said. “This year I’m chasing the money.”

The Day 1a report also showed Day 1b already underway with 76 entries. A later update put the second flight at 105 entries and 13 more players advancing, with Pablo Costorda taking over the overall lead through two flights at 699,000.

Matthew Gawel was next in that flight with 219,000, and Ricky Barraza bagged 151,000. Gawel has three titles at Jamul Casino Resort but has not yet won a San Diego Poker Classic trophy, while Barraza is still looking for his first Jamul title and has nearly $85,000 in live earnings, according to his The Hendon Mob page.

The tournament is being played with a $100,000 guarantee, a 30,000-chip starting stack, and unlimited re-entries, and players can enter all Day 1 flights. The top 12.5% of each field, rounded down, advance to Day 2, which starts at the lowest blind level used on Day 1.

The structure calls for 30-minute levels on Day 1, 40-minute levels on Day 2, and breaks every four levels on Day 1, plus a 10-minute break after Level 14. The schedule also called for Day 1c at 11 a.m. and Day 1d at 6 p.m. on Aug. 8.

Last year’s SDPC Main Event drew 375 entries and ended with Sebastian Acevedo winning $33,216 after an ICM chop with James Kozono and David Fernandez Sanchez, and the report noted that he could become the first two-time main event champion in SDPC history. Through two flights this year, Costorda’s 699,000 stood as the biggest stack in the room.

Lucas Jumalon has joined Poker Royalty as an ambassador after winning the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event. The 22-year-old took home $10 million for topping a field of 9,208 entrants at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

WSOP said Jumalon beat Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti heads-up to win the title and the World Champion of Poker crown. He entered the final table with 194 million chips as the overwhelming leader, and the last nine also included Rami Hammoud, Jamie Shaevel, Greg Mueller, Michael Gagliano, Mario Boos, Han Feng and Evagoras Evagorou.

Poker Royalty says it will represent Jumalon across sponsorships, endorsements, appearances, licensing and strategic brand partnerships. The agency’s roster already includes Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth, along with Jeremy Becker, Alex Foxen, Kristen Foxen, Josh Arieh and David Williams.

Brian Balsbaugh said Jumalon put on a wire-to-wire performance, pointing to the 9,208-player field and the $10 million score at 22 years old. Jumalon said his goal is to be “a real ambassador for this game,” bringing new people to the table and making poker look as good as it felt to win.

The timing of the signing is reported two ways. PokerNews described the move as coming after the win, while Poker.org said Jumalon signed with Poker Royalty on July 15, weeks before the final table began, and that the agency announced it the next day.

Before that, his largest tournament win was a Daily Deepstack in Las Vegas for $22,495.

The victory also made him the second-youngest world champion in poker history, behind only Joe Cada, who won the Main Event at 21 in 2009. YourValley said Jumalon graduated from Grand Canyon University’s Phoenix campus in April with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in business analytics, and that he described himself as being “built to be an ambassador to the sport.”

PokerNews reported that 888poker has released Episode 1, “The Pilgrimage,” of its 2026 WSOP docuseries onto YouTube. The opening chapter follows Aaron Barone, Ian Simpson, Lucia Navarro, Nick Eastwood and Vivian Saliba as they make their way to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker Main Event.

There is one small wrinkle on the series length. PokerNews described “888 at the WSOP” as a six-part docuseries, while 888poker’s own magazine page called it a five-part documentary. Both versions frame the project as a road-to-the-WSOP series built around the five ambassadors.

Episode 1 is mostly about the trip itself. The chapter begins long before anyone sits down at a table, with the team facing long itineraries, including one flight from Newcastle to London Heathrow before crossing the Atlantic. Vivian Saliba was already in Las Vegas for a week before her teammates arrived.

The backdrop is the 2026 WSOP Main Event, described as a $10,000 buy-in tournament with a $10 million top prize and the title of poker’s world champion. The camera crew follows the group from travel mode into the Main Event.

The ambassadors bring different angles to the story. Barone said he never imagined the Main Event would matter much to him, but now it is his fourth year playing and he cannot imagine skipping it. He also recalled his first hand in the event, when he was coolered and dropped from a 60,000-chip starting stack to 45,000.

Navarro said this was her 10th year heading to Las Vegas each summer. She said she first came to the WSOP 10 years ago, made a goal of jumping into the Main Event if she did well in cash games, and followed through on that plan.

Simpson and Saliba focus more on the personal grind that comes with the trip. Simpson said leaving his wife and daughter is always hard, but that he knows he is doing it for them. Saliba said she is taking things day by day this year and feels more prepared than in past WSOP runs.

Eastwood uses the Main Event as a reset after a rough run in 2026. On the magazine page, he said the tournament gives him a chance to put his “horrendous results” behind him and remind himself that he is still a “half-decent player.”

New episodes will arrive every Saturday at 6:00 p.m. GMT, and Episode 2 will move into the “real business end” of the pilgrimage.

PokerNews Podcast episode 1,001 was recorded on site at Horseshoe Las Vegas during the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table. The episode follows host Chad Holloway through the three-day stretch, from pregame interviews to a conversation with the last player standing.

According to PokerNews, the show includes an on-site interview with Jason Koon, described as the sole inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2026, plus an interview with Ryan Riess, the 2013 WSOP Main Event champion. Riess also addresses his response to a widely criticized social media post by Jessica Vierling.

Apple Podcasts timestamps show how the episode is laid out. It opens with Day 1 at 00:50, moves to the Jason Koon interview at 06:30, Day 2 at 10:20, the Riess interview at 18:48, the final hand in real time at 22:35, and a winner interview with Lucas Jumalon at 24:10.

The tournament backdrop was already deep into the final table when play paused late Monday after about six hours at Horseshoe Events Center. The WSOP Main Event was down to seven players, with Jumalon on 212 million chips, about twice Han Feng’s 106.5 million and ahead of Lauri Saaskilahti’s 84.5 million. The remaining players were chasing the $10 million top prize and at least $1.5 million, and Jumalon later defeated Saaskilahti heads-up to win the title after outlasting a field of 9,208 entrants.

Phil Boyd finished Day 1b of the RunGood Poker Series Gateway Poker Classic $800 Main Event on top, and he was the first player to break the million-chip mark. The High Ridge, Missouri native ended with 1,082,000 after knocking out Robert Weeks on the money bubble inside Hollywood Casino.

According to PokerNews, Boyd finished far ahead of the other 22 players who survived the flight. Mike Bell was next with 693,000, Travis Gillihan had 644,000, Ben Miller bagged 606,000, Janelle Rettig finished with 474,000, Keith Heine had 453,000, and Paul Fehlig advanced with 203,000.

Gillihan also picked up a big pot earlier in the day when he turned a straight and snap-called a river shove to send another player out. Day 1b ended with 25 minutes left in Level 18, with blinds at 8,000/16,000 and a 16,000 big blind ante.

The flight drew 179 entries and pushed the total field to 284 through the first two starting flights. Boyd now leads the 35 players already through to Day 2.

The Day 1c preview said the Hollywood Casino and Hotel poker room should be packed when play starts at 11 a.m. local time. It also said Day 1d begins at 5 p.m. tonight, with late registration open through the end of Level 8 and unlimited reentries, while players start with 40,000 chips and 30-minute levels.

All surviving players from the four starting flights combine for Day 2 at noon on Aug. 9, where the event plays down to a champion. The preview expects the field to grow substantially before the prize pool is announced.

Day 1b of the $10,400 Premiere got underway at 1 p.m. local time at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in North Cyprus, as the Onyx High Roller Series’ opening event moved into its second starting flight after Day 1a drew 178 entries and produced 27 players for Day 2.

Sorel Mizzi leads the way after the opener with 1,720,000 chips. Timur Margolin sits just behind him with 1,265,000, and Artur Martirosian bagged 1,105,000. Damir Gabdullin and Fahredin Mustafov finished on 1,100,000 apiece.

The opening flight also had a few wild hands on the bubble. Yilu Yuan survived with big slick against Gabdullin’s pocket queens after finding an ace on the river, while Mustafov got in pocket aces against pocket queens of both Margolin and Aren Bezhanyan and moved to over seven figures. Bezhanyan later doubled after Margolin misread the all-in action and tabled trips on the river.

Martirosian’s run up the leaderboard came after he reentered. He had earlier lost a big pot when his flopped set ran into Hadi Khordbin’s runner-runner Broadway straight, then climbed back with a rivered straight against Atilla Saracoglu.

Day 1a also knocked out a long list of familiar names, including Jamie Dwan, Sergio Aido, Oliver Weis, Simone Andrian, Manig Loeser, Boris Kolev, Jessica Teusl, Dietrich Fast and Fabian Gumz. Once late registration closed and only 27 Day 2 seats were left, the bubble battle decided who made it through.

The event uses four opening flights before the survivors combine for Day 2. Players start with 100,000 chips, opening flights use 40-minute levels, Day 1d is turbo with 20-minute levels, and Day 2 and the final day move to 60-minute levels.

Late registration stays open until the start of Level 10 after the dinner break, and players can enter or reenter as often as they want during the registration period and across all four flights. The opening flights continue until roughly 15% of the field remains, and everyone who bags for Day 2 has already locked up at least a min-cash.

The $10,400 Premiere carries a $5,000,000 guarantee, and the broader festival at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel in North Cyprus runs through August 16. The tournament is set to play down to a champion on Tuesday, August 11.

The 2026 NOIR Poker Series ended with Selahaddin Bedir winning the $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event for $525,000 at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. He beat Konstantin Voronin heads-up after a long final day that stretched for about 12 hours.

According to PokerNews, the flagship event drew 769 entries and built a $3,608,148 prize pool. By the time the final day began, only 13 players were left and everyone still in the hunt had locked up at least $46,200.

Day 2 had already trimmed a field of 113 down to those final 13. The four starting-flight chip leaders were all gone before the final day, and the overnight top of the counts belonged to Kenar on 15,050,000 chips, with Tarzan next on 12,800,000.

Manuel Fritz returned with 8,775,000 chips, while Fahredin Mustafov came back at the bottom of the pack with 1,800,000. The remaining 13 were set to resume at 1 p.m. local time at level 27, with blinds of 100,000/200,000 and a 200,000 big blind ante.

The field quickly thinned on the final day. Xiaosheng Zheng went out in 13th, Tarzan was eliminated after an early clash with Manuel Fritz, and Mustafov busted after running into pocket aces. Miroslav Rizov’s 10th-place exit completed the move to the final table before the second level of the day was finished.

The final table lasted roughly ten hours. Viktor Siegle was the first to go, Manuel Fritz followed when his button aces were no good against Fabian Gumz in the big blind, and Anton Danilov and Leonid Orman were next out before the dinner break.

After the break, the average stack was just 26 big blinds. Kenar and Aleksei Gortikov both fell within the first hour back, leaving three players to battle for the title for about two hours, until a cooler sent Gumz to the rail and set up Bedir against Voronin.

The heads-up match ran for about 90 minutes. Voronin doubled up twice, but Bedir kept taking the smaller pots and finally got the chips in good a third time, holding on through a runout that gave him a “wheel straight and ended Voronin”:https://www.pokernews.com/tours/merit-poker/2026-noir-poker-series/5500-main-event/’s run at $375,000.

Bedir said the event was hard to play because it meant playing every day from the start, but he felt patient and good throughout. He also called poker both his business and his hobby, said he does not think about money, and added that he planned no big celebration, just time with his kids and friends.

Jason Daly led the $5,300 SHRPO Championship’s opening flight at the final break, when Day 1A reached 320 entries and registration closed. Justin Fawcett was second with 320,500 chips, while Daly held 355,500.

The flight had already reached dinner break with 263 entries after Level 6. Tournament staff sent Flight A on a 90-minute pause, and players were due back at 7 pm for two more levels before registration closed and two more before bagging.

A later chip-count update at Level 7, with blinds at 500/1,000 and a 1,000 ante, showed the field at 292 entries. Darren Elias was listed with 240,000, Fawcett had 225,600, Mikhail Chykiliov had 165,000 and Willie Wiggins had 160,000.

By the final break, 153 of the 320 entrants were still in the field, and two stacks were above 300,000. Daly’s 355,500 translated to 237 big blinds, and Fawcett’s 320,500 was good for 214 big blinds.

The event PDF lists the championship as a $5,300 No Limit Hold’em tournament with a $3,000,000 guarantee and 50,000 starting chips. It also allows on-site registration and single re-entry per day until the start of Level 9, shows Level 6 at 400/800 with an 800 ante, and if a player misses today, there is a final flight tomorrow at 11 am plus two more last chance satellites.

Stephen Martines led Day 1a of the RunGood Poker Series Gateway Poker Classic $800 Main Event after bagging 615,000 chips at Hollywood Casino & Hotel in St. Louis. The opening flight drew 105 players, and only 13 made it through with chips.

Cameron Dugan finished just behind him with 611,000. PokerNews reported that Dugan made a quick climb late in the day, helped by a double through Justin Coliny with kings and another big pot against Jeremy Drewery with aces.

Martines built his stack early and kept growing it. He doubled in the first level by hitting trip tens a few minutes into Day 1a, then later won a large pot from Jeffrey Copeland when he rivered a set of aces to beat two pair.

Drewery also ended well, bagging 462,000. Casey Blakeley finished with 413,000, Muharem Dulic with 399,000, Copeland with 260,000, and Coliny with 130,000.

The flight ended with 25 minutes left in Level 18, with blinds at 8,000/16,000 and a 16,000 big blind ante. Among those to fall short of the money on Day 1a were Chris Audrain and Mark Lafata.

Any of those Day 1a survivors can still enter later flights, but if a player bags twice only the best stack moves on to Day 2. The official schedule has Flight 1B at 5 p.m. Friday, Flight 1C at 11 a.m. Saturday, and Flight 1D at 5 p.m. Saturday, before Day 2 at noon Sunday.

The Main Event takes place Aug. 4-9 and carries a $200,000 guarantee. In March, Gabriel Attoun won the St. Louis $800 Main Event for $83,141 by beating a field of 647.

The fifth annual San Diego Poker Classic Main Event is underway at Jamul Casino Resort, with a $600 buy-in and a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. The tournament will award the SDPC trophy to the winner.

According to PokerNews, the event is spread across four starting flights. Day 1a is set for 11 a.m. local time, Day 1b for 6 p.m. later the same day, Day 1c for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8, and the final flight is scheduled for 6 p.m. that evening.

Players start with 30,000 chips. Day 1 levels run 30 minutes, then stretch to 40 minutes on Day 2, with a 15-minute break every four levels on Day 1, a 10-minute break after Level 14, and breaks after every three levels on Day 2.

Registration closes at the start of Level 9. Players can enter as many times as they want, and they are allowed to play all Day 1 flights. If they qualify more than once, they move on with their highest stack, give up the smaller ones, and receive the lowest Day 2 payout for each stack they remove.

The tournament advances the top 12.5% of each flight, rounded down, to Day 2. That second day begins at the lowest level reached during the opening flights.

Day 1a has already closed registration and drew 91 entries. Eleven players will advance from that flight, with 36 still left in action and a break in progress before play resumes at 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante.

Last year’s champion was Sebastian Acevedo, who outlasted 375 entries and earned $33,216 after agreeing to an ICM chop with James Kozono and David Fernandez Sanchez. He entered this year’s event as the defending winner.

Mexico-based Fakhish won PokerStars’ $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em Progressive Knockout Thursday Thrill in WCOOP Boot Camp, beating Bruno “bbernadinho” Bernadinho heads-up for $18,287. The event drew 64 entries and finished with a nine-handed final table.

PokerNews noted that both finalists locked up $7,319 from the regular prize pool before the last duel began, while more than $10,000 in bounties were still in play.

Mario “t4t0PAGAU” Navarro was the first player out of the nine-handed final table, collecting $995 after failing to pick up any bounties. Finland’s “Stonedream” exited in eighth, then Angola’s “Oneway1988” and Argentina’s “nicolasb” fell next.

Rodrigo “peceli” Peceli Presutti bowed out in fifth. The report also recalled that Peceli won this same event during the 2025 WCOOP for $86,000, giving his deep run a bit of history.

Pavel “silentm0de” Plesuv of Moldova finished fourth for $5,720 including bounties, and British pro Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane banked $7,253. Fakhish’s run then closed out the event against Bernadinho, leaving the runner-up with $13,256.

Fakhish already had a much bigger score on his record, winning the 2024 SCOOP $10,300 Main Event for $948,434 after defeating Mark “AceSpades11” Radoja heads-up. The report framed this latest win as a useful confidence and bankroll boost ahead of WCOOP in September.

WCOOP Boot Camp on PokerStars runs through August 17 and includes 65 events across multiple formats and buy-in levels, with more than $6.5 million in combined guaranteed prize pools. The final events begin on August 16 and include a pair of Main Events.

Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland’s Maryland State Poker Championship is set for August 26 through September 7, with 16 events and $1.1 million in guarantees. The festival’s headliner is a $1,700 Main Event running September 3-7 with a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The new twist is a sweepstakes tied to the tournament winners. According to the MSPC page, each event winner is entered into a drawing for an EPT package provided by PokerStars exclusively on FanDuel, and the prize is valued at about $11,500.

That package includes an EPT Main Event seat, hotel accommodation and travel money, and the winner can choose the destination. Pokerfuse said the examples listed include Barcelona, Monte Carlo and Prague, and that one winner will be drawn from the entries.

PokerNews reported in June that PokerStars exclusively on FanDuel would sponsor the championship and that the festival would feature 16 trophy events and more than $1 million in guarantees. That report described the prize as a Player’s Choice EPT package valued at €10,000, including hotel and a €5,300 EPT Main Event buy-in.

The 2026 Onyx High Roller Series got underway at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus with the $10,400 Premiere, a tournament that carries a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.

Following the success of previous Onyx series, many of poker’s biggest names are expected to descend on Northern Cyprus for the ten-day festival.

The series runs through Aug. 16 and spans No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha events, with buy-ins from $5,200 to $50,500. The $50,500 Onyx High Roller Championship closes the schedule.

The opening event uses three starting flights before the surviving players combine for Day 2 and play down to a champion on Tuesday, Aug. 11. Day 1A began at 1 p.m. local time with 100,000 chips, 40-minute levels in the opening flights, and 60-minute levels on Day 2 and the final day.

Late registration stays open until the start of Level 10, just after the dinner break, and players can re-enter without limit during the registration period and across all flights. Each starting flight continues until roughly 15% of the field remains, and anyone who bags a stack reaches Day 2 already in the money.

The rules package also bans sunglasses, masks, scarves, and any intentional face covering while a player has live cards. Once the final table is reached, play shifts to a hands-per-level format, with the tournament director setting the number of hands.

PokerNews also said shot clocks are in use from the start of every event, and that a full streaming schedule will be released once cards are in the air. Past Onyx events have been streamed on delay through the OnyxLive YouTube channel, and the site introduced a free MyPlayers feature that sends real-time updates on a user’s favorite players without a subscription or paywall.

The broader schedule includes a $25,500 NLH Main Event with a $5 million guarantee, a $10,400 Mystery Bounty with a $1 million guarantee, a $5,200 PLO Bounty on Aug. 9, a $15,300 NLH 6-Mx on Aug. 13-14, and a $10,200 Bounty on Aug. 15-16. Players who commit to Day 1A of both the Premiere and the Main Event can receive 11 nights of complimentary accommodation at Merit Royal Diamond and return airport transfers.

Jack McMullan won the PartyPoker Tour Glasgow £150 Mini Main Event after a three-way ICM deal, banking a career-best £13,200 and the trophy. The tournament drew 701 entries and set a new attendance record for the event.

According to PokerNews, that field created an £87,625 prize pool, easily clearing the £50,000 guarantee and topping the £59,000 collected in the 2025 edition. The tour stop was in Glasgow, Scotland.

The deal locked in £10,200 for McMullan, £10,550 for Laurence Welch and £10,000 for Oliver Hutchins, with £3,000 and the trophy still to play for. McMullan then closed it out in heads-up play against Hutchins after a five-hour final table.

Spadepoker listed Craig McCairns as the first player out of the final table in ninth for £1,160, with Mark Johnston eighth for £1,530. Joe Beevers, the PartyPoker Tour ambassador, finished fifth for £3,600, and Callum Wallace exited in fourth for £5,180.

Poker.pro quoted McMullan saying he has not played too many live tournaments, usually plays cash a couple of times a week, and expects to play more now that big events are coming to the Alea in Glasgow. He also said he has been playing since he was 18 and that the deal made sense once the stacks evened out.

The final-day chip leader was Hutchins, who started with 6,330,000 chips, and McMullan eventually beat him in the deciding hand with jack-nine of hearts against ace-deuce. The same Glasgow stop also saw the £500 Main Event get underway, with Day 1a drawing 103 entrants and 26 players advancing.

BetRivers Poker has built a small-state footprint that now stands out in regulated U.S. online poker. The operator is live in West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and New Jersey is next in line once regulators approve the launch.

If that happens, BetRivers would become the first U.S. online poker network to span five states with shared liquidity. Pokerfuse says it is already only the second operator in the country, after WSOP, to connect multiple regulated markets under a single player pool.

The broader U.S. poker market has changed only gradually. Over the past six years, Connecticut, West Virginia, Rhode Island and Maine have legalized online poker, bringing the total number of regulated online poker states to nine.

BetRivers has been especially willing to launch where other operators have not. The report says the brand is currently the sole online poker operator in West Virginia and Delaware, and that it launched in Pennsylvania before expanding into Michigan, Delaware and West Virginia.

That makes the smaller states more than just side projects for Rush Street Interactive. Jesse Wilke, RSI’s director of poker marketing, told Poker Industry PRO that Maine is a market the company has strong interest in because of its track record in smaller and underserved jurisdictions.

Maine is a particularly small target. The state legalized iGaming earlier this year and has a population of about 1.4 million, making it one of the smallest regulated markets in the U.S.

Wilke’s view of poker is different from the way many operators treat it. RSI does not measure poker purely on direct revenue and sees it as part of a wider ecosystem that helps acquire customers, improve retention and strengthen engagement across the platform.

That idea also shows up in BetRivers’ Rakeback Revolution program, which rewards players based on the rake they generate and lets those rewards be used across the broader BetRivers platform, including casino and sports betting. The point is to turn poker into an entry point for other products, not an isolated vertical.

Delaware is one of the clearest examples of the model in action. The state’s igaming market is overseen by the Delaware Lottery, which awards a single contract covering online casino, sports betting and poker across its three racinos. RSI won that contract in 2023 after no competing bids were submitted, and Delaware’s online poker revenue has since run above previous levels.

West Virginia tells a similar story. The state legalized online poker in 2019 and joined MSIGA, which allows participating operators to combine player pools across states. Even with that opportunity, industry interest was thin, and BetRivers moved in within months while other operators already offering online casino in the state chose not to add poker.

Pennsylvania’s own move into the shared market widened the backdrop further. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Governor Josh Shapiro signed the state’s MSIGA agreement on April 23, 2025, making Pennsylvania the sixth member of the poker pact and expanding the player pool by more than 50 percent to over 38 million Americans.

The board also said online Pennsylvania poker players could begin joining multi-state games on April 28, 2025, with BetMGM and PA Borgata Online included in the rollout and others expected to follow soon. For BetRivers, approval in New Jersey would give it the country’s first five-state shared-liquidity poker network.

In a Card Player interview, Chris Moneymaker said he voted for Isai Scheinberg and Shaun Deeb for the Poker Hall of Fame. He also said the Hall should stop limiting itself to one inductee a year, calling that approach “ridiculous” and saying a better range would be somewhere between two and four.

Moneymaker said Scheinberg was one of his “big picks” because of the impact he had at PokerStars and on online poker’s footprint. He said Scheinberg “revolutionized the game” and that there was no reason he should not be in the Hall.

His vote for Deeb was based on Deeb’s accomplishments and the fact that he has been around for so long. Moneymaker also said the new Hall of Fame scoring system is a lot better than the old one.

The Hall changed its process in June. WSOP officials opened nominations, allowed fans to submit names through the WSOP site, and set up a final list built from the top eight vote getters. The 33 living Hall of Fame members each get four votes, a nominee gets in automatically with 22 votes, and if nobody reaches that bar, the highest vote-getter takes the lone spot.

That new setup can produce as many as six inductees in a year, which was part of the point of the overhaul. Card Player reported that the change came after years of one-player intake starting in 2020, while PokerNews quoted Phil Hellmuth saying six would be too many and that two a year is the right number.

Moneymaker also criticized the WSOP for adding a shot clock mid-tournament. He said the move changes the dynamic, puts extra stress on players who have never used one before, and should be decided before play starts. He added that shot clocks favor online players and pros who are already used to acting faster.

Flutter said Peter Jackson will step down as chief executive on Sept. 30 and Dan Taylor will take over on Oct. 1. Taylor will also join the board that day, while Jackson stays on as an adviser through the end of the year.

Taylor is currently chief executive of Flutter’s International division, which generated more than $9 billion of annual revenue and over $2.2 billion of adjusted EBITDA in 2025. The board said he played a central role in FanDuel’s sportsbook improvement plan, which it said is showing encouraging early signs of momentum. Board chair John Bryant also said Flutter had transformed from Paddy Power Betfair into what he called the world’s leading online sports betting and iGaming operator.

The move comes after a rough second quarter. In the quarter ended June 30, Flutter reported revenue of $4.326 billion and a net loss of $296 million, compared with a $37 million profit a year earlier. Sales fell 6%, sportsbook revenue dropped 15%, and average monthly players declined 11%.

U.S. revenue fell 6%, U.S. sports betting revenue slid 15%, and online gaming rose 6%. Internationally, sportsbook revenue rose 14% and online gaming revenue increased 7%, with gains of 7% in the UK, 16% in Central and Eastern Europe, 36% in Southeast Asia and 64% in Brazil, while Asia-Pacific revenue fell 1%.

Flutter’s shares fell 14% in August and another 5.2% after the report was announced. The company also said the UK online gaming tax rate jumped from 21% to 40% on April 1.

Card Player reported that Flutter’s online gaming arm said PokerStars is seeing an overall decline in global activity. Management has been trying to counter that by moving poker into larger platforms, including adding PokerStars to FanDuel in North America, and PokerStars entered Flutter’s portfolio in 2019 in a $6 billion deal.

In the quarter, the PokerStars transformation added $120 million in restructuring and integration costs. Flutter said the work is expected to deliver $300 million in annualized cost savings by the end of the year, while more than 100 PokerStars jobs were cut across hubs in Canada, Europe, the UK and Ireland. Flutter said it will make proactive sportsbook investment in the second half to extend FanDuel’s leading position.

Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park, California, will host the RunGood Poker Series NorCal Poker Championships from Aug. 20 to Aug. 30. The stop spans 11 days and includes 19 trophy events.

PokerNews said it will live-report the Main Event from start to finish. The opening day begins with the $250 Series Opener, a no-limit hold’em tournament scheduled for 11 a.m., and later the same day players can jump into Day 1a of the $400 PokerNews PowerStack at 5 p.m.

The PowerStack carries a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. The rest of the schedule mixes in a $300 PLO/NLH event on Aug. 23, a $200 Double Board Bomb Pot PLO event on Aug. 24 and a Mixed PLO event on Aug. 26.

The biggest event is the $1,100 NorCal Championship Event. The official RGPS schedule lists Day 1a for Aug. 28 at 10 a.m., Day 1b for 5 p.m. that day, Day 1c for Aug. 29 at 10 a.m. and Day 1d for 5 p.m., with the finals set for Aug. 30 at noon.

The Graton stop comes after earlier RGPS action at the casino this year. Graton’s press release said the series returned from Feb. 28 to March 8 for 22 events, including a $250,000-guaranteed $800-buy-in main event that started March 3. That same release said Kulwant Singh won last year’s Graton main event with 1,144 entries and a $100,070 top prize, the first RGPS main event to top 1,000 entries.

Poker pros dissected Lauri Saaskilahti’s river call with J-3 in the 2026 WSOP Main Event. Lucas Jumalon had already won the title and the $10 million first prize, while Saaskilahti finished second for $6 million after a heads-up duel that came out of a 9,208-player field.

PokerNews broke down the key hand as Jumalon limping Q♠5♦ on the button and Saaskilahti checking J♦3♦ in the big blind. The flop came A♠K♠4♣, Jumalon bet 4,000,000 into 12,000,000, and Saaskilahti called.

The turn brought the J♠, which gave Jumalon both straight and flush draws. Saaskilahti checked again, Jumalon fired 40,000,000 into 20,000,000, and Saaskilahti called once more.

The river was the 6♠, completing Jumalon’s flush. After Saaskilahti checked, Jumalon overbet 180,000,000 into 100,000,000, and Saaskilahti called. He said the spot was basically “To hero or not to hero?”, and added that if he called and was wrong he would be down to eight big blinds and facing a 12:1 chip disadvantage.

Saaskilahti told himself he had a jack and that it “could be good.” After the call, he was shown the bad news, but the hand did not end his tournament. He bust two hands later, then called the result “an amazing tournament” and a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

“I made a hero call, it didn’t go my way this time,” he said. “My goal was to win,” he added, before noting that second place and $6 million was “not too bad.”

The pro reaction was mixed, but several prominent voices leaned toward Saaskilahti. Ben Lamb said great players going with their reads is part of what makes them great, even if the read is wrong or they get “lost in the sauce” a bit, and he echoed Scott Seiver’s point that a blank river can make a third-pair call look brilliant.

Patrick Leonard went deeper into the ranges in a since-deleted post and argued that J-x-3-x blockers can be better than some stronger-looking hands. He also said the jack was “pretty ok,” because Jumalon never bluffs with a jack in his hand on the turn, and that it was “probably better to call this hand than a lotttttt of hands” because it was a bluffcatcher.

Pokerfuse also said many pros were posting their reactions on X after the Main Event wrapped, and that a majority did not think Saaskilahti’s call was that bad from a GTO standpoint. Others objected more to the chanting and noise from Jumalon’s rail, while Mike Matusow praised the “old-school approach” to the rail noise.

The hand came during heads-up play, which PokerNews said was only the third time the Main Event’s last day began heads-up. Jumalon entered with 328,000,000 chips to Saaskilahti’s 225,000,000, and PokerNews noted that since 2001 the player leading at the start of heads-up has lost five times.

White Rock, British Columbia resident Greg Mueller finished third in the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas and earned $3.75 million. He outlasted 9,208 entrants, and the result was the deepest Main Event run by a Canadian in 16 years.

The finish also left him two places short of becoming Canada’s first WSOP Main Event champion since Jonathan Duhamel’s 2010 victory. The article said the 9,208-player field was the fourth-largest Main Event field in history.

Earlier in the final-table run, Mueller had already locked up at least $1 million and was set to return on Aug. 3 with the fourth-highest stack at 48.5 million chips, according to Peace Arch News. He was one of two Canadians at the table, alongside Rami Hammoud, who held 79 million chips.

PokerNews described the endgame as a river showdown against Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti. Mueller got to the river with a pair of fours but could not beat Saaskilahti’s pocket kings, and his elimination left Lucas Jumalon and Saaskilahti as the last two players chasing the $10 million top prize.

PokerNews also said Mueller’s rail was the loudest at the final table and that he picked up two double-ups before the finish. Afterward, Mueller said the love and support around him mattered more than the poker or the money. The $3.75 million prize was by far the biggest live tournament score of his career.

Stake is marking its ninth birthday with a one-off poker special built around a $90,000 guaranteed bounty tournament. The event has a $9 buy-in, pays a $5 bounty on every player, and is capped at 10,000 entries.

According to SoMuchPoker, the Stake 9th Birthday Poker Special runs once on Aug. 8 and is described as a birthday bounty tournament built for value. Every player in the field carries a $5 bounty, including the entrant, and when someone is knocked out, that bounty is credited instantly and kept on top of any finish-position payout.

BankrollMob puts the start time at 17:00 UTC and says seats are first come, first served. It also says the tournament can be found in the poker lobby under “9th Birthday Poker Special,” and that players are encouraged to register early.

Stake is also tying the event to its sign-up offer. Using code SMPBONUS is described as unlocking a 200% first-deposit casino bonus up to $2,000, plus 3.5% weekly rakeback on poker play. The bonus carries a 40x wagering requirement on the deposit and bonus combined, and poker is locked while that wagering is active.

The article says poker action feeds straight into the rakeback deal. It also says Stake is crypto-first, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and Litecoin listed as the fastest funding options, while MoonPay lets non-crypto users deposit with Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay or Google Pay inside the account. SoMuchPoker also notes that Stake.com is not available to US players, though USA players can access Stake US Poker.

CoinPoker has scheduled a special CoinMillion GOPC Edition for Sept. 6-7. The $215 two-day tournament carries a $1 million guarantee and sits inside the company’s Global Online Poker Championship lineup.

The same weekend also includes a $55 CoinMinion with a $250,000 guarantee and an $11 Mini CoinMinion with a $100,000 guarantee.

CoinPoker made CoinMillion a monthly event after its first two editions generated a combined 9,062 entries. The opening two runs produced 9,062 combined entries and paid $248,000 to the champions.

The format stays the same for the monthly version. Players go through a two-day structure, the field plays down to the final seven on Sunday, and those seven return on Monday to finish. The event starts with 100,000 chips, 10-minute levels and late registration open through Level 19.

The first CoinMillion ran on May 10 during the World Poker Masters and drew 4,278 entries. DaniC1994 won $126,500. The July 12 edition drew 4,784 entries, and monc took $121,500.

The broader GOPC runs from Aug. 23 to Sept. 28 with $50 million guaranteed, three time-zone-specific schedules for Europe, Latin America and Asia, and three buy-in tiers. CoinPoker also says players can chase Gold, Silver and Bronze medals while competing as part of regional GOPC teams.

Sportscasting reported more than 700 Medal Events across the series, plus a $530 Main Event with a $3 million guarantee, a $55 Global Main with a $1 million guarantee and an $11 Mini Main with a $250,000 guarantee. It also said the festival carries $350,000 in promotions, and CoinPoker says it will have paid out more than $133 million in tournament prizes across its 2026 series by the time the GOPC wraps.

ACR Poker is loading more than $20 million in guaranteed prize money into Super Stacked Sunday on Aug. 16. The card centers on Day 1B of the Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms, three Run Up Series Main Events, and the return of the site’s full Sunday tournament slate.

According to ACR Poker, the slimmed-down summer schedule is officially over. WebWire said the day is built around several overlapping reasons to play, with majors and supporting events spread across no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, mystery bounty, progressive knockout, multi-flight, and high-stakes formats.

The biggest draw is the Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms. The No-Limit Hold’em edition carries a $12 million guarantee and the Pot-Limit Omaha edition adds $3 million, for $15 million combined, and both have $2,650 buy-ins and eight Day 1 flights throughout August. Day 1B starts at 12:05 p.m. ET on Aug. 16.

The NLH Venom carries a $500,000 top Mystery Bounty, while the PLO version tops out at $250,000. Minimum bounties are $5,000 once the Mystery Bounty phase begins on Day 2, and players who reach that stage are already in the money. ACR also says Day 1B is projected to be the biggest Venom day the site has ever hosted.

Venom Fever adds another route in, with more than 1,500 seats guaranteed through Direct Satellites, Mega Satellites, Beast tournaments, Survivor Flips and other paths that start from $0. Separately, ACR reopened its Venom Vault on Aug. 3, and Golden Ticket seats from that promotion are issued for Day 1B of either Venom.

The Run Up Series adds another layer to the day. Card Player reported that the five-week series launched on July 12 and runs through Aug. 17, with 163 tournaments and more than $10 million in guarantees.

ACR says Super Stacked Sunday is the biggest day of the Run Up schedule. Three Main Events start at 11:05 a.m. ET, with the $1,050 High Main Event offering $750,000 guaranteed, the $215 Mid Main Event $400,000, and the $33 Low Main Event $200,000.

All three Main Events are set to resume on Monday, Aug. 17, and ACR says there is $1.35 million guaranteed across the trio after they move to Day 2. The rest of the Sunday card includes a $1 million guaranteed Mystery Bounty Multi-Flight with a $100,000 top bounty, Day 2 of the $50,000 Guaranteed Dime Progressive Knockout at 4:05 p.m. ET, and a $200,000 Guaranteed High Roller.

GGPoker announced the schedule for WSOP Online 2026, featuring 33 bracelet events and $5 million in added value. The series runs from Aug. 16 through Sept. 29, awards 33 gold bracelets, and comes with $5 million in added promotions. The $5,000 Main Event leads the way again, this time with a $25 million guarantee.

The lineup includes a $500 Mini Main Event with a $5 million guarantee, a $1,500 Millionaire Maker with a $5 million guaranteed prize pool and at least $1 million for the winner, and a $10,000 GGMillion$ High Rollers event with at least $10 million up for grabs. GGPoker says the $5K Main Event final table stream is set for Sept. 22 at 18:45 UTC, while the $10K GGMillion$ High Rollers final table stream is scheduled for Sept. 29 at 18:45 UTC. The Main Event stream will be hosted by Jeff Gross and Phil Hellmuth, and the GGMillion$ stream by Gross and Alex Foxen.

The added-value package centers on three promotions. A $1,000,000 Super Pass Bonus gives every bracelet winner a $30,000 Super Pass, which provides direct entry to the Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas in December. Another $1,000,000 is set aside for the Ranking Freeroll, where the top 10 nations on the final Bracelet Leaderboard unlock country-exclusive freerolls with prize pools scaled to each country’s final standing.

The third promotion is the $3,000,000 Continental Flipouts pool. Those flipouts are held after each bracelet for competitors who share a region with the champion, and GGPoker divides players into four global regions: the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Eurasia. Prize pools of up to $250,000 will be won through that promotion.

The first details of the 2026 WSOP Online Bracelet Series emerged as part of GGPoker’s $18 million August Giveaway announcement. That rollout follows the pattern of 2025, when the full tournament schedule was released shortly before the series began. The 2026 edition is the seventh international WSOP Online Bracelet Series since its debut in 2020, when the inaugural online festival awarded 54 bracelets and nearly $150 million in prize money.

Last year’s numbers show why the new schedule matters. More than $354 million was won across the WSOP Online series in 2025, while the bracelet series generated more than $119.5 million in prize pools and drew almost 165,000 entries. The $5,000 Main Event alone attracted 5,961 entries, built a $28,314,750 payout, and was won by Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle for $3,900,707, 12 months after he finished eighth in the same event.

Pokerfuse also noted that Simon Mattsson won the 2025 $1,500 Millionaire Maker for $1,271,600, and that Rodrigo Selouan took the $10,000 GGMillion$ High Rollers title for $2,003,850 and a bracelet.

Paddy Power Poker is running around-the-clock feeder satellites for The Festival in Malta, with entry starting from €7.50 and a path into €1,850 packages.

PokerNews says the promotion splits into two main satellite tracks. €70 buy-ins award €550 seats only, while €100 buy-ins award the €1,850 package.

The €100 path feeds into The Festival Malta 5x€1,850|D1. Players start with 10,000 chips, play 10-minute levels, begin at 50/100/10a and keep going until the end of Level 16.

Players can enter as many Day 1s as their bankroll allows. If they qualify more than once, only the biggest stack carries through to Day 2.

The next Day 2 starts at 8:30 p.m. on August 9, with another on August 16. On Day 2, the top five finishers are guaranteed an €1,850 package, and extra packages are added for every €1,850 above the €9,250 guarantee.

The Festival’s qualification page lists an €1,850 The Festival Package for iPoker Network campaigns and names Paddypower Poker among the partners. It says many online satellites award full packages that can include the tournament buy-in, hotel accommodation, merchandise and a hospitality experience, and that the city tax is not included. The same page says tickets must be used for the Main Event, and leftover pre-qualifier Main Event tickets can be converted into credits for other events once a player reaches Day 2/ITM.

A year earlier, the No-Limit Hold’em Main Event drew 666 entrants and built a €316,550 prize pool. Portugal’s Nuno Morais won it in St. Julian’s for €61,001.

The Malta stop runs September 11-20 and features two €550 Main Events. One is a traditional No-Limit Hold’em tournament and the other is T.O.R.S.E.S., a mixed game that runs September 13-15 and includes 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo and Sviten Special.

The 2026 NOIR Poker Series $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event is down to its final 13 players, with Kenar and Tarzan returning as the chip leaders. The event drew 769 entries at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, built a $3,608,148 prize pool and left $525,000 for the winner.

PokerNews said Day 1c drew 185 players and Day 1d added another 140 after late registration closed, pushing the field to 769. Day 2 began with 113 players and ran for ten levels before only 13 remained.

Kenar ended the day with 15,050,000, while Tarzan bagged 12,800,000. Manuel Fritz sits third with 8,775,000, and the rest of the top group includes Fabian Gumz on 5,700,000, Selahaddin Bedir on 3,475,000, Xiaosheng Zheng on 3,375,000, Leonid Orman on 3,125,000 and Konstantin Voronin on 2,500,000.

Fahredin Mustafov comes back with 1,800,000 at the bottom of the leaderboard. He is also second on Bulgaria’s all-time money list with just over $12 million in live earnings, while Gumz is a WPT Prime champion with more than $4 million in career cashes and Fritz is close to $7 million.

The 13 return at 1 p.m. local time on Thursday, August 6, and play restarts at Level 27 with blinds of 100,000/200,000 and a 200,000 big blind ante. Everyone is locked for at least $46,200, with 12 eliminations left before the Main Event trophy is decided.

The Day 2 exit list also wiped out all four Day 1 starting-flight chip leaders. Timur Margolin went out in 68th, Ehsan Amiri in 58th, Dmitrii Nazarov in 30th and Haydar Issa also fell short, while the day also sent out EPT Main Event champions Nicolas Chouity, Arsenii Karmatckii and Gilles Simon, high-stakes regulars Aren Bezhanyan, Felipe Ketzer and Joris Ruijs, WSOP bracelet winners Ravid Garbi and Dietrich Fast, and GGPoker Pro Yuxi Huang.

888poker has scheduled a Happy Hour Rakeback promotion from Aug. 6 to Aug. 12, paying an extra 30% rakeback during a two-hour daily window. The offer applies to No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, PLO5 and PLO6 cash tables.

According to PokerNews, the Happy Hour runs from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. GMT each day. For players in Canada, the window is 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time.

To qualify, players must generate at least $10 in cash-game rake during the promotion window. An 888poker account is required, and the site already offers rakeback on cash-game play outside the Happy Hour offer.

888poker’s cash-game lobby includes No-Limit Hold’em stakes starting at $0.01/$0.02 and reaching $25/$50, while Omaha stakes start at $0.01/$0.02 and go up to $5/$10. In June, 888poker’s own magazine page described a separate Happy Hour Rakeback promo that also paid 30% extra cash back between 17:00 and 19:00 GMT, with a $10 weekly rake minimum and cash paid within 72 hours.

WSOP Online is offering a 100% reload bonus with promo code AUG26 from Aug. 6 to 17. Deposits from $10 to $400 are matched in full, and bonus money is released in $10 increments for every 100 wagering points earned while playing WSOP Online.

Pokerfuse reported the promotion alongside the return of the WSOP Online Circuit on WSOP.com, a 12-day series for players in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. The schedule calls for 12 WSOP rings and $1.4 million in guaranteed prizes, with a new event each day.

The series opens with a $100,000 guaranteed NLH Deepstack event on Aug. 6 and closes with another $100,000 NLH event on Aug. 17. Other highlighted stops include a $150,000 NLH Mystery Bounty on Aug. 9 and a $250,000 Main Event on Aug. 16.

Buy-ins in the series range from $100 to $1,000. Aug. 16 stands out because major tournaments have their buy-ins cut in half and the schedule also brings back Sunday Sale.

WSOP Online’s bonus policy says players need a valid, verified real-money account to qualify for bonuses, and the operator can limit any bonus to one per player at its discretion. The same policy says bonus wagering must be completed within 60 days of the bonus being credited, and if the deposit used to claim the bonus is withdrawn before the wagering requirement is met, the bonus and any winnings from it are forfeited.

WSOP Circuit Online is back on WSOP.com from Aug. 6 to 17, bringing 12 ring events and $1.4 million in guaranteed prize money to players in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. Buy-ins run from $100 to $1,000.

Each day of the 12-day run gets a new WSOPC event. The opener is a $100,000-guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack on Aug. 6, and the series closes with another $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em event on Aug. 17. Other key stops include an $888 Crazy 8’s event with a $125,000 guarantee on Aug. 8, a $100 Mystery Bounty on Aug. 9 with a $150,000 guarantee, a $1,000 High Roller on Aug. 11 that also guarantees $150,000, a $320 Mystery Bounty on Aug. 13 with a $125,000 guarantee, and a $525 Main Event on Aug. 16 with a $250,000 guarantee.

Pokerfuse said every tournament in the series carries a six-figure guarantee except the $75,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship and the $75,000 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo. Aug. 16 also brings a Lucky 7’s Mystery Bounty with a $777 buy-in and a $125,000 guarantee.

The festival also comes with extra promos. Players who take part in the month’s WSOPC series and reload their accounts can get a bonus by depositing between Aug. 6 and 17 with promo code AUG26, and deposits from $10 to $400 are matched in full. The bonus releases $10 for every 100 wagering points earned through play. Aug. 16 is also set for Sunday Sale, which cuts the buy-ins on the three Sunday majors from $215, $1,000 and $500.

WSOP also cleared up the other big talking point around the circuit package. In late July, players questioned whether winners of online ring events would still get the $5,000 WSOP Paradise invitation package after Drake 'Sweet4U’ Kemper said he had been told no, even though WSOP promotional material said every gold ring winner in the 2026 circuit season would get one. Jeff Platt also said online ring winners would not receive the package, and WSOP Online customer support replies added to the confusion.

WSOP then confirmed that eligible online ring winners in the U.S. and international markets will continue to receive the $5,000 package, and said the benefit is funded by WSOP and separate from online prize pools. Until 2025, Circuit ring winners earned seats into the Tournament of Champions, a $1 million freeroll for ring and bracelet winners, and last year that reward was replaced by the Paradise package. WSOP Paradise 2026 is set for Dec. 3-17 at Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, along with a separate public-interest petition from the Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change. The CASC plea asks for action against online gambling and betting platforms that allegedly operate under the cover of social and e-sports games.

The batch is led by Dr K A Paul. In the hearing, the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the lawyers, including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, to complete the pleadings in the meantime. One of the grounds raised is whether a complete ban on real-money gaming, including skill-based games like rummy or poker, violates the fundamental right to carry on trade or business.

Lawyer Virag Gupta said another bench headed by Justice J.B. Pardiwala had earlier asked the Centre to respond to his plea on 17 October 2025, but the government had still not filed a reply. He also said the bench was given a list of 2,000 gaming apps that were allegedly still carrying out betting and gambling activity in India despite the law.

CASC is asking the Union ministries for electronics and information technology, information and broadcasting, finance, and youth affairs and sports to take a harmonious view of the online gaming law and state laws. It wants the court to stop gambling products that are presented as social and e-sports titles, and says the spread of those apps is causing wide social and economic harm.

The official background note from the Press Information Bureau says the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 was enacted in August 2025, and the rules came into force on 1 May. The framework is built around six pillars, including the Online Gaming Authority of India, registration, user safety features, a two-tier grievance system, and penalties and enforcement.

That framework imposes a complete ban on all forms of online money games, whether they are games of chance, games of skill, or a mix of the two. It also bans advertising and facilitation, bars banks and payment systems from processing related transactions, allows unlawful platforms to be blocked under the Information Technology Act, and sets penalties of up to three years in prison or a fine of up to one crore rupees, or both, for first offences.

Repeat offences carry a minimum of three years, which can go up to five, along with fines of one crore to two crore rupees. Advertising online money games can bring up to two years in prison or a fine of up to fifty lakh rupees. The law also empowers cyber cell officers at state and Union territory level to investigate offences.

The PIB backgrounder says India’s online gaming market generated INR 232 billion in 2024, and 77 per cent of that revenue came from transaction-based games. It projects the sector to grow at 11 per cent a year to INR 316 billion by 2027, while estimating that around 45 crore people have been affected by online money gaming platforms and that the losses exceed Rs. 20,000 crores.

Separately, the Supreme Court on 27 May upheld the Centre’s retrospective 28 per cent GST levy on online gaming companies and affirmed state laws that prohibit real-money gaming. In that earlier round, the court said betting and gambling are outside legitimate commerce and that money stakes change the character of the activity for legal purposes.

Enforcement has also been tightening outside the courtroom. On 25 April, MeitY’s Cyber Laws Division warned VPN providers and intermediaries not to enable access to illegal and blocked betting and prediction platforms, including Polymarket, and said users were getting around restrictions by using VPNs and converting rupees into stablecoins such as USDC.

MediaNama reported that the government had blocked more than 8,376 illegal gambling and betting sites by 28 March, but offshore platforms were still reaching users through mirror domains and private channels. A CUTS International survey in Delhi found offshore platform usage rose from 68.3 per cent before the ban to 82 per cent after it, while daily access climbed from 3.4 per cent to 42.3 per cent.

Power Path is PokerStars’ exclusive prize ladder. Every real-money player gets a daily $0.50 Step 1 ticket, which can be traded up into Bronze, Silver or Gold Power Passes, and in August those passes unlock a fresh set of month-specific bundles.

PokerNews reported in April that PokerStars reworked the system on April 27, introducing the $530 Bronze Pass while keeping the $2,500 Silver and $10,300 Gold tiers in place. PokerStars said the goal was a more balanced climb through the ladder, based on player and staff feedback, and the update also added a $109 Spade Pass. May coverage then showed the same live-and-online mix, including a Gold redemption for an EPT Barcelona seat and expenses for August 16-19 and another for $10,300 in Anniversary Series tickets.

For Bronze in August, the main redemption is an online ticket bundle worth $530, plus $23.50 in tournament dollars and a $109 Sunday Million Anniversary ticket. That ticket gives players a shot at a share of a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.

Silver holders have three options. One is an online bundle worth $2,500 in tournament tickets, which the article says is a fit for WCOOP Boot Camp and the upcoming World Championship of Online Poker.

Another Silver option is a €1,650 PokerStars Open Barcelona Main Event package. The rest of the pass value is credited as expenses along with extras, and the event’s recent numbers help explain the appeal: last year’s Main Event drew 5,036 entries, built a €7,251,840 prize pool and was won by Alexis Nicolai for €772,000.

The Gold tier also has an online option, with 71 tickets ranging from $22 to $1,050 plus $32 in tournament dollars. Gold can also be exchanged for an EPT Barcelona package that includes a trio of tournament entries and expenses, headlined by a €5,300 Main Event ticket.

Last August, 2,045 entrants built a €9,918,250 prize pool, Thomas Eychenne won €1,217,175 after a heads-up deal with Sebastian Ionita, and Ionita took €1,117,175.

The third Silver redemption is an APPT Manila Main Event package, which includes a $1,368 seat and $1,132 for expenses. Justin Ong won the 2025 APPT Manila Main Event by outlasting 1,246 entries for the equivalent of $257,443, and the final Day 1d flight for this year’s event is on August 8.

Three Run Up Main Events are set to begin on Aug. 16.

In a recap on its site, ACR Poker said the Sunday lineup starts at 11:05 a.m. ET and includes a $1,050 Main Event with $750,000 guaranteed, a $215 Main Event with $400,000 guaranteed, and a $33 Main Event with $200,000 guaranteed. Day 2 follows on Aug. 17 for all three tournaments.

The August calendar is also led by the Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms, which begin on Aug. 13. The No-Limit Hold’em version carries a $12 million guarantee and a $500,000 top bounty, while the Pot-Limit Omaha version guarantees $3 million with a $250,000 top bounty.

Both Venoms have a $2,650 buy-in, a $5,000 minimum Mystery Bounty, and eight Day 1 flights. Every player who reaches Day 2 is in the money.

Venom Fever is adding more than 1,500 guaranteed seats into those two Venom events. The qualification routes include $0.01 Spin to Get In games, $0.80 Survivor Flips to Venom Madness, Direct Satellites, and the Venom Vault.

The site also pointed to two Beast satellites that awarded 20 Moneymaker Poker Tour Aruba packages worth $5,000 each. July’s recap included the July 28 Moneymaker Bubble Effect, a $0.10 event with a $10,000 guarantee and a $2,650 Venom seat for the player busted on the money bubble, along with the Run Up Series launch on July 12, the $2.5 million guaranteed 25th Anniversary Tournament, and a sponsorship announcement tied to High Times’ Kicking Back docuseries.

Hannes Jeschka won the latest $10,000 GGMillion$ on GGPoker, beating a field of 199 opponents for $406,521 and a $10,000 package to the 2026 WSOP Paradise live GGMillion$ event.

PokerNews reported that the result made Jeschka a two-time GGMillion$ champion. Juan Dominguez was the last player in his way.

Dominguez finished second for $318,747, but his run at a fifth GGMillion$ title will have to wait. The report described him as one of the event’s regulars, with almost 250 appearances, 76 cashes, 37 final tables and four wins.

Jeschka reached heads-up after Viacheslav Balaev bowed out in third. Balaev called off his last 10 big blinds with king-eight after Jeschka shoved from the small blind holding nine-five of hearts, and Jeschka’s hand held.

Four-handed play did not last long. It took just five minutes before Anatoliy Zlotnikov went out in fourth, after Dominguez three-bet all-in with ace-four of diamonds and got called by pocket kings, only for a deuce on the river to make Dominguez a straight.

Dominguez had also sent Mikita Badziakouski out before that. Badziakouski shoved from the big blind with ace-three and ran into Dominguez’s button shove with ace-seven, and the seven kicker played.

Viacheslav Buldygin exited in sixth earlier in the final. He three-bet jammed with jack-ten of spades after Jeschka min-raised on the button with ace-queen of spades, and an ace on the flop ended the hand.

The final duel ended quickly once Jeschka built a more than two-to-one chip lead. Heads-up lasted fewer than 10 hands, and the last pot went to Jeschka after he paused for about 30 seconds and called Dominguez’s river shove on a queen-eight-three board that finished with the four of spades.

More than half of Jeschka’s GGPoker winnings now come from GGMillion$.

Pokerface Ash is back on the online poker streets, and a Pokerfuse Rail item says he is now a tout for CoinPoker.

In a separate Rail post, Pokerfuse also noted that Pokerface Ash had reached 50,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Lucas Jumalon and Lauri Saaskilahti were the last two players standing in the 2026 WSOP Main Event after 10 days and a field of 9,208 entries, with Jumalon holding a 328 million-to-225 million chip lead and the $10 million top prize still in play.

Cards were due in the air at 6 p.m. local time, with ESPN set to pick up the live stream at 10:30 p.m. ET until a winner was crowned. The final table day opened with Draymond Green handling the shuffle-up-and-deal announcement inside Horseshoe Las Vegas, and Jumalon kept the lead he had held since the start of the final table.

Jumalon also handled two of the key knockouts on the way down to heads-up play. He sent Jamie Shaevel out in seventh and Rami Hammoud out in sixth, and Michael Gagliano later fell in fourth for $2.75 million after a king-queen versus king-jack hand went badly for him on the turn.

Saaskilahti took a different route to the finish. He started the day among the top three stacks, slid down the leaderboard, then later made the call that eliminated Greg Mueller in third place, which locked up the final duel against Jumalon.

The two had even told each other at the end of Day 5 that they would be the final two standing, and that prediction came true. By the time play ended, Saaskilahti had momentum, but Jumalon still had the edge going into heads-up.

The winner was set to bank an extra $4 million on top of the $6 million already guaranteed to both players, along with the bracelet and the Main Event title. The WSOP decided to give a bracelet to winners after the first event in 1970 to set the series apart.

There is also some heads-up history behind the matchup. PokerNews noted that this is only the third time the Main Event final day has started heads-up, and since 2001 the player leading at the start of heads-up has lost five times. This year, Jumalon’s stack represented 59.3% of the chips, below the historical average chip-leader share of 64.1%.

If Saaskilahti won, he would become the first player from Finland to win the Main Event bracelet. Paul Beitelspacher also said Jumalon would become the second-youngest Main Event bracelet winner at 22 if he finished it off.

CoinPoker has launched the Global Online Poker Championship, a six-week online festival with $50 million guaranteed that runs from Aug. 23 through Sept. 28. The event is built around three schedules, three buy-in tiers, and team medals for players across Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The regional setup is meant to let players compete during local peak hours. Each schedule is time-zone specific, so the same festival can run at more convenient times for different parts of the world.

Players will also compete behind GOPC Teams and chase Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. That gives the series a regional team layer on top of the usual online tournament grind.

PokerStrategy reported that the complete tournament schedule has not yet been released, although the first confirmed details are already out. It said the early information points to CoinPoker’s most ambitious global series yet.

The CoinPoker tournament page says more details and the full schedule are still to come. CoinPoker also offers direct satellites every day with buy-ins from $5.50 to $44, plus Step 3 and Step 4 freerolls that can feed into those satellite tickets.

CoinPoker also said its Sunday CoinMillion will become a permanent monthly event beginning on Aug. 9. That $215 no-limit hold’em tournament will carry a $1 million guarantee on the first Sunday of every month.

Day 2 of the $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event gets underway with 113 players returning to the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus. The four starting flights drew 769 entries, and every survivor is already guaranteed a piece of the $3,000,000 prize pool.

According to PokerNews, the tournament is part of the 2026 NOIR Poker Series and Day 2 resumes at 1 p.m. local time. The remaining players come back in Level 17 with blinds at 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante, and the official payout structure is expected shortly after play begins.

Dmitrii Nazarov returns as the chip leader after topping Day 1b. He starts Day 2 with 101 big blinds, and the leaderboard is tightly packed, with only 20 big blinds separating the top seven stacks.

Haydar Issa is among the players returning with 1,780,000 chips. Gilles Simon follows on 1,490,000, Merijn van Rooij has 1,355,000, and Fahredin Mustafov sits on 1,100,000. Martins Adeniya has 870,000, Ali Al-Kubasi 790,000, Adrian State 665,000, Patrick Brooks 505,000, Nicolas Chouity 450,000, Dietrich Fast 360,000, and Arsenii Karmatckii 275,000.

Day 1c also produced a strong set of stacks before the final flight closed. Ehsan Amiri finished that day with 1,705,000, Farkas Benedek bagged 1,650,000, Alexey Borovkov ended on 1,365,000, and Fabian Gumz finished on 1,275,000 and Bogdan Jontulovic on 1,175,000.

Michael Gagliano’s 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event run ended with a fourth-place finish worth $2,750,000. The New Jersey pro’s payout more than doubled his previous career earnings of $2,559,401 and pushed his lifetime total past $5.3 million.

Card Player detailed the last hand. Gagliano shoved with K♠Q♠, Greg Mueller called with pocket fours, and Jumalon then three-bet jammed K♦J♥ to force Mueller out. The K♥8♥5♣ flop paired both Gagliano and Jumalon, but Jumalon made kings up on the J♦ turn, and the 7♠ river ended Gagliano’s run.

He had entered the final table fifth in chips with 46.5 million and was still fifth entering the second night with 42 million. By Tuesday, he was in a short-stack spot with 17 big blinds, and when his final hand came he was down to just a few big blinds before moving all in for 9.5 million from the button.

The final table began Aug. 3 with nine players and was down to seven by the end of the first night. The remaining players returned Aug. 4 chasing the tournament’s $10 million first prize, and Gagliano had already locked up at least $1.5 million with seven left and $1 million for making the final nine.

The event drew 9,208 entrants in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, and only two of the nine finalists were bracelet winners. Gagliano came in with four WSOP bracelets, including a first win in 2016 in a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event for $448,463, then bracelet wins in 2022 and 2023, plus an online mystery bounty bracelet whose results had not yet been posted.

His Main Event history had been thin before last year’s 148th-place finish, with just one cash and no Day 4 runs before that. He said the long stretch of live poker had left him mentally and physically exhausted, but that the support from friends, family, and people online had been overwhelming.

Jumalon held 328 million chips and Saaskilahti took 225 million chips into Wednesday night’s heads-up battle against Jumalon and the $10 million top prize.

Han Feng’s run at the WSOP Main Event final table ended in fifth place after Lauri Saaskilahti cracked his pocket aces with a rivered straight. Feng cashed for $2.25 million, and the bustout came with five players still left in the event.

The finish capped a sharp climb back into contention. Card Player said Feng had been among the shortest stacks heading into the second evening after losing a big pot with pocket tens against Lucas Jumalon. He later doubled with ace-four and won a major pot with queens when Saaskilahti folded to a flop three-bet.

Feng min-raised under the gun with A♦A♣, Saaskilahti three-bet from the button with 9♠9♥, and the board came 10♦ 8♦ 3♦ on the flop, J♥ on the turn, and Q♠ on the river.

Saaskilahti’s queen-high straight cracked Feng’s aces and sent him to the rail. PokerNews described the runout as a runner-runner straight, and said the Q♠ was one of the seven outs that did the job.

Feng took the bustout in stride. After the elimination, he told WSOP’s Jeff Platt, “It’s fine man, it happens. It’s all good.”

His career earnings climbed to more than $4.1 million after the fifth-place finish, and he had gone from one of the shortest stacks to second place overnight.

The broader stage was already massive. WSOP’s official release said 9,208 players entered the 2026 Main Event, and that the nine final-table players were each guaranteed at least $1 million.

After Feng’s elimination, two players were left chasing the $10 million first prize. PokerNews said heads-up play was set for Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. local time, with Lucas Jumalon still holding the lead over Saaskilahti, while both players had $6 million locked up and were playing for an extra $4 million, the bracelet and the title.

Rami Hammoud was eliminated in sixth place in the 2026 WSOP Main Event for $1,750,000, at the hands of Lucas Jumalon on Day 10 of the final table.

PokerNews traced Hammoud’s path to that finish back to his pre-tournament life and early run in the event. He had grown up watching the Main Event on television, left his old job on June 19, and was planning to start a new one around July 20. He entered Day 1c only 2,000 chips above his starting stack.

The climb accelerated on Day 6, when he ran his stack from 2.63 million to 17.4 million and cracked Darren Rabinowitz’s ace-king with ace-jack. With 62 players left, he bagged the sixth-largest stack, then finished Day 7 second in chips.

That put him in strong shape at the final table. He started there second in chips behind Jumalon, and he already had at least $1 million locked up as a finalist.

The field had been trimmed from 9,208 entries over 10 days of poker, and by the end of Day 10 only two players remained, both chasing the $10 million top prize and the Main Event banner. Jumalon had been the chip leader since the start of the final table and stayed in control as the table narrowed.

Before the bustout, Hammoud’s stack had already been hit hard by a preflop flip against Greg Mueller. Card Player reported that he then raised to 12.5 million from a 16.5 million stack with Q♥J♠, Jumalon called with A♥5♥, and the flop came 8♠6♠2♠ to give Hammoud a flush draw and live overcards.

Hammoud got the rest in, the 2♣ turn paired the board, and the 4♥ river missed him. He was sent home in sixth, while Jumalon moved on with 316 million at the end of Day 10 and 328 million entering heads-up play.

Afterward, Hammoud said it was sad in the moment, but that he would look back on it with pride and remember making $1.75 million.

Jamie Shaevel’s run at the WSOP Main Event final table ended in seventh place on Tuesday, good for $1.5 million. The remaining six players were each guaranteed at least $1.75 million.

According to PokerNews, about 45 minutes into the session, with the big blind at 3 million, Shaevel raised to 10 million from the cutoff with K♥6♥ and left just over one big blind behind. Lucas Jumalon, who had remained in front entering the remainder of the final table action, called from the big blind with K♦10♥.

The flop came 7♠4♣4♥. Shaevel moved the rest in with a gutshot straight draw, but the turn and river did not help him.

Shaevel said leaving a chip behind was deliberate. He explained that if a “crazy spot” developed behind him and two stacks got involved, he wanted to keep the option for them to “duke it out.”

He had cashed eight times in the Main Event since 2011 before this run. He said it was “pretty hard to sum up” the experience, and described the final-table stretch as a day and a half of excitement, pressure, stress, and constant cheering.

Wahooo took the second-week title in Clubs Poker’s No-Fee Daily Mix, finishing fewer than 100 leaderboard points ahead of MonaLisaVito. The win came with 200 SC in tournament tickets and an exclusive collectible chip protector.

According to pokerfuse, the week drew 964 entries across 14 mixed-game tournaments and generated a combined prize pool of 30,850 SC. Overlay finished at nearly 8,000 SC, with the report tying that to the generous guarantees attached to each event.

Wahooo ended the week on 1,121.75 points. MonaLisaVito finished second with 1,035.5 points, and Trump3Peat took third with 978.

Wahooo cashed seven times during the week, but only had one tournament win, which came in Sunday’s Low HORSE event. He also finished second in the High Big Bet Mix.

MonaLisaVito won Low Draw and High Omaha 4/5/6 in the first two days and bagged close to 1,500 SC. Liljoe44 finished second in the Low TOE event before winning the High TOE, but ended up fifth for the week because he did not add enough other top finishes.

Earlier launch coverage from Pokerology said Clubs Poker built No-Fee Daily Mix as a daily mixed-game series with no tournament fees, guaranteed prize pools up to 4,000 SC per event, and a Hall of Fame meant to track player performance over the long term. The weekly leaderboard counts only points earned from Monday to Sunday, and early registration adds 10 extra leaderboard points plus 10% more chips in the starting stack.

Lucas Jumalon kept the chip lead as the WSOP Main Event final table shrank from nine players to seven in the opening session. He ended the night on 212 million chips, while Han Feng moved into second on 106.5 million.

The final table is the last act of a $10,000 no-limit hold’em championship that drew 9,208 entries and built an $85.6 million prize pool. The last seven were already locked up for at least $1.25 million, with $10 million set for first place.

Card Player reported that Jumalon bagged 212 million chips, though a late Review-Journal checkpoint had him at 204 million with eight players left. He entered the nine-handed table with about 194 million chips and 35% of the chips in play, briefly climbed over 213 million, and still led the field.

The first elimination came after almost three hours, when Evagoras Evagorou shoved pocket jacks into Jamie Shaevel’s ace-queen and an ace landed on the flop. Evagorou, the first player from Cyprus to reach the Main Event final table, took ninth for $1 million.

Mario Boos was next out in eighth for $1.25 million after pocket eights ran into Lauri Saaskilahti’s king-nine. That left Saaskilahti in third with 84.5 million, Rami Hammoud fourth with 45.5 million, Michael Gagliano fifth with 42 million, Jamie Shaevel sixth with 33 million and Greg Mueller shortest with 29.5 million.

Han Feng was the other major swing of the day. He started among the short stacks and moved to second with 106.5 million after a big pot against Saaskilahti.

Day 1c of the $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event wrapped with Ehsan Amiri on top after he bagged 1,705,000 chips. The flight drew another 185 entries, and the still-running turbo Day 1d added 140 more after late registration closed, pushing the overall field to 769.

PokerNews reported that Day 1c began with 100,000-chip starting stacks and 30-minute levels, while Day 1d started later in the evening at 6 p.m. with 25-minute levels. By the time the first two starting flights were done, the event had already reached 444 entries and 66 players had booked Day 2 spots.

Amiri finished clear of the rest of the Day 1c field, but Farkas Benedek was close behind with 1,650,000. Alexey Borovkov ended with 1,365,000, followed by Fabian Gumz on 1,275,000, Bogdan Jontulovic on 1,175,000, and Fahredin Mustafov on 1,100,000.

The flight also produced a few big hands. Illia Hurin scored a knockout when Ekaterina Fedyaeva called off with a pair of jacks and Hurin’s nut straight on the turn held up.

Elie Farah had earlier hero-called Kirill Shcherbakov down over three streets with a pair of sevens, and that double-up pushed him near the top of the counts. His run ended just two places from the money, though, when his ace-queen ran into Borovkov’s pocket deuces.

After Farah went out, the tournament moved to the direct bubble and hand-for-hand play began. Hassan Nashar, who had already bubbled Day 1b, took another shot on Day 1c, only to see his first bullet end in one hand when his pocket nines were cracked by a weak ace in a three-way pot.

Nashar kept reentering, eventually built a stack, and then ran into Benedek, who picked off a huge river bluff with trips. Mehmet Kolgu then became the bubble boy after getting the last of his chips in against Borovkov.

On the tournament page, Kolgu was shown all in from early position with K♦5♦ against Borovkov’s 3♥3♦. The board ran K♥J♥6♥, then Q♥, which left Kolgu drawing dead to a chop before the 2♣ river.

The 28 Day 1c survivors locked up seats for Day 2, and all Day 2 players are guaranteed a share of the $3,000,000 prize pool. Felipe Ketzer advanced with 725,000, Pedro Ingles with 555,000, Neophytos Neophytou with 520,000, Timur Mukhamedaminov with 475,000, Nicolas Chouity with 450,000, Sergey Moiseev with 435,000, Eyal Eshkar with 350,000, Orhan Ates with 200,000, Katherina Aristotelos with 230,000, and Irina Zheleznyak with 570,000.

Aristotelos and Zheleznyak were the only female survivors from the flight. Day 2 gets underway at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, August 5, with play set to resume at Level 17 at blinds of 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante, while the schedule for the penultimate day will be determined as the day progresses.

According to an Aug. 4 SCCG piece summarizing a Gambling Insider investigation, the WSOP’s 2026 patch-approval process gave host properties wide discretion and appeared to favor some sponsors over others. The report said patches were approved for GGPoker, BetMGM, Winamax and Americas Cardroom, while CoinPoker, Phenom Poker and ClubWPT Gold were denied.

The same report said the backdrop was NSUS Group’s 2024 purchase of the WSOP brand from Caesars Entertainment for $500 million, split between $250 million cash and a $250 million five-year promissory note secured against intellectual property. NSUS is incorporated in Canada and based in Toronto, with ultimate ownership tracing through a UK affiliate to a British Virgin Islands holding company whose shareholders are not public.

The 2026 rulebook replaced earlier blanket bans with Rule 52 for the series that ran from May 26 to July 15. Players had to submit any proposed logo, patch or promotional language in writing at least 24 hours before appearing at a streamed table, and approval rested at the host properties’ “sole and absolute discretion.”

CanadianPoker said no logos would be approved once a tournament day had started, while Poker.org reported that a player who refused to remove an unapproved patch could be disqualified. The updated rules also said logos could be blocked if they were deemed injurious or prejudicial to the interests of the host properties or the WSOP, and the number of representatives a single entity could have at a TV table was cut from three to two.

A crowd-sourced tally compiled by Shaun Deeb and broadcaster Joey Ingram matched the split described in the investigation, with approvals for GGPoker, BetMGM, Winamax and ACR and denials for CoinPoker, Phenom Poker and ClubWPT Gold. Poker.org also reported that Ingram called ACR and BetMGM approved partners at the WSOP.

Patrick “Pads” Leonard said his CoinPoker ambassador patch request was denied. On X, he said he was not sure how much he would play at the WSOP and warned that the rule could complicate things, adding that sites are less motivated to invest in players when the flagship series restricts outside investment.

CardPlayer linked the tougher patch policy to the 2025 ClubWPT Gold controversy, when a promotion offered certain players a gold ticket and an extra $1 million if they won a bracelet while wearing a ClubWPT Gold patch. After allegations of collusion in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, WSOP withheld the bracelet from Jesse Yaginuma, split the money between the finalists and later banned Yaginuma and James Carroll from future events.

That same reporting said 2026’s Rule 40(e) was meant to stop third-party payouts tied to WSOP results, while Rule 40 still bars illegal, unethical or collusive conduct. WSOP did not respond to detailed questions about ownership or the patch process, and no disqualifications occurred during the 2026 series.

Ivor Parker has been signed by GGPoker as a full-time ambassador, and one report described the 100-year-old as the world’s oldest paid professional poker player. A later account added that he worked as a production operative for East Midlands Farmer until he was 98.

The new role began at a VIP event with Grosvenor Casinos ahead of Goliath 2026. LBBOnline said guests got an exclusive masterclass from Leah Hauer before a winner-takes-all showdown with Team GGPoker UK ambassadors and invited talent Mark Labbett and Rory Jennings.

Parker’s own poker story goes back to 1940. He said he started playing at 14, and a later account said he played his first hand in a pub in Boston, Lincolnshire that year. He also said he has played all over the world, especially during the war.

He said every game is different and every table has its own stories, and that poker today is far more strategic than when he began. Parker also said he has played with hundreds of people over the years and believes poker has kept him sharp.

Angela Martin, GGPoker’s head of marketing, said poker is about bringing people together, learning and challenging yourself, and said Parker perfectly embodies what the brand loves about the game. Leah Hauer called sharing the table with him incredibly inspiring and said it shows why poker is such a unique game.

GGPoker says it will sponsor more than 50 poker festivals a year across most of Grosvenor’s 35 poker rooms, with live cash boosts and added-value rewards for players who qualify through GGPoker or buy in through the client. Those boosts can be worth up to 20%.

Goliath remains the bigger backdrop. PokerNews said the 2026 edition carried an estimated £2 million prize pool, nine scheduled flights and a nine-day live stream across Facebook, Twitch and YouTube. More than 1,300 players had pre-registered.

The event has grown every year since its 2011 debut apart from the COVID-era online editions. The first Goliath drew 1,765 buy-ins, Lee Rawson won £32,705, last year’s attendance record hit 12,961, and Paul Worsley turned a £200 buy-in into £316,640 in 2025.

WSOP removed the shot clock from the 2026 Main Event final table before play began Monday evening. The final nine started action on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET, with Lucas Jumalon holding a huge chip lead and nine players still chasing the $10 million first prize.

According to PokerNews, the series introduced the timed structure on Day 6, after Loren Klein spent 15 minutes in the tank on Day 6 trying to lock up a pay jump. The earlier setup gave players 20 seconds preflop and 30 seconds postflop, with time-extension chips available.

The final table is not being played under that clock, though standard clock calls still apply. WSOP said it decided not to use a shot clock after talking with players and tournament staff, and said it would keep the option to bring one back if repeated stalling starts to hurt the pace of play. The goal, as WSOP put it, was to create the most natural playing environment possible.

Barny Boatman praised it as a very good decision, while Ragzy X argued the real problem was floor staff not policing the stall. Harry Gandia also pushed back, saying it looked like changing the goalposts as the tournament went along.

Early action suggested the switch had not slowed anything down. PokerNews reported minimal tanking at the time of publishing, with players acting quickly both preflop and postflop. Jumalon still looked in control with a little more than 129 big blinds after Day 8.

Michael Gagliano took one of the bigger early pots off the chip leader with ace-high after Jumalon, who was bluffing, could not fire a final barrel. Greg Mueller had only played a couple of hands, while the short stacks Evagoras Evagorou and Han Feng had yet to find a spot to make a move.

The remaining nine were guaranteed at least $1 million, and the final table continues through Aug. 5, with ESPN2 handling the early coverage and ESPN airing the conclusion.

Genfinity’s password-protected post said nine of crypto’s biggest creators will play the Solana Series of Poker on the WSOP Final Table stage on Aug. 4. The teaser also said Solana and MoonPay buy-ins have passed $20 million.

The post lands against the backdrop of WSOP’s June deal with Solana. The official announcement said the World Series of Poker named the Solana Foundation its Presenting Sponsor for the 2026 WSOP in Las Vegas and the 2026 WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas.

The crypto buy-in option went live on June 10 at the 57th annual summer event at Paris Las Vegas and Horseshoe Las Vegas. Players can buy tournament tickets directly with Solana using MoonPay’s payment infrastructure, and the new option carries zero processing fees.

The integration will expand at WSOP Paradise in December, where tournament winners can receive settlements in stablecoins on Solana. The company also said this was the first time in WSOP history that players could purchase tournament tickets directly with cryptocurrency, and that the Solana Foundation would sponsor a select group of poker player ambassadors.

Jason Koon was named the sole inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame class of 2026, even though the Hall’s revised system had opened the door to multiple players getting in this year.

The announcement came during a break in WSOP Main Event final-table action, with Jeff Platt delivering the news.

Under the new process, the public helped narrow the field to eight finalists, and the 33 living Hall members each got four votes to split among them; any finalist clearing a two-thirds threshold would be inducted automatically, while the top vote-getter would take the lone spot if nobody got there.

He was third on poker’s All Time Money List with more than $77 million in career earnings, and close to $2 million of that came less than two months earlier when he won Event #32, the $50,000 High Roller, for his second WSOP bracelet.

His first bracelet came five years earlier in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship. Between those WSOP wins, he served as an ambassador for PartyPoker and GGPoker, and he now plays as a PokerStars Team Pro, the site where he first played online poker.

Koon has also been a Triton Poker ambassador since 2019. He owns a record 12 Triton titles, five more than anyone else, and his biggest score came in the 2018 Triton Montenegro HK$1,000,000 Short Deck, where he won more than $3.5 million.

Last year, when asked about his chances of making the Hall, Koon told PokerNews he would “see what the people in there think.” He had turned 40 last August, which the Hall treats as the age prerequisite for nomination.

The 2026 finalist group also included five first-time nominees: Shaun Deeb, Isaac Haxton, Chris Moorman, Justin Bonomo and Koon. Among the holdovers, Isai Scheinberg missed out for the seventh time, Scott Seiver fell short for the second straight year after first becoming eligible in 2025, Ted Forrest had eight nominations, Matt Savage had 10, and Mike Matusow had 12 without induction since 2013.

The Hall itself dates to 1979, when Benny Binion created it to preserve the game’s biggest names and bring tourists to Las Vegas. Caesars Entertainment took over stewardship of the WSOP and the Hall in 2004, and the induction rules have shifted over time, from the old two-per-year pattern to a one-person rule in 2020 before this year’s broader ballot change.

Dmitrii Nazarov finished Day 1b of the $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event with the overall chip lead after bagging 2,025,000. The flight drew 228 more entries, lifted the field to 444, and left 34 players in the money with 66 already locked for Day 2.

According to PokerNews, the event is being played at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa during the 2026 NOIR Poker Series. It carries a $3,000,000 guarantee, starts each player with 100,000 chips, and allows unlimited reentries, with late registration open until the start of Level 11 in each flight. The previous Merit Poker Main Event was held in May at the Merit Poker Classic series, where Ivan Ilichev won $525,000.

Nazarov's stack came from the biggest pot of the tournament so far. With 35 players left and 34 paid spots, Hassan Nashar opened from the hijack to 40,000, Nazarov called on the button, and the pot kept building through a 4♠ 9♣ J♣ flop, a 7♥ turn and a 4♣ river.

Nashar bet around 50,000 on the flop, 75,000 on the turn and 100,000 on the river before Nazarov shoved. Nashar showed K♣ 2♣ for a rivered flush, but Nazarov tabled J♥ J♠ for a rivered full house and won the hand. The remaining 34 players moved into the money, and Nashar went out as the Day 1b bubble boy.

The hand also pushed Nazarov past 2 million chips, making him the first player to cross that mark. Aren Bezhanyan finished second on 1,945,000 after knocking out Tobias Peters, Wael Sarkis and Stefan-Sebastian Ionita, while Alexander Sokolovsky turned a fresh Day 1b stack into 1,500,000 and third place after scraping through Day 1a short.

Chengxu Hu bagged 1,170,000, Ahmed Sylla 950,000, Natalia Nikitina 940,000, Aleksandr Chernikov 880,000, Martins Adeniya 870,000, Sebastian Toro 840,000, Ali Al-Kubasi 790,000, Dmytro Yevseienko 790,000, Yuxi Huang 780,000, Adrian State 665,000, Patrick Brooks 505,000, Zorlu Er 370,000 and Dietrich Fast 360,000. Nikitina and Huang were the only two women to survive the flight.

Tuesday still had two starting flights to go. Day 1c gets underway at noon, and the turbo Day 1d follows at 6 p.m. before the field combines on Wednesday and the levels stretch to 60 minutes.

Omaha Productions is making its first year on World Series of Poker Main Event final-table coverage, and the telecast adds a new dealer cam as the last nine players play out the championship on ESPN2 and ESPN. The three-night finish runs Aug. 3-5, and the coverage also includes a promo from Eli and Peyton Manning.

The live show is not technically live. Each broadcast runs about an hour behind because Nevada Gaming Commission rules tied to hole-card cameras require the delay, with ESPN2 carrying the first night and ESPN taking the remaining two nights.

The final table came out of a Main Event field that started with 9,208 players. Omaha has also spent the lead-in making sure viewers can tell the finalists apart, with Dan Gati saying the company did extra work before the live table so first-time viewers would have a sense of who the players are.

Earlier reporting said the Main Event returned to ESPN this year under a multi-year agreement, the first time since 2020, with Omaha handling the storytelling side of the broadcast. Live coverage began July 2, with more than six hours a day for the first seven days and 10 hours a day over the final five days, and the package was built to deliver more than 100 hours of content across ESPN platforms.

Production is centered at Paris Las Vegas even though the Main Event spans Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas. The redesigned Main Event Final Table Arena is about 25,000 square feet and includes expanded LED displays, lighting, extra seating and rail areas, and five feature tables.

The technical setup includes more than 50 cameras and more than 60 EVS channels. Three feature tables track hole cards so commentators can follow the strategy in real time, and a Technocrane, a jib and a Steadicam move between tables and the broader tournament field.

The dealer cam is the new wrinkle. Gati said it borrows from referee-cam tech in football, turning with the dealer’s head to capture a more intimate view when players are talking close together.

Omaha is also bringing hole cams back on one table, but only for edited episodes, not the live show. Gati said the hole cam has become more of a beauty shot than a production necessity because live poker’s hole-card information has to be protected and RFID now does most of the work.

To help shape the broadcast, Omaha pre-produced more than 80 features and had about two weeks to build stories and angles around the nine finalists. Bruce Buffer handled Monday night’s shuffle up and deal, and a familiar NBA face is expected to take that role Tuesday and join the booth for a few hands.

The Proud To Rescue Benevolent Fund, the charitable organization of Clark County Firefighters Local 1908, is holding its first poker tournament on Aug. 22 at the South Point Casino Poker Room.

According to Nevada Business, the inaugural Proud To Rescue Charity Poker Tournament has a $200 buy-in. Optional rebuys or buy-backs cost $100, an optional add-on is also $100, and the event guarantees a $15,000 prize pool paid to the top nine finishers at the final table.

Registration starts at 5:30 p.m., and play begins at 6:30 p.m. The fund’s website says the tournament will use 15-minute levels, with re-buys available through registration and one add-on offered at the end of registration.

Proceeds will benefit disabled and retired firefighters, their families and survivors. The event will also help fund scholarships for local students and support nonprofit organizations across Southern Nevada.

The Proud to Rescue Benevolent Fund is a 501©(3) founded in 2013. Its website says the group provides charitable assistance to disabled and retired Local 1908 members, their dependents and survivors, along with other charitable organizations across Southern Nevada.

The fund also says Clark County Fire Department members donate hours off the clock each year to raise awareness and money, and that it awards scholarships to local youths. Nevada Business reported that the scholarships are awarded in memory of a Local 1908 firefighter who died in the line of duty, and that nearly $90,000 has been awarded to local high school seniors.

The fund says it has donated more than $430,000 since its inception to firefighter families in need and to multiple Southern Nevada charities, including Cure 4 The Kids Foundation, USO-Las Vegas, MDA of Southern Nevada, Vegas Strong, Vegas Golden Knights Charities and Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada. Its website also says the annual Fire Classic was held April 21 at Angel Park in Summerlin and raised thousands of dollars from businesses across the Valley.

Ray LeClair, who chairs the fund’s board, called the poker tournament an invitation for players to come join in, win cash and support the local community. He said all of the proceeds stay in Southern Nevada to support the fund’s work strengthening the community and local organizations.

Thunder Valley Casino Resort’s RGPS Passport Season Finale $1,200 Million Dollar Main Event reached championship day with 108 players left from a field of 1,086 entries. The event had built a $1,140,300 prize pool, and the winner was set to collect $163,700.

PokerNews reported that Randy Gil led the remaining field with 1,061,000 chips. Douglas Dossett was right behind Gil with 1,054,000, and Michael Cervantes sat third with 1,012,000. Jay Kasler was also in the top group as the fourth player in the millionaire’s club when Day 2 began.

Day 2 started at 12 p.m. local time and was set to play eight-handed. A shot clock was in effect, with players receiving five time banks at the start of the day and five more when the final table began.

The last wave into Day 2 came through Day 1d, the second-to-last chance for players to advance. That flight drew 434 entries and sent 43 players through, while the turbo flight added 65 entries and seven more survivors. Across the five flights, the finale’s Day 2 players emerged from the 1,086-entry total.

Gil had already been the Day 1d chip leader and was chasing the second RGPS ring of his career. The earlier recap said he already had one ring and 20 cashes on his record.

Dossett came into championship day after winning the $300 Knockout with $100 Bounties event, his first RGPS title, and he was looking to double up in the same series. Cervantes still had not won an RGPS title, though he had taken second in the Buffaloooo PKO Event in 2024 for $14,435.

Kasler had previously finished fifth in the 30/30/30 event at the Passport finale, and a win would more than triple his just-over-$60,000 in career earnings, according to The Hendon Mob. Other names in the mix included Samuel Panzica, who had nearly $5 million in live earnings but no RGPS ring, and Toan Nguyen, a former RGPS Reno Grand Prix Main Event champion with more than $230,000 in RunGood earnings. Tyler Patterson also missed the cut and could not try to repeat at Thunder Valley.

ACR Poker added Direct Satellites and the Venom Vault as fresh ways into Venom Fever, giving players more routes to the upcoming Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms. The main events begin Thursday, Aug. 13, and the broader promotion runs through Sunday, Aug. 30.

The Direct Satellites have $109 and $290 buy-ins. They are built to feed $2,650 seats, and the site says they create multiple chances to win one before Venom Fever ends.

Venom Vault opened on Aug. 3, and every eligible player gets one free Vault Key. Players go to My Account in the poker client, open the Vault, and pick a door, with every key guaranteeing a reward.

Rewards include Venom Survivor Flip Step tickets worth $0.80 to $350 and, at the top end, a $2,650 Venom seat. Extra keys can be bought for $2.99, redeemed for 300 Combat Points, or earned through special challenges.

If a player lands the seat, it is first issued for Day 1B on Sunday, Aug. 16. If it is not used there, it can be applied to any remaining Day 1 flight.

The Dual Mystery Bounty Venoms carry $15 million in combined guarantees. The No-Limit Hold’em event has a $12 million guarantee and a $500,000 top mystery bounty, while the Pot-Limit Omaha event has a $3 million guarantee and a $250,000 top mystery bounty. Once Day 2 starts, every knockout is worth at least $5,000, and players are already in the money.

A separate Newsfile report carried by The Globe and Mail said 45 players had already secured $2,650 entries through the Venom Vault promotion, which had also produced more than 71,000 completed challenges, more than 98,000 Step 1 Survivor Flip tickets and more than 10,000 Step 2 tickets.

The rest of Venom Fever is still running too. Weekly $16.50 Venom Madness multi-flight satellites continue, with Day 1 flights running through the week, the top 15% of each field advancing to Day 2 every Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET, and each weekly final guaranteeing 10 seats. The $95 Beast Tournament begins Sunday at 5:05 p.m. ET and awards 25 Venom seats, and players can enter directly or with free tickets from the weekly Beast and Sit & Crush leaderboards. Weekend Mega Satellites, Survivor Flips starting at $0.80, and Spin to Get In games starting at $0.01 are also still available.

Michael Gagliano’s run to the 2026 WSOP Main Event final nine is doing more than putting him in line for a seven-figure score. He outlasted 9,208 entrants, locked up at least $1 million, and returned to Paris Las Vegas with a shot at the $10 million top prize.

According to MyCentralJersey, the same profile that tracked his Main Event run also highlighted a side project. Gagliano launched a free mobile app called Summer Poker Calendar earlier this summer to help players navigate the hundreds of tournaments running around Las Vegas during the WSOP. The piece placed the app alongside his coaching work and BetMGM ambassador role, and said he has coached more than 100 players since 2009.

PokerNews reported earlier that he built the app while planning his own summer schedule. The app is meant to help fellow players by listing every Las Vegas-based tournament in the series, including structure details, and Apple’s App Store listing shows a free iPhone version under Gagliano’s name. The listing also says the developer collects no data and has added event reminders before saved tournaments start or late registration closes.

Card Player said Gagliano’s prior Main Event finishes included 842nd of 6,737 in 2016 and 148th of 9,735 in 2025. MyCentralJersey said the last New Jersey player before him to reach the Main Event final table was Brigantine’s Scott Blumstein, who won the 2017 title and $8.15 million.

The same report said Gagliano returned with 46.5 million chips, ranked fifth of nine, as the last nine were set on July 13 and the final table resumed Aug. 3-5 at Paris Las Vegas. Card Player added that ESPN is back on Main Event coverage for the first time since 2021, with live play on ESPN+ and edited TV episodes on ESPN2.

PokerNews said Summer Poker Calendar will return next summer.

CoinPoker is set to launch its new optional 3-Bet Club subscription on Aug. 17. The monthly membership sits on top of the site’s existing CoinRewards VIP system and adds a bundle of boosted rewards and player perks.

CardPlayer reported that the club’s main draw is a flat 10% rakeback on all poker games, paid automatically every Monday. That 10% compounds with the baseline CoinRewards system, and CoinPoker says the club adds five new reward mechanics to the existing setup.

Subscribers also get six Power Ups each month. Each one lasts 12 hours and temporarily raises the base membership rakeback from 10% to 15%, with players able to switch them on manually before cash game or tournament sessions.

Another feature is the Action Multiplier, which raises weekly rakeback based on rolling seven-day statistical targets at non-heads-up tables. Under that system, rakeback can climb to 12.5% or 15%.

To qualify, players must keep a three-bet percentage of at least 13%, an effective preflop raise-to-voluntarily-played-hands ratio of 0.85 or higher, and an effective voluntarily played hands percentage of at least 35%. Players who play more than 40% of hands can skip those other requirements and unlock the maximum 15% boost. All of those targets reset on Monday mornings.

Tournament players with a subscription get access to lower buy-ins on select multi-table events that still carry standard guaranteed prize pools. Those tournaments are marked in the main lobby.

The package also includes cosmetic extras such as exclusive avatars, emojis, throwables, and a unique app icon, plus a dashboard that lets members track the new reward mechanics in real time. CoinPoker said the membership can be paid for directly through the CoinPoker Wallet.

The company also said it will hand out 100 free one-month memberships before launch to players who sign up on the official pre-launch waitlist. In its July 16 newsletter, CoinPoker had already said the 3-Bet Club was almost here, described it as a new tier of rewards, and called it a boost for its $7 million per month CoinRewards program.

PokerNews marked its 1,000th podcast episode with a live show at PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, in front of a studio audience. The milestone episode was sponsored by FanDuel Poker and brought together hosts Chad Holloway, Mike Holtz, and Ben Ludlow.

According to PokerNews, the show also featured Jeremy Ausmus, who talked about life as a high-stakes pro, his Poker Hall of Fame picks, and why he started vlogging. The episode welcomed Greg "FBT" Mueller and Michael "Gags" Gagliano as well, with the pair introduced as 2026 WSOP Main Event finalists who would be playing for a $10 million top prize.

The final nine were officially set, Lucas Jumalon held the chip lead, and every remaining player had locked up at least $1 million.

Jumalon went into Day 8 with 40.8 million chips. He cracked Malcolm Trayner’s pocket queens with jack-jack to make a river full house, climbed to 155 million by dinner, and ended the day with 194 million after sending Trayner out in 10th.

Rami Hammoud sat second with 79 million and Jamie Shaevel was third with 56 million. Mueller and Gagliano both trailed Jumalon by more than 140 million chips heading into the final table.

Mueller arrived there as the most decorated player left, a Canadian ex-hockey player with three WSOP bracelets. His first title came in 2009 in the World Championship of Limit Hold’em, and less than two weeks later he won the $1,500 Shootout to double his bracelet count.

Mueller entered this year’s Main Event on Day 1d and nearly doubled his stack inside three levels after flopping an early set and eliminating an opponent who turned two pair. He bagged 41st in chips on Day 3 with 1,389 players still remaining, and by Day 6 he was comfortably inside the top half after pocket kings and a timely fold with pocket jacks. On Day 7, he eliminated Ori Elul by cracking kings with ace-jack after flopping an ace, then took out Romain Lewis in a classic aces-versus-kings setup. A double with jacks through the pocket nines of Rami Hammoud moved him out of the danger zone, and he later won a massive flip against Michael Gagliano when his queens held against Gagliano’s ace-king.

Gagliano’s path was more of a grind. The BetMGM Ambassador first recorded a live cash in 2008, and his Hendon Mob profile now shows 155 in-the-money finishes, $3.3 million in cashes, and four WSOP bracelets.

He had already cashed the Main Event twice before, finishing 842nd in 2016 and 148th in 2025. This summer he also built the Summer Poker Calendar app, which tracks Las Vegas tournament structures, and he said the app will return next summer.

Gagliano’s Main Event run finally clicked this year. He bagged 46.5 million chips for fifth place at the restart, called the long grind "Groundhog Day," and said he was happy only when there were nine left.

On Day 8, he doubled through Shaun Deeb with tens against ace-jack, moved past 100 million after sending Antonio Galiana to the payout desk, and later lost 26.5 million in a flip against Mueller when queens held against ace-king. When play stopped after Malcolm Trayner busted in 10th, Gagliano had 46.5 million chips, and the winner was still set to collect $10 million.

WPT Global has opened a low-cost route into the €350 IPO Dublin Main Event, with $4.40 feeder satellites that roll into $44 qualifiers. The $44 events each guarantee three Main Event seats, and the prize is tied to the International Poker Open at the Bonnington Dublin this October, where the headline event carries a €200,000 guarantee.

According to PokerNews, the $4.40 feeders run six times per day, at six minutes past the hour from 4:06 p.m. to 9:06 p.m. UTC+1. Players start with 5,000 chips, play eight-minute levels, and begin at 25/50/5a.

Winning one of those feeders automatically registers the player for the next available $44 satellite, and unregistering is not allowed. The $44 events run every Monday and Thursday at 8 p.m. UTC+1, with 10,000-chip stacks, eight-minute levels, and 50/100/10a blinds.

The IPO has a decent recent history in Dublin. Last year’s Main Event drew 844 entrants, with Noel Murphy winning €42,340, Mark Muldoon taking €35,000 for second, and Keith Smith finishing third for €20,640. In 2024, Latvia’s Vitalijs Polukejevs beat 908 opponents to win €34,630, and in 2023 Belgium’s Steven Rothheut turned a €350 buy-in into €45,240.

Other publicly known 2026 IPO Dublin events included a €300 Seniors tournament with a €25,000 guarantee, a €1,100 Super High Roller with a €25,000 guarantee, a €500 Leslie McLean High Roller, and a €170 Mini Main Event with a €15,000 guarantee. The Main Event itself will have six flights, including an online Day 1 set for 8 p.m. UTC+1 on 18 October.

888poker has opened satellites to its 888poker LIVE London Main Event, giving players a route in from as little as $0.01. The promotion also includes a September challenge that can lead to one of four $2,500 packages.

In 888poker’s magazine, the satellite path starts with step satellites or direct buy-in and works up to a $109 LIVE London Festival 2026 ME Qualifier. That qualifier awards $2,500 live-event packages.

A separate challenge runs from September 5-26. Players who complete one of the weekly tasks earn a freeroll ticket.

Coverage differs on the festival dates. PokerNews put 888poker LIVE London at Grosvenor’s London Victoria Casino from October 8-18 and said the schedule includes a £1,250 Main Event. 888poker’s own guide instead says the Main Event is scheduled for October 14-18 at the VIC Poker Room.

The promotion follows last year’s London Main Event, which drew 367 entrants and built a £383,500 prize pool, well above the advertised £250,000 guarantee. Gang Wang beat Calogero Morreale heads-up for £86,600, and 888poker ambassadors Vivian Saliba and Nick Eastwood each won titles at the 2025 festival.

Those September challenge winners will meet in the freeroll at 7 p.m. GMT on September 27.

Chengyu Liao turned a weekend trip to Cyprus into a $300,000 score by winning the 2026 NOIR Poker Series $7,500 High Roller at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in North Cyprus. He beat Giorgiy Skhulukhiya heads-up after a final preflop all-in sealed the title.

According to PokerNews, Liao is not a professional player. He works in Istanbul, flew to Cyprus just for the event, and had to fire a second bullet after busting his first entry. He also said this was the highest-stakes tournament he had played and the biggest win of his poker life.

He said he was nervous at the final table, felt like the weakest player there, and was not trying to wait for a payout. He planned to fly back to Istanbul the next day and said he would keep the celebration simple, spending time with friends.

The event drew 209 entries and built a $1,345,960 prize pool, comfortably beating the guarantee. Thirty-one players made the money for at least $12,000, and the 16 survivors who reached the final day locked up $16,100 apiece with the $300,000 top prize still waiting.

Day 2 started with 78 players returning, while Skhulukhiya led the way with 3,115,000 chips. He was the only returning player above 100 big blinds, with Gor Musinyan and Julian Pineda Lozano starting second and third.

The money bubble took five hands to burst, ending with Natalia Nikitina's 32nd-place exit. After that, Gaspare Sposato, Caner Gunes, Joris Ruijs, and start-of-day chip leader Aliaksandr Hirs were among the early casualties, and the field was eventually trimmed to 16.

The final day moved fast. Tobias Peters fell in 14th place and four more players were gone within 15 minutes. Arsenii Karmatckii's 10th-place exit put the tournament on its final table inside the first two levels, Geoffrey Mooney was out in ninth just before the two-hour mark, and Julian Pineda Lozano followed soon after. The next five knockouts, Leonid Orman, Yesset Aimukhanov, Daniil Kiselev, Zorlu Er, and Gor Musinyan, all went in preflop with dominated hands.

Skhulukhiya took a slight chip lead into heads-up play, but Liao grabbed the edge with a draw-heavy hand when his flopped set held against Skhulukhiya's combo draw. Liao said he did not have much heads-up experience and just went with the flow, and the flow kept moving his way.

The match ended when Liao limp-shoved and Skhulukhiya called off with A♣10♣. Liao tabled K♦J♠, paired his king on the K♠5♥7♠ flop, and held through the 3♠ turn and 4♥ river to take the trophy.

CoinPoker has made CoinMillion a permanent monthly tournament after the $215 event’s first two Sunday editions pulled in 9,062 combined entries. The $1 million guarantee stays in place, and the next running is set for August 9.

The move follows CoinMillion’s debut on May 10 during the World Poker Masters and its second outing on July 12 during the Battle of Malta Online series. Those two editions drew 4,278 and 4,784 entries, respectively, and paid out a combined $248,000 to the champions.

According to PokerStrategy, the tournament will now sit in CoinPoker’s lobby every month on the first Sunday. Future editions are already listed for September 6 and October 4, before the schedule settles into that monthly rhythm.

CoinMillion is a two-day, $215 tournament with 10-minute blind levels and late registration open until the end of Level 19. It uses a starting stack of 100,000 chips, equivalent to 200 big blinds.

The event also leans into a top-heavy payout structure. The first two champions each collected more than 12% of the $1 million guarantee, with DaniC1994 taking $126,500 in the opener and monc banking $121,500 in the second running.

Winners also receive physical and digital trophies and a place in the CoinMillion Hall of Champions.

Qualification is open through direct satellites that run ahead of each monthly edition, with buy-ins from $5.50 to $44. The cheapest path is much lighter than the main buy-in, and Step 3 and Step 4 freerolls can feed into those satellite routes.

Freerolls and satellites are running several times each day in the lead-up to the next event, and players can find the routes by searching for “CoinMillion” in the CoinPoker tournament lobby. CoinPoker also had more than 22,000 active players on July 26.

Day 1b of the $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event got underway at noon at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. Players started with 100,000 chips and played 40-minute levels.

According to PokerNews, the flight is the second of four starting days in the Merit Poker Noir Series. Late registration remains open until the start of Level 11, and the structure runs until only 15% of the field is left, at which point every surviving player is in the money.

The move into Day 1b comes after a busy opening flight. Day 1a drew 216 entries and ran for more than twelve hours before 32 players bagged chips.

That first flight ended with 21 minutes left in Level 17, with blinds at 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante. It also produced a clear leader in three-time bracelet winner Timur Margolin, who finished on 1,760,000.

Joris Ruijs was second with 1,560,000, while Jay O’Leary followed on 1,525,000. Dmitrii Kravchenko bagged 1,495,000 and Gilles Simon ended on 1,490,000. Merijn van Rooij and Oleg Silin both finished with 1,355,000.

The remaining starting flights are Day 1c and Day 1d on Tuesday, Aug. 4, with 30-minute and 25-minute blind levels. All survivors from the four flights return for Day 2 on Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Michael Cervantes finished Day 1c with the biggest stack in the RunGood Poker Series Passport Season Finale $1,200 Million Dollar Main Event at Thunder Valley Casino Resort, as Day 1c drew 333 entries and sent 33 players on to Day 2.

According to PokerNews’s live coverage, the flight later hit a break at Level 16 with 52 players still in action, then closed in hand-for-hand play with 43 remaining for 42 money spots. The turbo side event added 40 entries and four more bags, bringing the main-event total to 547 entries with 58 players still in the hunt for an RGPS title and ring.

Cervantes ended with 1,012,000 chips. Jay Kasler was right behind him with 1,008,000, and Jiechao Gao finished third in the flight with 900,000. Cervantes had been third in chips by Level 16 before pulling ahead late.

The live updates were full of big pots. Paul Brown’s A♣A♥ held against Arthur Tanimoto’s A♠K♣ after a K♠3♦4♦ flop, a 2♦ turn and a 6♥ river, and Brown earned the double-up.

Charles Himes then flopped a set with A♠A♣ against David Miller’s K♦K♠. The 9♦ locked up the pot for Himes, and the J♦ river completed the double. Christopher Rudd also stayed alive in a three-way all-in when his QxQx turned into a straight on an ace river against Bret Wagar’s kings and Charles Capobianco’s aces.

The late stages kept trimming the field. Steven Gnatovich turned a full house with nines to beat Robert Small’s A♠5♦, Richard Spears’ jacks sent Rudolph Sisson’s fives out, and Gene Davenport knocked out Wenmian Hua with pocket eights. Dehao Qi’s eights also beat Thu Tran’s threes in a set-over-set pot, then Alex Garcia spiked a river straight in the next three-way all-in to send Tran out.

Jason Mayer doubled through Pat Lyons, Miguel Beteta Rodrigo’s aces left Lester Lenart with 12,000, and Brandon Feria became the bubble bustout when Quan Liang Gao’s ace-queen paired the flop. Day 1c’s final stretch was decided by a string of all-ins and showdowns.

Damon Burch-Hyson won the 2026 Goliath Main Event in Coventry after the last four players struck an ICM deal, then kept playing for the title and the extra money on offer. He finished with £365,520, which was £20 more than the original first-place prize.

PokerNews reported that the £200 event drew 14,663 entries including re-entries and built a £2,228,780 prize pool. That was 1,702 entries more than last year’s record 12,961, and the pool comfortably beat the £2 million guarantee.

The festival ran from 23 July to 2 August in Coventry. Grosvenor’s Goliath page listed the Main Event as a £160+£40 buy-in and said the festival returned to Coventry.

The final day began with 36 players left, and two former champions were still in the mix at that stage: Alex Todd, who won in 2023, and reigning champion Paul Worsley. Worsley finished 27th and Todd came 25th.

Nicholas Fellone was the last player to miss the final table, bowing out in 10th place. That set a nine-handed final table where each player had already locked up £26,000.

The endgame tightened quickly. Bryan Taylor was first out at the final table when his pocket jacks ran into Burch-Hyson’s pocket aces. Wai Lun Lam went in seventh with ace-jack and lost to Lorenc Boci’s ace-king and Burch-Hyson’s pocket queens, and Boci then went out sixth in the same all-in.

Reema Bodalia fell in fifth place as the last woman left in the tournament, after which the final four paused the clock and agreed to deal. That left £88,520 still to play for, with Burch-Hyson in the chip lead and in the best position in the split.

The event then skipped heads-up play and ended in a triple all-in. Lewis Aikman moved in with ace-five, Jonny Elworthy had queen-nine, and Burch-Hyson called with ace-eight; the board ran out 6-4-J-J-3 and missed everyone, giving him both eliminations and the title.

On Aug. 2, SHRPO Event 22 drew 278 entries and generated a $41,144 prize pool, topping its $25,000 guarantee. The $300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty No-Limit Hold’em event also set aside $27,800 for bounties, with the winner collecting $9,029 and the SHRPO Trophy.

The tournament had been listed on the schedule for 6 pm, and the Day 6 sheet called it a "$300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry)." The event page said each player had a $100 bounty on their head, started with 30K stacks, and played 20-minute levels.

The rules PDF filled in more of the structure. It put the number 1 entry fee at $248, with $100 of that going to the player bounty, $52 as the registration fee, $18 for staffing, and $2 for the SHRPO Tournament Leaderboard promotional fund.

That PDF also described the event as a one-day, 9-handed big blind ante tournament. It said on-site registration and unlimited re-entries stayed open until the start of Level 10, around 9:30 pm, with players able to forfeit their chips at the end of registration to re-enter.

The final 35 players finished in the money, the min-cash was $325, and the runner-up took $6,285.

One detail differed between the event page and the rules sheet. The event page said players would sit with 30K stacks, while the PDF listed 40,000 tournament chips.

The broader SHRPO series was being promoted in a June Hard Rock Hollywood newsroom release as running from July 28 to Aug. 11. That release also said "The Big 4" would use staggered structures so the final tables were played simultaneously, with combined prize pools of $4.75 million.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open’s Event 23 was a Pineapple Poker tournament with a wrinkle in the published details: the event page called it a $400 Deep Stack Turbo Pineapple, while the rules PDF listed a $600 buy-in.

The tournament was set up as a one-day event on Sunday, Aug. 2, with cards in the air at 9 p.m., according to the rules sheet. It started players with 20,000 chips and used 15-minute levels in a turbo structure.

The pineapple format was spelled out plainly for anyone who needed a refresher: each player was dealt three hole cards and had to discard one before the flop. The event was 9-handed, with a redraw at 18 and 9 players, or sooner if the tournament director chose.

Late registration and unlimited re-entries ran until the start of Level 9 at 11:15 p.m. The PDF also noted a 15-minute break after Level 8, with registration ending at that point and Level 9 beginning after the break.

The blind structure opened at 100/100, and the tournament used a big blind ante format. In that setup, the big blind paid the ante each hand, with the ante equal to the current blind level.

The rules PDF said players could forfeit their tournament chips at the end of registration to re-enter. Late entries bought after play had started were not live until the player had been dealt in, and alternates and late entries could have to wait for a seat assignment.

The buy-in breakdown in the PDF put $338 into the prize pool and treated $62 as a registration fee. That fee included $21 for staffing and $2 for the SHRPO Tournament Leaderboard promotional fund.

The tournament rules also required players to be at least 18, with proper ID and a Unity Member account, and said a valid photo ID was required to be paid out. People who had been trespassed or banned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, or who had opted into self-exclusion, were not eligible.

The PDF added the usual fine print too: management reserved the right to alter, change, or cancel the tournament, and by entering, players agreed to allow their names and likenesses to be used for promotional purposes without compensation.

Julian Selinger won the 2026 WSOP Circuit Tallinn €1,500 Main Event at Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel & Olympic Park Casino after outlasting Roy van der Reijnst in a four-hour heads-up finish. He took home €210,000, a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package and a WSOP Circuit Main Event ring after topping a record field of 977 entries and a record prize pool of €1,253,002.

PokerNews reported that Selinger started the final table in the middle of the pack. He opened by knocking out Feras Abid, then later doubled two opponents in quick succession and slipped to the shortest stack with six players left before climbing back into third when van der Reijnst won a big flip against start-of-day leader Egidijus Matonis.

Matonis was out shortly after that, and van der Reijnst then eliminated David Marfil. At one point three-handed, van der Reijnst held nearly 80% of the chips in play, but Selinger fought back by doubling through him and then sending Kai Lehto out in third place.

The heads-up began with even stacks, and van der Reijnst was first to build a meaningful lead. Selinger answered with a run of successful bluffs and a bluff-catch, only to fall back to just three big blinds when a key flip went van der Reijnst’s way.

He still completed the comeback. Selinger won three consecutive all-ins to regain the chip lead, and the match ended when van der Reijnst called off with two pair against Selinger’s rivered straight. Van der Reijnst finished second for €140,500.

Day 2 had already shown how deep the event ran, trimming 147 returning players to 24 contenders. Selinger led that stage with 5,170,000 chips after busting Guillermo Gordo in 25th place, while van der Reijnst bagged 3,800,000 and David Marfil followed with 4,435,000.

Selinger said after the long finish that he was “beyond exhausted” and said he had been tired for hours, even while being “really happy and insanely grateful to be here.” Van der Reijnst also carried a small bit of story to the table, using an electronic candle he found in his coat pocket on Day 2 as a card protector all the way to the end.

Uri Foox’s run in the Roughrider Poker Tour $640 Main Event ended in 10th place at Jackpot Junction Casino and Hotel, setting the final table of nine. Players were competing for a $44,600 first-place prize, a custom RPT championship bracelet, and a $10,400 WPT Main Event seat.

According to PokerNews, the tournament drew 507 entries over three days and built a $273,780 prize pool. All of that money was set to be paid out when action resumed the next day.

Foox moved all in for about 1.8 million on the button, and Rob Wazwaz reshoved from the small blind with a slight chip edge. Foox showed K♦ Q♦, Wazwaz held A♥ 8♣, and the board ran 9♦ 6♠ 2♠, then 2♣ and 9♣ to send Foox out at Level 26, with blinds of 50,000/100,000 and a 100,000 ante.

Doug McCarty finished 11th for $5,300 when Justin Deutsch called his small-blind shove, Michael Cassiday-Maloney went out 12th for $5,300, and Andre Brown took 13th for $4,400 after a preflop raising war with Terence Reid.

The event’s opening flights built the field in chunks. Day 1a drew 84 entries, while Day 1c brought 252 entries across 12 levels and produced nearly half of the total field; only 44 players advanced from that flight.

Day 1c also finished with Reid Johnson on 733,000 chips and Cody Torke on 729,000, just behind Anthony Scarborough’s 740,000-chip lead going into Day 2. Day 1a ended with Thai Dinh on 729,000, Darrin Gerr on 685,000, and Charles Kersey on 714,000.

Because multiple opening flights bagged before reaching the 15% threshold, the 86 Day 2 returnees were still not in the money when play restarted. The top 77 spots paid at least $1,000, and a final-table seat was worth $6,300.

An earlier Day 1c update described the winner’s package differently, listing $44,600 plus a WPT Wynn seat for $55,000 total. The final-table report, though, listed the seat as a $10,400 WPT Main Event entry.

Greg Mueller says his deep WSOP Main Event run has done something he did not expect: it has made poker feel fun again. After years of feeling burned out, the former hockey pro said the tournament has rekindled his passion, even if he is not sure how long that feeling will last after the event ends.

That turnaround matters because Mueller had been open about losing interest in the grind. Review-Journal reported that he said he likes to stay active, does not want to sit in a chair all day, and had gotten to a point where the game no longer excited him. He also said poker had slipped down his priority list over time, while golf, which he took up during COVID, became his passion.

His path into poker stretches back to his playing days. According to PokerOrg, Mueller learned the game on long bus rides during his professional hockey career, and he drew a direct line between the two sports. He said the competitive nature and discipline required in hockey are similar to poker, and compared making big folds at the table to skating away from an altercation on the ice.

The Main Event run has already become the biggest tournament result of his career. Card Player reported that Mueller, now 55, locked up at least $1 million by making the final nine in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em world championship, and that he had previously cashed in the Main Event in 2013 and 2017. He is also a three-time WSOP bracelet winner, with titles in 2009, 2009 again two weeks later in the $1,500 Shootout, and 2019 in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship.

PokerNews described him as the most experienced player left at the final table. Mueller told that outlet he had wondered in recent years whether the game had passed him by, and said his 2019 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. victory had put those self-doubts to bed.

The run was also built on a lot of support. Mueller said friends were coming out to rail him, and he had received kind messages and shout-outs from players including Matusow, Hellmuth, David Baker and Alex Livingston. He said he felt like it was a team game and that he did not want to let people down.

Mueller has also tried to prepare physically for the final table. He said he had dropped about 7 to 8 pounds by eating cleaner, sleeping more, moving around, lifting weights and walking, and he said he had been doing cold showers before each day’s start time. His stated goal is simple: feel good, look good, play good.

The final table began Monday and runs through Wednesday, with all remaining players guaranteed $750,000 and the winner set to collect $10 million.

Michael Gagliano returned Monday to the WSOP Main Event final table. He had 46.5 million chips, good for fifth place among the final nine. He had already locked up at least $1 million and was chasing the $10 million first prize.

The nine-handed finale resumed Monday after a three-week break at the end of the WSOP Main Event, which drew 9,208 entrants and built an $85.6 million prize pool. Lucas Jumalon led the table with 194 million chips, while Rami Hammoud sat on 79 million, Jamie Shaevel on 56 million, and Evagoras Evagorou held the short stack at 22.5 million.

Gagliano said the Main Event is what every poker player dreams about, and that growing up watching it on ESPN made it especially cool to finally play it himself. He also said he had a lot of direction coming out of college, and that his mother, who was a teacher, wanted him to follow that path too.

After graduating from Rutgers with a degree in geology, he worked in an elementary school as a staff assistant before poker success, especially online, pulled him away from education. He became a professional poker player in 2009 and now has more than $8 million in combined live and online tournament earnings.

Gagliano has four WSOP bracelets, with three coming in online events. His first bracelet arrived in 2016, and he also won a title in the 2025 WSOP Online Fall Bracelet Series. Since 2010, he has also coached other players, including 2015 Main Event champion Joe McKeehen.

This run is a big step up from his past Main Event record. Before this year, he had only two cashes in the event, and his best finish was 148th in 2025.

His path to the final table included a key double through Shaun Deeb on Day 8 when pocket tens held, a hand he said would have knocked him out if it had gone the other way. He later lost a big pot to Greg Mueller when ace-king ran into pocket queens, but said his stack was still fine and that the cards would decide the rest.

The final table is scheduled to play out over Aug. 3-5, with ESPN and ESPN2 carrying coverage. The championship ends on Aug. 5, when one player wins the bracelet and the $10 million top prize.

The WSOP Main Event final table resumes Monday at Horseshoe Las Vegas with Lucas Jumalon still in front. The nine remaining players are already guaranteed at least $1 million and are playing for the $10 million first prize.

According to the Review-Journal, the event began with 9,208 entries in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em world championship. The field is Jumalon, Rami Hammoud, Jamie Shaevel, Greg Mueller, Michael Gagliano, Mario Boos, Lauri Saaskilahti, Han Feng and Evagoras Evagorou, and none of them has won the title before.

Jumalon leads with 194 million chips. Hammoud is second with 79 million, Shaevel is third with 56 million, Mueller has 48.5 million, Gagliano has 46.5 million, Boos has 44 million, Saaskilahti has 37.5 million, Han has 25 million and Evagorou is shortest with 22.5 million.

PokerNews reported that Jumalon built the stack in a huge Day 8 surge. He began the day with 40.8 million, won a pot worth more than 50 million chips when his pocket jacks outdrew Malcolm Trayner’s pocket queens, reached 155 million by dinner, then finished with 194 million after eliminating Trayner in 10th place.

The most decorated players left are Mueller, who has three WSOP bracelets, and Gagliano, who has four. ESPN’s press room said the live final table runs Aug. 3-5, with Aug. 3 on ESPN2 from 9 p.m. to midnight ET, Aug. 4 on ESPN from 9 p.m. to midnight ET, and Aug. 5 on ESPN from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. ET. Sporting News said cord-cutters can stream it on fubo, and the table could take days to finish.

Timur Margolin led Day 1a of the $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, bagging 1,760,000 chips after a 216-entry opening flight. Thirty-two players made it through to Day 2, and each survivor locked up a payday and a seat in the next stage.

According to PokerNews, the event is part of the Merit Poker Noir Series and carries a $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Players started with 100,000 chips, late registration stayed open until the start of Level 11 in each flight, and unlimited reentries were allowed.

Margolin, a three-time bracelet winner, took his seat in the second level and got busy early. He built chips by calling down an opponent with ace-high, then moved past seven figures during one of the final levels before winning another pot with king-high.

The pack behind him was close. Joris Ruijs finished second with 1,560,000, Jay O’Leary was third with 1,525,000, Dmitrii Kravchenko bagged 1,495,000, and Gilles Simon ended on 1,490,000. Merijn van Rooij and Oleg Silin both finished with 1,355,000.

Kravchenko also had one of the bigger late-night moments. Near the end, he flopped a full house against Christopher Rossos’s trip sevens after five players saw the flop, and the clean runout sent Rossos out while Kravchenko climbed the leaderboard. He was also trying to go one step further than his runner-up finish in the Merit Poker Cup just a few days earlier.

There was no need for hand-for-hand play at the end, because John Doe K and Ravid Garbi were eliminated in quick succession. Play stopped with 21 minutes left in Level 17, at blinds of 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 big blind ante.

The first casualty came on the very first hand, when Ivan Zabiyakin flopped a straight against Andrei Mashinistov’s top pair and flush draw, only for Mashinistov to make his flush on the turn. Shortly after the dinner break, Xiaosheng Zheng won a flip with pocket jacks against Felipe Ketzer’s ace-king, and Ketzer was sent to the rail.

Other notable survivors included Vitaly Kononenko with 585,000, Cristinel Dumitru with 475,000, Huseyin Akgul with 450,000, Andrei Mashinistov with 325,000, Konstantin Voronin with 245,000, and Halil Tasyurek with 210,000. Alexander Sokolovsky was the short stack among those who advanced, bagging 40,000, about two big blinds.

Day 1b was set for noon the next day, with Day 1c and Day 1d scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 4. All surviving players from the four flights were due back for Day 2 on Wednesday, Aug. 5, when the levels increase to 60 minutes.

SHRPO Event 2, the $400 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em tournament, drew 5,069 entries and built a $1,662,632 prize pool. The top payout is $200,272 plus the SHRPO Trophy, and the event sailed past its $1 million guarantee.

According to Seminole Hard Rock’s event updates, the field was spread across eight starting flights. The first seven flights ranged from 365 entries in Flight A to 1,089 in Flight G, with 46 to 137 advancing from each. Flight H added 946 more entries and locked the final total at 5,069.

When registration closed, 635 players had advanced to Day 2, already in the money and guaranteed at least $660. Chris Bolek led the returning field at the start of Day 2, while Zyad Qasem, Niall Costigan, Dmitri Zaitsev and Igor Tretyakov were also near the top.

The field thinned fast from there. After Level 17, with blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a 6,000 ante, only 400 players were left, and the tournament had lost more than 200 players in 90 minutes.

By Level 21, the count was down to 225 and Dylan Ward had taken over the lead with 1,510,000 chips. Eldo Rodriguez followed with 1,280,000, David Kahan had 1,211,000, Jeremy Becker was over a million with 1,060,000, and Jessica Cai sat on 925,000.

Later dinner-time updates showed the tournament still moving quickly. One snapshot at Level 23 listed 122 players remaining and sent the field to a 45-minute break, while a later update on the same level showed 144 players left and TK Miles on 1,450,000.

FullHouseCrypto is kicking off its $5 million Summer Slam Series on Aug. 3, with the festival set to run through Aug. 30 and pack in four weeks of tournament action. The schedule comes with boosted guarantees, affordable satellite qualifiers, leaderboard promotions, and a marquee Main Event to close things out.

The opening week runs from Aug. 3 to 9 and is built around Daily Slam tournaments with low buy-ins and bigger guarantees.

Fast Games Fest is running alongside the Summer Slam through Aug. 11. That promotion leans on Rapid and Push or Fold formats, daily missions, rotating quests, and Instant Cash rewards, while replacing traditional leaderboard races with quicker, task-based play.

Card Player says Fast Games Fest is split into three themed weeks: Rapid Week ran from July 22 to 28, Push Or Fold Week runs from July 29 to Aug. 4, and Final Sprint Week runs from Aug. 5 to 11. The final week combines both formats and offers the biggest rewards of the series, including Instant Cash payouts and top prizes worth as much as $100,000.

PokerStrategy added another layer to the calendar with an exclusive $150 PokerStrategy Freeroll on Aug. 6 at 10 p.m. C.E.T. The freeroll is open with the password Pokerfun.

The same site also pointed to a limited-time First Deposit offer running from July 21 to Aug. 11. New players who make a first deposit of at least $50 get $10 in Instant Cash immediately after qualifying, and the offer also includes FullHouseCrypto’s guaranteed 20% Instant Cash Bonus on the first deposit.

That bonus money is credited directly to the player’s FullHouseCrypto balance and can be used right away, usually at cash game tables. FullHouseCrypto also offers cash games, tournaments, sit-and-gos, and fast-fold formats, along with promotions aimed at both new and existing players.

The summer schedule follows the Beat the Heat Mystery Bounty Series, which ran from July 13 to Aug. 2 with $3 million guaranteed and $1.6 million in mystery bounties. In that series, every knockout could trigger a random reward, and each elimination earned a Key for a Mystery Chest filled with cash prizes and jackpot-style rewards.

FullHouseCrypto is kicking off its $5 million Summer Slam Series, a four-week online poker festival that runs through Aug. 30. The schedule is built around boosted guarantees, affordable satellite qualifiers, leaderboard promotions and a marquee Main Event at the end.

The opening week runs Aug. 3-9 and is centered on Daily Slam tournaments with low buy-ins and increased guarantees. Card Player said the idea is to give players across different bankroll levels a chance to chase bigger prize pools right away.

Alongside the Summer Slam action, FullHouseCrypto is also running Fast Games Fest through Aug. 11. That promotion was launched on July 22 and focuses on rapid-fire formats such as Rapid and Push Or Fold, with daily missions, rotating quests and Instant Cash rewards.

A separate Fast Games Fest report broke the campaign into three themed weeks. Rapid Week ran July 22-28, Push Or Fold Week runs July 29-Aug. 4, and Final Sprint Week runs Aug. 5-11, with the last week combining both formats and offering the biggest rewards.

The site also says it supports more than 30 cryptocurrencies and keeps deposit bonuses, freerolls and a VIP rewards program available. New players can get an extra welcome offer during the festival, with a qualifying first deposit of at least $50 unlocking $10 in instant cash.

PokerStrategy added another layer to the promotion with an exclusive $150 PokerStrategy Freeroll at FullHouseCrypto. It is scheduled for Aug. 6 at 10 p.m. C.E.T., open with the password Pokerfun, and PokerStrategy.com newcomers can also pick up a $170 welcome boost during their first seven days after an initial deposit, with rewards paid as Instacash at a rate of $1 for every $5 in rake.

Jean Laurent led the SHRPO Tournament Leaderboard after 17 tournaments, not counting Event 2, as the $36,000 in cash and prizes started to sort itself out. Mikhail Chykiliov was second and Raminder Singh was third.

The official SHRPO board update said Laurent was on top because of two SHRPO wins and two cashes. On Aug. 1, he won Event 17, a $600 Deep Stack Mixed PLO that drew 111 entries and built a $57,498 prize pool.

That Event 17 result came through a heads-up chop. Laurent was the slight chip leader at the time, took the official win, and collected $13,937. The victory was his second of the series and his fourth major-series trophy win in 2026.

Chykiliov’s runner-up spot was built on deep runs that included a win of the $800 Progressive Bounty. Singh sat third with two wins, and because he was still in Event 2, he could still add more points.

The leaderboard page says the top 100 spots are shown. Players can score points in 59 trophy events, while the three Seniors events and the 40/40/40 tournament do not count.

The same page says players must be at least 18 and Unity cardholders, and there is no limit to how many events or entries they can play. Points are based on field size and whether a player cashes, with non-cashes earning 1 point per entry and cashes earning “Cash Points.”

The prize structure includes two $10,400 WPT Championship seats in the $36,000 leaderboard pool. The top two finishers win a $12,000 WPT Las Vegas package that includes the seat and $1,600 cash, while third through fifth each get a $3,500 entry into the 2026 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Championship plus $500 cash. Final leaderboard standings are due on Aug. 11, with results posted on or before Aug. 12 and prizes redeemable through Aug. 15.

Evagoras Evagorou became the first player from Cyprus to reach the WSOP Main Event final table, and he goes into the last nine as the short stack. He comes into the final table with 22.5 million chips, or 15 big blinds, from a field of 9,208 in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em world championship. Every player remaining is already guaranteed at least $1 million, and the winner will take home $10 million.

According to Poker.org, Evagorou had to go back to work before the finale. He said he is an optician with a business in Nicosia that he has run for 22 years, and after Day 8 he returned to Cyprus and was working again before heading back to Las Vegas.

He also said he picked up poker online while spending time abroad and returned in 2004 to help build the live game on the island. In his words, he was organizing games and tournaments with friends in the Greek community, and he later played mostly cash games while he kept the local scene moving forward.

That background fits the way he describes his own game. Evagorou said he is especially strong in deep tournaments and deep cash games, and that he stays calm, patient, and comfortable speaking with other players on TV tables.

PokerNews tracked the run through the later stages of the event. Evagorou entered Day 6 with 2,260,000 chips, tripled to 7,475,000 by the end of the day, and then finished Day 7 fourth in chips among the 21 players left.

After a rough Day 8, he entered the unofficial final table with 13 big blinds. He then doubled through Malcolm Trayner on the first hand and held on to make the official final nine.

Card Player said he survived multiple close calls and three all-in spots on Day 8 to get there. PokerNews added that this $1 million payday is already a career best for him, and that a win or even second place would put him first on Cyprus’s all-time money list.

The final table returns Monday, with Evagorou still sitting at the bottom of the counts and the title still on the line.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open’s Event 19 was a $400 one-day Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em tournament with a $100,000 guarantee. It started at 1 pm and gave each player 20,000 tournament chips.

Levels 1 through 6 ran 20 minutes each, then levels 7 and higher stretched to 30 minutes. Late registration and unlimited re-entries stayed open until the start of Level 11 at 5:30 pm.

The event was played nine-handed and used a big blind ante. It also had redraws at 18 players and again at 9 players, unless the tournament director decided otherwise.

Of the $400 entry fee, $328 went into the prize pool and $72 was the registration fee. From that $72, $26 went toward staffing and $2 went to the promotional fund for the SHRPO Tournament Leaderboard.

The 2025 field drew 536 entries, turned the $100,000 guarantee into a $176,880 prize pool, paid 67 spots, and gave the winner $31,980 plus the SHRPO trophy.

Giorgiy Skhulukhiya heads into the final 16 of the NOIR Poker Series $7,500 High Roller at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus, with the chip lead and the $300,000 top prize in sight.

According to PokerNews, Skhulukhiya bagged 3,115,000 chips, and he is the only player returning with more than 100 big blinds. Gor Musinyan sits second and Julian Pineda Lozano third.

The event drew 209 entries and built a $1.35 million prize pool, comfortably beating the $1 million guarantee. Each of the last 16 is already locked up for $16,100.

The $7,500 buy-in made it the highest-stakes event on the 2026 Merit Poker NOIR Series schedule. It used a three-day format with 100,000 starting stacks and 40-minute levels, and the opening flight played eight levels before bagging.

Day 1 drew 114 players to the grand hall, and 78 advanced to Day 2. Aliaksandr Hirs led that stage with 562,000 chips, more than 100 big blinds ahead of the nearest challenger, before late registration kept the door open into the next day.

Day 2 started with those 78 players and the field grew to 209 entries once registration closed four levels in. Payouts were then announced with 31 places paying at least $12,000, and the bubble lasted five hands before Natalia Nikitina went out in 32nd after a blind-versus-blind flip.

After the bubble burst, Gaspare Sposato finished 29th, Caner Gunes 28th, Joris Ruijs 26th and Hirs 23rd. The plan to stop at a final table changed, and Aleksei Opalikhin’s 17th-place exit left exactly 16 players for the final day.

Play resumes at 1 p.m. local time with 25 minutes left on Level 22, at blinds of 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante. Each of the 16 players is guaranteed $16,100, and 15 eliminations stand between them and the trophy.

SHRPO Event 20 is a $600 Mixed Triple Draw tournament, built as a no-flops event that rotates Limit A-5, Badugi and 2-7 from start to finish. The structure sheet lists it as a one-day event.

According to the structure sheet, players begin with 30,000 chips, and Level 1 opens at 200/300 with a 300-600 limit. Every level runs 30 minutes.

Late registration and unlimited re-entries stay open until the start of Level 9, which the event page puts at 6:30 pm. The tournament is played six-handed, with redraws at 12 and 7 players or at the tournament director’s discretion.

The buy-in breaks down into $518 for the prize pool and an $82 registration fee. That fee includes $26 for staffing and $2 for the SHRPO Tournament Leaderboard promotional fund. The event page lists a 2 pm start.

The $5,500 Merit Poker Main Event got underway at noon at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus. The tournament carries a $3 million guaranteed prize pool.

According to PokerNews, players start with 100,000 chips and have four starting flights to build a stack. Any player who bags chips on a starting day locks up a payday and a return for Day 2.

Late registration stays open until the start of Level 11 in each flight, and unlimited reentries are allowed throughout the event. The opening two flights use 40-minute levels.

Day 1c moves to a 30-minute structure, while Day 1d is set for later this evening with 20-minute levels. Each opening flight continues until only 15% of the field remains.

The last Merit Poker Main Event took place during the Merit Poker Classic series in May, when Ivan Ilichev won $525,000 and beat a final table that included Erdem Akmert, Davit Mikhanashvili, Guy Dvash, Maxime Chilaud and Nikolay Gadzhalov.

Once the field combines on Wednesday, August 5, levels increase to 60 minutes. A champion is scheduled to be crowned on August 6.

Ivor Parker, who is 100, has been signed by GGPoker as a full-time ambassador. The deal was introduced at a VIP event with Grosvenor Casinos on the eve of Goliath 2026.

The Sun described Parker as the world’s oldest paid professional. The announcement comes as GGPoker hopes to champion experience, composure and decision-making through the partnership.

Parker’s poker story goes back a long way. He said he first started playing at 14, and played his first hand in a pub in Boston, Lincolnshire in 1940. That gives him 86 years of experience at the tables.

He is from Ab Kettleby in Leicestershire, and he worked as a production operative for East Midlands Farmer until he was 98. The reports also said he has been married twice and has five children.

Parker said every game is different, every table has its own stories, and you are always learning something new. He also said poker today is much more strategic than when he started, and that the game has kept him sharp.

The VIP event tied to the announcement brought together journalists, creators and sporting personalities, and included a masterclass from Leah Hauer before a winner-takes-all showdown with Team GGPoker UK ambassadors and invited guests Mark Labbett and Rory Jennings. Goliath itself returns to Coventry for 12 days and is billed as the world’s largest live poker tournament outside Las Vegas, with thousands of players, entertainment and side events around the main competition.

Nick Schulman is getting his own poker show on SiriusXM. The new series, Poker Weekly with Nick Schulman, is set as a six-episode weekly run that debuts on July 18 at 8:00 pm ET.

The show will air exclusively on Mad Dog Sports Radio, channel 82, and be available across North America. Schulman will use the platform to give tips, share inside stories from his 20-plus-year career, and talk through major poker events around the world.

Schulman said, “I’m honored to be on SiriusXM talking about poker, a game that means so much to me and so many of us,” adding that “Having a platform like this helps legitimize poker being a game of skill.”

The announcement leans hard on Schulman’s résumé. He entered professional poker at 19 and became the youngest ever winner of a World Poker Tour event two years later, when he won the 2005 WPT World Poker Finals.

That victory paid $2,167,500, which was described as a record for a regular-season WPT event. He also has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets and has more than $26 million in career live tournament winnings.

Card Player put his live earnings at $27.1 million, a slightly higher figure than the SiriusXM estimate. Schulman was also inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2025, adding another line to a resume that now extends from the felt to radio.

Championship Sunday opened with 86 players still alive in the Roughrider Poker Tour $640 Main Event at Jackpot Junction Casino and Hotel just outside Minneapolis. The three-day tournament drew 507 entries and built a $273,780 prize pool.

All of that money is due to be paid out as play resumes at 11 a.m. local time. The 86 survivors are eight eliminations away from the money, with only the top 77 finishing in the payouts and earning at least $1,000.

Anthony Scarborough leads the way with 740,000 chips. Reid Johnson sits right behind on 733,000, while Cody Torke and Thai Dinh both bagged 729,000. Charles Kersey rounds out the top five with 714,000.

The final table is worth $6,300, while the eventual champion will collect $44,600, a custom-made RPT championship bracelet and a seat in the WPT Main Event worth $10,400. The earlier event preview had described the added seat differently, calling it a $10,000 WPT Wynn Main Event ticket.

Play restarts with 21 minutes left in Level 16 at blinds of 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante. The day uses 40-minute levels, with breaks every two hours and a dinner break to be confirmed later.

The schedule also includes a $250 Trophy Event Second Chance tournament starting at noon local time, with late registration open until 3:30 p.m.