The WPT bestbet Scramble Championship was in Day 1B at bestbet Jacksonville, with the tournament clock showing 62 entries for the flight and 153 total entries. Level 2 began at 200-300 with a 300 ante, and play continued without a break.

As reported in August, the series returned to bestbet Jacksonville for the second half of Season 24 with a $1 million guarantee. A WPT history piece also notes that bestbet Jacksonville opened in 2012 and has hosted 13 World Poker Tour stops, 12 of them at the current location.

Day 1B was the second of three starting flights. Players began with 50,000 chips, registration stayed open with unlimited re-entries until the start of Level 9, around 9:55 p.m., and a one-hour dinner break was scheduled after Level 6, around 6:40 p.m., with a free buffet from bestbet. Action was set to run through the end of Level 10, shortly before midnight.

The field included ClubWPT and ClubWPT Gold qualifiers, and five of them had shown up so far. The updates highlighted Toby Boas, Sean Cotter, Thomas Shepard, Rickey Kinser and Frank Reams, with the listed stacks ranging from 43,000 to 61,000 chips. Other arrivals included Rodney Turvin, Ray Qartomy, ClubWPT Ambassador Josh Guindon and four-time WPT champion Brian Altman.

In one early pot, Ahmad Raza moved all in for 1,800 from the hijack and Phuoc Nguyen called from the cutoff. Lunique Petiote called from the button and Vimal Reddy called from the small blind, and Nguyen’s ace-high won the whole pot to eliminate Raza. Nguyen then was listed with 95,000 chips, while Raza was out.

Another hand saw Zac Stites three-bet all in for about 42,000 after Raza raised to 20,000. Raza called with two pair, jacks and nines, but Stites won with a flopped set of sixes and doubled up to 92,000 chips. Raza was left with 1,800, or 9 big blinds.

Dion Jagroo also got a river bluff through. He raised to 10,000 from the cutoff, Denavol Wilson called from middle position, and Jagroo moved all in for about 37,000 on the river, forcing a fold. Jagroo was listed with 62,000 chips afterward and Wilson with 59,000.

The remaining schedule lists Day 1C for Sunday, Day 2 for Monday, Day 3 for Tuesday and the final table on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 2 p.m. The WPT Live Stream is set to broadcast that final table on a 30-minute delay with hole cards and expert commentary.

Alexandros “Pwndidi” Theologis won Event 1 of Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II, taking the $15,000 NLH 8-Handed kickoff for $642,000 and his first Triton title after beating Victor Chong heads-up.

According to PokerNews, the opener featured a ceremonial walkout led by chip leader Theologis, Punnat Punsri and Adrian Mateos. As reported earlier in the event, Wai Kiat Lee led the 28 survivors into Day 2, and Theologis was chip leader heading to the final table.

The field ultimately reached 206 entries and built a $3.09 million prize pool. The bubble burst late on Day 1, leaving 35 players in the money, and the early action went fast, with Xu Yang, Ethan Yau, Daniel Dvoress and Xuan Liu each collecting $25,500 in the opening 15 minutes.

PokerNews’ daily highlights showed how deep the run went for the final table. Adrian Mateos finished 8th for $79,000, Ehsan Amiri took 7th for $108,000, Daniel Rezaei was 6th for $147,000, Yin Tao finished 5th for $194,500, Wai Kiat Lee took 4th for $245,500 and Punnat Punsri was 3rd for $302,000.

Triton’s own recap said Theologis spent most of Day 2 near the top of the counts, while Victor Chong emerged as his toughest heads-up resistance and took $431,000 for runner-up. The final hand went Theologis’ way when his jack-ten held against Chong’s eight-four, confirming the title.

Card Player added that Theologis came into the event with more than $4.5 million in Triton cashes but no trident trophy, and that this win was his sixth-largest career score. The same report said the victory earned him 1,080 Player of the Year points, lifted him to 2,400 points overall and moved him to 123rd on the CoinPoker leaderboard.

After the win, Theologis said he had been looking forward to winning a Triton trophy and that finally closing one out felt great. He also said the run was swingy, with a lot of chip losses before a comeback that worked out in the end.

The Innocence Center will stage its second annual All in for Justice Charity Poker Tournament at Jamul Casino Resort on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, and the buy-in will be $150. The return comes after the inaugural event in 2025 raised about $30,000.

Claudia Salinas said the idea is to build on that first year and use the tournament as a platform for the poker community and the broader community to learn about wrongful convictions, hear directly from people affected, connect with The Innocence Center’s work, and help raise resources to change lives.

Last year’s debut drew nearly 100 people to the tables, and Salinas said TIC hopes to double attendance this year. The 2025 tournament carried a $200 buy-in, so the entry price is lower for the follow-up event.

At the inaugural night, executive director Michael Semanchik laid out the group’s mission: freeing wrongfully convicted people from prison, educating the public about the causes of wrongful conviction, and helping exonerated people rebuild after release. The first event also had title sponsors Richard and Laurie Brooks, who backed it in memory of their brother Steven Brooks, an avid poker player, and the winner received a special trophy with a swirl ribbon design meant to symbolize resilience and systemic change.

The Innocence Center launched in 2023 and, according to PokerNews, has collectively freed more than 40 people who served more than 600 years in prison and helped change a dozen laws to prevent future injustices and make it easier to free the innocent. PokerNews also reported that players can register in advance, and that TIC is looking for sponsorships or poker-related brands willing to donate gear or prizes for final-table winners.

The opening event at Triton Jeju II moved into Day 2 on Saturday with Wai Kiat Lee out front in the $15,000 NLH 8-Handed. Only 28 players were still alive from a 204-entry field, and the tournament had built a $3.09 million prize pool with $642,000 set aside for the champion.

As covered in our earlier Jeju preview, Triton is back at Les A Casino in South Korea for another stop in the series. The event burst the bubble late on Day 1, so every returning player was already locked up for at least $25,500.

PokerNews had Lee leading the final 28 on 3.5 million chips. Punnat Punsri sat second with 3,465,000, and Alexandros Theologis was third on 3,215,000. Bernhard Binder and Adrian Mateos rounded out the top five.

The last stretch also still included several other big names, among them Nick Petrangelo, Jesse Lonis, Daniel Dvoress and Xuan Liu. The field was set to keep playing toward a final table and then a winner.

There was some continuity at the top of the counts. PocketFives had Lee among the top 10 when 52 players remained, with Daniel Rezaei leading that stage on more than 3 million chips. That outlet also reported Rezaei ahead earlier, when 101 players were left and he had more than 1.37 million.

Play in the $15,000 event was due to resume at 1 p.m. local time, with the live stream starting at 2 p.m. The festival’s second event, a $20,000 NLH 8-Handed, was set for 3 p.m., and Triton Fantasy began on Day 2 with more than $33,000 in prizes.

GGPoker is bringing back its Ontario WSOP Online bracelet series, with eight events set for Sept. 13 through Oct. 6. The schedule is led by a C$1 million Main Event guarantee on a C$1,000 buy-in, and every bracelet winner will also receive a WSOP Paradise package.

According to Pokerfuse, this is the fifth time Ontarians have had their own WSOP online bracelet series since GGPoker launched in the province in 2022. As covered in late August, Ontario players were still missing from the initial 2026 WSOP Online rollout. The Ontario run also begins one day after the WSOP Super Circuit at Playground in Kahnawake, Quebec, wraps on Sept. 12.

The series opens Sept. 13 with the 5th Annual WSOP Ontario Kick-Off, a C$500 event with a C$250,000 guarantee. The second bracelet event is the C$300 Gladiators of Poker Ontario, a bounty-format tournament with a C$300,000 guarantee and a flighted structure that reaches its final stage on Sept. 14. On Sept. 20 comes the C$1,500 Monster Stack NLH, also set at C$300,000.

Sept. 21 brings the C$400 Colossus, which has a C$400,000 guarantee and is described as the second-largest guarantee in the series. The Colossus uses multiple Day 1 flights. On Sept. 27, players can enter the C$600 Ultra Stack NLH for a C$300,000 guarantee, followed by the flighted C$400 PLOSSUS at C$200,000. The bracelet run closes with the C$525 The Closer NLH Bounty Turbo on Oct. 4, before the Main Event reaches Day 2 on Oct. 5.

The eight bracelet events carry C$2.95 million in guarantees, or almost C$370,000 per event on average. The other seven events all sit between C$200,000 and C$400,000 in guarantees. The full side-event schedule has not yet been announced, and the broader Ontario series is expected to end up somewhere around C$7 million to C$8 million in total guarantees, potentially more once side events are added.

Winners will get a WSOP bracelet, a top cash prize and a WSOP Paradise package. The Main Event champion receives a C$42,000 WSOP Paradise Super Main package that includes entry to the $26,000 Super Main Event, which carries a $50 million guarantee, plus a 13-night stay at Baha Mar from Dec. 5 to Dec. 18. The other seven bracelet winners get a C$7,000 WSOP Paradise Circuit package that includes the $2,750 Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty and four nights at Baha Mar from Dec. 1 to Dec. 5. Players must register under their real names, and final tables do not allow deal-making.

ClubWPT Gold and Doug Polk have announced Poker Champs, a $500,000 heads-up tournament that runs from Sept. 19-26. The event will start with eight live streamers in best-of-three matches, and the winners move on to the semifinals.

As covered in an earlier PokerOrg report, ClubWPT Gold signed Polk as part of an aggressive push to become more visible in poker. That same outlet also described the site as less than a year old and launched toward the end of 2024 as part of the World Poker Tour’s World Championships.

Poker Champs is set up so the final four all cash. The semifinal losers receive $75,000, the runner-up gets $125,000, and the two finalists play for $250,000.

So far, the confirmed field includes Alexandra Botez, xQc, sodapoppin and erobb221. ClubWPT Gold has said none of the players involved will be professional poker players.

The matches will take place on the ClubWPT Gold platform, and each participant will livestream their own perspective during every round. Polk will also provide cards-up commentary on each matchup, with the show available on his YouTube channel, where viewers will see both players’ hole cards and webcam feeds.

The full lineup will be announced soon, and the matchups will follow after that.

PokerStars on FanDuel has unveiled its September Dynasty Series, a new online festival that runs Sept. 12-28 across the operator’s U.S. and Ontario platforms. The U.S. side has 100 scheduled events and at least $3.5 million in guarantees, while Ontario gets 61 events and, for now, no series-wide guarantee that has been announced.

As reported in August, FanDuel had already confirmed that a September tournament series was coming, but the name and schedule were still hidden. Pokerfuse reported that the new festival is branded the September Dynasty Series, and it follows the April Ignite Series, which packed 90 tournaments into three weeks and carried $5 million in guarantees. That earlier series also produced heavy overlays, with Poker Industry PRO calculating a $1,063,762 shortfall.

For U.S. players, buy-ins run from $10 to $1,500. The schedule mixes no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha and PLO5, and a leaderboard will run throughout the series for players who stack up consistent results. At the top end, the $1,500 High Roller is set for Sept. 27, while the $300 Main Event runs Sept. 27-28 with a $350,000 guarantee. The U.S. slate also includes a $50 Mini Main Event with a $75,000 guarantee.

Ontario’s version is the first tournament series on PokerStars on FanDuel in that market. Its 61-event schedule is NLHE-only, with regular, PKO and mystery bounty events, and buy-ins from C$30 to C$1,500. The Ontario Main Event and Mini Main close out the festival, but the guarantees were still to be announced when the schedule was published.

Ahead of the Dynasty launch, Ontario players also have the free-to-play Summer Sendoff Freeroll Festival running Sept. 4-13, with daily tournaments and guarantees from $250 to $5,000.

ACR Poker’s $2.5 million 25th Anniversary Tournament is already underway and still has a long runway, with regular Day 1 flights on Sept. 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 21, 24 and 27, plus turbo chances on Sept. 27 and Sept. 28. Players who advance from any of the remaining opening flights will return for Day 2 on Sept. 28, and the final table is scheduled for Sept. 29.

Card Player says the event is a $250 buy-in and uses a cumulative-stack format, so players can keep entering later Day 1s and combine their surviving chips for Day 2. As reported in July, ACR Poker launched the 25th Anniversary Tournament with 21 total Day 1 flights and a qualification window that stretches across more than two months.

The regular flights begin at 1:05 p.m. ET. The late turbo schedule includes Sept. 27 at 7:05 p.m. ET and Sept. 28 at 8:05 a.m. ET.

PokerStrategy described the tournament as being in full swing and said the cumulative-stack setup gives players a reason to keep coming back even after they have already bagged a stack. That means reaching Day 2 does not have to be the end of the run if a player wants to try for a bigger starting pile.

For players trying to qualify cheaply, satellites start at $1.05. Card Player says Thursday and Friday Super Satellites at that price feed 25 seats into an $11 Mega Satellite, which then awards seats into the $250 Day 1 Turbo. A similar ladder is available on Saturday, beginning with a $1.05 Super Satellite at 9:05 a.m. ET and an $11 Mega Satellite at 10:45 a.m. ET.

Americas Cardroom has launched FT Replayer, a free browser tool that lets users review completed final tables hand by hand with every player’s hole cards visible. The feature is available now and does not require an Americas Cardroom account or a software download.

In an August 5 website update, ACR Poker said the replayer had been brought to the website so players could revisit completed final-table action without opening the poker client first. The site said the replay can be opened from a tournament’s completed results or ranking area, and that mobile users get a vertical layout that is easier to follow on a phone.

The replay runs from the opening hand through the end of the tournament, showing every raise, call and fold, including hands that never reach showdown. Instead of a highlight reel or a written recap, it shows the full sequence of decisions, with all cards revealed.

Americas Cardroom says the archive is built automatically, with every finished final table added after it ends. That means players who make a final table can come back later to review it, while other users can browse by event or check newly completed action after major tournament series. The company says the tool is meant to help people study bet sizing, preflop aggression, all-in ranges, folds, bluffs and how stack depths and table dynamics change the way players respond. It also frames the feature as a way to give tournament action a second life after the result is official, rather than just leaving winners with a static screenshot.

King’s Resort in Rozvadov has unveiled the King’s Million European Poker Championship, a new festival set for Sept. 16-Oct. 6 that carries more than €10 million in total guarantees. The headliner is a €5 million Super Main Event with a €1,150 buy-in, giving the room a big autumn anchor after WSOP Europe left town.

As reported in August, King’s Resort had already lined up the IPS Summer Edition for late summer, and the new championship takes over the main autumn calendar. PokerTube frames the series as the resort’s answer to WSOP Europe’s move to Prague, after the autumn stop had run in Rozvadov every year from 2017 through 2025 before shifting this spring into a March-to-April window. Federico Brunato told the outlet that many operators do not fully understand what players are really looking for, and argued that communities are built around the experience, not the number attached to it.

That shift was already visible in the 2026 WSOP Europe schedule, which ran from March 31 through April 12 with 15 bracelet events. PokerTube says the Prague debut drew a 2,617-entry Main Event, more than triple the previous high of 817, and generated a €13.085 million prize pool. Across the full 15-event festival, 15,779 entries came from more than 80 countries and total prizes reached €39.5 million.

The King’s Million schedule is built around a string of side events as well. PokerNews lists a €250 Mini Main Event with a €1 million guarantee, a €400 Deepstack with €300,000 guaranteed, a €1,000 Mystery Bounty on Sept. 23 with a €1.5 million guarantee, and Omaha events that include a €1,500 European Poker Championship PLO and a €3,000 PLO High Roller, both set at €500,000 guaranteed. Later in the month, the €600 Monsterstack starts on Sept. 27 with a €1 million guarantee, six regular starting flights and a Flip and Go Pineapple route into Day 2 on Sept. 30. PokerTube says four more guaranteed events round out the schedule, ranging from a fast-paced bounty format to a tournament reserved for players 50 and older.

The Super Main Event begins on Sept. 30 and runs through Oct. 4, with seven regular starting flights plus a Flip and Go Pineapple option. PokerNews says the EPC continues into the first week of October with a €500,000 guaranteed EPC Masters and a €100,000 guaranteed Closer, while PokerTube adds that satellites into the Super Main are already running and that King’s Resort’s September slate includes the German Poker Tour and Ola Poker Tour earlier in the month, putting roughly €10.8 million in guarantees in play across Rozvadov that month alone.

RunGood Poker Series is bringing its Mississippi Poker Championship stop to Horseshoe Casino Tunica from Sept. 15-20. Listed on RunGood’s schedule page as the Mississippi State Championships, the six-day series features nine trophy events, more than $100,000 in combined guarantees, and a four-flight Main Event with a $50,000 guarantee.

RunGood had a Passport Season stop at Tunica in March, and the posted schedule now shows how the week unfolds. Sept. 15 opens with a $250 Seniors Championship with a $10,000 guarantee, a $65 satellite into the PLO Championship, and a $150 Tag Team NLHE Championship with a $5,000 guarantee.

The next day brings a $250 PLO Championship with a $10,000 guarantee, a $65 satellite into the Monster Stack Championship, and a $150 Big Bounty Championship with a $5,000 guarantee. Sept. 17 adds a $250 Monster Stack Championship with a $10,000 guarantee, a $95 satellite into the Mississippi State NLHE Championship, and a $250 6-Max NLHE Championship with a $10,000 guarantee.

The Main Event starts on Sept. 18 with Flight A and Flight B of the $400 Mississippi State NLHE Championship, each carrying a $50,000 guarantee. Sept. 19 adds Flights C and D, plus a $250 Ladies Championship with a $5,000 guarantee, before Sept. 20 wraps with the Day 2 restart and a $250 Turbo NLHE Championship with a $10,000 guarantee.

PokerNews will provide live reporting coverage of the Main Event beginning Sept. 18 at Horseshoe Casino Tunica. PokerTube says it will also follow the full series with daily recaps and hand reports through the crowning of a champion at Horseshoe Tunica.

This is RunGood’s third scheduled visit to Horseshoe Tunica in 2026. PokerTube says the series already had a Passport Season stop there in March, and it says another Golden Expedition series is scheduled for November, keeping the casino in regular rotation for the tour.

The Tunica Main Event has a recent benchmark too. When RunGood last ran its main event there in fall 2025, Carl Masters beat a 645-entry field to win $60,251 after defeating Rafael Lopez heads-up. Results from the upcoming stop will also feed into the RunGood Player of the Year standings for the 2026/27 season, and the Mississippi State Championship winner will earn a seat at the 2026 Dream Seat Invitational later this year.

RunGood Poker Series is taking its Golden Expedition to Downstream Casino Resort for RGPS Golden Expedition Joplin, a Sept. 15-20 stop built around a $700 Main Event with a $150,000 guarantee.

It will be on site to live report the Main Event action in Joplin.

The series opens on Sept. 15 with a $300 Seniors Ring Event and a $300 Opening Day Ring event.

The $300 PokerNews PowerStack begins its first of three flights on Sept. 17 and carries a $25,000 guarantee. The $700 Main Event also starts on Sept. 17, with four starting flights on the schedule, and it plays down to a winner on Sept. 20.

The closing day also includes a $400 Black Chip Bounty NLH Ring Event, which wraps the festival. A $150 Flip and Go is listed on demand throughout the series as well.

The Joplin stop comes after an earlier RGPS Passport Joplin Main Event drew 752 runners and generated a $379,760 prize pool. Cody Hughey beat William Romine heads-up there to win $67,940 and his first RunGood title, while Kyle McConnell, William Margo and Jeff Copeland were among the final-table finishers noted in the earlier report.

Eric Wasserson won the biggest pot in High Stakes Poker history on PokerGO’s Monday-night finale, scooping $4.26 million from Texas Mike Moncek when his rivered flush held. The Monday-night hand was sponsored by CoinPoker, and the session had already pushed well over $10 million onto the table at one point.

The session also included Alejandro “Papo MC” Lococo, Andrew Robl, Justin Gavri, Sameh Elamawy and Rick Salomon. As covered in our Aug. 31 report on Saturday’s hand, Wasserson had already set the show record two days earlier with a $2.478 million pot, and the new score blew past that mark. It also topped the old U.S. televised-poker record of $3.1 million from Hustler Casino Live in 2023.

The record hand built street by street. Wasserson opened to $20,000 with 9♦7♦, Moncek three-bet to $80,000 with 10♣7♣, and the flop came A♦K♦9♣. Wasserson checked, called a $100,000 bet, then called another $330,000 on the 4♥ turn after about 30 seconds in the tank.

The 5♦ river completed Wasserson’s flush. He checked again, Moncek shoved, and Wasserson called after saying he had a big hand and asking for a second. Poker.org said Moncek was down to about 5% equity once the board completed. Moncek later called it “the biggest nit-roll of all time,” but Wasserson tabled the flush and took the $4.26 million pot.

Wasserson said afterward that he had never played a pot that big before. He finished the night up $2.4 million, while Moncek ended with a $296,500 loss.

Zynga Poker launched a new multichannel campaign with Keegan-Michael Key as its “Inner Winner,” the confident inner voice the release says tells players to “grab life by the chips and go all in.” The same announcement says Key will also debut as the in-game host of Poker Dash, a new fast-paced feature coming soon.

In a Business Wire release, the campaign is built around Zynga Poker’s free-to-play format and its pitch of putting players straight into action against real people, with “zero bots.” The release describes the game as one of the largest free-to-play mobile poker games and says its competitive spirit draws millions of players every day.

According to the press release, the new spots were directed by Jody Hill of Caviar. The announcement says the campaign brings together Hill’s storytelling and Key’s comedic energy, with Key appearing when players least expect him and urging them to listen to their Inner Winner and make their next big move at the table.

Key said playing everyone’s Inner Winner was “an absolute blast,” and added that players will hear him cheering them on both when they watch the campaign and when they play Zynga Poker. Yaron Leyvand, Zynga’s executive vice president of Mobile Games, said poker is about “that moment of truth,” where players trust their instincts, make their move, and play to win.

The campaign is also tied to Zynga Poker’s broader presence across its social channels, including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Players can catch Key in-game now, and the release says they can get ready to channel their Inner Winner in Poker Dash when it arrives.

The background material says Zynga’s mobile games have been downloaded more than 10 billion times and reach more than 175 countries and regions. Zynga is described as a wholly owned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, the parent company behind the Zynga brand.

WSOP showed mixed signs of trouble on Sep. 1, with Technobezz’s live tracker flagging login and account-access complaints and naming Login as the main issue. As of 02:40 UTC, that tracker showed 27 reports in the prior 24 hours, 28 in the last hour, 18 in the last 15 minutes, and activity across five regions.

The same page labeled the situation “WSOP Is Having Issues · Multiple Browser Sessions Reporting.” It also said the top reported problems were 23 Login reports, 3 Server connection reports, and 1 Other issues report, while another tracker line said 18 reports came from 15 browser sessions.

A separate Technobezz status page told a different story, calling WSOP “Currently Stable” and saying no active issues were detected and servers appeared to be running normally. Even so, that page still listed Login as the main issue over the last 24 hours and showed 39 reports in that period, with 31 tied to Login and smaller buckets of 6 and 1 report.

DownRightNow.in also logged WSOP Online activity that day, saying the server was responding while users reported “App crashing.” It listed 8 reports in the last 60 minutes and 8 user reports in 24 hours, and suggested trying again shortly.

WSOP’s help center says login problems can come from several different error messages, including “Establishing Connection to the Server,” “The Username or Password Entered does not Exist,” “You are already logged in,” and “Your Account has been Temporarily Disabled.” If none of those fit, it tells users to contact the Member Support Team through the Contact Us form and include the exact error message.

Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland picked up 11 first-place honors in Casino Player magazine’s 2026 Best of Gaming Awards, including Best Overall Gaming Resort, Best Casino, and Best Live Poker. The Hanover property also took top spots for Best Suites, Favorite Casino Resort for a Staycation, Best Table Games, Best Overall Sports Book, and Friendliest Sportsbook.

The awards are annual and selected by Casino Player readers. Casino Player says its Best of Gaming issue has been a reader-voted guide for 31 years, and that the program has been recognizing leading casino properties for more than three decades.

The magazine’s coverage spans table games, slots, poker, sports wagering, hotels, and other amenities. Casino Player says the awards are meant to point gamblers toward properties worth adding to a casino getaway itinerary.

Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland is in Hanover and is described as one of Maryland’s most prominent gaming and entertainment destinations. The resort includes casino gaming, hotel rooms and suites, restaurants, live entertainment, poker, table games, and a sportsbook.

Ryan Eller, the property’s executive vice president and general manager, said the team takes pride in delivering memorable experiences for guests across gaming, hospitality, dining, and entertainment. He said being named Best Overall Gaming Resort and Best Casino by Casino Player readers is an incredible honor and reflects the passion and commitment of the team members who work there every day.

PokerNews reported that Zhiqiang Shen beat Seiichi Kanemitsu heads-up to win the $500 WSOP Online Mini Main Event on GGPoker. He earned $747,545, a gold WSOP bracelet, and a $30,000 Super Pass to the 2026 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event. The event drew 12,113 entries and generated a $5,753,675 prize pool.

In this one, 1,208 players advanced to Day 2, and Kanemitsu entered the final table as the chip leader while Shen and Ziqian Wang occupied the podium places during the late stages.

PokerNews also said no heads-up deal was struck, even though the top two payouts were separated by $171,434. Kanemitsu took $576,111 for second, while the rest of the final table paid Nikolaos Angelou-Konstas $93,443 for ninth, Ignacio Sagra $121,162 for eighth, Mauricio Rocha $157,109 for seventh, Vladislav Chechenin $203,727 for sixth, Rafael Yamaki $264,182 for fifth, Ziqian Wang $342,583 for fourth, and Lee Wee Liew $444,257 for third.

A number of familiar online names reached Day 2 and cashed, including Andrey Pateychuk, Brunno Botteon, Ole Schemion, Ognyan Dimov, Chris Klodnicki, Martin Finger, Joao Vieira, Rayan Chamas, and Audrius Stakelis. At the same time, the $5,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship was still in progress, with eight players left and a $371,793 top prize.

Nicholas Elder won the inaugural $1,100 NorCal Poker Championship Main Event at Graton Casino Resort in Rohnert Park, California, after the final seven players agreed to an ICM chop. Elder was officially declared the first-ever champion and took home $47,205.

As reported in our Day 2 update, 74 players returned to decide the title after the event drew 582 entries and built a $567,450 prize pool. Sevag Shirinian had taken the lead into the final day, with Ryan Tuttle and Antonio Ma close behind.

According to PokerNews, the ending came after the final table had played for about 40 more minutes and the clock was stopped once chop talks began. Richard Lockmanese had gone out in ninth place for $9,400, Peter Yang followed in eighth for $12,000, and the remaining seven players then reached a deal.

Elder said he had been away from poker for a long time. He said his first visit to Graton came after a long break from the game, and that he had moved from Minnesota to the Sacramento area two years before the event.

He also said he stepped away from poker after getting married and starting a family. As he put it, he was focused on his home life and said building that foundation gave him the chance to come back and play.

The run turned on a key all-in against Victor Paredes, where Elder was behind before a fortunate turn card let him take the lead by hitting his kicker. Elder said he got lucky when he was down to about six big blinds, but he also felt the result showed he had done some things right to earn it.

Despite the title, Elder said he does not expect his relationship with poker to change much. He said he has a busy fall ahead and may travel to play tournaments this winter.

Hellmuth’s Home Game episode 30 centered on Jennifer Tilly. By the end of the session, she had tangled with Jungleman, Phil Hellmuth, Shaun Deeb, Xuan Liu and Erick Lindgren in a series of high-stakes pots, and she finished as the game’s biggest winner by a wide margin.

According to PokerNews, the episode aired as part of Hellmuth’s Home Game on CBS Sports Monday nights. The show is presented by Poker Night in America, sponsored by BetRivers, filmed at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, and built around table talk rather than commentary, with Hellmuth and the guests carrying the action in a relaxed cash-game setting.

The first big pot started with Dan “Jungleman” Cates raising to $150 from the cutoff with A♠K♦. Tilly three-bet to $500 from the big blind with A♥Q♦, Cates made it $1,500, and Tilly called after saying, “I don’t want to go crazy.” On a flop of 9♦A♣J♥ and a turn of 10♦, she check-called $1,300 and then another $3,000 before Cates fired $12,500 on the 6♥ river. Cates won the $36,675 pot with top pair and top kicker after Tilly called.

A later hand tagged as “Tilly Kicks Deeb” had Phil Hellmuth open to $300 with 10♠9♠, Tilly call from the cutoff with K♠J♣, and Deeb three-bet to $1,200 with K♣10♣. After a flop of 7♦5♣K♥ and a Q♦ turn, Tilly raised to $10,000 over Deeb’s $3,000 bet, Deeb moved all-in, and she called off her last $6,700 to build a $39,000 pot. The hand ran once, and the 9♦ river was a brick for Deeb.

The final big hand was even bigger. Erick Lindgren raised to $1,200 with J♥J♣, Deeb three-bet to $4,000 with 10♥10♦, and Tilly four-bet to $10,000 from the straddle with A♠A♦. After Deeb checked, Tilly bet $10,000, Deeb check-jammed for $23,400, and Tilly snap-called to create a $68,400 pot. Deeb wanted to run it just once, but the turn came 4♦ and the river 5♠. By the end of the hand, her stack had climbed into six-figure territory, and she was the game’s biggest winner by a large margin.

PokerCoaching has added Justin Young to its coaching team and paired the move with a new course on live cash games. The addition gives the training site another coach with a heavy live-game background and a public profile built around the Table 1 Vegas Podcast.

According to pokerfuse, Young is probably best known to the wider poker community as the host of that podcast. The announcement also tied his value to years spent playing live cash games against some of the best players around, along with the relationships he built with many of those opponents.

The new course is already live on PokerCoaching and is titled “How to Crush Live Cash Games with Loose Aggressive Strategies.” It is aimed mainly at intermediate No Limit Hold’em cash players up to $2/$5, and it runs as a six-part series with six videos of about 30 minutes each, for just over three hours of lessons.

The course leans into exploiting common mistakes rather than relying entirely on solver output. It focuses on using aggression and pressure to force uncomfortable decisions, how to respond when a passive player suddenly shows strength, and how to adjust properly against unknown opponents.

Pokerfuse described the course as built for players looking for specific places to make money by taking advantage of general tendencies. It framed Young’s approach as one that leans on recognizing repeated errors in low-stakes games, where many players do not follow what solvers would suggest.

A 2012 Ante Up Magazine profile gives some of Young’s longer poker background. It described him as a former military mechanical engineer from Moorhead City, N.C., who turned professional after working at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, and said he lived just outside Las Vegas in Henderson.

That profile also noted his runner-up finish in the 2008 $15K WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $936,760 and said he had almost $3 million in live earnings at the time. Young said he preferred live poker because of the personal interaction, and that cash games were still his main game even as he spent time in tournaments.

Sevag Shirinian will take the lead into Day 2 of the $1,100 NorCal Poker Championship Main Event at Graton Casino Resort in Rohnert Park, California. The final 74 players return from a 582-entry field that built a $567,450 prize pool, and Shirinian is the only player carrying a seven-figure stack at 1,032,000.

According to PokerNews, Shirinian earned that top spot after his Day 1b performance and entered Day 2 as the chip leader overall after two flights of play. Ryan Tuttle is next with 862,000, and Antonio Ma follows with 792,000 after leading Day 1c. As covered in our Day 1c report, Ma had already topped that flight with 792,000 after 194 entries, and 25 players moved on.

The return list also includes Henri Perez Lopez on 495,000 and Jaime Haletky on 470,000. Michael Persky comes back with 296,000, while Victor Paredes is listed at 277,000, Julie Cornelius at 236,000, Zachary Smyth at 226,000, Daniel Hughes at 212,000, Phillip Hellmuth at 192,000 and Charles Himes at 162,000. The outlet’s Day 1c recap had Hellmuth advancing with 211,000, so that stack figure changed between updates.

The event used four starting flights on Friday and Saturday, with 40,000-chip starting stacks, 30-minute levels, unlimited reentries and registration closing at the start of Level 9 after the break. Day 2 uses 40-minute levels and was set to restart at noon local time Sunday, with play continuing until a winner is crowned.

Chess.com has launched Gambit as a free poker companion site built around learning rather than wagering. The company says the platform has no real-money gambling and no rake.

Chess.com said it chose poker for the first companion site because, like chess, it has learning and social elements in addition to play. Gambit borrows Chess.com’s design style and includes bot matches, games with friends, tournaments, a review mode and a learning mode.

The site also uses Chess.com bot characters, including Martin, plus an Elo-style rating system. The company says that rating system is meant to give players something to chase even without cash stakes, and it is the backbone of Gambit’s paid subscription for premium learning features. Cheng said Chess.com’s main business model is subscription, while most people play for free.

Chess.com said Gambit now has close to 75,000 members, nearly 20 million hands played and more than 100,000 beginner lessons completed together. In a separate company update, the beta had passed 12 million hands after three months, with more than 45,000 accounts and close to 200,000 hands played each day.

That same update said the Gambit Cup was already running every day at noon ET and had grown to over 400 players. Chess.com now says a special edition of the Gambit Cup will be broadcast live for the first time on Aug. 31 at 12 p.m. ET on Twitch and YouTube, with Danny Rensch and Alexandra Botez on commentary. The event will use a five-minute delay to help prevent stream sniping and will show hole cards, live win percentages, standings and chip counts.

In a Verge interview, chief growth officer Albert Cheng said AI helped get Gambit off the ground with just a two-person team. He said the biggest benefit was being able to read Chess.com’s existing codebase and design system and apply consistent patterns quickly, though AI was less helpful for brand and feature design. He also said the live version now has “zero or close to zero” AI-created assets after early prototypes used some.

Cheng also said Chess.com is building Elo-style rating systems for other classic games, including go, backgammon and mahjong. He said that work is moving “quite rapidly,” but did not give launch dates.

The Tournament Directors Association has changed how blind levels start in live poker: once the clock moves, dealers can immediately begin dealing at the new level, even if the tournament director has not formally announced it.

According to PokerOrg, PokerAtlas Live Events Director Justin Hammer described that as a recent TDA-approved operational change discussed at the 25th annual TDA Summit in Las Vegas. He said the old procedure required the director to officially announce the blind change before play could continue at the new level.

Hammer framed the rule as part of the TDA’s wider job of standardizing tournament rules so players know what to expect wherever they play. He said the organization was co-founded in 2001 by Matt Savage, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher and David Lamb, and has since grown to more than 2,500 members in 63 countries.

The summit is where the association reviews whether existing rules should change and how they should be interpreted and enforced. Hammer said those discussions also covered other operational topics, including random table breaks and a clarification on how the big blind ante should be handled when two players bust in the same hand.

For the blind-level issue, the practical takeaway is simple. Under the updated approach, the clock is now the trigger for the new level, not the floor announcement.

Day 1c of the $1,100 NorCal Poker Championship Main Event at Graton Casino Resort drew 194 entries and sent 25 players through to Day 2. Antonio Ma finished the flight with 792,000 chips, ahead of Eric Estrellado on 743,000 and Walid Fahmy on 699,000.

As covered earlier, Graton Casino Resort is hosting the RunGood Poker Series NorCal Poker Championships through Aug. 30. Day 1c was the third starting flight, and it ended after a double knockout at two different tables reduced the field to three tables. Day 1d was still underway when the Day 1c results were posted.

According to PokerNews, Phil Hellmuth also advanced with 211,000 after a late double-up, and his first cash at Graton came after bagging for Day 2. Michael Persky moved on too after Jixin Zhou cracked his aces early, then he rebuilt with a knockout in Level 13 and another late double. Persky entered with more than $750,000 in live earnings, and Graton was the site of his biggest score, a 2023 WSOPC win worth a little more than $175,000.

Ma’s run added another strong result to a résumé that already includes more than $500,000 in career earnings. His best Graton finish before this stop came in 2024, when he took fourth in a WSOPC Big O event.

Estrellado came into the flight with just over six figures in live career earnings, but had yet to land a big score at Graton. Walid Fahmy, a San Jose resident, picked up his first cash at Graton and bagged one of the biggest stacks in the room.

Ken Huynh’s deepest Graton run before this stop came in 2025, when he finished 22nd in the WSOPC Monster Stack.

Sameh Elamawy pulled a $1.7 million pot off Eric Wasserson in a full-house-over-full-house cooler on PokerGO’s High Stakes Poker LIVE. Both players made full houses on the river, but Elamawy held the better one, turning the hand into one of the night’s biggest swings.

According to Poker.org, the hand started when Stanley Tang opened to $4,000 and both Elamawy and Wasserson called, building an un-straddled pot of $14,500. Tang fired $5,000 on the flop, Elamawy called, Wasserson raised to $25,000 and Elamawy called again.

On the turn, Elamawy improved to superior two pair, which Poker.org described as “gin for him.” Both players then put in another $50,000 before the river brought full houses for both sides, with Elamawy’s proving to be the winner.

As covered earlier in the week, the High Stakes Poker LIVE run at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas had already become the biggest game in the show’s history. Poker.org said the game started with more than $3 million in play and climbed to more than $9 million on the table after Rick Salomon left with profit, while F5 Poker said the Friday lineup also included Andrew Robl, Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek, Kirk Brown and others.

F5 Poker said Friday’s session produced five seven-figure pots. It also reported that Robl began with $1.05 million, including an extra $50,000 so he could cover Wasserson’s $1 million buy-in if needed, and that Elamawy finished the session at $1,445,500.

Daniel Negreanu’s Hustler Casino Live debut finished in the red, with the poker star ending an about eight-hour session down $73,800 after a huge early slide, a sharp comeback and another late giveback.

As covered in August, Hustler Casino Live had already booked his first appearance for a $100/$200 no-limit hold’em game with a $50,000 minimum buy-in. The stream marked a rare cash-game return after years away from that format, and PokerNews said more than 12,000 viewers were tuned in on YouTube when he first appeared.

The opening stretch was ugly. About two hours in, Negreanu was nearly $160,000 down, and one report put the hole at $162,000. He lost a $99,000 pot to Brandon Steven after calling a preflop three-bet with 10♠ 9♠, then watching Steven pair a king on the river.

He also lost a $110,000 pot to Sam “Senor Tilt” Kiki, and another early hand went against him when he flopped top pair with the nut flush draw, only to run into a five-outer on the turn against Nik Airball. That left him in a deep hole before the cards started to swing back his way.

Negreanu’s turnaround started when he picked up pocket aces, and later he turned a set in a pot against Airball and got paid off for his last $46,600 on the river. PokerNews said he went from that near-$160,000 deficit to almost $120,000 ahead in just a few hours, before the session flipped again.

The biggest highlight was a river check-raise bluff against Kiki. On a board of 3♦ 2♦ K♦, 7♣, J♥, Kiki bet $20,000 on the river after showing down top two pair, and Negreanu raised to $75,000, forcing the fold and sending the chat into a frenzy.

He also won a $135,000 pot with pocket queens against pocket eights. PokerOrg said Negreanu rated the fun at 10 out of 10 and the cards at six-and-a-half, and he added that having fun would make him want to come back.

KPC Poker has folded the K Poker Cup and King Poker Cup into a single brand, and the reworked tour is set for its first major outing at LES A Casino in Jeju Shinhwa World from Oct. 10-21, according to PokerNews. The 12-day festival carries $2.3 million, or KRW 3.1 billion, in guarantees and pushes buy-ins as high as $60,000.

The schedule is built around two Main Events. The ₩1.3 million KPC Main Event offers an ₩880 million guarantee and runs six flights from Oct. 11-14, while the $15,000 King’s Main Event begins on Oct. 17, uses two starting flights, and crowns its winner on Oct. 20.

The opening day starts with the ₩800,000 KPC Bankroll Builder, which has ₩180 million guaranteed across three flights. Just 90 minutes after the first cards there, the $5,000 King’s Debut begins with a $1 million guarantee, and the mid-festival stretch adds a ₩5 million High Roller with ₩420 million guaranteed before a $25,000 Single Day Super High Roller and a $60,000 King’s Super High Roller.

As reported on Aug. 28, KPC Poker had already started selling limited Jeju hotel-and-entry bundles for the same festival. Those packages paired tournament entries, player credit and accommodation, and one offer gives full-festival hotel stays for players who pre-pay $70,000 in buy-ins.

A separate promotion cuts the administration fee in half for players seated before selected events begin, with the discount applying to 17 tournaments or starting flights marked by a gift-box symbol on the official schedule. The closing stretch also includes a $30,000 Final Coronation and a $20,000 Single Day Super High Roller on the final day.