The WSOP Circuit will make its first stop in Spain when Casino Gran Vía hosts an 11-day festival in Madrid from Oct. 23 to Nov. 2. The series will award 11 Circuit rings across buy-ins from €300 to €2,500, with more than 50 tournaments on the overall schedule.

Casino Gran Vía said each ring winner will receive a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package for the Bahamas in December. The venue described the Circuit as the travelling version of the World Series of Poker, which stages ring events at casinos around the world.

The festival begins with the €300 Mini Main Event on Oct. 23. It has four opening flights across two days, with survivors returning on Oct. 25. That day also starts the €550 Seniors event for players aged 50 and older, along with the €550 Mystery Bounty.

The €300 Colossus runs six starting flights from Oct. 25 through Nov. 1 before its final day on Nov. 2. Other ring events include a €500 Knockout, the €2,500 High Roller on Oct. 27, a €1,000 Deepstack and €550 Pot-Limit Omaha on Oct. 31, plus the €400 Superstack and €350 Bigstack. The Bigstack closes the ring schedule.

The €1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event is Ring #7 and starts Oct. 28 with four flights. Flights A through C use 40-minute levels, while the Oct. 30 flight uses 20-minute levels. Day 2 follows on Oct. 31, with Spain’s first WSOP Circuit Main Event champion due to be decided Nov. 1.

There is one conflicting listing to note: a separate PokerNews schedule page gives the festival window as Oct. 29 through Nov. 2. Casino Gran Vía’s announcement and PokerNews’ detailed schedule report both give Oct. 23 to Nov. 2, while the official WSOP schedule lists the Main Event, Mini Main, Colossus and other tournaments. Casino Gran Vía also described the Main Event entry as €1,650, whereas PokerNews and the WSOP schedule list it at €1,500.

Grosvenor Poker’s G300 is scheduled to return to Manchester BNR from Oct. 20-25 as Round 9 of the 2026 schedule. The £260+£40 event carries a £100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The tournament offers four live starting flights plus an online Day 1 on Wednesday evening. Players receive 40,000 chips, while the standard live flights use 30-minute levels.

A turbo flight is set for Sunday morning. Survivors will return at 4 p.m. that day for Day 2, which plays down to a winner.

Grosvenor has presented the G300 as a deeper-structured option for the £300 price point, positioned above its lower-buy-in events. The format was introduced to the 2026 calendar alongside the reduced-price G200 series, replacing the former 25/50 and Mini Fest events.

Manchester has already hosted a G300 this year as part of the February GUKPT Manchester festival. That edition also guaranteed £100,000, but had five starting flights, compared with four live flights and one online Day 1 for the October event.

The Oct. 20-25 window also includes G200 events in Newcastle and Portsmouth. Each has a £175+£25 buy-in and £50,000 guarantee, bringing the three tournaments’ combined guarantees to £200,000.

The G300’s Sunday turbo flight and Day 2 are scheduled for Oct. 25.

The WSOP Circuit is at Deerfoot Inn & Casino in Calgary through Oct. 12, with an 18-tournament schedule expected to produce nearly 9,000 entries. Its $2,300 Main Event is projected to attract more than 1,000 entries and build a prize pool above $2 million.

GlobeNewswire reported that GGPoker presents the 12-day stop, which brings professional, emerging and recreational players from Canada and beyond into contention for prize money and WSOP Circuit gold rings. The Main Event sits at the center of a schedule that also includes the $400 Big 30 Stack, Mystery Bounty, Mini Main Event, Monster Stack, H.O.R.S.E. 8-Max and a $3,500 High Roller.

Other events include mixed NLH/PLO, bounty, seniors, ladies and PLO tournaments. The Main Event has three starting flights, while two other multi-flight events have four and three, respectively.

The field includes Innisfil, Ontario’s Mike Leah, who has nearly US$9.8 million in live tournament earnings and plays online as GoLeafsGoEh. Leah won his third WSOP bracelet on GGPoker the week before the Calgary series and followed it with another deep run in a separate bracelet event.

Other Alberta players named for the series include Calgary native Haven Taylor, Edmonton’s DJ Sharma and Kevin Martin, known as KMart. Sharma finished 78th in the 2026 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas. British Columbia player Gregory Liow, who plays as Greg Goes All In, is also in the field.

WSOP bracelet winners Pei (Jerry) Li, Jaspal (Paul) Brar, Homan Mohammad and Christopher Alcindor are among the entrants. GGPoker is also offering exclusive satellites and Ontario freerolls that give players a route into the series and a chance at a Circuit ring.

As covered in August, the Canadian live-poker calendar also featured the first WSOP Super Circuit Canada stop at Playground in Kahnawake, underlining the recent run of major WSOP-branded events in the country.

GGPoker’s $2 million Bounty Hunters Series Cash Drop opens Oct. 2 and runs through Oct. 23, giving cash-game players entries into automatic Flipout tournaments rather than paying conventional cash drops.

Players earn Flipout Chips by making a net profit in eligible cash-game hands. The chips become their starting stacks in the next Flipout, so winning more qualifying pots can mean beginning the tournament with more chips.

The promotion covers Hold’em, PLO, PLO-5, PLO-6, Short Deck, Rush&Cash and All-in or Fold tables. The qualifying pot requirement varies by game: poker.pro lists thresholds of 50 big blinds for Hold’em, 16 big blinds for All-In or Fold Hold’em and 10 big blinds for Omaha.

Flipouts launch automatically every three hours, or eight times a day, following qualifying windows in which players can collect chips. The first seven daily events each carry a $10,000 cash-dollar prize pool, while the final daily Flipout guarantees C$20,000.

More than 10,000 Flipout players will receive prizes in cash dollars, which can be used for buy-ins at their preferred stakes. The format is open to all cash-game players rather than being limited to tournament entrants.

The Cash Drop runs alongside GGPoker’s Bounty Hunters Series, which lasts through Oct. 27. Tournament players can earn leaderboard points through eliminations during the series, while qualifying cash-game pots offer a separate route to Flipout Chips.

That makes the Cash Drop a bridge between the operator’s cash tables and its Bounty Hunters tournament schedule, with the promotion ending four days before the series closes.

Felipe “lipe piv” Boianovsky won the $10,300 WCOOP No-Limit Hold’em Main Event on Sept. 30, earning $551,632 and becoming the first player to win the $10K Main Event at both WCOOP and SCOOP.

The Brazilian’s earlier victory came in the 2023 SCOOP $10,300 Main Event, which paid about $1.04 million. That event drew 587 entries and built a $5.87 million prize pool. Boianovsky beat Laszlo “omaha4rollz” Bujtas heads-up to claim that title.

The WCOOP win was Boianovsky’s second title in the festival. The $10,300 event attracted 289 entries and produced a prize pool of about $2.9 million, roughly $390,000 above its guarantee. Each of the nine final-table players was assured at least $62,089.

Boianovsky came into the nine-handed final table as a middle stack, but took over after the first two eliminations. He knocked out every remaining player from the final seven, then started heads-up play against Canada’s Santiago “13santoy13” Plante with about a five-to-one chip lead.

On the final hand, Boianovsky held pocket kings and improved to three of a kind on the turn, leaving Plante drawing dead. The result completed a rare double in PokerStars’ two major online championship series, specifically at their $10K Main Event level.

The 2026 WCOOP ran from Sept. 6 through Sept. 30 and comprised 121 events. Its three NLHE Main Events began Sept. 27, with each surpassing its guarantee.

WPT Global has launched a 2-For-1 deal on its nightly $5.50, $50,000-guaranteed Progressive Knockout tournament, giving players a second entry ticket each time they pay a qualifying buy-in with cash.

The promotion began Oct. 1. A cash entry credits a free $5.50 ticket that can be used for another shot at the same $50,000 guaranteed prize pool, effectively giving players two tournament opportunities for one paid entry.

The tournament is scheduled for 22:00 UTC+8 and is open to new and existing customers. WPT Global describes the offer as the “2-For-1 Tournament,” while PokerNews identified the nightly event as a PKO.

Cash re-entries also qualify for a free ticket, with no limit on the number a player can earn during the promotion. However, a player cannot use a promotional or previously awarded free ticket to generate another one.

The tickets expire seven days after issue. They are non-transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and cannot be used in other tournament formats.

Players also need to be able to use an eligible cash payment method, since WPT Global notes that some methods are unavailable in every region. The deal gives frequent entrants a way to build several future entries, provided they use each ticket before its seven-day window closes.

RunGood Poker Series will bring its Golden Expedition to bestbet Jacksonville later this month, with 11 championship-ring events led by a $1,200 Main Event guaranteeing $300,000. The Florida stop’s detailed schedule opens Oct. 21 with a $200 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event and runs through Nov. 1.

There is a small date discrepancy in the published listings. RunGood’s event header advertises Oct. 22 through Nov. 1, but its detailed schedule, along with PokerNews’ preview, places the Ladies ring event at noon on Oct. 21. Pre-series satellites are available Oct. 13-20.

The Ladies event is marked for BESTBETLIVE streaming. The series’ two largest guaranteed events account for $500,000 in listed prize-pool guarantees.

The $400 PokerNews PowerStack begins Oct. 22 and carries a $200,000 guarantee. It has six starting flights across Oct. 22-24 before its final day on Oct. 25. The first day contains two flights, followed by further flights each day until the finale.

Other ring events include a $400 PKO No-Limit Hold’em tournament on Oct. 25, a $300 NLH Mega Stack and $300 Big O/8 on Oct. 26, and a $300 Double Board PLO/NLH alongside a $300 tag-team event on Oct. 27. A $660 six-max NLH tournament follows Oct. 28, while $100 Flip and Go events run daily.

The Main Event has Day 1 flights on Oct. 29, 30 and 31. Players advancing from those sessions return Nov. 1 to decide the title, with the final marked for BESTBETLIVE coverage. PokerNews is also scheduled to provide live Main Event reporting.

Jacksonville has hosted RGPS before. The tour debuted at bestbet Jacksonville in April 2023, when Antwan Prince won the Main Event for $92,796 following a four-way deal. The following year’s Main Event drew 520 entries and generated a $508,541 prize pool, with Dimas Martinez Jr. taking $104,524.

The Jacksonville stop is part of RGPS’ 2026 Fall Season, branded Golden Expedition, which includes a returning Player of the Year race powered by The Hendon Mob and Global Poker Index. The season is set to finish with the Dream Factory Festival at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California, from Nov. 27 through Dec. 3, including two invitationals for 2026 RunGood ring winners.

Octopi Poker has added a beginner solver course, weekly live study sessions and a new Sam Greenwood column to its Professional tier, while raising Pro membership to $75 a month or $750 a year from Oct. 1. The previous Pro price was $65 monthly or $600 annually.

The October update is aimed at making the platform easier to use for players at different stages of their study. Pokerfuse reported that My First Solver was developed by Octopi CEO Victoria Livschitz and tournament player and coach Matt Hunt for members new to game theory optimal strategy and solvers. It is designed both as an introduction to solver study and to Octopi’s own tools.

My First Solver is available as a standalone purchase and comes with annual Personal and Pro subscriptions. Personal membership costs $25 per month or $200 per year.

The new Guided Study feature gives every Professional member one exclusive live Matt Hunt lecture each week. The sessions focus on tournament-poker concepts, themes selected for the month and recurring mistakes Hunt sees players make. Recordings will be available to members who cannot attend live.

Octopi also offers a self-paced guided MTT program with no scheduled live sessions. The $90 program provides 90 days of Professional access alongside three courses and 90 lessons covering subjects from tournament foundations and preflop play to river decisions and final-table ICM.

Professional members will also receive Punt of the Day weekly, an Octopi-exclusive Sam Greenwood column built around real tournament decisions and Greenwood’s approach to them.

As covered in July, Octopi had already reworked Thomas Boivin’s Beyond the Solver into a self-paced course, and My First Solver adds another instructional entry point alongside it. The platform’s broader Professional access includes its trainer, The Vault hand database, Octopi Academy, Leak Analytics and more than 2,000 preflop and postflop ICM simulations.

Octopi is still developing a Mentorship program, planned at $300 per month, that would pair a personalized improvement plan with access to a private poker mentor.

The WSOP Circuit returned to Harrah’s Pompano Beach on Oct. 1 for a 12-day Florida stop featuring 18 official ring events and more than $1.8 million in advertised guarantees. The series runs through Oct. 12, with the $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event carrying the biggest guarantee at $1 million.

The Main Event has three starting flights on Oct. 8, 9 and 10. Its schedule sits alongside a $400 Double Stack Opener with a $50,000 guarantee, a $600 Mini Main Event with four starting flights and a $250,000 guarantee, and a $500 Monster Stack that offers three flights and $150,000 guaranteed.

The opening day also included a $1,100 Seniors High Roller, reserved for players 50 and older, with a $50,000 guarantee. Elsewhere, the 18-event slate includes $600 Pot-Limit Omaha and $400 PLO 8-or-Better tournaments, a $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event with $100,000 guaranteed on Oct. 7, and a $2,200 High Roller with a $50,000 guarantee on Oct. 11.

The final day brings the $400 Double Stack Closer, also with $50,000 guaranteed. Other ring events on the schedule include a Black Chip Bounty, Big O, Ladies No-Limit Hold’em, a 40/40/40/No-Limit Hold’em event for players at least 40 years old, and two additional $400 No-Limit Hold’em tournaments.

The Pompano Beach festival is the venue’s second Circuit stop of 2026. It previously hosted an 18-ring series from Jan. 28 through Feb. 9; Carter McMahon had entered that earlier stop as the reigning Pompano Beach Main Event champion after winning $212,703 and his second career ring in October 2025.

Every 2026 Circuit ring winner receives a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package. It includes entry to the $2,750 Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty and complimentary accommodation at Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, The Bahamas.

WSOP Paradise runs from Dec. 2-17 at Baha Mar, with 20 bracelet events and $120 million in guarantees. The Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty opens the festival with a $5 million guarantee, and the WSOP Paradise page says all 1,023 Circuit ring winners are invited with the free package.

GTO Wizard has scheduled four weekly live coaching sessions for October, running from Oct. 7 through Oct. 28. The lineup pairs tournament-hand reviews from the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II with cash-game lessons on bet sizing and in-position raises.

The program opens Oct. 7 with 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Espen Jorstad reviewing hands from the $200,000 Triton Invitational at Jeju II, according to PokerNews’ October schedule. The series included Brazilian player Joao Simao’s $7.2 million win.

Kevin Rabichow follows on Oct. 14 with more hands from the South Korean Triton stop. His review covers a festival that included the $100,000 no-limit hold’em Main Event and the $150,000 10th Anniversary Special. Rabichow has $4.6 million in live poker earnings.

The final two sessions shift to cash-game strategy. Scrimitzu of Crush Live Poker presents “Betsize Compendium” on Oct. 21, a lesson aimed at cash-game players. Cash-game specialist Vanja then closes the slate with “Raising in Position Like a Pro” on Oct. 28.

The October program continues GTO Wizard’s weekly coaching format. September’s schedule included Jorstad’s analysis of the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table, including whether he agreed with solver output on Lauri Saaskilahti’s hero call, plus two sessions on post-flop play and later-stage multi-table tournaments.

GTO Wizard also maintains a library of previously streamed coaching sessions, which can be filtered by coach and format and is presented as material for both multi-table tournament and cash-game players.

ACR Poker will put its $215 Ladies Online Championship alongside the opening flights of its $6.5 million Dual Venom PKOs on Sunday, Oct. 4. The women-only tournament starts at 2:05 p.m. ET, carries a $25,000 guarantee and awards its winner a championship trophy.

The day begins with two satellites for the Ladies Championship. A $22 Turbo at 11:05 a.m. ET guarantees five seats, followed by a $21 Hyper at 12:30 p.m. ET that guarantees five more, according to a WebWire release.

PokerListings separately described the event as open only to verified women. It said men found playing will have winnings confiscated and will not receive their buy-ins back. The outlet also reported that the winner’s physical trophy will be sent by mail.

There is a timing inconsistency in the satellite information. WebWire lists one ladies satellite at 11:05 a.m. ET and another at 12:30 p.m. ET, while PokerListings says two special satellites start at 12:30 p.m. ET. PokerListings says regular satellite qualification remains available through Oct. 4.

The Ladies event shares the card with the first Day 1 flights of the $5 million No-Limit Hold’em Venom PKO and $1.5 million Pot-Limit Omaha Venom PKO. Both begin at 1:05 p.m. ET and cost $2,650 to enter directly. In the progressive-knockout format, half of a knocked-out player’s bounty is paid immediately to the eliminator, while the other half is added to that player’s bounty.

Each Venom has five starting flights, continuing Oct. 8, 11, 15 and 18. Players who qualify in more than one flight can combine their stacks before Day 2 on Oct. 19. The NLH tournament then plays a Day 3 on Oct. 20, while PLO moves from Day 2 directly to its final table. Both final tables are set for Oct. 21 at 4:05 p.m. ET.

Venom Fever qualification runs through Oct. 18, including Mega Satellite paths starting at $0 and Survivor Flips Step Satellites from 80 cents. Last year’s two Venoms generated about $7.85 million in combined prize pools, above their guarantees.

Champions Club Texas in Houston launched its Rebirth of Champions cash-game promotion Oct. 1, pairing a no-prop-player format with $150,000 in advertised player returns and a January finale. The club calls it its largest promotion to date, and the campaign offers more than $150,000 in prizes and runs into the start of 2027.

The promotion arrives shortly after Mike Traylor took over as poker director. PokerNews reported that Traylor left Texas Card House Spring, where he had been general manager, in July, and said he wants to reintroduce Champions Club as a leading destination for both tournaments and cash games. The club has historically been seen more as a tournament venue than a room for recreational cash-game players.

Champions Club removed its prop-player program entirely after Traylor’s arrival. He said props had been intended to get games running, but limited action and a poor overall player experience ultimately outweighed that benefit.

Rebirth of Champions is explicitly built around cash games. According to the club’s promotion page, players can enter daily Royal Champion drawings beginning Oct. 1, with two progressive jackpots worth up to $25,000 apiece. Players can also qualify for the $100,000 Rebirth Finale, scheduled for Jan. 15-16, 2027.

Traylor began in poker as a low-stakes dealer in 2011, became a game runner and later general manager of a larger private club, then joined Texas Card House Spring as assistant general manager in 2022 before taking its top job a year later. At Champions Club, he has also introduced additional training and development opportunities for dealers and staff.

The Houston club, co-owned by Phil Hellmuth, promotes itself as a private-membership room for beginners and experienced tournament players. Its attached hotel, formerly a Hampton Inn, provides on-site accommodation for tournament travelers, and the property also has a sister location in Dallas.

The club’s next major tournament stop is the RunGood Poker Series, which begins Oct. 12.

Sam Soverel has won the $15,700 PGT PLO Series Event No. 6, a pot-limit Omaha mystery bounty tournament, for $250,000. He defeated Robert Cowen heads-up to claim his 17th PokerGO Tour title, extending his all-time record.

The latest win arrived less than a week after Soverel collected title No. 16 in a $5,300 PLO event worth $122,850. As we reported in September, that earlier PGT PLO Series victory had moved Soverel three trophies clear of Alex Foxen.

Card Player reported that the new title has widened that margin to four: Soverel has 17 PGT wins, while Foxen remains second on the all-time list with 13. The 38-year-old, a four-time WSOP bracelet winner, now has more than $33.8 million in recorded career cashes.

The Event No. 6 field produced 46 entries and a $460,000 prize pool, with another $230,000 allocated to mystery bounties. Those bounty prizes became available once 10 players remained, and Sean Winter pulled the largest, worth $100,000, late on Day 1.

Winter ultimately finished fourth for $48,500, bringing his combined payout and bounty haul to $148,500. Soverel then built a lead, having eliminated Brevin Andreadis on the money bubble with a runner-runner straight and taken out Eelis Parssinen in fifth after flopping the nut straight against pocket aces.

At the seven-handed final table, Soverel held roughly twice the chips of Cowen and Winter. Joao Simao was first out in the money in seventh for $19,000, followed by Sean Rafael in sixth for $27,500, Parssinen for $37,000, Winter and then Steve Zolotow, who collected $67,000 in third after Cowen made a jack-high straight on the river.

Cowen, a two-time WSOP bracelet winner and Triton Super High Roller champion, took $141,000 for second. Soverel closed it out by making a flush on the river in the final hand.

The win earned Soverel 192 PokerGO Tour points, moving him to 14th in the season standings. Winter’s fourth-place finish gave him 58 points and a seven-point lead over Parssinen, who had entered the event atop the leaderboard and received 44 points for fifth. The top 40 players at season’s end qualify for the $1 million PokerGO Tour Championship.

Calvin Anderson has won his eighth World Series of Poker bracelet, taking down WSOP Online’s $777 No-Limit Hold’em Lucky 7’s event for $48,914. Playing under the screen name “SethRogan,” Anderson beat a 363-entry field to become the 12th player to reach eight bracelets.

The win was Anderson’s third bracelet in three months and his third career online bracelet. It also put him alongside Daniel Negreanu and Nick Schulman among the players with eight WSOP titles.

Anderson began the tournament at Resorts World Las Vegas, where he had gone to eat and play slot machines. He built his online stack while playing slots, then drove home in his Tesla and switched to a laptop shortly before the final table began.

A pivotal point came with 30 players remaining, when Anderson won a 100-big-blind race against “Jodontknowh.” That opponent ultimately finished second for $36,209. Anderson entered heads-up play with nearly all the chips, holding a lead of almost 50-to-1.

Nick Palma finished seventh for $6,987 after his ace-jack failed to improve against Anderson’s ace-king. Salvatore Dicarlo placed ninth for $4,446 and Benjamin Felson was eighth for $5,717.

The Lucky 7’s result followed an exceptional summer series for Anderson. In June, he won the $10,000 Razz Championship for his sixth bracelet and then defeated Josh Arieh in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for bracelet No. 7. The H.O.R.S.E. win paid $413,580 and came from a 189-player field, making Anderson the 18th player to reach seven bracelets at the time.

Anderson’s bracelet record spans several poker formats. Before this latest win, his titles included two Razz Championships, Stud Hi-Lo, mixed games and the $10,000 Eight-Game Mix. He now has about $8.2 million in live tournament cashes.

WSOP Online allows players located in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania to compete for official WSOP gold bracelets without leaving home, according to the WSOP’s all-time bracelet page.

ACR Poker’s Oct. 1 client update introduced Progressive Mystery Bounty tournaments, combining mystery-prize knockouts with progressive bounty mechanics in a multi-day format. The release also widened SPINZ staking-ticket support, gave players separate PG and R-rated emoji settings, and brought its refreshed mobile table design to more games.

According to ACR Poker’s software-update page, bounty action is locked during every Day 1 flight of a Progressive Mystery Bounty event. After all flights finish, the bounty pool is randomly distributed among the surviving Day 2 entries.

Once Day 2 eliminations begin, the player scoring a knockout receives half of the eliminated player’s bounty immediately. The other half is added to that player’s own bounty, creating the progressive element. A mystery-bounty animation reveals the award, and players can find the tournaments using the Mystery Bounty lobby category, with each event lobby showing its schedule, buy-in and structure.

The structure follows the broader mystery-bounty convention of delaying bounties until a later stage of a multi-day tournament. PokerNews notes that the first Mystery Bounty event was held at the 2021 Wynn Fall Classic, and the format has since been used by the World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour.

The update also split Emoji Gallery reactions into Mild (PG) and Wild® collections. Wild adds more aggressive reactions and throwables, while Mild retains the existing presentation. The setting is local to each player’s client, meaning the same reaction can display differently depending on a player’s chosen rating. Players can also turn emojis off under Settings, Playing Experience and Gameplay.

Staking Tickets now work across all seven SPINZ buy-in levels, from 25 cents through $100. An eligible backer selects a ticket and buy-in level, sets the staking percentage and sends an offer that expires after 30 days by default; any payout is divided according to the agreed percentage. The feature remains in beta, with ticket purchasing and sending limited to selected users, although anyone can receive a ticket.

On mobile, the table layout previously used for SPINZ now covers cash games, Blitz, tournaments, Sit & Go’s, On Demand games and multi-day tournaments. The release also added an overlay group in the lobby for selected events where current entries may not cover the advertised guarantee, plus revised promotional badges including an American-flag marker replacing the previous Free banner.

Finally, the client corrected display issues in certain multi-player all-in hand histories and a prize-pool calculation problem in some guaranteed multi-day tournaments with overlays. In three-or-more-player all-ins, hand histories now place folded players’ dead money in the proper side-pot line and show the correct uncalled-bet amount, without changing the underlying pot calculations. The prize-pool issue could cause flight prize pools to be counted twice.

GucciNIKE won the biggest CoinPoker cash-game pot of the week, taking down about $548,000 in a heads-up $500/$1,000 five-card pot-limit Omaha hand against sammyjazzykins. The result helped GucciNIKE finish the week about $1.275 million ahead, the largest reported cash-game gain.

CardPlayer’s weekly round-up described the hand as a severe cooler for sammyjazzykins. When the money went in, sammyjazzykins held aces and the nut-flush draw, while GucciNIKE had middle pair, a second-nut-flush draw and a gutshot. Sammyjazzykins was a 65.45% favorite at that point.

The players agreed to run the board twice. GucciNIKE made trips on the first runout and a runner-runner full house on the second, sweeping the entire $547,671 pot.

PokerStrategy had separately put GucciNIKE’s gain over the preceding seven days at nearly $1.3 million, and said seven-figure weekly wins and losses had become regular features of CoinPoker’s high-stakes cash tables. It also identified CoinPoker’s VIP Arena as the place users can access and watch those games.

The latest result follows the roughly $850,000 GucciNIKE won from Jared “Theblez” Bleznick in a nearly 400-hand $500/$1,000 PLO session, as we reported in September. That three-table match, which used a $200 ante, helped push GucciNIKE’s winnings across that Friday’s matches beyond $1.4 million.

CoinPoker describes the VIP Arena as a premium cash-game environment offering stakes from $50/$100 to $5,000/$10,000, with Hold’em, Short Deck and four-, five- and six-card PLO among its formats. Eligible players can receive a 50% share of profits for their contribution to the games, according to the site.

Mikel Calo took a commanding lead after the opening flight of the €1,500 WSOP Circuit Malta Main Event, bagging 940,000 chips as Day 1a’s bubble broke earlier than expected at Casino Malta.

The Wednesday flight drew 107 entries and generated a €135,000 prize pool. Seventeen players reached Day 2 with a cash secured before midnight, even though the tournament would normally need another one or two levels to reach its target of roughly 15% of the field.

Calo began the closing hands around an average stack, according to PokerNews, then eliminated two players to finish on top. He nearly doubled through an aces-versus-queens confrontation before making a runner-runner flush against Robert Binek’s two pair to eliminate Binek on the bubble.

Thomas Rayssiguier bagged 534,000, leaving him almost 60 big blinds behind Calo. Local player Matthew Micallef rounded out the top three with 480,000, followed by Carlo van Ravenswoud on 443,000 and Gabriele Paone on 430,000.

Gabriele Re advanced with 358,000, while Evangelos Charalampous, who had held the lead for much of the day, finished with 276,000. Birger Larsen (237,000), Georgios Tsouloftas (221,000), Mario Llapi (190,000), David Ledden (158,000), Filip Barczak (101,000) and Andrea Dal Bo (82,000) were also among the survivors.

Texapoker is running the Main Event as part of the WSOP Circuit’s 11-day Casino Malta stop in St. Julian’s, which is offering 12 rings across its schedule. The Main Event winner receives one of those rings.

Three more starting flights remain. Day 1b begins Oct. 1 at 12:30 p.m. local time, followed by Day 1c on Oct. 2 at 12:30 p.m. and the final Day 1d flight at 8 p.m.; Day 2 begins Oct. 3 at 1 p.m., with the final table set for Oct. 4.

Playtika has rebuilt the progression system in its WSOP Poker mobile game, replacing the single long climb toward the next Club with smaller Levels inside every Club. The new structure is designed to give players a visible sequence of goals, with Power Level milestones delivering additional benefits and rewards before they move up a Club tier.

The overhaul also adds three new top-end Clubs: Elite, Titans and Champions. These tiers raise the game’s progression ceiling for its most competitive players and act as status markers among leading players. Reaching a new Club tier triggers a transformation of the player’s Club Shield and a celebratory animation, while each level-up now has its own animation.

According to Playtika’s Oct. 1 announcement, the changes responded directly to player feedback seeking a deeper and more rewarding way to grow within a Club. Guy Ceder, WSOP’s general manager, said the company wanted every step forward to feel meaningful and every reward earned.

The Clubs interface has also been redesigned to be more modern, interactive and easier to navigate. Playtika said the update includes a wider table selection and more ways to win, alongside the new progression and reward pacing.

WSOP Poker is the official free-to-play game of the World Series of Poker, offering game modes, tournaments and special events with virtual prizes and trophies. It uses virtual chips and does not offer real-money gambling or real-money prizes.

The company described WSOP as the top free-to-play mobile poker game by revenue across the Apple App Store and Google Play in the 12 months through September, citing Sensor Tower. Playtika positioned the redesign as part of its continued investment in a long-standing and highly engaged WSOP Poker player community.

Kerryjane Craigie’s UK Ladies Weekend at London’s Hippodrome Casino will run Oct. 16-18, with Saturday’s coaching, study sessions and dinner already sold out. The three-day Women’s Poker Association initiative is designed for both newcomers and experienced players looking to sharpen their game.

Craigie, PokerStars Ambassador and the Hippodrome’s director of poker, is hosting the event. PokerNews reported that Friday begins with dedicated women’s cash games, which will be streamed on YouTube with commentary, strategy guidance and poker discussion.

Saturday’s program focuses on learning and player development. Jennifer will discuss poker perspective and decision-making, while Marle will break down tournament hands, key spots and turning points. Victoria’s session is set to cover structured study and using off-table work to improve decisions at the table.

Maria Ho will take part in an exclusive question-and-answer session. The day concludes with a four-course dinner in the casino’s private dining rooms, with food from Heliot Steak House.

The weekend’s women-only tournament starts at noon on Sunday, Oct. 18. It has a £300 buy-in, a £20,000 guarantee, a 20,000-chip starting stack and 25-minute levels. About 15 entries were already headed to the tournament, with on-the-day registration opening at 11 a.m.

Craigie has run £35 live satellites through her monthly Ladies Club and £33 online PokerStars qualifiers for the tournament. As we covered in September, PokerStars added three £300 Women’s Classic seats through its WCOOP Women’s World Championship, with the top three finishers set to receive them.

The event follows a partnership announced in June for a dedicated women’s weekend at the Hippodrome. Its stated aim is to make poker more inclusive and create further opportunities for women. WPA President AJ Rudolph has said women account for less than 5% of live-poker fields, though that share is growing.

Craigie said the interest and support from the women’s poker community had made her proud.

Jonas Kronwitter captured his first PokerGO Tour title by winning the $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Event No. 5 at the 2026 PGT PLO Series. He topped 63 entries for $201,600 from a $630,000 prize pool, defeating Richard Gryko heads-up.

Kronwitter began the final day as chip leader with five players left and carried more than a two-to-one advantage into heads-up play. Gryko earned $126,000 for second, his second consecutive runner-up result at the series.

The final table turned decisively in Kronwitter’s favor when his set of eights beat Jeremy Druckman’s top two pair to eliminate Druckman in fourth for $63,000. Kronwitter then rivered a flush against Jiyang Gan, who collected $88,200 in third place. Gryko had earlier knocked out Youness Barakat in fifth for $47,250.

In the final hand, Gryko held A♠J♠8♣4♣ against Kronwitter’s K♥J♥8♠7♣. An A♥ turn and 2♦ river sealed the title for Kronwitter.

The victory capped a strong early run for Kronwitter at the stop. He had finished second to Sam Soverel in Event No. 1, then cashed Events No. 2 and No. 4 before his win in Event No. 5. His four series cashes totaled $308,000 and lifted his career tournament earnings to nearly $4.3 million.

The Event No. 5 result awarded Kronwitter 202 PGT points and moved him into the series lead, with Gryko second. Card Player also credited Kronwitter with 360 Player of the Year points, bringing his 2026 total to 1,808, just outside the top 250 in that ranking.

At the time of the result, three PGT PLO Series events remained, including another PLO tournament, a Mystery Bounty and the $26,000 championship. The player-of-the-series winner receives a $10,000 PGT Passport.

Daniil Kiselev turned a Day 1d low point of 23,000 chips, with blinds at 4,000/8,000, into victory in the 2026 Mediterranean Poker Party Main Event. He beat a 972-entry field in the $5,400 no-limit hold’em tournament at Merit Crystal Cove Hotel Casino & Spa in North Cyprus, earning $1 million and the largest cash of his career.

The comeback continued well beyond the opening-day escape. Kiselev was 13th with 15 players left, then reached the nine-handed final table as chip leader after winning an early coin flip against Nikolay Baryshnikov. PokerNews reported that he gained the chip advantage after eliminating defending champion Daniel Thaller and did not give it up.

Kiselev eliminated Ivan Bryksin in eighth for $80,000, Naji Tannoury in sixth for $150,000 and Timo Vogt in fifth for $210,000. His ace-six then held against Thaller’s king-queen to send the 2025 champion out in fourth for $290,000.

Mehmet Biskin knocked out Jordan Woodall in third for $420,000, but Kiselev began heads-up with close to a two-to-one lead. He extended it through small pots and river calls against Biskin’s bluffs before the final all-in.

Kiselev limped the button with nine-three suited and shoved over Biskin’s raise. Biskin called with king-queen, but Kiselev paired his three on the flop and held on a J♠ 7♥ 3♦ A♦ A♥ board. Biskin received $621,000 for second place, his biggest score.

The Main Event paid 146 places from its $5 million guarantee. Kiselev’s win was his first title and fifth final-table finish of 2026, lifting his career tournament earnings above $2.4 million. His previous best payday was $568,000 for fourth in a $50,000 Triton Poker Montenegro high roller.

The Main Event closed the 11-day Mediterranean Poker Party festival. As covered in September, Boris Smuskevicius also won the festival’s $3,500 Merit Poker Cup, taking $217,000 after a three-way ICM deal.

PokerStars on FanDuel’s September Dynasty Series has ended with screen names LoveToLose and Mamalega winning the separate $300 no-limit hold’em Main Events in the United States and Ontario. LoveToLose earned $59,422 after topping a U.S. field of 859 entries, while Mamalega collected $10,100 from Ontario’s 176-entry, province-exclusive tournament.

The U.S. Main Event carried a $350,000 guarantee and ran across Sept. 27-28. The festival’s third Main Event was a $1,500 U.S. High Roller, alongside the two $300 events.

As we reported Sept. 3, the festival was PokerStars on FanDuel’s first tournament series for Ontario players and was initially announced as a Sept. 12-28 run. The Ontario schedule listed 61 events, all no-limit hold’em, while the U.S. schedule had 100 tournaments across no-limit hold’em, PLO and PLO5.

PokerNews described the completed series as offering $3.5 million in guarantees across Ontario, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania. That differs from the pre-series Poker.org preview, which put the $3.5 million guarantee on the U.S. schedule alone and said an Ontario-wide guarantee had not yet been announced.

The U.S. buy-ins ranged from $10 to $1,500; Ontario’s ranged from C$30 to C$1,500. A leaderboard ran throughout the series, rewarding players for consistent results.

The schedule began Sept. 9 with a $50 Nightly Dynasty event guaranteed for $25,000 and a $1,000 Storm Kickoff with a $100,000 guarantee. Other highlighted events included a $500 Storm with $100,000 guaranteed and a $100 Dynasty with a $150,000 guarantee.

The festival closed Sept. 28 with the $150 Sendoff Cooldown, which carried a $12,500 guarantee. It was among the largest series offered since PokerStars merged operations with FanDuel and began offering shared U.S. tournament liquidity across Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Spanish player JULIO built a 1.494 million-chip stack to take a huge lead after Day 1 of the €3,000 EPC High Roller at King’s Resort in Rozvadov. His nearest challenger, Davit Mikhanashvili, bagged 1.065 million, while Florian Duta finished third on 836,000.

JULIO’s run came after he lost his first stack on a bluff in Level 3 and promptly reentered. From a 200,000-chip starting stack, he accumulated nearly 1.5 million over six levels, leaving him with roughly 40% more chips than Mikhanashvili, according to PokerNews.

The no-limit hold’em tournament, the largest no-limit hold’em buy-in offered at the King’s Million European Poker Championship, drew 92 entries on Day 1. Forty-eight players advanced, although the field can still grow: registration remains available for three further levels on Day 2 and reentries are unlimited. The event carries a €500,000 guarantee and had required 167 entries to avoid an overlay.

Behind the top three, Axel Bayout advanced with 596,000. Bayout had already won a €150,000 bounty in the festival’s Mystery Bounty event earlier in the week. Zdenek Zizka bagged 428,000 while also playing Day 1a of the Main Event, and late entrant Antoine Vranken doubled his stack to 412,000.

Tobias Peters returned with 273,000, while Vasilis Nikolas, seeking a second title of the series, finished on 250,000. Darius Neagoe, Ermanno Di Nicola, Mateusz Moolhuizen, Guy Taylor and Max Kruse did not make it through Day 1 but can still reenter.

As we reported in September, the King’s Million European Poker Championship is King’s Resort’s new autumn flagship, with more than €10 million in guarantees across its Sept. 16-Oct. 6 schedule.

Day 2 begins at 3 p.m. local time on Oct. 1 at Level 10, with 4,000/8,000 blinds and an 8,000 big blind ante. Levels remain 45 minutes, registration closes at the start of Level 13, and play continues until a champion is crowned.

ACR Poker has completed its $50 million guaranteed OSS XL, with CPUrul0r, Aldeberan90 and MillionDollarCorner winning the three Main Events. The tournaments generated a combined $5.36 million in prize pools, and the series closed Sept. 29.

The $2,650 Main Event was the largest event by prize pool. CPUrul0r took $518,759 after 1,069 entries created a $2.67 million pool, $172,500 above its $2.5 million guarantee. It paid 136 places and produced six six-figure payouts, including $377,921 for runner-up EbillionS00n and $275,882 for third-place finisher origi69. ACR Pro Rob Kuhn finished sixth for $107,322.

As reported Sept. 27, the series had entered its final stretch after several high-roller results, with the three Main Events still to be decided. The $1,050 Main Event drew 2,184 entries for a $2.18 million prize pool, clearing its $2 million guarantee by $184,000. Aldeberan90 won $367,791, ahead of Exxploited on $267,911 and nogamisama on $195,575.

The lower-buy-in $66 Main Event had concluded Sept. 27. It attracted 8,211 entries and paid 819 places from its full $500,000 guarantee, with MillionDollarCorner earning $72,078 for the win.

Other late-series results included Chris Moneymaker’s victory in the $15,400 NLH 8-Max during Second Mortgage Week, which ran Sept. 21-28. Moneymaker collected about $215,000 from a 49-entry, $735,000 event, while Alex Foxen, playing as OutFoxenYou, finished second for about $157,000.

Earlier in the festival, the $630 multi-flight OSS XL #4 drew 3,027 entries and built a $1.82 million prize pool, exceeding its $1.5 million guarantee by $316,200. WillyWonka won $286,180, while HundertZwolf and RiverRiot72 collected $206,193 and $148,545 respectively.

The OSS XL Leaderboard Competition added more than $60,000 in cash and tournament tickets across its three buy-in tiers. GROOTHEDEGEN won the High leaderboard, INIT2MINIT topped the Medium tier and BIGJUMBO27 won the Low leaderboard.

Crown Melbourne will host the Victorian Poker Championship from Oct. 12-27, with a $2,500 Main Event, high rollers and a broader spread of mixed-game tournaments on the 16-day schedule.

The Main Event has four Day 1 flights, running Oct. 21-24. Entrants receive 60,000 chips, play 40-minute levels initially before they increase to 60 minutes, and may re-enter once. Day 2 begins Oct. 25, with the final table set to be reached Oct. 27.

Crown describes the returning festival as an expanded schedule with diverse formats. Alongside $5,000 and $10,000 high-roller events, the card includes Mystery Bounty, H.O.R.S.E., 8-Game, 2-7 Triple Draw and PLO Hi-Lo tournaments.

There are also two dedicated Pot-Limit Omaha events, including a $5,000 tournament and a separate marquee event. That range gives mixed-game and Omaha players additional options.

Daily satellites start at $240, while regular $300 satellites will run throughout the festival. Players can qualify for the Main Event, $5K Challenge, Mystery Bounty, H.O.R.S.E., PLO and other events. Crown’s satellite schedule and poker calendar are live, and registrations are open at the Poker Room on Level 1 of the casino.

PokerNews plans to cover the festival on site with daily tournament highlights and live Main Event reporting, including hands, chip counts and key moments through the crowning of the next Victorian champion.

Crown is also offering hotel rates for stays from Sept. 30 through Oct. 27. The casino had gone more than four years without a major poker series before announcing its Crown Poker Series for April, after larger tournament festivals were mothballed in March 2020. Cash games returned in late 2021 and smaller daily tournaments followed in 2022, while the Aussie Millions remained on hold.

Norway has opened a fast-track consultation on rules that would allow state-owned Norsk Tipping to offer legal online poker for the first time. The Sept. 29 proposal would keep poker inside the country’s state-monopoly system, giving Norsk Tipping the exclusive right to run tournament poker and cash games rather than opening a commercial licensing market.

The Ministry of Culture and Equality is pitching the change as a way to move players from unregulated foreign websites to a domestic service with responsible-gambling controls. Minister Lubna Jaffery said a Norwegian offer would be safer than leaving players with foreign commercial operators, while stressing that preventing gambling harm remains the central policy objective.

The proposed limits are detailed. Players could lose no more than NOK5,000 a day and NOK10,000 a month on poker, while those under 20 would have a NOK2,000 monthly ceiling. Tournament buy-ins, including fees, would be capped at NOK2,500; cash-game buy-ins at NOK1,000; and cash stakes at NOK5/NOK10 blinds.

The product would also limit players to four simultaneous tables. Tournament players would have to take a five-minute break after every hour, while cash-game players could set daily time limits. The consultation gives a 15-minute pause between poker and online casino as an example of a possible measure to prevent people chasing losses between products, rather than a settled rule.

Advertising is still an open question. The ministry is asking whether online-poker marketing should be prohibited entirely or permitted only to a very limited extent, with younger people identified as a particular concern.

The consultation also proposes a broader reporting duty for serious incidents and operational deviations. Norsk Tipping, Norsk Rikstoto, bingo operators and companies running draws for large lotteries such as Pantelotteriet and Postkodelotteriet would need to notify gambling regulator Lotteritilsynet. Providers currently have no general obligation to report such incidents on their own initiative.

Poker is presently legal in Norway only in limited private-home games and at the annual national championship. Norsk Tipping sought permission to offer online poker in May 2024. A 2022 University of Bergen survey estimated that nearly 90,000 Norwegians played online poker annually through foreign operators, while Norsk Tipping has put the potential annual player base at 100,000 to 150,000 people.

The Norwegian Poker Federation welcomed a regulated domestic product as safer than unregulated platforms, although it continues to seek a licensing model beyond the proposed monopoly arrangement. The federation’s Tobias Leknes said many players would welcome a legal site.

Norway has retained and developed its monopoly model rather than moving to licensing. A University of Bergen population survey found gambling problems had halved since 2019, while estimated spending outside the monopoly system fell from EUR600 million to EUR200 million, according to H2 Gambling Capital.

The consultation closes Nov. 29. The ministry proposes that any amended regulation take effect immediately, and Lotteritilsynet would evaluate the poker product within a year of launch; Norsk Tipping product manager Haakon Kise estimated a launch could take one and a half to two years after the rules are adopted.

Mike Leah won his third career World Series of Poker bracelet on Sept. 28, taking down the $600 No-Limit Hold’em Ultra Stack in the WSOP Online Ontario series. The Canadian player from Innisfil, Ontario, then made a second bracelet final table only hours later in the $400 PLOSSUS Bounty, falling just short of an extraordinary same-day double.

Leah beat a 535-entry field in Event #5, which drew a $304,950 prize pool against its $300,000 guarantee. He earned $47,007, the gold bracelet and a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package, which includes entry to a Circuit Championship event and accommodation at Baha Mar in the Bahamas during December’s WSOP Paradise festival.

The two-day Ultra Stack began Sept. 27 and concluded the following day. Leah started its final table with 153 big blinds and had publicly predicted the result beforehand, posting on X that he would win bracelet No. 3 on GGPoker.

The win was Leah’s second bracelet of 2026. His first came in the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific $5,000 High Roller in Melbourne, where he won AU$342,800. In April, he won the €2,750 Rounder Cup at WSOP Europe in Prague, topping a field of 647 entries for €292,000. His three bracelets have come in live and online events across three continents.

The near miss came in Event #6, the six-max Pot-Limit Omaha PLOSSUS Bounty. Both Day 2s began at 6 p.m.; Leah was already at the Ultra Stack final table while PLOSSUS had 61 players left. He secured the Ultra Stack title a little more than two hours later, then reached the PLOSSUS final table about two hours after that.

Poker.org reported that Leah began the seven-handed PLOSSUS final fourth in chips, with 63 big blinds, while Alex Di Felice held the lead with 94. With five players remaining, Leah and Di Felice played a 29 million-chip pot worth almost 70% of the chips in play. Leah got the money in on the flop with close to 70% equity, but the turn gave Di Felice additional outs and the river completed the reversal.

Leah described the hand on X as being “1 card away from having ALL THE CHIPS.” He collected roughly $16,000 in prize money and bounties from PLOSSUS rather than a fourth bracelet.

The Ontario festival’s final two bracelet events are the $525 Closer Bounty on Oct. 4 and the $1 million-guaranteed Main Event, which resumes Oct. 5.

A suspected remote-access compromise of poker players’ Windows PCs may have exposed opponents’ hole cards and other sensitive data, with roughly 30 high-stakes users believed to be affected across Europe, North America and Oceania. The allegations describe Mesh Agent, a legitimate remote-access program, being deployed through compromised software used by poker players.

PokerNews reported the claims based on a thread from the anonymous account @wolfsec0×0. The account alleged that whoever controlled the remote-access server could watch an infected player’s screen in real time, including hole cards, and control their mouse and keyboard. It said the activity could date back to 2024 and did not identify the affected sites or players.

The claimed access extended well beyond poker tables. An infected computer could expose browser-saved passwords, session cookies and saved card information, according to the allegations. Mesh Agent was said to install as a Windows service, conceal its files and launch a system-level process called PowerShield.

PokerListings’ Sept. 30 update identified Canadian player Paul Gregg as the suspected perpetrator, alleging he installed a Trojan on poker regulars’ computers and may have had help from others. The outlet said the malware let the cheater see infected opponents’ hole cards, target them and repeatedly beat them over months.

Players had noticed an unusual playing pattern before the suspected scheme was identified. PokerListings and GipsyTeam both described the suspected cheater winning disproportionately against particular regulars while playing about 90% of his hands against them. GipsyTeam said unusually strong results ultimately helped bring attention to the activity.

PokerListings said its earlier theory that the Trojan came through third-party software had been confirmed in its Sept. 30 update. But the infection route had previously remained unresolved: GipsyTeam, reporting on Sept. 29, listed third-party poker tools, trackers, table-setting programs, phishing emails and a possible exploit among the potential methods. PokerNews also described the compromised program as a third-party tool, rather than poker-site software, based on comments from Todd Witteles.

The alleged losses vary by the reporting and the scope being measured. GipsyTeam said access to computers and cards enabled Gregg, possibly alongside others, to take almost $900,000 on the WPN network alone. It also reported that Aleksey “Avr0ra” Borovkov said more than 10 high-stakes regulars had been scammed for several million dollars across GG, ACR and Coin.

GipsyTeam said Gregg used the screen name Europe on CoinPoker. PokerListings separately reported that SmartHand screenshots supplied by Avr0ra showed more than $837,000 in combined profit for the accounts OxOO and JackKlompus. The outlet also listed strong StatName results for several accounts, including Gregg’s $55,000 profit at NL2K in May and $21,000 in August.

Mesh Agent’s status as legitimate remote-access software may have made the alleged operation harder to spot. GipsyTeam quoted commentator Gleb Kovtunov saying antivirus programs might not have treated it as a threat, while another commentator said the suspected fraudster had removed Mesh Agent from nearly all of the computers involved, leaving traces on some systems.

For players concerned about infection, PokerListings advised checking Windows Task Manager for a Mesh Agent process and running an antivirus scan. GipsyTeam said information concerning the suspected fraudster had been passed to the FBI and other agencies.

The claims echo earlier online-poker superuser cases, although the alleged mechanism here was access to players’ own computers rather than an operator-side cheat. In the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandal, insiders used software and internal-system access to view opponents’ hole cards; PokerNews reported that thousands of players lost more than $50 million over several years. A Kahnawake Gaming Commission investigation later identified 117 usernames tied to 23 Ultimate Bet accounts and ordered a $1.5 million fine plus $22 million in player reimbursements.

WPT Global players can now use Jurojin software for hotkeys, one-click bet sizing, colour-coded stacks and custom table sizing, after the third-party developer released the tools in June and July. The poker client itself does not have a built-in hotkey system.

Jurojin launched a beta build for the site in June with hotkeys, Bet Buttons and Color Stack, then added customizable table sizing in July. The tools were made by Jurojin, rather than WPT Global’s own engineers, but were developed with the WPT Global Security Team’s approval because the site restricts third-party software.

The integration lets players bind common poker actions to keyboard keys or mouse buttons, including up to 16 preset bet-sizing hotkeys. No bindings are assigned by default, avoiding conflicts with different keyboard layouts or multi-site setups, and saved bindings persist between sessions. The inputs can also remain active when another application briefly has focus.

Bet Buttons provide a one-click overlay for preset wagers, replacing manual entry into the betting box. Players can set those sizes as a percentage of the pot, a fixed number of big blinds, or a combination of both, with changes applied without restarting the software.

The wider table-management package includes automatic table switching, stack-depth tracking and an Action Required feature that highlights or focuses a table when action is due. Color Stack marks opponents by their stack size relative to the big blind, while Font Increase enlarges selected text without changing the whole table size. Other tools include an AntiSitout response to sit-in prompts and VPIP Slots, which display how often a player voluntarily enters pots before the flop.

Jurojin supports up to seven simultaneous WPT Global tables. WPT Global’s desktop app permits up to four cash-game tables or seven tournament tables, with seven the overall maximum. A free Jurojin version is available for the site, while paid plans add features or customization.

WPT Global’s current rules still bar robots and external-assistance programs that create an unfair advantage or affect a player’s decisions during a live hand. Its 2026 guidance says simple hotkeys and layout tools that do not read game state are safe to use at the table. Jurojin and PokerNews both describe the WPT Global integration as approved by the site’s security team.

BusinessCloud argued that faster controls could let strong players handle more tables, changing the opponents other users encounter. The release arrived as WPT Global was ranked fourth worldwide for daily tournament entries in SharkScope data compiled in mid-August, with about 91,800 entries, up 27.9% from a month earlier but down 11.4% over the preceding 90 days.

The 2026 PartyPoker Tour will make its seventh stop at Orenes Gran Casino de Castellón in Spain from Oct. 5-11, led by a €500 Main Event carrying a €100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The Main Event begins Oct. 8 and has four opening flights before Day 2 on Oct. 10, when the field plays to a final table. The finalists return at 3 p.m. CEST on Oct. 11 to decide the title. PokerNews reported the Castellón schedule.

The €500 buy-in sends €445 to the prize pool, with a €55 fee. PartyPoker’s stated policy is that no further deductions are made from the prize pool after that fee.

Day 1a starts at 3 p.m. CEST on Oct. 8. Day 1b follows at 2 p.m. on Oct. 9, with a turbo Day 1c beginning at 8 p.m. that night. The fourth flight, a hyper-turbo with 15-minute blind levels, starts at noon on Oct. 10. The standard opening flights use 40-minute levels, while the turbo uses 20 minutes; 25% of each flight advances to Day 2.

The festival opens Oct. 5 with the first of four flights in the €150 No-Limit Hold’em Mini Main Event, which has a €50,000 guarantee. The opening flight begins at 4 p.m. CEST.

Other listed tournaments include a €200 NLHE Bounty on Oct. 7, a €150 7-Max Pot-Limit Omaha and €60 Win the Button Bounty on Oct. 8, a €250 Mystery Bounty on Oct. 10, and a €1,000 NLHE High Roller on the closing day. The Mystery Bounty has three opening flights, with 25% of each field advancing to Day 2. The schedule also includes €60 Party Madness Red River NLH Bounty and Crazy Pineapple Bounty events on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10, respectively.

Castellón follows the Glasgow leg covered in July and is the seventh of nine festivals on this year’s expanded tour calendar. The completed stops were Sheffield, Seville, Madrid, Manchester, London and Glasgow. PartyPoker had five UK-only stops in 2025 before expanding the 2026 route to include Ireland and Spain.

Spain’s earlier results offer some context for the stop. Madrid’s €500 Main Event drew a tour-record 535 entries, built a €238,075 prize pool and was won by Alexey Neofitov for €43,250. Its €150 Mini Main attracted 918 entries and generated €114,750, more than twice its guarantee.

Players can qualify online through round-the-clock PartyPoker satellites starting at £0.20, which feed into £1, £5 and £25 levels. A £25 Round 4 satellite leads to the next available Round 5, which awards a £1,000 package containing a Main Event seat and £500 for expenses. Online satellites and qualifiers sent about 1,000 players into live fields during the 2025 tour.

Poker.pro, the tour’s official English media partner, reported that Jaime Staples and Matt Staples were expected to attend in Castellón. It also noted, citing The Hendon Mob, that the venue was staging its first major live poker festival in a couple of years.

888poker regular BigFish20 won the $25 Mystery Mini Main in the XL Autumn Series on Sept. 28, earning $4,596 from a 2,272-entry field. The turnout cleared the tournament’s $50,000 guarantee by $1,120, after needing just over 2,220 entries to avoid an overlay.

The win followed an earlier big mystery-bounty score for BigFish20, who pulled a $50,000 bounty in the XL Spring Series Mystery Main Event. As we reported Sept. 1, the XL Autumn Series was built around mystery bounty events, with 26 of its 41 tournaments using the format.

PokerNews reported that Ukraine’s Cheks88 actually collected the largest total prize in the Mini Main despite finishing 13th. Cheks88 banked $5,213, including $5,009 in mystery bounties after finding the tournament’s $5,000 jackpot bounty.

Argentina’s Scopetovich finished runner-up for $3,191 after Ukraine’s kafe11071107 exited in third for $3,144. The eight-handed final table also included Finland’s Bananabluff in fourth and two Argentinians, Scopetovich and sixth-place finisher Heroblanco.

The Mini Main had a $25 buy-in. Last year’s edition drew 4,413 players, nearly twice this year’s field, and brocanuts won $6,077.

The 2026 XL Autumn Series began Sept. 20 and was scheduled to conclude Sept. 29, with more than $900,000 in guarantees across its 41 numbered events.

CoinPoker has opened qualification for The One, a $250 tournament that begins Oct. 4 with a $5 million guaranteed prize pool and $1 million guaranteed for the winner. Players can now pursue seats through freerolls, a step-satellite ladder or direct satellites rather than buying in outright.

As we reported earlier this month, CoinPoker had already set the 26-flight tournament schedule and headline guarantees. The newly released qualification structure starts with freerolls or $0.10 step satellites, while direct satellites run from $1 to $50, according to PokerStrategy.

The step ladder can lead from a free or $0.10 entry to a $250 Day 1 seat. Each successful stage moves a player into a higher-priced step satellite or a direct satellite. Daily Step [2] freerolls award places in a direct satellite, meaning a player could potentially reach The One from a freeroll in two tournaments.

CoinPoker is also running up to 10 Step [4] freerolls each day from Sept. 29 through Oct. 12. Direct satellites award Day 1 seats and are available at $1, $12.50, $25 and $50 from Oct. 4, continuing through the final Day 1 date. The operator expects to award hundreds of seats a day through those satellites, with volume rising closer to Day 2.

The One has 26 Day 1 flights from Oct. 4 through Oct. 12. From Oct. 4 to Oct. 11, there are three flights a day at 13:30, 16:30 and 19:30 UTC. The final day has two Turbo flights, at 12:30 and 14:00 UTC, before Day 2 begins later that day.

Players may enter as many Day 1 flights as they wish, but only the largest stack they qualify with advances to Day 2. CoinPoker will return the qualifying flight’s buy-in in cash to every player reaching Day 2. Any additional qualifying stacks are converted to cash at the Day 2 minimum-payout level.

The event is CoinPoker’s largest standalone tournament to date and the first edition of what the operator intends to make an annual flagship. Its winner will also receive an engraved physical trophy and a digital version in the CoinPoker Trophy Cabinet.

Roussos Koliakoudakis captured Event No. 3 of the 2026 PGT PLO Series on Sept. 28, winning $198,000 and his first PokerGO Tour title. The Greek pot-limit Omaha specialist topped a 66-entry field at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, where the 10 paid places shared a $660,000 prize pool.

The buy-in was listed as $10,500 by SpadePoker and Poker.pro, while Card Player described the tournament as a $10,000 event. The result was Koliakoudakis’ largest recorded tournament payday, surpassing the $139,773 he won in a $3,000 PLO bounty event at the 2023 Wynn Summer Classic, and lifted his career cashes to nearly $1.1 million.

Koliakoudakis took more than half the chips into the final day, which resumed with four players, and eliminated each of his remaining opponents. Sean Rafael finished fourth for $66,000, before Koliakoudakis knocked out Chino Rheem in third for $89,100. Brevin Andreadis earned $128,700 as runner-up after the heads-up match lasted one hand; Koliakoudakis began it with nearly a 4:1 chip lead and his pocket kings stayed ahead on the river.

The victory earned Koliakoudakis 198 PGT points, moving him to second on the series leaderboard behind Robert Chorlian’s 203. Separately, he collected 360 Card Player Player of the Year points, his second qualifying final-table result of 2026, for a total of 910 points and a place among the top 900 in that overall race.

The eight-event PGT PLO Series runs through Oct. 2, with buy-ins from $5,300 to $26,000. The series title goes to the player with the most PGT points across the schedule, provided they cash at least twice, and carries a $10,000 PGT Passport.

Josh “JT” Turner, the St. Louis poker professional who won seven WSOP Circuit rings and recorded more than $2.4 million in live tournament cashes, has died at age 46 after battling cancer. Turner’s mother wrote on his X account that he died Sept. 2, after fighting the illness for the previous two years.

His mother waited before making the news public. She said Turner had “fought like a warrior,” comparing his fight with cancer to the way he played poker. Daniel Lowery had shared news of Turner’s death on Facebook, and later wrote that he had known Turner was ill but had not understood that the illness was terminal.

The news drew condolences and memories from poker friends on social media. Lowery called Turner “One of the truest, stand up guys on the scene,” while saying the death had shocked many people Turner had touched in the poker community. A memorial service was held Sept. 8 at Kutis Affton Chapel in St. Louis, Missouri.

A Missouri native born Dec. 20, 1979, Turner built much of his tournament record on the WSOP Circuit. His seven-ring total included his most recent win in 2018, while he also won titles on the RunGood Poker Series and Heartland Poker Tour.

One of his defining Circuit victories came at Lumiere Place in St. Louis during the 2014-15 season. Turner led the $1,675 Main Event after each of its first two days and went wire to wire to beat a 415-entry field. The win paid about $137,000, delivered his second Circuit ring and secured a seat in the season-ending National Championship.

Turner later claimed his fifth ring at Planet Hollywood in September 2016, winning a $365 no-limit hold’em turbo for $12,516. His results across that stop also earned him the Casino Championship by an $911 tiebreaker over Kindah Sakkal, producing his third consecutive at-large bid to the following year’s Global Casino Championship.

His largest recorded tournament payday was $294,760 for third place in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack at the 2018 World Series of Poker. He reached three bracelet-event final tables at that series, and his final recorded cash came at The Lodge Card Club, a room he favored.

GucciNIKE won about $850,000 from Jared “Theblez” Bleznick in an almost 400-hand CoinPoker pot-limit Omaha session, according to CardPlayer. The match ran across three $500-$1,000 tables with a $200 ante, and helped push GucciNIKE’s combined winnings from that Friday’s other matches beyond $1.4 million.

The result was a much larger swing than the pair’s previous reported meeting. As we reported earlier this month, GucciNIKE finished about $166,000 ahead of Bleznick in their Sept. 11 CoinPoker session, despite Bleznick taking one $341,946 pot with quads and GucciNIKE winning a $478,400 all-in with trips.

One of the bigger pots in the latest session began with GucciNIKE raising and calling a three-bet to $9,000 while both players had stacks a little deeper than 100 big blinds. On an A♠9♠6♥ flop, Bleznick bet $13,800 and GucciNIKE min-raised to $27,600.

Bleznick then shoved for $98,400 and GucciNIKE called with K♥9♥9♣4♥, middle set plus a backdoor heart draw. Bleznick held A♦K♦K♠7♠ for top pair and the nut-flush draw. GucciNIKE won the $215,200 pot after the 7♦ turn and J♦ river.

GucciNIKE’s preflop decision was routine for the stack depth. The flop min-raise was a way to build a pot with a strong hand while leaving Bleznick an inviting price to continue or bluff; Bleznick’s eventual all-in was strong enough to commit with, but a cooler against the set.

GucciNIKE also collected a $120,000 pot after calling Bleznick’s $3,000 open about 120 blinds deep. After the players checked the flop, GucciNIKE bet $4,800 on the turn and was called. GucciNIKE checked the river, then raised Bleznick’s $12,000 bet to $52,000 and was called.

GucciNIKE showed 9♣8♦4♣4♥ for the nuts. The turn lead could draw value from worse holdings, while the river made GucciNIKE a full house and completed a flush, setting up the check-raise.

The heads-up action comes amid a broader revival of high-stakes CoinPoker cash games, according to PokerStrategy.com. The roundup said seven-figure wins and losses were being fought for weekly in the site’s VIP Arena, with the largest pots concentrated in PLO, and put GucciNIKE’s profit at almost $1.3 million over the preceding seven days.

GGPoker’s 2026 WSOP Online series reaches its last bracelet event on Sept. 29, with nine players left in the $10,000 GGMillion$ High Rollers and a $2.23 million top prize still to be decided. The 1,754-entry tournament generated a $17 million prize pool, and four finalists are already guaranteed seven-figure payouts.

Roeland Peeks takes a commanding lead into the final table with 172 big blinds, well ahead of Sergio Aido on 73. PokerNews reported that the remaining players will return at 7 p.m. BST and play until a champion has all the chips.

Matheus Machado and Niklas Astedt share third place in the counts with 37 big blinds, followed by Ole Schemion with 32 and Christopher Nguyen with 28. Johannes Straver returns with 24 big blinds, while Oshri Lahmani and Alessandro De Michele bring up the final nine with 19 big blinds each.

Every finalist has locked up at least $278,847. The champion receives $2,228,762, a WSOP gold bracelet and a $30,000 Super Pass for the 2026 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event.

Aido is pursuing his third bracelet, while Schemion is seeking his third after winning bracelets in 2021 and earlier this year at WSOP Europe. Nguyen already won a bracelet in the 2026 WSOPE €20,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller, and Astedt is still looking for his first WSOP title.

The final table formed after Zhengxiang Chen exited on the bubble. Other players who cashed but fell short of the last nine included Wiktor Malinowski, Jamie Dwan, Kelvin Kerber, Daniel Negreanu, Adrian Mateos, Sorel Mizzi, Lex Veldhuis and Artur Martirosian.

As we reported in August, the GGMillion$ High Rollers was listed among the 33 bracelet events on GGPoker’s WSOP Online schedule. The series-ending table is set to stream on GGPoker’s YouTube channel with a one-hour cards-up delay, with Alex Foxen joining Jeff Gross on commentary.

The World Poker Tour will bring its branding back to Commerce Casino in Los Angeles for the 2027 L.A. Poker Classic, restoring a partnership that ended after the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival runs Jan. 15 through March 7, 2027, and its $10,000 WPT LAPC Championship is set for Feb. 26 through March 3.

The championship will be a freezeout. Commerce plans to award hundreds of seats through giveaways, promotions and satellite tournaments. The complete Season 25 schedule and further qualification details had not yet been released when the announcement was reported.

The return comes after a sharp contraction in the event’s recent field size. Alex Massman won the 2026 L.A. Poker Classic for $158,030 after a 50-entry tournament. PokerNews noted that first prizes routinely topped $1 million during the WPT-supported years, while no winner since the tour last hosted the event had received more than $402,000.

The last WPT LA Poker Classic champion was Balakrishna Patur, who earned $1.015 million in May 2021 by defeating Matas Cimbolas heads-up. That event had begun in 2020, played down to six players in Los Angeles that March, and was meant to finish at the Luxor in Las Vegas the following month. Casino closures during the pandemic postponed the final table for about a year; the tournament ultimately drew 490 entries.

The LAPC was part of the WPT’s inaugural 2003 season and appeared on its schedule through the tour’s first 18 years. Gus Hansen won the first edition, while later champions included Antonio Esfandiari, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Ivey, Chris Moorman, Anthony Zinno and David Baker. Baker won the 2019 WPT LA Poker Classic for $1.015 million.

The tournament’s earlier WPT history included much larger fields and prize pools. The first event drew 136 players for a $1.36 million prize pool, while the Season V edition attracted 791 entries and generated a reported $7.594 million, the largest prize pool reported in the source. Moorman’s 2014 victory paid $1.045 million, and Zinno earned $1.016 million in 2015.

WPT CEO Adam Pliska called the LAPC an important part of the tour’s history and said the return would build on the legacy created with Commerce.

Justin Arnwine defended his RunGood Poker Series Maryland Main Event title at MGM National Harbor, winning the $1,300 Golden Expedition Maryland finale for $78,501. He beat Maclaren Chatham heads-up after the tournament drew 329 entries and built a $375,060 prize pool.

Arnwine’s victory gave him a second RGPS championship ring and a second straight Maryland Main Event win. As we reported in May, RunGood had brought its Golden Expedition stop back to MGM National Harbor with a $250,000 Main Event guarantee.

The 2026 series ran Sept. 21-27. Its $1,300 buy-in was lower than the $1,700 price for the inaugural MGM National Harbor stop in 2025, while the field grew from 251 entries to 329. Arnwine won that earlier RGPS Grand Prix Maryland Main Event for $80,646 after defeating Russ Dunlevy heads-up.

This time, Arnwine needed eight Day 1 entries before putting together the winning run. He had busted on the money bubble in an earlier opening flight, then bagged 1.2 million chips from Day 1b, the overall lead among its 14 survivors. By the start of Day 2, he led the final 43 players and was the only one above 1 million chips.

The final table ran for more than six hours and finished after midnight. Arnwine eliminated Jimmy Chen in third place for $38,481 when his pocket deuces made a full house against Chen’s flopped trip aces.

Chatham began heads-up play with 10 million chips to Arnwine’s 6.4 million, but Arnwine recovered to take the title. The last hand saw Arnwine’s pocket eights hold against Chatham’s ace-seven; Chatham collected $50,212 for second.

Arnwine said he was prepared to take risks rather than play solely around ICM considerations because he wanted the outright win. “I was willing to lose earlier than ICM dictated I should have been putting myself at risk,” he said. “But I just decided, no, I want to win.”

The result reversed a striking contrast with his 2025 win, when Arnwine needed only one buy-in and celebrated with a “1 Buy-In Haters” sign. He has been described as an unofficial career tournament-win record holder with more than 150 victories, and said his current goal is to become 2026 Mid-Stakes Player of the Year.

RunGood Poker Series will bring its Golden Expedition to Champions Club Houston from Oct. 12-18, with 11 ring events and $510,000 in guaranteed prize money. The seven-day Texas stop is led by a $600 RunGood Main Event carrying a $250,000 guarantee.

The festival opens Oct. 12 with the $400 Monster Stack Opener, a $100,000-guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em event. Oct. 13 adds a $300 Seniors event with a $10,000 guarantee, a $300 Big Stack with $25,000 guaranteed, and a $300 Tag Team event that costs $150 per player and guarantees $5,000.

A $400 PokerNews PowerStack follows with Flights A and B on Oct. 14 and its final day on Oct. 15. The tournament carries a $50,000 guarantee. That day’s schedule also includes a $300 Pot-Limit Omaha event with $30,000 guaranteed, plus the $300 Black Chip Bounty.

There is one difference between the published listings for the bounty event. PokerNews listed its guarantee at $30,000, while RunGood’s own Champions Club schedule currently shows a $10,000 guarantee.

The Main Event begins with Flight A at 6 p.m. on Oct. 15. Flights B and C are set for Oct. 16, followed by Flights D and E on Oct. 17. RunGood’s schedule also includes a turbo Flight F on Oct. 18, before the Day 2 restart at 2 p.m. PokerNews plans live coverage from the Main Event through the awarding of the ring.

The final day also includes a $300 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event with a $10,000 guarantee and a $400 Last Chance No-Limit Hold’em event with $20,000 guaranteed. Players can also enter a $375 RunGood Package Satellite, which bundles seats to the Main Event, PowerStack, a one-day ring event and Flip & Go, plus $275 in cash.

Houston is one of six new destinations on RunGood’s 2026 Golden Expedition fall schedule. The season also brought back the RunGood Player of the Year race, powered by The Hendon Mob and Global Poker Index, and introduced a new championship-ring design.

After Houston, the Golden Expedition is scheduled to conclude with the Dream Factory Festival at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California, from Nov. 27 through Dec. 3, including two invitational events for 2026 RunGood ring winners.

Alex Botez won ClubWPT Gold’s Poker Champs, beating streamer Thomas “Sodapoppin” Morris in the best-of-three heads-up final to take the $250,000 top prize. The eight-player creator tournament carried a $500,000 prize pool, with Morris collecting $125,000 as runner-up.

Botez’s win came on Sept. 26 and marked the largest recorded tournament cash of her poker career. She first eliminated Eric “Erobb221” Lamont Robbins Jr. on Sept. 24, a result that guaranteed her at least $50,000, then beat PaymoneyWubby in the semifinal after building better than a 2-to-1 lead.

As we reported Sept. 19, ClubWPT Gold and Doug Polk had set Poker Champs as a $500,000 streamer heads-up event running through Sept. 26. The format guaranteed first-round winners at least $50,000, while semifinal losers received $75,000, the runner-up $125,000 and the champion $250,000; only the four semifinalists were paid.

Against Morris, Botez won the first final match after making a jack-high straight and picking off a king-high bluff. She ended the second match, and the tournament, by calling Morris’ all-in with pocket tens on an ace-ace-two board. Morris again held king-high for a bluff.

The ClubWPT Gold event was built around livestream creators rather than established professional poker players. The field included Botez, xQc, Sodapoppin, Erobb221, Tyler1, Emiru and YourRAGE, while participants streamed their own view of the matches and Polk hosted a separate cards-up broadcast with hole cards and webcam feeds.

Botez is a Canadian chess player and streamer who holds the Woman FIDE Master title. Her previous poker results included a $10,815 victory in a $550 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure side event in 2023, plus $89,490 across two WSOP Paradise cashes in 2024. She also won $456,900 in a 2022 Hustler Casino Live game.

Botez and her sister Andrea rose to prominence as online streamers around 2020. Their BotezLive YouTube channel had recently passed 2 million subscribers, while its Twitch account had 1.3 million followers.

Ethan “Rampage” Yau’s heated complaint about a fellow player’s tanking during a Sept. 19 Hustler Casino Live cash game was undercut by the stream’s own timing graphics, which showed Harut was not the table’s slowest decision-maker.

The confrontation came in a $50-$100 no-limit hold’em hand after Yau raised preflop to $2,000 with Q♠Q♣. Francisco Fragoso had limped with pocket fives and Harut entered the pot with A♥K♥; Nik Airball called Yau’s raise with Q♥J♣.

On the J♥3♥2♣ flop, Yau checked and Airball bet $4,000 with top pair. Fragoso folded, while Harut called with the nut-flush draw and two overcards, leaving about $92,000 behind. Yau then check-raised to $18,000 from a stack of more than $200,000, and Airball folded.

Harut had better than 2-to-1 pot odds to continue, but he spent about a minute considering the decision. Yau asked for the clock, saying, “He’s taking so long. We have 30 minutes left. It’s just the flop.” When Harut asked if he was serious, Yau replied that he wanted the clock because Harut was taking too long.

Harut ultimately folded, a decision that surprised commentator David Tuchman and viewers. Yau continued the criticism afterward, telling Harut, “I’m never playing with you again… you’re an absolute SNIPING NIT,” and demanding that he hurry up.

Yau also said Hustler Casino Live’s statistics would show Harut had taken the longest at the table. But the graphics showed Harut averaging nine seconds per decision, compared with Yau’s six seconds and Airball’s table-high 15 seconds. PokerNews concluded the available timing data did not show Harut holding up the game.

Harut’s displayed stream statistics also showed a 46% voluntary-put-money-in-pot rate and a 12% preflop-raise rate. He finished the game as its biggest winner, up about $72,600, while Yau was the biggest loser, down about $103,250.

CardPlayer’s Sept. 28 opinion column called Yau’s criticism excessive and characterized the conduct as rude and bullying. The column said Harut appeared flustered by the exchange before folding his draw.

The incident came after a strong recent run for the popular poker vlogger in livestream cash games and followed his World Series of Poker bracelet win during the summer.

Rob Wazwaz won the 2026 Wisconsin Poker State Championship at Potawatomi Hotel Casino in Milwaukee, collecting $253,521 from a 1,568-entry Main Event. The MSPT Hall of Famer’s victory was his second Major Series of Poker: The Tour title and brought his record total to 22 MSPT final tables.

The Sept. 24-27 event carried a $1,110 buy-in and $1 million guarantee, but generated a $1.52 million prize pool. The top 173 finishers were paid. Wazwaz entered heads-up play holding 34.2 million chips against Mark Cahill’s 12.84 million, then closed out the tournament; Cahill earned about $154,000 as runner-up.

According to MSPT’s event report, Wazwaz eliminated four of his eight final-table opponents. Brittany Spain finished 10th for $19,676 to set the official final table, while Mike Wilklow took third for $118,057. Wazwaz said he had concentrated on avoiding the mistakes that had affected him at previous final tables: “I was really focused this time around.”

The win was Wazwaz’s first MSPT title since the 2018 Canterbury Park Main Event, where he earned $109,375. Seventeen of his 22 tour final tables have come since that first title. The latest result also lifted his MSPT earnings above $1 million, making him the fifth player in tour history to reach that mark, while his overall tournament earnings rose beyond $3.4 million.

Wazwaz was inducted as the eighth MSPT Hall of Fame member in October 2021 after recording his 25th MSPT Main Event cash and a tour title. His $253,521 Wisconsin payday was his second-largest career score, behind the $358,346 he earned for winning an $800 deepstack event at the 2022 World Series of Poker.

The Wisconsin victory secured Wazwaz a seat in the $3,500 MSPT Championship Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Its $2 million-guaranteed Main Event is scheduled to run from Nov. 18 through Dec. 2.

ClubWPT Gold has left open the prospect of returning sweepstakes poker to Nevada after product changes, even as it pauses gameplay in the state beginning Sept. 28. The operator said it was optimistic that modifications could allow a future resumption, but gave no details on what would change or when a return might happen.

The pause follows what ClubWPT Gold described as shifts in the regulatory environment. Purchases were shut off immediately, and Nevada players can no longer enter cash games or tournaments after midnight Sept. 28. The company’s message characterizes the move as a pause rather than a permanent exit, though it has not identified the regulatory changes behind the decision.

As we reported earlier today, Nevada players have until Oct. 2 to redeem or withdraw remaining account balances. ClubWPT Gold has also urged Nevada subscribers to cancel memberships during the shutdown.

The departure reduces ClubWPT Gold’s sweepstakes footprint from 42 states to 41, according to PokerNews. The site has thousands of Nevada-based players and had expanded its presence in the state in recent years, including a digital billboard campaign on the Las Vegas Strip during June’s World Series of Poker.

ClubWPT Gold’s model has differed from a conventional online-poker deposit system. Players buy poker hand analysis or training credits, receive chips as part of the purchase, and use those chips in tournaments and ring games. A chip is worth $1 at cash-out.

The company had already reworked that approach in September 2025, removing free-to-play games and Gold Coins in favor of purchased poker-training credits that can be used to play and redeem winnings for prizes. USPoker reported that the change was intended to keep the product within the law in states tightening scrutiny of sweepstakes gaming, although some legal experts argued the revised model could still conflict with California law.

Nevada has legal online poker, but WSOP Online remains its only licensed traditional operator. It pools real-money players from Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania through the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. ClubWPT Gold’s Nevada decision comes amid wider regulatory attention on sweepstakes-style online gambling, while other sweepstakes poker sites also exclude the state.

For now, ClubWPT Gold has not set conditions or a timetable for a Nevada relaunch; its stated plan is limited to pursuing product modifications that it believes could make sweepstakes play available again.

Connor Hayward won his first World Series of Poker Circuit ring by taking down the $1,700 Main Event at Horseshoe Council Bluffs. The Kansas City cash-game player earned $76,797 after beating a 232-entry field, while the tournament generated a $351,480 prize pool and paid 36 places.

Hayward overcame John Ypma in heads-up play after beginning the match at a 2-to-1 chip disadvantage. Ypma, who had already won a Circuit ring and $102,650 at TCH Social Austin earlier this year, collected $50,593 for second. Matthew Riffel finished third for $34,304.

The closing hand came with blinds at 40,000/80,000 and an 80,000 ante. Ypma moved all-in for 700,000 with jack-ten of spades, and Hayward called with king-three offsuit. The board ran nine of spades, five of spades, five of diamonds, three of hearts and four of diamonds, giving Hayward the winning two pair.

A pivotal earlier pot helped swing the heads-up match. Ypma tried to bluff a paired board containing three cards of the same suit, but Hayward had made the nut flush. Hayward later said he had run well in the short session, picked up big hands and “kind of trapped” his opponent.

The title is a quick tournament breakthrough for Hayward, who had spent eight years as a full-time cash-game grinder based at Harrah’s Kansas City before starting to play events roughly six or seven months ago. He said he had earned more than $67,000 in tournaments before Council Bluffs, meaning the $76,797 first prize more than doubled that total.

His momentum had already included a third-place finish in the $700 Main Event at RGPS Golden Expedition Joplin a week earlier. Hayward said he came to Council Bluffs to spend time with a friend and intended to keep playing tournaments following the win.

As covered last week, the same Horseshoe Council Bluffs stop also produced Daniel Lowery’s 21st Circuit ring in the Big O event, underscoring the range of milestones at the series.

Daniel Negreanu’s run in the $10,000 GGMillion$ Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet event ended in seventh place, not with a late bid for the title. He earned $71,111 after reaching the seven-handed final table from a 228-entry field in the 2026 WSOP Online series.

Negreanu began with the second-largest stack, holding 6.4 million chips, or 92 big blinds. Andreas Freund led with 8.6 million, while every finalist had already locked up at least $71,000. The winner’s package was advertised at about $428,000 plus a $30,000 Super Pass for December’s WSOP Paradise Super Main Event.

Negreanu quickly won several early pots, including one against Freund, and moved into the chip lead. But his tournament changed in a nearly 200-big-blind confrontation with Freund roughly 20 minutes into the final table.

According to Tight Poker’s hand account, Freund raised under the gun and Negreanu defended his big blind before the flop checked through. Negreanu bet eight big blinds on the 8♥ turn; Freund raised to 25.8 big blinds, and the money went in.

The 5♣ river completed club flushes for both players, but Freund’s was higher. Negreanu called the 8♥ “the sickest turn card,” and the pot left him with fewer than seven big blinds. He nearly tripled on the next hand but was eliminated soon afterward as the first finalist out.

Freund went on to win the bracelet and $428,456. The final table lasted a little more than an hour, while Negreanu’s own planned stream was disrupted by technical problems; GGPoker ambassador Kevin Martin covered the action instead.

As we reported Sept. 18, Negreanu had traveled to Canada to play and stream the WSOP Online schedule, beginning with this PLO event. The result left the eight-time bracelet winner short of a ninth title, despite entering the final table saying he was playing only for first place.

Negreanu’s most recent bracelet remains his July victory in the $100,000 WSOP PLO High Roller in Las Vegas, where he won $2.26 million.

Timothee D’Anfray carried the chip lead into the final 17 of the €500 Winamax Poker Open Aix-les-Bains Main Event after a Day 2 that cut a 2,873-entry field to its last contenders. D’Anfray bagged 21.725 million, with every remaining player guaranteed at least €6,300 and the winner set to receive €150,000.

PokerNews reported that 475 players returned for Day 2 to play for a €1.186 million prize pool. The final turnout was 12% higher than the previous year’s field, according to Winamax.

Benjamin Goudard was D’Anfray’s closest challenger on 19.4 million, followed by Lucas Archeny with 13.825 million. Goudard built his stack in a major pot against Raphael Bilger, who ended the day with 6.4 million, while Archeny had held a large stack throughout the day and eliminated Matthieu Rigolot with a full house holding pocket fours.

D’Anfray sealed his lead by eliminating Loris Corbelli in 19th place in the last hand of Day 2. Corbelli moved all-in with ace-five and lost to D’Anfray’s pocket jacks, earning €5,000. Pierre Labitte had departed in 18th for the same payout after Mathieu Pontin called his 3.25 million-chip shove with pocket aces.

Aymane Mamoun entered the final day fifth in chips after a two-outer river card sent Laurent Amri out in 24th. Etienne De Soultrait also remained near the top after eliminating 2023 WiPT finalist Remi Debord in 28th. Defending champion Jeremy Cauchard had been knocked out earlier, in 145th place, after losing a coin flip.

Among the other notable stacks, Nicolas Marin held 8.525 million after doubling with aces, and Quentin Le Dissez had 6.475 million after a feature-table double. Sebastien Studer, Leo Viales, Nicolas Ehrath, Dimitri Callonnec and Maxence Vie were returning with between 10 and 20 big blinds, while Herve Ponthet and Boris Dupuis were shortest with 2.1 million and 1.9 million respectively.

The final day was set to resume in the Casino Grand Cercle theater with 24 minutes left in Level 39, at blinds of 125,000/250,000 and a 250,000 big blind ante.

Robert Chorlian won event No. 2 of the 2026 PGT PLO Series, turning a short-stack start on day two into his first major tournament victory. He topped a 106-entry, $5,300 pot-limit Omaha event at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas for $135,150 from a $530,000 prize pool.

The six-handed final table began shortly before noon and finished before 2 p.m. local time. Chorlian started the day alongside Cesar Garcia at the bottom of the counts, while Lautaro Guerra held the overnight lead ahead of Sean Rafael, Ky Nguyen and Taylor Paur, according to Card Player.

An early double gave Chorlian the route back into contention. He knocked out Paur in sixth after completing a runner-runner heart flush, then eliminated Rafael in third for $60,950 and Guerra heads-up for $84,800.

The final two opponents brought deep PLO résumés to the table. Rafael had nearly $6.6 million in career cashes, almost entirely in PLO, while Guerra’s PLO earnings had passed $11.6 million, placing him second to Eelis Parssinen’s reported $12.1 million. Guerra had also eliminated Nguyen in fourth place after making a nine-high straight.

Chorlian had previously reached two WSOP final tables, including a runner-up finish in a $600 PLO event at the 2025 WSOP. He also placed third in a $10,500 no-limit hold’em event at the 2023 U.S. Poker Open.

The win earned Chorlian 203 PGT points and 480 Card Player Player of the Year points, his first qualifying result in that race this year. The PGT’s top 40 at season’s end in January, along with other qualifiers, can enter the $1 million PGT Championship; the 40th-place points cutoff stood at 900 when the report was published.