Stake.us launched Poker Mid Month Madness, a one-time Progressive Knockout tournament with an 8 Stake Cash buy-in and a 24,000 SC guaranteed prize pool. The event was scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9 p.m. ET, with bounties rather than a leaderboard determining much of the payout action.

TheLines reported that every entrant began with a bounty and that qualifying knockouts were expected to credit rewards instantly. Players could register through the Stake.us tournament lobby by selecting the event and confirming the 8 SC entry.

The format split each eliminated player’s current bounty in half. The player making the knockout received 50% as playable Stake Cash, while the other 50% was added to that player’s own bounty, raising the reward available to later opponents.

For example, a player carrying a 10 SC bounty who eliminated a player with a 20 SC bounty would receive 10 SC in their balance and leave the hand carrying a 20 SC bounty. If more than one player eliminated the same participant, the bounty was divided evenly among the winning hands.

Players still in the tournament at its end were to share the 24,000 SC guaranteed pool, although specific payout allocations had not been announced. Stake.us described the setup as a “whole field hunting each other down” on every hand.

A separate PokerStrategy report used different figures for an event of the same name, listing a $48,000 guarantee, an $8 buy-in and a 17:00 UTC start. It also described eight-player tables and direct lobby registration, but the available reports do not resolve the discrepancy with the Stake.us details.

Stake.us also advertised a promotional offer of 55 SC, 550,000 Gold Coins and 3.5% instant rakeback for players interested in joining the event.

Stake Poker has raised the guarantee for its Oct. 25 Stake Showdown to $200,000, a new record for the platform. The No-Limit Hold’em tournament keeps its $1,000 direct buy-in and is set to start at 17:00 UTC on Sunday, Oct. 25.

The guarantee is 60% higher than September’s $125,000 Stake Showdown. As we reported in September, the previous edition introduced the high-roller event with the same $1,000 entry point and low-cost satellite route.

Pokerfuse described the increase as a near-doubling of the guarantee less than two months after Stake Poker launched the Showdown in early September. The $200,000 is a guaranteed total prize pool, meaning it stands even if entries do not generate that amount; it is not the first-place payout, which depends on the final prize structure.

Registration opens Oct. 24. Players begin with 20,000 chips, with 10-minute blind levels starting at 50/100 and scheduled breaks at the 55-minute mark each hour. Regular play uses eight-handed tables before a nine-handed final table.

The event has a two-hour late-registration period and allows as many as 98 re-entries per player, each at $1,000. The lobby lists a minimum six-player field and a 10,000-player capacity. It does not offer conventional rebuys or add-ons, although eliminated players can re-enter while registration remains open.

Players can also pursue a seat through a three-stage satellite ladder. Step 1 costs $0.50 and awards Step 2 entries, Step 2 costs $10 and feeds Step 3, and the $100 final step awards a $1,000 Showdown seat. Entrants may join the ladder at any stage, or buy directly into the main event.

The tournament lobby lists knockout awards of at least $250 for each elimination. Stake Poker’s card-room rules allow bounty-event players to receive knockout rewards even when they do not make the paid places, although the available Showdown promotion does not fully set out how individual knockout values are calculated or whether they can change during play.

The event is hosted on Stake’s international Stake.com platform, which SoMuchPoker says is unavailable to US players.

The Polish Poker Championship will add a Road to Dubai qualification feature when it returns to Banco Bratislava from Nov. 4-16. The qualification is being framed as part of the Polish organization’s path toward its 10th anniversary in 2027.

The 2026 festival’s €150 Main Event carries a €500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Banco Casino said the series has been extended by four days from the prior edition, creating additional chances to qualify and setting up what organizers hope will be another record turnout.

The Main Event also introduces bonuses worth up to €3,000 for players who make Day 2 more than once. The incentives are intended to add motivation across the event’s opening flights, while the schedule also includes satellites, cash games and other side events.

Among the larger tournaments outside the Main Event are a €1,000 Super High Roller with a €40,000 guarantee and a €400 High Roller guaranteeing €60,000. The Championship Mystery Bounty has a €20,000 guarantee and costs €50 plus €50 to enter.

The previous Polish Poker Championship recorded 7,740 entries, a figure organizers are targeting for improvement this year. Milosz Andrzejewski won the 2025 event for nearly €140,000.

The festival has a recent history of large fields in Bratislava. Its 2023 Main Event drew 5,061 entries and generated a €537,730 prize pool from a €125 buy-in, and Banco Casino described it at the time as Slovakia’s largest poker tournament.

Banco Bratislava’s announcement said the low Main Event buy-in and large guarantee have drawn thousands of players from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe. The venue is at Hodžovo námestie 2, opposite Bratislava’s Presidential Palace.

The Malta Poker Festival Autumn Edition will return to Portomaso Casino in Malta from Oct. 23 through Nov. 4, led by a €600 Grand Event carrying a €1 million guarantee. Michael Mizrachi, identified by the festival as the 2025 WSOP Main Event champion, is scheduled to host every stage of that tournament.

The Grand Event opens on Oct. 23 and has starting flights through Nov. 1, including a turbo flight on the final opening day. Survivors combine for Day 2 on Nov. 2, with the final table set for Nov. 3.

There is more money available elsewhere on the series schedule. The €390 IPS begins Oct. 29 with a €1.5 million guarantee, the largest listed for an individual event, while the €250 Mini IPS starts on opening day.

Other tournaments include The Hendon Mob Championship, H.O.R.S.E., MPF 8 Games, PLO events, MPF Seniors, Ladies First! and the Scandinavian Open Poker Championship. The Halloween tournament is scheduled for Oct. 31, and Ivonne Montealegre hosts a €1,150 High Roller Mystery Bounty on Nov. 2.

The schedule also assigns named hosts to several specialist events: Kerryjane Craigie for Ladies First!, Tanya Masters for MPF Halloween, Jon Kyte for H.O.R.S.E. (5 Mix), and Paul “Rinty” Monaghan for the 50-plus Seniors tournament. A Byblos Party is also listed.

Montealegre founded the Malta Poker Festival in 2018 and has said its aim is to make recreational and newer players comfortable, rather than catering only to seasoned players. The festival runs twice a year and draws players from across Europe.

Last autumn’s €550 Grand Event at the same casino drew 1,987 entries, with eight players reaching its final day and a €141,000 first prize listed. The 2025 Autumn edition had advertised more than a dozen events and €500,000 in guarantees, providing a recent benchmark for the 2026 schedule.

Vitalijs Zavorotnijs won Event #4 of the 2026 Poker Masters in Las Vegas, defeating Clemen Deng heads-up in the $10,500 no-limit hold’em tournament. The Latvian collected $224,000 and 224 PGT points for his second PokerGO Tour title.

The 80-entry event generated an $800,000 prize pool and paid the top 12 finishers. Zavorotnijs began the five-handed final day as chip leader, but Deng held the advantage when their heads-up match began.

The decisive hand was a full-house cooler. Both players flopped two pair on a queen-jack-four board, with Zavorotnijs holding queen-four and Deng jack-four. A four on the turn gave each player a full house, but Zavorotnijs had the higher one and called Deng’s river all-in to end the tournament.

Deng earned $144,000 as runner-up. Nick Palma took third for $104,000, followed by Jamie Dwan, who won $76,000, and Andrew Lichtenberger, who received $56,000.

Palma’s third-place finish added 104 PGT points, taking him to 339 series points and $339,200 in winnings. That moved him past Myles Mullaly into first place in the race for the Poker Masters Purple Jacket, while Zavorotnijs rose to fourth with his first cash of the series.

Palma had already won Event #2 for $235,200 and his first PGT title, as we reported earlier this week. His second final table in four events now gives him the early lead with six tournaments remaining.

The 10-event Poker Masters runs at PokerGO Studio through Oct. 23, with buy-ins ranging from $10,500 to $51,000. The series champion receives the Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport.

Americas Cardroom will run the fifth and final starting flights of its $6.5 million Dual Venom PKOs on Sunday, Oct. 18, while also opening three Halloween Mystery PKO tournaments worth a combined $650,000 in guarantees.

The final Day 1s begin at 1:05 p.m. ET for the $5 million guaranteed no-limit hold’em event and $1.5 million guaranteed pot-limit Omaha event. Each costs $2,650 to enter. The series began Oct. 4 and has used five scheduled starting flights, with no sixth flight planned.

Players advancing from the final flights join Day 2 on Monday, Oct. 19, at 1:05 p.m. ET. The no-limit hold’em event also has a Day 3 on Oct. 20, and both tournaments reach their final tables Oct. 21 at 4:05 p.m. ET. Players who have already reached Day 2 cannot enter another Day 1 in that same Venom event.

The earlier edition of the Dual Venom pair produced about $7.85 million in combined prize pools, above this month’s $6.5 million guarantee. Its no-limit hold’em tournament drew 2,498 entries and paid more than $675,000 overall to winner Rigapols81, while the PLO event drew 641 entries and paid PohPohPohPAAAA $252,888 in combined prize money and bounties.

Sunday is also the first Day 1 for the Halloween Mystery PKO slate. The schedule includes a $109 buy-in, $500,000-guaranteed tournament, a $33 event with a $100,000 guarantee and a $5.50 event guaranteeing $50,000.

The Halloween events use hidden Mystery Bounties alongside visible Progressive Bounties. Knockouts on Day 1 do not pay bounties, and every player begins Day 2 with no accumulated progressive bounty. Once the bounty phase starts on Nov. 1, an elimination reveals a mystery prize: half is paid immediately and half is added to the winner’s progressive bounty. Half of an eliminated player’s accumulated progressive bounty is likewise paid out, with the other half transferred to the eliminator’s bounty.

Unlike the Dual Venom restriction on players who have bagged for Day 2, the Halloween tournaments allow entries across multiple Day 1 flights and combine qualifying stacks for Day 2. Venom Fever, the qualification promotion for the Dual Venoms, closes Sunday after guaranteeing 587 seats across its full run; its final Mega Satellites begin at 10:05 a.m. ET.

Russell Westbrook’s sixth annual Why Not? Foundation Poker Night raised nearly $1 million, lifting the charity fundraiser’s six-year total to almost $3 million. The Sept. 18 event was held at Fontainebleau Las Vegas in partnership with the World Poker Tour Foundation.

As reported on Sept. 18, the sixth Poker Night was set to make its Fontainebleau debut, with the members-only Poodle Room hosting the event. PokerNews reported that tournament entry cost $10,000 and included a one-night stay at the resort.

The field mixed poker names and NBA figures, including Phil Ivey, Michael Mizrachi, DeAndre Jordan and Harrison Barnes. Vince Van Patten also attended.

Michail Grigorev won the tournament, beating a final table that included Princess Love and Randall Emmett. Westbrook played but was eliminated after moving all in with top pair against Love’s flopped top two pair; Ivey and Mizrachi also missed the final table.

The poker competition served the foundation’s broader fundraising mission. Founded in 2012, the Why Not? Foundation supports underserved communities through educational opportunities, mental-health initiatives and workforce-development programs, while encouraging young people to build resilience.

The World Poker Tour Foundation, launched in 2012, says it has raised more than $50 million through more than 50 charity events supporting causes including human rights, education, world hunger and the environment. Fontainebleau Las Vegas President Maurice Wooden said the resort was honored to help continue the impact Westbrook and his foundation have built for young people in Los Angeles.

WSOP has highlighted a group of 2026 Circuit ring winners preparing to use their $5,000 WSOP Paradise packages in the Bahamas, while reminding winners who have not yet reserved their package to do so by Nov. 1.

Every 2026 live or online Circuit ring winner receives the package, which includes a seat in the $2,750 WSOP Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty and complimentary accommodations at Baha Mar. Ring winners are also being asked to watch the WSOP Live app for accommodation-coordination messages.

The new WSOP.com feature follows players whose wins came at stops across the Circuit. Shawn Hall won a $600 O8 or Better event at Horseshoe Las Vegas and said the Mystery Bounty will be the biggest buy-in tournament of his career. It will be his second trip to the Bahamas, but his first stay at a resort like Baha Mar.

Alcira Lagerwerf earned her first ring, at age 43, by winning the €300 NLH Ladies Event at Casino Malta after years as an amateur player. She plans to bring her daughter, mother and sister, calling the trip “truly a dream come true” and looking forward to competing for a bracelet against leading players.

The feature also included Michael Iacullo, a disabled Marine Corps veteran who won the $400 Double Stack NLH at Horseshoe Hammond. Iacullo learned poker in his mid-30s and had previously come close to a ring with a runner-up finish in Southern Indiana’s 2016 Monster Stack.

Other package recipients profiled were Alison Wedding, winner of the $400 Big O at Choctaw, whose Paradise trip will be her first visit to the Bahamas; Kimberlee Lepa, who won the $300 NLH Ladies Event at Caesars New Orleans for her first ring; and Rene Fernández, winner of the MX$8,000 NLH Turbo Bounty KO at Big Bola. Fernández said he had played poker for four years before winning, on the same day his girlfriend won a Ladies Event.

The explicit inclusion of online winners is notable after an earlier eligibility dispute. Pokerfuse reported in July that promotional language had initially not distinguished between live and online champions, prompting criticism from online ring winners. The outlet later updated its report to say WSOP confirmed eligible US and international online Circuit winners would continue to receive the invitation package.

WSOP Paradise runs Dec. 2-17 at Baha Mar Hotel & Resort, with 20 bracelet events and $120 million in guaranteed prize pools. The Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty opens the series with a $5 million guarantee, while the $26,000 Super Main Event carries a $50 million guarantee. The festival also decides the 2026 WSOP Player of the Year race.

Americas Cardroom will switch ScreenShield on by default across the Winning Poker Network on Nov. 4, extending a table-protection tool that had initially been applied to selected accounts after remote-access software concerns.

The protection is designed to prevent covered screen-capture and screen-sharing methods from exposing poker-table content, including hole cards. Players will still see their cards, action and tables normally, while a dedicated setting in the client will allow them to turn ScreenShield off for streaming, session recording, content creation or coaching.

As we reported in September, WPN initially activated ScreenShield for players whose devices met its remote-access or screen-control detection criteria. At that stage, any player could request the feature from support, with activation potentially taking up to 48 hours.

The network said its Game Integrity team has since reviewed more than 2 million hands involving players whose devices had MeshAgent detected. It found no evidence in those hands that reviewed players used knowledge of hole cards while playing on WPN.

About 200,000 of the reviewed hands belonged to Paul Gregg. WPN said it found no evidence that Gregg could see opponents’ cards or made decisions using hole-card knowledge on the network, but closed his account after considering broader investigative information and communicating with other operators. The company said the account action was separate from its gameplay finding.

WPN said its systems, poker software and official downloads were not compromised. It also cautioned that detecting remote-access capability does not itself establish a device was breached or that cheating occurred.

ScreenShield is not intended to solve every integrity risk. A cybersecurity investigator interviewed by GipsyTeam said the tool may help against some basic capture threats, but had not tested it and could not say whether it would prevent MeshAgent attacks. The company likewise acknowledged that the feature can affect legitimate recording and streaming.

WPN is also assessing, but has not finalized, a broader policy that could bar third-party software from running alongside its poker client. The network said it is weighing whether tighter restrictions can reduce security and game-integrity risks without unnecessarily disrupting legitimate player use.

GGPoker has banned third-party poker software and automation tools that run alongside its client, ending a policy that had allowed some applications which did not directly affect play. Players must fully close prohibited programs before starting the GGPoker client.

The restriction covers software that accesses game data or interacts with tables, including HUDs, table-management tools and shortcut programs. Named examples include PokerTracker 4, Hand2Note, Holdem Manager 3, DriveHUD 2, Equilab, Jurojin, Intuitive Tables, StarsCaption, Lobbyze and AutoHotkey, though GGPoker has not presented the list as exhaustive.

PokerTracker 4 can be used to track bankrolls, retain hand histories for study and display opponent statistics during play. AutoHotkey can create shortcuts for actions including bet sizing, checking, calling and folding. GGPoker said outside applications create risks when they access game data, interact with tables, automate actions or handle player information beyond the operator’s control.

The policy arrives after compromised builds of Jurojin and IntuitiveTables installed the MeshCentral remote-access agent on some Windows computers. A security researcher’s report on Sept. 29 preceded confirmation from the two products, which are used for table management and multi-tabling. The issue was in those third-party tools rather than poker-site clients.

The agent, a legitimate open-source remote-management product, was installed without users’ knowledge through code-signed versions of the tools. It gave its server operator a live view of an affected screen and control of the computer. The researcher estimated that 10 to 30 computers across Europe, North America and Oceania were affected, with the earliest confirmed activity dating to March 16, 2024.

The identified computers had the agent removed or disabled, and neither product was still delivering it. Jurojin said June was the final month in which it served a compromised version, and said it privately emailed affected users and kept logs of compromised releases and delivery dates.

As we reported in September, Jurojin had recently supplied WPT Global with security-approved hotkeys, bet-sizing controls and table-sizing tools. Jurojin has now called GGPoker’s blanket prohibition “heavy-handed,” arguing that security threats should not mean treating the entire third-party software ecosystem as the threat, and urged operators, developers and players to cooperate on standards and communication instead.

Alongside the ban, GGPoker has added a Client Security section to Game Settings. Its four optional tools work only while the GGPoker client is open and are not a replacement for antivirus protection across a player’s computer.

Screen Guard is designed to stop screenshots, recordings, screen shares and remote-viewing applications from displaying poker tables and hole cards. A “Protect the whole Client” option extends that protection to the lobby, cashier and account pages, including wallet balances, histories and personal details.

Connection Monitor warns of applications with suspicious connections, including remote-control software and proxies. Players can mark trusted programs through Allowed Processes to avoid alerts, while DNS Check looks for signs of DNS hijacking. The Client Security menu also includes Process Check.

GGPoker has also added Win-Rate Anomaly Detection, or WAD, to its integrity monitoring. The system assesses each decision against the cards an opponent actually held, looking for choices that are correct far more often than legitimate play would permit. The company said testing against past cases found those cases, and described WAD as an addition to checks for collusion, ghosting, bots and real-time assistance.

GGPoker said it traced funds connected to the incident, identified a related cryptocurrency wallet and shared its findings with Coinbase, where it believed the funds were deposited. It asked the exchange to restrict the associated account and preserve records, and reported wallet addresses to illicit-fund tracking networks and law enforcement.

Support for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and macOS 11 Big Sur or earlier ends in 2027. GGPoker recommends players move to at least Windows 10 or macOS 12 Monterey, saying the unsupported operating systems no longer receive manufacturer security patches and expose accounts to modern exploits and critical risks.

Vitalijs Zavorotnijs led the last five players in Poker Masters Event #4: $10,500 no-limit hold’em, carrying 3.53 million chips into the final day. The 80-entry event built an $800,000 prize pool, with $224,000 and Poker Masters Purple Jacket points awaiting the winner.

Clemen Deng was second with 2.63 million, followed by Jamie Dwan on 2.375 million. Nicholas Palma, the Event #2 champion, returned with 850,000, or 17 big blinds, while Andrew Lichtenberger was shortest with 620,000, or 12 big blinds.

All five finalists had secured at least $56,000. The tournament paid its top 12 finishers, and play resumes today at 11:45 a.m. local time at Level 18, with blinds of 25,000/50,000 and a 50,000 big-blind ante.

Zavorotnijs reached the lead after his pocket kings beat Joao Simao’s pocket queens. He had survived several all-in confrontations by that point and remained either first or within the top three for the rest of the day.

Deng narrowly escaped the money bubble, then doubled through Lichtenberger when his pocket tens held against pocket nines. The actual bubble went to Adrian Mateos, who was eliminated by Chris Hunichen one place short of a payout after Joey Weissman recovered from a stack of only 10,000 chips.

Mateos’ exit continued a difficult Poker Masters run. He had bubbled Event #1, finished runner-up to Palma in Event #2, then bubbled both Event #3 and Event #4. Weissman subsequently fell in ninth when his pocket queens lost to Deng’s ace-king.

Dwan, a late addition to the field, made his first cash of this Poker Masters and his first-ever cash inside the PokerGO Studio. He eliminated Jeremy Ausmus in eighth to form the final table, then knocked out Erik Seidel in sixth to end the day. Dwan won the WSOP $50,000 High Roller for $2.28 million and his first bracelet in 2026.

Palma has the chance to add a second Poker Masters win after taking down Event #2 from an 84-entry field for $235,200, his first PokerGO Tour title. A second series victory would put him atop the Poker Masters standings, matching his stated aim of wearing the Purple Jacket.

Joey Weissman won Event #3 of the 2026 Poker Masters, a $10,500 no-limit hold’em tournament, for $218,400. The win was his fifth PokerGO Tour title and came shortly after he secured his second World Series of Poker bracelet in an online event.

The tournament drew 78 entries and created a $780,000 prize pool. Daniyal Gheba finished second for $140,400, while Shannon Shorr took third place and $101,400. Final-table play ran Oct. 14-15 and also included Jeremy Ausmus, Brock Wilson and Dylan Linde.

Ausmus started the day with the chip lead, but was eliminated first in less than two hours. Gheba, who began among the short stacks, then knocked out Linde and Wilson and built a commanding lead entering three-handed play.

Weissman turned the match after roughly 45 minutes of three-handed action. His pocket queens doubled through Gheba’s pocket sevens, giving him the lead; he then called Shorr’s 1.425 million-chip all-in with ace-nine against queen-nine to eliminate Shorr.

Weissman began heads-up play holding nearly all the chips. In the first hand, Gheba called off 1.125 million with queen-three after Weissman moved all-in with queen-eight; a river card gave Weissman a full house to end the tournament.

The victory was Weissman’s second cash of the series and put him on 241 Poker Masters Purple Jacket points, second only to Myles Mullaly. Nick Palma stood close behind on 235 points after winning Event #2, while Gheba and Adrian Mateos were also among the top five following runner-up finishes.

Weissman had entered the event with four PokerGO Tour trophies, including the 2022 $3,500 BetMGM Poker Championship at the PokerGO Studio. He called the studio “my favorite place to play in the world” and told PokerNews that “variance comes in waves and you got to be ready to take advantage of it when it comes.”

Lucid Poker has launched Cardle, a free daily poker quiz that can be played in a browser at cardle.poker without an account or app download.

PR Newswire reported that every Cardle hand is selected and built by founder Doug Polk. The spots cover bluffs, apparent bluffs that should be checked, value-betting sizes and other decision types.

Players receive a short explanation after each hand. That breakdown presents both the raw solver output and Polk’s recommendation, pairing the theoretical result with a practical answer.

Cardle sits alongside Lucid Poker’s mobile-first training app, which is built for new and experienced players. The company said more than 10,000 players were training on the app when Cardle reached the web, and that nearly 1,000 Daily Cardles were already available.

Polk’s preparation for his heads-up High Stakes Feud against Daniel Negreanu is part of the product’s pitch. He finished about $1.2 million ahead in a match that ran for more than 25,000 hands of $200/$400 no-limit hold’em over more than three months, from late 2020 to February 2021.

Lucid offers a free Basic tier and a 14-day Pro trial. Lucid Pro costs $49 a month or $490 a year, while the wider platform is available on iOS, Android, macOS and Windows.

The company’s roadmap includes deeper simulation tools, more game formats and Blitz Poker, described as a quick, gamified poker-learning mode with power-ups.

888poker ambassador Aaron Barone completed a planned 10-play-day bankroll challenge in six days after growing a $2,500 starting roll past its $10,000 target. The livestreamed challenge began Oct. 1 and ended halfway through its intended schedule, with Barone recording profits on five of its six sessions.

PokerListings documented the run under Barone’s abarone68 screen name. He opened with a $164 profit, ending Day 1 with $2,664 and using the result to move slightly higher in buy-ins the next day.

Day 2 produced the pivotal early jump. A $2,529 profit took the bankroll to $5,193 after 178 multi-table tournaments, allowing Barone to leave the micro-stakes behind. He ultimately spent only two days at those stakes.

The first session at higher stakes was also the challenge’s only losing day, as Day 3 ended down $344. Barone recovered on Day 4 with a $2,436 profit. After 355 games, his bankroll stood at $7,285 and he moved up in stakes again.

That second move prompted Barone to ask viewers whether the challenge terms should change. Viewer feedback led him to continue under the original rules.

Day 5 added $1,998, bringing the bankroll to $9,283 after 467 tournaments. With the target within reach midway through the planned challenge, Barone played a sixth and final day, which coincided with Thanksgiving, and booked a further $1,997 profit.

Barone paired each daily update with AI-generated meme images. Reflecting on the early micro-stakes portion, he said the experience gave him respect for the players “battling it out there,” calling it “truly … a grind.”

QQPK has permanently banned 893 accounts after an internal investigation identified what the operator called a coordinated cheating syndicate. The group used multiple accounts at the same tables to share real-time hole-card information, giving its members information unavailable to legitimate opponents and influencing preflop decisions.

The action expanded QQPK’s Oct. 13 announcement that 724 accounts had been banned following community reports. Of the eventual 893 permanent bans, 567 came from the original external list of suspected accounts and 326 were identified by QQPK’s own Security and Risk Control teams.

The operator has set aside a $300,000 compensation fund for affected players. It said $64,627 was confiscated from banned accounts, while QQPK supplied the remaining $235,373. A further 2,020 flagged accounts did not show the same direct cheating patterns, but remained under restricted monitoring while checks continued.

The case began with a player investigation published on the Two Plus Two forum on Oct. 9. It examined about 26 million hands from 27,936 multi-table tournaments played from July 2 through Oct. 2 and flagged 2,587 accounts for suspected automated play based on recurring statistical patterns, similar preflop choices and highly consistent betting behavior.

QQPK temporarily restricted withdrawals from those 2,587 accounts on Oct. 10 while it began a server-side review. It later said abnormal all-in EV results were caused by coordinated card sharing and limitations in the original dataset, including millions of duplicated hand records that it said inflated the reported deviations.

QQPK apologized for its systems failing to detect what it described as a novel method earlier. It said its internal review found no evidence of random-number-generator manipulation, backdoor access or a way to view unrevealed hole cards through its systems. Somuchpoker noted that the conclusion on the RNG had not been independently verified.

The operator maintained that its RNG is fair and said it holds a Gaming Laboratories International certification. It also offered anonymized hand histories for outside examination and invited external researchers to help improve future security measures.

The 893-account total is far below a separate assessment published by Vojtech Cervinka, who released 11,469 QQPK nicknames he said he was “virtually certain” were bots. His research covered July 16 through Oct. 11 and reviewed 24 million player-hands across 3.78 million hand histories. He estimated that roughly 17.5 million hands, more than 70% of those examined, were played by bots.

Cervinka’s list used behavior-based criteria rather than names alone, and he said hundreds more suspicious nicknames lacked sufficient hands for a high-confidence classification. The list counted unique nicknames rather than necessarily distinct underlying accounts, because name changes could affect the total. It also identified repeated naming formats as circumstantial evidence of bulk account creation, rather than proof that each individual account was automated.

QQPK said it would publish the affected tournaments, account details and compensation calculations by Oct. 17, before crediting eligible players directly.

Bryn Kenney has filed a first amended complaint in Nevada federal court against GGPoker-related companies and CEO Mansoo “Michael” Kim, alleging he was denied millions of dollars in player-recruitment commissions and a promised 5% equity stake. The high-stakes tournament player also alleges that Kim concealed cheating and security failures on the platform before blaming some cheating on games managed by Kenney.

The suit names Kim, NSUS Group Inc., NSUS Limited and Global Gaming & Hospitality LLC. Kenney is seeking damages, punitive damages and company records that he says are needed to calculate the amounts owed. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The case began in Clark County’s Eighth Judicial District Court in July before Kim removed it to the U.S. District Court in Nevada on Aug. 25, according to RG.org’s review of the federal docket. Kim filed a motion to dismiss Sept. 23. After the parties agreed to extend briefing deadlines, the hearing was moved from Oct. 21 to Nov. 12 before U.S. District Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey in Las Vegas.

Kenney signed an endorsement agreement with NSUS Limited in March 2018. He alleges that Kim proposed a broader arrangement in August of that year, offering commissions on players Kenney recruited and a 5% ownership interest in the business that became GGPoker.

Kenney says he helped build GGPoker’s high-roller tournaments and recruited thousands of players and agents while working about 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The complaint says Kim recruited him while GGPoker was a relatively small operator attempting to earn players’ trust. Kenney is described as tournament poker’s all-time gross-earings leader, with almost $91 million in earnings.

The commission arrangement initially generated about $5 million for Kenney in 2019, he says. But the complaint alleges GGPoker later removed recruited players from internal commission-tracking systems, made unauthorized deductions, cut his commission rate and approached his agents directly to move their accounts under company control.

Kenney claims those actions reduced his annual commission income by more than $3 million compared with his earlier earnings, leaving tens of millions of dollars unpaid. He also alleges that the 5% equity interest was never transferred despite his performance under the oral agreement, and estimates that stake is worth tens of millions of dollars.

The complaint ties the claimed stake to NSUS Group’s $500 million acquisition of the World Series of Poker brand from Caesars Entertainment in 2024. Kenney alleges his work growing GGPoker helped make that transaction possible, but that his ownership interest was not recognized in the deal.

The suit also centers on alleged failures in GGPoker’s anti-cheating protections. Kenney says Kim assured him that the site had robust safeguards and a dedicated team to prevent cheating, despite allegedly knowing that players were cheating on the platform and failing to act. Kenney further alleges that Kim later told players cheating had occurred in games managed by Kenney.

Kenney says he personally guaranteed winnings for players he brought to GGPoker. In one incident, he alleges he paid $1 million from his own money after Kim did not pay the full $6 million owed to players. The complaint additionally alleges Kim targeted American players, including Nevada residents, and allowed some cryptocurrency users to access GGPoker without a virtual private network.

GGPoker has publicly described enforcement against real-time assistance, or RTA, in separate circumstances. The company said it had blocked 31 accounts for fair-play violations in collaboration with GTOWizard. Its security policy defines RTA as external assistance that creates an unfair advantage or influences real-time decisions, and says violations can result in a permanent ban and confiscation of funds.

Kenney left GGPoker’s ambassador program in 2020, with the complaint not stating why, and later founded Latin America-focused poker business 4poker. His response to Kim’s dismissal motion was due Oct. 14, while replies are due Oct. 26.

Americas Cardroom player kingqueensuited won the Sunday Banana on Oct. 11, completing back-to-back victories in the $1,050 Venom Special event. The player had also won the Oct. 4 edition, taking about $204,700 in first-place money across the two tournaments.

The latest win paid about $108,300, following a roughly $96,300 payout a week earlier. Americas Cardroom’s Oct. 12 recap described the result as two Sunday Banana wins in two weeks.

The Oct. 11 tournament drew 502 entries, up from 436 for the previous Sunday’s event. Its $502,000 prize pool slightly exceeded the Sunday Banana’s $500,000 guarantee.

TruthHurts finished runner-up for about $78,900, while LionHeart93 placed third and earned about $57,600. The three payouts accounted for the top end of the $1,050 Venom Special Sunday Banana.

The repeat win came during an Oct. 11 Sunday schedule that included other completed tournaments, though kingqueensuited’s consecutive Sunday Banana titles were the standout result. The $630 VSpecial Sunday High Roller drew 1,025 entries and paid JAMERECIA about $119,000 to win, while the $109 Sunday Moneymaker attracted 2,735 entries and was won by HanSolo47 for about $48,800.

Together, those three completed Sunday tournaments generated $1.4 million in prize pools and paid their champions a combined roughly $276,100.

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour returns to Blackpool for its eighth and penultimate stop of 2026, with more than £500,000 guaranteed across the festival. The Grosvenor Casino on the South Promenade is due to host the series from Oct. 30 through Nov. 8, led by a £1,250 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event carrying a £250,000 guarantee.

PokerNews’ dedicated Blackpool preview lists a £125 GUKPT Warm-Up beginning on the evening of Oct. 31, followed by the final Kav Cup. Rick Gilby created that event in memory of the late British player Derek Kavanagh; its £40+£20 entry directs the entire £20 contribution to charity, and the cup had raised more than £84,000 to date.

The card also includes a £250 Mini Main, a £1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, a £1,650 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller and a £550 GUKPT Cup. Live satellites will run throughout the festival, while online Main Event satellites on GGPoker and Grosvenor Poker start at £1.

Players who win a Main Event seat through GGPoker, or use a GGPoker account to buy directly into the £1,250 live event, receive a 10% cash boost on any Main Event winnings under the companies’ partnership.

Some published schedule details differ across two PokerNews reports. Its broader October calendar lists Blackpool as running from Oct. 29, with a £1,100 Main Event starting Nov. 5 and three opening flights, while also giving lower buy-ins for the Warm-Up, Mini Main, PLO High Roller, No-Limit Hold’em High Roller and GUKPT Cup. That calendar also lists Deepstack, Last Chance and Closer events, plus £1, £5 and £30 satellite feeders that award Grosvenor Live Event Credit.

Last year’s Blackpool Main Event drew 270 entries and generated a £289,560 prize pool. Konstantinos “Kostas” Patsourakis beat Liam McMurray heads-up for £67,990, securing his second GUKPT Main Event trophy after his 2023 GUKPT Leeds win. Harry Sandford won the 2025 £1,650 High Roller for £36,810, while Gilbert Black turned a £250 Mini Main entry into £30,100.

Phenom Poker will launch the Phenom Series of Poker, or PSOP, on Oct. 23, making a mixed-game high roller rather than a no-limit hold’em main event the series’ headline finish. PSOP I runs through Nov. 15 and has 92 events with more than 700,000 CHIP guaranteed.

Buy-ins range from 25 to 5,000 CHIP. CHIP is the site’s in-game currency and is pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar, putting the overall guarantee at more than $700,000 at that rate.

Poker.org described PSOP as Phenom Poker’s first tournament series. Its 34 mixed-game tournaments include 8-Game, 9-Game, 10-Game, mixed NLH/PLO, TORSE, Razz Fusion, Big Bet Mix and Super Stud, alongside hold’em, Omaha, draw and stud events in Championship, Masters and PKO formats.

The closing headline tournament is Event #91, the 9-Game Mix Masters High Roller. It carries a 50,000 CHIP guarantee and a 5,000 CHIP buy-in.

The emphasis follows Phenom Poker’s broader shift toward rotational and niche mixed formats. The site had initially put more attention on no-limit hold’em and PLO, with Yeh saying 90% to 95% of players came from those games, before the team moved toward a mixed-game focus after finding players preferred rotational games.

Satellites and freerolls offer entry routes to every PSOP event, with satellites starting at 2.50 CHIP. Each tournament also has a Last Chance satellite two hours before its start, while players registered before the first hand of any numbered event receive a 10% deeper starting stack.

The series has 250,000 PHNM in additional rewards, split between a 150,000-PHNM leaderboard and up to 100,000 PHNM through the PSOP Rally. Leaderboard points are based on finishing position in the 92 numbered events, while the Rally awards points for paid entries, including satellites and re-entries, whether or not a player cashes.

The leaderboard pays 150 places, with all earned PHNM locked for one year. Its winner receives a WSOP Paradise Event #10 package worth 16,000 USDT in addition to 25,000 PHNM; the top Rally milestone winner receives a WSOP Paradise Event #1 package valued at 6,500 USDT.

The Rally awards five points for every 100 CHIP in buy-ins, and its highest milestone requires 1,000 points, equivalent to 20,000 CHIP in entries. Entering each of the 92 PSOP events once would cost 28,900 CHIP.

Nick Palma captured his first PokerGO Tour title by beating Adrian Mateos heads-up in Event #2 of the 2026 Poker Masters, a $10,500 no-limit hold’em tournament at PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. Palma earned $235,200 from an 84-entry field that produced an $840,000 prize pool.

Twelve players were paid, with Mateos collecting $151,200 for second. Michael Berk finished third for $109,200, David Coleman took fourth for $79,800 and Nick Seward earned $58,600 in fifth.

Mateos started the final day with 3.23 million chips, ahead of Palma’s 2.48 million. Berk began with 2 million, while Coleman had 1.61 million and Seward 1.19 million. Seward, Coleman and Berk were eliminated before the final two players began heads-up play.

Palma held the early heads-up advantage, but Mateos briefly moved in front before Palma regained control. The deciding hand saw Mateos move all-in with ace-nine and Palma call with ace-six. Both players paired an ace on the flop, but the board ran out A-7-5-4-3 to give Palma a seven-high straight.

The win brought Palma 235 PGT points, while Mateos received 151. PGT’s series leaderboard listed Palma second with 236 points, behind Event #1 champion Myles Mullaly. Mullaly remained in front after winning the Poker Masters opener, as we reported Oct. 14.

Palma had already compiled several of the biggest cashes of his career this year, including a fourth-place finish in the $3,500 BetMGM Championship worth $431,180 and third in a $5,000 live bracelet event for $326,136. His Poker Masters victory was his first win of 2026 and his 11th final table of the year, lifting his recorded career tournament earnings above $5.1 million.

After the final hand, Palma told PokerNews that he had never doubted he would beat Mateos. He also set out his longer-term ambition, saying he planned to be a top-10 player for the next 10 to 15 years. Palma said he wants another Poker Masters win and another top-two or top-three finish as he chases the Purple Jacket.

The 10-event Poker Masters runs at PokerGO Studio through Oct. 23, with buy-ins ranging from $10,500 to $51,000. The overall series winner receives the Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport.

ACR Poker has released a documentary following Chance Kornuth’s run in the 2026 World Series of Poker $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, including a Day 1 recovery from 1,000 chips to more than 900,000 at one point.

The film is available on ACR Poker’s YouTube channel and mixes footage of high-stakes hands with strategic analysis and a wider discussion about tournament structure. It also follows Kornuth’s two entries in WSOP Event #55.

One hand examined in the documentary centers on an aggressive bet, the holdings Kornuth believed an opponent could fold, and whether a smaller sizing might have produced a different result. The film also covers short-stack decisions during 40-minute Day 1 levels, with 60-minute levels on Day 2, as the event approached its 17 paid places.

Late registration is a major theme. Kornuth and other players discuss whether limiting late first entries while still allowing re-entry for players who registered earlier could better balance recreational players’ experience with the need to attract entries. PokerNews’ Day 1 coverage noted that registration remained open until the start of Day 2.

PokerNews reported that Kornuth ended Day 1 on 215,000 chips, after 81 players had entered and 30 remained. The finished tournament drew 110 entries for a $5.225 million prize pool, with Joao Simao beating Santhosh Suvarna heads-up for the $1.37 million first prize at Paris Las Vegas.

Kornuth, a four-time WSOP bracelet winner, won his first bracelet in a $5,000 PLO event in 2010 for $508,090. He also finished runner-up in a $50,000 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em High Roller in 2024, earning $1.35 million.

He joined the ACR Poker Pro team in May. As we reported in September, Kornuth then reached the final tables of both Dual Mystery Bounty Venom events, finishing sixth in PLO and seventh in No-Limit Hold’em for about $188,700 in combined prizes and bounties.

The documentary also points viewers to ACR Poker’s Discord community, where players can review hands and interact with ACR Pros including Chris Moneymaker and Alex Foxen.

ACR Poker will run three Halloween Mystery PKO tournaments from Oct. 18 through Nov. 1, putting a combined $650,000 in guaranteed prize money across buy-ins of $5.50, $33 and $109.

The low-stakes event carries a $50,000 guarantee and reaches Day 2 at 2:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 1. The $33 tournament guarantees $100,000, with Day 2 beginning at 11:05 p.m. ET, while the $109 edition has a $500,000 guarantee and resumes at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Starting flights for all three events will run simultaneously every two hours. Although they share the Halloween branding and overall date range, their Day 2 schedules and structures differ.

The rollout follows a period of low-cost, multi-flight Mystery Bounty testing at the start of October, according to PokerListings. Those events were described as highly popular, and an ACR PKO Mystery Bounty tournament finished with a five-way deal on Oct. 4.

Mystery KO combines random bounty awards with progressive-knockout mechanics. Bounties are locked through Day 1 and become active on Day 2, when the bounty pool is randomly assigned among surviving entries. A player who eliminates an opponent receives half of that bounty immediately, while the other half is added to the winner’s own bounty.

ACR Poker’s Oct. 1 client update had introduced the Progressive Mystery Bounty format in multi-day tournaments. Players can find those events in the site’s Mystery Bounty lobby, which displays each tournament’s buy-in, schedule and structure.

The new Halloween slate follows ACR’s earlier seasonal Mystery Bounty promotion in 2025, which offered a single $250,000-guaranteed event with 116 Day 1 flights and knockout prizes ranging from $150 to $25,000.

GTO Wizard’s Ultra Early Bird pricing window closes Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. CEST, giving new customers a last chance to take an annual Ultra subscription at an effective $229 per month. After the deadline, the comparable annual price rises to $289 per month.

The annual deal saves $720 over 12 months. PokerNews’ promotion notice also says new customers using its purchase links receive an additional 10% discount.

A separate monthly Early Bird option is priced at $279 per month, compared with $359 after the promotion ends. Customers switching from monthly to annual billing before the deadline could save as much as $1,560 over the following year, depending on their subscription choice.

Ultra is GTO Wizard’s most comprehensive tier, bundling every feature in the Starter, Premium and Elite plans with Ultra-only tools. It includes AI-powered preflop and postflop solving, including ICM spots, with solutions generated in seconds.

The company’s promotion described further tournament support as being in development for KO, PKO, TKO and Mystery Bounty formats. It also said it planned to scale postflop multiway solving to as many as nine players.

That roadmap builds on tournament work already available in the product. As covered in August, GTO Wizard added three-way postflop ICM and bounty solving, including controls for custom stacks, bet sizes, ranges, rake and opponent tendencies.

GTO Wizard’s existing AI preflop multiway solver already supports tables of up to nine players and can be run from a phone or computer without special hardware. For speed and accuracy, though, the current version limits the number of players allowed to reach the flop to three. The company has been developing architecture for four-way, five-way and larger postflop scenarios.

The MSPT Spade Poker Championship is being held at FireKeepers Casino Hotel in Battle Creek, Michigan, with a $1,110 no-limit hold’em Main Event carrying a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The six-day festival runs from Oct. 13 through Oct. 18, marking the event’s second year.

The Main Event begins Thursday with three Day 1 flights, each at noon. Players who advance return at 10 a.m. Sunday for Day 2, and each opening flight stops when about 11% of its field remains, so survivors will already be in the money.

Players receive 30,000 chips and can enter or re-enter without a cap until registration closes at the start of Level 13. The eventual champion also receives a non-transferable $3,500 entry to the MSPT Championship, while the Major-series event awards 1.5 times the standard MSPT Player of the Year points.

The schedule includes $70 and $265 Milestone satellites that ran Oct. 9-12, plus further satellite opportunities during the festival. Gold Card side tournaments generally cost $250 to $400, including a $400 Monster Stack that starts at noon Sunday as the Main Event’s Day 2 is in progress.

Registration requires players to meet the casino’s age requirement and hold a free Red Hot Rewards Club membership.

This year’s Main Event guarantee is down from the inaugural Spade Poker Championship’s $1.5 million guarantee. That first edition, held at FireKeepers from Oct. 9-12, 2025, drew 2,773 entries and built a $2.69 million prize pool, according to PokerNews.

Merritt Kuhn won the inaugural title after making a deal with Raymond Mancini, collecting $268,049. The series also produced side-event wins for George Janssen, Marty Masar III, William Webb and Jacob Long.

FireKeepers hosts major MSPT festivals in the spring and fall. Its May Season 17 Michigan Poker State Championship Main Event drew 2,551 entries and generated a $2.47 million prize pool; Sai Mudduluru won $357,936 and a seat into the MSPT Championship Rock ’N’ Roll Poker Open.

The Venetian poker room in Las Vegas has replaced traditional pitch dealing with slide dealing, becoming the latest local casino to adopt a procedure intended to keep cards out of sight as they travel to players.

Dealers use a card shoe and slide each card across the felt instead of pitching it through the air. The lower path is designed to prevent opponents and cell-phone cameras from seeing card values during the deal. CardPlayer reported that poker professional Bart Hanson shared a photograph of the Venetian’s new setup, while cautioning that it was not “Euro” slide dealing.

The change follows South Point Casino’s adoption of European-style dealing in August, as we reported. The Venetian’s move adds to a Las Vegas response focused on reducing opportunities for exposed cards to be viewed or recorded.

The security concern has roots in alleged European high-stakes schemes. In 2024, authorities arrested two people accused of using a player at the table and an outside accomplice who received a video feed. The alleged method used a microscopic camera beside a phone to see under a dealer’s pitch, with card information relayed back through an earpiece.

Traditional pitch dealing puts cards in the air, while slide dealing keeps the deck and each card on the table. WIRED reported that dealers’ hands can sit roughly a foot above the table during a conventional pitch, creating a longer potential viewing window than a shoe-based deal. PokerStars introduced slide dealing at European Poker Tour events in 2025, citing camera-cheating concerns.

Las Vegas rooms have also tightened phone rules. Station Casinos barred phones and card protectors from table surfaces at all of its local poker rooms, while still allowing players to use their phones. Despite those precautions and the concerns raised by alleged cheating schemes, CardPlayer reported in September that there had been no confirmed recent cheating incidents in Las Vegas.

Reaction to the Venetian’s change was split. Some players argued the shoe setup and slower dealers could drag down the pace of play and make dealing more difficult. Others called slide dealing an inexpensive, effective safeguard for game integrity. CardPlayer said more U.S. casinos, especially those spreading high-stakes games, were likely to consider the method.

Myles Mullaly won the $10,500 no-limit hold’em opener of the 2026 Poker Masters, taking $218,400 and his first PokerGO Tour title. The New York poker professional beat Justin Zaki heads-up in a 78-entry event that created a $780,000 prize pool.

The win gave Mullaly 218 PGT points and the early lead in the Poker Masters Purple Jacket race. Twelve players made the money, while six returned for Day 2 after Adrian Mateos’ pocket aces were cracked by Craig Mason’s pocket nines on the money bubble.

Mullaly started the final day second in chips behind Michael Rossitto. Justin Vaysman exited sixth for $39,000, followed by Daniyal Gheba in fifth for $54,600. Rossitto finished fourth for $74,100 after shoving jack-ten into Sam Laskowitz’s ace-queen.

Laskowitz took third and $101,400 when he called Zaki’s small-blind shove with ace-king against queen-seven, only for a seven to land on the flop. Zaki then entered heads-up play with Mullaly, who held roughly a 2-to-1 chip lead. Laskowitz’s result followed a recent $270,000 Super High Roller Series win at the PokerGO Studio.

Heads-up lasted more than an hour, with Zaki briefly taking the lead. On the deciding hand, Mullaly bet 400,000 on the flop and 1.2 million on the turn before calling Zaki’s 3.4 million all-in. Mullaly’s ten-nine improved to a pair of tens on the river against Zaki’s jack-three, ending the tournament.

Mullaly said many things went his way and that he was pleased to complete the win. The title came after several close calls for him earlier this year at the US Poker Open.

The 10-event Poker Masters is running at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas through Oct. 23. Buy-ins range from $10,500 to $51,000, and the overall series winner receives the Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport.

GGPoker’s $5 Ocean KO Opener drew 420,084 entries, setting a new record for the largest online poker tournament field. The event produced a $1.93 million prize pool, nearly doubling its $1 million guarantee.

The total beat the previous 253,692-entry benchmark set by PokerStars’ Common Cents tournament in October 2015 by 166,392 entries, or about 65.6%. Sources differ slightly on the old PokerStars total: Guinness World Records lists 253,692 participants, while PokerStars’ original report listed 253,698 entries.

The record field was built across multiple starting flights. One flight hit its 10,000-player cap on Oct. 11, and 24,134 players advanced to Day 2 before the tournament was reduced to a nine-handed final table.

Ukraine’s Sange Savchenko won the inaugural Ocean KO Opener after defeating China’s “HHHBVVVVBB” heads up. Savchenko collected $52,665 in prize money and $9,152 in bounties. Earlier PokerNews coverage listed a $43,938 first-place prize and more than $1.05 million allocated to bounty rewards.

The event was part of GGPoker’s Bounty Hunters Series and used the operator’s new Ocean KO format. As covered earlier this month, GGPoker launched Ocean KO on Oct. 2, and its first three tournaments had already generated more than 30,000 entries and $1.4 million in prize pools.

Ocean KO is a jackpot-style version of a Progressive Knockout tournament. Each elimination triggers a Bounty Wheel that applies a random multiplier to the eliminated player’s full bounty, with multipliers from 0.4x to 400x across the first 10 tiers.

Half of the resulting bounty reward is paid in cash and the other half is added to the winner’s own bounty. The format has 14 progression tiers, from Egg to Legendary Shark; players enter the four Legendary tiers once their bounty exceeds 50 times the buy-in. GGPoker says a single top-tier bounty can reach $1.5 million.

The jackpot element has prompted competing views of the format. Critics argue that large random multipliers can make poker resemble a lottery, while supporters argue that the potential jackpots can attract recreational and new players. GGPoker says most spins land at 1x or below, and unawarded bounty value from sub-1x results remains in the bounty pool to fund larger prizes over time.

Lions of the East is underway at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, where the eight-flight portion of the tournament carries a $2 million guaranteed prize pool. The Borgata flights began Oct. 13 and run through Oct. 17, with the final Day 1H using a turbo structure.

The event began with eight qualifying flights at MGM National Harbor in Maryland from Oct. 7 through Oct. 12. Survivors from both properties will combine at Borgata for Day 2 on Sunday, Oct. 18. Borgata’s official poker-room calendar lists the Day 2 start at 11:15 a.m., while PlayUSA listed noon.

Buy-in is advertised at $600, made up of $500 for the prize pool, a $70 registration fee and a voluntary $30 staff add-on. The add-on gives players 15,000 extra chips, taking the starting stack from 20,000 to 35,000, and Borgata says the gratuity goes directly to tournament personnel.

At $500 reaching the prize pool from each entry, the event needs 4,000 entries to meet its $2 million guarantee solely through buy-ins. Borgata no longer takes a percentage of the prize pool for dealer gratuities.

Registration opens at 9 a.m. for each Borgata flight and remains available until the beginning of Level 13. Players can enter through the designated Borgata poker registration area or the BetMGM Poker app, and must be at least 21 and have an MGM Rewards card.

Unlimited re-entries are allowed through the first 12 levels. Players may also play multiple starting flights, but only their largest qualifying stack moves on to Day 2; every additional qualifying stack earns a $1,200 payout.

Standard Day 1 levels last 30 minutes through Level 24 before rising to 40 minutes from Level 25. Each flight ends when roughly 8% of its field remains, while about 12.5% of entries receive payouts, rounded down. Every Day 1 payout is $1,200.

Day 2 will play until three tables remain or 12 hours pass, with a third day available if needed to decide the winner. Payouts for Day 2 will be set after every opening flight has finished.

Each Day 2 qualifier receives a custom BetMGM Poker jersey for the property where they advanced, plus a Borgata hotel stay for Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, with checkout set for Oct. 19. The tournament uses Tournament Directors Association rules, and the tournament director’s decisions are final.

The WSOP Circuit returns to Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York, on Thursday with 18 ring events, more than $3 million in advertised guarantees and a $1 million guaranteed Main Event. The series runs Oct. 15-26, making it Turning Stone’s second Circuit stop of the year after its March festival.

The $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event is scheduled as a three-day tournament. Every ring winner at the stop will receive a WSOP Paradise package, according to PokerOrg.

The advertised guarantees are substantially higher than figures still displayed on the official WSOP schedule page for some supporting events. PokerOrg lists the $400 Mini Main Event at $600,000, up from $500,000, alongside a $400,000 Monster Stack and $400 buy-in Seniors and Ladies events guaranteeing $100,000 and $25,000 respectively.

The official page also confirms 18 events and the $1 million Main Event guarantee, but lists the Mini Main at $500,000, the Monster Stack at $200,000, and the Ladies event with a $300 buy-in. Players looking at those events will need to account for the differing published details.

Turning Stone’s March Circuit series drew 15,276 entries and paid $5.8 million in prize money. Zachary Vankeuren of Saratoga won the Main Event from a 1,114-entry field, taking $267,437 and his first Circuit ring. Kenny Roy won the previous Mini Main from 3,026 entries for $113,623.

The October stop also moves tournament play from the Event Center to the Oneida conference room, directly off the gaming floor and close to the poker room. Players can stay in The Crescent, a new 258-room tower that has received an AAA Four Diamond Award and forms part of Turning Stone’s $400 million development phase.

Turning Stone has hosted the Circuit since 2022, when the property began building its record as the only WSOP host site in New York, according to Syracuse.com. Since then, the venue has recorded 71,721 entries and more than $27 million in prize money across its Circuit events.

Shrikant Pillamarapu won the $1,100 WPT Prime Lodge Championship at Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Texas, after a heads-up straight-flush-over-nut-flush cooler against Kenneth Quattrocchi. The win paid Pillamarapu $138,127 in cash following an ICM deal and included a $10,400 entry to the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

The World Poker Tour lists Pillamarapu as only the second winner of the WPT Prime Lodge Championship title. Its results page displays a first-place value of $148,527 because it includes the championship seat, while Quattrocchi received $126,733 as runner-up.

The tournament drew 1,074 entries for a $1.05 million prize pool, with 137 players paid. WPT live updates, however, separately referred to a 1,084-player field during heads-up play, creating a discrepancy with the final event totals reported elsewhere.

Pillamarapu began the nine-handed final table as the shortest stack with 25 big blinds, while Pranay Reddy Patlolla led with 118. Before this victory, Pillamarapu had a single recorded cash worth $381.

His route to the title included eliminating Patlolla in eighth when pocket aces beat kings, then sending Vladyslav Shovkovyi out in sixth with pocket jacks against ace-seven. Pillamarapu also eliminated Preston Duron in fourth, winning with ace-deuce against pocket eights. David “The Dragon” Pham, who had about $11 million in career tournament earnings, finished fifth for $43,500.

Quattrocchi started heads-up with the lead, holding about 24.4 million chips to Pillamarapu’s 15.9 million. The match tightened before the decisive Hand #192, played with blinds at 200,000/400,000.

Quattrocchi opened to 1 million and called Pillamarapu’s three-bet to 2 million. He made the nut flush with ace-five of clubs, but the K-9-8-T-Q board, whose final four cards were clubs, also gave Pillamarapu a straight flush through his jack of clubs.

Pillamarapu moved all-in for 14.1 million on the river and Quattrocchi called. The pot left Pillamarapu with 40.4 million chips and Quattrocchi with 800,000, or two big blinds. Quattrocchi later doubled up, but Pillamarapu ended the tournament in Hand #244 when his set of fives beat Quattrocchi’s all-in hand.

The heads-up ICM agreement replaced the originally scheduled payouts with the $138,127 cash award for Pillamarapu, plus the World Championship entry, and $126,733 for Quattrocchi.

888 has become the first and only operator to offer regulated online poker in Alberta, launching its locally licensed 888 Alberta platform on Tuesday. The site offers Hold’em and Omaha cash games, plus scheduled guaranteed tournaments, and is separate from the company’s Ontario and international poker pools.

Pokerfuse reported that Alberta players must download new software and open new accounts for the service. They cannot currently play at the same tables as customers in 888’s Ontario or international markets.

As we reported in July, Alberta’s regulated iGaming market opened without poker because the province required a ring-fenced player pool. The three-month transition period that had allowed some operators to keep serving the province under applicable arrangements ended Oct. 13, while locally regulated operators need an Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis licence.

The 888 launch makes Alberta the second Canadian province where the operator offers poker, after Ontario. It was also the first operator to launch online poker in Ontario.

888’s opening tournament offering included turbo, Mystery Bounty and knockout events scheduled for Tuesday evening. Its advertised Sunday lineup includes a C$1 Sunday Micro PKO with a C$250 guarantee and a C$22 Mystery Bounty Main Event carrying a C$4,000 guarantee. The latter would need 200 entries to cover the guarantee, assuming full buy-ins and excluding fees or adjustments.

The operator had not announced Alberta-specific promotions or a dedicated launch-week tournament series at the time of publication. That is notable because 888 had previously indicated that Alberta participation would depend on licensing, technical readiness and the final rules for poker liquidity.

888 has now entered despite the segregated pool, but there is still no confirmation that Alberta and Ontario will be allowed to share poker liquidity. The Supreme Court has heard a case on whether Ontario and Alberta could resume sharing liquidity with international players, although a final decision could take months.

PokerStars also left Alberta on Oct. 13, as we reported separately, while GGPoker, BetMGM and PokerStars on FanDuel have been identified as possible future poker entrants. GGPoker had registered with Alberta regulators but had not stated its plans for a launch.

ACR Poker’s third Dual Venom starting flights on Oct. 11 sent 63 no-limit hold’em players and 17 pot-limit Omaha players to Day 2, with herramusta and Pepareg1 leading their respective flights’ bounty totals.

Herramusta collected about $10,200 in NLH bounties in a flight that drew 496 entries. Pepareg1 led the PLO bounty race with about $9,200 as 142 entries produced 17 qualifiers. The bounty totals are separate from the regular prizes paid by finishing position.

As reported Oct. 4, the $6.5 million Dual Venom PKO series began with Day 1A leaders Atheist30 in NLH and BooooomHeadsot in PLO. The current edition consists of a $5 million guaranteed NLH event and a $1.5 million guaranteed PLO event, with a $2,650 direct buy-in for each remaining starting flight.

The progressive-knockout format pays half of a knocked-out player’s bounty directly to the player making the elimination. The other half is added to that player’s own bounty, meaning bounty earnings can build even before a player reaches the money through finishing position.

One PLO player illustrated that distinction on Day 1C. Yenomez69 recorded about $8,400 in bounties but finished 32nd, outside the 17 players who qualified from the flight.

Across the first three flights, the NLH event had drawn 1,205 entries and qualified 175 players. owens9397 held the overall NLH chip lead at 336.99 big blinds. The PLO event stood at 359 entries and 42 qualifiers, led by LawyerDad68 with 458.61 big blinds.

Both tournaments have Day 1D on Oct. 15 and Day 1E on Oct. 18, beginning at 1:05 p.m. ET. Day 2 is set for Oct. 19; the NLH tournament is then scheduled for a Day 3 on Oct. 20, while the PLO event has no Day 3. Both final tables are scheduled for Oct. 21 at 4:05 p.m. ET.

OlyBet will stage the 2026 European Mixed Poker Championship at Olympic Park Casino in Tallinn, Estonia, from Oct. 26-31. The six-day mixed-games festival has more than 10 tournaments, buy-ins starting at €200 and cash games running 24 hours a day.

The €800 8-Game Main Event begins Friday, Oct. 30, according to PokerNews. It has two Day 1 flights, at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., with surviving players returning Oct. 31 to play for the title. Players can re-enter once in each starting flight, while €185 H.E.T.R.O.S. satellites on Oct. 29 and 30 offer a cheaper route into the event.

The Main Event rotates through No-Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw. That format puts draw, stud and split-pot variants alongside the better-known hold’em and Omaha games.

The opening event is the €200 Big Bet Mix on Oct. 26. Other lower-buy-in options include the €200 S.O.R.B.E.T., €200 Omaha Dealer’s Choice and €300 6-Game Mystery Bounty, which runs on the final day.

At the upper end of the schedule are two €1,500 High Rollers. The S.O.R.B.E.T. High Roller starts Oct. 29 and uses Seven Card Stud, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Badugi, Stud Hi-Lo and 2-7 Triple Draw; the €1,500 6-Game High Roller follows on Oct. 31.

Further events include a €700 20-Game Dealer’s Choice, €555 Lowball Draw Mix and €300 Senkel’s Paradise Pick’em. In the Pick’em event, the player on the dealer button selects the game to be played.

OlyBet has also scheduled a welcome dinner for Oct. 26 and a community lunch for Oct. 29. The round-the-clock cash-game offering will give players action between tournaments and an opportunity to try unfamiliar mixed-game formats.

Ukraine’s “toptiersir” won 888’s $80,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event on Oct. 12, converting a $109 buy-in into a $12,130 payday. The victory came days before the PokerNews Online Championship begins on 888 on Oct. 18.

The eight-handed final table began unusually close, with only 21 big blinds separating chip leader “neverback” from eighth-placed “Jwarriner11.” There was no elimination for the first 35 minutes, before “jekazavod92” committed a 4.4-big-blind stack with king-queen and lost to Jwarriner11’s ace-queen of spades.

The remaining action accelerated, with a champion decided 90 minutes after that first knockout. Neverback, who had started the day with the lead, lost an eight-big-blind ace-ten stack to king-nine. Germany’s “Stago44” was eliminated with queen-jack of spades against ace-king after falling below one big blind, while Denmark’s “kojgysto888” was reduced to 1.3 big blinds when king-ten lost to pocket aces and soon departed.

Brazil’s “LRigos94” had already collected $4,669 in bounties when a three-way all-in reshaped the tournament. Jwarriner11 eliminated both LRigos94 and “YAMAHA1311,” moving from eighth in chips at the start of the final table to a 47.4-big-blind heads-up lead over toptiersir’s 43.4 big blinds.

The heads-up lead changed hands several times. Toptiersir eventually made a straight against Jwarriner11’s two pair to take control, then built a lead of more than five to one. In the final hand, toptiersir min-raised king-queen and called Jwarriner11’s 12-big-blind shove with ace-six of clubs. A king on the flop put the Ukrainian ahead; although a six later arrived, it was not enough to deny the title.

As we reported in August, kingsluvan also won the same $109, $80,000-guaranteed 888 Mystery Bounty Main Event.

The PokerNews Online Championship runs from Oct. 18 through Oct. 27 with 40 events and more than $780,000 in combined guarantees. Buy-ins range from $8.80 to $525 across traditional multi-table tournaments, deep-stack events, progressive knockouts and Mystery Bounties.

Its opening-day schedule includes a $109 Mystery Opening Event with an $80,000 guarantee. The series also includes a $25 Mystery Mini Main with a $50,000 guarantee, while the $250 Mystery Bounty Main guarantees $250,000; its final eight are due back on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. GMT.

JackPoker has opened Full House of Horror, its main Halloween tournament series, with $2.5 million guaranteed across bounty events through Nov. 1. Adding the $450,000 leaderboard brings the promotion’s combined tournament-guarantee and leaderboard pool to $2.95 million.

PokerStrategy reported the series details ahead of its Oct. 12 start. Full House of Horror followed the end of JackPoker’s Buy-In Back Series and gives tournament players three weeks of knockout-focused play.

Every elimination carries a bounty value that also counts toward a player’s leaderboard score. The series adds an Elf Hunt feature, which identifies selected players as elves; eliminating one of those marked players pays an additional special bounty.

The $450,000 leaderboard is divided into three separate weekly rounds rather than one race for the whole festival. Players can follow their position in the JackPoker client.

Final-week satellites are available either through a deposit of at least $300 or a $50 satellite buy-in. The satellite offer gives players another route into the closing stretch of the series.

Separately, JackPoker’s $100,000 Monster Hand Hunt Omaha cash-game promotion also began Oct. 12, as we reported. That is a distinct promotion from Full House of Horror, which is centered on bounty tournaments and its three-round leaderboard.

RedStar Poker’s latest The Festival Online series began Oct. 12 on the iPoker network, with a mixed-game schedule that runs through Oct. 26 alongside the regular no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha offerings.

The added tournament formats include HORSE, 8-Game, Razz, fixed-limit 2-7 triple draw, seven-card stud and Short Deck. The schedule also features single-day NLH, PLO, PLO8 and PLO5 events. The listed special tournaments start at 18:30 WET.

A €50 H.O.R.S.E. event, listed as “TFO|€50 H.O.R.S.E €91 Gtd,” serves as the main event for the series’ games outside hold’em and Omaha, according to PokerListings. It has eight starting flights, which began in the second week of the series.

Players who advanced from more than one H.O.R.S.E. flight can take every qualifying stack forward, combining them into a cumulative Day 2 stack. Day 2 began at 20:30 WET on Oct. 25.

The Festival Online also includes four leaderboard contests: separate cash-game races for NLH, PLO and PLO5, plus an MTT leaderboard. Cash-game players earn one point for each €1 in rake at stakes from €0.05/0.10 through €2/4, with points credited to the matching game-type leaderboard.

MTT points vary by action and tournament buy-in. Each leaderboard awards prizes to a fixed number of leading players once the challenge concludes.

The October edition is the second Festival Online series scheduled on iPoker in 2026. The Festival’s wider live schedule emphasizes mixed games and casino formats, including Sviten Special, alongside its tour stops and Festival Weekend events.

Casino Barcelona’s Sixers Poker Series opens Oct. 13 with a card built entirely around six-handed tables. The festival runs through Oct. 18 at the Port Olímpic venue, led by a €660 Main Event with a €150,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The opening event is the €220 Niners, which begins Oct. 13 and runs for two days. A €1,200 High Roller follows on Oct. 14, while the multi-day Main Event starts Oct. 15.

The rest of the schedule includes a €230 No-Limit Hold’em Progressive Knockout, a €335 Mystery Bounty and a €220 Closer. Casino Barcelona has long been a host venue for the annual PokerStars European Poker Tour, but the Sixers schedule applies its short-handed format across every tournament.

Main Event players receive 50,000 chips whether they buy in directly or qualify through a €125 satellite. Day 1a and Day 1b use 45-minute blind levels, while turbo Day 1c uses 20-minute levels. Unlimited re-entries remain available until the start of Level 15.

Casino Barcelona’s official tournament page also sets out a Day 2 promotion called “Crazy Sixers.” Once registration closes and before play resumes, Day 2 qualifiers play one hand of Crazy Pineapple at their assigned tables: each player is dealt three cards, discards one after the flop, and is then all-in. The river winner receives a €660 ticket for the next circuit stop, with those tickets funded from the Main Event prize pool.

The venue staged a comparable €660 Sixers Main Event in October 2024. That tournament drew nearly 300 entries and generated a €159,660 prize pool; its anonymous winner took €30,000, while each of the top four finishers earned at least €10,500.

The official page lists online-registration deadlines at 11 p.m. on Oct. 14, 15 and 16, although one Oct. 16 entry is marked unavailable online.

Alberta’s 90-day transition for gray-market gambling sites reaches its Oct. 13 cutoff today. Operators that have not obtained an Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission licence must shut down and leave the province, ending the temporary path to compliance offered after the regulated iGaming market opened July 13.

The grace period was granted on a case-by-case basis to operators able to demonstrate a route to compliance that had not been available before the new market launched. Sites still had time to complete their operational agreements before the deadline.

Stake was among the prominent operators moving toward a regulated Alberta launch. The AGLC had approved its application, while the company was finalizing an operating agreement with the Alberta iGaming Corporation; Stake had planned to launch Oct. 12, one day before the deadline.

The scale of that move is notable. H2 Gambling Capital estimated that Stake represented 31% of Canada’s gray market and generated about CA$921 million in fiscal 2026, making it the second-largest operator behind Super Group. As of Oct. 8, the AGLC listed 41 licensed iGaming operators and 39 sites accepting wagers, although that count included Play Alberta and three licences held by Cadtree Limited.

Poker remains the unsettled part of Alberta’s new market. Licensed sites may legally offer it, but a poker room needs players competing against one another, unlike slots or sportsbooks. Alberta’s maximum province-only pool is about 5 million people, a level TheLines reported was too small for providers to operate profitably.

No shared-liquidity arrangement with Ontario had been secured three months after launch. Such a deal could raise the potential player pool to about 21 million, compared with Ontario’s estimated 16 million eligible players. Alberta officials had been working on an agreement, and Bill 48 permits the Alberta iGaming Corporation to seek shared liquidity with other jurisdictions as well.

The issue is also tied to Ontario litigation over international player pools. The Supreme Court in Ontario heard arguments both for and against them, while the Atlantic Lottery Corporation has argued that international pooling would harm provincial markets. Alberta’s poker outlook depends on that case’s outcome.

PokerStars is leaving Alberta’s poker market today, as we reported. No new poker operators entered when the regulated market opened in July, leaving the transition deadline without a confirmed resolution to the liquidity problem.

Robert Gianquitti won the $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at Harrah’s Pompano Beach, turning the shortest stack on the final day into a first Circuit ring. He outlasted 1,011 entries and earned $248,632 from a $1.53 million prize pool.

Gianquitti began the final day seventh of seven, with 15 big blinds. His initial aim was simply to ladder up to fifth place, but an early double-up with pocket kings against Marc Evanier’s pocket tens gave him room to work. He then steadily climbed the leaderboard, according to Poker.org’s event coverage.

Evanier ultimately finished third for $115,891, leaving Gianquitti to face Nagui Yassa heads-up. Their match lasted nearly two hours, with Yassa taking $165,725 as runner-up.

The win was Gianquitti’s first Circuit title after playing WSOP events since 2007. Born and raised in South Florida, he has worked in commercial paint sales for nearly 13 years, a job he said gives him the flexibility to play local tournaments and make occasional WSOP trips to Las Vegas.

The $248,632 prize also eclipsed his previous best tournament score of about $154,000. Gianquitti said he would not leave his job even for a WSOP Main Event victory. He said he loves spending time with his 7-year-old daughter.

The result came during the 18-event Pompano Beach Circuit stop that began Oct. 1 and concluded Oct. 12, as covered in our earlier preview of the series. The Main Event’s $1.53 million final prize pool comfortably exceeded its advertised $1 million guarantee.

As a 2026 Circuit ring winner, Gianquitti receives a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package, including entry to the $2,750 Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty and accommodations at Baha Mar Resort. WSOP Paradise runs in Nassau, Bahamas, from Dec. 2-17.

Battle of Malta will return to Casino Malta in St. Julian’s from Oct. 27 through Nov. 4 with €2 million in guaranteed prize pools across its Fall Edition schedule.

The €600 Main Event carries €1.5 million of that total. It has nine starting flights from Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, with 40,000-chip stacks and 40-minute levels for the €600 flights. Lower-priced €300 flights use 20,000 chips and 20-minute levels.

Players advancing from the starting flights return for Day 2 on Nov. 1, and the Main Event plays through to its final table on Nov. 4. The festival also includes affordable side events, bounty tournaments, Pot-Limit Omaha and mixed games.

Among the biggest supporting events, the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta opens Oct. 27 with a €150,000 guarantee and €200 mystery bounties. The €1,100 Star Yes High Roller has a €300,000 guarantee, while the schedule also lists the €5,200 Mega Teddy High Roller and €2,200 Casino Malta Royal High Roller.

Players looking beyond no-limit hold’em can find several PLO events, a €300 Sviten tournament and a €330 H.O.R.S.E. event. The €330 PokerNews Open begins at 5 p.m. on Nov. 3, using 30,000 starting chips and 25-minute levels. PokerNews plans live coverage of both that event and the Main Event.

The Fall Edition follows a large 2025 Autumn Edition Main Event, which drew 6,039 entries including re-entries and built a €2.7 million prize pool against a €1.5 million guarantee. Candido Cappiello won €225,770 following a heads-up deal, and 811 players cashed.

Battle of Malta’s total prize money awarded rose from about €4.8 million in 2024 to just over €6 million in 2025, an increase of nearly 27%. The most recent Main Event, won by Alejandro Asenjo, drew 2,667 entries; its €1.2 million prize pool ended with Asenjo receiving €94,520 in a four-way deal.

WPT Global is giving its European customers a free ticket toward the WPT World Championship satellite ladder when they make a qualifying deposit of at least $10 between Oct. 10 and Oct. 19. The ticket’s value depends on the deposit amount, ranging from $1.10 to $110, and can be used to work toward the $1,060 Sunday Qualifier.

The offer is limited to Europe and is an added entry point rather than a separate championship route. It builds on the $1.10 World Championship satellite roadmap covered in our Sept. 19 report.

WPT Global lists three feeder paths into the $1,060 final: $1.10, $11 and $110; $5 and $55; or $22 and $220. The weekly final awards $12,400 packages for the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

Each package includes the $10,400 Main Event buy-in and a $2,000 travel stipend paid into the winner’s WPT Global account. Winners also receive merchandise, VIP lounge access, an invitation to the player party and a preferential Wynn hotel rate.

The first 30 players to win packages through WPT Global’s online satellites are eligible for a $100,000 Golden Ticket bonus. It is paid only if an eligible player goes on to win the Main Event, and is separate from the tournament prize pool.

WPT Global’s October recap says the direct $1,060 satellite runs every Sunday until Nov. 30. Pokerfuse and SomuchPoker identify Nov. 29 as the final scheduled Sunday qualifier, while also listing the same three feeder routes and $12,400 package structure.

Package winners are automatically registered for Day 1A of the $10,400 WPT World Championship, which begins Dec. 13. They must complete WPT Global identity verification by Dec. 3 or risk forfeiting the package.

The WPT World Championship festival runs from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21 at Wynn Las Vegas, with 85 events scheduled. The Main Event has three starting flights, a Dec. 20 final table and an additional $1 million in mystery bounty prizes.

Clubs Poker has scheduled The Clubs Major for Oct. 25, billing the 250 SC No-Limit Hold’em progressive knockout as its largest guaranteed-prize-pool tournament so far. The event begins at 4 p.m. ET with a 50,000 SC guarantee that covers both regular prizes and bounties.

The 250 SC entry is split into 115 SC for the regular prize pool, 115 SC for a starting bounty and a 20 SC fee. In the progressive knockout format, half of an eliminated player’s bounty goes to the player who knocks them out, while the other half is added to that player’s bounty. Any guarantee top-up goes only to regular prizes.

Players who register before the scheduled start receive 55,000 chips, a 10% increase on the 50,000-chip stack issued to late entrants and re-entries. PokerFuse described the guarantee as a new single-tournament record for the sweepstakes poker platform, which has faced player-liquidity constraints that can make guarantees harder to support.

Qualification runs through a three-stage satellite path. Daily Stage 1 freerolls, held at 12:15 p.m. ET from Oct. 1 through Oct. 24, guarantee 20 Stage 2 seats each. Stage 2 costs 5.50 SC and runs daily at 3:15 p.m., 7:15 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. ET, awarding 55 SC Stage 3 tickets.

Stage 3 satellites cost 55 SC and run at 7:15 p.m. ET on Oct. 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 20 and 24. Winners receive a 250 SC Major ticket. Promotional tickets do not register players automatically, so winners must enter the applicable tournament lobby before registration closes.

The site is also offering casino and poker mission tracks, with no opt-in required. Completing all three checkpoints in either track awards 5.50 SC, 55 SC and 250 SC tickets, worth 305.50 SC in total. Casino missions require qualifying settled stakes, while poker missions are based on rake attributable to the player; the most demanding checkpoint in either track awards direct entry to The Clubs Major.

Social-media question contests on X, Instagram and Facebook offer another route to tickets during October. Each contest post awards three tickets with a combined face value of 66 SC.

The Major is a Hold’em event despite Clubs Poker’s profile in mixed games. Its record applies to one tournament guarantee, rather than the company’s broader summer schedule, which ran 190 events with more than 400,000 SC in guarantees between June 26 and July 19. Unused promotional tickets may also be eligible for the Clubs Poker Championship in November, subject to the applicable tournament and ticket conditions; tickets from this promotion expire Jan. 4, 2027.

The Israeli Poker Federation Cup Main Event at Banco Bratislava drew 2,308 entries and built a €387,774 prize pool, finishing €87,774 above its originally announced €300,000 pool. Sixteen players survived Day 2 to contest the €65,494 first prize.

Jozef Bihári, Lukáš Pažma and Peter Ješko, all from Slovakia, led the remaining field by chip count. Day 2 began with 231 contenders, and every player who reached the final day had secured at least €400.

The final-day livestream was scheduled to begin at 16:30. Side events featuring Israeli players continued at Banco Bratislava alongside the Main Event’s closing stages.

The Oct. 6-12 festival was the second Israeli Federation Cup held at the Bratislava venue following its January debut. Banco Casino Bratislava had kept the Main Event buy-in at €200 while raising the advertised prize pool from €250,000 in January to €300,000 for October.

The series was organized with IPC — Israeli Poker Championship and was intended to bring Israeli, Slovak and other European players together. More than 300 Israeli players had been expected to travel to Bratislava for the festival.

The October Main Event was also announced as Banco Bratislava’s first tournament to use a Shot Clock, which requires decisions such as folding, calling, betting or raising within a set time limit. The feature was intended to maintain the pace of play and limit excessively long decisions.

Banco Bratislava’s next scheduled festival is the Polish Poker Championship 2026, running Nov. 4-16. Its €150 Main Event carries a €500,000 prize pool, while the schedule also includes €60,000 High Roller and €40,000 Super High Roller events; the previous Polish Poker Championship drew 7,740 entries.

Brandon Wilson won Super High Roller Bowl XI at PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, beating a 28-entry field in the $103,000 no-limit hold’em event. He collected $1.125 million, 400 PGT points and the sixth PGT title of his career, which was also his most valuable on the tour.

The tournament generated a $2.8 million prize pool and paid its five finalists. Nick Petrangelo finished runner-up for $700,000 and 210 PGT points, while Alex Foxen took third for $450,000 and 125 points. Jeremy Ausmus earned $310,000 for fourth, and Adrian Mateos received $215,000 and 65 points for fifth.

As we reported Oct. 1, Foxen carried the chip lead into the five-player finale after Kristen Foxen bubbled the event in sixth place. Wilson had begun the final day fourth in chips after eliminating Kristen Foxen on the money bubble, then doubled through Alex Foxen at the final table to avoid being its first elimination and take the lead.

Wilson then eliminated Mateos in fifth before knocking out Foxen in third. Foxen’s pocket sevens ran into Wilson’s pocket eights, and another eight arrived on the board.

Wilson held a slight advantage when heads-up play began against Petrangelo. The deciding hand ended with Wilson making a straight and calling Petrangelo’s river bluff to secure the title.

The result followed a final-day turnaround from the prior chip counts, which had Foxen on 2.87 million, Petrangelo on 1.68 million, Mateos on 1.51 million, Wilson on 1.27 million and Ausmus on 1.07 million. Five additional entries joined the 12 Day 1 survivors before late registration closed, taking the event to 28 entries.

ACR Poker’s first $1,050 WSOP Paradise Mega Satellite starts at 2:05 p.m. ET Sunday, guaranteeing seven $30,000 Bahamas packages worth a combined $210,000. The tournament shares the day with Day 1C of the site’s $5 million guaranteed no-limit hold’em Venom PKO and $1.5 million guaranteed pot-limit Omaha Venom PKO, both beginning at 1:05 p.m. ET.

Each Paradise package includes a $26,000 entry to the $50 million guaranteed WSOP Paradise Super Main Event, which runs Dec. 10-17 in the Bahamas. It also includes room-only accommodation at SLS Baha Mar from Dec. 5-18. Travel, meals and personal expenses are excluded, and the stated $30,000 value is not a cash payout.

As we reported last week, ACR Poker and Americas Cardroom opened the WSOP Paradise qualification campaign with Beast feeders leading into weekly Mega Satellites. Fifty players reached Sunday’s first Mega through the $95 BEAST Paradise feeder held Oct. 4, rather than winning packages directly.

That feeder drew 584 entries, built a $52,560 prize pool and awarded its top 50 finishers seats in the $1,050 event. A second $95 BEAST Paradise feeder starts at 5:05 p.m. ET Sunday and guarantees 50 seats for the Oct. 18 Mega.

ACR Poker’s promotion page advertises 100 total $30,000 packages for December’s WSOP Paradise. Mega Satellites are scheduled each Sunday from Oct. 11 through Nov. 22, while Beast winners are pre-registered for the following Sunday’s Mega.

The two Paradise qualification routes remain distinct from Venom Fever, which supplies lower-cost paths to the $2,650 Venom PKOs. The Venom promotion guarantees 587 seats across its Sept. 29-Oct. 18 run, while the Paradise feeders specifically lead to the $1,050 Mega Satellites.

The next Paradise Mega is set for Oct. 18, following Sunday’s second Beast feeder.