News about poker pros
Marafioti’s troubles were known for years Tragedy has struck the poker community as law enforcement has confirmed the death of poker pro Matt Marafioti in an apparent suicide. Marafioti, 33, leaves behind a one-year-old son. Marafioti was of the generation who rose to prominence during the poker boom and around Black Friday. The Toronto-native won… Read more »
New Jersey players get another online event The World Poker Tour has announced the creation of the inaugural WPT Online Borgata Poker Open, running September 19-21. The $3,500 buy-in event, which can be accessed on BetMGM Poker, Borgata Poker, or partypoker NJ, will feature a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. Only people physically located in… Read more »
Fans have been waiting for this PokerGO has announced that the next matchup in its young, but increasingly popular High Stakes Duel series will be the undefeated Phil Hellmuth versus Tom Dwan. The contest will take place on August 25 at 8:00pm ET at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. The above image my look… Read more »
It has been six months since Phil Galfond’s last heads-up challenge, but this week, he is back in the game. And “this week” is the operative term here. From July 26 through July 30, Galfond will take on Brandon Adams in a new “Galfond Challenge” whose length is dictated by the calendar and the clock,… Read more »
A brilliant player from the jump The poker world received devastating news Monday night: poker pro Layne Flack has passed away at the age of 52. Little is known at this time about the circumstances surrounding his death except that he was found in his home. Living the first two decades of his life in… Read more »
Eight-year drought Daniel Negreanu is third on the all-time live tournament earnings list with over $43 million in lifetime winnings. He is enshrined in the Poker Hall of Fame. He is one of the most popular poker players in the history of the game. But entering this week, he had not won an open live… Read more »
Quit while you’re ahead As of this past holiday weekend, Landon Tice was leading Bill Perkins in the $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em heads-up challenge. But also as of this holiday weekend, Landon Tice has surrendered, conceding the match to the high stakes amateur poker player. It was an odd decision by the 22-year-old poker phenom who… Read more »
It usually is not a good thing when the poker police blotter makes the news, and this time around isn’t any different. In one case, a former WPT champion will be headed to jail for some unethical behaviors in business. In another case, a casino bandit who apparently never saw Elliott Gould’s Reuben Tishkoff’s speech… Read more »
Had to wait for Soverel It looked like it was going to happen, but we still had to wait a little while on Tuesday to be sure. David Peters has won the U.S. Poker Open Championship at the U.S. Poker Open for the second year in a row. Despite Peters’ dominance over the past week,… Read more »
That seems like a bad idea The heads-up challenges over the past year have produced their fair share of trash talking between opponents, commentary by the poker community, and some mild controversy at times. But not until now has a poker room inserted itself into the drama. Such is the case with the match between… Read more »
Poker Hall of Famer Chris Moneymaker is suing ubiquitous payment processing giant PayPal. In a press release issued late last week, Moneymaker’s attorney, Eric Bensamochan, said that they will be suing PayPal for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and bad faith, “among other causes of action,” for confiscating more than $12,000 from the 2003 World… Read more »
Hellmuth need not risk a side bet For a guy who is retired from poker, Doug Polk certainly likes playing poker for tons of money. Then again, if I could beat the best poker players in the world and win millions of dollars in the process, I’d probably unretire briefly, too. And so Polk is… Read more »
We are in a distinctly new era of online poker than we were in just a decade ago. During the poker boom, online poker rooms – Full Tilt Poker, especially – raced to sign as many poker pros and poker celebrities as they could to represent their sites. Black Friday killed most of that (and… Read more »
She played her game on and off the felt If there was ever a reason for Vanessa Kade to get drunk live on Twitch, that reason presented itself Tuesday night. After months of standing up to poker’s good old boys club and losing a healthy income stream in the process, Kade won the PokerStars Sunday… Read more »
Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth are at it again. Ahead of their highly anticipated heads-up contest, the two Poker Hall of Famers now have a prop bet on Hellmuth’s tournament prowess. On Tuesday, Negreanu tweeted that he is betting against the 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner being able to profit in the Aria’s… Read more »
A long time coming We’ve got another heads-up challenge on our hands. On Tuesday, Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz confirmed that he and Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski will square off against each other. Few details have been made public except that the stakes will be $100/$200 (or Euro?) and apparently Malinowski will be imbibing. The origins of the… Read more »
Polk won more hands than Negreanu, but not by much Two and a half weeks after his demolition of Daniel Negreanu in the “Grudge Match” heads-up challenge, Doug Polk is still talking about it. It’s no surprise, as he is certainly not shy about letting himself be heard and you know what? It’s cool because… Read more »
Negreanu issues an open invitation The next heads-up poker challenge we see might be the one we all want. In the past week, both Daniel Negreanu and Antanas “Tony G” Guoga have issued challenges to none other than 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. Negreanu, who, like Hellmuth, is enshrined in the… Read more »
Another heads-up challenge There is something about poker drama that is just so intriguing. It is usually a strange brew of stupidity, bravado, triviality, and actual seriousness that combine into a cool, refreshing drink. Over the past week, one such controversy erupted on social media, turning a bit of a nothingburger into a feud between… Read more »
Can’t play on his own site Now that Phil Galfond is done with Chance Kornuth, his latest opponent in the Galfond Challenge, he is looking for some new competition. Thing is, because of pandemic travel restrictions, he is stuck in the United States and therefore cannot play on Run It Once, the online poker that… Read more »
The field of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open is down to just seven. The winner will be crowned Tuesday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, home of the ridiculously cool-looking guitar-shaped hotel. Everyone remaining from the 69 who began Monday’s action is guaranteed at least $115,630.… Read more »
Kornuth waved the white flag There was much uncertainty from both Phil Galfond and the poker community as a whole when Galfond embarked on his “Galfond Challenge” a year ago. Once one of the best poker players in the world, Galfond had effectively retired from competitive poker to launch his very own online poker room,… Read more »
The grudge match continues. On Monday, Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk resumed their heads-up poker challenge after a New Year’s break. And it was Negreanu who came out on top in the first showdown of 2021, netting about $27,000 over 500 hands. Remember from our last report on the “no love lost” heads-up challenge that… Read more »
Voting wasn’t even close Huck Seed has always loomed large in a poker room. At 6 feet, 7 inches tall, he is almost always the tallest person at the table. And now, at age 51, he has reached new heights, named the newest member of the Poker Hall of Fame. Seed had been one of… Read more »
Polk dominating The celebrated heads-up “grudge match” between Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk has reached its halfway point and Polk is light years ahead. With 12,500 in the rearview, Polk has a jaw-dropping $770,254.08 lead on the Poker Hall of Famer. It is now up to Negreanu to ponder what happens next. According to the… Read more »
