Poker Tournament News
Popularity: a blessing and a curse It was certainly an exciting weekend at GGPoker, as the first World Series of Poker Online bracelet to be awarded outside of the United States was won by Shoma “pp_syon” Ishikawa of Japan, but connectivity issues marred what would otherwise have been a celebratory Sunday. Included in the problems… Read more »
2015 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe McKeehen won his third career bracelet on Tuesday, taking down Event #14: $3,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the 2020 WSOP Online. The tournament had a prize pool of more than $1.5 million after 368 players entered and 128 re-bought. It took him a grueling 14… Read more »
Gotta do what you gotta do This COVID-19 pandemic has turned the poker world (and everything else) upside down. The World Series of Poker is weird right now. The live Series postponed (probably cancelled, if I may use another parenthetical), one leg of the WSOP is being played online right now on WSOP.com with another… Read more »
Although the vast majority of casinos have reopened in the United States, there still is not much in the way of live poker to be had. And that makes sense, as a poker room is not really the best environment to be in if you want to avoid a potentially deadly virus. Outside of the… Read more »
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow had a Mike Matusow day at the 2020 World Series of Poker Online this past weekend. But even after threatening violence upon a player who had the audacity to beat him in a hand, even after a little demonstration of misogyny, and even after just generally being a complete asshole, Caesars… Read more »
Six events down, 25 to go. On Monday night, Nathan “surfbum” Gamble won the first non-Hold’em event on the 2020 World Series of Poker Online slate, a 12-hour marathon of $600 Pot-Limit O8 Six-Max. For his triumph over 832 other entries, Gamble won $89,424.21 and his second career bracelet. Gamble’s first bracelet came in 2017… Read more »
Played a hand terribly… In a throwback to the days when Mike “The Mouth” Matusow frequently found himself on World Series of Poker television broadcasts flapping his maw in embarrassing fashion, Matusow couldn’t handle his own poor play during the 2020 WSOP Online and laid into an opponent during his live stream. A two-hand live… Read more »
Allen “Acnyc718” Chang captured his first World Series of Poker bracelet Sunday night, winning Event #5: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em in the 2020 WSOP Online. It was a lengthy tournament, taking ten and a half hours to whittle down from 854 players to just one. For the victory, Chang banked $161.286.44. I’m not sure if TheHendonMob.com… Read more »
When I saw the e-mail from PokerStars on Monday about a new tournament series called the Stadium Series, I raised an eyebrow (let’s pretend I can), intrigued that the poker room was launching a new live tournament event. After all, it’s called the Stadium Series. Thankfully, since we are in the midst of a pandemic,… Read more »
Breaking the seal Though the coronavirus pandemic has been a boon to online poker (silver lining of the crisis, I suppose), it has devasted live poker. For two months, there was no live poker anywhere in the United States, as some poker rooms have final begun reopening in recent weeks. But the few poker rooms… Read more »
Same bracelets, different venue In an alternate timeline, likely created if George McFly knocked Biff Tannen on ass, since we are clearly now in the timeline in which Biff won, the 2020 World Series of Poker would be in full swing right now. But alas, In Loving Memory George Douglas McFly. The massive convention halls… Read more »
As I have probably written before, while this coronavirus pandemic is awful, it does come with its silver linings. For us in the poker world, one such silver lining has been the increase in online poker traffic and, in turn, the explosion of online tournament series. Much of the talk has surrounded the sheer size… Read more »
The COVID-19 outbreak and resulting shutdown of society has resulted in changes across the board. Poker, on a live basis in a casino or card room, has been closed for the last two months. Now, as rooms and casinos are beginning to open, one segment of the game – tournament poker – is slowly beginning… Read more »
There have been many activities, including major sporting events like the 2020 Olympics, the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500 that have been postponed until later in this year or 2021. There is a bigger list of events that have been canceled outright. Thus, it comes as little surprise that PokerStars announced this morning that… Read more »
Prevented as all live poker tournament series are right now from being held in a physical casino, the Poker Masters – this year called the Poker Masters Online – concluded online this weekend. The high-stakes series, presented by Poker Central on partypoker, had 30 tournaments, all of which had five-figure buy-ins. And the excitement lasted… Read more »
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the announcement of the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series on GGPoker. In the announcement, the WSOP said that it would be made up of “hundreds” of tournaments. To that, I had the hottest of takes, “Hundreds is a lot of tournaments, if you ask me.” And holy jeez,… Read more »
Poker during a pandemic is a bad idea We were all waiting for this shoe to drop. It felt inevitable. Caesars entertainment finally announced that the 2020 World Series of Poker has been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled to begin just over a month from now on May 26th, the goal is… Read more »
In March, the few U.S. poker players who are able to play online got their shot at the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit Series. Now it’s the rest of the world’s turn. The World Series of Poker has announced the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series will be hosted by global-facing GGPoker in May. We don’t know… Read more »
When we’re talking about the different Player of the Year rankings in the poker world, you’ll often hear many grousing about how the “High Roller” tournaments affect the standings. Over the past decade, these tournaments – which are usually identified as those tournaments with a buy-in of $25,000 or more – have become more of… Read more »
One of the side effects of the current shutdown of the States of America is that some families are having trouble finding food. With this in mind, the online poker site America’s Cardroom held a charitable online poker tournament on Saturday afternoon. Once the tournament concluded, over one million dollars had been pledged to Feeding… Read more »
Dan Smith, fifth on the all-time poker tournament money list, announced on Monday that he has launched an initiative through his Double Up Drive organization to raise money for households in the Las Vegas area that are most at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, he has teamed up with Phil Galfond,… Read more »
After the actual health crisis, the biggest problem resulting from the coronavirus epidemic is the loss of employment for millions upon millions of people around the world. In just the last two weeks, 10 million people have filed unemployment claims in the United States. And that’s just claims. Loads more people haven’t filed (either by… Read more »
With the tournament poker world on a hiatus (and for good reasons – stay safe, everyone!), the two major Player of the Year races are on hold. For how long is not known, but one thing that is known is that there were two entirely different lists that were being compiled. It points out the… Read more »
Even small gatherings aren’t a good idea The World Poker Tour (WPT) announced on Tuesday that it is postponing this season’s televised final tables because of the coronavirus pandemic. Three final tables were scheduled to be held at the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas inside the Luxor from March 31st through April 2nd. The WPT… Read more »
The hits to the poker calendar continue as the world goes on semi-lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As poker players know, a poker room has got to be one of the worst places to be if trying to avoid a virus. And casinos know this, too. To… Read more »
