Stephen Song retreated to his rail, a wry smile across his face. He was heads-up for the 2024 EPT Barcelona title, covering his opponent – respected British tournament pro Andrew Hulme – and the pair had all the chips in the middle. His ace-seven off suit was behind Hulmes pocket eights, but Song ha been running hot all day. So it wasnt a complete shock when the turn brought Song a gutshot straight, delivering him the win and a 1,290,386 ($1.425M) payday – the largest of his career. Song bested a field of 1,975 entries, the fourth-largest in EPT history, according to PokerStars. But for those who have followed Songs career over the past five years, seeing him deep in a large-field event was as much of a surprise as seeing him bink the turn. Song has made a habit of repeatedly fading the field in some of the toughest large-field events on the calendar, earning him a reputation as one of the best on the modern landscape to do so. Feel free to debate whether Song has officially earned a coveted Poker Triple Crown (WPT, EPT, WSOP titles) but wherever you land on that issue, theres no doubt that for each of his major titles, he swam through a sea of would-be sharks to get to shore. In 2019, when won his WSOP gold bracelet in a $1,000 NLHE event for $341,854 (his largest at the time), he was the last player standing in a field of 2,477. His WPT Prime Championship title was won from a field twice that size when he outlasted the 5,430 entries, including runner-up Lara Eisenberg, at Wynn Las Vegas in Season 22 for his previous high score of $712,650. Those are just the top of the resume titles. Throw in there a third-place finish in the 2021 WSOP $1,500 ‘The Closer’ event (1,903 entries), a final table in the 2018 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (1,244 entries) and finishing in 57th in this years record-setting WSOP Main Event (10,112 entries) – putting him in the top .5% of the field. It was also his second career top-100 finish in the Main Event. Song’s results position him among the most prolific big-field crushers in modern poker history, standing among some of the giants of the game. Joe McKeehen knows something about making a deep run in the Main Event. And having a reputation as an elite big-field crusher. First thing first, the 2015 WSOP Main Event winner took home more than $7.6 million for topping the 6,420-person field. Sure, you could mistakenly claim that anyone who tops the modern Main Event is automatically in this big field crusher category, but youve got to have more than that to make it so. Of course, McKeehen has plenty more: a runner-up finish in the inaugural WSOP Monster Stack for $820,863 (7,862 entries), a third-place finish in the 2018 WSOP Millionaire Maker ($538,276, 7361 entries), and two of his five World Poker Tour final table appearances coming after he outlasted more than 1,000 runners. When it comes to WSOP Main Event winners, you can put Joe Cada in there, too. The 2009 Main Event winner (6,494 entries, $8.5 million) made his second run to the final table nine years later, finishing in fifth place (out of 7,874 entries) for another $2,150,000. Immediately after busting out of the Main Event in 2018, he put $1,500 of his seven-figure payday to work in that years edition of ‘The Closer’ and proceeded to fade another 3,120 entry field to earn his fourth gold bracelet. While he hasnt actually won a WSOP Main Event, a nod to two-time modern-day Main Event final tablist (2009,2017) and longtime pro Antoine Saout from France who made nearly $5.5 million between his third and fifth place finish respectively. Add to that pair of EPT Main Event final tables (2016, 2022) both with more than 1,000 entries, and it feels like Saout can make a run in nearly every important event he enters. Its natural to think about Sin City, the WSOP, and the Main Event as an epicenter when talking about the biggest fields of any calendar year. But dont discount the massive fields that come out in Florida whenever a major tour comes to town. Thats something three-time WPT champion Brian Altman would never do as Altman has made a career devouring the 1K+ fields in Florida. Four of Altmans top-10 all-time scores are from the big fields in Florida including his top prize of $723,008 in the 2015 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open (1,027 runners). When he won the same event in 2020 there were just 843 runners, but his third title came less than a year later in the 1,165-entry field of WPT Tampa Championship. Altman also managed to additional official WPT final tables with more than 1,000 runners in each event. But perhaps one of the closest comp to Songs recent success is that of Andrew Moreno. Like Song, Moreno plays almost exclusively in tournaments with $10,000 buy-ins and under, with a recent outstanding track record in the larger field marquee events. Case in point, his breakout result – a victory chop in the 2021 $10,000 Wynn Millions for $1.46 million in a field of 1,328. One year later to the day, in nearly the exact same spot, Moreno finished as the runner-up in the $3,500 Wynn Championship for another $460K (1,428 entries). This year, Moreno returned to the Wynn and in essentially the same tournament, the $10,400 Wynn Summer Championship, Moreno made another deep run, this time bowing out in 13th out of 1,440 entries. for just under $140,000. And now, to this group of elite big-field crushers, we can safely add Stephen Song. Even before his EPT Barcelona victory, people were singing Song’s tournament praises. But now, with an EPT title – arguably one of the toughest major titles in poker to achieve against one of the biggest fields in the tour’s history – Song has built a resume that not only cements him as an ever-present large-field threat to win it all, but a must-watch superstar for years to come.

If you’re searching for a guide to the best online poker sites available in the US, you’ve found the right page! This article outlines the legality of online poker in the United States, and also aims to direct US players to the best online poker rooms available in the US. While options are limited for legal online poker sites in the States, ClubWPT offers sweepstakes poker games in more than 30 states. Read on for a full review of ClubWPT, and learn why you should choose ClubWPT over offshore sites for US online poker. CLUBWPT AD The legal status of online poker in the US is complicated, with laws varying from state to state. What was once the world’s biggest online poker economy is now home to just a few states that offer regulated online poker sites. States like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan allow access to full-scale, real-money poker sites, overseen and regulated by state-level gaming agencies in those states. With a few exceptions, player traffic at these state-regulated poker sites is limited to players from within a particular state. For example, if you play on a regulated Pennsylvania online poker site, you’re limited to playing against other players from Pennsylvania. Only eight US states offer regulated online poker. If you’re in one of those states, you have access to a few poker sites and the fractured player pools at those sites, which are cut off from the rest of the US. If you’re not in a state with regulated online poker, you’re still in luck if you want to play poker for cash and prizes. Sweepstakes poker sites offer the best legal alternative for online poker players without access to regulated sites. A sweepstakes gaming site operates differently than a real-money gambling site, and falls under a different legal category. Sweepstakes poker rooms and casinos are legal throughout most of the US. You don’t directly compete for cash at a sweepstakes poker site. Cash and prizes are on the line, however, when you play at a sweepstakes online poker room. Sweepstakes poker rooms essentially operate as a sweepstakes gaming site with poker as the game. If you’re interested in playing online poker at a sweepstakes site, your best option is ClubWPT. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker site available in more than 30 U.S. states. The concept and setup of ClubWPT makes it one of the most unique and innovative places to play poker online in the United States. You’ll find free-to-play games (both “cash games” and tournaments) as well as sweepstakes games running 24/7 at ClubWPT. The free games (aka Play Chips games) require no purchase to play, and are available in all 50 US states. The sweepstakes games at ClubWPT allow players to compete for cash and prizes. The prizes on the line include entries and travel packages to prestigious WPT live events. ClubWPT is owned and operated by the World Poker Tour. When you play at ClubWPT, you’re playing at one of the top online poker rooms available to US players, and on a platform backed by one of the most trusted brands in the poker industry. You can play in the sweepstakes games by purchasing a monthly subscription to ClubWPT. The site offers three different subscription tiers, with each tier offering access to different games. The subscription levels available at ClubWPT include: VIP ($27.95 per month, access to all VIP tournaments) Diamond ($149.95 per month, access to all Diamond and VIP tournaments) Super SATurdays ($100 add-on per month, access to Super SATurdays satellite tournaments) All three tiers allow access to tournaments that award real cash and prizes. The Diamond tier offers access to the tournaments with the biggest prizes. Each monthly subscription allows entry to unlimited tournaments in that tier, with no additional cash buy-ins required. CLUBWPT AD The differences in the tournaments offered at each subscription level are as follows: VIP Tournaments use a currency called Tournament Points (TP). You can win TP and cash prizes in the VIP tournaments, though the cash prizes are often considerably smaller than what’s on the line in the Diamond tier. When you sign up for a new ClubWPT account, you start with 500TP. ClubWPT also often offers special sign-up promos that award even more TP. Your Tournament Points balance reloads each day. The VIP tier also offers access to daily freeroll tournaments, where you can enter for free and try to win more TP. The Diamond subscription level awards the biggest prizes available at ClubWPT. Unlike the VIP tier, Diamond tournaments dont require Tournament Points to enter. Purchase a Diamond Subscription and you get unlimited entries to the tournaments in this tier. In addition to the biggest cash prizes, Diamond tournaments also award entries into major World Poker Tour live tournaments, WPT Voyage cruises, and more. VIP and/or Diamond members can purchase the Super SATurdays add-on. Super SATurdays tournaments operate as satellite events. These satellites offer the chance to win WPT Passports that send you to some of the most prestigious on the WPT live tour. A typical Super SATurday satellite awards five guaranteed seats to WPT live tour events. For instance, the prizes for a Super SATurday tournament could look like this: 1st Place – $6,000 WPT Voyage Passport 2nd-5th – $2,500 WPT Prime Championship Passport You can purchase the Club WPT Super SATurdays add-on for $100 per month. One of the biggest tournaments on the ClubWPT schedule is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. The details for this special event look like this: Tournament Name: $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge Buy-In: Entries must qualify through other ClubWPT events Prize Pool: $125,000 USD First Place: WPT Event Package $12,000 The first-place prize for this event is a $12,000 package that sends you to the annualWPT World Championship in Las Vegas. You must qualify through other tournaments on ClubWPT to get a spot in the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. Most of the qualifiers that allow you to win your way into the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge are in the Diamond tier. You can sign up for a ClubWPT account from anywhere in the US. The Play Chips games are available in all US states, making ClubWPT one of the best free poker sites in the nation. To play the sweepstakes games for cash and prizes you must be located in one of 36 eligible states. You can sign up for a ClubWPT account as follows: Click the sign-up link at the end of this section to visit the ClubWPT website. Click the green Sign-Up button at the top right of the ClubWPT home page Enter a valid email, choose a username and password, and click Continue Enter your name, DoB, and physical address, and choose a security question and answer. On the next screen, choose your subscription and your payment method. To play the VIP and Diamond games, you must sign up for a monthly subscription package, and must be located in one of the 36 eligible states whenever you play. CLUBWPT AD You can sign up for a monthly ClubWPT subscription and play for cash and prizes in the following states: Alaska Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Hawaii Iowa Illinois Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Massachusetts Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming If you’ve Googled a term like “top poker sites in the US” or something similar, you’ve likely come across a few sites that offer online poker and online casino games without any apparent restrictions based on state. To be clear – any platform offering real-money poker or casino games without a license from one of the eight states that allow online poker is operating illegally. Here are a few tips for identifying an offshore/illegal poker site. If you’re playing poker at a legal US poker site, those sites fall into one of two categories: Regulated poker sites operate in eight U.S. states. Each individual state drafts laws and regulations for online gambling in that state. All of the sites that operate in this category are licensed and regulated by state gaming regulation agencies. For example, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement oversees New Jersey’s online poker industry. The full list of states that allow regulated, real-money online poker includes: Connecticut Nevada New Jersey Delaware Pennsylvania Michigan Rhode Island West Virginia Sweepstakes poker sites are available in more than half of U.S. states. If you’re in a state without regulated online poker (or even if you’re in one of the eight regulated poker states), sweepstakes poker sites offer a great way to play online poker legally, with cash and prizes on the line. If you’re looking for a top-notch sweepstakes poker site, your best bet is to play on ClubWPT. You can refer to the “Where Is ClubWPT Legal?” section a few paragraphs above to see the list of 36 states where you can play sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT. CLUBWPT AD Take a look at the following reasons that you shouldn’t play at illegal online poker sites: The deposit methods at an offshore poker site are often quite limited. Many illegal sites only allow deposits and withdrawals using cryptocurrency. When a poker site won’t let you put money in your balance using USD, that’s generally not a good sign. If you do get to make a deposit using a bank account or a credit/debit card, that deposit will often show up on your bank statement as a purchase from an online store you’ve never heard of. In other words, your online poker deposit is showing up as something you bought from an online shopping outlet, often in a foreign country. The poker site is deliberately trying to disguise the true nature of the financial transaction. When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, that transaction will clearly appear on your bank statement as a purchase from ClubWPT. ClubWPT, and any online poker room backed by the World Poker Tour, operates with a keen interest in protecting its players’ money, financial information, and personal information. If you submit your bank account or debit card number to an offshore poker site, there’s no telling where or with whom that information might end up. If you try to withdraw your money from an offshore poker site, you’re requesting money from an operation that has no legal obligation to send your funds. If you find yourself on the bad end of a denied withdrawal, you have no legal way to file a complaint and get your money. Offshore poker sites operate illegally, and any time you deposit at such a site, that could be the last time you see that money. Many offshore poker sites are infested with bots (i.e. computer automated “poker players”), and rife with player collusion, multi-accounting (players operating multiple screen names at the same time), and ghosting (players controlling another player’s account). The games at offshore poker sites are largely unprotected from illegal and unethical activity. Offshore sites are often in no hurry to implement the security measures needed to find and punish bad actors. Offshore online poker sites have one goal – taking deposits from players. You can’t expect much player security once they have your money. Real-money online poker options are pretty sparse for U.S. players. ClubWPT offers a great way to enjoy the online poker experience, including free-to-play games and subscription-based sweepstakes tournaments. The sweepstakes tournaments at Club WPT award cash prizes, entries into World Poker Tour live events, WPT Voyage cruise packages, and more. U.S. players, unfortunately, don’t enjoy the same access to legal online poker sites as many other countries around the world. If you’re in the U.S., ClubWPT offers the best way to enjoy legal online poker, with the chance to win cash prizes and entries into WPT live events. Yes. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker site, and the sweepstakes games are available in more than 30 U.S. states. You can enjoy the free-to-play games at ClubWPT from all U.S. states. Yes. US-based players can play online poker. Legal poker sites in the U.S. fall under one of two categories – sweepstakes poker sites and regulated poker sites. Regulated poker sites operate in eight US states, and are licensed and overseen by state gaming agencies. Sweepstakes poker sites can operate legally in most of the US. The best US sweepstakes site, ClubWPT, is available in 36 states. You don’t directly compete for money at ClubWPT, but you can compete for cash and prizes in sweepstakes tournaments. If you want to play at a legal poker site, you must be located in a state that allows online poker. You don’t have to be a resident of one of those states, but you do have to be physically located in the state while you play. For instance, if you want to play the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT, you must be located in one of the 36 states that allow access to sweepstakes tournaments whenever you play. CLUBWPT AD There is no purchase necessary to play on ClubWPT. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. For more information regarding events, including how to qualify and location eligibility, visitClubWPT.com

The EPT Barcelona Main Event has turned itself into an outright American invasion, as three of the final six players in contention for the 1.5 million first-place prize also look to break a long dry spell on the opposite side of the Atlantic. It’s been almost 10 years since a player from the United States has won an EPT title on European soil, dating back to Stephen Graner‘s EPT Prague win in December 2014. The three American in question each carry significant weight into their respective title pushes as well. Stephen Song, who enters Sunday as the chip leader, has a victory in the 2022 WPT Prime Championship and a WSOP bracelet to his nam with over $6.5 million in lifetime live tournament earnings. David Coleman is fresh off a win in one of the $25,000 WPT Alpha8 Trifecta events at Wynn Las Vegas over the summer, and his high roller tournament experience will likely suit him well with the big dollar amounts on the line. And then there’s Rania Nasreddine. The Tulsa, Oklahoma native made waves this spring during her run at EPT Monte Carlo, where she ultimately finished in third place. Nasreddine has locked up a rare feat by making a second consecutive EPT Main Event final table, and she’ll get her second shot at a major title on Sunday. The three Europeans still in the hunt are no pushovers by any means. Marius Pertea of Romania sits just behind Song in the chip counts, and after some close calls in the past he’s finally made his first EPT Main Event final table. Andrew Hulme of England and Boris Kuzmanovic of Croatia are the two shortest stacks, but well within range. Each set career high water marks at the World Series of Poker in las Vegas over the last two years, but stand to add to those significant sums regardless of where they finish. After a long Day 6 at Casino Barcelona, the 16 players were finally whittled down to the targeted final six with just 30 minutes left on the clock. Play will resume at 1 p.m. in Barcelona, with live streaming coverage on PokerStars’ broadcast channels starting on a one-hour delay at 2 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET). Here’s what the final six will be playing for: Ahead of Sunday’s restart, this is what you need to know about the six players at the final table of the 2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event. Stats and tournament earnings courtesy of The Hendon Mob. Additional information supplemented by PokerStars Blog. Stephen Song – 15,150,000 (61 big blinds) 29 Years Old Greenwich, Connecticut, United States Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings:$6,542,031 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $712,650, 1st, 2022 WPT Prime Championship Other Prominent Scores: $476,990, 2nd, 2022 WSOP $5,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em; $341,854, 1st, 2019 WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Stephen Song has accomplished a great deal in his poker career, and his performance thus far in the EPT Barcelona Main Event has been nothing short of masterful. He’s ended each day of play among the chip leaders, and has managed to wield that stack in a way that’s kept him out of major danger, save for one memorable moment where Song found a two-outer on the river to score a major knockout on the featured streaming table. While winning this tournament wouldn’t technically qualify him for poker’s Triple Crown, when combined with his WPT Prime Championship win and WSOP bracelet, such a victory would put Song in some rarified air. He’d also more than double his career-best live cash. End of Day 1 chips 230,500 (19/625) End of Day 2 chips – 459,000 (17/290) End of Day 3 chips – 1,382,000 (4/112) End of Day 4 chips – 4,130,000 (1/40) End of Day 5 chips – 6,725,000 (2/16) Marius Pertea – 14,575,000 (58 big blinds) 44 Years Old Buzau, Romania Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $374,438 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $107,754, 1st, 2017 Unibet Open Bucharest 1,000 Main Event Other Prominent Scores: $68,153, 4th, 2018 EPT Monte Carlo 2,200 No Limit Hold’em; $48,223, 11th, 2017 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event; $32,124, 8th, 2018 WPT European Championship (Berlin) Before this tournament, Marius Pertea’s poker career could be defined by a series of close calls in his biggest spots. He finished 11th on PokerStars’ biggest live stage in Monte Carlo in 2017, and then one year later in Berlin, Pertea narrowly missed out on the final table of the WPT European Championship with an eighth-place result. It seemed as though Pertea could wind up with a similarly painful outcome late on Day 6 as well, when he and Fabiano Kovalski squared off in a massive pot that all but boiled down to a coinflip. Pertea held against Kovalski’s pocket eights on a flop. And rather than hit the flush, Pertea spiked the on the turn for a massive double-up. After playing on n almost directly opposite trajectory to Song as one of the short stacks at the end of almost every day of play in this tournament, Pertea suddenly finds himself directly in the mix and just off the chip lead. End of Day 1 chips 73,000 (336/625) End of Day 2 chips – 105,000 (206/290) End of Day 3 chips – 354,000 (67/112) End of Day 4 chips – 700,000 (33/40) End of Day 5 chips – 2,535,000 (12/16) David Coleman – 10,425,000 (42 big blinds) 31 Years Old Livingston, New Jersey, United States Resides: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $6,648,959 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $730,300, 1st, 2024 $25,000 WPT Alpha8 Trifecta #3 Other Prominent Scores: $642,900, 2nd, 2024 Triton High Roller Series Jeju $52,000 Turbo Bounty Quattro; $455,000, 2nd, 2021 PokerGO Cup $50,000 No Limit Hold’em; $364,000, 2nd 2021 Super High Roller Bowl Europe $50,000 No Limit Hold’em David Coleman has played for serious sums of money on poker’s high roller tournament circuit over the last four years, and after racking up some tough runner-up finishes in several big spots Coleman broke through in a big way over the summer in Las Vegas. In the third and final edition of the WPT Alpha8 Trifecta series, Coleman broke through with a $730,300 victory at Wynn Las Vegas. Running through a field of 1,975 entries is a different task entirely than taking on 100 of the world’s best, but no less impressive a feat to reach the final six among such a contingent. And like Song, Coleman stands a chance to more than double his career-best cash with a win on Sunday in Barcelona. He spent several stretches on Day 6 of the tournament among some of the shorter stacks, but thrust himself into contention when his pocket kings held to eliminate Alexandre Fournier in seventh place to end the night Saturday. End of Day 1 chips 233,000 (18/625) End of Day 2 chips – 185,000 (136/290) End of Day 3 chips – 615,000 (36/112) End of Day 4 chips – 3,900,000 (2/40) End of Day 5 chips – 3,570,000 (7/16) Rania Nasreddine – 8,300,000 (33 big blinds) 44 Years Old Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $1,179,439 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $473,639, 3rd, 2024 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event Other Prominent Scores: $87,750, 8th, 2011 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $25,000 High Roller; $60,380, 1st, 2022 WSOP Circuit Tulsa $400 No Limit Hold’em. It’s been a breakout 2024 in every sense of the word for Rania Nasreddine, who took the poker world by storm in late April and early May with her run to the final table of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. She made a tremendous impression as she entertained viewers worldwide during that stretch, and it’s only been magnified as Nasreddine claimed a slice of poker history by making it back-to-back final tables with her performance in Barcelona. Nasreddine began Day 6 as the chip leader, but slid back to the pack on the way down to a single table. She did a lot of the dirty work in getting the field down to six players; first, when her pocket jacks held up to knock Kovalski out in ninth. Then came a hand that will likely be played on PokerStars highlight reels for years to come against Jianwei Lin. A fifth-place finish would essentially match what Nasreddine did in Monte Carlo, but with a second bite at the apple, Nasreddine is poised for another shot at an EPT title. End of Day 1 chips 239,000 (14/625) End of Day 2 chips – 609,000 (7/290) End of Day 3 chips – 1,330,000 (5/112) End of Day 4 chips – 2,005,000 (10/40) End of Day 5 chips – 7,200,000 (1/16) Andrew Hulme – 5,525,000 (22 big blinds) 36 Years Old Nottingham, United Kingdom Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $2,281,721 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $345,000, 18th, 2023 WSOP Main Event Other Prominent Scores: $167,864, 4th, 2022 EPT Prague Eureka High Roller; $159,319, 1st, 2018 GUKPT London Main Event Andrew Hulme has made a considerable career for himself in poker, accumulating almost $2.3 million in lifetime live tournament earnings. He made a run in poker’s largest showcase, reaching the final two tables of the 2023 WSOP Main Eent before bowing out. But there’s another reason to believe that the bright lights of an EPT final table with over $1.6 million awaiting the champion won’t phase Hulme in the least. Hulme is perhaps best known in England for his runs on the long-running game show Countdown. After appearing for the first time at just 11 years old, Hulme won a Junior Championship at age 13 and then returned seven years later to run off eight consecutive victories and the honor of becoming an “octochamp.” Hulme has already matched his career-best cash by locking up a top-six finish in Barcelona, and any pay jumps would only add to that achievement. End of Day 1 chips 135,500 (113/625) End of Day 2 chips – 437,000 (22/290) End of Day 3 chips – 724,000 (25/112) End of Day 4 chips – 780,000 (31/40) End of Day 5 chips – 1,670,000 (13/16) Boris Kuzmanovic – 5,275,000 (21 big blinds) 37 Years Old Zagreb, Croatia Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $547,735 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $133,479, 8th, 2024 WSOP $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship Other Prominent Scores: $62,084, 2nd, Eureka Poker Tour Dubrovnik Main Event; $47,674, 19th, 2021 WSOP Europe Main Event Like Hulme, Boris Kuzmanovic has had a few brushes with major results over the course of his career, accumulating over $500K in live tournament earnings along the way. The 37-year-old computer consultant made his first major final table over the summer at the WSOP, but his run thus far in Barcelona dwarfs everything else he’s done in his poker career thus far. Kuzmanovic sat in third in chips when players went to the dinner break on Sunday, and despite largely staying out of the way as he slowly fell down the pecking order Kuzmanovic is likely happy to have guaranteed himself more than double what he was guaranteed by simply surviving from ninth players down to six – and he’s still well within range of making a run at the title. End of Day 1 chips 121,000 (153/625) End of Day 2 chips – 210,000 (111/290) End of Day 3 chips – 270,000 (79/112) End of Day 4 chips – 1,230,000 (20/40) End of Day 5 chips – 6,565,000 (3/16)

By this point in the year in 2023, Bin Weng seemed to have a strong grasp on WPT Season XXI Player of the Year honors, following his back-to-back WPT Main Tour final table appearances and his victory in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship event. But by the time the tour had rolled through Florida and arrived at the 2023 edition of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, several players had a chance to overtake Weng with one tournament to go. Weng held on, joining the ranks of Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Faraz Jaka, Bertrand Grospellier, J.C. Tran and more than a dozen others in achieving WPT Player of the Year honors. With the second half of WPT Season XXII set to kick off in a matter of weeks in Australia, the winner of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown – in this case Josh Reichard – is once again in the driver’s seat in the WPT POY race heading into the fall. But the race this time around is far tighter and the competition’s more compelling. There are six main tour stops to come – in Gold Coast, Australia; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Jacksonville, Florida; Jeju, South Korea; Hollywood, Florida and finally Las Vegas. The current WPT POY leaderboard also features several WPT Prime champions, and in the matter of a close race remaining Prime Championship events in Liechtenstein, England, Montreal and Paris could well make the difference when all is said and done. Ahead of this upcoming race to the finish line, the current WPT Season XXII Player of the Year leaderboard stacks up as follows. 1. Josh Reichard 1,350 points Josh Reichard started racking up significant live tournament wins in late 2013, flexing his aptitude with MSPT, Heartland Poker Tour and WSOP Circuit titles. Most notably, Reichard racked up a once-time record 15 WSOP Circuit rings over the course of that decade. The one thing missing on Reichard’s record was a major title. He came tantalizingly close with a second-place finish in the $1,000 Mini Main Event at the 2023 World Series of Poker, along with a variety of other notable final table close calls. That all changed over April and May as Reichard first made the final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, and then one month later in Las Vegas topped a talent-laden final table to finally break through as a WPT champion. Reichard’s current lead is also thanks in part to a cash on WPT Voyage, with his run in the WPT Prime Voyage Championship tacking a few extra points that puts Reichard ever-so-slightly ahead of the current No. 2 player on the leaderboard. 2. Dan Stavila 1,300 points Dan Stavila had one of the most surreal weeks a poker player could have in Montreal back in May. He made the televised final table of WPT Prime Montreal, immediately hopped into the WPT Montreal Championship Event and then navigated his way to that final table as well. As if playing at televised final tables on back-to-back nights wasn’t a wild enough experience, on the second night Stavila was three-handed for the WPT Montreal Championship when a storm blew through Montreal and knocked out the power. Once play resumed, Stavila finished second. When added to his fourth place WPT Prime Montreal finish, Stavila is within a hair’s breadth of the WPT POY lead. One more run in any of the remaining events on the schedule could push him to the top, and with a return to Montreal for WPT Playground set for October, there’s every reason to believe Stavila could try to capture the magic there one more time. T-3. David Dongwoo Ko 1,150 points David Dongwoo Ko also managed to cash in both WPT Prime Montreal and the WPT Montreal Championship Event in May, and while his WPT Prime result was for just over a min-cash, his victory at Playground Poker Club have him well-positioned for a run at WPT Player of the Year should he so choose. The last year has represented a major step forward for Ko, with three WSOP Circuit rings and, just this week, a significant side event victory at EPT Barcelona. Ko’s pair of results in Montreal represent his first results under the WPT banner, but it feels safe to imagine quite a few more to come. T-3. Eric Afriat 1,150 points Eric Afriat’s name is already in a few different places in the WPT record books. He’s a three-time member of the WPT Champions club, tied for second all-time. In May, Afriat locked up a spot at his eighth career WPT Main Tour final table at the WPT Choctaw Championship, now tied for third-most all-time in that regard. With four overall cashes in Championship Events in 2024 alone, Afriat has positioned himself to make a run at yet another major milestone in his WPT career with one of his best shots at WPT Player of the Year honors. 5. James Mackey 1,100 points When it comes to Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, no player has managed more WPT success at the venue than James Mackey. He first broke through in Season XV, taking down his first WPT Choctaw title in 2016. In 2022, Mackey returned to the WPT Choctaw final table for the second time, finishing sixth. Then, in May, Mackey locked down his third career final table at the venue. A few weeks later, when the final table resumed in Las Vegas, Mackey defeated Afriat heads-up to become just the second player in WPT history to win the same event twice, joining two-time WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open champion Brian Altman in that regard. 6. Landon Tice 1,050 points Landon Tice has drawn significant attention thus far in 2024 for a variety of reasons. Most of the attention he got early on in the year was in regard to his summer bet against Jeremy Becker, in which 100% of their tournament action was cross-booked. Neither ultimately put up a major score during that time period, though Becker did manage to claw back a decent amount of his losses with a better summer. Tice may well have used up all of his “run good” before a single card was dealt at the 2024 WSOP. He made the final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April, and then in May got heads-up with Reichard for the title. While a first major live title simply wasn’t in the cards that night, Tice’s first major televised final table was an experience to remember, and perhaps a launchpad to even greater things as the WPT roars back into action in the second half of its schedule. T-7. Lorenz Schollhorn 1,000 points The first wild card on the WPT Season XXII leaderboard is Lorenz Schollhorn. The Swiss-born player rolled into WPT Prime Gold Coast in April and took the tournament by storm, ultimately emerging from a 1,395-entry field to win $267,998. All but one of Schollhorn’s other recorded live cashes on The Hendon Mob have come in the great game of Pot Limit Omaha. But with a WPT World Championship seat bake into his WPT Prime Gold Coast victory, Schollhorn will have at least one more chance to prove he can dominate in a two-card format as well. T-7. Jereld Sam 1,000 points Jereld Sam is a recent addition to the top 10 of the WPT Season XXII POY race, courtesy of his victory in the WPT Prime Taiwan Championship in August. His $250,699 payday is far and away the largest live result of his career, and he’ll have a chance to top it in December with his buy-in to the WPT World Championship already taken care of. Sam will be in search of his first ever cash on U.S. soil, and all but one of his recorded live tournament results to date have come in tournaments held in a variety of Asian countries. T-9. Rutger Hennen 900 points Back in March, Rutger Hennen was one of the first players to put his stamp on this edition of the WPT POY race when he won the WPT Prime Amsterdam Championship for $228,354. To that point in his career, Hennen had only recorded results in live events in his home country of Netherlands, but he’s since posted results at both the 2024 Irish Poker Open and in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event; in the latter, Hennen put together another deep run, finishing 31st. Hennen will have a chance to add an American flag (or a few) to his Hendon Mob profile when he plays in the WPT World Championship in December. T-9. Tudor Purice 900 points Like Sam, Tudor Purice infused himself into the WPT Player of the Year race in August. Purice, who is from Romania, traveled to Cyprus to capture his WPT Prime title, taking home a $183,270 prize including his own seat to the 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. The win in Cyprus was the largest of Purice’s career, topping a victory in Bucharest in 2017 and a deep run in the 2013 EPT London Main Event. 11-20: Jesse Lonis, Andres Vasquez, Kosei Oguri, Gregory De Faria, Yakiv Syzghanov, Jikai Zhang, Priamo Carta, Fabian Guma, Florent Remi, Konstantin Held

Three years ago, Niall Farrell was scrolling through Facebook when a notification popped up on his phone. A man named Greg Clark had made a comment on one of his posts, hoping to talk to Farrell when he traveled to Las Vegas that coming fall for the rescheduled 2021 World Series of Poker. Farrell, the No. 1 Scottish player in all-time poker tournament earnings according to Hendon Mob, has managed to amass a considerable list of titles over the course of his poker career, including poker’s triple crown via a WPT Main Tour title at WPT Caribbean in Season XV, a WSOP bracelet in Europe in a 2017 25,000 High Roller, and the 2015 EPT Malta Main Event. He also has millions in online tournament earnings, including a 2014 Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event victory and multiple PokerStars SCOOP titles. But what Clark had to offer was an opportunity very few poker players are afforded – the spotlight of a documentary feature that would air on a major television network in Scotland. “I ended up speaking on the phone to him, and he was telling me that he makes documentaries,” said Farrell. “He recently had one released for the BBC called Real Kashmir FC, which is about an ex-Scottish footballer who was coaching out in Kashmir in India. It had done really well. It won lots of awards and a BAFTA Scotland. So I watched that, it was really good, we got talking and it kind of just went from there.” Clark flew out to meet Farrell in the closing weeks of the 2021 WSOP, and after getting a feel for each other and some preliminary footage the pair agreed to move forward with the project, which would eventually come to be titled The Four Rules of the Poker Kings.” A documentary crew followed Farrell across four tournament stops in 2022 – EPT Prague in March, EPT Monte Carlo and UKIPT Dublin in May, and ending at the 2022 WSOP. “We were just trying to get as much footage as possible, so basically any time I went to play poker, Greg would travel with me,” said Farrell. “The main reason being, it’s poker is very unpredictable. When we first started filming, he had a kind of outline where he said, ‘Well, ideally what would happen is the hero’s journey. You have a bit of adversity, then you overcome it, then you win and you’re successful.’ “I had to tell him, because he was coming cold to poker, I can’t guarantee you I’m gonna win anything. I could go a whole year, and the ‘hero’s journey’ is just he starts off losing, and he loses more for the rest of the year. But we actually got very, very fortunate – a couple of close calls, and then we got an actual tournament win, which was incredibly fortunate for the doc.” Farrell’s win at the UKIPT Dublin Main Event serves as a high point for the documentary. Along the way, Farrell also managed to final table a high roller at EPT Prague and made a deep run to the final two tables of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. The documentary served as something of a time capsule for both Farrell and the poker world itself, as more venues opened up post-COVID and Farrell got back to more regularly traveling the tournament circuit. It shined a light on a particularly challenging window for Farrell, as it represented the first time Farrell left his partner and their then-two-year-old son behind after getting to spend the vast majority of that time enjoying the privilege of being a father. “It’s interesting looking back at it now because, with COVID and my son being born, the decisions were kind of made for me,” said Farrell. “Having a new arrival in the family, it seemed like a good time to take the benefit of the good fortune I had up to that point, where I’m able to take a year or two off here and just be a dad and all this kind of stuff. “It’s quite interesting to see me getting back into the swing of things as well,” said Farrell. “Another reason why it was kind of really fortunate that we got the poker footage that we did, because I think coming back after a fairly lengthy layoff, it’s quite likely you would just bust a bunch of tournaments in your return, normally. I was fairly comfortable and seemed to be doing quite good getting back in the swing of things. Some bad habits still remained, like being in sulk for 30 minutes after busting a tournament in my incredibly fortunate and privileged life.” While the documentary is clearly geared toward those outside of the poker bubble, there are quite a few highlights along the way for poker enthusiasts and outsiders alike. There’s a moment in which Farrell pulls out a plastic grocery shopping bag full of cash ahead of entering a high roller, a fair number of adult beverages consumed alongside Farrell’s signature style of banter, and a moment in particular that stands out for Farrell simply because of a jarring visual. “One of my favorite ones was in Prague, where I’m talking at a little cafe,” said Farrell. “We did an introspective kind of moment, but that was actually on St. Patrick’s Day, and Greg had told me we probably wouldn’t be filming that day. So I’d been in a bar and got my face painted, so I’m actually just sat there, and there’s just no context or any explanation for it in the doc, where there’s just bits where I have green face paint on and just no explanation as to why that’s happened. So a lot of people on Twitter are asking about that. “Also, my mom says I swear too much,” Farrell said. “And she’s right, I do curse far too much.” Farrell isn’t the only featured player in the documentary, either. Longtime Scottish pro David Docherty, who attended a number of the same events as Farrell along the way, talks about his longtime hunt for a signature victory in his career. Amongst the closing credits is a scene of Docherty’s long-awaited win in the 2023 Irish Poker Open Main Event for $398,780. “I’d only known my part, so when the kind of ‘Cool Runnings’ bit at the end, where it says how everyone gets on and David won the Irish Open, I thought that was really cool,” said Farrell. “It was a really uplifting end to the doc as well.” There were several delays over the course of production, leading to the lengthy period between filming and its release earlier this month by BBC Scotland. But one of the unintended side effects of the delay has been a strong reminder for Farrell as to his biggest motivating factor for continued success in poker – a throughline in the documentary that carries forth to the present day. “Seeing my son at two years old, I forgot how unbearably cute he was at that age,” said Farrell. “He got his looks from his mom, for sure.”

Nick Seward is on the move. Both literally, as he packs up his current Las Vegas apartment preparing to upgrade into a new place, and figuratively. Thats because when it comes to the game of poker perhaps no player in the game is seeing their star rise faster than Seward. Seward, the 24-year-old poker pro hailing from just outside of Washington D.C., is enjoying a red-hot sun run that includes a six-figure score in the 2023 Wynn Summer Classic, his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet this summer, as well as two victories and a third final table at the 2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. Its part of an accumulation of more than $1.5 million in tournament earnings – all since recording his first live tournament cash less than two years ago in October 2022. Its a fast and fortunate start to a poker career, one that had its seeds planted nearly a decade ago. Poker wasnt anything more than a hobby, but I just remember playing initially and I was immediately in love with the game, Seward said. Ive always enjoyed strategic games and poker really spoke to me in that regard. Seward says he got his start at age 14, playing small-stakes cash games for fun with his high school friends. Over the next few years, he started taking the game more seriously, eventually finding his way to online poker. By his senior year in high school hed had some decent success but any serious thoughts about poker took a backseat as college was on the horizon. While attending Ohio State University, studying finance, poker began to take more of a hold. He was two years into getting his degree when COVID-19 arrived, and Seward spent a lot more time honing his skills by playing online. He came to the realization that when he was finished with college, he wanted to give playing poker professionally a real shot. In fact, he nearly dropped out to start his poker journey early but stuck it out at the urging of his friends, got is degree, and then, essentially, moved straight to Las Vegas to get started. I was working loosely on trying to become a better player, but it was really more just playing when I wasnt hanging out with my friends, he said. The summer before I moved to Las Vegas, I was likeI should probably try to get good at this game and so I spent a lot of time off-the-table and then moved to Vegas and have been doing the same since. While his college friends were incredibly supportive of him diving into pokers deep end, not everyone was on board. My dad was very against me pursuing . Its not something thats very common in my family at all, with regards to non-conventional career paths, Seward said. But yeah, my dad was very against it initially and I went through the whole process of trying to get him on board. It was one of those things where I realized I was just going to have to make a choice. That was September 2022. Less than a month later, Seward was in Vegas and nearly immediately booked his first win taking down a $400 Venetian Deepstack event for $27,000 – his first live recorded tournament score in one of his first-ever live tournaments. For Seward, an East Coast native, Sin City was a culture shock. But thinking streets ahead, he created a soft landing spot for himself by laying the groundwork ahead of time. In terms of poker, Seward was a lone wolf while in college, but one can tell from his humble, affable nature that hes also the kind of guy whos likely good at making friends. So, without any previous connections, he cold reached out to Matt Berkey, co-founder of Solve For Why and lead voice of the Only Friends podcast. Seward offered to help in any way he could and while there was no formal position available, the Only Friends team took to Seward and he quickly became friendly with another guy who knew a lot about moving to Las Vegas to take a shot, Landon Tice. From there Seward found a way to continue to expand his new poker circle. Landon was one of my first friends in Vegas and from there, obviously I met more people, he said. I would say that my biggest role models in poker and people who have been very, very helpful to the progression of my career thus far are David Coleman, Sam Laskowitz, and Landon. We work together pretty intently and theyve helped me a ton. Sewards a grinder, both live and online, but also very big on taking days away from the felt to spend time in the lab, studying the game. I kind of live and breathe , 95% of my time is spent either playing or studying or doing something poker-related. And with that dedication, the results have come. He notched 41 live results in 2023 including a final table appearance in the 2023 $3,500 Wynn Summer Classic for a $320,631 score. He followed that up this summer with a gold bracelet performance in the $3,000 WSOP NLHE Six Handed, fading a tough field for a new career-high score of $516,135. Its a victory he called very surreal. From the moment that I knew what a bracelet was, I knew I wanted one at some point in my life, he said. To win my first one two years into his career was so special and it was pretty hard to grasp that concept that I had won in that moment. When asked about his success coming out of the 2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in Florida, where he took home two trophies in back-to-back days, and whether he thought it was built on a backbone of studying or riding a wave of confidence due to results Seward was candid about what he feels has been the motivation behind his recent success. Im actually somebody that struggles with self-doubt quite a bit. Its one of those things where I think its a product of that I sort of have always had a perfectionist mentalityand that has pros and cons to it. Im really hard on myself when I make mistakes at the table, but I think that has improved as Ive spent more time studying. So I would say a big thing, especially in any series, is I want to feel prepared and the way I feel prepared is by putting in the maximum amount of time off the table. Then translating that on the table, I think that the biggest thing is I just want to focus on execution because its one thing to sit there and spend hours upon hours learning something, but if you cant properly implement that at the table, its somewhat useless. So thats been a big focal point and as long as I can do both of those things, I think thats where the confidence stems from. Seward says his father has warmed up to his sons decision to make poker a career and sure, obviously it helps to have results. Those results are bringing Seward the kind of attention in the Las Vegas poker scene akin to his peers Tice and Jeremy Becker. For Seward, while its nice right now, hes hoping that its just the start of something big. My mindset has kind of always been the same within poker. I mean obviously money is nice, but that is just the last motive that I have for staying in the game, he said My ultimate goal is to succeed at the highest level of the game. Triton, PokerGO Tour, and all of the higher stake stuff – succeeding in that arena. And that obviously takes a very, very long time. But that’s my ultimate goal. And at the end of the day, I want to, above all else, I just want to be as good as I can be. And when I’m all done, I want to look back and say confidently that I gave it my all. And if that feeling is succeeding in that arena, then great. But yeah, at the end of the day, I really want to give it my all and try to succeed at the highest level. That’s the biggest thing for me.