If you want to learn how to play poker, you found the right place! This WPT.com article serves as a guide for learning how to play poker for beginners. Poker is one of the world’s most popular card games, with many variants and ways to play. Games like Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, and Five Card Draw all fall under the broader category of poker. The poker variants listed all play quite differently from each other, but share some basic concepts that apply to almost all poker games. This guide covers the basics of poker, and applies to many of the most popular poker games. No matter what game you want to play, you’ll do well to add all of these basic concepts to your level of poker knowledge. CLUBWPT AD WPT GLOBAL AD Before you dive into poker, it’s crucial to understand the rules of the specific poker game you want to play. Texas Hold’em, for example, plays very differently than Seven Card Stud. Most poker games share many of the same basic poker rules, however. Many of the world’s most popular poker variants share the following components: Poker games (with a few exceptions) use the standard 52-card deck. The 52 playing cards are separated into cards ranked ace through deuce, with the ace as the highest card and the deuce (aka the two) as the lowest card. The ace can also act as the lowest card. From highest to lowest, the card values look like this: The deck includes 13 different ranks total. Each of the 13 ranks come in four different suits: With 13 ranks and four suits for each rank, the deck adds up to 52 cards. If you were to separate the 52 cards by rank, that would look something like this: Note that most player card decks include at least one Joker (wild card), but poker games rarely use Jokers during gameplay. Whether it’s Texas Hold’em, stud poker, draw poker, or even video poker, most poker variants use the same system of poker hand rankings. These rankings determine which player wins when two (or more) poker hands go head to head. Most poker games task the player with making the best five-card hand possible, and these rankings are based on five-card hands. From strongest to weakest, the poker hand rankings look like this: A royal flush consists of A-K-Q-J-T of all the same suit. is an example of a royal flush. A straight flush is five sequential cards that are all the same suit. In other words, a straight flush is both a flush and a straight at the same time. is an example of a straight flush. A four-of-a-kind hand is made of four cards of the same rank. Examples of four-of-a-kind include four aces, four kings, four nines, four fours, etc, A full house consists of three of a kind and a pair in the same five-card hand. Examples of a full house could include,, and . Five cards of all the same suit make a flush in poker. Examples of flushes could include , , and . A straight is made of five sequential cards. The five cards in the straight don’t have to be of the same suit. Examples of a straight could include , , and . A three-of-a-kind hand consists of three of the same-ranking card. Examples of three of a kind could include Qc/pc, and . Much like the name suggests, a two-pair hand is made when you hold two distinct pairs in the same five-card hand. Examples of two-pair hands could include , and . A one-pair hand (or just a “pair”) is made when you have two cards of the same ranking in your five-card hand. A pair is the lowest-ranking made hand you can have in poker. In a battle of two or more one-pair hands, the highest pair wins. When you don’t make a pair or better with your five cards, you’re hand is known as a high-card hand. A hand like is known as “ace-high,” a hand like is known as “king-high,” and so on. When two high-card hands face off, the hand with the highest-ranking high card wins. CLUBWPT AD WPT GLOBAL AD Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and several other poker games use a betting system with a button and blinds. The blinds are mandatory bets that go into the pot before each hand starts. These bets ensure that at least some amount of money is on the line in every hand. When you look at a Texas Hold’em or Omaha poker table, you’ll see a setup that looks something like this: The dealer button, small blind, and big blind rotate one player to the left after each hand. The small blind is always on the immediate left of the big blind, and the dealer button is on the immediate left of the small blind. The amount of the small blind and big blind are determined by the stakes of the game in cash games, or by level in poker tournaments. For example, if you’re playing a $1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em cash game on WPT Global, the small blind is $1 and the big blind is $2. Those blind amounts don’t change at any time in the game. If you’re playing a tournament, the blinds begin at a certain amount, then increase in time intervals called levels. For instance, the annual WPT Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas start with the blinds at 100/200. All players begin with 40,000 starting chips. The blinds increase every 40 minutes. At Level 2, the blinds increase to 200/300, and Level 3 the blinds increase to 200/400, and so on. Some poker games use antes as mandatory bets, either in place of the blinds or along with the blinds. Many tournaments include a big blind ante equal to the amount of the big blind in each hand. So if the blinds are listed as 100/200/200, the 100 represents the amount of the small blind, the second number (200) represents the amount of the big blind, and the third number (also 200) is the amount of the big blind ante. Each pot begins with 500 chips in the middle if the blinds and antes are at 100/200/200. Some cash games also use an ante. You’ll see antes in use if you play Seven Card Stud, for example. If you’re playing at an online poker site, or you look at the cash game waitlist at a casino poker room, you’ll see notations like NLHE, PLO, Limit, etc. Most poker games play under one of the following betting structures: A brief overview of these betting structures follows below: Under No-Limit betting rules, a player can bet all of their chips at any time during any part of a hand. No-Limit Texas Hold’em is the most popular form of poker in the world. When you see a notation like NLHE or NLH, that denotes a game of Texas Hold’em played under No-Limit betting rules. Whatever amount of chips you have in front of you at a given time, you can bet that entire amount at any point in the hand. For instance, if you’re in the WPT Prime Championship, you could bet all 40,000 of your starting chips in the very first hand if you wanted to. Most Texas Hold’em games played at live poker rooms and online poker sites are played under No-Limit rules. Some other games use No-Limit betting structure as well. Under Pot-Limit rules, the maximum allowed bet or raise at any time is equal to the amount of the pot. Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) is the most popular poker game that uses Pot-Limit betting rules, by far. PLO is the second-most popular poker game in the world, trailing only No-Limit Hold’em. You can play many poker variants as Pot-Limit games, but the two most common you’ll see are Omaha and Texas Hold’em. Fixed-Limit (or simply Limit) games play with preset limits on the maximum amount you can bet or raise. Stud games are almost exclusively played as Limit games, but you’ll sometimes see Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and other poker games played as Limit games as well. The “limits” in a Limit game are determined by the stakes of the game. For example, you might see a listing for $4/$8 Limit Hold’em at a poker room. Generally speaking, a $4/$8 game allows a maximum of $4 for a bet or raise in the first two betting rounds, and a max of $8 in the final two betting rounds. The maximum number of raised per round is usually four. After four bets/raises have occured in a betting round, other players can only call after that. The overarching category of “poker” can include hundreds of games. For the purposes of this article, the following brief explanations cover the most common poker variants you’ll see at the poker room. Texas Hold’em is the most-played poker game in the world. No-Limit Hold’em (Texas Hold’em played with No-Limit betting rules) is the game at the center of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world, including on the World Poker Tour. If you’re just getting into poker, Texas Hold’em is a great game to learn how to play. You’ll find plenty of games of Texas Hold’em running at most poker rooms at any time. CLUBWPT AD WPT GLOBAL AD Omaha is similar to Texas Hold’em, but with some key differences: The requirement of using exactly two hole cards and three community cards can trip up a player who’s used to playing exclusively Texas Hold’em. Pot-Limit Omaha (Omaha played under Pot-Limit betting rules) is the second-most popular poker game in the world. You can also find Limit Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo (where each pot is split between the best high hand and the best low hand) at many poker rooms. Big-O, yet another Omaha variant, is played with five hole cards. Seven Card Stud was at one time the most popular poker game in the world. Stud plays quite differently than Hold’em and Omaha: Seven Card Stud is the most common Stud variant, with Five Card Stud a distant second. Some of the other poker games you might see at the poker room (particularly at live poker rooms) include: As you branch out as a poker player, you’ll encounter far more variants than what’s included in this guide. ClubWPT presents a great option for players looking to learn the game online. You can play for free at ClubWPT, or purchase a monthly subscription. The monthly subscription allows access to tournaments that award cash and prizes, including entries into World Poker Tour live events. Poker is a game of skill. While luck certainly plays a role in the short term in poker, in the long term good players will always win more than bad players. Poker in general is relatively easy to learn. The best players in the world, however, have spent many thousands of hours studying poker strategy to get to where they are in the game. Texas Hold’em, as World Poker Tour legend Mike Sexton once said, takes “only minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.” Five Card Draw is quite possibly the easiest poker game to learn. Each player gets five cards, there’s one round of discards, and the player with the best five-card hand wins. The most practical game to learn, however, is Texas Hold’em. It’s relatively simple to learn, and is played all over the world. Yes. ClubWPT is a great online poker site for players looking to learn how to play poker on their own. ClubWPT offers free-to-play poker games, as well as subscription-based tournaments that award cash and prizes. The prizes at stake in ClubWPT’s tournaments include entries to WPT live events, WPT Voyage Cruise packages, and more. CLUBWPT AD WPT GLOBAL 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 Ensure your jurisdiction allows play on WPT Global. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Debuting in 2022 as part of the Season XX schedule, WPT Australia represented a significant moment on multiple fronts. It was the first World Poker Tour Main Tour stop to take place outside of the United States in over two-and-a-half years, and locally, it represented a cresting wave as poker’s resurgence in the region hit a new high water mark. After a few years of dormancy and uncertainty, it appears that a poker community that has some of the deepest roots in the world is officially back. Major poker events in Australia can be traced all the way back to the late 1990s in Melbourne, with the first-ever Australasian Poker Championships held in 1998. The A$1,000 buy-in main event, which was played in a Limit Hold’em format ala the early Party Poker Millions, awarded a first-place prize of just over $15,000 that year. By 2006, when that festival was officially renamed the Aussie Millions, prizes crossed the $1 million threshold, a revolutionary $100,000 buy-in mark was crossed, and Australia had officially become a poker hotbed. Everything exploded in the year after Joe Hachem won the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event for $7.5 million, shining a bright light on Australian poker players for the world to see. One year later, Hachem added a WPT title when he won the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Coupled with the rise of online poker worldwide, and the appeal of Australia as a destination for players around the world, and for a stretch the Aussie Millions became the biggest poker event in the world that didn’t fall within the boundaries of the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker or European Poker Tour. It continued this way for the better part of 15 years, as poker in the region thrived and fans around the world got to know names like Tony G, Jeff Lisandro, James Obst, and Michael Addamo, among many others. Everything continued in a similarly successful fashion until 2020. Shortly after the 2020 Aussie Millions, everything shut down due to COVID and Australia was essentially cut off from the rest of the world. Crown Resorts, the operator of Aussie Millions host Crown Melbourne and several other casinos, found itself mired in legal and financial woes amounting to A$700 million in fines for a variety of violations including skirting anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. Even as the country’s flagship event disappeared, the appetite for poker in Australia remained. On a regional level, the pub poker scene thrived, with freerolls and buy-ins as low as $20 for weekly events. WPT League, the official poker league partner of the World Poker Tour, held their annual WPT League Championship in Sydney this past June with the A$675 Main Event attracting 784 entries to cap off the 12-event festival schedule. Another organization, the Australian Poker League operates events on a broad scale of buy-ins and field sizes as well, and has risen to a point where its signature yearly event, the APL Million Gold Coast, has become a can’t-miss tournament event. Hosted at the Southport Sharks events center in Queensland, the most recent APL Million Gold Coast Main Event drew an astounding 3,160 players for its A$1,500 Main Event, with a first-place prize of $464,363. In the middle of this poker resurgence, especially in the Gold Coast region, has been the World Poker Tour. Starting with WPTDeepstacks in 2019, and followed by WPT Prime in 2021 and Main Tour in 2022, Gold Coast has become one of the signature stops on the WPT calendar. On Friday, the World Poker Tour kicks off its return to Gold Coast for its third-ever Main Tour stop at The Star Gold Coast. The A$8,000 buy-in will offer one of the richest poker prizes to be won in Australia in 2024, and within a week of action, someone will join David Tang and Richard Lee as champions of WPT Australia – joining a proud lineage of Australian champions that appears likely to grow even stronger in the years to come.

Arizona hosts a vibrant poker scene, but the legality of online poker rooms in the Grand Canyon State is a bit unclear. This WPT.com guide to playing online poker in Arizona aims to clarify the state’s online poker laws, and direct Arizona players to the best legal poker sites. ClubWPT is the top legal poker site currently available in Arizona. ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real money poker room, but it does offer sweepstakes tournaments with cash and prizes on the line. Read on for more on how to legally play poker online in Arizona, as well as a review of ClubWPT. Online sports betting is currently the only form of real money online gambling legal in Arizona. Federal law allows individual states to choose their own stance toward online gambling. Individual states can legalize online poker, sports betting, and casinos, with the appropriate gaming regulation agency in a given state overseeing all aspects of the industries. More than half of US states have legalized online sports betting. Only and handful of states, however, have legalized online poker and online casinos. Arizona is home to tribal casinos and live poker rooms throughout the state. Full-scale, real money online poker isn’t currently available in the Grand Canyon State, however. Sweepstakes poker sites present the best legal alternative to regulated online poker rooms. Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 states, with Arizona on that list. ClubWPT, the top sweepstakes poker site available in the U.S., offers Arizona players the chance to win cash in sweepstakes tournaments. You can also win prizes like entries into WPT live events, WPT Voyage Cruise packages, and more. US states all have the option to introduce legalized online poker. Online poker laws vary by state. Only eight states currently allow access to regulated online poker sites. If you’re not in one of those states, you (unfortunately) can’t play at any full-scale, legal, real money poker sites. Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 states. Sweepstakes poker sites essentially function as sweepstakes gaming sites with poker as the game. In states without regulated online poker, sweepstakes poker rooms offer the best legal alternative. You don’t directly compete for cash at a sweepstakes poker site, but you can win cash and prizes. All winnings at a site like ClubWPT come in the form of sweepstakes prizes. This puts ClubWPT in a different legal category than a traditional real money poker site. Regulated poker isn’t available in Arizona for now. Your best bet for legal online poker in Arizona is ClubWPT. As mentioned, ClubWPT operates as a legal sweepstakes poker room. Read on for more about how sweepstakes poker works, and what games are available at ClubWPT. ClubWPT offers two kinds of games – free-to-play games (aka Play Chips games) and sweepstakes games. The Play Chips games are available in all 50 states, and give players a great avenue for practicing their poker skills with no purchase necessary and no monetary risk involved. The sweepstakes games are available via monthly subscription, and award cash and prizes. Two different subscription tiers are available for purchase at ClubWPT, along with an add-on subscription allowing access to special Saturday satellite tournaments. The subscription tiers at ClubWPT break down as follows: 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) ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments award more than $100,000 in prizes each month. The game formats available in the sweepstakes tournaments include Texas Holdem, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. VIP is the lowest-priced subscription tier at ClubWPT. This subscription level allows access to all tournaments under the VIP tab. VIP tournaments use Tournament Points (TP) as the buy-in currency. You start with 500 TP when you sign up for a subscription, and your TP balance reloads each day. Tournaments in the VIP tier award TP, cash, and prizes. A typical tournament in the VIP tier looks like this: Tournament Name: $1,000 Mountain Buy-In: 400TP Prize Pool: $1,000 USD + 202,500 TP Guaranteed First Place: $150 USD + 2,000 TP You’ll also find plenty of freerolls (aka zero TP buy-in tournaments) in this tier, awarding TP, cash, and prizes. A Diamond subscription grants access to all Diamond-tier tournaments, as well as all tournaments in the VIP tier. Diamond tournaments award the biggest prizes available at ClubWPT, and the Diamond level is the best overall value among the sweepstakes tiers. While VIP Tournaments require Tournament Points to enter, Diamond subscribers get unlimited entries into Diamond Tournaments. There’s no buy-in currency required for Diamond Tournaments, which are open for entry on an uncapped basis for subscribers to this tier. These tournaments are freerolls in a sense, although you do have to pay the monthly subscription to get access. Both VIP and Diamond tournaments award cash and prizes to tournament winners. The cash amounts and prizes available are substantially larger in the Diamond tier, however. A typical Diamond Tournament looks like this: Tournament Name: $5,000 Cash Guarantee Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers) Prize Pool: $5,000 USD + 541,000 TP Guaranteed First Place: $1,000 USD + 5,000 TP Youll also find many opportunities to win entry into World Poker Tour live events in Diamond tournaments. Many of the tournaments on this level award cash and TP throughout the payout ladder, with a WPT live event package as the top prize. For example, the following Diamond Tournament awarded a WPT Prime Passport (travel package and entry fee for any WPT Prime tournament) as the first-place prize: Tournament Name: $2,500 WPT Prime Championship Passport + $500 Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers) Prize Pool: $3,000 USD + 467,500 TP Guaranteed First Place: $2,500 WPT Prime Passport + 5,000 TP Keep in mind that Diamond subscribers get access to both the Diamond and the VIP tier, so the TP earned in Diamond tournaments can be used in VIP tournaments. CLUBWPT AD One of the biggest tournaments at ClubWPT is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Chalenge. 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 annual WPT World Championship in Las Vegas. This tournament isn’t an open-enrollment event. You can only qualify for it through other tournaments on ClubWPT. Most of the tournaments that allow you to win your way into the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge are in the Diamond tier. ClubWPT does not operate as a traditional real-money online poker site. The platform operates as a sweepstakes gaming site, running poker tournaments that award cash and prizes. You dont deposit money or directly compete for cash at ClubWPT. The cash and prizes on the line are substantial, however. ClubWPT awards more than $100,000 in cash and prizes every month. The flagship tournament on ClubWPT, the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge, awards $125,000 in total cash and prizes alone. The grand prize for this tournament is a $12,000 WPT Event Package that sends the winner to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December. You can join ClubWPT from anywhere in the U.S. Keep in mind, however, that you can only play the sweepstakes games for cash and prizes if youre in one of the 36 eligible states. Arizona is on the list of states that allow access to the sweepstakes poker games at ClubWPT. Heres how to sign up for a ClubWPT account: The free-to-play cash games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required. 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 when you play. If youre located in Arizona, youre in luck, as the ClubWPT sweepstakes games are accessible to you (as long as youre physically located in Arizona while you play). CLUBWPT AD ClubWPT doesnt operate as a traditional real-money poker site. The cash and prizes available in the subscription-based tournaments are awarded under a sweepstakes gaming model. Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 U.S. states. Sweepstakes poker rooms like ClubWPT aren’t defined by the same legal category as real-money poker sites. At a traditional real-money poker site, players deposit money and use that money as their stake in cash games and tournaments. When you withdraw winnings from a real-money poker account, that withdrawal involves a direct cash transfer of some kind. At ClubWPT, players can compete for cash and prizes, but direct cash deposits and withdrawals dont happen. All prizes awarded in ClubWPT’s tournaments are sweepstakes prizes. Those prizes include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, luxury packages to WPT Voyage cruises, and even seats to WPT Main Tour events. If youre in Arizona and you’ve tried to find a legal online poker site, you might have found a few sites that seem to offer legit online poker games for real money. These sites might appear to give you a legal option for playing poker online. It’s important to note, however, that offshore online poker sites that operate in the United States are doing so illegally . Here are three reasons that Arizona poker players should avoid these illegal online gambling sites: Payment options at an offshore/illegal poker site are often limited. Many offshore gambling sites only allow deposits and withdrawals using cryptocurrency. If you can’t find a way to deposit USD in your account at an online poker room, thats generally not a good sign. If you do get to deposit using a bank account or credit/debit card, that transaction will often show up as a purchase from an online shopping outlet youve never heard of. That cant be good either. When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, that transaction clearly shows up on your bank statement as a purchase from ClubWPT. ClubWPT, and any online poker site backed by the World Poker Tour, operates with a keen interest in protecting your personal and financial information. If you give your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number to an offshore poker site, theres no telling where or with whom that information might end up. If you try to withdraw from an offshore poker site, youre requesting money from an operation that has no legal obligation to send you your money. If you find yourself on the bad end of a denied withdrawal, you have no legal recourse to file a complaint and recoup your money. Offshore poker sites operate illegally, and any time you play at such a site, that could be the last time you see your money. Offshore poker sites are often infested with bots (aka computer automated poker players), player collusion, multi-accounting, and ghosting. The games at offshore poker sites are quite frequently rife with illegal and unethical activity, as the sites have little incentive to punish bad actors. Offshore gambling sites are in the business of taking deposits from players. You cant expect much in the way of player security once they have your money. Yes. While full-scale, regulated, real-money poker isnt legal in Arizona, sweepstakes poker sites are legal in the Grand Canyon State. ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker site available in Arizona. Arizona players can purchase a monthly subscription and get unlimited access to the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT. These tournaments award cash and prizes, including entries to live World Poker Tour events. Yes. Arizona poker laws allow tribal casinos to offer a full suite of casino games, as well as poker. Arizona is home to several tribal casinos that have live poker rooms. The Grand Canyon State hosts a thriving live poker economy. The only form of online poker that’s legal in Arizona, however, is sweepstakes poker. If you come across an online poker room running real money poker games in AZ, that room is operating illegally. ClubWPT tops the list of the best online poker sites available to Arizona players. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker platform, with tournaments that award cash and prizes. You dont directly play with cash at ClubWPT, but you can purchase a monthly subscription and compete for cash and prizes. Some of the prizes up for grabs at ClubWPT’s online poker tournaments include travel packages for WPT Voyage Cruises and “Passports” for events on the live version of the World Poker Tour. Yes. The sweepstakes games at ClubWPT are legal in Arizona. The free-to-play games at ClubWPT are legal in all 50 U.S. states. The sweepstakes games are legal in 36 states, with Arizona as one of those states. No. As mentioned in this guide, you should avoid playing poker or doing any kind of gaming at offshore gambling sites. Your money, banking information and personal information could be at risk at an offshore gambling site, and the integrity of the games can be questionable. Sports betting is the only form of online gambling that’s legal in Arizona. US states have the option to legalize online casino games, online sports betting, and online poker if they wish. Arizona has only legalized online sports betting so far. Sweepstakes poker rooms are legal in the Grand Canyon State, however. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes room and tops the list of the best Arizona poker sites. 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

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)