Table Of Contents If you’re looking for a poker event that mixes great competition with a local touch and the chance to give back, the Eastern Poker Open is the place to be. Hosted by the Eastern Poker Tour, the event will return from April 3-6, 2025, at the Doubletree by Hilton Boston Milford. And this year, it’s bigger, better, and ready to raise the stakes. A Celebration of Community and Poker The tour is celebrating its 34th season, and they’re doing it in a big way.

Table Of Contents March’s NCAA Tournament—one of the most watched and bet-on sporting events in the world—tipped off this week. Basketball fans have been sent into madness, filling out their brackets, hoping to predict the next national champion. But here at PokerNews, we’re wanting you to fill out a different kind of bracket. We’ve traded college hoops for high-stakes head-to-head battles, crafting a 64-player heads-up no-limit hold’em tournament based on The Hendon Mob earnings.

Table Of Contents With clocks springing forward for many countries this weekend, marking the start of summertime, it’s quite ironic that a major storm is about to hit the online poker landscape. However, you will be pleased to know that this particular storm is bringing a $350,000 guaranteed prize pool ashore instead of dark clouds and turbulent weather. The 14th Anniversary Edition of the Sunday Storm explodes into action at 6:05 p.

Table Of Contents Imagine playing for a share of a guaranteed $100,000 for only a $25 investment. It would be cool, right? If you agree, you must head to 888poker and get involved in the online poker giant’s ChampionChip Mystery Bounty Main Event, where $100,000 is guaranteed to be won, including a $10,000 jackpot bounty payment. The Mystery Bounty Main Event is in full swing, with several flights already in the bag.

The US Department of Justice asked for a deadline extension for the indictment against George Janssen, a Michigan poker player who last month was accused of fraud by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). On Feb. 25, the FBI filed a complaint in the US District Court Eastern District of Michigan accusing Janssen of running a multi-million dollar auto loan scheme. Ordinarily, prosecutors must file an indictment within 30 days of when the defendant was arrested (Feb.

Table Of Contents There’s a new member of the WPT Champions Club after California poker pro Shawn Daniels defeated Harvey Castro on Wednesday to win $257,600 and the World Poker Tour (WPT) Rolling Thunder title. The $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, which attracted 404 entrants, played down to just six on Tuesday. Those still standing returned to action a day later at the Thunder Valley Poker Room in Northern California for the final table, which was livestreamed on the WPT’s YouTube channel.

Table Of Contents The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions is returning to Commerce Casino in Los Angeles in May. The $1 million freeroll event, which is exclusive to players who won a WSOP bracelet or Circuit ring between June 2024 and May 2025, will take place May 15-17 at the legendary Southern California casino. It will mark the second time in two years that the legendary Southern California casino will host the Tournament of Champions, an exciting kickoff to the WSOP summer festival in Las Vegas.

Table Of Contents The RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) is gearing up for a stop at Hollywood Casino St. Louis in Missouri that will award 12 rings across six days of action. The Mission RunGood St. Louis stop will take place April 1-6 and will culminate with an $800 buy-in Main Event with a $200,000 guarantee attached. Ladies Ring Event in St. Louis Action in St. Louis will kick off on April 1 with a $250 Seniors Ring Event, $300 Series Opener NLH Ring Event and the first of three flights of a $400 DeepStack Ring Event with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Table Of Contents How long could you stay away from the poker tables? A month? A year? For Norwegian poker legend Johnny Lodden, the answer was 944 days. After more than two and a half years away from the game, Lodden made an unexpected return at the Merit Poker Carmen Series in Cyprus. But this wasn’t a carefully orchestrated comeback - he was simply on vacation. One spur-of-the-moment decision later, he found himself battling through a record-breaking High Roller field, ultimately finishing runner-up to Dawid Smolka for a $182,700 payday.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) $3,500 Rolling Thunder Championship began with 404 entrants, but on Wednesday just six will return to action vying for a $257,600 first-place prize. One of those players is three-time WPT champ Eric Afriat (pictured above), who is looking for a record-tying fourth title to catch Darren Elias. With $5,847,484 in lifetime earnings according to The Hendon Mob, Afriat is looking for his first WPT title since 2020.

Table Of Contents The 2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series $5,300 High Roller has officially crowned a champion, as Dawid Smolka outlasted a record-breaking 270-entry field to claim the biggest-ever Merit Poker High Roller title and the $260,000 top prize at the magnificent Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino. Smolka, who entered the day as the chip leader, maneuvered his way through a tough final table before securing the victory in a heads-up battle against Johnny Lodden.

Table Of Contents The race to the top of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) ring leaderboard has seen a lot of movement in the last few months. All of the top four players have won at least one ring since ringing in the New Year. The latest move in the rankings comes from Daniel Lowery, who got in a quick one-two punch at the WSOP Circuit Hard Rock Tulsa.

Table Of Contents As the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju draws to a close, the three final champions of the festival have been crowned. The final three events of the festival were all Short Deck Hold’em. Popular on the Super High Roller circuit, Short Deck is a variant of Texas Hold’em where the deck is stripped down to just 36 cards, removing all cards lower than six. This change alters the probabilities, with hands like straights and flushes becoming more common, and aces often acting as both high and low.

The Diamond Poker Series has made a big splash in the live poker scene since its launch, not least because it offers schedules filled with high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha games. The latest Diamond Poker Series stop, the PLO Grand Slam Tallinn runs from April 4 until April 13 at the Chesterfield Poker Club, and PokerNews will be there to bring you live updates from three massive PLO tournaments. Everything kicks off on April 4 with the first tournament boasting a seven-figure prize pool.

Table Of Contents The 2025 Merit Poker Carmen Series $2,200 Warm Up has its champion, as Dmitrii Kopyl staged a stunning late-game comeback to claim the $210,000 top prize. Entering the final table sixth in chips, the Russian player remained patient while bigger stacks battled for control. But as the field thinned and the stakes soared, he came alive at exactly the right time. With fearless aggression, well-timed moves, and a bit of luck when he needed it, Kopyl transformed from an afterthought to the one lifting the trophy inside the Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino.

Table Of Contents The 888poker LIVE tour is in Glasgow, Scotland, for the second leg of the 2025 schedule. While the £888 buy-in, £250,000 guaranteed Main Event is a couple of days away, the festival is in full swing. Three side events have crowned their champions, with Majid Iqbal capturing the largest score, namely £10,130. Iqbal won the £230 Crazy 8 Opening Event. Some 277 players bought in and built a £52,630 pot, and Iqbal took home £10,130 of that princely sum.

Table Of Contents Phil Hellmuth left the game early during Episode 7 last week on High Stakes Poker after running into some coolers. The “Poker Brat” didn’t return on Monday, but fellow poker legend Scott Seiver did, and he made a sneaky play in a six-figure pot. The $200/$400 no-limit hold’em cash game is available on PokerGO, and it features some interesting hands such as one played between Seiver and Markus Gonsalves.

ClubWPT has been around since 2008, but in all that time they’ve never had an official ambassador. That changed this week when it was announced that Josh Guindon (pictured above), an ER doctor from Bedford, Massachusetts, was the first brand ambassador. Guindon’s accomplishments from playing on ClubWPT helped propel him to his sponsorship deal, which will include him representing the subscription-based company at WPT events throughout 2025. He’s made deep runs in all four of his first WPT Championship events, which included making the final table of last December’s historic ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Freeroll.

Table Of Contents Two and a half months into 2025, five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and renowned poker commentator Nick Schulman leads the Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (POY) race after a series of deep runs and one victory inside the PokerGO Studio. Schulman has never had an issue taking off the headset and performing at poker’s highest levels and this year isn’t proving to be an exception.

Table Of Contents Omar Lakhdari made sure to remind everyone why experience matters, cruising to victory in the WPT Prime Cyprus Championship at the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Casino. The Algerian grinder, who’s now racked up 37 tournament wins and nearly $3.5 million in earnings, held his ground through the final table and shut down poker newbie Atilla Saracoglu’s dream run to claim the top spot. With the $190,430 payout, a WPT trophy, and a seat at the $10,400 WPT World Championship in hand, Lakhdari added another milestone to his impressive poker career.

Table Of Contents Surrounded by family and friends at his home casino, RunGood Poker Series ambassador Cody Stanford clinched his eighth RGPS ring at Horseshoe Tunica. After nearly 12 hours of play, he emerged victorious in the $600 Main Event, defeating Michael Johns in heads-up play. Along with the coveted RGPS ring, Stanford will take home the top prize of $53,988 after outlasting a field of 546 entrants, which generated a $278,460 prize pool.

Table Of Contents A few eyebrows were raised when the Irish Poker Tour placed a €100,000 guarantee on the prize pool of a €100 buy-in event, not least because the €75+€25 buy-in meant 1,333 players needed to enter to avoid an overlay. Not only did the prize pool reach its guarantee, but the 1,927 entrants ensured it was surpassed by €38,745! The money bubble finally popped during Day 2, with Shane Dempsey crashing out in 194th place, locking in a €250 min-cash for the surviving players.

Table Of Contents The 888poker ChampionChip Games got off to a flying start on March 16, with the first five of 36 events bursting into action and crowning their champions. Affordable buy-ins but big prizes were the order of the day as 888poker’s players flocked to the tables and attempted to kick the series off in style. Four of the events on the ChampionChip Games schedule have a $55 buy-in, the most expensive tournaments this year.

Table Of Contents The first-ever PokerStars Open proved to be a huge success. The €1,100 Main Event attracted a record-setting 2,324 entries to Casino di Campione in Italy, more than doubling the guarantee and generating a prize pool of €2,326,080. During four long days of poker, the massive field was whittled down to only one player, Adrian State. The Romanian regular was declared the winner after a short but eventful heads-up battle against the last Italian standing,Giorgio Soceanu.

A disheartened Ethan “WPT123” Yau told his 327,000 YouTube followers in a Sunday video that “it feels like I’ve been a complete failure” as he reached the end of his $1 million poker bankroll challenge. The popular vlogger set out last March to crack a seven-figure profit in a year. He posted a video on his YouTube channel on March 26, 2024 explaining why he set such a lofty goal.

Table Of Contents Some couples dream of vacations or fancy dinners, but for Matthew and Sinéad Davenport, it’s all about chasing poker glory together. Matthew, a seasoned pro with years of success under his belt, and Sinéad, a former nurse who embraced poker full-time in 2024, are a power couple in the UK poker scene who took the last year by storm. Banner Year for the Davenports Both Davenports had their best year yet on the live felt.

Table Of Contents Alex Gray knows a thing or two about reading people. As a presenter, actress, and one of the faces of the World Poker Tour, she’s spent years analyzing opponents at the felt, searching for tells, and making big decisions under pressure. But when she stepped into the world of The Traitors (UK), she found herself in an entirely different kind of mind game, one where trust was a currency, deception was everywhere, and every move could be her last.

Table Of Contents It’s go-time for Day 2 of the WPT Prime Cyprus $1,100 Championship! The series’ showstopper has been an absolute knockout at the Chamada Prestige Hotel and Casino, with the 1,391 entries building a $1,349,270 prize pool, easily crushing the $1 million guarantee. Yesterday’s final starting flights saw another 563 bullets fired, pushing the total past last year’s 1,202. If there was any doubt, poker is thriving in North Cyprus.

It’s not looking good for Doug Polk’s chances of winning an online poker challenge on ClubWPT Gold after a costly Saturday session that saw “Code Doug” go from up $20,000 to well in the red. The Upswing Poker founder sought to win $100,000 in one month on the new sweepstakes poker site. But as the midway point approaches, he’s now further behind his goal than when the challenge began. Polk started off the challenge playing low-stakes heads-up games, and fell behind a few thousand bucks early.

Table Of Contents The World Poker Tour is in Cyprus for the WPT Prime Cyprus Championship, and things are heating up fast. The $1 million guaranteed main event is in its penultimate flight, but it’s the $660 Bounty PLO side event that’s stealing the spotlight with some seriously wild action. When the hand took place, only 33 players remained from 96 entries—and that was just at Level 9. In one of the most insane hands so far, three players were eliminated in a six-way all-in, and none of them even had aces!

Table Of Contents Two poker champions are on a mission to defend their titles this weekend. Preston McEwen is chasing back-to-back victories in the RunGood Tunica Main Event, while Tudor Purice looks to replicate last year’s heroics at the WPT Prime Cyprus Championship. McEwen has work to do after falling short on Day 1A in Mississippi, but Purice is one step closer to defending his crown. The Romanian grinder successfully navigated Day 1C of the $1 million guaranteed tournament at the Chamada Prestige Hotel and Casino on Friday, bagging 176,000 chips—good for 33rd place among the 45 players who advanced.

Poker vlogger Ryan Depaulo claims he was “scammed and robbed” out of a pot that should have been chopped during a tournament at Borgata in Atlantic City. The former ACR Poker pro’s recent video exposes a second potential major dealer error during a tournament in the past couple of weeks. Maurice Hawkins won his 18th World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOP) ring earlier this month for $140,752. But the event is most remembered for an infamous hand in which the dealer didn’t realize the player who busted in third place — Divyam Satyarthi — went out with the best hand.

Table Of Contents Indicted lawyer Tom Goldstein “lost a substantial sum of money” in high-stakes poker matches at actor Kevin Hart’s 2024 birthday bash in Greece, and it has landed him in hot water with the US Department of Justice. In documents filed in a Maryland federal court last week, prosecutors alleged that Goldstein, who in January was charged with tax fraud related to high-stakes poker matches, had access to “unknown wallets” that made him a “serious” flight risk.

Table Of Contents Harrison Gimbel won the Wynn Millions $3,000 Championship, earning $455,388 for his victory. The Championship is the Wynn Millions festival’s main event, coming with an enormous trophy that should look good on Gimbel’s shelf, joining his considerable collection of poker baubles. That collection already includes a triple crown of sorts with a PCA title for winning the 2010 PCA $10,500 Main Event, a WPT title for the 2016 WPT Rolling Thunder $,3500 Main Event, and a WSOP bracelet for the 2017 WSOP Event #68: $3,000 No Limit Hold’em.

Table Of Contents PokerStars ambassador Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg proved he doesn’t just run good at the poker tables today as the streaming star took to X to reveal an impressive 150/1 (+15,000) horse racing win on outsider Poniros at the prestigious Cheltenham Festival. Poniros, who won Friday’s curtain-raiser, the Triumph Hurdle, was the rank outsider of the field, available at odds as large as 200/1 in some places just before the off.

Table Of Contents For years, Dan “judgedredd13” Charlton was a grinder in every sense of the word. He put in the hours, battled at the tables, and was no stranger to a good night out when the cards were done. But 18 months ago, he decided to make a big change, he got sober. At first, it wasn’t about poker. It was about feeling better, being more present, and seeing what life looked like without alcohol and drugs.