Competing against the big dogs of poker in Texas such as Texas Card House isn’t easy for any card room. But there’s a brand-new spot — Peaks Dallas Social Club — that is worth the visit. Local poker players Kim Fortini (Stone) and her husband Hayden Fortini opened the new room at 1231 Wycliff Suite 100, a short drive from downtown Dallas, about two months ago. PokerNews stopped by the poker club earlier this month to meet with the owners to check it out, and we came away with the impression that there’s potential for growth.

Table Of Contents Matt Petry thought he was being scammed when he got a message on FanDuel about being a finalist for Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski’s Gold Pass giveaway on the sports betting platform. But the 30-year-old firefighter from West Virginia’s skepticism faded when he learned that he had in fact won a $10,300 Gold Pass Package to PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Las Vegas. PokerNews caught up with Petry to talk about his poker background and how he plans to make the most of his first-ever trip to Sin City.

Poker tournament players are spoiled for choice this December, with major events taking place in Prague, the Bahamas, and Las Vegas. However, not every grinder has the bankroll required to jet around the world playing for high stakes. That doesn’t mean you can’t play for big money during the 12th month of 2024 because Grosvenor Poker is launching the BEHEMOTH festival. Following the ever-popular GOLIATH, the BEHEMOTH is a multi-flight £300 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament boasting a cool £250,000 guaranteed prize pool, the same as the GUKPT Grand Final’s Main Event.

Table Of Contents Sunny Florida is the sight of the $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) bestbet Scramble Championship from Nov. 15-19. More specifically, one of the top spots for tournament poker in the Southeast — bestbet Jacksonville. At the time of publishing, it hadn’t even been 24 hours since Michael Wang finished off his first WPT title with a CAD $384,738 victory in Montreal at Playground. And now it’s time for the World Poker Tour to shift its focus back south to the United States for its near-annual trip to Jacksonville where Frederic Normand, a Canadian, will look to defend his title.

Table Of Contents In March 2022, Rush Street Interactive (RSI), a prominent name in online casino and sports betting, made headlines by acquiring Phil Galfond’s online poker platform, Run It Once Poker, for $5.8 million. Since then, the online poker community has eagerly anticipated this platform’s next chapter. In a press release today, RSI officially launched BetRivers Poker, a fresh addition to the real money online poker landscape in the United States, marking a new era for American players.

Table Of Contents The countdown is on for the Sunbet Poker Tour GrandWest, where a 14-event schedule awaits those who journey to Cape Town, South Africa, for the R10 Million guaranteed festival. From November 20 to December 1, the GrandWest Casino turns into a poker playground, where there is something for every type of player. From affordable buy-ins to super high rollers, the Sunbet Poker Tour has crafted an offering that will surely excite locals and travellers.

The CAD $3,500 buy-in, CAD $1.5 million GTD World Poker Tour (WPT) Playground Championship attracted 840 runners, but it was nearly 839 as Michael Wang almost didn’t make the trip. He’d been traveling Europe and was anxious to get back home to Las Vegas, but he decided a pitstop in Montreal was too good to pass up. “I’m glad I came. I was kind of on the fence between coming here and just going home,” Wang told PokerNews prior to the final table.

In addition to the CAD $1,100 Prime Championship and CAD $3,500 Championship Event, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Playground also hosted a CAD $10,500 High Roller, a tournament that attracted 31 entries and awarded a CAD $640,000 prize pool, more than triple the CAD $200K guarantee. The final table was dominated by Canadians with one exception, Australia’s Cooper Henry Bryant. However, the Aussie ended up falling in third place, one spot better than Chanracy Khun, who poker fans may remember defeated Doug Polk heads-up to win the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #8: $25,000 HU NLH Championship for $507,020 and a bracelet.

Table Of Contents If you’re in town for the PokerStars NAPT Las Vegas and are in a generous mood, you might want to be aware of a pair of upcoming Charity Series of Poker (CSOP) events. The first charity event will take place this Saturday and involves a Super Bowl Champion – linebacker and Las Vegas native Brandon Marshall, who enjoyed an eight-year NFL career and won Super Bowl 50 as a part of the Denver Broncos.

Danielle “dmoongirl” Andersen, a longtime high-stakes poker pro, hit a hand at Aria in Las Vegas that would make any poker player envious. She tweeted out a photo and brief video of a hand that involved two straight flushes coolering multiple players in a double board pot-limit Omaha bomb pot cash game. The hand occurred in a game in the Table 1 high roller room (formerly Ivey Room). Andersen, a regular in big games, has played plenty of sizable pots in her life.

Table Of Contents The CAD $3,500 buy-in, CAD $1.5 million GTD World Poker Tour (WPT) Playground Championship attracted 840 entries. It awarded a CAD $412,300 (US $296,779) top prize, a seat in the WPT World Championship, and the winner’s name etched upon Mike Sexton’s Champions Cup. The tournament was a mix of local Canadian players like Tyler Warken and Connor Daynard along with traveling pros like Rich Alsup and Rob Wazwaz, who both flew in from Minnesota.

Table Of Contents The PokerStars Stars Season burst into life this weekend with a trio of Terminator PKO tournaments and the first event boasting a seven-figure prize pool, the Season Kickoff Sunday Million PKO. Including the trio of Super Tuesdays and the three Daily Cooldowns on October 29, Stars Season has already paid PokerStars players $1,867,988! A significant percentage of that impressive sum was awarded during the $1 million guaranteed Season Kickoff Sunday Million PKO, which saw all but one of the nine finalists walk away with five-figure prizes, including the champion’s $83,347.

Table Of Contents The KO Games concluded at 888poker on the evening of October 29, with the crowning of the $300,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty Main Event’s champion. A field of 1,433 entrants fought tooth and nail for the largest slice of the $300,000 prize pool, and Mexico’s “scheeescheee” came out on top, turning their initial investment into $30,606. That haul was not the biggest payout in the tournament thanks to one of the mystery bounties tipping the scales at a cool $30,000.

Caesars Entertainment has finalized the $500 million sale of the biggest brand in poker to GGPoker’s parent company, according to an announcement on Tuesday. In August, Caesars Entertainment shocked the poker world when it announced that it would be selling World Series of Poker (WSOP) to NSUS Group Inc, a leading investment group and operator GGPoker. The deal was solidified Tuesday and includes a $250 million cash transaction and a $250 million promissory note due in five years.

Table Of Contents The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) festival at Caesars Southern Indiana came to a close with Luis Yepez taking first place in the Main Event. The festival awarded eighteen WSOPC rings over the course of 12 action-packed days of poker. A total of 338 players turned out for the WSOP Circuit Southern Indiana main event. With a buy-in of $1,700, there was over half-a-million dollars in play with $111,979 up top for first place.

Table Of Contents When it comes to Canadian poker players, Patrick Tardif has made quite a name for himself. Originally from Saskatchewan and now residing in Toronto, Tardif is known for his online poker prowess where he’s recorded more than $11 million in virtual felt earnings. So, when WPT Global was looking to add to their Ambassador roster the man known as “Egption” was a natural fit. Since joining the team – which includes Phil Ivey, Brad Owen, Ethan Yau, Jon Van Fleet, Xuan Liu, Angel Guillen, and most recently NHL star Phil Kessel (more on that below) – Tardif has taken his ambassadorship seriously and has been doing a good amount of traveling, including to Montreal for the WPT Playground Championship.

Table Of Contents Our recent visit to Texas included a stop at one of the premier places to play poker in the Lone Star State — Texas Card House Social in Austin. The brand-new card room not only featured more than 40 card tables and a delicious attached kitchen, the club is set to soon launch a Texas-based online poker site. Hijack Poker is currently undergoing a soft launch/beta testing phase, and we gave it a shot while in town to see what it’s all about.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has not only been busy with its CAD $5,300 WPT Playground Championship in Montreal, but across the pond, they wrapped their second edition of the €1,100 WPT Prime Paris Championship on Monday night. That tournament attracted 1,242 entrants over five starting flights to Club Circus Paris and offered up a €1,192,320 (US $1,285,559) prize pool to the top 156 finishers. After three days of play, France’s Hugues “Hugo” Girard nearly went wire-to-wire at the final table to win the tournament for $183,294 and a seat into December’s 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

Table Of Contents Top-tier professional poker players often dominate PokerNews’ headlines, but today, it is the lesser-known Daniel Johnson who finds himself thrust into the limelight. You see, Johnson may not be an established pro, but he recently pulled off a remarkable double by capturing packages for the upcoming PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague Main Event and the inaugural Live Spin & Go Championship! Johnson is a proud 29-year-old Scotsman living in Strathaven, just south of Glasgow.

Table Of Contents In a remarkable comeback, Vitalijs Polukejevs rose from the bottom of the pack and, facing elimination with only card remaining, turned it into victory to claim the title of champion of the 2024 International Poker Open Main Event, held at the stunning Bonnington Dublin Hotel. The Latvian cash game player, who currently resides in Ireland, emerged victorious from a field of 909, claiming the lion’s share of the €274,745 prize pool.

Table Of Contents Day 3 of the CAD $3,500 buy-in, CAD $1.5 million GTD World Poker Tour (WPT) Playground Championship had 53 players from the 840-entry field return to action, but by the end of the night just the final table of six remained with Baron Ha and his stack of 11,625,000 leading the way. Another player returning is poker pro Michael Wang (lead image), who has been traveling the world recently for poker and opted to make a pitstop at Playground on his way back home to Las Vegas.

Table Of Contents The Season 13 finale of High Stakes Poker — Episode 12 — aired on PokerGO Monday night, and it was packed with some big bluffs, a plethora of pocket aces, and a Hollywood actress in desperate need of some help on the river. Phil Hellmuth, who made his season debut last week, was back in action competing in the $200/$400 no-limit hold’em cash game. But the “Poker Brat” was silenced by a lack of hitting any quality cards.

Table Of Contents In her decade and a half in the industry, Jen Shahade has done more for women in poker than most can claim. From pioneering a PokerStars Women initiative to facilitating women’s boot camps and winning a GPI award for a poignant piece about secondary infertility and poker, it is no surprise to see the poker and chess pro among the eight nominees for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2024, including Kristen Foxen, Liv Boeree, Annette Obrestad, Jamie Kerstetter and others.

Five years ago, Toronto’s Connor Daynard was 20 years old and didn’t know how to play poker. That is when the pandemic hit and a buddy of his sent him and some other guys $50 so they could start an online home game. Now, Daynard is closing in on the final table of his first-ever World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event, one of only a handful of live events he’s played.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) is wrapping up its stop at Montreal’s Playground. Still, they won’t rest long as they’re already gearing up for the WPT Korea, which will return to Landing Casino at Jeju Shinhwa World for the Jeju Poker Festival from November 15—December 1. The 2,500,000 KRW (~US $1,860) buy-in WPT Korea Championship Event will run from Nov. 16-22 and boasts a 1.68 billion KRW (~US $1.25 million) guarantee.

Table Of Contents After three thrilling days at the Harrah’s Casino and Hotel Kansas City, the $1,100 Main Event of the RunGood Poker Series has come to a close. The tournament featured three Day 1 flights over two days, attracting a total of 415 entrants, with 50 players advancing to Day 2. They created an impressive prize pool of $402,550, with a minimum cash prize of $1,776 and a top prize of $81,109.

Table Of Contents For the first time in Asian poker history, three major brands are coming together and creating a massive tournament series. The 2024 Jeju Poker Festival takes place at Landing Casino, Jeju, South Korea, between November 15 and December 1, and sees the World Poker Tour (WPT), the Korea Poker Cup, and Red Dragon Poker Tour (RDPT) run exciting festivals back-to-back-to-back! WPT Korea (November 15-22) The Jeju Poker Festival bursts into life with WPT Korea, which runs November 15-22.

Table Of Contents It’s widely considered as one of the most popular poker festivals out there, but after a long absence, it looks like the Aussie Millions might be making a comeback. As reported by the Poker Pulse Podcast, hosted by Australian Poker Schedule founder Craig Abernethy, the event is set to make its return to Crown Melbourne in April 2025. While there has been no official announcement, the much-loved event would be a welcome return to the live poker calendar for 2025.

Table Of Contents Look no further than the KO Games Main Events at 888poker if you want to add some value to your Monday grind. While most of the KO games have put up impressive numbers, the two showpiece tournaments look set to overlay, with only a handful of flights remaining in the $300,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event and the $100,000 Mystery Bounty Mini Event. Another 367 Entries Required in the $300,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event Event #29 is the $215 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty Main Event.

Table Of Contents Day 2 of the CAD $3,500 buy-in, CAD $1.5 million GTD World Poker Tour (WPT) Playground Championship saw 286 players from the 806-entry field return to action, but thanks to late registration being open until the start of play, 34 players joined the mix to bring the total field up to 840 runners. That meant a CAD $2,688,000 prize pool – well ahead of the CAD $1.5 million guarantee – was available to the top 105 finishers with CAD $412,300 set aside for the eventual winner.

Table Of Contents Rich Alsup might not be a household name in the poker world, but his list of poker accomplishments would be the envy of most poker players. The Minnesota native has more than $2.4 million in lifetime earnings according to the Hendon Mob, won the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #82: $800 NLH Deep Stack for $272,065 and a gold bracelet, and is a legend on the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT).

When it comes to Meet-Up Games (MUGs), Brad Owen was one of the early pioneers. He’s played in MUGs all around the world, most recently at Playground during the World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal. On Monday, October 21 at 1 p.m., the poker room was packed with players battling in $1/$3 and $2/$5 cash game action. More than 40 tables were used with Owen, along with fellow WPT Global Ambassadors and prominent Canadian poker players Patrick Tardif and Xuan Liu, rotating tables every 30 minutes.

Table Of Contents Kristen Foxen and husband Alex Foxen had quite a week of poker. The couple had a combined five World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets six days ago. They now have seven. The WSOP Online bracelet series on the Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey shared liquidity poker site is currently running. Much of the attention to the series has involved allegations against Kevin “GR4ND_THEFT” Ruscitti’s win in a $500 No-Limit Hold’em PKO event for possible use of real-time assistance (RTA).

Table Of Contents 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the National Domestic Violence Hotline provides essential tools and support to help survivors of domestic violence so they can live their lives free of abuse. If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, The Hotline is available 24/7/365. Call: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Since 1989, October has been National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. According to NCTSN.org: “Domestic violence is prevalent in every community, and affects all people regardless of age, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender, race, religion, or nationality.

Just after midnight as the clock ticked over into Saturday, the Bad Beat Jackpot was triggered at Playground located just outside Montreal, Canada. The CAD $964,471 jackpot – which came three weeks after the property’s CAD $2.2 million jackpot (the second-largest in history) – hit when Aymen Rhammaz won with a straight flush against the quad kings of Chad Whittaker, who took the lion’s share of the jackpot as the “loser.

Table Of Contents The second-ever PokerGo Tour (PGT) Super High Roller Bowl: $100,000 Pot-Limit Omaha wrapped up on Saturday with Seth Davies winning $1.5 million and his second SHRB title in two months. The high-stakes PLO event drew 42 players for a prize pool of $4.2 million, an increase from the 38-player field in 2023 that saw Jared Bleznick winning the inaugural event. The sports cards enthusiast, who used time banks to open a few cards at the final table, looked to defend his title as he entered Day 3 as the chip leader but bowed out in fourth place for $450,000.