Table Of Contents The Grosvenor Behemoth Main Event crowned its champion on December 15 after an impressive turnout for the inaugural event. A field of 1,347 entrants created a £336,210 prize pool that the top 168 finishers shared. Cristinel Costin came out on top and reeled in a £43,700 prize after a three-way deal, the largest haul of his career. Costin’s previously best live poker tournament result came in December 2021 when he finished 30th in the €10,350 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event for €35,709.

Table Of Contents The largest freeroll in poker history has reached its conclusion with Chase Bricker beating Jason Christopher heads-up in one hand to take down the $1 million first place prize. ClubWPT Gold boldly hosted a $5 million Invitational Freeroll at Wynn Las Vegas as part of the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship festival. The tournament had 1,457 players, all of whom won free seats (Golden Passports) via satellite tournaments on ClubWPT Gold, social media contests, or were invited as content creators.

Table Of Contents When Richard Lord arrived at Wynn Las Vegas for the ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll, his eyes were fixed on one goal: the coveted $1,000,000 winner’s prize. Despite putting on his best performance at the World Poker Tour World Championships, the professional magician’s tricks weren’t enough to get him past the money bubble. He was eliminated before reaching the payout stages, but Lord’s journey didn’t end there—he still had one last card up his sleeve.

The $5 million ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll final table kicked off Sunday afternoon at Wynn Las Vegas, and the winner will take home $1 million. One of the final nine players still in contention is StakeKings CEO Tyler Hancock, who spoke with PokerNews prior to the start of play. Hancock lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area and has plenty of experience playing poker. He’s produced nearly $470,000 in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob, which includes a 63rd place finish for $116,963 in the 2016 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

Table Of Contents For the second year in a row, 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Jamie Gold made his way to The Bahamas for WSOP Paradise. It was an easy decision for the bracelet winner, who won $12 million for winning the Main Event, a record that stood until Daniel Weinman won $12.1 million in 2023. “It’s so beautiful and there are so many things to do,” Gold told PokerNews.

Table Of Contents As the curtains came down at the Hilton Prague on another wonderful year of PokerStars European Poker Tour events, local hero Patrik Jaros emerged victorious in the final event of EPT Prague, the €10,300 EPT High Roller. Jaros secured a precious victory on home soil and €573,500, smashing his previous best career score of $443,783, a fifth-place finish in the Main Event at EPT Barcelona in 2022.

Table Of Contents The stage was set for an epic battle inside the Hilton Prague, and it delivered in every way possible. Six players returned, and only one walked away a champion. In the end, it was Pedro Marques who outlasted a record-breaking field of 1,458 and toppled the seemingly unstoppable Paul Runcan to claim the 2024 €5,300 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Main Event title. For Marques, the victory was more than just another tournament win.

Table Of Contents On Saturday, the highly anticipated World Poker Tour World Championship kicked off with the first of three Day 1 flights at Wynn Las Vegas. Despite an absence of a guarantee for this year’s $10,400 buy-in event, players flocked to the felt, eager for one last shot at a monumental payday before 2024 draws to a close. When late registration closed at the start of Level 8, the field had swelled to 751 entries—a remarkable 23.

Table Of Contents Event #10: $10,000 Paradise Pot-Limit Omaha at the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise officially concluded Saturday night. The one-day event, held with a turbo-style structure and 20-minute levels, featured plenty of action right from the start at Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas. The event attracted 200 entrants and created a prize pool of $2,000,000. Thirty players made the money, with a minimum cash of $20,860, but all eyes were on the grand prize of $393,250.

Table Of Contents Paul Tedeschi has won the inaugural Mixed Game Main Event held at European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague. The very first 10-game championship held as part of the EPT schedule saw Tedeschi overcome a field of 83 players and defeat Ali Abdulzahra heads up to take home €44,884. EPT Prague Mixed Game Main Event Final Table Reults Place Player Country Payout (EUR) 1 Paul Tedeschi France €44,884 2 Ali Abdulzahra Germany €28,956 3 Jeremy Trojand Germany €20,685 4 Patrick Bueno France €15,912 5 Lee Horton United Kingdom €12,239 6 Sami Bechahed France €9,729 7 Alexander Freund Austria €7,785 Winner’s Reaction Tedeschi told PokerNews about how much fun he’s had playing in the tournament over the three-day event.

Table Of Contents The PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague at the Hitlon Prague continued today with the final high-stakes event on the roster; the €10,200 No Limit Hold’em. Teun Mulder reigned supreme over the total field size of nine players, laying claim to the lion’s share of the €87,210 prize pool. Mulder took €56,710 in his final attempt to book a win here in Prague. After dispatching Enrico Camosci in heads-up play, Mulder confirmed that this result was his first cash of this EPT stop as he claimed the final five-figure buy-in PokerStars Silver Spadie of the series

Table Of Contents The $1,100 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Championship has reached its conclusion with Zak VanKeuren taking it down for $1,162,350. He defeated Jim Casement heads-up at the end to close out a hard-fought victory. Nine of the initial 9,670 players returned to Wynn Las Vegas at 5 p.m. on Saturday to play it down to a winner, and it was a grueling battle. There were multiple big stacks at the start of play, and only two short stacks.

Table Of Contents As the dust settled on the penultimate day of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague €5,300 Main Event, only six players remained from the record-breaking field of 1,458 entries. With nearly €7 million in the prize pool, the remaining contenders are just one step away from claiming the prestigious EPT trophy and the life-changing €1,146,500 first-place prize. The journey to the final table was anything but easy, as the largest Main Event field in EPT Prague’s history saw the best and brightest fall by the wayside over the past five thrilling days.

Dan Sepiol has taken his seat in the $10,400 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, one year after his life-changing victory in the historic event. The Indiana native had already produced impressive tournament results prior to December 2023 when he won $5.3 million in the largest guaranteed prize pool in poker history at the time ($40 million). PokerNews caught up with the defending champion on a Day 1a break at Wynn Las Vegas to find out how winning the major tournament has impacted his life in the past year.

Table Of Contents Poker has been just a pastime for Victor Avallone for two decades, but on Sunday, December 15, the stakes become life-changing. As the Bristol, Connecticut native gets ready to take his seat at the final table of the ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll Invitational during the World Poker Tour World Championships (WPTWC), it’s not just the $1,000,000 first-place prize on the line—it’s a chance to rewrite his family’s future.

Daniel Negreanu is in contention for his eighth gold bracelet and the second of the year. On Friday night at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise, the GGPoker Ambassador took a break from live play and instead took time to play chess, stock up on groceries – he was still steaming from paying room service $25 for four small tomatoes the day before – and to play some online poker from the comfort of his hotel bed.

Table Of Contents The death of musician, recording engineer and poker player Steve Albini hit the music world with a force like that of the incendiary device aimed at Earth pictured on Big Black’s 1986 debut album Atomizer. It may have hit one group of Chicago poker players the hardest. Albini, a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner who recorded landmark works by bands like Nirvana and Pixies and who The New York Timesdescribed as “one of the most admired, and most divisive, figures in rock,” was a key figure in a friend group that bonded, joked and supported one another over the poker table.

Table Of Contents Five years ago, Stephen Chidwick captured his maiden WSOP bracelet in the 2019 $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller. Today, he adorned his wrist with his second piece of gold after claiming victory in Event #8: $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise. The star-studded field attracted 122 entries, with only seven players returning on Day 3 at Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas to battle it out for the $1,357,080 up top.

Who says that begging a dealer to give you the card you need to win a hand doesn’t work? “Mike X” made an odd plea on Hustler Casino Live Thursday night during an $80,000 pot, promising to kiss the dealer if a four-outer on the river came through. And it did, and he held true to his word. The pot in question took place on the final hand of a six-hour livestream in a $100/$200 no-limit hold’em cash game, a memorable way to end the show.

Table Of Contents If you’re in Las Vegas and not at the Wynn for the World Poker Tour World Championships (WPTWC), what are you even doing? The WPT’s flagship festival, and one of December’s “Big Three,” has moved into fifth gear, with the WPT Prime Championship playing down to its final six players. Also adding to the buzz is the groundbreaking ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll, which kicked off at 10 a.

Table Of Contents Friday the thirteenth is known as the unluckiest date on the calendar, but for Mats Ullereng, it proved to be the exact opposite. Ullereng bested a field of 835 over three days of play to take home €265,560 in the €3,000 Mystery Bounty at the 2024 PokerStars European Tour Prague. The Norwegian grinder also pulled €2,000 in bounties from the chest at the Hilton Prague for a total score of €267,560.

On Thursday night, before the action kicked off in the highly-anticipated ClubWPT Gold $5,000,000 Freeroll, players were invited to special event. For the third year in a row, the WPT World Championship hosted an epic players party at AREA15. Complete with a world-class DJ, DJ LEFIH, and complimentary food and drink, the party proved an entertaining affair. There were also acrobats and dancers, retro arcade games, and an immersive event space known for its 360-degree projection mapping technology, creating an otherworldly, interactive environment.

The $5 million ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll kicked off Friday at Wynn Las Vegas with some fireworks that involved a former Halo champion. Aaron Elam’s nickname in the gaming world is, fittingly, “Ace,” and he used an ace to win a wild hand right off the bat to secure an early double up. ClubWPT Gold, the newest online poker platform from the World Poker Tour (WPT), is hosting the largest freeroll in poker history as part of the WPT World Championship festival.

Table Of Contents The WPT Prime Championship and Friday’s $5 million ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll will get most of the headlines at Wynn Las Vegas this week. But there are many other intriguing events taking place during the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship festival that are seeing some big name pros such as Joe McKeehen taking down events. McKeehen, the 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner, continues to crush it on the tournament circuit since becoming world champion nine years ago.

Table Of Contents The European Championship Of Poker (ECOP) Paris festival, scheduled for January 2-13, 2025, has been postponed until further notice. The postponement comes only 24 hours after PokerStars announced it was canceling the European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris festival that was scheduled for mid-February. The ECOP Paris 2025 postponement is due to the uncertainty surrounding Paris’ gaming landscape. Casinos were banned in Paris in 1919 but several “gaming circles” operated in the French capital for years.

Table Of Contents The massive field at the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship thinned dramatically after a whirlwind Day 2 at Wynn Las Vegas. Over the course of 18 action-packed levels in the Encore Ballroom, chips flew back and forth as the initial 1,206 survivors dwindled to a pack of just 99 competitors by the time play concluded around 2 a.m. local time on Friday, December 13. The top of the leaderboard saw significant shifts as the race for the $1,162,350 grand prize hit its halfway mark after the final card of the night was dealt.

Table Of Contents It has been a memorable 2024 on and off the felt for British grinder Matthew Davenport. The Macclesfield native’s incredible performances at the felt saw him become the National Poker League (NPL) and UK Poker League (UKPL) Player of the Year, earning him a £75,000 sponsorship package from Grosvenor Poker and $10,000 worth of 888poker LIVE packages. Those who frequented Grosvenor Poker and 888poker UKPL events this year will almost certainly have bumped into Davenport.

Table Of Contents The festive period is a time for giving, and 888poker is getting well and truly into the Christmas spirit by running its popular Holiday Sale promotion. Running from December 16-23, the Holiday Sale sees 17 of 888poker’s most popular multi-table tournaments (MTTs) have their buy-ins slashed in half yet sees those MTTs’ guarantees remain the same. Whether you are looking to save a few bucks playing your usual tournaments or are looking to take a shot at an MTT that’s usual outside of your bankroll’s constraints, the 888poker Holiday Sale could be just what you are looking for.

Table Of Contents Of all the accolades, special moments, and career-defining achievements that have already marked Alex Foxen as one of poker’s best players, Thursday night at the final table of the $100,000 Triton Main Event at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise stands out. Foxen emerged victorious over a field of 182 of the game’s biggest stars, defeating Portuguese online legend Joao Vieira in a short heads-up match to win his third World Series of Poker bracelet and second Triton Series event in as many months.

Table Of Contents Alex Scott, WPT Global President, told PokerNews in an interview during the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship festival that he’s ecstatic with his online poker site’s growth, but anticipates even bigger things to come in 2025. The online poker market is competitive with longtime established brands such as PokerStars and partypoker continuing to have success, and then of course there’s GGPoker, a newer online giant that recently purchased the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and has major ambassadors patched up such as Daniel Negreanu and Fedor Holz.

Table Of Contents On Thursday, the final table of the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise Event #6: $5,000 Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em returned to action. The tournament attracted 363 entrants and awarded a $1,815,000 prize pool, and when play resumed China’s Lei Yu, part of the Red Dragon Poker Team, was the short stack with just nine big blinds. Thanks to a pair of early doubles right out of the gate, Yu found himself in position to make a run, and after five hours of play he had all the chips!

Kristen Foxen, Jeanne David, and Starla Brodie were officially inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHOF) on Wednesday during a ceremony sponsored by PokerStars at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Brodie, a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, passed away in 2014. She was inducted as a pioneer in the game as she was one of the first women to have ever won an open WSOP event.

Table Of Contents Things are heating up at the World Poker Tour World Championships (WPTWC), with cards in the air for Day 2 of the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn, Las Vegas. The WPT Prime Championship, which smashed its $5 million guarantee, is set to pay out $9,379,900 to the 1,206 players who made it through to Day 2, with the eventual champion walking away with a $1,162,350. But that’s not the only seven-figure prize up for grabs this week.

What is a player to do when they love tournament poker, their mind allows them to compete against the best of the best, but their body doesn’t want to cooperate? That’s a question “Texas” Mike Moncek, who suffers from a heart condition, asked himself Wednesday night after playing in the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) ParadiseEvent #7: $100,000 Triton Main Event. The tournament, which is being live reported by PokerNews, attracted 182 entrants and offered up an $18,200,000 prize pool.

Table Of Contents Winning the first €20,000 High Roller of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague was already an impressive way to kick off the festival. Securing the €50,000 EPT Super High Roller title three days later was an even bigger feat. But claiming victory in the €25,000 Super High Roller Second Chance to lift a third High Roller trophy in a single week?! That seemed almost impossible. Yet, that’s precisely what Thomas Santerne achieved, as he was crowned the winner of Event #43 at Hilton Prague, earning €131,250.

Table Of Contents The award-winning WPT Prime has established itself as the premier mid-stakes entry point for the World Poker Tour. Since its debut in 2022, the WPT Prime series has captured the attention of a new demographic of grinders, offering world-class poker at accessible buy-ins. At the inaugural WPT World Championships, the WPT Prime Championship drew an impressive 5,430 entrants. Stephen Song claimed victory, taking home $712,650 from the $1,100 buy-in event.

Table Of Contents PokerStars and Club Barrière have announced the cancellation of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris 2025, which was originally scheduled to run from February 12-23 at Le Palais des Congrès. The cancellation is part of a broader uncertainty surrounding Paris’s gaming landscape. Recent developments indicate that gaming clubs in the city, which have operated under strict regulations since 2019, are at risk of closure by the end of the year.

Table Of Contents PokerStars Italy is about to get a whole lot busier thanks to the online poker giant starting to migrate players from Sisal onto its platform. Currently, Sisal’s online poker operations are on the iPoker Network, but they will be part of a Sisal-branded PokerStars Italy Platform. The migration is expected to be completed in time for the €12 million guaranteed Winter Series, which runs from December 25 through to January 21.

Table Of Contents Uncertainty looms over Paris’s table game and poker establishments following a meeting held this Monday at the Central Service for Racing and Gaming. The Judicial Police unit confirmed an administrative fear: the closure of gaming clubs by December 31. Since casinos were banned in Paris due to a 1919 law, “gaming circles” operated in the capital as associations for years. These were shut down in 2017, only to reopen two years later as “Clubs de Jeux,” or gaming clubs under strict regulation allowing only “table games”—excluding roulette and slot machines.

Table Of Contents The 888poker UK Poker League (UKPL) returns in 2025 following an impressive debut season. The first of six scheduled stops around the United Kingdom takes place at the Grosvenor Portsmouth Gunwharf between January 20-26. Portsmouth is a new addition to the UKPL schedule, and it promises to kick off the new season in style. The casino at Gunwharf Quays is always packed to the rafters whenever the Grosvenor 25/50, a £250 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event, runs there.