The poker world said goodbye to one of its last grizzled characters when Sam Grizzle passed away after a massive stroke this weekend. Grizzle, most known as Phil Hellmuth's nemesis, was one of those characters that flirted the line between pro and angle shooter. Grizzle won $1.3 million in tournaments, but won unknown amounts as a cash game player in Nevada.
After a lengthy shutdown, live poker returns to Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas Strip. Meanwhile, one lucky Pai Gow poker player struck it rich with a $133,037 jackpot win at Planet Hollywood. And over at the Wynn Casino, the poker room is temporarily shuttered and relocated after the Wynn/Encore reduced hours due to a serious drop off in gamblers.
The poker room at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey will finally reopen for the first time since being shuttered in March. The Borgata will resume action with 30 of its 77 tables on Wednesday, October 21. All players will be required to wear masks. Tables have plastic partitions and will only be seven-handed. The Borgata reopened in late July of this year, but the poker room was not ready yet.
It's time for the nitty gritty as Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu iron out the last few details of their long-awaited heads-up match. The two were hashing it out and smack talking via Twitter for the entire (poker) world to see. Doug Polk, a heads-up NL specialist is coming out of retirement to play Kid Poker, is a favorite over Negreanu. The match is set for November 1 and will be broadcast on PokerGO.
Phil Ivey and Poker King, a new online poker site in Asia, recently joined forces. Poker King recently spliced together a video on a new series called " A conversation with Phil Ivey. In this episode, Ivey invites his old friend Barry Greenstein to have a chat about life, growing old in poker, and mental health. Ivey also explains his new venture with Poker King and their innovative security system to identify cheaters.
PokerStars launches their latest series on Sunday, October 11 with their Bounty Builder Series. This series with 213 events of the Progressive KO variety, is specifically designed to help players expand their bankroll. Tournaments have buy-ins as low as $1.10 with over a dozen events with buy-ins under $22. The Bounty Builder has over $30 million in guaranteed prize pools and will run through October 25. There will be two Main Events with buy-in price points at $55 and $530.
Phil Galfond complimented Phil Hellmuth and his heads-up game and all hell broke loose. Galfond, arguably one of the greatest PLO cash game players and heads-up gurus, shared a quick assessment of Hellmuth's heads-up skills against Antonio Esfandiari in the High Stakes Duel. High-stakes regs were quick to share the prevailing sentiment that Hellmuth is not that good and that even if he was, the Poker Brat" table image and antics diminishes any true achievement at the tables.
The Bicycle Casino outside of Los Angeles reopened with "outdoor gaming". The Bike originally shut down in March during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. It reopened in June for a quick minute before Governor Newsom shut down all casinos during a spike. Almost four months later, the Bike reopened with 52 total outdoor tables, including 17 outdoor poker tables.
Two months after the initial confirmation that Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu would engage in a heads-up grudge match, the two finally picked a start date for their challenge lasting 25,000 hands. Negreanu and Polk will begin jousting on November 1 by two-tabling $200/$400 NL. The final details are still yet to get worked out, but at least their fans have almost a month to get fired up on the craziest heads-up battle of 2020.
William Hill had been running sportsbooks in Caesars Entertainment properties already, but now New Caesars acquired the British sports betting giant for the hefty sum of $3.7 million. William Hill's stock had been in play the last couple weeks on rampant speculation that they were the target of either Caesars or Apollo Management.
At first glance the numbers show overall revenue in the state of Nevada is down 22% from last summer, with Las Vegas Strip revenue down 39% in August. But considering we're still in the middle of a pandemic, the overall numbers are nothing but good news for casino operators in Nevada. With pro sports returning and the NBA playoffs in full swing, sportsbetting revenue spiked +65% in August.
PokerStars will roll out "Active Waiting List" with a specific mission to protect recreational players and protect the overall game by fostering a healthy ecosystem The folks at the red spade attempted to address sharks preying on weaker players in cash games and deter the act of bum-hunting by modifying the wait list. This new Active Waiting List is specifically created to induce more action and create a fair distribution of players joining new tables, while acting as a deterrent for pros who seek out and prey on bad players.
The 2020 World Poker Tour Online Championships have finally come to a conclusion on partypoker. The pro-friendly event ended with a $100K Super High Roller. Michael Addamo and partypoker ambassador Ike Haxton agreed on a heads-up chop, but Addamo walked away as the WPT Online Championships official champion, Addamo banked early $1.3 million for being the last high roller standing.
The 2020 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event Championship, aka WCOOP Event #72-H at PokerStars attracted 1,977 runners to the $10 million guaranteed prize pool event. The final table included... Teun 'tinnoemulder' Mulder, Andre "PTFisherman23" Marques, Robin 'robinho' Ylitalo, Tonio "prrrak4783" Roder, Michael 'munchenHB' Telker. The top three agreed to a chop that gave them roughly $1 million each. Portugal's Andre "PTFisherman23" Marques defeated Germany's Tonio "prrrak4783" Roder heads-up for the WCOOP Main Event title and $1.14 million in cash. Dutch pro Teun Mulder took third place.
Shaun Deeb, one of the greatest online poker player of all time and four-time WSOP bracelet winner, headed to Mexico to grind out the 2020 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) at PokerStars. Deeb contracted coronavirus and has been holed up in a hospital in Mexico, but he's still trying to grind out WCOOP tournaments, despite his health struggles.
Darvin Moon, the Luddite Logger from Maryland, made poker history when the amateur went all the way to the second-installment of the November Nine and reached the final table of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. Moon lost heads-up to Joe Cada but he cashed nearly $5.2 million off a modest $130 investment. Moon stepped out of the spotlight have his brief brush with fame. He passed away over the weekend at age 56 after complications from surgery.
The 2020 World Poker Tour Online Championship at PartyPoker continued with the Main Event. The $10,300 buy-in Main Event attracted 1,011 to the $10 million guaranteed prize pool. The UK's Phillip Mighall defeated Holland's Teun Mulder heads-up to win the Main Event for $1.7 million. Mulder earned $1.2 million for second place. PartyPoker Ambassador Dzmitry Urbanovich made the final table but finished in sixth place. Damian Salas busted in third place.
Love them or hate them but Phil Hellmuth and Tony G blowing up at each other is hysterical content. One of the many thing I miss about the poker boom, were the televised blow ups of our favorite poker villains. PokerStars released one of their clip videos of their favorite moments with Tony G needling Hellmuth during The Big Game.
Ever since Mike Sexton passed away last weekend, the tributes poured in all over the poker community including two good one from Houston Curtis and Padraig Parkinson. It's very rare when the community is unified by something and in this moment of tragedy, the poker world collectively mourned the passing of Mike Sexton as one of the true legends and one of the greatest ambassadors of the game.
The 2020 WSOP Online came to a close at GGPoker with its final bracelet events. Iran's Melika 'Melirazavii' Razavi snagged her first bracelet with a victory in Event #82 $1,050 Beat the Pros. Connor Drinan faded 899 players to win Event #83 $10K WSOP Super MILLION$ for a $1.4 million score. For the final bracelet event on the docket, Belgian pro Michael Gathy banked $272,504 for shipping Event #85 $500 Closer (Last Chance) and won his fourth-career bracelet.
It's been a wild, sizzling, sensational 24-hour period for Fedor Holz. The "retired" pro from Germany took down a WSOP Online $25K bracelet event at GGPoker on Sunday for a cool million and his second-career bling. Then on Monday at PokerStars, Holz heads-up chopped WCOOP Event #25-H Super Higher Roller for $515,293.
The poker world is mourning the loss of one of its greatest ambassadors and beloved players. Mike Sexton passed away at the age of 72 after a long battle with cancer. Sexton loved the game of poker and he sought to share his love of the game with people all over the world. Sexton won over $6.7 million in live tournaments and unknown millions in cash games, including a WSOP bracelet in 1989. Sexton also won an event on the WPT in 2016. Sexton is widely known as an announcer for the World Poke Tour. He inspired people to become better players, but more importantly Sexton inspired pros to become better people.
The 2020 WSOP Online Event #77 $5,000 NL Main Event started with 5,802 runners and played down to a champion on Saturday evening. Bulgaria's Stoyan Madanzhiev and Wenling Gao from China were heads-up for the bracelet and $3.9 million for first place. Madanzhiev knocked out Wenling Gao to win the Main Event and small mountain of cash. The record-setting prize pool had over $27.5 million with multiple players earning seven-figure payouts. Wenling Gao earned $2.75 million for second place.
GGPoker hosted a couple of People's Choice events to determine the last batch of bracelet winners at the 2020 WSOP Online. American Jeffrey Dobrin outlasted 2,408 runners to emerge victorious in WSOP Online Event #80 People's Choice Pro's Pick that was a $600 NL tournament. Dobrin won his first bracelet and $189,666. In WSOP Online Event #81, Italy's Nicolo 'Paquitooo' Molinelli binked the People's Choice Spin the Wheel event that ended up a $1,050 NL Bounty 6-Handed affair. Molinelli earned over $243,420 including bounties.
