Russia's Aleksandr Shevliakov won an online qualifier via PokerStars and parlayed his €530 satellite seat into €1,000,000 when he won the 2025 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. The €5,300 buy-in Main Event was the second-largest field in history with 1,195 total entries. The prize pool was a smidge under €5.8 million with a cool million set aside for the champion. Shevliakov defeated Khossein Kokhestani heads-up for the title. The final table also included Boris Angelov, Enrico Coppola, Mariusz Golinski, and Jamil Wakil.

The World Series of Poker released the 2025 WSOP Online schedule with 30 bracelets up for grabs beginning May 31 through July 15. Pennsylvania became the fourth state to joined the shred liquidity pact, so the residents of the Keystone State can complete with residents of Nevada, New Jersey, and Michigan for bracelets at WSOP Online. Five events, including four High Rollers, will begin online with the final table hosted live at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. There's also $5.5 million in guaranteed prize pools with buy-ins starting as low as $250.

The 2025 US Poker Open concluded at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. Shannon Shorr won two events with victories in Event #5 $10,100 NLH and Event #8 $25,200 NLH to lock up the coveted golden eagle trophy awarded to the player of the series. Shorr edged out Matthew Wantman, who won Event #4 $10,100 NLH, and final tabled three events. Other winners in the USPO high roller series included Kristen Foxen, Kazuomi Furuse, Michael Rossitto, Brandon Wilson, and Alex Foxen.

The 2025 PGT PLO Series concluded at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. After 11 events, American pro Jesse Lonis earned Player of the Series Champion honors with the top spot on the leaderboard. Lonis cashed in five events and shipped Event #9 $15,100 PLO for a $204,750 score, and held off Alex Foxen to earn the PLO series overall title. Some of the more recent winners included Christopher Costa, Dylan Smith, Bryce Yockey, Jim Collopy, and Zachary Schwartz.

The 2025 PGT PLO Series is underway at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. The latest high-roller PLO series features 11 events and four are in the books. Ky "SuitedSuperman" Nguyen shipped Event #1 $5,100 PLO. In the second one, Blly Tarango took down Event #2 $5,100 PLO Progressive Bounty. The third one made history when Daniel Negreanu set a record with his 11^th PGT title after he binked Event #3 $5,100 PLO. The latest winner is Chino Rheem after he won Event #4 $10,100 PLO for a $295,000 score.

The 2025 Triton high roller series in Jeju, South Korea continued. Some winners over the last week included Bryn Kenny, Sean Winter, Joao Vieira, Punnat Punsri, Gergo Nagy, Tom-Aksel Bedell, Wenjie Huang, Mario Mosbock, and Anatoly Filatov. Joao Vieira shipped Event #9 $150,000 NLH Eight Max for a hefty $4.6 million score when he faded 128 runners. Wenjie Huang banked $5.55 million when he took down Event #11 $100,000 NLH Main Event, which attracted 285 entrants. Thai pro Punsri snagged nearly $2.6 million for winning Event #12 $125,000 No-Limit Hold'em Seven Max.

American pro Chino Rheem won his second PGT Mixed Games series championship and secured the top spot on the leaderboard for the 2025 PGT Mixed Games series with 384 points. Rheem won Event #4 $10,200 Eight Game Mix and cashed three times for $348,500. He was awarded a PGT Gold Cup and a $10,000 PGT Passport as the series champion. Other winners in this seven-event series included Daniel Negreanu, James Obst, Nicolas Milgrom, Ryan Miller, Maxx Coleman, and Adam Friedman.

The 2025 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, South Korea is in full swing at the Landing Casino with an 18-day festival. The first event set a new record with 379 runners, and Zhao Hongjun banked $818,000 for his victory in Event #1 $15,000 NLH. Foo Wai snagged $1.35 million for his win in Event #2 $20,000 NLH. Amrerican pro Jeremy Ausmus shipped Event #3 $25,000 NLH, which was another record-setting affair with 391 runners, and he banked almost $1.9 million. Ramin Hajiyev was the last player standing in Event #5 $30,000 NLH, and he won over $1.5 million for outlasting a field of 252 entries.

The World Series of Poker released their schedule for the 2025 WSOP this week. Phil Hellmuth, the 1989 WSOP Main Event Champion and all-time bracelet leader with 17, said he will not play in this year's WSOP Main Event. Hellmuth released a video explaining why he's not playing because he lacks the stamina at 60 years old to play the Main Event due to its grueling schedule and long days.

The 2025 World Series of Poker will begin on May 27 and run through July 16 at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas on the Strip. The 2025 WSOP will have 100 bracelet events kicking off with Event #1 Mystery Millions with at least $1 million set aside to first place and a $1 million top bounty. The 2025 WSOP Main Event will begin on July 2 with Day 1A and a new champion will be crowned on July 16.

Ten years have almost passed since the release of "Mississippi Grind" with Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds. The 2015 film directed by Anna Bolden and Ryan Fleck holds up as one of the better poker and gambling films. Very few films have come out since "Rounders" that can match the gritty nature of the gambling world, but "Mississippi Grind" came the closest.

Phil Ruffin purchased the Circus Circus Casino in 2019 and six years later he's looking to flip it for more nearly six times the price. Ruffin's asking price is $5 billion for Circus Circus and the adjacent property that includes over 100 aces in the North end of the Las Vegas Strip. Whomever buys the property will certainly implode Circus Circus Casino and the area is rumored to be redevloped as a mega-resort casino, a new NBA arena, or a film studio.

Phil Hellmuth has a new gaming sponsor. The 17-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and well-known 'Poker Brat' joins BetRivers as their newest brand ambassador. Hellmuth will take on an expanded role in the BetRivers Network which also includes an uptick in appearances on Poker Night in America. He will also be pitching their new online poker platform, which is currently live in Pennsylvania, and has plans to expand to other states. Hellmuth will attend Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans as one of his first major public appearances for BetRivers.

The first series of the new calendar year finish in Las Vegas at the Aria Casino with the 2025 PGT Last Chance, which also had potential implications for the upcoming $1,000,000 Championship Freeroll. Shannon Shorr and Brandon Wilson each won two events, while Nick Schulman and Martin Zamani both shipped one event. Along the way, Zamani also won the largest $10K event in PGT history. Shorr finished ahead of Wilson in the leaderboard standings to clinch a Dream Seat in the $1 million Championship.

Some of the most fun I've ever had playing poker occurred in a home game setting. If you participate in a regular poker night with friends and family, consider yourself lucky because it's not easy to host and maintain a regular game. If you're looking to start a home game or struggling to keep one running smoothly, we compiled 10 tips and ideas on how to host a poker night that's well organized, consistent, and most of all... tons of fun!

Tournament action continues at the Alantis Resort in the Bahamas and two well-known high rollers added bracelets to their collection! Alex Foxen shipped 2024 WSOP Paradise Event #7 $100,000 Triton Main Event for $3,850,000. Meawhile, Stephen Chidwick took down Event #8 $50,000 PLO Championship for a score worth $1,357,080. Other bracelet winners in the Bahamas include Mike Gorodinsky, Lei Yu, Eric Wasserson, Lautaro Guerra, Jeffrey Hakim, and Alejandro Lococo.

Rapper Alejandro 'Papo MC' Lococo from Argentina shipped the largest single prize pool in 2024 with a staggering $12.07 million score in the Bahamas when he took down 2024 WSOP Paradise Event #2 $500,000 Triton Million Invitational. Lococo outlasted 96 runners and a difficult final table that included Ben Heath, Dan Dvoress, Alex Foxen, Sinan Unlu, Elias Talvitie, Aleksejs Ponakovs, and Sosia Jiang. Heath finished in second place yet still banked $8.16 million.

The fifth installment of High Stakes Duel is in the books, and Jared Bleznick won three straight matches against Patrik Antonius in Las Vegas to win $700,000 in heads-up battles featuring both NLH and PLO. Bleznick won Round 1 for $100,000, and won again in Round 2 for $200,000 stakes, and completed a sweep in Round 3 worth $400,000. Antonious declined a rematch, so Bleznick was declared the ultimate winner of High Stakes Duel 5.

In the latest bit of sponsorship news, PokerStars announced that they entered a relationship with the Philadelphia Flyers. PokerStars is the first online poker site to work out a deal with the Flyers, so this is a historic move. PokerStars now has three sponsorships with NHL teams as an official sponsor of the Flyers, the Detroit Red Wings, and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Everyone would love to see a sequel to Rounders, but for now a second poker movie is not close to happening. That didn't stop us from brainstorming ideas for Rounders 2 that includes crypto scams, dogfighting, Russian cam girls, Ukrainian arm dealers, Hollywood home games, a ‘movie within a movie', online poker cheating scandals, multi-million-dollar prop bets, and Joey Knish's estranged daughter known as Lola Challah.