The 2022 Poker Hall of Fame announced the ballot for induction this year, which included seven finalists from last year plus three new names. Kathy Liebert, Josh Arieh, and Brian Rast are the three additions to the ballot along with the late Layne Flack, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Isai Scheinberg, Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi, Mike Matusow, Matt Savage, Lon McEachern & Norman Chad. The induction ceremony is slated for July 10.

The 2022 World Series of Poker continued at Bally's and Paris in Las Vegas, and several notable pros added bracelets to their collection this week. Brian Hastings joined the six-timer club after shipping the $10K 2-7 Triple Draw, Adam Friedman won $10K Stud for his fifth bracelet, Jeremy Ausmus won $3K 6-Max NL for his fourth bracelet, and Robert Cowen binked the $50K PLO High Roller for a score worth nearly $1.4 million.

Dan Smith finally got off the schneid with his first bracelet victory in 2022 WSOP Event #6 $25,000 Heads-Up NL Championship when he banked $509,717 for besting a field of 64 players. Amnon Filippi outlasted a record-setting field of 1,068 players in Event #7 $1,500 Omaha 8 for a score worth $252,718 and his first bracelet. The first French player at the 2022 WSOP won a bracelet when Leo Soma outlasted 2,393 runners to win Event #14 $1,500 6-Handed NL for $456,889.

The 2022 World Series of Poker is underway at its new home at Bally's and Paris on the Strip, and two well-knownAmerican pros snagged bracelets to join an exclusive group of players with at least four bracelets. David Peters shipped WSOP Event #2 $100,000 High Roller Bounty to win $1,166,810 and a fourth bracelet. On Friday night, Scott Seiver outlasted 752 runners in Event #3 $2,500 Freezeout to win $320,059 and his fourth bracelet.

We have a new WPT champion and Chance Kornuth padded his bankroll with a major victory and his first WPT title. The $3,800 buy-in WPT Choctaw Main Event attracted 787 entrants, and the top 100 places earned a cut of the $2.75 million prize pool. The final table included Kornuth, Ray Qartomy, James Mackey, James Hundt, Steve Buckner, and Kristen Foxen. Kornuth picked off Buckner heads up to win $486,600.

Michigan and their 10 million residents, became the fourth state in the USA to be a part of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) along with Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. MSIGA is now four deep and could have more states join the pact with Pennsylvania on deck.

Phil Hellmuth defeated a fifth opponent on High Stakes Duel when Scott Seiver stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Tom Dwan in Round 4 of High Stakes Duel III. Hellmuth and Seiver both put up $400,000 for this round, and Hellmuth walked away with $800,000. The two will meet in a rematch sometime in the future worth $1.6 million.

Scott Seiver will fill in for Tom Dwan after Dwan pulled out of the fourth round of High Stakes Duel III against Phil Hellmuth. Dwan and Hellmuth were scheduled to play a rubber match on May 17 after they each won a round, but with Dwan out, Scott Seiver stepped in to battle Hellmuth with each player brining $400,000 to the table and the winner banking $800,000. Seiver and Hellmuth will joust tonight on PokerGo.

The 2022 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo Main Event in swanky Monaco attracted 1,073 runners with 326 re-entries for a total prize pool in excess of €5.2 million. Brazil's Marcelo Simoes Mesqueu defeated Morten Hvam from Denmark heads up for the title. Mesqueu became the first Brazilian to win the EPT Monte Carlo and he banked €939,840. Ramon Colillas, the Spanish Moneymaker, final tabled the event but busted in seventh place.

Get ready for another heavyweight bout between Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan. The made-for-streaming event -- High Stakes Duel III -- will have a fourth round and a third heads-up match between Hellmuth and Dwan with $800,000 on the line. In the summer of 2021, Dwan won their first meeting. In January of 2022, Hellmuth evened the score with a win. A rubber match is set for May 12 at the PokerGo Studios at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, and it will be aired exclusively on PokerGo.

Get ready for the 14^th version of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), which starts on May 8 and runs through June 1 with 318 events spread out on three-different buy-in levels in almost every format imaginable with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 to $25K. There will be a special Women's SCOOP event, along with the coveted SCOOP Main Event Championship. This year will have over $78.5 million in guaranteed prize pools with over $11.5 million in guarantees set aside for the Main Event at all three levels of Low, Medium, and High.

It was another highly success event at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida with the 2022 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. The latest stop on the World Poker Tour attracted 2,100 players for the $3,500 buy-in event with a prize pool in excess of $6.4 million. Darren Elias bagged the chip lead heading into the final table and he's eying a fifth WPT title and the first-place prize worth $1 million. Also still left in the hunt are Viet Vo, Mark Davis, Marcos Exterkotter, Michael Laufer, and Andrew Barfield. The final table resumes play on May 25 in Las Vegas.

It's been a busy day at PokerStars headquarters for live events. There's new dates for the EPT Barcelona in late August and the EPT Prague in December. In addition, the PCA returns after a hiatus at a new venue at Baha Mar in the Bahamas. The second-ever PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) and its $25K buy-in will also take place during the PCA for a fun two-week festival in the Caribbean starting January 22, 2023.

Sean Winter won US Poker Open Championship Event #11 $25K NL and Event #12 $50K NL at the Aria to secure the 2022 USPO Championship and win the prestigious golden eagle trophy. Winter needed to win the final $50K event in order to claim the championship, and he outlasted 42 runners and held off Masashi Oya heads up to win Event #12 for a $756K score. He also won a $50K bonus for topping the leaderboard.

The 2022 US Poker Open is underway at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas for the latest stop on the PokerGo Tour. The first week of action saw five different winners in the first six events including Shannon Shorr, Justin Young, Adam Hendrix, Jeremy Ausmus, and Tamon Nakamura from Japan. Nakamura won Event #4 $10,000 Big Bet Mix and Event #6 $15,000 8-Game to take over first place in the USPO leaderboard.

A clip for an upcoming documentary on the rise and fall of New York City underground poker scene made the rounds with “The History of New York Poker in 6 Minutes” on YouTube. If you're a fan of 'Rounders', then you're aware that poker rooms in the cult classic film were based on real locations around NYC that flourished during the height of the poker boom in the mid-2000s.

PokerStars will host the 2022 EPT Monte Carlo once again at the swanky Monte-Carlo Casino in Monaco. The festivies begin April 28 and run through May 7, which includes the €5,300 Main Event and a couple of High Rollers including the €100,000 Super High Roller. PokerStars also announced that regional tours will return next month. Also, looks like the EPT Sochi will not run in March and postponed until a later date due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The 2022 World Series of Poker moves to the Las Vegas Strip this summer with 88 live bracelet events taking place at the Paris and the new Horseshoe (aka old Bally's). The 2022 WSOP begins May 31 and runs to July 20. The marquee Main Event begins July 3. There will not be a COVID-19 vaccination requirement this summer, so everyone is welcome.

Match Poker Online is trying to transform poker into sporting competition and an Olympic sport. It's a long and difficult process, but the folks at International Federation of Match Poker are up for the task. In the meantime, Match Poker Online launched their new app on Feb. 14, and players participate in Battle Royale mode and compete in upcoming seasons to determine who's the premier poker players in the world.