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.

The 2024 North American Poker Tour finished off their latest stop and series at Resorts World in Las Vegas. British pro Nick Marchington outlasted 895 runners and won the NAPT Las Vegas Main Event for $765,200. American pros Stephen Song and Sam Soverel took down high rollers. Song outlasted 60 players to win the $25K High Roller for $439,400. Soverel best a field of 170 runners and won the $10K High Roller for a score worth $385,750.

The Sahara Casino in Las Vegas will shut down its poker room on November 16. The valuable floor space will be renovated for a special new area for slot machines. The cost-cutting measure is another bottom line decision by executives who intend to maximize profits with slot degens instead of providing a safe space for poker-loving denizens and tourists.

American pro Matthew Wantman topped the leaderboard at the PGT PLO Series II hosted at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. He shipped Event #3 $5,100 PLO and cashed six times with four final table appearances. He banked $434,380 in winnings and finished with 453 leaderboard point. He edged out Jeremy Ausmus for the PGT PLO Series II Gold Cup, and held off Alex Foxen and Daniel Negreanu.

It's been a busy week for the World Series of Poker brand. The WSOP Online Domestic is underway and the WSOP Europe wrapped in RozVegas. Italy's Simone Andrian banked €1,300,000 for winning the 2024 WSOP Europe Main Event after he outlasted a field of 768 entrants. Over in the WSOP Online Domestic (for US players), Daniel Negreanu came close to narrowly winning bracelet #8 but Matthew 'The_founder' Davis took down Event #9 PLO 6-MAx. Other bracelet winners include pros Dylan Linde and Joshua Remitio.

The 2024 WSOP Europe continued at the King's Casino in RozVegas. Several rookie bracelet winners stepped into the spotlight for the first time, but local pro Martin Kabrhel took down WSOPE Event #12 €50,000 NLH Diamond High Roller for his third bracelet. Other bracelet winners over the last week included Patrick Bueno, Darus Beagoe, Amir Mozaffarian, Dennis Weiss, Alessandro Pichierri, and Ermanno Di Nicola.

Big tournament action returned in September. German pro Moritz Dietrich took down the $5,000 buy-in 2024 WSOP Online International Main Event at GG Poker for $4,021,012. Dietrich outlasted 6,146 entries in the record-setting field, and he also navigated a tough virtual final table that included Rui Ferreira, Isaac Baron, Diogo Coelho, and Benjamin Rolle. The WSOP Europe began and early bracelet winners included Poland's Przemyslaw Szymanski (WSOPE Event #1 €315 The Opener), Ukraine's Volodymyr Kokoulin (WSOPE #2 €550 PLO [8-Max]), and Brazil's Vivian Saliba (WSOPE Event #3 €2,000 PLO).

The 2024 Poker Masters, the latest stop on the PokerGo Tour, concluded on Thursday at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. American pro Jim Collopy won the coveted Purple Jacket that is awarded to first place on the leaderboard. Collopy did not win any specific events but reached the got hot at the right time and advance to the final table in four-straight events, or in half of the events in this year's Poker Masters. He was propelled to the top of the leaderboard with two second place finishes and one third-place finish.

American pro Stephen Song outlasted 1,975 entrants to win the €5,300 buy-in 2024 EPT Barcelona Main Event for a score worth over €1.29 million. Song survived a final table that included Marius-Catalin Pertea, David Coleman, Rania Nasreddine, Andrew Hulme, and Boris Kuzmanovic. Song and British pro Andrew Hulme cut a heads-up deal, but Song went on to win their heads-up joust and Hume banked €1.16 million.

Get ready for the triumphant return of the biggest and most prestigious online tournament series in the world. The 2024 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) starting this Sunday, September 8 exclusively on PokerStars. This annual festival of poker will run the remainder of the month and end on October 2. This year's WCOOP has a total of 379 tournaments spread across three tiers of buy-ins with guaranteed prize pools over $80 million. The Main Event World Championship in both NLHE and PLO is slated for September 29.

The Venetian Casino in Las Vegas recently opened their renovated poker room. With 50 tables, the Venetian is now home to the largest poker room in Las Vegas. The new space opened in early August and is now located in between the Venetian and Palazzo on the second floor of the Grand Canal Shops.

The latest poker movie is slated for release next month. "Dead Money" is directed by Luc Walpoth and stars Emile Hirsch and India Eisley. Hirsch portrays a professional poker in the middle of a downswing who gets caught up with a criminal element after a poker game gets robbed. "Dead Money" is slated for release on September 13 in theaters and via video on demand (VOD).

Caesars Entertainment will sell the intellectual property rights for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand to NSUS Group Inc. (owner of GGPoker) for $500 million. The WSOP will still remain in Las Vegas for the next 20 years and Caesars will still be able to use the WSOP branding for their brick-and-mortar rooms and WSOP Online.

Save the date! The 2024 WSOP Paradise will take place over two weeks on Paradise Island in the Bahamas starting December 6 and running through December 19. This second installment of the WSOP Paradise will be hosted at the newly renovated Atlantis Resort, and the $25,000 Super Main Event will have a $50 million guarantee.

Say hello to the newest champion. American Jonathan Tamayo outlasted 10,112 runners and navigated a tough final table to win the 2024 WSOP Main Event. Tamayo snagged his first bracelet and $10 million in cash. American Jordan Griff was the runner up and he banked $6 million for second place. Swedish pro Niklas Astedt was knocked out in third place, which paid out $4 million.

The 2024 WSOP Main Event final table began on Tuesday and only three players remain. Swedish pro Niklas 'Lena900' Astedt is the current chipleader with 223M followed by Americans Jonathan Tamayo (197M) and Jordan Griff (187M). On Wednesday, a new champion will be crowned in Las Vegas and the history will be made by one of the final three when the last player standing ships $10 million.

After eight tumultuous and exhilarating days of action, the 2024 WSOP Main Event has reached its final table. With nine to go, American Jordan Griff bagged the lead with 143.7M at the end of Day 8. The final table also includes American pro Brian Kim (94.6M), Swedish online shark Niklas 'Lena900' Astedt (94.2), Joe Serock (83.6M), Jason Sagle (67.3M), Boris Angelov (52.9M), Jonathan Tamayo (26.7M), Malo Latinois (25.5M), and Andres Gonzalez (18.3M). Action resumes on Tuesday in Las Vegas and a new champ will be crowned on Wednesday.

The 2024 WSOP Main Event continued with an exhilarating Day 7 that saw the field cut down from 59 to 18. France's Malo Latinois bagged the chip lead with 61.3M, but there are some big names still alive including Sweden's Niklas Astedt (50M), and Canadian pro Kristen Foxen (47.4M) who is also the last woman remaining at the final two tables. Six-time bracelet winner Brian Rast saw his epic Main Event run end in 24^th place.

After five days of action, the 2024 WSOP Main Event had only 160 players remaining. On Day 6, over a hundred players were knocked out and only 59 players survived. American Kevin Davis bagged the chip lead with 26.25M. The Top 5 also includes Shundan Xiao (23.9M), Malo Latinois (22.37M), Guillermo Sanchez Otero (31.97M), and Yake Wu (20.87M). Niklas Astedt, Kristen Foxen, Brian Rast, and Brandon Cantu are among the notables still remaining.