ESPN will no longer broadcast the World Series of Poker. The 2021 WSOP moves to CBS Sports, which is available via Paramount+ streaming service. The WSOP and CBS Sports agreed to a multi-year partnership. ESPN's coverage of the WSOP was an integral part of the online poker boom in the early 2000s when they aired the epic run by Chris Moneymaker at the 2003 WSOP.

It's been a long time coming, but the Rio Casino and Resort in Las Vegas will return to full operations. The Rio, also the home for the iconic World Series of Poker, re-opened in December but the hotel and resort was only open to the public on the weekends. The Rio resumes 24/7 operations including the return of bars and restaurants and weekday reservations. The 2021 WSOP will take place this fall at the Rio's convention center.

Ukraine's Pavel Veksler faded a field of 1,880 runners to take down the 2021 Iish Poker Open Main Event, which was hosted at partypoker for a second year in a row due to the pandemic. partypoker pros Patrick Leonard and Matthew Staples went deep, but missed the final table. Pavel Veksler and Bulgaria's Stoyan Obreshkov cut a deal heads-up, but Obreshkov busted in second place and Veksler won the title and a first-place prize worth €266K.

London banker Talal 'raidalot' Shakerchi and high-stakes poker player is also one heck of an online poker player. Playing on PokerStars as raidalot, Shakerchi binked his fifth SCOOP title with a victory in 2021 SCOOP Event $2,100 HORSE. Shakerchi won a SCOOP in back-to-back years after he won his fourth SCOOP last spring. He's now a member of the 5 SCOOP Club with Jason Mercier, Luke Schwartz, and Shaun Deeb.

PokerStars expanded their growing list of PokerStars Ambassadors by adding three well-known pros and three popular Twitch streamers. Sam Grafton, Andre Coimbra, and Parker 'tonkaaaaP' Talbot are the pros that are now the latest PokerStars Ambassadors. In addition, Twitch streamers Lasse ‘WisternJL' Jagd Lauritsen from Denmark, and Keith 'AccidentalGrenade' Becker and Mark 'naigo1' Foresta from America also become the next generation of PokerStars Ambassadors.

The 2021 World Series of Poker will run a full slate of live bracelet events starting this fall. The 2021 WSOP returns to the Rio Casino in Las Vegas starting September 30 and running through November 23. The $10,000 buy-in WSOP Main Event begins with four flights starting November 4. The WSOP Online series also returns this summer for both US and international players. Plus, the 2021 WSOP Europe returns to the King's Casino in Roz Vegas between November 19 and December 8.

It's been a wild ride following the big to buy the World Poker Tour. A raising war broke out to buy the WPT between Element Partners and Bally's. In one corner, there's the unknown entities making up Element and their current bid is up to $105 million. In the other corner, Bally's is well-known gambling brand that operates casinos and racetracks across America. Bally's previously bid $90 million, but now they must decide if they want to make a higher bid for the WPT.

Get ready for the largest Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) in PokerStars history. Starting Sunday, April 4 and running through April 28, PokerStars will host 102 events for 2021 SCOOP and a total of 306 tournaments ranging from $2.20 to $25,000. The 2021 SCOOP has a whopping $100 million in guaranteed prize pools, which makes it the largest guaranteed COOP in history. The $10,300 buy-in Main Event High No-Limit and $5,200 Main Event Medium NL both have a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.

PokerStars made a tough decision to pull the plug on the second installment of the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship (PSPC), which was supposed to take place at the end of the summer of 2020, but never came to fruition due to the pandemic. PokerStars live events were shuttered in 2020, but the red spade hoped the PSPC could return in 2021, but the logistics have made it a daunting task, so they'll focus the PSPC returning in 2021.

Actor George Segal passed away after complications from heart surgery at the age of 87. The comedic actor was nominated for an Oscar for his work in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Poker players will recognize Segal as "Bill" from "California Split", a buddy film directed by Robert Altman in 1974 about a pair of degen gamblers from Los Angeles that also featured Elliot Gould.

Canada's Vanessa 'Niffller' Kade faded a field of 69,876 runners to win PokerStars Sunday Million special 15^th Anniversary Party with $12.5 million in guaranteed prizes and $1.5 million set aside to first place. Kade defeated Poland's Talibenes heads-up for the title and sick score. Talibenes banked a cool million as the runner-up. This special Sunday Milly final table included players from Russia, Bulgaria, Norway, Netherlands, Romania, Poland, and Canada.

Mark your calendars, or set your phone alarm. The second installment of High Stakes Duel will take place exclusively on PokerGo for the highly-anticipated heads-up battle between Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Love them, or hate them... this heads-up joust will be must-see TV because the poker world cannot wait to see a Hellmuthian meltdown at the hands of Kid Poker. PokerCentral will air the first part of High Stakes Duel II: Hellmuth vs Negreanu for free on PokerGo starting March 31.

Two weeks ago, news broke that Bally's Corporation put in a last-second bid to acquire the World Poker Tour from Allied eSports Entertainment for $90 million. Allied eSports, who still own the WPT, agreed to sell the WPT to investment group Element Partners for $78 million back in January. Element has until Friday to make a higher bid, otherwise Bally's will become the new owner of the WPT.

PokerStars will host a special event this upcoming Sunday aka March 21 to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of their flagship event otherwise known as the Sunday Million. PokerStars will run a $12.5 million guaranteed prize pool and celebration as the Sunday Milly turns 15-years old. Get in on the action with qualifiers and satellite running as we speak, including a special $4 Sunday Million Spin and Go.

After being delayed for a year due to the pandemic, the 2020 WPT Gardens Poker Championship finally played down to a final table. The event, which started in January 2020, attracted 257 runners and Markus Gonsalves took down the heavily-delayed final table. He outlasted a final table that included Chance Kornuth, Tuan Phan, Jonathan Cohen, Straton Wilhelm, and WPT Venetian champ Qing Liu.

The World Poker Tour continued with live action for the 2021 WPT Venetian in Las Vegs, which attracted 937 runners and a prize pool worth $4.4 million. Joe McKeehen headlined a final table that also included Roland Rokita, Jack Hardcastle, Kou Vang, Qing Liu, and Trace Henderson. Qing Liu and Joe McKeehen got heads-up, but Liu rallied from behind to knock out McKeehen in second place. Liu banked $752,880 and won his first WPT title.

The 2021 Super MILLION$ Main Event on GGPoker had a $10 million guarantee and it attracted only 976 runners during their high roller series. Ben Ward took down the Main Event for a $1.2 million score and e outlasted a final table that also included Alexandros Kolonias, Javier Gomez, Sebastian Gaehl, Shankar Pllai, Kramsimir Yankov, Thomas Muehloecker, Wei Zhao and Benjamin Chalot.

The 2021 partypoker MILLIONS Online Main Event crowned a champion. The $5,300 buy-in Main Event attracted 1,084 players and a prize pool in excess of $5.4 million. Endrit Geci and Francisco Correia chopped with Geci winning their heads-up battle and $774,838 in cash. Canadian pro Daniel Dvoress finished in third place and Polish pro Dzmitry Urbanovich finished in fourth place.

The World Poker Tour released its final table schedule for four total events, including three from last season that were postponed due to the pandemic. Starting March 10, the PokerGo Studios at the Aria will host the filming of final tables for the conclusion of the 2020 WPT Gardens Poker Championship, 2020 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open, 2020 WPT LA Poker Classic, and 2021 WPT SHR Poker Showdown.

It's almost time to pick a side between Kid Poker and the Poker Brat. The next installment of High Stakes Duel will be streamed on PokerGo and feature Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth. The two will meet in a live venue at the Aria at PokerGo studios. In other high-stakes heads-up action, Fedor Holz and Wiktor 'Limitless' Malinowski, the former Polish pro handball player, will also slug it out at nosebleed stakes.

Get ready for the return of the World Series of Poker on ESPN. The WSOP returns with the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event to be aired on ESPN 2 starting at 8pm ET, or 5pm Vegas time. The broadcast includes action from the Rio Casino in Las Vega from both the WSOP Main Event final table and the ensuing heads-up match between the winner of the domestic final table and international final table. ESPN's audience will get to see how Argentina's Damien Salas won the 2020 WSOP Main Event bracelet.