Gavin Smith passed away earlier in the year, which stunned the poker community. To help raise money for his children, the WSOP will be hosting a special charity tournament at the Rio Casino on May 28, on the eve of the start of the 2019 World Series of Poker.

After four days of action in Hollywood, Florida, the $3,500 buy-in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown played down from 1,360 to a final table. James Carroll leads the final six and Maria Ho is not far behind as second overall in chips. The WPT SHRPO final table will be delayed for six-plus weeks and played out on May 30 at the HyperX eSports Arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas. First place pays out $715K.

The Rio Casino in Las Vegas has been on the block for a while now. The latest rumor coming out of Sin City suggests that Virgin Trains bought the Rio and will turn the site into a train station for the express train running Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The previous rumor suggested that the Rio would be leveled to build a baseball stadium for a future expansion team. If either of these rumors are true, then the 50^th anniversary of the WSOP might be the last to be played out at the Rio Casino.

James Holzhauer set the single-game record on Jeopardy! this week with a score worth $110,914. Holzhauer, a professional sportsbettor from Las Vegas, plays an unorthodox style. He bounced around the board to effectively hunt Daily Doubles and went all-in to double up whenever he had the opportunity. Purists might loathe his aggressive hunting methods, but he's made quite the name for himself in a short time. Holzhauer banked over $244,000 in only four matches and he rocketed into the Top 10 in all-time Jeopardy! winnings.

Phil Hellmuth, who won more WSOP bracelets than anyone else in history, will be taking on Dusk till Dawn owner Rob Yong in a heads-up challenge. The two will be playing five heads-up battles with $100,000 on the line in each match. Yong is also a high-stakes player who thinks that the 15-time bracelet winner has no chance against him.

Several former NBA players, including Chris Bosh, helped raise $500,000 for the After-School All-Stars South Florida during special poker tournament over the weekend in Miami. The fifth annual event, All-In for All-Stars, included ex-Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning and UFC champ Suga Evans were among the attendees. Loni Harwood won the tournament.

Patrik Antonius, the greatest to player to hail from Finland, took down the PAPC €10,000 Championship Event, which happened to be named the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge (PAPC). The Olympic Park Casino in Tallin, Estonia hosted the event, which attracted 20 runners. Antonius outlasted them all to win €78,100 or approximately $88K USD. Antonus picked off Joni Jouhkimainen heads up for the title.

Jaime Staples, the newest partypoker Team Online member, released two videos with German pro BENCB who helped him review his $5,000 Big Game. Staples was hoping to raise his edge with BENCB, and he has been helping him take his training to the next level.

Asher Conniff outlasted a field of 607 runners at the $1,700 buy-in WSOP Circuit Main Event at Bally's Casino in Las Vegas. Conniff's came into the final table with the chip lead and he fended off all challengers. The final table also included Justin Young, Joshua Suyat, Stan Webb, William Wolf, James Fricker, Simon Deadman, and Dan Park. Conniff knocked out Hawaii's Josh Suyat for the title and circuit ring. Conniff banked $193,147 for the victory.

Martin Kabhrel won the 2019 WSOP International Circuit Rozvadov Main Event at the King's Casino in RozVegas. Kabhrel faded a field of 650 runners to win his fifth overall WSOP Circuit ring. He banked €190,000 for first place. Kabhrel loves playing at the King's Casino. He also won bracelets at the last two WSOP Europe events in RozVegas.

Uri Gilboa made history. The Israeli became the first player from his country to win a title on the European Poker Tour. Gilboa faded a field of 758 runners to win the EPT Sochi Main Event in Sochi, Russia. First place paid out 27,475,000 Rubles, or approximately $420,000 USD. Israel finished first and second place in Sochi. Zakhar Babaev took down second for nearly $250K USD.

Online poker returns to the Mountain State. It's only a matter of time before West Virginia residents can play legalized online poker within its mountainous borders. West Virginia became the fifth state in America to legalize online poker since Black Friday 2011. It has been a slow process brining online poker back to American poker players, but West Virginia took a bold step forward with the West Virginia Lottery Interactive Wagering Act.

The newest live poker craze, the action-inducing Short-Deck Hold'em, has now become a part of everyday life in the online poker world. partypoker is the latest online poker operator to introduce Shortdeck cash games to their platform. The 36-card deck variant of old-school Hold'em is insanely popular in Asia and has become a staple among high rollers all over the world. SHORTDECK games are up and running on partypoker now.

PokerStars is switching things up once again with the Sunday Million. This weekend, they are making the Sunday Million a Progressive Knockout (PKO) event. Players will be rewarded for busting other players and they can bank those bounties even if they bust out before the money. The PKO Sunday Milly kicks off on Sunday, March 31. All of the majors will be PKOs. Buckle up.

The partypoker LIVE MILLIONS South America played down to a champion at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bruno Volkmann headed into the final table with the chip lead. The other finalists also included Matas Cimbolas, Sam Gagnon, Ciao Hey, Martin Mathis, and Vlada Stojanovic. The final three made a deal and Martin Mathis emerged as the champion after defeating Bruno Volkmann in a lengthy heads-up battle. Mathis banked R$3,494,800 for his victory, or approximately $900K.

PokerStars released the dates for the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) with the first day of events kicking off on Sunday, May 12 and concluding on May 27. As per usual, there will be low, medium, and high versions of events. Cards go in the air for the Main Event set for Sunday, May 26. Stay tuned for more details.

Jaime Staples, one of the most popular poker streamers on the interwebs, will join his brother Matt Staples as a member of Team Online. partypoker assembled a mega-team of the top Twitch streamers in the world, which also includes super baller Jeff Gross. Jaime will officially become a part of the team on May 4, which is also Star Wars day.

Mark those calendars. April 14, 2019 will be the 13^th anniversary of the Sunday Million on PokerStars. The $215 buy-in event boasts a $10 million guaranteed prize pool, including (at least) a cool $1 million set aside to first place. Qualifiers underway for as little as $0.90.

Over the weekend, someone walked into the Bellagio poker room and pulled off a brazen Friday night robbery without anyone even noticing. The thief fled out the Bellagio's side entrance by the north valet and four Las Vegas cops confronted the suspect when he failed to carjack a vehicle in the valet. The robber pulled out a gun and shot at the police, who instantly returned fire and struck him. The suspect was taken to the hospital and later died from his wounds.

Vitalijs Zavorotnijs came into the final table of the 2019 WPT Barcelona with the chip lead and he held off the other five at the final table to take down the latest stop on the World Poker Tour. Zavorotnijs faded a field of 1,227 runners to win €600,000 or $678K USD. His final table also included Eric Sfez, Niko Koop, Boris Kolev, Jerry Odeen, and Alain Zeidan.