The first PokerGo Tour events of 2022 at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas are underway with their new series called Stairway to Millions. American pro Chance Kornuth won back-to-back events over the weekend. Stairway to Millions Event #2 $2,150 NL attracted 129 runners and Kornuth outlasted everyone to win $51,600. Kornuth continued his run good with another victory in Event #3 $4,200 NL. He was the last player standing out of 84 runners and banked $80,640.

To help celebrate 20 years of the World Poker Tour, the WPT added superstar DJ and EDM godfather Steve Aoki as the newest brand ambassador. Aoki, who is also a music producer, has been a poker fan and avid player for many years. He often played poker and online poker backstage and on the tour bus while performing all over the world. Aoki most recently played at the 2021 World Poker Tour Heads-Up Poker Championship, and he'll be a fixture on Season XX of the WPT.

If you missed the first heads-up match between the Poker Brat and durrrr, then you're in luck because Phil Hellmuth and Tom Dwan square off a second time for a rematch on High Stakes Duel III. They'll play on PokerGO at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas on January 26 with $400,000 at stake. Dwan won the first match last August and ended Hellmuth's seven-match win streak.

The first series of events on the 2022 PokerGoTour concluded over the weekend at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. Ali Imsirovic continued his domination on the PGT with a victory in Event #4 $25,000 NL High Roller for a $270,000 score plus juicy PGT leaderboard points. Alex Foxen won Event #3 $15,000 NL High Roller after he chopped heads up with Michael Wang.

The 2022 PokerGo Tour was only two days old before Thailand's Punnat Punsri etched his name in the history books with back-to-back victories at the Venetian Deepstack Poker Series in Las Vegas. Punsri won two $10K buy-in High Rollers at the Venetian and the first two events of the new season of the PGT. In the Event #1 on Wednesday, Punsri knocked out Erik Seidel heads-up and outlasted of 36 runners to win $118,037 and. In Event #2 on Thursday, Punsri was the last player standing out of 37 entrants and he banked $133,200.

The 2022 PokerGo Tour begins on Wednesday in Las Vegas with the second season of a pro tour catering to high rollers competing all year-round in high balla events to determine the 2022 PGT Player of the Year. The first series of 2022 PGT events occurs at the Venetian in Las Vegas and through this weekend with four rake-free high roller events including two $10K, one $15K, and a $25K event.

For a ninth-straight month starting in March 2021, Nevada casinos banked at least one billion in winnings including $1.32 billion in the month of November, which just missed breaking a record of $1.35 billion from July 2021. Nevada casinos are on pace to set a new record for total revenue as it closes in on $13 billion for 2021. Nevada sportsbooks also banked a record-setting $72 million off sportsbettors in November with the NFL and college football in full swing.

Phil Galfond is one of the greatest PLO players in the history of online poker, but he had to make a tough business decision regarding his dream website Run It Once. Galfond's online poker site -- Run It Once -- will cease global operations as of January 3, 2022 in order to focus on the US marketplace in the near future. Players have until April 3, 2022 to cash out, but this is a major step backward before Galfond and Run It Once can take a giant leap within the American marketplace.

Harry Reid was one of the most powerful politicians in America, but he was a rags to riches story as the son of a poor gold miner from southern Nevada who went on to become the state's youngest Lieutenant Governor, then went toe-to-toe with the mafia as the head of the Nevada Gaming Commission in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before he came a congressman and eventually a Senator. Reid served as the Senate Majority Leader in the President Obama administration until he retired from politics in 2017.

MGM surprised the gaming world and even Wall Street when they sold the Mirage two weeks ago to Hard Rock International for $1.1 billion in cash. The MGM consolidated all their casino properties to south end of Las Vegas Blvd, but rumors coming out of Sin City suggest that the suits at MGM are considering constructing a new Mirage somewhere south of Mandalay Bay.

It's not much of a surprise, but the PokerGo Tour officially announced their 2021 Player of the Year and Ali Imsirovic took it down after a sensational run in PokerGo events during the inaugural season of the PGT. Imsirovic won 14 different PGT events and cashed 34 times. He earned 4,364 in points to lock up first place. PokerGo Tour's sponsor Guaranteed Rate doled out a $200,000 bonus to Imsirovic.

Taylor Black shipped the last major event in North America for 2021 when he was the last player standing in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. The $10K event attracted 716 runners and a prize pool that fell short of $7 million. Black banked $1.24 million when he outlasted a tough final table that also included Vik Shegal, Gianluca Speranza, Lorenzo Lavis, Mohsin Charania, and David Kim.

Henry Orenstein is most known as a toy maker and creator of the Transformers, but in poker circles he's known as an innovator who invented the hole card cameras, which revolutionized televised poker. Henry Orenstein was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2008 because of his invention, which is one of 100 patents he held at the time of his death at age 98.

A total of 688 entrants at the King's Casino in Rozvadov forked over €10,350 and took a shot at the 2021 WSOP Europe Main Event. When the dust settled, Czech Republic's Josef Gulas rallied from behind and edged out France's Johan Guilbert heads-up to win €1,276,712 and the coveted Main Event bracelet. The final table also included Alexander Tkatschew, Athanasios Kidas, Stanislav Koleno, Aleksandar Trajkovski, Thomas Denie, Ilija Savevski, and Brian Kamphorst.

The 2021 WSOP Europe Main Event at the King's Casino in Rozvadov is down to the final table and only seven players remain in the hunt for the bracelet. Josef Gulas from the Czech Republic bagged the chip lead heading into the final day with 20.2M. Also still alive are Alexander Tkatschew, Johan Guilbert, Athanasios Kidas, Thomas Denie, Stanislav Koleno, and Aleksandar Trajkovski. First place pays out €1,276,712.

PokerStars postponed the EPT Prague due to health and safety protocols in the Czech Republic and they rescheduled the live event for March 5, 2022 at the Hilton Prague. PokerStars also decided to bring back the EPT Online with $17 million in guaranteed prize pools in 68 events including a $1.5M guarantee for the $5,200 buy-in EPT Main Event. It will run on PokerStars.com between December 8-19 with buy-ins as low as $5.50 and topping out with a $10K Sunday Super High Roller.

Julien Martini made history with his third bracelet win and second victory this week at the 2021 World Series of Poker Europe at the King's Casino in RozVegas. Martini was the last player standing out of 61 runners in Event #12 €2,000 8-Game, and he banked €33,910 and the bracelet. Earlier in the week, Martini shipped a bracelet in Event #8 €2,500 Short Deck with a comeback victory. With three WSOP bracelets, Martini holds the current lead among French players.

The World Poker Tour continued with a stop in south Florida for the 2021 WPT Seminole Rock N Roll Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. The WPT SRNRPO attracted 1,566 runners and a $5 million prize pool. Gediminas Uselis was the last player standing at the Seminole Hard Rock and he banked $778,490 for five days of work and outlasted a final table that included Clayton Maguire.

For almost 75 years, the Flamingo Casino on Las Vegas Blvd had been an important central figure in gambling history, but it's truly the end of the era when the poker room in the oldest-standing casino in Las Vegas will shut down forever. The Flamingo Poker Room, which was closed during the WSOP, will not reopen for business and it becomes the twelfth poker room to shutdown since March 2020.

It's another Manic Monday at the King's Casino in RozVegas where the WSOP Europe played down to two more champions. Kosovo's Edmond Jahjaga was the last player standing out of 2,478 runners in the 2021 WSOP Event #5 €550 Colossus and he banked €147,775 and his first bracelet. Meanwhile, French pro Julien Martini took down his second-career bracelet with a comeback victory in Event #8 €2,500 Short Deck and in the process.

Denmark's Maximilian Klostermeier won his second-career bracelet with a victory in 2021 WSOP Europe Event #7 €5,000 PLO at King's Casino in Rozvadov. He outlasted 184 runners and banked €204,010 for first place. Other bracelet winners in RozVegas included Antonello Ferraiuolo (Italy) in Event #1 €350 Opener, Bjorn Verbakel (Netherlands) in Event #2 €550 PLO, Emil Bise (Switzerland) in Event #3 €1,350 Mini Main Event, and Samuel Stranak (Slovakia) in Event #4 €2,000 PLO.