More than two years after they first met online, a ClubWPT group of friends dubbed the “Stream Team” finally gathered together in Las Vegas at the luxurious Wynn for an evening of delicious bar-be-que and poker.

The fun evening for the 50 members of the group occurred two days before the start of the historic WPT World Championship, the first ever $15 million guaranteed live poker tournament. On Monday, the $10,400 buy in event will begin at Wynn, and the field is expected to crack 1,700 entrants, perhaps even hitting 2,000, an unthinkable amount for such an expensive tournament.

Friends Gather in Las Vegas

During Day 1c of the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn, which had an impressive 5,430 entries ($5.2 million prize pool), Stream Team members, and a few plus-one’s, congregated in the Brahms reception room for a tasty meal along with World Poker Tour commentators Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst, Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, WPT President and CEO Adam Pliska, and the talented presenter Lynn Gilmartin. Even Steve Lipscomb, the WPT’s founder back in 2002, stopped by.

What is the Stream Team? Back in March 2020 when the pandemic first struck, poker rooms across the world were closed. The World Poker Tour, along with every other tournament, was forced to cancel all events for months. But the WPT crew found a way during that time to keep the game going.

Gilmartin, Savage, and Dunst would stream ClubWPT action during the pandemic. It was during these streams when the now appropriately named Stream Team first began chatting. They often congregate in a Discord group to discuss poker, life, and the WPT.

Over the past couple of years, the group has bonded online and formed friendships that will last a lifetime. But until Saturday, they’d never met in person.

Check out the WPT Hub on PokerNews here!

The Stream Team comes from all walks of life — mostly in the United States, although a few members live in Canada. There are men and women of various ages, and they all have different occupations. Some are married and have kids, others are single. Some are retired, others are early in their careers. But there’s one thing they all have in common that will always keep them bonded — a passion for poker.

Most of the 50 members and invited guests traveled on their own dime to Las Vegas just to hangout with their fellow Stream Teamers. A few, such as Jason “Kabby” Kabakoff, who moved to Henderson (Las Vegas area) from Dallas, Texas a year ago, only had to drive across town.

Also in attendance was the ClubWPT Player of the Year, Mark “Symo4709” Symons, who hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He spoke with the WPT during the BBQ and said he beat out thousands of players to win the award.

“I started playing poker about two years ago during the pandemic,” Symons said. “I had a work-from-home job and it was not very interesting, and so I tuned in to some of the old episodes and I saw Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton talking about how different hands are played out, and Tony Dunst breaking down the ‘Raw Deal.’

For his accomplishment, Symons won a free seat into the WPT World Championship, which runs Dec. 12-20.

Surprise Revealed

For two years, Al Kalieta and Lynne Christiensen played in Stream Team private games in separate rooms from the same home in Long Island, New York. They’re engaged, and no one else in the group even knew about it until the couple broke the news this weekend.

“She’d play on the first floor, and I’d go upstairs and play,” Kalieta explained.

The couple has an interesting story to tell, which they did to PokerNews Saturday night. According to Kalieta, the two met on the Match.com dating site 18 years ago. But their relationship only lasted for about two years.

A couple years ago, he signed up for the Bumble app and had recognized someone on there — it was his ex, Lynne Christiensen.

“I got in touch with her, she responded and we’ve been together ever since,” he said.

The New York couple rekindled their romance and plans to one day tie the knot, although they don’t have a wedding date set. As for who the better poker player is in the relationship, they both had similar answers, although Kalieta wisely chose his significant other.

“I’ve been playing longer, but I’m going to tell you that she’s the better one,” Kalieta said with a bit of hesitation.

Christiensen, on the other hand, took no time whatsoever to defiantly answer, “I am.” So that settles it.

Let’s Play Some Poker

The Stream Team has played hundreds of online games together for nearly three years now. On Saturday, they finally had an opportunity to sit next to each other face-to-face in a live poker room to play some cards, and they got to take a shot against World Poker Tour familiar faces such as Gilmartin, Dunst, and Savage.

Each player bought in for $120 with the first-place winner taking home $1,500. The first to exit was Dunst, who was sent packing by Christiensen, perhaps proving her claim that she’s a better poker player than her significant other.

At the end of the night, Patrick Grimm was the last player standing, beating out Terry St. Peter heads up to take it down. Fun was had by all, even those who didn’t reach the money.

View the Full Photo Gallery from the Stream Team’s Evening at Wynn

Did You Know the World Poker Tour is Online?

The launch of WPT Global means that poker players around the world now have the chance to win their way to WPT events, win prizes and enjoy exciting games such as Poker Flips. As one of the world’s largest cash game poker networks, WPT Global is available in over 50 countries and territories around the world.

WPT Global offers a large deposit match bonus: 100% on deposits up to $1,200 (using any payment method). New players depositing a minimum of $20 automatically receive this match bonus which is unlocked in $5 increments (credited straight to the cashier) for every $20 of rake contribution.

Both tournaments and cash games count towards bonus unlocking; new players have 90 days from the date of first deposit to unlock and claim their full bonus amount.

Listen to more about the WPT World Championship on the new PokerNews Podcast!

_{*Images courtesy of WPT.}

In November, Venetian Las Vegas played host to the Deepstack Extravaganza IV, a 48-event series that catered to a combined 6,321 entries and awarded $4,298,123 in prize money.

Among those to capture titles during the series were Nghia Nguyen (Event #1: $1,100 MPST for $90,215), Connor Stuewe (Event #5: $1,600 MSPT for $156,520), Benjamin McKevitt (Event #20: $500 NLH Epic Stack for $17,078), Michael Helander (Event #22: $400 NLH Ultimate Stack for $29,100), Jeffrey Fuhr (Event #37: $500 NLH Epic Stack for $14,053), and Thomas Heally (Event #48: $500 NLH Epic Stack for $9,997).

Here’s a look at some of the bigger winners from the recently-completed Deepstack Extravaganza IV.

Check out the Venetian Poker Room Review on PokerNews here!

John Riordan Scores $176K in Card Player Poker Tour

In mid-November, the $2,500 Card Player Poker Tour $2,500 Main Event attracted 363 runners, which offered up an $816,750 prize pool to the top 46 finishers. It marked the 11th time the CPPT held an event at Venetian dating back to 2013.

Some familiar names to cash were Stanley Lee (11th – $11,476), James Romero (12th – $9,334), Chance Kornuth (20th – $6,576), Jeremy Ausmus (31st – $5,701), and Ryan Riess (40th – $5,430). Also, at the final table were the Moreno Brothers – Johnnie and Andrew. The former finished in third place for $84,416 while the latter placed sixth for $32,026.

In the final hand of the tournament, Carl Oman got his chips all in on the turn with a pair and straight draw but was way behind the flopped set of fives of John Riordan. The river was a brick and Riordan captured his eighth career title and moved up to just shy of $2 million in career earnings according to the Hendon Mob.

“I wasn’t expecting much coming into the final table, coming in sixth of nine,” Riordan told Card Player after the win. “But I knew if some good things happened it was anybody’s tournament. I’m very happy and fortunate that it turned out to be mine.”

He continued: “The biggest turning point came on [day 2], where I had the starting stack all day long. Then I went from 100,000 to 2,000,000 in two hours, just winning everything, making tons of hands. It was very fun.”

Card Player Poker Tour Final Table Results

More Venetian Success for Kfir Nahum

At the end of November, Event #41: $600 NLH Ultimate Stack attracted 373 entries and offered up a $188,365 prize pool to the top 42 finishers. Among those to walk away with a cash were Shawn Daniels (13th – $2,589), Ben Palmer (19th – $1,918), Brian Sung (26th – $1,438), Aaron Massey (30th – $1,246), Lokesh Garg (39th – $1,150), and Elvis Toomas (42nd – $1,150).

Coming out the victor was Kfir Nahum, who defeated Patrick Truong in heads-up play to deal him his second runner-up finish of the series. Nahum is no stranger to success at Venetian; in fact, he’s claimed several titles including winning the 2018 MSPT $1,100 Poker Bowl II for $108,410.

Event #41 Final Table Results

Taylor Pollard Wins Ultimate Bounty

Back on November 12, Event #16: $800 NLH Ultimate Bounty saw 422 entrants compete, which fell short of the $300K GTD. As such, Venetian added $8,820, and the $300,000 prize pool was paid out to the top 54 finishers including Mitch Garshofsky (12th – $1,615), Jeremy Pekarek (14th – $1,340), Nipun Java (17th – $1,340), Allyn Shulman (20th – $1,136), and Jim Collopy (24th – $1,136).

The final table was a stacked affair, and in the end, it was Taylor Pollard of Sacramento, California defeating Patrick Truong in heads-up play to claim the title and $30,383 top prize.

Event #16 Final Table Results

What’s Up Next?

The DeepStack Extravaganza NYE is already underway and will run through January 8, 2023. The series is comprised of 58 events – including the final MSPT event of the season from Dec. 28-30 – and offers more than $2.2 million in guaranteed tournament prize pools.

Click here to see the DeepStack Extravaganza NYE schedule!

The third high-stakes contest of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague festival has come to a conclusion in the early morning hours. After more than 13 hours of live poker action at the Hilton Prague, Event #13: €25,000 Single-Day High Roller has come to a conclusion.

Out of a field of 30 entries, the top five finishers shared a portion of the €720,300 prize pool, and the player to collect all the chips was the same as the previous night. The UK’s Ben Heath scored back-to-back victories after a fiercely contested heads-up duel with Thailand’s Kannapong Thanarattrakul, after which Heath walked away with the top prize of €273,710 and second PokerStars Spadie trophy in a row.

Thanarattrakul dominated the final table and was responsible for bursting the money bubble but he was unable to finish the job after a heads-up duel that lasted more than two hours. Aleksejs Ponakovs, Pablo Brito Silva, and Jorryt van Hoof were the only other players to earn a cash prize while Kent Staahle was the last contender to walk away empty-handed without anything to show for.

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Final Result Event #13: €25,000 Single-Day High Roller

It wasn’t smooth sailing by any means for Heath to claim the second victory in a row and he even needed to take advantage of the reentry option after he ran with ace-king into the pocket aces of Timothy Adams in Level 3. By then, Mike Watson was already on the rail after he crashed out on the very first level.

Other notables would follow such as Orpen Kisacikoglu, Pascal Lefrancois, aforementioned Adams, Tom Orpaz, and
Rodrigo Seiji. The eventual runner-up also had to buy back in after his ace-ten suited was cracked by the ace-nine of Adams. The latter found no fortune on bullet number two and Heath was ousted a second time, too, when Staahle rivered a straight.

Last night’s runner-up Alex Kulev quickly doubled after entering the fray but couldn’t keep up the momentum to bow out before the dinner break. Five late entrants at the end of the registration period paved the way for the last two tables and they quickly became one as notables such as Juan Pardo, Dimitar Danchev, €10,200 Mystery Bounty Event winner Seiji, and Steve O’Dwyer were all among the casualties.

Adrian Mateos and Sam Greenwood suffered cruel beats after the field of hopefuls had combined to a single table for the last time. The Spaniard got it in with pocket tens for an overpair only for Thanarattrakul to river a nine-high straight. However, the exit of Greenwood was even worse when his kings were up against the ace-king of Heath. Despite improving to a set with the case king on the flop, Greenwood was doomed when Heath hit running cards for Broadway.

Kisacikoglu never recovered from a major setback to fall two spots away from the money and Staahle then risked it all with the nut flush draw. Thanarattrakul looked him up with top pair and prevailed to let Ponakovs as the far shortest stack celebrate. Down to the final five players, Heath and Thanarattrakul were the runaway chip leaders and took their turns to decimate the field to the heads-up stage.

Thanarattrakul entered the duel with a two-to-one lead and Heath slowly but steadily took chunks out of his stack to take over the top spot. The Brit established a five-to-one advantage for a short period only for the Thai poker pro to regain the lead. And then, after more than two hours of cagey heads-up play, it was all over in the blink of an eye when they flipped for it with king-ten versus ace-jack as Heath came out on top once more.

Many of those who entered the two editions of the €25,000 Single-Day High Rollers are expected to jump into the €50,000 Super High Roller, which is set to take place from December 11 to 13, 2022. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action from the tables in the capital of the Czech Republic.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship is in full swing at Wynn Las Vegas, and reception to the new festival has been overwhelmingly positive. That’s not only because of the poker action – click here to see the full schedule – but also the events and amenities being offered to fans, players, and qualifiers.

For the past couple of months, PokerNews has been highlighting several qualifiers including those who got in by playing on ClubWPT, giveaway winners like our very own live reporter Liam Gannon, and other satellite opportunities.

The qualifiers and giveaway winners are being treated to the full WPT experience, which means access to exclusive events, and to the VIP Player Lounge, which has been a huge hit. In addition, fans are being offered the opportunity to win $10,400 seats in the $15M GTD WPT World Championship, which will run from Dec, 12-20. That included a 1 in 200 shot by attending a book signing by Poker Hall of Famer and WPT Ambassador Doyle Brunson.

Valerie Zaklama Wins $10,400 Seat Via Book Signing

A week ago, the WPT sent out a tweet that they would be hosting an exclusive book signing. Poker legend Doyle Brunson was going to be at the Wynn to give out signed copies of his autobiography The Godfather of Poker – which PokerNews reviewed here – to the first 200 people in line.

In order to qualify, fans needed to comment on the tweet and either sign up for or be a member of ClubWPT. Moreover, one special copy would contain a ticket to the $10,400 WPT World Championship.

Fans lined the hallway waiting for their opportunity to sit down with Texas Dolly, have a photo opportunity, and receive a free copy of his book. While they waited, 1998 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ and Poker Hall of Famer Scotty Nguyen went down the line shaking hands with poker fans.

Players were understandably excited to not only meet the Brunson but also to have a decent chance at winning a coveted seat. The winner wound up being Valerie Zaklama, who was lucky enough to receive the specially-signed book with the winning ticket.

A Look at the VIP Lounge

One of the perks Zaklama will receive for winning the seat is access to the VIP Lounge, which is invite-only to WPT Champions Club Members, ClubWPT qualifiers, WPT Global qualifiers, and special giveaway winners.

In the lounge they will find several amenities including private seating (massage and bean bag chairs are available alongside traditional couches and tables & chairs), arcade machines, video games, air hockey, pool, a secluded outdoor area, and food and drink options (including a nightly dinner spread).

The VIP Lounge, which is guarded by Lounge Attendants, has already proven a hit with those lucky enough to have access. While there, it’s not uncommon to see WPT Ambassadors and talent hanging out, mingling with qualifiers. In fact, WPT President Adam Pliska can often be found there competing in the various games on offer.

Bonus: Andrew Neeme’s New Vlog

The WPT World Championship kicked off with the Premier Meet-Up Game (MUG), which we previously recapped here. Well, one of the men responsible for putting on that legendary game, WPT Ambassador Andrew Neeme, recently released a new vlog about the experience. Check it out:

Did You Know the World Poker Tour is Online?

The launch of WPT Global means that poker players around the world now have the chance to win their way to WPT events, win prizes and enjoy exciting games such as Poker Flips. As one of the world’s largest cash game poker networks, WPT Global is available in over 50 countries and territories around the world.

WPT Global offers a large deposit match bonus: 100% on deposits up to $1,200 (using any payment method). New players depositing a minimum of $20 automatically receive this match bonus which is unlocked in $5 increments (credited straight to the cashier) for every $20 of rake contribution.

Both tournaments and cash games count towards bonus unlocking; new players have 90 days from the date of first deposit to unlock and claim their full bonus amount.

Listen to more about the WPT World Championship on the new PokerNews Podcast!

_{*Images courtesy of WPT/Drew Amato.}