On Tuesday, the World Poker Tour (WPT) $3,500 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown saw the final 16 players from a 2,290-entry field return to play down to the final table of six.

It took approximately six hours, but eventually, the finalists were set with Bin Weng and his stack of 46.05 million in the best position to make a run at the $1,128,250 first-place prize. Weng has been one of the hottest players on the circuit this year with $1,269,281 in earnings thus far, not including what he’ll make at his latest final table.

Weng already has a seven-figure score to his name after taking down the $5,300 The Return: A Borgata Championship Event back in January, and a month later he won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Las Vegas $1,700 Main Event for $227,344 and a gold ring.

Others still in contention include Sridhar Sangannagari, Mitch Garshofsky, David Mzareulov, Naing Thu, and Rafael Farah Jarufe.

Everyone remaining is guaranteed $238,000 in prize money. However, they’ll have to wait to play down to a winner as the final table will play out at the Hyper X ESports Arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 25th.

WPT Poker Showdown Final Table

Check out the WPT Hub on PokerNews here!

Day 4 Action

Day 4 action was heated right out of the gate as Isaac Kempton rivered a gutshot straight to dispatch four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Jeff Madsen, who got it in with top pair. Not long after, inaugural Wynn Millions champ Andrew Moreno played a big pot against Jarufe.

Moreno held two black kings and was in good shape against Jarufe’s ace-queen, that is until an ace spiked on the river. Just like that, Moreno hit the rail in 15th place for $56,800. Champie Douglas followed him out the door after losing a race with ace-king against the pocket eights of Garshofsky, and then Andrew Ostapchenko exited in 13th place when his flopped set of fives was flushed by a river heart for Mzareulov.

Running queen-jack smack dab into Sangannagari’s pocket aces led to the demise of Dylan Smith, and Dorian Rios hit the rail after flopping top two pair against Jarufe’s flopped straight. As for Clemen Deng, he lost a flip with pocket fours to Kempton, which set up the final table of nines.

Even so, three more eliminations needed to occur before the TV table of six was set, and Gal Yifrach was the next to fall after failing to get there with ace-four suited against the ace-queen of Sangannagari. Two levels later, James Anderson three-bet jammed with ace-nine only to have Garshofsky wake up with ace-king in the big blind. The superior ace held and just like that the tournament was on the TV final table bubble.

On Hand #114 of the final table, Weng raised to 625,000 from the button and Kempton defended his big blind. On the A♦Q♥2♣ flop, Kempton check-called a bet of 425,000 and then checked again on the 9♠ turn. Weng bet 1.05 million and then called when Kempton check-raised all in for 4.675 million.

Kempton tabled the Q♠9♦ for a turned two pair and it was ahead of Weng’s A♠10♣. However, there was still one card to come and that would up being the 10♠ on the river to give Weng a bigger two pair. Kempton exited in seventh place while Weng took a big chip lead into the televised final table.

Day 4 Payouts

Remember, the final table will be played at the Hyper X ESports Arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 25th. Action will resume with just over 12 minutes remaining in Level 32 (150,000/300,000/300,000). PokerNews will be on-site and bring you a winner’s recap upon the tournament’s completion.

_{*Images courtesy of WPT and Seminole Hard Rock.}

Executive Editor U.S.

Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Ryan Riess winning the 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and forever etching his name in poker history. Last month also marked the sixth anniversary of his becoming a World Poker Tour (WPT) champ when he took down the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $716,088.

That year, the $10,000 buy-in tournament attracted 349 runners, whereas this year had 2,290 entries, albeit at a more affordable $3,500 buy-in. Riess navigated his way through the massive field and notched a deep run, ultimately busting on Day 3 in 28th place for $31,500.

“This is actually, I was thinking about it this morning, this is actually my favorite place to play poker in the world,” Riess told PokerNews. “It’s the only place I travel to really outside of the Bahamas. I live in Vegas, I play a lot there, but I don’t really travel anymore now that I have a family. I love it here. It’s just my favorite place to play.”

Read About Ryan Riess’s WPT Win Here!

10th Anniversary of WSOP Win

Riess, originally from Michigan (he’s the Wolverine State’s all-time money leader) but now residing in Las Vegas, has amassed just over $16 million in career tournament earnings according to the Hendon Mob. That currently puts him in 51st place on poker’s all-time money list.

About half of that – $8,361,570 to be exact – came when he bested a 6,352-player field to win the WSOP Main Event by defeating Jay Farber in heads-up play.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Riess said about the 10th anniversary of his life-changing victory. “I’ve had a few people ask me on this trip. It’s kind of cool to relive it, to think back and remember it because 10 years is a big deal. It’s like a cool anniversary. I love playing poker. Someone asked me yesterday, they said ‘After you win the Main Event why do you still play, you can’t do better than that?’ You know, I just love the game. I love competing.”

Becoming a Family Man

While poker has remained a constant in Riess’s life, a lot has changed. Most notably, he started a family.

“I have three kids and my wife, she is Ukrainian, and her parents actually came over,” he shared. “They escaped the war over there and they’re actually staying with us too. So, we have a full house, a lot of people but it’s awesome.”

The war in Ukraine continues to be a hot-button issue for many in the poker world; in fact, last year PokerNews even spoke to Eugene Katchalov shortly after he and his family fled the county. For Riess, it also had a major impact on the life of his family.

“It was not fun. I’ve spent a lot of time in Ukraine too,” he explained. “My kids were born there, and I had an apartment there. I know a lot of people there so it’s a very unfortunate situation. Hopefully, everything will be okay.”

Passion for Poker

Since winning the WSOP Main Event, Riess has had some impressive years. In 2017, he had $1,810,957 in tournament winnings and surpassed that the following year with $2,220,159. In 2019, he made it three years in a row with seven-figure scores by winning $1,687,395.

With down years in 2020-21, due primarily to the pandemic, Riess returned in 2022 and amassed $827,691 in winnings. While many past WSOP Main Event champs prove to be one-and-done, Riess has shown time and again that he has what it takes to compete in poker.

“I put a lot of time into the game preparing and trying to get better.”

“Oh yeah, it has gotten a lot harder. I mean back when I won there were no solvers, everyone was kind of just clicking buttons,” he said. “Now there are a lot of tools to be really good if you choose to use them. So yeah, the game is a lot harder but still fun.”

He continued: “I put a lot of time into the game preparing and trying to get better. So, I have a lot of really good friends who are really good at poker, so I talk with them and we’re all just trying to get better. But I think I can compete with the best so I’m not going anywhere.”

Well, one place he will be going is back home to Las Vegas, where in a month’s time he will be competing at the World Series of Poker and looking to recapture the magic he experienced a decade ago.

For more on Riess, follow him on Twitter at @RyanRiess1.

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

Executive Editor U.S.

Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

On Doug Polk’s podcast Tuesday morning, Nick Vertucci and Ryan Feldman disclosed a few new players who will be competing in the upcoming historic $1 million buy-in game on Hustler Casino Live. The biggest name revealed was none other than Polk himself, who apologized Monday for previously asserting that Charlie Carrel, an admitted victim of pedophilia, empathizes with pedophiles.

Last month, on Joey Ingram’s podcast, Feldman announced the first set of players for the seven-figure buy-in no-limit hold’em cash game to be held May 26-29 at Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. Among the initial participants are Ethan “Rampage” Yau, Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot, and Eric Persson.

“Rampage” Headlines Hustler Casino Live $1M Buy-In Poker Game Lineup

“Wes Side” Wesley in the Mix

Feldman made it clear the lineup following his initial announcement wasn’t complete. He threw around some other potential names who were on his list, including Alan Keating, Phil Hellmuth, and Polk, along with non-poker celebs such as MrBeast, who appeared on Hustler Casino Live in May 2022 in what was the live-stream’s most watched show ever.

The first new player announced on Tuesday is “Wes Side” Wesley, a polarizing figure on Hustler Casino Live the past year. Handz, another HCL regular, was the second player revealed on Polk’s podcast. On Sunday, Handz was bluffed by Bill Perkins, who left in the middle of the hand to catch a flight and still won the pot.

Up next was “Huss,” an Australian high-stakes player. Mariano, one of the top vloggers who has become an HCL regular, was then revealed to be added to the $1 million buy-in game lineup.

Doug Polk Joins Historic Poker Game

The first few players disclosed was all a build up to the biggest name and that is Polk, the host of the podcast. Polk, the Upswing Poker founder, has found himself mixed up in a bit of controversy on social media lately.

In a Twitter Spaces conversation with Will Jaffe and Matt Berkey, the co-owner of The Lodge Card Club in Texas got into a heated argument with Charlie Carrel over Carrel’s Twitter post from 2018 in which Polk claims he was “empathizing with pedophiles.”

Carrel then informed Polk that as a child he was a victim of pedophilia, but Polk didn’t back down from ripping on him. On his YouTube channel, Polk trashed Carrel over the pedophilia discussion, and that video had hundreds of thousands of views, which Carrel said caused him great harm.

The conversation led to some backlash for Polk on poker Twitter for being insensitive to a victim. On Monday night, he issued an apology video and took down old videos that were critical of the poker player he’s been criticizing for years, including the highly viewed aforementioned video.

As a poker pro, Polk is one of the top heads-up no-limit hold’em players ever and has three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets to go along with nearly $10 million in live tournament cashes, according to Hendon Mob. He appeared in the recent controversial High Stakes Poker live-stream with Berkey and Nik Airball and is a mainstay on the live-stream at The Lodge, the poker room he co-owns.

Craig “@ChipsMaxwell” Stout had been waiting a long time for this day.

The Sheridan, Indiana native had been playing on Global Poker since the social poker site launched and had won 13 trophies. He has $17,466 in live tournament earnings, including winning three tournaments in less than two weeks in January at the Horseshoe Indianapolis. But he had never enjoyed a day quick like this one, and he dreamt it was coming.

Stout earned his tournament entry for the semi-final of the inaugural PokerNews Cup on Global Poker in the first qualifier. He won the semi-final last night to secure his spot in the SC250,000 Final. And then he had a bold prediction.

“I called my shot and said I was going to win this,” Stout told PokerNews’ Jesse Fullen on Twitch shortly after he defeated “Thunder2007” to win the PokerNews Cup and earn the SC100,000 first-place prize along with the Global Poker x PokerNews Cup trophy.

“I am stoked. I’ve been looking forward to this day for, I don’t know, 25 years, I guess,” he said. “I’ve been playing tournament poker, I feel like, my whole adult life. It’s been a long time coming to get this. I’ve won some decent tournaments, but this is my first six-figure score. So I’m thrilled right now.”

Final Table results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Craig “@ChipsMaxwell” Stout	SC100,000
2	“Thunder2007”	SC40,000
3	“PeanutFlush”	SC25,000
4	“Penneltenn”	SC15,000
5	“Jayz4dayz72”	SC10,000
6	“hhella Tight”	SC6,000
7	“cgoated”	SC4,000
8	“Brrrr”	SC3,000
9	“HippyMike”	SC2,000

Event Recap

The SC250,000 Final began at 5 p.m. ET with 54 players making it through the qualification rounds. PokerNews Stream Team member Anthony “Acepoker444” Caldiero and WSOP bracelet winner David “RUeTaMa” Moses were among them but fell in 33rd and 21st place, respectively.

Once the field had been whittled down to the final three tables, Stout lost a large portion of his stack when he shoved the turn with a pair of jacks and “Brrrr” called with two pair. He began climbing back up the leaderboard after knocking out “Morgilicous” with pocket aces, then taking out “LambdaLambdaLambda” in 11th place when the board counterfeited his opponent’s pocket pair.

Stout began the nine-handed final table in third chip position with 103,504, behind only “Thunder2007” (137,309) and “PeanutFlush” (132,893). On the first hand, “HippyMike” moved all in for 5,596, less than three big blinds, and “hhella Tight” called in the big blind. “hhella Tight” turned a flush to beat pocket nines, making “HippyMike” the first casualty of the final table.

Stout’s former nemesis “Brrrr” was eliminated in eighth place, losing a race with ace-king to jacks when “Thunder2007” flopped top set. “cgoated” then moved all in for 7,540 and received three callers. The board was checked down and “PeanutFlush” won the pot with king-high to knockout “cgoated” in seventh.

From there, the tournament was all Stout. He called an all-in shove for 19,909 from “hhella Tight” on a five-high board with pocket eights and beat a pair of fives to earn the knockout. In a blind versus blind confrontation, Stout put “jayz4dayz7” all in for 22,882 and won with ace-queen against ace-seven as he took the lead with more than half the chips in play four-handed.

Stout wasn’t done dominating the table. He made a running straight to win a big pot off “PeanutFlush,” then cracked pocket kings with ace-queen, hitting an ace on the turn, to bust PokerNews contest winner Penneltenn in fourth place.

PeanutFlush was knocked out in third place when Stout got them to call off their last 44,388 on the river with a pair of eights. Stout showed down a rivered pair of aces as he eliminated his fourth consecutive opponent at the final table to take a 377,145 to 162,855 chip lead over “Thunder2007” into heads-up play.

“Thunder2007” doubled up once to draw closer, but on the last hand, they moved all in on the flop for 93,910 with a straight draw. Stout called with a pair of sixes and held on to secure the title and become the first-ever PokerNews Cup champion.

Global Poker emphasizes the social aspect of the game. It allows players to enjoy the experience in a fun, friendly atmosphere for free with no purchase or downloads necessary. Stout has been a loyal player on the social poker site from the beginning, and he was well-rewarded today. But he doesn’t have too many big plans just yet.

“I got to go to work tomorrow and then we’ll go from there,” he said.

That concludes PokerNews’ coverage of the inaugural PokerNews Cup on Global Poker. Stay tuned for more action from tournaments around the world.

Prior to the start of the heads-up poker match, Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot talked the talk. Slightly over halfway through the high-stakes competition and it’s been Matt Berkey who has been walking the walk.

The $200/$400 no-limit hold’em contest has been taking place at Resorts World in Las Vegas since early April. In the weeks prior, Airball took shots at Berkey, referring to the Solve for Why poker training site founder as a “scammer” and talked down on his poker skills.

Berkey’s reputation within the poker community has never been that of a scammer and there are many Solve for Why customers who have stood up for the Only Friends podcast host following Airball’s repeated attacks. Still, Airball’s had an opportunity to back his mouth up on the felt by dominating the supposed “scammer.” Thus far, it’s been the other way around.

Berkey Proving His Poker Skills?

The heads-up battle between the feuding poker players is scheduled to last 100 hours or until one player is down $1 million, if that player decides to quit. Following Sunday’s session, the two have played 55 hours and Berkey is up $659,800, per Landon Tice’s Twitter reports.

There isn’t a live-stream or any video of the action, which makes it difficult for poker fans to truly determine just how much of the score differential is due to skill and how much is due to variance — 55 hours of live poker isn’t exactly some massive sample size.

Early in the match, it appeared that Nik Airball might make the game more competitive than some anticipated. At the quarter pole, he held a $90,000 lead and was riding high. His friends on Twitter, most notably Eshaan “Brownballa” Bhalla and Lynne Ji, were celebrating like Airball had already pulled the upset.

Since then, however, Berkey has dominated to the tune of a profit exceeding $750,000 over the past five sessions. On one hand, that’s a bad sign for Airball. But on the other, it just goes to show how quickly things can turn around in heads-up no-limit hold’em, which means he’s far from down and out.

Of course, another brutal session for Airball would help Berkey reach the $1 million mark before they play 100 hours.

The LIPS Nevada State Ladies Championship, which took place at South Point Casino in Las Vegas April 19-23, included six events with Tammy Ehrhart being the biggest winner of them all.

Play began on the 19th with the $200 Mini Main Event, a no-limit hold’em tournament. There were a total of 208 entrants in the field and it came down to a two-way chop between Marsha Adams and Svetlana Gromenkova, each receiving $5,809.

In Event #2: $200 Team Championship, the winning team — The Portland Punters — had some familiar faces, including the reigning GPI Female Player of the Year, Angela Jordison, along with Jacki Burkhart, Devin Sweet, Jennifer Bernard, and Christina Gollins.

Each player from the squad that hails from Oregon collected $1,650 for their efforts. The champs beat out another talented team — The Stackers — in heads-up play, which included Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) champion Kyna England and the two-time Nevada State Ladies Champion, Ruth Hall.

Jordison Recognized as GPI Female Player of the Year

There’s a New Champion

Hall was the defending champion in the Main Event, a tournament she also won in 2015. Despite battling through some serious health conditions, she had a title to defend and made the trip to Las Vegas.

Unfortunately, for Hall, who lives in Texas and grew up in Urbandale, Iowa, she ran her pocket queens into pocket kings and was eliminated short of the money. That meant a new champion would be crowned, and that individual is Tammy Ehrhart, who won via a three-way chop along with Joan Short and Evangeline Ayed. Each player collected $14,134 in the chop.

The series included a mix of poker variants, including no-limit hold’em and Omaha/8. It also featured a fun $180 buy-in Pajama Jam event where the players were encouraged to dress in pajamas. Nooria Miskell won that tournament, which attracted 69 entrants, for $2,797.

LIPS Nevada State Ladies Championship Full Results

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After 14 qualifying events, 54 players took their virtual seats in the Global Poker x PokerNews Cup GC Final. Once the dust settled after a fast paced four hours, it was none other than “Allhustlenoluck” who emerged triumphant, taking home GC40,000,000 along with the trophy and title of champion for their efforts.

“LBgaming” battled hard to secure a second-place finish, while “Regs1” rounded out the top three.

Final Table Action

There was no bubble in this event as all players entered the day having secured GC400,000. The first prize jump, however, came at the final table, with all those able to navigate their way to the final nine guaranteed GC800,000.

The player to secure that initial prize jump but no more was “Scoobydubious” who got it in preflop with a dominated ace and failed to improve. Next to go was “FelicisSuerte” after they put their last chips into the middle on the turn needing to find a club on the river but failing to do so.

“LBgaming” continued their hot run by scoring a fortunate double knockout to send “BoltAction” and “Ormageddon” to the rail in seventh and sixth place respectively.

Eliminations continued at a breakneck pace, with “F4RTF4CE”, “SomeDumbFish”, and “Regs1″ sent out in short order to setup a heads-up showdown between “LBgaming” and “Allhustlenoluck”. The contest did not last long as “Allhustlenoluck” limp-called a jam from “LBgaming” having their opponent dominated. The best hand held up, crowning “Allhustlenoluck” as the first ever Global Poker x PokerNews Cup GC Final champion.