The final day of the Hustler Casino Live $1 million buy-in game has produced some truly epic pots, but none more so than one Tom Dwan took down for $3.1 million — the largest pot in live-stream poker history.

About six hours into Tuesday’s stream, which had more than 50,000 concurrent viewers throughout much of the night, the best hand of them all took place. When the HCL Twitter page hyped it up as the hand that will “break the internet,” they weren’t spewing hyperbole.

Earlier in the show, “durrrr” won a massive pot against Doug Polk, whose failed bluff attempt on the river cost him a $1.1 million pot. In that hand, Dwan tank-called both the turn on the river with a monster hand, leading some to believe he slow-rolled his opponent. While that hand was quite entertaining, it pales in comparison to one Dwan played later in the session.

The Costliest Poker Bluff Attempt You’ve Ever Seen

During the fourth and final $1 million game on Hustler Casino Live, there were some sick bluff attempts. Some got through, others didn’t. One that did was a hand where “LSG Hank” wagered over $900,000 on the river with ace-high and forced Polk off pocket aces.

And then there was an attempted bluff that cost “Wes Side” Wesley, one of the HCL fan favorites, a California mansion. Wesley had bought in for $3 million, more than anyone else at the table. But he could only hold onto that stack for about five hours.

The stand up game was on during the record-breaking hand. For those unfamiliar with this gimmicky action game, the player who is last to win a hand must pay everyone else at the table a $6,000 fee. So, that adds an extra dynamic, which often baits players into playing more aggressive to avoid being the last to stand.

As for the hand itself, Wesley three-bet to $30,000 with A♦K♥ and Polk folded after having seen Wesley’s cards. During the hand, Polk was in an awkward position as he had to do his best to not give off any tells to either player in the hand.

Following the three-bet, Dwan then raised to $100,000 with Q♠Q♣ and his opponent called to see a flop of 3♦8♠8♦. Dwan would check-call a $125,000 bet and the pot was already over $800,000. The turn was the 5♥ and Wesley was still stuck on ace-high, but he fired out another massive wager, this time for $350,000, which put “durrrr” into a brief tank. He’d eventually call and then the 6♣ would appear on the river.

Knowing he could only win if he bet, Wesley put Dwan to the test for his remaining $786,000 stack. The former Full Tilt Poker pro again tanked as he faced a difficult decision for a seven-figure pot with nothing but one pair, albeit an over pair. After some thought, he made the gutsy call and took down a $3.1 million pot, the largest in live-stream poker history.

With that hand, Dwan was up more than $2 million on the day at the time of publishing. The stream would continue on the Hustler Casino Live YouTube channel.

Tom Dwan tanked twice while holding a monster in the same hand against Doug Polk, who had five-high in what turned out to be a $1.1 million pot on Hustler Casino Live. The question viewers are now debating is was it a slow-roll?

Tuesday’s game was the last of four million-dollar games on Hustler Casino Live, and the action thus far has been as intense and entertaining as any of the previous three sessions.

Dwan, the former internet poker legend back in the Full Tilt Poker days, has certainly never been one to slow-roll, at least in televised games. But many in the HCL YouTube chat were convinced his tank on the turn and river was a “f**k you” to Polk, who has made some critical comments of “durrrr” in the past.

Was it a Slow-roll?

The hand began with Polk raising to $3,000 from the cutoff with 5♠4♠ and then calling a three-bet to $14,000 from “durrrr” and his 7♥7♣ in the small blind.

When the flop came 2♠7♦K♦, bingo for the preflop aggressor, Dwan bet out $15,000 and his opponent called, hoping to either pick up some equity on the turn or bluff to take it down. The 6♥ was juicy as it gave the Upswing Poker founder an open-ended straight draw. But Dwan bet out $30,000, about half the size of the pot.

Polk then bumped it up to $115,000 on his draw, and this is where the hand got a bit strange. Sitting on the second nuts, Dwan went into the tank for quite some time, an odd play. The only hand that had him beat was pocket kings, and that wasn’t a likely holding for his opponent given he didn’t four-bet preflop.

After a few minutes of waiting, Polk had enough and called the clock. Shortly after, Dwan made the call and the 6♠ showed up on the river, giving “durrrr” a full house. He decided to slow-play his hand and checked it over to the button.

Polk, who couldn’t possibly win the $291,000 pot without betting, refused to surrender to the former online poker star and ripped off a bet of $420,000, leaving about $550,000 behind.

There was no way Dwan would fold as he was only concerned with pocket kings or possibly pocket sixes, both unlikely scenarios. Once again, he oddly went into a deep tank before deciding to just call.

Polk, who co-owns The Lodge Card Club near Austin, Texas, was down $620,000 for the session at the time of publishing. Dwan was up just north of $500,000 and was the biggest winner in the final day of the Hustler Casino Live $1 million cash game. There were over 43,000 fans tuned in to watch the action on YouTube.

At around 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday, Jack Effel announced “shuffle up and deal” to officially kickstart the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) inside Paris Las Vegas.

The first tournament of the series, Event #1: $500 Casino Employees, is open only to those who work in the casino industry. At 2 p.m., the first open event of the series will begin — Event #2: $25,000 High Roller (6-Handed).

Many within the WSOP and across the poker world expect the 54th annual summer poker extravaganza to be the biggest. There’s a sense of buzz within the two host venues — Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris — that indicate, to steal a line from Gus Hansen, it’s going to be a great summer.

PokerNews will be on-site, bringing you non-stop exclusive content that will keep you informed of what’s happening on the floor from Event #1 until a world champion is crowned in July. We’ll bring you live updates during every bracelet event, entertaining video content across social media, exclusive interviews with the biggest names in the game, and news as it breaks all summer long.

Sense of Newness

The 2023 WSOP will be the first ever at Horseshoe Las Vegas, but not the first in the same venue. Last year, the World Series of Poker moved from the Rio to the Las Vegas Strip’s Bally’s Hotel & Casino, which has since been renovated and rebranded as the Horseshoe.

When you arrive at the host facility, you’ll notice some significant changes compared to last year in terms of aesthetics, most notably gorgeous new carpeting and improved lighting in the Events Center, where the feature and final tables will take place.

Stay tuned for a fun summer of poker and all the best content and breaking news right here at PokerNews.

View the Full 2023 WSOP Schedule

PokerNews Staff Predictions for the 2023 WSOP

In light of debate over the threat that real-time assistance (RTA) apps pose to live poker, World Series of Poker (WSOP) officials reiterated their rules for use of solvers at the poker table.

Players at the 2023 WSOP will be penalized if they are caught using or referencing a solver during a live hand. Additionally, the WSOP reserves the right to issue penalties to players who are using solvers in between hands.

“If caught using RTA/GTO software during a hand, player will be subject to penalty up to and including DQ (disqualification) / trespass,” WSOP said in a prepared statement. “We reserve the right to further penalize a player for using RTA/GTO in any other situation in our sole and absolute discretion. Players may continue to use their device to play wsop.com or use the Caesars Sportsbook app while in/out of a hand.”

Solver tools like GTOWizard, which can tell poker players the optimal way to play “any spot you can imagine,”, came under fire last week when a video surfaced of Andrew Esposito consulting a solver output during the WPT Gardens Poker Championship.

Esposito denied doing so while in a live hand and the tournament floor ruled that Esposito did not violate Poker Tournament Directors Association (TDA) Rule 5, which states that “betting apps and charts may not be used by players with live hands.”

Read About the Solver Controversy at the WPT Gardens Poker Championship

Opinions in the poker community about use of solvers outside of hands have varied, with some pros saying an absolute ban is necessary to protect game integrity and others stating that they don’t see an issue if they aren’t being used during hands.

With the 2023 WSOP kicking off this week, Vice President Jack Effel addressed concerns about solvers to PokerNews staff and reiterated the WSOP’s rules for phones at the table.

The WSOP’s RTA policy highlights efforts in the poker industry to grapple with rapidly advancing poker tools that many believe pose a threat to game integrity.

During a controversy at the 2016 WSOP where a player printed a push-fold chart that he looked at in between hands, then-Tournament Director Effel ruled that “when you’re out of the hand, you’re more than welcome to reference anything that you have, your notes or anything like that, but not during the play of hands.”

Effel, who mentioned GTOWizard by name, told PokerNews that GTO solvers differ in their capabilities from other poker training tools like preflop charts that are fair game to consult at the table in between hands.

In another update ahead of the festival kickoff, WSOP announced that chips will be in play at the start of every event for all registered players. Registration time is considered at the time a seat is purchased, not when it is printed from a FasTrac kiosk.

Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden will not become the 2023 PokerStars Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event champion, but he did manage to take down his fourth career SCOOP title, and add $71,414 to his lifetime winnings tally.

Vousden is also five eliminations away from a fifth SCOOP title and a monster-sized $362,102 because he has navigated his way to the final table of the $25,000 Super High Roller.

Finland’s Vousden was one of 1,118 entrants in the $530 No-Limit Hold’em PKO freezeout, and he bagged the largest slice of the $559,000 prize pool.

A whole host of stars reached the money place but fell shy of the final table, including Team PokerStars’ Lex “L. Veldhuis” Veldhuis and Benjamin “Spraggy” Spragg, two players that have enjoyed some remarkable SCOOP results this year.

With bounties included, only two of the nine finalists did not walk away with at least five figures for their efforts. Ireland’s “Chanaldo9” ($6,854) and “GlobalHappiness” of Sweden ($6,175) being that pair.

Arsenii “josef_shvejk” Karmatckii, who won a $1,050 7-Max NHLE event for $$53,329, finished seventh here ($11,050), while “grind4fame” ($10,616) crashed out in sixth.

Fifth place and $15,327 went to Thomas “MarToMchat” Boivin, fourth place and $24,582 to “xpronto,” with the event progressing to the heads-up stages when Aleksejs “APonakov” Ponakovs busted in third and collected $35,722.

Vousden found himself heads-up against Germany’s “DeadMonkey13,” and he made short work of his final opponent. Vousden’s fourth SCOOP victory came with $71,414, which left “DeadMonkey13” to claim a $46,436 consolation prize.

SCOOP 107-H: $530 NLHE PKO Freezeout Final Table Results

Mike Watson Running Hot in the Super High Roller

Forty-two PokerStars players created a $1,030,050 prize pool in the $25,000 Super High Roller, but only six of those entrants remain in contention for a $362,102 score.

Mike “SirWatts” Watson, who is second in chips in the $10,300 SCOOP Main Event, finished top of the pile when the curtain came down on Day 1’s proceedings. Watson has locked in $54,482 but will have his sights set on the huge top prize.

Vousden returns to the action second in chips, while such luminaries as Bruno “great dant” Volkmann, Pedro “pvigar” Garagnani, Daniel “SmilleThHero” Smiljkovic, and Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood make up the rest of the final table, although htye are not there to simply make up the numbers.

The pay-jumps are substantial, with a $25,000 difference in prize money between fifth and sixth place, and a whopping $115,000 difference between first and second.

PokerStars’ Twitch team is streaming all the Super High Roller final table action from 6:00 p.m. BST on May 30.

SCOOP 113-H: $25,000 NLHE Super High Roller Final Table Chip Counts

“uwinitakeit” Denies Some of Poker’s Elite Main Event 2nd Chance Glory

Eighty-seven players turned out in force for the $5,200 NLHE Turbo Main Event 2nd Chance, and created a $435,000 prize pool. Of that princely sum, $103,950 was reserved for the champion, and Canada’s “uwinitakeit” is that player.

Any of the nine players at the final table would have made a worthy champion; the final table read like a who’s who of the online poker world.

Jonathan “x_zola25” Skovsen ($13,706), Mark “AceSpades11” Radoja ($17,113), and Leonard “Grozzorg” Maue ($22,144) were the first trio of casualties at the final table. Timothy “Tim0thee” Adams ($28,654), Espen “Hymn2Nikasi” Jorstad ($37,078), and Steven “random_chu” Chew ($47,978) soon joined the list of busted players.

Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood ($62,082) saw his tournament end in third place, leaving “uwinitakeit” against Benjamin “bencb789” Rolle in a one-on-one battle for the lion’s share of the prize pool.

There was no deal between the heads-up duo, so Rolle had to make do with the $80,333 consolation prize when “uwinitakeit” defeated him. The champion reeled in a $103,950 score for their impressive performance.

SCOOP 114-H: $5,200 NLHE Turbo Main Event 2nd Chance Final Table Results

Other Selected PokerStars SCOOP Results

Allan “allan sheik” Mello helped himself to a massive $164,980 by taking down the $5,200 NHLE PKO SCOOP edition of the popular Thursday Thrill, which concluded on Sunday.

There was a $94,245 score for “pokanuktus” and a $61,299 prize awarded to Jargo “bungakat” Alavali, the latter becoming the champion of the $530 buy-in Main Event 2nd Chance.

*includes bounty payments

For the third consecutive year, Daniel Negreanu and Shaun Deeb were the highest bids during the $25K Fantasy Draft for the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

The draft took place Monday night at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, one day prior to the start of the WSOP. There are 20 teams in the league, all investing $25,000 to win a maximum of $250,000 with the top three spots paid.

Each team drafted eight players they felt would perform well this summer in bracelet events. Teams were limited to a maximum of $200 total to be spent on players during the bidding-style draft. The team that accumulates the most points throughout the series wins. Team Maria Ho took it down last year.

Ho’s team was carried by the performance of Koray Aldemir, whom she picked up for just $2, the steal of the 2022 WSOP 25k Fantasy Draft. Aldemir, who won the 2021 WSOP Main Event, accumulated 358 points, topping the charts.

WSOP Player of the Year Frontrunners Receive Highest Bids

With just $200 to spend, many teams avoid drafting players like Negreanu and Deeb even though they often contend for WSOP Player of the Year. The reason for that is they cost so much to acquire in the 25k Fantasy Draft, making it difficult to fill the remaining seven spots with players who will tear it up at the WSOP. In fact, since the league was formed in 2011, neither poker legend has appeared on a first place roster.

Still, both pros, save for last year when Negreanu lost $1.1 million, usually contend for the Player of the Year award. Thus, there’s always a team willing to bid half or more of its allotted budget to draft them.

On Monday, Deeb went for a draft-high $112 (Team DPMC), while Negreanu was the second highest valued pick at $111 (Team Noori). Dan Zack, the reigning WSOP Player of the Year champion, was chosen for $109 (Team Jew-ish).

Every other player was picked up for under $100, although Yuri Dzivielevski (Team Maria’s Ho’mies) went for $99, just a shade under triple digits.

Phil Hellmuth, another annual high bid, went for $71 this year (Team Fleyshman). The “Poker Brat,” in search of his record-extending 17th bracelet, had an overall ho-hum 2022 WSOP, but he did have a runner-up finish last summer.

Other notable high bids include Jeremy Ausmus for $86 (Team No Gamble No Future), Alex Foxen for $77 (Team Zamani), and this year Aldemir was taken for $70 (Team Riess).

Phil Ivey, who isn’t expected to play much this summer, was selected for $19 by Team Lang. Last year, the 10-time bracelet winner went for just $33 to the same team but was one of the steals of the draft as he accumulated 258 points, sixth most overall.

Complete rosters can be found at 25kfantasy.com.

After several weeks of poker tournament action on Global Poker, the Rattlesnake Open VI has reached its conclusion. The series on the popular social poker site featured 109 events in each of Global Poker’s in-game currencies—Gold Coins (GC) events and Sweeps Coins (SC) with combined guarantees of GC 896,500,000 and SC 1,943,000.

The series, which kicked off on May 7 and wrapped up on May 28, culminated with two main events that saw “Donkeychem” and “Nobsfor1” being named champions. “Donkeychem” took down the GC 40,000,000 guaranteed 31-H: Main Event NLHE for GC 8,160,000, while “Nobsfor1” emerged victorious in 31-H: Main Event NLHE SC 200,000 Guaranteed for SC 34,420.

PokerNews provided live-stream coverage of the Main Event action, which can be viewed at twitch.tv/pokernews.

There were plenty of other big winners during the nearly monthlong Rattlesnake Open. PokerNews highlighted several early winners in the series, including Team PokerNews streamer Kyle “KAA17” Anderson, who started things off by winning the GC 9,000,000 guaranteed 01-M: NLHE for GC 1,837,440.

Other Rattlesnake Open winners include 24-M: NLHE GC 6,000,000 Guaranteed winner “Toughtobeat” (GC 1,352,520), 24-M: NLHE SC 10,000 Guaranteed victor “TheRealCappy” (SC 2,032.67) and 25-L: NLHE SC 6,000 Guaranteed champion “Muppet Baby” (SC 1,410.94).

More recently, “Scootorama” took down 31-M: NLHE GC 20,000,000 Guaranteed for GC 4,290,000 and “YouGonGetThisWork” won 31-M: NLHE SC 50,000 Guaranteed for SC 9,350.