An apparent armed robbery attempt at Texas Card House near Houston took place early Thursday morning, and it created a scary and nearly deadly situation.

According to our sources, a security guard was shot during the incident at the poker club’s Spring, Texas location on Spring Cypress Road. PokerNews received confirmation that the victim is “doing okay” and did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

Scary Situation at Texas Poker Club

Initial reports came from Click2Houston.com with comments from Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. According to investigators, the incident developed at around 6 a.m. and that “several suspects” attempted to rob the card room.

The security guard on duty at the time, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, attempted to stop the culprits, and that is when a gun battle ensued. Moments later, the security guard was shot multiple times but is expected to recover from his injuries. No poker players or other staff members were injured.

Police are currently investigating the situation and no arrests have been made. The armed robbers fled the scene. According to our sources within Texas Card House, four men ambushed the security guard and the card room is “pretty sure” it was an attempted robbery, although the gunmen never entered the club.

The security guard was able to disarm one gunman, but that caused others in the group to retaliate by firing back. The investigation is underway. Our sources within TCH have suspicion that it could be a group that has tried to rob other card rooms, but they aren’t sure if that’s accurate yet.

Texas Card House operates poker clubs in six locations across the state, including Dallas and Austin.. The Spring location is one of two within the Houston area.

PokerNews will continue monitoring the story and provide updates when they become available. For now, the apparent armed robbers are unknown and on the loose.

Texas Card House Dallas Wins Appeal to Remain Open

Records were set at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP), and not just when it came to attendance. Mike Holtz, aka “BrockLesnar,” set a single-series cashes record with 25, while Ian Matakis held on to win Player of the Year.

Allen Kessler caused a bit of a stink about both players’ accomplishments on Twitter as he disagrees that online bracelet cashes should count in the POY race. But the rules are the rules and it isn’t the “Chainsaw” who is tasked with determine the scoring system.

Matakis a Surprising Winner

Matakis was an accomplished poker player prior to the start of the 2023 WSOP, but he wasn’t on anyone’s radar for Player of the Year entering the series. The Minnesota native put on an impressive performance this summer and held on to beat out the likes of Shaun Deeb, Chris Brewer, and Josh Arieh.

With one bracelet and 22 total cashes — nine of which were online — Matakis had a summer to remember. His biggest score of them all was for $205,696 when he took third place in a $3,000 pot-limit Omaha event. He finished in the top 10 six times, including his first career bracelet in Online Event #2: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Bankroll Builder.

Matakis, who finished with 5,203 points, made it difficult for anyone else to beat him in the Player of the Year race with that late third place finish. Deeb and Brewer were his closest competitors, finishing with 4,276 and 4,127 points, respectively. Arieh, who won multiple bracelets for the second time in three years, finished in fourth place with 3,865 points. Jesse Lonis rounded out the top five at 3,865.

Phil Hellmuth fell short of Player of the Year, but he did have another successful World Series of Poker, which included his record-extending 17th bracelet. The “Poker Brat” racked up 3,072 points, good for ninth place. Daniel Negreanu, on the other hand, a perennial POY contender, had a second straight rough summer and only finished in 18th place with 2,834 points and was never in contention.

2023 WSOP Player of the Year Final Standings

There’s a New Record Holder

Holtz didn’t factor much in the Player of the Year race (14th place), but he set the single-series record with 25 bracelet event cashes. Deeb was just one off the mark at 24, while Scott Bohlman and Ben Yu were tied with 23.

One of the top grinders on WSOP.com under screen name “BrockLesnar,” Holtz didn’t only have success this summer online. Of those 25 cashes, 13 were live, including a seventh place finish out of 2,759 in Event #31: $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack for $30,081.

“I knew early on that I had accumulated a larger than average amount of cashes and was curious where I stood,” Holtz said of setting the record. “When I looked online I realized I had 10 and was leading by two. I checked how many the previous years had accumulated and realized the most ever according to WSOP were Chris Ferguson and Daniel Negreanu with 23 cashes. I realized I was on pace to surpass this and from then on in the series was a sub conscious goal of mine. It’s certainly something that I am incredibly proud of and will remember forever.”

Holz didn’t win the live WSOP Player of the Year race, but he’s on pace to capture the 2023 WSOP.com Player of the Year race, which wraps up at the end of the calendar year.

Despite being one of the biggest brands in the free online game market, PokerStars Play rarely stands still. Last month, the company upgraded the Spin & Go tournament format and this week they announced a revamp of the PokerStars Play loyalty program.

PokerStars Play is a free poker and casino game app created by PokerStars. It offers a great alternative to real-money gambling for those who enjoy playing poker but who don’t want to spend real money or who live in regions without legal, online money play.

The app’s new rewards program is based on two main pillars. Daily rewards give you points for logging and playing in regularly while “Quests” and “Acheivements reward players for specific actions that can be completed over a longer time period.

All rewards come in the form of loyalty points which can be redeemed in-game for prizes like chip bundles, allowing you to grow your reserve of PokerStars Play chips.

How To Earn Loyalty Points

The easiest way to earn rewards under PokerStars Play’s new loyalty program is simply to log in every day. Every player is awarded a daily scratchcard on login. These scratchcards award players a randomized number of chips, making them a fun way to build your PokerStars Play play money “bankroll.”

You only get one scratcher per day, so players are incentivized to keep checking back regularly. Consistency of this kind is also rewarded by Happy Hour and Happy Day promotions. By playing during these promotion periods, players can earn double or triple the loyalty points.

For players who want to take a more active role in hunting down their rewards, PokerStars Play has also added Quests and Achievements. Each quest is made up of a ladder of smaller Achievements, some of which can be completed independently.

For example, the first quest you are offered has six stages, the first of which is simply to open a hold’em table and join a game for the first time!

Having achieved this, the player gets a small reward and moves on to step two. This time the achievement is to play a tournament. Keep going until all six steps of the quest are completed and you will receive a bigger reward for completing the quest! Then it is time to opt into a new quest.

Players can also pursue multiple quests at once and pursue individual achievements. As a result, there are always new goals to chase and new rewards to earn.

As the player advances, they will find the difficulty of the quests and achievements increasing. The harder the quest or achievement, the bigger the reward. So, if you have the time, it can be well worth the effort to seek out and complete some of those tougher achievements.

Learn How To Play Poker For Free On PokerStars Play

Ready To Start Earning Points With PokerStars Play?

Read our full review to find out more about how to download and sign up for PokerStars Play. You will also find more details on how free-to-play poker works and what other casino games you can enjoy on PokerStars Play.

Alexandra Botez was the last person David Tuchman interviewed for the 888Ride feature on 888poker’s YouTube channel during the 2023 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The chess star and up-and-coming poker player spoke at length about how chess is in her blood, her love for poker, and bluffing the legendary Phil Ivey during a private cash game!

During the summer, 888Ride spent time with Chance Kornuth, Kevin Martin, Koray Aldemir, and Farah Galfond. You can check out those in-depth interviews by clicking on their names. Once you’ve done that, check out Botez’s interview, conducted as 888poker drove her to Las Vegas!

Botez is best known for her chess prowess, a game she has played since the age of six. She learned from her father, who learned from Botez’s grandmother, who in turn learned the nuances of the game from Botez’s great-grandmother.

“Romanians love chess, they love poker, they also love backgammon. I’m actually learning that because I feel I need to know all three of these games now!” Botez said in the mobile interview’s early exchanges.

In recent times, many seasoned chess players have migrated over to the poker tables. We saw Magnus Carlsen appear at the EPT Monte Carlo festival, while Estonia’s Otto Ladva went through a spell of crushing high stakes poker tournaments online. What does Botez think are the parallels between what makes a good chess and poker players?

“I think stamina is a big one because these are the two games where the hours are so long. If you’re playing in a poker tournament, you may be playing three, five or six days or however long it is, and you’re playing 10 hours a day at least. With chess tournaments, you’re going to be playing tournaments for 10 days at a time, you’re training for the games, you’re playing the games, and at some point it starts to get into the stamina part of it.”

Botez revealed that she is hooked on poker but in a good way. Her first recorded live cash came at the 2023 PCA, which is also where Botez enjoyed her first victory; she collected $10,815 after taking down a $550 buy-in tournament. More recently, Botez finished in the top 10 percent of the 2023 WSOP Main Event while representing 888poker, and walked away with $17,500.

Although Botez believes she needs to work on all aspects of her game, she does think she has some qualities to become a solid poker player.

“I think I’m lucky,” Botez joked. “I think I am good at how I approach the game, and also being reasonable about my expectations. As in, I know I want to play more poker, and I know I’m not currently the best player, but I still think there’s a lot of opportunities in poker right now that can mix my love for the game and not necessarily require me to be the a top player.”

What Makes Alexandra Botez Happy?

Botez is active on Twitch, so fans and viewers often see what makes her tick, but what is it that truly makes her happy?

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out but one of the biggest things that brings me happiness is working on interesting things and spending time with people I love. You’re not really working if you’re doing something you like. If I’m working on a video, studying poker, or playing in a poker game, it never feels like work for me. So what I’m doing now is finding places where there’s effortless effort.”

Botez told Tuchman that in times gone by, she has been guilty of creating content purely for the clicks and views but has had a change of heart, and is now producing content and enjoying activities that she wants to do, not just because she feels she has to do them.

“Recently, I’ve made a mental switch. I don’t want to do things for money or because they’re the most effective thing. I want to work on more self-actualisation and spend my time on things I like because I have the kind of personality where if I like something, I will get incredibly obsessive about it and think about it all the time, and I genuinely think if I do things like that, that’s when the magic will happen rather than trying to brute force myself and not be truly into it.”

Botez has had the opportunity to play poker against some genuine legends of the game, Phil Ivey being one of them. However, one clash with Ivey did not exactly go to plan.

“I organised a game that brought Phil Ivey and Magnus Carlsen, and we all played together. I tried to bluff Phil Ivey with a $10,000 river bet, and I had nothing, and the man sat there staring into my soul for five minutes and called me with deuces!”

The chess star also had the pleasure of sitting across from the late Doyle Brunson.

“He was so nice, so friendly, every time I talked to him, I would have the same experience. I knew of him and his legacy, and I was just excited.”

That concludes 888poker’s incredible 888Ride series, at least for now. PokerNews cannot wait for the next episode to hit YouTube!

The 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) may have just concluded, but the PokerNews Live Updates roll on as from July 20-23, the $600 buy-in, $500,000 GTD The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship will take place at Thunder Valley Casino Resort just north of Sacramento, California.

“The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship is our way of acknowledging the vital role mid-major tournaments play in the poker ecosystem,” said Eric Danis, President of The Hendon Mob and Global Poker Index. “We believe over time this championship will become a must-attend event for poker enthusiasts worldwide.”

The tournament is in partnership with three-time Best Mid-Major Poker Tour, the RunGood Poker Series (RGPS), which is currently hosting their final stop of the “Checkpoint” season at Thunder Valley. The stop will conclude with a $2,500 buy-in, $1,000,000 GTD RGPS Checkpoint Million Dollar Main from July 28-31.

Check out the RGPS Hub on PokerNews here!

Celebrating Mid-Major Poker w/ Stephen Song

In 2022, Stephen Song finished atop the GPI’s Player of the Year leaderboard in the Mid-Major category with 3,543.72 points, thanks in big part to a December victory in the WPT Prime Championship. In honor of winning Mid-Major Poker Player of the Year, not to mention 2022 GPI Player of the Year, Song will be in attendance.

That’s because RGPS has provided last year’s Mid-Major Poker Player of the Year a prize package of over $2,000 in value which includes airfare, hotel, gift card, and buy-in for The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship. Something they will replicate for this year’s winner as well.

“I’m proud to be representing the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year and thankful for the RunGood crew for inviting me to The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship hosted by Thunder Valley,” said Song. “Excited to play at one of my favorite casinos.”

Check out the Thunder Valley Poker Room review here on PokerNews!

Schedule of Events

The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship will feature five starting flights. The first will take place a Noon local time on Thursday, July 20. Two more flights will be held at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on both Friday, July 21 and Saturday, July 22. The surviving players from all flights will then return at Noon on Sunday, July 23 to play down to a winner.

Additionally, there will be several $120 buy-in satellites available for those looking to win their way in on the cheap.

Executive Editor U.S.

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