It’s starting to feel like the old High Stakes Poker days all over again. Tom Dwan can’t seem to lose when the cameras are rolling and has absolutely crushed three straight days of Hustler Casino Live’s epic pot-limit Omaha games.

Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot, on the other hand, has been on quite a roller coaster ride. But the young polarizing high roller has rallied quite nicely from a brutal start to the week and is almost even.

Thursday night’s stream became a Friday morning affair as it ran for 14 hours. The action will resume at 4 p.m. PT from Hustler Casino in Los Angeles on Friday, giving the returning players barely enough time to catch some z’s. That’s especially true for Dwan, who hopped in a lower-stakes game following the marathon stream.

https://twitter.com/TheRyanFeldman/status/1682383979956289536

Somebody clearly loves poker. One player who might not love it so much right about now is “Pav,” a high-stakes player on the show who went from up nearly $1 million to ending the session up only around $50,000.

Does He Ever Lose?

Dwan, a future Poker Hall of Famer and online poker legend, has won all three nights during the heavily watched PLO games on Hustler Casino Live. On Thursday, he booked a $197,000 profit and was up for most of the session.

The high-stakes game was quite bonkers and has been throughout the week. There hasn’t been much play on the turn or river as the hands have mostly been all in preflop or on the flop. Dwan won $318,500 during Wednesday’s show and $160,000 the night prior. In total, he’s up $675,000 this week. He also won $1.6 million during the historic $1 million game in June, which included scooping the largest pot in live-streamed poker history ($3.1 million).

Dwan, however, isn’t the biggest winner or the only player to profit all three nights. Anthony has also booked three straight winning sessions for a total profit of $932,000, including winning just under $500k on Thursday after having been down around $450,000 earlier in the stream.

Perhaps the greatest hand of the week — and maybe the best PLO hand ever shown on stream — didn’t involve Anthony or “durrrr.” With J♣10♥10♦10♣, “Professor” was nearly all in preflop with $111,000 in the pot. In PLO, trips in the hole is typically a weak hand given you only play two hole cards. But in this game, there was a $5,000-per-player bounty on at the table if a player hit a set with trips in the hole.

Professor went with it and the flop came out 4♠Q♣6♠, not exactly what he was looking for. Both Professor and Tan would put in their last $16,000, each heavy underdogs against Dwan who flopped middle pair and had straight and flush draws to boot.

Technically, Professor was out in front with a pair of 10’s but was only 20% to win the hand. The three players agreed to run it twice for the $160,000 pot. We’ll let you watch the video for yourself to find out how it all played out.

https://twitter.com/HCLPokerShow/status/1682239316498739200

Unfortunately, for the Professor, he ended up down over $500,000 for the session and is nearly $1 million in the hole for the week.

Roller Coaster Week for Nik Airball

After Tuesday’s half-a-million-dollar defeat, Nik Airball wasn’t thrilled that PokerNews had written an article about his misfortunes. On Wednesday, he bounced back nicely with a $420,000 win. Even “the great game” ambassador Joey Ingram, who has commentated all three nights, called us out.

https://twitter.com/nikairball/status/1681916624050470912

Here’s your article, Nik. Well, half an article. We hope that will suffice. On Thursday, after having been down more than $200,000 at one point, the Hustler Casino Live regular battled back to finish the day up $34,000, bringing his weekly totals to a net loss of just $65,000, which he could easily make up in one hand Friday night.

Earlier this month, Michigan’s Tom “Penny & A Dream” Danko had some luck on PokerStars when he beat out over 1,800 players in the Half Price Sunday Mini Special to turn a $5 buy-in into a $1,170 payday during PokerStars Half Price Sunday, which wound up being the largest $5 buy-in tournament by field size in the history of the shared Michigan/New Jersey liquidity market.

As a whole, the PokerStars Half Price Sunday was comprised of 10 events catering to 8,185 combined entries and awarding $262,000 in prize money. The largest tournament was the Sunday Special with 1,859 entries and a $84,500 prize pool.

Married with two young children, the 41-year-old Danko has worked in human resources for the last 15 years for large multinational organizations.

“When I’m not with the family I enjoy playing ice hockey and playing online poker about once a week currently, but more when I’m able to do so,” he told PokerNews. “And talking and studying poker with poker friends also once a week.”

Check out Michigan’s top online poker rooms here!

Danko’s Poker Origin Story

Danko first learned to play poker as a kid during family games with his grandpa and uncles.

“I started playing poker competitively once poker became legalized online in Michigan a few years ago, as the appeal of competitive play drove me to study the game so that I could be competitive,” he shared. “I started with sit & goes and played those for about a year before moving to MTTs.”

Nowadays, Danko plays exclusively online, as the time commitment of live poker doesn’t work for his schedule.

“I stick with MTTs as, for me, it’s the best way to experience poker due to the changing dynamics of a tournament and the excitement and adaptations required as well as the variety offered by different tournaments (variation in speed/structure, PKO vs non PKO, etc).”

He continued: “I play on all of the Michigan regulated sites since they launched, essentially trying out what was available. I found PokerStars definitely leads the way in most aspects – lots of interesting tournament series, MTT structures, number of active players, software, eliciting player feedback and implementing updates, etc. – and with multistate play, I look forward to the future of additional states joining the multistate compact and the continued evolution of PokerStars to help grow the poker community.

Half Price Sunday Success

Amazingly, Danko found success on just one $5 bullet!

“For the first half to two-thirds of the $5 Half Price Sunday tourney I was pretty much in line with the average stack,” Danko explained. “The fun and roller coaster ride really began around the final 50 players. It was then I got up to 67 big blinds, then for the next hour, it was a straight decline down to <6bbs with 15 players remaining and me being in or near last. I shoved twice from late position winning two flips in a row to get to 28bb and maintained a healthy stack until the final table. I started the final table third in chips but by the time we were at six players I was in last with the chip leader having 2.5x my stack.”

He continued: “The biggest hand that changed the dynamics was when we were five-handed. The cutoff raised first in and I was button and flatted behind with aces hoping to trap or for a squeeze jam behind. The blinds folded and the board ran out 8x9xKx3x with a double flush draw. The cutoff flopped a strong top pair and then did a 125% overbet on the turn. I held and that gave me a commanding lead. From there I used my stack to apply pressure and won some flips to end up taking it down.”

For more on how you can play online poker in the United States, click here!

The 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) hosted 20 online bracelets awarded on WSOP.com in the merged network of New Jersey and Nevada. WSOP.com also awarded seven bracelets for players located in segregated markets of Pennsylvania and Michigan over the summer.

Here’s a look at the last winners from WSOP MI and WSOP PA.

Morris Claims Michigan Online Bracelet

On Sunday, July 16, the seventh and final Michigan online bracelet of the summer was awarded in Online Event #7: $500 NL Hold’em Summer Saver. The tournament saw 260 entries create a prize pool of $117,000 paid to the top 30 finishers.

Among those to finish in the money were Samuel Phillips (23rd – $1,346), three-time bracelet winner Dash Dudley (24th – $1,346), and Carter Myers (27th – $1,334). Following a day of battling on the virtual felt, Nicolai Morris (lead picture) of Oak Park, MI took home the bracelet and the $26,231 top prize after defeating Randy Bullen in heads-up play.

Morris secured his first recorded victory and his second-biggest recorded cash. His top cash was for $31,086 in the 2018 WSOP $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship in the Round of 8, and now Morris adds a gold bracelet to his WSOP résumé.

WSOP Online MI Event #7 Final Table Results

Garney Snags Pennsylvania Online Bracelet

On Sunday, July 16, the seventh and final Pennsylvania online bracelet of the summer was awarded in Online Event #7: $500 NL Hold’em Summer Saver. The tournament saw 231 entries generate a prize pool of $103,850 paid to the top 29 finishers.

Some of the players to cash include three-time Circuit ring winner Christopher
Rodriguez (14th – $1,216), Zachary Gruneberg (17th – $1,206), and WSOP PA Bracelet Event #3 winner Justin Vaysman (18th -$1,206).

At the end of the tournament, Elias Garney of White Haven, PA held all the chips after he defeated Justin Koniuk in heads-up play to secure his highest recorded cash of $23,306 and the coveted gold bracelet.

WSOP Online PA Event #7 Final Table Results

Michigan and Pennsylvania Online Bracelet Series Results

Time Topic

00:35 Welcome to the show

00:43 Guest Phil Hellmuth joins the show

01:03 Advising all the companies

02:50 Capturing record-extending 17th gold bracelet

06:18 Heads-up lasted just one hand

08:50 Who did you give your bracelet to?

11:32 Playing Triton Poker for the first time?

12:17 Big hand against Nick Rigby

14:54 Getting tired at the poker table

15:58 Will you be at the WSOP Paradise?

17:40 Don’t be jealous of Phil Ivey

19:20 Sponsor: Global Poker

20:00 Announcing the winner of a signed WSOP cushion

21:23 Mike Gorodinsky’s empty Bellagio lockbox

23:23 WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas

25:09 The Jeff Platt Curse

27:09 Weinman’s jacks-versus-queens-versus-kings key hand

29:09 Daniel Weinman wins 2023 WSOP Main Event

31:09 WSOP Player of the Year race

33:09 Final 2023 WSOP updates on Phil Hellmuth & Daniel Negreanu

35:27 Guest Brian Rast joins the show

36:05 How has your summer been as a whole?

38:06 How did you feel when you were nominated for Poker Hall of Fame?

42:06 Who would you like to see join you in the PHoF?

45:00 Not all bracelets are created equal

47:20 What keeps you motivated?

52:00 Remembering your first WSOP cash

54:42 DJ Rast’s song mixing

55:50 What $50,000 Poker Players Championship titles mean the most?

59:13 Do you have any memorable Doyle Brunson stories?

1:02:50 Where are all your bracelets?

1:04:15 July PokerNews Freerolls

Daniel Weinman took his winner’s photo for the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event in front of a stack of cash that was $12,100,000 tall.

However, Weinman’s bank account will never see that much lettuce. As an American, gambling winnings are taxed as income, meaning that by the time the WSOP cut him his cheque, the company would have withheld around 37% and sent it to the IRS as federal income tax.

Then, when Weinman returns to his home state of Georgia, he has a further 5.75% of the full amount to pay as Georgia state income tax.

This makes Weinman’s apparent $12,100,000 windfall into something closer to an estimated* $6,969,679 windfall.

Every player at the final table was subject to similar calculations. Some of the overseas players pay nothing, while others have it even rougher than the Yanks.

Within the US, each state charges a different state income tax. So, the top three finishers are also all Americans from different states so Weinman, Steven Jones (2nd – $6,500,000), and Adam Walton (3rd – $4,000,000) all receive tax bills that differ only slightly. The differences are such that they do not affect the players’ positions in the 2023 Main Event money rankings.

*All the figures in this article are estimates using online tax calculators and assuming no other income and no deductions. For non-US players, a double taxation treaty is also assumed.

The Taxman Cometh

For Jan-Peter Jachtmann (4th – $3,000,000), his bill is particularly galling. Professional poker players in Germany are taxed as self-employed businessmen, which means they pay income tax (though they can deduct expenses). Hobbyists, on the other hand, do not pay tax on offline poker winnings.

Unfortunately, Jachtmann, a resident of Hamburg, describes himself on Twitter as a semi-professional. This fact will probably cost him around $1,405,678 of his $3,000,000 win. That takes his fourth place down to $1,594,321.

This is rather less than the $1,850,000 prize that Dean Hutchison gets to keep, two places below Jachtmann in sixth. Both Hutchinson and Toby Lewis, being from the UK, do not pay tax on their gambling winnings. This leaves them with their full amounts of $1,850,000 and $1,425,000, respectively.

Check out the 2022 WSOP Main Event tax breakdown here!

Ruslan Prydryk is from Ukraine, which charges nothing on the first UAH480,000 ($13,057) in poker winnings and then a flat 18% thereafter. Prydryk will also probably have to pay a 1.5% military levy.

This means his remaining $1,934,546 for fifth is also higher than Jachtmann’s prize for fourth.

Just this year, Spain opted to start treating poker players as professionals meaning that, like Jachtmann, Juan Maceiras (8th – $1,125,000) will have to pay income tax on his win. For Macieras, that means a 43% pay cut from $1,125,000 to $642,525.

Italy, on the other hand, has heavy gambling taxes, but they fall entirely on operators, not the players. So, Daniel Holzner (9th – $900,000) might avoid paying anything on his winnings when he returns home to the Apennine Penisula. This creates another reversal, where ninth place will take home much more than eighth.

In total, the final table at this year’s WSOP Main Event won $33,300,000 and paid an estimated $11,575,951 in taxes to four national and three state governments. Three of the players probably paid nothing in taxes.

Table of 2023 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payouts After Taxes*

The WPT World Championship returns on December 12 after a hugely successful debut in 2022. Last year, the inaugural WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas carried a $15 million guarantee on its prize pool, but eventually awarded $29,008,000 thanks to 2,960 players turning out in force and paying $10,400. The 2023 edition should be equally as large, and you could be playing for a life-changing prize from as little as $5, thanks to WPT Global.

WPT Global is running satellites to the 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas from July 23. Those satellites start at a mere $5, and eventually feed into the $220 and $1,060 qualifiers, which hit the WPT Global lobby from August 6.

The ultimate prize is a $12,400 package consisting of entry to the $10,400 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas plus $2,000 toward expenses. Package winners are responsible for their own accommodation, travel, any visa requirements.

Also, be aware that although WPT Global accepts players aged 18 and above, you must be at least 21 years of age to compete in the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

Stephen Kehoe was among the bumper 2,960 entry crowd in the 2022 WPT World Championship; Kehoe won his way into the event via a $550 satellite online at WPT Global. Kehoe navigated his way through to the penultimate day, but came unstuck when his king-jack failed to get there against the pocket queens of Michael Rocco, and he busted in 14th place for a whopping $269,900.

Kehoe was only seven eliminations away from becoming an instant millionaire because the top six finishers banked seven-figure scores. Colton Blomberg ($1,001,050), Frank Funaro ($1,301,000), Adam Adler ($1,608,000), and Jean-Claude Moussa ($2,095,000) crashed out with $1 million+ prizes, leaving British superstar Benny Glaser heads-up against Canada’s Eliot Hudon.

Hudon eventually came out on top to become the WPT World Championship’s champion, an accolade that came with an incredible $4,136,000, leaving Glaser to collect a $2,830,000 consolation prize.

Start Your Quest for Glory With a Generous Welcome Bonus

As well as offering the chance to play in the WPT World Championship for only $5, WPT Global also offers new players matched deposit bonus of 100% up to a maximum of $1,200. Any new player who deposits $20 or more will automatically receive this deposit bonus.

The playthrough requirements for this bonus is fairly straightforward, with each $2.50 increment of the bonus being unlocked every time you generate $10 of rake. This rake can come from either tournaments or cash games. The bonus expires after 90 days starting from the date of your first deposit.

To further sweeten the deal, WPT Global will also award you some tournament tickets. The exact reward depends on whether you are a new player and how big your deposit was.