The Cheltenham Festival is one of the world’s most famous horse racing meets, one packed with Grade 1 races featuring the best horses and jockeys. Cheltenham takes place from March 14-17, which is also when the bet365 Cheltenham Champions promotion runs, giving you a chance to play for a share of €2,500 for free. So saddle up, take the reins, and race off with a bankroll-boosting prize for free!

The Cheltenham Champions promotion sees bet365 poker players compete in four value-packed freerolls coinciding with the horse racing festival’s most prestigious events. Three freerolls, the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, and Stayers’ Hurdle, feature €500 cash prize pools, with the Gold Cup freeroll boasting €1,000 in cold, hard cash.

All four freerolls have restricted entry, but gaining access is simple. All you need to do is be fast out of the stalls each day and either play five jackpot Twister tournaments with a minimum buy-in of €5 or stake €50 on qualifying Age of the Gods slots via the poker software, and that day’s freeroll opens to you.

Each day’s qualifying period runs from 3:30 p.m. GMT to 3:29 p.m. GMT the following day, giving you plenty of time to meet the entry requirements.

Cheltenham Champions Freeroll Schedule

Cheltenham Champions Significant Terms and Conditions

• Cheltenham Champions runs from 10:00 GMT on 13th March until 15:29 GMT on 17th March 2023.
• Qualifying periods run daily from 15:30 GMT until 15:29 GMT the following day with the exception of the first, which runs from 10:00 GMT on 13th March until 15:29 GMT on 14th March.
• In order to receive one freeroll ticket, you must play in five Twister tournaments with a minimum buy-in of €5 or stake €50 on qualifying Age of the Gods slots within the poker software during a daily qualifying period.
• In order to receive both freeroll tickets, you must complete both missions outlined above. You can complete each mission once to receive a maximum of two freeroll tickets per qualifying period. Both tickets can only be used to enter the Cheltenham freeroll assigned to that qualifying period. More details can be found in the Missions section of the poker software.
• Qualifying slots for the staking mission are: Age Of The Gods, Age of the Gods: Apollo Power, Age of the Gods: Book of Oracle, Age of the Gods: Epic Troy, Age of the Gods: Fate Sisters, Age of the Gods: Furious 4, Age of the Gods: Glorious Griffin, Age of the Gods: God of Storms, Age of the Gods: God of Storms 2, Age of the Gods: Goddess of Wisdom, Age of the Gods: King of Olympus, Age of the Gods: Medusa & Monsters, Age of the Gods: Mighty Midas, Age of the Gods: Roulette, Age of the Gods: Ruler of the Dead, Age of the Gods: Ruler of the Seas, Age of the Gods: Ruler of the Sky, Age of the Gods: Rulers of Olympus, Age of the Gods: Wheels of Olympus, Age of the Gods: Wonder Warriors, Age of the Gods Norse: Book of Dwarves, Age of the Gods Norse: Gods and Giants, Age of the Gods Norse: King of Asgard, Age of the Gods Norse: Norse Legends and Age of the Gods Norse: Ways of Thunder.
• All freeroll tickets received as a result of Cheltenham Champions can only be used to enter freerolls with the corresponding name. If unused, tickets expire once registration for the relevant freeroll closes.
• This offer is only available to new and eligible customers.

What Are Twister Tournaments?

Twister are bet365 poker’s take on jackpot sit & go tournaments, where the prize pool is randomly determined before the first cards are dealt. Most of the time, these three-handed hyper-turbo sit & go games have a prize pool twice or three times the size of each player’s buy-in, but they can payout up to 1,000 times the buy-in, making them potentially lucrative.

Buy-ins of €1, €2, €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, and €200 are available in the bet365 poker software, so there is a Twister tournament for everyone regardless of their bankroll’s size.

Twister Prize Probabilities

Start Your Bet365 Career With a €365 Welcome Bonus

You need a Bet365 Poker account to get involved in the Cheltenham Champions promotion. Those with an account can fire up the Bet365 Poker software, opt in, and start meeting the entry requirements. Anyone reading this without an account can download Bet365 Poker via PokerNews and become eligible for a sizable welcome package.

Regardless of your initial deposit size, new Bet365 Poker customers receive a €365 redeemable bonus that releases into your account as you play real money cash games and tournaments. You receive 10 Status Points for every €1 or £1 you contribute to the cash game rake or pay in tournament fees.

The first two €2.50 bonus payments release into your playable balance once you earn 25 and 50 Status Points, respectively. The following 24 increments land in your account each time you earn 100 Status Points, with the remaining installments redeeming after every 250 Status Points earned.

In addition to the €365 bonus, you also reel in a €1 Twister ticket, a free spin on the Welcome Prize Wheel, and some special welcome missions where you earn one-off prizes

After two weeks of high-stakes poker action, the 2023 Triton Super High Roller Series Vietnam wrapped up with the completion of Event #15: $20,000 NLH Short Deck, which Canada’s Sam Greenwood took down for $207,000 to close out the series.

The Super High Roller Series in Southeast Asia consisted of over a dozen No-Limit Hold’em and Short Deck events. It culminated with the $100,000 buy-in Main Event, which saw England’s Talal Shakerchi topping the field of 135 runners and defeating Malaysia’s Michael Soyza to earn the trophy and a career-best $3,250,000.

The victory brought Shakerchi, a 59-year-old hedge fund manager, his first Triton title after a runner-up finish in $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha at 2022 Triton Cyprus series for $190,000. Soyza, meanwhile, was after a second title after taking down the 2019 Triton Jeju Super High Roller for $1,420,581. He bested that with his runner-up finish as he took home a career-high $2,207,000.

“Poker is my hobby and I want to play the best players,” Shakerchi told Triton after the victory. “That’s how you get satisfaction out of any activity that you do. Challenge yourself and try to do the best you can.”

Other notables who made deep runs in the Triton Vietnam Main Event include Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel (18th – $175,000), the controversial Bryn Kenney (17th – $195,000) and Mike Watson (20th – $175,000), who went on to take down Event #12: $50,000 NLH Short Deck – Ante Only for $695,000.

Read about the early winners in the Triton Vietnam series!

Koon, Tang & Greenwood Grab Triton Vietnam Titles

PokerNews highlighted some of the early winners in the High Roller series including familiar names like Nacho Barbero (Event #2: $15,000 NLH 7-Handed – $600,000), Jans Arends (Event #5: $30,000 NLH 7-Handed – $921,178) and Orpen Kisacikoglu (Event #7: $75,000 NLH 8-Handed – $1,753,000).

The familiar faces kept winning as GGPoker ambassador Jason Koon topped a small field of 24 runners in Event #10: $50,000 NLH Turbo for $574,000. Koon defeated Russia’s Artur Martirosian during heads-up play, while fellow American Chris Brewer finished in third. After that, Daniel Tang took down Event #11: $25,000 NLH Short Deck – Ante Only for $427,000.

Event #10: $50,000 NLH Turbo Final Table Results

Watson, another high-stakes regular, emerged the winner in the $50,000 Short Deck offering for $695,000. The Canadian had an incredible run throughout the series and managed to nab five cashes in addition to the first-place victory, including a six-place finish in Event #11 for $91,200.

Watson’s recent heater didn’t start in Vietnam. In February, he took down Event #20: €25,000 No Limit Hold’em at EPT Paris for $346,773. In his latest victory, Watson defeated heads-up opponent Isaac Haxton, who himself has been on quite a hot streak to start off the new year.

Event #12: $50,000 NLH Short Deck – Ante Only Final Table Results

Watson wasn’t the only Canadian who found a trophy at Triton Vietnam. After China’s Aaron Shu Nu Zang took down the $100,000 NLH Short Deck Main Event for $1,544,000, Greenwood defeated Malaysia’s Lun Loon in the series finale to win $207,000, while others at the final table included Haxton (3rd – $91,000), Seth Davies (4th – $65,800) and Wei Hsiang Yeu (5th – $53,200).

A full list of winners at the Triton Super High Roller Series Vietnam festival is available in the table below.

2023 Triton Super High Roller Series Vietnam Winners

_{Photos courtesy of Triton Poker}

A champion has been declared after nine days of the $3,500 Main Event at the 2023 Wynn Millions. Michael Rossitto has climbed to the top and defeated a field of 1,314 entries to take home $604,637. Rossitto conquered a final table on Day 6 in just over 10 hours and outlasted Andrew Esposito in a heads-up duel.

Rossitto entered the final day in the middle of the pack but never really suffered any major setbacks throughout the day. As one of the strongest players remaining in the field, Rossitto got down to business and was able to walk away with the title. Both players had their hands on the chip lead at one point in a heads-up match that lasted around 2.5 hours, but it was Rossitto who got the last laugh.

It’s the largest career score for Rossitto, who said he was patient for most of the final table.

“I just waited for good hands early on until I got chips and could play more aggressively,” said in his post-win interview with PokerNews.

Rossitto will add this to his already impressive poker resume which includes over $2.1 million in career earnings.

The only hiccup on the day for the new Las Vegas resident was when he had his aces cracked during heads-up to relinquish the chip lead.

“We were still pretty deep so I got some advice from some better players to adjust my strategy and I played well,” Rossitto said. “It’s pretty good to bounce ideas off everyone and everyone had great knowledge to give. I kind of just went with my own reads and I think it well.”

As for the runner-up from Texas, Esposito also earned his largest payday of $480,752 after another solid performance since returning to the tournament scene. Esposito mentioned throughout the day that he was mostly into cash games but has since indulged in more tournaments and his track record has been stellar over the last few months. “I’m very happy with it,” Esposito said on his good run that also last over 10 hours on Day 6.

Action from the Final Day

The day began with nine players returning to the felt and if the end of Day 5 was any indication of the pace of play, the players may have been looking at a long and extended final day before the winner would be declared. However, that wasn’t the case as the action was fast and furious right from the start with a cold deck helping the situation.

Cliff Ziff came into the day with an average stack but on the second hand of the day, his pocket tens were no match for Esposito who rivered an ace with ace-king. Short-stacked Kharlin Sued lasted another orbit but Esposito’s straight flush also sent him to the rail in the early going.

Near the end of the first level, Zhigang Yang got the last of his chips in the middle with pocket nines but was looked up by a suited broadway holding from Mark Zajdner. A runner-runner flush for Zajdner sent Yang to the payout desk in seventh place and the field was quickly down to the final six.

When the players returned from their first break of the day, it was the start-of-day chip leader Zachary Donovan who was on the wrong end of a cooler when his pocket kings were up against the pocket aces of Zajdner. The board provided no change and Donovan was left on the short stack.

Jacob Powers was full of unorthodox plays throughout the final table, and today he even pulled out the straddle (blind raise). However, those lost chips eventually caught up with him and he ran out of chips in sixth place. Donovan managed to survive long enough to ladder up to fifth place but lost a flip to the big stack of Zajdner to leave just four players remaining.

Pedro Ingles was fairly quiet at the final table and patiently watched other stacks implode around him. The Spaniard finally found a spot to get his 20 big blinds into the middle with ace-jack suited but ran right into the ace-king of Rossitto. The board ran out clean and Ingles hit the rail in fourth place.

That left the final three to battle it out, with plenty of chips in play to create a dynamic that saw the chip lead bounce around feverishly. Another cooler emerged when Esposito’s aces scored him a double-up through Zajdner’s kings but the Canadian bounced right back with a triple-up on the very next hand.

Three-handed play continued past the dinner break for another two levels with the chips being passed around the table pretty evenly. However, Zajdner was never able to escape the short stack, and eventually, another cooler was dealt. In a blind vs blind matchup, Zajdner got his chips in the middle with pocket jacks against the ace-king from Rossitto. An ace on the flop left Zajdner drawing slim and he was unable to catch up, bowing out in third place.

When the heads-up match began, Rossitto was comfortably in the lead and slowly adding more chips to his stack. However, his pocket aces were cracked by Esposito who flopped two pair when all of the chips went in the middle. Esposito held on for a big double-up to sway the chip lead in his direction. After one last break, Rossitto returned to the felt on a mission and quickly climbed his way back to even.

After Rossitto started to pull ahead over the next hour, he finally laid a couple of larger blows to Esposito’s stack and it all came to a head in one final hand. Rossitto barrelled the turn with the nut-straight and Esposito went bluff-catching at the wrong time. All of the chips went in on the river and Rossitto was able to celebrate with his rail.

Brazilian star Allan “allan sheik” Mello was one of many online poker tournament players celebrating this weekend, with Mello taking down the a $1,050 buy-in freezeout that was part of the PokerStars Bounty Builder Series.

Dozens of household names, including Andras “probirs” Nemeth and Team PokerStars’ Lex “L. Veldhuis” Veldhuis found themselves in the winner’s enclosure, having triumphed in high stakes PokerStars tournaments, to give their bankrolls a serious boost.

Mello’s victory came in the Bounty Builder Series #73, a $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max High Roller freezeout. Some 207 players bought in and created a $207,000 prize pool.

The nine-handed final table was littered with top-tier professionals, although it lost one when Andrey “Anjeyyyy” Novak bowed out early into proceedings. Finland’s “realshisjiii” and Brazilian “MatheusMocci” joined Novak on the rail before “25264556” and “AcidValue” crashed out, leaving only four players in contention for the title of champion.

Those four became three with the elimination of Stevan “random_chu” Chew, then two after Kelvin “Kelvin_FP:AR” Kerber was relieved of his stack. Heads-up saw Mello stand toe-to-toe with |gammiil€120| of Montenegro. Mello finished his opponent, and reeled in a $42,170 score.

Bounty Builder Series 73: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max High Roller Freezeout Final Table Results

Multiple $1M GTD Events Scheduled for Returning PokerStars Bounty Builder Series

MakuFz and Yan Chop the Titans Event

The $5,200 Titans event saw 75 high-rolling PokerStars players take to the virtual felt and create a $375,000 prize pool. As you would expect, a tournament of this magnitude attracts the biggest names in the business, and nine of those elite grinders navigated their way to the nine-handed final table.

Just as he had done in the $1,050 NLHE 8-Max Freezeout Bounty Builder Series event, Andrey “Anjeyyyy” Novak busted in ninth place in this tournament. Austrian “CherryOnTop” and Brazil’s Rodrigo “seijistar” Seiji Sirichuk followed suit, before Juan “Malaka$tyle” Pardo, and “roo_400” saw their tournaments end prematurely.

“Gogac sniper” was shot down in fourth, and heads-up was set when Jans “Graftekkel” Arends busted in third. Arends’ untimely demise left David “MissOracle” Yan and “MakuFz” heads-up for the title and the lion’s share of the prize pool. The heads-up duo struck a deal that saw Yan collected $84,936, and MakuFz bank $92,090 and the title of champion.

$5,200 Titans Event Final Table Results

*reflects a heads-up deal

PokerStars and Oracle Red Bull Racing Continue Partnership

Other PokerStars Highlights

Andras “probirs” Nemeth became a Bounty Builder Series champion, while Team PokerStars’ popular Dutchman Lex “L. Velduis” Veldhuis won the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up. There was also a victory for Michael “imluckbox” Addamo in the $1,050 Sunday Supersonic.

*includes bounty payments

ukrLaci Wins Big as $100K Mystery Bounty Beats Guarantee

Over at 888poker, “ukrLaci” padded their bankroll with an impressive $12,300 after being the last player standing in the $35,000 Sunday Big Shot 525. The Ukraininan topped an 82-strong field, and won more than a quarter of the $41,000 prize pool.

The champion defeated 888poker regular “Destroyer300” heads-up, resigning the Lithuanian runner-up to an $8,200 consolation prize. Other finalists that are always grinding 888poker’s biggest tournaments included Finnish star “wellyxx” and Canadian “algsxr.” The finished sixth and ninth for $2,337 and $1,476, respectively.

While this tournament was concluding, the latest $100,000 guaranteed Mystery Bounty Main Event was whittling its field towards the final table. Some 1,071 players bought in, ensuring another guarantee-topping prize pool, with “freeeeeeeeak” being one of the biggest winners so far after pulling out a $10,000 bounty before busting in 190th place.

The $100,000 Mystery Bounty Main Event wraps up on March 13, and PokerNews will have a full recap of the final table action for you on March 14.

$35,000 Sunday Big Shot 525 Final Table Results

888poker Steps Up War Against AI in Poker; Refunds Almost $300K in 2022

kellerassel0 Claims Big Shot 215 Title For Germany

Seventy-one players turned out for the latest edition of the Big Shot 215, a tournament with a $12,000 guarantee but that awarded $14,200. A cool $4,402 of that sum went to Germany’s “kellerassel0” who defeated “Iaromachikne” of Brazil in the one-on-one section of the tournament. Second place came with a $3,053 payout.

Three other finalists saw four-figure prizes land in their 888poker accounts. “BeHappyyy” ($1,065), “marllonsanti” ($1,420) and “BIG_BIN” ($2,059) being that trio.

$12,000 Sunday Big Shot 215 Final Table Results

Dusek Demolished The Grand at PartyPoker

The $1,050 Grand tournament at PartyPoker is the only weekly event at the site that sees players compete using their real names and not aliases. Eighty players bought in this week, created a $79,785 prize pool, of which Petr Dusek collected $19,362.

Dusek brushed aside Bulgarian Atanas Malinov heads-up, leaving Malinov to capture a $12,676 consolation prize. Other well-known grinders that reached the Grand’s final table but fell short of the victory included Ioannis Angelous Konstas ($3,117), Gavin Cochrane ($3,547), and Tomi Brouk ($4,084).

The Grand Final Table Results

PartyPoker Grand Prix Spring Features a $250K GTD Main Event for $55

“Spacko22” Secures Big Saturday Win

Although it takes place before Sunday, The Big Saturday is one of three new PartyPoker majors, so it deserves a mention here. The $215 Big Saturday drew in 142 players, which mean another small overlay on the $30,000 guarantee. “Spacko22” collected $5,882 of that pot after leaving 141 opponents in their wake, including runner-up “OddsetProfil,” who netted $4,104.

Only two of the players that reached the final table walked away with less than $1,000 for their efforts. Perhaps make The Big Saturday part of your regular weekend grinding schedule? Satellite from pennies run throughout the week if the $215 buy-in is too steep.

The Big Saturday Final Table Results

Other PartyPoker Highlights

Check out some of these other PartyPoker results, including “mch89” who turned a $55 investment into an impressive $8,236 payday.

*includes bounty payments

As the threat of real-time assistance (RTA) to online poker continues to permeate, who is responsible for detecting and preventing cheating in the online poker space? Poker sites? Government regulators? Poker training software developers? This is a question that several prominent poker players and training site owners debated this week in the latest controversy over the future of online poker in the age of artificial intelligence.

The discussion surrounded the decision by poker training software Odin Poker to remove its 20-second delay, something that critics warned encourages cheating by allowing users to see outputs in real-time to make optimal decisions.

Odin and Prometheus Poker founder Rory Young pushed back on this criticism by pointing out that other prominent poker training tools have always operated without a delay (albeit with other RTA-prevention methods in place) and claiming that these sites were unwilling to agree “on having the same delay on our respective products.”

Click here to learn more about RTA in poker

Hammer Dropped on Odin

Odin is a poker training software similar to tools like GTOTrainer, GTO Wizard and DTO Poker. Using unique simulations, the software helps players analyze hundreds of spots and looks at different flop bet sizes and preflop actions using PioSolver Analysis Tools, according to the Odin website.

The poker training software launched in July 2021 at a time when solver outputs were largely only accessible to high-stakes pros who “needed expert knowledge to be able to configure these solvers,” Young told PokerNews in a March 9 interview.

“The idea was to bring this technology at scale to as many people as possible, obviously for profit, but (also) so people could have access to the same information that the best players in the world had,” said Young.

Odin had a large marketing presence at the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and even picked up a high-profile ambassador in poker wunderkind Fedor Holz. As of earlier this year, Holz is no longer affiliated with the company.

In its first nearly two years on the market, Odin operated with a 20-second delay to prevent RTA, a timeframe Young noted was “more than enough time to make sure that it can’t be abused.”

According to Young, he reached out to other major poker training software providers “to negotiate a gentleman’s agreement where the one thing we never compete on is the delay, for the sake of the future of online poker.”

“No one got back to me,” he said. “People responded, but they basically said, ‘No, not interested.’ And then despite this, I still chose to keep on the delay for nearly two years, obviously to the detriment of revenue and customer (user experience) and everything.”

On Feb. 28, Odin removed the 20-second delay and advertised on its website that it now offered “instant solutions” with “no delay.” A few days later, Odin sent an email to users promoting the delay and announcing a sale.

“Solving poker has never been faster,” reads a banner on the Odin website.

Young told PokerNews he opted to remove the delay “because it was causing such (user experience) problems for our users; there were lots of complaints, lots of competitors who had no delays.”

Removing the delay didn’t bode well with several poker players and fellow training site operators, including LearnProPoker co-founder Ryan Laplante.

“Unfortunate to see you want to profit from not having a delay, and don’t want to help the industry as a whole,” tweeted Laplante.

Young defended his decision to remove the delay in a Twitter thread, where he noted he contacted other training companies about agreeing to a delay and “NONE of them were willing.”

Laplante, who helped build and owns a part of RangeTrainerPro that launched in 2019, disagreed with this reasoning.

“It’s important to act ethically regardless of what everyone else is doing,” tweeted Kade. “That’s why people have so much respect for people and companies who consistently make an effort to do the right thing – when it’s not just lip service it often has a real personal cost and the reason it’s hard is *because* it puts the welfare of the community above your own self-interest.”

Poker Training Operators Put on Defensive

The decision by Young to drop its 20-second delay put Odin and other poker training sites on the defensive as the community debated how best to counter RTA in the face of rapidly changing technology.

Young, a WSOP bracelet winner from Australia, acknowledged that it was a “big mistake doing a big sale and sending out a promotion saying we removed it (the 20-second delay) where we didn’t clearly communicate.”

“That’s on me,” he said. “I suck at marketing, to be honest. I didn’t really think it through. It should have been like, ‘Hey, due to our competitors not having delays and so many people kind of leaving us for them, we decided we had to remove the delay. We didn’t want to.’ I think that kind of messaging would have been smarter.”

He also acknowledged that removing the delay could be problematic. Might doing so enable Odin customers to use it as an RTA tool?

“The short answer is yes; the longer answer is yes, but you will be caught,” said Young. “Either directly through Odin or through the poker sites catching you.”

Without disclosing specifics, Young noted that “we have two or three measures internally that we take to prevent RTA,” adding that “the delay is the only very obvious, measurable, user-facing measure that you can take to prevent people from using it.”

Other poker training software operators weighed in on social media. Galfond defended RIO’s Vision GTO Trainer in a Twitter thread, while DTO Poker Trainer founder Nitsche pointed to other poker training tools like GTO Wizard that operate “with 0 delay,” noting that “tools capable of displaying solver solutions in real time have been around for a long time now.”

“Odin did not cross any lines that had previously not been crossed by other big players in the space,” said Nitsche. “Don’t hate on Odin for following the trend.”

Who’s Responsible for Policing RTA?

Like many of poker’s most controversial issues, the subject was taken up on the Solve For Why Only Friends podcast, where Matt Berkey called removing the delay “optically poor from a marketing standpoint” while also noting he was “very much of the mindset that this is not the software development team’s duty to police any longer.”

“The issue is that even if you could get every single operator on board right now … it doesn’t prevent somebody tomorrow from launching a new product that says ‘f*** you. We’ll do it better and we’ll do it more efficiently. And you being ethical is what’s going to cost you bottom line and allows us to win market share,'” said Berkey.

His position deviated from that of Kleeton, who argued that software developers and poker training sites have an obligation to create ethical products that don’t enable RTA.

“It takes zero effort on our parts in order to be good actors,” the RangeTrainerPro founder said. “The only effort that it takes is a willingness to look beyond the bottom line and realize that in the long term all we’re doing is … making a quick dollar in the short term but killing online poker in the long term.”

Both agreed that regulatory bodies need to play an active role in detecting RTA and preventing cheating.

“Maybe if we could go beyond the operators altogether because that’s what’s lacking is oversight be a greater governing body,” said Berkey.

“That’s exactly the point,” said Kleeton. “We don’t have an oversight governing body.”

In his interview with PokerNews, Young pushed back on notions that he was a bad-faith actor in the poker community and noted that he has been at the forefront of RTA prevention.

“If I was this bad-faith actor, my team of developers are ex-Google, ex-Facebook developers. We can augment the Odin system in maybe like a couple of weeks to be a fully-fledged RTA selling directly to the public where it can read your screen and tell you exactly what to do in real time. Never have we ever had any kind of productization that would point in that direction. Quite the opposite.”

A proposed bill to redefine a controversial gambling law could serve as some much needed protection for Texas poker clubs if it passes.

The Lone Star State has some of the strictest gambling laws in the country. As such, the dozens of poker rooms across America’s second most populous state have faced scrutiny from local politicians, and sometimes even legal action.

Card rooms in Texas operate differently than most places due to gambling being illegal in the state. Instead of collecting rake, they charge membership and seat fees for access to the club. But some lawmakers still believe that business model is against the law.

Four prominent poker rooms in the state — The Lodge Card Club near Austin, Texas Card House (five locations), Champions Club in Houston, and San Antonio Card House — are backing a bill that would change how the Texas gambling law is worded, eliminating any doubt as to the legality of poker clubs.

How Proposed Poker Bill Could Benefit Texas

The main objection certain politicians who oppose the poker club model is they are often stuck on two parts of Texas Penal Code 47.04. One area of debate is the law clearly states that the gambling must occur in a “private place.” The other refers to the “economic benefit” received from the games, which can only be from “personal winnings.”

At present, there’s debate as to if “private place” includes a membership-based club and if facilitating the games constitutes receiving “economic benefit” from the games even if rake isn’t taken out of the pots.

The debate may soon come to an end if the group Texans For Hold’em, organized by the four aforementioned card rooms, has its way. House Bill 2345, a partisan bill sponsored by Rep. Ryan Guillen (D), was filed Feb. 15 and referred to the Licensing & Administrative Procedures committee on March 9.

HB 2345’s Texas Senate companion bill, SB 1681, was filed March 6 by Rep. Jose Menendez (D). In that pro-poker piece of legislation that could serve as a game-changer for poker rooms across the state, the definition of “private place” and “economic benefit” would be amended to clear up any confusion as to the legality of poker.

In Chapter 47 of Texas Penal Code, SB 1681 would add subdivision 2-a, which if passed would read: “‘Economic benefit’ means direct winnings from a game of skill or luck. The term does not include a benefit received before a game commences or after payment of the direct winnings from the game.”

As for the “private place’ term, that would be redefined in subdivision 8 and the proposed measure amends that to read: “‘Private place” means a place to which the public does not have access without a valid membership, special invitation, or prior grant of permission[,] and excludes, among other places, streets, highways, restaurants, taverns, nightclubs, schools, hospitals, and the common areas of apartment houses, hotels, motels, office buildings, transportation facilities, and shops.”

Should this bill pass, there would no longer be any debate as to whether the social poker club model used by card rooms across the state are operating legally. That would then help prevent against local authorities cracking down on the poker rooms so long as they are operating within the law.

The bill does not, however, legalize gambling in Texas. Putting up table games and slots and collecting rake from poker pots would remain a criminal act, but it would still be beneficial to the poker community in the state.

Does Poker Bill Have a Chance of Passing?

Texas Card House CEO Ryan Crow has been working on putting together a rewording of the state’s gambling laws. Crow’s card room in Dallas has faced legal action the past year despite the city originally approving his business license.

He’s spent countless hours fighting lawsuits and a potential closure following a Certificate of Occupancy revocation in 2022. Although TCH, which operates in five locations statewide, has remained in operation throughout the legal battle, the fight has caused a nuisance for the business.

In December, TCH teamed up with three other prominent poker rooms, including The Lodge in Round Rock, co-owned by poker pros Doug Polk, Brad Owen, and Andrew Neeme to create the Texans For Hold’em group to promote legal poker in Texas.

Crow told PokerNews he feels confident in the proposed bill to pass and said the Texans For Hold’em organization has “a strong team of about 10 lobbyists working on it.”

A hearing date for HB 2345 hasn’t yet been set. Should the measure pass, it would take effect Sept. 1, 2023.

READ: Texas Card House Dallas Wins Appeal

Once upon a time, Phil Hellmuth was the fresh prince of Bel Air. Well, at least of Bel Air Drive in Las Vegas. That is where his one-time poker abode is located and is currently up for sale. The 1,672-square-foot home is currently listed for $525,000.

“I bought this house in Las Vegas Country Club gated community (great location),” the 16-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner shared on social media. “I never lived there, but was going to stay there during WSOP and other long Vegas trips.”

While Hellmuth has stayed there in the past, it’s been many years since he’s stayed at the property. Nowadays, he lives in California with his family, and whenever he visits Las Vegas he takes up residence at ARIA.

The home is listed as a “vintage three-bedroom home build in 1974” located at 2902 Bel Air Drive, which is in the guard-gated Las Vegas Country Club. It features a view overlooking the second green, has a bedroom balcony and swimming pool, as well as a two-car garage and extended driveway.

“The golf course and Strip views from the backyard are simply gorgeous,” said Bob Hamrick, chairman and CEO of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty. “This home is representative of Old Vegas style and with a little renovating it can be returned to its original glory.”

Not only is the house up for sale, but it is being exclusively sold by well-known poker player Karina Jett, who is also a realtor at Coldwell Banker Premier Realty.

“This has been a second residence for Phil since he purchased it in 2002,” said Jett. “Its close proximity to the Las Vegas Strip is his favorite feature.”

For those interested, they can contact Jett at 702.218.0162 to schedule a private showing.

Click here to see more photos of Hellmuth’s Vegas house that is up for sale.

Poker World Has Some Fun

Of course, once word got out that Casa De Hellmuth was on the market, some folks in the poker world couldn’t help but have a little fun.

“Why don’t you stay there this summer and win your next bracelet… then you can sell it for $625k as the house you won your record-breaking bracelet in,” tweeted Faraz Jaka.

Andy Bloch asked, “Can someone play you heads up for your house? (Asking for a friend.)”

“Does it come with a bracelet?” as Owais Ahmed.

Matt Salsberg even set a line on the property: “Over/under 5 murders have happened in this house.”

Finally, many others such as Toby Lewis and 2004 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer pointed out this was the very house once featured in an ESPN segment featuring a shirtless Hellmuth getting prepared for the WSOP.

If Hellmuth is able to sell the house, it’ll no doubt help ease the sting he recently felt losing hundreds of thousands playing on live streams such as Hustler Casino Live and Live at the Bike.

Executive Editor U.S.

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

The Holland Casino in Amsterdam, the home of the world-famous Masters Classics of Poker, is gearing up to welcome thousands of poker tournament players from across Europe and further afield when the WPT Prime tour stops off in the Netherlands from March 24.

The World Poker Tour first visited Amsterdam in 2015, and has returned to the Dutch capital seven times since. Morocco’s Farid Yachou took down the WPT Amsterdam Main Event in May 2015, with Florens Feenstra winning in 2018, the only Dutch players to take down a WPT title on home soil. Those two tournaments were part of the WPT Main Tour, now the Holland Casino is preparing to welcome the WPT Prime players.

2023 WPT Prime Amsterdam Schedule

WPT Prime Amsterdam takes place from March 24, and crowns its final champion on April 1. Between those dates, more than a dozen tournaments and satellites with buy-ins from €165 to €2,200 run, including the eagerly-anticipated €1,100 WPT Prime Amsterdam Main Event.

The €1,100 WPT Prime Amsterdam Main Event features a trio of starting flights, with Day 1A shuffling up and dealing at 12:30 p.m. CET on March 28. Day 1B starts at the same time on March 29, with a turbo-structured Day 1C scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CET also on March 29.

Both Day 1A and 1B are played to a 40-minute clock, while Day 1C uses 20-minute levels. All three flights conclude when approximately 12.5% of the field remains (one in eight entrants), with those players progressing to Day 2 in the money places. Day 2 plays to a 60-minute clock, and ends when the eight-handed final table is set, while the final day uses 60-minute blinds until heads-up; they then shorten to 30 minutes.

Although the Main Event is the tournament everyone wants to win, there are plenty of other tournaments that ae sure to attract hundreds, if not thousands, of players to the Holland Casino in Amsterdam.

The €565 NLHE Opener is the perfect way to get the festival’s show on the road, while the €840 NLHE Bounty event, which awards €250 for every opponent you bust, will undoubtedly prove popular. Then there are the PLO with Antes tournaments, and a €2,200 buy-in High Roller. Everything points to WPT Prime Amsterdam being an incredible week of live poker action.

Fabrice Bigot Tops Bumper WPT Prime Paris Main Event Field (€177,240)

2023 WPT Prime Main Events So Far

Two WPT Prime Main Events have crowned their worthy champions in 2023, although that number will increase to three once WPT Prime Cambodia concludes in the run-up to the Amsterdam festivities.

Frenchman Fabrice Bigot Castagnet triumphed in the €1,100 WPT Prime Paris Main Event. He outlasted 1,070 opponents and walked away with €177,240 for his victory.

Australia’s Sheng Ye became a WPT Prime champion after coming out on top of a 1,224-strong crowd in the A$2,000 WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event. Ye padded his bankroll with A$374,953 ($253,264).

As you can see, the WPT Prime Main Events are proving popular as they give players the chance to experience the thrill of a WPT Main Tour tournament without having to fork out several thousand dollars or euros. PokerNews fully expects WPT Prime Amsterdam to be a roaring success.

Sheng Ye Goes Big Down Under; Wins WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event (AUD $374,953)

Win a WPT Prime Passport on WPT Global

If you can’t make it to Amsterdam, don’t be too disheartened as there are several ways to book your place at WPT Prime future stops.

Online poker room WPT Global is giving players worldwide the chance to secure their seats for upcoming events with their $1,500 WPT Prime Passport, which allows them to play at a live event of their choice.

The Passport Qualifiers come with a $110 buy-in and run every Saturday at 2 p.m. ET and Sunday and 6 p.m. ET.

The next WPT Prime stops include:

• Bratislava, Slovakia – May 11-15
• Hanoi, Vietnam – May 25-29
• San Remo, Italy – June 1-11
• And watch for many more WPT live events

Join WPT Global Today

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 worldwide.

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, unlocked in $5 increments (credited straight to the cashier) for every $20 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.

The prestigious Wynn Millions festival is currently underway in Las Vegas as the $3,500 buy-in Main Event reaches Day 4 with just a few dozen players remaining. There have also been several side event winners side events underway, including Taylor Wilson, Michael Wang and Eugene Lee, who took down the three PokerGO High Rollers on the Wynn Millions schedule.

Wilson started things out by taking down High Roller Event #1: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $304,704, while Wang won the second No-Limit Hold’em event for $308,016 and Lee closed out with a victory in the $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $280,819.

Read about Day 3 of the Wynn Millions Main Event!

Wilson Defeats Oganyan in High Roller Event #1: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em for Career-Best $304,70

The three High Roller Wynn events kicked off with High Roller Event #1: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em on March 7, an event that drew 92 runners for a prize pool of $920,000. Those runners included plenty of heavy hitters, including Vikenty Shegal (9th – $27,600), PokerGO founder Cary Katz (7th – $37,444), Daniel Negreanu (5th – $57,500) and Andrew Lichtenberger (4th – $77,096).

Joseph Cheong bowed out in third place for $111,872 before a heads-up battle between Aram Oganyan and Taylor Wilson that saw Wilson taking down the event for $304,70 and Oganyan earning $176,824 for his runner-up finish.

The victory brings Wilson up to $1.3 million in Hendon Mob earnings and gives him his largest career cash.

High Roller Event #1: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

CHECK OUT THE WYNN POKER ROOM REVIEW HERE ON POKERNEWS!

Wang Bests Zobian in High Roller Event #2: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $308,016

The next PokerGO High Roller event on the schedule, High Roller Event #2: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em, had a prize pool of $930,000 and drew a field of 93 players including Darren Elias (11th – $25,110) and David Stamm, who was eliminated on the bubble by fifth-place finisher Jeremy Ausmus, according to PokerGO updates.

Katz found another deep run after finishing seventh in High Roller Event #1: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em, finishing in third for $178,746 and jumping to the top of the PokerGO Tour (PGT) leaderboards. Michael Wang then defeated Aram Zobian after entering heads-up play with a big chip lead. Wang earned $308,016, his third-biggest career cash.

In addition to taking home $178,746, Zobian made his way to second on the PGT leaderboard after napping a victory and fourth-place finish at the PokerGO Cup in January.

High Roller Event #2: $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

Lee Gets Career-Best $280,819 in High Roller Event #3: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

Closing out the PokerGO High Rollers at Wynn Millions was High Roller Event #3: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, which attracted 77 entrants for a prize pool of $770,000. Among the players who made the money in the PLO event were Norway’s Kent Staahle (8th – $28,567) and PokerGO regulars Jeremy Ausmus (5th – $53,130) and Sam Soverel (4th – $69,685).

Brazil’s Joao Simao was eliminated in third place for $100,100 before Eugene Lee defeated 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final tablist Michael Duek to win a career-best $280,819 after entering the event with less than $25,000 in live earnings.

Duek earned $161,700, his third-best cash behind a third-place finish in Event #69: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at the 2022 WSOP for $548,015 and his third-place finish in the $10,000 Main Event for $4 million.

High Roller Event #3: $10,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Results

PokerGO Wynn Millions High Roller Winners

_{Photos courtesy of PokerGO}