The long-awaited 2023 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship in The Bahamas kicked off in specular fashion today and attracted 1,005 runners, 678 of whom found bags after eight one-hour levels of play. Leading the way are Britain’s Chris Moorman and America’s Tony Tran who tied for the chip lead with 356,000, followed by fellow big stacks Josh Arieh (312,500), Bastian Hess (295,000) and Martin Zamani (287,000).

Moorman is known as one of the biggest online crushers of all time but has $6.5 million in Hendon Mob-reported earnings to prove he’s no stranger to success in the live realm. The Brit will look to add seven figures to his lifetime earnings if he can use his big stack to make a deep run in the PSPC.

There was no shortage of big names that made it to the end of Day 1, including European Poker Tour (EPT) champions like Roberto Romanello and Martin Jacobson, as well as Jacobson’s fellow World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champs Chris Moneymaker, Ryan Riess, Espen Jorstad, Greg Raymer and Scott Blumstein and PokerStars Pros Sam Grafton, Andre Akkari, Arlie Shaban, Benjamin Spragg, Lali Tournier and Alejandro Lococo, who won a big pot in one of the final hands of the night to bag a stack of 204,000.

Defending champion Ramon Colillas, who took down the 2019 PSPC for $5.1 million after spinning up a Platinum Pass freeroll, is still alive after a day battling at a table that included chess pro Alexandra Botez. The popular streamer, who has played poker on Hustler Casino Live and other streams, held her own among the poker pros on the feature table and ended the night with 39,000.

Plenty of Platinum Pass winners are looking to follow in Colillas’ footsteps by taking down the Players Championship. Among the Platinum Pass winners who bagged are Chad McVean, Alexander Herrmann, Dinesh Alt, Xavier Robert Ros and Antonio Ramon Munoz.

2023 PSPC Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Read about some early highlights in Day 1 of the PSPC

Day 1 Action

The energy inside the Baha Mar Resort convention center was palpable as Bruce Buffer kicked things off with his unmistakable “Shuffle up and deal!” announcement.

It didn’t take long for chips to exchange hands and seats to open up as plenty of notable hands made up the first few hours of play.

Alexandru Papazian was one of the first players out after the Romanian grinder suffered a massive cooler in the first few minutes of play. Papazian held pocket jacks and wound up with jacks full on the river, only to find himself against the kings full of Platinum Pass winner Hugo Rodilla, who held pocket kings to deliver a sneaky and sickening beat to Papazian. PokerNews wrote about that hand and others, which you can read about here.

Moneymaker delivered a comparably brutal beat to Sergio Coutinho when the 2003 Main Event champ held the nut flush against Coutinho’s second nut flush.

Other players who made early exits include PokerStars Ambassador Fintan Hand, Robbi Jade Lew, Kevin Rabichow, Nick Petrangelo and 2019 PCA champ Chino Rheem.

The always-mouthy Shaun Deeb was eliminated shortly before dinner break just a few hands after telling those at the table that they play “so bad” as Platinum Pass winner Lucas Pignay rivered a gutshot straight to have the last laugh.

PokerStars’ Lex Veldhuis made it to the final level of the day before he three-bet jammed with ace-jack only for Lauro Artmann to wake up behind him with Big Slick. Veldhuis was left with crumbs and lost it on the next hand when fellow PokerStars team member Shaban scored a double knockout with pocket queens against the jacks of Ante Jukic and king-ten of Veldhuis.

Day 2 will kick off at noon local time with Level 9, blinds of 1,000/1,500/1,500. There’s still time to buy into the event with a 60,000-chip starting stack as late registration will remain open until the start of Level 11.

Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here in Nassau and ready to bring all the updates ahead of the next Players Champion being crowned.

Two new players have been unveiled as PokerStars Ambassadors with Brazilian Lali Tournier and Spain’s Irene ‘Frogy’ Albarrán set to join the roster.

The pair join the likes of André Akkari, 2019 PSPC Champion Ramón Colillas and Lex Veldhuis, along with Sam Grafton and Parker Talbot who joined back in 2021.

Scott Goodall, Poker Commercial Director at PokerStars, said he was delighted to welcome Lali and Frogy to the team.

“Lali is an incredible ambassador for the thriving poker community in Brazil,” he said. “Frogy has lit up our screens as part of our commentary team in Spain, and both are fantastic role models.

“We’ve seen both create memorable moments with PokerStars already, and as members of Team Pro, we can look forward to many more.”

Lali Tournier

A two-time World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) champion, Tournier is Brazilian poker pro and streamer, as well as a member of top Brazilian eSports organisation Furia.

“But now, my dream has come true, and it is even better than I could wish for”

“Thirteen years ago I started playing $0.25 Sit & Go’s on PokerStars,” she said. “And I remember looking at the Team Pro page and would imagine my picture there. It was a very distant dream.

“But now, my dream has come true, and it is even better than I could wish for; being a Team Pro, joining my husband Rafa and one of my best friends, Akkari. Thanks, PokerStars! I am really happy to be part of the best poker platform.”

Irene ‘Frogy’ Albarrán

“Being able to share these times with the community as well as the team is something that excites me a lot”

Meanwhile, Spanish poker coach and Twitch streamer ‘Frogy’ will join PokerStars not just as Ambassador, but also as a member of the PokerStars commentary team in Spain cover the PokerStars Players Championship. She says joining PokerStars is a dream come true.

“I have fulfilled one of my dreams; to be the voice of such a big poker community, alongside a great team who also feel like family, representing PokerStars,” she said. “I feel very excited about everything that is to come.

“There are going to be many beautiful moments, and being able to share these times with the community as well as the team is something that excites me a lot. The best is yet to come!”

Executive Editor E.U.

Will Shillibier is based in the United Kingdom. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German, and then studied for a NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism at Sportsbeat in Manchester. He previously worked as a freelance live reporter, and video presenter for the World Poker Tour.

It’s fair to say her trip to the Bahamas hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts for Alexandra Botez.

She almost missed her flight. She was coolered out of her first tournament. And — perhaps most unbelievably of all — she forgot to bring a chess board.

“One of my close friends is Dan Smith and at every event we get together to play chess for like five hours,” she told PokerNews. “And we were going to do that this time. But I was so late to my flight and I almost missed it — and I forgot to bring a chess board.

“I’m going to have to order a board otherwise I’m gonna start getting withdrawals.”

Warming Up for the PSPC

The popular chess and poker Twitch streamer and YouTuber is in the Bahamas to play in the PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC) which gets underway today, and was playing in yesterday’s Ladies Event alongside PokerStars Ambassadors Jennifer Shahade and Georgina James.

“I just flew in and jumped straight in. I busted my first bullet in a cooler — I flopped a set and lost to a slightly higher set. I love ladies events — they’re my favorite. In poker, you’re allowed to talk at the table so it’s a lot more friendly, whereas with chess nobody talks and it tends to get super serious.

“It’s a lot more intimidating in ladies chess events. You could be friends afterward but [during the match] you’re just staring at each other in silence angrily for like six hours.”

PokerStars Announces the Dates for the 17th Anniversary Sunday Million

Poker and Twitch Streaming

With over a million followers on both YouTube and Twitch, Botez has made streaming chess engaging, exciting and entertaining, in equal parts. Now she’s begun turning her attention to streaming poker, and says it offers different opportunities to make the stream as enjoyable as possible — for everyone involved.

“I definitely play differently and give more action when I’m hosting a game and when there are cameras filming the game. I’ll play more loose and I’ll do things like straddles because I think it’s important to create a good product. Not just for the viewers, but for any potential poker sponsors and for all of the guests who decided to come out on the show.

“I definitely play differently and give more action when I’m hosting a game and when there are cameras filming the game”

“So it does influence my actual play, whereas when I’m playing chess, obviously, it’s perfect information and I’m a little bit distracted because I’m talking or I’m chatting, but poker feels like there’s a lot more pressure to make interesting hands and to get that cool clickable moment because that’s how you kind of create virality in poker

“I mean, you do it a little bit with chess to where you’ll play into something that isn’t as good but it might have some kind of an attack. That said, it doesn’t necessarily correlate to more views or anything like that.

“I suppose I don’t actually think of [making it more exciting] in chess — it’s more just my style! Whereas in poker I’m actively thinking about it while I’m doing the content.”

The Key to A(nother) Poker Boom

The B-word has been thrown around in both chess and poker in recent years, and Botez says she believes the ingredients are there for poker to follow in chess’ footsteps and enjoy a “boom” of sorts.

“A lot of people think the big break for chess was Queen’s Gambit, and it did contribute to getting more players, but what actually was the break for chess was COVID,” she said. “More people were playing casually online because they had more time to do so.

What Can Poker Learn From The Queen’s Gambit?

“I think poker is even more accessible than chess”

“And what happened after is a lot of streamers started doing chess and there was a boom. So I think what actually happened with chess is it became way more accessible to the average person. And I think you can absolutely do that with poker.

“That’s why I’ve also been doing creator games where you bring people who have an audience from somewhere else and you make it fun. It shows that it’s not just about GTO — there are personalities and you get people watching and start being like “Wow, this is actually super fun to watch!”

The Accessibility of Poker is Key

At its core, the game of chess didn’t change as it enjoyed a surge in interest and player numbers. Instead, Botez says there was a change in the way it was marketed.

“It took a while for chess people to understand that you really have adapted the format for the more casual viewers. And I think if you could do that with poker as well, then I don’t see why it wouldn’t be able to. I think poker is even more accessible than chess because there’s RNG. With chess, you can get tired of grinding and it’s all your fault when you lose!”

Poker at its core is recreation — according to Botez, the creator games were set up for people to hang out, laugh and learn — and she says these three tenets are the key to encouraging new players to seek out poker and realize how much they can enjoy it.

“I think poker is even more accessible than chess”

“I think it’s important for people who are getting into poker to think about it in a different way. Think of it like ‘I’m spending $100 to play poker’ instead of ‘I’m spending $100 to try and win’

“It needs to be all about the experience. I spent hours grinding $2/$3 in the casino because I enjoyed it and it was therapeutic! I had earphones on just thinking about life and waiting to get good hands.

“And I was there for a good five or six hours and it was an incredible experience. I just thought about it like I’m not expecting to win but that I’m paying for the experience. That’s what I got out of it.”

Top 5 Most Epic Hustler Casino Live Poker Hands of 2022

Enjoying the PSPC Experience

Starting tomorrow Botez will be playing for a lot more than just the experience — albeit the PSPC does constitute an experience of a lifetime for many — with millions of dollars in prize money up for grabs in this $25,000 buy-in tournament.

“I know I’m less experienced than most of the people here. I think my coach said I’m like bottom 15% — at least! — which is you know, totally okay. I’m just gonna go and do my best, try to learn and pay attention while I’m at the table. I’m going to be vlogging and creating content while I’m there because after all, that’s my job.

“But if I do my job well and I enjoy the experience. That’s all I can ask for.”

Executive Editor E.U.

Will Shillibier is based in the United Kingdom. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German, and then studied for a NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism at Sportsbeat in Manchester. He previously worked as a freelance live reporter, and video presenter for the World Poker Tour.

On Monday, the 2023 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) kicked off, and midway through Level 4 the field is already closing in on 1,000 runners! It’s a truly special event with hundreds of Platinum Pass winners doing battle with some of the biggest names in the game.

While players started with 60,000 in chips and are playing one-hour levels, it didn’t take long for the action to heat up. In fact, there has already been a slew of eliminations with the first coming in Level 1. Ever since there’s been a steady stream of players headed to the exit.

Here’s a look at some of the early bust-out hands from the 2023 PSPC.

Follow live updates from the 2023 PSPC here!

Eliminations Come Quick

In Level 2 (100/300/300), PokerNews’ Kirk Brown caught a big hand between Alexandru Papazian and PokerStars Platinum Pass winner Hugo Rodilla. They involved in a heads-up pot and faced a board of . Papazian was first to act from the small blind and he bet out 7,400 into the pot of 10,000.

Rodilla made the call from under the gun and the two went to the river . Papazian fired again for 18,200, which left him with a 25,000 chip behind.

After a few moments, Rodilla then moved all in, covering Papazian, and now he was the one under pressure.

Papazian just chuckled to himself, checked his cards once more, and shook his head as he threw in his last chip. He then flipped over for a full house, jacks full of fives, but then Rodilla tabled his hand of for an even bigger full house to win the pot.

The table collectively groaned as they saw what a beat that was, and Papazian was sent to the rail becoming the third elimination of the day.

He was far from the last though as the likes of Juan Pardo, David Yan, Marius Gierse, Fintan Hand, Dan Sepiol, Johan Guilbert, Thomas Boivin, and UFC announcer Bruce Buffer, who earlier in the day had given the traditional, “Shuffle up and deal.”

Moneymaker Busts Coutinho

One player who got off to a good start was 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker, who you might recall finished 11th in the 2011 PCA Main Event for $130,000.

In Level 3 (200/400/400), PokerNews reporter Connor Richards caught a hand between Moneymaker and Sergio Coutinho. In it, Moneymaker was on the good end of a massive cooler.

Coutinho was seen getting up from his seat with his face-up against the of Moneymaker with the board reading . Just like that Coutinho found himself on the rail while Moneymaker grew his stack up to 135,000.

Aces Giveth and Taketh for Anthony Hu

In Level 3 (200/400/400), PokerNews’ Calum Grant caught a big hand involving Anthony Hu, who you might recall survived the PCA Main Event money bubble in a back-and-forth ace-versus-kings showdown. That hand was featured in our “Biggest Hands of the Week” recap here.

In the PSPC, Hu opened to 800 from under the gun and was called by a player in late position. Tamer Alkamli then three-bet to 4,200 from the big blind and only Hu called.

Hu called bets of 3,600 and 9,500 for the final board to read

Alkamli put in his last 26,000 on the river and was snap-called.

Alkamli tabled for top set but Hu had the for the seven-high straight. Alkamli looked less than impressed when he exited the room.

2023 PCA Hands of the Week: What Player Said “I Don’t Know Why I Tried Against this Guy”

Executive Editor U.S.

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

PokerStars is currently hosting the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), and today the second ever PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) begins and runs through February 3. The buy-in for the PSPC will be $25,000, mirroring that of the first installment.

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team has been on-site to offer live updates from a slew of PCA tournaments. Here’s a look at five of the more interesting hands captured in our live updates from the Bahamas.

Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.

Follow live updates from the 2023 PCA here!

Beresford’s Aces Lead to a Double

On Day 2 of the $50,000 7-Handed High Roller, it was Level 22 (25,000/50,000/50,000) when Dan Smith opened on the button to 100,000 and quickly faced a three-bet from Conor Beresford in the small blind to 260,000. Ben Heath got out of the way and Smith called to see the flop.

Beresford led out for 65,000 and Smith called again to the turn. The action repeated as Beresford fired 80,000 and Smith called to the river.

Beresford used a time bank card before sliding in a bet of 100,000. Smith then used a time bank of his own and announced all in, committing enough chips to put Beresford at risk.

Beresford’s chips moved forward instantly as he tabled for a turned full house. Smith flashed his cards to his opponents before mucking them to the dealer, giving Beresford the chip lead at the end of Level 22.

Beresford went on to win the tournament, which you can read about here!

“There’s No Folding Range!”: Addamo Floats Beresford

On Day 1 of the $25,000 8-Handed High Roller, it was Level 9 (1,500/3,000/3,000) when in a three-way pot on a board of , Dimitar Danchev checked in the big blind and Beresford checked from the hijack before Michael Addamo bet 5,500 on the button. Danchev folded and Beresford check-raised to 14,500. Addamo called.

Beresford bet 8,000 on the turn and Addamo sat perfectly still before raising to 24,000. Beresford folded to hang onto his remaining 33,500.

“I don’t know why I tried against this guy. There’s no folding range!” lamented Beresford. “But I’ll keep f***ing fighting.”

Badziakouski Exits Holding Aces; Mikolaitis Soars into Chip Lead

On Day 2 of the same tournament in Level 20 (15,000/30,000/30,000), Mikita Badziakouski and Dominykas Mikolaitis got it all in preflop for piles, with Badziakouski at risk.

Mikita Badziakouski:
Dominykas Mikolaitis:

Badziakouski was on the right side of this cooler going into this hand, but the tables quickly turned on the flop of to give Mikolaitis top set of kings.

The board completed with to secure Mikolaitis’ victory and sent Badziakouski to the rail. Mikolaitis now has a massive stack of 1,900,000 and is the tournament’s clear chip leader.

Find out who won the $25,000 8-Handed Event here!

Double Elimination at the Feature Table

On Day 4 of the 2023 PCA Main Event, just 23 players remained from an 889-player field when, in Level 22 (10,000/20,000/20,000), Michel Dattani raised to 40,000 from early position. Ramon Colillas was in middle position and three-bet to 185,000 leaving himself only 5,000 behind. Elias Gutierrez in the cutoff four-bet to 330,000. Action was back on Dattani who moved all in for 1,005,000. Colillas tossed in his last chip and Gutierrez snap-called.

Ramon Colillas:
Elias Gutierrez:
Michel Dattani:

Board:

Dattani was in a great position to secure a double knockout and win a huge pot. The board ran out nine-high and eliminated both Colillas and Gutierrez as Dattani moved up to more than two million chips.

Raymond Folds Full House Correctly

On Day 5 of the PCA Main Event, it was Level 26 (25,000/50,000/50,000) when Pedro Neves raised to 100,000 from early position and was called by Alexandre Raymond from the big blind.

Raymond, with , check-raised to 200,000 on the flop after Neves continued for 70,000 with his . Neves called.

Raymond improved to a full house on the turn and action checked through.

The river then improved Neves to a superior full house and Raymond led out for 325,000. Neves then raised, choosing a sizing of 1,800,000. Miraculously, Raymond found the correct fold and did it without using up a time bank card.

See who won the 2023 PCA Main Event here!

Executive Editor U.S.

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

The RunGood Poker Series at Hard Rock in Tulsa, Oklahoma, came to an end Sunday night with the conclusion of the $600 Main Event. The guaranteed prize pool of $100,000 was blown out of the water as a total of 649 entrants (a venue record) came out to make a total purse of $337,480, which was paid out to the top 81 players.

After the dust settled, it was Oklahoma resident Pete Petree who dominated the final table to win his first RGPS main event for a career-best score of $62,911.

“I was fortunate enough to have a chip lead at the final table,” remarked the newest champion after the win, “I bet it when I had it, and I got lucky.”

Prior to this win, Petree had lifetime earnings of $125,225, and victories that included a WSOP circuit ring, and a RGPS Pot-Limit Omaha title in 2017 in Tulsa. With this win, Petree triples his biggest prior cash, and becomes the first player to win the free seat to the Thunder Valley freeroll, where he will have an opportunity to play in The PokerGO Tour $1,000,000 freeroll.

“A trip to California, it sounds awesome. My wife will love it,” Petree responded when asked about the seat.

RGPS Tulsa Final Table Results

Check out the RGPS Hub on PokerNews here!

Action of The Day

The eliminations started out slow at the beginning of the day, but once the clock ticked down to 60 players, a flurry of competitors headed to the exit. Among the fallen were Keith Jeffrey (58th-$1,215), Brian Frenzel (40th-$1,384), Duster Ellis (31st-$1,654), start of day chip leader Kris Burchfield (28th-$1,856), Ashley “PokerFaceAsh” Frank (22nd-$2,430), Caitlin Comeskey (19th-$2,835), and Sandra Main (13th-$4,084). On the final table bubble, it was Kyle Michael who ended up going to the exit when his ace-five could not hold against Jeff Tolbert’s king-queen. Michael ended the tournament in tenth place for $4,961.

Final Table Recap

Joseph Gargiulo started off the week by winning the RGPS ambassador bounty, and he ended it by making an appearance at the $600 Main Event final table. His run was cut short when he doubled up Sam Panzica, with ace-nine against Panzica’s ace-king, leaving him with just two big blinds. Shortly after he found himself all in and holding king-queen suited. He was unable to improve against Mark Martin’s ace three suited and the colorful RGPS ring winner exited the tournament in ninth place for $6,176.

The next eliminations came together in the same hand. Tolbert came into the final with a larger-than-average chip stack, but an ace-king to kings confrontation with Petree left him with just two big blinds. He moved all in from first position getting called by Petree and Martin. The short-stacked Travis Speck then moved all in from the small blind, which folded out Martin, but Petree called. Petree’s ten-nine suited was able to improve against both Tolbert’s ace-jack offsuit and Speck’s ace-king suited, adding to Petree’s growing chip stack while eliminating Tolbert in eighth place for $7,728, and Speck in seventh place for $9,821.

It was James Herderhorst who was eliminated next in a multiway pot that saw both Grant Hart and Herderhorst make a flush. Herderhorst held jack-eight of hearts looking at a board with three hearts on it. He moved all in for his last eight big blinds, only for Hart to move all in over the top with king-ten of hearts for the second nut flush. Herderhorst wished his table mates well as he exited the tournament in sixth for $12,622.

Nikhil Behl fell next in fifth place for $16,469. Behl started as one of the shorter stacks at the final table, but managed to ladder up multiple spots to see his stack make it to five-handed play. When he moved in his final four big blinds, he was called by three players who checked down a board and his ace-high was unable to best Martin’s rivered pair of sevens and he left the tournament area.

Mark Martin doubled through Hart when his queens held against ace-king suited, which saw Martin put himself in a clear second place while Hart fell very short. What seemed like a high likelihood of a Martin versus Petree heads-up match, vanished in an instant when Martin held ten-nine suited and flopped a straight, only for Petree’s king-ten off to make a superior straight on the turn. Both players got in their chips on the turn and Martin could not find a river chop to survive and the RGPS Joplin champion ended his impressive run in fourth place for $21,767.

Hart fell very shortly after his confrontation with Martin and he got in his final chips with pocket fours, flipping with Panzica’s ace-jack. A jack on the flop and an ace on the river ensured a victory for Panzica and the RGPS regular finished in third place for a career-best cash of $29,091.

Panzica hung around at the bottom of the chip counts most of the final table, but by the time he had gotten to heads up, he was at his tournament peak. Despite that, just two hands into heads up, the chips went all in with Panzica holding king-queen against Petree’s ace-king. A nine-high board did not change anything for the hand rankings and the most experienced tournament player at the final table ended his run in second place for $39,350 to add to his $4,700,000 in lifetime earnings.

RunGood Poker Series Tulsa Side Event Results

The World Poker Tour‘s WPT Prime events have proven popular since their launch in 2022. WPT Prime is designed to give players from around the world the chance to experience the thrill and exhilaration of competing in a WPT Main Event but for a fraction of the cost.

WPT Prime headed to Vietnam, Australia’s Gold Coast, Cambodia, Madrid, Taiwan, and Las Vegas last year and is currently in Paris, France, where the €1,100 buy-in Main Event shuffles up and deals on January 31.

Last time out, WPT Prime found itself in the middle of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. The World Poker Tour slapped a $2 million guarantee on the $1,100 buy-in tournament, but a 5,430-strong field created a $5,267,100 prize pool, resulting in a $712,650 payday for champion Stephen Song. While WPT Prime Paris has no chance of matching those ridiculous numbers, you can see from the table below that the tour puts up impressive figures in its European, Asian, and Australasian stops.

Past WPT Prime Results

The WPT Prime Paris Main Event features five Day 1s, with the fifth and final flight playing with a turbo structure. Day 1a kicks off at 12:00 p.m. CET on January 31, with subsequent starting days commencing at the same time on February 1-3. February 3 is also when the turbo Day 1e takes place, doing so at 7:00 p.m. CET. The WPT Prime Paris Main Event champion will be crowned on February 5.

Players in the Main Event are in for a treat if it follows in the footsteps of the recent WPT Prime High Roller. The €2,200 buy-in event drew in 246 entrants who fought it out for a €102,500 top prize.

It was Frenchman Idir Haiche that was the last player standing. He defeated Portugal’s Hipolito Carapeta heads-up to capture a €102,500 payout, leaving the runner-up to scoop €71,020.

Argentina’s Andres Korn, a player with almost $2.5 million in live poker tournament earnings, finished fourth for €37,000, with the 2022 EPT Barcelona ESPT High Roller champion Miroslav Alilovic fifth for €27,400.

$21,000 Up For Grabs in the WPT Global Win Win Winter Promotion

WPT Prime Paris High Roller Final Table Results

WPT Prime Paris Results

Six of the WPT Prime Paris events, including the aforementioned High Roller, are done and dusted, but there’s plenty more to come at the Club Circus Paris. The €715 Omaha crowns its champion on January 30, while a €3,300 Super High Roller runs February 4-5.

Don’t worry if you missed the chance to become a WPT Prime champion in Paris because two more stops are right around the world. WPT Prime Gold Coast sees the tour set sail for Australia again before jetting off to Cambodia for the third leg of the 2023 tour. WPT Prime Gold Coast runs February 23-March 6, with Cambodia running March 9-21. Perhaps you may be able to win a seat online at WPT Global?

Stephen Kehoe Turns WPT Global Satellite Win Into $269,900

Did You Know the World Poker Tour is Online?

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 around the world.

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

There is a new-look tournament schedule at PartyPoker that sees hundreds more tournaments take place every week, including a pair of new Sunday majors. The revamped schedule is live in the PartyPoker lobby; here is what you can expect to see.

The $150,000 Guaranteed Sunday Party

Starting February 5, there is a new flagship tournament hitting the PartyPoker tables: The Sunday Party. Costing $109 and featuring a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool, The Sunday Party is by far the site’s biggest guaranteed tournament. In the early weeks, especially, The Sunday Party could be incredible value because other $109 buy-in tournaments at PartyPoker rarely exceed $70,000.

A totally overhauled satellite system will help PartyPoker reach the required number of entrants, especially as those satellites start at only $0.01. More PartyPoker’s satellites soon…

The $50,000 Sunday Carnival

If you can’t afford the $109 Sunday Party buy-in or your attempts to win your way in fall flat, you may want to turn your attention to The Sunday Carnival. This $22 buy-in event boasts a $50,000 guarantee on its prize pool, and it follows the same structure, except its blinds increase every eight minutes compared to 12 minutes for the Sunday Party.

Again, there are satellites galore for the Sunday Carnival. Both events shuffle up and deal at 7:05 p.m. GMT on Sunday, and take place over two days. Day 1 ends when only 16 players remain, with those survivors returning to the tables at 8:05 p.m. GMT on the following Monday.

Do You Know The Fastest Way to Earn PartyPoker Cashback?

Longer Expiry Dates on Satellite Wins

PartyPoker collates feedback from its players via social media and other channels, and the recommendations and suggestions it received have resulted in a complete overhaul of the site’s satellite tournament offerings.

First, the expiry dates for most satellite have been extended from seven days to as long as 45 days to give players more flexibility. Second, most satellites do not automatically register you for the target tournament. This was previously a major issue with PartyPoker players, particularly those that played the phased satellites. Some satellites will auto-reg, but these are clearly marked in the tournament’s lobby.

You’ll also find hundreds more satellites that were on the previous schedule, with satellites feeding into all of PartyPoker’s Daily Legends and Supers tournaments.

Daily Legends and Supers Galore

Daily Legends now start between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. GMT instead of mostly being concentrated during peak European hours. This not only opens the door for more South American and Canadian – not Ontarians though, as they have their own site – players to enjoy larger guaranteed tournaments, but means there is usually a Daily Legend event in play whenever you fire up PartyPoker.

The Daily Legends, which are PartyPoker’s daily tournaments but with juicier guarantees, now also run seven days per week, with the $215 buy-in $30,000 guaranteed Big Weekend being a new addition on Saturdays.

Supers are like Daily Legends on steroids, as they feature bigger guarantees. These now run on Fridays and Saturdays with buy-ins from $5.50 to $530.

fastforward Poker Strategy with PartyPoker’s Jaime Staples

Weekly Guarantees Exceed $3 Million

PartyPoker’s standard tournament offering has increased substantially across all buy-in levels. The Super Micro limits ($0.11 to $0.49) now have hundreds more tournaments every week. While freerolls are fun, many people do not consider them a true representation of a poker tournament because people play crazy due to having no vested financial interest. Now those players can experience a proper poker tournament for as little as $0.11.

Heading to the tournament lobby reveals more turbo-structured games than on the old schedule. However, the same reduced late registration and limited re-entries remain, as do the favourable blind structure that keeps the average stack size at a playable level.

Overall, the new PartyPoker tournament schedule looks superb, with far more choices than ever before, and it should be a hit with the site’s players. Why not check it out today?

The 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) underway in The Bahamas has already crowned some big winners, including Isaac Haxton, David Yan, Conor Beresford and Allan Barnes. A thousand miles north, there have also been big winners in the PokerStars Pennsylvania PSPC Online series that got underway on Jan. 13 and wraps up later today on Jan. 30.

PokerNews highlighted several PSPC Online champions in an earlier article, including $250 NLH Battle Royale champ “deadtosolve” ($8,668) and $500 NLH [High Roller Players Special] winner Zachary “KennytheRipper” Gruneberg ($11,513).

Both Pennsylvanians continued to run hot and found second titles as “deadtosolve” took down Event #44: $100 NLHE [Battle Royale, Progressive KO] for $4,758 and Gruneberg took down Event #54: $250 NLHE [Thursday Thrill, Players Championship Edition] for $10,603.

Read about the early winners during PSPC Online PA

Gruneberg, a PokerStars streamer, has been on a tear to start of the new year.

In addition to crushing on PokerStars PA, the three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit ring winner finished second in a $320 Circuit event in January for $5,317, coming just short of getting that Circuit ring.

And while that fourth ring didn’t come, Gruneberg now finds himself with two PSPC Online titles. To see “HustlerGrune” in action, check out his Twitch channel.

The last week of PSPC action has brought some of the biggest winners, such as Event #38: $200 NLHE [Championship Special, 2-Day] champion “soccerdad29,” who got through a field of 569 runners to take home $18,712, the biggest piece of the $105,834 prize pool that surpassed the $100,000 guarantee.

After that, Andrew “and_porter” Porter earned $19,503 when he took down Event #40: $1,000 NLHE [Championship High Roller Special], which generated $79,800 in prize money to push past the $75,000 guarantee. Porter himself is a bit of an online crusher as he is the owner of one WSOP bracelet and three Circuit rings.

Those aren’t the only guarantees that have been smashed as every event so far as there hasn’t been a single overlay so far in Pennsylvania. Event #52: $100 NLHE [Storm, 6-Max], for example, generated $29,560 to pass the $25,000 guarantee before “Jpuma97” took home the top prize of $5,547.

Other big PSPC Online winners in Pennsylvania include Michael “fubadbeatbob” McNicholas, who took down Event #34: $2550 NLHE [Deepstack Saturday, Players Championship Edition] for $7,069, as well as “dbrinker,” who shipped Event #46: $250 NLHE [Super Tuesday, Players Championship Edition] for $10,921.

There are still a few days left to hop into the online action as PokerStars PA PSPC Online wraps up on Jan. 30. Be sure to hop on to get a piece of those guaranteed prize pools.

A full list of PokerStars PA PSPC Online winners is available in the table below.

2023 PokerStars PA PSPC Online Winners So Far

_{*Denotes final table deal}

There are very few poker tournament titles that have evaded Niklas Astedt‘s grasp. You can add an 888poker XL Winter series victory to that list after Astedt, playing under his 888poker moniker “tutten7,” triumphed in the $2,100 buy-in High Roller event over the weekend.

888poker may have a reputation for being recreational player friendly but there is also plenty of high stakes action at the site, and demand for it, too. Forty-one unique players purchased ten re-entries between them, meaning the total attendance was 51, and the prize pool a guarantee-busting $102,000.

Finland’s “Inflaatio” was the unfortunate soul that popped the all-important money bubble. The Finn fell in seventh and was the last player to return home empty-handed.

Mexico’s “420SilentBob” busted in sixth for a $5,610 addition to their bankroll, before “SpielerKind” of Ukraine saw their tournament end abruptly in fifth place, a finish worth $7,650. Fourth place and $10,200 went to Lithuania’s “sk8erisz,” and heads-up was set when “ruthy33” crashed out in third for $15,300.

Astedt found himself in a one-on-one battle with “beebsterizer” for the lion’s share of the prize pool. Astedt rarely loses when he is heads-up, and this was not to be one of those rare occasions. The Swedish online poker legend brushed his final opponent aside and claimed the $37,740 top prize, resigning the runner-up to a $25,500 consolation score.

$100,000 Super High Roller 6-Max

888poker Casts The Wizard’s Spell and Gives Away $300,000

German One-Two in the $35,000 Gtd High Roller

888poker’s other XL Winter series High Roller this weekend saw 50 entries of $1,050 create a $50,000 prize pool. The compact field meant only the top five finishers received some prize money for their efforts, with prizes ranging from $4,000 to $20,000.

Romania’s “bucuresteam” was the first in-the-money bustee. The Romanian collected the $4,000 fifth-place prize money only days after taking down the $30,000 Mystery Bounty Turbo for $7,254. Another XL Winter series champion busted in fourth. “Reggie_Degen” won the $20,000 PKO 6-Max for $5,920, and collected $5,000 in this event.

888poker regular “feerofeero” was eliminated in third for $7,500, before “pactamah23” defeated their fellow German “kellerassel0” heads-up to capture the $20,000 top prize. Second place came with a still welcomed $13,500.

$35,000 High Roller 8-Max

Full 888poker XL Winter Results So Far

*includes bounty payments

Receive Your Buy-in Back With 888poker’s Tweet4Seat Promo

$500,000 Guaranteed Main Event Day 2 is Today!

Time is rapidly running out if you want to become the 888poker XL Winter Series Main Event champion. Only four flights remain, all taking place on January 30. Head to 888poker at 2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m., 5:00 p.m., and 6:30 p.m. GMT and see if you can play your way into Day 2, which shuffles up and deals at 8:00 p.m.

The Main Event needs 2,127 entries to hit the $500,000 guarantee because the buy-in is $235+$15. However, before the final quartet of Day 1s, only 1,431 entries have been processed; could there be a substantial overlay heading your way?