Every poker player has suffered a bad beat during their career. Whether is losing with pocket aces against pocket queens, or something as horrible as an opponent hitting a runner-runner straight to stack you. As infuriating as they are, bad beats are part and parcel of playing poker. So why is it that TigerGaming cash game players pray to the poker gods for a bad beat to happen to them? The site’s Bad Beat Jackpot, that’s why.

TigerGaming’s Bad Beat Jackpot cash game tables are where you need to head if you want to be financially rewarded, and handsomely so, if you endure a bad beat. The online poker site pays out thousands of dollars via its Bad Beat Jackpot, but the beat has to be seriously bad to pay out.

You must lose with four of kind deuces or better to trigger the Bad Beat Jackpot. You must use both of your hole cards when you make a qualifying hand, as does the player who puts the bad beat on you. Furthermore, the hand must go to showdown. Often, TigerGaming reduces the strength of the qualifying hand, usually if nobody has won the jackpot for a while. The qualifying hand is clearly shown in the TigerGaming lobby.

Perhaps the best thing about the TigerGaming Bad Beat Jackpot is you only have to be dealt into the hand or be playing at any Bad Beat Jackpot table to win if the jackpot triggers. This is because the jackpot pays out as follows:

• 20% to the player with the bad beat
• 15% to the winner of the hand
• 12.5% shared among the players at the table where the bad beat happened
• 12.5% shared among players at other Bad Beat Jackpot tables
• 35% is used to reseed the jackpot
• 5% administration fee

Top 5 Poker Bad Beat Jackpots You Won’t Believe

The Bad Beat Jackpot tables play like a traditional cash game, except an additional $0.10 per $4 in the pot, up to a maximum of $0.50, is removed to fund the jackpot. You may find play is slightly looser, especially when the jackpot has swelled, as players attempt to make hands to trigger the jackpot.

There have been some very big winners over the past 12 months by players that no longer bore their friends with bad beat stories. “Kalisse” received $91,616.45 on April 4, 2022, while “thisisnotchess” scooped $56,875.98 on July 2, 2022. More recently, on Christmas Day, “DonYagon” banked $24,039.40.

“Tyrant” holds the record for thelargest bad beat jackpot payment at TigerGaming. On January 7, 2018, their bad beat resulted in $273,382.82 landing in their account! Can you imagine?

Help Yourself to a $1,000 Welcome Bonus

You need a TigerGaming account to be in with a chance of winning the Bad Beat Jackpot. If you don’t already have an account, download TigerGaming via PokerNews’ links, create your free account, and make a deposit of at least $50. Email TigerGaming’s support team at [email protected] within 24 hours of making your deposit, ensuring you mention the bonus code “NEWTG” and you 100% match up to $1,000 bonus will be activated.

The 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) is up and running at the luxurious Baha Mar Resort in The Bahamas, but not everyone has jetted off to the Caribbean, and not everyone has the bankroll to play in the 2023 PCA events. That is why PokerStars is running the Mini PCA festival, complete with a Mini PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) online from January 25 through February 3.

Every day of the Mini PCA sees three low-stakes events take place at 5:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., and 9:30 p.m. GMT, each with added EPT Monte Carlo satellite tickets to the prize pool. PokerStars is committed to giving away tens of thousands of dollars worth of EPT Monte Carlo satellite tickets, so make sure you bring your A-game to the tables because they will be dished out to the best performing players.

You want to keep January 29 free because the Mini PCA Main Event commences at 7:30 p.m. on that day. Costing $55 to enter, unless you win your way in via one of the many satellites running around the clock, the Mini PCA Main Event guarantees a whopping $100,000. In addition to bankroll-boosting cash prizes, PokerStars is adding an EPT Monte Carlo package to the prize pool, which is awarded to the eventual champion.

Full Mini PCA Schedule

Gear Up For the $10,000 Added Mini PSPC

It may be too late to win yourself a Platinum Pass for this year’s PSPC event in The Bahamas, and you probably don’t have a spare $25,000 to buy into it directly, so the online Mini PSPC is the best thing.

Without wishing to sound biased, the Mini PSPC could be the best-structured $25 buy-in tournament PokerNews has ever seen. The five-day event has an incredible blind structure. You sit down with 60,000 chips and play to a 20-minute clock where the blinds start at 100/200. By the time Day 1 breaks after the eighth level, the blinds are still only 500/1,000/100a!

On top of PokerStars adding $10,000 to the prize pool, anyone finishing in the top 200 places receives an EPT Monte Carlo satellite ticket worth between €5.50 and €530!

Late registration remains open until the start of Day 2 in case you cannot make it to the PokerStars virtual felt in time for Day 1.

Mini PSPC Schedule

Follow the 2023 PCA and PSPC Action at PokerNews

The PokerNews live reporting team is in The Bahamas bringing you live and exclusive updates from the biggest PCA events. In addition, PokerStars presenters James Hartigan, comedian Joe Stapleton, and special guests are streaming the PCA Main Event from Day 2 (January 25) to completion, and the entire PSPC (January 30 to February 3). Why not tune in while you are on the Mini PCA and Mini PSPC grind?

The first High Roller of the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure wrapped up today with $100,000 PCA Super High Roller, an event that saw three players taking home seven figures after an ICM chop between Isaac Haxton ($1,082,230), Seth Davies ($1,078,347) and Adrian Mateos ($1,095,903). The players agreed to play out the tournament turbo-style, and in the end, it was Haxton who took home the shimmering golden trophy.

Haxton has had as good of a start to the new year as anyone could hope for as on Jan. 20 he took down a PokerGO Cup $50,000 high roller in Las Vegas for $598,000. Less than a week later, the American takes home nearly double that after getting through the field of 49 runners and navigating a six-handed final table on Day 3.

“I don’t think I’ve ever won two tournaments in a row before, and these are pretty good ones to do it in,” Haxton told PokerNews in a winner’s interview. “So yeah, I’m feeling great. This is a fantastic start to the year.”

Only seven places paid in the Super High Roller that marked the return of the legendary PCA stop, and those who found a return on their $100,000 investment included Spain’s Juan Pardo (4th – $522,900) and Canada’s Mike Watson (5th – $404,100), Daniel Dvoress (6th – $320,900) and Timothy Adams (7th – $249,600), who fell on Day 2 shortly after securing the minimum cash.

$100,000 PCA Super High Roller Final Table Results

_{*Denotes three-handed ICM deal}

Where It All Began

An accomplished high stakes professional who had $30.5 million in Hendon Mob-reported earnings heading into the event, the 37-year-old got his live poker start right here in The Bahamas.

Back in 2007, a younger, longer-haired Haxton finished second in the PCA WPT Championship for $861,789, his first-ever live cash. Many poker fans will remember an epic clip of Haxton bluffing Ryan Daut as his dark brown hair waved in the wind during an outdoor heads-up battle that only could’ve taken place at the height of the Poker Boom.

The runner-up finish was a sign of PCA results to come for Haxton, who had two small first-place finishes at PCA before his latest victory.

“I’ve done quite well here in The Bahamas, and it feels fantastic to add another score to the list,” said Haxton. “I like being here, like playing these tournaments, and yeah, I feel great about it.”

From Chip Leader to Next Out, Twice

The four hours of play on Day 3 can only be described as swingy as Day 1 and Day 2 chip leader Watson went out in fifth after a colossal bluff against Pardo that left him as the short stack before he called off with king-ten to be dominated by the ace-ten of the eventual champion.

The bluff-catch gave Pardo a dominant four-handed chip lead but it was short-lived as the Spanish pro doubled up Davies before losing even more to the Oregonian. Just an hour after taking the huge chip lead, Pardo was out in fourth when his ace-queen was pipped by the Big Slick of Haxton.

Haxton managed to pick up all the right hands at the right time. Earlier in the day, he was at risk of busting in sixth when he was all-in against Dvoress. Luckily for him, it was only a small risk as he had pocket aces to crush the ace-king of Dvoress, who fell shortly after in sixth.

“To be honest, I had in a lot of ways the kind of uneventful final table,” Haxton said. “I didn’t play that many interesting post-flop spots or anything like that. I just got great hands. My opponents got slightly worse ones, and I got all the chips. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

But Haxton couldn’t sun-run forever, and he doubled up Mateos twice during three-handed play to even things out. The three agreed to an ICM chop that left the Spanish crusher taking home the biggest portion of the $4,753,980 prize pool and Davies picking up his biggest career live cash by a few pips (his previous best was ($1,020,000).

“I think Seth and Adrian are both really great players, so once we got to even stacks, I was perfectly happy to chop it up. When I had the big chip lead, I thought, you know, I have an advantage there from the chip lead that isn’t fully captured by the same calculation, and it’s hard to agree on a number,” Haxton said.

He added, “So we didn’t really even discuss it up until that point. I think basically everyone’s on the same page about that. It’s really difficult to chop three-handed when stacks are very different because it’s hard to reach an agreement about what everybody’s position is worth. But then once it got to equal, I think, yeah, we’re all just happy to lock $1,000,000 each and call it a day.”

Haxton, who played the entire event in an N95 mask, has been relatively inactive on the live circuit in recent years, primarily out of caution of the coronavirus, but he said he plans on adding more stops to his schedule.

“I’ve been quite cautious about COVID since that started, but I expect that in 2023 I will be back at quite a lot of the major tournaments,” he said.

That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team’s covering of the exciting $100,000 PCA Super High Roller to kick off the 2023 PCA. Be sure to check out the team’s coverage of all the other exciting events taking place here in The Bahamas.

David Yan outlasted a tough field in Event #14 $50,000 6-Handed to take the title after almost 14 hours of play. Yan defeated Orpen Kisacikoglu after reaching a deal during heads-up play, claiming the largest piece of the prize pool and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure trophy at the Baha Mar Resort in The Bahamas.

The field of 31 entries created a total prize pool of $1,509,948, with the final five players earning a return on their investment. Chris Hunichen took third place ($245,400), followed by Ben Heath in fourth ($177,400) and David Peters earning the minimum cash ($143,400) in fifth.

$50,000 PCA Single Day High Roller (6 Handed) Final Table Results

_{*Denotes a heads-up ICM deal}

“I’m pretty grateful for the experience,” Yan told PokerNews after his victory. “When you play such a little amount, it’s just basically anything can happen. Today I just ran insane; the field was one of the tougher ones we’ve seen”.

Early Day Eliminations

Yan kick-started his day with an early elimination of Justin Bonomo. The good fortune continued by knocking out Christoph Vogelsang as the field moved closer to the money.

Mikita Badziakouski was among the players to enter a second time, only to see his run cut short against Nick Petrangelo shortly after the late registration period closed.

Cary Katz was also among those using a second entry, but saw his run end on the bubble of the final table.

Final Table Action

Yan took a commanding chip lead into the unofficial final table of seven players, and scored the first elimination against Petrangelo.

That left the field on the direct money bubble, where Fedor Holz fell at the hands of Hunichen after the American flopped a set of nines.

In the Money

Once the field reached the money, the eliminations happened rather quickly. Peters was the first to go, losing to Kisacikoglu’s pocket pair to finish fifth.

Then came perhaps the hand of the night, when Yan’s kings scored a double elimination to reach heads up play. Heath’s short stack left him in fourth place, while Hunichen earned the pay jump and the podium finish.

From there, Kisacikoglu and Yan traded the chip lead a few times before reaching a deal. Yan was all-in twice during heads-up play, but was never at risk as Kisacikoglu folded both times. In the end, Yan’s pocket pair finished the job against Kisacikoglu to take down the title.

Yan said that his victory has not really impacted his plans to play a busier schedule. “I think I’ll probably spend quite a bit of time at home with family, maybe play some but didn’t really plan too much”.

That closes out PokerNews live reporting team’s coverage of the $50,000 PCA Single Day High Roller (6 Handed) in The Bahamas. Be sure to check out all of the action as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure continues.

The $1,100 Brazilian Series of Poker(BSOP) Bahamas Main Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has come to an end and Canada’s Allan Barnes is the champion after he defeated Vicente Delgado in heads-up play.

Barnes outlasted 460 entries to take home $86,650 for the victory from a total prize pool of $446,200. Delgado won $54,550 for second, while Christian Rudolph took home $38,950 for the third place finish. Jonathan Little and Brunno Botteon rounded out the top five with $29,950 and $23,050, respectively.

2023 BSOP Bahamas Main Event Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

Barnes is no stranger to The Bahamas, in fact, he had his first recorded cash in the Turbo Edition of the PCA Main Event back in 2015. Since then, he’s cashed a total of seven times in the Caribbean, most recently in 2018. This is his biggest score to date.

“First of all, me and my wife absolutely love The Bahamas,” Barnes said in his post-win interview with PokerNews. “That’s a bonus, and PokerStars does a great job with these tournaments. They’re a lot of fun to play. For whatever reason, I have a lot of success down here.”

This is the first win for Barnes, and a long time coming after a few deep runs in the shallow seas.

“It feels very, very good. It’s a monkey off my back. I’ve had some cashes down here and I’ve gone deep in some tournaments where I busted out before it really got exciting. This one here is a nice victory.”

The opening event of the 2023 PCA attracted a wide-ranging field of notable poker professionals from all over the world. Barnes, however, was in his element.

“I wasn’t intimidated by the professionals. I’ve played enough poker and I understand the game, so I know that if you’re patient enough the cards will come to you, and tonight was the perfect example of that. At one point there I was at 400,000 in chips, and I climbed back to win the thing. It was all about patience and getting the money in at the right time.”

Follow all of the 2023 PCA live updates right here

Barnes reflected on the turning point of the evening, when he got his dwindling stack in on the flop with two pair against a flush draw, only to see the flush come in on the turn. The river, however, brought a full house and a path to victory.

“When he turned the flush on me, I was sickened. I couldn’t believe it, and I knew he was on the draw, so that’s the worst part. And then it came in, but the ace came on the river. Obviously, I was ecstatic. It was really exciting to spike the ace for the win.”

Familiar Day 3 Faces

Day 3 got underway with the 37 surviving players from Monday’s Day 2, and each of the returnees was guaranteed $2,350 for their efforts. Maria Ho was one of many notable players that qualified for Day 3, and she got it in good with Big Slick, but Botteon caught up with a suited ace-jack to make a Broadway straight and eliminate her in 20th place.

Among the other players that made it to Day 3 and fell short of the final table were Katie Lindsay (22nd, $3,550), Andy Wilson (15th, $5,400), and Paul Dewald (11th, $7,750).

Final Table Action

With ten players remaining, Sebastian Toro got it in with pocket tens and Steven Fandozzi flushed him with the ace of spades on a four-space board to bring the tournament to its final table.

Fandozzi entered the final table with the top stack, and he was trailed by Little and Konnikova in the second and third spots on the leaderboard. Day 2 chip leader was the first to go of the final nine when his jammed with a suited ace-king and ran into the pocket kings of Botteon. Mateusz Moolhuizen soon followed when his ace-king couldn’t catch up to Maria Konnikova’s pocket fives.

Play stretched out for the final seven players, and it was nearly three hours before Konnikova was the next to go in seventh place. Konnikova returned for Day 3 with a big stack and a shot to repeat her win in the 2018 edition of this event, but her run came up short when she tried to bluff a missed straight draw, only to be called by Rudolph and his two pair.

It was more than 90 minutes before the next elimination, and it was Fandozzi who got it in with ace-king and could not improve against the pocket jacks of Delgado. Next to go was Botteon in fifth after he surrendered a double when Little made two pair. Botteon was out a few moments later when Delgado took the last of his small stack with ace-ten.

The game broke open for the final four players, and Little was the next one up for elimination after he found himself in a cooler with Barnes. Little shoved with pocket kings, but Barnes was waiting with pocket aces to send Little home in fourth place. He will return for the PCA Main Event on Wednesday after he registered on dinner break and bagged 30 big blinds before coming back to finish this event.

Soon after, Rudolph took his shot with a suited ace-nine and lost to the king-queen of Barnes. The run gave Barnes the chip lead at the start of heads-up play, but Delgado wasn’t too far behind.

Delgado closed the gap early, and the two players settled in for the endgame. At one point, Delgado took the lead, but Barnes came storming back. The big moment came when Delgado shoved with a turned pair of aces, only to see that Barnes had flopped queens and jacks. The river was no help for Delgado, and Barnes sealed the victory.

That concludes coverage of the $1,100 BSOP Bahamas Main Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in at the Baha Mar Resort in The Bahamas. Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from your favorite events.

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 should forever be remembered in poker as Chop Pot Day. First, it was a fumbled split pot in the WSOP Circuit King’s Resort Main Event, a hand in which a player mistakenly busted. Then in the evening, PokerGO viewers witnessed an equally entertaining, albeit less controversial, chop pot during the High Stakes Poker Season 10 debut.

For those who missed our story Tuesday morning, a poker player (Pierre Kauert) didn’t realize he should have chopped the pot in the WSOP Circuit event, and neither did the dealer or live-stream announcers. Instead, he was out in fifth place and no one said a peep to him about it until it was too late, although it did appear that some players at the table may have noticed the pot should have been chopped.

Everybody Loves a Chop Pot

Later in the day, PokerGO released the first episode of the newest High Stakes Poker season, and viewers witnessed yet another wild split pot. In a $200/$400 no-limit hold’em cash game, Eric Persson, who bought in for $400,000, called from a middle position with before Jennifer Tilly raised it up to $2,000 with next to the button.

Ema Zajmovic, holding , three-bet it from the button to $7,000, which led Matt Hanks, in the small blind, to four-bet to $25,000 with . Feeling trappy, Zajmovic made the call while the others folded. The flop came out , leaving Hanks drawing dead to winning the hand outright.

With Zajmovic having just $61,000 behind and the pot already over $50,000, Hanks decided to put her all in with his top pair. She wasted no time in calling, and her opponent needed a runner-runner straight just to split the pot. But this is Chop Pot Day, so of course the board ran out the on the turn and the on the river. They chopped up the $176,000 pot, which should constitute as a bad beat even though nobody lost the hand.

Hanks, Zajmovic, Persson, and Tilly were joined by Jean-Robert Bellande, Chino Rheem, and Poker Hall of Famer Bobby Baldwin at the table for Episode 1.

Most of the action outside of the aforementioned chop pot hand was due to the aggressive play of poker bad boy Persson and Tilly, the high-stakes poker playing actress. On the first hand, in true form, Persson made a large three-bet with 6-5 off-suit to take down the pot. Later on, he made an ambitious $40,000 turn bet with just a small pair before having to fold when Bellande moved all in with top pair and a queen-high flush draw.

Tilly was also aggressive at the table, making large preflop raises with marginal hands in a few instances. In one of the most entertaining and biggest pots of the night, Persson bet $7,000 on the turn with with the board showing , but his two pair was drawing to a four-outer against Hanks, who had for a flush.

Hanks bumped it up to $25,000 and his opponent made the call. When the river brought four cards to a straight, that didn’t save Persson as he called off a $60,000 bet only to lose a $182,000 pot.

High Stakes Poker will return to PokerGO next Tuesday starting at 8 p.m. ET. As is the case with any past episode, you can watch this week’s show on-demand with a PokerGO subscription.

Ivey, Negreanu Play Unbelievable High Stakes Poker Pot

_{*Images courtesy of PokerGO.}

You can chalk this one up in the “never seen that before” poker category. Pierre Kauert busted in sixth place in the WSOP Circuit Main Event at King’s Casino on…get this…a heads-up chop pot.

Yes, that’s right, he became the first player ever, at least on a live stream, to be eliminated from a tournament in a hand he didn’t actually lose. No one, not even the announcers, caught the mistake, and by the time it was discovered the pot should have been chopped, it was too late.

“It does fall under player and dealer responsibility and cannot really do anything about it at this point. If it wasn’t live streamed it would never have been realized and so we just move on,” World Poker Tour’s Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, who was not associated with the event, explained to PokerNews when asked how he would have proceeded.

King’s Resort Responds

Federico Brunato, King’s Resort poker director, issued the following public statement in regards to the hand:

Dear poker community,

I am sharing with you a very interesting situation that has occurred on one of our annual WSOPC events.

I am glad to have it documented on the livestream as it is something that happens very often during the games and is not talked so much about. With this post I want to raise awareness and give official piece of advice to our poker community.

To start with our poker dealers are very highly trained professionals that undergo a 6 week training course before entering their career paths at King’s. I myself have started as a poker dealer at King’s and know the work ethics. The dealer in the clip is our dear Sona that has been a member of our family for the last 6 years. When it comes to the standard of our streams we do our maximum to ensure that it is at the highest possible level and accordingly Sona has been a constant member of our TV crew since her first steps in our team.

When it comes to the Hand number 35 of the final day of the WSOPC ME where Mr. Pierre Kauert was eliminated and cashed a stunning 58,000€ incl. a WSOPE ME ticket.

I would like to refer to one of the most important rules of poker – always read your hand. At the end of the day we are all humans and we all can make mistakes, Sona is no exception. Even though she has dealt thousands of successful hands in her life, this hand unfortunately she misread. Nonetheless alongside with Sona, Mr. Pierre Kauert and all other competitors at the table misread the hand as well which of course is very unfortunate. The hand was supposed to be a split and we can now only guess how it would turn out in the Main Event path of Pierre Kauert, perhaps he would now be crowned a champion with a Golden Ring, perhaps he would be eliminated in the next hand.

At the end of the day I would like to refer to rule number 76. Of WSOP which states: The right to dispute a hand ends when a new hand begins. This applies not only to WSOP, but also to nearly all regular poker games that are played.

To take from this I strongly advise the poker community to not criticise other peoples mistake and not to try and find guilty, instead learn from this, know your rights and follow your game as every single occasion is individual in its own way.

Biggest Poker Error Ever?

With five players in the €1,700 buy-in Main Event remaining on Tuesday, and €171,000 to the winner, Kauert, a German player with only about $20,000 in previous Hendon Mob results, was all in for his remaining 1 million chips with .

He was up against the of Lupo, who easily had him covered. The pot was at 2.2 million, a significant amount considering there was only about 35 million total chips in play.

A poker fan on Twitter (@EyDuBrot) sent us the video, which was removed from the live-stream feed on YouTube. The flop came out , giving both players a gut-shot straight draw. But the on the turn gave them both a pair, with Lupo’s kicker being superior.

Kauert needed a king for a straight to win the hand outright or either a six or queen to chop. The board did pair when the appeared on the river, but apparently, no one even noticed that it was a chop pot.

Kauert shook hands with the others at the table and went to collect his winnings (€58,350) at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. Even the announcers didn’t catch it, although the live-stream graphics did show “split” on the screen.

According to sources on-site, it was ruled that a player can only dispute a hand before another hand is dealt. This is similar to an NFL coach failing to challenge a play before the other team snaps the ball. In that case, the game continues and the previous play stands.

This story will be updated with any developments if and when they happen.

The National Football League (NFL) regular season is done and dusted, but America’s most popular sport isn’t quite yet finished this year. January 29 sees the NFL Conference Championships take place, with the winner of each of those games progressing to Super Bowl LVII on February 12. Think you know your American Football? Willing to put your money where your mouth is? There’s some free Spin & Go tickets for you if you are and are a PokerStars Ontario customer.

PokerStars Ontario is giving away Spin & Go tickets to players that place at least $25 worth of NFL post-season markets. Betting $25 sees PokerStars thank you with a $5 Spin & Go ticket; betting $50 or more comes with two $5 Spin & Go tickets, while anyone placing $100 or more gets their hands on four $5 Spin & Go tickets! In addition, bet just $10 on the winner of the Super Bowl, and you’ll reel in another $5 Spin & Go ticket!

You need to act fast if you want to get your hands on the Spin & Go tickets because the NFC and AFC Conference Championships take place this Sunday, January 29. The Philadelphia Eagles take on the San Francisco 49ers at 3:00 p.m. ET, with the Kansas City Chiefs locking horns with the Cincinnati Bengals at 6:30 p.m. ET.

The Super Bowl kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on February 12. Get your bets in before these times to receive some Spin & Go tickets.

Eligible iGames conducted and managed by iGO are only available to those physically present in the Province of Ontario. PokerStars operates pursuant to an agreement with iGaming Ontario.

For more information, visit the Ontario Players Homepage

How to Migrate Your PokerStars Account in Ontario

What Are Spin & Go Tournaments? What Can You Win?

Spin & Gos are exciting three-handed hyper-turbo structures sit & go tournaments that start when three players have bought in. The prize pool is randomly determined before the dealing of the first cards. Most of the time, you will play for a prize pool that is 2x or 3x the size of your buy-in. However, on occasion, the prize pool multiplier hits 12,000x!

These thrilling single-table tournaments pay out in a winner-takes-all format when the prize pool multiplier is low, but all three entrants secure some prize money once the multiplier hits at least 25x. Trigger the top multiplier in the $5 Spin & Go tickets you receive for placing NFL bets at PokerStars Ontario, and you’ll battle it out for a share of $60,000; second and third-place bank $5,000 while the champion nets $50,000 in a matter of minutes.

$5 Spin & Go Payout Table

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We’re a few weeks late to the party as January is already nearing its home stretch, but nonetheless, we wanted to keep the annual tradition alive of PokerNews offering predictions for the New Year!

We asked PokerNews expert Matt Hansen to make some bold predictions for 2023! Without further adieu, here is what he had to say…

After a wild 2022 that featured the spot-on prediction of Jungleman’s second straight Poker Player’s Championship victory, it’s time once again to use my powers of clairvoyance and look into the future to tell you exactly what’s going to happen in 2023.

Prediction #1: Jungleman will NOT win a third straight Poker Player’s Championship

Dan “Jungleman” Cates went back-to-back for his second WSOP bracelet with a win in the 2022 PPC, but it’s just too unlikely for him to win a third time. Cates will likely wear something outrageous, and he will still be the center of attention, but his run will be cut short by the 2023 PPC champion: Ryan Leng.

Leng won a bracelet in the 2021 edition of the $1,500 8-game tournament, so he knows his way around the different variants. Later that series, he was runner-up to Cates in his first PPC win. He has three bracelets and several deep runs in different WSOP tournaments, which makes Leng a top pick to win against a very tough field.

Prediction #2: Mid-major expansion and a new tour in 2023

Events all over the world took a cautious approach when the industry emerged from COVID in 2021, but 2022 was an opportunity for everything to get back to normal.

Mid-major tours like RunGood Poker Series and Mid-States Poker Tour had big comeback years, and both were able to bounce back from the pandemic with an opportunity to expand their schedules.

2023 will be the year of risk-taking and adventure for poker operators. The lessons have been learned and the ideas have been percolating, so it’s time to swing for a few home runs. The expectation is that current tours, both big and mid-sized, will get much bigger this year with so many casinos across the country competing to get people in the door.

Larger operators will put on big events in markets that are new to poker—and I predict that at least one new U.S.-based tour will dip its toe in the scene in 2023. The industry got back to speed in 2022 and stakeholders all over the world will want to keep that going.

Prediction #3: An American will win a PokerStars European Poker Tour Main Event on European soil

While Americans have won major PokerStars events all over the world, most recently David “Chino” Rheem at the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, it’s been a while since a U.S. player has crossed the pond and taken down an EPT Main Event.

The EPT returned in 2022 with two record-setting trips to Prague and stops in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and London. This year will take the tour to new stops in Paris and Cyprus, while Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Prague remain in the rotation. Conflicts with large stateside tournaments can prevent a large contingency of Americans from making the trip, and COVID restrictions have complicated international travel, but I don’t see that as much of a problem in 2023 with players having the opportunity to create a schedule without as many obstacles. Events like Prague and Monte Carlo occurred during a time when travel restrictions were still in place, and most of them have been lifted at this point.

The last American to win an EPT on European soil was Stephen Graner at EPT Prague in 2014, and the next one will probably be Steve O’Dwyer—who won in Monte Carlo in 2013. A sneaky backup pick is Jason Wheeler, an EPT regular and WSOP bracelet winner that ran to 19th in the 2022 Monte Carlo Main Event.

check out the 2023 schedule on the European poker tour live reporting hub

Prediction #4: Shaun Deeb will win his second WSOP Player of the Year

Deeb cashed 17 times in the 2022 WSOP but he couldn’t catch Daniel Zack on the leaderboard for the Player of the Year title. His success continued at WSOP Europe, where he cashed seven times with three third-place finishes, one of which was a deep run in the Main Event.

Deeb puts in the volume, and it’s no secret that he wants to sneak up on Phil Hellmuth’s bracelet total, so he’s a good bet to have a great year most of the time. In 2018 he won twice and cashed 20 times en route to a Player of the Year title, and 2023 will look a lot like that.

Prediction #5: A new Triple Crown winner

Only nine players have won a World Series of Poker bracelet, a World Poker Tour Main Event, and a European Poker Tour Main Event in their career, and 2023 will be the year that introduces a 10th. Several active players are just one away, and it’s a matter of time before this category swells.

Players that need just a WSOP bracelet include Mike Watson and David “Chino” Rheem, while Hossein Ensan, Jason Mercier, Adrian Mateos and Ognyan Dimov are among many that need to win on the World Poker Tour. The EPT Main Event title is the most rare, but players like Nick Petrangelo, Alex Foxen, and Ole Schemion can pick up a Triple Crown with a win on the PokerStars tour.

The most recent member of the Triple Crown Club was Roberto Romanello, who added a WSOP bracelet in the 2020 online series to his Main Event wins at EPT Prague in 2010 and WPT Bratislava in 2011.

The official prediction for 2023 is that Watson will win his first bracelet at Horseshoe Las Vegas this Summer. He came very close with a runner-up finish against Simeon Spasov in the $2,000 event in 2022, and he has made several deep runs in the online bracelet events. It’s only a matter of time before he becomes poker’s next Triple Crown winner.

Live Reporting Executive

Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL

Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) is one of the most fun poker variants you can play online. You make big hands far more regularly than in No Limit Hold’em, the pots grow larger and do so faster, and the less experienced PLO players make the same mistakes over and over again, leading to PLO being potentially very lucrative indeed.

Most PLO mistakes can be prevented preflop. Think of the preflop stage of PLO as building the foundations of a house. Start from a solid base and you have a platform from which to build. However, get it wrong, and you’re on shaky ground where your house, read that as bankroll, can come toppling down at any moment.

Those who frequent No Limit Hold’em games know there are 1,326 possible starting hands. PLO has 270,725 possible starting hands, so it is easy to see why preflop mistakes are more common in PLO games. With that in mind, let’s start with a common preflop PLO mistake.

#1 Common PLO Mistakes – Playing too many hands that have unconnected or low cards

Receiving four hole cards gives PLO players plenty of freedom when it comes to starting hand selection; remember that you must use exactly two of your hole cards to make the best five-card poker hand possible. Ideally, you want your hole cards to be connected and/or be drawing to the nuts.

For example, a hand such as is a powerhouse hand preflop. It is double-suited for a start, and you can easily see you are drawing to the nuts. A hand such as looks pretty to a Hold’em player but can get you into a lot of trouble. Similarly, even though can make the nut spade flush, it is a hand that you should toss into the muck for the most part.

#2 Common PLO Mistakes – Over-valuing small pairs and low rundowns

Players new to the nuances of PLO often over-value the strength of small pairs. They think hitting a set with a hand like gives them a significant advantage but it does not in reality. Low sets are often dominated by superior sets in PLO, plus many boards will have potential flushes and straights that make continuing with a small set challenging.

Using the hand above as an example, you are unlikely to have any backdoor draws to help you if your opponent shows any signs of strength after the flop. Imagine the flop comes down . You have bottom set, but anyone playing with a pair of tens or aces in the hole, or a hand like or has you in a whole world of pain.

It is a similar story with low rundowns. By this, we mean hands such as . They look great and have some potential. However, any hand you make is likely to be at the lower end of the scale. Improving to a flush or straight leaves you vulnerable to stronger flushes and straights.

Three Tips for Switching to Pot-Limit Omaha

#3 Common PLO Mistakes – Slow-plying too frequently, especially in multi-way pots

Slow-playing a strong hand is a common tactic in No Limit Hold’em games but it can be deadly in PLO where you are in danger of being outdrawn. This danger amplifies whenever pots are contested with two or more opponents.

Improving to trips with on a flop in Hold’em would be a great spot to slow-play your hand. But what if you hit the same flop with ? Although you should be aware that the turn or river could improve an opponent to a better full house, you are more likely to have an opponent drawing to a flush or straight, or that has a hand with in it. Even someone holding a hand like is a two-to-one underdog, which is usually as good as it gets in PLO.

Don’t slow-play your hands. Either bet to protect your hand or bet to increase the pot size and maximize the value from players with strong yet inferior holdings.

#4 – Common PLO Mistakes – Playing out of position

Position is king in all flop games, but especially so in PLO. Limping in with mediocre hands from early position is not recommended, and neither is calling three bets from out of position. The power of position is tremendous in PLO and you should use it to your advantage, not allow it to become a disadvantage at the tables.

Limping from early position and then calling a raise is a recipe for bleeding away chips. Not only are you playing in a bloated pot but are doing so against an opponent that can see how you act and adapt accordingly.

How to Crush Three-Bet Pots in Pot Limit Omaha

#5 – Common PLO Mistakes – Playing short-stacked

Some players like to sit down with a short stack when they are learning a new game. They are told that mistakes made while deep stacked are more costly than if they are playing short. While this is true, playing short-stacked in PLO cash games is not advised.

First, your lack of chips means you are essentially unable to bluff or able to force opponents to fold their equity. Also, pots grow large fast in PLO, so you will often find yourself pot-committed with easily dominated hands, which tends to end badly.

Sit down at a micro-stakes table while you learn the ropes. Sites such as 888poker, PokerStars, and PartyPoker have PLO cash games starting at $0.01/$0.02 blinds where you buy in for $2. If you cannot face the prospect of losing $2 in a hand, then, unfortunately, PLO is probably not the game for you.