The final five-figure buy-in event of the PokerStars European Poker Tour London, inside the Hilton Park Lane has come to an end, with Adam Miller taking home the £10,300 EPT London High Roller trophy along with the £312,383 up top after a deal was reached at heads-up play.

The American cash game specialist and former Deliveroo Chief Financial Officer took down his first major high roller title, much to his surprise.

“I wouldn’t have expected that of the tournaments that I’ve played, winning the £10K high roller was the one that I was going to bink but I’ll take it” Miller said after the his winner photo.

“There were definitely a lot of crushers in the field [but] I think I played well and kept my composure. Like anything you have to kind of get a good run of cards to win these things”

Miller, who has made London his home for the last ten years, entered heads up play with a sizeable chip lead over Renan Bruschi and earned the victory following a top-60 finish in the EPT £5,300 Main Event, as well as making the final table in the 8-Game Mix. He topped the 158 entry field, which created the £1,532,600 prize and paid the top 23 players.

£10,300 EPT High Roller Final Table Results

*Indicates heads-up deal

Ian Hamilton Wins EPT London Main Event (£664,400)

Day 3 Action

The last 11 players returned to their bags to begin the final day, with Lars Kamphues the first to go after losing with pocket jacks against nines.

That was followed by the final hand for Santhosh Suvarna, when a river ended his run in tenth place. Suvarna was fresh off a runner-up finish in the £3,000 Platinum Pass Mystery Bounty event, and added £35,750 in winnings here after registering for this tournament at the last minute. Suvarna’s elimination brought the field down to the final table.

EPT London Hands of the Week

Final Table Play

Marcello Marigliano entered the final table as the short stack, and was the first to exit after running into Miller’s pocket aces. After staying alive earlier by hitting a runner-runner straight, Davidi Kitai was next out when his last two big blinds ran into Bruschi’s jacks.

Mike Watson doubled on the first hand of the day, but he was unable to build much further and finished in seventh place after losing a battle of the blinds to Sita Divari, who finished in sixth.

Juan Pardo entered the day leading the pack, coming off a win in the £10,200 Mystery Bounty and runner-up finish in the £50,000 Super High Roller. His run ended here in fifth place, and added another £94,700 to his haul in the English Capital.

Alex Keating regained some ground as the short stack of the final four, but his queens lost to flopped quads for a disappointing exit. Shortly after knocking out Keating, Daniel Aziz saw his pocket pair come second best to finish in third.

Bruschi did well to reach heads up play, having entered the day as the overall short stack. After a deal was reached, Bruschi finally bowed out to Miller for his second runner-up finish of the series.

Miller will now look to build off this success, which could include other high roller in the future. “I’ll probably travel to some more bigger events now in the coming months. I’m pretty excited to do some more of these, hopefully I’ll continue to run well”

Editor & Live Reporter

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.

Poker dealer tipping has replaced the Robbi-Garrett story on poker Twitter thanks to a tweet from poker vlogger Lex Ozias (@LexOpoker1) that sparked a heated debate.

Ozias’s hot take, which read “If you play poker for a living: size of pot won shouldn’t dictate size of tip to dealer,” received the same reception as just about any other controversial opinion on social media — a mix of insults, contrasting views, and those who agree.

“Love getting on the tables and stacking guys like you,” Michael Mcardle (@m_mcardle12) tweeted at Ozias, for example.

The vlogger who has over 47,000 YouTube subscribers is certainly entitled to his opinion. Following a number of responses to his initial tweet, he followed up with a deeper explanation into his views on pros tipping dealers.

Herbie Teope, an avid poker enthusiast and Kansas City Chiefs beat writer for the Kansas City Star, told PokerNews he is “of the belief the size of the pot dictates the tip” and wholeheartedly disagrees with Ozias’s take.

Poker pro Charlie Carrel brought up an interesting question in relation to the tipping issue.

The Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) is heading back to Las Vegas in November for not one, but two events, both with massive guaranteed prize pools up for grabs.

PokerNews’ live reporting team will be on-site to provide frequent updates from start to finish during both events, starting with the $1,100 Main Event, which runs Nov. 1-3. That $250,000 guaranteed event will be followed by the $1,600 MSPT Main Event at Venetian Nov. 3-6, and this one promises at least $750,000 in prize money to be awarded.

Tournament Details

Starting on Nov. 1, Venetian in Las Vegas begins another one of its popular Deepstack Extravaganza Poker Series, and the $3.2 million guaranteed series begins with two Mid-States Poker Tour events.

Each MSPT tournament features two Day 1 starting flights beginning at 11:10 a.m. Players can register for both sessions if they don’t bag a stack on Day 1a. There are daily $200 mega satellites available at Venetian to give players an opportunity to get in on the cheap. Both tournaments will play down to a winner on Day 2.

Tournament structures are as follows: 25,000 starting chips and 40-minute blind levels in the $1,100 tournament and 30,000 starting chips with 40-minute blind levels in the $1,600 tournament. The winner of each event will take home a prestigious trophy and shiny Venetian gold coin.

MSPT Past and Future

The month of October has been a busy one for the MSPT, with two events having already concluded and one that began on Thursday in Riverside, Iowa ($300,000 guarantee).

Earlier in the month, Chris Burke took down the MSPT Deadwood Shootout at the Silverado-Franklin Casino in South Dakota for $89,725. Mid-States Poker Tour Hall of Famer Josh Reichard too third place ($40,376) to move into first place on the MSPT Player of the Year standings.

On Oct. 17, Matthew Davis won $344,446 for coming out victorious in the MSPT Main Event at Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Coming up following the Venetian stop, the MSPT will head to Columbus, Minnesota Dec. 1-11 for the Winter Poker Classic Series at Running Aces Casino. Then it’s back to Venetian to finish out the 2022 year with another $1,100 Main Event Dec. 28-30.

Police are searching for but can’t locate the production staffer who admitted to stealing $15,000 in casino chips from Robbi Jade Lew following the infamous Sept. 29 Hustler Casino Live show.

Gardena (California) police would like to speak with Bryan Sagbigsal, 24, but he’s gone missing. Lew initially declined to press charges, which led many within the poker community to assume that Sagbigsal was involved in the alleged poker cheating scandal. She later changed her mind, which in turn changed the minds of many poker players who originally felt she was guilty.

But there are still plenty of questions remaining involving the jack-four hand against Garrett Adelstein, along with when or if charges will ever be filed against the now fired employee of High Stakes Poker Productions, the company owned by HCL.

Thief Gone Missing

According to a report from Los Angeles Times staff writer Andrea Chang, local police made an attempt arrest on Wednesday but couldn’t locate the admitted chip thief.

Upon reading the article, Adelstein shared the link on Twitter with a captioned line from the piece: “<Robbi> said on Twitter and on a podcast that she had turned over her phone records to the newspaper; The Times has yet to receive any, despite repeated follow-up requests.”

Later in the day the Times edited the article to add the following to the end of the quote Adelstein tweeted: “Late Thursday afternoon, Lew sent a Times reporter an email with her AT&T log-in information.”

Much of the circumstantial evidence presented against Lew by the poker community hinged upon her assumed connection to Sagbigsal. Many argued they worked together with Sagbigsal giving her signals from the production booth to indicate when she was holding the best hand.

Now that Lew has at least attempted to push local authorities to press charges related to the theft of her chips, it becomes less likely that the two were working in cahoots to cheat on Hustler Casino Live. But it also doesn’t prove her innocence either.

Patrick Curran, the former technical director for HCL who left the show a month prior to the scandal, made clear on Twitter that he’s “100%” certain Sagbigsal played no part in any cheating incident and that the chip theft was a one-time incident. He also said that he’s been in contact with Sagbigsal and expects the accused thief to eventually turn himself in to authorities.

“Hey Garrett, YOUR ENTIRE THEORY IS BUNK. I know with 100% certainty that Bryan did not participate in any cheating in the poker game. I know Bryan better than anyone involved in this whole thing. He didn’t relay hole card information to Robbi. Snap out of it dude!” Curran tweeted.

When and if Sagbigsal surrenders, it will be up to the district attorney’s office to determine if it wants to move forward with pressing criminal charges. Despite being the victim, Lew can’t make that decision on her own.

Do We Know if She Cheated?

Nearly one month into the scandal, it appears the poker community as a whole is leaning more on the “she didn’t cheat” side than a few weeks prior. Part of that is due to her passing a polygraph test and also changing her mind on getting police involved against Sagbigsal. But there still are many who remain convinced she cheated Adelstein out of a $269,000 pot on Hustler Casino Live.

At this point, however, there is no definitive evidence one way or the other. The play was certainly questionable, but many have argued she is an inexperienced player who simply made a bad call with jack-high that turned out to be correct. Others claim she was given information from someone within the Hustler Casino Live production room to make her aware that she had the best hand when facing a $109,000 all-in semi-bluff from Adelstein, who was holding eight-high with a straight flush draw on the turn.

Still, there has been no hard evidence proving guilt or innocence at this point. Co-owners Nick Vertucci and Ryan Feldman hired a third-party investigator in an attempt to get to the bottom of it. Thus far, the only evidence they’ve discovered was the theft of Lew’s chips, which may not have any connection to the alleged cheating incident.

Cheating, if it occurred, may never be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, much like Lew may never be able to prove her innocence if she didn’t cheat.

This Halloween, join Natural8 as they celebrate Halloween with some festive fun and ghostly scares. The Natural8 Ghost Hunt is on as we invite some unexpected guests to join our cash game tables. For one special day, you’ll have the chance to play alongside some of the scariest ghosts and villains in pop culture. But it’s not going to be all darkness and doom.

If you happen to chance upon these unexpected guests at one of your tables, you will be in for a treat. Be a Ghost Hunter and knock them out to win the pot and an extra reward of up to 20x the Big Blind. These ghastly creatures are just as ghastly at playing poker so there’s nothing to fear.

Look out for them at the cash game tables and make sure to follow the Natural8 social media channels where our resident Ghost Trackers will share their whereabouts with you.

Six Awesome Things You Can Do With PokerCraft on Natural8

The Haunted Cash Games

If a haunt, or a hunt, is your idea of a fun night, then October is definitely the time to be on Natural8. In addition to the Natural8 Ghost Hunt, there’s the Bounty Hunter Series currently happening as well. Knock out the competition and you can win up to $1,000,000 in prizes for every person that you send through the exit.

The Natural8 Ghost Hunt is the latest exclusive promotion to take center stage. Our aim is to make poker fun again through innovative features and fun promotions for all to enjoy. If you’re looking for a poker room with a quirky and fun personality, you’ve found it. Join us now and be part of the fun.

About Natural8

Natural8 is Asia’s largest online poker room and geared towards recreational players. A skin on the reputable GGPoker Network, Natural8 is fully licensed and authorised. Anyone can join for free, and there are no hidden fees.

On top of the $120 million guaranteed prize pool for tournaments every month, Natural8 also offers plenty of promotions for new players. These specials amount to a total of $1,858 – easily one of the best in the online poker scene – and include:

October 28, 2022

If there’s one period in western history that perfectly represents the human craving to gamble for more than you’ve got, it’s the Old West. In this age, people who had settled on the east side of America would race off into the unknown, hunting for their fortunes. Now, cowboys, Native American warriors, bison, grand trains, bandits, saloons, gold mines and prospectors are synonymous with the mentality of wanting to gamble it all on the hope of a better life on the other side of the country.

In modern times, the period became glorified through iconic movies, particularly the Spaghetti Westerns, with names like Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, John Ford and John Wayne rising to the fore. Despite fading from the spotlight as the top genre in film, western remains popular elsewhere in entertainment – particularly in casino gaming.

Seamlessly blending into slot gaming, the most popular free online western slots capture the essence of the Wild West. Here, you’ll find the western slots that offer the best experiences for free players and can be found on top free online games sites.

Mining for Millions

Taking place in a particularly prosperous spot, join the gold miners in Mining for Millions to see if you’ll strike it lucky. Set against the backdrop of a mining village, you’ll look to combine the Seductress, Miner, Prospector and Pack Mule for the biggest line wins of up to 30,000.

While the 30-payline slot doesn’t feature six-shooters or cowboys, Mining for Millions is certainly one of the top free western slots, bringing the excitement through its Bear Wild and Bonus. Three or more of these Bonus Detonators award the Hold and Spin Feature.

Here, you get three spins and Multipliers that hold in place when they land. You can find Mining for Millions at Luckyland Slots, which we gave a review score of 9.0.

Wild West

It wouldn’t be a list of the best free western slots without the game Wild West. You play as a lone cowboy, out to wrangle some broncos and find some treasure. Each spin plays across 25 paylines, five reels and three rows, with a backdrop of the sun setting over the vast desert landscapes. On the slot, you’ll be looking to combine high-card symbols, Cowboy Hats, Cowboy Boots, Sacks of Money, and the Lone Cowboy.

While you’ll have the assistance of the Wild symbol during the base game, it’s the Free Spins mode that offers the greatest chance for success – especially as Wilds become stacked during the feature. To get to the Free Spins mode, you’ll first need the Wrangler Bonus symbol on reels one, two and three. Then, there’s the Match-3 Bonus Game, which can land you Free Spins, multipliers and even the Special Jackpot.

Crazy Train

Taking place aboard a mighty, America-spanning train with a hefty caboose, you’ll find a great many riches aboard to loot for your own coin balance. On the train, you’ll encounter the Wealthy Gentleman, Train Worker, Dog, and Bags of Money, getting help from the Wild symbol to create winning lines. Across the 80 paylines, you’ll also encounter the Gold Train and Silver Train symbols, which are the key to unlocking the All Aboard Free Spins.

Not only can you get up to 240 Free Spins from the scatters, but to get started, all of the triggering symbols will turn Wild and hold on the reels. As you spin, you’ll also get to collect the Gold Dollar symbols, which fill the Cash Meter to unlock the multiplier-gifting Loose Caboose Bonus. Given a 9.0 editor’s rating, Slotomania is the best place for you to play this free western slots pick.

Dynamite Gold

While there was adventure to be had along the journey, the end game for most who travelled to the Old West sought the fabled riches said to be in the rocks and rivers. In Dynamite Gold, you’ve already found your lucky spot, and have your Lantern, Tools, Mining Cart and Pack Mule set, so all there’s left to do is explode your way to the gold. Like many western-themed slots, Dynamite Gold’s core feature centres on finding the Gold symbols.

If you get three or more Gold symbols during the same spin, 15 Free Spins come your way. As you play through the Free Spins, collecting enough Dynamite will boom extra sets of reels and Prospector Wild symbols onto the game.

Keep on mining, and you can find yourself with up to four individual sets of reels, giving you a total of 100 paylines to spin across for the win. For some mining action in Dynamite Gold, check out the highly-rated House of Fun app.

Those are the best free western slots that you can find online right now. Each of the selected western slots delivers on its theme in a different way, but never fail to immerse spinners in the Wild West setting.

Only six players remain at the end of Day 5 of the £5,300 EPT Main Event at PokerStars European Poker Tour London and leading the final table is the Czech Republic’s Roman Hrabec with a stack of 6,135,000 worth 77 big blinds.

The former professional ice hockey player entered the day fourth in chips and ran up his stack throughout the ten hours of play on Day 5, which ended when the day’s chip leader, David Docherty, fell to 2018 WSOP Europe Main Event champ Jack Sinclair.

Primarily an online grinder, Hrabec will earn his biggest live score to date should he survive one more payout jump.

Joining Hrabec and Sinclair for the Day 6 action will be British grinder Ian Hamilton, Germany’s Nils Pudel, Switzerland’s Alexandre Vuilleumier and Romanian filmmaker Danut Chisu.

£5,300 EPT Main Event Final Table

£5,300 EPT Main Event Remaining Payouts

Seidel, Heath Among Those to Fall on Day 5

The fifth day of action at London’s Hilton Park Lane began with 16 players and that number steadily dwindled down as the two tables became one.

High rollers Marton Czuczor and Ben Heath were the first two players to fall and Heath had a particularly rough exit as his set of fives was cracked by the rivered nut flush of Vuilleumier.

Fan favorite Erik Seidel was on the hunt for a Triple Crown feat (he has nine WSOP bracelets and a WPT title under his belt) but the Poker Hall of Famer fell in 12th place when his pocket sevens ran into the aces of David Docherty, who was quite familiar with Rockets as he had picked them up twice on Day 4 to stack a pair of unfortunate opponents with Cowboys.

Aleem Kanji busted in 10th place when his ace-seven couldn’t get ahead of the pocket eights of fellow Brit Lodge to make way for the unofficial final table.

Ireland’s Jamie Flynn was the first to go at the final table after he moved in with king-queen against the ace-ten of Lodge. A king-high flop was good news for Flynn but it was short-lived as an ace on the river sent him packing.

Lodge himself was the next to fall when he check-jammed the flop with second pair only to be called by the overpair of Hrabec, whose aces held up as the board ran out to send Lodge out in eighth place.

Docherty entered Day 5 with the chip lead but bowed out in seventh place when his pocket fives couldn’t survive a flip against the ace-queen of Sinclair, who rivered a flush to eliminate Docherty in the final hand of the day.

The sixth and final day of the EPT London Main Event will commence on Friday, Oct. 28 at 12:30 p.m. local time and will play down to a winner, who will take home the £664,400 first-place prize and the coveted golden trophy.

Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow at the luxurious Hilton Park Lane to see the EPT London Main Event play out. Check out the team’s coverage of other EPT London events in the meantime.

Two charity poker tournaments are on the horizon for early November, including one hosted by poker legends Doyle Brunson and Jack Binion.

Charity poker tournaments are useful in raising money for various causes. In the next week, charities benefiting youth and brain health will benefit from the game of poker.

Cards for Kindness Poker Tournament

The first one, the Cards For Kindness Poker Tournament, takes place Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. EST. Ian Sandler, a poker player who cashed in the 2014 WSOP Main Event, founded the Riley’s Way Foundation, a nonprofit that strives to empower “young leaders to use kindness and empathy to create meaningful connections and positive change.”

The virtual event begins with a Zoom presentation followed by a poker tournament at 7:45 p.m. A single buy-in costs $250 with rebuys and add-ons available.

At the end of the tournament, the winner will take home a 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event seat, valued at $10,000. Other prizes include three-night vacation at exclusive resorts, multiple golf packages, dinner for six at the iconic Peter Luger’s Steakhouse in New York City, tickets for four to an upcoming New York Giants NFL game, and more.

There are a number of sponsorship packages available, all including tickets into the charity poker event, starting at $5,000. For more information and details, visit the RileysWay.org website.

Go All In for a Good Cause with Doyle Brunson

On Nov. 4, Brunson, Binion, and Daniel Negreanu will host the 2022 Keep Memory Alive Charity Poker Tournament at 888 West Bonneville Avenue in Las Vegas. The buy-in costs $575 with $200 advance rebuys available for purchase online prior to the start of the event, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. PST.

The event will benefit the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Among the sponsors for the charity poker function include the Las Vegas Raiders.

Many poker stars will be in attendance along with the trio of poker legends already mentioned. David Williams, Barry Shulman, and Poker Hall of Fame tournament director Jack McClelland are just some of the players you might find at your table.

The winning player in the poker tournament will receive $10,000 in cash, and other non-cash prizes such as jewelry and trips will be awarded to those who run deep.