Omicron variant running rampant The Nevada Gaming Control Board issued a notice to its licensees emphasizing that they must comply with Governor Steve Sisolak’s Emergency Directive 045 regarding mask wearing. The Directive, originally issued in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in the United States, essentially says that the state will… Read more »
The leading online poker proponent in the Senate Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D – Nev.) passed away on Wednesday at the age of 82. Reid underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2018 and said in early 2019 that he was in remission. According to his wife, it does appear that his death was… Read more »
Staying power I have a very specific fond memory of the Flamingo Las Vegas. It was probably 2005, the first year I covered the World Series of Poker live at the Rio. My brother came to visit and, having seen all he was going to see at the WSOP, decided to enter a small daily… Read more »
Under new management In early December, Johnny Chan’s 888 Social, a poker room or “social club” in Houston, closed without warning, leaving many customers with money locked up inside. Fortunately for those players, it looks like all may be well, as the club has a new owner, Sanjeev Vora, who is ready to reopen under… Read more »
There have always been arguments about who the best player in the world might be. One thing that usually has not been argued, however, is who the best player in a given calendar year might be. Organizations like CardPlayer Magazine and the Global Poker Index have done magnificent work to trying to figure out who… Read more »
As is our tradition here at Poker News Daily, we are running our Christmas rendition of our version of “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” It is, naturally, changed with poker in mind and, since it was written now 18 years ago, the names may not be as relevant as they were in the past. Instead… Read more »
Total domination It wasn’t even close. Ali Imsirovic was named the 2021 PokerGO Tour Player of the Year this week, something that looked like an inevitability for months. For his accomplishment, Imsirovic wins $200,000 on behalf of Guaranteed Rate, the PokerGO Tour’s sponsor. Now, I’m not going to get into how Player of the Year… Read more »
The poker calendar is not always bound to the regular calendar. There is usually a pause around the holidays, but December is often no different in the poker world than January. The World Poker Tour, for instance, crossed calendar years. The new PokerGO Tour, however, goes January to December and as such, just concluded its… Read more »
Six high stakes tables Well, it looks like this is PokerStars week here at PND. It’s unintentional, but hey, poker news tends to be slow around the holidays, so we’ll take what we can get. In today’s edition, we’re not going to talk about Stars tournaments, but rather the site’s cash games. Specifically, high stakes… Read more »
Omicron variant spreading quickly As the world rushes headlong into yet another COVID-19 wave, this time thanks to the omicron variant, we are all experiencing the challenges of simultaneously trying to be safe and live our lives. After live tournaments were cancelled for the vast majority of 2020, they have come back with a vengeance… Read more »
Poker is a game that requires 100% mental fortitude at all times. The scary thing about that is that everything could be going swimmingly for hours, for days, and then one slip up – be it a mental lapse or an unlucky deal – could send you spiraling. And even if that one moment doesn’t… Read more »
To say that there is a dominant leader at the final table of the World Poker Tour’s stop at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic would be like saying Michael Jordan was an OK basketball player. Taylor Black came into Day Four of the Five Diamond among the leaders and finished the day with more… Read more »
Six more levels are in the books at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and it is shaping up to be one of the best events of 2021 for the World Poker Tour. The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic is in full swing, shattering the money bubble on Friday in driving down to the final… Read more »
The final major tournament of one of the circuits is fully underway at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. After two days of battle set the field, World Poker Tour Champions’ Club Member Ben Hamnett has forged his way into the lead of the WPT Five Diamon World Poker Classic with a sizeable 800,000 chip stack.… Read more »
Familiar structure The PokerStars Winter Series is back this month, offering $50 million in guaranteed prize pools across 291 tournaments. Cue the “unwrapping presents” cutesy phrase, as the festivities get going on Christmas Day, December 25, and run through January 12. As is the case for many PokerStars tournament series, the Winter Series has a… Read more »
Simple, yet revolutionary invention The poker world lost a legend Tuesday, as Henry Orenstein, the inventor of the hole card camera, passed away at the age of 98. While few details of his passing are known, it was confirmed by president and CEO of PokerGO, and fellow poker luminary, Mori Eskandani. Were it not for… Read more »
Bettors spotted a rare stat-keeping mistake in a college basketball game this past weekend that persisted through to the final score. After the score was corrected, some sportsbooks decided to pay out wagers on both sides. It was a game that not a whole lot of people paid attention to besides alumni of the schools… Read more »
The landscape – and skyline – of Las Vegas will soon change, as MGM Resorts International has agreed to sell the operations of The Mirage Hotel & Casino to Hard Rock International for $1.075 billion in cash. VICI Properties, Inc. owns the property and will lease it to Hard Rock; terms of that agreement were… Read more »
Very limited for now PokerStars is testing the use of webcams at its virtual poker tables. First reported by Poker Industry PRO, “video chat” is currently only available on a limited basis in some “dot com” and “dot eu” markets and solely in Stars’ Home Games offering. It is also only integrated into the online… Read more »
When the gaming compact between the Seminole Indians of Florida and the state of Florida was signed in April many, including the governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, expected challenges to the compact. DeSantis and others felt, however, that gaming would be allowed to continue unabated. That ended last week as the Seminoles decided to shut… Read more »
It is an innovation that has been trying to work its way into the poker rooms of the world for more than a decade. Electronic poker tables have been used on cruise ships, where they have been lauded for their efficiency and the ability to operate without human personnel (dealers, chip runners, etc.). Now, the… Read more »
It has been an interesting year for Alex O’Brien. One year ago, O’Brien was the victor in the $100,000 Dan Bilzerian Birthday Freeroll, celebrating GGPoker’s signing of the controversial media figure (he certainly is not a poker player, by appearances). A year later, GGPoker has shown absolutely no action towards putting on this event, leading… Read more »
The King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, was a gracious host for the 2021 World Series of Poker Europe, so it was only natural that one of their “native sons” would take home the biggest prize. Czech native Josef Gulas was able to outlast the seven-man final table and, in particular, France’s Johan Guilbert to… Read more »
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Winter Online Circuit returns this weekend on GGPoker, with 18 ring events up for grabs. Those dozen and a half ring events come with over $26 million in guaranteed prize pools. The headline number, though, is $100 million. That’s the amount of guaranteed prize money across all of the… Read more »
The 2021 World Series of Poker Europe is down to the final stretch, as just seven players remain out of 688 total entries. The original intent going into Tuesday’s Day 4 was to call it a night when only six players still had chips, and they had time to get there, but in the end,… Read more »
