Friday saw the continuation of festivities in the Venetian DeepStacks tournament schedule and, in particular, the PokerGO Tour’s Venetian High Rollers events. Up for the players on Friday was the $15,000 No Limit Hold’em version of events and it featured what has become commonplace for the events during this run. One, there was a smallish… Read more »
As we enter a New Year – hey, at least it was not like poker’s “lost year” – there are some situations to tidy up. The Player of the Year awards for the two major outlets, CardPlayer Magazine and the Global Poker Index, could save some money this year by just combining into one award,… 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 »
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 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 »
After a year of poker that was primarily dominated by High Roller events, it should not come as a surprise that one of the High Roller regulars is poised to take the major Player of the Year awards. Ali Imsirovic’s play on those High Roller circuits has been nothing short of stunning, giving him a… Read more »
After going with an online format in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, the “powers that be” at PokerGO have announced that the 2021 Poker Masters will return to a live format for this year’s tournament. The 2021 Poker Masters is scheduled to start this Monday, September 7, and run through September 18. The 12-event… Read more »
In a pretty quick turnaround, the 2021 U. S. Poker Open has been picked up for broadcast by one of the major sports channels in the States. NBC Sports Network, which has past background in airing poker, will be the television outlet for the USPO. There are three days that are being set aside for… Read more »
With the return of tournament poker to the poker community, the different Player of the Year races have also sprung back to life. One thing has remained the same, however. The different “High Roller” events have made for an unbalanced leaderboard, as evidenced by high roller regular Ali Imsirovic’s ascension to the top of both… Read more »
Hard to believe that it has been ten years since the Global Poker Index has been utilized in the world of poker. From its humble beginnings in 2011 as a method of ranking players to be eligible for a long since gone poker tour, the Global Poker Index has now become one of the best… Read more »
Big changes occurred on Saturday at the 2021 U. S. Poker Open. News that Ali Imsirovic took down Event #9, a $10,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, may not be huge, but the victory was important. By winning the event, Imsirovic (and second-place finisher Andrew Lichtenberger) passed Joe McKeehen for the lead in the Overall Championship… Read more »
To say that Jared Bleznick rode a rollercoaster during his time at the final table of Event #8, a $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, at the 2021 U. S. Poker Open would be an understatement. He started off the day as the chip leader and, at one point, found himself as the short stack of… Read more »
Two more events are in the books at the 2021 U. S. Poker Open. In Event #2, the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, Sam Soverel finished what he started in leading wire-to-wire to win the championship. In Event #3, the second $10,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament on the schedule, Joe McKeehen made short work of… Read more »
“Regular” tournament poker is slowly beginning to make its way back into action (the World Poker Tour’s first event for Season XIX starts in a couple of weeks), but the “high rollers” have been extremely active. The ARIA High Rollers Series has held a few events, but this week marked the start of an entire… Read more »
After missing its scheduled event in 2020 because…well, you know…the high stakes geniuses and others with deep pockets are ready to go at the U. S. Poker Open. The 2021 schedule of events has been announced for this year’s tournament, with 12 events on the roster. The money is serious also, with those 12 events… Read more »
The world of tournament poker has been in a slumber for the past year-plus. Slowly, however, tournaments are coming back to life. The World Poker Tour is running some live events in Florida and Nevada (next stop is the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL, for the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April),… Read more »
Building a very nice prize pool, there were many stragglers who came into the game for Day 2 of the World Poker Tour’s Gardens Poker Championship at the Gardens Casino in California. Those extra entries didn’t have an effect on the decimating rate of eliminations, however, as only 48 survived the day with Markus Gonsalves… Read more »
While many may be lamenting that, for the first time in 16 years, there is nothing going on in the Bahamas, the tournament poker world is going on. It may have slipped under the radar, but the World Poker Tour has gotten back into its Season XVIII swing with a stop at the Gardens Casino… Read more »
In arguably one of the most dominant displays of poker in some time, Sam Soverel completed the objective he came to Las Vegas with. Not only did Soverel capture the championship of the 2019 Poker Masters Main Event, he also earned the Purple Jacket, significant of the overall champion of the series. In reaching that… Read more »
The 2019 Poker Masters is winding down, with the $50,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event reaching its final table. Six men will be in contention for the championship, with only five of them actually earning any money for their efforts. Something that isn’t up for grabs with this tournament is the overall champion of the… Read more »
Poker tournaments, and their specific Player of the Year races, haven’t usually gone the natural route of having a title sponsor. Unlike their tournament brethren in golf (which seems to have a sponsor for every tournament it runs), poker runs off the monies generated by the players themselves. Poker Central is looking to change that,… Read more »
The first weekend of the 2019 World Series of Poker has shown some of the issues with putting on the biggest tournament in the world. With both the “BIG 50” Days 1B and 2A in action, the Omaha Hi/Lo Day 2, and the 50th Anniversary $50,000 High Roller event, there were delays in the action… Read more »
On only the second day of the 2019 World Series of Poker at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, we’ve already seen the first bracelet awarded. Coming through one of the tougher final tables you’ll see in any tournament schedule, Brian Green was able to outlast an all-star final table in… Read more »
It is Christmas, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July (which now falls during the event) all rolled into one. For the denizens of the world of poker, there’s almost nothing better than the start of the World Series of Poker. The 2019 version, the 50th anniversary of the event, is now underway with… Read more »
The inaugural Global Poker Awards, sponsored by PokerStars and presented by the Global Poker Index from the studios of PokerGO in Las Vegas, were handed out on Friday night. Over the span of a brisk 74 minutes the awards show – hosted by commentator Ali Nejad and hostess Drea Renee – the Global Poker Awards… Read more »
