It could be the setting of a post-apocalyptic movie – in the “Deserted Shopping Mall” genre. Visualize a massive building, with seating for hundreds of patrons, looking out over a huge dog track with a giant fountain and pond in the middle. A parking lot fit for a premier Westfield property. Playing host to a […]

The post Poker in a time capsule – Palm Beach Kennel Club appeared first on Poker.org.

(With Jason Somerville’s long-awaited re-emergence onto the poker scene, it seemed like a good time to celebrate one important aspect of his contribution to the game: t-shirts.) Before Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen Let’s go back in time for a moment. A time before Ethan “Rampage” Yau. A time even before Trooper made his way […]

The post The Run It Up t-shirt that introduces me to people appeared first on Poker.org.

One of the most interesting things every year at the WSOP Main Event is to monitor how the former champions do. Some are consistent performers who we see every year, while some have drifted away from the game of poker after having achieved the ultimate prize already. I went into the history and checked how […]

The post Former Main Event champs in subsequent years… Who has done the best? appeared first on Poker.org.

The sums of money thrown around in high-stakes poker games these days are eye-watering. In February, Patrik Antonius and Eric Persson played an almost $2m pot on the No Gamble, No Future show. At the end of May, Tom Dwan won a $3.1m pot, the biggest in televised poker history. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone […]

The post Matt Hunt: “Nobody playing high stakes poker has as much money as you think”  appeared first on Poker.org.

This is part of a series of content to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chris Moneymaker’s historic Main Event win – look out for regular columns from Chris and special features all the way through to the 54th Main Event, which is shaping up to be the biggest of all time. This is the most […]

The post Chris Moneymaker ready to recreate magic at the 2023 WSOP appeared first on Poker.org.

We’re roughly halfway through the 2023 World Series of Poker, and this is when silly season begins in the best and worst ways. Like how about Chris Brewer turning the tables on all the bad luck he’s faced, Shaun Deeb serving his doubters their just desserts, Benny Glaser making it a high five, Chance Kornuth […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers | June 19 , 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

This is part of a series of content to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chris Moneymaker’s historic Main Event win – look out for regular columns from Chris and special features all the way through to the 54th Main Event, which is shaping up to be the biggest of all time. We’re only a few […]

The post Chris Moneymaker: “You’re never going to find a tournament like this” appeared first on Poker.org.

It’s been almost 30 years since I attended my first World Series of Poker. It’s been through innumerable modifications since then, including two venue upgrades. And on the whole, I’d say the changes have been for the better. Of course, I’m not referring to the substitution of $5 bananas for a sumptuous (and free) player’s […]

The post The WSOP rises to its feet, and to its best self appeared first on Poker.org.

How is anyone concerned with anything hot or cold when there is a monster on the loose? Yes, Ike Haxton finally did it, Josh Arieh did it again, a Badugi bracelet is finally a thing, Mickey Doft made us all proud, and Chance Kornuth took a tough one from his business partner. But…again…the monster is […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers | June 12 , 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

The $300 Gladiators of Poker event has been talked about and anticipated since the 2023 WSOP schedule was announced months ago. There was wide speculation that the lowest buy in price ever for a bracelet event would come close to or even surpass the largest live tournament ever which was the 2019 Big 50 which […]

The post Tales from the Gladiators arena appeared first on Poker.org.

Lot to be hot (or hot under the collar about this week). Maybe, you know, the biggest streamed pot in history, some folks pulling milly fire in the WSOP Mystery Millions, the baddest-ass guy in poker winning gold, Ronnie Day having more than a day, and the Chainsaw cashing for the 100th time. After all […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers | June 5, 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

It’s that time of year again. For the past few months, anyone with even the slightest interest in tournament poker has been planning their trips to Vegas and picking out the events they want to play, either at the WSOP itself, or at one of a number of other venues around the Strip. Despite all […]

The post Matt Hunt: “This is the unspoken reality of the WSOP” appeared first on Poker.org.

Who will make the final four of the most prestigious heads up tournament in poker? Today at 12 noon the Round of 16 for the $25,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em championships get underway and what a doozy it is with several big matchups, with players looking to get into the money by advancing to the […]

The post Who Will Make the 25k Heads Up Final Four? appeared first on Poker.org.

Don’t pay any attention to the almanac, because this week marks the official start of summer as the WSOP kicks off. That means it’s hot, except for when it’s not. We have both in the last week with some incredible generosity to Cody Daniels, Bin “The Win” Weng playing two WPT final tables and winning […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers May 29, 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

I arrived at the Hustler Casino Live’s (HCL) $1,000,000 buy-in cash game early on Day 1, the first of what had been hyped as five consecutive days of must-see nosebleed TV.  I took a moment to scan through my Android as I watched the production crew hustle to set the stage. The haters on Twitter […]

The post Behind the scenes of the HCL $1 million game appeared first on Poker.org.

This is part of a series of content to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chris Moneymaker’s historic Main Event win – look out for regular columns from Chris and special features all the way through to the 54th Main Event, which is shaping up to be the biggest of all time. Poker’s been good to […]

The post Chris Moneymaker: “20 years ago everybody thought online players were terrible” appeared first on Poker.org.

The poker world had a little heater this week with much more of the good stuff than the bad stuff. To wit: the friends who have played together forever and all won WSOP Circuit rings (oh, and Maurice Hawkins took his record back), the Wynn Wrecker being too good to believe, Spraggy establishing his own […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers May 22, 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

Most of us have been left with few words and even less humor since learning about the death of legend Doyle Brunson. As we all processed what Brunson’s death meant to us, we temporarily set aside other celebrating any other greatness and our normal cringing at the cringe-worthy. Nevertheless, we must still recognize a guy […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers | May 16, 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

Doyle Brunson passed away yesterday. Saying those words out loud doesn’t feel real. He was and will forever be an icon, a legend, and an inspiration to me and so many others. When you embrace the world of the written word for a living, there are some days you don’t feel good enough. Today is […]

The post Doyle Brunson: When words aren’t enough appeared first on Poker.org.

Washington, D.C. – a tough act to follow If you’ve never been to Washington, D.C., you owe yourself a trip – the nation’s capital has a natural, organic buzz that puts Las Vegas to shame. Go look at the Lincoln Memorial – heck, go stand right where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I have […]

The post Poker room review: MGM National Harbor, in the shadow of the Capitol appeared first on Poker.org.

When I was in fifth grade, I felt–for lack of a better word–unseen.  I was smart but not as smart as the really smart kids. I wasn’t too ugly or too good-looking to be noticed as a monster or a pre-teen heartthrob. I couldn’t grow a beard like my early-puberty and holy-shit-hirsute best friend who […]

The post I was a 5th grade Nik Airball appeared first on Poker.org.

There’s a lot of talk these days about what the road to ‘becoming a poker pro’ looks like now, in comparison to days gone by. Where once it used to be possible to run up a $50 deposit playing micro-stakes and eventually end up playing in Bobby’s Room, the rags-to-riches stories seem to be few […]

The post Matt Hunt: “The path to poker success isn’t blocked off – it just looks different” appeared first on Poker.org.

Well, that was a week. We’re not going to call it a good week or bad week, but it had seven days of fire and ice-cold takes, hearts, and decisions. We heard about it all in the hottest thing on the tubes, Twitter Spaces. That happened to be the first place Matt Berkey and crew […]

The post PokerOrg Heaters & Coolers | May 7, 2023 appeared first on Poker.org.

Yesterday, amid a full schedule of World Poker Tour tournaments, one event that many players look forward to was on the schedule. The Ladies Event is a favorite of many women in poker, often circled on calendars well in advance, and sometimes the sole event some women plan to play. The vibe of these events […]

The post WPT Seminole Hard Rock Ladies Event crowns an unwelcome champion appeared first on Poker.org.

For the past couple of months, the people inside the PokerOrg offices have been like most of you who keep up with the poker world’s news. Our discussions are like yours–what’s good, what’s bad, and most of all what’s the best and worst of what we’ve been seeing. Over time, these discussions evolved into an […]

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The poker community is currently experiencing a war of insults fired among some of its most respected and recognized leaders. That war, like World War I – partially triggered by a single mad assassin – has been caused mostly by a handful of new and directionless berserkers. So it was with more than a little […]

The post From chaos to redemption: the High Stakes Poker season 11 premiere appeared first on Poker.org.

Sixty hours ago, I learned that PokerGO had said yes.  I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect a yes. PokerGO’s people had assembled what amounted to every media company’s dream cash game line-up. Beyond that accomplishment, PokerGO controls the High Stakes Poker brand, and one could argue there isn’t a going concern in the poker world […]

The post PokerGO might have just saved televised poker appeared first on Poker.org.

Has there ever been a better time to be a fan–casual or otherwise–of high-stakes televised poker? Somehow, it’s about to get even better. Tomorrow, Thursday, April 27th, PokerGo will live-stream a special edition of its flagship program High Stakes Poker. It’s going to be a game for the ages. The lineup announced last week by […]

The post What to expect from PokerGO’s special edition of High Stakes Poker appeared first on Poker.org.

This is the first in a new series on finances and variance in poker from pro player and Solve For Why instructor, Matt Hunt. If you’ve been active on poker Twitter over the past month or so, you’ve probably borne witness to a seemingly endless series of heads-up challenges being issued between various pros and […]

The post Matt Hunt: “Selling action in high-stakes games is not a cop-out” appeared first on Poker.org.

In my recent travels around the United States to review poker rooms, I’ve been reminded of an unfortunate habit that many live poker dealers have: they don’t announce bet sizes until/unless another player asks. For example, we have Player A and Player B in the pot. Player A slides out a stack of chips, there’s […]

The post Poker dealers: please announce bet sizes appeared first on Poker.org.

If you’ve never been to the American southwest, you owe yourself a visit. The vistas are stunning, unlike anything else you’ll find until you start exploring Africa or the Australian Outback. When you’ve had a day full of wandering the Sonoran Desert, your hotel room and poker game at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale are […]

The post Poker room review: Talking Stick Resort – big spaces, big action appeared first on Poker.org.

Need a break? All this back and forth, he-said/he-said, meet-me-outside, toxic race to terrible got you down? Want to listen to a poker podcast about…dare we suggest it? Poker? Here are some recent poker podcast episodes we enjoyed and how you can listen to them. The Breakdown Poker Podcast – “Maybe Fedor Had To Do […]

The post Listen: Poker podcasts that aren’t about toxic feuds, lies, and cheating appeared first on Poker.org.

Mixed games have a rich history within the poker community. The games usually provide a vibrant, fun, entertaining atmosphere. Players are happy to chirp and engage with one another. In many ways, mixed games have held onto the social dynamic that many feel No-Limit Hold ‘Em is losing in the GTO, solver-heavy, modern fields. If […]

The post Horse or Heros: does the order matter? appeared first on Poker.org.

It had been one of those sessions. Midway through, I’d value-owned myself for $650 – I’ll never know if it was a good bet or not.1 But poker goes on, and I crawled back until I was stuck “only” $800. The hour got later, then earlier. Around 2:00am, I promised myself one final orbit and […]

The post Andrew Neeme’s thin line between success and failure appeared first on Poker.org.

It’s been fifty years since baseball could fairly be called America’s national pastime, though it did retain the title for well over a century, from roughly 1830 to 1972. If the damaged brains and shortened lives of football players ever get too much to stomach, baseball could reclaim the crown, though futbol and basketball, and […]

The post Duck Snorts and Suckouts: Luck and skill in our once and future national pastimes  appeared first on Poker.org.

There is a staggering amount of poker content being produced at the moment, so much so that it can sometimes be difficult to find creators that you resonate with. This month, PokerOrg will begin highlighting creators who have small, but loyal fanbases and with plenty of room to grow. We want you to know these […]

The post Creators you should know: BigFishNoShrimp appeared first on Poker.org.

It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time when Nikhil ‘Nik Airball’ Arcot didn’t make a lot of noise. Arcot arrived on the poker live stream scene in a relatively quiet fashion. His first few appearances on Hustler Casino Live were, for the most part, unremarkable. There were few people that could have […]

The post Is Nik Airball poker’s new super-villain? appeared first on Poker.org.

Meeting your heroes can, indeed, be a fraught experience. Thirty years ago, I randomly encountered one rock ‘n roll hero (a household name) and simply expressed my appreciation for the musical joy he’d given me. You’d have thought I said his glasses were out of style. On the other hand, ten years ago, Rod Stewart […]

The post Meeting a hero: Nate Silver appeared first on Poker.org.

There is a virus attacking poker. How the poker industry and community react to this attack will inform the ongoing health of our game. You’re probably aware of at least some of the tools available to find Nash equilibria for (“solve”) no-limit hold’em hands. Two of the most popular, “PioSolver,” and “GTOWizard,” are terms you […]

The post How to stop Real-Time Assistance in live poker appeared first on Poker.org.

Trying to get an answer to the question – is poker a sport? – is like drawing blood from a stone. It’s far from straightforward and depends on who you ask.  In this article, we present the case that poker is undoubtedly a mind game that can be regarded as a sport based on the […]

The post Is poker a sport? The debate continues… appeared first on Poker.org.

It’s been a while since I’ve stayed in a casino hotel in Las Vegas. In fact, we’re probably going back to the early noughts, as the casino hosts’ memories of my days as a blackjack high-roller decayed, and the comp offers stopped showing up in the mail. Somehow their recollection of my high-rolling outlasted their […]

The post Poker road review: In praise of the non-casino hotel appeared first on Poker.org.

There are certain things these days that we have a hard time waiting for. A new episode of “The Last of Us,” the next angry Steve O’Dwyer tweet to Lufthansa airlines, our opponent to act when we’re all in and bluffing with our tournament life on the line. Caitlin Comeskey’s brilliant comedy videos have made […]

The post Caitlin Comeskey drops love letter: “No one is safe” appeared first on Poker.org.

Poker pro Jonathan Van Fleet (AKA “apestyles”) has spent two days trying to figure out why years of his YouTube content suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The thousands of hours of poker gameplay and study content that Van Fleet spent years creating have seemingly been lost to the void. After going through the normal channels and […]

The post Jonathan “apestyles” Van Fleet battles YouTube in mystery account deletion appeared first on Poker.org.

The Superbowl kicks off today at 6:30 pm EST between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Many a poker player has seen their roll dwindle at the hands of the sportsbook. Still, The Big Game tends to get our action. I’ve talked to quite a few poker players about their action on the game. […]

The post What your Superbowl bet says about you as a poker player appeared first on Poker.org.

I am ashamed of myself. The scene I was in what should have been a perfectly fine no-limit hold’em game at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. There was the usual cast of characters, most unmemorable. But as I spent more time at the table, I noticed a weird dynamic taking place. In seat #5 […]

The post Man assaults woman at poker table – I do nothing appeared first on Poker.org.

On any given day, there are bad things happening in poker rooms around the world from San Francisco to Sydney. There are poker operators–both live and online–who have to deal with those embarrassments and scandals. The vast majority of those operators say nothing publicly about what they’ve investigated and discovered, and their silence, many will […]

The post Do you want to know the dark side of poker appeared first on Poker.org.

Ultimately, the point of a poker room review is to get you into a great card game. So the centerpiece of this review is a great poker game – specifically a $2/3/6 no-limit hold’em game in which I spent exactly eight hours. But we need to set the scene… Preamble The first thing I did […]

The post Poker Room Review: Gila River Lone Butte – One Beautiful Game appeared first on Poker.org.

Everyone loves a chopped pot, but first, you have to notice it even happened. On a big stage, under lights and cameras, with serious pay jumps on the line, no one noticed a big one that led to a player being eliminated when he should not have been. At the World Series of Poker Circuit […]

The post Pierre Kauert eliminated from WSOP Circuit Main Event in a chopped pot appeared first on Poker.org.

Impossible as it seems, it’s been a year since we began chronicling the ups and downs of Ben Adler. Ben left a dead-end restaurant job in Chicago and moved to Las Vegas to become a poker pro. As he notes, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. But he’s still there, still grinding, and he’s got […]

The post Ben Adler, Las Vegas Poker Pro, One Year On – Part 1 appeared first on Poker.org.

There’s a lot to love While regulated live poker is available all across the United States (just ask this guy), Las Vegas is, without doubt, the highest concentration of poker rooms in the nation. Even in a poker-rich region such as the Los Angeles basin or the San Francisco Bay area, you might have to […]

The post Poker room review: Is the Wynn the best poker room in Vegas? appeared first on Poker.org.