Borgata Poker Open: The Ultimate Player Guide 2026
Today (July 11), the Wynn Summer Classic has another three events on the go. The event garnered 391 entries for a $381,225 prize pool and $62,223 up top. Palma has had a good Wynn Summer Classic this year, cashing in four other events. Tsutumi’s heads up opponent was Thomas Muehloecker, a high roller regular with over $10 million in live tournament cashes. Tsutsumi’s Wynns Summer Classic victory came after three days of play in which he outlasted a field of 2,006 entries that generated a prize pool of $3,981,910. This one features a $50,000 minimum prize pool with starting stacks at 30,000 chips (30-minute levels).
However, as often happens in the decisive stages of such tournaments, the situation at the table shifted dramatically more than once. Josh won his first bracelet in a $2,500 NLH event, and that victory pushed his career earnings past $6 million. Although Lionel Barracano eliminated Donald Briggs in 3rd place, he entered heads-up against the Korean player with a smaller stack. Later, Barracano did not play a single significant pot until the final five, and his stack dropped to 12 big blinds. It’s the pinnacle of achievements in mixed games, and this event is something really special to me.”
Couden eliminated every opponent from 7-max play onward in less than an hour. This time, the field saw 3,937 registrations, and everything fell perfectly into place for Joey. The field was stacked with stars, but the tournament ended with an unexpected victory by Veerachai Vongxaiburana.
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- Event #89 became the third tournament of the 2026 WSOP to be won by a woman.
- Bring your history with you, and leave with everything, anytime.
- I’ve always felt that in no-limit hold’em post-flop, my hand reading skills are much better than preflop.
- By the end of Bellagio Cup, my boss Jeff Holsey offered me a full-time role, but only if I promised not to drop out of school to take it.
Outside of the Main Event, the WSOP schedule would also continue to grow, with 15 events scheduled in 1990. The start of the 1980s was heralded by back-to-back wins for Stu Ungar and the following year, the field surpassed 100 for the first time. The following year, the tournament saw its first buy-in of $5,000 and this was increased to $10,000 in 1972. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a live poker festival held every year in Las Vegas.
The final two days of the 2005 WSOP Main Event were held downtown at what is now the MTR-operated “Binion’s” in celebration of the centennial of the founding of Las Vegas. The format for the Main Event as a freeze-out Texas hold ’em game came the next year. It was an invitational event sponsored by Tom Moore of Castle Hills, Texas, and held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno. The idea of a World Series of Poker began in 1969 with an event called the Texas Gamblers Reunion. The 2024 WSOP was held at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, and saw record-breaking attendance for the Main Event tournament. The following year, he successfully defended his title in a field of 2,066 entrants for $262,392.
Remarkably, it was only his third cash of the series so far, compared to 18 cashes at the same point last year. However, his opponent managed to erase the deficit within an hour and even took over the chip lead. In 2015, he secured a major victory on the WPT, and now he has added a WSOP bracelet. Starting from the final five, Smith eliminated every remaining opponent, including Naoya Kihara in third place, who already has two WSOP 2026 titles. A nine on the river completed a straight for Mizrachi and secured his ninth WSOP bracelet. From there, Mizrachi eliminated five opponents on his way to heads-up play.
Black Friday didn’t help, as the affiliate model in the US just can’t survive promoting solely regulated online poker, and there isn’t money to have competing updates teams at the WSOP anymore. You saw poker media evolve from blogs, written updates, and experimental podcasts into official livestreams, social video, and organization-owned content. With only a handful of exceptions, I don’t think any player really struck me as wildly different from how they were on television. Everyone on the team at that time really was committed to putting on the best event they could latest online poker news and doing so in a way that revered the brand.
Price moved up the leaderboard after eliminating James Murphey in seventh place and doubling through Craig Varnell in a preflop all-in with A♥J♣ against K♥Q♣. In the middle of Day 2, Price lost a massive pot after suffering a river bad beat and was left with a very short stack, but managed to stay alive. Thanks to his victory in the Summer Celebration, Toby Price immediately doubled his career tournament earnings. The turn and river did not help Bai, and Dzmitry won his first WSOP bracelet. In the $10,000 8-Game Mixed Championship, he finally closed that gap. However, his return turned out to be impressive — he won his fifth World Series bracelet.
The set of tournaments that the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would evolve into was the brainchild of Las Vegas casino owner and poker player Benny Binion. As of 2025, the WSOP consists of a record 100 live bracelet events, with most major poker variants featured. Replay Poker is a free-to-play poker game intended for players aged 18 or over (or the legal gambling age where you reside, if higher). Low, medium and high-stakes leaderboards make sure that every Texas Hold’em player has an equal opportunity to win some bonus chips, while Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo and Royal Hold’em players also have their own contests. Your top 30 tournament results in a calendar month are collected, with millions of chips up for grabs for those players who make the top 50 on the leaderboard.
Arizona State Poker Championship
If you manage a deep run in a sizable tournament you will get a great return on your original investment. Participants must also register and pay an entry fee, which may vary from tournament to tournament. Major tours like the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) offer online qualifiers through their platforms or partner sites. The first tournament was held in Málaga and since then the ESPT has covered many cities including Madrid, Valencia and San Sebastian. The Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) was founded in 2011 and has become an important part of the poker scene in Spain. The Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) was founded in 2008 and its first tournament was held in May of the same year.
Our team is made up of a group of dedicated players, including our own Player Advisory Board and well-known journalists. Regardless of the WPT’s game plan, Las Vegas will be here, and we will be playing poker either way. Most other poker rooms around town will have a regular offering of daily tournaments, and they can be convenient if you are staying nearby. For some reason, neither was inducted in the first year in a long time when there was an opportunity to induct more than one player.
With four players left, Chad Eveslage closed the gap on Yockey after knocking out two opponents in a row. The decisive hand in the one-on-one battle was a big pot where both players hit a pair of tens, but the American had the better kicker. The decisive hand came when both players made two pair, but Lou’s hand was stronger. The $387,110 payday immediately doubled his lifetime live tournament earnings.
There was even a Lord at the final table — what a cast of names! Adrien Delmas entered heads-up play with 40 big blinds (nearly even with chip leader Andjelko Andrejevic) but it all ended in a single hand. Wells claimed victory this year, following in the footsteps of his close friend Yuri Dzivielevski, who won the same tournament last year. Less than a week ago, he was at the final table of the $1,500 Monster Stack, where he was eliminated in 7th place after a massive cooler — KK vs AA.
What was the biggest first prize outside the Main Event?
In the two biggest pots, the eventual winner made strong hands on both boards after getting all the chips in. Fawcett and Abdul Amer started the final table of Event #83 as the two biggest stacks and eventually met heads-up. After Price won all of Michael Moncek’s chips, the tournament moved into heads-up play against Deniz Oeney. But despite seven final tables and two runner-up finishes, the coveted bracelet had always remained out of reach. Dzmitry Urbanovich spent more than ten years chasing his first WSOP bracelet — through early online success, major live scores, and dozens of attempts at the World Series. Asi was the chip leader after Day 1, finished Day 2 second in chips, and held a big advantage over his opponents for almost the entire final table.
You can also win your way in for free by placing in The Beast or Sit & Crush weekly rake races. Players will be able to play multiple Venom starting flights and combine their stacks for Day 2. One big chunk, $12 million, will be up for grabs in the NLH version, which has bounty prizes that range from $5K to $500K.
Event #14: $1,500 Mixed: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, “Big O”
These tournaments become a meeting place for the best players where their skills, strategies and psychology are put to a serious test. July 10 was a busy day for the poker room cashier at the Wynn Las Vegas, where four tournaments played down to winners at the Wynn Summer Classic. Three poker players escaped difficult fields to win sizable amounts of money and a coveted Wynn replica trophy. A total of 253 players bought into the tournament, putting $130,295 in the prize pool.
The 57th World Series of Poker delivered no shortage of storylines. The high roller results also highlight the growing strength of PLO at the WSOP. For general tournament strategy and format guides, visit our tournament guide. Players who want to follow the action or prepare for next year’s WSOP can find full event details on our WSOP schedule page. Players looking for the full WSOP event calendar can find it on our WSOP schedule page. Gambling can be addictive, please play responsibly.
The contrast between seasoned pros and first-time final tablists is part of what makes the Main Event the most compelling event in all of poker. Several of the remaining players are known quantities with deep tournament resumes, while others are relative unknowns playing for life-changing money. The nine remaining players will return to the Paris Las Vegas ballroom on Sunday, August 3 to play down to a champion over three nights of live coverage. It’s the only platform in the US where you can win a poker tournament for official WSOP gold bracelets without leaving home! Most people know the summer series in Las Vegas, where the $10,000 Main Event turns ordinary players into legends.
The offering went live in the UK later that year, allowing UK users to play for real money. In 2005, a video game based on the tournament series, titled World Series of Poker, was released for several consoles and PC. PokerGO’s 2021 WSOP live streaming coverage began on Monday, October 4, and would include 36 days of live broadcasts from more than 20 unique events as part of the 52nd annual WSOP.
Use our online tools and play responsibly. Create a free account to test the app with a sample week of tournaments. Once it settles, your net is returned minus invested — broken down by player. Tournament structure quality scores to help you choose the best events
Your first WSOP job was near the bottom of the poker-media ladder, but you treated it as an opportunity to prove you belonged. The behaviors I observed and wrote about certainly happened at the series, so I guess I didn’t get anything ‘wrong’ per se? However, if you are asking about my academic research, the paper I had written was about non-verbal communication among poker cohorts, so that really didn’t address the scope of the WSOP. Along the way, she found a place for herself in an industry that often had a very narrow idea of what a woman in poker media was supposed to look like and do. Catch all the action LIVE now on the APT livestream with Punnat Punsri at the feature table. Follow along with the APT live stream all day long!
Netanel Stern had plenty of it yesterday, capturing his first WSOP bracelet. In a fast-structured event like this, everything can turn around in a minute, so a little extra luck never hurts. Despite not being a full-time pro, Justin Fawcett is running hot this summer.
At the Event #100 final table, most players had stacks of fewer than 10 big blinds, so the action was dominated by preflop all-ins. Shi Wong cashed seven times at the 2026 WSOP and capped off the series by winning its final event. The final table of the H.O.R.S.E. High Roller featured several elite players, including Shaun Deeb, Ari Engel, and Naoya Kihara. The Russian player has rarely competed in live tournaments over the past 14 years, and his biggest WSOP cash, $219,969, came back in 2010. Alexander Kostritsyn is one of the best online cash game players.
The WPT Main Tour focuses on the buy-in range of $3,500–$25,000, and winners of official WPT Main Tour events are awarded a membership to the WPT Champions Club. Each WPT final table is filmed and livestreamed or broadcast for television on Bally Sports. EPT Paris Final TableThe €5,300 EPT Paris 2023 Main Event attracted 1,606 entries (from 1,159 unique players).
Most of my family is in China, especially my mom, and I want to have more time to spend with her. Tony ‘Ren’ Lin has expanded his high stakes prowess to his home continent of Asia as he looks to add APT accolades to his esteemed poker resume. But some people don’t have time for the stream. Some might only scroll chip counts, some might only read post headlines, some might only see the recap, so we intentionally crafted a product that could serve many needs. As your own questions to me attest, being a tournament reporter was always considered this horrible grunt work. The fact these episodes are lost to time guts me, as I would give a lot to be able to go back and listen.
Even in the final hand, when I went all-in with A♣7♥ against A♠K♣, I felt like things would go my way,” Alsup said after his victory. The title was won by Minnesota-based live grinder Richard Alsup. Naoya Kihara won Japan’s first WSOP bracelet in 2012, and his second victory came only 14 years later.
Paerssinen won both the $25,000 High Roller PLO (Event #47, $2,161,056) and the $25,000 High Roller Mixed PLO/NLH (Event #64, $1,172,296) for a combined $3.33 million in first-place prizes. Brazil’s Yuri Dzivielevski won the $100,000 High Roller NLH (Event #36) for $2,841, the single largest first-place prize outside the Main Event. Michael Mizrachi won the $10,000 PLO Championship (Event #70) for $1,350,203, claiming his ninth career bracelet. The $100K PLO field featured many of the world’s best Omaha specialists, making this bracelet one of the most hard-fought of Negreanu’s career.
The final stage of Event #38 featured a star-studded lineup that included Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Benny Glaser, and Jeremy Ausmus. Cheng’s first WSOP victory came in 2023, when he won a $10,000 High Roller event at WSOP Paradise. During a round of Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, Schulman completed a flush on seventh street against his opponent’s trips to secure the victory. The Canadian managed to double up several times, but he was unable to turn the match around. “I’ve dedicated most of my life to poker, and I feel like I’m only now reaching my peak.