Exclusive: Inside New York’s Push for Regulated Online Poker
I played with Mike back in the day at the Borgata, and I always admired his play. I would share how to enjoy the entire experience, focus on his game that got him there, and see the situation clearly from experience. If he asked me for advice, I would share the best ways to block out the noise and prepare not just for poker, but physically, mentally, and spiritually. Rami Hammoud played amazing for an alleged ‘rec’. Michael Gagliano plays solid, and given a few early big hands, he can be formidable.
The 2026 Venetian DeepStack Championship at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas distributed $22,947,285 in prize money across 121 numbered events, running from May 21 through August 2, according to PokerNews. Poker player, vlogger, and influencer Doug Polk has announced that he is “stepping… Introduced by Northern Virginia Democrat Marcus Simon on Tuesday, HB161 would place online gambling under the regulatory authority of the Virginia Lottery Board. Last Friday, Gov. Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 2136 into law, banning online sweepstakes casinos… Read more »
There are many reasons to do so, and there are many ways to transition to real-money games without making a large investment or starting with a huge bankroll. Players new to online poker may not know the ins and outs of depositing funds to an online poker site. The series begins on July 20 and runs until July 27 with 17 PKO tournaments on the series schedule with over $350,000 in guaranteed prize pools.
THMC London is back for 2025, featuring bigger guarantees, trophy events, and a Cape Town package for the Main Event champion. Chad Eveslage backed up his reputation by taking down one of the biggest freerolls in poker, the $1,000,000 PGT Championship, for a $500,000 reward. Andrew Lichtenberger started the 2026 PokerGO Tour right where he left off, winning the opening event and setting the pace for the season. Shaun Deeb took home his ninth World Series of Poker bracelet after coming out with flying colors from the $1,500 8-Game Mix, moving close to an all-time WSOP record. Did you know about our poker forum?
GGPoker Creates a $20 Million WSOP Main Event,…
APT tournaments generally start and end earlier, and the buy-ins are lower and more affordable. The PLO and NLH Venom tournaments kicked off today with a combined $15M in guarantees spread across several starting flights all month. There were some reporters who refused to do chip counts because they thought it beneath them even though tournament coverage without chip counts is like a baseball game without a scoreboard. But it was also one of the first times that I was not just ‘allowed’ to bring my personality to the table but encouraged. 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.
The top sites offer numerous deposit methods, charge little fees, and process those transfers as quickly as possible so players can launch into poker action right away. But the number of poker sites available to Americans, for example, is much smaller than poker players in Canada and Europe. A lot of players put themselves behind the eight ball because they enter re-entry tournaments in Las Vegas while telling themselves they will only buy in for one bullet. Best-selling author and professional poker player Alex Fitzgerald shares how to reassess your game to be prepared for next year’s WSOP summer series. I wish him and all the final table players the joy and thrill of it that I was so fortunate to have.
The very first WSOP online bracelet tournament was in 2015, with the $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold ‘Em won by Anthony Spinella over a field of 905 for $197,743. The first World Series took place in 1970 and featured no tournaments at all. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a live poker festival held every year in Las Vegas. We do not operate as an affiliate and do not earn from player activity. PokerNews produces and provides live play-by-play updates and chip counts for publication on the World Series of Poker website, as well as on PokerNews.com. GGPoker is running an exclusive WSOP Online series across 45 days of non-stop action, along with more than $350 million in tournament prizes and over $5 million in exclusive promotions.
I have a feeling that for some people who did heavy training, it may have disrupted their flow or game plan. I didn’t do anything until the final four days before we came back. But I thought out beforehand the kind of spots where I would have the possibility to be aggressive and make strong plays. You were willing to take chances and play to win. Unfortunately, it didn’t go my way this time, but all credit to Lucas for taking it down.
Turbo and Hyper-Turbo Poker Tournaments
WPT Global appeals to players with consistent promotions and VIP cashback. I love the fact that BetRivers is breaking the mold and aiming to give back as much rake as possible to its players. The ultimate aim, as quoted by BetRivers themselves, is to give back 100% of rake to players. GG is always improving and expanding its offering as well, so it’s only going to get even better for experienced players moving forward.
Discuss cash game strategies with the CardsChat community in the Cash Games forum threads and tournament strategies in the Tournament Poker forum threads. Chat with the community about major poker events, poker legislation, general poker headlines and more. A freeroll is a poker tournament with no entry fee and is hugely popular among the CardsChat community! Get the most from your poker game with CardsChat’s free poker strategy guides and articles. Eliot Thomas is an Editor at PokerNews, specializing in casino and poker coverage. The series runs until November 25 and boasts more than $25 million in guarantees across 66 events.
When reviewing poker sites, the PokerNews team looks at several factors that matter most to new players. A good beginner-friendly poker room should also provide free-play tables, freeroll tournaments, and helpful educational resources to help you improve your skills while building confidence at the tables. GG Poker is a newer operator in the industry, but has made strong innovations with its offering, and sites like WSOP do exceptionally well at actively bridging the gap between live and online poker.
- GGPoker provides a similar opportunity, running step satellites where players can win full WSOP packages.
- The internet is filled with risks, so online poker players want to be sure that their poker room takes security and privacy seriously.
- That applies to both online poker and live poker, meaning if you want to play cards legally and live in Georgia, you’ll have to travel to Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Mississippi to get some action.
- The least populous state in the country, Wyoming doesn’t tend to be a pioneer when it comes to gaming.
Play money poker means you’re playing on online poker sites with fake currency. Laws around online gambling can be confusing at the best of times, especially for real money online poker in the USA. Meanwhile, states with legalized online poker have combined player pools through the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), creating much-needed liquidity for US players. On April 15, 2011, US poker players awoke to see a US Department of Justice emblem when they tried logging into their online poker accounts. Poker suffered its darkest day in history on April 15, 2011 — 15 years ago to the day — when the US government seized hundreds of millions of dollars in player funds and shut down the biggest online poker sites worldwide. Industry insiders, professional analysis, interviews with top players, and online poker survival guides.
Day 1 flights run throughout the weekend before Day 2 plays out on Monday and the final table crowns a new champion on Tuesday. From $5.50 events up to $5,200 high rollers, and with more than 160 tournaments on the schedule over the next few weeks, there’s something for everyone. PokerStars players have a packed schedule to look forward to this weekend as the new Bounty Builder Series gets underway, running until December 1 with more than $12.5 million guaranteed across a wide range of buy-ins. Mystery Bounties, PKOs and multi-million-dollar guarantees headline the schedules, giving players of all bankrolls a reason to fire up the clients. A huge weekend of online poker is on the way, with major action spread across PokerStars, 888poker and GGPoker. We have a high respect for independent governing bodies that help to regulate the industry and keep it safe for all players.
So, I liked in my interviews to try and bring players opportunities to express themselves without worrying if it was going to give away crucial information about how they thought about the game. Poker players during that era had television identities, online personas, forum reputations, and private selves that could be very different from one another. There were a few players like Kathy Liebert, JJ Liu, and Jennifer Harman that weren’t sexualized all the time, but the default for players and media personalities alike was to frame them in a sexy way. The first two weeks of December may not have enough players for two giant festivals at the same time, but there’s still plenty of interest to go around if they all learn to share.
I think I’m going to be more than prepared for whatever spots the final table brings. I’m also trying to make sure that I’m prepared for everything that gets thrown at me at the final table. How are you preparing for the Main Event final table?
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. Each year, a dedicated team of live reporters, editors, presenters, videographers and photographers help make PokerNews the place to be when it comes to staying up-to-date on the World Series. PokerNews has attended every World Series of Poker since 2007, and is proud to serve as the official live coverage partner of the WSOP, including Main Event coverage. The full schedule released in February, showing 100 bracelet events with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $250,000.
This gives beginners more of a genuine chance to compete and win in both cash games and tournaments. The poker site features good cash game liquidity and steady MTT schedules, plus shared player pools for better traffic. Backed by GGPoker and the iconic World Series of Poker, WSOP Online offers a mix of cash games and marquee events like Online Circuit and Bracelet series.
A match bonus is available for new GGPoker players, but the real draw is GGPoker’s scale, software quality, and unmatched tournament schedule. Its global player pool keeps every format active, from micro cash games to $10K majors. GGPoker is the world’s biggest online poker site and the home of the WSOP Online series. The other notable change is that PA, NJ, and Michigan players can now all share a cross-state player pool, meaning more players and bigger prizes. PokerStars is an iconic poker brand — call it one of the “OG’s” of online poker, with some of the biggest names in the game proudly promoting the brand.
Simply put, it didn’t outlaw online poker, but it took away the ability to get the money required to play online poker on and off the sites. The first online poker site to offer real money games was Planet Poker in 1998; in fact, the very first hand was dealt on January 1! For poker players, Black Friday was the day the US government forever altered the course of online poker. In April 2025, Pennsylvania joined the multi-state compact, allowing players from the state to play online poker with other players in Michigan and New Jersey. WSOP.com is pretty much the only current legal online poker site for players in Las Vegas and the state of Nevada.
That said, the state is home to several tribal casinos including Little Wind Casino, Shoshone Rose Casino, Wind River Casino, and 789 Smokeshop & Casino. The least populous state in the country, Wyoming doesn’t tend to be a pioneer when it comes to gaming. There is no shortage of tribal casinos in Wisconsin with approximately two dozen properties owned by 11 tribes spread throughout the state.
GGPoker’s comprehensive tournament schedule once again plays trumps in this case, as it offers a wide range of different turbo and hyper tournaments. There’s more action, since players must be more aggressive or face swift blind increases that fatally deteriorate their stacks. However, the guarantees on these daily tournaments tend to be lower than 888poker’s rivals. 888poker is one online poker site that has embraced the mystery bounty craze. Mystery bounty poker tournaments take the basic concept of a KO MTT and add an extra element of fortune and excitement.
Some will likely never offer online poker, while others may very well may launch operations in the years to come. That leaves the state of online poker in the other 44 states up in the air. As of 2026, only six states have legalized and regulated online poker in Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan. For example, most states will grant a gaming license, which in turn will dictate what games can be offered.
It took several years for players to be paid back in full the money that had been deposited on their accounts. www.pokernewsdaily.com The incident, known as Black Friday, drastically changed the poker industry forever and led to tens of thousands of players being put out of work overnight and forced to find other sources of income. Multi-awarded professional poker affiliate helping players win more since 2013.
That’s the regular sort of man and woman and not the cliched world view of people who love card games and esports. Veronica Brill has won her anti-SLAPP case against Mike Postle The poker pro failed to show up in court for the final hearing He will now have to pay $27,745 to Brill Victoria Brill has won an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Mike Postle, who will now have to pay her $27,745 after dismissing the defamation lawsuit … Not knowing if they would ever see the money, many left poker and never returned. The Full Tilt roster at this time included poker heavyweights like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Mike Matusow, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Jen Harman, Erik Seidel and Patrik Antonius. Black Friday also revealed mismanagement of funds by the leading poker site Full Tilt Poker and its executives Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, who at the time were among the most recognizable and respected faces in poker.
WSOP Main Event runner-up Lauri Saaskilahti reflects on his $6M run, his bond with Lucas Jumalon and coming agonizingly close to poker history. Are we as a game and community more attractive to a greater portion of the population? Finally, the broadening of the poker demographic has demanded a higher level of inclusion and tolerance.
Nothing has been announced yet, but players have been locking in a seat with victories in WPT championships throughout the year, so it’s going to happen. Playing online poker should always be fun. Providing everything you need to play poker online since 2006. Poker News Daily is your go-to hub for all things poker — from real money poker site rankings to expert strategy, tournament coverage, and sports betting picks. Department of Justice seized the three major online poker rooms, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil Galfond turned to Twitter to try and calm the storm.
Along the way, she helped turn live updates, podcasts, video, and streaming into something more than a scoreboard and and learned what gets lost when everybody is forced to consume poker the same way. No matter what happens with the season finale, it’s clear that WPT is intent on establishing a greater presence in Las Vegas, especially during the times of year when WSOP isn’t around. “The success of the spring championship reaffirmed what makes The Venetian Resort a premier destination for tournament poker,” said Tommy LaRosa, director of poker operations at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.