Sometimes you miss the news that might be important to you in the rapidly evolving world of poker.
We round up some of the updates you might have overlooked over the last week to ensure you are all caught up in the news of the poker industry.
Let us look at some of the world’s top poker headlines and see what’s going on so far.
COVID-19 leads to spike in online poker
With the doors locked on all of Nevada casinos, playing in live poker games is currently not possible, something that is far from ideal when you make you living as a professional poker player.
“It really hit home when I stopped going to live tournaments a month ago,” said Las Vegas poker pro and vlogger Jeff Boski.
Online poker was shut down in America in April of 2011 and is now a state by state operation. One of the few legal sites is wsop.com, which has been approved to operate in Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. For professional poker player Marle Cordeiro, playing in live poker games is a big part of how she makes her living, and now that has been taken away.
“We have to accept that is could be months and months before we get back,” she said. “But even then the casinos are probably some of the dirtiest places so I don’t know if I will be rushing to go back right away”.
Poker Vlogger Marle Cordeiro Sues Mike Postle, Claims She Was Cheated on Stones Live Streams
You can add Marle Cordeiro to the growing list of poker players suing accused cheater Mike Postle. The popular poker vlogger claims the Northern California poker pro used his cell phone to cheat her, and others, in cash games at Stones Gambling Hall. In late September 2019, Veronica Brill accused Postle of cheating during Stones Live streams for more than a year. Soon after, the poker community began investigating the claims
All the red flags were there for those who investigated Postle. When that day occurs, he will be facing a mountain of evidence from Cordeiro’s attorney.
Attorney Questions Postle’s Win Rate
He claims Postle won more than 94% of the games he competed in on Stones Live streams between 2018 and 2019, and questions the likelihood of any player winning at such a high rate.
How Did Postle Allegedly Cheat?
Many poker players have speculated that Postle worked in conjunction with one or more members of the Stones Live tech team, who then relayed hole cards to his cell phone. Cordeiro presents a similar argument.
New Marketing Partner to Bring Sport and Triton Poker Closer Together
Announced on Monday, the deal gives Protocol exclusive worldwide distribution rights for Triton shows. A new 10-hour series based around the record-breaking Triton Super High Roller Series London will get the partnership underway.
Broadcast Package Built for Fans of Sport
As a company, Triton Poker live streams its tournaments and uploads content to YouTube. However, the deal with Protocol will see a specially created TV product sold to networks around the world. Triton Poker’s brand of live events could now appear on any number of mainstream media networks. With people on lockdown, media companies are pushing out as much content as possible.
Without an immediate end to the crisis in sight, Protocol is in a prime position to sell Triton’s show.
Perfect Storm for Triton Poker
Triton Poker is part of Protocol’s new wave of partners. Outside of Protocol’s business interests, the deal is a chance for poker to further align itself with major sports. The debate over whether poker is a true sport or not is one that may never be settled.
Live or online, will the 2020 World Series of Poker go ahead?
With just a month and a half to go, the 2020 World Series of Poker has yet to be cancelled, despite the country it would take place in being under stack in the worst week so far for American deaths from COVID-19.
The World Series of Poker is cancelled
While this seems like the easier of the three choices to make, it is a definitive answer to the question being repeated ad nausea everywhere from 2+2 to Twitter, that isn’t necessarily so.
Cancelling the entire series would be something no player wants to see happen, but it would also mean that there’s no chance of the WSOP returning to Las Vegas later in the year.
Hold the 2020 WSOP online
Of the three options, this seems like easily the most likely. With Palanksy admitting that it has come up as a contingency, it’s hard to see how any further delay to the 2020 World Series doesn’t lead to an eventual migration of the events – or the bulk of them – online.
With over a dozen online events already having been scheduled to take place at WSOP.
Delay the decision
While this is easily the most frustrating of calls, acting almost as a passive early position check to the aggressor of the virus, at present this is the move being made.
Waiting as long as possible to see whether a World Series at the Rio is something that many poker fans are frustrated at. They can’t cancel travel plans and prepare for an online WSOP, but nor can they look forward to attending the Rio.
Phil Galfond Climbs Out Of €900,000 Hole In High-Stakes Poker Challenge
The Three-Time WSOP Bracelet Winner Leads For The First Time With Less Than 3,000 Hands Left To Play
For the first time since the Galfond Challenge began on Jan. 22, Phil Galfond has ended a session in the outright lead against his high-stakes cash game heads-up opponent, VeniVidi1993. On Monday, April 6 he ended the scheduled daily session up €81,064.56, having won €121,486.95 for the day after starting €40,422.39 in the hole.
“It’s exciting to be up for the first time,” Galfond said on the streaming coverage of the challenge moments after action concluded for the day.
Since play resumed on March 4, Galfond has ended 15 of the 20 sessions as a net winner. As a result, he’s steadily fought his way out of the nearly seven-figure hole he found himself in after the first 1/3 of the total hands to be played.
On Thursday, April 2 Galfond had a big session that saw him briefly take the outright lead in the challenge, before VeniVidi1993 mounted a comeback to regain the lead by the time the session ended. Monday, April 6 saw the two play 751 hands throughout more than five and a half hours.
Galfond got out to a strong lead early, but VeniVidi1993 pulled within a few thousand of the event before Galfond regained control of the match. Galfond ended up €81,064.56 for the challenge with 22,097 hands played of the 25,000 that the two competitors agreed to.
Partypoker To Raise Money For Freelance Poker Dealers
With the imposed suspension of live tournament poker, many operators either cancelled their events or transferred them online, providing better guarantees and a complete schedule in many instances. The latter is certainly true for the Irish Open 2020, which heads online from today after the Irish Open and partypoker who will host the festival decided to bring poker players the oldest poker tournament in Europe online.
Partypoker has put together a whopping € 2.7 million overall guarantee with 22 events that feature activities like the Ladies Event, Main Event, and Mini Main Event. Buy-in of € 1,100 for the Main Event looks extremely reasonable given the guarantee of the event is an awesome million euros.
The festival runs from Monday 6 April to Sunday 12 April, with the week of events expected to please players around the world who may not otherwise have been able to fly to the Emerald Isle. Buy-in starts from € 162 to € 5,200 which is the cost of playing the High Roller 8-Max event, with details and with schedule dates right here.
Behind live tours, it is not just a difficult time for poker operators. On top of that, Yong has said that if £ 100,000 is raised, he would double donations to freelance LIVE partypoker dealers.
The $50,000 donation from Triton Poker will go a long way to ensuring that Rob Yong doubles down on the donations and makes it £ 200,000. Alternatively, if instead, you would like to play a poker tournament, why not play the Dealers Grand Prix with your entry fee being part of the donation.
Ignition Poker Gears Up For Million Dollar Weekend This April
Series Runs April 17-20, With More Than $1 Million In Guarantees
Ignition Poker is putting up more than $1 million in guarantees this April for the inaugural edition of their newest tournament series, the Million Dollar Weekend.
There will be both a $75,000 guaranteed mini-main event and a $150,000 guaranteed main event on Sunday, April 19. Ignition Poker offers awesome features that greatly enhance the casual poker playing experience.
Alabama Online Player Scores Big Win In Global Poker Sunday Scrimmage
Global Poker has been so popular lately, that they’ve increased their guarantees on their big Sunday tournaments and have still had no problem meeting them.
This week featured the Sunday Teaser, which normally has an SC25,000 guarantee, but this week bumped it up to SC40,000. A total of 447 players entered the tournament, creating an SC$4,700 prize pool. The final 72 players finished in the money, but it was Arizona’s ‘OnTheWayUp’ who came away with the win and the top prize of SC8,425.
Global Poker is making it even harder to resist playing on the fastest growing poker site in the world with their new player freerolls!
If you haven’t yet tried Global Poker, now is the time to do so. The site is giving away SC1,000 every week for new players in a special Saturday freeroll at 15:00 EDT.
To qualify, you simply have to make your first purchase between 00:00 EDT on Thursday and 23:59 EDT on Wednesday. Your token will be credited on Friday and located in the ‘My Items’ section of your player profile.
If you can’t make this week’s freeroll, don’t worry! Global Poker has ensured that every token can be applied to the following week’s freeroll as well.
If you haven’t yet tried Global Poker, now is the time to do so.
All eyes on Saudi-Russia-US poker game
How crazy is the world right now? You don’t need me to tell you, not after you’ve spent three weeks straight in your house watching the world as we know it grows distorted like funhouse mirrors as you look out your window.
It’s even crazier than that if you’re in the hydrocarbon business. Despite producing the fuel that the world demands, in ever-harsher conditions, a certain subset of the population is actively trying to kill the industry by blockading anything it tries to build and starving it of capital. It is inconceivable to those in the industry that anyone would fight so hard to cut off the fuel supply that keeps them alive, yet we’ve become so desensitized to these insanities that we don’t even notice anymore.
But here we are. Without a production cutting deal, all three will keep producing more and more oil into a collapsing market until storage tanks around the world fill up and it becomes physically impossible for oil to come out of the ground anymore.
Above all, take heart that the petroleum supply – both oil and natural gas – are once again, like in World War II, products that are of critical importance to national security.
Spanish Poker News Sites Go Offline Due to Emergency Coronavirus Decree
New emergency law bans almost all forms of online gambling promotion and marketing.
The new decree is in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced the country into complete social and economic lockdown.
The Spanish-language sites of PokerNews and PokerListings had taken similar measures.
