Are YouTube poker channels being unfairly targeted? The video sharing platform removed numerous poker videos recently, and it’s all a big mystery to some content creators as to why.

Jaime Staples has a popular YouTube poker channel with over 73,000 subscribers. He is one of the many punished content creators. But he certainly isn’t going to just sit back and watch his channel fizzle. The former Partypoker pro is fighting back. And he’s also trying to help his peers.

Staples offered up on Twitter to collect information from every poker player who feels they’ve been targeted, put that information into a spreadsheet, and send it off to a contact at YouTube.

YouTube Poker Channels in Trouble, But Why?

Many YouTubers earn a full-time income creating videos. In the poker niche, there aren’t many getting rich off YouTube ads. But vloggers such as Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen earn decent income through their popular YouTube poker channels. And others — Jeff Boski, Jaime Staples, Marle Cordeiro, just to name a few — also generate revenue from the video sharing platform.

So, when YouTube bans some of their content, they take a hit financially. The YouTube gambling content rules are pretty straightforward. YouTubers such as Owen and Staples are also unsure why they’re being punished.

Per YouTube’s terms and conditions, the company supports “responsible gambling advertising.” Content creators are allowed to post gambling-related ads so long as they comply with the following policies.

What Can They Do About It?

YouTube guidelines state that “gambling ads must target approved countries, have a landing page that displays information about responsible gambling, and never target minors.” We have yet to find rules violations in any videos from Owen, Staples, Neeme, or any of the other top vloggers, streamers, and poker content producers. But they’re still being punished.

The most likely reason for videos being removed is due to a recent YouTube algorithm change. This has happened in the past where gambling-related videos are removed following an algorithm update. Once YouTube investigates, the videos that didn’t actually violate the terms and conditions are typically reinstated.

Brian Christopher, a popular slot machine vlogger, knows what it’s like to enter YouTube jail. In 2018, his channel of over 1,100 videos, was suspended due to supposed rules violations. The account was eventually reinstated and his channel is back to normal. So, perhaps, the YouTube poker community will soon have the same positive outcome.

Romeo Mendoza just captured his first World Series of Poker Circuit title after battling through a field of 173 players in the $2,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa. He earned $88,717, his biggest recorded cash to date, for his victory.

The newly crowned champion is mostly a high stakes cash game player and he picked up his first WSOP Circuit victory in his home casino.

“Hopefully it is one of many. It means a lot, specially because I won it here in my hometown. I’ve been playing in this casino since it opened,” Mendoza said after his win.

Day 2 started with 49 players returning to the felt and the 34-year old was near the top of the leaderboard. He kept accumulating more chips, eventually finding himself at the final table with phenomenal players.

When the heads-up match started, Mendoza had a big chip disadvantage and he had to battle it out against a friend of his, three-time Circuit ring winner Andrew “A.J.” Kelsall. Although most players would fear having to defeat such an accomplished player, for Mendoza, it was the opposite.

Indeed, having years of experience playing against him, Mendoza was extremely familiar with Andrew’s game and felt very confident going into the heads-up battle.

“I think he had me three or four times the amount of my chips, but I felt that if me and A.J. got heads up I would win. I kind of know how he plays so I felt really good honestly playing against him. We’ve been playing together for over fifteen years,” he explained.

No matter what would have been the result, for Mendoza, making it to heads-up against his friend was a memorable experience.

“It’s pretty cool that two Tampa guys are here. We’re both hometown guys, we’ve been playing here, and we play high stakes poker all the time together so it’s really cool that it was me and him, we will always remember this because we’re buddies. I know how he plays, he knows how I play, so it was really fun.”

Mendoza intends on taking a shot at the Main Event next.

Final Table Action:

Ben Diebold was the first casualty of the final table when he ran queens into Kelsall’s kings in all in preflop situation. The board was of no help to him and he was sent out in ninth place.

Short stack Hamid Izadi bowed out shortly after when he shoved pocket threes into Steven Veneziano’s pocket eights. Veneziano improved his hand to a full house and Izadi headed to the exit in eighth place.

William Medina Diaz was Veneziano’s next victim. He moved all in with tens and got called by Veneziano’s king-queen. Veneziano flopped a pair of queens, ending Diaz’s tournament run in seventh place.

Next out in sixth was Miguel Hernandez. After losing multiple pots, he jammed his final crumbs with five-three suited and couldn’t find any help after a call from Kelsall who held ace-queen suited.

James Calderaro headed to the rail in fifth place when he shoved his last few big big blinds with six-five suited only to get snap-called by Veneziano’s aces.

He was followed the payout desk by Steven Veneziano when Veneziano called a shove from Kelsall to put at risk his last chips in a blind vs blind situation. Veneziano was ahead with ace-seven suited against Kelsall’s king-deuce but that didn’t last long as Kelsall flopped a king to take over the lead, eliminating him in fourth place.

Eric Salazar fell in third place when he raised all-in with an open-ended straight draw on the flop against Kelsall’s queens but couldn’t get there.

Although Kelsall started the heads-up match with a significant lead, he lost several pots in a row and fell one spot short from his fourth ring when four-bet shoved with tens and got called by Mendoza’s king-queen suited. The board double paired with aces and jacks and Mendoza’s king played for him to win it all.

Final Table Results

Phil Galfond is currently undertaking his very own heads-up challenge, but in 2010 all eyes in the online poker world got on a different battle– called the Durrrr Obstacle– between Tom Dwan as well as Dan “Jungleman” Cates. The very advertised suit became rather a tease.

Back in 2009, Dwan was arguably the leading high-stakes on-line pro in the world. The Full Tilt Texas hold’em celebrity at the time supplied all arrivals a challenge of $200/$ 400 blinds over 50,000 hands. Nevertheless hands were full, the loser would pay an additional side wager to the champion– Dwan’s $1.5 million to his challenger’s $500,000.

Patrik Antonius was first to handle the challenging online casino poker gamer. He provided it his almost after 40,000 hands and a $2 million loss, he called off the match.

The following player to step up to home plate was Cates. This time around around, “durrrr” had a much more formidable challenger. As well as he clearly wasn’t ready wherefore was about to happen next.

Durrrr Challenge Not Much of a Challenge for Jungleman

When the second Durrrr Challenge began in August 2010, Tom Dwan got on top of the online poker globe. He may have seemed a little bit brash, however that could actually blame him for believing he could beat anyone heads-up? Nevertheless, he was just one of the most successful online pros ever before. Yet sometimes things don’t go as prepared.

The framework in the match versus “Jungleman” resembled Dwan’s competition versus Antonius. The internet texas hold’em super stars would certainly play 50,000 hands of high-stakes no-limit hold ’em cash money video game with a side wager to be paid at the verdict.

Cates leapt bent on an early lead, entirely crushing Dwan’s soul. Simply 7,000 hands right into the match, 43,000 timid of the agreed-upon conclusion, “Jungleman” was up approximately $700,000.

That’s All, Folks

The bad run for “durrrr” continued. With Cates up over $1.2 million in 19,335 hands, Dwan decided it was time to step far from the Durrrr Obstacle. Almost a years later and he still has yet to continue the match.

” Jungleman” maintained his thoughts on Dwan backing out early private for many years. He didn’t publicly slam his challenger. However he eventually stepped forward out of disappointment that “durrrr” declined to either proceed the suit or completely repay the seven-figure acquistion.

Cates provided an upgrade on where both parties stood in 2017.

“He’s been paying me penalties every two months lately,” he said. “He wants me to point out he’s given me something like $700,000 or $800,000 basically in penalties since 2010.”

That six-figure settlement wasn’t enough to satisfy his wishes, nonetheless. Cates to now still wants to someday return to the Durrrr Obstacle, although that appears not likely.

Dwan, who is still a follower favored albeit less preferred than in 2010, has actually taken some warm for stopping early. In a 2017 YouTube video, Doug Polk referred to “durrrr” backing out of his own difficulty as the “largest fraud in the history of poker.” That may be a bit of hyperbole (what’s up, Legendary Poker League?), but lots of others share his sentiments.

It’s currently 2020. We’ve all carried on to the Galfond Obstacle, which is going horrendously for Phil Galfond beforehand. However it sure would behave if Dwan would certainly someday round off the competition he suggested.

The World Series of Poker announced Wednesday morning that the 51st annual WSOP will have 25 events with a buy-in of $1,500.

The price point has long been one of the most popular price points at the series and with the exception of 1985, has been a fixture at WSOP since 1977 when 38 players took part in the first-ever $1,500 no-limit hold’em event.

At the 2019 WSOP, the eight $1,500 no-limit hold’em tournaments averaged 3,332 entries, a $4.498 million prize pool and a $642,173 first-place prize. In 2020, 10 of the 25 events will be of the no-limit hold’em variety and 12 will utilize a freezeout format.

Aside from no-limit hold’em, Omaha hi-lo, dealers choice, HORSE, mixed pot-limit Omaha, no-limit 2-7 single draw, seven card stud hi-lo, limit 2-7 triple draw, pot-limit Omaha, razz, pot-limit Omaha hi-lo, limit hold’em, mixed no-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha and eight-game mix will all be featured at the $1,500 buy-in.

“We have found the $1,500 price point to be the sweet spot in poker, perfectly balancing affordability, field size and prize pool to offer great value for participating players,” said WSOP Vice President Jack Effel. “As we continue to cater our offerings to find something for everyone, the $1,500 buy-in remains a core staple of the WSOP.”

A new wrinkle to the $1,500 level this year is that there will be a dedicated leaderboard for those 25 events alone. The scoring will be the same as the WSOP Player of the Year race and any player that cashes in these events will earn points for that race. The winner will receive a prize that has yet to be specified by the WSOP.

With the announcement of the $1,500 buy-in events, there are now 81 events on the schedule for the 2020 WSOP. The series starts on Wednesday, May 27 and runs through July 15.

2020 WSOP $1,500 Events

*All above announced dates, times and events are subject to change.

About the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker® is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world, having awarded more than $3.29 billion in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport’s top prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest-running tournament in the world, dating back to 1970.  In 2019, the event attracted 187,298 entrants from 118 different countries to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and awarded more than $293 million in prize money. In addition, the WSOP has formed groundbreaking alliances in broadcasting, digital media and corporate sponsorships, while successfully expanding the brand internationally with the advent of the World Series of Poker Europe in 2007 and the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific in 2013 and the WSOP International Circuit Series in 2015. For more information on the World Series of Poker, please visit www.wsop.com.

Triton Poker cancelled their upcoming 2020 Triton SHR Jeju Series “until further notice.”

In a note published on Friday, Triton Poker explain that the decision comes as a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak and the “global emergency”.

It’s with a heavy heart that we inform you of the postponement of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju after the World Health Organisation (WHO) called the Coronavirus outbreak a ‘Public Health Emergency.’

Since the Coronoavirus first leapt from animals to humans in China a few weeks ago, close to 10,000 people have been infected, and it’s killed more than 200. All of the deaths have been inside China, but the virus has spread to more than a dozen countries.

The safety of our players and support staff remains our utmost priority. Coupled with our duty to do everything we can in our power to prevent the virus from spreading, we’ve taken the difficult but correct stop of postponing the event with immediate effect.

The thoughts and prayers of the Triton Poker Team are with the families of those that have lost their lives and for the ones fighting the virus all over the world.

Another official announcement in regards to the potential resurrection of the event will be made on February 10th, 2020.

Brian Altman was just 26 years old when he won the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open in South Florida, taking home a huge payday of $723,008. In the five years since, the Longmeadow, Massachusetts-native has become a staple of the tournament circuit, amassing $4.25 million in earnings while chasing down a second major title.

Altman has managed to increase his cash rate every year on tour, posting 21 scores in 2016, 24 in 2017, and 25 in 2018 before exploding for a whopping 36 cashes last year. He had 12 other wins on his poker resume during that stretch, with biggest being the WSOP Circuit event he won in Montreal for $132,979, but another WPT main event trophy continued to elude him.

He continued the grind of near misses and side event wins until last week, when he returned to the site of his breakout victory and became the first player in tour history to take down the same event twice. This time Altman banked $482,636, dominating a field of 843 en route to having his name inscribed on the WPT Champion’s Cup for a second time.

“Winning a second WPT title feels amazing,” Altman told reporters after the win. “It’s incredibly special. It doesn’t always work out. I’ve had maybe a dozen or so situations where I’ve gone deep and thought I was going to win and I didn’t. But that’s how tournaments go.”

Altman now ranks seventh in WPT history with 25 cashes and is on the short list of players with more than one title. With his win and previous final table-appearance earlier this season, he now has a sizable lead in the WPT Player of the Year race, which wraps up in May and awards $15,000 in tournament buy-ins, as well as complimentary accommodations at all WPT stops for the entire duration of season XIX.

Card Player: Can we talk about your 2019 results? You cashed 35 times overall, which included three side event wins, and two of the five biggest scores of your career.

Brian Altman: I was fortunate enough to have a good year, and run pretty good in some big spots. I’ve was going deep consistently, so I’m happy with how it turned out. Obviously, there were some tournaments that could have been even bigger, but that’s not what I focus on.

CP: Yes, you opened the year with a sixth-place finish in the $10,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event for $297,020, and also took third at the $3,500 WPT Maryland for another $149,515 late in October. After scores like that, do you ever find yourself thinking about the money that was left up top?

BA: I mean, you literally can’t win them all, so third is a great result all things considered. I know a lot of players might have a score like that and get stuck on how close they were to a win, and I’ve certainly been guilty of that before, but I was actually pretty at peace with finishing third in Maryland.

CP: You stated on social media that “the anticipation of winning a tournament” was better than “actually winning one.” Can you explain?

BA: I’ve felt like this for a while. I was reading a book, Your Money And Your Brain by Jason Zweig. He kind of showed the science to it, and it stuck with me. I read that and it sparked this tweet that may seem controversial on the surface, but is absolutely true.

I think that the happiness you feel in a moment of victory is very fleeting. Obviously, it’s an incredible experience to win a poker tournament, but there’s so much more to life than playing poker and making money.

CP: That being said, poker is your profession, and it’s a job that demands quite a bit of time, especially traveling. Have you figured out how many days a year you spend on the road?

BA: I do spend a lot of time traveling, but no, I haven’t crunched the numbers. I’m sure it would be a crazy number to most people, but that’s life as a poker player. I live in Boston, it’s where I call home. When I am home, I’ll play at the casino maybe once or twice a week. But about 65 to 75 percent of the year, I’m somewhere else. It’s definitely tough to a degree, but the last few years I’ve been trying to have a better life balance. I’ve been taking care of myself, going to the gym… so that has helped.

CP: Finally, I have to ask you about a Tweet you posted questioning the accessories worn by some other poker players at the table. What’s your take on hoodies pulled down low and scarves covering up player’s faces?

BA: I’m pretty sure I said that during the World Series of Poker. I was just bored at the table and making an observation that I was seeing a lot more scarves nowadays. I’ve never been a fan of covering up. I feel like if you are at the poker table and playing, you shouldn’t be able to hide away all of your physical tells. If you’re worried about that, you can always play online. In my opinion, you exude a lot more confidence when you don’t cover up and hide, and that’s what I try to do.

The 2020 Aussie Millions $10,600 AUD no-limit hold’em main event attracted a field of 820 total entries, falling just three entries short of breaking the event’s attendance record which was set in 2019. The massive turnout built a prize pool equivalent to more than $5.6 million USD. In the end, Melbourne resident Vincent Wan emerged victorious with the title, earning $909,420 USD for the win.

“I’m lost for words. I’m just tripping out at the moment. I was just wanting to min-cash at one point so I’m struggling; I’m just delirious at the moment,” Wan said when interviewed by Aussie Millions Tournament Director Joel Williams after securing the title. “I can’t believe my luck. Thank you to all the other players. Basically it’s ten years of my life just grinding and working and trying to get here. I can’t believe I did it.”

In addition to the title and the money, Wan was also awarded 2,280 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. The massive victory was enough to see Wan surge into the outright lead in the 2020 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

Wan came into the final day of this event in third chip position with seven players remaining. Wan was just one big blind ahead of eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel when play resumed. Seidel was looking to add to his more than $6.7 million in prior cashes at Crown Melbourne, the site of the Aussie Millions series.

Nicolas Malo was the first player to hit the rail at the final table. He got his last chips in holding 10Diamond Suit8Club Suit on a JClub Suit8Spade Suit9Heart Suit flop. He ran into the QSpade Suit10Heart Suit of Nino Ullmann, whose flopped straight held from there to send Malo home with $165,655 USD.

The next key showdown saw Oliver Weis get all-in with KSpade Suit10Spade Suit, only to receive a call from Gareth Pepper’s ADiamond SuitKClub Suit. Weis was unable to come from behind and settled for $212,396 USD as the sixth-place finisher.

Wan earned his first knockout of the day when he picked up ASpade SuitJClub Suit and raised from the cutoff. Erik Seidel three-bet all-in for 2,875,000 holding AClub Suit10Spade Suit. Wan made the call to put Seidel at risk. Both players flopped their kickers, but Wan’s jacks held from there to eliminate Seidel in fifth place. The $261,275 USD he earned for his latest deep run increased his career earnings to $37.5 million, enough to put him in fourth place on poker’s all-time money list.

Nino Ullmann’s got his chips in good, having flopped two pair with 10Diamond Suit7Spade Suit on a 10Club Suit7Diamond Suit5Heart Suit board to take the lead against the pocket queens of Ngoc Tai Hoang. The two got all the chips in after the JDiamond Suit hit the turn, and Ullmann was in good shape to double up. The 5Diamond Suit on the river counterfeited his two pair, though, ending his run in fourth place ($331,310 USD).

The final three players struck a deal that saw Wan and Hoang lock up $909,420 USD each, which Gareth Pepper secured $690,000 USD as the shorter stack. The three agreed to play out the event to determine who would win the title and the championship bracelet. Gareth Pepper was unable to overcome his chip disadvantage and was ultimately eliminated when his blind shove from the small blind with 9Diamond Suit2Club Suit was called by Wan, who held ADiamond Suit3Spade Suit. Wan made a pair of aces to send Pepper to the rail in third place.

Wan took 13,665,000 into heads up play against Ngoc Hoang, who held 11,045,000. The two battled it out for roughly four hours, bringing the length of the final table to around 15 hours. On the 414th hand of the day, Hoang got the last of his chips in with ASpade Suit3Heart Suit and was called by Wan, who held 10Club Suit9Heart Suit. The board came down JSpade Suit9Spade Suit6Spade SuitJDiamond Suit10Diamond Suit and Wan made the winning two pair to secure the pot and the title. Hoang took home the $909,420 USD he had bargained for.

2020 Aussie Millions Main Event Final Table Results