The 2019 WSOP will kickoff with a charity poker tournament benefiting the children of the late Gavin Smith, who passed away in January.

On May 28 at 6 pm, one day prior to the first bracelet event, the Rio will host a $200 buy-in tournament benefiting the Gavin Smith Memorial Fund.

Half the money in this rake-free event goes to charity and the other half to the prize pool. The tournament takes place in the Pavilion, a room inside the Rio Convention Center.

Helping Gavin’s Family

After Gavin passed away, his friend and fellow poker player Josh Arieh hinted that Smith wasn’t as wealthy as some may have expected. On Twitter. he wrote that, “I’m certain the boys need help. I’ll leave it at that.”

Arieh helped raise money through a GoFundMe immediately following Gavin’s death. Random Twitter trolls weren’t the only ones questioning why a poker pro with over $6 million in career cashes was in need of money. Doyle Brunson had the same reservations.

But most who responded to that post didn’t agree with Doyle. Gavin does have $6 million in tournament cashes. He was also a paid ambassador for Full Tilt Poker before Black Friday. And he competed in numerous televised high stakes cash game shows such as “Poker After Dark.”

So, to an outsider who never walked a mile in his shoes, it may seem odd that Gavin’s children need charity. But the public doesn’t know his struggles and financial situation.

Left a Mark on Poker Community

Regardless of your personal thoughts on Smith’s financial situation, Gavin clearly left a positive mark on the poker world. Thousands of poker players on social media sent condolences on social media and dozens showed up for a candlelight vigil in Las Vegas. In less than 12 hours, Arieh’s GoFundMe had raised more than $40,000.

Gavin Smith was a Full Tilt Poker pro, WSOP bracelet winner, and one of the funniest and friendliest players at any poker table. He passed away in January unexpectedly at his Texas home at the age of 50. The exact cause of death is unknown. Many on social media speculated his death was drug or alcohol related. But that assumption was quickly squashed by those who personally knew him.

Gavin, who was born in Canada, leaves behind two children whom he had full custody of, and numerous friends and fans within the poker community.

The 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $25,000 no-limit hold’em high roller event drew a total of 99 entries, easily surpassing the $2 million guarantee to create a final prize pool of $2,445,300. In the end, the largest share of that money was awarded to eventual champion Aaron Mermelstein. The two-time World Poker Tour main event winner earned $618,955 and his first high roller title for the win.

“I live here part-time now so for me it’s nice to get a big win here especially against a lot of the tougher competition,” Mermelstein told Seminole Hard Rock Poker Blog reporters. “Feels sort of like home. It feels good. This is my first cash in a $25K, so it’s nice to win the first one.”

In addition to the SHRPS trophy and the big payday, Mermelstein also took home 756 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his second final-table finish of the year, and it was enough to see him move into 152nd place in the overall standings.

Play resumed on day 2 of this event with 16 competitors remaining and only the top 14 set to make the money. Jonathan Jaffe was knocked out on the bubble, running KClub SuitJClub Suit into the pocket kings of Alex Foxen.

Mermelstein took the outright lead by eliminating Niall Farrell in sixth place. His pocket nines held up against the ASpade SuitQHeart Suit of Farrell to send the Scottish poker pro home with $100,255.

2015 World Series of Poker main event champion Joe McKeehen knocked out Shannon Shorr in fifth place ($136,935) and James Calderaro in fourth place ($210,295)) to close the gap on Mermelstein and Foxen heading into three-handed play.

McKeehen ended up falling to the bottom of the leaderboard again by the time the next big hand arose. Mermelstein raised to 175,000 from the button with blinds of 50,000-75,000 with a 75,000 big-blind ante. McKeehen moved all-in for 1,550,000 from the small blind. Foxen shoved from the big blind and Mermelstein folded. Foxen had picked up the AHeart SuitAClub Suit. McKeehen held the KSpade SuitQClub Suit. The board ran out KHeart Suit10Heart Suit3Spade SuitJClub Suit5Heart Suit and McKeehen was knocked out in third place ($305,665).

Mermelstein took a small lead into heads-up play against Foxen, but was able to extend his advantage to more than 3-to-1 by the time the final hand came down. Foxen raised to 350,000 from the button with the JSpade Suit10Diamond Suit and Mermelstein called with 10Spade Suit10Heart Suit. The flop came down 10Club Suit9Heart Suit4Club Suit and Mermelstein checked his top set, Foxen bet 450,000 and Mermelstein check-raised all in. Foxen called for his last 2,125,000. The AClub Suit on the turn left him drawing dead, and the 3Spade Suit officially secured the pot and the title for Mermelstein.

Foxen took home $545,000 and 630 POY points as the runner-up finisher. This was his sixth final table of the year. He now sits in 15th place on the POY leaderboard, with 1,929 points and $1,857,486 in year-to-date earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POU points awarded at the final table:

Andrew Neeme and also his online poker vlogging peer Brad Owen took their prominent meetup cash money video game to Run it Up Reno on Monday night. Also in the reasonably village of Reno, Nevada, a sizable crowd of followers packed the back space at the Peppermill poker room for some beers, small talk, and also a laid-back video game of $2/$ 5 no-limit hold ’em.

Neeme as well as Owen have well over 200,000 consolidated YouTube subscribers which is challenging to pull off in the poker particular niche. In contrast, vloggers Johnnie “Vibes” Moreno, Jaman Burton, and Tim “TheTrooper97” Watts, all enjoyable content providers, each have less than 40,000 subscribers.

They’ve turned a lot of those customers into hardcore fans. Some of whom also follow them around the nation to compete in these meetup video games (CUP).

One player in the game, Brian, that stays in San Diego is a CUP regular. Andrew describes him as the “MVP of the meetup games,” a suitable nickname for a person ready to make the 550-mile trek.

The poker session began around 6 pm and I pulled Neeme away from the table around 8:30 for an interview. He was up about $500 at the time, so he was, as you ‘d anticipate, in excellent spirits.

Poker Like it Should Be

Many of us fell for this video game during the online poker boom age, back prior to the headphone-wearing GTO robots chowing down on quinoa as well as broccoli took over the card spaces.

When I first started playing cards in 2003, we packed our confront with greasy burgers, and also table talk always maintained the video game lively. The meetup video game at Peppermill reminded me of those magnificence days.

Few, if any kind of, used earphones. Gamers talked around greater than just ranges and solvers. As well as the online casino fed everybody free beef nachos that were quite yummy as well as, also much better, extra oily– just the means I like it.

Evolution of the MUG

Neeme and Owen have built their co-meetup game into quite a popular regular event. They’ve hosted the games in card rooms all over the country in Baltimore, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and also Reno. He praised Monday’s host venue.

“The Peppermill is lacking nothing that we wish they incorporated in the other card rooms,” he told CardsChat. “It’s cool that we get this back room here to keep the group separate. Obviously the dealers are pros, the cocktail waitresses are on point, so it’s a great spot.”

The game had four tables going although some players, including poker funny guy Joe Stapleton, had already gone busto and left by the time I arrived. While that’s an impressive turnout, it pales in comparison to some recent MUG’s.

“The biggest one was the Maryland Live (near Baltimore),” Neeme said. “We had 22 tables running and a waiting list. It was pretty crazy.”

Neeme said the players on Monday were “mostly (Reno) locals with other players scattered around.”

Future Plans for Andrew Neeme

Owens and Neeme clearly have a good thing going with their vlogs and meetup games. It’s quite refreshing to watch a lively game of poker in the headphones and GTO era.

But I also know Andrew could reach a larger audience in another niche such as travel. He’s extremely talented in front of and behind the camera. And anyone who watches his vlogs knows that to be true. Poker is a relatively small niche and although he has over 114,000 YouTube subscribers and his fans flock to his MUG’s, I wondered if he considers branching outside of poker.

“Sure, definitely thought about it,” he told me. “The size of the market (in poker) is smaller than a more general topic. When you’re speaking about poker hands, you’re speaking a foreign language to a lot of people.”

But he also understands that his fans come for the poker, and he doesn’t want to scare them off.

“The thing about the poker audience is that it’s a very passionate audience. So, the people who are into it, they want to consume as much of it as they can.”

I brought up the possibility of splitting up his YouTube channel into separate channels to cover multiple niches without running off his poker fans.

“As of right now, my attention is already split in so many different ways, even within poker. We’re doing these meetup games. There’s so much travel to do with that. And I’m still making my own videos and doing the editing and playing poker itself, and I have a podcast with my fiance. So, it’s hard to also do an entirely different subject matter.”

You can catch Andrew’s podcast with his fiance, Busi, at TellsPodcast.com.

Psyched to Run it Up in Reno

Jason Somerville’s Run it Up Reno has exploded over the past couple of years. The current series of mostly low-stakes poker tournaments, is running until April 22.

Many popular poker personalities such as Chris Moneymaker, Joe Stapleton, Benj “spraggy” Spragg and, of course, Somerville, have joined Neeme, a member of Team RIU, in Reno this week. Other than having an opportunity to play with the pros, Andrew explained why Run it Up has become such a massive event.

“A lot of it just stems from Jason’s personality,” he said. “He’s always been a very positive and upbeat character. He’s not one to get into the trolling and all that stuff. And he sees that poker needs a social aspect of it to thrive.”

“I don’t think it matters if it’s in Reno or Los Angeles or New York City. I think people want to be a part of that sort of vibe.”

But it isn’t just Somerville and the other familiar faces bringing players to Peppermill for RIU. Neeme says the event is “very approachable” and the players who compete at RIU “really enjoy the game and like playing with others who enjoy the game.”

That’s the same formula Andrew and Brad utilize to grow the meetup games. And also it’s clearly functioning. Probably, that is why Jason Somerville pled Neeme to sign up with Team Run it Up.

The behemoth area of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown drew 1,360 entrants, all prepared to battle very for a distinguished WPT title. Nonetheless, by the end of Day 2 of the event, there were just 90 players left.

Poker professional Keith Ferrera bagged the largest stack after the end of the second day of the fourth largest WPT Main Event in the history of the series. The player had collected 1.905 million in chips by the time coordinators called it a day.

Ferrera is vying for his first title from the WPT’s Main Tour series. The player made it to the final table of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open at Seminole Hard Rock in Season X, but a title eluded him back then as he hit the rail in sixth place.

Ferrera emerged as the chip leader early into Day 2 of the tournament and never really lost his momentum throughout the levels that were played at the host venue – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood – on Sunday.

Of his efficiency on the 2nd day of opinion, Ferrera said that it really felt great to be the chip leader and that he ran quite possibly the other day. The over night chip leader remembered that there had actually been times when he had ran well however had ended up out of the race, so it really felt excellent to not only make it via Day 2, yet bag the biggest chip pile.

Tough Opponents Trailing Not Too Far Behind

Ferrera had fantastic run on Sunday at the host casino, winning practically every pot he played. Nonetheless, his benefit will not make his march towards success a simple task. Trailing behind the overnight chip leader is 2016 November Niner Jerry Wong. The gamer placed 1.47 million in chips in his bag last night, helpful for the 2nd area in the momentary leaderboard.

Another seasoned online poker pro and also a two-time WPT champ holds the third largest stack into Day 3 of the tournament. Aaron Mermelstein accumulated 1.425 million well worth in chips last night to strike the top for a 3rd title.

Other notables still in the quest include previous champs Eric Afriat, Erik Seidel, Niall Farrell, Seth Davies, and Frank Stepuchin, to name a few. The only player to have ever before won four titles from the series– Darren Elias– also made it with Day 2.

Day 3 of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is set to kick off today at noon Florida time. The remaining players are scheduled to play five 90-minute levels. Each of them has at least $7,620 locked up.

As mentioned earlier, the tournament drew 1,360 entrants who generated a prize pool of $4.352 million. The money was split into 170 payouts, min-cashes starting from $6,185. The winner will be awarded $715,175, including a ticket into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

It’s value season for players, and PokerStars is leading the latest charge with a push back at Partypoker that promises $75 million in prize pools for the 2019 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP).

If the 2019 online poker war was getting predictable, things are about to take a twist. Taking a break from the recent wave of sit & go innovations, PokerStars is using one of its flagship festivals to reassert its dominance.

Betting Big on SCOOP 2019

Announced on April 12, SCOOP 2019 will feature a total prizepool of at least $75 million.

Topping last year’s guarantee by $10 million, the war chest will enable PokerStars to run at least one $1 million+ event each day between May 12 and 27.

As well as giving players more value, PokerStars will be hoping to repeat of last year’s success. After putting up $65 million across 183 MTTs, the market leader attracted more than one million buy-ins.

That level of interest pushed the overall prizepool to $91 million, making it the second largest SCOOP of all time.

If it can generate a similar level of interest this time around, PokerStars could break its own record payout of $94 million. More significantly, SCOOP could strike another blow to Partypoker.

Despite criticisms over its new loyalty scheme and an exodus of pros, including Randy Lew, PokerStars is still the largest online poker site.

While Partypoker has made undeniable gains in 2019, it hasn’t yet managed to topple its rival. With SCOOP 2019 threatening to break another record, any ground Partypoker may have made could be lost.

PokerStars Flexing on Party

In fact, with PokerStars’ 13th anniversary Sunday Million taking place on April 14, the operator is flexing its MTT muscles more than ever.

Ahead of the birthday celebration, it published some top Sunday Million stats. As well as reminding players this year’s winner will bank at least $1 million, the infographic (above) highlights some salient figures.

Topping the list is the fact that players have won more than $750 million from the weekly tournament since 2006.

When the 13th anniversary Sunday Million concludes, that figure will be at least $760 million. Between this and an enhanced SCOOP schedule, PokerStars is doing everything it can to push back against its main rival.

However, with Partypoker set to host another $20 million+ MTT, the latest battle might be won but the war for PokerStars is far from over.

Dutch Boyd is a convincing poker player. He persuaded the WSOP staff to eliminate rake from the first ever $1,500 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only No-Limit Hold’em event which is scheduled for July 10

Boyd, a three-time bracelet winner who is eligible to compete in the tournament, posted a critical tweet questioning the structure of the inaugural event.

Customer Service at its Finest

That tweet prompted the WSOP, a Caesars-owned organization that often listens to its customers, to do more than just respond with a canned, “we appreciate your concerns and respect your opinion.” Instead, they actually gave him what he wanted. Well, half of what he asked for.

The WSOP won’t add money to the pot. But they are now guaranteeing a rake-free event. Boyd responded by saying, “you guys are awesome.”

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask and you shall receive. Dutch taught the poker community a valuable lesson. Perhaps, that was his goal from the start? Okay, probably not. But he still accomplished something positive and that’s good enough for us.

Boyd is eligible to compete in the bracelet winners only event being that he’s a three-time WSOP champion. His last bracelet event title came in 2014 when he shipped a $1,000 no-limit hold’em tournament for $288,744. That was eight years after his first WSOP win ($2,500 NLH for $475,712).

He also took down a $2,500 limit hold’em tournament in 2010 for $234,065.

What’s this New Event All About?

If you have ever won a WSOP bracelet, whether it be the Main Event, the Poker Players Championship, or just some random $1,500 tournament in 2008, you’re eligible to compete in the $1,500 bracelet winners only tournament on July 10.

The 50th annual WSOP special event will last four days, finishing up a day prior to the Main Event final table. Registration is open until the start of Day Two (July 11) and each participant starts with 50,000 chips.

Boyd was initially upset the WSOP wasn’t giving bracelet winners much incentive to compete in a tournament that should have a difficult field. The average bracelet winner is more skilled than the average random poker player. So, it’s conceivable to think that a fully raked tournament such as this has a negative expected value for most eligible players.

But fear not, Dutch Boyd. The WSOP staff stepped up and gave you part of what you wanted. That’s some exxcellent customer service and now everyone is satisfied.

Tuiofu Hunkin outlasted the 678-strong field of the WPTDeepStacks Thunder Valley Main Event on Monday to scoop his career’s largest cash of $121,000 and the tournament title. The player also secured a $3,000 seat into the season-ending WPTDeepStacks Championship at which he will be able to challenge his luck and skills against fellow Main Event winners throughout the season.

“Hard work, I’ve been playing a long time, I have really good support from my wife and my mom and my brother. God is good, for sure,” said Hunkin when Matt Savage asked him about his hot streak to start the year (Hunkin also won the $1,000 preliminary event at Bay 101 Shooting Star a few weeks ago).

“It’s really good, I never devalued my stack. I kept grinding, got lucky in a few spots, and it paid off,” said Hunkin when he was asked about his comeback victory at today’s final table.

“It feels awesome, WPT runs some of the best tournaments for sure so I’m excited,” said Hunkin when Savage asked him if he was looking forward to playing in the WPTDeepStacks Championship event that he won a seat for today.

The Main Event’s third and final day started with the nine final tablists. It was Mark Abrtique who led the pack into the game on Monday at the host venue, Thunder Valley Casino Resort. Abratique kept his momentum all the way down to three-handed play, but that was when it was the eventual champion who began pressing ahead in his bid for the title.

And it did not take that long before the start-of-the-day field of nine was down to three and then to two players. By the time the first break of the day took place, there were just four players left. The field was then quickly trimmed down to just Hunkin and his heads-up opponent, Yury Klimenkov.

The two-handed battle kicked off with Hunkin holding a massive chip lead over his final opponent. And it was not a long match. Hunkin never really gave Klimenkov much chance to improve his situation and make a solid claim for the title.

The new WPTDeepStacks champion’s identity became clear in the very first all-in confrontation of the heads-up battle. It saw both players bet 300,000 ahead of the [6s][3s][3h] flop. Klimenov then bet 350,000 and Hunkin reraised to 1.45 million. Klimenkov shoved for 5.15 million and Hunkin called to cover his opponent’s bet.

The eventual champion held [9d][6d] to Klimenkov’s [4s][4d]. The turn brought the [Ad]and the [9s] arrived on the river to lock up the title for Hunkin. Klimenkov thus hit the rail, good for a payout of $84,500.

WPTDeepStacks Thunder Valley Main Event Final Table Results

*Includes entry into $3,000 WPTDS Championship event

Bruce Deifik, the former proprietor of Sea Gambling enterprise Resort, died last weekend break from injuries he received in an auto accident in Denver, according to records.

Deifik, 64, got Revel Casino in Atlantic City from Florida financier Glenn Straub for $229 million. Revel closed in 2014 after a collection of personal bankruptcy insurance claims and also was resumed by Deifik in 2018 as Sea Hotel Gambling Enterprise.

Revel’s designers sunk $2.4 billion right into the home as well as were unable to make a profit in both years it was open.

Ocean Hotel Gambling enterprise encountered similar problems to Revel when it concerned capital. Deifik, a realty developer from Colorado, was not able to make a profit as well as finished selling the bulk stake to Luxor, an exclusive investment firm from New york city at the start of 2019.

According to an article previously this year from journalism of Atlantic City, Luxor funneled one more $70 million right into the residential property to open up a buffet, added collections and spaces and financial investments on the casino floor, as well as offering the building some much needed monetary versatility.

The quantity was never ever revealed, however Deifik still held a minority stake in Ocean Casino site Resort after Luxor actioned in.

Deifik was simply a couple of days far from having to take a trip back east to Atlantic City, where he was readied to deal with a hearing in front of New Jacket video gaming regulatory authorities. Those regulatory authorities were holding the hearing in reaction to unwanted sexual advances allegations from female staff members at the residential or commercial property. It was feasible that regulators were mosting likely to remove him of his gaming license.

Paul O’Gara, Deifik’s lawyer, told media electrical outlets that Deifik was associated with the crash while traveling residence from a Colorado Mountain ranges baseball game.

The Denver cops are reporting, while not launching Deifik’s identity, that the vehicle driver of the lorry “had an evident clinical condition as well as swerved” across 2 lanes. The vehicle after that “crashed right into a light post and came to a hinge on the walkway.”

” It’s a terrible misfortune,” claimed Bart Blatstein, the owner of Showboat, who is attempting to complete a revitalization task of his very own. “I knew him as a nice guy. He placed his heart as well as purse in Atlantic City. It’s an unfortunate time.”

The results of Deifik’s postmortem examination are still pending.

Partypoker will certainly see its branding included in a few of the biggest competitions worldwide, as the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series has prompted Partypoker Live as a scenic tour companion.

The arrangement will begin the May, when Triton Poker hosts a festival in Montenegro, which will include 10 high roller events.

Agreement Covers Branding, Content Creation

According to the Partypoker blog, the deal will see Partypoker Live branding show up at all Triton Poker events moving forward, while both organizations will work together to deliver material related to the tour.

The reference of streaming in Duthie’s comments may be a nod to Partypoker’s continuous technique of highlighting streaming content. The on-line texas hold’em area has actually accumulated a large team of banners in an effort to make up for having “been a bit behind the curve when it comes to streaming,” in the words of Partypoker managing director Tom Waters.

Partypoker Aggressively Partnering with Tours

But along with that pivot to streaming, Partypoker has also made an effort to build partnerships with major live tours over the past year.

Last year, Partypoker Live reached a shorter-term deal with Triton Poker, agreeing to a sponsorship deal for the series’ first stop in Montenegro. Last August, the roles were reversed somewhat, as Triton Poker added two events to the Partypoker Live Millions Russia festival schedule.

But there have been major deals with other live operators as well. Just last year, Partypoker Live and the World Poker Tour agreed to a four-year deal that would see the two companies put on up to seven events together. In 2017, Partypoker Live signed on as a partner for the World Series of Poker Brazil in Sao Paulo. The company has also struck deals with major casino venues around the world to host live events.

Given the increasing presence of the Triton poker tour as well as its high stakes events, this has the prospective to be the most impactful of these contracts yet. Team Partypoker player Jason Koon– who has had greater than his fair share of success on the Triton Poker Series– claimed that he was thrilled to see what the two brands could do with each other.

“When it comes to playing live poker tournaments there is nothing like going to one of Triton’s stops,” Koon told the Partypoker blog. “Partypoker and Triton partnering up is another giant leap forward for the high rollers and for the poker world in general.”