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.”

Mike Matusow shed light on what went down at Full Tilt Poker leading up to the 2011 Black Friday scandal. The former FTP pro defended Chris Ferguson, and referred to him as a “good guy” who made the mistake of letting a bunch of “f*****g a**clowns” run his business.

“The Mouth’s” comments towards Howard Lederer, however, weren’t as pleasant. He says “The Professor” and co-owner Ray Bitar were “100 percent to blame” for the company’s failures.

Matusow recently started a podcast called “The Mouthpiece” which is available on the Podbean app. In the first episode, he discussed his role at Full Tilt and also Ferguson’s.

Blindsided by Black Friday

Matusow was a prominent member of the Full Tilt family prior to Black Friday. He was a “red pro,” which was a big deal back then. Other red pros included Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, among other big name poker celebs.

In April 2011, the US Department of Justice blocked FTP, Ultimate Bet, and PokerStars from operating within the US. When that happened, a mismanaged FTP was unable to pay its players their remaining account balances. They were eventually paid a couple of years later.

Matusow claims he was not involved in day-to-day operations at Full Tilt. He was merely a sponsored pro who earned a huge salary, around $50,000 per month although he said on his podcast he should have been paid even more.

When Black Friday hit, Matusow says he had no idea the company couldn’t pay its players. He claims he was under the impression the poker pro-owned business was loaded based on conversations he had with Lederer and Bitar.

Was Chris Ferguson to Blame?

It’s been eight years almost to the day since Black Friday. But we still have yet to hear from Chris Ferguson on his side of the story. He continues to allow many within the poker community to bash him and blame him for the Full Tilt scandal without coming forward with any sort of explanation, at least not publicly.

Matusow, however, defended his former FTP pro on his podcast and had some choice words for Lederer.

“I also know this for a fact,” he told his listeners. “When Howard Lederer came out and said, ‘I’m retired, it was all Ray Bitar,’ that’s all just a bunch of bulls**t. Every time I went to Howard’s house, and every time a deal was made, it was always Ray and Howard making decisions on the phone.”

But what about “Jesus?”

“I seem to lean on the fact that Chris Ferguson’s only guilty thing that he did was let a bunch of f*****g a**clowns run his company.”

He didn’t provide details of Ferguson’s actions at Full Tilt. But he said Chris was the “biggest shareholder” who “created the software” for the poker site. Matusow claims “Jesus” is at fault for allowing a “criminal” like Bitar run his company, but exonerated him of any responsibility for Full Tilt failing to have enough in reserves to pay the American players post-Black Friday.

Perhaps, Mike is correct but many might be wondering why Ferguson still refuses to share his side of the story. It can’t possibly take eight years to write a speech.

There’s a reason that texas hold’em pro Antonio Esfandiari is obtaining such long shots to beat comedian/actor Kevin Hart in their approaching boxing match. Esfandiari isn’t also near to the sort of athlete that Hart is as well as it’s shown in his method for the suit that’s just a couple of weeks away from taking place.

The only advantage I really have is reach and height,” said Esfandiari. “So my only chance of winning is to use that to my advantage. I’ll probably take a more defensive approach. I’ll just try and keep my distance and hope that he leaves something open and I catch him with a dirty hook or something.

Esfandiari is obtaining 35:1 probabilities from Hart and also the stakes of the wager, just like the battle itself, have not and also will certainly not be revealed to the public. It will certainly occur within the next couple of weeks at a venue in Los Angeles that has yet to be established.

The duo chose that by shutting the fight to the public they will keep the battle better to what it was initially intended to be.

There’s no way that anybody can see it, unfortunately,” Esfandiari said. “We just decided it was better to kind of keep it how it started as a bet between two friends. We’re not really trying to publicize it. We thought at some point we might air it because everybody wanted to see it, but at the end of the day, we decided it was better if it just kind of stayed between us and our friends that are there.

Hart will have a film team there, however it is still undecided if the footage will be released in the future.

If Esfandiari goes the range, the fight will certainly be 3, three-minute rounds. Conditioning has been Esfandiari’s Achilles’ heel because he accepted the battle.

“When I first started, my biggest weakness was cardio,” he said. “The last 1 years of my life, I’ve been doing a lot of weights and yoga. Not a lot of cardio. I hated running.”

He’s boosted tremendously in his cardiovascular conditioning since his training began, nonetheless. Numerous months ago, there was no opportunity he can box for nine minutes. At the end of his newest session, he had the ability to compete throughout of the match.

“I just did three rounds, three minutes,” said the three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner shortly after his latest workout. “Obviously I struggled, but I got through it. Whereas six months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do 20 seconds.”

As far as Hart’s training goes, he is taking it much more seriously than Esfandiari expected.

“In the beginning, I didn’t think he was taking it that seriously,” said Esfandiari about Hart’s training. “But in the last few months, I know he’s been training really hard and he’s been sparring as well. I saw a bunch of sparring equipment in his room and I was like ‘Oh crap.’”

He’s obtained an excellent factor to be anxious. As Mike Tyson famously claimed, ‘Everyone has a plan until they obtain punched in the mouth.’

Esfandiari does not have much experience with being typed the mouth.

“Before sparring? No.,” said Esfandiari. “But now I’ve gotten decked a bunch of times. A bunch of bruised ribs, my jaw got knocked out of place a couple times. Several bloody noses.”

His injury issues are centered around his face and also ribs. The gear that he has actually been sparring with gives some defense to his face. When he steps into the ring with Hart, they will be using the same headgear made use of in amateur boxing, which secures the head, however not his face.

“I’m really worried about breaking my nose,” said Esfandiari. “As we know, I’ve got a bigger than average nose. I’m definitely worried about breaking my nose and I’m also worried about breaking my ribs because he keeps joking about coming after my ribs.”

The fight is taking place concerning a month before the WSOP begins. Despite the recovery time, Esfandiari does not see this hindering his summertime texas hold’em routine.

“The World Series is still a few months away, so I don’t really see it having an effect on that,” he said. “Plus, I don’t see myself playing as many events as I used to back in the day. Last year, I cut down a lot. This year, I’ll probably only play a few big ones. I kind of just want to be with my kids.”

He kept in mind that in between cardio workouts and boxing training sessions, Esfandiari is exercising between seven as well as nine times a week. Despite the immense quantity of time concentrated on his exercises, he still locates time to grind some cash money game sessions.

He has some additional energy at the table many thanks to his recent training, but this will certainly be the last time that he steps in the ring.

 I figure this is kind of a one and done,” said Esfandiari. “And at the end of it, I don’t want to say that I didn’t give it my all. I also don’t want to get my ass kicked in 30 seconds and be like ‘Oh, that was cool.

Sean Winter holds a slim lead over Bryn Kenney and Rainer Kempe in the GPI Player of the Year race one-fourth of the way to the finish line. But it’s a sprint, not a marathon.

Winter’s early lead is mostly due to a strong performance at the US Poker Open in February. He cashed in five of the 10 events, including a title in Event #4, $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em for $151,200. The soon-to-be father also shipped a $25,000 high roller at the PCA in January for $495,210.

Too Early to Get Excited

While it’s certainly an advantage to get off to a strong start in the GPI POY race, Winter isn’t guaranteed victory. Early Player of the Year leaders have a tendency of slipping late in the year.

Last year, Justin Bonomo won big the first six months but lost in the end to Alex Foxen. In 2016, Fedor Holz crushed it over the summer, four times earning seven-figure scores before fading in December to David Peters.

But that doesn’t mean Winter’s early hot streak won’t continue. His current run is no fluke. Last year, he cashed for over $5 million in tournaments. That includes runner-up finishes in the $50,000 WSOP High Roller for $1,020,253 and $250,000 Partypoker Caribbean Poker Party for $2,430,000.

Winter now has over $12 million in lifetime earnings. He was all set to ship the US Poker Open trophy before Peters came out of nowhere on the final day of the series to steal it away.

Competitive Race

Peters, thanks in large part to his US Poker Open title, is also right in the thick of things. He sits in seventh place on the GPI POY leaderboard but isn’t too far off Winter’s pace.

Current GPI Player of the Year Leaders

1. Sean Winter (USA) 1,919.38
2. Bryn Kenney (USA) 1,767.30
3. Rainer Kempe (Germany) 1,610.25
4. Brian Altman (USA) 1,560.90
5. Alan Engel (Canada) 1,553.43

*Peters has 1,467.91 points

Kenney is one of the most consistent high roller performers in the world. So, it’s a safe bet to assume he’ll be in the mix throughout the year. In 2017, he finished runner-up to Adrian Mateos by a mere 26 points.

The race is so close that Stephen Chidwick, who won two US Poker Open events, is in ninth place but only six points out of seventh place. He finished runner-up to Foxen last year and came in third place in 2017.

The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series announced last week that it will be returning to Montenegro for 10 events, including the first pot limit Omaha events in the series’ history.

The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series will take place from May 5-17 at the Maestral Casino & Resort, the same venue that hosted the Triton Series in 2018.

Two Main Events Highlight Schedule

The 10 events include a wide range of game types that are popular on the high-roller circuit. Those include six-handed and eight-handed no limit hold’em, turbo formats at (relatively) cheaper buy-ins, and two main events: one in classic no limit hold’em, and another in short deck hold’em, a game that has become increasingly popular and which has become a staple at Triton Series events.

As usual, the events are priced in Hong Kong Dollars. Both main events feature a buy-in of HKD 1 million ($127,400), while side events range from HKD 100,000 ($12,700) to HKD 750,000 ($95,500).

The action starts on May 5 with the eight-handed no limit hold’em turbo event. The NLHE main event begins on Wednesday, May 8, while the short deck main event is the final event of the stop, starting on Wednesday, May 15.

In Triton’s announcement of the stop, Jason Koon said that he was looking forward to heading back to Montenegro for the poker and the atmosphere.

Ivey, Koon Made Short Deck History Last Year

When Triton stopped by Montenegro last year, the offerings weren’t quite as expansive as they will be this May. There were only four events on tap, but it was still a memorable occasion for poker fans.

That would have likely been true regardless of who won, since that Triton Series stop featured the first major short deck tournament ever held in a live setting. But when you add in the fact that Phil Ivey took down that first ever tournament, winning approximately $600,000 in the process, it became one of the more memorable events of the year.

Koon had an even better week, winning the HKD 1 million short deck event that closed out the series to take home $3.5 million (Ivey finished third in that event as well, securing another $1.66 million). Meanwhile, the main event was won by Nikita Bodyakovskiy, who took home nearly $2.5 million after defeating Rui Cao in heads up play.

The Triton Series has become the premier high stakes tournament circuit in the poker world today. Montenegro will be the second stop for the series this year, as Triton held an event in Jeju, South Korea in March.