As the WSOP smashed records this past summer, hopes are high that its sister brand – the WSOP Europe – will be equally exciting and break a tournament poker record or two. The WSOP Europe series has found a permanent residence at King’s Casino in the tiny village of Rozvadov, Czech Republic, and is now a little over two weeks away from kicking off its 2018 edition.

The major poker festival is set to begin on October 9 and to run all the way until November 2. It will feature ten gold bracelet events. This means that the WSOP will award a record number of 88 gold bracelets this year as the schedule of the summer series in Las Vegas included 78 gold bracelet tournaments.

And for those that are not feel that much attracted to the gold pieces of WSOP jewelry, organizers have prepared another draw – massive guaranteed prize poolsthat will certainly lure poker pros and enthusiasts from all over the world. In addition, the fact that the major poker event will take place at King’s Casino, one of Europe’s most popular poker venues, will too add to the overall thrill.

The ten events that are to take place at the host venue will feature a total of €13 million in guaranteed prize money, of which the €10,350 Main Event will offer a €5-million guaranteed prize pool and the €100,00 Super High Roller will, too, offer €5 million up for grabs.

Highlight Tournaments on the Schedule

The Main Events at WSOP festivals have always been the ones to attract the greatest attention. And the upcoming WSOP Europe €10,350 Main Event will certainly be one to remember. The €5-million guaranteed prize pool will contribute to the tournament’s popularity and will boost its lure.

The event will kick off on October 27 and will run until November 2 when the name of the champion will become clear. Last year’s edition of the Main Event attracted 529 entries who crushed the €4-million guaranteed prize pool and pushed it to €5,025,500. Spain’s Marti Roca De Torres emerged victorious to collect the first-place prize of €1,115,207 and his first gold bracelet from the WSOP.

The €100,000 Super High Roller with a guaranteed prize pool of €5 million is yet another tournament worth being paid a bit more attention. The event is set to begin on October 26 and will certainly bring together some of Europe’s and the world’s most seasoned high rollers. The €25,500 High Roller will be another option for those who enjoy quality high roller action. The event will start on October 24and will feature €1 million in prize money.

Last but not least, it should be noted that the WSOP Europe will be opened with the €550 Colossus. The event will start on October 9 with the first of eight starting flights. It will feature a guaranteed prize pool of €1 million. The tournament drew 4,115 entrants last year and is anticipated to exceed that number this year.

Day 3 of the Season XVII WPT Maryland $3,500 Main Event has concluded here at Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Maryland, with the final table of six players set. Will Givens (pictured above) leads the way with 6,215,000 in chips, while Tony Ruberto is eyeing his second WPT title and the lead in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.

Givens and Ruberto are joined at the final table by Jeremy Ausmus, Shankar Pillai, Mark Sandness, and Aaron Pinson. Each player is currently guaranteed $69,609, while all eyes are set on the $344,755 first prize which includes the $15,000 entry into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, as well as an inscription of their name on the WPT Champions Cup.

WPT Maryland Final Table
Seat 1: Will Givens – 6,215,000 (124 big blinds)
Seat 2: Mark Sandness – 1,805,000 (36 big blinds)
Seat 3: Aaron Pinson – 805,000 (16 big blinds)
Seat 4: Shankar Pillai – 4,465,000 (89 big blinds)
Seat 5: Jeremy Ausmus – 3,730,000 (75 big blinds)
Seat 6: Tony Ruberto – 5,230,000 (105 big blinds)

Givens hails from Colorado and has been a regular on the tournament trail for many years amassing over $1.7 million in tournament earnings. Givens has collected big wins on several poker tours, and here on the World Poker Tour, Givens has won two side events and cashed five times on the Main Tour for over $150,000 in earnings. If Givens is able to carry his final table chip lead to victory, it will be the biggest tournament score of his career.

Willing to play pots in the final stages of the day, and unafraid to get aggressive to assert his dominance, Givens was responsible for the final two eliminations of the day which catapulted him into the chip lead as he bagged 6,215,000 in chips.

The only player that joins Givens with over 100 big blinds is Season X WPT Jacksonville Champion Tony Ruberto (pictured below). Ruberto was the runaway chip leader for a vast majority of the later stages in the tournament and surpassed seven-million in chips before he eventually ended the day with 5,230,000. The major storyline surrounding Ruberto is his positioning in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.

After finishing in 41st-place on Day 2, recent WPT Borgata Poker Open winner Erkut Yilmaz separated himself from Simon Lam and Brady Holiman to sit alone on top with 1,250 points. Following a fourth-place finish at WPT Choctaw for 800 points, Ruberto is in prime position to not just make a steep climb up the Hublot WPT Player of the Year leaderboard, but to also take the lead. If Ruberto can finish in fifth-place or better, he will launch into first-place overall, and any result after that will just further his lead over Yilmaz.

Shankar Pillai is the only other player at the WPT Maryland final table that has reached a WPT final table previously when he took sixth-place in the Season XVI WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble. Pillai is also sitting third in chips with 4,465,000 and will be looking to improve on not just his previous best of sixth-place, but also his total WPT earnings of over $180,000 as he has already registered his best biggest WPT cash with this result.

Known for grinding cash games in Las Vegas and being a family man, Jeremy Ausmus has six WPT cashes to his name for close to $190,000 in WPT earnings along with a WPT side event win in his home casino of the Bellagio back in Season XI. Sitting with 3,730,000 in chips at the final table, Ausmus is in a great position to make a run at capturing his first WPT Main Tour victory here at Maryland.

Mark Sandness and Aaron Pinson round out the final table, and although regarded as the short stacks, with a player-friendly structure, they both still have plenty of room to try and ladder up and make a run at capturing the WPT Maryland title.

Day 3 saw many notable players fall short of the final table as the likes of Brian Altman (27th), Ping Liu (26th), Christian Harder (25th), Richard Kirsch (24th), Paul Volpe (22nd), and Brock Parker (8th) all eliminated throughout the day. Andrew Crookston added a ninth-place finish at WPT Maryland to his ninth-place finish at WPT Choctaw to see him shoot up the Hublot WPT Player of the Year rankings into 22nd-place.

The final hand on Day 3 saw Miki Murzi shove 17 big blinds from the button with Ah5s and be picked off by Givens in the big blind with QhJs. The board ran out Qd8d3d9d6c, and Murzi was eliminated in seventh-place leaving the WPT Maryland final table of six players.

For a complete list of the payouts, click the “Payouts” tab here.

The final six players will return on Tuesday, September 25, to play for the $344,755 first-place prize as the WPT Maryland final table action gets underway at 12:00 pm ET. As always, keep your browsers locked right here to WPT.com for continued coverage of the World Poker Tour.

The WPT champions club has a brand-new member and his name is Erkut Yilmaz, a player from Sacramento, California. Yilmaz topped the field of this year’s WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event for a first-place cash prize of $575,112 after putting up a great show in the final stages of the tournament.

The final day of the Main Event was played on Friday at the host venue, Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino. Six survivors returned to play down to a champion. It was namely Yilmaz who led the pack of six with a massive chip advantage over everyone else left. The player had a total of 21.575 million in chips at the start of final day action, good for 144 big blinds and well ahead of his nearest competitor. Oleg Schnaider was that nearest competitor with 7.75 million/52 big blinds.

A long playdown period on the previous day, when players had to whittle down the field to the final six, provided for quick action on the final day. Players began falling out in the very early stages of that last day of the race. The first elimination occurred on the 11th hand of play and it did not take long before the heads-up phase was reached. It is important to note that Yilmaz was the player to dominate action throughout the whole final table.

Heads-Up Recap

While action during the initial stages of final-day play unfolded quickly, the same cannot really be said about the heads-up duel. Yilmaz played against poker pro TK Miles for the title. The match kicked off with the eventual champ holding the chip lead. However, at one point, Miles managed to outmaneuver his opponent and assume the chip leader status for a short while.

Yilmas quickly regained control over the majority of chips in play and from that stage on, the player never looked back. He weakened his opponent’s stack and defense, until Miles did not have much to fight with.

On what turned out to be the final hand in play, Miles limped from the button and Yilmaz checked. The [5h][4s][3s] flop arrived to see Yilmaz check and Miles bet 800,000. Yilmaz raised with an all in. Miles called for his last 15.8 million.

Miles turned over [Kd][5s] to Yilmaz’s [6d][3d]. The [6h] on the turn and the [4h]on the river sealed it for this year’s Borgata Poker Open Main Event. Miles went out as the runner-up. The player received $383,399 for his efforts and for running so deep into one of the most popular tournaments to be taking place annually.

As mentioned above, Yilmaz collected the lion’s share of the prize pool, good for $575,112. His prize also included a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

This year’s edition of the Borgata Poker Open drew a field of 1,075 entries, who generated a prize pool of $3,441,075. The top 136 finishers received a share of the money, with min-cashes starting from $3,049.

As the 2018/2019 season of the World Series of Poker Circuit is sweeping through the Seminole Casino in the charming city of Coconut Creek, Florida, several poker pros won prestigious WSOP titles, complete with gold rings and free seats to the 2019 Global Casino Championship.

On Thursday evening, Mitchell Lekarcyzk triumphed at $400 NLH Monster Stack event, dominating over a strong field of 586 entries. Cory Blum and Matthew Zarcadoolas also grabbed titles in two other tournaments.

The first-place finish at the $400 NLH Monster Stack brought Mitchell Lekarcyzk the first WSOP Circuit title and ring in his career. Lekarcyzk, who is from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has taken part in live tournaments mostly in his home state and across Las Vegas, so this was his first WSOP Circuit gig. With an impressive performance, however, he managed to overcome the tough competition during these past few days and come out as the $400 NLH Monster Stack champion.

The sixth event of the festival, running currently at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, kicked off Tuesday and offered players entry during two starting flights. The tournament proved to be quite popular with poker fans as it attracted 586 entrants who paid the $400 fee. With $330 of each fee going towards the prize pool, organizers collected $193,380, which were split among the top 63 players.

Day 2 of the event started on Thursday with 69 survivors, with Day 1B chip leader Zack Milchman topping the leaderboard. He could not make it to the final table, though, busting at 29th place for a cash prize of $1,073. The chip leader from the first starting flight, Michael Perrone, also finished early in 33rd place for $944. After a lot more eliminations, Ray Millard led the surviving 9 players into the final table with a huge chip lead of over 5 million.

After a 13-hour day of grueling poker, nearly 5 hours of which were spent on the final table, Mitchell Lekarcyzk won the $400 NLH Monster Stack title and the top-place prize of $40,619. He managed to do that in a heads-up battle against Andrew Kaplan who finished second and received $25,118. Millard left the tournament in the third place, cashing $18,367.

Two More WSOP Rings Rewarded

The other poker player who took home a nice cash prize along with a WSOP Circuit title on Thursday was Cory Blum. The 28-year-old former pro is no longer playing professionally but managed to defeat a total of 58 players, including Craig Monrade heads-up in the $600 Pot-Limit Omaha. For his top position, he received a cash prize of $11,394, while the remainder of the $30,385 was split among the other 5 higher-ranking players.

The Seminole Casino Coconut Creek hosted another exciting tournament on Thursday. The single-day $600 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo event started at 11.00 a.m. and drew in 69 players. The total prize pool was $35,535, split among the top 7 players who made it to the money. The minimum guaranteed cash was $1,826, while the winner received $12,436 in prize money. This was Matthew Zarcadoolas from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who secured the first WSOP Circuit ring in his career.

Friday will see the Final Day of the WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek $2,200 High Roller, which posted an entry field of 65 registrations. After hours of tough poker play, most players were eliminated and only 16 survivors will return to the tables on Friday. Jeffrey Morzella, from Tampa, Florida, will come as the big stack as he managed to bag 242,600 in tournament chips at the end of Day 1. He is followed in the leaderboard by Leandro Faraminan with 196,500 and by 2015 World Series of Poker November Niner Josh Beckley who has 172,800 in chips.

The World Poker Tour has packed up the trucks to close out the summer and few could have chosen a better location. The WPT has landed in Atlantic City, NJ, and, in particular, the Borgata, for the 2018 WPT Borgata Poker Open. Day 3 is now in the books with an East Coast grinder at the head of the pack and a recent “High Roller” who has been making some noise back in the pack.

Liam He Leads Final 24 Players

142 players came back to the tables on Wednesday and, with the money bubble on the horizon, some of them weren’t going to be happy. Only 135 of the people (from the 1075 entries) who returned would be taking home a payday from their trip to the Boardwalk. At the head of the pack was Timothy Miles, but an East Coast player by the name of Liam He would make his mark on the day.

First, there was the matter of popping the money bubble. With the WPT Action Clock running (each player had to make their decision within 30 seconds unless they use an “extension chip” to give them a bit more time to come to a decision), it only took about two hours – and hand-for-hand play only took eleven hands – before a double elimination allowed two players to collect half of the $6057 minimum cash. Brent Roberts was eliminated by Ganjan Jeganathan when his K-J failed to catch Jeganathan’s Big Chick, while Douglas Nelson’s 9♦ 6♦ went down to Richard Tuhrim’s J-8 off suit after Tuhrim sealed his edge by flopping a Jack. The double elimination on the money bubble allowed Roberts and Nelson to split the 135^th place money.

The parade to the cash cage began at this point, with notable pros such as Shannon Shorr, Anthony Zinno, Darren Elias, Mike Dentale, Ryan D’Angelo, Joe McKeehen and several others taking their pay for three days of poker. There were those that weren’t satisfied with just a few thousand dollars, however, and they charged to the head of the pack.

He started out the day as the fifth largest stack in the room and he never seemed to make a bad decision. His chip stack increased through the day’s play until, during the final level of the night, He made his boldest moves. With Athanasios Polychronopoulos all in from the small blind, He would make the call with the goods. His pocket Aces were strong against Polychronopoulos’ A♣ J♣ as, by the turn, Polychronopoulos was drawing dead and He was adding his chips to his stack. At this point, He had five million chips and would ride that stack to have the lead at the end of the night.

1. Liam He, 5.63 million
2. Oleg Shnaider, 5.02 million
3. Erkut Yilmaz, 3.065 million
4. Dhaval Joshi, 2.7 million
5. Anthony Maio, 2.55 million
6. Nick Pupillo, 2.535 million
7. Austin Wentling, 2.52 million
8. Michael Wang, 1.845 million
9. Aaron Kweskin, 1.75 million
10. Ali Imsirovic, 1.695 million

He has been primarily an East Coast pro since he started playing in 2009. According to the Hendon Mob database, 23 of his 26 lifetime cashes have come east of the Mississippi River, with many of them coming in the Northeast poker strongholds of Atlantic City, Hollywood, FL, and Uncasville, CT. On the top of that resume is a third-place finish in the 2016 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event, where he took down $297,995 of his $511,473 in career earnings. If he were to win this Borgata event, he would more than double his lifetime tournament poker earnings.

Ali Imsirovic’s Massive Run Continues, Maria Konnikova in the Mix

Imsirovic’s either on one of the hottest streaks of recent memory or he’s actually that damn good. Coming off of winning two events during the 2018 Poker Masters series – and taking home the Purple Jacket as the overall champion – Imsirovic continued to have excellent fortune on the green baize. While he yo-yoed through the day – at times offering double ups and at others getting them himself – Imsirovic’s stack was always in action and, it seemed, always going up. Should he be able to keep the “run good” going, Imsirovic is a threat for the final table.

Another player making some noise during the Borgata Poker Open is psychologist/poker player Maria Konnikova. Konnikova, who came from nowhere to capture the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure National Championship in January and earn a $30,000 seat to the inaugural PokerStars Players’ Championship this winter, has been making waves throughout the year with her play. Although she’ll be on the short stack starting on Thursday (19^th of the 24 players remaining with 725,000 in chips), Konnikova bears watching as she looks to continue her dream year in poker.

The cards will hit the air at noon (Eastern Time) on Thursday, with the final 24 players playing down to the six-handed WPT final table. The champion will be crowned on Friday, with the eventual champion heading out of Atlantic City with their name etched on the WPT Champions’ Cup and $575,112 in their pockets.