Jason Koon and ‘Mad’ Marvin Rettenmaier were amongst the big winners in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Big 4 in Florida with $7.5m in guarantees on the tables.

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) Big 4 has become one of the live poker tournament highlights of the year, but the organisers need to get the whiteboard out because the $5,250 Main Event missed the guarantee for the third successive year.

The SHRPO first burst onto the scene in 2013 when Blair Hinkle defeated 2,384 entrants to capture the $1.7m first prize, and the $12m+ kitty easily surpassed the $10m guarantee. However, the Seminole’s lost that profit a year later when they missed the guarantee by $2.5m.

The tribe reacted by cutting the 2015 guarantee in half, but they still had to hand over close to $500,000 in added juice after the players failed to show in the numbers the tribe were foreseeing.

Jason Koon and ‘Mad’ Marvin Rettenmaier were amongst the big winners in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Big 4 in Florida with $7.5m in guarantees on the tables.

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) Big 4 has become one of the live poker tournament highlights of the year, but the organisers need to get the whiteboard out because the $5,250 Main Event missed the guarantee for the third successive year.

The SHRPO first burst onto the scene in 2013 when Blair Hinkle defeated 2,384 entrants to capture the $1.7m first prize, and the $12m+ kitty easily surpassed the $10m guarantee. However, the Seminole’s lost that profit a year later when they missed the guarantee by $2.5m.

The tribe reacted by cutting the 2015 guarantee in half, but they still had to hand over close to $500,000 in added juice after the players failed to show in the numbers the tribe were foreseeing.

The Riviera Hotel & Casino is no more after the last of 13 controlled implosions organised by the Las Vegas Convention brought the 50-years old property to its knees.

Las Vegas is like a third home for me, and so I am always fascinated by old movies set in Sin City because you get to see how much the landscape has changed over the years.

Another part of that scenery changed in the early hours of Tuesday morning when the Riviera Hotel & Casino crumbled within a series of controlled implosions.

The Riviera opened in 1955 as the ninth resort on The Strip. At that time Liberace was the highest-paid performer in the world, and it was Mr Showmanship who cut the ceremonial ribbon and became the first residential artist of the iconic building.

The Riviera Hotel & Casino is no more after the last of 13 controlled implosions organised by the Las Vegas Convention brought the 50-years old property to its knees.

Las Vegas is like a third home for me, and so I am always fascinated by old movies set in Sin City because you get to see how much the landscape has changed over the years.

Another part of that scenery changed in the early hours of Tuesday morning when the Riviera Hotel & Casino crumbled within a series of controlled implosions.

The Riviera opened in 1955 as the ninth resort on The Strip. At that time Liberace was the highest-paid performer in the world, and it was Mr Showmanship who cut the ceremonial ribbon and became the first residential artist of the iconic building.

The 13th season of the European Poker Tour is currently underway and Head of Live Operations, Neil Johnson, outlines some changes including payouts, PLO High Rollers, and the introduction of casino games.

What started out as a eureka moment in John Duthie’s bathtub has fast become the most attended live poker tournament festival outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

I am, of course, talking about the European Poker Tour (EPT) and Season 13 has recently kicked off in the favorite stop of all: Barcelona.

So what’s new?