Another peek underneath the largest organ in the human body to see what’s making professional poker players tick, with a look at the routines and habits of Ashley ‘sickhangover’ Hunt. 

Ashley ‘sickhangover’ Hunt is an online poker player for the renowned poker stable, BitB Staking; founded by high stakes regulars Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard, Tomi ‘elmerixx’ Brouk and Samuel ‘€urop€an’ Vousden.

When you look through your telescope at poker’s constellations, you won’t see Hunt as a star. But he turns a profit playing cards while the rest of us have to make do with a real job.

Learn how.

Another dive into Robert Greene’s perennial classic The 48 Laws of Power to seek a parallel with the poker industry, this time taking a look at the elusive Phil Ivey. 

Only Phil Ivey can blank the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in the year of his Poker Hall of Fame inauguration and get away with it.

When we think about the champions of sport and industry, often, it’s not until they retire or die that we truly understand the impact they made on our collective horse face.

Phil Ivey is different.

Asian casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) saw its second-quarter revenue jump more than one-fifth as Macau’s VIP gamblers emerged from their hiding places.

Figures released Thursday show the Nasdaq-listed MRE’s revenue hitting just under $1.3b in the three months ending June 30, a 21% improvement from the same period last year. Operating income shot up 76% to $127.4m and net income gained 18.5% to $36.5m.

MRE chairman/CEO Lawrence Ho credited the gains to the Macau casino market’s “strong growth trajectory” and the “ongoing improvement in player sentiment,” aka mainland Chinese VIP gamblers feeling more comfortable testing their luck at Macau’s baccarat tables.

MRE’s flagship Macau property, City of Dreams, saw VIP turnover rise nearly one-quarter year-on-year to $12.2b, while mass market table drop was up 4.4% to $1.07b. Slots handle spoiled the winning streak, falling 7% to $938m, while non-gaming revenue was up nearly one-fifth to $74.6m.

In this week’s Calling the Clock we remind you that Scott Blumstein won the World Series of Poker Main Event but all anybody wanted to do was talk about John Hesp; Patrick Leonard wins three back-to-back monsters, and PokerStars Power-Up looks likely to prevent North Korea from launching a nuclear missile.

The suffocating days and nights of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) are over for another year, after Scott Blumstein, a 25-year old professional poker player from New Jersey, won the $8.15 million first prize, and the new title of Champion. 

It was his only WSOP event of the summer.

He had never before competed in the Main Event.

Famed sports bettor Billy Walters has been fined $10m and sentenced to five years in federal prison for insider trading.

In April, Walters was convicted on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy for his role in an insider trading scheme that netted him $32m in profits while avoiding $11m in losses. On Thursday, US District Judge P. Kevin Castel called Walters “a cheater and a criminal, and not a very clever one.”

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged Walters in 2016 over a series of trades involving Fortune 500 company Dean Foods based on inside information fed to Walters by Dean’s former chairman Thomas Davis, who was heavily in debt at the time. Davis, who has yet to be sentenced, testified against Walters after striking a plea deal with prosecutors.

On Thursday, Castel called Walters’ scheme “amateurishly simple,” in part due to a detailed paper trail that led prosecutors right to Walters’ and Davis’ doors. Castel also claimed that Walters’ scheme was less to do with an actual need for cash, but rather because Walters viewed acquiring riches as “a way of keeping score.”

Spain’s regulated online gambling market appears stuck in a trend of year-on-year revenue gains and sequential declines.

Figures released this week by Spanish gaming regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) show locally-licensed gambling sites generated revenue of €121.3m in the three months ending June 30, 22.6% higher than the same period last year but 4.5% less than Q1’s total. The Q2 results follow a similar pattern in Q1’s figures, which were 20% higher than Q1 2016 but down 2.4% from Q4 2016.

Sports betting revenue was up 12.3% year-on-year to €60.1m, despite Q2 2016 featuring the bulk of the Euro 2016 football tournament action. But the figure was nearly 15% less than the €70.6m the betting vertical reported in Q1 and turnover was down nearly 2% sequentially. Live betting accounted for 70% of Q2’s betting stakes and 68.5% of revenue.

The casino vertical reported revenue of €42.9m, up 52.5% year-on-year and 14.5% sequentially. Slots revenue soared 84% year-on-year to €21.5m, live roulette gained nearly two-thirds to €9.5m while RNG roulette improved 11.5% to €6.8m and blackjack rose 10.2% to just under €5m.

UK-listed gambling operator Ladbrokes Coral’s first half of 2017 featured a strong online performance while retail operations lagged.

In a trading update released on Thursday, Lads Coral said it remained on track to meet its full-year 2017 expectations. Group revenue over the six months to June 30 was up only 1% from H1 2016 but operating profit is expected to come in between £153.3m to £153.8m, up 4% to 7% over the same period last year.

Digital net revenue gained 21% year-on-year (14% in constant currency terms), thanks largely to sports betting, which saw revenue and stakes rise 25% and 23%, respectively, despite H1 2016 benefiting from the bulk of the Euro 2016 football tournament.

Digital gaming revenue was up 11% year-on-year. This week saw Ladbrokes relaunch its Playtech-powered Live Casino, which features a new studio design and enhanced functionality, including a video messaging system that offers players greater interaction direct from the table.

Nevada casino sportsbooks hit their baseball betting revenue out of the park in the month of June, according to official reports.

Figures released Thursday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) show statewide casino gaming revenue of $895.4m in the month of June. The figure is up less than 1% from the same month last year but down more than $100m from May 2017’s result. Revenue at Las Vegas Strip casinos was up 1.7% to $497m.

June marks the end of Nevada’s most recent fiscal year, during which the annual gaming revenue figure was up nearly 3% to over $11.4b. The state’s all-time peak came in those heady pre-recession days of 2007, when gaming revenue hit $12.5b.

June’s slots revenue was up nearly 1% to $600.2m, while total Games & Tables revenue rose by a similarly small margin to $295.2m. Blackjack led the table chart with $85.3m (+2.1%), easily outpacing runner-up baccarat, which dipped 13.2% to $66.7m. Craps revenue gained 1.3% to $32.5m while roulette slipped less than 1% to $25.4m.