It was the story of the year that spread like wildfire and called every bet on every street. Yes, our look at the poker stories of 2020 begins with what many suspected might become poker’s final chapter only for the virus to provide the game with a new beginning.

Virus Cancels Tournament Plans

It was an inevitable shock to the poker ecosystem when Coronavirus struck. One day, live tournaments were being won, the next, players were told that they would have no events to attend in person. Lockdown, when it came, threw the whole world into a COVID-19 panic, and the pandemic claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in a shockingly short space of time.

Pursuits such as poker seemed less important for a long time, but over the course of the initial lockdown, poker’s adaptation was to inspire millions around the world.

Sam Trickett is a bona fide poker legend, and not just in Britain. The Retford-based former plumber turned an obsession with the game into a poker career that yielded millions. He’s won the biggest prize any British player ever has in tournament poker, is a cash game legend and has even played at Old Trafford.

Despite all these bookmarks, do we really know the real story of ‘Tricky’? Let’s step back in time and look back at the life and times of one of poker’s most charismatic characters.

The Plumber with a Pipe Dream

Sam Trickett started life wanting to become a footballer, but a serious knee injury put paid to those dreams despite no lack of skill in that area. Told by doctors that he might not walk again if he damaged the knee further, the young Trickett thought he might become a professional pool player instead. Again, his natural application led him to pursue it with real dedication, but a chance game of poker one night at the pool hall transformed the young Trickett’s life.

The Christmas Premier League fixture list is going to be an exciting one to watch over the festive period. With clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all facing challenging games, it’s going to be a decisive period of the English Premier League season.

Who will come out on top? Let’s take a look at two Christmas crackers and pull both ends to see who takes the prize of three points.

Leicester City vs. Manchester United (Boxing Day, 12.30pm GMT kick-off)

It’s a lunchtime kick-off at the King Power Stadium as last season’s decisive final game that sent The Red Devils into the Champions League and The Foxes to the Europa League plays out a lot earlier in the campaign this year.

Two of the biggest poker challenges of the year have reached crucial stages in the days before Christmas and while all four men who are facing off across the virtual felt will be taking a breather over the festive period, you’ll want to know exactly how things stand.

Let’s take a look at both challenges and assess who is winning, who has the best chance and what the odds are for success in the two ding-dong showdowns as they head towards a conclusion in the New Year.

Doug Polk vs. Daniel Negreanu

Just a day ago, Polk won $114,140.26 across 904 hands of no limit hold’em, bringing his overall lead in the challenge up again to over $810,000. With 12,222 hands having been played, even our rudimentary arithmetic mean there are 278 hands until the halfway stage.

If poker fans thought that they were going to be devoid of entertainment with the World Series of Poker taking place online rather than live in Las Vegas, they were wrong. From players winning on WiFi in whole foods car parks to others losing signal at the most vital moment, the WSOP still brought moments of real drama throughout the summer series.

One of the best of those moments came when Ron McMillen, a 70-year-old businessman who had never played online poker before, won the very first tournament that he entered and captured a WSOP bracelet in the bargain.

PokerNews reporter Chad Holloway broke the news in a Tweet that was seen around the world as the ‘MacDaddy15’ winner of Event #9 of the 2020 WSOP Online Series turned his $1,000 entry into $188,214 in the 6-Max No Limit Hold’em event. It quickly became the viral smash of the summer WSOP series.

Iowa’s Ron “MacDaddy15” McMillen had never played online poker before, but that didn’t stop him from winning tonight’s @WSOP Online Event 9: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max for $188,214.

It would be a serious understatement to say 2020 was a heck of a year. In January at ICE London, there was already some unease about the coronavirus. Little did we know how much our industry and our world would change.

The Ayre Media team is adaptable. Our office staff were all sent home the second week of March and we’ve yet to go back. Everyone from the writers to the people behind the scenes posting articles, creating images and handling all of our IT needs were able to adjust to working from home. Never having to get out of your pajama bottoms proved a big incentive.

We’re also innovative. 2020 was supposed to be a busy year with our team heading to conferences on four continents. But with travel off the table, the last conference I attended was ICE London. Thanks to the innovative nature of conference organizers – including SBC, SiGMA, Clarion, Reed, and so many others – the virtual conference was the place to see and be seen.

Sure, we weren’t able to toss back a few pints at the end of the day – at least, not in person – but we could still see familiar faces, learn about new trends and make deals, all from the comfort of home. I don’t know if much will open up in 2021, but until we can meet face to face, it’s still great to meet up screen to screen.

There’s no denying that 2020 was a rough year for casinos, with Covid-19 being a huge threat to not only their profits, but their existence. The pandemic played a central role in the majority of our top 5 casino stories in 2020.

Suncity’s Russian casino Tigre de Cristal reopening Thursday

Although casino closings played a huge role in the year, their reopening during the summer months too. Our readers wanted to know more when the brick-and-mortar industry in Russia came back to life in July.

The Eldorado/Caesars deal could fall apart thanks to the coronavirus

Tennessee’s online-only sports betting market proved a winner in its first full month of operations, while FanDuel plants its retail sportsbook flag in Atlantic City. 

Figures released Wednesday by the Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) showed that the state’s four sports betting licensees – BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and local outfit Action 24/7 – generated combined wagering handle of $131.4m in November. Betting revenue totaled $13.2m, of which the state’s share came to slightly less than $2.4m.

The numbers represent best-ever results for any US state’s first month of legal wagering, a feat likely aided by this season’s surprisingly good showing by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. Tennessee is home to only around 7m individuals, making the state’s first month numbers all the more impressive. 

But TEL CEO Rebecca Paul Hargrove urged caution, noting that November was “only one month in an unpredictable and extraordinary year, making it difficult to begin extrapolating out from this single month.”

Online casino sights need to stay on top of the hottest slot offerings to keep up with the competition. We’ve got the newest slots released in the past week, so you can check them out and decide if you want them on your site.

The world’s most feared pirate is taking over Parrot Bay, the new video slot from Red Rake Gaming

Red Rake Gaming, the online gaming industry’s leading provider, has just announced its latest release, Parrot Bay, a 6×10 reel video slot with its popular trademark “1 million ways to win” and a free spins feature.

In this video slot, players can join the most feared pirate and his crew to find the world’s most valuable treasures in an exciting cannon minigame and a free spins feature with special symbols and multipliers.

In the fast-moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

Sky Racing World Launches Free Live Streaming Mobile App

New product will feature daily live-stream of International horse racing on mobile devices

Christmas came early for the Asian-facing online gambling sector as a quartet of inept fraudsters once again found themselves in serious legal jeopardy.

On December 14, arrest warrants were issued in the Philippines for Jan Robert Gustaffson, Sylvia Bernadette Gonzales de Guzman, Maria Arleen Aldaba and Sherwin Quiambao, all of whom face multiple counts of qualified theft and criminal fraud. 

Aldaba and de Guzman posted bail ahead of arraignment and pre-trial proceedings on January 20, 2021. Quiambao remains at large while Gustaffson, a Swedish national, reportedly fled the country in February. However, a petition has been filed with the Bureau of Immigration to ensure Gustafsson’s immediate detention should he be so foolish as to attempt to return to the Philippines. 

The four fraudsters were part of a criminal group that attempted to defraud their former employer, Spectrogen Corp, a business process outsourcing firm supplying services to Philippine-based online gambling operators.