The big name pros are all gone from the WSOP Main Event on WSOP.com, but the ESPN-televised finale should be a sight for sore eyes for the poker community.

At long last, we have a WSOP Main Event final table to cover. (Image: Forbes)

We told you yesterday that the final 71 players included numerous big name pros. Players such as Dan Zack, Ryan Laplante, Nick Schulman and other familiar faces bagged chips and advanced to Day 2. But outside of Upeshka De Silva, the Day 1 chip leader, you likely won’t recognize any other final table competitor’s name.

With that said, we’re talking about the World Series of Poker Main Event here. Stars are born in this tournament, even in an unconventional year like 2020. And given that we’ve all been desperately craving some televised major live poker tournaments, the final table should be an entertaining watch regardless of the star power.

The UK’s disparate tier system continues to hamper casinos and betting stores as London prepares to enter another lockdown.

London casinos, including the Hippodrome, are set to close on Dec. 16 as the English capital moves into Tier-3 restrictions. (Image: The Arcadia Online)

The English capital will go into Tier 3 on Wednesday, following what Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock has called a “new variant” of COVID-19.

Moving London into the highest tier means all non-essential businesses, including casinos, will shut for the festive period. The move comes as betting stores in Scotland returned to business after another national lockdown.

Anyone awaiting a return to normality in 2021 can find a glimmer of hope at the Star Gold Coast and its “COVID-free” poker room.

The Star Gold Coast gets back to business with COVID-free cash games. (Image: Lynn Gilmartin/Twitter)

With infections at negligible levels in parts of Australia, the Queensland casino got back to business “as usual” last week.

The World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Lynn Gilmartin was one of the first to ante-up without a mask. The Aussie presenter posted highlights of her session on Instagram, saying it was one of the “happiest” tables she’s ever sat at.

Nick Schulman, the popular poker commentator, was among the many familiar faces advancing to Day 2 of the 2020 WSOP Main Event. The world championship event produced a higher-than-expected turnout, with over 700 players in the field.

Nick Schulman is in the hunt for the 2020 WSOP Main Event title. (Image: Poker Central)

The hybrid event (mix of online and live play) kicked off Nov. 29 on GGPoker for international players. That separate but connected tournament has already played down to its final table, which takes place Dec. 15 at King’s Casino, site of the canceled WSOP Europe series, in the Czech Republic.

Over on WSOP.com, the 2020 WSOP Main Event began Sunday, with 705 players registered. Day 2 begins at noon PT on Monday and will play down to a final table of nine. The WSOP.com final table will take place inside the Rio in Las Vegas, home to the traditional summer World Series of Poker, on Dec. 28. Two days later, the winners of the WSOP.com and GGPoker tournaments will meet to determine a world champion. The World Series of Poker will pay the overall winner an extra $1 million.

The WSOP is firing on all cylinders at the moment. As the US leg of the WSOP Main Event got underway on WSOP.com, GGPoker is looking the end the year on a high with the $100 million Online Circuit series.

Players outside of the US can make a final run at WSOP glory in 2020 thanks to the Winter Online Circuit festival. (Image: GGPoker)

Open to players outside of the US, the WSOP Winter Online Circuit features 18 ring events and runs until January 10.

The action started on Sunday with a $1 million guaranteed MTT costing $50. For those with deeper pockets, a $10,300 WSOPC Super Million$ High Roller rounded out the day’s action.

Phil Galfond has officially erased a massive deficit in the Galfond Challenge against Chance Kornuth and now holds a decent-sized lead. But he can’t get too excited because there is still plenty of time for his opponent to win.

Phil Galfond is starting to regain his dominance against Chance Kornuth. (Image: Twitter)

The two skilled poker pros are competing in a 35,000-hand heads-up pot-limit Omaha competition on WSOP.com at $100/$200 stakes. They have also agreed to a separate side bet in which Galfond would pay $1 million extra if he loses. Kornuth, on the other hand, would owe $250,000 should he lose.

Galfond laid those 4-1 odds on the basis that he was so heavily favored. PokerShared handicapped the Run it Once poker site founder as a 4-1 favorite. And he showed why early on in the match as he busted out quickly to a six-figure advantage. But Kornuth, a skilled PLO player as well, proved over the next 10,000-plus hands that he belongs and can compete at the highest level even against one of the best PLO players ever.

A fight inside the Aria poker room in Las Vegas involving a popular dealer nicknamed Leandre “Patches” Wharton led to the dealer’s subsequent firing. According to players who witnessed the incident, an unruly player spouted a racist comment directed at the African American dealer.

Wild fight ensued inside the Aria poker room. (Image: YouTube)

Patches is one of the most well-known dealers in Las Vegas. He’s been at Aria for many years and is known as friendly and fair. But an apparent racist blast triggered the temperamental dealer. The incident was captured on video by a player inside the poker room, and then posted to YouTube.

Daniel Negreanu finally booked a big win against Doug Polk, and he desperately needed one to prevent surpassing the $1 million deficit mark.

Daniel Negreanu finally won some big pots against Doug Polk. (Image: YouTube)

Heading into Friday’s contest, Polk had recorded seven six-figure wins in the previous 10 sessions. He won so much money during the first 18 sessions that Negreanu had to add to his initial $1 million deposit.

Time and time again, the GGPoker ambassador would get off to a slow start either giving away a stack or getting coolered early in the session. That happened yet again on Friday. Polk, with pocket jacks, flopped a set of jacks on a J-4-9 board. Negreanu had pocket fours in the hand and there wasn’t much he could do to avoid giving away around $40,000 chips.

The second coming of Bitcoin (BTC) has put the Winning Poker Network under pressure as players looking to get rich have opt of crypto cashouts.

The latest cryptocurrency bull run has prompted poker players to convert their bankrolls into Bitcoin. (Image: Bitcoinist.com)

With the price of Bitcoin surging to levels not seen since 2017, poker players are using the upswing to boost the value of their bankrolls.

The demand for Bitcoin has been so great that Winning Poker Network CEO Phil Nagy has struggled to keep up. Discussing the recent rush with Bloomberg, Nagy said he’s been forced to buy more BTC to cover withdrawal requests.

Isaac Haxton called for Las Vegas poker players to stop playing due to increased COVID-19 cases in Nevada. Nearly 1% of all Nevadans tested positive for the virus just in the past week. The high-stakes pro also pleaded with operators to call off upcoming live tournament events.

Isaac Haxton pleaded with Las Vegas poker players to stop playing cards for a while. (Image: thescore.com)

Even during a global health pandemic, poker in Las Vegas is still booming. Out of the 31 card rooms in town that were open pre-coronavirus, 19 have since returned to business. And there certainly isn’t a shortage on action despite Governor Steve Sisolak’s recent 25% capacity restrictions.

Even with limits on capacity, the poker tournament scene is ramping up with the upcoming WSOP Main Event final table at the Rio, a series of $10,000 buy-in events at Wynn, and a major-ish series over at Bally’s running until early January. Haxton referred to these events as “irresponsible” on Twitter.

Doug Polk is absolutely destroying Daniel Negreanu through more than 9,000 hands, and is now flirting with a $1 million profit. The GGPoker, once again, booked a six-figure profit against his long-time rival.

Doug Polk continues to run hotter than a Las Vegas summer day. (Image: YouTube)

If you’ve paid attention to the live-stream chats on YouTube during the matches, you’ll notice the poker community is mixed on its assessment of the play. Some argue the difference in the match is pure luck, while others believe Negreanu is simply getting out-played.

Regardless of your thoughts on skill, there’s no doubt the luck has been on Polk’s side throughout most of this challenge. He has yet to lose a single all-in pot with cards to still to come while ahead. Conversely, Negreanu has lost a handful of those pots. And the overall number of large pot coolers appear to be heavily in Polk’s favor.

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It’s the season of prop bets. Negreanu and Polk are busy risking millions and now Dan Smith has devised a high stakes wager that could leave him homeless.

Dan Smith has bet his condo against Blake Stevenson in a heads-up DFS football contest. (Image: Fortune/Justin Sullivan – Getty Images)

Anyone around in the early of days of online poker will be familiar with the term “click a mouse, win a house.” Well, it seems that old habits die hard for two of the online poker’s original ballers.

Dan Smith has offered Blake Stevenson a $500,000 Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) football bet that includes the deeds to his condo.

We’re starting to sound like a broken record here, but Doug Polk booked yet another big win against Daniel Negreanu. The Upswing Poker founder is now just printing money at the $200/$400 heads-up no-limit hold’em tables on WSOP.com. And he’s showing all the doubters why he was such a heavy favorite entering the challenge.

Doug Polk continues to cooler Daniel Negreanu. (Image: YouTube)

The popular poker stars met again on the virtual felt on Wednesday. They each mixed in some big bluffs, hit some big hands, and check-raised with the nuts over the course of three hours and 662 hands.

After it was all said and done, Polk logged out of his WSOP.com account with $101,713 more in his bankroll than before the day began. Those six-figure wins are starting to become par for the course for the Upswing Poker founder.

The reboot of the popular poker show, High Stakes Poker, will in fact include the old show’s commentators — Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza. New episodes, which have already been filmed, begin Dec. 16 exclusively on the PokerGo app.

High Stakes Poker just wouldn’t be the same without AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan. (Image: GSN.com)

PokerGo does have a subscription fee so you can’t watch the show for free. But you can get a $20 discount in preparation for the High Stakes Poker reboot by using the code, “HSP.”

Many of the popular show’s biggest stars will be back, including Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, and Jean Robert-Bellande. Some new faces will be among those who appear in the games, such as Doug Polk, Brandon Steven, and Bryn Kenney. To sweeten the pot even more and bring back some old viewers, the commentators — AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan — are back together, just like old time’s.

Dan Bilzerian’s partnership with GGPoker divided the community last week and caught the attention of Riddick Bowe. With tensions running high, the former heavyweight champion was all too happy to settle things with an ass kicking.

Riddick Bowe was among the players ready to dish out an ass kicking to Dan Bilzerian in GGPoker’s $100,000 freeroll. (Image: BrooklynFights)

The retired boxer has been a poker enthusiast for some time and always has one eye on GGPoker’s games. With the company’s new ambassador rubbing some people up the wrong way, Bowe decided to throw a jab on Twitter.

However, while some may wish otherwise, the beating Bowe threatened to put on Bilzerian was purely metaphorical.

The WSOP Main Event final table on the GGPoker side is set, and there’s one player — Damian Salas — who is no stranger to this spot.

Damian Salas is back again at another WSOP Main Event final table. (Image: Twitter)

Salas reached the final table in 2017 with 28 big blinds, good for sixth in chips. He never got much going at the final table and was eliminated in seventh place, winning $1,425,000. The Argentinian is has another crack at becoming a poker world champion.

GGPoker kicked off the 2020 WSOP Main Event Nov. 29 and has now played down to the international final table, which will take place at King’s Casino in Razvadov, Czech Republic on Dec. 15. That is, of course, assuming there are no travel hitches along the way.

The British betting and gaming industry is facing sweeping changes as the government moves to ensure its laws are “fit for the digital age.”

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden has launched a review of UK gambling laws. (Image: Reuters/John Sibley)

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden has called for a review of UK’s 2005 Gambling Act.

The call for evidence will collate feedback from operators and industry insiders on a range of issues, including online betting limits and age restrictions.

Nine players have progressed to the WSOP Main Event’s live final table after a long night of action on GGPoker.

Brazil’s Brunno Botteon leads the final table of the international WSOP Main Event. (Image: PokerStars)

It took just over 10 hours for 181 players to become nine in the international leg of the WSOP’s $10,000 Main Event.

Senthuran Vijayaratnam started the day in front, but fell short of the final table when a failed coup with A 7 sent him to the rail in 11th.

Daniel Negreanu continues to believe his heater is coming eventually. But after his most recent session against Doug Polk, he’s going to need more than just a heater to ever catch up.

Daniel Negreanu continues to get destroyed by Doug Polk. (Image: YouTube)

Both players deposited $1 million into their WSOP.com accounts prior to the start of the grudge match. It’s beginning to seem like that might not be near enough for Negreanu. In fact, his player account should already be down to barely more than $300,000.

Negreanu currently has two things working against him. Based on all-in expected value, he’s running bad, and he also said in Monday’s post-game interview on the GGPoker YouTube channel that he’s constantly missing draws. But he’s also getting outclassed by a world-class heads-up player who is mixing up his bet sizes and often getting Negreanu to call him down when he has the goods.