PokerStars Michigan is laying down a marker in the Wolverine State with the first in what’s likely to be a string of big-money festivals.

PokerStars Michigan is striking hard and fast with a $1 million guaranteed festival known as MICOOP. (Image: MelissaMN/Adobe Stock)

Just 12 days after launching in Michigan, PokerStars is setting the bar high with one of its famous COOP events.

The inaugural Michigan Championship of Online Poker (MICOOP) will get underway on February 20 and feature a $1 million guaranteed prizepool.

No disrespect to Phil Hellmuth, a true poker legend, but it’s actually Phil Ivey who best compares to NFL superstar Tom Brady. Poker fans on social media recently spread a meme comparing the “Poker Brat” to the Super Bowl winning quarterback. Although debated in good fun, the creator of the meme got the wrong Phil.

Phil Ivey is poker’s biggest superstar, and has been for many years. (Image: CardsChat News)

Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 31-9 beatdown of the favored defending champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. In doing so, the former New England Patriots quarterback won his record sixth NFL title. Even at age 43, he’s still unstoppable and most football fans consider him the best QB ever.

Hellmuth can certainly make some comparisons to the future Pro Football Hall of Famer. Like Brady, the 15-time WSOP champion has a record for most titles, his being in World Series of Poker events. And he’s won bracelets in multiple decades, much like Brady’s Super Bowl rings have been spread out over nearly a 20-year period. But that’s where the real comparisons end, despite what you read on the following meme.

Kindred, the company behind Unibet Poker, doesn’t want money from gambling addicts. The revelation comes at a time the UKGC is pushing responsible gambling harder than ever.

Unibet Poker’s parent company, the Kindred Group, wants to eradicate revenue from problem gambling by 2023. (Image: Pipit Global)

In an announcement published on February 7, Kindred Group bosses said they want to cut out all revenue derived from problem gambling by 2023.

As such, its financial reports will now highlight “revenue derived from high-risk players” that display harmful gambling habits.

A social media storm has been raging recently between GGPoker and several UK-based poker pros who believe their accounts have been closed unfairly.

A small number of British players, including Andy Wool (left), are concerned that GGPoker is using UKGC regulations to shut down pros. (Image: Twitter/dawhiteninja)

The dark clouds began gathering last at the end of February when British pro Andy Wool, aka dawhiteninja, posted what he described as a “warning” on Twitter.

In his words, a request to increase his deposit limit resulted in GGPoker permanently closing his account. Other pros, including Phil Galfond, were quick to rally around Wool, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

Poker players are losers. Each and every one of us. Every session. Yes, you too!

Think I’m wrong? Do the math.

Sometimes turning a loss into a win is easier said than done. (Image: Jamie Squire/Getty)

Look at your own experience the last time you played. You were probably dealt 30 or so hands an hour. If you’re even reasonably good, you discarded most of them before the flop. Of the ones you played, you folded at least a few on the flop or turn. If the hand went to showdown, you lost some and you won some. Add them all up, and you surely lost many more hands than you won.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale put Doug Polk’s $1.2 million win over Daniel Negreanu to shame. The Houston businessman who famously places massive wagers on big sporting events, collected $3.46 million for his bet on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to beat the 3.5-point spread in the Super Bowl.

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale posted yet another massive sports betting win. (Image: chron.com)

McIngvale is the founder and owner of the Gallery Furniture, a Houston-based furniture retail chain. The 69-year-old wealthy owner still works in the store he originally built, greeting customers daily.

He loves to work as much as he loves sports and gambling. The businessman is famous for placing huge wagers on major sporting events. In 2017, he made one of the craziest wagers ever, except it wasn’t at a sportsbook.

Pennsylvanians may be able to play for WSOP bracelets online this summer, according to Vice President of 888 Holdings Yaniv Sherman.

WSOP.com is getting ready to go live in Pennsylvania and offer online bracelet events this summer. (Image: WSOP)

As the official online partner of Caesars Entertainment, 888 is responsible for powering WSOP.com’s US platforms. With sites already active in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware, Sherman wants to add Pennsylvania.

Speaking to Pokerfuse, the 888 executive said WSOP.com PA should go live in the first half of 2021. If all goes to plan, he wants online bracelet events to be available in the Keystone State this summer.

Landon Tice and Bill Perkins agreed to a high-stakes heads-up poker match on Twitter, and it appears they aren’t just messing around. Whether or not they’ll actually go through with it, however, is another issue.

Will Landon Tice actually face Bill Perkins? (Image: Reddit)

With the Doug Polk vs. Daniel Negreanu and Galfond Challenge matches out of the way after three months of exciting action, poker is in search of its next heads-up battle.

Polk and Negreanu drew 10,000 or more viewers for nearly all of the 36 sessions they played. The match lasted nearly three months, and Polk won it by $1.2 million. It quickly became the talk of the poker community, and poker fans remained interested throughout.

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu finally wrapped a lengthy heads-up poker challenge, so let’s take a look back at all the action from start to finish.

Polk vs. Negreanu was more competitive than the final score indicated. (Image: Poker Central)

The poker pros played exactly 25,000 hands of $200/$400 heads-up no-limit hold’em on WSOP.com. They began the match in early November and concluded it this past Wednesday. In the end, Polk finished with a $1.2 million profit, right at 30 buy-ins.

The win was quite convincing and left little doubt as to who the better heads-up player is. Granted, nearly everyone expected Polk to coast to victory given his heads-up experience. But despite the seven-figure loss, Negreanu was actually more competitive than you may have anticipated.

Former Full Tilt pro Andy Bloch made a concerned prediction about the danger of Super Bowl gatherings during a health pandemic. He went so far as to say there’s a good chance the NFL’s championship game watch parties in Las Vegas could cause more deaths than the October 1, 2017 mass shooting.

Andy Bloch is concerned with the dangers of hosting Super Bowl parties during a pandemic. (Image: realtor.com)

Stephen Paddock, a video poker player from Mesquite, Nevada, committed one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history more than four years ago. He shot dead more than 60 country music concertgoers, injuring hundreds more, across from the Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip.

Bloch, however, is concerned that even more will die this weekend due to large gatherings. The Super Bowl attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Many come to wager on the game and attend parties or hangout at the various sportsbooks around town.

The Polk/Negreanu dustup is done, an unregulated online tournament pays the winner more than a million bucks, live tournament poker is back in Vegas at the Venetian, and Michigan becomes the latest state to go fully legal. It’s a wild-wild mix of dramatic action, live and online, among amateurs and pros around the world (with Brazilians making a notable showing). Here’s who booked big victories in the game for the week ending Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021:

(Image: YouTube/DougPolkPoker)

Doug Polk

Heads-up NLH vs. Daniel Negreanu

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu’s heads-up challenge is finished, but it would be great if this rivalry would continue in some fashion. The poker world hasn’t ever seen a rivalry this exciting, and it would be a shame if we never get to see these fierce competitors square off again.

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu have long been bitter rivals, and that’s good for poker. (Image: Poker Central)

Polk and Negreanu competed three times a week for three months straight. Despite playing so frequently, it’s clear the poker community never became bored of the challenge. Joey Ingram, Polk’s channel, and GGPoker each ran separate streams for all 36 sessions. They each had over 3,000 viewers almost every day. And then you throw in Matt Berkey’s stream and a few others, and there were more than 10,000 poker fans at all times watching.

The Galfond Challenge between Phil Galfond and Chance Kornuth, in comparison, only had a few hundred viewers during any given session. That isn’t a knock on the Galfond Challenge, and it’s a shame more poker fans didn’t follow the exciting back-and-forth match. But the battle between these two extremely talented pros lacked the drama that attracted so many, including myself, to the Polk-Negreanu match.

Various COVID-19 lockdowns across the world have meant a big boost for video gaming online. Let’s be honest, there’s not much else to do. And what better way to spend your downtime than immersing yourself in another world, or an alternative life, while playing with real people or even pals online?

However, we know that sometimes gaming can cause relationship rifts. In fact, according to Iain Macintosh’s book, ‘Football Manager Stole My Life’, the titular game was cited as a factor in a whopping 35 divorce cases back in 2012.

Here at CardsChat, this got us all wondering which online games are causing the most arguments in relationships right now. We decided to find out by asking over 1,000 adults in the UK.

Whether you’re the Fortnite fanatic, the put-upon partner of a Call of Duty devotee, or simply annoyed because you can’t get on the console yourself, this one’s for you …

Chris Moneymaker was an unemployed poker pro for all of four weeks. The ex-PokerStars ambassador has just announced a new sponsorship deal with Americas Cardroom (ACR).

Chris Money has partnered with Americas Cardroom just a few weeks after ending his contract with PokerStars. (Image: Twitter/ACR)

CardsChat spoke to Moneymaker after his split from PokerStars. He told us that a “great new opportunity” had come his way, but he couldn’t say what it was.

Now we know that opportunity was a partnership with Americas Cardroom. Fueling his decision to represent the US-facing poker site is a desire to stay home and play online.

Doug Polk dominated Daniel Negreanu one last time on Wednesday, as the challenge came to its conclusion …. finally. Afterwards, he praised the effort and dedication of his opponent.

Doug Polk roughed Daniel Negreanu up once again as the High Stakes Duel winds down. (Image: YouTube)

The poker pros finished up a 25,000-hand heads-up no-limit hold’em challenge. Playing at $200/$400 stakes, Polk’s had this thing all but wrapped up for quite some time.

Entering Day 36, the Upswing Poker founder held a $946,085 lead with 1,718 hands remaining. There simply weren’t enough hands left for “DNegs” to rally.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) is breaking new ground in more ways than one thanks to a new partnership with Poker King.

Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey will be among the celebrities playing the mobile-only WPT Spring Festival on Poker King. (Image: Kakuchopurei)

Poker King made headlines last year when it recruited Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey to peddle its wares. Now, with its mobile poker app gaining momentum in Asia, it’s linked up with the WPT for a unique tournament series.

The WPT Spring Festival will run between February 11 and 22. Ivey and Dwan will taking part, but the real USP is the fact it’s a mobile-only series.

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu have finally buried the hatchet after years of bickering. All it took was a 25,000-hand heads-up poker challenge that was a bit more competitive than many expected.

Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu may have recently realized they have a lot in common. (Image: Poker Central)

The poker pros began feuding in 2014 when Negreanu claimed he can beat $25/$50 no-limit hold’em 6-max online games after studying for a few weeks. That irked Polk, who felt the PokerStars ambassador at the time was being cocky and disrespectful to the grinders who work hard to hone their craft.

He then continued verbally attacking Negreanu over the next six years for various issues, mostly petty ones. In 2018, he took out a billboard outside the Rio during the WSOP, which read “More Rake is Better,” mocking Negreanu’s claims that increased rake on PokerStars was good for the game as a whole.

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published new rules that will make slot gaming slower but leave online poker largely unaffected.

The UK Gambling Commission has introduced new rules designed to help consumers control their spending. (Image: Fifplay)

As part of its ongoing effort to make online betting and gaming safer, the UKGC, in tandem with the British government, launched a consultation in late 2020.

The aim was to procure feedback from consumers and operators before implementing new gambling regulations that are fit for the digital area. The changes were published on February 2 and, for the most part, poker remains untouched.

Even Doug Polk knows his heads-up battle against Daniel Negreanu is no longer in doubt. He said as much during the Upswing Poker live-stream in which he won another $212,000 over more than seven hours of play, far and away the lengthiest of 35 sessions.

Doug Polk is on pace to finish up his battle against Daniel Negreanu winning an impressive 10 big blinds per 100 hands. (Image: YouTube)

With only around 1,500 hands remaining, Wednesday’s session very well could be the end. That’s right, folks, the challenge that feels like it’s gone on for eternity is finally approaching its conclusion.

Although there isn’t much suspense in terms of who will win the heads-up contest, there are still some reasons to continue paying attention. First off, many poker players have side bets on the outcome of the match, including Polk’s overall profit. And will Negreanu make the final tally respectable?

Casino Sochi is getting ready for two months’ worth of tournament action thanks to the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the European Poker Tour (EPT).

WPT Russia will take place inside Casino Sochi this month and pave the way for PokerStars’ EPT in March. (Image: Partypoker Live)

Despite COVID-19 restrictions across much of Europe, the WPT has confirmed that it will return to Russia this month.

Partypoker will co-host the 14-event festival set to take place inside Casino Sochi from February 19 to 28. Once the WPT’s bandwagon has departed, PokerStars will roll into town on March 19.