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.

Good Hold’em players who are used to playing with blinds sometimes make strategic blunders when they play ante games like Stud, Stud8, and Razz. They fail to recognize inherent differences between flop and ante games, and that failure can often cost them money because they misunderstand the optimal pot-stealing frequency in Stud games.

Stealing the initial pot in Stud games can be profitable if you know what you’re doing. (Image: Shutterstock)

Blinds and antes both induce action by requiring players to put money into the pot before they decide whether, and how, to play their hand. This is done to stimulate action, reward aggression, and deter nitty play. Successful Hold’em players recognize this and adjust their play accordingly. “Stealing the blinds” becomes a part of their arsenal.

Successful Hold’em players sometimes bring this understanding over to a Stud game. Unfortunately for them, while the strategy of stealing the initial pot definitely applies to Stud, it applies differently than it does in Hold’em. Stealing antes is quite different from stealing blinds. Failing to account for the difference between the two is the cause of some major errors that Hold’em players tend to make in Stud games.

By almost all measures, 2020 has been a terrible year. But with COVID-19 vaccines all but ready for deployment, the question of what live tournaments will look like in 2021 is looming large.

Partypoker Live and the WPT aren’t set on mandatory COVID-19 vaccines, but they are confident 2021 will bring plenty of tournament action. (Partypoker)

Anyone invested in poker has seen the problems live events have encountered this year. Cancellations and changes of setting due to lockdowns, safety concerns, and travel restrictions have been common.

Operators have adapted, however, and with life slowly looking like it might return to normal, can we expect a full schedule of live tournaments next year? We spoke to the World Poker Tour (WPT) and Partypoker executives to find out.

The Poker Hall of Fame will only induct one member this year instead of the standard two. And it has nothing to do with COVID-19, nor is it a one-time thing. Why the sudden change? Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker, explained the reasoning to CardsChat News.

Chris Moneymaker was finally inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2019. (Image: PokerStars)

Each year since 1979, at least one poker player or industry person has received enshrinement. Last year, the Class of 2019 inducted David Oppenheim, a high-stakes cash game legend, and Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 WSOP Main Event champion whom many credit as the person most responsible for the growth of poker earlier this century.

Moneymaker was a bit of a controversial selection because he only has one major win as a player (2003). And he doesn’t compete in high-stakes cash games. The criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame is based on these qualifications:

The three opening flights of the 2020 WSOP Main Event are over and now just 181 players are left fighting for a share of $6,470,400.

Senthuran Vijayaratnam came out top on Day 1C of the WSOP Main Event to lead the way heading into Day 2. (Image: WPT)

Days 1B and 1C of the $10,000 hybrid event played out on Saturday and Sunday. The former attracted 171 entrants, while the latter welcomed 257.

Combined with Day 1A’s total, that means 674 players flocked to GGPoker for the international leg of the 2020 WSOP Main Event.

The 2020 WSOP Main Event is underway and American players have an opportunity to compete to become the next poker world champion. But you can’t get into the action quite yet unless you live outside the US.

Are you ready for the 2020 WSOP Main Event? (Image: WSOP.com)

You might be a bit confused if you paid attention to the WSOP Online Bracelet Series this past summer. Stoyan Madanzhiev took down the historic World Series of Poker Main Event on GGPoker for $3.9 million in September. He won what many assumed was the 2020 WSOP Main Event.

Yes, he did win that record-setting tournament that had over $27 million in the pot, most ever in online poker history. But the WSOP refused to acknowledge the winner as the 2020 world champion as it was a $5,000 buy-in tournament. So, we now have a new version of the annual world championship event. The buy-in for this one is the standard $10,000, it’s a freezeout, and the tournament is being played both online and live.

Daniel Negreanu has now won three straight sessions in his grudge match against Doug Polk, but still trails by more than half a million dollars. Despite the massive deficit, the GGPoker ambassador is gaining the respect of the poker community for his heads-up play.

Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk have become civil for the first time in years. (Image: YouTube)

The feud between the poker pros began years ago. Polk has taken numerous verbal shots at his rival, often attacking his character. But the relationship between the two has improved significantly since this match began a month ago.

Perhaps the main reason the relationship has changed is due to Negreanu taking on such a daunting challenge. Polk has even said recently that he gained respect for “DNegs” because he didn’t back down from a high-stakes match against one of the best heads-up players of all-time.

It may seem like eons ago, but there actually was a time when we had major live poker tournaments to cover. Who knew in March when the WPT Rolling Thunder tournament finished that it would be the last live major event in poker all year?

Live poker tournaments were once booming all around the world. (Image: paulphuapoker.com)

Tony Tran shipped the WPT Rolling Thunder at Thunder Valley Casino Resort on March 10. He took home $279,270 and his first World Poker Tour title.

At the time, the poker world knew that live poker was going to be on a bit of a hiatus. A global health pandemic was beginning to sweep through the United States and all around the world. Many states were beginning to force local businesses to close. One week following the Rolling Thunder event’s conclusion, nearly every casino in the US was forced to temporarily close.

If the marketing team at GGPoker wanted to spark a reaction by signing Dan Bilzerian, they certainly got their wish. In fact, they may have already gotten more than they bargained for.

GGPoker’s deal with Dan Bilzerian hasn’t gone down well with some members of the poker community. (Image: GGPoker)

Just 24 hours after the news broke, members of the poker community have given their take on the partnership.

Given Bilzerian’s reputation for dividing opinion, it’s hardly surprising that people are split. One thing’s for certain though, the man himself hasn’t helped matters by calling one of his critics a “hoe.”

Bally’s, a Las Vegas poker room, is going forward with its upcoming poker tournament series despite the COVID-19 limited capacity restrictions. Businesses, including casinos, are currently limited to just 25% of the establishment’s maximum capacity. But the game of poker is still being dealt at card rooms all across town.

Bally’s is one Las Vegas poker room that isn’t shutting down due to COVID-19. (Image: KTNV)

Bally’s hosted a “Back in Action” poker series last month, its first since March when COVID-19 struck. There have been very few major poker events across the country, not just in Nevada, the past nine months. But one Las Vegas poker room is about to host an exciting event, global health pandemic be damned.

Las Vegas Poker Scene Still Going Strong

Dan Bilzerian, the bad boy of Instagram who claims to have won $50 million playing poker, in a surprising move, has signed with GGPoker as an ambassador. He adds another celebrity figure to the poker site’s growing list of team members.

Dan Bilzerian signing with GGPoker came totally out of left field. (Image: marijuanaretailreport.com)

Daniel Negreanu is still the face of the poker site. But “Blitz” gives GGPoker some non-poker celebrity star power. Although Bilzerian claims he’s made his money through playing cards, many have questioned that claim. That includes Doug Polk, who cracked a joke about the shocking news.

Dan Bilzerian becoming a GG poker ambassador is the equivalent of me becoming an ambassador for GQ