Sheldon Adelson has taken a medical leave of absence from Sands Corp, the parent company of Las Vegas’ Venetian Resort and Casino, to undergo cancer treatment.

Sheldon Adelson is battling cancer. (Image: LA Times)

Adelson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year but remained in his role as the CEO of LV Sands, the company he founded in 1988. The multibillionaire is a top Republican megadonor who donated to President Trump’s campaign in 2016 and then his reelection effort in 2020.

He’s also the top opponent of online poker legalization in the US. The casino mogul has fought long and hard to ban all forms of internet gambling at the federal level for years. His efforts have been moderately successful. Although he hasn’t achieved his goal of completely banning online poker nationwide, his lengthy fight and lobbying efforts has made it difficult for online poker legislation to progress in the US.

Daniel Negreanu booked yet another winning session against Doug Polk Friday afternoon. That makes it five out of the past six. But he’s been unable to finish strong recently, and it’s preventing him from putting a serious dent in the lofty deficit.

Daniel Negreanu is slowly chipping away at Doug Polk’s lead. (Image: YouTube)

In recent days, the sessions have gone in a similar fashion. Negreanu jumps out to an early lead and then coasts until late when Polk begins to take over the match and get most of the deficit back. Friday’s session was no different. With that said, it was still a winning session for Negreanu, which is obviously better than losing, as he attempts to climb out of a deep hole.

The day began at 2:30 pm on the WSOP.com poker site with Polk leading by $644,000 through 13,750 hands. That may seem like a massive lead, and it is, but it pales in comparison to the previous $950,000 lead. Still, Polk remains a heavy favorite despite the recent downfall.

The Galfond Challenge is starting to turn into a blowout as Phil Galfond is now running away with the match against Chance Kornuth. But this lengthy competition is far from over.

Phil Galfond is beginning to run away with the third Galfond Challenge. (Image: Twitter)

The third installment of the Galfond Challenge has taken fans on quite a roller coaster ride. And you should probably expect many more twists and turns before it concludes.

Galfond entered the match as a 4-1 favorite and laid those odds ($1 million to $250,000) on a side bet with Kornuth, the founder of Chip Leader Coaching. The favorite came out of the gates in the 35,000-hand pot-limit Omaha online competition guns a blazing. He busted out to a $180,000 lead early on a few months ago. Kornuth then took over the match, dominating for a two-month period. At one point, he led by as much as $350,000.

International Game Technology Plc has received a patent that could bring cryptocurrency gaming to Las Vegas and other casinos around the world.

IGT is looking to make Bitcoin payments standard in Las Vegas and, over time, other gaming hotspots. (Image: PYMNTS.com)

The US patent is for a system that allows players to “access cryptocurrency from a gaming establishment account.”

IGT spokesman Phil O’Shaughnessy said the move could make crypto payments for slots and other games within regulated markets a reality in the coming years.

The WSOP revealed plans to host a series of Circuit events online at WSOP.com throughout the year. Thus, making it clear the live events may be on the shelf for quite some time.

You can win one of these shiny rings throughout the year online. (Image: WSOP.com)

The World Series of Poker Circuit tour is widely popular among low and mid stakes tournament grinders. Each year, a number of events are hosted at various stops around the world, mostly in the United States. At each stop, a dozen or so events take place, and the winner in each tournament receives a shiny gold ring.

During the 2020 season, the WSOP was forced to cancel its remaining events starting in March due to COVID-19. With the virus continuing to spread, and over 350,000 dead in the US, hosting major poker events remains an issue. Ty Stewart, the WSOP’s Executive Director, told CardsChat News he isn’t yet ready to cancel out hosting live Circuit events in 2021 despite revealing plans for online Circuit events throughout the year.

Winamax is rocking the boat in Southern Europe with a record-breaking series worth more than $20 million.

The Winamax Series has set records in Southern Europe and shown that the poker industry is in the midst of a shakeup. (Image: Winamax)

The 29th instalment of the operator’s tournament series has been given a nautical theme for good reason. By setting the guarantee at €20 million ($24 million), Winamax is making waves in important European poker markets.

The first of 198 MTTs got underway on January 3 and the series will conclude on January 14. In among the bevy of tournaments will be a record-breaking main event that costs $150.

Daniel Negreanu had an overall dominating session on Wednesday, but Doug Polk picked up a bunch of chips late in the match.

Daniel Negreanu is starting to make some ground against Doug Polk. (Image: YouTube)

Negreanu has outplayed Polk for much of the past few weeks. But he’s still continuing to lose an uneven amount of coolers and bad beats in massive pots. Over the past two sessions, he’s lost a huge all-in pot to bad luck but hasn’t had any of those hands go in his favor.

On Day 23 (Jan. 4), the poker pros were all-in on the turn in one $80,000 hand. Polk had a small pair and flush draw, and Negreanu had an over pair. The river gave the Upswing Poker founder a winning flush.

Doug Polk is highly critical of the Poker Hall of Fame, and he isn’t the only one after seeing the results of the recent nomination. The GGPoker ambassador didn’t specifically criticize the voters for inducting Huck Seed. But he isn’t too thrilled with the entire results.

Doug Polk isn’t thrilled with the outcome of the recent Poker Hall of Fame votes. (Image: WSOP.com)

Seed was the top selection of the 30 living members of the Poker Hall of Fame, the only ones who were eligible to vote this year. The 1996 WSOP Main Event champ was a surprise selection. Many poker players predicted Isai Scheinberg, Patrik Antonius, or Antonio Esfandiari would win. Polk was quite surprised as well.

The Poker Hall of Fame Voting here was a complete joke.

Stoyan Madanzhiev, winner of the WSOP’s $5,000 summer Main Event, is willing to play Damian Salas heads-up, even if it’s just for bragging rights.

Stoyan Madanzhiev believes he’s the 2020 WSOP World Champion and told CardsChat he’s willing to play Damian Salas heads-up for bragging rights. (Image: Bet Kings)

The Bulgarian came under attack from WSOP commentator Norman Chad last night after staking his claim as the true 2020 World Champion.

Madanzhiev stated some facts, Chad likened him to Donald Trump, and, eventually, all hell broke loose.

MGM Resorts has made a play to become one of the largest online gaming operators in the world with an $11 billion bid for Entain (formerly GVC Holdings).

MGM Resorts has made a bid for Entain in an effort to keep pace with the industry’s leading betting and gaming operators. (Image: KXNT Radio/Getty Images)

The Wall Street Journal broke the story and, on January 4, Entain issued a statement via the London Stock Exchange.

The press release confirmed that MGM Resorts had made an informal offer of 1,383p per share plus a 22% premium. That equates to a total bid of £8.1 billion/$11 billion, but that won’t be enough to get a deal done.

Daniel Negreanu won a small profit on Day 23 against Doug Polk. But it could have been much more if not for yet another unlucky river card.

Daniel Negreanu is slowly but surely getting back in the match. (Image: YouTube)

He also could have walked away with a larger victory if not for a huge failed bluff attempt. In one hand, Negreanu fired out a $55,000 bet on the river with eight-high (7-8). His opponent thought for a brief moment before making the call with K-J on a king-high board.

That hand took Polk from a sizable deficit to a tiny lead. Ironically, shortly after, he gave back a bunch to Negreanu with his own failed bluff attempt with 6-7. Negreanu made the call with trip kings. Tough to bluff into a monster hand.

I love old movies. And one classic scene, repeated hundreds of times over the years, is the death spiral.

It generally goes like this: A military airplane is dramatically shot down in combat. It then goes into a spiraling dive, trailed by smoke, accompanied by the doppler sound of a failed engine falling away, before bursting into flames as it smashes into the ground.

Crashing and burning at the poker table is an avoidable disaster if you can keep your wits about you when it starts to happen. (Image: Ashley Adams)

This happens at the poker table too. It is not quite as dramatic, lacking the trailing smoke and fiery crash. But the effect on the bankroll is the same: complete destruction!

If next Monday’s Alabama-Ohio State winner deserves the right to be College Football’s national champion, Damian Salas is the real 2020 poker world champion, in my opinion. He earned it, he deserves the title, and he’ll make a fine ambassador for this great game.

Damian Salas and Joseph Hebert joke around after the 2020 WSOP Main Event. (Image: Twitter)

Salas defeated Joseph Hebert heads-up at the Rio in Las Vegas Sunday night to secure the bracelet. In doing so, he won an extra $1 million (had already won $1.5 million) and was crowned the 2020 world champion. He originally reached and won the GGPoker final table — played in the Czech Republic. Hebert won the WSOP.com bracket of the Main Event after shipping the final table for $1.5 million at the Rio. They both earned the right to face-off heads-up for all the marbles.

CardsChat’s Daniel Smyth wrote on Monday that he doesn’t consider Salas the “real” world champ, of which I wholeheartedly disagree. My colleague makes a valid point about the Main Event that ran this past summer on GGPoker, won by Stoyan Madanzhiev. He argues that Madanzhiev was the presumed world champ by the poker community at the time and then the WSOP reversed course and decided to host a separate Main Event later in the year.

2020 has been a year where, for better or worse, we all had to adapt. The WSOP adapted and offered two Main Events, which raises the question: is Damian Salas a legit champion?

Even though he’s achievement can’t be overlooked; we can’t really call Damian Salas the 2020 WSOP Main Event champion. (Image: WPT)

There’s no easy answer. Damian Salas clearly put in a strong performance to win the hybrid Main Event finale, so we can’t diminish that fact.

We also know that 2020 was a tough year for everyone and COVID-19 forced everyone to make the best of a bad situation. In that respect, the WSOP’s efforts are commendable and Salas is the champion. However, in other respects, it may have been better to wait.

Damian Salas defeated Joseph Hebert in a marathon heads-up match to win the 2020 WSOP Main Event title, and an extra $1 million in cash. The champ also takes home the coveted gold bracelet and is officially the reigning world champion of poker.

Damian Salas is your 2020 World Series of Poker champion. (Image: WSOP.com)

It took more than five hours for Salas to finish off his opponent. Even once the blinds got so big that there weren’t many decisions left to be made, play still resumed for quite some time. Neither player was willing to give in as there was so much riding on this match.

Both players had already won just north of $1.5 million for beating their respective final tables. But they each were chasing that extra $1 million paid to the winner of Sunday’s heads-up finale. And the player who lost the heads-up match took received nothing beyond the $1.5 million already won.

David “ODB” Baker and Mark Gregorich teamed together to win the famous Las Vegas Westgate SuperContest sports betting competition for $435,000. The poker duo also took second in another major sports betting contest at the Circa in Las Vegas for $200,000.

David Baker and Mark Gregorich took down the famous Las Vegas Westgate SuperContest. (Image: World Poker Tour)

Baker is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner and the 2019 WPT LA Poker Classic champion. In total, he has over $5 million in live tournament cashes. Gregorich, the author of “52 Tips for Texas Hold’em Poker,” is also an accomplished poker player. He has 70 cashes in bracelet events, but is still looking for his first WSOP title.

The two poker pros teamed together for the top NFL football betting contests in the world. And they showed the gambling community they’re skilled at more than just poker.

Although it’s technically 2021, the 2020 WSOP Main Event winner will finally be crowned tomorrow at the Rio in Las Vegas. And that individual will either be Joseph Hebert or Damian Salas.

Will Damian Salas or Joseph Hebert win the 2020 WSOP Main Event? (Image: ESPN)

This year’s $10,000 buy-in world championship event is vastly different compared to the previous 50 years due to COVID-19. Not only did the event take place in December instead of the summer. But most of the tournament was played online instead of at the Rio.

GGPoker kicked off the event for the international players on Nov. 29 and then WSOP.com in Nevada and New Jersey ran the same tournament in December. The nine finalists of the GGPoker tournament met at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic for a live final table. And then the WSOP.com final table ran at the Rio in Las Vegas.

Despite getting crushed for nearly $800,000, Daniel Negreanu isn’t ready to give up. The GGPoker ambassador said on Twitter that he’s going to continue in his match against Doug Polk through 25,000 hands.

The show will go on for Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk. (Image: YouTube)

The poker stars completed the 12,500th hand of the $200/$400 no-limit hold’em match on Dec. 28. Per the rules, the player who trails at the midway point has the option to call it quits without penalty. If that player decides to play on, the match will consist of 25,000 hands.

Negreanu said on his most recent post-game interview on the GGPoker YouTube channel that he was pondering giving up, although it was clear that it was unlikely he would choose that route. He took to Twitter on New Year’s Day to announce his official decision.

Chris Moneymaker has parted ways with PokerStars in order to capitalize on a great new opportunity within the industry, CardsChat has learned.

Chris Moneymaker has left PokerStars after 17 years in order to pursue new opportunities. (Image: Foxwoods Poker)

The 2003 WSOP Main Event champion broke the news last night. In a tweet to his fans (see below), Moneymaker thanked PokerStars for the last 17 years and said 2020 has given him time to reflect.

Being with his family and spending less time on the road is now a top priority. However, Moneymaker’s “interesting decision” will also allow him to pursue other opportunities in poker.

Huck Seed, the 1996 WSOP Main Event champ, will be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame as the only member of the 2020 class.

Huck Seed is the newest member of the Poker Hall of Fame. (Image: YouTube)

Seed was one of 10 finalists for the prestigious award. Since 2005, the WSOP has inducted two members each year, until this year. As Ty Stewart explained to CardsChat last month, by limiting the number of members, they increase the prestige of the club.

Seed certainly wasn’t the favorite, but he’s received high praise from the poker community for his honor. That includes Daniel Negreanu, who openly lobbied for Isai Scheinberg, the PokerStars founder.