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Today in the 3-Bet we find João Vieira dominating SCOOP 2017, Thijs Molendijk bossing at Unibet Copenhagen and partypoker's Powerfest crushing guarantees.

1) Naza114 > Isildur1

As you might have seen, the 2017 Spring Championship of Online Poker on PokerStars 'concluded' in blockbuster fashion yesterday.

João Vieira (Photo: Neil Stoddart, PokerStars)

Charlie Carrel and Harrison Gimbel chopped the SCOOP-H main Event for roughly $1.2m each.

Australia's ROFLShove bossed around the SCOOP-M final table to collect a dazzling $787,312,19 to spend on drinks on the beach.

And Austria's madalain flipped his $109 into a 2,000% ROI and $221,516.37 in the SCOOP-L main event.

All that's left? A couple of rescheduled events from last week and the crowning of the overall SCOOP leaders.

If nothing changes on the leaderboards today that'll mean João Vieira of Portugal will be the overall 2017 SCOOP leaderboard champion.

By the looks of things Vieira will have cashed 54 (!) of the 171 tournaments scheduled (h/t @kevmath) and collected 815 leaderboard points. A truly sick total.

The current runner-up? That would be the legend Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom, who has 785 points - and surprisingly collected a ton of points in low buy-in events.

Other notables to make Leaderboard top 10s include Japan's Naoya 'nkeyno' Kihara, Brazil's Yuri 'theNERDguy' Martins, Canada's Mike 'goleafsgoeh' Leah, Jerry 'hummylun' Wong and Connor 'blanconegro' Drinan. Check the overall leaderboard below:

2) Molendijk Class of Battle Royale SNG

With the start of the Unibet Open in Copenhagen tomorrow Unibet has brought back the super fun eSports Battle Royale to kick things off again.

Thijs got game.

The premise: nine "world-class gamers and eSports hotshots" battle it out for $5k in a one-off Sit-and-Go.

Among the invites this time are German Twitch star Alan 'Hotted89' Widmann, 2-time European Hearthstone champ Thijs 'Thijs' Molendijk, John 'Swifty' Pyle, Craig 'onscreen' Shannon and Sophia 'Djarii' White.

It's a fun watch as you'll find a lot of, uh, unconventional play and self-inflicted tough spots.

The class of the field so far appears to be Molendijk, who's already made an impressive hero call with sixes and played with (it seems) a clear understanding of the fundamentals. Watch the stream below!

3) Powerfest Hits $27m in Prize Pools

As we mentioned a few times this past month it's been an epic couple of weeks for online poker with 3 major tournament series running simultaneously.

The battle for online poker territory is afoot.

With $81m in total guarantees it's been the richest two weeks in online poker history and the payouts have been fast and furious.

The newest contender in the major series game, partypoker's new Powerfest, more than held its own in the battle for the hearts, minds and buy-ins of online poker players.

With an original $20m in guarantees over 301 events, Powerfest actually blasted well past that - in a few ways. Check the numbers:

Total prize pools paid out: $27,012,812
Biggest first place prize: $660,067 – Powerfest #301: $2M Gtd Super High Roller
Total prize money to first place: $4,805,757
Total entrants: 304,679
Unique entrants: 43,468
Countries represented: 105
Total players cashing: 65,698
Unique players cashing: 20,922
Players at final tables: 2,555
Unique players at final tables: 1,920
Unique champions: 289

Impressive. Even more impressive? Germany’s SGav771, who played 215 of the 301 events! Yowsa.

Check out all of the stats from Powerfest here; get in the game yourself by opening up a new partypoker account via our review page.

Alec 'traheho' Torelli is a 30-year-old cash-game poker pro living his dream.

The poker is just part of it.

Since being introduced to the game at 16 Torelli has gone on to become one of the game's best online players and frequented some of the biggest cash-game action the world has to offer.

What keeps him going, though, is much more than the rush of a card game. It's the chance to live a lifestyle must only dream about. 

A player, a poker coach and a travel and lifestyle blogger, Torelli is on the road 250 days a year with his wife and wouldn't change a thing.

Continuing his ongoing journey around the world, Torelli dropped in on the 888Live festival in Barcelona last week where we heard more about about the amazing run he had on Day 1 – and in his life.

"You can only focus on the part of the game that you can control."

PokerListings: Was this the dream day for a tournament player?

Alec Torelli: Definitely yes. I mean, there’s so much luck and variance in these events. You look like a superstar when everything goes your way but when it doesn’t you lose and nobody talks about it.

That’s why I’m always humbled and appreciative when I’m on the right side of good fortune. You can only focus on the part of the game that you can control.

You have to be humble and aware that you need the luck, too.

PL: Did you come here for the 888 event?

AT: Yes. I like the brand and their combination of poker and lifestyle. I like going to events that are about more than just poker and coming to Barcelona in spring is just paradise.

This morning I went out for four hours and it feels like I’m on vacation. This event combined with the location and spring is the nuts.

I sometimes ask myself if I’d want to go to a place if there wasn’t poker, and if the answer is yes I’m on a freeroll because even if I lose the event, I still win in life. And I love Barcelona.

PL: How much time do you spend in Europe?

AT: I spend about four or five months a year here. My wife’s Italian and I have a lot of friends and family over here.

That’s although I grew up very American as a third-generation Italian in the States. I only learned Italian when I was 23 and moved to Italy.

So, I have family in Italy and also in California, but I also spend two or three months a year in Asia. Some people would probably find it difficult to juggle life between three continents but for me it’s just really exciting.

I get bored easily; I’m very fast-paced so I can’t stay in one place too long.

Aces Abroad gives behind-the-scenes look at poker/travel lifestyle.

PL: Your YouTube channel is about poker but also has something of a travel vlog about it.

AT: Yes. I do play poker and it’s great that I can play a game I love for a living, but from a business point of view what drew me to poker was the lifestyle it could give me – mobility, the freedom of location and a lot of flexibility and options.

My wife and I have an online business that can travel with us so we can spend 250 days a year on the road. It’s just natural for me to film hands in different locations in random hotels as I don’t have a home office.

We’ve started a new YouTube channel called Aces Abroad which will give a “behind the scenes” look at our lifestyle and the different countries we go to. It’s something I’m really passionate about sharing as well.

I generally like sharing things with other people and maybe be inspiring and have a positive impact on people who chase their dreams and think that maybe what they want is unachievable and only for super rich people.

I just don’t think that’s true. I think that if you have certain priorities, work hard and focus your energy in the right direction, then anything’s possible.

I was personally strongly inspired by Tim Ferriss. He showed me that, while I was making a lot of money in poker, it’s not just about the game and money but also about personal development and what you do with your money and how you spend your time.

"I consider myself so lucky it’s almost surreal."

If I could be that kind of inspiration to other people, that’d be really cool for me.

PL: Are you living the dream?

AT: My dream. I don’t think there’s any right or wrong about how you live your life.

There are a lot of players who always stay in the same place like in Vegas and have their poker business there, and that’s fine. It’s just not my thing.

I consider myself so lucky it’s almost surreal. When I was 16 and started playing I never thought it could lead me to this.

I was watching my poker heroes and wanted to meet them some day, and now walking around in Barcelona, when someone walks up to me and says they like watching me on YouTube I feel like ‘holy s*** that’s so weird.'

While several states have seen efforts to legalize online poker get detoured over the last few years, Pennsylvania is barreling forward with an gambling bill that includes a provision for online poker.

Over the last week the bill passed through the Pennsylvania senate with a resounding 38-12 vote.

The bill will now move to the House of Representatives where’s it’s expected to pass with amendments in June.

Pennsylvania would become the fourth state in the USA to pass online poker legislation, joining New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.

Concerns About High Tax Rate

The bill, which covers both online casinos and poker, features specific tax rates for operators in the state.

The taxes have been criticized by industry experts for being to steep with a staggering 54% rate for online casinos and a 16% for online poker.

Some operators have stated they will not pursue licenses in the state if tax rates are too high.

Licenses for online poker will cost $5m as will the separate licenses for online casinos.

The bill would also allow Pennsylvania to run online state lotteries and regulate daily fantasy sports.

It’s estimated that taxes and license fees generated from the legalization of online casinos and online poker could potentially earn the state hundreds of millions in revenue over the coming years.

The House of Representatives could potentially amend the bill to lower the prospective tax rate for operators in the state.

Huge Potential Market for Online Poker

If the bill passes Pennsylvania would instantly become the biggest online poker market in the United States.

SugerHouse ambassador Matt Glantz.

According to a 2015 census Pennsylvania has a population of 12.8+ million people, which would surpass the New Jersey market by four million people.

Nevada would remain a distant third with under three million people and Delaware’s population of less than one million is still struggling to get enough liquidity to run games.

Pennsylvania is already a solid market for live poker with Parx Casino and SugarHouse drawing record numbers to some of their tournaments over the last few years.

Of course the two white whales of online poker in the USA remain New York and California.

Earlier this year New York assemblyman Gary Pretlaw said he was still confident the state would be able to pass online poker legislation relatively soon.

Poker has all but stalled out in California, however, after various parties couldn’t reach any sort of consensus on potential legislation in 2016.

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Today in the 3-Bet we find a decidedly local vibe to PokerStars Live in Sochi, a glimpse of Matt Berkey's Dead Money series and high-stakes pros get targeted.

1) A Round of Black Pudding

While the buzzing 888Live Barcelona festival wound down this weekend on the sunny beaches of Spain another big pokerfest was kicking off much further north on the shores of the Black Sea.

Not convinced on pudding.

The inaugural PokerStars Championship Sochi began earlier this week with the first-ever National Championship, a RUB 66,900 buy-in (around USD $1,200) No-Limit Hold'em event.

A healthy field of 756 entries grew the prize pool up to about RUB 43,999,200 and it was ultimately won by Russian Georgy Phillipovich (over a final table of all Russians) for RUB 6,313,500 (USD $122k).

Day 1A of the Main Event is now underway with a similarly local vibe to the field as Russian names, known and unknown, dominate the live updates.

To say it's a spelling challenge for the updaters would be an understatement. But they're plunging along with great updates with a touch of local flair including an early look at the food situation at Sochi Casino.

For one, it's apparently pretty good. For two, it also includes a menu item called "Russian Meat." What does it contain?

"black and green olives, sun-dried tomatoes, eight slices of black pudding, six slices of prosciutto, six slices of bresaola and a further eight slices of some cured animal that was impossible to distinguish from a distance."

Follow the PokerStars blog for more such delights. Notables on hand include Chris Moneymaker, Felipe Ramos, Luca Pagano, Alex Kostritsyn and Kitty Kuo, to name just a few.

2) Matt Berkey Is (Not) Dead Money

We're just days away from the start of the must-watch $300,000 buy-in Aria Super High Roller Bowl and if you fire off $10 for a month of streaming from PokerCentral's new PokerGO app, you can watch the whole thing in real-time, living color.

Must. watch.

It's hard to think of a better deal than that. But not only do you get the whole SHRB, you get:

WSOP $111k One Drop - June 3-5, 2017
WSOP $10k Heads-Up - 7-9, 2017
WSOP $1.5k NLHE 6-Max Final Table - June 10, 2017

That, plus more WSOP live streams still to be determined.

And not only that, you ALSO GET access to PokerCentral's back catalog of Poker After Dark (and more) and original programming like Pokerography and this amazing-looking series on Matt Berkey's SHRB experience:

When everyone thinks you’re just #DeadMoney, how do you prepare for the biggest tournament of your life?https://t.co/P9JOAkKfZa pic.twitter.com/3hAy4NKWb0

Just get it already, yeah? Sign up here.

3) Selbst, Smith Among High-Profile Hacks

When you're a high-stakes poker pro and a visible presence out there in the poker world and beyond, you're always at risk of being a target for professional thieves.

Not a fan of hacking experience.

In the past, this has come mostly in the form of Trojan implants though apps like TeamViewer or from stolen laptops - most of which are preventable via RSA tokens and more vigilant watch over computer interactions.

In the age of cybercurrency, though, there's a new hack in town. And it's taking over a mobile phone account.

Poker pros Vanessa Selbst, Dan Smith, Vanessa Rousso and more have recently been the subject of attacks that, as Forbes explains, originate with the hackers taking over a target's mobile humber, getting passwords redirected and gaining access to email, Dropbox accounts and more.

To be clear: this isn't a hack into a player's online poker account. It's an attempt to get at their cybercurrency, like BitCoins, which can be transferred into hacker accounts with more impugnity.

Still, though: it's a reminder to all to keep close watch on our online security and passwords at all times. Better safe than sorry. More on the hacks from Smith and Selbst:

This is insane. Someone hacked my gmail, changed PW on my @Dropbox account, and there's no one that can provide immediate help

Got @Dropbox issue resolved. Thx to all who helped. I got super lucky I don't think hacker got my docs. ENABLE 2FA ON EVERY IMPT ACCOUNT!

Aaaaand my @VZWSupport account is being hacked for the second time today. AFTER multiple conversations telling them not to make any changes

Repost for those who missed this. MUST READ on internet/phone security. DO NOT USE SMS 2 FACTOR AUTHENTICATION. https://t.co/7ZDbdZapJw

Some accounts got hacked last night, don't western union money please.

Idiot hackers should have tried this before scoop/Monaco :)

In the process of securing my shit. Apparently using google authenticator is >>> having your phone as as your backup.

Hey guys so sorry, I was hacked :/ Everything's resolved now and everyone is ok

One of the most popular tournaments on the now-defunct European Poker Tour will make a triumphant return to the PokerStars Championship schedule.

PokerStars Championship Prague will take place Dec. 8-19, 2017 with the €5,300 buy-in Main Event set for Dec. 13-19.

The festival has always taken place in December with the city providing a picturesque winter backdrop to the event, complete with a Christmas market.

The stop will include 12 separate tournaments so there should be something for everyone with a €200 buy-in PokerStars Open on the low end and a gigantic €50,000 high roller on the high end.

Prague was actually the location for the final stop for the EPT last year leading some to wonder if PokerStars would make another appearance in the Czech city.

PokerStars Cranks Up PSC Barcelona Guarantees

Meanwhile PSC Barcelona is still set to take place Aug. 15-27, 2017, with 10 different events but PokerStars just announced the various guaranteed prize pools for the ultra-popular festival.

Sebastian Malec winning EPT Barcelona.

The Main Event will carry an eye-popping €7,000,000 guaranteed prize pool but that shouldn’t be too hard to crack considering last year’s EPT Barcelona Main Event attracted 1,785 players last year to form a €8.6 million prize pool.

Sebastian Malec won the record-setting tournament for a staggering €1.1 million.

PSC Barcelona will also offer guarantees on four different events including the 1,100 National Championship, which will feature a guarantee of €4,000,000.

The Main Event for PSC Barcelona will take place Aug. 21-27 while the National Championship will run Aug. 16-21.

As usual there will also be a €50,000 Super High Roller, which will run Aug. 19-21.

Sochi Rolling with Moneymaker, Lykov Among Early Leaders

The first-ever PokerStars Championship Sochi event kicked off from Casino Sochi yesterday with Day 1a.

How do you say Moneymaker in Russian?

As expected the event attracted a large number of Russian players including pros Alexander Kostritsyn, Maxim Panyak and Max Lykov.

Also in the field on Day 1a were Chris Moneymaker, Felipe Ramos, Luca Pagano, Nacho Barbero, Aditya Agarwal and others.

Moneymaker was actually one of the most dominant players on the day and ended with 115,000 chips, which put him in the top 10.

At the time this article was published Day 1b was partially complete and the overall field had already swelled to 220 runners.

Aditya Agarwal, Jason Wheeler and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier were among the early leaders on Day 1b.

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Today in the 3-Bet we find a pre-flop limp party in Sochi, great value on a Tony G flyer and a pre-WSOP vision quest for Daniel Negreanu.

1) Kroko-dill + SolidPenis, Too!

Having jetted around the world plenty covering poker tournaments over the past decade there aren't too many poker hotspots we've yet to see.

All the Panyak you can handle.

One of those we haven't, though? Sochi, Russia - the current host of the ongoing PokerStars Championship Sochi.

As we mentioned yesterday the Main Event is now underway with Day 1b in progress as we speak. Five days of live streaming action begins tomorrow on Day 2 but in the meantime we've been delightfully entertained by the PokerStars bloggers.

Despite the lexicographical challenges a tournament in Russia presents they've done a bang-up job of bringing the color of a poker event in the former USSR to life.

Not only do we now know what a "Russian Meat" platter contains, we know the action has been big on multi-way pre-flop limping, K-high best hands and head-scratching hand denouements. In short: it sounds amazing - both to play and observe.

Among the notables in the field today are Russian ace Andrey "kroko-dill" Zaichenko, 250k Spin & Go winner Danila 'SolidPenis' Solovyev, foreign luminaries such as Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Jason Wheeler and Aditya Agarwal and PSC Monaco final tablist Maxim Panyak.

Follow along with the live updates here; tune in here tomorrow starting at 12 local time for the full live stream treatment.

2) Buy Low on Tony G. for Super High Roller Bowl

As we also mentioned yesterday, the 2017 Aria Super High Roller Bowl is set to fire on Sunday with a mouth-watering three days of high-stakes poker action.

On your bike with that markdown, yeah?

Day 1 is actually free to live stream via Poker Central's Twitch Channel but Days 2 and 3 are only on the new PokerGO app that will cost you $10/m. It's still a phenomenal deal.

If you'd like a taste of the action yourself you can also head over to PokerShares to buy a stake in any one of the 56 participants.

Below is a quick look at the participants' career Hendon Mob results and their respective mark-ups on PokerShares. 

Given that he just won a $25k tune-up tournament at the Aria the other day old schooler Tony G. might be good value at an actual markdown of 0.9.

Kevin Hart? Prob. still not a good choice even at 0.6. You never know, though, right?

Player

Country

Winning

Mark-Up

Fedor Holz

DE

$22,161,732

1.43

Christoph Vogelsang

DE

$7,369,373

1.39

Dan Colman

US

$28,205,169

1.39

Scott Seiver

US

$22,447,565

1.37

Dan Smith

US

$16,205,456

1.34

Connor Drinan

US

$10,592,121

1.33

David Peters

US

$16,204,351

1.31

Ben Sulsky

US

$1,732,683

1.27

Isaac Haxton

US

$13,091,614

1.27

Nick Petrangelo

US

$8,621,543

1.27

Tom Marchese

US

$16,086,393

1.27

Ben Tollerene

US

$2,673,495

1.26

Igor Kurganov

DE

$12,226,678

1.26

Justin Bonomo

US

$15,321,537

1.26

Jason Koon

US

$8,764,456

1.25

Jason Mercier

US

$18,345,773

1.25

Steffen Sontheimer

DE

$983,138

1.25

Bryn Kenney

US

$17,161,701

1.24

Erik Seidel

US

$32,145,313

1.24

Doug Polk

US

$5,154,768

1.23

Andrew Lichtenberger

US

$8,544,703

1.22

Dominik Nitsche

DE

$6,606,570

1.22

Byron Kaverman

US

$9,572,276

1.21

Pratyush Buddiga

US

$5,325,851

1.21

Rainer Kempe

DE

$9,482,148

1.21

John Juanda

IDN

$20,153,373

1.2

Koray Aldemir

DE

$4,936,378

1.2

Andrew Robl

US

$4,866,231

1.19

Brian Rast

US

$20,398,291

1.19

Christian Christner

DE

$620,888

1.19

Daniel Negreanu

CA

$33,153,604

1.19

Jake Schindler

US

$9,252,036

1.19

Sean Winter

US

$5,029,273

1.19

Stefan Schillhabel

DE

$2,464,481

1.19

Ankush Mandavia

US

$4,073,585

1.16

Jason Les

US

$1,527,183

1.16

Matt Berkey

US

$3,071,084

1.12

Sam Soverel

US

$4,040,814

1.12

Antonio Esfandiari

US

$27,353,450

1.02

Talal Shakerchi

UK

$3,273,807

1.02

Cary Katz

US

$10,900,156

0.99

Phil Hellmuth

US

$21,014,737

0.99

Haralabos Voulgaris

CA

$1,882,514

0.98

Bill Perkins

US

$2,603,491

0.9

Dan Shak

US

$8,742,149

0.9

Tony G

LTU

$5,179,620

0.9

Bill Klein

US

$3,913,147

0.8

Dan Perper

US

$2,113,425

0.8

David Einhorn

US

$5,152,863

0.8

Zach Hyman

US

$1,917,787

0.8

Leon Tsoukernik

CZ

$882,262

0.75

John Morgan

US

$635,511

0.7

Lauren Roberts

US

$223,046

0.7

Kevin Hart

US

$0

0.6

$524,401,593

3)  Dream. Declare. Display 

As you likely know from our Daily 3-Bet dispatches over the years Daniel Negreanu has a mantra he swears by:

We wouldn't bet against him.

Dream. Declare. Deliver.

Some say it's psychobabble; others suggest if you can't visualize yourself winning before you start you might as well not even play.

Given Negreanu's $33m in career live earnings and perpetual rosy outlook on life as one of the game's most iconic poker players, we lean towards the idea he's on to something.

As we also mentioned a short time ago Negreanu has big plans for this summer that involve about $1m in buy-ins, 3 WSOP bracelets around his wrists and a third WSOP Player of the Year award.

Big ask? Sure. A very real possibility for DNegs? Absolutely. In fact if he does, he's already got the display cases ready:

To be filled by end of July 2017... #BraceletHunting https://t.co/eR4GYpS1Ej

German player Andreas Klatt raised a lot of eyebrows at the PokerStars Championship Monaco.

First, he won the €1,100 buy-in, 1,252-player National Championship for over €150,000. Then he came second in the main event for another €402,786.

To get there in the main event he had to go through a lot of interesting but also tough spots -- like this one, where he was up against temporary chip leader Romain Nardin from France.

Flop to River

Ten players are left and they're down to two tables at the PSC Monte Carlo. The remaining players all have €44,280 locked up.

Romain Nardin and Andreas Klatt are two of the big stacks and they're sitting at the same table. The blinds are 25,000/50,000/5000.

After a fold in first position Nardin (3.88 million) raises it up to 125,000. Klatt (3.25 million) on his left calls with    

The eventual winner of the tournament, Raffaele Sorrentino, folds in the small blind. Davidi Kitai in the big blind also folds.

There's 350,000 in the pot and the flop is      

Nardin bets 155,000 and Klatt calls again. The pot swells to 660,000 with effective stacks now at 2.9 million. The turn is the  

Nardin now bets 370,000 and Klatt calls again. The pot is now up to 1.4m, effective stacks are 2.5m and they go to the river  

Nardin now bets 625,000. Klatt ponders for two minutes until he eventually calls. Nardin shows     and loses about a third of his stack.

Klatt takes the chip lead with over 4.5 million chips, paving his way into the heads-up. Watch the hand below at 33:55.

Analysis

Quite a crucial hand in the event and the biggest pot so far. It took Klatt over two minutes to find the call and win it.

Nardin gets speculative.

To understand the players’ moves, let’s see what they did here street by street.

Nardin raises from the cut-off with a very speculative hand but he’s one of the big stacks and wants to exert pressure on the others.

Klatt responds with a move that will pay-off later but needs a lot of nerve to go through with. He has a strong A-Q on the button but he just calls, although there are good reasons to re-raise.

Why does he do this? There are several reasons:

A Flop Klatt Likes a Lot

So, Sorrentino and Kitai fold and the flop falls A♥ J♦ 7♦. That’s a flop that Klatt likes a lot.

But it’s Nardin’s turn first and he continues with another bet, representing pretty much the hand that Klatt has.

This is a good move as he’s going to make many hands like middle pairs fold. But Klatt plays his hand right, too.

He calls to keep Nardin’s complete range in the hand while he would have made almost all hands fold that are worse than his.

A Near-Perfect Turn

Klatt: Plays his hand right.

On the turn Nardin would probably have given up most of his hands to give Klatt the pot. But the card – the 5♥ – is near perfect for him.

It gives him a flush draw and a gutshot draw, which means it adds 12 outs. So his next bet isn’t a pure bluff as he now has a proper hand that has 25% equity.

His bet size of 155,000 into a pot of 350,000 is chosen well. It has a good risk-reward ratio as he only needs to win 30% of time to be profitable and it might well make a king fold.

At the same time it implies that he has to have another move on the river.

Klatt still sees no reason to give up his hand. There are now two flush draws on the board and Nardin might have a weaker ace.

Max Polarization On the River

What happens on the river is something we’ve seen many times. The draw doesn’t come in and Nardin decides to polarize his range to the max and go for the big bluff.

Klatt sitting and thinking for more than two minutes shows how tough this spot is even for a strong hand like the one Klatt holds.

Not the hand we expected to see.

He obviously has very good odds and of course it’s possible that Nardin was three-barrel bluffing – with possible hands like K♦ T♦ or 9♦ 8♦.

But there are also hands like A-K, A-J, A-7 or sets which he would have played the same way.

Because none of the draws came in Klatt pretty much has to cal. He eventually decides to do just that. 

But what about Nardin? Should he have given up his hand?

Unfortunately he’s in a dilemma as he has a hand that doesn’t even beat something like 9♦ 8♦. He has absolutely no showdown value and even loses to most of the busted draws.

But Klatt’s range is pretty much aces and a few diamond flush draws, so it wouldn’t have been a mistake for Nardin to give in.

On the other hand, even after losing this hand, his stack with more than 50 bb remains intact so you can make a point for the bluff, too.

Conclusion

Playing a bluff that never got serious with a speculative and weak hand loses Romain Nardin almost 1.3 million chips.

Andreas Klatt keeps his nerve on the river with what a good, but not great, hand. Once again we realize that nothing is as successful as success.

For the first time in almost a decade, poker will have a World Champion by the end of July this year.

After 9 years of modest success the WSOP announced last week the time had come to mothball the November Nine and the 4-month wait to play out the Main Event final table.

Denmark's Peter Eastgate was the first WSOP champion to win the trophy in November back in 2008 but, as much attention as the event got then, the concept of the November Nine was never universally embraced.

Although there were undisputed advantages for players who made the final table a case could be made - and usually was - that the tournament lost momentum and just wasn't the same when play resumed.

At the recent 888Live festival in Barcelona we asked nine pros – 3 of them former November Niners themselves – from six different countries one question: “Is the decision to get rid of the November Nine good or bad, and why?”

The results were not unanimous, but still pretty clear.

Politano: Everything is bigger.

Bruno Politano, Brazil

I have two answers  - first, it’s great for poker. It’s great for the tournament to get finished, it’s good for TV and the audience at home because they want to keep watching. It’s a good decision for poker in general.

But for the players who’re there at the final table, it’s not good because they’re missing the best three months of their lives. If you are one of these nine players, you’ll have the most intense time ever.

Everything you do is bigger than usual, trips, time with your family, the preparations, everything.

Kara Scott, Canada

It’s a good decision because they now can keep the momentum going and that’s what you want to do in a poker tournament.

Sofia Lövgren, Sweden

I think it’s a great idea because everybody is already there and the tournament is on. Everybody who’s railing is there, too, so it’s great for them to just stay on.

Alec Torelli, US

My personal view is that it’s sort of bad. Obviously, there’s a ton of upsides, like less traveling, no visa issues and a bunch of other things.

The thing I don’t like is that there’s now not a lot of time for outside sponsors to get excited about it. When players who reach the final table want to work out a deal with someone, this now removes some of the opportunity for the network, the WSOP and also for the players.

But other than that it’s totally reasonable.

Better to stay hot than get cold.

Michael Mizrachi, US

I support that. It’s good because no one can train for three or four months, the pressure’s on right there.

Also, I think that for more players it’s like, if you’re hot, you want to go with the ride instead of wait for several months and get ice cold.

Patrik Antonius, Finland

I think it’s a very good decision. If I was in this tournament I wouldn’t want to go away and come back much later.

Also, I don’t think it has fulfilled the expectations to get the main event final hyped up and get more attention. It’s good to change, and it’s time for a change.

Cate Hall, US

If I were to make the final table I’d rather have the November Nine but for everybody outside the last table it’s a good decision. I’d prefer to have three months where I could prepare and train and adjust all the time. There’s so much money on the line that it would be dumb not to do that.

William Kassouf, UK

It’s a good decision. I don’t mind having a break of two or three days before the final but the tournament is in July and it should be finished in July. The flow of the tournament shouldn’t be interrupted.

Sylvia: Conflicted.

Jesse Sylvia, US

I’m very conflicted. I think it’s kind of bad. I really liked the hype they were creating around it and how it built up to the final. It’s so special and it means so much.

On the other hand it’s a completely different tournament when the players come back three months later. Not only because everybody had time to get coaching and prepare – I spoke a lot with Vanessa Selbst – but also because of the length of the Main Event.

On Day 6 players start doing absolutely crazy stuff and the reason is simply because they’re exhausted. They see there are still 50 players and they need to win more chips so they start doing things they usually wouldn’t.

But this craziness is also part of the Main Event.

-----------------------

And so it’ll be.

For the first time since 2008 there won’t be a November Nine. But if our pros know what they’re talking about, the Main Event will create the biggest buzz since Jerry Yang lifted the trophy in 2007.

Here's a list of all 80 WSOP November 9ers ranked by results. Tune in to our WSOP news section here on PokerListings for all the latest as things get underway in just days!

Since “retiring” from poker nearly a year ago Fedor Holz has won over $2,000,000 playing high-stakes tournaments.

Despite the contradiction Holz maintains he’s playing far less volume than he did previously and he’s focused primarily on his start-up, a mindset coaching app called Primed Mind.

He’s still playing some poker, however, and earlier this month he finished second in an ultra-tough SCOOP $2,100 PLO event, despite being more of a No-Limit Hold'em specialist.

Holz also made the trip out to Vegas to play in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl at Aria today.

PokerListings caught up with Holz on a break from the SHRB to get his thoughts on retirement from poker and what his day-to-day life looks like these days.

PokerListings: How’s post-retirement life? It seems like you still play a lot of poker...

Fedor Holz back in his full-time grinding days.

Fedor Holz: I really don’t play that much. I feel like I play probably 5% of what I used to play. I was on the grind before.

PL: Do you like that? Do you miss playing poker all the time?

FH: I made that choice because I wanted to cut out the things that were taking too much of my energy. Now I’m focusing on the things I really enjoy.

PL: What is your day-to-day like?

FH: The company I founded last year — Primed Mind — I’m working a lot on that. I’m trying to build an infrastructure to do some fun things.

PL: What is Primed Mind and how did you get involved with it?

FH: It’s basically immersive mindset coaching with Elliott Roe. He’s pretty well known in the poker community as a coach.

I really enjoyed his one-on-one coaching sessions so we made that into a 10-minute session for different situations. Whether it’s poker or you want to get primed for a sports situation or just your every-day life.

PL: Was mindset coaching something that always interested you?

FH: I just like to spread content that I personally enjoy. I think he does an amazing job but he didn’t really have that much exposure. He did one-on-one sessions but that was about it. I wanted to share that content with other people.

PL: What can it be used for beyond poker?

Who wouldn't want a mind like Fedor Holz?

FH: We also focus on eSports. Personally I enjoy it more for my normal-life stuff. We focus on getting the most out of each day.

For instance to be more in the moment and enjoy the activities you do. Avoiding distractions.

That’s actually where I think it’s most useful.

PL: What do you plan on playing this summer? Is it going to be a big WSOP for you?

FH: I fly home on June 5 so I’ll be getting back to that start-up grind shortly. I’ll probably come back for the Main Event though.

PL: How does the start-up grind compare to poker?

FH: There are lots of similarities but there are also some huge differences. It’s a very different environment of people. But at the same time you have to put in the work just like poker. There are so many different factors you have to juggle and think about.

PL: Do you enjoy it?

FH: Oh I love it. That’s what I love about poker too. There’s so much information — it’s kind of too much — and you have to pick out the things that are valuable. That actually matter.

PL: What do you think of the Super High Roller Bowl?

FH: I’m here because it’s amazing. The set-up, the buy-in and the people. It’s just fun.

PL: You weren’t a big fan of the lottery that was utilized to get your seat this year. Can you talk about that?

FH: What I said came out a little more negative than it should have. It’s just Twitter. People always get tough on Twitter.

Basically I think it would have been better to just pick the people you want in the tournament before having a lottery. It helps avoid the double disappointment of missing out twice.

It’s not like they only give us something. It’s a two-way street, which is cool. We promote this event. If we didn’t play the event wouldn’t work. We also deposit the $300,000, which is significant.

Overall the lottery isn’t that bad, I just think it could have been implemented better.

If you play the hyper-turbo Blast poker games on 888, you know they're already pretty fast.

Get ready to go even faster.

888poker has introduced some new features to its fastest-paced NLHE game – and now they're even faster.

It's also added the chance to win $1,000 tournament tickets or play for a $1,000,000 prize pool.

From 12 Minutes to 2 Minutes

Blast has proven to be a very successful addition to the 888poker lineup and it’s about to get even more popular.

Got 2 mins? You can get a Blast in.

If you don’t know Blast Poker yet, these are 888poker’s 4-max hyper-turbo Sit-and-Go tournaments.

Play starts when 4 players buy-in and the timer begins. Once that 12-minute timer runs out, everyone left in the tournament is all in every hand until a winner is found.

Get a full run down on all the different variations and buy-in levels for Blast Poker here.

Now there's an even faster version of Blast where time runs out in just two minutes. The games are available for as little as 10 cents and the buy-ins reach all the way up to $30.

In addition to the new 2-minute time limit, there’s now a special $100 buy-in Blast option. 

These $100 tournaments have the same maximum prize-pool multiplier as the lower buy-in ones which means that if you hit the jackpot you’ll be playing for a cool $1m.

If you happen to hit the $1m jackpot tournament, nobody loses. Even if you get sucked-out on in the first hand 888poker will add $100,000 to your bankroll; win it and you’ll be $600,000 richer.

$5 Blast to $1,050 Tournament Tickets

There’s also a new feature for the $5 Blast events. These now offer an additional prize pool qualifier that says “$1,050 tournament ticket."

That’s right. Play $5 Blast tournaments and you can win your way into the biggest online tournaments on 888poker.

The XL Eclipse is 888poker’s next big  online series and it’s coming up in September. Similar to the recently finished XL Inferno series, hundreds of different tournaments run in just under two weeks with some of the largest prize pools ever seen on 888poker. 

Check out the complete schedule directly on 888poker.com.  If you want to get an impression of how it feels to play such a fast-paced tournament on 888poker, watch Courtney Gee’s first attempt at it.

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a tight range, a flopped set and still no chance the muppets at the afternoon poker news table can appreciate your genius.

Have a tip for a future edition of the 3-Bet? Tweets us @PokerListings or comment below.

Today in the 3-Bet we find a classic Phi Hellmuth tilt-a-rant, Leon Tsoukernik unfazed by the Super High Roller Bowl and Kevin Hart shines bright.

1) Best Player, Outplayed

It's safe to say the $300,000 Aria Super High Roller Bowl didn't work out quite as hoped for Phil Hellmuth.

First, he showed up late and (intentionally or unintentionally) wasted some precious blinds. Then he lost a big pot with top set to Justin Bonomo's flopped straight.

Finally, and perhaps appropriately, he busted set-under-set to comedian Kevin Hart.

Even by Hellmuthian standards it was a humdinger of a day. And it, on cue, produced a classic Hellmuthian rant. Enjoy!

2) Tsoukernik 2nd in Chips After SHRB Day 1

While the classic Hellmuth tirade above was certainly a highlight of Day 1 of the Super High Roller Bowl there were, as expected, plenty of others.

Tsoukernik: Never flustered.

For Kitty Kuo, for example, it was Dan Colman's biceps. Fedor Holz, again, showed just how primed his mind is. We could listen to Nick Schulman commentate poker all day, errrryday.

And then there was Leon Tsoukernik. The owner of the King's Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, which has become a juggernaut of a poker locale, has played in some high-stakes cash games before, for sure.

He even won the final EPT Super High Roller tournament over Charlie Carrel, which is quite something. But second in chips after Day 1 of the $300k SHRB? C'mon. No one was expecting that. Except Tsoukernik, of course.

But it's true. With 912,00 in chips Tsoukernik is behind only the 1.2m of chip leader Byron Kaverman and ahead of such poker luminaries as Holz (803,00), Justin Bonomo (620,500), Jason Mercier (605,000) and Daniel Negreanu (327,500).

He also survived being one of the 12 bustouts of Day 1 which included Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Igor Kurganov, Ben Sulsky, Ben Tollerene and Bill Perkins.

That's a good day. We're excited to see what's in store for Day 2. Watch some great clips of yesterday's action here and tune in on the PokerGO app to watch the rest of the tourney in full.

3) Kevin Hart is a Joy to Watch Play Poker

It's been a fairly small sample size so far - the 2017 PSC Bahamas, PSC Monte Carlo and now the $300k Aria SHRB. But man. It is really fun to watch Kevin Hart play poker.

The new celebrity face of PokerStars, Hart has more than lived up to his billing as an amateur who loves the game and is thrilled to be amongst the world's best getting a lesson in how it's played at the highest levels.

He's knows his game has limitations but it's not hampering his ability to have a good time. And that was clearly evident during Day 1 of the SHRB yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, he told a lot of jokes. But he was also comfortable enough with the poker to be in the Top 5 chip counts early, chat it up with his table all day and, when the mood struck, share an experience about taking a #2 in the woods.

All in all, a pretty wide range of gold. He might not make it through Day 2 today but he's more than put his stamp one of the signature events of the summer. Check a few of the photos from yesterday below; see the full spread here.

How well do you know your World Series of Poker history?

After 47 years the fabled series, as you might imagine, has produced a truly mind-boggling array of facts and numbers.

As we're about to embark on another incredible WSOP in 2017, with its own historical poker moments set to play out before us, here's a look back at some of the more incredible feats accomplished over the years.

1. From 1 to 85 in 47

One event; no buy-in, no actual poker. Just a vote amongst themselves for the best player. That was the whole World Series of Poker in 1970. Johnny Moss won that vote back then.

WSOP Main Event Elect Johnny Moss

One year later actual poker tournaments were introduced to the WSOP and Moss proved to be a worthy elected champion as he won the Main Event in 1971, which back then had a buy-in of $5,000. Only six players participated.

Beginning in 1972 the Main Event had a buy-in of $10,000 - a number that has not changed since. Each year multiple side events have been added/held.

The total number of events grew to 70 in 2016. This year 74 events will be played in Las Vegas plus 11 events in Europe for a total of 85 bracelet events.

Not only has number of events grown, so has the number of players. Six entries in 1970 became thousands of entries in the nineties.

Over 50,000 entries followed the poker boom in 2005 and the totals soared over 100,000 in the past two years.

It goes without saying that the prizes increased tremendously alongside. Just $70,000 was distributed in 1971; now players battle for a quarter of a billion dollars in one year.

Here's how the number of players, tournaments and prize money have developed over the years:

* All WSOP Events including WSOP Europe and WSOP APAC.

Below is how this looks in a chart. Can you guess when the poker boom was?

2. 1 Million Players, 1k Bracelet Winners

Kristen Bicknell has 2, even.

Let's quickly add up all those numbers to get an impression of how inconceivably huge the WSOP has become over the years.

This means that at some point during the next month the WSOP will register its 1 millionth tournament entry and we will see the 1,000th person to win a bracelet. And, of course, dozens of people will win millions of dollars again.

3. 10 Gs Ain't What It Used To Be

$10,000. That's how much is costs to play the World Series of Poker Main Event. 

Money, money, money, money. Money!

That number has stayed the same for 46 years now. But back in the early 70's that same $10k bought a lot more than you can buy with it today.

Granted, 10 grand is still a huge amount of money to most. But going by the US consumer index, the inflation adjusted value for the Main Event buy-in in 1972 is $57,297 in today's dollars.

This explains why many professionals regard the $50k Players Championship Event, which was introduced in 2006. as the 'real' players Main Event in recent years

For players like Negreanu, Hellmuth and Holz the $10k is more like petty cash, anyway.

4. 29 Years and Counting

Let's move on to some player stats and the players with the best results over the years at the WSOP.

Of course there's always Phil Hellmuth, who's won a record-breaking 14 gold bracelets and cashed 119 times – more than anyone else.

Going for 30 years in a row!

But which player has cashed the most years in a row? It's not Hellmuth.

While Hellmuth has cashed in 27 different years, and at least once per year since 1996, there are several players even more consistent.

Right now two players share the record of most years cashed in a row. Berry Johnston cashed every year from 1982 until 2010 – that's 29 years!

Mike Sexton currently holds the same record. Starting in 1988 he's cashed at least once every year since.

If Sexton survives at least one bubble this year he'll become the record holder with 30 years cashed in a row.

Players with Most Years Cashed in a Row

* Players in bold can extend their record this year.

5. The Curious Case of Bill Boyd

Cashing many years in a row is one thing. Winning a bracelet in multiple consecutive years is a much tougher task. It's so tough, in fact, that only two players have managed to win a bracelet four years in a row.

Bro Grinder can make it 4 in 2017.

There's Doyle Brunson, who won two bracelets in 1976 (one being the Main Event), two more in 1977 (defending his Main Event title), one bracelet in 1978 and another in 1979.

In 1980 he barely missed his next bracelets; he finished 2nd in the Main Event and 2nd in the $10k Lowball event.

And then there's Bill Boyd. He, too, won a bracelet four years in a row. But his titles were impressive on another scale.

For one thing, Boyd has cashed exactly 4 times at the WSOP - and won all 4 times. Two bracelets were quite peculiar.

According to the Hendon Mob Database Boyd won the 1972 5-Card-Stud Event by beating exactly one opponent. In 1973 he won the same event - this time without an opponent at all.

Back then winning bracelets really was easier than today.

Multiple players have won a bracelet 3 years in a row, most notably the two Mizrachi brothers, Michael and Robert. The latter even has the chance to extend this streak if he wins a bracelet this year.

Rob won the Dealers Choice Event in 2014, the small Omaha-8 Event in 2015 and the big Stud Championship in 2016.

Table - Most Years in a Row Winning at Least One Bracelet

6. 41 years: The WSOP Grand Elders

While the World Series has its 48th instalment this year, no single player has been part of the Series for every year since its inauguration.

WSOP Godfather, too.

Doyle Brunson was one of the players who elected Johnny Moss in 1970 and he's still around. But Brunson stopped playing the WSOP 4 years ago.

Nevertheless Brunson still holds the record for the longest time-span between his first and his last cash at the WSOP with 15,050 days.

In 1972 Brunson cashed for the first time, finishing 3rd in the Main Event and being paid most of the prize money due to a strange deal which allowed Amarillo Slim to win the event.

Brunson's last cash also was in the Main Event. In 2013 the then-79-year-old finished 409th, more than 41 years after his first cash at the World Series.

Two players also have 41 years at the WSOP on their resume: Bill Baxter and Jay Heimowitz. Both made their debut in 1975; both were active last year and can break Brunson's record this year.

Table - Longest Time-Span Between First and Most Recent Cash

7. Israelashvili and Bojang: Cash Machines

Some poker players only play to win; some play to cash.

Bojang: Pure cash machine.

Some are named Roland Israelishvili or Ismael Bojang. Those two are true in-the-money Heroes and pure cash machines at the WSOP.

In 2014 Bojang cashed in a record 13 events. In 2016 Israelashvili equalized, scoring as many cashes.

Even more impressive than those numbers is their consistency. Over the last three years Bojang has secured 30 cashes at the WSOP.

Israelashvili has 31. While neither has won a bracelet they'll certainly be in contention for most cashes again in 2017.

Table - Most WSOP Cashes Over 3 Years

8. And Then There's Berry Johnston

Since 1970 a total of 90,454 players have bought in to the Main Event. Only 7,498 unique players have cashed at least once.

Still cashing after all these years.

As a matter of fact, the vast majority of those players have cashed exactly once.

A few have cashed two or three times; a handful of selected professionals have cashed more often than that.

Among those that have cashed the Main Event most often are Johnny Chan, Chris Bjorin, Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth. 

And then there's Berry Johnston.

Between 1982 and 2007 he made the money 10 times in the Main Event. He finished 3rd in 1982 and 1985, won the whole thing in 1986 and made another deep run in 1990 when he finished 5th.

That's truly impressive! Johnston is 81 now but still around. And except for 2011 he's cashed at least once in every single WSOP since 1982!

Table – Most Main-Event Cashes

9. Your Name Must Be Ronnie Bardah

Imagine you get into the money at the Main Event, make a deep run and bust on Day 4 or 5. Now imagine the same thing happens the next year.

His name is Ronnie Bardah!

The actual Ronnie Bardah.

And the next year. And then once more. And, for good measureme, again for a 5th year in a row.

Congratulations! Your name must be Ronnie Bardah. He currently holds the record for the most Main Event cashes in a row between 2010 and 2014.

Two players could catch him this year: Aditya Agarwal from India and Croatian Goran Mandic. 

Both have cashed the Main Event 4 times in a row from 2013-2016. They'll be looking for their 5th consecutive cashes this year.

Another name we have to mention here is Andrew Brokos. He cashed the Main Event in 2006, '07, '08, '10 and '11. And not only did he cash, he finished in the Top 100 the last three times.

Table – Most Main Event Cashes in a Row

10. Unrequited Tony Cousineau

On the one hand, American Tony Cousineau is one of the biggest names in WSOP history.

On the one hand ...

Since 1999 he's cashed 74 times at the World Series. Only seven players have cashed more often than that.

But among all those cashes is not a single win. There's no 2nd place and no 3rd place either. 

His best result is a 4th place in an Omaha event in 2001.

This makes Cousineau the player with the most cashes by far without winning a single event.

Table – Most WSOP Cashes Without a Bracelet

11. More Assorted Numbers

Before coming to our country statistics, here are some milestone years and numbers which capture the vastness of the World Series of Poker: 

12. The USOP

Poker was and still is a very American game. With the WSOP being held in Las Vegas it's only natural that most players are Americans.

Still an American game.

As a matter of fact roughly three quarters of all cashes belong to American players and 78% of all bracelets do too.

All tallied, US players have 1,040 gold bracelets – almost 20 times as much as the next best nation, Canada.

For the first 12 years no non-American made the money in any WSOP event. It wasn't until 1982 that the first non-US Players made it to the history books.

Most big countries made their WSOP debut in the late '80s or early '90s. Some followed even later. Russia, for example, had its first recorded cash only in 2003.

Now each year more and more countries debut at the WSOP. 2016 saw players from Egypt and Saudi Arabia cash for the first time and 2017 will certainly bring new countries to the tables.

13. The Greatest

Still the king.

There have been 1,325 WSOP events since 1970 and, while he certainly hasn't played all of them, Phil Hellmuth has still managed to cash a whopping 119 times.

That gives him an estimated ITM-rate of over 20%. Of course he's also won 14 bracelets, finished among the Top 3 27 times and made over 50 final tables.

So yes; the Brat is by far the best player in WSOP history.

We compiled a ranking of all 40,657 players that have cashed in a WSOP in the past 47 years. Here are the Top 25:

» Spreadsheet with a ranking of all WSOP players since 1970

Lauren Roberts is the only woman in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl.

It’s not a position that makes her uncomfortable.

Roberts’ day job is finance and she’s used to being the only woman in the boardroom.

Over the last few years she’s been focused heavily on poker, primarily cash games, but she’s also had some success in major tournaments like the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Five Diamond.

We caught up with Roberts on the first break of Day 2 of the 2017 SHRB to get her thoughts on being the only woman in the field, how she got started in the game and the similarities between hedge funds and poker.

PokerListings: Why did you decide to play the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl?

Lauren Roberts

Lauren Roberts: Well, it’s an expensive event and tournaments have a lot more variance. I don’t play this high when it comes to tournaments normally.

You have to look at it like a private equity portfolio — you don’t have just one company.

My dad called me and basically said, “You know, statistically you’re an idiot for playing this.”

Then I started thinking about all the things I could do with $300,000 and I started to wonder if I was an idiot.

Cary [Katz] really didn’t want to lose having a female player though. So I decided to sell some action. Somehow I was able to live with spending $150,000 on it.

I’m so glad I decided to play it though. I love tournaments. Every year I say I’m going to play more of them.

I’m really working on being a really good poker player. It’s just kinda how I am. It drives me. And I love the game. I love it.

PL: How did you get into poker in the first place?

LR: My father has a PhD in physics but I grew up in a gambling family. I’ve been to every track on the east coast. My grandfather actually taught me how to play Five-Card Stud and Seven-Card Stud when I was a little girl.

"I come from a gambling family."

My grandfather spent time in Las Vegas and when Atlantic City opened my Dad went down and counted cards so well that he was barred from every casino in A.C.

He retired from HP and started playing poker and tried to get me to become a professional poker player. I was managing a hedge fund at the time. He said there were no women in it and I would do well with my analytical skills.

He also told me he’d teach me, which killed the appeal for me. [Laughs] At the time I was like, “I’d rather stick needles in my eyes.”

It wasn’t until I got cancer nine years ago than I got into the game. I ended up having 16 surgeries in three years so it was like one surgery every other month.

I was a little depressed and there were many times I didn’t even want to leave the house so I ended up playing online. I started at $.01/$02.

That’s all it took. I fell in love with the game. I was immediately hooked. My dad brought me to Commerce Casino. I was so nervous at first.

Coming from online I didn’t know anything about string-betting or anything like that. I was the only girl and I thought they’d think I was dumb.

Guys thinking you’re dumb is an advantage but at that point I really was dumb [Laughs].

PL: What did you like about it?

LR: What I love about poker is that it’s a strategic game where there are multiple facets.

I’m in the financial markets. I used to run a hedge fund and it’s very similar. I’ve been working in finance for over 30 years and the longer I do it, the less I think I know. With poker it’s the same thing.

I have a list of stuff that I want to work on. There’s psychology, tells, mathematics and so much more. The other thing is that, for the most part, I love the community. I really do. I look forward to the WSOP every year.

I know people from all over the world that I see at the WSOP. It’s so exciting. Loni Harwood just Tweeted about how she’s excited for summer camp and I am too. It’s just a great thing.

PL: It seems like there is a strong sense of camaraderie amongst female poker pros these days. Is that fair to say?

LR: It is. I think it depends on the female player and the circumstances. I had an issue with a female player several years ago where I was at a final table and she didn’t talk to me.

Liv Boeree

Finally I just went up to her at a table in Montreal. I didn’t know what happened but we had some mutual friends in Liv Boeree and Sam Abernathy.

I told her, “I don’t know what happened but I’m sorry if I did anything. I don’t like this.”

We ended up making amends and she said she was under a lot of stress at the time.

I’m very accepting of people. You have to kick me like five times before I get it.

As far as female poker players go you have to be confident to sit down at a table full of men. You have to be secure with yourself and smart.

Those are the kind of women I’m attracted to. Women and men like that. People that are comfortable in their own skin and secure with who they are.

Even if we disagree with Royal Flush Girls or female poker awards it’s good to see that at the end of the day we stick together.

I actually put together a tag-team of Lisa Hamilton and Haixia Zhang for the WSOP event on Wednesday.

I hope you will see me winning a tournament very soon.

PL: You mentioned female poker awards as an issue of contention. Where do you stand on them?

LR: So I’m old, which means I have a different perspective. I think the meaning of the poker award, in general, was a good thing because it’s meant to foster women in the game and encourage more women to to play.

The WPT's Royal Flush Girls.

I also think that maybe it’s not recognizing accomplishments but rather role models. That’s the way I perceive it anyways and for that I think it’s a good thing.

It’s women out there showing that it’s OK to be aggressive. It’s great. You can do this. You can quit your stellar career and pursue your passion.

There are so many lessons that can be learned from that, especially for girls, that I can’t think of it as a bad thing. But I am a glass half-full person.

It’s the same thing with the Royal Flush Girls. I mean it’s a business. 98% of the players are men. The Royal Flush Girls do more than look good. It’s really hard to find work. They’re so nice and sweet to everyone.

If you were gonna pay me $200,000 to pose at a poker tournament, I’d pose with anyone you want. That’s just from 30 years of being the only woman in a room full of men.

I think that I just accept that men are men and I accept that this is the way they think. In some ways I’m grateful for it because it helps me.

Every person that sits down at the poker table with me looks at me and thinks I’m a fish. I hope they keep doing it.

That’s kind of my perspective on it. You can’t change human nature and anything that encourages us and supports us in playing, I think it’s a good thing.

PL: How much will you play at the WSOP?

LR: I’m going to play the whole World Series. Every event that I can play. I can’t play all the mix games or dealer’s choice but the rest of it. I missed a lot of it last year because I was moving but this summer I’m doing it.

The biggest objective for me, even if I bust out of the SHRB, is that I’ve grown as a player. I’ve learned from playing with the best players in the world.

I look at it as $300,000 of coaching. It’s all good.

Leon Tsoukernik is a legit tycoon in the poker industry.

He’s the mastermind behind the wildly successful King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic.

In the last few years King’s Casino has become arguably the premier place to play poker in Europe and it recently secured the rights to host the World Series of Poker Europe for the next four years.

Tsoukernik is also a damn good poker player. Last year he took down the last-ever EPT Super High Roller for €741k, beating Charlie Carrel heads-up no less.

He definitely blurs the line between businessman and poker pro and that’s why he’s a perfect fit for the Super High Roller Bowl. Tsoukernik has been dominating Day 2 of the SHRB and leaving some of the best pros in his dust.

We caught up with Tsoukernik to get his thoughts on King’s Casino, his background as an antiques dealer and whether he plays poker for the money or the recognition.

PokerListings: You’re crushing it right now. How are you feeling?

Not exactly out of his element.

Leon Tsoukernik: It’s great. I think it’s a fantastic tournament with fantastic people. I’m doing very good so I’m very happy.

PL: Why did you decide to play this one?

LT: I came to Vegas to play all the big tournaments and this certainly qualifies as one of them.

PL: I get the feeling you feel comfortable out there…

LT: I am comfortable. Yes. I like to play against very strong players. I wouldn’t expect that someone would pay $300,000 to play and be a bad player.

PL: Obviously you run King’s Casino in Rozvadov. Do you like playing or managing the casino better?

LT: Definitely running the business. I like poker as well but in business I’m the only pro in the whole field. The rest of them are just playing poker and enjoying themselves — maybe sometimes winning — but in reality it’s the people running the casinos who are the pros.

PL: Can you talk about King’s Casino a little? It seems to be growing at an exponential rate.

LT: King’s Casino has 160 poker tables. It’s a big casino. We run all the international series including WSOP Europe and about 1,000 other events every year.

You have non-stop tournaments and cash games. There’s a lot of action.

PL: What makes it so special compared to other venues?

King's Casino in Rozvadov.

LT: Me.

PL: What else?

LT: Nothing else. Just me. [Laughs] It’s a very comfortable place to play poker. People like it. They follow the action.

PL: What inspired you to start King’s Casino in the first place?

LT: I always played the game. I played all over the world. Then I decided to just build my own casino.

PL: How did you get introduced to poker in the first place?

LT: I’ve played poker since I was like 18 years old or something. I’ve been playing a very long time. I like the mental aspect of the game. You can also run bad or good. I like it a lot.

PL: You used to deal in antiques. How does business compare to what you currently do?

Leon Tsoukernik winning the last-ever EPT SHR in Prague.

LT: The work in antiques is different because there is a lot of traveling to see a lot of buyers or sellers.

It’s completely different. You’re also visiting a lot of museums, which is now hard for me to find time to do. I miss seeing all the galleries and exhibitions.

PL: How did you learn to play high rollers like this? Did you have coaching?

LT: I definitely had a great coach in Johannes Strassmann. He was a fantastic player… it’s too bad he died.

These days I have a fair amount of experience playing high rollers. Not necessarily the high-roller tournament but plenty of high-roller cash games.

Martin Kabrhel has been coaching me in this tournament. He’s also a great player but unfortunately didn’t get a seat in this one.

PL: What happens if you win this thing? Does your casino get a new expansion?

LT: Um, no. [Laughs] I’m not playing this for the money. I’m playing this for pride. To me there’s much more value in the accomplishment rather than the $6m itself.

PL: What’s your schedule look like for the rest of the summer? Are you playing the WSOP?

LT: I’m just playing the $111k buy-in One Drop event.

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Today in the 3-Bet we find a glorious night for the nation of Kazakhstan, Justin Bonomo takes control of the SHRB and Kitty Kuo wonders about wishes.

1) Ni Leads, Vovtroy Lurks

It was a big night for the nation of Kazakhstan in Sochi tonight as little known Lavrentiy Ni has soared into the chip lead at PSC Sochi.

Big day for Lavrentiy Ni (Photo: Neil Stoddart, PokerStars)

With just six players left Ni has 2.9 million in chips and is in a virtual dead heat with Russian Pavel Shirshokov as they head to the final table tomorrow.

Shirshikov has led the field for most of the past two days and may well be accustomed to a big poker end game; Ni might not be so confident.

With $48,703 in live earnings he's 24th on Kazakhstan's all-time money list. Needless to say, a big win tomorrow would definitely make benefit Ni's lifetime earnings - and bring some poker glory to his home nation.

If he has anything working in his favor, though, it's that all 8 of his career cashes look like they're final tables.

One thing working against him? Russian legend and all-around crusher Vladimir Troyanovskiy is also at the final table. And with 1.8m in chips has some material to work with.

The final table could have included both Chris Moneymaker and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier but both busted just shy of the final table yesterday.

Live stream action picks up at 1 pm local time tomorrow and of course can be watched cards-up in its entirety here. Check the full chip counts here. Watch the replay of today's action below:

2) Justin and the 'Amateurs' Run Wild at SHRB

Just how important is seat draw in a $300,000 buy-in poker tournament?

When it's the Aria Super High Roller Bowl and the field is a mix of elite, best-of-the-best pros and (some might say) 'softer' businessmen/celebrity amateurs ... it's hard to say.

Justin Bonomo seemed to like his seating assignment on Day 1:

Seat draw is up for the $300k pic.twitter.com/EGBERFGBz5

And took good advantage by racking a Top 6 stack. But with a decidedly tougher draw yesterday - ie Daniel Negreanu, Pratyush Buddiga, Stefan Schillhabel and Tom Marchese at his table - he grew his stack even more.

By the end of Day 2 Bonomo bagged up 2.6m for the chip lead overnight with 19 players left. Negreanu, on the other hand, didn't have quite as soft a table on Day 1 and that trend has continued on to Day 3 today:

Is this even possible?! Third straight day playing an all-pro table. Ok then, I'll just have to BRING IT https://t.co/3FXpfJLuie

Tsoukernik: Unfazed.

As it turns out, though, the 'ams' might not be the soft spots as 5 of them are in the Top 10. Chip counts:

1. Justin Bonomo 2,628,000
2. Byron Kaverman 2,063,000
3. Dan Shak 1,482,000
4. Bill Klein 1,466,000
5. Christoph Vogelsang 1,391,000
6. Leon Tsoukernik 1,335,000
7. Pratyush Buddiga 716,000
8. Cary Katz 701,000
9. Jason Koon 696,000
10. David Einhorn 685,000

We definitely know Leon Tsoukernik doesn't feel he's at a disadvantage; we'll see how the rest of the Ams (all pretty 'battle tested' themselves, though) stand up to the heat as things get even tighter today. As always, watch it play out live on the PokerGO app available for just $10/month.

3) We Also Have No Abs, No EPT Titles

What is the deal with poker wishes, anyway? Doesn't seem like an unreasonable thing to ask for at all, Kitty.

I made wish few years ago, 1)win ept title 2)have super strong abs
Few years later,my wish still not coming true, how hard to implement?

Kevin Hart busted from the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl but not before he made a $10,000 donation to charity REG (Raising for Effective Giving).

It’s all thanks to poker pro Justin Bonomo’s pink hair.

Bonomo was on the feature table with Hart on Day 1 when his unusual hairstyle drew the attention of the world-renowned comedian. Bonomo told him it was in support of feminism and in protest of societal gender norms.

Hart was intrigued and asked Bonomo if he belonged to any charity organizations. Bonomo had just become an ambassador for REG and told Hart a little about it.

“He said ‘It’s great that you are trying to do good things for people. I’ll donate $10k.’” Bonomo related.

Bonomo didn't even have to ask. Hart just offered the donation straight up.

Kevin Hart: “I Support Positivity”

REG, which consists primarily of professional poker players and financial investors, was created with the idea of contributing to charities that are particularly effective at giving back.

Justin Bonomo

It was founded by poker pros Igor Kurganov, Liv Boeree and Philipp Gruissem in conjunction with the Effective Altruism Foundation.

Bonomo said he wasn’t completed surprised by Hart’s generosity, although he was very grateful.

“I’ve heard that he’s a great guy and playing with him it seemed like everything I’d heard was true,” said Bonomo of Hart’s contribution.

“Obviously I’m trying to get REG as much exposure as possible.”

Hart later Tweeted to Bonomo, “No problem… I support positivity and what your guys are doing is just that.”

REG announced seven new ambassadors last week including the aforementioned Bonomo along with John Juanda, Cate Hall, Martin Jacobson, George Danzer, Erik Seidel and Cristopher George.

Bonomo: “People Expect a Famous Comedian to be Bad at Poker”

Justin Bonomo played with Hart a fair amount over the first two days of the Super High Roller Bowl and came away somewhat surprised by the experienced.

Kevin Hart hamming it up in the SHRB.

“A lot of people would expect a super-famous comedian to be really, really bad at poker but he’s not,” he said.

“He’s not the type of guy that’s just going to hurricane his chips off. He makes you work for it.”

That’s high praise from Bonomo, who’s easily one of the best tournament players in the world with $16m in live tournament earnings.

That’s not to say Hart, who recently partnered with PokerStars to "make poker cool", was like any other poker player that Bonomo’s ever played against.

“His approach to comedy at the table was interesting,” he said.

“He knew that we were playing for $6m and everyone was taking it super seriously — I mean these are some of the best professional poker players in the world — so he wanted to contrast that with a bunch of fart jokes and stuff. It was definitely something I’m not used to at the table.

Hart Drives Huge Audience to Live Stream

It seems unlikely that Hart got into Bonomo’s head but the long-time pro did say it was a challenging experience at times.

Phil Hellmuth, Justin Bonomo and Kevin Hart.

“It became a little hard to concentrate during certain hands,” he said. “It was a lot of fun though.”

Throughout the broadcast Hart made a point of spicing up the constrained atmosphere by cracking jokes and shouting profanities during lulls in the action.

There was definitely some element of putting on a show, according to Bonomo.

“He’s a smart guy,” said Bonomo.

“He knows what he’s doing. He knew that he was acting differently than everyone else. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure that out.”

Regardless it’s good for poker, according to Bonomo.

“He’s getting tons of viewers and drawing a lot of interest,” he said. “Anything that does that is great for poker.”

You can pull a Kevin Hart of your own by heading to the REG website.

Just 8 players remain in the 2017 $300k buy-in Super High Roller Bowl after a furious day of action on Day 3 yesterday.

The big problem for one of those eight? Only seven will get paid.

That means the final table will begin tomorrow with an incredulous $600k bubble.

Originally the tournament was only scheduled to play down to nine players but a double elimination on the final hand of play (on two different tables) means that producers will have to deal with one less character tomorrow.

Both reigning champ Rainer Kempe and businessman/high roller master Dan Shak had the misfortune of busting as Day 3 drew to a close. Shak and Kempe were among the 12 players that busted in a little over five hours of play on Day 3.

Final Table Dominated by Pros

There weren’t a lot of amateurs in the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl and it’s safe to say the final table is made up almost entirely of pros.

Jake Schindler, who’s been crushing high roller tournaments for years, has a considerable chip lead at the final table with 4m chips.

Jason Koon will play from the short stack.

German pro Christoph Vogelsang and American Byron Kaverman aren’t that far behind with 2.6m and 2.2 million respectively.

Essentially the only player left that would qualify as a businessman is King’s Casino founder Leon Toukernik but he has a wealth of experience playing high rollers.

He even took down the last EPT Super High Roller ever last December. Toukernik will take 1.7 million to the final table.

The final table is rounded out by German pro Stefan Schillhabel who finished with 1.8 million. Schillhabel’s biggest score is $266,158 so even a min-cash in this tournament would trump that.

Former spelling bee champ Pratyush Buddiga has 1.79m. Buddiga has several high-profile scores to his name but has yet to take one down outright.

Fellow American Justin Bonomo is right next to Buddiga in chips with 1.73 million.

Finally Jason Koon will be on the hot seat tomorrow with 685,000 and he’ll be looking to avoid what could be the biggest bubble of the entire year.

Here’s a complete look at the chip counts:

Jake Schindler — 4,090,000
Christoph Vogelsang — 2,650,000
Byron Kaverman — 2,200,000
Stefan Schillhabel — 1,890,000
Pratyush Buddiga — 1,790,000
Justin Bonomo — 1,735,000
Leon Tsoukernik — 1,700,000
Jason Koon — 685,000

$1m Freeroll for Rainer Kempe Quashed

At one point on Day 3 last year’s winner Rainer Kempe was down to just one big blind and, incredibly, King’s Casino founder Leon Tsoukernik offered Kempe a $1m freeroll if he were to make a massive comeback and win the tournament for the second year in a row.

So close, yet so far.

Even more incredible, Rainer successfully fought back to 500k+ chips. One assumes Tsoukernik was starting to sweat.

Tsoukernik got some relief, however, as Kempe busted 10th when his pocket nines failed against Stefan Schillhabel's tens.

At the exact moment Kempe busted, Dan Shak was all-in against Jake Schindler on the other table.

Shak held pocket jacks to Schindler’s ace-king. Everything looked good for Shak until an ace rolled off the deck on the river.

Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Brain Rast and Zach Hyman were also among the players to bust on Day 3.

PokerGo will once again be streaming all the action tomorrow starting at 1:30. Interestingly the plan is to play until three players remain and then pause the action for one more day.

Here’s a look at the payouts that await the players who survive the first elimination tomorrow:

1. $6,000,000
2. $3,600,000
3. $2,400,000
4. $1,800,000
5. $1,400,000
6. $1,000,000
7. $600,000

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Today in the 3-Bet we find a massive money bubble looming at the SHRB, Michael Phelps anchors the 4xpoker relay and Fedor Holz can't stop won't stop.

1) $600,000 or Zero

After three scintillating days of play in the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, just eight players are left.

Big day for Koon.

Only seven of them will be paid.

What's the difference between finishing 8th or 7th in this one? Doubling your $300k buy-in or going home with nothing.

As far as swings go in poker, that's a big one. In fact outside of the three $1m buy-in One Drop events it's pretty much as big as you can get.

The man staring down the bad end of that bubble right now? One Jason Koon, who enters Day 4 as the short stack with 685,000 - about 1/3 of the next closest player, Leon Tsoukernik at 1.7m.

Clearly, the pressure is on for an early double up. But given the structure - they'll start today with one hour left at 10,000/20,000/20,000 (BB pays ante), he does have a little bit of breathing room.

The money also clearly isn't a factor for Tsoukernik, so that may also make him more inclined to get a little out of line early.

We've followed Koon in this tournament before and saw him walk away empty-handed so we're truly rooting hard to see him get paid this time. Read the recap of yesterday's play here; follow along live today with the PokerGo app.

2) Esfandiari, Gross, Rast Tag In Phelps

As you're likely well aware the 2017 World Series of Poker starts today in Las Vegas at 11 am with the traditional $565 Casino Employees Event.

Live look in at Amazon Room today.

But that's not all! There's also an intriguing new event on the docket at 3 pm - the $10,000 Tag Team Event.

The WSOP introduced the Tag Team event last year at the $1k buy-in level but this is a new go at the big-time $10k buy-in level.

As you might expect some blockbuster teams of 2-4 players have been put together along with (we assume) the reigning champion team of Doug Polk and Ryan Fee.

One of the more intriguing teams confirmed so far? This juggernaut of Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast, Jeff Gross and, oh, the greatest Olympian of all-time.

Pumped for tomorrow's @WSOP $10,000 Tag Team event with @tsarrast @MagicAntonio & @MichaelPhelps as our anchor! https://t.co/geU70tW97u

They're even offering a 10% piece via auction on StakeKings for both a sweat and to support Phelp's charity foundation! Follow along live on wsop.com.

3) Fedor, Unstuck

He may have busted the $300,000 Super High Roller out of the money (and at the hands of Kevin Hart no less!) but make no mistake - Fedor Holz came to Vegas primed to play good poker.

How did he drown his sorrows after losing his $300k buy-in in the SHRB? Simply jumping in the the $50k High Roller running the next day and chopping it heads-up with Adrian Mateos:

Chopped the 50k at Aria with hero @Amadi_17 HU for 330k! pic.twitter.com/YeyJ9EsHa1

And just like that, unstuck (more or less) for the summer so far. We repeat: Might be a good idea to check out Fedor's new Primed Mind app. There might be something to it.

The 2017 World Series of Poker began in earnest on Wednesday with world-famous swimmer Michael Phelps diving into the $10k buy-in tag-team event.

Phelps has a long history as a poker aficionado but this is the first time since 2013 that Phelps has taken part in an official WSOP event.

The 28-time Olympic medalist winner joined up with seasoned poker pros Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast and Jeff Gross to compete in the team-based tournament.

Gross and Phelps are long-time friends and were actually roommates before Phelps rose to Olympic fame. Gross had no doubts when it came to Phelps’ abilities at the table.

“Mike knows how to play,” said Gross. “He’s played for a long time. I actually met him at a poker table in 2006.”

$10k Tag-Team Debuts at WSOP

The $10k tag-team event is a new addition to this year’s WSOP schedule. There are no scheduled breaks in the event and players must swap out every time they want to use the bathroom or take a breather.

Every player on the team must play at least one orbit but other than that it’s up to the team’s discretion who plays when.

Michael Phelps' long-time buddy Jeff Gross.

Some of the other notable teams include Phil Hellmuth/Brandon Cantu/Andy Frankenberger and Mizrachi brothers team.

Team Rast/Esfandiari/Gross/Phelps is definitely one of the heavyweights, however, with nearly $50m in lifetime live tournament earnings.

Phelps is less experienced than the rest of the crew but Gross was confident he would be able to pull his weight.

“We didn’t really go over any strategy or anything,” he said.

“I trust him. He knows what he’s doing.”

Gross got the idea to invite Phelps after playing the $1k tag-team event last year with Esfandiari and Rast.

“It was really fun last year,” said Gross. “I thought it was a great idea. Mike couldn’t do that year because he had Olympic training.”

Phelps became a father last year and has a number of post-Olympic commitments so it was difficult to get him on the squad this year.

“As soon as I saw the schedule I thought it would be fun to invite him,” said Gross. “He said, ‘Sweet. Yeah I’d love to do it. I hope I can.’”

Phelps a Last-Minute Addition to the Team

Phelps participation in the event was up in the air up until a week ago but enough space opened up in his schedule to play.

Michael Phelps

Not much time, however, as Phelps will fly out tomorrow to an event in Denver. He might return for the final table if the rest of his team can power their way there.

Regardless of where they finish, Gross was just happy to have his long-time friend along for the ride.

“Mike and I lived together for seven years so we got to hang out all the time,” he said.

“Now we both have families so it’s a bit different. It’s fun to have him here to hang out and play some poker.”

Here’s a collection of photos of Phelps playing on Day 1 of the $10k tag-team tournament:

Can anyone stand between Jake Schindler and the $6m first-place prize in the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl?

Schindler has been downright dominant in the tournament over the last two days and holds a commanding chip lead with just three players left.

The Bryn Mawr, Pa. native has already locked up at least $2.4 million but will be looking to parlay his 10 million chips into even more tomorrow.

A pair of German high rollers trail Schindler with Christoph Vogelsang holding 5.2 million chips while Stefan Schillhabel will have his work cut out for him with 885,000.

The first half of the final table saw Justin Bonomo, Pratyush Buddiga, Byron Kaverman and Leon Tsoukernik bust but that was after the biggest bubble of the year.

Koon Endures Brutal $600k Bubble

The SHRB final table began with a massive elephant in the room. Eight players started the day but only seven spots paid. That meant a $600k bubble.

Jason Koon

Jason Koon was on the hot seat as he entered the day as the short stack with 685,000 chips.

Koon successfully fought back and even moved into sixth place in chips at one point but then started to slide again.

After five grueling hours of play without an elimination Koon had once again sunk down to last in chips.

Finally Koon flopped an open-ended straight draw against Schindler and moved all-in for 470,000.

Schindler snap-called with a set of eights. The set ended up holding and that sent Koon to the rail in eighth place, making him the final player in the 2017 SHRB to lose his $300,000 buy-in.

It's not the first time that Koon has had to deal with some bad luck in the SHRB. PokerListings produced a short video documentary of his experiences in the event in 2015.

The affable Koon took the bustout in stride and later Tweeted the following:

Thanks for all the love. Bubbling hurts but let's be real; I'm an over-privileged, white American who lost money in a poker tournament.

Bonomo, Buddiga, Kaverman, Tsoukernik Make the Money

New REG ambassador Justin Bonomo was the very next player to bust after Koon when his trip deuces got cracked by Vogelsang’s straight.

Pratyush Buddiga's biggest payday ever.

Bonomo got a serious consolation prize in the form of $600,000, however.

Next up it was Pratyush Buddiga falling to Leon Tsoukernik. Buddiga finished in sixth place for $1m, which is the biggest score of his career.

By this point Schindler has firm control of the chip lead and knocked Byron Kaverman out in fifth place with pocket aces over pocket eights. Kaverman locked up $1.4m for his efforts.

The final amateur in the tournament, Tsoukernik, was the last elimination of the night falling in fourth place to earn a staggering $1.8 million.

It’s the biggest payout of Tsoukernik’s career but he said several times that he was playing for the title, not the money.

The final three players will play to a winner tomorrow starting at 1 p.m. All the action will be streamed live on PokerGO.

Here’s a look at all the payouts from today and the three unclaimed prizes that will be doled out tomorrow.

1. — $6,000,000
2. — $3,600,000
3. — $2,400,000
4. Leon Tsoukernik — $1,800,000
5. Byron Kaverman — $1,400,000
6. Pratyush Buddiga — $1,000,000
7. Justin Bonomo — $600,000