As the World Series approaches, players begin to make various wagers.
Terrence Reed challenged anyone who didn't have a bracelet yet to compete:
– It's time to announce that the WSOP Bracelet Bet is returning for 2025. Last year we handed almost $40k to Danny Sepiol after he won his first bracelet. This year should be even bigger with more time to get the word out. Details below, dm me with any questions.
• $1k buy-in per person
• Open only to those who have not won a bracelet
• NLH and PLO events only
• Buy-ins of $10k and under only
• "Open" events only (no seniors, women's)
• Winner-take-all
• If there is no winner by the start of the Main Event, you can either have the money returned or roll into a ME last longer
• Money is preferred by the start of summer but must be received before an event starts for said event to qualify.
At the moment, more than 30 people have already signed up .
Lance Bradley asked readers:
– If a recreational player is going to the WSOP for the first time (or the first time in a long time) what is some advice you would give them on how to make the most of their experience?
Among the most popular were mostly humorous options:
Ben Lamb: Play high stakes PLO.
Sam Panzica: Stay home.
Josh Arie: Borrow money and play a razz tournament.
On March 12, Owen Messer took 3rd place in the GGMillion$ tournament.
“Not bad for a cash reg,” Owen noted his success .
A week later, in the same tournament, he took 2nd place .
– Is it time to admit that I've become a tournament reg who can't play heads-up? 🤔
Lately, Owen has been testing himself in heads-up play with Linus Loeliger, playing two tables of $100/$200 almost every day.
Some hole card sessions are streamed on the CoinPoker account .
🔥 The Two Greatest Cash Game Players Go Heads-Up! LIVE on CoinPoker! 🚀💰 https://t.co/Z0BrTy2gge
— CoinPoker (@CoinPoker_OFF) April 3, 2025
Doug Polk is close to completing his challenge where he set himself the goal of winning $100k in a month.
The beginning was extremely unsuccessful, but gradually things are getting better.
On March 31, Doug reported that he had finally managed to break even:
– After 143 hours of streaming I am finally back to even
With $521 in profit, my hourly is $3.64
Incredible use of my time.
On Thursday he played his best session of the entire challenge.
“I’m starting to believe,” he wrote after winning more than $20k.
There are only a couple of sessions left in the marathon. Polk lost $5,700 in the last one, his overall result is now +$18,121. The marathon was supposed to end on Saturday, but Polk recently announced that there will be an additional session on Sunday:
– MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT
Once I started losing in the Code Doug Challenge, Eric Persson started talking shit.
Well now he’s putting his money where his mouth is.
The Code Doug Challenge ends Saturday at 5PM CT with a $50/$100 match on Club WPT Gold with $20K stacks vs Eric Persson
"Why would I want to play Doug Polk HU? I don't even have a mouse..." Eric asks himself
Daniel Cates was upset that he was ignored again:
– I am trying to play Doug Polk or Phil Ivey for high stakes, but we seem to not be able to work this out in either capacity.
Xbook a ring game also worksz
I am willing to prove I can vie for best in the world.
I keep saying it and I will keep saying it.
Nick Airball recently made his long-awaited return to the Hustler streams. In his first session, he won the biggest pot of the year against Alan Keating.
Nick called a half-stack 5-bet with a pair of nines against Keating. On the flop. Alan shoved and got a quick call.
The stream attracted its largest audience since last year's Million Dollar Game, with 17,560 viewers tuning in at its peak.
Alan probably didn't feel too bad about the setback. Episode 10 of the new season of High Stakes Poker aired this week, and he won the biggest pot in the show's history.
Alan's victim was his principal rival Peter Van, with whom he had already played an epic hand in one of the previous episodes.
The WSOPC Main Event at Turning Stone Casino was contested by little-known players Taylor Hart and Michael Aman.
In one of the heads-up hands, Aman got a push on the river and thought for 20 minutes. Hart sat motionless the entire time and did not start timing his opponent.
In the end, Aman threw it away. The giveaway caused a storm of reactions on social media.
"I was knocked out of 10 tournaments while this guy was thinking about one decision!" Patrick Leonard was impressed .
– And after what time would you actually start timing? – Richard Collier asked . – They're playing for a ring and $280k.
– No more than 5 minutes, – Jeremy Ausmus is sure. – There should be a special rule for this. A very peculiar spot, since only one player can keep time, but he is probably afraid to give away any information.
"Four minutes," Joe Cada agrees. "There wasn't a single hand in my Main Event final where any player thought for more than three minutes."
“The most amazing thing is that he threw it out, although his opponent had not asked for the time to be started for 20 minutes,” Mario Mosbeck is sure that it was a bluff.
“He would definitely be bluffing,” Patrick Leonard disagrees.
– Maybe, but he obviously wanted to get a fold, since he didn’t keep track of the time.
Jason Strasser recalled the online legend of the 2000s:
– Working hard trying to get into the mind of Trump. Haven't worked this hard since battling BLdSWtTRs on Party Poker in 2006 that dude was a beast. Where is he now?
“Works in the Oval Office,” Mike McDonald suggested.
Phil Galfond's Run It Once website has announced the launch of a new training course:
– Introducing our new course – Dominate with Data!
RIO's own Patrick Gerritsen (AKA Freenachos) broke down over 200 million hands of data across different sites, node by node, to expose the exact mistakes populations are making and how to exploit them.
The news was published on April 1, but it looks quite serious. The course is sold on the site for $999.
The community reacted to the information quite negatively.
– How can you even get access to 200 million hands? – commentators wonder.
Dominik Nitsche addressed the official accounts of PokerStars and GG:
– How do you feel about people illegally accessing millions of your distributions and then using them to make a commercial product?
– Ha-ha, modern online is complete crap, – Henrik Hecklen is also not happy.
Some tried to reach Phil Galfond personally:
– You seem like a highly moral person, but this looks damn unprincipled.
Phil didn't react to this in any way.
Kevin Martin asked readers what the record for the most entries into a single tournament was:
– What’s the record for most bullets in one tournament in poker history?
Many remembered Scott Seiver, who made 43 entries into the $1k Flip & Go tournament at the 2022 World Series.
But Kevin countered that he was interested in "regular tournaments."
– When you were in middle school there was a format at the WSOP called “Rebuys” where players would fire off and not even have to leave their seat. Chips would get delivered immediately and they would move in blind trying to build a stack. People complained and WSOP ended them.
"Yeah, I rebuyed 19 times in one $1k tournament and never even got out of my chair," Scott Seiver admitted.
In 2009, such tournaments were cancelled. According to rumors, the last straw for the organizers was Layne Flack's victory in 2008, when he made 33 rebuys in a $1,500 PLO tournament and received $577k for first place .
“I have the first place in rebuys,” Daniel Negreanu proudly said in an interview from those years. “And also the second, third and fourth places.”
In 2006, Daniel made 48 rebuys in a $1k tournament and did not cash.
The tournament that started the discussion ended on Tuesday. Anatoly Zlotnikov took 3rd place, Arslan Agabaev took 4th place, both updated their best-cache.
On Reddit they discovered that there is life in small rooms too.
– I found the strongest tournament player on Global Poker or what is that? – asks the author of the topic .
"This is what a regular chart looks like at a large distance if you zoom out," they explained in the comments. "But you could get the right size without leaving your computer."
– Look at the ChildOfJesus chart, he also has impressive results.
