The World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas started with 3,835 entrants, but after Day 5 action on Tuesday, just 16 players remain in contention for the title and $5,678,000 first-place prize. The man best positioned to make a run at it is Ben Jacobs, who finished as chip leader with 46,400,000 (77 bb). Not too far behind are Maxime Chilaud (38,200,000 64 bb) and Artur Martirosian (36,200,000 60 bb), while Carl Shaw (29,000,000 47 bb) and Daniel Sepiol (27,900,000 47 bb) round out the top five.

There’s going to be a seven-figure money bubble on Wednesday at the final table of the Big One for One Drop, a $1 million buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) event that is one day away from making one wealthy person much wealthier. Although Phil Ivey didn’t make it to Day 2 after busting late on Day 1, the 14 players who returned to Wynn Las Vegas for the second of three days of play were among the best in the world.

The final hand wasn’t very funny to comedic actor Neil Patrick Harris in Monday’s WPT x Daniel Arsham Celebrity Invitational. Harris ran into a cooler in the six-player celebrity sit-n-go against actress Arden Cho with five players remaining. The winner, entrepreneur Adam Weitsman, won a blue Porsche sculpture designed by Daniel Arsham, who played in the poker game and was the first to bust. Arsham is a world-renowned contemporary artist out of New York, and he designed the World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club trophies for the current season.

The 2023 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year race is Bin Wengs to lose as the players wind down a bumper year for live poker throughout the world. Weng is on top of a crowded leaderboard of pokers best, but his big wins and deep runs throughout 2023 may be too much to overcome in the last month of the year. Nacho Barbero trails by less than 300 points an amount easily overcome by a win in the $40 million WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas and Ren Lin was near the top of the leaderboard near the end of Day 4.

It was a slow start and a rough Day 1 in the $1,000,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Big One for One Drop for poker legend Phil Ivey, who busted just before the session concluded. The Poker Hall of Famer and WPT ambassador was among the 17 players who registered for the seven-figure tournament, and one of three who couldn’t find a bag. Poker Legend Can’t Find a Fold Ivey started off slowly, losing a decent amount of his 1,000,000-chip stack relatively early in the tournament.

The $40 million guaranteed World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, which started with 3,835 players, has dwindled down to just 45, one of whom is reality TV star Princess Love Norwood. On Day 4 (Monday), 132 players returned to Wynn Las Vegas still hoping to win the $5,678,000 first place prize. But that dream died for about one-third of them, including Igor Kurganov (48th place for $111,300), Upeshka De Silva (76h place for $60,800), WPT ambassador Brad Owen (88th place for $53,500) and 2009 world champion Joe Cada (108th place for $41,900).

The 2023 European Poker Tour (EPT) wrapped up on Sunday with Ireland’s Padraig O’Neill emerging victorious in the 5,300 PMain Event for 1,030,000. PokerNews was on-site for the duration of the festival, and during that time our live reporting team captured a number of interesting and game-changing hands, which are highlighted below in the latest edition of “Hands of the Week.” Remember, MyStack by PokerNews is a free-to-use tool built into the PokerNews website that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages.

Doogie Howser is coming to the World Poker Tour (WPT) on Monday. Actor Neil Patrick Harris will headline a WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Wynn Las Vegas, and it will be live-streamed on YouTube starting at 4 p.m. PT. The 50-year-old celebrity initially became famous in the early 1990s when he played the role of Doogie Howser on the hit TV sitcom Doogie Howser, MD. In that role, he played a teenage prodigy who became a medical doctor before he was even old enough to vote.

All around, chips were being cleared into boxes, tables were emptying, and the confetti was already blasted out of cannons as the winner of the Main Event was announced. But over in a quiet corner of the Hilton Prague, the final table of the 10,300 High Roller was still running and it was the last remaining event of the year at the PokerStars European Poker Tour. When it came down to it, a heads-up deal was made between Shyngis Satubayev from Kazakhstan and Antoine Saout from France.

During the Day 3 session, we asked the question, will there be a repeat winner in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship. That answer is no after Eliot Hudon, the defending champion, was eliminated late in the day in 186th place for $27,000. Hudon won it last year for $4.1 million, beating out 2,960 entrants in the first edition of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. He moved all in with KJ and a short stack against the AQ held by Ardit Kurshumi.

It’s been coming, but Mystery Bounty tournament will finally debut on PokerStars over the course of the upcoming New Year Series. The festival is scheduled to run from December 24 until January 16 with $35 million in guarantees. Featuring a 350-event schedule of traditional low, medium and high buy-in levels, players of all level will get the chance to ring in the new year with some unmissable poker action. Were excited to round off the year and ring in 2024 with the New Year Series for our .

Going back-to-back in one of the largest poker tournaments ever no chance, right? Don’t be so sure about it. Eliot Hudon, who won the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship last year for $4.1 million, still has a shot at a repeat on Day 3. The task to win any tournament twice in a row isn’t easy, let alone a $10k with thousands of players, many of whom are considered some of the best in the world.

While the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise proved to be a success, an unfortunate situation has come to light regarding an error at the final table of the $5,300 Main Event. PokerMedia Australia has reported that during three-handed play, Australian poker pro Daniel Neilson paid an extra 10 million in chips after losing a big all-in pot to eventual champ Stanislav Zegal. A dealer error resulted in an incorrect count 48 million as opposed to 38 million and ultimately left Neilson with 5.

The road to PokerStars European Poker Tour glory always has plenty of twists and turns, and the record-breaking EPT 5,300 Prague Main Event was no exception. Jon Kyte, who had led the tournament from Day 3, entered the finale with 229 big blinds and a historic chip lead, one that was assumed to be unassailable. Padraig O’Neill had other ideas and was unexpectedly awarded the final EPT Trophy of the 2023 season after overcoming the Norwegian in heads-up play.

One of the final events of the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague has wrapped, with Pablo Silva defeating Sweden’s Mounir Tajiou heads up to claim the 10,200 NL Hold’em II title. The tournament attracted a total of 46 entries, with only the top six sharing a prize pool of 446,200. “It feels good. It was an amazing tournament - my last one in the series,” Silva said following the win.

The bubble phase is always tense in any poker tournament, especially when there’s at least a five-figure sum waiting around the corner in one of the richest live poker tournaments of all time. Whether you’re an amateur on a fabled Cinderella run or a seasoned vet like, say, a WSOP Main Event champion, decisions can be difficult, definitely when you’re on the shorter stack. With players on the cusp of the hand-for-hand phase in the 2023 WPT World Championship, Joe Hachem was dealt pocket kings in second position and facing a raise from under the gun.

One of the largest poker tournaments in history is in the money. On Level 15, the 481st player busted from the $10,400 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, giving everyone else still standing a sigh of relief. Day 2 on Saturday began at noon PT with 1,400 players hoping to get a slice of that juicy $40 million prize pool. Unfortunately, for many of them, the dream was shattered before the bubble burst.

The $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop will debut from Dec. 18-20 at the WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas. It marks the fifth edition of the seven-figure buy-in event, and the first one since 2018. After a five-year hiatus it seems the grounds have never been more fertile for the Big One, it is clear it has been missed, said Alexandre Meunier, One Drop Foundations Chief Marketing and Events Officer.

Jon Kyte has been living every poker player’s dream over the last few days at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague. The Norwegian poker pro ended Days 3 and 4 as the chip leader in the 5,300 EPT Main Event and he maintained his position atop the counts as the series showstopper gears up for its final day. Just five of the record-breaking 1,285-entry field remain, with Kyte’s stack of 22,900,000 (229 big blinds) leading the handful of hopefuls.

Another day, another huge win at the poker table for Garrett Adelstein. The Los Angeles high-stakes poker legend competed on Friday in a World Poker Tour (WPT) Cash Game live-streamed on YouTube, his second appearance this week in his return to poker for the first time in nearly 15 months. Adelstein admitted after his Dec. 13 appearance on Bally Live Poker at Tropicana, where he won over $130,000, that he played solid but made some mistakes.

When the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise was announced earlier this year, many in the poker world were skeptical it could be a success given it would be going up against two previously-announced stops in the WPT World Championship and EPT Prague. However, with the help of GGPoker, the 15-bracelet-event stop proved to be a success awarding more than $70 million in prize money, well ahead of its promised $50 million in guarantees.

888Ride is the popular Youtube feature where David Tuchman meanders around Vegas in a silver Cadillac Escalade with an 888poker logo on the door and a poker personality in the passenger seat. One of the latest guests was Jeff Platt, who joined Tuchman for an interview about being poker’s best-known interviewer. Platt has become a household name in his role as a poker commentator. His “stand up for me” interviews are now an integral part of the annual WSOP broadcasts.

While there was some overlay in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, Day 1d brought out a massive field, and the tournament is officially one of the largest in poker history. Registration closed in the $10,400 buy-in event on Friday evening with 1,523 players registered for the final session, bringing the total to 3,835, a 30% increase from the 2022 edition. There were numerous high-profile players who bagged on Day 1d, including many big stacks such David Peters and Huck Seed.

“We knew the risks. But I know that we’ve achieved what we were going for.” Those are the words of Adam Pliska, President and CEO of the World Poker Tour after registration closed in the 2023 WPT World Championship, just 247 entries short of the figured required to meet the $40 million guarantee. “What people saw was a substantially larger event that ran even smoother. I don’t want to suggest other events weren’t a factor, but what it did not affect is the quality of the event that we produced, and that was our main focus.