Alan Keating Says Tournament Poker Is Not Real Poker Alan Keating has offended half of the poker community saying that tournament poker isn’t deserving of the name says its checkers versus chess.

, the high-stakes cash-game reg offered a blunt assessment of tournament poker that has reignited a long-standing debate within the poker community. Keating couldn’t have been any straightforward when he said: “Tournaments are more like checkers to me… I don’t think tournament poker is the most pure form of poker. Wait…I did just sugarcoat it. “I don’t think tournament poker is poker. It’s horrible, it’s a lottery. For me, poker at its purest is playing for irresponsible sums of money.

2026 Global Poker Awards Cancelled The GPI has announced that the Global Poker Awards a celebration of excellence in poker media content creation and innovation will not return.

This shocking decision marks the end of an annual tradition that began back in 2017 and served as the poker community’s premier recognition platform outside of major tournament accolades. GPI founder Dan Fleyshman launched the Global Poker Awards to honour contributions to the modern poker community that had grown up in the digital age — the kind of categories that regular people could aim at. Categories included “Poker Personality of the Year,” “Best Streamer,” “Breakout Player,” and “Industry Person of the Year,” with nominations and winners determined through a combination of fan voting and expert panels.

High-Stakes Crushers Clash Over Advice to Avoid Microstakes Poker High-stakes players Ben Rolle and Uri Peleg have clashed on X following the latter’s advice for new players to quit playing the smallest stakes.

Could it really be good advice to forgo learning the ropes in a $5 game? Uri Peleg certainly thinks that, and he’s caused a bit of a ruckus on X by saying so. He asked the question: “How to best study while playing microstakes?” Easy, he said: “Don’t play microstakes.” That’s a shocking answer for those who did it “the hard way” during the boom years, but does he have a point?

Hand of the Week: Alan Keating Stuns Doug Polk with Savage Hero Call for $675K Alan Keating has pulled off yet another sensational soul read on High Stakes Poker demolishing Doug Polk for a pot worth $657200.

In recent years, Alan Keating has built a reputation and standing within poker that is usually reserved for high-stakes live tournament players. For most of the poker boom, TV poker shows invited legends from years gone by, such as Doyle Brunson and the late Chip Reese, and the guys who were winning the big events consistently, like Phil Hellmuth. It was tough to break through into this pool of players purely by playing cash games behind the scenes.

Indian Poker Industry Clinches to Last Minute Reprieve at Supreme Court India’s Supreme Court Supreme Court is set to examine further a nationwide ban on online gaming on November 26.

A bench led by Justice K.V. Viswanathan will conduct a detailed hearing on petitions challenging the unpopular Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA). In August 2025, the bill was passed through the Indian Parliament without any meaningful resistance, leading to fears that the growing online poker market in India would be shut down. Operators who provide access to real money games face large fines and prison sentences up to three years.

Is Poker Content Under Threat from YouTube? YouTube has announced sweeping changes to its gambling-related content policies leaving poker content creators concerned about their futures.

The world’s largest video platform is tightening restrictions specifically around content linking to, or even referencing, unlicensed gambling sites. Although this latest crackdown is aimed at all forms of gambling, poker channels could face challenges in the near future. What Will Change? Any promotion that directs viewers to an “unapproved” gambling site will be blocked. We’re talking about anything here, from links and logos; even mentions. The only gaming platforms that are allowed to be promoted must meet strict legal standards and be certified by Google.

Phil Galfond and Grok 4 Agree Epic Poker Showdown Phil Galfond and Grok have apparently agreed to a high-stakes match after it replied to a thread showing the machine topping a leaderboard of AI poker performance.

Elon Musk posted the table showing Grok 4 leading the way in a battle of large language models (LLM) playing poker non-stop for five days straight. Is it the best AI out there? Well, we don’t know yet and Tom Dwan even popped up in the thread to tell Musk that GTO Wizard would wipe the floor with the lot of them Know when to hold ‘em pic.twitter.com/CymUMYKdpd — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2025

NBA Players and the Mafia Syndicates at Centre of Poker Scandal 31 people have been arrested and charged over a cheating scandal in poker games involving NBA stars and the Mafia.

Federal authorities have unmasked a sprawling criminal enterprise linking prominent NBA players with notorious Mafia syndicates, all centered around a series of rigged high-stakes poker games. This meticulously orchestrated scheme, which allegedly operated between 2019 and 2025, has sent shockwaves throughout the poker community, sparking discussion on game integrity. Yesterday US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. announced that Chauncey Billups, a former NBA superstar and head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers was one of the arrested parties along with Terry Rozier and Damon Jones.

Top 10 Craziest Prop Bets Made by Poker Players Poker is best known for its intense strategic battles but how many people realise that much of the betting that goes on in the community is actually away from the felt?

When somebody mentions poker, it often conjures up images of a pair of figures staring intently at each other across the table, usually wearing sunglasses, trying to intimidate each other. What outsiders don’t think about is that these figures generally love gambling in many different forms, and as they go about their daily lives they will come up with the most bizarre, unthinkable wagers. These prop bets mostly aim at challenging not just skill but endurance, creativity, and sometimes sanity.

Phil Hellmuth Claims $3 Million Cash Game Profit Offers $1 Million Challenge to Haters Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth has come out firing on social media offering a $1 million challenge for anyone who says he’s a losing cash game player.

Phil Hellmuth Hellmuth is known for being touchy over negative comments about his poker ability, and he’s long been accused of being a bad cash game player. Nothing wrong with that, though, and certainly in games against some of his usual rivals at the top of the game. Hellmuth built his reputation as a tournament player and that is the environment where he is most feared. But now he wants to match his $500K against $500K from one of his doubters based on his future performance in live televised cash games.

CoinPoker Brings Us the Best High-Stakes Cash Games Ever CoinPoker has once again brought us the biggest online cash games around today as Jared Bleznick and Linus Loeliger hit the felt with some massive wins.

This week’s action review begins with Linus “LLinusLL0ve” Loeliger — a candidate for best online 6-max player in the world — taking on fellow high-stakes crusher SeaLlama. The pair were battling with almost $100,000 on the table at the start of the heads-up match. Linus Loeliger SeaLlama Takes Some Beats Versus LlinusLLove The first hand of note comes with SeaLlama coming unstuck against a nasty board runout. The players are around $37,000 deep at stakes of $100/$200 NL.

Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov Married at Burning Man Poker’s power couple Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov have finally tied the knot in a spectacular wedding ceremony at the iconic desert festival Burning Man.

Boeree posted the message “WE FINALLY DID IT!!!” and photos from the event on her X account last night, telling her followers that the official album would soon follow. The pair of free-spirited personalities wore unconventional outfits, far from traditional get-up in the colourful backdrop of Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The choice of venue was no surprise to those who know the pair. Boeree described the place as their “favourite place on earth.

Who Are the Most Influential People in Poker History? Poker has been around for a long time now with its landscape shifting continuously. But who are the characters in the game who have been the most influential over the years?

Chris Moneymaker at the WSOP 2003This is what Upswing Poker founder Doug Polk has been asking his fans and followers on X, and to be honest, we’ve seen some pretty interesting answers. Of course when you ask subjective questions like this, you will get a wide range of answers; not everybody will agree. WSOP Laying the Foundations Doyle Brunson The first name which appears throughout most of the early posts will come as no surprise to any generation of poker player still in the game today — Doyle Brunson!

Matt Savage Lays Down the Law to Will Kassouf and Martin Kabrhel WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage has been spending time with perpetual poker bad boys Will Kassouf and Martin Kabrhel at the WPT Cyprus Championship.

Matt Savage and Martin Kabrhel Apparently, the poker community has it wrong and they’re both a lot different from what their public image would suggest. Today saw the start of the $3,500 buy-in, $2 million GTD WPT Cyprus Championship at the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Casino. Plenty of well-known faces were present at the casino but none more so than the pair of characters who had the poker media scribbling for much of the WSOP 2025.

Jared Bleznick Smashing the $200000 PLO Tables on CoinPoker Jared Bleznick is single-handedly bringing back the nosebleed scene to online poker after smashing out a constant stream of six-figure pots on the $200000 tables on CoinPoker.

The last few days have looked indistinguishable from an era gone by when the likes of Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan battled on the high-stakestables on Full Tilt Poker. “Theblez,” as Bleznick is known as on CoinPoker, has been helping to turn back the clock for the nosebleed games, regularly playing stakes of $500/$1,000 PLO and even higher, happy to take on all comers. Jared Bleznick’s been battling in the 200KPLO heads-up games on CoinPoker 🤯

Doug Polk Takes to Mainstream Media to Defend Poker from Unfair Tax Doug Polk has appeared on mainstream media new outlet New Nation to stick up for poker in the midst of unpopular gambling law changes.

Right now, the American gambling community is in a state of bewilderment about the prospective effects of a new version of the country’s gambling laws. Put simply, if everything continues down the path the government intends, the number of professional poker players in the United States will reduce massively. Possibly to the point of making the game unprofitable for all but a few. The issue is really all about one point — from next year, gamblers will only be able to write off 90% of their losses.

Frankie C Challenges Martin Kabrhel to Heads-Up Match Frank Frankie C Cucchiara has brazenly challenged high-stakes poker star Martin Kabrhel to a heads-up match apparently agreeing to play for $1000000 if he can get the money.

The Czech player is one of those names who consistently finds his way into the poker media for various reasons, often being a bit of a nuisance, but there’s no denying he’s a great poker player. Having Martin Kabrhel’s scalp on his record would make Frankie C a player of note, without a doubt. Who Is Frankie C? The 26-year-old poker content creator is a relatively new face on the scene and known for being the partner of Kitty Kuo.

Stephen Chidwick Finally Joins the Social Media Fray Elite live tournament specialist Stephen Chidwick has made his first foray into the world of social media opening an account on X to engage with his fans.

Stephen Chidwick The British star is known as the quiet man of top-tier poker and, although he has more than his fair share of fans, we really don’t know an awful lot about him as a man. Now, though, he has invited us to take part in an AMA — Ask Me Anything — on an X thread. Hello X. Many of you will know me as a top poker player who doesn’t say very much, and for a long time, I guess I didn’t really think I had much of value to say.

Doug Polk Sells Upswing Poker to ClubWPT Gold Doug Polk has announced the sale of Upswing Poker to sweepstakes operator ClubWPT gold for an undisclosed fee.

Aftermore than nine years of operating the leading training site with his friend Ryan Fee, Polk will be handing over the keys of Upswing Poker to its new owner, while promising a bright future for the outfit. A Decade of Upswing Poker It was all the way back in 2016 that Doug Polk was encouraged to consider starting a poker training site by Ryan Fee. The training space has previously been dominated by classic sites Card Runners and Deucescracked, but their massive, over-sized libraries left novice players scrambling around, wondering where to start.

A Spotlight on Nuisance Players in Live Poker TV poker has always provided us with polarising characters but has some of the more recent nuisance behaviour gone too far? Are we risking harm to the game if nothing is done?

Will Kassouf Good, old fashioned live poker is supposed to be a blend of strategy and psychological warfare. It’s not supposed to be over-the-top trash TV. When the show becomes more about player behaviour than the actual poker, we should know that change is needed. What we witnessed during the WSOP 2025 exceeded anything we have seen before. Maybe the cameras amplify disruptive tactics, focusing the viewer’s attention on the negative, but the level of sheer annoyance indicated on social media was at a greater height than in previous years.

The 2025 World Series of Poker in Numbers This summer’s World Series of Poker saw players fork out a total of $529million in buy-ins but how much of that went in rake? The answer — a healthy $47million!

2025 WSOP Main Event (Courtesy of WSOP) Nearly one quarter of a million entries graced the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas this summer as GGPoker took over the running of the WSOP for the very first time. The result was a slew of records broken, including almost everything money related. There were 100 bracelet events this year, one up on last year’s 99 gold bracelets awarded, and that produced and extra 17,361 in total entries over last year’s figure.

The Taxman Takes $9million from Main Event Final Table Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi may well have won the $10million top prize but he will only get to keep $6million of it as the taxman takes his bite!

(Courtesy of WSOP/Rachel Kay Winter) “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin (allegedly!) and for Michael Mizrachi, the 100,000 $100 bills bearing Franklin’s image he won this week won’t all be his to keep. Every year, Russ Fox of Clayton Financial and Tax of Las Vegas, gives us the breakdown of just how much the winner and his fellow final tablists have to give up to the taxman.

Standard of WSOP Dealers Called Out after Bizarre Hand One of the strangest hands of the summer has led to calls to improve the standard of dealers at the WSOP. A mucked card used to flop a set sparked the debate.

(Photo courtesy of WSOP/Spenser Sembrat) With tens of thousands of players all desperate to play the WSOP, it’s no easy job catering for them, and that of course includes attracting enough good dealers to service the 100-bracelet summer shindig. Nevertheless, some basic standards need to be met and it seems that we are quite far from achieving that, if recent evidence is anything to go by! Poker vlogger Lexy Gavin-Mather found herself in trouble when her pocket 7s were at risk against pocket 10s.

$1million Chip Dumping Allegations Mar WSOP Victory Jesse Yaginuma pulled back a 10-1 chip deficit to land WSOP gold and a $1milllion bonus but has sparked claims of a chip dumping deal.

Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll (courtesy of WSOP) The grand finale to Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker saw both heads-up players – Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll – lock up $1million payouts, with $250k and the bracelet still to play for. Yaginuma, however, was in line to pick up a ClubWPT Gold promotional bonus of another $1million, having qualified by bagging one of the sweepstakes-style online site’s Gold Rush tickets.