Online Poker News, Games, and Tournaments
The internet poker laws in the United States are complicated and unclear, at best. With all of that taken into consideration, our experts sift through the mess and make our best recommendations about sites operating in different markets. And for a place like the US, its laws are unclear at best, with the exception of a few individual states, and poker operators then decide to cater to that market or not.
The bill has already gained support from the Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA), a group representing sweepstakes poker operators. While traditional casino operators aren’t thrilled about the competition, Calabrese argues that regulation is the best approach. Meanwhile, Senator Joseph Addabbo is pushing a separate bill for broader iGaming regulation, including measures targeting unregulated sweepstakes casinos.
Honestly, going into the final day, I had a strong feeling that destiny was on my side. If I could have chosen one opponent to play heads-up against, it was Lucas. When we were at the same table, we talked about our backgrounds, our history, family, and stuff like that. You had a lot of support from all corners of the poker world.
The day before we started the final table, we all saw the final table setup together and went through the practical stuff. There seemed to be a real camaraderie among the final nine despite what everyone was playing for. We went through some technical spots together where I definitely got some nice help with certain spots you could expect frequently at the final table. Did you work with any coaches at all to prepare for the final table? I was feeling good and confident going into the final table.
In 2008, the WSOP introduced the November Nine where the Main Event plays down to a final table of nine in July, before resuming in November. Barbara Enright became the only woman to make the Main Event final table with her fifth-place finish in 1995, until Leo Margets achieved the same feat in 2025 where she finished seventh. More famous players added their names to WSOP history, as Dan Harrington, Huck Seed and Scotty Nguyen all won Main Events. Reported for the professionals behind the felt, not just the players at it.
Read on to find out a detailed overview of the online poker series than each site runs. The best poker site to play mystery bounty tournaments is GGPoker. Forget progressive knockouts, where players’ bounties accumulate every time they knockout a player – mystery bounties do not accumulate. Another bonus is the bounty series that it runs on a seasonal basis, giving players another opportunity to compete in PKOs with huge prize pools (but more on that later).
As a result, there was no one to hold them accountable when misconduct, such as the infamous cheating scandal at UB, victimized players. Without proper legalization and regulation, online poker sites operate without much oversight. As one of the most conservative states in the country, Utah does not offer online or live poker and don’t hold your breath for that to change any time soon. There is no online poker in Texas and the state has some of the strictest gambling laws in the country. There is no online or live poker in Tennessee and it seems unlikely that either will be reaching the state any time soon.
What This Means for Players
- The complaint further alleged that between April 2007 and April 2011, Bitar, Lederer, Ferguson and Furst lined their own pockets with approximately $443 million in players’ money.
- No matter where you might toss the dart on the calendar, you’ll find something to play, so we did a deep dive on the schedule to map out the rest of 2026.
- I truly feel like it’s a team game.
- They’re perfect for beginners, bankroll builders and anyone looking to play without spending real money.
- New players also want poker sites to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but which ones do?
The very first WSOP online bracelet tournament was in 2015, with the $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold ‘Em won by Anthony Spinella over a field of 905 for $197,743. The first World Series took place in 1970 and featured no tournaments at all. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a live poker festival held every year in Las Vegas. We do not operate as an affiliate and do not earn from player activity. PokerNews produces and provides live play-by-play updates and chip counts for publication on the World Series of Poker website, as well as on PokerNews.com. GGPoker is running an exclusive WSOP Online series across 45 days of non-stop action, along with more than $350 million in tournament prizes and over $5 million in exclusive promotions.
My mission for the final table is to feel good, look good, and play good, kind of thing, right? I was fifth overall out of eleven players left. What people don’t understand is you can’t be a tight player or a loose player or a gambling player. Against better players, yes, it can.
Not only that but even though the state is small, there are plenty of nearby card rooms in neighboring states, which makes Delaware a great place to live for poker players. If a venue is able to offer table games, chances are they’re able to offer live poker if they so choose. Addabbo, who isn’t a poker player himself, said online gambling could bring in millions in pokernewsdaily.com revenue and pointed to an upcoming “multi-billion dollar deficit” in New York’s 2026 and 2027 budgets. While they all help, disciplined bankroll management is absolutely essential, and poor financial decisions in poker is often the downfall of even some of the best tournament players. Below, we outline our top five tips and strategies for online poker tournaments.
In part two of our interview with Daniel, we will dive into why he feels PLO events have become his ‘jam’ and go into a deeper discussion on the controversial results of the 2026 Poker Hall of Fame. And you want to make sure people haven’t wasted their money on you. He got there playing a super aggressive style, and he was really going for it. The one where he hit top pair with ks,jd, and eventually folded the river to a big bet? A lot of people don’t understand his methods, but his long-term goal for poker is beautiful.
Nevada is one of the few states in the US that allows for legal, regulated online poker. If sports betting, with a far bigger market than online poker, can’t get any traction, there’s zero hope for online poker at the moment. Mississippi became one of the first states to jump on board the sports betting train, and it would seem online poker would be a natural fit.
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WSOP Circuit Ring Winners Upset After Being Denied $5K Packages
Since 2012, lawmakers have at least considered a pro-online poker bill but one has never seriously advanced or come close to passing. Live poker rooms are limited to Indian reservations in a few areas, with Black Hawk being the most notable and top place to play in Colorado. In more than a decade since there hasn’t been any serious movement toward bringing legal online poker to the state. Poker is not legal in Alabama and there are no licensed and regulated poker sites or live poker rooms available in the state. Here’s a state-by-state look at the current state of online poker across the United States.
APT tournaments generally start and end earlier, and the buy-ins are lower and more affordable. The PLO and NLH Venom tournaments kicked off today with a combined $15M in guarantees spread across several starting flights all month. There were some reporters who refused to do chip counts because they thought it beneath them even though tournament coverage without chip counts is like a baseball game without a scoreboard. But it was also one of the first times that I was not just ‘allowed’ to bring my personality to the table but encouraged. You saw poker media evolve from blogs, written updates, and experimental podcasts into official livestreams, social video, and organization-owned content. With only a handful of exceptions, I don’t think any player really struck me as wildly different from how they were on television.
Some countries make their poker laws very clear, like the UK, and a poker site is very simply in good standing with the UK Gambling Commission or not. It’s also important to look at the stakes offered on potential sites so the effort of creating an account will be worth it. Proper bankroll management should be considered, but deposit bonuses and promotions also come into play. The speed of those withdrawal transactions is also important, as customers tend to want their money quickly. A few weeks after winning a record fourth WSOP Poker Players Championship Michael Mizrachi is on top of the poker world again after winning the 2025 WSOP Main Event. If you’re a regular at 888poker there are a couple new promos that could give your bankroll a boost.
Also on Wednesday, BetMGM Poker PA announced that it would join the BetMGM Poker shared player pool with New Jersey and Michigan on Monday, April 28 at 9 a.m. Shapiro even accepted an invitation to a poker game for government officials inside the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. “I hope so. And not because I’m trying to encourage people to go out and gamble or play poker or do something else. It’s up to you. But if you want to do that, I think it’s important to make it easy.”
Is poker legal in Virginia?
Season 3 of Galfond’s intense Beyond the Game poker training program brings some big improvements and more flexible membership options. From preflop chart apps to solvers and ICM calculators, discover the best poker tools in 2026 that you will need in your arsenal. The huge pot was a fitting exclamation mark to a wild stretch of play. Start-of-day leader Reoma Ogawa was ousted in seventh place when his roughly nine-big-blind three-bet shove was called by Molenaar’s ac,qs. It finally came 38 hands later with Yuya Arito falling to Chan after he jammed 5h,5d from the small blind and couldn’t hold up against Chan’s call from the big blind with ks,jh. Play was notably snug after the bubble burst, with the APT commentary team invoking Teddy KGB from Rounders as the entire table was ‘hanging around, hanging around’ for that first $6K pay jump.
I played with Mike back in the day at the Borgata, and I always admired his play. I would share how to enjoy the entire experience, focus on his game that got him there, and see the situation clearly from experience. If he asked me for advice, I would share the best ways to block out the noise and prepare not just for poker, but physically, mentally, and spiritually. Rami Hammoud played amazing for an alleged ‘rec’. Michael Gagliano plays solid, and given a few early big hands, he can be formidable.
In fact, just last week we uncovered clear signs that the company was preparing to combine PokerStars with FanDuel and bring online poker under its platform. Having been in business since 2003, our relationships with online poker operators allow us to offer exclusive bonuses. Of course, there are a few states that have taken it upon themselves to legalize and regulate online poker within their borders, and those laws are very clear. A top poker site for one player may not be considered the best for another. Some players discover this by trial and error, while others check out our research to find the site that best fits their needs. In these 14-plus years, we have been asked every question possible about online poker.
But most online sites all offer something different when it comes to tournaments. Online poker tournaments are fun, intense and (if played correctly) rewarding. If the company does sign an agreement with the Passamaquoddy, poker players may be left with one option. These versions let you practice and enjoy tournaments using play money while waiting for regulation to expand in your location. Real money online poker is fully legal and regulated in countries like the UK and much of Europe.
The announcement marks the beginning of a new era for players in the regulated US states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan, with PokerStars exclusively on FanDuel also available to players in Ontario. The move will see FanDuel become the exclusive home of PokerStars, combining the PokerStars experience players know and love with FanDuel’s large existing player base. Both Pokerfuse and Poker Industry PRO, our authoritative business analytics platform for the online poker industry, had been tracking and speculating on this integration for months. The partnership could pave the way for entry into additional regulated jurisdictions with online poker in West Virginia expected and a launch in Connecticut possible.
I really started to fall in love with the game watching those videos and learning the intricacies of poker and how super deep the game is. It was when my dad used to run home games with his friends. This is what being present does for you, and it’s why I believe every player should prioritize getting into this state above all else. You might notice that none of the questions I had you ask were, “What is theoretically correct against a perfect player? I had this happen deep in an online tournament the other night.
The question is no longer whether online poker should be regulated. Just as importantly, it proved that regulated online poker can scale across state lines when the right conditions are in place. If even one or two of these new bills pass in 2025, the landscape for US online poker could look very different a year from now. Meanwhile, New Jersey is tackling sweepstakes casinos, a growing part of the online gaming world. If it wasn’t clear before, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to US online poker at the moment. While Massachusetts has made progress with sports betting, its lawmakers haven’t shown much interest in online poker until now.
WSOP Main Event runner-up Lauri Saaskilahti reflects on his $6M run, his bond with Lucas Jumalon and coming agonizingly close to poker history. Are we as a game and community more attractive to a greater portion of the population? Finally, the broadening of the poker demographic has demanded a higher level of inclusion and tolerance.
The best poker site to play satellites is WSOP.com. PokerStars also offers a lot of great turbo and hyper tournaments, built in to its packed daily schedule. The best poker site to play turbo and hypers is GGPoker. In this instance, cash games are the way to go and MTTs are out of the question, right? It offers mystery bounty tournaments throughout the day.
The best poker players I have ever met, the ones who have paid their bills from this game for decades, often tell me they are not the smartest people. I don’t want to play poker full-time, but I will definitely try to play more tournaments than I have so far. What if three or four players at every poker table were women? I have coached people at the highest levels of poker – the people who you look up to who are routinely winning in the toughest cash games and biggest tournaments. Founded by poker players in 2014, our main goal is to deliver the latest poker news from around the world, with an emphasis on the Asian market.
Its global reach, diverse player base, and nonstop action make it the go-to platform for anyone seeking high-volume games at every stake level. If you want to find a game quickly and easily, or play large-field tournaments with bumper prizepools, BetMGM Poker is a great choice. BetRivers Poker might be one of the newest online poker sites around, but it’s already making a big impression on the market. It is focused on returning a high share of rake to players via its iRush Rewards programme, which can deliver 40 %–75 % rake-back at top VIP levels.