The Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino in Northern Cyprus has a glowing reputation for running prestigious poker tournament festivals. We may only be a couple of weeks into 2024, but the venue is putting together last-minute preparations for its first festival of the year, the 2024 Merit Poker Western Series. Northern Cyprus ticks all the right boxes for a poker destination. It is easy to get to from across Europe, the weather is usually warm and sunny even at this time of year, the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino is all-inclusive, and its staff leaves guests wanting for nothing, and the poker tournaments are out of this world.

The partnership between GGPoker and Dusk Till Dawn has bore fruit once again, with the latter gearing up to host the 2024 UK Poker Championships (UKPC). Following on from an action-packed 2023 UKPC, the 2024 edition runs from January 20-29 and sees a host of tournaments, including a 500,000 guaranteed UKPC Main Event. Although the 2024 UKPC does not start until January 20, poker players at Dusk Till Dawn for the APAT UK Team Championships this weekend can attempt to win one of five 560 UKPC Main Event seats for only 30.

Following his bust-out hand in the PGT Championship on Tuesday, Phil Hellmuth spoke for over four minutes with PokerGO’s Natalie Bode in what turned out to be one of his most brutally honest interviews. The “Poker Brat” exited the PokerGO Studio without a cash in the season-ending $1 million freeroll, which is set to play down to a winner on Wednesday. Bode began the interview with the traditional, “were you pleased with your play today” question.

Six players returned to the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on Wednesday chasing the $500,000 first place prize in the PGT Championship $1 million season-ending freeroll. It took about six hours of play for the start-of-day chip leader, Daniel Smiljkovic, to come out victorious. Although Smiljkovic entered the final table with the largest stack, it took a massive rally during heads-up play to outlast Arden Cho, the only female in the field who also happened to be one of the “dream seat” entrants.

The PokerStars New Year Series, like all good things, must come to an end, which is what’s happening on January 16. Two days prior to the curtain coming down on what has been an incredible festival, a trio of No-Limit Hold’em and one Pot-Limit Omaha Main Event shuffle up and deal, giving PokerStars players the chance to play for a share of a combined $3,850,000 in combined guaranteed prize pools.

One of the top stories of 2023 was how the World Poker Tour (WPT) became a true challenge in the US live poker space. On the other side of the pond, WPT Prime became a must-play tour across Europe, Asia, and Oceania, with bumper crowds turning out for its main events. WPT has released its schedule of WPT Prime events for 2024, and you will be delighted to learn that you can win your way into all of them online at WPT Global via the online poker site’s WPT Prime Passport promotion.

The inaugural UK Poker League (UKPL), the latest fruit from the 888poker and Grosvenor Casinos partnership, kicks off inside the Grosvenor G Casino in Coventry from January 16, and one man is all but nailed on to be in the Midlands: Ludovic Geilich. The popular Scotsman this week put pen to paper on a sponsorship deal with Grosvenor Poker, making him a fully fledged member of Team Grosvenor. Geilich will fly the Grosvenor flag alongside Katie Swift, Andy Hills, Jamie Nixon, Euan McNicholas, Matt Davenport, and the winner of the 2023 National Poker League Calogero Morreale.

The Hendon Mob (THM) and Unibet DeepStack Open (UDO) are partnering up for the first time to offer the THM Winter Championship by USDO, which will take place at Grand Casino Liechtenstein from Jan. 29-Feb. 5. The THM Winter Championship in the Alps will culminate with the CHF 350 buy-in Main Event, a three-day tournament with a CHF 150,000 guarantee. Other highlights of the series include a High Roller Progressive Bounty event, the THMC Winter Cup and the THMC Closer.

One of pokers rising content creators will join Boston Rob Mariano in a battle for big bucks this spring on NBCs Deal or No Deal Island. The show will premiere on February 26 on NBC, but you can catch a 30-minute preview on Saturday, January 13 after the NFL playoff game. Brantzen Wong, also known as Los Angeles-based poker vlogger Brantzen Poker, has built a YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers since it launched in May of 2021.

No, Ethan “Rampage” Yau isn’t headed back to the low-stakes grind. The headline is just a play on a tweet the popular vlogger posted following Friday night’s Hustler Casino Live stream, in which he ended with the biggest loss of his poker career. Prior to the $100/$200/$400 session at Hustler Casino in Los Angeles, Yau joked about how he’d “either be rich” or following the high-stakes game or be forced to return to playing $1/$3, which his original YouTube followers will recall it wasn’t long ago he was playing at those stakes.

Sam “SamSquid” Grafton is ending the PokerStars New Year Series in hot form. The popular British grinder triumphed in a $530 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 7-Max PKO event for $44,088 and finds himself in the final 47 of the $5,200 Main Event where $284,374 awaits the eventual champion. Grafton’s victory came in the high edition of the 143rd event of the New Year Series. Some 464 players bought in, resulting in a $232,000 prize pool.

Those who follow darts will have heard about the tremendous story of Luke Littler, a 16-year-old who navigated his way to the final of the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship. Unfortunately for Littler, he lost in the final against another Luke, Luke Humphries, although his second-place finish is a remarkable achievement. Over the weekend, another Luke defied the odds on his way to becoming the champion of the 2024 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) London Main Event.

The excitement is building as the WPT Global Winter Classic descends upon Playground Montreal from January 24 to February 4, promising poker enthusiasts an unforgettable experience filled with high-stakes action and lucrative prizes. This poker extravaganza is a collaboration between WPT Global and Playground, featuring a dynamic lineup of events that cater to both online and live players. Online Kickoff on WPT Global Before the live festivities commence, online players can get a head start with two exclusive events on WPT Global.

With the news that the Power Path is now a permanent addition to PokerStars, and that players can receive a $0.50 Step 1 Power Path ticket every single day as part of the new PokerStars Rewards programme, there’s never been a better time to have a look at how the Power Path can reward you and where it can take you. Both live and online events have featured in the Power Path since its launch last summer, with Special Edition Gold Passes sending lucky players to the NAPT and Las Vegas Grand Prix last December.

Flexibility and transparency are the perfect words to describe the latest revision of the PokerStars Rewards program, set to be launched January 22. PokerStars is changing the way it rewards its loyal player base, and PokerNews has had a sneak peak into what the program entails for PokerStars players of all levels. PokerStars continues to be open with the way it communicates with its players, offering support via Discord, hosting forums, and inviting everyone to share feedback and constructive criticism with its teams.

Imagine logging into your 888poker account, hitting the exciting cash game tables, and suddenly finding that you have an extra $10,000 nestled in your bankroll. It may be the thing of dreams, but those dreams could soon become a reality thanks to the new Card Strike feature. Card Strike is a new feature that revolves around cash game tables at 888poker. You will see a card grid attached to the top of your table when you sit down at one of the recreational player-friendly 888poker cash games.

Bill Perkins truly does want to “Die With Zero.” The wealthy recreational poker player, along with Doug Polk, donated heavily Sunday night to the table in an 11-hour high-stakes stream at The Lodge Card Club. Polk is a co-owner of the card room near Austin, Texas, and he lost $288,900 on the session. If there’s any consolation for the three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Perkins lost a bunch more than he did ($741,100).

As the new year kicks off, poker enthusiasts are gearing up for the much-anticipated EA Poker Tour (EAPT) in Bratislava, where a week of exciting poker tournaments awaits. The series, running from January 21-28, boasts 11 cup tournaments with buy-ins starting at an affordable 85 and a total guaranteed prize pool surpassing 350,000. The event takes place at the Banco Casino Bratislava, located in the heart of the historic city and directly opposite the Presidential Palace.

Popular British grinder Ian Simpson again came close to taking down a $120,000 guaranteed tournament on 888poker, this time in the XL Winter Series. Back in November 2023, during the KO Games, Simpson finished third in the $109 buy-in $120,000 guaranteed Opener tournament, a result worth $5,485. On January 15, Simpson found himself at the final table of the $109 buy-in, $120,000 guaranteed Opening Event of the XL Winter Series but the script didn’t go to plan.

The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) is in full swing for 2024 and has already wrapped up a successful stop of Circuit action with WSOPC Choctaw, which took place at Choctaw Casino Resort from Jan. 3-14. The WSOPC Choctaw stop consisted of 18 Ring events with buy-ins ranging from $250 to the $1,700 Main Event. One of the biggest storylines to emerge was poker commentator and personality Kasey Lyn Mills winning her first Circuit ring by taking down Event #13: $1,000 Monster Stack for $66,009.

$284,374 is the sum nestled in the PokerStars account of “SerVlaMin” after the Mexico-based star came out on top in the $5,200 buy-in, $1.5 million guaranteed New Year Series No-Limit Hold’em Main Event. Every poker tournament player dreams of kicking off a new year in style, and “SerVlaMin” has laid solid foundations for what could be a stellar year. The $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event saw 294 entries, resulting in a small overlay on the $1.

Forty teams of eight pokers descended on Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham over the weekend and competed for the right to call themselves the 2024 Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) UK Team Championship champions. Talk Club came away with the bragging rights, 9,200 to share between them, and a coveted gold APAT medal. 2024 APAT UK Team Championship Team Results Rank Team Points Prize 1 Talk Club 375 9,200 2 Midland Freelancers 361 6,000 3 Fair Play Poker 351 4,000 4 Malvern Poker Club 330 2,800 5 Blue Blood 286 2,000 Talk Club, consisting of Simon Brooke, Tristan Chaplin, Adam Neal, Richard Wilcox, Ian Witt, Robert Hallworth, John Patten, and PokerNews’ very own Daniel Williams ran out worthy winners, ultimately finishing 14 points ahead of Team Midland Freelancers.

After vowing to make changes to his game following a rough year, Daniel Negreanu came within inches of winning his second poker tournament of 2024 before falling to Kristen Foxen. On Tuesday, Foxen defeated Negreanu during heads-up play PokerGO Tour Kickoff Series Event #5: 10,100 No-Limit Hold’em for $165,000 as the four-time bracelet winner added to her $7.1 million in live earnings and picked up her first live tournament win since just days before the COVID lockdowns in 2020.

Last week, Arden Cho finished as runner-up to Daniel Smiljkovic in the PGT Championship, winning $200,000 in the process. Cho is no stranger to the PokerGO studio, having previously gambled with Phil Hellmuth on No Gamble, No Future and has played in several cash games at the venue. But this result felt like a step forward in the actress’s poker career, and she spoke with PokerNews about her experience and where her poker journey would take her next.