An exciting week of action at 888poker LIVE Madrid has come to an end, but not without a storybook finish for Spains Manuel Ledesma under the bright lights of the final table at his home poker room. After starting the final day as the short stack with just 10 big blinds, the Madrid resident battled his way back at Casino Gran Via, staying alive several times before finishing the night holding the coveted 888 Main Event trophy and taking home 58,000.

Jack Solomon has been crowned the champion of the 2024 GGPoker UK Championships Main Event at Dusk Till Dawn, taking home 96,130, after a deal with heads-up opponent Yong Foo. The deal resulted in Solomon taking home 80,130, but he wasn’t content to stop there and claimed the remaining 16,000 at stake and the trophy after his seven-high straight secured victory against Foo’s six-high straight. Solomon overcame the 1,258-entry field and claimed the lion’s share of the 603,840 prize pool, sending his rail from Skegness into raptures.

Reaching the final table of a major online poker tournament is exciting for everyone involved, but the excitement surrounding 888poker XL Winter Series Mystery Bounty Main Event final table is off the scale. Not only is there a first-place prize worth $82,618 up for grabs, but one of the lucky eight finalists will eliminate an opponent, open the golden mystery bounty from their fallen foe’s head, and reveal a massive $100,000 payout!

The first World Poker Tour (WPT) festival of 2024 took place this month in Cambodia and featured the first-ever WPT Cambodia Championship, an event that drew 760 players from two starting flights for a prize pool of $4.6 million. Konstantin Held earned $361,310 and the title of first WPT Cambodia champion after a three-handed deal with Joshua McCully (2nd - $277,291) and Florent Remi (3rd - $302,019). On top of the six-figure score, Held won a $10,400 seat into the 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

The PokerStars US Winter Series wrapped up this week after multiple weeks of online poker action that awarded dozens of winners in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ontario. The series culminated this week with the Main Event Championships and produced several notable winners along the way, including Corey “Corgasm231” Paggeot, Matt “5u1ly” Sullivan and Zach “KennyTheRipper” Gruneberg. Here are some highlights from the latter third of the PokerStars Winter Series.

One of PokerNews’ former editors, Mo Nuwwarah, captured the $1,110 buy-in Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT)Bally’s Black Hawk Casino Main Event for a career-best $155,189 score on Sunday. The newly minted MSPT champion had an especially good Sunday, and not only because he won a bunch of money. Nuwwarah, who worked as a full-time editor and live reporter for PokerNews until July 2021 when he left for an opportunity with Catena Media in the sports betting industry, was decked out in Kansas City Chiefs gear at the final table.

Another World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) stop is in the books with the completion of WSOPC Tunica, which ran Jan. 18-19 and consisted of more than a dozen ring events that produced more than $2 million in prize pools. The stop at Horseshoe Tunica in Mississippi culminated with the $1,700 buy-in WSOPC Tunica Main Event, which drew 568 runners and saw Georgia’s Matt Higgins winning his fifth Circuit ring and $167,058.

After a very brief final table on Day 3 of Event #34: $888 Mystery Bounty Main Event at the 888Poker Winter XL Series, “Cosmin1812” of Ireland emerged as the big winner, scooping both the top prize of $82,619 as well as the largest $100,000 bounty to bring their total winnings from the tournament to a staggering $218,885. To put that in perspective, they left with over 20% of the total $1,033,712 prize pool generated by a 1,219-strong field, all that from a $888 initial investment ($2,664 if you include their two re-entries).

With less than a month to go until the European Poker Tour (EPT) kicks off the year in Paris, PokerNews sat down with PokerStars Associate Director of Live Events Operations Cedric Billot to talk about what players can expect from PokerStars Live and the EPT in 2024. We also asked him about new destinations, what players can expect from the same schedule as 2023, and the improvements that have been made for the tour’s return to Paris, after apologising for a “subpar experience” at the inaugural event.

In the fast-paced world of poker, where technology in the space advances in the blink of an eye, Nash Bankroll Management emerges as a standout tracking app in 2024. Crafted by poker player Geoffrey Martin for poker players, Nash excels in addressing the common pain points found in other bankroll management applications, making it one of the go-to choices for both recreational players and professionals. Download Nash Bankroll Management on iOS device today!

The 2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open champion is Raminder Singh, a skilled professional who won the $3,500 buy-in event on Jan. 24 for $486,353 via a three-way chop. Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida hosted 52 LHPO events, attracting thousands of players to the Sunshine State’s most prominent card room. Numerous big name players such as Alex Foxen, Upeshka De Silva, and Yuval Bronshtein grabbed victories. Alex Foxen Wins LHPO $25k High Roller

A poker player has alleged that prominent pro Anthony Zinno swiped a bag he left underneath his chair during the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship series in December and stole $19,000 in cash. Corel Theuma, a 2023 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) champion, brought forth the allegations on X and shared some further details with PokerNews. He also filed a police report pressing charges against the poker pro he said he doesn’t personally know.

The EAPT only crowned its latest champion on January 28 but the next nine-day festival is right around the corner, with EAPT Madrid taking place at the Casino Grand Via from February 12-19. Among the dozen or so events and satellites is the 560 buy-in, 180,000 guaranteed (plus 20,000 in EAPT packages) EAPT Madrid Main Event, which PokerNews’ live reporting team is covering in all of its glory. EAPT visits Madrid for the first time in its history, although it has previously stopped off in Spain.

The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris festival is less than a fortnight away, with the latest edition taking place between February 14-25. Paris became the 13th capital city to host an EPT stop when thousands of players packed into the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile in February 23, and although the attendance figures were impressive, the player experience was not up to the EPT’s high standards. It is fair to say the 2023 EPT Pairs festival was not without teething problems.

Texas is known for having some of the best tournament action in the country, and the state is living up to its reputation with the upcoming 2024 Champions Club Winter Poker Open, a series taking place Feb. 2-19 and culminating with a $1,500 buy-in Main Event with a $1 million guarantee attached. PokerNews will be on-site at Champions Club in Houston to provide live updates from the three-day Main Event, alongside a few side events like the $1,100 buy-in PLO Championship with a $150,000 guarantee and a $400 buy-in Mystery Bounty event with a $300,000 guarantee.

Hustler Casino Live once again found itself in the middle of controversy as one of the show’s most popular former players publicly feuded with the show’s producer and co-owner, Ryan Feldman. Garrett Adelstein called out Feldman and fellow stream player Chris “Luda Chris” Chen on X on Wednesday after attention was brought to a hand Chen played on stream recently where he cracked aces in a big pot. While Adelstein said the hand was “not suspicious,” he said he “specifically chose to avoid playing in games with Luda despite how poorly he played” and claimed Chen was “banned from LATB (Live At The Bike) after winning heaps playing like a maniac on stream in a game that played 20x bigger than the $5/$5 game he played otherwise.

Mystery bounty tournaments are a new format at PokerStars, but you would never know based on the size of the Carnival Series Main Events that run over the weekend. Three No-Limit Hold’em and one Pot-Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty Main Events shuffle up and deal on February 4; they come with combined guaranteed prize pools worth $2,350,000! The three No-Limit Hold’em Mystery Bounty Main Events come in buy-ins of $11, $109, and $1,050, which have guarantees worth $250,000, $1,250,000, and $750,000, respectively.

Two things are clear: Matt Berkey is passionate about the game of poker, and he seems to regularly find himself involved in social media flame wars with his peers. But has the Solve for Why founder’s recent actions on X gone too far, or do the people he’s trashed have it coming? That’s not for us to decide, so we’ll instead share the opinions of those who’ve chimed in on poker X, and the answer to the question appears to be yes, but also no.

By now youve no doubt heard about the World Poker Tour (WPT) and their upcoming WPT Voyage, which will take place from March 31-April 6, 2024 as they take over an entire Virgin Voyages cruise ship the 1,400-cabin Valiant Lady for a six-day poker festival that features $1.5 million in guarantees, including a $5,000 buy-in, $1,000,000 GTD WPT Main Event. Leading up to the WPT Voyage, PokerNews will be profiling several staff members of the WPT at Sea Poker Room in our Industry Insiders series.

Poker legend Phil Laak is set to appear on High Stakes Poker for the first time since 2011 when the 12th season of the popular show returns to PokerGO this spring. The high-stakes cash game series, set to premiere on February 19, will air 12 episodes on Mondays through May. Laak will be joined in Season 12 by fellow headlining stars Andrew Robl, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Jennifer Tilly. There is nothing quite like High Stakes Poker, said Mori Eskandani, President of PokerGO, in a press release about the new season.

Nikhil “Nik Airball” Arcot, who wasn’t even involved in the hand to the flop, lashed out at poker vlogger Mariano Grandoli for taking too long to call an all in bet with pocket kings during Friday’s Hustler Casino Live stream. There were some mixed reactions to Airball’s critical comments in the YouTube chat. Some felt it was silly for Mariano to tank for over three minutes with the second nuts, while others argued that Airball was out of line.

Matt Berkey came after his poker coaching competitor Jonathan Little earlier this week, and perhaps that served as a bit of motivation for the latter, who conquered the 2024 PokerGO Cup finale and overall series crown on Saturday. Daniel Negreanu, who came to Little’s defense, was quite thrilled with the outcome, to say the least. Little, the founder of PokerCoaching.com, won Event #8: $25,200 No-Limit Hold’em for $453,750, his second victory of the series.

Global Spins is a fun and exciting game on WPT Global, where the big prizes never seem to end! People of all skill levels can win big in the quick and easy games that run all day, every day. You can join with as little as $1 or as much as $250. When three players sign up for a Global Spin, they sit at a table, and a wheel spins to determine the prize.

The $5,200 Titans Event is one of the toughest online poker tournaments PokerStars runs. The high buy-in usually results in an all-star cast featuring some of the biggest names in the industry fighting it out for a near six-figure score. This weekend Titans Event drew in 73 entrants, who created a $365,000 prize pool; Swedish players walked away with more than $123,000 of the pot. Only nine players received a slice of the pie, and three of those call Sweden home.