This week’s poker news starts us off with one of the most successful online players who finally broke through at the World Series of poker. We’ll start with that story as we recap this week’s key headlines:
Baron Celebrates First Ever World Series Of Poker Bracelet Win
Sometimes online poker players have a tough time translating their success to the real-world game. For Isaac Baron, a player who has been one of the most successful American online poker professionals over the past few years, has finally broken through in-person.
Baron had never won a World Series of Poker bracelet but that changed this past week at the Rio Casino when he scored his first World Series of Poker bracelet, winning the $407,739 prize in the $1,500 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em event. The 2007 Card Player Magazine’s inaugural Online Player of the Year topped a field of 1,832 players to take home first prize.
The $407,739 prize is the largest landed by Baron since his fourth-place finish in the 2014 $10,000 pit-limit Omaha Championship that landed him $301,639.
After the big win, Baron’s career live tournament earnings have jumped to $6.1 million. In addition to the cash prize, Baron also netted 1,080 Card Player of the Year points for his win. Each of the top-four finishers at this tournament paid upwards of $100K, with Ong Dingxiang, Stephen Graner and James Hughes all earning $126K or more for their efforts.
Venetian Resort Las Vegas To Hold $2 Million Guaranteed Main Event In June
The largest event on the Card Player Poker Tour is coming up next week as the details of the DeepStack Championship Poker Series have been announced. The event will take place at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas from July 16th through the 20th.
The summer tour will take place over 11 weeks with a total of 136 different tournaments with more than $24 million in prize money to be handed out. The players that enter the $2 million guaranteed main event will pay a $5,000 buy-in and begin the tournament with 25,000 chips. The event will consist of different levels with the time slots changing as the tournament progresses.
This $2 million guaranteed CPPT event has consistently been one of the largest of the season. Each of the four prior winners of this event are among the Top 10 on the all-time earnings list for the tour. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues this year with some of the top players in the world making the trip to take part in this year’s tournament.
Royal Flush Nets Lucky Winner $3.6 Million At Perth Casino Game
One lucky poker player walked away with a $3.6 million prize at the Crown Perth Casino in Australia earlier this month. The craziest part about the entire story is that he needed only a $15 buy-in to get started in the first place. The lucky winner crushed the previous record of $2.7 million in winnings, which was set back in September of 2016.
The winner has decided to remain anonymous but the story has gone viral Down Under. It’ll be interesting to see whether this sparks an interest in gaming as gambling expenditure in the country has been on the decline.