While the COVID-19 pandemic is shutting down some poker rooms around the world, the ones in Florida are still going strong. That’s where we’ll put our focus for our first poker headline of the week:
Diebold Wins Jacksonville Fall Frenzy II Main Event
It was a great week for Ben Diebold, who is now significantly richer. Diebold was in Florida for the 2020 bestbet Jacksonville Fall Frenzy II and was able to finish in first place in the $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. Diebold had won the event by outlasting the other 182 entries on the way to taking home the top prize of $63,182. The top 23 contestants in the event were able to win money from the $243,880 total prize pool.
For Diebold, this will be counted as his third POY qualified finish of 2020 with his most recent win adding an extra 336 Card Player Player of the Year points. Adding up all of his point would rank him at 323rd place in the POY standings.
Looking back to his previous wins, Diebold was also able to claim the Card Player Poker Tour main event that took place in 2018. He had won $75,655 from the event while topping 373 other entries.
Payne Wins 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour Main Event
A winner has emerged from the 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event and it’s Korey Payne. The event ended up generating a far bigger turnout than expected, increasing the initial $400,000 guarantee all the way up to $1,771,770. The event recognized the top 128 finishers, each of them taking home some winnings. Payne was the top dog, though, earning the biggest fish with his $327,773 victory.
The win gave Payne 960 Card Player Player of the Year points, which now moves him into a tie for 76th place in this years POY race.
Salim Admon was ended up in second place in the event, winning 800 POY points and earning $219,699. Behind him in third place was Martin Zamani, who won $148,829 and 640 POY points.
Bellagio’s High-Stakes Poker Area Renamed
Arguably the most famous poker room in the world has recently gone through a name change. At The Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip, the high-stakes poker room had previously been known as “Bobby’s Room”. However, that has now been changed to “Legends Room.”
“Bobby’s Room” had been one of the most successful and well-known poker rooms around, along with being the home to many large buy-in games. It was originally named that way because of the 1978 WSOP main event champion Bobby Baldwin, who followed that win up by heading into the casino industry. His name and stature grew as he worked for the Golden Nugget before eventually taking full control of the property.
The name wasn’t expected to be changed anytime soon but after his recent departure from the company, it appears that they didn’t waste any time. Baldwin recently took the job as the CEO of Drew Las Vegas. Many fans are already unhappy with the name change as they feel it was a little bit vengeful for the departure. At the end of the day, it’s just business.