WTAF. Dentistry at the poker tables?

AI glasses spotted over at PartyPoker Live Sheffield.

🎙️New podcast in the works from Adam Schwartz.

Where are all the WSOP documentaries?

As we all know, the groundbreaking het-hum WSOP documentary was pulled in early December for using AI. Apparently, it was being edited and then reissued? But now, it’s crickets. If the WSOP waits any longer, it is going to be totally obsolete. (As a reminder it focuses on WSOP Paradise 2024.)

The same goes for the GG Millions documentary. The first episode came out (featuring Alex Theologis) over two months ago now. Where are the other episodes?

Again, I feel there is always so much hype, and then everything goes off the boil. So disappointing.

No debt too small for Jungleman to swing in on the vine.

Apparently, there’s a 15-year-old, $15k (or $8k? as per the shared screenshots) debt owed by Dan Heimiller to Phil Gordon. And the Jungleman is here to arbitrate by sharing some text messages.

Seems like small fry to us, but we’re at 50k views on this tweet already, so people obviously care. Dan is in there defending his position. Lawyers are getting called. Lawyers don’t have to bill many hours to cross over a $15k debt, so this fight feels more about principle.

Click thru if you really want. We’ll keep this one at arm’s length.

(side note: Full Tilt didn’t pay anyone back — the company was insolvent when it was shut down by the Department of Justice. PokerStars stepped in, purchased the company, and immediately returned all money to non-US players. It paid hundreds of millions to the DOJ to settle their case, money of which was then used to repay US players.)

Hellmuth’s real addiction might not be poker.

NBA betting fraud: Two years behind bars, more sentences on the way.

A two-year prison sentence has been handed down to a gambler involved in an NBA betting fraud case, according to NEXT.io.

McCormack, who has openly described himself as a long-term gambling addict, admitted to using confidential information about NBA players to place lucrative bets. Prosecutors argued for a four-year sentence, but McCormack’s legal team said his addiction and limited role meant he shouldn’t go to jail.

The judge, LaShann DeArcy Hall, ultimately gave him two years. She acknowledged McCormack’s history of compulsive gambling, saying his criminal conduct was serious but didn’t define him as a person. Still, the court agreed with prosecutors that the scheme undermined trust in professional sports.

“The broader case also implicates current and former NBA players. The court ultimately settled on a reduced sentence while still affirming the seriousness of the offence.”

More convictions are expected as the investigation continues.

Classic Hellmuth brattery.

Apparently the latest BetRIvers Poker-sponsored Hellmuth Home Game is going to have a quintessential tantrum from poker’s big baby. Looks like the table managed to pull off back-to-back slowrolls to tip him over the edge.

Incredible pots happening! And . . . I stormed off the set!! Went broke back-to-back hands: was slow rolled both hands. Once I was taken by surprise

Elf is king of the jungle.

So, as we’ve been tracking here on The Rail, Jungleman Dan Cates was in the ring yesterday for a sanctioned boxing match against another gambling Twitter notable who goes by Elf.

And… it sounds like things got a bit messy. As per PokerNews:

Both fighters had ended up on the ground following a tussle early in the second round. There appears to have been some confusion as to if the ref had announced “fight” after the fighters stood back up, which led to Cates not being in a fighting stance when Elf came across the ring and landed the questionable cheap shot.

A haymaker to the side of Jungleman’s head against a defenseless fighter, PN called it.

Jungleman’s face was bloodied and the ref decided the best move was to call off the fight. Elf was not disqualified, however, so neither fighter technically won and it was ruled a no contest.

Jungleman didn’t hide from the defeat. “Just got my ass kicked, and [it was] because I wasn’t paying attention,” he tweeted after the match.

CardPlayer has more details on The Chip Race/WPT Global fallout.

I’m sure loyal readers read the fuse-exclusive interview with the Chip Race boys after their acrimonious split with short-time sponsors of them and their podcast last week. But Tim Fiorvanti for CardPlayer also spoke to the duo and went into even more detail — with a lot of backstory on the history and formation of the podcast. But there’s more nuggets of interesting detail on the split too. Lappin, as per, does not hold back.

I was playing online. Dara was playing live in Galway. I might have been literally the first person to read it, to be honest, because I was looking at my phone at the moment that it dinged as a notification. I saw it, I immediately screenshot it, and sent it into my group chat with Dara. And, well, I was kind of like, ‘What the fuck?’
It’s got the other bits of the company going, ‘Oh, we don’t like that.’ Maybe it’s provoked an internal conversation up the chain, and they’re going to do the right thing here, which is not sign him.”

And as to the future:

We don’t really know what the future holds right now. It’s too early to say … We’ve had a couple of initial meetings, but no more than that. Dara and I talked about how it’s just nice to have the opportunity to reset a little bit and put out a couple of shows for us. I suppose what I’m trying to speak to here is that there’s always a little bit of whimsy and romance. As podcasters, you’re trying to do something that feels right.

It’s rumble in the jungle(man) tonight.

Let’s mark every poker site’s response to the Bovada bot farm vid with an arbitrary emoji scoring system.

Because.

PokerStarsUSA picks up points right out of the gate for hard numbers and some solid technical deets. Score: 3 nerds 🤓🤓🤓

PokerStars believes its customers deserve a safe and reliable place to play online poker against real people. Our game integrity team, made up of 60 specialists—ex-professional poker players, qualified data scientists, and statistical analysts—uses purpose-built software to detect, investigate, and resolve potential occurrences of collusion, multi-accounting, or prohibited software use.

ClubWPT Gold puts on its serious trousers and gets technical and does give some interesting detail on its bot detection. Pretty serious stuff for a training site. Two nerds 🤓🤓, slight fellow kids vibe gets one 👴.

Our models scrutinize gameplay patterns by referencing a combination of our RL gameplay models, game statistics, and player behavior to discern between human and bot actions, allowing us to effectively differentiate the two.

CoinPoker scores one raised fist ✊ for coming in hot with the “ban early” mantra, but is light on details and delegates it off to a screenshot of a 2+2 post—earning it two 👴👴.

Ban early, ban quickly has been our approach with these bot rings. As we’ve said before on the 2+2 forums, we’re proud that many regs and pros have noticed CoinPoker’s games are recognizably more legit and 'human’ compared to some online poker sites.

PartyPoker gets in the detail, doesn’t mince its words, and contains a link to learn more and an email address for reports. So ✅✅✅ there. But it scores one 🍅 because it hasn’t updated its bot numbers in almost a year.

The accounts shown in this video are not playing in PartyPoker’s network. Poker bot “farms” such as this do not exist on PartyPoker. To stay safe, ensure you only play on fully regulated sites, such as PartyPoker.

Operators are still tripping over themselves to comment on this Bovada bot farm vid.

Now it’s PartyPoker that is out there assuring players that this isn’t an “us” problem.

Poker bot “farms” such as this do not exist on PartyPoker. To stay safe, ensure you only play on fully regulated sites, such as PartyPoker.

Strong words. This may be the first international operator to join the swathe of sites jumping on X to assure their players that they’re on top of this bot issue; technically, Party are in New Jersey, but this is from their global Twitter account.

— Nick (temporarily taking over from Sam on the editor’s desk of The Rail to guide you into the weekend. Feedback and tips @pokerprojones).

Could Caitlin Comeskey get picked up by BetRivers Poker?

Scrolling through the comments on Caitlin’s recent post on X, it looks like BetRivers might be interested in signing her as an ambassador. 🍿

It also seems to imply that Caitlin “lost” her partnership with PokerStars rather than her contract coming to an end…

The Hendon Mob is not your bank balance.

Who knew that $76 million in poker winnings gets whittled down to $5 to $10 million in profit?

According to Stephen Chidwick, those Hendon Mob numbers are pure fantasy.

Want to know what drives Barny Boatman to continue playing poker?

This article from PokerOrg covers it all along with his plans for the year ahead, but spoiler alert — he loves it.

Poker is endlessly challenging, stimulating, and rewarding. It gives me a life I love… why would I stop?

When Hollywood meets high-stakes litigation.

The trial of Tom Goldstein is attracting attention from both the legal world and poker circles, thanks in part to an unexpected cameo from Tobey Maguire.

According to PokerNews, prosecutors allege that Maguire paid Goldstein $500,000 to help recover a $15 million poker debt, but that money ended up being redirected to pay off Goldstein’s own losses to real estate mogul Bob Safai. Maguire, who has a history with high-stakes poker (and was even revealed as “Player X” in Molly’s Game), isn’t accused of wrongdoing.

Oooosh, seems like Xuan Liu is out at WPT Global but they are still using her image.

Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin didn’t see their WPT Global split coming.

As Dara told us, “We were not told about the announcement ahead of time and felt totally blindsided.” David was just as surprised, immediately erasing all signs of WPT Global from their podcasts and social media.

The drama unfolded around WPT Global’s decision to sign Ren “Tony” Lin, a player previously banned for cheating. This was, according to Lappin, a dealbreaker. “On the last episode of The Lock-In we criticized the GGPoker and the WSOP decision to allow [Lin] to play again so soon,” he told us.

The announcement was briefly pulled, giving the duo a flicker of hope, but it was reposted the next morning. The writing was on the wall and, after a final meeting, O’Kearney and Lappin began disentangling themselves from WPT Global for good.

How inclined are you to play on the WPT? Be it live or online?

According to PokerNews, Norberto Pardo and Yaiquel Mosqueda-Perez—two players with a reputation for card marking—were recognized at The Lodge Card Club in Texas.

Poker vlogger Anthony Martino spotted the pair and tipped off the staff. After inspecting the deck, the club confirmed the cards were marked, and both players were promptly banned.

Martino recounted in his video, “We had these two Cuban players that sat in Seats 1 and Seat 6, diagonal from one another, and each of them was very consistent in which one was in Seat 1 and which one is in Seat 6.”

The duo, already banned from other card rooms, apparently stuck to their methods. But this time, Texas staff and players were ready. PokerNews confirmed both are now permanently banned from The Lodge Card Club, joining the list of places they can’t revisit.

Foxen and Eveslage cap off a not-so-average PGT season.

The PokerGO Tour wrapped up with Alex Foxen securing Player of the Year after a dominant final event win.

Chad Eveslage took down the season-ending $1,000,000 Championship, beating out 53 others to claim $500,000 and the tour’s top title.

Eveslage entered the heads-up battle with Andrew Lichtenberger holding a commanding chip lead. The win capped off a strong year for Eveslage, highlighted by his earlier $1.2 million score in the Super High Roller Bowl Mixed Games.

PokerOrg’s recap of High Stakes Poker Season 15’s latest episodes focuses on the new lineup led by Andrew Robl and Antonio Esfandiari.

With Kevin Hart gone, Robl wasted no time making himself the main character, pushing around chips and opponents alike.

The biggest moment came when Esfandiari, aka 'The Magician,’ found himself in a monster pot against Robl. After some pre-flop fireworks, Robl check-blinded the flop, leading to a quick-fire all in. Esfandiari couldn’t find a call with queen-high, and Robl happily showed down his monster hand to everyone’s amusement.

WPT: available in four confusing flavors.

The World Poker Tour really wants to make sure you never play poker the same way twice. With WPT, ClubWPT, WPT Global, and ClubWPT Gold all on the table, you can pick between live tournaments, subscription-based play, real money action, or even poker coaching disguised as a sweepstakes.

If you can remember which brand is which, you probably deserve a prize yourself.

I mean, he’s not wrong.

Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, known for his poker prowess, is stepping into a new kind of arena: the boxing ring.

Jungleman explains how what started as a casual idea has now spiraled into a real, potentially bloody fight. Cates talks about the challenges of preparing for combat, balancing training with high-stakes poker, and the surprises he’s encountered along the way.

He’s quick to note that boxing isn’t just about strength. “It’s far more dangerous than I expected,” Cates admits, reflecting on the real risks involved. He also draws parallels between the mind games of poker and the psychological battles in boxing, suggesting that the two worlds are more similar than they appear.

The fight is scheduled for January 22 in Beverly Hills, and Cates is training in boxing, striking, and self-defense. Whether this move is gutsy or just reckless is up for debate, and Cates himself seems to be weighing both possibilities.

Turns out, the leaderboard isn’t everything.

Nothing says high drama like a $1 million freeroll where the leaderboard leaders don’t even make the final table. PokerOrg notes that Negreanu gets the headline, but it’s Wang leading the pack.

Sometimes the real story is just who managed to avoid busting early.

Is the WPT brand going to be left in tatters?

The marketing team at ClubWPT Gold are intent on creating polarizing content, no matter the personal cost. But are they at risk of tainting the parent brand, the World Poker Tour, by association?

This time, they take aim at Vanessa Kade—who receives a fair amount of trolling on social media at the best of times—riffing that she’s the new 'autistic Barbie.’ Totally uncalled for.

At this rate, no one seems safe from the company’s ire, but will the parent brand (WPT) suffer as a result?

Victoria Coren Mitchell has entered the WPT Global chat.

Notably Victoria gave up her PokerStars ambassadorship as soon as the company started offering casino games — which was probably around 10+ years ago now. At the time, it was a line she was not prepared to cross.

Victoria gave kudos to Dara and David who have parted ways with WPT Global after the company signed Ren Lin on as an ambassador.

WPT Global’s full statement on the Ren 'Tony’ Lin hire.

It’s all about 'growth, accountability, and redemption’: their words, not ours. Below is just an extract of the full statement, which you can read on X.

The world of competitive poker is not only about winning hands, but also about personal evolution and the courage to face challenges with integrity. We are honored to welcome Tony Lin as our newest brand ambassador. Tony has openly addressed past controversies, taken full responsibility for his actions, and accepted the consequences with humility. His willingness to learn, improve, and move forward demonstrates a maturity that aligns with our values. His journey reflects resilience—a quality we admire and wish to highlight.

The Chip Race along with co-hosts Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin part ways with WPT Global.

Alex Foxen has been named the 2025 PGT Player of the Year, wrapping up a season that saw him notch 27 cashes and over $6.2 million in winnings.

PGT notes he wasn’t just winning—he hit some career milestones too, becoming the first player to log 100 PGT cashes and 10,000 points.

Foxen’s year started with a couple of cashes at the PokerGO Cup and just kept rolling. He picked up his twelfth PGT title at the Last Chance series and nearly took home the PLO Series title before narrowly missing out to Jesse Lonis.

David Lappin’s journey to poker wasn’t exactly the stuff of classic poker movies.

As he tells the Table 1 Podcast, his path ran from a screenwriting degree to a philosophy PhD track, with a failed TV pitch thrown in for good measure. According to Lappin, this string of rejections was the perfect training for poker’s relentless swings.

He talks about how growing up in a creative family gave him a taste for storytelling, but it was the world of late-night UK poker TV and low-stakes online games that ultimately caught his attention. Lappin and co-host Dara O’Kearney built 'The Chip Race’ podcast by treating interviews like game trees, always searching for the next branch of conversation.

“Writers, poker players, and creatives all deal with rejection, confidence, and meaning,” Lappin reflects.

The episode covers everything from the transformation of the Irish Poker Open to the problems of modern tournament structures.

Meme king Barry Carter reacts to WPT “omnishambles”.

Now you see me, now you don’t.

Ren Lin might be the only person to get banned, unbanned, signed, disowned, and then signed again by three poker brands in under two months.

For anyone just catching up now on the whys and wherefores of the story, here is a great roundup from the PokerOrg team on what is actually happening over at the World Poker Tour.

Lifting the paywall on Anuj’s take on the Ren “Tony” Lin cheating scandal.

Published in October 2025 on Poker Industry PRO, Anuj reported that Tony Lin (who, at the time, was a GGPoker ambassador) and player RealOA were at the centre of controversy.

The pair were caught in a real-time coaching scandal during the GGMillion$ final.

After evidence emerged on social media, including Lin’s own apology, GGPoker wasted no time: RealOA was banned and Lin was indefinitely suspended (although, in reality, this wouldn’t last long).

The operator refunded nearly $350,000 to impacted players, with Lin himself covering almost $100,000 out of pocket to make things right.

Before the official word was out, Lin was also shown the door at the WSOP Super Circuit Cyprus Main Event. However, he was seen at WSOP Paradise, which took place in the Bahamas back in December of last year.

In a further twist, Lin is now signed to WPT Global as an ambassador for the brand.

This will certainly be David Lappin’s reaction at Lin getting signed to WPT Global.

David Lappin has been an outspoken critic of Ren Lin for quite some time now. It stems from Lin being banned and then reinstated at the WSOP and GGPoker tables, despite being a central character in a ghosting controversy that took place on their site.

Now Lin has been signed on as the latest WPT Global ambassador. And guess who else represents the same brand?

Yep, you guessed it. None other than Lappin himself.

Someone grab the popcorn.