Today is the day.

The LIPs Women in Poker Summer festival returns this June at The Venetian.

The Lodge card club is re-opening.

Experience trumps youth in Blackpool.

At the 888poker UKPL Blackpool Main Event, Lilian Welch, age 83, outlasted 317 rivals to claim a £31,390 top prize. Welch, a regular at the local casino, became the darling of the rail as she took down the field and secured a deal at the three-handed stage.

The event had a £560 buy-in and drew over 300 entries, including names like Ian Simpson. But it was Welch who managed to turn her decade of casual play into a headline payday.

'She’s been hitting the tables for well over a decade, and that persistence has now paid off big time, as her triumph brought her a very nice payday of £31,390.’

Sometimes poker is about the unexpected. Welch just proved that persistence, not youth, is the real secret weapon at the table.

Looking back to last year’s WSOP controversies.

The WSOP hands that launched a thousand poker dreams.

Legal drama, grand juries, and a May 26 poker party.

The Lodge Card Club, Texas’ largest card room, will finally reopen on May 26 after being shut down by a TABC raid in March. According to PokerNews, the raid was due to suspicions of illegal gambling and money laundering, leading to the club’s assets being seized and operations halted.

Top shareholders Doug Polk, Jake Abdalla, and Jason Levin found themselves under the spotlight, but a grand jury decision in April meant no indictments and the return of assets.

The club is set to bring back both cash games and tournaments from day one, with the first event being a $50 no-limit hold’em turbo at 10:15 a.m. Staff are being rehired and the lights are coming back on, just in time to coincide with the first day of the 2026 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

WSOP reveals that it will give $100k in bonuses to the top-performing dealers this summer.

The World Series of Poker has come out with more information about its latest dealer rating feature. There will be $100,000 in bonus cash added, spread across all 100 bracelet events.

The top three rated dealers in each event will get to split $1,000, and ratings refresh for every event, so every tournament starts with a clean slate.

Opinions are still divided within the poker community, but adding some extra cash for the hard-working folks that make the series tick certainly helps.

Aria Poker Classic starts in time for the WSOP crowd.

Feel good story of the day. Blackpool’s most dedicated regular finally cashes in big.

Lilian Welch has been a familiar face at the Grosvenor G Casino in Blackpool for 14 years, but now she can add a new title to her collection: 888poker UKPL Blackpool Main Event champion.

At 83 years old, Welch outlasted a field of 318 entries to claim £31,390, the biggest score of her career.

The £560 buy-in event saw a prize pool of £151,050 and paid 38 spots, with notable players like Brandon Sheils and 888poker Ambassador Ian Simpson making the money. Welch’s win shows that sometimes, playing for fun is the best strategy of all.

It’s a wrap on the Aussie Millions.

It’s all over in Monte Carlo, and we have the winner!

Annette Obrestad is back and she has plans for the summer.

Apparently, headphones will be one of the topics for the upcoming TDA summit.

The debate around the new system for rating WSOP dealers continues.

Allen Kessler is bringing more mixed game fun to Las Vegas this week.

A new edition of the Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker is underway, taking place at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Featured on the schedule are H.O.R.S.E, Omaha 8, T.O.R.S.E, Big O, 2-7 Triple Draw, and more, plus there is a $10,000 added Player of the Series package up for grabs.

Bernhard Binder is chasing history in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event.

Vegas Matt runs deep in a celebrity poker tournament.

One of FanDuel’s largest ambassadors, is much better known for his casino and slot exploits, but he dabbles with poker here and there.

Just a couple of days ago, Vegas Matt managed a deep run in the Celebrity Poker Tour Invitational event, finishing in second place. Will this inspire the popular casino streamer to play more Hold’em and perhaps join the action over at FanDuel Poker?

More poker fun is coming to Dublin in July.

Jeremy Ausmus shares his 2026 WSOP plans.

For anyone planning their picks for the WSOP Fantasy Draft, Jeremy Ausmus has revealed his plans for the summer, and it looks like he’ll be going at it pretty hard, although he won’t be there right from the start.

It looks like his focus will primarily be on larger buy-ins with smaller fields but tougher competition, so there are some pros and cons to consider.

Registration for the World Series is now live in the WSOP LIVE App.

Without any special announcement, registration for the 2026 WSOP has become available in the WSOP LIVE app, and you can use quite a few methods to pay for it.

However, it seems that players who haven’t completed in-person verification previously are still having issues, although mobile verification should be an option. Could just be a technical issue to do with the app version, but it looks like no one can say for sure.

Looks like 30min breaks to happen in the WSOP Main Event, down from 75mins.

WSOP officially confirms new live dealer rating system for WSOP Live app.

Ok we knew WSOP was going to introduce a live dealer rating system on their WSOP Live app, and now it has been officially confirmed. Thanks to their latest tweet, Jeff Platt explained everything about this new feature, how the system works, how ratings will be shared internally with tournament staff, and how dealers with the highest ratings will earn rewards throughout the series.

This looks like a big step toward improving the overall player experience while also recognizing and rewarding top-performing dealers during the WSOP.

PokerNews reports that Texas is now officially a heavyweight in the poker world.

The EPT Monte Carlo update of the day.

The Aussie Millions Main Event numbers are in.

There is always hype around The Triton Invitational.

Phil Hellmuth is offering you the chance to bust him for only $250, which is probably less than one of his signature hats.

Jason Koon triumphs in the €100k Invitational event at EPT Monte Carlo.

Yesterday, Jason Koon posted on X that he’s about to play against the toughest lineup imaginable in the €100k Invitational Sit & Go event at EPT Monte Carlo.

Today, he is the last player standing in that lineup, picking up another amazing win to add to his resume and another cool million to bump his lifetime tournament winnings and bring the total over $73,000,000.

Nine figures seem well within Koon’s reach!

WSOP 2026 layout is here.

Well, Kevin Mathers, the go-to source for all things WSOP, has uncovered the layout for the upcoming 2026 edition. The details surfaced after he spotted a post circulating on Facebook.

As always, nothing stays hidden for long when Kevin’s on the case. Take a look at what to expect for this year’s setup.

GGPoker is teaming up with Grosvenor Casinos.

The online poker giant GGPoker has teamed up with Grosvenor Casino, one of the biggest brands in live casino gaming in the United Kingdom.

With this deal, GGPoker will become the official sponsor of all live poker tournaments sponsored by the venue, taking the players’ experience to the next level.

Aussie Millions is back and its writing some amazing poker stories already.

Albert Daher is the last man standing in the EPT All In for One Drop High Roller.

Here’s your full schedule for the tournament action this summer in Las Vegas.

The next generation of coverage is coming to the 2026 WSOP.

WSOP sets a new record for the largest prize pool in Texas history.

Despite recent turmoil with The Lodge, poker fans in the Lone Star State remain undeterred. The WSOP Circuit event at the Texas Card House attracted a total of 1,709 entries, resulting in a prize pool of almost $2.6 million!

This is the largest tournament prize pool in the history of the state, and we certainly hope to see more of the same, especially with all charges against The Lodge dropped. The future of poker in Texas looks brighter than ever.

Check out this interesting debate on running it twice in three-way pots.

Allen Kessler throws his name in the hat for the 2026 WSOP Fantasy Draft.

Paul Seaton brings an interesting Op-Ed on the way that tournament winnings are tracked on The Hendon Mob.

Right now, the go-to site for tracking poker players’ tournament results only shows each individual player’s cumulative winnings, not accounting for the money they spent on buy-ins along the way.

Is this the right way of doing things, or should buy-ins be deducted from the total? There are certainly arguments for both approaches, and it’s hard to say which one is better.

The excitement is on for the 2026 WSOP Fantasy League!

PokerStars is experimenting with dynamic delays for its EPT Monte Carlo coverage.

The All In for One Drop High Roller attracts a solid crowd in Monte Carlo.

The European Poker Tour €100k High Roller in Monte Carlo attracted a total of 76 entries, raising over a quarter of million for the One Drop Foundation.

That’s a great charitable effort, but there is plenty of money up for grabs for the players, too, as the winner will take home just over €2 million!

Kevmath officially confirms his 2026 WSOP role.

Not that anybody had any doubts, but it is now official: The legend that is Kevin Mathers, or 'Kevmath’ (whichever you prefer) will be working at this year’s World Series of Poker.

This will mark his 10th year of working with the Series, and he’ll once again be there to provide updates, answer player questions, and more. Expect to see his name appear a lot in the WSOP Live app!

WSOP 2026 offers a wide range of payment options for players.

So here’s something useful for anyone planning to play the WSOP 2026.

Kevin Mathers just shared the full list of payment methods, and there are nearly a dozen different options available this year. Plenty of flexibility depending on what works best for you.

Definitely worth checking out the list from the WSOP guru himself before you head to register.

The World Series of Poker is back for its 57th annual run in Las Vegas later this month, and it is not holding back on the extras.

According to WSOP, the 2026 edition features 100 bracelet events, the return of the $10K Main Event, and even a new dealer rating system, which seems a bit odd, but there you go.

There’s lots to dig into over on the WSOP site.

WSOP 2026 landing page goes live and it looks quite pretty!

Oh wow, with WSOP 2026 set to begin in less than a month, the newly launched landing page is already revealing some big updates for the series.

Every bracelet event will be streamed live on the WSOP YouTube channel, bringing full coverage to viewers around the world, while players will also get a new layer of interaction this year with the ability to rate dealers directly through the WSOP Live app.

The next Mixed Game Festival by Cardplayer Lifestyle has been officially announced.

All fans of fixed games have an extra reason to look forward to this summer, as the Cardplayer Lifestyle Mixed Game Festival is coming back to Las Vegas!

Running May 31 – June 11, the Festival takes place at the Bellagio, offering around-the-clock small stakes cash game action and plenty of added value, including seats fpr the $3,500 BetMGM Poker Championship.

Check out the full statement from the Lodge Card Club in light of recent developments.

The Lodge Card Club came out with an official statement on their X channel, confirming that the Grand Jury declined to indict, confirming that the raid and the investigation did not support charges of criminal conduct.

The club expresses its gratitude to everyone in the poker community who extended their support during tumultuous times, confirming that the reopening date will be announced in the near future, alongside the details about pending payouts and updated procedures.

PokerStars is closing out 2026 in style as EPT Prague confirmed to return.

EPT Prague is officially back, running December 2–13 at the Hilton Prague. After last year’s Main Event pulled in 1,200+ entries and a €5.9M prize pool, expectations are sky high for another massive turnout.

Also on the schedule: the debut of PokerStars Open Aix-en-Provence, set for November 2–8 at Pasino Grand Partouche.

Both stops will contribute to the 2026 PokerStars Live League, where players can rack up points for a shot at thousands in LIVE buy-ins.

Brad Owen confirms Lodge will be reopening soon.