We have a new WSOP winner! Hossein Ensan took down the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event last week in Las Vegas and earned himself the bracelet… not to mention $10 million. “I must go to sleep and wake up, and then maybe I know I have the bracelet,” Ensan told ESPN. “Maybe it’s a dream. I don’t know.” The 55 year old Ensan, the oldest player to win the event in 20 years, beat out 8,568 other players in the second-largest Main Event field of all time. More on the new WSOP winner and the rest of the…

The 50th annual WSOP Main Event is on day six at the Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas, and as of this morning there are only 106 players left after nearly 250 players were eliminated yesterday. The WSOP Main Event is a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament, this year with 8,569 entries creating a $80,548,600 prize pool. The top 15 percent of the field divvy up the prize money with the winner’s share $10 million. Play is expected to go until 2 a.m. today and the field is expected to end with the final three tables of players, each vying for the…

The third year of pushing New York online poker legislation was not a charm as the state legislature made no effort at all to push for regulation in 2019. Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow had each reintroduced online poker bills, but neither advanced them out of committee. Now, the legislature has adjourned for the year. “I thought sports betting was kind of a low-hanging fruit,” Addabbo said. “I couldn’t even get the low-hanging fruit, and you want me to get a ladder to go for online poker? Forget about it. That ladder isn’t even for sale in our…

The seemingly never ending battles between California cardrooms and tribal casino operators operators rages on. After years of not being able to get together for online poker, the fight over “house-banked games” has taken center state. This week, the US District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed a lawsuit filed by three of the state’s gaming tribes who accused the state government of violating the tribes’ gaming compacts. Specifically, the tribes argued that the state violated exclusivity provisions of the compacts by allowing commercial cardrooms to offer house-banked games, in which players play against the house (blackjack) rather…

Saying that the World Series of Poker is having a record start is to seriously downplay the numbers. A record number of entries, 28,371 of them, was received for the “Big 50” no-limit hold’em tournament held earlier this month on the opening weekend. The entries, which represented 17,970 unique participants, was the most ever for a live poker tournament. The $500 buy-in event was spread over four days of starting flights and was “rake-free”. It gave participants a 50,000 starting chip stack and 50-minute playing levels. The overwhelming response generated a $13,509,435 total prize pool, far surpassing the $5-million guarantee….

Poker professional and player favorite Eli Elezra held off nearly 300 opponents to win another WSOP Bracelet. It was the 4th of his career, and it came in the 2019 World Series of Poker $1,500 seven-card stud event. Three of Elezra’s four WSOP titles have come in stud poker tournaments. His most recent win at the series saw him take down this same event, the $1,500 buy-in seven-card stud, back in 2015. His lone non-stud WSOP win came in the 2013 $2,500 triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball event. He now has more than $2 million in WSOP earnings, with 64 career…