Kevmath Report - Issue #3
Discover more from The Kevmath Report
Welcome back to The Kevmath Report - the most popular poker newsletter on Substack (at least until it’s proven otherwise). I thought this week there wouldn’t be much to report, but for you the reader, there was plenty to be found.
WSOP GG Main Event Online Championship Reaches Final Table
The $5,000 World Series of Poker Main Event Online Championship reached Day 2 on Sunday after 27 opening flights but failed to make the $20,000,000 guaranteed prize pool by over $560,000. Day 2 reached the final table after over 14 hours of play with Brazil’s Edson Tsutsumi, Jr. leading the final 9 players when play resumes on September 11 (Happy Birthday to me). The most notable name at the final table is Joe Serock, while Canada’s Christine Do strives to finish one place higher than last year’s runner-up Gao Wenling. Starting the final table 4th in chips is Espen Jorstad. He streamed Day 2 all the way to the final table and will produce content during the week including streaming Saturday at https://www.twitch.tv/overbetexpress. You can watch the final table on a delay with Lon McEachern and Norman Chad at GGPoker.tv to see who wins over $2,500,000 and the coveted gold bracelet.
Is there a live stream?
We’ve all seen our share of internet poker streams on Twitch and Youtube over the years, but recently there’s been a marked increase of brick and mortar rooms deciding to offer live streams for interested viewers.
The OG live stream is Live at the Bike! from the Bicycle Casino, starting way back in 2005(!). LATB ruled the roost for several years but they’re now facing stiff competition in their backyard with Hustler Casino Live, offering cash games five nights a week featuring many former LATB employees and players.
The recent poker room boom in Texas meant several rooms, including Texas Card House, The Lodge, and Prime Social, fired up live streams of their own with plenty of high-stakes cash game action.
Outside the US, I can only find King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic as a regular live stream source. King’s constant tournament series and weekly cash games provide plenty of content for those in need of a poker fix.
I’ve compiled a list of a dozen rooms currently offering regular streaming at https://bit.ly/PokerLiveStreams, leave a comment down below if I missed one.
Erik Seidel Reflects on Latest Bracelet Win
After winning his ninth WSOP bracelet, Erik Seidel talked with PocketFives about his win in the $10,000 Super MILLION$ High Roller on GGPoker. Seidel says this may be his favorite win of them all considering he feels out of line when playing online.
Read: Erik Seidel’s Online WSOP Bracelet Victory Might Just Be His Favorite
PokerStars and partypoker Add Brazilian Ambassadors
The first of the month usually means we’ll see a series of big announcements and there was no exception on September 1. The success of Brazilian poker players, especially in the ongoing WCOOP series and WSOP Online Bracelet series on GGPoker, saw as a pair of Brazilian online players pick up sponsorship deals. The latest member of PokerStars Team Pro is Rafael ‘GM_Valter’ Moraes, a winner of more than $6 million online. The same day as that was announced, partypoker added Yuri ‘theNERDguy’ Dzivielevski as their latest sponsored player. Currently, the #1-ranked player on PocketFives, Yuri has recorded over $14 million in online tournament winnings.
To the Wiktor Goes the Spoils, ‘Limitless’ Wins SHRB Europe
The Super High Roller Bowl Europe $250,000 Main Event finished up last week with cash game superstar Wiktor ‘Limitless’ Malinowski collecting all the chips along with $3,690,000, by far his best live result.
Poker Masters of Their Domain
The PokerGO Tour returns to the PokerGO Studio as the chase for the Purple Jacket starts Tuesday in the Poker Masters series running through September 19th. The 12-event High Roller schedule features buy-ins from $10,000 up to the $100,000 Main Event. Final table streams on PokerGO start on September 8. The PokerGO Tour announced last week that Guaranteed Rate has signed on as their presenting sponsor.
A Triple COOP in the USA
As the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) winds down on PokerStars, their US division offers three separate COOP series running simultaneously in Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania September 10-27. The three series offer a combined $4,500,000 in guarantees among the nearly 200 tournaments scheduled. By this time next year, maybe Stars will have a USCOOP available for players with shared liquidity seeming more and more likely.
A World Poker Tour party in New Jersey
Daily satellites are now running on the partypoker US Network in New Jersey for the World Poker Tour Online Borgata Poker Open Championship, a $3,500, $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament September 19-21. Starting the week over $175,000 is guaranteed in their 9-event series. Details are found at this link.
Main Event Mania Hits WSOP.com
Taking a look at what’s upcoming on the WSOP.com online platform, there’s WSOP Circuit rings offered in Pennsylvania until September 14th. $10,000 Main Event seats are available daily for New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania players in a $160 rake-free All-In Flipament or the more traditional $215 satellite. Check your client for exact running times. Cash game players and BLAST regulars can also earn points towards weekly drawings for a Main Event seat. All the promo details can be found here.
What’s Worth Playing Live?
The RunGood Poker Series returns to California twice in September starting Tuesday with their second visit in three months to San Diego’s Jamul Casino highlighted by a $575 Main Event with $100,000 guaranteed. Click here to take a look at their schedule.
If you can make your way to Philadelphia, Mississippi, the Pearl River Poker Open is guaranteeing $1,000,000 from September 9-19. Full details at www.gulfcoastpoker.net.
Heading further Southeast, Seminole Hard Rock Tampa holds their September Super Stacks series September 9-20 with $300,000 in guarantees. You can follow the updates by @AlCantHang at www.shrtpoker.com
Orleans and Aria Add Fall Series
Add the Orleans and Aria to the ever-expanding lineup of poker tournament series this fall as the Orleans Fall Poker series runs from October 1 - November 5. The Aria announced their Autumn Poker Series from October 5 - November 14 in time for this newsletter’s deadline. The best way to compare all the fall Vegas tournament series at a glance is to check out Kenny Hallaert’s spreadsheet.
Vlog of the Week
Patrick Leonard is sponsored by partypoker, but he’s done well elsewhere online during the major online series on PokerStars and GGPoker including winning a pair of WCOOP titles last month. You can watch daily vlogs on his Instagram.
Newsworthy Tweets
Phil Hellmuth confirmed that he’ll once again play Tom Dwan in Round 3 of PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel III in a $400,000 winner-take-all match at a date to be determined.
The idea of a poker player’s union has been a topic of discussion for years, this time it’s Rob Yong’s turn to make the idea come to fruition.
Congrats to my former boss, Lance Bradley, on joining the WPT Family as their Media and Player Communication Director.
RIP Michael K. Williams
Monday saw the passing of Michael K. Williams, best known for his role as Omar Little on HBO’s ‘The Wire’. I’m not sure he played a lot of poker, but in this scene he gets creative with the ranking of hands.
Nothing Trivial
I couldn’t really think of a good trivia question to use this week. Shoutouts to O8Grinder, AcesFullOfJakes, JFosterDay, gr8fulmouse, atarirobby, and paxkary87 for correctly answering that Ed Asner beat Jon Favreau in a WPT Hollywood Home Game to record his only Hendon Mob cash.