Monthly Archives: July 2024

Season 12 of High Stakes Poker, which ended in May, featured the largest pot in the iconic poker show's history, leaving viewers excited to see what's in store for Season 13.

The wait is almost over as the new season on PokerGO kicks off July 29 at 5:00 p.m. PT, with new episodes airing each Monday. Producer and Poker Hall of Famer Mori Eskandani anticipates big things this coming season.

Coming off a season that saw Santhosh Suvarna win the largest-ever pot in the 12-season history of the show, the High Stakes Poker momentum is greater than ever and we cannot wait for poker fans to experience everything the brand new season has to offer," Eskandani said in a press release.

When we last saw High Stakes Poker action in May, Nikhil "Nik Airball" Arcot was playing monster pots losing some and winning others. The former Hustler Casino Live regular who is currently banned from Hustler Casino will be back for Season 13, and no doubt will be bringing the action.

According to the PokerGO schedule, there are 12 episodes ahead, the last taking place October 21. Only one week off during the season is planned, with High Stakes Poker taking a break in September during the Poker Masters series.

According to a press release, the stakes played during Season 13 will range from $200/$400 to $500/$1,000. But, as always, there will often be straddles in play to make the games even bigger. In the first episode, longtime High Stakes Poker competitor Jennifer Tilly will be joined at the table by Andrew Robl, Justin Gavri, Sameh Elamawy, Bo Brownstein, Masato Yokosawa, and Sean Dempsey.

Tilly has been a mainstay in the High Stakes Poker lineup since the show's early days on the Game Show Network in the 2000s. Her longtime boyfriend, Phil Laak, made his return to the show in Season 12, his first appearance since Season 6.

Phil Hellmuth will also make a return to High Stakes Poker this coming season. The "Poker Brat" will make his first appearance during Episode 11 at a table that includes Tilly, Robl, Nik Airball, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, and billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

There are some popular familiar faces that aren't among any of the Season 13 lineups, including Daniel Negreanu, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Laak.

Largest Pot in High Stakes Poker History

To watch new episodes of High Stakes Poker, visit PokerGO.

*Images courtesy of PokerGO/Antonio Abrego

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What to Expect from the Upcoming High Stakes Poker Season 13 - PokerNews.com

He's the $10 million dollar man. Instead of a week of celebrating, relaxing and settling into life as poker's newest world champion, Jonathan Tamayo has had to deal with cheating allegations and accusations of using solvers in the middle of the Main Event final table.

Now, Tamayo has spoken out. In an interview with award-winning podcast The Chip Race, he addressed the concerns of the poker public and said that he would go along with any change in rules to prevent players in the future using solvers on the rail.

The trio spoke at length about Tamayo's career as a cash game grinder, his deep run in the 2009 WSOP Main Event and the role he played in supporting his close friend Joe McKeehen at the 2015 WSOP Main Event final table that McKeehen went on to win.

However, the majority of the discussion naturally was centered on Tamayo's $10,000,000 victory, and the preparations that went in to his run to the biggest title in poker.

Preparations, Tamayo said, were key on the day before the Main Event final table.

"You have to make a strategy executable," Tamayo told podcast hosts Dara O'Kearney and David Lappin. "If the strategy is too complex, then you can't execute it well.

"A strategy that is not as good [but straight forward] is a lot better than something that's complex and I'm not going to remember."

Tamayo was joined by McKeehen and coach Dominik Nitsche to work on effective strategies that Tamayo could implement the following day.

Ironically, he said, the most-studied spot was for a big blind versus button confrontation with Joe Serock, spending 3-4 hours on a spot that Tamayo says never eventually happened.

Nevertheless, the group was keen to ensure that any work they put in would be able to be used the following day.

Tamayo also said there had been ample discussion on mindset strategy and ensuring that Tamayo was in the right zone.

"It was fun, but it was super stressful fun"

"You're just making decisions and doing your job. Whatever happens happens. You just have to give yourself the best shot possible and just be prepared."

Lappin asked Tamayo whether or not he was able to enjoy himself, have fun and take in the surroundings during the biggest final table of his career.

"I took it in a little bit right before the final table started and on the breaks. It was fun, but it was super stressful fun. If you take it in too much you kind of lose your focus so you have to be a little bit careful there. So most of the time it was head down what am I doing? How am I gonna proceed? Just strategy reminders for myself."

During the breaks, Tamayo said he spent time with Nitsche, who discussed a couple of adjustments for his play, which continued while playing at the final table.

Photos of the laptop on the rail, with Nitsche and McKeehen hunched over it were all over social media in the wake of his Main Event victory, but Tamayo told the podcast there were no sims on the laptop, and that he personally wasn't concerned with what was going on.

Instead, he said that any "in-game adjustments" were looked at by Nitsche and McKeehen and communicated to him if necessary.

"If there's something we need to talk to you about, we'll talk to you about it"

"They basically told me 'we'll handle it, just play. If there's something we need to talk to you about, we'll talk to you about it.' So I was just compartmentalizing what I was going to do.

"[Nitsche] said 'feel free to make any in-game adjustments on the fly, and if we think they're incorrect or we see something, we'll let you know.' And that's basically how it was."

Before Tamayo broke his silence, the poker world had been in a frenzy. Alan Keating was quick to tweet, saying that what happened wasn't in the "spirit of the game." Keating then joined former WSOP Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu and Doug Polk on a podcast where Negreanu called for rule clarity and criticizing Tamayo's railmate Dominik Nitsche for "doubling down" on social media afterwards.

Main Event runner-up Jordan Griff even chimed in, also appearing with Doug Polk to discuss Tamayo's use of real-time assistance.

"I mean, I think using RTA is going to give an advantage," Griff said. "Everyone can debate how large that is, and how much it will really help a person. I think its hard to quantify that."

"I talked about [the reaction] with a couple of people," Tamayo said. "I'm not going to be able to change 90-95% of people's opinions. A lot of people are saying stuff on the internet, opinions are made.

Tamayo says he himself doesn't even understand how a lot of the technology works, and it hasn't been something he's devoted a lot of time to over the course of his career.

"I haven't studied solvers, I don't know how they work. I've had a coach on the cash side [of poker] on spots. But I don't know how to process it. Most of my time and most my hours is spent playing. It's a delicate balance. Studying makes your play better, but playing is what makes you your money. So where do you stop studying and start playing?

"To me, studying 40 hours and playing 20 hours is not a good use of the time. But studying 2 hours and playing 60 is probably not it either. It's something I've wrestled with for years, so the answer is somewhere in between."

Back in 2023, the WSOP addressed solver concerns and issued a statement in which they said that any player using real time assistance (RTA) during a hand would be subject to penalty. Additionally, they reserved the right to further penalize a player for using RTA "in any other situation in our sole and absolute discretion."

It remains to be seen as to whether the WSOP will now more stringently enforce its policy on RTA, and Tamayo says it's not up to him.

"Fortunately it's a question I don't have to answer because I'm not an operator. There's some debate how we go about coaching now? I don't know the answer to that.

"They'll think of something. I joked with one of my friends that I might have a rule named after me now!"

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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"The Tamayo Rule" Main Event Champ Hints at New Rule After Solver Allegations - PokerNews.com

This article discusses the Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent's Season 1 finale, as well as the endings of the film Presumed Innocent and several series by the show's creator, David E. Kelley.

I'll say this much about the season finale of Presumed Innocent, a shoddily scripted, excessively long crime drama that frustrated and disappointed me from beginning to end: the final twist came as a genuine surprise. When Jake Gyllenhaal's freshly acquitted prosecutor Rusty Sabich confronted his loyal wife, Ruth Negga's Barbara, in the family's garage, they and creator David E. Kelley really had me believing that she was the one who murdered Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve). I wasn't happy about it; even if the jealous-wife reveal hadn't echoed the conclusion of Scott Turow's original novel and the 1990 movie adaptation, a woman who is so timid about the prospect of so much as cheating on her adulterous husband probably is not capable of homicide. But I believed it, because my expectations of Presumed Innocent were already so low.

Then, as Rusty details why and how he'd staged the murder scene to protect Barbara, who he's always assumed was the killer, their daughter Jaden (Chase Infiniti) steps into the garage. First she confesses to planting the fireplace poker in Tommy Molto's (Peter Sarsgaard) kitchen. (In retrospect, the futile gesture of leaving the jerky prosecutor a murder weapon, complete with a note that says "go f-ck yourself," does feel authentically adolescent.) Then it all comes outhow Jaden went to Carolyn's house to confront her about her relationship with Rusty, how Carolyn told Jaden she was pregnant with Rusty's child, how Jaden flew into a rage, beat Carolyn to death with the poker, and woke up the next morning convinced that the whole awful night had been a dream.

It's a truly surprising ending. But that doesn't mean it's a satisfying one. Making Jaden the guilty party feels like a contrivance designed to shock viewers and subvert our expectations without bothering to convince us that this character had it in her to kill her father's lover. (I mean, how absurd was that flashback of Jaden attacking Carolyn?) Sure, there were a few clues in previous episodes. In one scene, Jaden demanded to know what evidence Tommy and the DA, Nico della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle), had against Rusty. She eavesdropped on her parents confronting her red-herring brother, Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick), about photographic evidence that he, too, was lurking near Carolyn's house on the night of the murder. But what teen wouldn't be extra vigilant with her dad on trial for murder? Also, why would the killer ask her mom, as Jaden does in Episode 5: "Did he do this?"

The biggest hintreally the only hintthat Jaden was harboring guilt or darkness is a conversation she has with Rusty in the season's sixth episode. Jaden explains to her father the concept of "disassociation," which she learned about in psychology class, i.e., "how the brain can protect people from themselves" after traumatic incidents: "If they do something that they can't reconcile with what they perceive themselves to be, it can cause a disassociation." At the time, it seems as though Jaden is trying to feel out whether Rusty disassociated from his memories of killing Carolyn. Now we know that she was testing whether he could empathize with her predicament.

But does this one scene really explain everything, in a show where every character is a suspect but no one, with the partial exception of Rusty, is particularly fleshed out? Despite piling on pathos, the episodes leading up to the finale didnt do much to rule out suspects; if anything, they expanded the field. Tommy seemed a strong, if overly obvious possibility, though the fireplace-poker plant complicated that notion. Something certainly felt amiss with Carolyns angry teenage son, Michael (Tate Birchmore), and bitter ex-husband, Dalton (Matthew Alan)who flipped out at the prosecutors when he learned that Rusty would be cross-examining Michael. And as the finale approached, fan theories ran truly wild, with internet sleuths examining everyone from Rustys fellow prosecutor Eugenia (Virginia Kull) to his friend and lawyer, former DA Raymond (Bill Camp).

Considering how devoted the series was to fixing the representational missteps of its predecessors, it didn't seem likelyuntil, in the Sabiches' garage, it briefly didthat Barbara would turn out to be the guilty party. Turow's Presumed Innocent and, to an even greater extent, the largely faithful film adaptation starring Harrison Ford told a more gripping story than Kelleys drawn-out show but was also a deeply misogynistic piece of work. A product of the same 80s backlash against second-wave feminism that produced erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Body Heat, the movie turned out to be a cautionary tale about female desire. Determined to sleep her way to the top, its Carolyn (Greta Scacchi), an ambitious homewrecker femme fatale, was all but blamed for her own murder.

In a final twist, the only other major female character in the movie, Rustys wife Barbara (Bonnie Bedelia)whose role is limited for almost all of its 127-minute runtime to standing meekly by her manis revealed to be Carolyns killer. (Years later, NPRs Linda Holmes dubbed an outcome in which a remarkably quiet, passive whodunit character played by a recognizable actor turns out to be the guilty party the Bonnie Bedelia rule.) When we discover she's the culprit, its in a monologue that paints Barbara as both a pathetic woman, entirely dependent on her marriage, and a psychopath willing to go to the most diabolical lengths to keep Rusty by her side.

Going into the finale, I was more convinced that Rusty would end up being guilty as charged. Of course, the husband did it is just as worn a murder-mystery clich as the jealous wife. But its one of which Kelley is particularly fond. His HBO drama The Undoing follows Nicole Kidman as a psychologista psychologist!who simply cannot get it through her head, despite mounting evidence of his guilt, that her charismatic, pediatric-oncologist husband (Hugh Grant) murdered his mistress (Matilda De Angelis). Anatomy of a Scandal, on Netflix, slots Sienna Miller into the Kidman role, though this time the charismatic husband is a Tory MP (Rupert Friend) and the crime for which hes on trial is the rape of an aide (Naomi Scott) who was, yes, his mistress. Alexander Skarsgrds Perry Wright may be the victim, not the killer, in Big Little Lies, but, as an abusive husband and sexual predator, hes a rotten-enough person that his death is framed as just deserts.

All of the above series were adapted from novels written by women, which makes it tempting to interpret their anti-male conclusions as pro-feminist statements. But particularly in the cases of The Undoing and Anatomy of a Scandal, the female protagonists are so gullible or so deep in denial for 90% of the shows runtimes that its hard to see their eleventh-hour turns against their guilty husbands as especially triumphant. Presumed Innocent is slightly different because its protagonist is the potentially guilty husband rather than the oblivious wife. If Rusty had been the killer, it would have been usthe viewersalong with Barbara, who Kelley forced into the role of the credulous onlooker who just wanted to believe the best of our handsome leading man.

I think it's for the best that the series ultimately avoided a gender-essentialist conclusion, whether anti-male or anti-female. The problem is that Kelley's Presumed Innocent didn't give us much to replace those psychosexual themes. Never mind all the questions that remain unanswered. (Why did Carolyn, who in flashbacks is so kind to the children she works with, reject her son? Why is Nico such a detached, stoned-sounding weirdo?) The idea that Jaden, a moody but not palpably unhinged teen, faced with a new half-sibling at best or her parents' divorce at worst, flew into a violent rage that can be explained by the phenomenon of disassociation is just silly. It's a shrug more than a solution, tantamount to saying that anyone could kill anyone else for any reason at all.

Taken together with Rusty's decision to cover up a murder he thought Barbara committed, and the parents' instant forgiveness of their daughter's crime, the finale's paltry takeaway is similar, in one crucial way, to the crypto-conservative message of the book and movie. The Sabicheswith whom I think we're supposed to empathizevalue their unity over all else. In moving on, by the final scene of the season, to share a festive Thanksgiving (albeit one where Rusty and Barbara trade guilty glances), they've defeated threats to the family unit in the form of both the criminal justice system and a divorced woman who'd cruelly cast aside her own child. For this traditional (if biracial, though Kelley barely reckons with that identity throughout the season), heterosexual, two-parent household, the ends justify the means. I guess we'll have to wait until Season 2, which was announced earlier this month, to see if Kelley intends to subvert this noxious trope as well.

Watch Presumed Innocent on Apple TV.

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Let's Talk About 'Presumed Innocent's' Shocking, Silly Finale - TIME

Jul 24, 2024 4 min read Last updated Jul 25, 2024

Michael Ian Black is no stranger to poker on TV, but he's told PokerNews The Big Game on Tour was a completely different beast.

He's previously played on Celebrity Poker Showdown as far back as 2003. More recently he's appeared in Hanks Home Game on PokerStars in 2021, and RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) All-Stars ProAM at the PokerGO Studio later that year.

However, last year he took on his biggest challenge sitting down to play in the return of The Big Game on Tour. Now ahead of the second five-episode run featuring new Loose Cannon Lily Newhouse he spoke with PokerNews about what went on under the lights.

Prior to sitting down to play The Big Game on Tour at last year's NAPT Las Vegas festival, Black admitted that he expected to be "outmatched and outclassed" considering the calibre of opposition he was set to come up against.

"Theyre all calm and collected - I'm having a televised freak-out!"

"Its a game I had no business being in from a skill level," said Black. "There were great players sitting at the table, all of whom except the Loose Cannon had a lot of experience playing at those stakes. .

"I didnt want to pretend like this was another day at the office for me, the way most poker players do. Theyre all calm and collected - I'm having a televised freak-out!"

The premise of The Big Game is that a Loose Cannon qualifier receives $50,000 to play with and must survive 150 hands. At the end, they keep any profit they've made. Black says this offers a new dynamic at the table, especially considering another potential cannon that was involved in the game this time around.

"Lily [Newhouse] is already an accomplished who just hasnt had that big score to lift her to the next level. The real Loose Cannon in our series is Dave [Klosky], the online furniture entrepreneur, who was a great guy but probably had the least amount of experience of anybody at the table. But he has the advantage of being super rich and not giving a fuck."

Black is joined by PokerStars Team Pro Sam Grafton and Maria Ho, with whom he'd played with before. Rounding out the line up is former WSOP bracelet winner Phil Laak.

Black said that he had watched the previous five episodes of Nikki Limo's Big Game run, and called the table "crazy" with so many people willing to mix it up for a lot of money.

"Jennifer and Arden are both pretty splashy and fun, so I guess she could have won a shit load of money if the cards had worked out, but she did awesome. Obviously, having Phil at her table was also a challenge. I cant tell if I would have rather have been at her table or mine. I think mine just because it stayed relatively sane."

Nikki Limo Ends Her Loose Cannon Run With A Big Gamble In The Big Game

In contrast, Black says that wrestling with the likes of Sam Grafton was a tricky prospect.

"I knew he would be aggressively bullying. That didnt bother me because I expected it and knew I would be folding marginal hands to him because we were essentially playing two different games: he was playing a cash game and I was playing a tournament. If I lost my buy-in, that was it for me. But Sam can just reach into his pocket. So I knew I had to be (overly) cautious"

While Black is keeping the results of the show close to his chest, he says that he loved the format.

"Everybody knows exactly where we are at every moment of the game, so you can kind of use that strategically. It was my first time playing at those stakes, so this was, by far, the most stressful.

"Despite the stress and the fact that for most of those 150 hands, I wanted to throw up, I loved every second of it. I love the game, take it seriously, have tremendous respect for people who play at a high level, and would love to do more in the poker space."

The Big Game on Tour airs Saturday, July 27 at 00:00 ET/21:00 PT on FS1. It will also be available on the PokerStars YouTube channel!

Have you used the PokerNews Online Tournament Calendar yet? Our free-to-use tool allows you to see upcoming and in-play tournaments at several online poker rooms, including PokerStars. You can even take advantage of a PokerStars sign up bonus. You can apply filters to narrow your search, including buy-in, game type, and even prize pool guarantees, enabling you to find your perfect online poker tournament in seconds, all without leaving PokerNews!

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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Michael Ian Black's "Televised Freakout" as The Big Game on Tour Returns - PokerNews.com

With the summer poker season wrapped up in Las Vegas, the results are in for the crossbook between Landon Tice and Jeremy Becker.

The bet began on May 28 and lasted nearly two months, ending on July 18. As reported by Poker.Org, Becker was the victor by a margin of $71,742 despite both players ending in the red for five-figure sums.

Click here to find out how the crossbook started.

The bet was a 100% crossbook across a minimum of 25 events this summer, both at the World Series of Poker and other festivals, with buy-ins of $10,000 or under. Online events were excluded.

A crossbook is a bet between players in the same tournament or cash game where "the player who loses owes the winner a percentage of that players net winnings (vs. the losing players net winnings) in the event," according to Upswing Poker.

For example, if Becker and Tice both played an event and one cashed for $0 and the other cashed for $100,000, the winning side would be owed $100,000 (plus a buy-in). If the loser cashed for $25,000, they would owe $75,000, and so on.

The duo put in a grind in the scorching heat of Sin City, with 176 bullets fired between them. Becker, who was supported by Daniel Negreanu, recorded the most entries with 90, four more than his opponent.

Becker's total buy-ins came to $165,764, and he cashed for $148,627, making for a $17,137 deficit. Tice, who had Matt Berkey in his corner, wound up with a loss of $88,879 after his $185,710 in buy-ins paid him back $96,831. With that, Tice had to pay Becker the difference, which came to $71,742.

Becker's biggest cash of the summer came on the last day of the crossbook, where he placed eighth in the Venetian $1,600 Mystery Bounty for $23,395. Tice's best payout was for slightly more, receiving $29,353 after bowing out in 88th in the $10,400 Wynn Summer Championship. Becker made the money in 19 of the 62 unique events that he played, while Tice's nine results came from 54 tournaments.

Within the scope of the crossbook, it paints Tice's summer as a losing one, but that wasn't quite the case for the 'Child of the Sim.'

On May 30, Tice banked a career-best score of $550,000 after ending as the runner-up in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.

Why didn't that count towards the crossbook, I hear you ask? Well, that's because the tournament began at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida in April. Action paused for over a month once the final table had been reached, and the remaining six players took a break before traveling to Las Vegas more specifically, the HyperX Arena at Luxor to play it down to a winner.

Josh Reichard, a 15-time World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) ring winner, walked away as the champion in that event and banked the $839,300 up top after despatching Tice in heads-up play.

Data courtesy of Poker.Org

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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Becker Beats Tice in Summer Crossbook Despite Losses on Both Sides - PokerNews.com

If you watched the World Series of Poker final table last week, you may have noticed eventual champion Jonathan Tamayo talking to a team of people on the rail in between hands, including one with a computer. And if youre a casual observer like myself, you may have thought nothing of it.

As it turns out, those trips to the sideline werent as innocuous as we thought.

Since Tamayos $10 million triumph, some within the poker community are accusing his team of using poker solvers, as summarized by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The ethicality of that is now being called into question. Allow me to explain.

A poker solver, or simply a solver, is a piece of software that calculates optimal strategies for certain scenarios inputted by the user. In other words, they tell you how to play your hand.

While I cant say for certain Tamayos team used solvers, no one from that side has denied it. In fact, the person on the computer four-time WSOP event winner and owner of the DTO Poker Trainer app Dominik Nitsche has actually been on X defending his actions and even trolling his accusers.

Tamayo was often seen consulting with Nitsche, who is believed to have been running simulations on his laptop. Also a part of Tamayos team was 2015 WSOP main event champion Joe McKeethan, who is believed to have been watching the delayed PokerGo stream of the tournament on his phone.

Well, kinda? According to the Review-Journal, WSOP rule 64c prohibits participants from using betting apps, gaming charts, or any poker information tool while involved in a hand.

But as I see it with my novice understanding, the usefulness of Tamayo being fed information from solvers between hands is limited. Getting information on how past hands should have been played could definitely influence how he might approach future hands, but thats it. Essentially, it was just another tool in the coaching toolbox, and there are no rules against post-hand coaching

But there is a gray area. While the rule book only prohibits the use of solvers while involved in a hand, there were apparently in-house announcements before the start of each WSOP tournament prohibiting solvers at any point in time.

Thats what people are trying to figure out. Regardless, the optics are bad.

You could argue that since he wasnt the one on the computer running the software, and because it wasnt being used while he was actively in the middle of a hand, he didnt break the rules.

Its also tough to hold someone accountable based on announcements they can say they didnt hear, especially when the rulebook isnt as specific. But the poker community is divided.

Nitsche argued on X in a back-and-forth with poker pro Daniel Negreanu that nothing in the WSOP rulebook prohibits the use of real-time assistance (RTA). To which Negreanu responded with video of the announcement.

He concluded that what Nitsche did was wrong, completely outside the spirit of the game, gray and shady at best.

Fellow pros Bryan Paris and Doug Polk also thought the computer was bad optics, though Paris made it clear Tamayo earned his win.

Having this extra feedback between hands is helpful but a far cry from the automation of the game. Even with this feedback, Tamayo very much earned his victory, he wrote.

Poker pro Patrick Leonard pointed out how computers and coaching from the rail have always been a part of the game. Though he said hed also like to see all electronics banned in the future.

Tamayo hasnt been as outspoke on X, though he did credit Nitsche and McKeethan after his win, saying Joe and Dom actually helped. If they werent here, I likely do not win this tournament.

Runner-up Jordan Griff said on Polks podcast he may have said something to the tournament supervisor if he had confirmation Tamayos team was running sims. But he credited Tamayo for winning their heads-up battle.

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The divisive poker hack that potentially aided the 2024 WSOP champion and has some calling for a computer ban, explained - For The Win

Rian Johnsons hitPeacockoriginalPoker Faceaired its eventful Season 1 finale on March 9, 2023, and fans of theColumbo-style mystery-of-the-week serieshave been impatiently awaiting Season 2 developments ever since.

Natasha Lyonne dazzled as Charlie Cale, a casino cocktail waitress-turned-detective who uses sharp lie detecting abilities to solve murder cases. And after Season 1, Episode 10, The Hook, ended on a compelling cliffhanger, viewers cant wait to see what twists, turns, and complex cases await when the series returns.

But when is Poker Face coming back? Great question! If you, like Decider, are desperate forPoker FaceSeason 2, youve come to the right place.

Curious when the popular Peacock series returns with new episodes, wondering if Season 2 filming has started already, and whatPoker FaceSeason 2 will be about? Read on to learn everything we know aboutPoker Faces highly-anticipated sophomore season, including updates from Johnson and co-showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.

As of July 2024 an exact premiere date for Poker Face Season 2 remains unknown, but since Season 1 premiered in January 2023 theres always a chance the series eyes another January release. If not later this year, heres hoping the series returns in early 2025. While we dont have specifics on when fans can expect new episodes, we do have a recent update on Season 2 filming

On July 1, Rian Johnson let fans know that Poker Face Season 2 had officially started filming via Instagram. In an Instagram Story, Johnson shared a photo of a clapboard for the show alongside the words, DAY ONE SEASON TWO. The photo, posted by Instagram user @tonytost, also listed Lyonne as director, which means shell likely be back behind the camera in Season 2 after directing Season 1, Episode 8. (In addition to starring and directing, Lyonne also serves as an executive producer on the series.) So now that we know Poker Face Season 2 is officially in production, what will a sophomore season look like? And how long could the series run?

SincePoker Faceembraces episodic storytelling, viewers get a new case, a new cast, and a new location each episode. Butin a January 2023 interview, Johnson told Decider that in the finale we are going to circle back and come back to the story that we started in the pilot. And thats exactly what Episode 10, The Hook, did.

If youre looking for a detailed recap of Poker Faces Season 1 finale, Decider has you covered. As for the cliffhanger, however, Season 1 ends with Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt) being arrested for the murders of Jerry and Natalie Hill, then telling the FBI that Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman) head of the Five Families killed Sterling Frost Sr., which confirmed that Charlie was innocent.

In the episodes final moments, Charlie gets a call from Beatrix, vowing to track her down and kill her UNLESS she returns to work for the Five Families and use her circus freak lie detector thing to their benefit. Hasp asks how long Charlie thinks she can keep running, and Charlie replies, I dont know, B. Lets all of us find out together. Before the end credits roll, Charlie smashes her phone, chugs a beer, and stands on the side of the road next to her car as Walk On by Neil Young blares. An icon. When she returns for Season 2, shell be on the road and on the run from a powerful casino mogul yet again. And honestly? We wouldnt have it any other way.

AssumingPoker Facesticks with its beloved show structure, each Season 2 episode will presumably introduce another new murder case in need of cracking, a new cast (ripe will A-List guest stars), and a new location. The running theme of Charlie evading capture will likely be woven throughout the season again, and perhaps like Season 1, the Season 2 finale will tie everything back to the premiere again! Well have to wait and see.

We know Lyonne will definitely be back, and we can assume Rhea Perlman will appear in Season 2 as well, but thanks to Variety we also have some exciting Season 2 guest star announcements. On July 16, Variety reported that Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gaby Hoffmann were added to the Season 2 cast. And on July 23, Kathrine Narducci, Ben Marshall, Kevin Corrigan, and Sherry Cola were announced.

After Season 1 featured guest stars includingAdrien Brody,Chlo Sevigny,Joseph Gordon-Levitt,Stephanie Hsu,Judith Light,Tim Meadows, and Charles Melton,heres what showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman had to say about dream Season 2 guest stars.

In terms of actors wed love to see, I mean, we felt so lucky to get the people we got for this season. It was hard to talk people out of at the end of their shoot they would ask, Can I come back next season as a different character? You know, causeColumboused to do that, Nora Zuckerman told Decider in a Zoom interview. So I actually think it would be really fun to find somebody from Season 1 and bring them back in a potential Season 2 as like a totally different character, totally against part or against type.

We were like, this could be a repertory. It could be likeThe Poker Face Players. Well just kind of bring people back but put them in completely different roles, Lilla Zuckerman added.

The idea of returning Season 1 stars also delights Johnson, who already has someone in mind. I think Noah Segan could easily be the Patrick McGoohan. And Ive already done that with him withKnives OutandGlass Onion, so the seal is broken on that, Johnson told Decider. And heres hoping we havent seen the last of Bratt either, because Lyonne helped him land a Loot cameo that reminded us what a joy he is on screen.

We know Season 2 hasnt finished filming yet, but for those already thinking about the future of Poker Face beyond its sophomore season, weve got some insight to share. In an interview with Decider,the Zuckermans confirmed that theyd be on board for 76 seasons of the show (just like Lyonne).

I certainly think I have 76 seasons worth of ideas, Lilla Zuckerman said. The wonderful thing about this show is that it is designed to just be an ongoing thing, because it is so episodic that you can set one of these murder mysteries anywhere. And I think what we wanted to do was really peel back and take a look at the heartland of America and the characters that are there, and really surprise people with where we could set these stories.

Decider will be sure to update you on the future of the series when we learn more. Until then,Poker FaceSeason 1 is now streaming on Peacock.

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Everything To Know About Poker Face Season 2 On Peacock - Decider

After criticising it at the start of the series, Barry Carter was won over by the 'best 10 results count' WSOP Player of the Year race.

I was not a fan of the new Player of the Year scoring system when it was announced, but I don't mind admitting I was wrong.

The new system goes on a 'best 10 results count' system, rather than a volume system. Only one online bracelet can be counted towards the final result. There is also a minimum of five cashes needed.

I still believe the old system is 'fairer' and the only reason it was implemented was because the powers that be did not like an unknown player in Ian Matakis winning it last year, but this was the first year in a while where the Player of the Year race was fun to rail.

The eventual winner was Scott Seiver, who famously won three bracelets in a year, the first player to do that in 15 years. Despite that it was not over early, if you look at the Top 20 at the bottom of the page, there were a lot of people who were just a couple of results away from leapfrogging Seiver right until the end.

The best thing about the top 10 results being counted is it opened it up to more people. This meant that Europeans who didn't want to play a full series, older players who didn't want to grind for six weeks, and cash game players like Seiver all had a shot without having to over-extend themselves. Not only did it open it up to more people, it opened it up to more big names, which is good for the railbirds.

Again, I still think the 'fairer' format is to reward the grinders and give points for every event. This new method still favours the older Vegas guys who can just play the mixed game events, but it also gives a shot to players who would have never considered the race before.

My only criticism is that it ended terribly. There were two online bracelet events last Sunday on WSOP.com (one of which waswon by Michael Mizrachi) that each awarded at least 940 points. A win in either could have swung it for a few of the players. Despite this, there was no media coverage from the WSOP at all, the results were only announced on Wednesday morning, three days after the online events took place.

This is a really anti-climactic way to end the Player of the Year. I totally understand why it should end online on a Sunday, it's a natural way to get players back on the online grinde. But with no hoopla around it (A couple of tweets from WSOP.com would have been fine) the most interesting Player of the Year race in years went out with a whimper rather than a bang.

Still though, a huge success overall and I hope it gets even more high-profile players pumped about the race next year.

Do you prefer the new scoring system? Let us know in the comments:

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO.

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News: The new Player of the Year system was a huge success - pokerstrategy.com

Jul 23, 2024 Last updated Jul 27, 2024

Life Outside Poker is a new podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.

In the 13th episode, Connor speaks with 888poker ambassador and Twitch streamer Ian Simpson, who talked about first learning poker as a kid, getting a degree in biotechnology and becoming a biology teacher, poker streaming and his breakout year of live poker in 2013 that saw him winning the Irish Poker Open for $339,604.

Simpson also discussed the importance of being a responsible poker ambassador and how science can change the world for the better.

This interview was filmed at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

The Life Outside Poker podcast is available on major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and iHeartRadio. You can also watch the interview with Ian Simpson by heading to the PokerNews YouTube channel.

Be sure to follow Ian Simpson and Connor Richards on X.

Learn More About Life Outside Poker!

Connor Richards is an Editor & Live Reporter for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for two Global Poker Awards for his writing.

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Ian Simpson Thinks Science Can Save the World | Life Outside Poker #13 - PokerNews.com

Would a return to a three month final table delay solve the branding, visibility and coaching issues currently facing the Main Event?

I watched the OnlyFriends podcast this week as they were discussing the aftermath of 'LaptopGate' and they went on an interesting tangent which I wanted to steal build upon.

They suggested (around the 13-minute mark in the video below) that now would be a good time to bring back the November Nine. The poker landscape is very different to the last time we did that, most notably the WSOP is shown behind a paywall on PokerGO and we are very much in the solver era.

My stance on the November Nine has always been it was a great thing pre-Black Friday when players could get lucrative sponsorship opportunities during the break, but pointless since then. I must say, however, in 2025 it could make sense.

The big visibility issue the Main Event has in 2024 is that it is behind a paywall. It is no longer on ESPN, it is on PokerGO. That means that realistically it is only poker enthusiasts who are watching it, not potential new players who stumble upon it by accident, like most of us did.

A three-month delay could mean that PokerGO produces a lot of in-house content focussing on the November Niners. That material could be free on YouTube. Much in the way that a lot of free content comes out to hype boxing matches, we could learn more about the final nine players and, if it was compelling enough, it could sell a ton of PokerGo subscriptions (or a one-time box office payment).

Sponsorship opportunities are not there anymore, as they were at the start of the November Nine concept, but a lot of poker players these days are becoming one-person media empires with YouTube/Twitch channels, coaching products, and so on. So while the November Nine may no longer guarantee a Stars patch, it might still prove a brilliant branding opportunity for those players who want to be in the public eye. As the OnlyFriends guys suggested, this is what Espen Jorstad did after his Main Event win. A November Niner who starts a Vlog after making the final table could have a big audience by the end of the final table.

The timing is also good for the WSOP because it would be just after the WSOPE and just before WSOP Paradise. The November Nine would be an extra opportunity to plug both of those events.

There would be inevitable coaching for the final nine players, and this might help curb the worst parts of what we saw with 'Team Tamayo' on the rail. There would be less need to give a 'crash course' on the various spots via a laptop, all that could be worked out in the three months leading up to it. There would also be more time to vet each rail and police what they did better, especially if it happened in the PokerGO studio.

I'm still not sold on the idea, but it is an intriguing one. The biggest issue we have with regards to the WSOP Main Event is that the broadcast is behind a paywall. The return of the November Nine could at least lead to a lot of free content to entice new players to the game, if we can't make the final table itself free.

Do you like this idea? Let us know in the comments:

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO.

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News: Should we bring back the November Nine? - pokerstrategy.com