Anti-Money Laundering Regulations Hurting Las Vegas High-Stakes Poker

WSOP FINAL NINE PLAYERS SET FOR THE 2025 WORLD SERIES OF POKER® MAIN EVENT® FINAL TABLE

In 2024, more than 800 players took advantage of the extended registration period to start their journey with 75 and 60 big blinds, respectively. He topped a field of 10,043 players, the largest Main Event in WSOP history. In addition, mega satellites in 2024 will be played as “Landmark Mega Satellites”, where players will earn their seat when they reach a predetermined amount of chips. International players are required to bring an additional form of identification that shows residential address, such as a signed Las Vegas lease agreement, a utility bill or a mobile phone bill. Just log in to your free PokerNews account, star the players you care about, and they’ll always appear at the top of your chip count list.

  • In her free time, she enjoys baking, getting outdoors and discovering new music.
  • In 2008, the WSOP introduced the November Nine where the Main Event plays down to a final table of nine in July, before resuming in November.
  • Leo Margets finished seventh in 2025 for $1.5 million, following in the footsteps of Barbara Enright to record just the second final-table showing ever by a female player in this tournament.
  • Owning over $143 thousand in live tournament earnings, Wasnock’s largest career cash of $56,330 has been far surpassed with his performance in the Main Event.

The break gave players respite from the gruelling Main Event grind, the chance to drum up sponsorship deals, and fly family and friends to Las Vegas for the biggest final table of their lives. Seven-time WSOP bracelet winner and GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu also pointed to expanded online qualification paths, encouraging players worldwide to “take your shot at the gold in 2026.” Returning to the WSOP for the second year and continuing to revolutionize how poker players experience WSOP events around the world, the WSOP Live App serves as a one-stop shop for everything poker players need throughout the 2026 WSOP. Taking one of the most popular events at the WSOP and lowering the buy-in to attract even more poker players, Flight A of the $550 No-Limit Hold’em Mini Mystery Millions serves as the perfect starting event for the 2026 WSOP.

Many more will follow within the next two weeks as the eyes of the global poker community are once again firmly set on the grandest of spectacles. This time, the end for Aguero came in Level 5 when his king-nine suited couldn’t beat the pocket tens of Andrius Mazurkevicius. Belonging into the latter category is certainly football striker Sergio Aguero from Argentina, who has already competed in multiple WSOP tournaments. Last year’s runner-up Jordan Griff also participated on Day 1d but bowed out during the final level of the night, Pyzara certainly wasn’t the only one to suffer a horrendous beat, as Jared Bleznick saw his pocket aces cracked in a six-bet pot by Romain Locquet on the live-stream table when the Frenchman made quads nines. Hundreds of other dreams were crushed thereafter, with nearly ten percent of the field already on the rail by the time the dinner break kicked off at the end of Level 3.

High-stakes tournament professional Andrew Moreno brought cash to the cage to load into his WSOP account for tournament buy-ins. It’s one of the largest fines levied against a Las Vegas casino and the first WSOP hosted by a Caesars property since the high seven-figure bill. Both Bowyer and Nix were voted into Nevada’s “Black Book” and are permanently banned from Silver State casinos. MGM also allowed another illegal bookmaker, Wayne Nix, to play on their properties. She played a swingy two hours on camera, ultimately running her stack up to $90,000 before needing to rebuy. In a statement following her removal, Jing said WSOP officials initially told her she couldn’t play because they couldn’t verify that the money came from Hustler Casino.

It was simply that I knew which online screennames belonged to which real-life poker tournament participants. This time around, he was the player with the big pocket pair facing two overcards. Throughout this tournament, I played like very, very good poker. Jamie Shaevel is in sixth place, with 33,000,000, while three-time bracelet winner Greg Mueller rounds out the final seven with 29,500,000. The two players then doubled through each other before Wong made a good river call to seize a commanding lead.

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Winning the largest piece of the $90,535,500 total prize pool, Mizrachi takes home $10 million along with a Main Event bracelet valued at half a million dollars. In her free time, she enjoys baking, getting outdoors and discovering new music. Stream ESPN, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and 100+ top channels of live TV and sports without cable.

Jing brought a large sum of cash from Hustler Casino and used it to buy into the $100-$200 no-limit hold’em game. There are also Day 2s in the $25,000 PLO with the survivors from its two starting flights combining for the first time at 12 p.m., and the $2,500 Freezeout, which gets underway an hour later at 1 p.m. Other notables through to Day 3 include Matt Glantz (625,000), Main Event final tablist John Wasnock (410,000), and Karina Jett (380,000). They will have a day’s rest before returning for Day 3 on Thursday. There were plenty of bracelet winners advancing from Day 1b in the Seniors Championship. Calvin Anderson who also ended Day 1 with the chip lead, bagged the overall chip lead on Day 2 as well, having already won this event in 2018.

Registration for all summer events will open soon, streamlining the path to the podium. Play will proceed until the final table is reached on July 13, with specifics on the Main Event final table play dates and broadcast coverage to be announced at a later date. In 2024, the flagship event in Las Vegas attracted 229,553 entrants and awarded more than $438 million in prize money – both all-time records for the series. For the historic achievement of winning his fourth Poker Players Championship as well as the Main Event in the same summer, the now nine-time WSOP bracelet winner was informed by his peers that, via a unanimous vote, he would become the 65th member of the Poker Hall of Fame. Cate Schiller is a Global Content Coordinator for The Sporting News affiliate and commercial content team, focused on partnerships supporting live events, entertainment and travel.

Just 1,389 players remained at the close of Day 3, meaning that the biggest poker tournament of the year sits seven places from the money as everyone left bids to make profit and then push on towards the $10,000,000 top prize. Five bracelet events come in under $1,000, while 54 tournaments fall between $1,000 and $5,000, forming the core of the summer grind. On behalf of the entire WSOP staff, best of luck to every poker player competing throughout the series, whether you fire one bullet in the $300 No-Limit Hold’em Gladiators of Poker, the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller, or every event in between. Check out our Poker Player of the Year race, as well as years of data of poker player results and casino poker tournament pay-outs.

Anti-Money Laundering Regulations Hurting Las Vegas High-Stakes Poker

Thus, it’s unlikely Las Vegas casinos will relax this type of scrutiny any time soon. In 2018, Dennis Blieden won the World Poker Tour Los Angeles Poker Classic main event for $1 million. 2024 WSOP main event champion Jonathan Tamayo told Card Player he needed to show a copy of his tax returns when he deposited cash. Sadly, was locked out of playing yesterday because of it.

Selinger had €13,300 in live cashes before this impressive victory. Players should follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP.com for event news and updates. Players can visit /promotions for full details on ways to qualify for the 2025 WSOP. Reduced room rates will be available across Caesars Entertainment’s Las Vegas resorts for the series by visiting caesars.com and using promo code WSOP25.

Daniel and Amanda Negreanu posing with WSOP bracelet number eight. Las Vegas, Nevada (July 6, 2026) – Now well within the initial days of the 2026 WSOP Main Event, the excitement and pressure have kicked up a notch here at the Las Vegas Paris and Horseshoe. Players should follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP.com for more event news and updates. Before all eyes turn to the 2026 WSOP Main Event, get caught up on all that has unfolded these past few days at the WSOP. Greg Mueller of White Rock, British Columbia, made a magical run in this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event after the longtime pro burned out on the game. After six hours of action in the World Series of Poker Main Event at Horseshoe Events Center, play was halted with Lucas Jumalon maintaining the chip lead.

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When people remember the boom-era WSOP, they tend to focus on famous players and televised hands. Black Friday didn’t help, as the affiliate model in the US just can’t survive promoting solely regulated online poker, and there isn’t money to have competing updates teams at the WSOP anymore. So, I liked in my interviews to try and bring players opportunities to express themselves without worrying if it was going to give away crucial information about how they thought about the game.

The world’s biggest poker festival returns to the pokernewsdaily.com Las Vegas Strip from May 26 through July 15, once again staged across Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Pacific Standard Time, the first of six day one flights for the Mini Mystery Millions will begin. Today, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, day one of the 57th annual World Series of Poker begins at the Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas, Nevada. Players should follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP.com for more news and updates on this year’s WSOP event. This agreement restores that historic collaboration, ensuring that the next generation of world champions is crowned in prime time. Bringing the WSOP back reflects our continued commitment to delivering premium competition and that connects with fans in new and exciting ways.”

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Event Schedule

PokerNews has been providing live coverage of the event for all three editions, with photos, videos, and player interviews live from the tournament floor in The Bahamas. 2026 will see another 100 live bracelet events played out inside Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas, with nonstop excitement and hundreds of millions in prize money awarded along the way. MyStack lets players update their stacks in real time, directly into the PokerNews live feed. MyStack returns this year, allowing players to directly update their chip counts in the live reporting feed and give friends and followers the most accurate picture of their tournament progress. The final 1,382 players will be in the money and guaranteed at least $15,000, with the eventual champion taking home the… pic.twitter.com/w9P2acqUWH

The three-night live Final Table will be broadcast from Aug. 3-5 on ESPN and ESPN2. There’s now just one battle left, and it will continue until an outright champion is crowned, which could take days. The $10,000 Main Event is the most prestigious, but there are other tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $250,000

But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare as Savas spiked a queen on the turn and send the Japanese player out in 23rd place. Holding pocket jacks against Daniel Savas’ pocket queens, Nagami looked destined for the final day when he flopped a set. «I just love poker, and I’ve gone a week without registering a different event at the World Series. That’s the longest of my career.»

Shaun Deeb is the reigning WSOP Player of the Year, having cashed in 18 live events, six online bracelet events, and reached five final tables in 2025. From the smallest fields to the largest, the $1,500 Monster Stack and $500 Colossus, will once again draw enormous crowds, as players of all levels embark on their annual poker pilgrimage to play two of the summer’s most popular events. With a $5,000 pricetag, the event is sure to draw some of poker’s best full-time professional players who look to secure a big score and add a shiny, new WSOP gold bracelet to their wrist. Elsewhere at the SHRPO series, statistical anomalies were on tap as three different players won four events in the series. The most prestigious mixed-game poker tournament of the year is down to its final six contenders, and the remaining half dozen players include some of the most decorated names in the game.

He’s cashed in this event six times before, with his previous best being a third-place finish in 2006, when this event debuted as the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship. The final table is set in the 2026 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players Championship. “It’s a great thing, the French poker community… we are all together all the time. This was by far the largest score yet for Boos, blowing away the $65,364 he earned for a final-table showing in a €380 event at the Italian Poker Sport Rozvadov festival last year. It was a nice time; the tournament was great,” said Boos.

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The last poker player to pull off back-to-back victories in the WSOP Main Event, Chan achieved poker immortality by continuing to build on his historic WSOP success, becoming the first player to win 10 WSOP bracelets in 2005. While all-time poker great Johnny Chan won his first WSOP bracelet in a Limit Hold’em event during the 1985 WSOP, his greatest poker accomplishment would begin two years later. A member of the PokerCoaching.com pro team, much of Hendrix’s over $8 million in live tournament winnings come from wins in tournaments on the PokerGO Tour as well as plenty of deep runs in WSOP events. No stranger to success on the felt, Hallaert has racked up a number of poker tournament titles across poker tournament series around Europe, contributing to $5.9 million in live tournament winnings across his career. A historic WSOP Main Event final table that includes not only a four-time Poker Players Championship winner but also the first woman since 1995, poker fans around the world look forward to a highly anticipated conclusion to the 2025 WSOP Main Event.

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Visit the Card Player 2026 World Series of Poker landing page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results. Stapleton, who signed on with WSOP after 15 years with PokerStars, will play a large role in the broadcasts as well, as will Jeff Platt, another recent WSOP signing. The broadcast is set to feature Ali Nejad, David Williams, Lon MacEachern, and Norman Chad in commentary roles throughout the summer. According to the WSOP’s website viewers can, “Watch every 2026 WSOP event for free on the official WSOP YouTube channel.”

🎤🔥@brucebuffer just delivered a “Shuffle up and deal! But a late dip puts him in a perilous position heading into Tuesday afternoon’s session. He’ll take 106,500,000 into night two of this three-day marathon. The 22-year-old bagged up 212,000,000 to remain the favorite to walk away with the championship bracelet and the first-place prize of $10,000,000.

Most people know the summer series in Las Vegas, where the $10,000 Main Event turns ordinary players into legends. It’s a new development for poker players to deal with this. Everyone remaining has already secured a payout of at least $36,395 from the $1,441,500 prize pool, but players are sure to be gunning for the $357,026 and coveted gold bracelet awaiting the champion.

While Mueller’s been a mixed game player for the bulk of his professional poker career, he’s afforded himself incredibly well thus far in the 2026 WSOP main event. Two other multi-time bracelet winners also advanced to day 8 of the 2026 WSOP main event. Speaking of Ensan, the 2019 WSOP main event champion is one day away from a return to the final table in 2026. The final 174 players will return for day 6 at noon on Saturday, July 11, with blinds of 30,000-60,000 and a 60,000 big blind ante for level 25. Among the final 174 players, 24 have already won at least one WSOP bracelet. With the WSOP Main Event deep in the middle of its run and no championships events concluding until the start of the weekend, the PokerGO Tour Leaderboard remains as it was yesterday, with Sean Winter leading from the Finnish player Eelis Parssinen.

He saw his stack of 50 million evaporate in the last hour of play. One of the day’s cruelest exits belonged to Kyosuke Nagami. Other notable eliminations before the field reached the final three tables included Ralph Perry, whose ambitious hero call with pocket eights on a board of 10♠6♥5♣4♥Q♥ ended his run in 44th place. Tyler Gaston and Blake Barousse bagged the two biggest stacks at the end of Day 6, but neither made it to the final three tables. «I just realized this tournament ends tomorrow, so I can still hop in the $25K H.O.R.S.E. and the $1K Turbo,» he said. «I thought I was running hot already. I thought I’d used up all my run good for the year, maybe two years. But the poker gods have shined on me again.

The day belonged to Sasha Liu, however, who bagged a big chip lead when she ended Day 3 on 2,364,000 chips, some way clear of second-placed Martin Zamani (1,963,000), with Levon Khachatryan (1,745,000), Robert Gill (1,604,000) and Zdenek Zizka (1,576,000) rounding out the top five. Day 3 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event was the most dramatic yet as former champions either thrived or saw their tournament chances die in thrilling fashion. Though 2026 payment methods haven’t been confirmed yet, it’s expected to include cash, credit/debit cards, ACH transfers, wire transfers, and tournament buy-in chips or credits, similar to previous years. Among them will be Jeff Platt, who last month announced a new role with the WSOP after a near decade-long association with previous series broadcaster PokerGO. Or, even better, there’s a chance you could capture both pieces of sought-after poker jewelry.

Already the winner of the Aussie Millions Main Event earlier this year, Trayner now has a chance to do something truly unique in poker. McGraw showed 5♥5♣ for a full house, but Wick’s A♣9♣ gave him a bigger one and knocked McGraw out of the tournament minutes away from Day 2. Day 2abc will feature those having advanced from the first three starting days while Day 2d includes all those who have bagged up chips tonight. The following two days will show whether or not a five-figure tally can be reached for the third year in a row.

The third and final day began with five players remaining and Frank in the lead. Earlier this series, he became the first player to surpass $25 million in bracelet-event cashes. It has been a truly incredible week at the 2026 World Series of Poker, with four players near the very top of the all-time bracelet leaderboard adding to their legacies with massive wins in Sin City.

Winning his first WSOP bracelet online in 2023, Karapet Galstyan now has a live WSOP bracelet added to his collection, winning the $600 Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em for $259,829. Surviving a turbulent final table, Toby Price is taking his first WSOP bracelet and largest career score back to Arizona. Starting his poker career as a young online prodigy, Poland’s Dzmitry Urbanovich now has a WSOP bracelet to his name, finishing on top of the podium in the 8-Game Mixed Championship.

CoinPoker is among the platforms targeted as a “competing online poker operator” with restrictions in play. However, the new rules seem to target the creation of any kind of content created within the boundaries of the WSOP, putting a number of streamers and sponsored players in a tough spot. In previous years, the restrictions were almost exclusively tied to final tables, live streams and broadcasts. Rule 40 states that any player who accepts any payment or prize from a third party based on the outcome or results of a WSOP event is subject to a forfeit of all WSOP prize money. Both players were subsequently banned from Caesars properties.