The Weekly Turbo: April Showers in the Money
This week had some big wins and some big names in the poker news sphere. Make sure you didn't miss it.
The Winner's Circle
Jason Mercier won the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $25,500 High Roller for $794,600.
Ryan Riess won the World Poker Tour $10,000 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale for $716,088, triumphing over a field of 349 players.
Oliver Weis won the HK$ 206,000 Single Re-Entry Shot Clock II after defeating Belarusian Mikita Badziakouski heads up to take the title, trophy and HK$3,130,000 (~US$ 402,840).
Ka Kwan "Kaju85" Lau won the HK$82,400 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller after playing heads up against Maksim Shuts, taking HK$950,000 (~US$122,277) at PokerStars Championship Macau.
Tony Sinishtaj won the World Poker Tour $3,500 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $661,283 over a final table that included Darryll Fish, Rob Mizrachi and Dan Colman.
Quan Zhou, a well-known Chinese high roller regular, won the HK$206,000 Single-Day High Roller at PokerStars Championship Macau for HK$3,645,000 (~US$469,090).
Canadian Griffin Benger won the 2017 Irish Open, outlasting 1,129 people to take the €200,000 first-place prize.
Steve O'Dwyer won the HK$400,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Championship Macau for HK$8,460,803, more than US$1 million. Yeah, there's a mango too.
Gabriel Pop won the £20,550 first-place prize in the latest DTD200 event at Dusk Til Dawn Casino.
Panama's 'Xavi666' won the special edition of PokerStars' Sunday Million. He started with $215 and finished with $1,093,204.
2014 Western New York Poker Challenge Main Event champion Nick Walker got the better end of a chop and flip for the 2017 WNYPC Opening Event's title, taking $17,404.
Alicia LaPorte won the first two nightly $150 no-limit hold'em events at WNYPC.
Cameron Bartolotta won the fifth event of the WNYPC for $2,007, as part of a four-way chop.
Nick Zinter won Seneca Poker's WNYPC First Wednesday event, chopping the $2,500 prize heads up with Chris Damik.
The United Kingdom's Scott "AggroSantos" Margereson won 888poker's The Whale on March 19 for $29,694. Now he has over $3.8 million in online poker tournament cashes.
Dennis Fleig won the 2017 Western New York Poker Challenge $300 Pot Limit Omaha event, chopping the event with the other two at the table for $3,825 each.
The Game Changers
888poker is going to pay the difference between the payout and $10 million for 888 qualifiers.
The Tournament of Champions has a little-known history, intertwined with the career of Mike Sexton. Here's that history.
Federal agents served a search warrant at Bicycle Hotel & Casino, allegedly for money laundering, temporarily shutting it down April 4.
888poker recently announced its three XL Championships series, the first of which is the $7.5 million XL Inferno Championships May 7-21.
NBC Sports Group and Poker Central announced a media rights agreement April 3 that will place Poker Central programming on digital and cable TV, starting with the Super High Roller Bowl.
PokerStars is trying to encourage people to stay on the client by changing its rewards system.
888 Holdings announced an 82 percent increase in profit before tax for the year ending December 2016.
Chinese poker players will take on a new AI for a $290,000 winner-take-all purse.
After completing its purchase of the Trump Taj Mahal, the Hard Rock is making Atlantic City plans.
Celina Lin provided first-timers in Macau with some recommendations for their stay.
The third festival of the 2017 Merit Poker Series, the Mediterranean Poker Cup, kicks off April 26 with over $1 million in guarantees and 28 events over 12 days.
King's Casino is hosting six live satellites to the WSOP Circuit International Main Event, which starts April 7.
The latest from Canada: The 2017 Station Poker Classic at Casino Regina finished with a win from Joey Basaraba, and PokerNews Canada provides in-depth interviews with two poker powerhouses: Ema Zajmovic and Kristen Bicknell.
The Playground Poker Spring Classic is back with two major events under the partypoker LIVE banner, including the partypoker Million North America, which boasts the largest prize pool guarantee in Canadian poker history.
Dmitry Chop is closing in on $1 million in live tournament cashes; that and his partypoker Million Sochi Main Event made him this week's Performance of the Week.
Poker & Pop Culture sorts through some of the sources identifying Texas hold'em's origins.
Nick Petrangelo returns to lead the overall GPI rankings after two runner-up finishes in Macau.
In the 19th edition of the Sky Poker UK Online Poker Series (UKOPS), Sky Poker is guaranteeing more than £250,000 across 44 events, starting April 11.
This could be the biggest 888Live Festival yet. Here's what the 888 ambassadors have to say about it.
The APAT World Championship of Amateur Poker starts April 8 with 18 bracelet events.
For a £440 buy-in, players will vie for a share of the (at least!) £100,000 guaranteed prize pool at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City.
Take Matters Into Your Own Hands
Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu has three tips for how to wield that big stack in a tournament.
Steve Selbrede continues his "Donkey Poker" series with an examination of cash-game straddling.
The partypoker Grand Prix Canada promises at least $500,000 CAD in the prize pool. Qualify today!
Climb the leaderboards with a combination of volume and skill at TigerGaming.
Jonathan Little analyzes a tournament hand in which he flops a straight but may not be best.
Here are the best rake and comps for Las Vegas poker cash games this summer.
Roy Cooke shared what he learned from poker, both about the game and about life. He's starting installments called "Cooke's Corner."
Starting stacks, level lengths, and blind/ante increases all greatly affect your sit & go strategy.
Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal analyzes a PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event hand.
A first-place prize of at least £1 million is guaranteed in the partypoker MILLIONS event. Players can qualify for Day 1 for just $0.01 with satellite and feeder tournaments at partypoker.
New and existing players can cash big in PokerStars' latest Spin & Go tourneys.
Traveling to Vegas with friends or family who don't play poker? There's plenty to do.
Check Tape
Brian Koppelman discussed rumors about a Rounders sequel on the latest PokerNews Podcast.
Tito Ortiz answered our Calling the Clock questions. And he also sang "Straight Outta Compton."
Liv Boeree says you shouldn't always go with your gut instinct. It's lazy.
Sarah Herring explores some of the attractions Studio City has to offer, including the world's only figure-eight Ferris wheel.
Stevan Chew talks about the recent bill which outlawed online poker in Australia.
Herring scrolls through the #PSCMacau Twittersphere to curate the best gems for your aggregate viewing pleasure.
Xuan Liu represents Canada in this edition of Google's Most Asked Questions.
As a part of PokerStars fun, Felipe Ramos performs with the Hard Rock band.
Herring busts out a tool from Ellen's bag of day-time television tricks and asks Celina Lin to play a game of Speech Play.
Gigi Fabulous, streamer and mother, shares about the injuries that ended up igniting her passion for poker.
Steve O'Dwyer faced Fedor Holz heads up and came out on top thanks to his lucky mango.
Chris Moneymaker gets put to the test with the Say Anything Challenge.
Daniel Neilson talks about finding equity in turbo tournaments.
Herring challenges Felipe Ramos to a game of Strike a Pose.
Rinnert Sinnema came all the way from Friesland, Netherlands to play his first live poker tournament.
Aditya Agarwal shares a hand analysis he played early at the PokerStars Championship Macau.
Herring talks to Dong Kim about his experience as part of the team that battled Libratus heads up.
If you were to go back in a time machine and talk to your younger self, what would you say?
Nerijus Juska shares about the journey that brought him and his brother to Macau.
How well does Fabrice Soulier know himself? Herring finds out.
Herring heads to one of the hottest nightclubs in Asia for a very special performance by sensual acrobats!
Herring talks to Spanish crusher Sergio Aido about the decision to move his residence to Macau.
Danny Tang explains a hand from beginning to end and why sometimes you have to go with your read. But, you can't be right every time.
Yan Li famously gave Steve O'Dwyer a "Lucky Mango" and he proceeded to win the High Roller. Now she is now deep in the Main Event so Sarah decides to get a handle on what is lucky in Chinese culture.
Daniel Laidlaw stepped up to maintain game integrity after seeing an exposed card.
Herring talks to Head of PokerStars Live Events in Asia Mark Blake about some of the hurdles and logistics of putting on such a huge event in Macau.
Deep in the PokerStars Championship Macau Elliot Smith had a big decision and went into the tank. Herring finds out the factors he is weighing in this spot.
