More details have been released about the upcoming Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party which is set to get underway at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino in North Cyprus on August 19. Just a couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the popular Triton Poker Series will be part of the lineup. Now, organizers have confirmed that the Triton events will be headlined by the Coin Rivet Invitational.

Coin Rivet Invitational

The tournament comes with a buy-in of $200,000 and will follow a format similar to the 2019 Triton Million London, the richest poker tournament in history which was taken down by China’s Aaron Zang for a massive $16.7 million. 

Coin Rivet Invitational will bring together both the pros and recreational players who will initially play on separate tables but will merge on Day 2 to play down to a winner. The field will be made of just 64 players (32 pros, 32 recs). 

Big Names Set to Participate

The participants include prominent pros Phil Ivey and Steve O’Dwyer, as well as the 2022 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Espen Jorstad and 2011 WSOP Player of the Year Ben Lamb. Rob Yong, Paul Phua, Bobby Baldwin, and Paul Newey will also be in attendance. 

Crown Melbourne will implement new gambling measures as part of new laws introduced by the state of Victoria designed to combat money laundering and provide stronger protection for consumers. 

Poker Will Suffer

The new rules target slots gaming but they could impact other areas of Crown Melbourne’s casino operations, including poker. The Aussie Millions, one of the world’s most popular poker festivals, is usually held at the Melbourne venue. But with new gambling laws due to take effect, the prestigious tournament could now become a thing of the past. 

Under new laws, slots players at Crown Melbourne will be required to set a loss limit before they can play. Victoria has also set a cash spending cap of just AU$1,000 within 24 hours. The limits will result in a significant drop in revenue for Crown, and the casino will be forced to regain the losses in other aspects of the business. 

No Aussie Millions in 2022?

Crown Melbourne could very well set its eyes on its poker offering considering that it does not make that much money for the casino. Other casino table games, such as baccarat, blackjack, and roulette, perform better than poker in terms of revenue. With this, poker players cannot expect to see Aussie Millions happening in 2022 and for the next few years at Crown Melbourne. In the worst-case scenario, the festival could be completely dropped. 

Despite being embroiled in a massive cheating controversy, Bryn Kenney is keeping himself busy with the upcoming launch of the new online poker site, 4Poker. The American poker pro has been named as an investor of the new platform and will also serve as its ambassador when it goes live later this year. 

Former PokerStars Execs Reunite for 4Poker

4Poker will be manned by industry veterans, most of whom had previous links to online poker giant PokerStars. Heath Cram, formerly with The Stars Group, sits as the company’s chief operating officer. He is joined by former PokerStars marketing director Eric Hollreiser and the founder of Pokerstars blog Brad Willis. 

As COO of 4Poker, Cram doesn’t think the ongoing cheating allegations against Kenney will affect his future role as ambassador for the site. He said he trusts Kenney and believes in his potential in helping the site grow.

Cheating Controversy Continues

Kenney has made headlines in recent months following a shocking expose by poker player Martin Zamani who accused Kenney of running a cheating operation online. Zamani said he was part of a group of horses that committed collusion, multi-accounting, ghosting, and other forms of cheating online under the direction of Kenney.

The American poker pro, who is one of the world’s most successful poker players with more than $57.2 million in live tournament earnings, vehemently denied the accusations.

WPT Global, the newest online poker site in the market today, is quickly gathering steam not only because of its association with one of the world’s premier poker tours, the World Poker Tour (WPT) but also because of its innovative features and generous offers, including its welcome bonus which is among the biggest in the online poker world.

First Deposit Bonus

When you register with WPT Global, you’ll get a 100% match up to $1,200 on your first deposit. Claiming this massive first deposit bonus involves just a few easy steps.

The first thing you need to do is to download the WPT Global client either on your desktop computer or mobile phone. The software works pretty well with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS so you won’t have any difficulty installing it.

After that, you can then sign up for a new account and the process will require you to provide some personal information such as your name, email, and preferred alias. 

And just like that, you can begin playing on the platform by depositing at least $20. You’ll receive 100% of your first deposit (up to $1,200) and you can claim the bonus within 90 days from the day you made your first deposit. It is released in $5 increments with every $20 rake you contribute to cash games and tournaments.

Free $110 Tournament Ticket

Apart from the generous welcome bonus, you are also entitled to a free $110 ticket which you can use to enter the Welcome Event where you can win a share of the huge $100,000 guarantee.

More major online action is coming to PokerStars over the next few months with the return of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). The latest edition of the series will take place from September 2 – 28, with the full schedule to be released soon.

Smaller Series

WCOOP has always featured some of the biggest online tournament guarantees each year and 2022 is no exception, though this year’s series is expected to be relatively smaller in size compared to its 20th-anniversary edition in 2021 owing to some key factors.

In 2021, while the series exceeded its $100 million guarantee, the Main Event was unable to reach its target. PokerStars also recently left two major markets, Russia and the Netherlands, which means player turnout will likely drop this year. Its Canadian pool has also shrunk with the launch of Ontario’s segregated online poker market. 

Hundreds of Events, Multiple Promotions

The total guarantee on offer this year could drop to around $80 million. Nonetheless, players will still be able to compete for massive prizes across nearly 300 events. The schedule will cater to all bankrolls, with events available in three buy-in tiers – Low, Medium, and High. 

There will be a wide range of poker variants and formats to choose from, with new popular game types such as Short Deck Hold’em likely to be thrown into the mix.

The usual highlights, such as the $5,200 Main Event and the $25,000 High Roller, are also expected to return, and PokerStars will once again award extra prizes via promotions and leaderboard races.