One of the biggest live tournament series will not be held during 2020. Florida poker room opening a sign of what poker may look like this summer. Find these stories and more in the Friday Hit and Run.
PSPC Postponed Until 2021
The second PokerStars Players Championship will not happen in 2020 as PokerStars announced on Friday that the PSPC 2020 and EPT Barcelona is being canceled for this year. PokerStars says in a statement that the PSPC will return in 2021 to the Casino Barcelona and will “be back and better than ever.” The tournament had been scheduled for August as a follow-up to the record-breaking inaugural event in 2019 when Ramon Colillas took home a $5.1 million first-place prize as a player who qualified via a Platinum Pass.
PokerStars has provided a hand PSPC Postponement FAQ for players that have questions about the PSPC.
Due to the current situation, we have taken the decision to postpone the #PSPC and #EPTBarcelona, which were due to take place August 12-30, 2020.
Full details: https://t.co/dtt2dSyauu
FAQ: https://t.co/poJ67DmJbe pic.twitter.com/Qvxo58emDb— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) May 22, 2020
The cancelation of the tournament is the latest in a series of live events that have been affected as COVID-19 continues to shut down poker rooms and events over the last couple of months. Late last month, the WSOP announced that the legendary World Series of Poker would be postponed until the fall. Other major events across the globe including World Poker Tour, European Poker Tour and WSOP Circuit events have been postponed or moved online.
Quick hitters
– The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa reopened on Thursday with 18 shorthanded tables in a preview of what live poker might look like this summer.
18 tables, long lists, and short of dealers at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.
Players
6 per table
Masks mandatory
PlexiglassEmployees
Gloves
Masks
Eye coverings pic.twitter.com/lCW80QQvbk— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) May 22, 2020
– Phil Galfond had another strong session in Day 16 of this Galfond Challenge match with ActionFreak on Friday, finishing the day up €179,500, increasing his overall lead to €450,653 after 11,750 hands of the challenge and just over 3,000 left to play. Missed the session from Friday? Watch a replay from the Run It Once Poker Twitch channel.
– Bill Perkins has defeated Matt Staples in their highly anticipated “Choker” match, which is a game consisting of a mix of poker and chess.
@bp22 wins the match! Interview and Wildcard announcement coming next! #chokercup pic.twitter.com/sVf3Op0OYH
— Chess+Poker=Choker (@ChokerGame) May 21, 2020
– Phillip Hofbauer and Lee Jack are among the latest winners in the WPT Online series. Meanwhile, Linus Loeliger holds a chip lead in the $10,300 Pot Limit High Roller. At the extended PokerStars SCOOP, Nacho124441 earned his first SCOOP title and a $92k first place prize.
– From the Fake News Bin: A ground-breaking new study on the game of poker is turning what we know about poker on its head and confirming some long-held suspicions.
– In Friday’s featured classic poker training video, we take a look at another episode of Reasons14’s “SNG Strategy” series. In this episode, Reasons14 live plays a session of $16 full ring 9-man SNGs.
Best poker videos on the Internet
– Joe Stapleton and Joe Hartigan react to the top five PokerStars SCOOP clips from Twitch in part 1 of the series:
– Check out Jaime Staples highlights from a May 16th session on Twitch where he made the final table in a Bounty Hunter tournament on partypoker:
– JohnnieVibes is giving $10,000 in staking away to viewers of his popular vlog. In the latest episode of his vlog, he goes over the process of selecting his first students:
– ICYMI: Check out Felipe Ramos‘ appearance on Run it Back with Remko, where he watches an episode of Season 7 of High Stakes Poker featuring Doyle Brunson, Vanessa Selbst, Barry Greenstein and Antonio Esfandiari.
