Mississippi casino revenue spikes as sports betting debuts

The regulations having taken effect on July 22, Mississippi’s launch of sports betting is already proving to benefit brick and mortar casinos in the state where overall casino revenue increased significantly in August. PASPA unconstitutional: In an effort to be among the first states in the nation to legalize sports betting, the Mississippi Gaming Commission […]

Erkut Yilmaz earns WPT Borgata Poker Open win

A total of 1,075 players registered to compete in the WPT Borgata Poker Open, with Erkut Yilmaz ending up the event champion. Yilmaz would hold the chip lead going into the final day and after defeating TK Miles in the final round, would eventually earn the first-place finish. Tough Competition: Several big name players were […]

November Niner Jerry Wong Wins WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek High Roller

Poker action at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek in Florida is heating up as the WSOP Circuit stop currently taking place there is approaching its final stages and last events on the schedule are being played.

The $2,200 High Roller certainly was one of the most exciting tournaments to take place within the poker festival. The event was completed a few days ago and was taken down by quite a poker celebrity. Jerry Wong, a player from the area, defeated a field that was comprised of some seasoned poker pros to grab the title and the first-place prize of $48,300.

Wong’s triumph was also accompanied by his first-ever piece of WSOP jewelry. Despite being very active on the live poker scene, a gold bracelet from the WSOP and a gold ring from its sister brand, the WSOP Circuit, had long eluded the popular poker pro.

However, it should be pointed out that his hefty poker resume includes an eighth-place finish in the 2016 WSOP Main Event, among other things. This summer, the player cashed in five WSOP tournaments and made three final table appearances.

As for his performance in the $2,200 High Roller at the Coconut Creek casino, Wong successfully navigated through a field of 69 entries over two days of action. The player’s road to victory included a star-studded final table that featured another November Niner – Josh Beckley – three-time gold ring winner Peter Vitantonio, and poker veteran Chad Eveslage, among others.

Final Table Highlights

Wong hopped into the final table holding the chip lead with 560,000 in chips. Beckley was his nearest competitor with 360,000. Wong never really lost his advantage over the rest of the final tablists. The player said that the table draw helped him a lot as he had tougher players to his right, and weaker ones to his left. That created nice opportunities for the player to further amass chips and he took great advantage of those.

By the time there were just five players left in contention, Wong had control over more than a half of all chips in play. And when the field was reduced to just him and his heads-up opponent Mack Ham, the eventual champion had 1.7 million of all 2 million chips in play.

While Wong never let go of the chip lead during the two-handed match, Ham fought fiercely and posed quite some challenge to his opponent. However, the High Roller gold ring was Wong’s to win. Ham walked out in second place for a cash prize of $29,848.

As mentioned earlier, the $2,200 buy-in High Roller drew 69 entries who generated a prize pool of $138,000. The top seven finishers received a share of the money, with min-cashes starting from $7,090. The WSOP Circuit stop at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek will run through September 24 when the $1,700 is set to be completed.

The post November Niner Jerry Wong Wins WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek High Roller appeared first on Casino News Daily.

Landmark Macau gets rebranded

The casino hotel has been renamed as New Orient Landmark Hotel after it was sold by Macau Legend Development.

The post Landmark Macau gets rebranded appeared first on Focus Gaming News.

FanDuel Incorporated reverses New Jersey non-payment decision

After earlier refusing to pay out on twelve bets it declared had been placed during an 18-second computer glitch on Sunday, New Jersey sportbook operator FanDuel Incorporated has now reportedly relented by announcing that it intends to honor every one of the contentious wagers. Decision includes $82,000 won on NFL wager: According to a Thursday […]

Golden Entertainment division expands with local acquisition

PT’s Entertainment Group, a division of Golden Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:GDEN), has acquired all three of the T-Bird Lounge & Restaurants’ Las Vegas locations. According to the Las Vegas Sun, after completing the acquisition the local pub giant will assume operations of the trio of valley locations including 9465 S. Eastern Ave, 6560 W. Warm Springs Road […]

Erkut Yilmaz Joins WPT Champions Club with Borgata Poker Open Victory

The WPT champions club has a brand-new member and his name is Erkut Yilmaz, a player from Sacramento, California. Yilmaz topped the field of this year’s WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event for a first-place cash prize of $575,112 after putting up a great show in the final stages of the tournament.

The final day of the Main Event was played on Friday at the host venue, Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino. Six survivors returned to play down to a champion. It was namely Yilmaz who led the pack of six with a massive chip advantage over everyone else left. The player had a total of 21.575 million in chips at the start of final day action, good for 144 big blinds and well ahead of his nearest competitor. Oleg Schnaider was that nearest competitor with 7.75 million/52 big blinds.

A long playdown period on the previous day, when players had to whittle down the field to the final six, provided for quick action on the final day. Players began falling out in the very early stages of that last day of the race. The first elimination occurred on the 11th hand of play and it did not take long before the heads-up phase was reached. It is important to note that Yilmaz was the player to dominate action throughout the whole final table.

Heads-Up Recap

While action during the initial stages of final-day play unfolded quickly, the same cannot really be said about the heads-up duel. Yilmaz played against poker pro TK Miles for the title. The match kicked off with the eventual champ holding the chip lead. However, at one point, Miles managed to outmaneuver his opponent and assume the chip leader status for a short while.

Yilmas quickly regained control over the majority of chips in play and from that stage on, the player never looked back. He weakened his opponent’s stack and defense, until Miles did not have much to fight with.

On what turned out to be the final hand in play, Miles limped from the button and Yilmaz checked. The [5h][4s][3s] flop arrived to see Yilmaz check and Miles bet 800,000. Yilmaz raised with an all in. Miles called for his last 15.8 million.

Miles turned over [Kd][5s] to Yilmaz’s [6d][3d]. The [6h] on the turn and the [4h] on the river sealed it for this year’s Borgata Poker Open Main Event. Miles went out as the runner-up. The player received $383,399 for his efforts and for running so deep into one of the most popular tournaments to be taking place annually.

As mentioned above, Yilmaz collected the lion’s share of the prize pool, good for $575,112. His prize also included a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

This year’s edition of the Borgata Poker Open drew a field of 1,075 entries, who generated a prize pool of $3,441,075. The top 136 finishers received a share of the money, with min-cashes starting from $3,049.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the day’s top casino news stories.

The post Erkut Yilmaz Joins WPT Champions Club with Borgata Poker Open Victory appeared first on Casino News Daily.