TOP 7 Live Poker Events of 2023

The Largest Ever World Series of Poker

This year's World Series of Poker has become the largest in history. 129 bracelets were given: 95 in live tournaments, 33 online, and one in a hybrid tournament.

There were four records at the Main Event WSOP 2023:

1. Total players: 10,043
2. Female players: 395
3. Prize pool: $93,399,900
4. First place prize: $ 12,100,000.

The winner of the event was the American Daniel Weinman.

Overall, this year's series showed the following records:

• Highest attendance: 211,129 entries.
• Biggest overall prize pool: $436,588,643.
• The second largest tournament in poker history: Gladiators of Poker, with 23,088 entries.
• The largest number of millionaire payments: 45.
• The oldest participant in the Main Event was Eugene Calden from Florida, who turned 100 years old.
  The largest women's tournament in history (1,295 entries) and Seniors Event (players over 60 years old) – 8,140 entries.
• Phil Hellmuth won his 17th bracelet.

The new WSOP stage in the Bahamas

In 2023, the new WSOP Paradise joined the World Series in Las Vegas and Rozvadov, which "coincidentally" coincided with the flagship series from WPT and EPT.

The festival scheduled 15 events with a total guarantee of $50,000,000. The series failed to distinguish itself with some record achievements, but in conditions of intense competition, all WSOP Paradise tournaments were held without an overlay.

Many famous players have been spotted at the tables in the Bahamas:

• Erik Seidel (won his 10th bracelet in a Super High Roller)
• Artur Martirosyan (won his first bracelet)
• Phil Hellmuth entered the Main Event in a Poseidon costume but did not win anything.

The Main Event WSOP Paradise stood out among all the other tournaments of the year with the proportion of players who got into the event through online satellites. Almost a third of the 3,010 entries were made by poker players who won tickets and packages in the rooms of the GGNetwork.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the winner of the Main was the satellite Stanislav Zegal ($2,000,000) from Germany.

A $2,417,000 overlay

The main competitor of the World Series, the World Poker Tour, made its 2023 WPT World Championship as attractive as possible for players with several unique events and massive prize pools.

Of course, the most grandiose was the Main Event, with a stated guarantee of $40,000,000 with a buy-in of $10,400.

The challenges and objectives of the tournament organizers are easiest to assess if you consider that last year, this event collected about $30M, and in 2023, it was held simultaneously with the WSOP and EPT series.

As a result, the Main Event of the WPT World Championship 2023 collected 3,835 entries and failed to reach the guarantee by $2,417,000. American Dan Sepiol celebrated the victory in the tournament ($5,282,954), and our team qualified for the dinner break.

Regarding the overlay size, this tournament became the second in poker history.

The most massive tournament for $1,000

Most attendance records for live tournaments with any buy-ins belong to the WSOP. This year, the Las Vegas series lost the first place in the number of players in events with a contribution of one thousand dollars.

The WPT Prime Championship, held within the framework of the World Championship for only the second time, gathered 10,512 entries in four starting days and became the largest $1,000 tournament in the history of world poker.

Due to such a high level of popularity, the guarantee of the event was doubled. American Calvin Anderson (4 WSOP bracelets) took $1,386,280 of the $10,196,640 prize pool.

The most expensive tournament of the year: $1,000,000 buy-in

Another" feature" of the WPT World Championship was the beginning of the series' cooperation with the charity company One Drop (ODF), which, from 2012 to 2018, within the framework of the WSOP, held four tournaments with a million-dollar buy-in.

After a five-year break, the Big One for One Drop was held as part of a series from the World Poker Tour and gathered 17 players.

Most were famous poker pros with world-famous names, among which one can distinguish Stephen Chidwick, Fedor Holz, Phil Ivey, Jason Koon, Adrian Mateos, and Mikita Badziakouski.

The Belarusian player took first place in the most expensive tournament of the year and earned $7,114,500.

The biggest pot in the history of poker shows

In 2023, in addition to the already well-known brands of poker shows (High Stakes Poker, High Stakes Duel), expensive games at Hustler Casino attracted the great attention of poker fans. They were broadcast for free on YouTube and attracted famous players worldwide.

In June, the Hustler Casino Live (HLC) show went on to organize games with very high stakes and purchase from a million dollars. The presence of Tom Dwan at the tables, who participated in the drawing of the two previous most enormous pots, guaranteed that seven-figure pots would appear at the tables this time.

In one of the hands, after a call on the river from "Wes Side," Wesley with AK Dwan became richer by $3,081,000 with pocket queens, while his opponent lost a considerable amount with only an ace of high.

Throughout the rest of the year, Hustler Casino Live streams stood out most of all for various scandals and showdowns during the game.

The new poker show Poker After Dark: Game of Gold

The biggest breakthrough in poker shows in 2023, or even the 21st century, can be called the joint project Poker After Dark and GGPoker called "Game of Gold."

Most viewers were delighted with the new format of the show. What was it that they could shoot in 9 days under the guidance of producer Spunky Hwang in a specially built studio in South Korea?

16 players with the most diverse backgrounds were selected (cash and MTT players, young and experienced, online and live). The most famous participants of the first episode of the show were:

• Fedor Holz
• Daniel Negreanu
• Jason Koon
• Daniel Cates.

The game's goal is to collect as many gold coins as possible. Each participant got 20 coins. You can earn even more in SnG 4-max, HU, and Indian poker games. Players are divided into 4 teams.

The leaderboard winners enter the 6-max final, and the coins turn into chips at the rate of 1 coin = 1 BB. The entire final prize pool of $456,000 goes to the winner. In the first season, it was Maria Ho.

At the same time, while one match was being played, all the other team members watched the game on video, and during a break in a room, they shared their impressions on camera.

All episodes of the first season of Game of Gold can be viewed here.

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