This week’s poker news includes a recap of the 2019 World Series of Poker: Europe Main event, which Alexandros Kolonias won. We’ve got the details for you on this week’s big winner, who is now the most successful Greek poker player of all-time. We also include the latest news on PokerStars’ launch in the Pennsylvania online poker market. Let’s start with WSOP Europe Main Event.
Kolonias Wins More Than $1 Million For 2019 WSOP Europe Main Event Victory
Greek Poker professional Alexandros Kolonias took home a whopping $1,258,383 USD for winning the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe €10,350 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 32-year-old beat out a field of 541 players to clinch his first ever WSOP gold bracelet.
Primarily an online poker player, Kolonias has reportedly taken home more than $3 million under the screen name “mexican222” and he’s now also taken home more than $3.6 million in career live tournament poker earnings. That makes him the highest-earning Greek player of all time.
In addition to the massive score, Kolonias took home 2,100 Card Player Player of the Year points for this victory. Claas Segebrecht took home $777,709 for his runner-up finish while Anthony Zinno cashed out $538,673 for his third place ending.
Online Poker Makes Highly Anticipated Return To Pennsylvania
More than eight years after PokerStars accepted its last bets from players in the Keystone State, online poker finally made its highly-anticipated return to Pennsylvania earlier this week.
The world’s biggest online poker site dealt the first legally licensed hands of online poker in almost a decade on Monday as part of a soft launch. PokerStars was forced to make a quick exit from the United States back in 2011 when the U.S. Department of Justice seized its .com address and unsealed indictments against its founder Isai Scheinberg for violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
PokerStars Partnered with Mount Airy Casino
Now, just over two years after lawmakers in Harrisburg passed a law that legalized online poker, sports betting and casino gaming, PokerStars returned to Pennsylvania as part of a partnership with the Mount Airy Casino.
While details of the company’s full plan for its return are still being kept in the dark to a certain degree, poker fans in the state are probably just happy to see the return of PokerStars with an expectation that the best is still yet to come. A lot of online poker players will take a cautious approach to the return based on what happened to PokerStars the first time around. However, the expectation is that everything will go forward as planned without any major issues this time around.
Video Poker Player Wins $20K Playing 5-Cent Machine At Downtown Vegas Casino
Any time a casino patron sits down at a video poker machine, they are looking for that elusive royal flush draw. For one player visiting the 4 Queens Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, it almost seemed too good to be true when they hit it. The visitor from Minnesota, who just happened to be playing a 5-cent video poker machine when a royal flush came up, was absolutely shocked at the stroke of good fortune he encountered when the cards he was looking for came up on the screen. The Minnesota man took home $20,000 for that one royal flush draw, which is likely more than he could have ever expected when he sat down at that machine.