Dom & a Spanish Cinderella: Get Briefed w/ Kara Scott & 888

November has been quite a month for poker.

Poker circuit stalwart Dominik Nitsche won the WSOPE One Drop High Roller for his biggest career score.

Spaniard Marti Roca de Torres, a former teacher, turned €250 into a €1.1m WSOPE main event win.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson - he of the famed leather coat and cowboy hat and Full Tilt Poker scandal - won the 2017 WSOP Player of the Year Award.

Pennsylvania also became the 4th state to regulate online poker in the United States.

It was a busy four weeks and 888poker ambassador Kara Scott breaks it all down for you in the latest edition of The Poker Brief.

Online Poker Makes Progress in US

Pennsylvania is the now the fourth state where online poker has been regulated and legalized again. The other three states are New Jersey, Delaware and, not surprisingly, Nevada.

This is another – albeit small – step in the right direction. There are 12 brick-and-mortar casinos in Pennsylvania and it’ll be interesting to see which will be the first to step into the market by co-operating with online poker operators.

Jesus an Unpopular POY

The King’s Casino in Rozvadov played host to the WSOP Europe for the first time and will also be the host of the next edition in 2019.

chris ferguson

New banner incoming.

What was supposed to be a great marketing coup for the now-largest casino in Europe was a little overshadowed, however, by the outcome of the 2017 WSOP Player of the Year race.

The winner was Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Having taken the lead of the table in the summer Ferguson wouldn’t miss the European finale of the race. He cashed in five more events and even won one of them for the sixth WSOP bracelet of his career.

Ferguson was one of the co-founders of Full Tilt Poker and previously was one of the most popular poker players in the world. However, his involvement – or to be exact, his alleged involvement in the major Full Tilt scandal turned that reputation on its head and many players frowned upon seeing Ferguson race to that prestigious title.

That’s probably going to get worse next year when Ferguson’s face will be hanging from 5m high banners at the Rio for everyone to see.

Nitsche Wins 4th Bracelet in One Drop High Roller

Rarely has there been a better decision for an online poker operator than to sign Dominik Nitsche. 

nitsche champion

The German poker nomad proved his skills in both his poker game and his ambassadorship when he took down the $111,111 WSOPE One Drop for $4 million, which is the biggest cash of his career.

Nitsche liked to point out that the money isn’t the most important thing for him and he’s one of the few players from whom that actually sounds like a credible statement.

But let’s not forget that the most important thing of that tournament is the money raised for charity and this event collected another $1m for Guy Laliberté’s One Drop initiative.

The Spanish Cinderella

Marti Roca wsope champion

Marti Roca de Torres is the newest WSOP Europe champion. The former Economics teacher had been playing professionally for a while but hadn’t left any particular marks.

That changed last month when he prevailed in the Main Event field at the WSOPE in Rozvadov. Roca earned his main event entry through a €250 satellite on 888poker so his story more than just echoes Chris Moneymaker’s.

We’ll see if his achievement will trigger a similar development in Spain but one thing’s for sure – he didn’t have it easy. 

Other players at the final table were former BOM host and “Last Woman Standing” in the WSOP main event, Maria Ho, EPT Monte Carlo runner-up Jack Salter and Scottish poker champ Niall Farrell who also took down the €25k High Roller event to complete his live Triple Crown.

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