Gossip Column: Bill Perkins Engaged, David Haye Becomes Grosvenor Poker Ambassador & More

After many days of crazy and eccentric, we finally have some good news to share. High-stakes poker player and hedge fund manager cum entrepreneur Bill Perkins popped the question to his long-time girlfriend Lara Sebastian, and she said YES!!!

There was some good news for UK poker as well with former professional boxer David Haye signing on as an official Grosvenor Poker Ambassador. When casinos are shutting shop in the country, this sponsorship deal may just be the boost Grosvenor needed.

While live poker is still just starting to get back on its feet, online poker continues to boom, which brings us to the ‘Galfond Challenge.’ After what can best be assumed a break to play the WSOP Online series, the challenge will likely see Phil Galfond face-off fellow poker coach and bracelet winner Chance Kornuth starting September 16.

Bill Perkins Pops the Question

A hedge fund manager, film producer, and high stakes poker player, Bill Perkins, has been in the spotlight a lot lately. From competing against Phil Galfond in the ‘Heads-Up Challenge’ to making cheating allegations against Dan Cates and participating in the Challengers Choker Cup, Perkins has been quite busy. However, the American entrepreneur took some time off from his hectic life to finally ask his long-time girlfriend and vine star Lara Sebastian to marry him!

View this post on Instagram

She said yes!!! ? #Love

A post shared by Bill Perkins (@billperkins) on Jul 15, 2020 at 11:16am PDT

Perkins was previously married to Stephanie Park, with whom he has two beautiful daughters. Following his divorce from Park, Perkins began dating dancer and model Sebastian, and now the couple is soon to tie the knot.

As expected, the announcement took social media by storm, with many of the couple’s friends expressing their delight on Twitter.

WOW ABOUT TIME

— Joey Ingram #passion (@Joeingram1) July 15, 2020

With your type of bread , I’d marry you too

— Joe Romano (@RainMano84) July 15, 2020

OMG Bill congratulations to you & Lara!

— Laura Byrnes (@Laura_Byrnes) July 15, 2020

Congrats, buddy.

— Joe Stapleton (@Stapes) July 15, 2020

Congratulations, Bill. You love to see it.

— Cate Hall (@catehall) July 15, 2020

Others shared their good wishes on Instagram.

jeffgrosspoker: Yes! Congrats @billperkins @larasebastian love this!! Can’t wait to celebrate with you guys

rosieroff: Magic – I can’t stop smiling. Love you both ?️

linoeding: Congrats buddy ?

Even the self-proclaimed ‘King of Instagram’ Dan Bilzerian joined in on all the rejoicing.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Ex-Boxer David Haye Becomes Official Grosvenor Poker Ambassador

Nearly two years ago, news had come through that British former professional boxer David Haye had traded his boxing gloves for poker in preparation for the 2019 Grosvenor U.K. Poker Tour (GUKPT) Goliath event. Two months ago, a poker documentary titled ‘David v. Goliath’ was released on Amazon Prime, featuring Haye’s journey from knowing nothing about poker to falling in love with the game. Cut to last Monday, when Haye was officially announced as the Grosvenor Poker ambassador.

This sponsorship deal with Grosvenor is a result of Haye’s burning passion for poker. To mark the agreement, Grosvenor has launched a new series of Hayemaker Bounty tournaments. Running online from tomorrow, the MTTs will give players a chance to knock out the former boxer, and help Haye hone his skills.

Once live poker operations resume in the UK, Haye is expected to attend GUKPT events.

Having a world championship boxer on board is a definite plus for Grosvenor Poker in such trying times when live poker has been delivered a massive blow by the COVID-19 pandemic. This could be critical given the impact of COVID-19.

Online poker has thrived during the lockdown, but casinos have suffered, including those owned by Grosvenor’s parent company, the Rank Group. Despite COVID-proofing its casinos, Rank hasn’t been able to resume operations.

Rank’s competitor Genting UK has already announced the permanent closure of its poker rooms. To avoid the same fate, Rank needed to do something innovative. Partnering with Haye is one way to do that. It won’t be the one and only solution, but it’s certainly a start.

Chance Kornuth Reveals Start Date For His Galfond Challenge

In December 2019, two-time bracelet winner Chance Kornuth had signed-up to be Run It Once founder Phil Galfond’s ‘Heads-Up Challenge’ competitor. The clash between these two poker coaches is all set to take place on September 16.

In an interview with CardPlayer, Kornuth revealed that he and Galfond have agreed about when their match should get underway.

“Yeah, we actually finalized recently and have a penalty in place if one of us is unable to start on the date we’ve now agreed upon, which is September 16,” said Kornuth.

Kornuth is set to play 35,000 hands of heads-up pot-limit Omaha against Galfond, with blinds of €100-€200. Galfond is laying a €1 Million side bet against Kornuth’s €250,000 on the match’s final result.

Galfond has already competed and won two of his challenges against online beast’ VeniVedi1993′ and Ioannis’ Action Freak’ Kontonatsios. However, Kornuth has also had the opportunity to witness Galfond in action and can now work on his gameplay accordingly.

“It is nice to have information about his game and really seeing how he’s been playing, which will help me with my decisions,” said Kornuth.

Besides competition against Galfond, Kornuth also has the extra-delayed WPT Gardens Poker Championship Main Event final table to look forward to. The Main Event had played down to a final table of six back on January 13 of this year. The event was meant to resume on March 31 and play down to a champion after a break of roughly 11 weeks. Still, just a couple weeks before play was to continue, the WPT announced that all three of its delayed final tables had been postponed until further notice.

It has now been over five and a half months since the final table was set, and it remains unclear when it will actually be played out.