3-Bet: Short Deck Event Added to Poker Masters 2018, PokerStars Offers 5 New Ways to Win Platinum Passes & WPT500 LA Legends of Poker to Feature Record 16 Starting Flights

In this edition of our PokerGuru 3-Bet, we bring three important updates from the world of poker.

We begin with the news of the 2018 Poker Masters schedule being released and this time, a short deck event is being included as part of the roster. With poker biggies like Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan singing paeans of the short deck format ever since they won the short deck events at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro, we can expect many takers for short deck at the series that will be held in Las Vegas.

In the meantime, six PokerStars’ Team Pros, Jennifer Shahade, Daniel Negreanu, Maria Konnikova, Lex Veldhuis, Jeff Gross and Andrew Neeme have come up with five new ways of giving away Platinum Passes to the awaited PokerStars NLHE Players Championships (PSPC), Bahamas. From poker vlogging to creating new games and telling their poker story, these pros have offered creatively innovative routes for anyone gunning for a Platinum Pass worth $30,000 to the PSPC.

Back in the U.S., the WPT500 $1 Million GTD Legends of Poker tournament has opened in The Bicycle Casino in California, Los Angeles, and the event will feature the largest field ever in its five-year history, over 16 starting flights.

Poker Masters’ 2018 Schedule Includes $10,000 Triton Hold ‘em Short Deck Event

One of the major annual poker stops in Las Vegas, the seven-tournament, high stakes 2018 Poker Masters is opening on September 7 and this year, a $10,000 Buy-in Short Deck game is part of the roster!

The series kicks off with the $10,000 NLHE event, and will be followed by $25,000 NLHE and $25,000 PLO events. The Triton Hold ‘em Short Deck event is the new event being introduced to the series and features a $10,000 buy-in.

Also called ‘six-plus puke’, the short-deck format was first introduced in two tournaments at the Triton Montenegro Series in May 2018 and then returned to the recently concluded Triton Poker Series Jeju that was held from July 23 to August 1.

The format is becoming highly popular in high stakes cash games in Asia and is played with a 36-card deck with deuces through fives removed along with a few rule changes. In short deck, for instance, flushes beat full houses and aces can play both as the highest card and as a five to complete a nine-high straight.

Last year, the series saw Steffen Sontheimer take down two of the five events apart from making deep runs in two others, to secure his claim on his first Purple Jacket. While Sontheimer is expected to be seen at the 2018 Poker Masters, he may face tougher competition this time around, with stars like Justin Bonomo, who has been on a winning streak all year long, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Jason Koon, Erik Seidel and Fedor Holz expected to be in attendance.

With Ivey having tasted success in the HK$ 250,000 NLHE Short Deck Ante Only 250K event in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro, he is another likely attendee at the upcoming series.

PokerStars Announces Five New Ways to Win Platinum Passes

PokerStars in its latest blog, announced five new ways for players to win a Platinum Pass to the PSPC, Bahamas. As part of the PokerStars’ Platinum Pass Adventure, six PokerStars’ Team Pros have come up with these five interesting and innovative ways.

While chess champion Jennifer Shahade wants players to create a new game that mixes chess and poker, Daniel Negreanu wants you to play the PSPC for a worthy cause, and underline what that cause is. Players can submit short videos about what they play for, a charity, cause or foundation that is near and dear to their heart.

Author Maria Konnikova wants players to tell their own poker story, one that demonstrates a core principle of what it means to be a good poker player, while Lex Veldhuis has called out players to do something special for other people.

People who participate in Veldhuis’s challenge will have to send a video, blog along with pictures describing what they have done in an act of selflessness. The winner will be decided on the basis of originality, time spent efficiently to do the most in the 20 hours and what strikes Veldhuis and the judges as the most important.

Jeff Gross and Andrew Neeme have called out players to make five-minute poker vlogs to demonstrate their introspective, creative and innovative approach to the game. Anyone participating in this challenge will have to complete five vlogging challenges over five weeks, starting August 27, encompassing weekly themes where participants will have to introduce themselves and vlog on what poker means to them, film a home game or do a hand analysis and reflect on their happiest poker moment among other things.

With other similar challenges by PokerStars team having named winners, these challenges offer five new ways for players to win a free ticket to the Bahamas!

WPT500 Los Angeles $1 Million GTD Legends of Poker Event to Feature a Record 16 Starting Flights

The WPT500 $1 Million GTD Legends of Poker tournament is returning to The Bicycle Casino in California, Los Angeles after a gap of four years. This year, bringing together the largest field ever in its five-year history, the event features a mind blowing 16 starting flights!

Already underway, the tournament kicked off with its first flight Day 1A last Saturday. Six Day 1 flights are in the books and there have been 764 entries so far with 39 players having made it past to Day 2. On August 25, Day 1P will be hosted, with the fields merging at the end of the second flight on that day.

The current WPT Los Angeles at The Bike is part of the Legend of Poker series, a 25-game series that started on July 28 and will continue till September 1. Previous stops of the WPT500 visited the Aria in Las Vegas where a total of 2,983 entries were logged in and then Casino Nottingham in the UK. However, last year, the WPT moved the second installment back to Los Angeles.

Prior to this, the largest field seen in a WPT500 event was in 2015 when 5,113 entries registered in the tournament’s Aria stop. In the 2017 WPT500 Los Angeles stop at the Gardens Casino, 14 flights were scheduled that attracted a total 3,266 entries.

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