2024 Most Defining Moments in Poker
Tadas Peckaitis of Casino City Times ranked this past year's most defining moments in the world of poker.
10. Garret Adelstein Returns to Poker Streams
Garrett Adelstein accused Robbi Jade Lew of cheating on a Hustler Casino Live stream in the infamous J4 hand to close out 2023. This was certainly among the most talked about stories of that year.
The incident was so traumatizing to Adelstein he had to stop playing poker regularly to clear his mind. You'd think having been a contestant on "Survivor", Adelstein wouldn't suffer PTSD from someone caught using a vibrator at the poker table to cheat, but whatever.
We knew that wouldn't last long.
9. Nick Vertucci Leaves Hustler Casino Live Amid Scandal
Gambling911.com might have ranked this one a bit higher.
Hustler Casino Live has been the biggest poker stream for some time, and in 2024, it only grew even bigger and more influential in the poker space.
From Casino Times News:
"Amidst a flurry of amazing live streams, HCL hosted the 2024 edition of the Million Dollar Game, which saw Tom Dwan, Poker at the Lodge stream owner Doug Polk, and Alan Keating take seats and battle it out with Texas Mike, Santhosh Suvarna, Brandon Steven, Stanley Tang, and several other players who don’t consider poker their profession.
"Asian businessman Peter took home the biggest slice of the cake over the four days of nosebleed action, and it seemed like things could only get better for the show.
"However, HCL drew some bad press in the latter part of the year, as one of the co-owners, Nick Vertucci, was accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by one of the show’s regulars."
Julia McBride, known on social media platforms as Julia from Palmdale, shared a disturbing series of messages she received from Vertucci. That pretty much ended his run with Hustler Casino Live.
So much of this sexual scandals tied to the Hustler Casino (yeah, the Jade Lew vibrator scandal occurred here as well). Who would have thunk it?
But enough with the sex stuff, here is more of the rankings.
8. Kristen Foxen Inducted to the WiPHOF
As the most successful female in poker, Kristen Foxen was honored in 2024 by being inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame (WiPHOF), an elite list of female poker players who have made significant contributions to the game's growth.
"While the induction to the WiPHOF was a great honor, Foxen’s recent form is so impressive that a place in the Poker Hall of Fame is certainly not outside of the realm of possibility at some point down the line."
7. Phil Ivey 11th WSOP Bracelet
He's catching up to that other Phil (Hellmuth).
6. Alejandro Lococo Dominates the Triton Million
"The Argentinian battle rapper came to prominence in 2021 when he made the final table of the WSOP Main Event and finished 7th. At the time, most of the poker community believed this result to be a fluke and a one-off rather than an actual show of Lococo’s poker skills.
"Yet, Alejandro continued to show up over the following years, winning a massive Eureka Poker Tour event in 2022 and several smaller tournaments in 2022 and 2023 despite not being a full-time professional poker player."
5. Santhosh Suvarna Wins the Biggest HSP Pot Ever
In 2024, the record for the biggest HSP pot was shattered as Indian businessman Santhosh Suvarna defeated High Stakes Poker legend Andrew Robl in one of the biggest recorded bad beats.
4. Daniel Negreanu Takes Down the Poker Players Championship
Believe it or not, it had been over a decade since Daniel Negreanu had won a WSOP bracelet when the 2024 Series rolled around.
Negreanu battled the likes of Phil Ivey and David Benyamine on the final table and eventually walked away with his 7th WSOP bracelet and one of the most coveted prizes in all of poker.
He outlasting 89 of the best players in the world to win $1,178,703.
3. WSOP Main Event Shatters Attendance Record
The 2024 edition of the Main Event will go down in history as breaking the attendance record for the second year running. It attracted 10,112 players, beating the record set in 2023 by just a few dozen.
The slight increase in numbers was a welcome sight for WSOP as an organization but also for the entire poker world, as it once again demonstrated just how popular live poker is.
In addition to the real money online poker sites like ACR Poker, 2025 could be the year of the sweepstakes casino and social poker room.
2. WPT Hosts the Biggest Freeroll Tournament in History
WPT decided to change all that by throwing a $5,000,000 poker freeroll in Las Vegas with a maximum of 2,000 players in the field.
The freeroll was organized as part of the promotion for the new sweepstakes poker platform ClubWPT Gold, which has since launched and will go fully live in early 2025.
Over 500 players walked away from the freeroll with prizes, and more than 100 were entered into the WPT World Championship event.
Chase Bricker would ultimately walk away with a million-dollar prize from a tournament he entered for free.
1. WSOP gets acquired by GGPoker
In one of the biggest transactions in poker history, online poker giant GGPoker purchased the WSOP brand from scratch.
Caesars Entertainment is the company that made the $500 million acquisition.
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