Caesars Palace is once again shuffling its casino floor, and its poker room is the space that again suffers. Sometime in the middle of July, its 18 table poker room will be closed while the casino renovates its high-limit slots area. It will be closed for at least two months and possibly longer, and it’s not known when and where the room will reopen.

The room was moved to its current location on the casino floor a decade ago so the casino could expand its Pure nightclub. It was once one of the best poker room in Las Vegas and hosted WSOP Circuit events and the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship.

Players would walk down a short hallway just off the casino floor into a space completely dedicated to poker. The fantastic large photos of well-known moments in sports hanging on the wall gave the room a classy, upscale feel which went away after Caesars expanded its famous nightclub.

Caesars Entertainment, which also owns and runs the World Series of Poker at its sister properties Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas, has opened WSOP-themed poker rooms at its properties around the country in the last several years.

Little by little we are becoming accustomed to the arrival of Neymar Jr. at the WSOP each year. The Brazilian seems to have found a passion in poker and everything seems to indicate that we will continue to see him in big tournaments for several more years. After breaking it in the cash games at Hustler Casino Live, Ney traveled to Las Vegas to participate in the WSOP 2024 and his arrival did not go unnoticed.

The Brazilian soccer star took a seat at the Horseshoe as soon as he arrived in Sin City. And he did it to compete in the Satellite Invitational that bears his name, along with several of his poker friends.

The WSOP organization wanted to receive him in the best way and organized an exclusive event for Ney and his friends, who filled the Horseshoe room to fill it with poker and joy.

The stars have descended upon the 2024 WSOP as the legendary @neymarjr arrives in style, bringing along a constellation of friends including @vegaspedro29 @Mister_Keating @ChrisEubankJr #wsop2024 pic.twitter.com/N7mlfMUBLI

— WSOP - World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 26, 2024

https://x.com/WSOP/status/1805812731477737588

The event in question was a three-table satellite tournament, which awarded 3 tickets to the Main Event. The tournament was attended by other big stars, such as Rafael Moraes, who is a close friend of the footballer. In addition to Rafa, there were also other great poker heavyweights, such as Tom Dwan himself and Alan Keating. Other friends of Neymar were also present, such as Pedro Velasco and Chris Eubank Jr, who have already shared cash games with the footballer. Without a doubt, having a figure as prominent worldwide as Neymar present is a privilege.

That's why the WSOP organization welcomes it so well. That such quality athletes recognize the competitive value of poker is very good for the image of the game

The founder of an alleged Ponzi scheme that targeted Australian poker players has been ordered by the Supreme Court of Queensland to pay 11 plaintiffs a combined AU$4.8 million (US$3.2 million).

The default judgement against Marley Wynter, whose sports betting syndicate Marley’s House of Sport (MHS) claimed to have made almost AU$30 million (US$19.8 million) in profits in the space of a year, includes reparations for amounts invested, promised profits and interest. Local media outlet PokerMedia Australia reports that Wynter did not contest the claim.

Allegations that MHS and an affiliated company called Marley’s House of Investment (MHI) may be a Ponzi scheme were first aired by Queensland-based poker player and industry advocate Craig Abernethy in early 2022 and led to the creation of a facebook page that garnered more than 350 members.

MHS marketed itself as a financial investment service specializing in sports betting, horse racing and “strategic” bankroll management, claiming to have had more than 12,000 investors at its peak and to have multiplied investor money by up to nine times.

It is alleged that Wynter, himself a known poker identity who won AU$430,919 (US$284,670) in a $20K Super High Roller event at the inaugural WPT Australia series in September 2022, primarily targeted investors from within the poker community by sponsoring local poker organizations such as the Australian Poker Tour (APT), where it ran a fantasy sports competition, and holding seminars during major events in which he would sell MHS and its returns to potential clients.

At least AU$3 million (US$2.0 million) was believed to have been invested with MHS since early 2022 before MHS was shut down on 26 January 2023, although PMA previously reported that Wynter had continued trying to recruit investors after that date.

Victims of the scheme alleged that requests to withdraw funds were met with resistance, that they received images of bank statements claiming payment had been made only for those funds to never materialize, or in some cases that they were paid out only after threatening to go to authorities. It was also claimed that Wynter actively discouraged withdrawals by regularly altering the company’s Terms and Conditions.

Abernethy said he is not confident that any money can be recovered but hopes this week’s judgement can at least prevent Wynter from operating such scams again in future.

“My main goal with all of this initially was to expose a scammer so that he couldn’t take advantage of any more victims,” he said.

“The fact that this has gone to court and a ruling has been made, I’m pretty happy with that result.

“What Marley did was a disgrace and he’s ruined a lot of peoples’ lives. I’ve had a lot of people contact me even today because this money is significant to them. Although I don’t think there is any chance of getting it back, I hope there is at least some closure for the victims so they can move on with their lives knowing this guy won’t scam anyone else ever again.”

Although most parents would love for their children to learn a game like chess, poker is not often associated with being kid-friendly. Tony G, full name Antanas Guoga, has never been shy about speaking his mind out loud, and many will disagree with him on this, but think about it. Ultimately, many good life lessons can come from playing chess or poker.

Garry Kasparov, one of the greatest chess players of all time, wrote a book called "How Life Imitates Chess." The book is full of examples of how learning chess can improve general life skills, especially in children. But these ideas could also be applied in an exemplary way to poker. The most obvious example is learning to take responsibility for your own actions: you and only you in poker/chess are responsible for any decision you make.

Taking responsibility for your decisions, performing under pressure or learning from your mistakes

Although unlike chess, there is an aspect of luck in poker, we all know that once a large enough sample is played, it becomes a minimal factor. Tony G says in this regard that it is important that poker be seen as a game of skill and not as a game of chance. For this reason, there should be no objection to children learning the game and playing it instead of wasting time with various video games and social media on their phones.

Another key life skill is the ability to make difficult decisions when we are under pressure and have limited information. This leads to adaptability and flexibility, which again are excellent life skills best learned at a young age.

Poker is great for teaching us how to learn from our mistakes. The number of decisions made during a session makes it clear that there are very few activities that can match poker in this regard. This point alone should be enough to encourage hesitant players who are feeling terrible to continue playing. Every mistake is a learning opportunity and, believe us, mistakes will always happen, no matter how good a player you become. This brings us to resilience, a common trait of almost all successful people that can be learned in poker. It is not a mistake to teach a child how to be more resilient, especially in this high-stress modern world we live in.

A series of developments over the last ten months strongly suggests that West Virginia could soon be welcoming multiple real money online poker operators.

It’s been a long time coming. Lawmakers passed a bill allowing real money online poker back in March 2019, but to date no online poker operators have deployed there. That’s expected to change following recent changes both within and outside the Mountain State.

West Virginia online poker will never be huge on its own — with a population of just under 1.8 million, the state ranks 39th in terms of population. But the state is also uniquely positioned to become the next frontier for the expansion of US online poker.

Up until that date, West Virginia was a segregated market. That likely explains why no operators have launched in the state so far — with only 1.8 million residents, the market is also tiny compared to more populous states with legal real money online poker, like Michigan (10 million residents) and New Jersey (9.3 million).

The other MSIGA states are Delaware and Nevada, with populations of 1 million and 3.2 million, respectively.