Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don't

Facts and figures. They make the world go around and, more often than not, tell a story without letting opinions or biases get in the way. Which numbers from the past week tell that story and what quick opinions do we have?

$1,000,000,000 – Over the last 15 years, the World Poker Tour has crowned 247 champions and created countless moments that have helped solidify the WPT as one of the world’s biggest and best world-wide poker tours. This week, the World Poker Tour will award their one-billionth prize dollar at the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event and PokerGO will exclusively stream that historic final table on Thursday afternoon.  

€8,157,700 – The only year-long tour that is comparable to the World Poker Tour are PokerStars Championship events, after PokerStars globally re-branded their live events last year. When PokerStars Championships and Festivals first debuted, there were mixed reactions and smaller than expected fields but recent numbers in Barcelona were anything but small. The €5,300 buy-in Main Event drew nearly 1,700 players and the total prize pool approached $10 million, with the top three players, Sebastian Sorensson, Lachezar Petkov and Raffaele Sorrentino, each taking home $1 million.   

$152,467 – Barcelona-based PokerStars events always seem to bring out the biggest names from outside the poker world. FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique was the most recent to hit the felt and the Spanish international made good in the €25,000 High Roller. Pique finished 5^th for just over $150,000 and outlasted Daniel Colman, 2017 Super High Roller Bowl champion Christoph Vogelsang and Mustapha Kanit in the process. He wasn’t the highest paid athlete this week but with Pique likely moving towards the end of his professional career, perhaps this final table finish could convince him to play more poker in the future.

$150,000 – While they (just barely) missed the return Gerard Pique got on his $25,000 buy-in, three players won $150,000 during “Voices Carry” week on Poker After Dark. After the show returned with high stakes cash game action, sit and go’s returned with some very talkative lineups. Through the chatter, Matt Berkey, Ben Lamb and Liv Boeree all made good on their Poker After Dark debuts, ending them in the winner’s circle and with the cash. Relive all the “Voices Carry” action on PokerGO, before Poker After Dark returns with new episodes next month.

16 – Poker After Dark isn’t the only live poker PokerGO subscribers get next month. The much anticipated Poker Masters series kicks off in just over two weeks, with live streams of the five-event high stakes series beginning September 13. The week of high stakes action concludes with the Poker Masters $100,000 Championship and the highest earning player throughout the series will be awarded the Poker Masters Purple Jacket™.