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Daily Brief

09/20/26  ·  Day 015 - The Boomerang Edition

A man in Sydney won his second WPT trophy in two days on Saturday, and the second one paid AUD 7,631. In Atlantic City the biggest event of the Borgata series ended with the player who busted third collecting $28,925 more than the player who busted second. A three-way deal will do that. An online room announced a hundred tournaments with a trophy in every one of them, the cheapest costing $3 to enter, and the WSOP, which has three Circuit stops running right now, last published a result on Tuesday.

Today's Big Question

Rob Damelian Won His Second WPT Trophy In Two Days. It Paid AUD 7,631.

What happened

Roberto Damelian won the AUD 460 Bonzai Bounty at The Star Sydney on Saturday, September 19, beating a one-day field of 117 entries for AUD 7,631 and a WPT boomerang trophy. Seventeen players were paid. It was his second trophy of WPT Australia 2026 and made him the first player to win two at the festival. The first came on September 17 in the two-day AUD 1,200 Outback Survivor Bounty, which drew 148 entries and paid him AUD 24,975. He was behind heads-up in both and came back in both, against Michael Kanaan in the Outback Survivor and against David Hirst in the Bonzai. Hirst took AUD 4,986 for second and Chang Yoo AUD 3,483 for third, with Kamran Samimi and Gening Dai completing the top five. Damelian has played the Australian circuit for more than 15 years and has over USD 1.45 million in career live earnings. The festival runs at The Star from September 10 to September 30.

Why it matters

The two trophies are the same trophy. The boomerang handed to the winner of a AUD 460 one-day event is the one the festival has been handing out all month, and a third of the schedule was already complete by September 17 with 24 events still to be counted. Damelian now holds two of them for a combined AUD 32,606. Ailen Ji won a single event at this same festival, the Australian Poker Cup, for AUD 83,740.

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In the Spotlight

David Stefanski Won The Borgata's $10,200 Event. Third Place Out-Earned Second By $28,925.

What happened

David Stefanski won Event 6 of the Borgata Big, Big Series, the $10,200 Big, Big Baller, at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, taking $169,220 from a 69-entry field and a $690,000 prize pool. It was his first title of the series, after a runner-up finish in the $2,200 Big, Big Kick Off that he reached heads-up with a near five to one chip lead. Three-handed, Stefanski, Michael Wang and Drew O'Connell agreed an ICM deal and left $19,960 to play for. O'Connell, chip leader when the deal was struck, locked up $156,675 and then busted third. Wang locked up $127,750 and lost the heads-up match. Stefanski's $149,260 from the chop plus the $19,960 he played for came to $169,220. Matt Glantz took $62,530 for fourth and Clemen Deng $46,295 for fifth. Joe McKeehen was the first player out on the final day. Stefanski has now passed $3 million in career live earnings.

Why it matters

Deal math does not care about finishing order. O'Connell had the chips at the moment the three of them stopped playing for most of the money, so he was paid like a winner and then went out in third. Wang outlasted him and was paid $28,925 less for it. The $19,960 the three left on the table was 2.9 percent of the prize pool, and it was the only part of the final that the cards decided.

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The Explainer

BetRivers Will Award A Trophy In All 100 Events. The Cheapest Costs $3 To Enter.

What happened

BetRivers Poker announced the 2026 BetRivers Poker Championship, a 15-day online series running September 27 through October 11 with 100 tournaments and more than $600,000 in total guarantees. Buy-ins run from $3 to $500. Every tournament on the schedule awards a trophy, and six designated Championship events award an exclusive Championship trophy on top of that. The Main Event is a $200 buy-in with a $40,000 guarantee and the Mini Main Event is $20 with a $6,000 guarantee. The schedule is paired into Gold and Silver events, so the same tournament runs twice at two prices. Opening day carries $71,250 in combined guarantees across eight tournaments. The series closes on October 11 with ten tournaments, the last of them a $3 Silver Last Chance Saloon PKO carrying a $300 guarantee. Leaderboards pay more than $15,000 in tournament tickets.

Why it matters

The operator calls this its largest series to date, and the measure of largest is the count. A hundred events across fifteen days is under seven a day, and $600,000 spread across a hundred events averages $6,000 of guarantee each. A trophy in every single one of them means the trophy has stopped being a prize and become a line item on the schedule.

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Follow the Money

The WSOP Guaranteed $1 Million In Bonuses. If Nobody Earns It, It Gets Split Anyway.

What happened

The World Series of Poker brought back the Paradise Parlay for WSOP Paradise 2026, a $1 million promotion open to players who won a WSOP bracelet or reached a bracelet-event final table, meaning second through ninth, during the 2026 calendar year. Live and online bracelet results both qualify. The festival runs at Baha Mar in Nassau from December 2 to December 17 with 20 bracelet events and $120 million in guarantees, topped by the $26,000 Super Main Event and its $50 million guarantee, which begins December 10. A qualifying finalist collects $500 for registering for Super Main Event Day 1A, $5,000 for a Paradise final table, $25,000 for the Super Main Event final table, $50,000 for a Paradise bracelet and $250,000 for the Super Main Event bracelet. A 2026 bracelet winner collects $1,000, $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $500,000 at the same five milestones. Each category pays once. If the total paid out falls short of $1 million, the WSOP divides the difference equally among the participating qualifiers.

Why it matters

The guarantee is on the promotion, not on the poker. The ladder starts at registration and ends at a bracelet, and the shortfall clause means the full million leaves the building whatever happens at the tables: what the ladder does not pay out gets divided among the qualifiers anyway. Separately, every 2026 WSOP Circuit ring winner is being handed a $5,000 Paradise package, entry to the $2,750 Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty included.

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The Circuit

Illinois Taxed Prediction Markets In June. A Repeal Bill Was Filed This Month.

What happened

Illinois Rep. Travis Weaver filed HB 5811, which would repeal the state's per-trade tax on prediction market sports contracts. The tax passed in June as part of the budget signed by Gov. JB Pritzker and charges 1.75 percent on each wager for an operator's first 5 million transactions, then 3.5 percent on every contract beyond that. Weaver said the budget included no revenue from many of the new taxes it created, and did include money for the attorney general to defend them. He argued that a lot of it falls under federal interstate commerce and should be handled at that level. The budget cleared the Assembly 73 to 41 and the Senate 36 to 19, mostly along party lines, and Democrats control both chambers. Illinois took the same route with sports betting: a 25-cent tax on an operator's first 20 million wagers, rising to 50 cents beyond that, approved in June 2025. Operators passed much of the cost to customers, the number of bets placed in the state fell, and a repeal bill followed in February.

Why it matters

This is the second Illinois wagering tax in two years to be followed by a repeal bill from a member of the legislature that passed it. Neither repeal has passed either. The sequence is now established: the tax arrives inside a budget, the operators move the cost onto the customer, the volume drops, and a bill to undo it gets filed and goes nowhere.

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Beyond the Felt

The WPT Prime Championship Is At 707 Entries And 97 Survivors, With One Flight Left

What happened

Day 1c of the AUD 1,500 WPT Prime Championship at The Star Sydney drew 249 entries, the largest of the opening flights so far, ahead of 235 on Day 1a and 223 on Day 1b. Sasha Skalrud bagged 985,000 to take the overall chip lead, with Ehsan Amiri next from that flight on 687,000 and Ken Demlakian on 667,000. Vincent Green-Gibson bagged 640,000 and Jin Xue 630,000. Travis O'Grady, who led Day 1a, is through with 717,000. Thirty-two players advanced from Day 1c. Across the three completed flights the event has 707 entries and 97 players into Day 2. Players start with 40,000 chips and can re-enter without limit until the start of level 11. The fourth and final flight began at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, with the survivors returning on Monday.

Why it matters

Nine of the ten biggest stacks out of Day 1c are Australian, with Xavier Mangano of Belgium the exception on 371,000. A 40,000 starting stack and unlimited re-entry into level 11 is what turns a AUD 1,500 buy-in into a 985,000 bag, and Day 2 will begin with 97 players already seated and a whole fourth flight still to be added to them.

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Also Filed

The WSOP Has Three Circuit Stops Running. Its Last Published Result Was Tuesday.

What happened

Three WSOP Circuit stops have cards in the air. Grand Casino Liechtenstein in Gamprin runs through September 22, Texas Card House in Austin through September 21 with 18 ring events, and Horseshoe Council Bluffs opened on September 17 with another 18 ring events and runs through September 28. The most recent result on the WSOP's own news index is Valentin Lita's win in the inaugural Caesars Virginia Circuit Main Event for $181,853 and a first ring, published on September 15. The three items filed since are the Paradise Parlay promotion on September 16, a Council Bluffs curtain-raiser on September 17, and media credential applications for WSOP Paradise on September 18, open until 11:59 p.m. PST on October 23.

Why it matters

Thirty-six ring events are scheduled between Austin and Council Bluffs alone, and every 2026 Circuit ring winner collects a $5,000 Paradise package on top of the ring. The WSOP has published the package, the parlay and the credential deadline. Five days of posts, and not one of them names a winner.

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Hardware Won

Two titles decided since yesterday's brief, one in Sydney and one in Atlantic City. The Borgata event's results page did not carry a dated finish line, so the report date is used and the note says so.

Out

The Big, Big Baller final table is the only one with a full payout sheet today. Two of the three deal-makers are in here, and the order they went out in has nothing to do with what they were paid.

On the Watchlist

  • WPT Prime Championship Day 1dThe last of four starting flights began at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at The Star Sydney, joining 97 qualifiers already through from 707 entries. Day 2 is Monday.
  • WPT Australia ChampionshipThe festival's other championship follows from September 24, with the whole thing ending September 30. Player and Team of the Festival are decided across the full schedule.
  • WSOP Circuit Council BluffsEighteen ring events through September 28 at Horseshoe Council Bluffs, with $5,000 WSOP Paradise packages attached to each ring. No results published yet.
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In The Air Right Now

Stops with cards in the air on this date.

WSOPWSOP Circuit - Grand Casino LiechtensteinLiechtensteinWSOPWSOP Circuit - Texas Card HouseTexas, United StatesBorgata2026 Borgata Big, Big SeriesBorgata Hotel Casino & SpaRGPS2026 Mississippi State Poker ChampionshipHorseshoe TunicaRGPS2026 RGPS Golden Expedition JoplinDownstream Casino ResortRGPS2026 RGPS Golden Expedition ArubaHilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino
♠   ♥   ♦   ♣

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