The Muck Daily  ·  09/25/26

Daily Brief

Day 020 - The Twenty Times Edition

A WSOP Online Main Event paid Andrii Novak twenty times his career best, a sweepstakes site got told to leave Nevada, and Boyd Gaming found out real estate can go the other way too. Ninety miles inland from the Vegas Strip, the WSOP Circuit's Iowa stop kept grinding through its eighteenth event of the month.

Andrii Novak Won His First Bracelet. It Paid Him Twenty Times His Old Career High.

Today's Big Question

Andrii Novak Won His First Bracelet. It Paid Him Twenty Times His Old Career High.

Andrii Novak beat 6,008 entries to win the 2026 WSOP Online Main Event, his first bracelet, for $3,931,259. He closed it out heads-up against Simon Beckmann when his ace-jack held against Beckmann's short-stacked queen-seven. His previous career-best cash was $183,000, for third place in a 2020 online super high roller.

What happened

Andrii Novak won the 2026 WSOP Online Main Event, a $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament on WSOP.com that drew 6,008 entries and built a $28,538,000 prize pool against a $25 million guarantee. The win is Novak's first bracelet, and it pays $3,931,259, a number WSOP Online hands to exactly one person a year.

Heads-up against Simon Beckmann, Novak closed it out when Beckmann moved all in for seven big blinds holding queen-seven of hearts. Novak called with ace-jack, and the board ran ace, king, four, ten, five, giving him top pair and a kicker good enough to end a tournament that started with 6,008 other people.

Beckmann took $3,030,486 for second, and Moyan Chen finished third for $2,336,938. The rest of the final table paid Fernando Liano $1,802,141 for fourth, Charles La Boissonniere $1,389,754 for fifth, Pavlo Yakovliev $1,071,761 for sixth, Arian Hassankashani $826,555 for seventh, Yury Nadinsky $637,476 for eighth and Pablo Silva $491,676 for ninth.

Why it matters

Novak's previous career-best cash was $183,000, for third place in a 2020 online super high roller. This one paid him more than twenty times that, in a single tournament, from wherever he happened to be sitting with a laptop. His lifetime tournament earnings are now past $4.9 million, and the client did not require him to leave the room to get there.

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In the Spotlight

ClubWPT Gold Is Leaving Nevada. It Won't Say Why.

What happened

ClubWPT Gold is winding down its Nevada operations. The company told players by email that the move comes "as part of changes to our operations in response to state regulatory action." Nevada players can no longer deposit. Play stops at midnight on September 28, and withdrawals are due by October 2. The sweepstakes site, fronted by ambassadors including Phil Ivey, Doug Polk and Ethan "Rampage" Yau, had operated in 41 states before the exit, including a biweekly $1 million guaranteed tournament called the Gold Million.

Neither Nevada regulators nor ClubWPT Gold has said what the regulatory action actually was.

Why it matters

Sweepstakes poker exists because states have not settled whether it counts as real-money gambling with extra steps. Nevada, the state that built its economy on settling exactly that kind of question, appears to have settled it.

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The Explainer

Boyd Gaming Sold a Casino Lot for $16.2 Million Less Than It Paid

What happened

Boyd Gaming sold the former Eastside Cannery site, 29.5 acres along Boulder Highway it bought for $45 million in 2025, for $28.8 million to a New York investment firm, a $16.2 million loss. The buyer has given Lennar Corp. an option to acquire the land, and Clark County commissioners have approved plans for 279 two-story single-family homes on the site.

The Eastside Cannery closed in 2020 and Boyd demolished the building in March of this year.

Why it matters

A casino company held riverboat-shaped real estate through a pandemic closure, a demolition and a housing rezoning, then sold it for $16.2 million less than it paid for it. The house doesn't always win. Sometimes it just owns the lot.

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Follow the Money

The Asian Poker Tour Opened 135 Events in Jeju Today

What happened

The Asian Poker Tour opened its 20th-anniversary Jeju festival today at LES A Casino inside Jeju Shinhwa World, a 135-tournament schedule running through October 7 with a total guarantee of 5.2 billion Korean won, about $3.8 million. The 2.7 million won Main Event alone guarantees 2.2 billion won, and its top three finishers each collect a seat to the APT Championship 2026 Main Event in Taipei.

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Hardware Won

One bracelet handed out since yesterday's brief, and it was the online one everyone forgets pays real money.

Out

The WSOP Online Main Event's final two finishers.

On the Watchlist

  • WSOP Circuit Council Bluffs Main EventEvent #14, $1,700 buy-in, two starting flights Sept. 25-26, the marquee event of an 18-event schedule running through Sept. 27.
  • WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley16 ring events at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California, running Sept. 24-Oct. 5.
  • WSOP Circuit Casino MaltaOpens today at Casino St. Julian's and runs through Oct. 5.
Hardware Watch · Big Stack Energy · Bustout Board · Race Watch See The Full Board →
In The Air Right Now

Stops with cards in the air on this date.

WSOPWSOP Circuit - Council BluffsIA, United StatesRGPS2026 RGPS Golden Expedition MarylandMGM National Harbor Hotel & CasinoWPTWPT Australia80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont NSW, AustraliaWSOPWSOP Circuit - Thunder ValleyCA, United StatesWSOPWSOP Circuit - Casino MaltaSt. Julian’s, Malta
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