Entertainment and Special Events News

The Heads-Up Championship had been sponsored by online poker companies before the federal government’s crackdown on illegal Internet poker. The World Series of Poker is the new presenting sponsor.

The NBC Sports Group will air 12 hours of the 2013 National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by WSOP.com from Caesars Palace.

Gaming Commission Chairman Pete Bernhard said he signed onto the Caesars Interactive-owned Playtika social gaming website recently to familiarize himself with how the business operates.

Tournament officials announced Monday the seventh annual event will take place Oct. 11-24 in the lakefront Casino Barrière d'Enghien-les-Bains in greater Paris.

Paris will host the 2013 WSOPE at the historic Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains as the tournament series returns to mid-October dates.

The $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em World Championship, often referred to as the Main Event, will be contested over 10 days beginning July 7.

Baldwin, the 1978 World Series of Poker champion, thought Drache, who was the annual tournament's director, could give Wynn's poker facility a much needed lift.

The New Year starts with a return visit to the Borgata in Atlantic City for the new $3,500 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open beginning January 27.

Winning the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em World Championship might have seemed like a minor task compared to how Merson had turned his life around.

Casino City's Vin Narayanan and Aaron Todd are joined by Pokerati's Dan Michalski to discuss this week's conclusion to the World Series of Poker final table, including what happened on the felt, what happened off the felt, the impact this tournament will have on the game and ESPN's coverage of poker's showcase event. Aaron and Vin also try to talk Dan into picking every NFL game on this weekend's NFL slate.

The victory came at 5:35 a.m. today after 16 hands of heads-up play between Merson and Jesse Sylvia.

Greg Merson survived 11 hours of three-handed play and then beat Jesse Sylvia heads up early Wednesday morning to win the World Series of Poker Main Event and $8,531,853. Sylvia won $5,295,149 for finishing in second, while Jake Balsiger finished third and won $3,799,073.

Play in the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em World Championship resumed after a 103-day layoff when the remaining nine players out of the starting field of 6,598 began a marathon night, with the winner seeking an $8.53 million payout.

The action on the 136th hand early Tuesday morning sealed the final three players in the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em World Championship.

The action begins around 6 p.m. at the Rio and will be shown on a 15-minute delay on ESPN and espn3.com.