Casino City’s Friday Five: Gaming world temperature is rising edition

While the calendar might not say it’s summer yet, the gaming industry’s largest, richest, and most prestigious event in the world says differently as the 54th annual World Series of Poker is officially underway on the Las Vegas Strip. Before we get to that news, Fairspin Casino launched its summer equilibrium tournament. Las Vegas unveiled its new Major League Baseball park for the Oakland Athletics, plus there are new tickets available for the F1 race that will be run on the Strip in November. Poker pro Tom Dwan took home the largest-ever poker streamed jackpot on Tuesday night. And last, but not least, two participants walked away with the first-two coveted WSOP bracelets.

In the spirit of the WSOP kicking off this week, let’s throw our cards down see what Fairspin Casino has to offer.

5. Fairspin Casino launches summer equilibrium tournament

The Fairspin crypto casino’s Summer Equilibrium Tournament is underway. There are four player categories, separate prize pools, and equal chances for a reward.

The event features a $60,000 total prize pool split into two rounds, each lasting 14 days. Round 1 started yesterday, while Round 2 starts on 15 June. The players are divided into categories based on their loyalty program level, each with their own tournament table. The categories and number of prize places are as follows:

VIP Club - 5 prize places
Fortune Club - 20 prize places
Explorer - 30 prize places
Player - 50 prize places

The round winners are determined among the participants with the largest number of TFS, which is Fairspin’s new digital cryptocurrency, mined within the Play to Earn program. There are 105 winners in each round and 210 in the entire tournament.

4. This Week in Gambling: Las Vegas MLB ballpark and F1 race tickets

During the most recent This Week in Gambling video, J. Todd provided details on the new MLB ballpark coming to Las Vegas as well as newly-released F1 race tickets.

We know that the Oakland Athletics plan to move to the desert, and now they have shown us what their new Las Vegas ballpark will look like if they get their wish. The $1.5 billion venue will seat about 35,000 people and feature a retractable roof. The latest proposed location is on the nine acres where the Tropicana Casino currently stands, which is directly across from the Excalibur and next to MGM Grand.

With less than six months until the F1 Las Vegas race, the final wave of premium tickets will go on sale Friday, 9 June. Mark your calendar, set your alarm, and take advantage of this final opportunity to secure all remaining on-track tickets for the Las Vegas F1 event before it is too late. There are three new categories of tickets ranging in price from $5,500-$8,000. And for those who don’t have that money laying around there are also $1,500 tickets still available.

The @Athletics have revealed their first renderings of the proposed new ballpark in Las Vegas pic.twitter.com/7F3GERcW0v
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 26, 2023

3. Planet Hollywood dishes out massive Crazy 4 poker jackpot

On Monday, 29 May at 1 a.m., Zac Aynsley of the U.K. won $354,742 after hitting a Mega Progressive jackpot on Crazy 4 Poker at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas on the Strip.

The fitness influencer was visiting Sin City on vacation with his friend and was playing at the poker table for the first time. Shortly after one hour, he landed the jackpot with a Royal Flush. He plans on using the winnings to invest and help his family. Aynsley also noted that positivity was his good luck charm during his visit.

2. Poker pro Tom Dwan takes down largest streamed poker jackpot in history

Talk about must-see-viewing. Tuesday night, poker pro Tom Dwan, who became famous for playing online nose-bleed stakes in the 2000s under the screen name "durrrr," called multiple bets on the Hustler Casino Live stream to take home $3.1 million, the largest jackpot ever won on TV or streaming service. Dwan outlasted and outmaneuvered crypto-millionaire Wesley Fei in the no-limit Texas Hold 'em cash event with a $1 million minimum buy-in.

With $500 and $1,000 blinds, plus an escalating big-blind ante of $3,000 to go along with Dwan’s voluntary $2,000 third blind, there was $6,500 in the pot before any of the eight players at the table saw their hands. Dwan, who won the hand with pocket queens, started with approximately $1.5 million, while Fei, who was trying to bluff Dwan with A-K off suit, entered the hand with $2.8 million.

After losing the monstrous pot, a shaken Fei simply said to his fellow tablemates, “You can’t bluff Tom.”

$3.1 MILLION POT!! THE BIGGEST POT IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISED POKER!!@TomDwan vs @CryptoApprenti1

Tom Dwan is now winning more than $2 MILLION tonight pic.twitter.com/Fiv7ldVykt
— Hustler Casino Live (@HCLPokerShow) May 31, 2023

1. The 54th Annual World Series of Poker is underway

On Tuesday, cards went in the air at the 2023 WSOP on the Las Vegas Strip inside Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas. Recognized as the gaming industry’s largest, richest, and most prestigious event in the world, the WSOP is once again raising the stakes. After falling just 110 entries short of “The Main Event” record in 2022, the WSOP is going all in to shatter the record field of 8,773 set in 2006 with a historic 115 bracelet events – 95 live and 20 online – from today through Tuesday, 18 July.

As usual this year’s field is filled with seasoned veterans with multiple bracelets to up-and-coming stars making a name for themselves. If you want to stay on top of the action then you should keep an eye on Espen Uhlen Jørstad, David Peters and Phil Ivey, among others.

Las Vegas Aces all-star guard Kelsey Plum hosted the ceremonial Shuffle Up & Deal on Wednesday for the $1,000 Buy-In Mystery Millions event, the WSOP’s first marquee event of the summer. Following a successful kickoff to the WSOP on opening day, which featured a tribute to the late Doyle Brunson, the poker legend who passed away in May, the WNBA champion visited Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas to kick off the event and unveil the prestigious WSOP bracelets that players can win during the series.

So far, two players have walked away with the coveted WSOP 2023 bracelets. Peter Thai defeated James Urbanic in heads-up play in the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em event to claim $75,535 and the first bracelet. Swiss player Alexandre Vuilleumier defeated Chance Kornuth in heads-up play in the second event, a $25,000 High Roller 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event, to win $1,215,864.

Alexandre Vuilleumier strikes gold in the $25,000 High Roller 6-Max!

The Swiss native defeated a field of 207 players to earn the $1,215,865 top prize and his first gold bracelet.

Event Recap & Interview: https://t.co/BvmWYoD1fe pic.twitter.com/cjYurHdMFB
— WSOP - World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 2, 2023