Linus Wins with 8-High, 5-Bets 7-2, But Performs Worst
GipsyTeam
17 November, 15:40
The CoinPoker Hold'em Championship has kicked off, another GGMillions finalist has been banned for ghosting, and Doug Polk has had the most successful session of his life.
The flagship GGMillions tournament with a $10,000 buy-in has ended in controversy once again. We've already covered the previous high-profile story in detail.
In the last such tournament, one of the finalists was banned again for ghosting. Hinaru, representing Mongolia, entered the final table as the chip leader. He had about $100 in prize money before this tournament. He sat out the entire final table and was eliminated in 5th place.
Even before the final table, security discovered that another player had been playing under Hinaru's account on the first day. The owners of both accounts were permanently banned from the GG network, and the names of the accomplices have not been disclosed.
Hinaru's prize money ($115,752.22) was distributed among the affected players.
The tournament was won by Adrian Mateos, who started the final table with the shortest stack.
"If you know of any stables/groups are ghosting, can be British, Brazilian, Russian, Asian, whatever. And can send proofs I’ll keep you anonymous and bitB will send $1000 whistleblower reward if the site takes action. Let’s get all these scum out."
"The first time I ever played a Triton event. I sat down at my starting table and there was a guy there with his assistant hand-feeding him strawberries. Wondered what planet I was on."
“I would assume that’s an indicator for a good table draw,” someone suggested in the comments.
"Stephen Chidwick?" James Dempsey suggested, much to Seth's amusement.
“At least I fired him when I saw he wasn’t washing his hands,” Jason Koon said, maintaining the joking mood.
FalseKumikon, who finished 3rd in the Omaha Championship on CoinPoker, shared his dismal November results:
– "That was a rough month of poker🙈 I’m taking a break for a while, GGs."
In the championship, he played more than all the other leaders and fell short of about $140k.
Immediately after the PLO championship, the High Stakes Cash Game World Championship started on CoinPoker.
High rollers will be battling it out at NL10k tables until December 7th. After the first week, DavyJones922 leads by a significant margin. TaxHere is in second place.
TaxHere won $140k (EV) on Day 5 of the challenge, while DavyJones922 won $126,590 on Day 4.
Enlight, MunEZ, Iimitlesss, and GREAGGY are also participating, but they're all losing so far.
LLinusLLove is in last place, with -$185,919.71 in $ EV, but over $240,000 in real losses. That's over twice as much as the next player up the list, ILuvAvrilLavigne91 with -$113,983.12 in losses.
The championship prizes total $100,000, including a mystery GTO prize and a $35,000 Rolex watch.
Rank
Prize
🥇
Rolex worth $35,000 + the official title of Cash Game World Champion
🥈
$17,500 Cash
🥉
$15,000 Cash
4th
$12,500 Cash
5th
$10,000 Cash
The championship's official partner is PokerStrategy, where you can also find a daily updated leaderboard (https://www.pokerstrategy.com/HSCGWP2025/).
Enthusiasts with 2+2 made their own table (https://bettercgwc.xyz/).
Every Sunday, the challenge features a VIP invite-only game. Linus was the lowest-scoring player of the first week.
In one hand, he 5-bet jammed with 7-2 offsuit, and won the pot (plus 5BB bounties from everyone at the table).
In one hand, he called an all-in on the river with 8-high.
Ryan DePaulo streamed the game on YouTube.
"Well, of course," he said with annoyance when he received a call, but Linus's cards had not yet turned over. "Obviously he has an ace."
However, the showdown surprised him a little:
– What's going on? Does he think he's the best player in the world? Fuck!
"LinusLove correctly called my river jam on with pocket ," Ryan wrote after the hand . "I played every street poorly…. He rekt me. But we got him later"
Viewers witnessed another unsuccessful bluff on the show High Stakes Poker. Alan Keating called Doug Polk's four-bet with 42s and check-called every street.
– Serious AMA question: would you still caress Scotty Nguyen’s mullet for $500, or has your stroking rate gone up since Barcelona?
– 😂 Think we are looking at $550 these days
– How do you see the legal tax changes impacting tournament poker in the USA in 2026 at both the mid major level and high stakes?
– Would guess in the beginning it’s mostly just a subsection of pros who stop playing.
– When ur at home, do u chill or kick it?
– Chill.
– Are you still playing tennis? What's your rating?
– 4.0 UTR so prolly 3.5 USTA
– Is 1st class overrated?
– No I think it's great. It turns a 14 hour flight from a miserable experience to a reasonably pleasant day where you watch movie, nap, and eat snacks.
– What do you think is the ROI of the best player in the field in a Triton $100k main?
– 16%
– Which do you enjoy studying more, poker or chess.
– Chess by a lot though; mostly game review.
Andrew Robl recounted how he decided to stop exhibiting Jean-Robert Bellande at the wrong time:
He lost 17 sessions in a row. He was playing his signature strategy—check-call, check-call, check-fold on the river. After that, I gave up on him: 'JRB, you're a great guy, I love you, but I can't back you anymore. Maybe poker just isn't your thing.' I was sure we'd never see him in the big games again; no one would want to give him money. But just two weeks passed, and he showed up in our game with a $1 million bankroll. He'd lost almost everything, and was down to $100,000. It was clear he was constantly on severe tilt.
At that moment, one of the most legendary gamblers, The Chairman, walked into Aria and announced he wanted to play right then and there with a minimum stake of $1 million. Naturally, no one objected. JRB practically begged us on his knees to let him into the $100,000 table. They took pity on him. In the first hand, he went all-in with sevens against the Chairman's AK. He started begging his neighbors to insure him. Everyone refused. The Chairman always spins once. JRB doubled up to $200,000. The game continued for another 40 hours without a break, and JRB left the table with $7 million. And all this before my eyes, after he had lost 17 sessions in a row while playing for me.
Tony G revealed on Jeff Gross's podcast that in 2000, he bought the PokerNews.com domain for $8,000 from "some guy in Hong Kong." He invested all his poker winnings into developing the project, coming up with the idea of selling franchises to various countries for 50% of the profits. At the height of the poker boom, the site's total revenue was around $2 million per month.
