The Poker Digest ♠
ISSUE #55 · SEPTEMBER 19, 2026
Hey Poker Fam! No trip report from me this week — I'm home, caught up on sleep, and glued to the same streams you were. And what a week to be watching. Triton Jeju II closed out with a career-defining win for one of the game's great talkers, two Finns played the biggest heads-up match ever put on a stream, and Congress actually did something nice for Poker players for once.
We've also got the WPT's season finale dates for the Wynn, a wild new pros-vs-amateurs bracelet event, and a Strategy Corner on the sneakiest button play in heads-up Poker, straight from the Jeju final table.
Let's get into it.
This Week in Poker
🔥 LEAD STORY
Schulman's Masterclass: $3.85 Million and the Triton Jeju Main Event
Triton Jeju II wrapped this week, and it belonged to Nick Schulman. The Hall of Famer won the $100,000 Main Event for $3,854,888 — the biggest score of his career, per Card Player — topping a 196-entry field that built a $19,600,000 prize pool.
The finish was vintage Schulman. Heads-up against Austria's Bernhard Binder, he limped the button with KsKh and just called Binder's raise with KcJd. He flatted bets on the Ah8d2h flop and the 5c turn, and when Binder checked the Td river, Schulman moved all in — and got called by king-high. Binder collected $3,080,112 for second.
The $150,000 10th Anniversary Special was just as memorable. Nick Petrangelo and Joao Simao reached heads-up play, chopped up nearly all of the $10,050,000 prize pool, and settled the trophy with blind all-ins. Petrangelo won it in three hands for $2,212,910 — while Simao, who had the big stack when they struck the deal, actually banked more: $2,517,090. According to PokerNews, the winner took home less than the runner-up. Poker math is beautiful.
Full results are on the official Triton Poker Series site.
01 Congress Finally Moves on the "Phantom Tax"
Real movement on the tax change every US player has been dreading. On September 16, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 38-5 to advance a measure restoring the full 100% gambling loss deduction, rolling back the 90% cap that took effect this tax year, according to Card Player and SBC Americas.
Quick refresher on why this matters: under the 90% cap, a player with $100,000 in wins and $100,000 in losses — a break-even year — owes tax on $10,000 they never actually won. Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, who has led the charge with her FAIR BET Act, said after the vote that the goal is to make sure gamblers "do not pay this tax on phantom money they never won."
It's not law yet. The measure still needs the full House and Senate, and Congress likely won't get there until after the November midterms — the push is to finish before 2026 returns are filed. Until then: cross your fingers and keep your records clean.
02 The Biggest Heads-Up Match Ever Streamed
Patrik Antonius put up $10 million. Finnish casino boss Ossi "Monarch" Ketola — the man behind Triton Jeju sponsor Duel — put up the other $10 million. Winner takes all. Roughly four hours later at Triton Jeju, Ketola had all $20 million in what PokerNews and Poker.org both called the biggest livestreamed heads-up match ever played.
According to PokerNews, the dagger was brutal: Ketola check-raised a Qs8hJh flop holding Q9hh, turned a straight flush when the Th rolled off, and piled on the pressure with an all-in on the river — forcing Antonius, who held AKdd and had turned Broadway, into one of the sickest folds you'll ever see.
One thing the community is actively wrestling with: Poker.org paired its match coverage with reporting on Ketola's documented history of racist remarks, arguing that context shouldn't be separated from the spectacle. Worth knowing before anyone crowns a new folk hero.
03 Circle Your Calendar: The WPT World Championship Returns to the Wynn
The WPT released the schedule for its Season 24 finale: the 2026 WPT World Championship festival runs November 27 through December 21 at Wynn Las Vegas, with more than 85 events and over $20 million in combined guarantees, per the WPT and Card Player.
The $10,400 World Championship itself runs December 13-20 with three starting flights, plus $1 million in added mystery bounties from ClubWPT Gold. If that buy-in is a little rich, the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship (December 5-12) carries a $5 million guarantee, and festival buy-ins start at $400. Full schedule on the official WPT announcement.
04 Pros vs. Joes, With a Bracelet on the Line
The WSOP is adding a $250,000 buy-in Pro-Am bracelet event to this December's WSOP Paradise festival at Baha Mar in the Bahamas, according to PokerNews. The twist: pros and amateurs start in completely separate fields, and the two only merge once everyone left is in the money — then they play down to a bracelet.
Pros can register outright, but amateurs have to apply to a WSOP Pro-Am committee that vets the field. It's a genuine format experiment — different from Triton's Invitational, where amateurs bring a pro — and one more reason Paradise is shaping up huge. Details on the official WSOP Paradise page.
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In the Know
♥ Back-to-back at WCOOP. The World Championship of Online Poker is in full swing on PokerStars, and the Netherlands' Johannes "Jesper8" Straver just won the Super Tuesday High Roller two weeks running, per PokerNews. Consecutive titles in one of the toughest weekly fields online is no joke.
♦ Too good to play. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says he's banned from many Las Vegas casinos — not for bad behavior, but for counting cards too well at blackjack, per Card Player and mainstream business coverage. Somewhere out there is a pit boss who has no idea he blacklisted the guy running your next flight.
Strategy Corner
The Quietest Play in Heads-Up Poker Just Won $3.85 Million
Go back to Schulman's final hand against Binder, because it's a free lesson in heads-up play. With KsKh on the button, most players raise. Schulman limped. Binder raised with KcJd, Schulman just called, and then he flat-called the flop and turn on Ah8d2h5c before jamming the Td river when it checked to him.
Look at what that line did. By limping and calling instead of raising, Schulman's hand looked like 22, 33 or a weak ace at best, and more like nothing at all. Binder kept betting with king-high street after street,. By the river, Binder's own story trapped him: Schulman's range looked so weak that even the all-in got called by no pair.
When your line looks weak, your value bets get paid. Heads-up, the strongest play with a monster is sometimes the quietest one — underrep your hand occasionally and let your opponent write the story that pays you off.
Two cautions before you fall in love with this: don't limp only your monsters, or good opponents will read you like a book — your limping range needs plenty of ordinary hands too. And out of position, this gets much harder to control. If you want to build a real heads-up and short-handed game plan, start with my free Poker training or go deeper in my course.
Clip of the Week
▶ WATCH NOW
48 Players Left, 1 Gold Bracelet: My WSOP Ladies Championship Deep Run
With all this week's heads-up drama, it felt right to revisit a deep run of my own: battling through a 1,475-entry field in the WSOP Ladies Championship, with every big decision — good and bad — on camera. Watch the deep run →
And subscribe so you don't miss what's next from the road: youtube.com/@LexyGavinPoker
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