Hit And Run: Michigan Could Pass Online Poker By End Of Year; Rio Sale Completed, WSOP Will Be Held At Casino Until At Least 2021

Saturday 7th December 2019

Michigan could be the next state to pass online poker legislation. The sale of the Rio is completed with WSOP held at the casino until at least 2021. Check out these stories and more in the Friday Hit and Run.

Michigan could become the next state to pass online gambling legislation if a State Senator Curtis Hertel has his way. In recent days and weeks, stakeholders have come together on the Lawful Internet Act that would legalize online poker with a prediction by Hertel that a bill could be on the governor's desk by the end of the year. A similar bill was passed last year before being vetoed by then-Governor Rick Snyder.

With new Governor Gretch Whitmer now at the helm, there is optimism that Michigan could finally get online gambling. However, Governor Whitmer has expressed some of the same reservations that the Governor Synder had, including concerns over online gambling cannibalizing online lottery sales. Should the bill pass, it would need to be signed by Gov. Whitmer before the end of the year -- otherwise the process starts over yet again.

Part-Time Poker's David Huber's breaks down the highlights of the new bill in an in-depth summary and FAQ on the matter.

- The sale of the Rio has officially been completed with Dreamscape Companies taking ownership of the property. As part of the deal, Caesars Entertainment will continue to operate the RIO through a lease agreement for at least two years with an optional third year, meaning the WSOP could be held at the Rio until 2022.

- PokerStars EPT Prague kicked off on Friday with the start of the €10,300 No-Limit Hold'em. The series will run for over ten days and include a €40,000 EPT Super High Roller rolling from December 9th to 11th and a €5,300 Main Event set for December 11th to December 17th

- partypoker has introduced a series of daily specials as well as an annual series in their relaunched and reorganized MTT schedule. While partypoker's ongoing MTTs will be under the "Daily Specials" umbrella, the new Annual Series events will include some of the online poker rooms most noteworthy events during the year including the POWERFEST, Omaha Series, KO Series, Monster Series and MILLIONS Online.

- Speaking of revamped schedules, PokerStars has tweaked its Spin & Go schedule with a variety of changes. New buy-in levels introduced include $2 and $25 spins while the $7 and $40 Spins have been removed. The $2 level will allow players to earn up to $1 million, a prize amount otherwise reserved for the $100, $250 and $500 events.

The other big change is that blind level lengths will now be adjusted based on the prize multiplier. Blind levels will last 2 minutes for 2x prize multipliers, with 3x-5x multipliers lasting 3 minutes per blind level, 10x-25x multipliers will last 4 minutes and 120x and up prize pools will have blinds lasting 5 minutes.

In other SNG lottery format changes, 888poker Blast has changed from 4 handed to 3 handed. The move brings it in line with other SPIN lottery programs such as partypoker SPINS and partypoker Spin and Go.

- Jonathan Karamalikis took down the WSOP International Circut $20,000 High Roller in Sydney to win the equivalent of $258k against Ryan Otto who finished with $159,395 in prizes. Karamalikis outlasted 52 other entries in theevent.

- In Friday's featured classic poker training video, Gazellig returns for a look at "Key Hands in MTTs," this time from a shorthanded MTT. This episode focuses on early gameplay where he talks about getting maximum value from big pairs and flopped top pairs with an in-depth look at AQ.

- JNandezPoker has a huge day playing Pot Limit Omaha cash games on partypoker.