LFG POKER
T I M E S
WEEK OF MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2026 · LFGPOKER.APP
THE RAKE WENT UP AND THE $500 LEVEL TOOK THE HIT · PINSON PULLS EVERY BIG BOUNTY AT BORGATA · CONGRESS MOVES ON THE GAMBLING TAX
Big Stories
The Rake Went Up While You Were Playing
Card Player pulled the receipts on a question players have been arguing about for years: is tournament rake actually rising? Comparing twelve events in 2015, 2019 and today, the answer is mostly yes, usually by a point or less, and the squeeze lands hardest at the bottom. The $500 level took the worst of it. The WSOP Colossus went from 11.50 percent to 17 percent, and Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood's roughly $400 multi flight went from 14.29 percent in 2015 to 18 percent today.
The high end barely moved, and in places it improved. The WSOP Main Event went from 5.99 to 7 percent, while the WPT World Championship actually came down, from 6.73 to 5.77 percent. That is the part worth paying attention to. A $10,400 buy in now keeps more of your money on the table than a $400 one, and the players least able to absorb it are paying the most. If you are close to breakeven, the number on the flyer is not the price. The rake is.
Big Week
Three Guarantees Land Before Saturday
Borgata's Big Big Series closes today with the $5,300 Championship and its $3,000,000 guarantee playing down. In Hollywood, the Everglades Poker Open's $600 Triple Stack ($200,000 guaranteed) opens flights tomorrow and runs through Saturday, with Day 2 Sunday.
Maryland gets the RunGood Golden Expedition's $1,300 Main Event ($250,000 guaranteed) at MGM National Harbor, flights Thursday through Saturday and Day 2 Sunday. And on Saturday the Orlando area gets its own six figure event: Orange City's $500 Fall Cash Out ($100,000 guaranteed), a single day tournament with 40,000 chips and 30 minute levels, fed by $120 satellites all week.
Looking one week further, the WSOP Circuit opens at Harrah's Pompano Beach October 1 and Wynn's Fall Classic starts the same day with a $250,000 guarantee.
Results
Pinson Pulled the Two Biggest Bounties, Then the Last One Too
Aaron Pinson won Borgata's $2,200 Big Big Mystery Bounty out of 232 entries, and the bounty draw did something close to impossible. He pulled the first $50,000 bounty with his first knockout of Day 2, roughly a 1 in 12 shot, added a $10,000, then pulled the second $50,000. Heads up against Matt Glantz, the player who famously drew the $1,000,000 bounty at the 2023 WSOP, the two chopped the remaining prize money and flipped for the trophy. Pinson won the flip, and with one pull left to Glantz's six, he took the last $25,000 too. Bounties alone: $150,000. Total haul: $199,825, about 40 percent of the $500,000 prize pool.
"I was not imagining $200k this morning, that seemed crazy," Pinson said afterward. "I came into the day with a bottom third stack and I ran like fire."
The Number
18%
The rake today on a roughly $400 multi flight at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, up from 14.29 percent in 2015. The WSOP Main Event takes 7 percent, and the WPT World Championship takes 5.77.
Worth Knowing
- The gambling tax fix cleared its first real hurdle. The House Ways and Means Committee voted 38 to 5 to repeal the provision that caps loss deductions at 90 percent, the rule that can leave a player owing tax on a losing year. The FULL HOUSE Act now needs a full House vote, then the Senate, where Senator Dina Titus has attached a similar fix to a tax package. Nothing has changed for this year's return yet, but this is the furthest a repeal has gotten.
- Wynn has posted the biggest festival of the year. The WPT World Championship runs November 27 to December 21: 61 events, 25 satellites, and $20,900,000 in guarantees, headlined by a $1,100 WPT Prime Championship for $5,000,000 and a $400 Super Gold Million for $3,000,000. The $10,400 World Championship carries $1,000,000 in added money paid out as mystery bounties, on top of the prize pool rather than out of it.
- Phones are off the table at Station Casinos. Following a run of cheating scandals, Station has barred players from resting phones on the table surface at all of its Las Vegas rooms, Red Rock included. You can still use one, just not on the felt. Card protectors are out too.
- Derby Lane's $500,000 is three weeks out and satellites are running now, from $50. Eight Day 1 flights October 17 to 24, Day 2 October 25, $800 buy in.
This Week's Top Tournaments · Nationwide Highlights
Big Big Series Championship$3,000,000 GTD
Borgata · $5,300 · Final day today
Everglades Poker Open Triple Stack$200,000 GTD
Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood · $600 · Flights September 23 – 26, Day 2 September 27
RunGood Golden Expedition Main Event$250,000 GTD
MGM National Harbor · $1,300 · Flights September 24 – 26, Day 2 September 27
Fall Cash Out$100,000 GTD
Orange City Racing & Card Club · $500 · Saturday September 26, single day
Fall Classic Opener$250,000 GTD
Wynn Las Vegas · Flights begin October 1
WSOP Circuit Pompano Main Event$1,000,000 GTD
Harrah's Pompano Beach · $1,700 · Flights October 8 – 10, Day 2 October 11 · Series October 1 – 12
Derby Lane $500K$500,000 GTD
Derby Lane, St. Petersburg · $800 · Eight flights October 17 – 24, Day 2 October 25
WPT Prime Championship$5,000,000 GTD
Wynn Las Vegas · $1,100 · Flights December 5 – 8, final table December 12
New to LFG Poker
Venue number 30 is open: Orange City Racing & Card Club, the closest poker room to Orlando, is on the site with its full schedule, structures and this Saturday's $100,000 Fall Cash Out. With Daytona already covered, both Delaware North rooms are now in one place, which matters because they feed each other seats.
All 134 events of Wynn's WPT World Championship are searchable now, buy ins, guarantees, chips and level lengths, three months before a card is dealt. Borgata's October is loaded end to end as well, from the nightly games through the Pure Grind Black Chip Bounty, and Daytona's $350 Big 50s and its satellites are up with structure sheets.
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