2026 Potomac Summer Poker Open

Mike Lebleu suffered a brutal exit just shy of the money. Best of luck in the next one.

Have you heard about MyStack by PokerNews? It is a free-to-use tool built into the PokerNews website that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages. MyStack directly connects you to PokerNews' live reporting pages, making you an even bigger part of the action in the events you play.

MyStack is a free poker tool and PokerNews activates MyStack for every event it is live reporting from, regardless of that tournament's buy-in. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!

Only one woman played this year's $50,000 Poker Players Championship at the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP), longtime American pro Esther Taylor. Taylor, who recently signed on as BetMGM Poker ambassador, is on a mission to change that by getting more women into mixed games.

Taylor has launched Her Edge Academy, a poker training program aimed specifically at helping women break through in poker. Taylor, who has $3.3 million in live tournament earnings and last year became the second woman ever to final table the PPC, told PokerNews she has always been passionate about coaching and mentoring women and girls, whether it's coaching her daughter's softball team or helping one of her old teams from high school.

Matthew Mizel has put together the biggest stack of the Potomac Summer Poker Open $600 Opener so far, bagging an impressive 1.091 million chips at the end of the flight.

Mizel credited a combination of good fortune and some of his best poker for the big stack.

“I had a lot of luck, and then I played some of the best poker I played, to be honest.”

Mizel said he felt “in the zone” throughout the flight, trusting his reads and making the right decisions at the right time.

“I was just sort of seeing the opportunities and calling when it was right to call, laying down when it was right to lay down, and just everything worked out.”

The cards were certainly cooperating, too, as Mizel managed to hit his draws when he needed them.

“I hit draws when I needed to hit draws. I was just really fortunate the way it worked out.”

Tags: Matthew Mizel

Flight E of the $600 NLH Opener is on a short break; 178 players have entered this flight, with registration open until the start of level 11. We'll keep you posted as the field narrows.

It only takes $150 to take your shot at a seat in Event #1, The Opener, with the Milestone Satellite starting at 8:00 p.m. tonight. With a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool up for grabs, a small buy-in could turn into a massive payday.

Our photographer Joe has been roaming the room, capturing the action and the players. If you spot him, give him a smile and a wave!

🚨PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT🚨

If you make Day 2 of the $600 Opener on Sunday, 9th August, please come back at 11:00 local time, NOT midday.

There seems to be some confusion among the players and we'd hate to see those hardfought stacks go to waste!

To reiterate, 11:00 am start. Many thanks all.