Schulman On Top, USPO Underway, Peacock Waiting
Welcome to the Saturday Roundup - a collection of the top poker headlines from the last seven days, plus a few other tidbits to start your weekend off properly.
Each week, The Overlay brings poker fans and players a collection of the top headlines from the week to keep them up-to-date on all of the big things happening in poker. This week’s highlights include the PokerGO Tour U.S. Poker Open getting underway, a bit of good news for online poker players in New Jersey, and at least one WSOP Circuit grinder admitting that the rings just don’t mean what they used to.
The Headlines
Japanese Newcomer Makes Waves at U.S. Poker Open
The PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas is the professional home of a number of poker’s biggest names and they usually dominate the winner’s photos of the PGT events, but occasionally a newcomer breaks through. That’s precisely what happened on Thursday night when Japan’s Kazuomi Furuse beat Nacho Barbero heads-up to win U.S. Poker Open Event #2 ($10,100 NLHE) and $275,400.
Japanese Star Furuse Rises as PokerStake Star Claims Back-to-Back Cashes
The U.S. Poker Open continues through April 17. Live updates available via PGT.com and streaming daily on PokerGO.
Art Peacock Leads WPT Seminole Poker Showdown Final Table
The next couple of months should be fun for Art Peacock. The 66-year-old former New Yorker bagged up the final table chip lead of the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown on Wednesday. He’s one of six players who will now wait until May to travel to Las Vegas to play for the title and the $776,000 first place prize money.
Meet the Six Finalists in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
The event drew 1,755 entries, 114 fewer than the 2024 event and 535 fewer than the 2023 event. This marks the second consecutive WPT Championship event that saw a lower 2025 turnout after the WPT Rolling Thunder event saw 404 entries, down from 458 (2024) and 590 (2023).
Pennsylvania On Verge of Joining Multi-State Compact
The good people of Pennsylvania, those who play online poker anyway, are about to get a long overdue present. The Pennsylvania Gaming Board says that sometime in the next few weeks their state will join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement and can now share liquidity with regulated operators in Delaware, New Jersey, Nevada, Michigan, and West Virginia.
Connor Richards of PokerNews has all the details here, including how this could impact the 2025 World Series of Poker:
Pennsylvania Gaming Board Says Multi-State Poker is Just Weeks Away
How Many Rings is Too Many Rings?
The WSOP Circuit is easily the busiest mid-major tour in poker with 30 live stops on the 2024-25 schedule. That means there’s basically a WSOP Circuit ring up for grabs every day of the year and leads some to question whether or not the rings matter anymore. Paul Seaton asked some of the players at the top of the leaderboard their thoughts for Pokerati.
Are WSOP Circuit Rings Still Worth the Chase?
Nick Schulman Leads GPI Player of the Year Race
Just three months into the year and the GPI Player of the Year race is already pretty hotly contested. Thanks to 11 qualifying cashes (with another one pending), Nick Schulman sits just 41.4 points ahead of Shannon Shorr. Schulman has yet to win an event this year, but does have four top three finishes to his credit.
GPI POY Top Five
Nick Schulman - 2,835.1 POY points
Shannon Shorr - 2,793.7
Alex Foxen - 2,663.94
Jeremy Ausmus - 2,545.04
Michael Berk - 2,493.71
Featured Podcast: "To Live & Die in L.A." - the LA Poker Roundup
Hosted by Derek Kwan and Ty Dobbertin, the LA Poker Roundup is a weekly show built around all of the happenings of the poker scene in Los Angeles. Kwan and Dobbertin regularly have guests on the show who are either LA regulars and locals or players who have recently had a big score in an LA-based event.
The most recent episode dropped on Wednesday. Check it out here (or on Apple or YouTube if you’re so inclined).
Previously on The Overlay
The latest issue of The Overlay included a feature on grinder-turned-influencer Caitlin Comeskey and her recent move to New Jersey. If you missed it, just subscribed, or forget to give it a read, here’s another chance.
Caitlin Comeskey Makes Playing Characters and Cards Pay Off
The drive from Austin, Texas to Union City, New Jersey is a little bit more than 1,700 miles and assuming the driver obeys the …