Combined Recreation Pageant XI at Bellagio Las Vegas has reached its conclusion after a full 10 days of motion, turning into the biggest and the longest-running one in Combined Recreation Pageant historical past. All issues come to an finish; it’s simply that when good ones finish, it’s onerous to not really feel unhappy. It’s in our human nature to need them to final just about eternally.
True to type, the ultimate day introduced heaps of pleasure, awarding the final remaining $3,500 seat to the 2025 BetMGM Poker Championship and loads of smaller prizes, bringing smiles to many faces within the room.
The Pageant actually helped create many completely satisfied recollections and offered fairly a number of folks with a style of blended video games, which is without doubt one of the principal objectives that Cardplayer Life-style founder and occasion host Robbie Strazynski needed to attain when he set out on this journey again in 2021.
Earlier than the ultimate goodbye, although, let’s look again at Day 10 to convey you a few of the environment from and across the felt!
Chip Rely Competitors Yields TWO Bullseyes! 🎯
Over the course of the Combined Recreation Pageant, BetMGM Poker, the principle sponsor of the occasion, set to award 4 $3,500 seats to its Poker Championship occasion, set to happen later this month. Main as much as the ultimate day, three of those seats discovered their rightful winners, however the final one was nonetheless up for grabs.
Final day of the blended recreation pageant at the moment. Final likelihood to win a seat to the BETMGM championship occasion at Aria poker. Energetic gamers within the pageant may have one guess on the whole worth of the chips on this toke field. Closest to the precise quantity wins. Should be current to win! pic.twitter.com/ihD8OOnK6N
— Bellagio Poker Room (@BellagioPoker) June 19, 2025
To have a shot, poker gamers needed to be part of the motion on the tables and submit their guess as to the precise chip depend within the toke field. Beneficiant giveaways are actual magnets for gamers (no shock there), so the hours main as much as the competitors noticed 4 tables of $4/$8 Vendor’s Alternative Combine working at full velocity.
Day 10 of @PokerLifeMedia Combined Recreation Pageant XI at @BellagioPoker is underway.
Our ultimate day, and our ultimate $3500 @BetMGMPoker Championship seat giveaway!
Right here’s how you can enter the “unhackable” chip depend contest 👇
Guesses should be submitted by 430pm
MUST be current to win! pic.twitter.com/WkZNK8qBFR
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) June 19, 2025
By the competitors closing time, over 40 gamers submitted their guesses, and two of them one way or the other managed to get the precise depend right: 772,500 value of event chips contained in the field! One among these guesses was submitted by Sean O’Hara, and in case you’ve been following our each day recaps, that identify could ring the bell.
Sean received a seat on Day 5, profitable the “Blind PLO Flip” competitors, and, as per the principles, it’s a most of 1 individual per seat. So, O’Hara was as an alternative awarded a $200 comp, courtesy of Bellagio Poker Room Director Craig Larson, and the second right guess was awarded the event seat.
That guess by submitted by Espy Enriquez, who didn’t attempt to conceal her enthusiasm within the slightest – and why ought to she? Espy was all smiles and super-excited about this chance, and this appears to be the final impact that the Combined Recreation Pageant has on its contributors.
Congratulations to Espy Enriquez, winner of our chip depend contest right here on Day 10 of Combined Recreation Pageant XI at @BellagioPoker. 🎉
She nailed it: EXACTLY 772,500 value of event chips within the field! 🎯
Espy now has herself a $3500 seat within the 2025 @BetMGMPoker Championship 🏆 pic.twitter.com/A3Eox3Rdfa
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) June 20, 2025
As soon as the giveaway was over, the motion slowed down a bit, dropping down to a few and ultimately to 2 tables, however these saved going sturdy; REALLY sturdy, as per the message Robbie obtained from one of many gamers nonetheless energetic — Brian Dowd — at nearly 4am!
Pokercoaching.com Participant of the Day: Paul Runge
Visiting the Combined Recreation Pageant for the primary time was Paul Runge from Oregon. Our Day 10 choose for the Pokercoaching.com Participant of the Day had heard concerning the Pageant from his good friend, Caryn Barab, and determined to “give it a spin.”
Paul acquired into poker round 2006. It began with a small household recreation, and issues developed from there. Along with enjoying the sport, he was additionally concerned on the trade facet of issues as an proprietor of a poker site in Bend, Oregon.
Whereas he now not holds that place, Paul continues to play in that room usually, additionally performing as an unofficial “consigliere” when the event requires it. His love for blended video games developed considerably naturally as, in Paul’s opinion, each Texas Maintain’em participant ultimately needs to attempt one thing completely different.
Again residence, they’ve been attempting to run blended video games with restricted success, as there may be now sooner or later per week when the room hosts a mixture of large guess video games. He explains that issues developed steadily, beginning at actually small stakes and slowly growing them as gamers acquired higher.
“The issue,” Paul says, “is that though they’re not nice at blended video games, they’re considerably higher than anybody utterly new to it, and since there aren’t any decrease stakes video games working, it makes it actually onerous for brand new gamers to leap in.”
In that mild, he solely has phrases of reward for the Combined Recreation Pageant, as “it provides folks an opportunity to offer it a attempt with out having to danger a bunch of cash. With low stakes and restrict video games, gamers can sit down, study, and luxuriate in themselves, all of the whereas risking a number of hundred bucks.”
Paul believes that restrict video games are a wonderful entry level for brand new gamers and laments the truth that they don’t have any of these of their combine again in Oregon.
As for his private poker objectives, Runge has his eyes set on profitable a Seniors or Tremendous Seniors occasion on the World Collection of Poker. Judging by his previous outcomes, this isn’t only a pipe dream, as he made the ultimate desk of the 2016 WSOP Seniors Championship, ultimately ending in sixth place, and got here third within the 2024 Tremendous Seniors occasion. Maybe the third time would be the appeal for Paul.
RunGoodGear.com Vendor of the Day: Paul Piper
All of the sellers and employees on the Bellagio Poker Room did an ideal job over the previous 10 days, enjoying an important function in making the eleventh Combined Recreation Pageant an enormous success. That’s why each each day recap had a particular Vendor of the Day phase (powered by RunGoodGear.com), and this ultimate one shall be no completely different in that regard.
Permit us to current to you Paul Piper, who has been residing in Las Vegas since 2008, primarily dealing playing cards but additionally having a number of goes at going full-time professional participant. It hasn’t occurred for Paul simply but, however there isn’t a telling what the longer term holds.
His dealing profession began lengthy earlier than Vegas. Paul began out dealing poker within the early 2000s again in North Carolina. After a number of years, he says the house recreation scene began to turn out to be a bit sketchy, and, wanting to remain legit and feeling he was “getting too previous to go to courtroom,” he determined it was time to maneuver on.
The choice was between Atlantic Metropolis and Las Vegas, two playing facilities of the US, and the proverbial coin landed on the latter.
To Paul, poker isn’t only a job. He loves the sport and describes it as “a psychological Olympics that helps hold the wheels turning.” With regards to combine, draw video games are his absolute favorites.
Reflecting on the pageant and his general expertise, he describes it as an effective way to permit new gamers to get their ft moist with out getting damage (financially) an excessive amount of. As he explains, “issues have been just about complacent exterior of summer time and main occasions, with Maintain’em being nearly the one recreation on the town and PLO choosing up a bit recently.”
As for the gamers he acquired to come across over the past 10 days throughout Combined Recreation Pageant XI, he describes them as a enjoyable and relaxed group, echoing the sentiment of many different visitors and sellers alike.
When not dealing or enjoying poker, Paul enjoys enjoying disc golf. He’s really fairly severe about it, as he received the Nevada State Championship in 2017 and has had a number of extra notable outcomes.
Combined Recreation Pageant XI: Goodbye, for Now
There isn’t a official “ending” to our Combined Recreation Festivals. They finish as soon as the final hand is dealt on the final energetic desk and the previous few most resilient gamers rack up their chips.
During the last 10 days, the Pageant introduced heaps of pleasure to Bellagio Las Vegas, with continuous motion, a few of the craziest recreation variations you’ll see anyplace, large giveaways (courtesy of beneficiant sponsors — thanks as soon as once more to PokerGO, D&B Poker, Pale Spade, RunGoodGear, Pokercoaching.com, and naturally BetMGM Poker) — and, most significantly, a ton of nice recollections.
Such a blessing to be leaving the @BellagioPoker on an enormous excessive!
Because of @BetMGMPoker and all our sponsors in your assist. 🙏
Because of our superb gamers who made our eleventh Combined Recreation Pageant ever our greatest one but!
Till subsequent time, from the happiest man in Vegas. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/aYlhygXwky
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) June 20, 2025
Goodbyes are by no means simple, however the excellent news is you may be fairly positive the Combined Recreation Pageant shall be again once more earlier than you recognize it. If you wish to be sure to hear about it forward of time, one of the best ways to make sure is by subscribing to our Cardplayer Life-style e-newsletter. Not solely will you get all the information concerning the subsequent occasion early on, however you can too stay up for some enjoyable poker content material, together with quite a lot of blended game-specific matters.
A Private Thank You, from Robbie
I simply need to take this chance to publicly categorical my gratitude to everybody concerned in serving to to make Combined Recreation Pageant XI occur. Everybody has been so nice, from the chic Bellagio Poker Room employees, to the great of us at BetMGM Poker in addition to our different superb sponsors.
I’ve to offer some particular shout outs to some great folks: Ivan Potocki writing our each day recaps from Bosnia and Chad McVean lending enormous assist on the social media entrance from Canada, large in-person assists from Brian “Bizzy” Gutierrez and Brian Dowd, the entire poker celebs who paid us a go to over these previous two weeks, and naturally our incredible blended recreation gamers! You guys got here in from close to and much, each tons of Vegas locals in addition to hordes of gamers from over 25 US states and half a dozen different international locations.
Your mixed assist means the world to me, and I most actually don’t take as a right that you simply made the hassle to indicate up and be part of our occasion. The reward for all of the months of labor it takes to place one thing like this collectively is seeing your smiling faces, getting your unimaginable suggestions, and realizing in my coronary heart of hearts that collectively we’re placing within the effort to develop blended video games. It’s a labor of affection, and I’m supremely grateful to you all.
Particularly contemplating all the pieces I’ve happening in my private life proper now — and we’ll simply go away it at that, IYKYK — I contemplate myself to be exceptionally lucky for what I acquired to expertise and do over the past two weeks, and can treasure the recollections we made eternally. Thanks, from the underside of my coronary heart. ❤️
