Belarusian Poker Pro Peetoon Wins Big, South Africa Bans Online Poker

In a significant victory for Belarusian poker, Peetoon, whose real name is Vasily, from Minsk won the Sunday Million tournament on PokerStars. After concluding a deal and winning the additional prize match, he earned over $232,000. This is his second time reaching the final table of the Sunday Million—previously, in late March, he secured $37,500 for finishing in 7th place. When not at the final tables, Vasily works as an MTT trainer on pokerstrategy.com.

Meanwhile, South Africa has taken a drastic step by banning online poker, classifying it as an illegal activity. The penalties for participating in online poker include fines up to €1,000,000 or imprisonment for up to 10 years. This move targets both organizers and players, making online poker one of the most severely penalized activities in the country, which already has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

In other news, Blanca Games has acquired the Cereus poker network, which includes UB.com and Absolute Poker. Both sites were involved in a major poker scandal and are still dealing with its aftermath. The acquisition aims to distance the network from the scandal, but details on changes to software, rakeback systems, and tournament schedules have not been disclosed yet.