Once a month 888poker ambassador Kara Scott takes a look back at the most important developments in poker over the last few weeks and adds some insight of her own.

Dubbed “The Poker Brief” it’s a convenient way to get a snapshot overview of what’s happening in poker in a 3-minute chunk.

This month Scott looks back at the WSOP, the Hall of Fame inductees, the return of Poker After Dark and a big new development in European online poker.

This Was the 2017 WSOP

The event of the year is over and, as the dust settles, Scott reflects on how incredible this year’s finale was.

With a turnout of over 7,200 players it was the largest Main Event since 2010. It also seems to indicate that poker still has room to grow.

This year also saw live broadcasts of the Main Event from Day 1 alongside the well-known and popular WSOP shows on ESPN. 

While this answered many players’ wish to have more live coverage, the costs and the commentary in particular stirred up some controversy.

888poker spoke with this year’s champion, Scott Blumstein, who justifiably was in a “state of shock” after his big win.

Blumstein’s description of how he came two Las Vegas two weeks earlier with just a dream like thousands of other players and then miraculously went on to win shows the appeal of poker better than any strategy piece or TV show ever can.

“Poker will always be part of my life” says Blumstein, who says he was close to quitting playing poker professionally. He says that he won’t be travelling the circuit full time in the future but expect him to play some of the larger events in Europe coming up shortly.

Ivey, Devilfish Join the Hall

July saw two names added to the list of players who are members of the Poker Hall of Fame.

This year, as Scott reports, Phil Ivey unsurprisingly made his entry into the Hall of Fame while Dave “Devilifish” Ulliott was awarded posthumously.

The overwhelming dominance of American players in the HoF has been hotly debated in the recent past and it seems the voices of the critics are finally being heard.

Poker After Dark returns

In the aftermath of Black Friday poker lost its – arguably – two best TV shows – Poker after Dark and High Stakes Poker.

Now the former is coming back. The return is highly anticipated in the poker community but it’ll be difficult to repeat the success of the original.

On top of that 888poker will sponsor a new high-stakes series called The Poker Masters with up to a $100,000 buy-in. Can this be a success?

Spain, Portugal, Italy, France Join Player Pools

Spain, Portugal, Italy and France have signed an agreement to share player pools going forward. This should make online poker much more interesting and versatile in all these countries.

The merger is supposed to happen early next year and it’ll probably coincide with several online poker events to celebrate the improvement. Watch PokerListings’ 888 news section for more.