Last week saw the best in the world make their way back to Las Vegas for another leg of the PokerGO Tour. The Poker Masters brought together many familiar faces, as they competed over a series of NLH tournaments at the PokerGO Studio, and the likes of Adrian Mateos and Nick Palma stole the headlines.
Away from the tables, popular poker personality and influencer Lynne Ji found herself in hot water, as she was allegedly arrested and accused of stabbing Kevin Gao, another poker player, in the arm.
The incident broke on social platforms, and Ji has been adamant in saying she looks forward to clearing her name in court, even as Gao posted an image from the hospital showing his stab wound.
In the online poker sphere, GGPoker launched one of the biggest updates to its platform in recent months, introducing major security updates that seek to keep players safe while banning all third-party software and cutting support for older operating systems.
Palma and Mateos Battle at the Poker Masters
The PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas welcomed some of the best tournament players in the world for another edition of Poker Masters last week, with the likes of Erik Seidel, Jeremy Ausmus, Jesse Lonis, and Joao Simao all in the running.
A part of the popular PokerGO Tour, Poker Masters kicked off with a series of $10,500 events, all featuring similar tournament structures and giving the players multiple opportunities to shine and win a PGT title.
The first to do so was Myles Mullaly, who won Event #1 and $218,40 after defeating Justin Zaki in the first heads-up duel of the festival.
The very next day, on October 13, none other than Spanish poker legend Adrian Mateos was up for a title of his own, as he took on Las Vegas local Nick Palma heads-up. Palma got the better of Mateos, however, winning his first PGT title and $235,200 in cash.
Another first career PGT title comes from the 2026 Poker Masters presented by @official_glp! @Nick_Palma1010 earned $235,400 for winning Event #2, topping the elite Adrian Mateos in heads-up play. 🏆 https://t.co/ZFfKQLo1S2 https://t.co/V254E0Dcvc
— PGT (@PokerGOTour) October 20, 2026
Palma got close to glory again in Event #4, as he came third behind Vitalijs Zavorotnijs and Clemen Deng and added another $104,000 to his lifetime tournament winnings.
Mateos, on the other hand, got his redemption in Event #5, as he beat Nick Schulman heads-up for the title, after Jeremy Becker was eliminated in third.
Mateos kept making the headlines throughout the first week of Poker Masters, as he bubbled three other events, consistently getting close to the final stages.
Following his most recent win, Adrian Mateos sits at the top of the Poker Masters leaderboard with 381 PGT Points won, just over 40 Points ahead of Nicky P, as the two pursue the coveted Purple Jacket.
The Poker Masters will continue this week with several higher-stakes events, including the final $51,000 NLH Championship that starts on Thursday.
Lynne Ji Involved in a Stabbing Incident
Former Hustler Casino Live regulars can’t seem to stay out of the spotlight, and the most recent incident involving one of them may be the most bizarre yet.
On Friday, news broke that Lynne Ji, a semi-retired poker player famous for her appearances on High Stakes Poker and HCL shows, was arrested for allegedly stabbing Kevin Gao, also known as KGAO, in the arm.
Gao, who also appeared on HCL on multiple occasions, was allegedly involved in a romantic relationship with Ji, and it remained unclear how the incident transpired, although rumors started circulating on social networks as soon as the incident became public.
Shortly after the incident, Gao posted an image on his own social media profiles, showing an open wound on his left shoulder, but also depicting the player in good spirits and with a smile on his face.
Must of been one hell of a slow roll! @helloitslynne Allegedly 🪓 https://t.co/EHPMThl4DQ
— Barry Levy (@PirateBarry) October 16, 2026
Ji, on the other hand, took to X and made a post fully denying all allegations and saying she looks forward to clearing her name in court.
The exact details of the situation are likely to become clearer in the coming weeks, especially if the case does go to trial and evidence is brought forward.
Whatever the truth may be, it appears that Lynne Ji, who had taken a step back from the poker tables to pursue other interests, will have to prove her innocence in order to stay out of jail and continue living her life in a peaceful manner.
GGPoker Introduces a Major Security Update
As the biggest online poker site in the world, GGPoker is the one operator players look to for a safe and reliable place to play online poker. Despite that, the site has found itself in the midst of multiple scandals over the last few years and has now taken serious steps to address cheating and security breaches across the platform.
The most recent GGPoker update has introduced a series of security settings aimed at keeping players safer and ensuring third parties have a much harder time exploiting any potential security leaks.
Settings like Screen Guard, DNS Check, and Connection Monitor will help keep players’ devices more secure and keep any third-party infiltrators at bay.
With Screen Guard, players will be sure that even if their devices are infiltrated and their screens exposed, their hole cards and other key information from the GGPoker platform will not be visible.
GGPoker has also banned all third-party poker apps such as Jurojin, PokerTracker 4, and Hold’em Manager 3, ensuring that any exploits in these apps cannot be used to attack their users. From now on, players will have to shut down all these apps before they can play on GGPoker.
GGPoker Security Update We’re introducing new measures to protect our community, including new client security features and a ban on all third-party poker software and automation tools. Full details here 👇 https://t.co/F1CAu3p0zY
— GGPoker (@GGPoker) October 15, 2026
The operator also introduced a brand-new Win Rate Anomaly Detection tool, which looks for unusually high win rates as a way of detecting potential cheats.
Starting in early 2027, GGPoker will also no longer support old operating systems like Windows 7 and 8, and macOS 11, and players will need to update their software if they want to keep playing on their favorite poker platform.
Combined, these new security updates will provide a significant improvement in terms of player safety, although the complete ban on all third-party poker apps remains a bit controversial in some circles.
Despite the controversy, it does appear that GGPoker is simply trying to maintain a secure playing environment and take the necessary steps to ensure that cheating attempts and exploits are kept to a minimum as the site continues to grow and security becomes a bigger issue by the day.
