Six days of poker in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil culminated in an 11-hour final table on Sunday night as American Marty Mathis overcame one of Brazil’s top-ranked online players in Bruno Volkmann to win the partypoker MILLIONS South America Main Event for $774,500.

One might think that with the holidays on the horizon December would be a quiet month of people spending time with their family. Not for the world of poker. December 2018 was full of record-breaking tournaments and huge headlines. Here are some of the names that made the news in December.

Poker players received an early Christmas present from the World Series of Poker on Thursday with the announcement of key dates for the 50th Annual WSOP.