Over the next three days, while many will be enjoying the weekend before St. Patricks Day around the globe, some of the best players in the world are taking to the felt to win big. From the Merit Poker Classic to the WPT Rolling Thunder, we’ve picked half a dozen superstars of the live felt to back as you can turn this weekend into a profitable one without leaving the comfort of your own home.

Chainsaw and Pantaleo Star in Rolling Thunder

In Lincoln on the outskirts of Sacramento, the West Coast will come alive with poker passion as the WPT Rolling Thunder festival draws nearer its conclusion. San Francisco will play host to a huge $3,500 buy-in event at Rolling Thunder as Event #18 welcomes two PokerStake greats.

Allen Kessler – Chainsaw to his friends – has enjoyed a strong start to 2025. Just $153 short of winning exactly $4.5 million in his lifetime at the live poker felt, Allen has cashed 14 times in ranking poker events so far this year. All of those results were for cashes of between $800 and $5,200, with that top score coming earlier this week in Lincoln at the WPT Rolling Thunder festival. In Limit Omaha 8 or Better, Allen won his career title by toppling Chue Lee heads-up after the two agreed a deal. You should have added $153 to the number, Allen! Allen is selling at just 1.10 markup to Event #18, where any cash would represent his biggest cash of the year to date.

Also taking on Event #18 – and selling two bullets – is German player Giuseppe Pantaleo. The professional from Bielefeld in Germany has almost $2.2 million in live tournament results and has taken a slower schedule to kick off the year so will be fresh for some Rolling Thunder action. His single result this year, however, was just five days ago in the $3,000 NLHE Progressive Bounty event at the Wynn Millions Poker Series, where he finished third for a whopping $19,134 plus bounties. At a final table featuring Shawn Daniels (6^th) and Scott Eskandani (4^th), that’s some going.

Making it on Merit

The Merit Poker Classic takes place in Northern Cyprus this week, as two more PokerStake favorites jump into battle. With so many events still to play, both Atanas Pavlov and Michel Molenaar, will take on the NLHE Mini Main Event, a Seven-Handed Mystery Bounty event and the $3,300 NLHE Main Event.

Atanas Pavlov is going to be a real challenge in Northern Cyprus, with the Bulgarian player coming off a recent fifth-place finish at PokerStars’ The Hippodrome Winter Series in London. Finishing between Philippe Souki and Antoine Sauot, Pavlov was at home in the latter stages and will be a threat in Northern Cyprus as he looks to add to his $1.57 million in lifetime earnings in style in half a dozen events.

Michel Molenaar has won even more at the live felt, with $1.65m in winnings over his career so far. Almost 10% of those earnings came in one spectacular result in Cambodia just three weeks ago as the Dutchman came second in the $5,000 WPT High Roller event, losing heads-up to the Belgian Thomas Boivin. Molenaar is nevertheless in amazing form and will look to carry that into two of the remaining events in Northern Cyprus.

Other Stars to Follow

With so many events on the schedule investing in plenty of other players is easy via the PokerStake staking page. David Tarbet is playing in the World Series of Poker Circuit event approaching at the Horseshoe in Las Vegas and with the WSOP venue warming up for action in Las Vegas this summer, Tarbet’s markup of just 1.10 is attractive, especially in events such as the Pot Limit Omaha or T.O.R.S.E. tournaments.

Nancy Birnbaum is playing in a raft of tournaments at the 2025 Poker Showdown which starts this coming week. Playing events such as the 50+ Seniors Event, the Six-Max NLHE Event, and the NLHE Multi-Flight event, Nancy is selling at between zero markup (1.00) and 1.20 markup and will be hoping to add to her $1.34 million in live tournament earnings.

Plenty of other big names are taking on the 2025 Poker Showdown, such as the GPI Female Player of the Year Cherish Andrews, tournament crusher Galen Hall and the popular MTT specialist Judy Bielan. You can check out all the current players selling action to the series right here.

With so much action at the weekend, the poker doesn’t stop if you can’t make it to the felt yourself, at least not when you buy on PokerStake.