Was it Liv Boeree in the dessert with a flamethrower? A stranger in Cherokee with a table-flipping rage? A high roller in Vegas with an Epic X Chrono?
What turned your head? What made you raise your poker eyebrows past a respectable level of superciliousness? We wanted to know.
The most inside poker insiders at least take a peek at our weekly newsletter, The Org (and don't try to pretend like you don't, because we saw your grubby little fingerprints all over it, mister). It's where we publish stories you see here... and all the stuff that's too steamy for prime time.
So, we wanted to know: what does the inside crowd really look at? We wanted to know not only what made you click... but also what made you tick. Because the things that make you tick... make us tick.
With that, we... well, we created a probably too-complicated and finicky model to analyze exactly what our insider crew wanted in its inbox every week. Although all of the above landed in the Top 20, they just missed out on these top ten spots.
10. Daniel Negreanu suffering and self-abuse
What it was: One of the most clicked stories of the year in The Org led people to a story about Daniel Negreanu getting one-outered. Not surprisingly, this story just pipped our item about (and sorry about this) DNegs providing a semen sample.
What it says about us: We love the poker stars, and there ain't any bigger than Kid Poker. That said, we'd rather see them suffer than talk about pleasuring themselves into a cup.
9. Damn the robots!
What it was: It had been a long time coming, but this year, y'all spent a significant amount of time recognizing both the benefits and potential perils of AI and technology in poker. Whether it was freaking out about real-time assistance from sunglasses or inner-ear listening devices, you were keeping an eye on the horizon for the robot army. Jason Koon, for his part, called for a full ban.
What it says about us: We are – maybe a little too late, but still – ready to be our best Sarah Connors, our bravest Rick Deckards, our most animated Mr. Incredibles! We will not go quietly into the night! We will not go down without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to – er... yeah, onto #8.
8. Rolling up a stake and going to Vegas
What it was: Time and again (and this is going to become a theme), people just wanted to effing play, and no event got more attention from you than the World Series of Poker. You couldn't click fast enough or often enough on the PokerOrg Ultimate Player Guide to the WSOP.
What it says about us: Take all the scandal, all the in-fighting, all the content, good and bad, and set it off to the side. If left with only one thing, we want to be able to play poker. And maybe laugh at Caitlin Comeskey goofing on poker creators. But mostly... play poker.
7. Some people call him Maurice
What it was: This isn't the first year poker insiders had their hackles raised by the likes of Maurice Hawkins. The veteran bad boy (which some folks would call a very generous description) made the news over and over again for good and bad reasons – winning rings, getting beaten up in a private game, and notably calling himself the Grand Master and offering his own poker training (for a fee, of course).
What it says about us: We probably just feel bad no one ever called us The Space Cowboy and we've decided to project our sadness on Maurice. Or something. Probably not that at all. But whatever it says about us, it's probably not good.
6. Jungleman might not have a future in mediation
What it was: Not surprisingly, #7 and #6 share a neighboring spot on the Top Ten. At some point during the Year of Maurice, everything got way out of hand (again) and Dan 'Jungleman' Cates, as he is wont to do, weighed in. While there is no denying Jungleman's poker talent, his side hustle of outing scummers and mediating resolutions always seems to end up looking like a monkey making love to a football or Daniel Negreanu staring longingly at a specimen cup.
What it says about us: We want poker to be fair, open, transparent, and scum-free, but we'd be just fine if Jungleman stayed on his vine and someone else cleared the streets for us. Paging Matt Berkey!
5. This is why we can't have nice things
What it was: There was pomp. There was circumstance. There was a manifesto and a Jerry McGuire moment, because there was to be (cue some dramatic music and the Netflix bum-bum noise...) a new poker series featuring poker's biggest stars! Daniel Negreanu. Maria Ho! Mr. Keating! There was a manifesto. There was a wait. There was a trailer. There was another wait. There was a show... and then it all came tumbling down because... well, you remember the robots, right? So close... yet so, so, so 2025.
What it says about us: We sit at a king's buffet of poker content every day, but we remain hungry. Hungry for more. Hungry for authenticity! Hungry for protein bars... which you can get for 10% off if you just use our code, hit subscribe, smash that like button, and send me your mom's phone number.
4. Vulture wars
What it was: It's a philosophical question: If an angle falls in the middle of a forest we call The Rules, is it really an angle? Is it cool to stall on the bubble because it's technically legal? What about slow-walking to avoid a big blind? Whether it was William Kassouf being... well, William Kassouf, or Ike Haxton doing the GTO Stall Dance, it was something everybody was talking about this year, most notably Daniel Negreanu who called people who use such tactics "cancerous vultures."
What it says about us: We're conflicted. We probably need therapy or some time in a sweat lodge. We're caught between the shame of looking like angle shooters and the shame of looking like we don't know how to use every possible exploit to make maximum profit. It's a shame blender, and we're the milkshakes. (But don't tell the vultures, because, you know, they'll drink your milkshake. That's just GTO, dawg.)
3. Do you want to play a game?
What it was: PokerOrg has been playing games of all sorts since its inception. Whether it was Runner Runner, Code:Org, or some other thing we cooked up while feeling mischievous, we've always delighted in tickling your gamey-bone. This year, we went big... and folks, you seem to really dig your rock and roll poker fantasy. You crushed on our newsletter items about our $10K Fantasy Freeroll that awarded a $10,000 Main Event package and Pick 3 Fantasy contest that awarded a $30,000 WSOP Super Main Event package.
What it says about us: Even when we're not playing poker, this community likes playing games. And, well, we especially like playing games where we can end up playing poker for millions of dollars. Those games are pretty cool.
2. Lounge lizards unite!
What it was: For several weeks, we didn't just share newsletter items or comment on each other's social media accounts. We actually hung out and met each other in the PokerOrg Legends Lounge at the WSOP. We told each other our stories, played games that weren't poker (Werewolf, anyone?), and generally partied for weeks on end. The items in The Org newsletter about the Lounge were almost the most popular thing we published all year long.
What it says about us: Yeah, everybody liked the private bathrooms, comedy shows, free coffee, and impromptu games of rock-paper-scissors, but we got the sense everyone just enjoyed hanging out together. And that's what The Org is about.
1. Mental Health – talk about it
What it was: PokerOrg spent a lot of time writing about mental health this year because we believe it's more important than maybe any other topic in poker. And while we spent many a word on the topic in 2025, it was a mental health post on X from Stephen Chidwick that drew more attention than anything in The Org newsletter this year.
What it says about us: In all the chaos, while getting punched in the stomach by noise and faux controversy, while struggling to swim in what can sometimes be a gutter-swamp of egos and self-interested con artists, while trying to just play poker... we all paid attention to what Stephen Chidwick was saying. And maybe... maybe that means we're getting somewhere.
Happy New Year, folks! Here's to 2026 being a year we can love.
