This tournament has grown and grown into one of the biggest of the year in the country … and not that it would be all Ho and Fossilman’s doing … but I have a feeling this year people outside of Texas and Oklahoma will start to take note.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes vid of Maria’s commercial shoot with the Chickasaw … who by the way, just officially bought Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, presumably changing the dynamic of Texas gambling legislation, but that’s a story for another time … right now it’s all about the value of Asian poker hotties playing the role of high-stakes cash game player. That and/or being a WSOP main event champion still seem to play well in the poker endorsement world.

Gill is known for his unashamed belligerence, politically incorrect rants, and a “FUCKITALL” attitude. I totally dig this guy, partly because he’s virtually a male copy of myself (so I “get him”) and partly because I respect his game. But a recent Facebook status update shed some new light on his true vagina character: “I really don’t want to go to jail… 14 days is going to be brutal,” he whimpered.

Shortly after publishing that comment, Gill’s ballsack threatened to tear itself off and run away in shame. I was really disappointed to see the him panicking over two short weeks behind bars. Let’s put this in perspective…getting fisted by Edward Scissorhands is brutal.  A coathanger abortion is brutal. Two weeks in a hillbilly jailhouse isn’t so much brutal as it is inconvenient

Keep your chin up, Carter; I’m sure the two weeks behind bars will come and go as fast as your bankroll does.

I’ll hold some of that for another post, lest we sully the winner’s accomplishment with analysis of the obstacles certain Indian casinos face in 2010 moving forward. But be sure, as evident in the fifth running of this tournament at WinStar, the paradigms have shifted … particularly for what constitutes a major minor-league event capable of profiting from a national player base.

The River’s $2.5 million guaranteed main event, with three Day 1s, drew 1,440 players … a much better result for Winstar than last year when they had to cover a $580k overlay on $3 million guaranteed. It coulda been even bigger had the casino not put itself in a position of pissing off players who trekked out to the Oklahoma hinterlands only to be turned away … but regardless, with a $2,100 buy-in and several months of satellites, first prize came to a relatively whopping $647,690.

To put that in perspective, that’s better than 10th-place money in the WSOP main event. So would it be a stretch to contend winning The River is just a notch below making the November Nine?

Of the 57 WSOP bracelet events so far this year, only eight — the Main, $50k mixed, $5k NLH, $5k NLH-6h, $1.5k NLH, $25k NLH-6h, $10k PLO, and $2.5k NLH — offered 1st-place payouts bigger than what was at stake yesterday in Thackerville, OK. Only seven when you factor in The River’s $70k overlay (in the form of a Porsche Cayenne) for the overall points winner … which also happened to go to main event winner, Khoueng Souvoravong, even though he had 0 points going into the finale.

FWIW, Souvoravong went into Day 3 as the chip leader among the final 20 … with Raymer on his tail in third. Quite the fending off of attacks, you’d think. Interesting to see the final table apparently outfitted with hole-card cams, too …

Mr. Sou may have been a total unknown to the Hendon Mob and others prior to his massive Labor Day db-debut. But you could tell from WinStar’s Facebook page that he was hardly a nobody to many who woulda loved to have been able to follow his win from start to finish.

Kenny Siripanyo
THATS MY GRANDPA!!!@#!@#!@
6 people like this.

Bee Vannasinh Pakdimounivong
Looks like he won with 3-4 off suit! He’s definitely putting the Asians on the map!!! gamble gamble
1 person likes this

Pauline Siripanyo
Congratulations Daddy!!!
3 people like this.

Deborah Ngamvilay
Goo Grandpa

WPT Legends of Poker

Andrew Frankenberger defeated Kyle Wilson to take down the title at the Bike in LA, collecting $750,000 for the win. Notables who finished in the money: Former WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little (12th), Allen Kessler (20th), Erica Schoenberg (30th), Joe Sebok (32nd), November Niner Soi Nguyen (34th) and Joe Hachem (43rd). Click here for results.

WPT London Poker Classic

Monday is day 1a of the first WPT event in the UK, with the £5,000 + £300 buy-in London Poker Classic at the Palm Beach Casino. Jack McLelland from the Bellagio is helping run the tournament, with registration remaining open until 1:30pm on Wednesday. Live updates available over at PartyPoker’s blog here.

EPT Villamoura

Day 2 of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour stop in Portugal starting with 384 players, creating a prize pool of €1,862,400, with the winner collecting €467,835. Currently, less than 130 players remain, with the current chip leader is Grzegorz Cichocki of Poland with 312,000 in chips. Other notables still in the field: 2008 EPT Grand Final winner Pieter de Korver, Brandon Cantu, Liv Boeree, Sorel Mizzi, Lex Veldhuis, David Williams among many others. Follow the live updates and pictures of players enjoying the sun (as photography is banned inside the casino) at PokerStarsblog.com

WSOP Circuit – Council Bluffs

The first $1,500 Main Event of the WSOP Circuit started on Sunday with a field of 251 entries, creating a prize pool of $361,440, with the winner cashing in for $88,555 and entry into the $1,000,000 National Championship in May. Day 2 resumes today with 75 players playing down to the final table. Another way to earn a seat is to be the “Casino Champion” at each tour stop, to the player who earns the most points in the 10 WSOP-C ring events. To view the “unofficial” leaderboard after 8 events, check it out here. WSOP Circuit legend Dwyte Pilgrim won one of the many non-ring events that support the WSOP-C for a mid-four figure sum. For results so far check out the WSOP site and PokerPages for the non-ring results.

The River @ Winstar Casino

As noted in an earlier post, the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, OK is in the midst of their River $3,000,000 Guaranteed tournament series. What passes as results for Winstar is to show the points earned for those that make the final table, without stating how much each player received.

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Beau Rivage

Another major series that got underway over the weekend is the Gulf Coast Poker Championship at Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi. Their main event takes place Sept. 4th with a $5,000 NL Holdem Main Event. Their schedule can be found on the beaurivage.com website here.

Commerce Holdem Series

Matt Savage returns Sept. 1st to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles for the Commerce Holdem Series, featuring several guaranteed prize pools events as well as the $1,100 Ironman tournament. More details available here.

Partouche Poker Tour – Cannes

One major tournament that starts later in the week when the French Partouche Group of casinos have their Main Event in Cannes Sept. 2nd. The 8,500 Euro buy-in event has a 3,000,000 Euro guaranteed prize pool with 1,000,000 Euros guaranteed for first. Like the WSOP Main Event, their final table will be delayed, taking place in late October and aired live across Europe on the EuroSport network. I believe there’s also live streaming available (in French) during the tournament. Further details available on the PPT site.

2009 twitpic: @EweE420 (now @EricMizrachi)

Today’s event, Event #3, happens to be $440 NLH/PLO with $40k Guaranteed. Wonder if they’re aware that Lev Serzhenko was recently crowned the World Champion of $230 NLH/PLO with a Single $200 Rebuy.

Since the main here will be more or less the regional championship in my old stomping grounds — in fact, thinking we might-should call it the North-North Texas Championship in future posts — I find myself wanting to follow these events uniquely as a fan. I’ve got tons of friends playing and would expect to see plenty of past opponents from the Dallas underground, presumably some Batfaces, lots of ole Lodge amateurs, and, I hope, a few Team Pokerati players. Also curious to see what type of pros show up.

But semi-live coverage of the River is hard to come by. Lots of future thoughts on why that is … but in the meantime, here’s where I’ll be checking for River buzz, for starters …

@WinStarWorld
@Fossilman
2+2 Tournament Circuit thread

And because Pokerati can’t be there this year (but kinda-sorta would like to be) here are some possible news stories I see shaking out, or at least stuff worth looking into for anyone who might wanna ask some questions or snap pics with their iPhone and send an email or an @reply on Twitter:

Opening Day Shutout Fiasco

Event #1 was a $330 $50k Guarantee. Supposedly without any pre-registration available, Tent management was unprepared for the flood of players who showed up. Held in the cash-game room, and not the usual auditorium? More than 100 alternates and more than 100 shut out eventually. At least that’s what I’m hearing. Not confirmed.

Guaranteed Ass-Coverage?

Last year they came up $580k short on the $3 million guarantee. So this year WinStar is promising only $2.5 million in the main event prize pool. The other $500k has been spread out across preliminary events. That’s all. Nifty. Clever. Seems like forever ago (5 years?) WinStar was getting grief for claiming “malfunction” whenever someone hit a super-big slots jackpot.

NLH/PLO Tournament

Event #3. Beautiful. Awesome. Let’s talk at length about this game. Do you guys need cut cards?

Some Players Go Deep, Others Bust

Who’s there? Any Mizrachis? November Niners? Batfaces? What about Clonie? I’m looking for my buddy John. He’s got short hair and probably a white shirt. Can you tell me how many chips he has?

Parking Lot Robberies + License Plates

I’ve heard rumors from multiple sources over the past few months (but with zero confirmation or simple police check) of high-stakes cash game players getting jacked in the WinStar parking lot. Definitely wanna find out more on this, as it was at The River a few years ago (then the Red River Roundup) where Pokerati pioneered the concept of parking-lot coverage. Also, any funny pokery license plates? Saw this one there in ’07:

Legal (Oklahoma) Poker Coming to Texas?

The Chickasaw — WinStar’s backers, essentially, in alliance with ultraChristians — have spent millions in recent years opposing any efforts to legalize poker or expand gambling in Texas. Their alliance with ultraChristians made for formidable opponents. But will they soon be officially switching teams?

In the past couple years, the Oklahoma tribe has spent well more than $150 million buying up beleaguered race tracks and other casino-minded plots of land, er, worldwide — most recently Lone Star Park, smack-dab between Dallas and Fort Worth, and next door (by car) to both Cowboys Stadium and the Ballpark in Arlington. (Go Rangers!).

2011 Texas legislative session is right around the corner … can we expect WinStar checks to show up in the TexasPokerPAC’s paypal account? Is there a concern that a new poker room in North Texas would put WinStar’s current Tent City digs in North-North Texas out of business?

And as long as we’re going there, what about the Choctaw, the Chickasaw’s rival poker tribe down the river? Could these business enemies join forces to fight for gambling in Texas, or is that just ridiculous because you hate those guys? Is TJ Cloutier playing your events wearing their gear? He’s done well in The River main event in the past, and supposedly he’s got a deal now with Choctaw to represent at the tables in exchange for weekly buffet comps or something.

Tent City, Oklahoma

So really, what’s up with the tent? WinStar is supposedly the 3rd largest casino in the world (though that number is disputed, despite it coming from BusinessWeek) … you’ve got a hotel, restaurants, a spa, a golf course … seemingly a nice upgrade from the old Microtel for Texas’s poker refugees … yet technically you have to have your casino in a tent?

So all those walls are fake, and everything takes place under something akin to the WSOP’s poker kitchen but the size of five football fields? Is that by compact or something?

Not to be racist, but acknowledging some Okahomans who mighta had something to do with setting up Indian gambling in the area, is that based on some premise that you guys could do whatever you damn well please in your teepee? Is it the same way for the Choctaw — because their new building looks pretty fancy and made of stone — or are tent rules specific to your people?

And if it’s not WinStar, who holds the Guinness record for biggest tent in the world? Just curious …

Aren’t you guys scared of tornadoes?

Considering that Texas poker players helped build the third-largest friggin’ casino in the world (literally under a tent in Thackerville, OK) we can take some pleasure in knowing a bunch of Texans kicked butt in The River tourney this weekend and will be sending back home some riches made in El Norte.

WinStar reportedly threw in a $580,000 overlay to make their $3 million guarantee. Not sure about the buy-in details — I think they upped it to $2k? — nor overall results. The best “coverage” has come via 2+2 here, mixed in with some Facebook, Twitter, and direct txt msg buzz. (Thanks KevMath and Harris, as always, for the info!)

1,210 players overall.

The winner: Bobby Hempkins, aka “Shooter” in the Dallas poker boom days. (And now your source for residential real estate in the North Texas area.) $710k win. Nice!

5th place finisher Brian @ZBTHorton provided regular updates from the final table, such as:

8 left, these people suck (4pm)

Apparently tax issues may or may not have complicated chop discussions — though sounds to me that the Chickasaw nation is under similar corporate-legal restrictions as the WSOP.

7th place reportedly went to a guy named Lance. Paid $95k. Sounds like a nice prize distribution (at the final table, at least). Not too flat, not too steep.

Blind structure was supposedly relatively fast, however.

Pros who made the trek for this event included: Clonie Gowen, TJ Cloutier, Michael Mizrachi, Eric Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Terrence Chan, Michael Binger, Men the Master, Allen Kessler, and Dmitri Nobles. The real @EskimoClark was also supposedly milling around.

pic: @EWeE420

UPDATE: SodaSara finished 10th place … $60k or 2 percent (depending on which column(s) of the promised prize distributions WinStar stays true to).

Sara (right) is pretty bummed right now about just missing the final table. But soon she’ll realize she just booked her biggest poker score to date — finishing in the top 1 percent of a tough field — and presumably be feeling much better.

(Thanks, Alicia, for sending this along!)

Sunday Chip Totals

Celso Jimenez                   53,000
Femi Ljama                         46,000
Suchol Leela                       234.500
Richard Grosley                120,000
Matthew Harris                79,000
Michael Boydston            105,500
Billy Sewell                          193,000
James Worley                    32,500
Jason Ware                         17,500
John Cornelsen                 95,500
Michael Warwick              67,500
Randy Nix                            74,500
Lon Spencer                       180,500
Frankie Evans                    21,000
Jesse Wigginton               269,500
Paul Lackey                         69,000
Jeff Franklin                       164,000
Joshua Cathey                   65,000
James Richter                    268,500
Jose Olvera                         72,500
Keith Budner                     54,500
David Underwood           102,000
Rhett Kruizingna               35,000
Benjamin Rude                 126,000
Adam Wessley                  154,000
John Niccoli                        37,500
Scott Beck                           98,000
Jayne Bluhm                      14,000
Lee Hill                                  84,500
Scott Clements                 68,000

Monday Chip Totals

Lonnie Hardcastle            176,500
Hao Liu                                 94,500
Todd McClure                    83,000
Bobby McClendon           171,000
Michael Marx                    119,500
Greg Henry                         157,000
Jerrell Fielding                   78,000
Mac Wolf                             250,000
Charles Stubblefield       24,500
Jeff Jones                            79,000
Larry Kemp                         88,000
Bobby Shofner                  0
Glenn Wiegl                       67,500
Halit Ozaltun                      31,500
Nhut Tu                                266,500
Valerie Arnold                   192,000
Ronald Miller                     87,000
Howard Hill                         82,000
James Russell                    19,000
Dwayne Woodcock         56,000
Doug Lippe                         145,500
Greg Dockery                    24,000
KD Groves                           37,000
Louis Perry                          90,000
Warren Bowlby                 91,500
Frankie Bolin                      32,000
Gary Fisher                         93,000

Tuesday Chip Totals

Oliver Anderson               117,500
Hung Le                                25,000
Sam Ragsdale                    16,000
MD Wyde                            66,000
Quyet Tran                         119,000
Shane Van Loon               38,500
William Hickey                   245,500
Jim Gaston                          118,000
Dylan Easley                       26,500
Nathan Halbert                 172,500
Christopher Perez           26,000
Charlie Ryan                       336,500
Jay Chensonbath             55,000
Don Vongprachanh         80,500
Brian Rendien                    69,000
Michael Heygood             28,500
Brian Burney                      119,500
Marty Lowe                        116,500
Ahmad Popal                     83,500
Teddy Gill                            357,000
Wayne Null                         99,000
Jim Rhodes                         142,500
Mike Paciella                      55,000
Thao Truong                       44,500
Dallas Ward                        32,500
Peter Donnelly                  42,000
Tracy Morgan                    67,500

Thursday is starting up the TV crew is running about. I’ve requested Survivor updates for Wednesday and should have those later today. I would already have posted them, but the person with the goods told me that he didn’t want to walk over to the poker room and get it. He’s a nice enough guy, but when, oh when will Winstar figure out that there’s live “Beyond The Tent”. (Is that domain available?)

Updates to come.

Despite negative reports about a too-fast blind structure and terrible dealers — from players who may or may not have been juiced with some residual Day 1-bustout tilt and therefore focusing on isolated incidents inherent to putting on any event that’s bigger than any other you’ve put on before — I couldn’t stand it … I just had to get in on the action. Sounds like too much fun going on at The River, and who better to buy a small piece of than Karridy? I like his chances. After all the last tourney he played with notably bad blind structures and dealers — he won!

He also apparently got the last spot available for Thursday, and if I learned anything from running Lodge tourneys, it’s that late-late entrants seem to have a disproportionately high percentage of Top 3 finishes. Seriously. Not sure why that is, but it’s true. I’ve seen it. You know, math …

Surely some names we know and care about have advanced, right, along with some others that we don’t yet know we care about? I’ve reached out to my hookups at WinStar, but let’s just say they’re no Nolan Dalla … so info is hard to come by.

Though Jonny did play in the big $2k event yesterday, he wasn’t exactly happy with the WinStar crew after playing in a $500 event — and he spells it out, plain as day, what beefs he has with their dealers. Though I suspect the WinStar may poo-poo his free-of-charge poker room consultation because who cares when you’re making so much damn money these days, I can attest that he definitely knows a thing or two about how good games are supposed to run, and just about any poker room management should wanna use his post as a litmus test for what their dealer crew should and shouldn’t do. Some highlights from his blog:

Jonny played in Winstar’s $500+50 today. 61 players. Same shitty Winstar structure. Dealers were fucking horrible, and between dealers fucking everything up, maddening noise from all directions, and idiot clowndick players, I was tilting beyond belief, even though I hadn’t hardly played a hand for a while at the time. Seriously – where do they get these retard dealers that they stick in the tournaments? It’s not like it’s a $60 nightly tournament – it was $550 – get some dealers that can run a table without making repeated stupid mistakes, and then giving me attitude when I correct them until they finally figured out that they had indeed made a mistake. Your job consists of the most basic of math, making a little change, and distribution of cards. How do you manage to fuck that up?

[...]

In one hand our dealer stopped-down the entire table (in the middle of a hand where there had already been an all-in and a call) to argue with the same dealers and a floorman over when her next break was. We each paid $550 to play this tournament, you ignorant CUNT. At least have the common courtesy to finish the hand you are on before going to war over your next break

[...]

… for the record, yes, Winstar has some excellent dealers. I just didn’t see a single fucking one of them today.

[...]

I REALLY don’t want to play the Main Event this week. Maybe I’ll be in a better mood on Sunday.

[...]

Anyway, FUCK Winstar, FUCK Winstar’s dealers (excluding the good ones), FUCK Winstar’s players, FUCK any and all Vinyl Goddamn Casinos, and FUCK and the entire Toothless Republic of Oklahoma. I think that covers most of it.

LOL! Anger is so damn funny.

So what do you do after beating TJ Cloutier to win $230k? That’s not exactly lottery money, after all — especially after taxes — but it was enough to (kinda) change the life of Vik Vijay, the Oklahoma poker dealer who won the 2007 Red River Roundup (now called, more elegantly Oklahoma-y, The River) and then delivered on his post-victory promise to quit his job and move to Las Vegas with highly energized bankroll in hand. Since then:

hey dan -
yeah, im headed down to winstar next week to defend – ive got the last starting day – thursday the 21st. hopefully it will go well. the last year has been interesting – i moved to vegas and have mostly been playing. i worked at the venetian this summer, dealing poker for their summer tournament set, but they didnt keep any of us on for anything regular. the poker has been going well, but i really got to lay off the blackjack. other than that, life is pretty good.

-vik vijay.

Though this is not yet confirmed, we think with 1,500, a $2,000 buy-in, and a guaranteed $3 million prize pool that this might-well be the biggest non-WSOP event at $2,000 or more in the history of ever. At a minimum, it’s the biggest event of the year for Texas poker — and Oklahoma poker, too, of course. Was hoping I’d be able to make it back to glorious Thackerville to bring you some WSOP-style coverage of this biggity poker hoedown, but it just doesn’t seem likely.

Last year’s runner-up TJ Cloutier starts today. I’m sure lots of other players we know and love are also there — in fact, if anyone has any updates, be sure to let us know. (Send me an email if you want me Ed to set you up to CSR from the felt/rail.)

Also, last I heard, today is sold out, but 140 seats overall remain. I gotta imagine they’ll fill up if the WinStar is still running single-table satellites … and I know at least two Dallas poker rooms are running sats, so …

As for the River tourney, I’ve been up several times during the months of “qualifying,” and it has been fairly impressive. More impressive is the price you can get for your seats, nearly full price. I won a single table satellite and was able to sell the chip on Craig’s List for $1900 (buyin is $2100). The rake they’ve been able to steal on many satellites has been most impressive- they have been running big tournaments each month ($400+40) for seats, which isn’t too obscene at 10%, but they have been been running $55 single table sat’s to those tournaments, 10 to a table, with winner taking a seat ($440 value) and the house keeping the other $110. And yet people keep playing them.

Not sure if you’ve been kept abreast of the Winstar goings-on, but they did start serving liquor during the summer, and it has changed weekend play considerably. Many tables running 24 hours from Thursday to Monday morning each week. Squishy soft.

Wow. Damn. I did not know. Go WinStar! Should be interesting to see how this $3 million tourney plays out. Would expect to see a virtual who’s who of Texas poker contending.

(Last year, you may recall, this event was called the Red River Roundup and had a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million, in which Vikram Vijay of Oklahoma defeated TJ Cloutier heads-up, making it seem a little bit like an old-fashioned version of the WSOP main event for both of them.)

The annual celebration isn’t quite what it used to be, of course. Back in the day they sent thousands on a sweet cruise. This year they are splashing cash-game pots (today, with $300 every 77,777 hands), giving away PartyPoints, and inviting folks into a $7,777 freeroll. Aww … so sad/cute. It is leading up to something big, however … on Sunday Party’s having a “big” $1 million tourney — that’s a full one-third the size of the big annual tournament at WinStar this year! (Wow, think about that. Seriously. Wow.)

Anyhow … PartyPoker turns The Big 7 this week. Let’s all take a moment to reminisce and rejoice:

I’m sure she has almost nothing to do with this — most likely Greg told her it was a good tourney, she was happy to accept a check to show up, and the Winstar’s web people ganked an old PR image off the internet — but still, just found it interesting to see her out of UB uniform. Also interesting to see a Kahnawake squaw working with the Chickasaw. Historically these two nations never battled, but I don’t think you would ever see a Cherokee dude like Scotty Nguyen make the tribal crossover.