Two others who made it through include SodaSara and Josh Evans. Don’t know what their starting chip counts are or if they are still alive. But happy to see both of them at least cashed in El Norte, the land of poker opportunity (for Texas players).

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.

Today’s the final day of the $3 million River tourney in the Winstar Territories. The $2,000+100 NLH event started six days ago with what would grow to more than 1,400 entries. A few less than 150 made it into the money and play today for the big money. Here are about 90 of the starters, and their starting chip counts:

(Thanks, Alicia, for sending this along!)

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According to Craig’s list, the Winstar Thrusday chips are a hot property, as people are asking $3,000-$5,000 for the sold-out $2,100 seats. I’m curious as to how many of those folks are having any luck. Comments? Anybody? Personally, I’m not seeing any deals working and am thinking that there will be a lot of late comers who couldn’t flip their chip.

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.

While I hate to push down Dan’s post on the HardRock, here’s some video goodness from the Pokerati people who still give a damn about Texas Oklahoma.

Here’s the survivor data thus far. I’m pretty surprised that I don’t recognize more names than I do. One name that we’ll all know and didn’t make this leader list is that of Mr. Scott Clements, who enters the Saturday play-down with $68,000.

I’m not gonna be here long, but I’ll try to get a chipleader update and at least one interview. Like I’ve told the folks here, without more up-front coordination with online media, their coverage is going to be sparse, if anything. If I had brought my camera, I’d show you the lonely “press table”. But picture this: There’s one semi-handsome fellow seated there all by himself. …And I can shit in his pants. Cumon, Winstar!

 

Karridy knows how to represent.

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 …

Anyone got any updates from WinStar? So far 60 people have moved on … presumably 60. Yesterday’s field didn’t sell out — like 265ish runners or thereabouts. Not sure if they stuck with 10 percent of the field moving on (26 or 27 players) or went with the full 30 to keep Friday’s Saturday’s action at a nice, round 150 players fighting for the final table.

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.

As Dan has informed me, my gambling has become a problem. However, the compulsive gambling that I’ve been accused of takes place nowhere near a casino. And quite honestly, in this game of roulette, I’m betting on the house.

Pokery Domains I own… And, yes, would consider selling

*** Oklahoma Poker ***
REDRIVERROUNDUP.COM/.NET - I don’t think Winstar abandoned this one after the rebranding. I’m thinking they never thought to buy it.
WINSTARBLOG.COM - Not bad. I actually know the guy who bought WinstarPoker.com,.net, etc. He’s somewhat to blame for my addiction.
OKIEPOKER.COM
OKPOKERBLOG.COM,.NET
CHEROKEEPOKERBLOG.COM,.NET
CHOCTAWBLOG.COM,.NET
CHOCTAWLIVE.COM,.NET
INDIANPOKERBLOG.COM,.NET
INDIANPOKERNEWS.COM,.NET

*** WSOP/Harrahs ***
THENOVEMBERNINE.NET,.CO.UK,.INFO,.ORG,.TV - Not sure why somebody doesn’t buy all versions of the domain. Didn’t they learn anything from the WSOP.com ownership battles?
THENOVEMBER9.NET,.CO.UK,.INFO,.ORG,.TV
THENOVNINE.COM,.NET,.INFO
THENOV9.COM,.NET,.INFO

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One of the guys playing The River today yesterday is/was ItsOverJonny — not sure how he’s doing or how anyone’s doing … don’t think they have phones yet in Oklahoma … but regardless, if you’re not reading IOJ, well I’m not gonna say you should be, because, hey, we’re all busy people. But think Gary Carson, only more bitter and jaded. Good stuff, as you could imagine.

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?

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Defending Champ: Sure, I may have gotten lucky on the river, but hey, I had the best hand going in!

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.

I think cards are already in the air for the pseudo-shootout River Tournament at WinStar in Oklahoma. Alas, I am not there … am still in Vegas as the first of five groups of 300 players play down to 30.

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 …

Paul in Dallas sends along some info about the upcoming River Touranment in Winstar, Oklahoma. (OK, technically it’s Thackerville, but Winstar is what puts this border town on the map, 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.)

For the 36 40 percent of our readers who happen to be non-American, we probably don’t do enough to keep you up-to-date on the goings-on of our good mates at PartyPoker. Their stock seems fine (at least better than the WPT’s) though it’s a bit of a dumb-count — the price recently skyrocketed due to a reverse split. Anyhow, our favorite site based in Gibraltar is celebrating its 7th birthday this week. Congrats! Seriously, there were at least a couple weeks in there where I wasn’t so sure you were gonna make it to 6 … but glad you guys are still around, albeit a smaller version of yourself. Miss you lots!

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:

Jen, I was just doing a little research on the upcoming Red River Roundup — recently retitled to the Winstar World Championship Series / The River — and I noticed that Annie Duke is one of the hosts (along with Greg Raymer and Norm Hitzges) … and in their promotional stuff, she’s not wearing any UB.

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.

If you’ve heard my permanent Wolfman Jack impression while listening to Beyond The Table, you might not be surprised to learn that my voice is not naturally this sexy. I had a little help from my friends. Actually, I had a LOT of help. Before the age of 6, I had undergone over 30something surgeries on my throat and vocal chords. Some of those were emergency surgeries to open my airway, and some were simply maintenance to avoid more emergencies. The end result would be a voice that only a mother could love. Well, her and a disproportionately large number of black women. Apparently, I sound like this guy. But unfortunately, they usually look like this girl, and never like my new chocolate crush, this girl.

The bottom line is that the good people at Cook Children’s Hospital saved my life more than once, and I couldn’t be more pleased to tell you about the Jeremy’s Friends Poker Tournament, coming up on Saturday, May 31st @ 6pm.

How’s this for quality charity poker - 1’st place wins a Main Event entry w/airfare and hotel! Runner up gets a phat entry into the upcoming $3,000,000 tournament at Winstar, which I hear is being televised. There won’t be much fight for 3rd to 9th place, as EVERYBODY else at the final table will win $440 Super Satellite entries for the same Winstar mega tournament. Not bad, guys! Too bad we all know that charity poker is rigged!

If you are in the North Texas area and would like to battle it out against me and a few other do-gooders, contact Jeremy’s Friends by emailing: jeremysfriendspoker@gmail.com

North Texas fireworks kingpin Ran Nelson brought his tight-aggressive Dallas game recently to the Mandalay Bay.

Though I haven’t been writing much about anything it, I have been hitting the tables here in Vegas. Have sampled a handful of rooms and action … spreading the lore of the Hammer and the Sang all along the way, of course, as I seek to replace the competitive camaraderie of the Batface home game perhaps with something akin to Jackie’s back in the (Dallas underground hey)day.

That came easier than usual this week, when TBR-bro-in-law Patrick came to town. He was staying at the Luxor, so we met up at Cathouse for a drink. (Cathouse is basically like the Lodge without the nipples, and Celeb-chef Kerry Simon in place of Jose Luis.) A couple Lagavulins later, we walked over to Mandalay Bay, where we took two seats together at a $2/$4 no-limit table. This was bigger stakes than either of us had been playing, but hey, we were feelin’ half-drinky good, and it seemed a better option than waiting, as the room was totally full and festive on a Thursday night. A familiar face was seated with us – Ran Nelson, a very good Dallas player whom I hadn’t seen since the days of Jackie’s – what a delight. He had a new cardmarker, a square block of acrylic with his little Stuey guy inside of it, surrounded by chips from the various important poker rooms to Ran, including WinStar in Oklahoma and the old Sixth Street in Dallas.

I was playing great – more-than-doubled up in about an hour by trapping a well-stacked opponent in classic Dan-style … but then was back to square 1 a few hands later when I got unlucky on the turn … and back to square 0 when I don’t remember what I did but I am pretty sure it was stupid, starting with playing the likes of .

Mandalay Bay
$2/$4 NLH
Buy-in: $300
Cash out: $0
Food: starved
Drinks: $28
Net: -$328

More…

We probably shoulda mentioned this earlier, but there’s been a pretty big series of tournaments going on at the Cherokee Casino in Upper Oklahoma. The main event of the Scotty Nguyen Classic IV just finished up … another quarter-million first-place payout from our good friends north of the Red River … and TJ Cloutier won it, avenging the two-outer that cost him the top spot in WinStar’s big-daddy event.

He defeated Houstonian Ray Henson, whom you may recall went deep in the 2007 WSOP main event — the last Texan standing, finishing in 12th place before being knocked out by, interestingly enough, Scotty Nguyen.

124 players bought in to this $5,000 NLHE event, including a handful of names and faces you may recognize from tables around North Texas and elsewhere:

TJ Cloutier, Richardson, 1st place — $241k
Ray Henson, Houston, 2nd place — $138k
Brant Hale, Norman, 3rd place — $72k
Gavin Smith, Las Vegas, 4th place — $42k
Noah Nodine, Norman, 5th place — $33k
Daniel Robertson, Alma, AR, 6th place — $27k
Gil George, Dallas, 7th place — $21k
Scotty Nguyen, Las Vegas, 8th place — $15k
Bill Edler, Las Vegas, 9th place — $12k

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Ron in Plano writes in to voice his concern about the one thing that keeps him from enjoying his time at the tables in Oklahoma … where apparently the Chickasaw tent is anything but a sweat lodge these days:

winstar casino poker room is soooooooooo cold / i wear a turtleneck and a warm jacket when i play / dressing warm doesnt help if your hands are ice cold / complaining doesnt help either

Thanks for letting us know, Ron. This is especially troublesome considering that our plan to intimidate the competition on our next venture to the Great Poker North included wearing cutoff jeans and a wife-beater. Are you sure it’s not just you and your thin Texas blood?

WinStar: November 25th $300+30 Event
THACKERVILLE, OK - WinStar Casino Poker Room is throwing a 200 player max. $300+30 No-Limit Hold’em tournament on Sunday, November 25th, starting at 1pm. This tournament will have 30 minute levels and players will start with 3000 in chips. Registration begins at 9am day of the tournament. Contact the WinStar Poker Room for more details at 800-622-6317.

Borgata: Illegal Sports Betting in the High Stakes Poker Room
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - 18 people were arrested this week for participating in an illegal sports gambling ring in the high stakes poker room at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. Of those arrested, 6 were casino employees and 4 have ties to the Philadelphia mob.

Foxwoods: World Poker Finals Winner
LEDYARD, CT - Mike Vela won the WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Casino earning $1,704,986, and a $25,500 seat into the Season 6 WPT World Championship in April, 2008. Second place went to Season 4 WPT Foxwoods champion Nick Schulman for $864,652.

Mohegan Sun: Brings Poker Back
UNCASVILLE, CT - Mohegan Sun in has returned to the poker arena by installing 12 new automated PokerPro tables from PokerTek, a precursor to their Summer 2008 grand opening when Mohegan Sun will unveil its $740 million hotel/casino expansion which includes a new live poker room.

South Central Kansas: Destination Casino To Come
MGM Mirage and Foxwoods Development Company submitted an application this week on behalf of their Unity Gaming partnership to the Kansas Lottery Commission to develop and manage the Chisholm Creek Casino Resort.

read daily: Poker Room News

Louis Lee, sitting pretty at the final table in his first $10,000 event, is no longer being underestimated by his competition. [photo: Dale Perryman]

The story of Louis Lee has made the USPC entertaining for some of us to follow — moreso than, say, Gavin Smith, who busted out in 9th place when his two-pair couldn’t hold up against a flush draw. With eight players remaining, Lee, who has just $4,000 in major tournament winnings prior to this event, is 2nd in chips with 1.35 million. His trash-talking next-door neighbor Victor Ramdin (last week’s cover of CardPlayer, by the way) is 5th with 322k. Fun!

While this tournament hardly qualifies as a “major,” it still offers potentially life-changing money to the winner. $32k to the next player out; $600k to the last man standing. That’s a big-time sit-n-go no matter how you look at it. (Can we say chop?) For a not-so-winning player like yours truly, it’s kinda extra cool to see a guy sitting next to me at a 2/5 table at WinStar just a month ago in this situation.

Louis and his poker buddy Dale were kind enough to keep us updated throughout Day 4. Click below to see how he got to the final table in such a strong position, where he can theoretically weather a bad beat or two, and totally dominate if he happens to get a tad lucky:

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There seems to be a rash of donkeys putting themselves in holes around the country.(Photo: AP)

NOT THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Crap. Did I say that already? You can’t be a good poker player if you let going bust upset you too much … always sucks … but man, does it really suck to go bust after sunrise. Hurts even more when the winner of your final hand turns his cards up in disgust after seeing the turn and the river and says, dejectedly, “you got it,” when in fact you don’t.

So my experiment has come to an end. Brought $1,000 to play with, and finished down $837. I’d like to say I got average cards and played them below-average. But considering my results of late, I think I might have to admit that I was playing them full-on average for me.

To be good at poker you’re supposed to see the action just in terms of chips, not dollars. But I sometimes wonder if that’s 100 percent true. Because it is real money you’re playing with, and perhaps keeping that in mind can help you make better decisions. Regardless, as part of my punishment for 15 hours of poker sloth, here’s a list of what else I could’ve done with $837 besides hanging out on an Oklahoma Indian Reservation with a bunch of mostly Asian guys not getting any sleep:

Numbers Game

• An HD Tivo and Nintendo Wii (with plenty leftover for service and games)
• Laser back-hair removal
• 2 or 3 ounces of high-grade marijuana
• 4 third-row seats (on the 27-yard-line) to the Bears-Cowboys game at the new Soldier Field
• 5-night vacation in Maui
• 1,637 shares of PartyGaming stock (PRTY.L)
• 1 pair of Chanel multi-tweed printed lizard ankle-strap pumps

OK, for some reason that last one makes me feel better about everything. Guess I won’t quit poker after all. Baby don’t need no shoes.

UPDATE: I forgot I had three one-dollar chips in my pocket. So really, I only finished down $834. Movin’ on up!

Let’s not talk about me (and how turning the straight with the second-nuts flush draw didn’t get there) … no no, there’s far more excitement going on in Scottsdale, as our good friends in the Arizona Posse are making quite a showing online this weekend.

Big Robert won a 300-player multi on Full Tilt last night–paid about $7,000–and tonight he’s sweating Pat Poels and Ryan Hughes, who are both at two different WCOOP final tables on PokerStars.

Poels is chip leader with seven left in 2-7 Triple Draw, and Hughes is sitting solid in Pot Limit Omaha (6-max). Both are playing for big five-figure payouts … actually Poels Hughes is already there.

Meanwhile, I’m deciding whether or not to drive home … or to Arizona.

UPDATE: Poels — pstarfish – finished 2nd (out of 649) to win $18,821. Hughes — elycash41 – finished 3rd (out of 1,818) to win $27,379. Nice job, Arizona! Way to represent. So wanna party like you guys.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Damnit, where’s my head? I guess I went on tilt when I folded away a $700 pot. I had K-J (with a jack as the top card on a no-straight, no-flush board) and folded to an all-in from Mr. iPod Hoodie Happy Feet. He showed me Q-J.

Tight is wrong! That or I shoulda thought longer to keep him on the hand I put him on on the flop.

Two questionable all-ins later (one of which fell victim to a three outer) I find myself down about $500 and some change. Have already put a call in to Goldfarb to talk me through this mini-meltdown.

I’ve got a plan in place — a test really — and am ready to embark. I’ve got a specified wad of cash, two packs of cigarettes and some breath mints in my pockets, a change of shirt in the bag, and am fixin’ to hit the tables. We’re going to see how much I can return home with by the time most of you are reading this Monday morning.

First stop: a $225 “deep stacks” tourney somewhere in “Mexico.” 7,500 starting chips and 30 minute levels. Should be fun.

If I bust out early I will probably play some cash in the nearest 1/2 game. If I last long enough that I need a little break before action resumes, I am headed to Oklahoma — to WinStar, to try a little 2/5 no-limit hold’em. Not sure what the weekend tournament scene is like there, but that’s part of what I’m looking to go find out.

Will try to update as I go along, but as always, that is often internet-dependent … so I make no promises there.

I’ve thought this all through clearly, thoroughly, and rationally. Worst case scenario I am home early this evening and kicking myself while doing real-world work to recoup my losses. Best case scenario I’ll come home significantly more phizzat having finished off the extra-pokery weekend with a late-Sunday night amateur victory at the Lodge … where I hear the (tournament) action is still good. It will be a test of discipline, focus, and fortitude. Wish me luck!

I’ll try not to overdo this as Dan has posted much on this past weekend’s tourney; but I did want to give a quick summary of my tournament and a review of the tournament and casino at large.

First, my tournament. I made it into level 7, a little more than halfway through the day. I had a good starting table, with several players limp-calling and nittily letting there chip stacks dwindle away. The only problem was that through the first break (after level 4) we hadn’t busted a single player at my table; at the same time, almost half the starting field on our day 1 was gone. As a result, there were not as many chips for the taking. Even still, I was at 8400 (average of 6200) and feeling pretty good. I have not played a MTT since the Main Event (subject of a to-be-written post entitled “Supernova, or, how to donk away a money finish in the Big One”), and I was a little loosey-goosey early, but I managed to level it out and felt pretty good with a pretty good table image.

More…

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–TJ Cloutier made a raise, and Vikram Vijay folded 2-7o face-up. Greg Raymer, announcing the action, says, “Folding the Hammer.” I think I was the only one cheering on the inside … not for the fold, but for the Raymer recognition. (Otis must have taught him well.)

On the very next hand, they got it all-in … Cloutier had A-J, an Vijay called with 3-3. An ace came on the flop … no straight or flush draw on the turn … and congratulations to the New Yorker-cum-Oklahoman Vikram Vijay, who wins the 3rd annual Red River Roundup with a red 3 on the river.

Perhaps just as it should be?

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–The final table is set, Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” is playing over the PA, and there are two topics of conversation as players take their seats … Arnie Block’s friends were telling him to push for a chop — “I know, I will!” — while Brian Horton from Richardson wanted to know if CardPlayer knew about this tournament and would be counting it toward Player of the Year points. “It’s a million-dollar prize pool and should count,” he said.

Indeed, it should. (But will CP stop caring about events where they are not the exclusive semi-live coverage provider?)

UPDATE: Arnie, despite having the hugest cheering section (four people) chanting, “Ar-nie! Ar-nie!” went out in 10th place. $20,000.

Though as I’m typing there was already a huge 3-way all-in that created some dramatic shifts in chips, here’s who and how the final table started:

TK …

Vikram Vijay, wielding a big stack throughout the day, hanging on to the chip lead, and not afraid to get up and ask Greg Raymer for an opinion on how a hand played out.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–It’s getting kinda exciting … 21 players left, and into the real money. Average stack is 238k, and TJ Cloutier has about 300k.

UPDATE: TJ just knocked out someone and increased his stack to more than 500k

The chip leader is Vikram Vijay, who has 650k (after losing an AK vs. QQ all-in). Believe it or not, we’ve actually got pictures … or at least I do. But the duct-taped internet connection here means we may or may not be able to share them.

UPDATE: While all the action was going on above at TJ and Arnie’s table, Vikram accumulated an even bigger chip lead, with 1.4 million in chips. “Vik” is an Oklahoman, trying to do his nation-state proud … as he reportedly is a dealer at the Fire Lake Casino in Shawnee, OK, just east of Oklahoma City … in the Potawatomi Nation. Go Indians!

Eleven players left … and hand-for-hand action has begun.

1st - $230,000
2nd - $120,000
3rd - $70,000
4th - $50,000
5th - $40,000
6th - $35,000
7th - $30,000
8th - $25,000
9th - $22,500

More…

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–North Texas player Abteen Vaziri just said now that I know his name I can delete it. He is out. He wins $2,500 for finishing in 55th place. Much of Abteen’s recent success has come from study of Joe Navarro’s book on tells. But he misread a pulsing neck vain for weakness when in reality it was pocket queens.

Sorry dude.

Looks like it’s up to Josh, Troy, and/or TJ to do the Dallas gamers (whose names Pokerati knows) proud.

UPDATE: Troy “Darling” Phillips is out. He got pocket jacks on the button and raised. The ever-aggressive big blind pushed all-in … Troy called … and would learn the sad news that he was up against aces. Ouch!

50th place. $3,000. Still, nice job by the Batfaces favorite sugar daddy curly haired representative. It’s only a matter of time before he runs out of money makes another final table.

UPDATE: Josh Evans also appears to be out. Turned away for a second and his table was gone … and he couldn’t be found elsewhere in the field.

Interestingly enough, while Kido Pham and Greg Raymer were brought out here (and presumably bought in) by WinStar … TJ Cloutier simply showed up on his own and plunked down $1,100. Definitely not a charity event for him. And to think, they don’t even have craps in Oklahoma. Can we say positive EV?

With 45 players left and blinds at 4k/8k+500, Cloutier has about 165,000 chips. Average stack is 111,000.

UPDATE: Just learned that Cloutier was bought into this event by a heretofore unnamed military-ish backer in Dallas … who has 50 percent of the poker hall-of-famer.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Still anybody’s game in the WinStar tourney. Though in the parking lot, the Okies seem to be mounting a comeback. Our unscientific license-plate spot-check today:

Texas - 184
Oklahoma - 14
Pennsylvania - 1
South Dakota - 1
Kansas - 1
Missouri - 1
Mexico D.F. - 1

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Down to 61 players. Average stack is about 80k. Chip leader has about 300k. Blinds are 3000/6000+500. A few chip counts that Pokeratizens might care about:

Abteen Vaziri (the “dude” whose name I couldn’t remember on Friday) - 90k
Troy Phillips - 80ishk
Josh Evans - 60k
TJ Cloutier - 85k

Greg Raymer and Kido Pham are milling around. Raymer will be commentating as we move through the money.

UPDATE: TJ Cloutier just almost doubled up … got it all-in with QQ against AK. The lady with big slick would flop an ace, but by the river, TJ would make a spade flush. He is clearly becoming a stronger and stronger force.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Here’s the complete, unofficial starting field for today and their chip counts. All three Day 1s finished almost at the same time. Yesterday’s group got seven minutes into the next blind level, so they will roll back to one level earlier, starting where the previous Day 1s left off. Not sure where all the players are from, but anyone want to place a wager that the winner of the biggest Oklahoma tourney of the year will be won by a Texan?

Ladd Gibke 152,000
Brian Horton 149,500
Allen Striegler 140,000
Kenneth Blanton 131,000
Abteen Vaziri 126,400
Mike Dickson 116,000
Jeremy Vaughn 106,700
Vikram Vijay 105,700
Michael Brown 102,600
Stephen Goodrich 98,800

More…

Hand-for-hand play at the bubble to see who will compete for the big money on Sunday at the WinStar Casino’s signature annual event.

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Below is the list of Day 1-Day 1 Day 2 qualifiers. Names of those who advanced yesterday aren’t yet available, nor is any info on the 41 39 remaining players today. But hey, no sweat … after all, the entire prize pool for this $1 million tourney was just $50k two years ago … so a lot of this is new to the people running the show here, and I gotta say, speaking as a tournament directorial wonk guy who likes to tell people they are doing things wrong, they seem to be doing a really good job. They may not have figured out whether or not they’re gonna let media take pictures — seriously, dudes, it’s cool … players like it … just be sure to remind us “no flash” — but they’ve for the most part got a smooth-running show going on here, with a player-friendly blind structure to boot. Priorities, right?

(Meanwhile, while the lone person sitting at an unwatched table littered with stray media/player/staff badges, I am getting a lot of curious looks, along with some friendly “hello’s” from WinStar employees moving in a bit closer to size me up. Like why on earth would someone be typing so vigorously at a poker tournament!?! Is that a computer?)

We’ll see if we can’t have a list of the entire field of those who have made the money and are fighting for the $230k first prize up before cards go in the air tomorrow. In the meantime, we know that these 33 people will be there:

More…

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Woo-hoo, it works! Yep, it took some sore thumbs and a little extra money to Cingular to make things happen, but I am blogcasting semi-live from my laptop in the WinStar poker room. Still have a few kinks to deal with … for example, it’s hard to find a power outlet in this giant tent. (Quick aside … the WSOP might want to consult with the Chickasaws when it comes to building super-big, functional, well air-conditioned poker tents.) Anyhow, it’s a bit longer of a walk to the WinStar casino entrance on a Saturday evening. Our unscientific license-plate spot-check of the parking-lot action north of the Red River:

Texas - 124
Oklahoma - 3
Louisiana - 1
Ontario (Canada) - 1
Missouri - 1
Illinois - 1

They’re getting near the bubble in Day 3-Day 1 of the Red River Roundup. Forty-six players remain, and today they’re playing down to 34. Greg Raymer and Kido Pham both went out early. No other “big names” remain … but we’re about to take a walk on the other side of the ropes to see if we don’t recognize anyone.

UPDATE: Nope, hardly recognize a remaining soul. Across the way in the cash games, however, is another story, where dealers and players alike look familiar … almost like an old higher-stakes Rounder Club tourney at the old P-room! I’m sure there are some good players left in the field, it will just take us a bit to learn who they are. (And hey, one of these days, the Chickasaws may even let us take pictures!)

Lodge and Rounder Club alum Chuck Pettigrew has been eliminated relatively early in Day 3-Day 1 of the Red River Roundup at Winstar. I didn’t even get to see him play, so I am sure he is wondering if he is going to get the $100 for the 8 percent of him I bought. Sure, he has delivered already on his 8 percent of $0 … but from what I have learned from so many “big name” pros out there, when you make these sorts of deals, you see, you don’t really have to pay … at least not right away. Don’t get me wrong, Chuck, had you made it into the money, or even built up a healthy chip stack, I’d be right by your side cheering you on, all the way to the cashier’s cage!

Better luck next time, sucker.

UPDATE: Chuck did have the pleasure of getting seated next to Kido Pham. That was presumably fun … at least for a few hours.

That’s really all there is to it. He got some chips and then lost them. “You gotta win your races,” he said.

UPDATE: They are down to about 100 players, and Merkow, Randack, and Sanbob all appear to be out, too. Vandy Krouch is still alive but nursing a tiny stack.

One player still alive with about 20k I know I know but I can’t seem to place his name. He keeps saying, “Hi Dan,” when I walk by and asks me how “our guys” are doing.

“Dude, you’re the last man standing. Dude.”

Feel semi-assy for not knowing. And though I’m sure he’ll be only minorly bummed when he doesn’t see his name on the internet, I don’t want to disturb his game by saying, “Sorry, man … you look familiar, but no clue about your name … I used to smoke a lot of pot.”

For the record, by the way, it’s really tough to live-blog without the internet!

UPDATE: La Sengphat and her “honey” DC both busted out early today. Flopping two-pair to a set repeatedly can do that to you. Dallas poker seems to be getting its ass KICKED today!

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–I don’t usually blog from the bathroom, but that happens to be where I am sitting right now … so I figured I’d share with you what I am reading:

(from top to bottom)

Asians have tiny balls
Takes one to know one
KKK
[picture of tiny penis]
KKK
J.A.W. [hearts] O.V.M.
White people have big small dicks
Hitler wuz here
KKK
Fuck y Niggzers Crackers Pacific Islanders

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–Some chip counts from the Red River Roundup, Day 2-Day 1:

TBR - 10k
Gregg Merkow - 20k
Webber Kang - 3500
Robert “Sanbob” Sanchez - 3k
Jerry Randack - 2500

UPDATE: Webber is out. Now playing 5/10 nlh.

Spot-check of license plates on my walk from the parking lot:

Texas - 92
Oklahoma - 9
Kansas - 1

In the cash room:

Omaha games running - 2/5 and 5/10 PLO
Full 5/10 NLH tables - 4
Number of players in the smoke room playing for their very first time - 2
Amount one of these players is up playing 4/8 - $840

THACKERVILLE, Okla.–No internet north of the Red River, or at least not at WinStar, where the first of three Day 1s in the $1 million NLH tourney concluded shortly before midnight yesterday. We’ll try to keep you posted from now through the final table, but can only promise so much with two-thumb typing.

Red River Roundup, Day 1 report:

- Event is sold out. 1,000 players. Double last year’s field.
- 333 played yesterday, of which 33 remain and will convene on the other side of the bubble on Sunday.
- Josh Evans and TJ Cloutier both advanced.
- So did Troy “Darling” Phillips. (Go Batfaces!)
- Marco Palacios went out near thw bubble.
- Avg. stack is 50k. Chip leader has about 150k.
- Media coverage is kinda new to WinStar. They haven’t figured out yet whether or not to allow photos.
- New poker room here is very nice.

Day 2-Day 1 has gotten underway. Favorites include Kido Pham and Randy “The Big Randy” Brown. Greg Raymer supposedly plays tomorrow.

The former Rev. Good Chuck in Fort Worth wants to play in the $1,000 Red River Roundup main event, being put on by the mighty-noble-legendary Winstar tribe of Thackerville, OK. We all know he’s a pretty good player in few-hundred dollar tournaments, so he’s looking to try his hand at something a little bigger.

But he also wants to do it with a little backing love. He has a potential investor, and he’s trying to figure out the best, most sensible deal for both parties. His initial thought is to allow the backer 30 percent for $500, or 50 percent for $800. As you know, we learned a lot about backing deals during the WSOP, specifically that the “you buy me in and get your money back + 50 percent” isn’t necessarily the standard. So anyone got any thoughts on this?

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Aaron in Carrollton also writes in inquiring where to find a good low-stakes limit game to develop his chops:

I know this isn’t something you want to write about via email so you can text or call if you want, but I’m trying to find a decent limit ca$h game, maybe 2/5 or 5/10 limit. I’m going to Vegas twice next year (if the schedule lets me of course), once in January [...] and in the summer for the WSOP. But I need to primer my game here, so to speak, and really get better at a limit 5/10, maybe even 10/20 then go out there and see how I do vs. the better players.

I dont really want to go to card rooms since they’ve obviously been getting busted a lot, but shit maybe I have to, to get good. Let me know what’s up or who I should call, etc. Any advice on this? Thanks Dan.

Even though my first games I ever played in Dallas were 3/6 limit, really, as far as I know they are all gone now. Your best bet? Oklahoma. Or maybe Louisiana. I’m not positive of what they are spreading — but I am almost certain you can find a good 3/6 or 4/8 table at Choctaw, WinStar, and a few others to the North. Likewise for the Horseshoe and Eldorado in La.