TUNICA, MS — What an odd place. If not for the nonstop casino billboards along Hwy. 61, you could drive through this part of the world and never realize it\’s a gambling haven. Fields of flowers are only occasionally broken up by specs in the distance — Horseshoe, Gold Strike and the rest miles off the main road like spaceships from the planet Prefab.
But that\’s not why you called. Like me, you want to know what\’s what at the WSOP circuit thingamajig at the Grand Casino, a series of tournaments that starts with a $300+$40 no-limit event tomorrow and ends with the $5,000+$150 main event Oct. 2-4.
Info on small sit-and-go satellites that feed the $300 and $500 tourneys is nonexistent on the Web, so I\’ve tracked it down at the source. The cheapest way in is a $35+$10 that pays the winner a $300 tournament voucher and 50 in cash. There is also a $55+$10 ($500 voucher plus $50 to first place) and a $110+$10 (Two $500 vouchers and 100 cash).
Plenty of guys have been lining up for them since this morning, including yours truly who finished fourth in a $35+$10 after my 9-9 was rivered by a stealer with K-Q. Got my chips in with the best hand yada yada. (He raised my $50 BB to $150, I went all in and he called, as did a donk with something like J-8. Lady came on the river.)
I\’m headed back for more. Stay tuned.