Oklahoma Is More than OK

Biggest Event of the Year in North-North Texas

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.)