Go Texas Poker! (In Oklahoma, of Course)
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.
Ben Matlock says:
August 31st, 2009 at 6:44am
Man, the coverage on this thing really sucks (not just you Dan). No info about this anywhere that I could find other than schedule. If anyone has a link about the tourney, please post. Dan, no imbedded Dallas contacts for how the tourney went down? I guess this is more of a Vegas blog now vs. the Dallas beat you used to cover, eh? Congrats to Shooter!!!
DanM says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:04am
Yeah, I wasn’t there. Thanks for noticing.
In lieu of coverage, please accept this review of the WinStar’s brand-spankin’-new hotel, from Texas poker player Steve Justice:
Alicia says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:33am
Congrats to all our boys that cashed! Lance has now extended his reign as a man of leisure indefinitely.
I looked Dan, I only have Lance’s name in my phone as Lance, so I can’t help you with a last name
DanM says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:39am
Joan Rivers was right … poker players don’t have last names, LOL.
waldoworld says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:49am
Great job, Shooter and Lance! Good to see some Platinumites taking the money. (Lance Craig, by the way)
waldoworld says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:57am
Michael Binger and Men the Master were also in attendance.
DanM says:
August 31st, 2009 at 8:07am
thanks for the info, waldo. did you deal the final table this year?
Lance says:
August 31st, 2009 at 2:01pm
If someone besides me had to win, I’d elect Shooter. I guess it hasn’t exactly sunk in yet, I’ve said “only $95k” at least a few times in the last 24 hours. lol
WILLIAM S says:
August 31st, 2009 at 2:09pm
WOW TALK ABOUT A LOW CLASS PLAYER SEAT 3 OF THE FINAL TABLE COMMENTED THESE GUYS SUCK. WELL THERE WAS A LADY PRESENT AND WHAT PLACE DID HE FINISH HMMMMM OH YA 5TH HAVE A NICE DAY BOB NOT
THE MAN THAT WON THE TOURNAMENT IS AN ESTABLISHED PLAYER AND NEEDED THIS TOURNAMENT WIN TO SOLIDIFY HIS PLACE AS ONE OF THE POKER PLAYERS TO KEEP ON YOUR RADAR. WELL DONE
DanM says:
August 31st, 2009 at 4:34pm
I’m curious who the female final tableist was! Horton had a tweet about wanting to get heads-up with her because he thought she was the worst … but it seems like that tweet has been deleted.
steve says:
August 31st, 2009 at 5:08pm
The last women finished in 2nd place – she is from FTW and played free tournaments at the Fox and Hound. This was her first live tournament!!! She played solid hands not the 5/9 that Bob played when it was down to 20 players. Shooter fought hard all day and played a very good game. Hip Hip Hooray SHOOTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
plsntvll says:
August 31st, 2009 at 5:13pm
Awesome job Shooter! Couldn’t have gone to a better guy…
Cal says:
August 31st, 2009 at 5:42pm
I was watching the tourney on the live stream, it looked like when shooter got it heads up he put the pedal down and played ultra aggressive..he’s been killing the dallas underground games for years so it’s refreshing to see hime win a major…Not sure who Brian was referring to who “sucked at the final table” I hear at least 7 of them were very solid. probably just a dude ticked off when he lost a big hand….pretty classless.
DanM says:
August 31st, 2009 at 5:45pm
there was a live-stream of this event? that woulda been good to know. where was it on?
Devil says:
August 31st, 2009 at 6:23pm
Shooter man — congratulations!! Fucking A. Was just telling plsntvll the other day about how of all the players in the underground, can’t think of one I’d rather see take down that kind of prize than you. Best piece of news out of Dallas in months.
Ben Matlock says:
August 31st, 2009 at 6:34pm
no kidding. where did they (and who the hell is “they”) stream it? I’d like to check that out.
Cal says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:16pm
playing it some tvs in poker room, and it was on in the main event room… i saw it the main event area…couldn’t really see so I was watching on the big screens…pretty nice set up-
Lance says:
August 31st, 2009 at 7:36pm
I heard from someone right after I went out that the woman was a single mom, got in cheap (sats or whatever) and had stated she wanted to win $3k. $370k is an ok result for her inital goal I guess!
plsntvll says:
September 1st, 2009 at 2:06am
Devil (James), over on Coding The Wheel, just wrote a short piece on Shooter’s win. Thought y’all would enjoy it.
http://www.codingthewheel.com
waldoworld says:
September 1st, 2009 at 2:25pm
I didn’t deal the tourney this year, wanted to stay on nights because my wife is on the same schedule. I like the vampire lifestyle.
Steve Justice says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:22pm
Winstar River Results
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tournaments/2702-2009-the-river/77509/results
DanM says:
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:01pm
Special congrats to Kelli Shields (for playing in her first ever non-amateur tournament; Its Over Jonny for a cash, Men the Master for representin’ the pros, and Keith Carter and Kirk Zumwalt, whom I recognize as former Lodge players.
Also, you know I hate to give CardPlayer props … but I think they now have the best player profile pages … better than the Hendon Mob, even, I’d contend.