Say what you will about the WSOP Ladies Championship — I’ve got the over/under at 15 for number of men who enter this year — it’s still the kinda event that some people get super-excited about for weeks if not months beforehand. And our super-good friend Donna from Pink Ladies Poker Tour has a series of single-table satellites this Sunday, June 24, St. Jean Baptiste Day, at the Tropicana.
Special thanks to Tricat in Vegas, who snapped a video of Pokerati Game, the Movie, as it played on the big screen outside on Flamingo. It’s an epic saga of … er … it’s an action/adventure in NLH/PLO told as a silent film of about 12 seconds. Powerful stuff:
And speaking of the game … congrats to TJ Downing and @JaKatkin … who won president and vice president in our Pokerati Game “election” on Thursday. For the wins, TJ will be representing in tonight’s $340 satellite* to the $1,500 Epic Pro-Am at Palms Poker Room … and Katkin will be taking a stab in a Sunday $180.
* special bounty tournament
A fancy Pokerati sign inside @PalmsPokerRm had me feeling like a big swingin' dick until Annie Duke had to show me hers was bigger than mine.
I’ll be playing in a satellite for Annie Duke’s and Jeffrey Pollack’s $20k pro-am event tonight, at the Palms, starting at 7pm. I hope you are busy and can’t show up. Come by later for 1/2 NLH/PLO, sure … the Pokerati action @PalmsPokerRm has been bumpin’ all summer … but at 7 is the Federated satellite, and I probably like my chances better without you there.
It’s a $340 buy-in, with 20 percent of the field winning seats into a Federated 1500 later this month (or next?), with that event putting players into the Federated $20k Pro-Am. I think that’s how it works … I dunno, you better stay away until I make sure.
Federated’s first attempt for qualifiers didn’t go so well, as our good friends at Wicked Chops pointed out — only three people showed! Not necessarily surprising for a still forming league; it’s kinda hard to draw people to a qualifier for something that hasn’t ever happened before — no matter how big the names are behind it. The WSOP ran for I think like 11 years before they started filling satellites.
But tonight, our other good friends at the Palms Poker Room are guaranteeing not only 1 seat for every 5 players, but also 1 minimum no matter how few buy-in. That, of course, is why I’m playing tonight. By my math, if no one else is there tonight, I win!
The grand prize, of course is that $20k seat, where I’ll be able to play against big-name pros and hardcore grinders for $10 million!!! a six-figure payout and/or a chance to tell many of them en masse once and for all to suck-it!
Ahh, getting ahead of myself here … it’s supposed to be a professional league encouraging fair play, proper behavior, and golf etiquette … so have to wait for the right moment to make my made-for-TV scene.
First I gotta win tonight’s event, where my best shot, frankly, comes by just showing up.
The first week of the Detox Poker Series at the Hard Rock Hotel closed out two more tournaments Thursday afternoon, here’s the results:
Thursday afternoon brought the remaining nine players to the final table of the $230 NL Holdem w/ 1 rebuy $50,000 Guarantee with poker trainer and online legend Ari “Bodog Ari” Engel defeating Sam “Homeless” Bensinger heads-up to take down the title and $14,000 after a deal was negotiated. Bensinger earned $10,500 for the runner-up finish. Full results and the winner’s photo available at the Detox Poker site here.
The final preliminary event, $350 NL Holdem drew a field of 49 entrants with the remaining five players scheduled to make the money. When play was down to seven-handed, a deal was made to have everyone earn $1,800 with the top two players earning a bit more. Eugene Castro and Matthew Klein would get heads-up when they decided to split the remaining money (each earning $2,850) with Castro earning the title by having the chip lead when the deal was made. Results and the winner’s picture available here.
The main event of the Detox Poker Series starts this afternoon at 1pm with day 1a the $550 NL Holdem – $200,000 Guarantee tournament. Each day 1 will play down to 9 players with the survivors returning Sunday afternoon to play down to a winner. Players who bust out Friday can re-enter the tournament Saturday afternoon at 1pm, even if you cash today. There may also be another mega satellite Friday night to give players one more chance to earn a seat into the Main Event.
More information including chat, streaming video, schedules and structures available at www.detoxpoker.com.
Holy fugk, I can already tell … this summer in Las Vegas is going to be an absolute mosh pit of poker … where are my steel-tipped boots I never had?
I knew the Hard Rock’s High Stakes Cash Game was in the works but wasn’t sure what would come of it — as the first thing required for a game of this size is players! I’ve sent my overseers @HardRockPoker a message inquiring who they know will be there. Will pass on info when I find out.
This Friday
June 4th at 7PMHard Rock Poker Lounge
Las VegasCome play the high stakes cash game
on the first Friday of each month.
Buy-in is $20,000 to $50,000.
Blinds are $25 and $50.
Also wonder if this game will have $50 splash pots like we’ve got in our 1/2 NL/PLO to stimulate action, lol. (Remember, if The Maven makes a huge raise on a hold’em splash pot, you should probably call with J-10 or better … and if you don’t know the answer in the song game, your best bet is either Britney Spears or Cheap Trick.)
The LAPC recently featured 2 $230 mega satellites into their $1 million guaranteed $1000 re-buy tournament to give some lower stakes players a shot at a big payday in event that can get real expensive real fast. If you won a seat you also received a voucher that could be used for a re-buy or or an add-on.
The first of these mega satellites ended in a unique way with a player exhibiting some less than critical thinking. When they got down to the bubble of 18 players (17 seats were to be given away) play was on two tables of 9 players each and they were playing hand for hand to prevent either table from stalling. The first table finished their hand with one player being eliminated. While this was going on, a player at the other table was faced with an all in raise and was pondering his decision and called the floor-person over to ask the following question: “If I call and lose will I split 17th with the player at the other table who was just eliminated on this hand?” to which the floor-person accurately responded “yes.” He called the all in raise, lost the pot and split 17th place getting half a seat.
To some poker is all about winning pots…
The Heartland Poker Tour is kicking off its sixth season right now … with its first ever event in Las Vegas. While an HPT series of tourneys at Red Rock might not cause too much hubbub around Las Vegas, I gotta say, for yours truly, it has re-ignited the poker dream.
When you’re surrounded by poker but aren’t winning let alone competing in the events you’re covering, you tend to lose the WSOP main-event dream that brought so many of us here in the first place. You understand the lottery component, and you just have seen up close so many people live relatively pathetic degenerate lives in pursuit of it all. However, the HPT offers something a little bit different, and seemingly a lot more attainable.
I got into a $250 satellite on a freeroll. (Pokerati has its privileges.) And I’ll be playing that tonight. The cool thing about it is that 20 percent of the field will win seats into the $1k main event. 20 percent? Hmm … I can do that. And then at that point, it’s just another tournament, conceivably against a lot of folks who may just be a little too excited about being in Vegas to win. (Heartland chartered four jets to fly qualifiers in for this event from elsewhere around the country.) And the typical 1st prize payout on the Heartland Poker Tour is anywhere from $80k to $150k … nice! While not exactly life-changing money, for a guy whose biggest cash thus far has been $11k, a six-figure payout of any sort … or even five figures for that matter, would certainly be year-changing money.
So wish me luck … and follow me on Twitter as I seek to survive today, and take it down this weekend.
For more details on HPT-Red Rock, click here. Tons of satellites running, their first ever celebrity-charity event, a funky party to go with it … and a television crew.
Oh, that’s a whole-nother story … and testament to the grind-it-out success of the Heartland Poker Tour. Look how much TV coverage they’ve finagled and see how different that is from the typical poker model on FSN.
