Spotted this California beemer in the Rio front valet … so there’s no guarantee it belongs to a poker player. But all those dBags who’ve shown up en masse this year have to draw their inspiration from somewhere:

(I take it all back, of course, if this car happens to belong to Webber Kang.)

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

The first weekend of April will mark the beginning of new era in poker as team-play makes it’s Vegas/Television debut in the form of the US PokerBowl. The theory is that it’s supposed to add a completely new layer of strategy to our beloved game while bringing tournament poker bravado competition to a whole new level. Representing Dallas are TJ Cloutier, Tex Barch, Jeff Littlefield, and yours truly. Our team, the Dallas Kowboys, will fight it out in a televised, collusion-friendly free-for-all.

Opposing players include some of the best in the game, including hometown boys David Williams, Scott Levy, Gregg Merkow, and Webber Kang, who I hear have worked together to win a similarly structured local tournament in the recent past. Even Pokerati Invitational champ, Tom Schneider, has assembled a top tier posse for Phoenix. I’ll soon be tearing my own collusion hymen with my home game crew in Burleson when we adopt this intriguing format for our next regular home tournament. I actually predict that you will see a surge of local team tournaments over the next year. After all, where else can you win from the rail? Other than by fading me, of course.

Tom Schneider busted out of the Festa al Lago main event in 60something place — payout: $12,525 — but Dallas’ own Webber Kang is kicking some buttuski. He’s currently in 21st chip position with 50 players remaining. Click here to follow the chip-by-chip action. (By the way, Webber won the Festa al Lago $2,500 event last year.)

CORRECTION: Despite my previous reports, there were 433 players in this year’s main event, not fewer than 200.

UPDATE: Webber Kang went out in 23rd place and John/Derek/Tex Barch finished 28th — paying $25,050 to both. They finished ahead of Chip Jett, Layne Flack, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Scott Fischman, and some 400 others.