Those dastardly SAEs won’t be allowed to play in the Pikes-only Northwestern homecoming freeroll, that’s for sure.
Pokerati is headed to Chicago for an event you may not know about, nor should you. The awesomely titled “Pike Poker Tourney” takes place at the Best Western-Evanston on Saturday, Oct. 23, after Northwestern’s (5-1) homecoming football game against Michigan State (7-0).
It’s a $1,000+ freeroll for Pi Kappa Alpha alums and actives … with $1k going to first, and 2nd through 4th TBA tomorrow. Economists have confirmed that $1k is still “a shitload” to college students.
I’ll be serving as executive floor honcho, and found out earlier today the original plan called for only 1,000 starting chips.
Gahhh!
Just because this will be a very quick, luck-friendly 3(ish)-hour event doesn’t mean it has to suck! (We can stretch it to 4 hours if necessary, though it shouldn’t be hard to get players to push chips around — health officials confirm that college students still like to drink, as do aging alumni desperately trying to cling to their youth.)
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A few fledgling careers getting a bankroll boost, a couple accomplished players cementing their stati as big-time pros, and one not-so-old legend proving (to himself?) he’s still got something … all in the last two weeks of October:
Tommy Vedes
Festa al Lago (Bellagio)
Las Vegas
New Yorker Tommy Vedes has been on a cross-continental tear — with 9 cashes, 6 final tables, and 2 wins in the past four months for more than $1.7 million in tournament winnings — at events in Las Vegas, London, Cyprus, Tunica, and Thackerville, Okla. His run may or may not have culminated this month with a made-for-TV WPT victory against a pro-heavy 275-player field in the $15k Festa main event.
Check out Vedes’ lifetime stats
Howard Lederer
Festa al Lago (Bellagio)
Las Vegas
New York émigré @howardhlederer may have been starting to doubt himself upon realizing he had only two wins in 25 WSOP final tables, and no victories anywhere in nearly two years. Fortunes changed with the latest $10k HORSE event in Las Vegas, kinda an “old school” tourney (19 entries, $92k top prize) that Lederer self-covered on Twitter.
Read why the Professor should always be your official “pick to win it”
Isaac Baron (“westmenloAA”)
Caesar’s Palace Classic
Las Vegas
Confirmed online tournament bad-ass showed he could close it out live in LV by winning the $5k main event at Caesar’s for a $250k payday. The 22-year-old beat a tough final table, too, bettering Theo Tran, Jimmy Tran, Kathy Liebert, and 2008 EPT Grand Final Champ Glen Chorny — a rematch of sorts, as Baron finished 4th at that final table.
More on Isaac Baron’s continuing climb
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