The Heartland Poker Tour stops at Meskwaki Casino in Tama this month, with satellites running right up until the start of the two-day main event on Nov. 5.
Qualifier entries vary from $45 to $330, and direct buy-in to the main is $1,650. A quick check showed first place paid $70,000-$80,000 the past few years at this event.
The top 30 spots or top 10 percent of the field (whichever is greater) get paid this year. More information can be found at hptpoker.com.
• Elsewhere in Iowa, the Mystique Casino in Dubuque decided to close its poker room on Tuesdays, which means it’s closed Mondays and Tuesdays, making an early week game in the area difficult to find. The $220 buy-in that runs every six weeks at Mystique was Oct. 1.
There were 38 players and because Ante Up put “Can you beat Ken?” in the headline of my last column I had to be in attendance.
When it was all over I found my luck sack empty and Greg Weber tore down my dominating chip lead and claimed the top spot winning $3,040. This left me in second with $1,824.
Other top finishers were: Ting Klusmeyer (third, $1,216), Donna Larsen (fourth, $912) and Kendall Harker (fifth, $608).
Join us for the next $220 on Nov. 19. Hopefully, I will make this as well and you can beat Ken, too.
— Ken Warren is the Ante Up Ambassador for Iowa. You can email him at anteupken@gmail.com.
