April was an unusual month on the Los Angeles low buy-in tournament scene. Typically, the local casinos will make an effort to avoid scheduling conflicts with the other cardrooms. It appears this was an exception since Hustler Casino and Hollywood Park Casino each held a series.
At Hustler Casino was the annual Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic. This was a 14-event series (April 5-27) where all events had entry fees of $175-$300.
As has been the norm lately at Hustler, tournament director Craig Kaufman added a few twists.
Along with the standard no-limit tournaments, there was bounty, deepstack, turbo, pot-limit Omaha and team events. For events with multiple Day 1s, daily chipleaders received bonuses.
There also was a special $20,000 heads-up tournament freeroll. For this event, 28 seats were awarded based on how people finished in events during the series, and four more seats went to wildcards with the selection criteria based on the number of events played during the series.
Mark Jun won the $250K guarantee main event for $75K.
At Hollywood Park Casino, the National Championship of Poker (April 4-30) featured 11 events. HPC guaranteed just shy of a million dollars for the series, and the championship event was a $335 buy-in that attracted 1,005 players ($100K went to champion Edward Milman).
The other events had buy-ins ranging from $60-$150. A few of these had spectacular turnouts. Event 1, a $250,000 guarantee with a $80 entry plus one $70 rebuy, had 2,229 entrants with 1,912 rebuys, creating a prize pool of $269,165 with more than $65,000 for first.
Event 4, a $400,000 guarantee with a $120 entry plus one $100 rebuy, also had an incredible turnout of 2,479 entrants with 2,112 rebuys. The $436,145 prize pool paid 238 players with $109,855 awarded to first.
— Dave Palm is Ante Up’s Los Angeles Ambassador. Email him at LA.AnteUp@gmail.com.
National Championship of Poker
Hollywood Park Casino, April 4-30
Event 1 • $80 NLHE w/rbs
Entries: 2,229 • Pool: $269,165
James Hess, $66,890
Event 2 • $150 Stud
Entries: 49 • Pool: $ 5,880
Gerald Rainer, $2,645
Event 3 • $125 NLHE
Entries: 149 • Pool: $14,900
Johnny Moran, $4,605
Event 4 • $120 NLHE w/rb
Entries: 2,479 • Pool: $436,145
Phong Nguyen, $109,855
Event 5 • $80 Shootout
Entries: 50 • Pool: $5,000
Aaron Krebs, $2,250
Event 6 • $60 NLHE
Entries: 59 • Pool: $5,076
Eugene Tito, $1,726
Event 7 • $125 NLHE
Entries: 130 • Pool: $13,000
Joseph Ruzick, $4,025
Event 8 • $125 Bounty
Entries: 87 • Pool: $4,350
Santiago Vigil, $1,950
Event 9 • $60 PLO w/rb
Entries: 66 • Pool: $5,875
Sirous Baghchehsaraie, $1,995
Event 10 • $150 O.E.
Entries: 67 • Pool: $8,040
Rick Muniz, $2,975
$335 Main Event
Entries: 1,005 • Pool: $300,000
Edward Milman, $100,000
