Football season is upon us and most of the major poker rooms are offering cash splashes during televised NFL games. The amounts of the splashes to the lucky selected tables vary from $25 to $100 depending on the type of score (touchdown, field goal, safety). Please check with your favorite poker room for details.
OCEANS 11: On Oct. 6, the poker room held its annual Haig Kalegian Poker Classic. The tournament celebrates the birthday of Kalegian, a partner in the poker room who once again played in the tournament as he does every year. There also was birthday cake for all tournament and cash players. The tournament buy-in was $330 with an optional $10 add-on and featured 132 players, which brought the prize pool to $39,600.
Though the top 13 spots were paid, the final eight chopped, with the top three taking home $4,995 apiece and the remaining five collecting $4,175 each. The next major tournament is on Veterans Day at 10 a.m. It’s a $40K estimated with a $235 buy-in, which includes an optional $10 add-on. Satellites ($65) will be Nov. 5-8 and Nov. 10-11. The poker room offers a good, extensive and cheap players menu.
PALA CASINO: Matthew Prior (Encinitas, Calif.) defeated Jesse Gelber (Le Mesa, Calif.) heads-up Sept. 30 to win the RiverCard title and $9,450. Gelber won $4,725 from the $27K prize pool, which paid 10 spots from the 90-player field.
Prior also received a replica of the RiverCard trophy and will have his name engraved on the four-foot traveling trophy. While the poker room features comfortable poker chairs designed for hours of play, the casino features an excellent buffet, food court, table games and hundreds of slots.
SYCUAN CASINO: For those who like to play poker into the wee hours, the Sycuan poker room is offering “Late Night Luck.” This promotion, which runs Monday-Friday from midnight to 8 a.m. and Saturday-Sunday 2-8 a.m., features hot seat drawings every 30 minutes where players can win cash prizes ranging from $25 to $200.
The poker room also features a friendly staff, a good $5 poker menu, $2-per-hour comps for players and a non-smoking entrance into the casino.
— LoriAnn Persinger is Ante Up’s Southern California Ambassador. Email her at anteuploriann@gmail.com.
