I attended the RunGoodGear.com series at Downstream Casino on March 5-9. I participated in the media/charity event as well as enjoyed main-event satellite and cash-game action. Turnout for the series was far better than anticipated with more than 150 entries for the opening RGG team pros bounty tournament.
Poker room manager Dale Hunter partnered with OnTiltRadio.com’s Taking It Down to promote the series by giving away three main-event satellite seats and its free Final Table series hosted on Hog Wild Poker. Bryan Campanello won the charity and six-handed events, Ross Bybee won the RGG Pro bounty event and was runner-up in the $650 no-limit-hold’em main event. A five-way chop concluded the All-in-or-Fold tournament and Bernard Lee earned $47,555 and a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event with his win in the series main event. There were about 340 entries for the main, generating a prize pool of nearly $200K, which nearly doubled the $100K guarantee. Dale Gauthir took down the final event of the series.
HARD ROCK: Hard Rock Casino Tulsa’s annual Oklahoma Championship of Poker, also known as the Oklahoma State Poker Championships, concluded March 2. A five-way chop was negotiated with Chris Hooper claiming the victory.
OZARK CHAMPIONSHIPS: Early results for the Ozark Poker Championships Main Event at Cherokee Casino West Siloam Springs (March 7-16) came shortly before press time. William Anderson overcame a field of 106 to win the opening $20K guarantee; Robert Coates won the second event, Omaha/8; Monte Fowler won Event 3 and Phil Ford won Event 4 (crazy pineapple). Further reports will be included in May’s issue.
RIVER SPIRIT: The poker room has a new manager as Eric Byard takes over from Justin Buckley. The poker room still has a progressive quads bad-beat jackpot, which was more than $200K at press time. A variety of promotions are running, including $500 royal flushes, $100 straight flushes (suits change monthly) and $500 weekend hot-seat promotions. Games commonly found include $1-$2 and $2-$5 NLHE (weekends), $10-$20 Omaha/8, $5-$10 PLO (Thursdays), and $3-$6 to $4-$8 limit hold’em (weekends). Daily morning and evening tournaments continue to run except on Saturday evenings.
MORE NEW MANAGERS: Kansas Star and Indigo Sky casinos each have new managers. Meredith Denoncourt takes over from Doug MacKay at Kansas Star. Billy Sly takes over at Indigo Sky. While I frequent Kansas Star, I had not visited Indigo Sky until early March. The poker room and off-track betting share an enclosed room. Eight tables are offered and the casino’s website commonly has the room’s tournament calendar available for viewing. The room is known for its crazy-pineapple events.
HPO: One month remains in Hollywood Casino Kansas Speedway’s qualification process to send players to June’s Hollywood Poker Open at the M Resort in Las Vegas. Players will qualify into a May freeroll based upon cash-game seat time. Eight players will earn a share of $32K in prizes awarded at the free roll.
— Email Robert at anteuprob@gmail.com.
