February is shaping up to be a huge tournament month in Oklahoma and Kansas. Three tournament series are on the schedule, giving local and touring players plenty of opportunities to test their skills. Here’s a look at what’s going on:
DOWNSTREAM: After hosting the inaugural RunGoodGear.com $100K guarantee series in 2014, Downstream Casino kicks off the series’ second year. Scheduled for Feb. 4-8, the series offers a $20K guarantee ($330) and a $100K guarantee main event ($675). Once again, a $10K World Series of Poker seat is an added prize for the main-event winner.
Per-night hotel rates are set on a graduated scale from one night ($99) to four nights ($69). Call (918) 919-6000 and use the promo code POKER. In January, the poker room and RunGoodGear.com partnered with OnTiltRadio.com’s Taking It Down show to award a $125 bounty-tournament seat.
HARD ROCK: The Oklahoma State Championship of Poker runs Feb. 19-March 1. See hardrockcasinotulsa.com for the schedule.
HOLLYWOOD KANSAS SPEEDWAY: The poker room continues to qualify players into two May freeroll tournaments. In December, players began qualifying based upon seat time for the month. Through April 20, players will qualify each month into the events. The top four from each freeroll will win $2,500 entries to the Hollywood Poker Open Championship at theM Resort and Casino in Las Vegas in June plus $1,500.
INDIGO SKY: After hosting a successful Heartland Poker Tour stop in 2014, the property will again host a tour stop Feb. 26-March 9. There will be satellites leading up to the $1,665 main event, which has three flights running March 6-7. Six other tournaments make up the event schedule with $150-$250 buy-ins. Those include pot-limit Omaha, bounty, turbo, survivor and deepstack. Call (888) 992-SKY1 for hotel reservations and use promo code HPT15 for $89 room rates.
Among the changes made at the beginning of the year was a rake reduction to 10 percent up to $3. Look for a sweethearts’ tournament around Valentine’s Day.
CHEROKEE CASINO WEST SILOAM SPRINGS: The Reindeer Games tournament series ran Dec. 5-14. The opening $230 event, which had a $15K guarantee, drew 92 entries as Tulsa’s Mesgana Tesfalidet earned $5,520 for the win. Sand Springs’ Della Jones captured the $30K guarantee main event, overcoming a field of 110 entries and turning her $330 buy-in into $9,900. Nicholas Rosenberger, Nick Koliastasis, Virginia Brent, David Mathews, Rockey Cottrell, Steven Coster and Daniel Hughes were other event winners. Brian Swafford, Christopher Culver and Lance Lachney chopped the survivor event.
CHARITY: I represented Ante Up in the Jan. 19 online tournament hosted by HogWildPoker.com. Jointly sponsored by Ante Up and Blue Shark Optics, the Restock the Shelves event was a fundraiser to benefit local food banks around the country. As part of OnTiltRadio.com’s Taking It Down, my Blue Shark Optics-sponsored co-host Ted Leahy and I competed as well as provided live coverage.
In January, I attended the Cards for the Cure charity tournament in Wichita. It was a benefit for the Kansas office of the Susan B. Komen Foundation. Look for details in a future issue.
— Email Robert at anteuprob@gmail.com.
