Talking Stick Resort’s Arena Poker Room recently concluded its 10th annual Arizona State Ladies Poker Championship as Christine Burns emerged victorious to take home $11,739 and a watch.
The two-day event drew 187 entrants but only 10 made the final table, and they were, in order of finish, Kathleen Erbe ($9,088), Kathleen Toogood ($6,185), Melinda Haas ($3,913), Devona Cole ($3,105), Sylvia Sanchez ($2,676), Marnie Seidman ($2,272), Jessica Wostrel ($1,893), Joann Miner ($1,540) and Anna Ellis ($1,262).
Along with a bunch of regular weekday and weekend tournaments, the poker room hosts its 13th annual Thanksgiving charity tournament Nov. 21 at 11:15 a.m. with a $60 buy-in.
VEE QUIVA HOTEL AND CASINO: The first Saturday of every month at 12:15 p.m. is the $110 Super Stack, which has an optional $20 staff bonus and an optional $20 add-on at the first break. Early bird chips are available for this tourney, as well as Big Stack Freezeout (Saturdays, 11:15 a.m.), the Sunday Brunch Freezeout (11:15) and the Hump Day Freezeout (Wednesdays, 7:15 p.m.). Anyone placing first or second in these events qualifies for the Tournament of Champions freeroll, which will be Nov. 28 at 11 a.m.
WILD HORSE PASS HOTEL AND CASINO: Along with the standard bad-beat jackpot, the poker room has a super bad-beat jackpot (quad 10s qualifier) that was nearly $95K at press time. There are football splash pots with halftime drawings on selected games throughout the week. Five weekly tournaments highlight the schedule, plus there’s a $5K freeroll every two weeks for guests who play the most hours of live poker. Other promotions include early morning high hands, Aces Cracked, progressive royal flushes and Rolling Cash Fever drawings.
HON-DAH: Congrats to Tournament of Champions winner Dwight Garrels. In other news, Monday night football means splash pots and pizza in the poker room, but no tournaments. Also, look for $100 high hands when playing hold’em Fridays and Saturdays and ask about the Early Bird Bonanza on Sunday-Thursday.
Colorado
CRIPPLE CREEK: The Midnight Rose poker room is excited to be hosting an Ante Up Poker League, which consists of weekly ($75) and monthly ($150) tournaments with points offered for participation, rank and champion bonus. At the end of the season (Dec. 18), the top five in tournament points will win prizes (in addition to their cash winnings along the way). First place in points wins an Ante Up Poker Cruise for two on NCL’s Jewel to the Mexican Riviera out of Los Angeles (airport transfer and NCL gratuities included). Second place in points wins a trip for two to Las Vegas. … Wildwood Casino’s poker room offers everyWednesdayatnoon $5-$10Omaha/8 with a kill to $10-$20. Deepstack events are Fridays (4 p.m.), Saturdays (4 p.m.) and Sundays (1 p.m.).Every hour of cash play earns you $10 off your hotel room with no cap, plus there’s complimentary soup and chili all day.
BLACK HAWK: Golden Gates hosted the Heartland Poker Tour in September as 721 entrants put up $1,650 to amass a $1M-plus pool.Matt Shepsky won his first title and $227,864. He doubled-up the first hand of the final table and never lost the lead. Two Colorado residents were at the final table: Don Patrick of Aspen, who had two previous HPT cashes, was fourth ($63,910), while Denver’s Danny Gonzales was fifth ($46,634). … Lodge Casino’s high-hand promotion is $100 every half-hour. If you’re a VIP Lodge player, you earn $4 an hour in comps instead of the standard $2. Call for details.
Oklahoma/Kansas
DOWNSTREAM CASINO: Tulsa-based RunGoodGear.com’s tournament series stops at Downstream Casino in Oklahoma on Nov. 4-8. The series kicks off with a two-day, two-flight, $180 buy-in, $25K guarantee. Back are main-event satellites, including an all-in-or-fold satellite and turbo, and the pro bounty tournament. The two-day, $675 buy-in $100K guaranteed championship event will have three flights.
This is the last stop before the tour’s championship in December, so there will be $100 satellites for that event, which will be at Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans. Call 918-919-6000 and use promo code POKER for discounted hotel rates.
CHOCTAW CASINO DURANT: The Fall Poker Series runs until Nov. 2, including the $1,080 buy-in, $500K guarantee main event. Hotel rates start at $79. Contact the hotel at (888) 652-4628 with offer code Series15.
WINSTAR WORLD CASINO: The Veterans River Series runs Nov. 9-15. There will be five events with buy-ins from $235 to $560. Satellites are available so call the poker room for more details.
HARD ROCK TULSA: The Hard Rock Poker Open runs Nov. 12-22 with more than $200K in guarantees. The $675 main event, which has plenty of satellites beforehand, has a $100K guarantee and has three starting flights. Call the poker room for details.
INDIGO SKY CASINO: The poker room continues to distribute a newsletter via email that includes monthly tournament calendar and upcoming promotional information. Contact manager John Maurer at 918-666-9046 to get on the distribution list.
KANSAS STAR CASINO: Look for NFL splash pots Thursday nights for every touchdown. Games begin at 7:25.
RIVER SPIRIT CASINO: The bad-beat jackpot was more than $102K at press time. The room is running a variety of promotions, including Red Aces Cracked, high hand and hours-played qualification for a $15K free roll.
CHEROKEE CASINO WEST SILOAM SPRINGS: Through Dec. 28, football splash pots run during evening NFL games. Splashes vary in value depending on if the score is a touchdown, field goal or safety. Play 40 hours during November to qualify for a $10K freeroll on Dec. 20. Double hours earning period is Monday through Friday, midnight to 6 p.m.
HARRAH’S NORTH KANSAS CITY: Until Dec. 13, players can qualify for a $10K freeroll on Dec. 20. The top 25 players based upon hours played and the top 25 players based upon qualifier points earned on all daily tournaments earn a seat. The room’s bad-beat jackpot was more than $112K at press time.
BOOT HILL CASINO: The five-table Steve Walker Memorial Poker Room is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 6 p.m., Friday at 4 and Saturday-Sunday at 2.
Closing time is 2 a.m. but subject to action. Each Monday at 6:30 p.m. is the $65 Wild West tournament, which guarantees a six-place payout.
New Mexico
BUFFALO THUNDER: The $10K guarantee deepstack is Nov. 14. Buy-in is $225 and there is early registration as the event will be limited to 60 players. Paid entrants will be eligible for special room rates. Another fun event is the bounty tournament with D.J. Chico on Nov. 2, with $93 buy-in and $93 bounties on Chico and as many as five other players.
More bounty events run Nov. 4 and Nov. 18 ($100, $10 bounties), plus a $100 Omaha/8 event is Nov. 15 ($100 added per table) and the $150 Last Saturday of the Month deepstack is Nov. 28. Evening tournaments often feature money added to the prize pool so be sure to call the poker room for details.
INN OF THE MOUNTAIN GODS RESORT AND CASINO: The new multilevel tournament is creating a lot of buzz in the poker room as players can buy in at different levels. Buy-ins for the tournament range from $40-$120 and include a high-hand prize pool. This tournament will take place every other Sunday. Call the poker room for more details.
SANDIA CASINO AND RESORT: Happy Hour at the poker room means you can earn three times your player points from
4-7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
SANTA ANA STAR CASINO: In the poker area of the casino (the poker room closed over the summer), hold’em is played every day except Sunday, which is Omaha day. Every hour on the half-hour, the pot is splashed with $25.
ISLETA CASINO: The poker room’s latest promotion is Rack Attack as a random player is selected, blindfolded and placed at a table covered with chips of every color and value. The player has one minute to rack as many chips as possible and whatever is in the rack is what they win. Isleta also is running Deuces Never Loses, where cracked pocket deuces earn $50.
Meet Andy Ormsby
Andy Ormsby has been poker room manager at Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek, Colo., for nearly a year. Before coming to Wildwood, he was a supervisor at the Venetian and the Wynn in Las Vegas, but what may be most interesting is he played poker professionally from 1999-2012. So he’s been in the industry in some fashion for about 16 years.
“For a lot of years, I was backed by top pros and I played very high limit cash games,” said Ormsby, whose wife of two years, Amanda, also is a big fan of poker and loves to play. As for other family, his father is a retired rocket scientist who teaches advanced calculus at UMass-Lowell, his mom was an art major, his sister is a middle school teacher in New Hampshire and is brother is an attorney for Homeland Security.
What’s his favorite hand? Pocket aces, of course.
— Dick Stein
