SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia is anticipating its new poker room will open this month. The $164M project will be bringing in 500 new jobs and high scale culinary additions to the Delaware Avenue area in Fishtown. The 28-table poker room will update its image with Rush Street Gaming, owners of Poker Night in America. Matt Glantz, who’s been crowned as Rush Street Gaming’s producer and event manager, will be overseeing SugarHouse’s poker advisory as well as its upcoming schedule for the new agenda.
“Got a ton of things in the works,” Glantz said. “As of now, everything is based on gaming approval so I can’t give anything away yet.” Upon the project’s completion, Penn Treaty Special Services District will receive a $1M contribution from the casino.
PARX: The Philadelphia-area property will host its first WPT DeepStacks in conjunction with its Big Stax series on Feb. 9-March 3. The schedule is packed with various tournaments providing a wider range of buy-ins from its $120 “Win the Button” to the Big Stax $2,500 championship. The event will begin players with 100K chips as the series’ deepest tournament. The $1,500 Big Stax will be streamed live by WPTD. The average prize pool for the $1,500 event has been roughly $500K in the past with $130K on top. Parx is anticipating the Big Stax $330 event as its most popular of the series. It has gathered 1,500 players on average and paid about $85K to the winner.
BORGATA: The Winter Poker Open still was running at press time and featured a combined guaranteed prize pool of $6.8M. The series kicked off with its $560 deepstack that had a $2 million prize pool and a live-streamed final table. The $3,500 main event, which sports a $3M, runs until Feb. 5. The series will be recapped in an upcoming issue.
Mid-Atlantic
HORSESHOE BALTIMORE: If you’re fortunate enough to get this issue early, there’s still time to enter the $350 event with a $100K guarantee as Day 1s are Jan. 29-30 with Day 2 running on Jan. 31. Call the poker room for details. If you’re too late, there’s always the WSOPC, which is March 24-April 4. The schedule isn’t finalized, but should be similar to past events.
MARYLAND LIVE: During the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, various cash prizes will be awarded when teams score. Using Bravo Random Generator, a table will be drawn every time a team scores. Players at the table win the prize corresponding to the type of score. Example: If a running back scores and Table 6 is drawn, the players at Table 6 each win $250. … On Sundays this month, there will be $1K high hands every hour (11 a.m.-11 p.m.). … You also can win $2,016 with the top four high hands each hour Tuesdays through Thursdays (11 a.m.-11 p.m.).
CHARITY IN D.C.: All In Enterprises hosts its annual World Series of DC Poker until Feb. 14, which is when the main event runs. For details, go to allinenterprises.org.
DOVER DOWNS HOTEL AND CASINO: The Delaware property hosts its Getaway Weekend with a series of events Feb. 5-7.
There’s a $15K guarantee with a $165 buy-in Feb. 5, followed by a $25K guarantee ($200) on Feb. 6 and a $5K guarantee ($75) on Feb. 7. There are many cash-game promotions this month. After 25 hours of play, players receive $2 per hour in comp dollars. There will be other comp promotions throughout the month, see the poker room for details.
HARRINGTON RACEWAY: Look for hourly $100 high hands from 1-6 p.m. on Super Bowl Sunday and a Midnight Madness tourney with $1K added to the prize pool. Call for details.
Connecticut
FOXWOODS: Marsel Backa edged Long Tran to win the $1,650 main event of the December MegaStack Challenge at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn.
Backa earned the trophy and $65,191. Backa and Tran, who are good friends, agreed to split the top two payouts, allowing Tran also to collect $65,191.
The cash was the 20th for Backa, who plays out of Waterbury, Conn. The payday, the largest of his career, increased his earnings to more than $203K.
The split brought Tran’s lifetime winnings to $77,097. He has five cashes, one coming at the 2014 World Series of Poker.
Tou Kue of Coventry, R.I., was third ($32,554). He has nine cashes, including three in 2015, and $75,142 in earnings.
Ralph Macri took fourth ($26,306), his third cash in 2015 Mega. He’s won $327,654 and cashed 60 times in his career. Samantha Cohen of Boca Raton, Fla., banked $19,730 for fifth. She also has impressive numbers, including 42 cashes (15 coming at the WSOP) and more than $448K in winnings. The showing at Foxwoods was her most lucrative of 2015.
Brian Altman of Longmeadow, Mass., won the $600 opening no-limit hold’em event for $84,208 after edging Lou Giampa of the Bronx ($54K).
For more results, go to foxwoods.com.
Don’t forget the next MegaStack Challenge is this month (Feb. 5-15) and has $725K in guarantees. The $1,650 main event runs Feb. 13-15 and guarantees a $300K prize pool.
There will be two starting flights on Day 1, one at 11 a.m. and the next at 5 p.m. Players start with 30K chips and blinds are 40 minutes for the first 12 rounds, increasing to an hour after that.
Next month is the Foxwoods Poker Classic, running March 12-29 with $1.6 million in guarantees. See the ad in the February issue for the schedule and further details.
New York
TURNING STONE RESORT CASINO: Gerald Mortensen outlasted 300 entrants to win the $570 SuperStacks Hold’em Series, which had a $100K guarantee for its main event. Mortensen earned $34,612 for the December win. Hayden Glassman pocketed $22,124 for second, while Christopher Chabris won $14,824 for third.
The win was the second for Mortensen of Syracuse, N.Y., and marked the 15th time he’s cashed live. The payout increased his career earnings to more than $52K.
James Fisher was fourth ($10,460).
Meet Trevor Deeter
Trevor Deeter is pro from Brigantine, N.J., who has been playing poker since 2004.
How did you get into poker? I started playing when I was in college shortly after the Moneymaker boom. After basketball practice in college, we would play $5 or $10 SNGs.I didn’t start to take it seriously until 2009 when I read a few poker books and started to travel to the Tropicana to play $1-$2 NLHEon the weekends.
What do you usually play? I usually play $2-$5 no-limit hold’em with the occasional $2-$5, $5-$5 PLO or $5-$10, $10-$10 NLHE session sprinkled in. I also play most of the tournament series on the East Coast, such as Parx’s Big Stax and the Borgata Poker Opens.
Would you say the East Coast is expanding its mix games, specifically, is there a shift toward PLO? I’m surprised PLO has taken this long to increase in popularity on the East Coast. For individuals looking for action,it’s the best game. I don’t play any of the other mixed games, but there appears to be more options at Parx for the high-limit mix games.
Where do you play mostly and what’s your favorite venue? Most of my live cash-game hours have been at the Borgata. My favorite place to play is at Parx Casino and I still consider that my home casino. — Jo Kim
