The World Series of Poker Circuit stops at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Okla., on Jan. 11-23, with undercard events starting Jan. 5. See the ad in our January issue.
No-limit hold’em $365 ring events include a $1M guarantee monster stack and six-max. Big O and $250 ladies and seniors events (50-plus) are on the schedule, too.The $1,675 main event also sports a $1M guarantee. Many $65-$250 non-ring events covering NLHE, pot-limit Omaha, PLO/8, Big O and Jack and Jill are scheduled, too.
Johanssy Joseph took down the Poker Night in America Main Event on Nov. 7, collecting $210K-plus.
DOWNSTREAM CASINO: Dui Lai, Eric Thompson, George Huber, Daniel Lowery, Clarence Prevost, Joyce Harmon, Norman Gluekert and Reginald Roberts all won events at the WPT DeepStacks series that ended Nov. 7. Roberts, winner of the main event, earned $50K-plus and a seat in the $3K championship. Lowery finished runner-up twice, including in the main event, and had a third, too.
AMERISTAR KANSAS CITY: The Heartland Poker Tour ran Nov. 10-21 asWalt Lustgraaf captured the main event for $111,370.
HARD ROCK CASINO: The Hard Rock Poker Open ran Nov. 3-13. Numerous events were chopped, including the $100K main event. Among the winners were John Heckencamp, David Frye and Antonio Foster. On the horizon is a WSOPC stop in March.
HARRAH’S NORTH KANSAS CITY: The weekly tournament schedule sports $50-$75 buy-ins with a $120 Super Stack on Saturdays. Common games include $1-$2 NLHE and $1-$2 HO.
CHEROKEE CASINO WEST SILOAM SPRINGS: The Reindeer Games series concluded as Ante Up went to press. Results will be in a future issue.
KANSAS STAR CASINO: The October-December $10K quarterly freeroll tournament of champions is Jan. 17. Expect qualification into the April tournament to reset in January. Common cash games in this eight-table room are $1-$3 NLHE and $1-$2 PLO. The bad-beat jackpot has climbed to more than $121K.
RIVER SPIRIT CASINO: The poker room has been remodeled and offers eight-handed $10-$20 Big O with a kill Thursdays and Saturdays at 5 p.m. Call-ins are accepted beginning at noon.
WINSTAR WORLD CASINO: This 46-table room is offering Aces Cracked Tuesdays and Thursdays (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.).Among the games found here are $1-$2 PLO-PLO/8, $1-$2 and $2-$5 NLHE and $4-$8 limit.
Arizona
Talking Stick Resort will host another Staycation Classic Weekend from Jan. 13-15. Play all three of the days and you’re eligible for a free two-night stay Jan. 13-14. The tournaments begin at 11:15 a.m.
Players can win an entry to all three events and free rooms by playing in the $110 satellites Jan. 1 and Jan. 8. Single- and double-entry shootouts will be run whenever 10 players are interested.
The Winter Point Challenge runs until March 25. Players who finish in the top 10 in each eligible tournament receive one point and anyone with at least two points qualifies for the Divisional Championship on April 2.
HON-DAH CASINO RESORT: Congratulations to John DeLong for winning the most recent Tournament of Champions.
This month begins the Snowflake Meltdown promotion in which random hands will pay extra cash.
Also, the poker room again will participate in Ante Up’s Restock the Shelves with a tournament Jan 16. Buy-in is $30 with $800 added to the prize pool, a $100 high hand and two $50 mystery bounties.
VEE QUIVA HOTEL & CASINO: Ring in the New Year with the Hot Splash Pot Giveaway. From 9-11:30 p.m. and 12:30-1:30 a.m., the room will splash five tables with $100. On Jan. 1 at 12:15 a.m., one player in the room will win $2,017 in the drawing.
Vee Quiva is continuing its quads or better promo, starting at $50 and increasing $25 a day until hit. Straight flushes are by suit, starting at $100 and increasing $50 a day. Royals begin at $200 and increase $50 a day. Everything resets to the original value once hit. Check with the poker room for eligibility requirements.
WILD HORSE PASS RESORT & CASINO: The Year End Poker Bonanza runs Dec. 30 noon until midnight and on Dec. 31 from noon-9 p.m. Every 30 minutes, the top five hands win $100.
On Dec. 31 from 9:15 p.m. until 1:30 a.m., $100 hot seats will be drawn every 15 minutes, plus $100 will be splashed on the winner’s table. There will be a final drawing at 1:30 for $2,017. Everyone playing at that winner’s table will win $100.
Aces Cracked wins $100 24-7 except during sports splash pots.
HARRAH’S AK-CHIN RESORT: Splash Pot Bonanza runs Monday-Friday starting at 1:30 p.m. and runs all day on the weekends. Morning high hands are weekdays (10-1p.m.) and steel wheels and royals pay $50 while Aces Cracked wins $50-$100. There also are splash pots for select college football, NFL and NBA games.
The Restock the Shelves tournament has a $600 guarantee. Bring in five cans of nonperishable food for 3K chips, plus as many as five more nonperishable food items can get you a 500-5K add-on. There’s also an optional $10 add-on for 2K more.First place pays $300, second is $200 and third is $100. Proceeds benefit F.O.R. Maricopa.
Harrah’s has its regular Saturday and Sunday (12:30 p.m.) and Thursday (7:30 p.m.) tournaments each week, but the room is getting a jump on the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas this summer. Tuesday at 7:30 will be satellites for $1K Omaha events and Wednesday will be $1K NLHE satellites. These tournaments have an $80 buy-in.
Texas
KICKAPOO LUCKY EAGLE CASINO: The Sunday afternoon Showdown has $130 buy-in and $10 add-on. Registration is at 10 a.m. as the event starts at 1 p.m. Thursday’s $50 buy-in event is at 7 p.m. while the Super Tuesday $35 event starts at 7 p.m. but has an hour of rebuys.
New Mexico
INN OF THE MOUNTAIN GODS CASINO AND RESORT: The poker room has a jam-packed year planned. Poker squares continue through January, as well as the Winter Local League that began in December, noon on Mondays and Tuesdays for $50.
For 12 weeks, points are earned on those days and bonus points and chips are earned by playing cash games and by bringing guests who never have played in this poker room. When the guests play for one hour after a tournament, they earn 10 points and two hours will get them 20. These accrued points enable those guests to be invited to a $5K Bad Beat Payback on March 1-2. If that weren’t enough, there’s the Pass, Punt, Kick tournament on Jan. 22.
The Inn also will be part of Ante Up’s Restock the Shelves charity food bank initiative Jan. 16. Be sure to go to
anteupmagazine.com/restock for details to this event, which will help your community.
ISLETA CASINO: Watermelon is running in tournament form at this fine poker room. For the uninitiated, watermelon is a hold’em variation where the player is dealt four cards, discards one card before the flop and another card after the flop. At that point, regular hold’em rules apply.
In December, the poker room started running watermelon tourneys with $50-$200 added to most tournament pots. Watermelon, Omaha/8 and crazy pineapple run on Wednesdays ($25, 7 p.m., $5 add-on, two rebuys allowed).
Thursdays at 7 p.m. are dedicated to beginners tournaments ($15 buy-in, $5 add-on with two rebuys), with even more watermelon on Friday ($45, $5 add-on, $20 rebuys) with $200 added.
BUFFALO THUNDER RESORT AND CASINO: The New Year’s Day tournament is a $30 buy-in with unlimited $20 rebuys and one $25 add-on (call for starting time and stacks). Jan. 21 is the 107.5 Outlaw Country bounty tournament with $107 bounties on Kidd Corona and possibly five other players. Buy-in is $107. The Last Saturday of the Month deepstack is Jan. 28 ($150). Call the room for details.
Special afternoon games include Wednesday’s $5-$5 PLO half-and-half, Thursday’s $4-$8 Omaha, Friday’s $5-$5 PLO/8 and Saturday’s $3-$6 Omaha.
SANDIA RESORT AND CASINO: Tournaments run Sundays at noon ($50) and 5 p.m. ($45). On Mondays at 7 p.m., it’s $55 andTuesday and Thursday nights at 7 bring $75 bounty events, with $25 bounties.
Colorado
BLACK HAWK: At Ameristar Casino, the quads bad beat was $112K-plus. High hands pay $200 every two hours 24-7. The $30-$60 limit game still has a big following. Don’t forget to call ahead to get on the list (720-964-4108). … TheGolden Gates tournament series schedule is available. You can get a flyer at the poker room desk or call (303-582-2906, press 5).
The HPT, CPC and MSPT are featured again, starting with the HPTon Feb.9-20. In the November MSPT, Mike Maruna took down the opener for $51K. Tom Bouziden was second ($38K), Kelly De Jaynes was third ($22K) and Dan Howell and Alice Woolworth took home $15K and $11K,respectively, for fourth and fifth. In the main event, Carl Carodenuto came in first for $114K, histhird title in 11 months. Richard Alsup was second ($69K), followed byJosh Turner ($45K), Norman Straughn ($31K) and Adam Wilbur ($24K).
CRIPPLE CREEK: At Midnight Rose,the Friday 4 p.m. deepstack is still the place to be for Southern Colorado players. The 40K stacks and skill-friendly blinds make it popular. Recently, well-known Tracy Mateicka took it down for about $1,600. The new Aces and Faces Cracked promotion, offered on Mondays and Tuesdays, matches the pot won, up to $95, and rebates that to the cracked hand player (A-A. K-K, Q-Q or J-J). Call the poker room at (719-286-6060) for details.
Meet James Moore
You can call him Jim. He credits his quick start in poker to a poker boot camp seminar in Denver about 10 years ago when he won the tournament for the attendees.
That training paid off as he has $128K in career winnings, including a $20K cash for second place at the Aria in 2014. His tournament play is mostly hold’em with some HORSE once in a while.
He splits his poker about 50-50 between Las Vegas and southern Colorado, where you can find him in Cripple Creek at the Midnight Rose. After a steady diet of poker books, Moore spends his free time on photography and woodworking.
He enjoys traveling with his wife, Joye, for skiing and ocean cruises. She is his biggest fan and keeps the malls in business with her 10 percent of Moore’s poker winnings.
— Dick Stein
