The Fall Poker Classic at Isleta Casino Resort in Albuquerque has qualifying through Nov. 18 with weekly $100-added satellites, and then play in one of two final flights Nov. 24 and 25.
Win there and you’re on your way to the final round Nov. 26. Call the poker room for more details.
As for daily events, on Mondays, enter a crazy pineapple tourney for only $15 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday brings Omaha/8 at 7 p.m. for $25 and Thursdays is Beginners NLHE, again only $15 at 7 p.m.
Each Friday and Saturday features added-money events for $100 at 7 p.m.
And finally, stay tuned to learn details about a new poker room coming in 2018.
SANDIA CASINO RESORT: The Big Dog Deepstack is back. One of New Mexico’s most popular and lucrative tournaments will return in 2018. Registration begins Feb. 6. Why such advanced notice? This event will sell out, so plan ahead. Buy-in is $235, with a $10 add-on for 3K bonus chips. The poker room also will add $900 to the prize pool.
Weekly tournaments include with a $50 Sunday event at noon and a $45 tourney at 5 p.m. Monday is the Sprint Tournament for $50.
At 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays is a bounty tournament for $75. Wacky Wednesdays costs $60 and each week a different game is featured, such as stud, Big O/8, Ladies Night, pineapple, HORSE and Omaha/8.
INN OF THE MOUNTAIN GODS: Each Friday is a $120 event at 6 p.m., and every Sunday at 2 p.m. you can play for $75. Earn bonus chips for playing cash games before each tournament.
BUFFALO THUNDER RESORT: The $150 Last Saturday of the Month tournament starts at 1 p.m. The 6:30 tournament is a great consolation if you missed out earlier, and because of the large numbers there are plenty of cash games in hold’em and Omaha.
ROUTE 66 CASINO: Play in three tournaments every day. Most are NLHE, but there is a pineapple tournament each Wednesday, plus many tournaments include bounties.
Join the Player of the Year promotion where you can earn big bucks for finishing in the top five for the year.
Colorado
At the Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colo., seasoned pro Alex Greenblatt of San Francisco won the HPT main event for $179K.
“This is probably my greatest poker accomplishment,” he said. “I had no marquee wins yet, so this was the first big one.” Matt Livingston of Windsor, Colo., was second for $111K, followed by Fernando Galvan of Denver ($73K), Kevin Boudreau of Colorado Springs ($50K) and Israel Garcia of Denver ($37K). Danny Gonzales, a regular face at final tables, also of Denver, was sixth for $28K. Bobby Garcia, still another Denverite, was seventh ($24K), then Evan Ross of Golden ($20K) and Ben Greenberg of Longmont ($16K).
Golden Gates hosts the Denver Open Nov. 2-12.
Ameristar’s bad-bet jackpot starts at quad eights and decreases one notch for every $50K of drop until freezing at aces full of jacks. At press time, the jackpot was $480K. Same day reduced room rates are still available for four hours of play.
At the Isle of Capri, quads will earn you $200, a straight flush gets $500 and a royal pays $2K for a royal. The Isle and Lady Luck continue to offer a free room for six hours of live play.
CRIPPLE CREEK: At the Midnight Rose, the Beat the Boss tournament series saw the main event chop three ways as Ted Ramos, Jim Hoeland and Leo Watkin each pocketed $4,234. Josh Fisher was fourth ($1,081). The Beat the Boss event, where one casino manager played at each table with a $75 bounty, saw 78 entries.
First-year player Joseph Johnson, at right with the trophy, John Bielaski, Bob “Cowboy” Moore, Matt Guthrie and Ante Up’s Dick Stein chopped for $996 each. Cody Trail was sixth ($374) followed by Bill Eckhart ($312), Ken Bates ($250), Ed Money ($187) and Rob Thornton ($125).
Oklahoma-Kansas-Missouri
The $2M guaranteed, $2,500 main event of the River Series at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., saw Benjamin Zamani outlast a field of 926 for $347,134 and the win.
Other series winners were Richard Roberts ($400 NLHE), Sean Giesbrecth ($1,100 turbo), Justin Bane ($500 PLO), John Song ($500 six-max), Schuyler Thornton ($400 NLHE) and Gerald Lutz ($500 turbo bounty).
CHOCTAW CASINO DURANT: The WSOP Circuit Tour concludes Nov. 13. Many non-ring events began Oct. 26 with ring events starting Nov. 1. They cost primarily $365 with the exception of the seniors ($250), ladies ($250), a pair of NLHE events ($580 and $1,125), and a pot-limit Omaha ($1,125). The main event is $1,675. Checkwsop.comfor full schedule details.
AMERISTAR CASINO KANSAS CITY: This semi-enclosed room on the upper level continues to offer tables with chargers and a variety of promotions, including bad-beat jackpots, $1-per-hour comps and $15 meal vouchers after four hours of cash-game play. Limit games with kills are $3-$6 hold’em and $4-$8 or $5-$10 Omaha/8. NLHE and PLO are regularly spread.
CHEROKEE CASINO WEST SILOAM SPRINGS: The annual Reindeer Games series returns in December so stay tuned for schedule and hotel discount information.
DOWNSTREAM CASINO: Bill Donnelly overcame a field of 241 entries to capture the main event of the WPT DeepStacks series in late September. Buying in for a third time on Day 1, Donnelly would earn $52,209 for his win, plus an entry into the upcoming DeepStacks main event at Riverside Casino in Iowa, as well as a round of golf, three-night hotel stay, table-game checks and shopping and spa gift certificates.
HARD ROCK CASINO TULSA: The hometown RunGood Poker Series is expected to stop here Nov. 14-19. The series kicks off with its traditional RunGood Pro bounty tournament where players could win bounties worth $1K. The series features a $180, $25K guarantee deepstack and the main event will be a $100K guarantee. Call the poker room or check the website for more info.
KANSAS STAR CASINO: Oct. 1 kicked off a new quarter of qualifying into the next Tournament of Champions $10K freeroll, which should run the second Saturday of January and feature the top 40 players in the room. Thursdays are Football Splash Pot nights.
HOLLYWOOD CASINO KANSAS SPEEDWAY: Qualification into the next quarterly $35K freeroll began Oct. 1. Players can qualify through tournament play and cash-game hours. Games found on any given night include $1-$3 and $2-$5 NLHE; $3-$6 and $20-$40 limit, $2-$5 to $25-$25 PLO; $25-$50 mixed eight-handed, and $4-$8 Omaha/8 with half-kill. There is a possibility of some different games being spread in the future so stay tuned for updates.
HARRAH’S NORTH KANSAS CITY: While dates have yet to be released, plan for the RunGood Series to visit here in December. While this room commonly spreads $1-$2 and $2-$5 NLHE, $1-$2 PLO and $1-$2HO run occasionally. The bad-beat jackpot was $102K at press time.
Arizona
Talking Stick Resort’s Arena Poker Room in Scottsdale, Ariz., hosted its first Senior Poker Open on Sept. 18 and had a tremendous turnout of 479 players, which generated a prize pool of nearly $206K.
Marc Christy ($26,700), Hong Heng ($26K) and Bob McMillan ($26K) worked out a three-way chop in the end. Mark McGaffin and Craig Gacom each took home $11,870 for fourth and fifth while Marsha Wolak, Henri Bisson, Charles Weaver, Mark Surdyka and Jeffrey Lies each earned $8,224.
TSR also hosted its monthly bounty event Sept. 9 and saw 235 players enter the $240 event, which had $100 bounties. Here’s how the final table finished after a deal: Roy Sours, $4,800; Loc Truong, $4,410; Bob Queen, $1,728; Travis Renner, $1,728; Salam Sarah, $1,728; Alexander Mutsaers, $1,225; Bradley Henry, $1,225; William Brinkmann, $1,225; Phong Nguyen, $681 and Chad Goldstein $558.
Upcoming events include the $320 Ladies Championship on Nov. 5 as players start with 17K chips. The annual Thanksgiving Charity tournament in Nov. 18 and costs $60 ($25 will be donated to the United Food Bank).
Looking ahead, Dec. 16 is the 15th annual Toy Drive tourney, which costs $35 plus an unwrapped toy valued at $10 or more. Toys are donated to the SRMIC Christmas Toy Drive.
HON-DAH CASINO RESORT: Sunday and Monday night football games mean splash pots during the NFL games.
GILA RIVER WILD HORSE PASS: The poker room had a great turnout for the Super Bonus High Hand promotion in September so it will run again Nov. 4 and 18 and Dec. 2 and 16.
Straight flushes pay $50 and the table receives $50. Also, look for splash pots during football games.
GILA RIVER VEE QUIVA HOTEL & CASINO: Their End of Summer Superstack on Sept. 23 drew 102 players for a $25,500 prize pool. The top 15 players were paid, with an eventual deal worked out between the final three. Oleg Simanovsky, Jeff Goss and Mikal Smith each took home $4,781.
Please read the profile on John “Zach” Lansing below for an exciting announcement from Vee Quiva.
Texas
CRUISE CHAMP: Gilbert Saucedo of San Antonio won the main event aboard Ante Up’s poker cruise from Galveston to Honduras and Mexico. Saucedo earned $640 from the $100 event and was followed by Ben Robert ($385) and Lenny McKinney ($235).
In the $20 event with rebuys, Scott Sanford was the champion for $770, followed by Keith Thibdeaux ($335), Brian Goldstein ($230) and Jeremy Vielleux ($155).
Meet John “Zach” Lansing
John “Zach” Lansing has spent seven of his 12 years in the gaming industry with Gila River Casinos, serving as a poker dealer, dual-rate, shift manager, and his current position as Vee Quiva Hotel & Casino poker room manager.
He’s married with three children. When not with family or working, he enjoys riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Describe Vee Quiva’s poker room to players who haven’t been there: The poker room has 14 state-of-the-art tables set in a relaxed and comfortable environment. Sports enthusiasts enjoy nine large-screen TVs for easy viewing of all of their favorite sporting events. There’s no shortage of action and we offer a wide variety of games for every budget and skill level.
How about promotions? There are plenty of daily promotions offered such as Quads or Better, Red or Black Aces Cracked, and splash pots for football, baseball and basketball events. We have some of the valley’s best tournaments that are continually evolving. Our weekly tournaments are Mondays and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 11:15 a.m.
Lansing works tirelessly toward offering bigger and better events and he has a huge announcement for Arizona. Vee Quiva Hotel and Casino and Ante Up are excited to announce the Ante Up Spring Poker Classic, which will run in March. The Ante Up Spring Poker Classic boasts a $50K guarantee. More information will be announced in upcoming issues, on the Bravo Poker Live app and in the Vee Quiva Poker room. We hope to see you here. — Chris Cronin
