Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Heights hosts its $120 Quantum event until May 6. This $100K guarantee will have seven starting days and a Day 2 final. If players choose to enter on Day 2, it costs $900.
BAY 101: The Bay 101 Open runs May 14-21 in San Jose, featuring seven events. The series begins with a $350 event May 14 and a $400 Monster Stack on May 15. On May 16 and 17, there are two $350 events, though the May 17 event is Omaha/8.
The largest buy-in of the series ($2,100) is May 17, followed by a $550 double-stack turbo May 18 and the final event of the series is a three-day $1,100 tourney May 19.
CLUB ONE CASINO: WPT DeepStacks visits May 11-21 in Fresno and will have seven events. Most of the series has guarantees, starting with a $240 survivor May 11 with $25K guaranteed.
May 12 is an Omaha/8 tournament with $8K guaranteed, followed by a $50K guarantee May 13 with a $360 buy-in and a bounty tournament May 14 with a $160 buy-in.
A Pot-Limit Omaha event with a $10K guarantee and a $240 buy-in is May 15.
The five-day $1K main event starts May 17 and will have a $300K guarantee. The final event is a $15K guarantee May 20 for $200.
THUNDER VALLEY CASINO RESORT: The Lincoln property, which opened its new poker room in April and you can see our coverage of the event on Pages 22-23, will host numerous World Series of Poker satellites this month.
They range from $60-$225 and will run May 3-11. The main satellite will be $500 on May 12 at 2 p.m. as one in 24 players will win a $10K WSOP main-event entry plus $800. This satellite will have four $10K seats guaranteed.
Reno
ATLANTIS CASINO: Win your share of $13K in the Lucky 13 promo. Prizes are awarded to those who play the most number of hours over a 13-week period, as well as for the players who hit bonus hands within those 13 weeks.
In tournament news, the All-In Poker Series has a new main-event champion. Jarod Minghini and Will Chao started heads-up play separated by three antes so they decided on a chop, playing one hand face-up for the trophy that Minghini claimed.
Chao had just returned from a family vacation in Hawaii, landing at midnight and somehow made the drive from the Bay Area to Reno in time to play a few Day 1 levels ahead of the dinner break.
Minghini from South Lake Tahoe and Chao from El Sobrante won $43,560 each. Minghini said he’s thinking about spending his winnings on a trip to Alaska to take a break from poker.
Shawn Van Asdale of Reno finished third for $20,520.
The series had 18 events in 12 days, drawing 1,150 entries across the series while paying out more than $450K.
And don’t forget the Ante Up Poker Tour will make its Reno debut here Aug. 16-26. Stay tuned for more details as it gets closer and see the ad on Pages 8-9 of our current issue.
SILVER LEGACY: The quarterly freeroll is May 4 at 6 p.m. If you logged more than 25 hours of live play in April, feel free to register that day on at 5 p.m.
Planet Hollywood’s Goliath Summer Series runs May 24-July 15 as the $2,200 main event has a $2M guarantee and starts June 30 with two starting flights. There are two more starting flights July 1. After a combined Day 2 on July 2, the event finishes July 3. The tournament is one of many that will use the big-blind-ante format.
There are two tournaments that have $1M guarantees. The first one is the “Milly” that has two starting flights for three straight days beginning June 6. The buy-in is $600. The “Ultimate Goliath Stack Milly” has a $700 buy-in and has three starting flights beginning June 16.
If high rollers are too pricey for you, Goliath offers a number of $250 “Low Roller” events. These all have four starting flights and the players are in the money on Day 1. The tournaments that start on June 13, June 20, June 28 and July 2 have $200K guarantees. The last one starts July 10 and has a $100K guarantee. There’s also a “Big Low Roller” version that begins June 4, also with four starting flights and Day 1 payouts, that has a $300 buy-in and a $300K guarantee.
If you prefer one-day tournaments, the series offers a number of “$40K in a day” events. A $200 buy-in gets you eligible for a $40K guarantee. There also are plenty of $100 NLHE tournaments with a $10K guarantee.
Disciplines other than NLHE are well-represented. The series’ lone high roller is a $3K PLO tourney June 21. There’s also a $1,100 Big O event June 15 with a $50K guarantee.
Most non-hold’em events are $250 with a $10K guarantee. You can find HORSE, Omaha/8, stud, PLO/8 and more.
In other Planet Hollywood tourney news, Benjamin Zamani from Boca Raton, Fla., took home $192K for winning the $1,675 main event at the WSOPC in April. Ben Palmer of Las Vegas earned $119K for second and Barry Hutter of Hollywood, Fla., scored $87K for third. The event had 600-plus entrants and a prize pool of $915K.
BINION’S: The Dog Days of Summer Series runs June 1-July 1. If the thought of a series where only six of the 25 events are NLHE sounds appealing, this is the series for you. This series features PLO, PLO/8, stud, Omaha, razz, deuce-to-seven single draw, HORSE and an event called Crazy Seven Mix that rotates razzdugi, stud/8 and stud hi-lo with no qualifier. That one runs June 20 and, as with most of the regular daily events, the buy-in is $365. There’s also pot-limit hold’em June 19 and limit June 27.
Of course, the $1K championship event, which has two starting flights beginning June 12, is NLHE. There’s also a $1K PLO championship June 21 and a $585 HORSE championship, also with two starting flights, June 28.
All NLHE events feature the button ante. It’s similar to the big-blind ante but instead the button posts the ante each hand. This is the first series to offer this variation and you may want to try it here to compare it to the big-blind ante most of the other series will be offering.
WYNN: The Wynn Summer Classic runs June 1-July 16. The $1,600 championship event has three starting flights beginning July 9, with a $1.5M guarantee. There are two $1,100 events with $1M guarantees, also featuring three starting flights, June 14 and 26. There are several $1,100 one-day events with $200K guarantees. Most of the rest of the events are $550 with $100K guarantees or $400 with $50K guarantees.
A $550 PLO tourney with a $100K guarantee runs June 13. The $550 seniors has a $100K guarantee June 11.
ORLEANS: The Orleans Summer Series features a nice mix of NLHE and other disciplines June 1-July 1. Most Mondays through Thursdays offer a $150 NLHE event with a $25K guarantee. Every Friday evening the popular $130 NLHE tournament still will be offered, with a $15K guarantee on June 1 and a $20K guarantee thereafter.
The $400 SPT Senior Championship starts the first of its two starting flights June 22. There’s also a $340 SPT Seniors Omaha/8 Championship on June 24. There are several LIPS events, including a $200 Omaha/8 tourney June 28. The $250 LIPS National Championship starts June 29 with two starting flights.
The non-hold’em events include Omaha, HORSE, Big O and Omaha/8-stud/8. Most have $7,500 or $10K guarantees.
Saturday evenings feature the Tournament of the Week, which starts June 2 and are triple-stud mix, triple-draw mix, big-bet mix, 10-game mix and Omaha/8 mix, all with $7,500 guarantees.
MGM: The room’s newest promotion is the Quads Jackpot. Any player getting quads will draw a canister out of a drum for the prize, which could be $25 or $100. Other canisters also reward the players on either side of the winner or the winner’s table. If two specific canisters are drawn, the jackpot is awarded, with 30 percent given to the player with quads and 70 percent shared by all the active players in the room. The jackpot starts at $25K and increases $2,500 per week until it’s hit.
Before the WSOP, MGM will move its $2-$5 game to a special featured table that will resemble the tables you see on TV. The minimum buy-in will be $200 and the maximum is uncapped, new for the MGM.
— Check out Rob Solomon’s blog at robvegaspoker.blogspot.com .
Southern California
David Pham defeated a field of 705 entries to earn $216,790 in the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event at the Bicycle Casino near Los Angeles. It’s his first WSOPC ring, improving an impressive résumé that includes three WSOP bracelets and a major title for $240K in Las Vegas just a week before.
After a roller-coaster day, Greg Gibson emerged victorious in Event 1 ($365 NLHE) by defeating 358 players for $24,705.
Hermilo Vargas won Event 2 ($365 Monster Stack) for his biggest career cash ($86,270), beating 1,300-plus runners. In December, he defeated 1,150 entries to earn $71,195 in the same event.
Ryan Buckholtz came into the final day of Event 3 ($365 NLHE) with a sizable lead and, in about 90 minutes, finished off the competition for $10,615 and his first WSOPC ring.
J.J. De La Garza won Event 4 ($580 NLHE), besting a 100-entry field for $15K and his first ring.
Ari Engel continued his dominance on the WSOPC by winning his ninth ring in Event 5 ($365 Omaha/8), which moved him into a tie with Alex Masek, Josh Reichard and Robert Hankins for second on the all-time list. Engel defeated 108 entries and won $9,730.
Matthew Elsby won Event 6 ($365 NLHE), defeating a 150-entry field to earn $12,585 and his first ring.
Adam Singer won his first ring in Event 7 ($365 six-max) by outlasting a 212-entry field for $17,175.
Matthew Lambrecht won his second ring in the biggest buy-in event of the series, Event 9’s $3,250 high roller, good for $85,440.
Mike Shariati won Event 10 ($1,125 bounty) by beating 116 entries for his first circuit title and $17,405. “It feels good,” he said. “Actually, I forgot how it feels. It’s been a while since I made a final table of a big tournament.”
Jonathan Tamayo won his fourth ring and $10,120 in Event 11 ($580 pot-limit Omaha).
“World Famous” Pat Lyons won the final event of the series, beating nearly 125 players in Event 12 ($580 turbo) for $17,365.
PALA CASINO: Richard King of Valley Center, James Ladere of Riverside and Geoffrey Greene of Temecula each won $3,650 on March 25 after a three-way chop in the Vegas Seat tournament, beating 60-plus players.
Pacific Northwest
MUCKLESHOOT CASINO: The Auburn, Wash., property’s $55K-added Spring Classic (March 14-20) was another huge success with four of the five tournaments exceeding last year’s record prize pools. The $220 Omaha/8 event chopped four ways between Michael Storm, Mario Cabilin, Brandon Lindsey and Rafael Martinez for $2K each.
The $300 shootout went to Gerald Peltola of Renton, Wash. ($7K) and the $200 Event 3 was won by Jordan Feliciano of Troutdale, Ore. ($15K). Michael Coombs of Tacoma, Ore., won Event 4, a $300 tourney, for $20K after a five-way deal.
Billy Duong of San Jose won the $500 event for $23K and John Kim of New York captured the $750 main event for $35K after a four-way deal.
Omaha players vie hourly for $100 high hands 9-6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, plus a $20K bad-beat jackpot (quad 10s).
In a new promotion, Sunday tournament winners get an entry into a December Tournament of Champions with the rest of the 250-player field filled by players who pay $250 or who qualify to enter by being top point-earners who didn’t win one of the tournaments.
CLEARWATER CASINO: In Suquamish, Wash., this tribal casino has an eight-table poker room 18 miles northwest of Seattle catering mostly to local players. There are ongoing monthly special tournaments, including the $100 Clearwater International with a $3K guarantee and the Clearwater88, which has an $88 buy-in and the house adds $888 as long as there are four or more tables. New is the weekly $40 Beat the Boss tournament with a $100 bounty on poker room manager Steven Buechler.
Meet Tristan Wade
One-time Ante Up strategy columnist Tristan Wade is reaching for poker immortality as a pro, coach and entrepreneur. He has $1.5M-plus winnings in tourneys and close to $2M online. He recently launched Cre8tive Coaching.
How did you become a pro? I started playing live and online when I was in college. Then I spent more time playing big live tournaments in Las Vegas during the WSOP. I also became part of a poker coaching company, which turned into a poker tour, WPT DeepStacks.
Tell us about winning $57K at the 2011 World Poker Challenge main event in Reno’s Grand Sierra. That was my first official big tournament win. That final table was a lot of fun. I’ve played a lot of poker in Reno and it’s one of my favorite places to play. People love the game here.
What’s your most memorable experience? Winning a WSOPC main event in West Palm Beach, Fla. It wasn’t the prestige of winning that mattered; it stood out because my family was able to watch me win this tournament. They had yet to be around for one of my final tables and I was able to close this one out. Hopefully, I can top this moment soon. — Philip Chow
