The World Poker Tour returns Sept. 20-Oct. 7 to the Live Casino and Hotel in Hanover, Md.
There are 21 events $2.3M-plus in guarantees. The $570 kickoff is Sept. 20 with the $150K guarantee. Event 10, which has a $100K guarantee and $450 buy-in, starts Sept. 24.
The $3,500 main event sports a $1.5M guarantee Sept. 28 and will be streamed on the WPT channels. See the ad on the facing page for more information.
MGM NATIONAL HARBOR: Laura Moore from Annandale, Va., Event 1 of the Potomac Poker Open for $65K. The $370 event had a $500K guarantee.
Thomas Tolbert of Michigan captured Event 2 for $16K. The $370 tournament had $50K guarantee and drew 212 entries.
Khoa Luong of Sterling, Va., bested nearly 70 entries in the $370 five-card PLO tournament and took home $6,834.
But the big news of the Oxon Hill, Md., series was the victory of Farid Jattin of Colombia, who won the $3,300 main event. The $1M guarantee paid Jattin $248K for his win, besting almost 350 players. Raj Govindan was second ($148K).
Connecticut
MOHEGAN SUN: Tournament action at the Uncasville, Conn., casino was hot with the Summer Showdown in July as the $1,100 main event, which had a $100K guarantee, went to Carlos Matos of the Bronx, winning the trophy and $28K. Mathew Sweetland, John Brakatselos and Andrew Defrancesco rounded out the top four, each earning $14K after a chop. Finishing sixth for almost $6K was local pro David Stefanski. He wasn’t satisfied with his final table and, after busting out, he jumped into Event 3 and made his second final table of the day, winning the event for $7K.
Bhavin Mistry bested 383 players in the series opener for $10K-plus and his first five-figure cash.
The poker room in the Hall of Lost Tribes in the Casino of the Earth runs NLHE, PLO, stud and a popular HORSE game, plus there are high hands paid daily.
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO: Linval Gentles made his first tournament cash count as he took first place for $45K in Event 12 of the Summer Turbo Series. This event had almost 600 runners for a prize pool of $300K-plus. The final four agreed to a deal with Craig Seddon cashing for $34K, Michael Pasquale $31K and Michael Dichiardo $28K.
Enjoy Labor Day at Foxwoods with $120K in guarantees in four special tournaments. Sept. 2 at 11 a.m. is the $400 kickoff with a $50K guarantee and 30K stacks.
Cash games have moved upstairs to the poker room in the Rainmaker Casino. It features the High Hand Frenzy promo that pays $250 every 30 minutes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The next Monday Madness is Sept. 23 with $500 paid for the high hand every 20 minutes.
Massachusetts
ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR: There is a lot of action in New England’s newest casino as the 88-table poker room has been filled with a wide selection of games. For NLHE, there are multiple $1-$3, $2-$5, $5-$10 and $10-$20 games spread daily. The room also has PLO, stud and mixed games.
MGM SPRINGFIELD: The 23-table room runs daily high hands, Splash the pot and royal-flush jackpots. Tournaments are at 11:15 a.m. and 6:15 p.m., Monday-Thursday. The $5K guarantee $150 green-chip bounty runs Sundays at 11:15 a.m.
Rhode Island
TWIN RIVER CASINO: Just outside of Providence, the state’s only live poker room has 23 tables and it features $1-$2, $2-$5 and $5-$10 NLHE.
Maine
HOLLYWOOD CASINO BANGOR: The state’s lone poker room offers a progressive high hand and a royal-flush jackpot.
New York
Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, N.Y., hosts a $75K guarantee Oct. 10-13. The room has 32 tables and plenty of daily tournaments, including a $25 Saturday event. Promotions include high hands and rake back. The hotel offers tournament and poker-room rates. Sunday-Thursday is $85 and Friday-Saturday is $125. See the ad on the left.
RIVERS SCHENECTADY: WPT DeepStacks runs through Sept. 9. The $200K guarantee main event ends Sept. 2. The series has 14 events, including the $100K guarantee (Sept. 6-8). Players start with 100K chips. For the final event, grab a friend and register for the $400 Tag Team tourney Sept. 7 at 7 p.m.
SENECA NIAGARA: There’s a $100K guarantee, two-day event with four flights Sept. 13-14 at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The $300 buy-in gets you 20K chips with 30-minute levels Day 1 and 40 minutes Day 2.
Atlantic City-Philadelphia
BORGATA: Jackob Datashvili won the Summer Open’s main event for $276K, after a deal. The $1M guarantee, which was surpassed by $200K, fielded 514 entrants.
The series started off with another $1M guarantee ($600 deepstack), which drew 1,925 entrants across six starting flights and three days. At the final table, Edwin Ortiz held the lead when the final seven players opted to call it a day. He took first place, the trophy and $105K after the chop.
Adam Reese won two events, the $300 Deeper Stack ($14,805) and the $450 Almighty Stack ($68,806). The poker dealer from Pennsylvania may be considering a new career.
Ari Engel added a third Borgata title to his resumé. He won the black-chip bounty deepstack for $16,881 and pushing his lifetime earnings close to $6.7M. John McGuinness and Eric Siegel each claimed their fourth Borgata titles.
MOHEGAN SUN POCONO: Tournaments run nearly every day and there are special high-hand events the second and fourth Saturdays of each month and the first and third Sundays.
HARRAH’S PHILADELPHIA: The poker room offers two tournaments daily (11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.) with buy-ins as affordable as $40 and many events have guarantees. There are many high-hand hourly promotions for cash-game players, too.
SUGARHOUSE CASINO: Tournaments are Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The Monday and Wednesday tournaments have 20K stacks. All events have guarantees. Also, the property has raised the bad-beat jackpot’s guarantee ($100K), with a qualifier of quad deuces.
NAME CHANGE: Sands Casino Bethlehem is now called Wind Creek Casino Bethlehem.
Delaware
DELAWARE PARK: The poker room has two events each weekday, four Saturday and three on Sunday. All events have guarantees and all final-table players receive points toward the DP Players Championship that takes place at the end of each month. S
Meet Andrew O’Kane
Since working as a dealer at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino in 2004, Andrew O’Kane has moved up the ranks and has spent the past two years as tournament director.
Any big tournament series coming soon? Our 27th World Poker Finals kicks off Oct. 4 and runs until Oct. 21. This 18-day series has 22 events and carries a total of $1.2M in guarantees. Come December, we’re back at it with our Mega Stack Challenge (Dec. 6-16). In between all of this, we have our Weekend Mini Series, holiday specials and daily events.
When you’re not working, what do you do in your spare time? Golf and family … wait let me switch that and say family and golf. My fiancée and I have three children so you can imagine the limited free time, but when I do get some you can find me on the course. I would check the bunkers first. — Jon Maclellan
