Each year, WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla., runs a handful of Mini-River events in addition to its River Series, which runs mid August through Labor Day. These smaller events usually coincide with holiday weekends such as Presidents Day and Memorial Day with its most recent coming this past Veterans Day.
The first event was a three-day $270 tournament that saw 138 people take their chance. It chopped five ways for $4,978 each between Jordan Smith, William Hundley, Marcus Kwan, Larry Bamsey and Steven Vogel. David Williams came in sixth for $1,801 but I don’t think it was that David Williams.
The other event was the $1,100 bounty tourney. As part of the buy-in, players received a $500 casino chip as a bounty on themselves. After 199 players took a shot and the dust settled, they chopped it four ways for $15,460 each.
The choppers included Eileen Buckley, Bamsey (him again), Stuart Hosen and Phillip Norman. Landing in fifth for $6,328 was John “Cowboy” Land and in sixth for $4,816 was T.J. Cloutier and yes it was that T.J. Cloutier, the Poker Hall of Famer who has the most major tournament wins in history.
WSOPC CHOCTAW: From Jan. 1-19, Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla., will host its fifth World Series of Poker Circuit event. The opening event, dubbed Hangover Hold’em, begins at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day. Choctaw’s stop has the second largest fields on the circuit behind Hammond, Ind., which is near Chicago.
TDA: As a follow-up to the rules discussion in the November issue, the Tournament Directors Association rules state players should know and comply with the rules, Rule 2: Player Responsibilities. To help with that, I submit two poker-rule pet peeves.
During the last hand before a break, a player looks at his cards and immediately gets up and walks away from the table, in essence folding out of turn by abandoning his hand.
That is a violation of Rule 30 and should gain a one-round penalty. The other is when a player folds his hand without facing a bet. An example would be the player that is first to act postflop just mucks his hand when it’s his turn.
That violates Rule 50 and is subject to a penalty.
Feel free to look up these two rules up on pokertda.com and while you’re there, why not read all of the rules?
The sooner we all get on the same page, the better off our game will be.
— Email John at anteupjohndshort@gmail.com.
