|
Poker
Ambassador Sometimes your humble Ambassador doesn’t make it out of town as often as he’d like, and, what with holidays and all the other extras that come around this time of year, I never had the chance to go off on an ambassadorial tour. Nevertheless, in my never-ending quest to point out where cool things are going to happen, I’d like to share the following bits of news and upcoming events that have come to my attention recently. Poker seminar Mike Sexton, Linda Johnson, and Jan Fisher will be holding an all-day no-limit Hold’em seminar on May 8 at the Fountaingrove Inn in Santa Rosa. Local poker enthusiast Howard Levin recently attended a similar event and enjoyed it so much he decided to do everything he could to bring one to his neck of the woods. The result is the Wine Country Texas Hold’em Seminar. Seating is limited and discounts are available before March 1. Tickets can be purchased at WineCountryPoker.com. (For more information, see page 19.) Livermore Big changes are coming for the two Livermore cardrooms (Lucky Buck Card Club and Livermore Casino). Beginning in January, they will be able to stay open 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week, plus they can add Blackjack, Pai Gow, and Three Card Poker. They also will have a new maximum wager of $200, a huge increase over the previous limit of $20. (For more information, see pages 9 and 16.)
Bay 101 Casino The Shooting Star tournament returns to the Bay 101 in March. This is your opportunity to rub elbows with and test your skills against the big shots in your own back yard. They have many options for satellites to win your way into the main event or you can just pony up the $10,000. Whether you come to play or just see your favorite poker players in person, the Bay 101 is the place to be in March. (For more information, see pages 12 and 13.)
Lucky Derby Casino It seems there’s always a special event going on at the Lucky Derby, and February will have two of them. First they’re holding their annual Super Bowl Bounty Tournament on Feb. 7 where you can watch the big game, collect a few bounties, and take advantage of the free hot dogs and hamburgers all at the same time. Then, Feb. 18 to 20 they will be having a Chinese New Year celebration every evening with cash giveaways and prizes like high definition TVs. That definitely sounds like a way to start the New Year (anybody’s New Year) off right. (For more information, see page 10.)
Capitol Casino The Capitol Casino in Sacramento has already hosted two highly successful deep stack tournaments with buy-ins of $550 and more are in the works. These, along with their regular Sunday Double Stack and every Second Saturday Deep Stack tournaments, make the Capitol a great spot to go when you’re looking for poker tournaments with a little extra play in them.
Club One Speaking of tournaments with a little extra play in them, the folks at Club One in Fresno have been holding tons of tourneys with $100 buy-ins where you start with 10,000 in chips. Just about any holiday will do. They had one New Years Day, Veteran’s Day, Halloween …. You get the picture. Then there are the big events like the Fall Classic and upcoming Winter Deep Freeze. The Fall Classic (Nov. 21) had a $175 buy-in and a $25,000 guaranteed prize pool. The Winter Deep Freeze will be held Jan. 14 to 17 and will have a $100 buy-in and a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool. The tournament will feature three day ones where players start with 10,000 in chips and play until 30 of them remain. Those 90 players will return on the final day to determine the winner(s). The other great feature of this event is that if you bust out on Day 1A you can buy-in again on Day 1B or 1C, so you can have up to three shots at the money! (For more information, see pages 6 and 7.)
FLB Casino Changes have been happening at the FLB Casino in Folsom. By far the biggest is the news that back in September they got rid of their PokerPro automated tables and reintroduced live dealers. Owner Dan Dreher says the change has been very successful and that you can walk in at any time these days and they’ll have a $1/3 no-limit game going and often $2/5 no-limit or $3/6 limit. |