Poker News

H. Scot Krause

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to win more money playing poker, Pechanga Resort & Casino’s Poker Room in California’s Temecula Valley gives you two more great new tournaments to try your luck and skills. The Pechanga Poker Room is known for its multiple daily tournaments with high stakes and low buyins.

Now, under the direction of new Poker Room Manager, Richie Lopez, players have two more tournaments from which players can take home big prize pools. The new $4,000 Tuesday No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament begins Tuesday, January 3rd at 10:00 a.m., and continues every Tuesday thereafter. The tournament features a $40 buy-in. Thursdays give Pechanga Poker players another chance to stack the chips in their favor. The first $4,000 Thursday No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament takes place January 5th at 6:00 p.m., and every Thursday following. The buy-in for this tournament is also $40.

Pechanga’s Poker Room also offers 24-hour card playing action, courteous and friendly dealers and staff, daily tournaments, a dedicated poker room kitchen and full-service bar, 54-tables, and a completely non-smoking environment. For more information on the tournaments, call (951) 303-2472 or log onto www.Pechanga.com and click on the “casino” tab.

Also in California, the River Card Room, a 7-table club located in picturesque downtown Petaluma, the gateway to the northern California Wine Country, is hosting a WSOP (World Series of Poker) promotion. Since there are hundreds of ways to win seats in the “Big One,” at largerclubs and on-line, they have decided to run two-table satellites for seats in the smaller, $1,000-$2,000 buy-in events. The first event was held this past November, for the $1,000 No-Limit Tournament, held during the one-day break from the main event. This competition at the WSOP attracted 900 players in 2005, with a $220,000 first prize, and a much better chance of finishing in the money than in the main event, in which, this year, entrants will have to plan on out-lasting 7000- 8,000 entrants to cash out anything. At $115 a player, River Card Room was able to award the WSOP seat plus $500, and also pay out $800 cash spread over second through fifth place finishers.

The card room will be holding another shoot-out for the same event on Sunday, January 22, at 3:00 p.m., and expect to hold one more every month right up until the WSOP starts. For further information, call 707-782-9453.

In other news…The World Poker Open returns to Tunica, Mississippi for its seventh year and will be held exclusively at Gold Strike Casino Resort. Attended by both nationally and internationally renowned poker players, the Gold Strike World Poker Open begins January 9 and culminates with the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) championship event January 19-23. Considered one of the biggest and most successful poker tournaments in the world, Gold Strike is now the exclusive site for the World Poker Tour’s annual televised stop in Tunica.

The World Poker Open will include 10 tournament events, with buy-ins starting from $1000 up to $10,000 for the WPT championship finale. In addition, there will be 10 nightly No-Limit Hold ‘Em Tournaments with a $500 buy-in + $40 entry fee. The popular Ladies No-Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament is scheduled for Saturday, January 21 with a $300 buy in + $40 entry fee. All tournaments start with double chips, including $20,000 in the Championship event.

In addition to a million-dollar prize pool, the winner of the final event will receive a championship bracelet and a $25,500 seat in the World Poker Tour Championship to be held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in April, 2006. That’s it for this week!

Filed under: Poker News