Wild Bill's
reflections on poker, sports, and issues
facing the Gulf Coast. Wild Bill is one
half of GCP, Plays, Coaches, and helps
run Gulf Coast Poker Tour.
Will
Souther is the Poker Monkey. Take a look
at his always entertaining views on the
tournament poker circuit, gambling and
life in general. The founder of
the Monkey Minions never sugarcoats it.
Nolan
Dalla.com is where you find the wit and
wisdom of one of the most well known
poker writers in the industry.
His home blog covers a wide range of
topics written with that singular Dalla
conviction.
Jonathan
Little an all time top tournament poker
earners, is from Pensacola and currently
operates a coaching site, which includes
his blogs and videos you can find it
here.
BEN
SAXTON is writing a poker book based on
the Gulf Coast scene. Here is an
archive of interviews and features of
poker players from all over but with a
spotlight mostly on our locals.
After the flights combined on Sunday, the field was
trimmed to just 17 players late last night.
Jared Hemmingway at 11.3m and Christopher Doan,
exactly 10m, lead the pack. Josh Thibodaux
(pictured) is in the middle with 4.5m and Teddy
Conner near the bottom with 1.825m.
Only 17 players remain and all are guaranteed at
least $17k. First place will be a little north of
$355k.
Chip Ervin busted late in the evening in 21st place
to win 12.4k. Drake Roetker also won over 10k for
31st.
Also busting later on Day 2: Trace Henderson (37th,
8.9k); Logan Hewett (43rd, 7.5k); Chan Pelton (50th
6.3k but his forfeited bag also netted him an
additional min-cash); Anthony Reynolds (52nd, 6.3k);
Gerald Stogner (71st, 4.5k); and Joe Hebert (84th,
3.45k).
In the money but outside the top 100: Justin
Brassieur, Walker Miskelly, Greg Raymer, Jared
Ingles, Jacob Corda, Chad Melerine, and Stephen
Baze.
DAY 1E:
The final flight on Saturday increased the day two
field to 218 entrants all in the money. Teddy Conner
(pictured) bagged the shortest stack but made it
through (AND AS MENTIONED IS STILL GRINDING!).
Joe Hebert bagged third biggest in the flight with
over 1 million in chips. Also, the players mentioned
above getting through on the last flight: Ervin,
Melerine, Baze, Corda, and Brassieur.
LONNY WEITZEL
WINS IN ARUBA:
Tournaments are popping off everywhere. Even
in paradise.
Got news Texan Lonny Weitzel won an early event in
an Aruba series. Houston sounds fun, but Aruba is...
Aruba. Lonny, pictured here with Dennis Jones,
is a Bossier City staple and can now add Aruba to
the locales he's won a tournament.
TOURNAMENT
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
HARRAHS NOLA MONDAY
NIGHT TOURNAMENTS RETURN:
Just heard from Jo-Ella McIntosh the $130 weekly
tournament returns May 10th.
-Registration opens at
5pm
-Tournament starts at 6pm.
-Registration closes at 7:10 pm
-Register early to guarantee a seat
-7,000 starting stack
-Must have a Caesars Rewards card to register.
Things are
getting back to normal...
PEARL RIVER
SATTY SUNDAY:
Hard to beat this one! 5 Seats ADDED.
Not guaranteed but ADDED! Take the prizepool
then add another 5 seats to it.
Starts at noon. Only a $50 buy-in.
Win a seat into the $250K Guarantee opener, (and)
BagWow!
That's right now is the time to stockpile bullets
for those of you who like to fire!
LONE STAR MILLION:
Results from Texas State $1 Million Guaranteed Main
Event. Couple of Gulf Coasters on the streams. Here's Joe Hebert from 1D. Link for Tai Cao
and Preston McEwen's stream below in 1C recap.
DAY 1A:
Jason Gooch and Chris Moneymaker put chips in a bag to be
two of the 16 to advance to day 2 out of 129
Entrants. Moneymaker's pocket Aces were cracked on
the bubble by Jame Duke's preflop shove with Queens
to halve his stack.
DAY 1B:
Dimitri Nobles bagged the biggest stack after day 1B
with 1.15 million. November Pearl River Re-Entry
winner Anthony "Stretch" Reynolds bagged third
biggest on the day with 719k. Gary Friedlander and
Chan Pelton also advanced.
DAY 1C:
Drake Roetker of Lafayette bagged the second biggest
stack with 1.13 million. Logan Hewett continues his
hot run in Houston with a 981k bag. Chan Pelton
fired again and found a bigger bag then his palrty
one from B and now has 860k. Familiar names Walker
Miskelly, Josh Thibodaux, Dan Lowery and Greg Raymer
also made it to Day Two.
We enjoyed watching friend of GCP Tai Cao play on
the featured table
here:
DAY 1D:
Only James Crowshaw bagged more than Trace Henderson
in the D flight. Trace will play with 1.14 million
on day 2. Also still alive: Jesse McVicker, Matt
Berkey, Dixon Cyder, Austin Peck and Lexy Gavin.
At this point only 143 players (minus double baggers
like Chan Pelton) will restart Sunday.
Only flight E remains and it should be gigantic. The
only question now is by how much do they smash the
guarantee.
LINKAGE:
DRAFT KINGS:
Maria Ho is bullish on sports gambling/daily fantasy
site.
CNBC did a stock draft, with bitcoin (not a
stock drafted first overall). Maria chose Amazon
with her first pick then went DraftKings in the two
slot.
COVID PROTEST
POKER NIGHT LEADS TO... COVID:
In Washington State, a dinner and
poker night to
protest Covid guidelines has led
to... 95 Covid cases so far. Multiple patients are
in critical condition. The group not
surprisingly has decided to curtail large gatherings
and is planning to help with a vaccination drive.
Stay safe everybody.
BONITA SPRINGS
POKER ROOM THRIVING:
Spreading 37 tables with simulcasting and a Brass
Tap restaurant--business is booming. They had their
third most profitable month in 50 years. Yes,
they've been open, mostly as a dogtrack for 50
years.
Naples News
has the details.
FLORIDA POKER:
WPT MAIN EVENT
HAS STARTED:
Another live poker event, another record turnout and
more GCPers stacking chips. The WPT Main Event at
Seminole Hard Rock has completed both flights of the
Main Event and heads into Day two with almost half
the field remaining. The 2481 players is a WPT Main
Event record.
Day 1A saw Gavin Munroe advance 389,500 chips
(pictured) good for fourth biggest stack in A, Cody
Stanford 232.5k (top 30), Kyle Cartwright 162.5k,
Warren Sheaves 151.5k, Jared Ingles 130.5k, Ismael
Cabrera 117.5k, Michael Lech 72k, and John Dolan
65k.
In Flight B: Joe Hebert bagged one of the bigger
stacks with 298k.
Also advancing: Shannon Shorr
202k, Brennan Benglis 147k, Trace Henderson 136.5k, Matt Higgins 115k,
TK Miles 101k, David
Weinstein 92.5k, Jonathan Poche 79.5k, Randy Gordon
58.5k, Corey Harrison 49.5k, Herb Montalbano 33k,
Richard Seymour 32.5k, Leif Force 30k, Tai Cao
29.5k, DJ Alexander 29.5k, Sam Blankenship 26k, Eric Salazar 24.5k, and
Mike Horchoff 19k (speaking of Mike...)
HORCHOFF DEEP
TWICE--WINS OVER 100k:
In prelim action Mike Horchoff ran hot. He finished
15th in event 15 for a $5,670 cash then played the
$2200 Event 17 that had an over 1 million dollar
prize pool with 531 entrants. With three players
remaining he shoved with Ace Queen got called by Ace
Four and couldn't recover when a Four found the
turn. Mike won over 98k for third. Mike Lech, Cody
Stanford, and Seth Fischer cashed the same event.
SPORTS BETTING
NOW FAVORED TO HAPPEN IN FLORIDA:
Governor Ron DeSantis personally got involved in
negotiations with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and
other smaller gambling facilities. This is as close
to a deal as Florida has ever made for sports
betting although they've come close before. Rumor
has it the Seminole tribe would also be allowed to
offer craps and roulette at their Hard Rock Casino.
It remains to be seen if that would also open the
door for a much rumored Miami casino.
POLITICO
MEANWHILE IN
TEXAS:
Derek Normand won the Lone Star Series Black Chip
Bounty tournament despite entering heads-up play
with a massive chip disadvantage. Nonetheless, he
came back to take the title with Charlie Nguyen
unlucky in second. Normand won $3885 (not counting
bounties--and we'll go out on a limb and guess he
won a lot of those).
GCPers WINNING!
GERALD STOGNER
WINS IN HOUSTON:
Was great to see a name familiar to us, Gerald
Stogner, win the LSPS Spring Series Kick Off for
over 23k. Even better to see him repping GCP in his
winner's photo. We've heard GCP hats run hot.
Congrats to Gerald, who hails from Kokomo, MS on
winning that sweet championship belt buckle to go
with his cash for the victory. Well done!
Kristen Deardorff, a former Gulf Coaster, got a
piece of the three way chop in the Nevada Ladies
Poker Championship Main Event. This Ladies
International Poker Series (LIPS) featured a ton of
the regions best female players who
made the trip to Vegas including Ruth Hall who also
made the final table. Chad Holloway has the write up
at
PokerNews.
Local coverage of the event in the review journal is
here.
PLUG: Don't forget we've added our ladies
tournament to our
SCHEDULE
June 6th in Pearl River. Thanks to Bonnie Weitzel,
Marsha Adams and others who collaborated on some
great ideas for the event and making it happen in
June.
GCP NEWS:
SATTY THIS
SUNDAY TO PEARL RIVER MAIN EVENT:
Here are the details. Hard to beat this deal if you
can make it to Philadelphia, MS this Sunday.
Two seats guaranteed and we think the first
satellite has had an overlay every time they've run
it.
MONKEY ON
THE PODCAST:
One of our first bloggers. Way back in the day
Monkey came aboard along with Shannon Shorr and
Jonathan Little. We discussed the old days, the
Monkey Minions, and a lot of stuff. Probably going
to have a part two very soon. Fun interview.
We got a new one that's active. Nominate who
you think should be a celebrity bounty in our June
Event. Two celebrities scheduled to appear so
far include WSOP Main Event Champions Greg Raymer
and Joe Hebert. We will select an additional
bounty from nominees and suggestions made to us and
Pearl River. Everybody that nominates (and
follows directions) on
INSTAGRAM
(gcpnet),
TWITTER
(@GCPNET) and
FACEBOOK will earn an
entry into a random draw to win a seat in the Event
1 $250k Guarantee. Good luck everybody.
LINKAGE AND
NEWSBITS:
HARRAHS NOLA KILLING IT:
Two Saturdays in on their new weekly tournament with
tweaked structures have produced player pools of 97
and 113. Expect this 11 am weekly to continue to
grow. Live tournament poker is BACK!
SLIDELL
CASINO WINS APPROVAL AMID CONTROVERSY:
The new casino for Slidell, LA has been approved...
but the deciding vote came from a legislator who is
married to a lobbyist for the casino (!!!).
Alledgedly... he said he didn't know she lobbied for
the casino. Hmmm, that never came up at dinner.
Those that opposed the casino are going to try to
appeal. They suggest there may be a
conflict of interest. Supposedly, the casino
would be on the former Diamond Jacks boat (used to
be in Bossier City) although the picture indicates a
land based casino.
POKER AN
(E)SPORT?
In what has fall under the category of good for
poker... the idea that poker will soom emerge as a
major E-Sport
is a great one.
CBS YOUR NEW
(OLD) HOME FOR THE WSOP:
I have a very hazy memory of watching a telecast
with the World Series of Poker when I was a very
little kid. Didn't have cable and according to this
press release CBS carried it way back. Well, they've
gotten the deal again. That includes Paramount+ so
expect to add another subscription service if you
want to watch everything. 50 total hours is a good
thing. CBSNY
has the details.
BITCOIN/POKER SCAM:
Cardschat
has the details on a scam involving a deal made at a
live poker table that went south.
VIDEO OF THE
WEEK:
Top 5 hands from Season 1 of High Stakes Poker.
Always a fun watch.
GCP UPDATE:
-HARRAHS NOLA SEVEN HANDED! FIRST
TOURNAMENT SATURDAY APRIL 10!
Looks like live tournament poker is back.
We'll see you Saturday morning at 11am.
Registration opens at 10.
-PEARL RIVER JUNE 3 -13th
More dealers, more tables, a ladies tournament, a
moved smoking area, free food buffets EVERY single
night, more $ in the guarantees (almost 3/4s of a
million) and MORE. We can't wait to get back
to Pearl River and neither should you. Room
blocks will be open soon.
-POKERNEWS WRAP-UP OF MARCH PEARL RIVER
POKER OPEN
Thanks to Chad Holloway for a great piece on David
Frazier and on Dan Lowery winning the Main Event.
Go
here
to read it. We also (finally) posted our
results below. Yes, they have been sent to
Hendon Mob too.
Want to win your way to the June Main Event?
Social Media contest has already started. Just
guess a three card flop. See rules on pinned
FACEBOOK post. Also
earn an entry on
TWITTER @GCPNet.
PEARL RIVER WRAP-UP 5; LOWERY SHIPS MAIN, ROOKIES
CHOP, SABATHIA WINS MONSTER:
LOWERY WINS MAIN
EVENT:
Dan "Duma" Lowery took down the Main
Event after reaching a deal with the unofficial King
of Pearl River Resorts Poker Mike Monaghan. Dan took
home $72,693 and Mike walked with $65,000. This
followed spirited three way action with Andy Moon.
Moon pocketed over $38k for third.
The remainder of the eight handed final table
included Robert Galbraith, Brian Glasscock, Eric
Salazar and Matt Higgins. With 872 total entrants
the prize pool finished north of $430k. Last Woman
Standing Chris Read (15th) won a Poker League Of
Nations (PLON) gift bag. Brandon Robinson just
missed his second Pearl River Main Event final table
and he and read were joined in the second eight by
Tim Sanderson, David Lee, Robert Dallas, Adam
Cotant, James Allen and David Marcoullier.
The rest of the field included a murderer's row of
some of the region's best players. 88 players cashed
just showing the top 24.
1 Dan Lowery 72693
2 Mike Monaghan 65000
3 Andrew Moon 38368
4 Robert Galbraith 28340
5 William Latta 21800
6 Brian Glasscock 16568
7 Eric Salazar 10900
8 Matt Higgins 7630
9 Robert Dallas 7630
10 Brandon Robinson 6017
11 David Marcoullier 6017
12 Tim Sanderson 6017
13 David Lee 5014
14 James Allen 5014
15 Chris Read 3924
16 Adam Cotant 3924
17 Jacob Perkins 3444
18 Shawn Calvit 3444
19 David Hayes 3444
20 Corey Hodgeman 3444
21 Chase Turner 3444
22 Greg James 3444
23 Tim Benoit 3444
24 Youssef Saleh 3444
DO WE STILL CALL
THEM ROOKIES?
The top six did a deal and all added to their Hendon
Mob results. We'll see if any went over the 25k
limit for eligibility in the tournament.
1 Nicholas Hawkins 2206
2 Katherine Keith 1606
3 John Buono 1606
4 Gover Faulkner 1606
5 Matt Duffy 1606
6 Dennis Hatcher 1606
7 Martin Horvath 540
8 Rodney Deselle 444
9 Dalton Booth 444
10 Tim Petit 336
SMITH MONSTER
WINNER:
Sabrathia Smith defeated a couple of stout
oppponents at the final table including Scott
Miller, Alec Wilson, Chad Bell and Matt Doyle.
Sean Small, Mike Sanders, Cody Pack, Paul
Strizhevsky, David Champion, Hebert Tapscott,
Stephen Hastings, Danny Doucet, and David Huwe all
cashed.
1 Sabrathia Smith 11334
2 Alec Wilson 6973
3 Scott Miller 5143
4 David Martin 3748
5 Calvin Swisher 2746
6 Gary Gulisano 2092
7 Chad Bell 1613
8 Matt Doyle 1090
9 Austin Paulin 1090
10 Cody Pack 959
11 Paul Strizhevsky 741
12 Mike Sanders 741
13 Helen McBrearty 610
14 David Champion 610
15 Hebert Tapscott 479
16 Michael Manco 479
17 Nicholas Hobbs 392
18 Stephen Hastings 392
19 Trevor Edmondson 392
20 Sean Small 392
21 Robert Donald 392
22 Danny Doucet 392
23 Edward Allen 392
24 David Huwe 392
PEARL RIVER WRAP-UP 3; NOLA REGS HIEP AND TEDDY WIN
SENIORS AND FREEZEOUT:
INSTAGRAM WORK
OUT GURU TEDDY CONNER WINS OLD SCHOOL FREEZEOUT:
One entry and a very limited registration time meant
the 84 players only had one 1k bullet to fire.
Teddy Conner had the fitness to come out on top
after a very late evening after chopping with Conner
Romedy. Brenda Eskridge, Gavin Munroe, Dustin
Stewart, JW Carter, Derrik Carter and Elliot Howze
made the final table. Timothey Maxwell and Brandon
Robinson also cashed.
One of GCP's favorites Hiep Doan won the seniors
falling just a hair short of 10k in winnings. Bonnie
Weitzel, Barry Schultz, JJ Liu and Marsha Adams also
made the final table.
1 Hiep Doan 9955
2 Charles Dawson 6135
3 Joseph Lamberta 4501
4 Bonnie Weitzel 3346
5 Barry Schultz 2470
6 Joanne Liu 1872
7 Marsha Adams 1434
8 Timothy Lenox 996
9 Ronnie Hope 996
10 Bryon Lowe 876
11 Randy Garber 677
12 Earl Merritt 677
13 Donald McArthur 518
14 Albert Brooke 518
15 Philip White 438
16 Stephen Hastings 438
17 Gabriel Daspit JR 359
18 Donald Davis JR 359
19 Tammy Talley 359
20 Susan Hamner 359
21 Joanne Cain 359
22 Ray Bressler II 359
23 Stephen Bierman 359
24 John Roberts 359
25 James Mackey 279
26 Michael Benton 279
27 Paul Price 279
PEARL RIVER WRAP-UP 2; BIG DADDY AND ATOM BOMB
PREVAIL:
ATOM BOMB DAVID
FRAZIER WINS IT!
After a fourway chop David Frazier earned the GCP
trophy. Gavin Munroe enjoyed the spoils of the last
longer side action and was credited for second.
David Champion who like Gavin seemed to cash
everything this series and Ruth Hall were in on the
chop.
The Queen of Pearl River Tara Snow, Chester Dilday,
Stephen Hastings, Michael Vernace, Joe Hebert,
Preston McEwen, Sonny Trosclair, Matt South and
David Gaffney all cahsed.
1 David Frazier 6150
2 Gavin Munroe 6149
3 David Champion 6149
4 Ruth Hall 6149
5 Chester Dilday 2537
6 Tara Snow 1923
7 Thomas Page 1473
8 Stephen Hastings 1023
9 Michael Vernace 1023
10 Charles Westbrook 900
11 Joe Hebert 696
12 Albert Booke 696
13 David Huwe 532
14 Bret Cranston 532
15 Preston McEwen 450
16 Raymond Puder 450
17 Carl Masters 368
18 Matthew Whitt 368
19 Joseph Carden 368
20 Sonny Trosclair 368
21 Cody Stanford 368
22 William Tinsley 368
23 Rebekah Crosby 368
24 Matthew South 368
25 Nicholas Bradford 286
26 David Gaffney 286
27 Timothy Maxwell 286
28 Curtis Picard 286
CELEBRITY
BOUNTY:
Wonder if "Big Daddy" Thomas Blankenship is aware
that if you win this event you then go on to win a
live WSOP Main Event final table as Joe Hebert did
last year. Joe incidentally probably cemented his
status as celebrity bounty for a long time.
Joe Carden just missed going three for three in
final tables finishing 10th.
Matt Johnson, Sonny Trosclair, Ron Gilliam, Wyatt
Boothe, Casye Robbins, Josh Stevens and Richard
Moats rounded out the final table.
1 Thomas Blankenship 7211
2 Matthew Johnson 4435
3 Sonny Trosclair 3271
4 Ron Gilliam 2384
5 Wyatt Boothe 1746
6 Casey Robbins 1331
7 Joshua Stevens 1026
8 Richard Moats 693
9 Sam Washburn 693
10 Joseph Carden 610
11 Curtis Picard 471
12 Stanley Wofford 471
13 Marsha Adams 388
14 Matthew Demarsh 388
15 Joseph Hebert 305
16 Francis Beaulieu 305
17 David Frazier 249
18 Edward Tumlin 249
19 William Anderson 249
20 Jo Caine 249
21 Bonnie Weitzel 249
22 Danny Griffin 249
23 Tara Snow 249
24 Chris Davis 249
PEARL RIVER WRAP-UP 1; BOYETTE AND BOWIE HEADLINE:
BOWIE BAG WOW
CHAMPION!
Kenard Bowie won the event after an ICM deal found
agreement. 210 players cashed but just showing the
top 24 below:
1 Kenard Bowie 41225
2 Preston Croft 28704
3 Nicholas Prejeant 28223
4 Joseph Carden 25884
5 Robert Zakaria 11258
6 Paul Leggett 7617
7 Preston McEwen 5090
8 Konstantin Suvorkin 4005
9 Marc Hampson 4005
10 Gilberto Mendoza 3282
11 Thomas Darwin 3282
12 Jimmy Millsaps 3282
13 Dell Taylor 2917
14 Chad Melerine 2917
15 Yousef Saleh 2536
16 Joe Hebert 2536
17 Matthew Clarkson 2170
18 Calvin Swisher 2170
19 Sean Garic 2170
20 Daniel Fagen 2170
21 Jerol Drane 2170
22 Bentley Purvis 2170
23 Jeremy Sharpe 2170
24 Dilsad Meraler 2170
BOYETTE WINS
DOUBLE MONSTER AND DOUBLES HIS GCP TROPHY
COLLECTION:
Congrats to Russell Boyette who had himself a week
in Pearl River. 56 players cashed but just showing
the top 24. Boyette won almost $30k and joined
Kenard as double trophy winners.
1 Russell Boyette 29267
2 Freddie Gladney Jr. 18834
3 Matt Higgins 12425
4 Matt Johnson 9155
5 Chuck Brady 7063
6 Dell Taylor 5232
7 Derrick Cutler 4054
8 Joe Carden 2747
9 Stephen Greene 1962
10 Christopher Shaw 1962
11 Derrick Gillian 1962
12 Robert Rose 1635
13 Brandon Creel 1635
14 Dustin Stewart 1243
15 Karl Chesser 1243
16 William Anderson 1243
17 Michael Tavis 1046
18 Thurmond Boothe 1046
19 Raymond McCarty 1046
20 James Stampley 1046
21 Joe Duvall 1046
22 Brett Cranston 1046
23 Kevin Grinder 1046
24 Forrest Raleigh 1046
DON'T
FORGET TO HEAD TO OUR
FACEBOOK PAGE TO CHECK
OUT ALL OF OUR PEARL RIVER POKER OPEN COVERAGE!
Some Highlights:
-David Hendrix (pictured), Thomas "Big Daddy"
Blankenship, Russell Boyette, and Kenard Bowie early
champions in the series.
-Ruth Hall and Tyler Nals penned greats reads about
the property. Go
here for the stories.
-Been smashing records all week. No wonder
we'll be back in June. Spoiler alert:
more dealers, more tables, another registration
line, and some other player friendly tweaks will be
coming with us.
TRACE HENDERSON MAKES THE FINAL TABLE OF WPT
VENETION IN VEGAS:
Local Gulf Coast Poker Player Trace Henderson is in
Vegas playing in the WPT event at the Venetian and
is at the Final Table sitting in 3rd place and is
already guaranteed a six figure payout of $155k. Up
top 1st place is $752k. The tough part is the
sizable chip leader is 2015 WSOP Main Event winner
Joe McKeehen. Joe is sitting right south of 11
million in chips which equates to about 87bb.
Another notable is Kou Vang who is a savage on the
felt and did well in the Mid States Poker Tour. Good
Luck Trace!!!
LOCAL POKER
PLAYER THAT IS A GULF COAST STAPLE DEEP AT WPT IN
VEGAS:
Local Gulf Coast Poker Player Trace Henderson is in
Vegas playing in the WPT event at the Venetian and
is sitting with a a nice pile of chips with just
north of 2.4 million. This would equate to 99 big
blinds with 32 runners remaining in the field.
1st place would be $752k...2nd place $491k...3rd
place $363k. Woukld be nice haul to bring back to
the Gulf Coast. Please cheer on Trace and give some
good vibes to run good. Would be nice to get his
name on that WPT trophy thats for sure.
PEARL RIVER
UPDATE:
CELEBRITY BOUNTIES... COMING SOON:
So... selections were based on
nominations on our Facebook page and some that were
previously selected. Just a spoilery heads up: they
will include a Chris, a Ruth, a Tyler, a Jo-Ella,
and a Stephen. Looking forward to the big
announcement with full names as soon as possible.
BAG WOW IS BACK:
-BagWow! is back.
Want a refresher on the BagWow? (Remember the
dates are a little off but you'll get the idea...)
The BagWow! format dominates the opening weekend.
This year it features a 100k Guarantee on a $250
buy-in. 5 Flights (Thursday 6 pm, Friday noon and
6pm, and Saturday 11am and 5pm).
Also, 1k bonus if you bag twice and a
3k bonus if you bag thrice... three times.
-A 5 seats ADDED (!!!) Mega Sunday 3/21 at 2pm to
get in the $600 Main Event the following weekend.
Probably the best live tournament poker deal in the
South.
-Multiple 20k+ Guarantees
-$600 100k Guarantee Main Event. Three flights:
Friday 4 pm, Saturday 11am and 5 pm.
NEWS, TWEETS AND LINKAGE:
-Lon McEachern tweeted out:
I would like to let our poker friends know that our colleague and pal @NormanChad is still recovering from some long-haul COVID-19 health issues thus preventing him from working on the upcoming @WSOP Main Event shows. We all wish him a full and healthy recovery.
Cardplayer did an interview with Lon recently
about becoming the voice of poker.
Most importantly, our thoughts like Lon's are with Norman.
Hope he gets on a path to
total wellness and we'll miss hearing him while we
cheer on Joe Hebert Sunday night on ESPN2.
If you are also a long hauler be on the look out for
some encouraging news that is circulating (a lot of
it anecdotal right now) about the first dose of the
vaccine helping to alleviate symptoms for a lot of
sufferers.
-NY Governor Andrew Cuomo accused of sexual
harrassment by a former member of his staff Lindsey
Boylan (pictured). She says she was the victim of
inappropriate touching, a kiss without consent, and
an offer to play strip poker. AP has the newshere.
-We missed this earlier but Chad Holloway at
PokerNews touts the poker documentary "Smile"
honoring the late Thor Hansen. Hansen is thought to
be the originator of one of poker's great quotes
after winning a big event.
An interviewer asked what's he was going to do with all the money.
Hansen: I'm going to pay off some people I owe.
Interviewer: What about the rest?
Hansen: Well... they are going to have to
wait.
NEWS:
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST:
Congrats to Tim Moore (pictured) for winning our
first contest and a seat into the $250 Opener. Tim
has run deep in the Main Event at Pearl River before
so we know he's got a chance to turn this freeroll
into a nice cash.
Currently, we are running our second contest where
the winner will be the player who guesses the player
that runs deepest in the Opener. If two (or more)
people select the same player a random drawing will
determine the winner. Look for the
picture of Peace Marvel on Twitter and Facebook to
enter a guess. The winner of that gets a seat into
the 50k Guarantee event.
Get your careful, calculated, educated pick on the
record... or take your best guess. Not many entries
so far, so you still got a great shot to win.
POKER
QUOTES:
TD Paul Dutsch--our podcast guest for February--has
been doing a daily post on his Facebook page of
poker quotes in the run up to Pearl River. There are
some good ones in there. He's got nuggets of
wisdoms and a lot of funny ones.
Here's some others gathered by
Calvin Ayre
focused on self-improvement.
ENTITLED?
A new study inidicates how you react to bad luck may
reveal how entitled you are. If every time you lose
you feel like it's bad luck? You might be entitled.
Do get angry and feel victimized? You might be
entitled.
Getting angry in response to bad luck usually only
happens to people that think they are entitled to
win. Interesting study highlight by Scientific
American. Go
here.
PEARL RIVER
MAIN EVENT EARLY SATTY:
Last time there was an overaly with two seats
guaranteed. You need to get there and get a
piece of that free money this Sunday. Not a bad idea
to start stockpiling seats--it is a reentry. Some of
you seem to use a lot of seats.
ALL THINGS
PEARL RIVER: SATTIES AND STRUCTURES COMING:
Be on the lookout for information on satellites
leading up to the twin 100k guarantees run in the
Poker Room of the Golden Moon Hotel at Pearl River
Resorts. We will post info when we have them.
Also, we will soon post structures for the Spring
Events in the link up top. Almost ready.
WIN YOUR WAY TO THE 100K:
We will be doing social media contests, as per
usual, in the lead up to this event on TWITTER
(@GCPNET), on Facebook and Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/gcpnet/).
Our first contests ask for nominations for our
Celebrity Bounty event on Tuesday, March 23rd. Like,
follow, share and comment to earn an entry to a
random drawing for a seat in the 100k Guaranteed
Opener.
Look for the posts with this pic.
POKER LINKAGE:
-Hank Azaria is hosting a new home game TV show on
PokerStars.net's YouTube channel. Winnings go to
charities. Watch the first episode here:
-Bill Perkins, a hedge fund manager and poker player,
those guys aren't in the news right now, details meeting his best bud Dan (...Blizerian) through
poker over at the
Robb Report.
-Refugee from Afghanistan wins one of 2021 poker's
biggest tournaments. The
Miami Herald has the story
here about a player that not long ago was dealing
with loss of family in war torn Afghanistan,
immigration detention, and more hardships. Now
a poker champion.
-Chad Holloway's PokerNews piece on Mark Ellis
Cortez's win in the Lone Star Poker Series at
Champions Social in Houston, TX. Lots of familiar
names won secondary events including Logan Hewett in
the bounty event, Justin Brassieur who won TWO
events, and Schuyler Thornton. Go
here
.
Polk-Negreanu challenge almost wrapped up.
CalvinAyre.com
details where it stands and addresses some of the
controversies during the action.
PEARL RIVER POKER OPEN SPRING 2021 SCHEDULE *Pending
Choctaw Gaming Approval
PEARL RIVER
POKER OPEN
It's back. Live tournament poker a couple of hours
away from almost everywhere in the gulf south. With
more of everything.
More options: including a 1k Old School
Freezeout. Limited registration window and one
bullet per player. It won't be just the play making
you wonder if it's 1999 when you register this one.
Joe Saleh requested it and when the 2019 Gulf Coast
Poker Player of the Year Joe Saleh asks for a
tournament we have to listen.
More guarantees featuring the twin 100k Guarantees.
Opening weekend BagWow! format with bonuses for
bagging multiple flights. Second weekend the Main
Event.
More bounties in the Celebrity Bounty tournament? No
spoilers but the odds on favorite to be the 2020
Gulf Coast Player of the Year says he'll be there
and he'll be a bounty.
More in the prize pools: Monday's tournament bumped
up to a 50k Guarantee.
More dealers and more tables.
March 18 - 28. Full schedule to be released (very)
soon.
Watch this space and our social media for ways to
win your way into one of the events for free.
LOUISIANA,
THE BIRTHPLACE OF POKER, IS FOR POKER WINNERS:
JOE GEAUXS
AND DOES IT #FORLINDA
Joe Hebert of Metairie won the domestic 2020 WSOP
Main Event title and on January 3rd will fight the
Euro winner Damian Salas for the bracelet, the
banner, the glory and another 1 million dollars.
Pictures of Joe are by Jaime Thomson and courtesy of
PokerNews. Go
here for their terrific coverage of the
WSOP. And let's start with a big thank you to
Joe for wearing that patch on his wrist. So
glad a local supports a local business and vice
versa!
Joe earned over 1.5 million for his final table
victory. A table that played out as though there
were a guiding hand from beyond. There seemed to be
very little craziness, quite atypical for a WSOP
Main Event final table, and Joe won the heads up
battle in one hand.
Fitting for Joe he won with Ace-Queen. Joe dedicated
the tournament to his mom Linda who passed this
summer of a pulmonary embolism. The poker Ace
winning for his Queen #ForLinda. The
money went all in preflop. Joe started behind but we
had to know he was going to come back to win when we
saw the pocket queens of his opponent Ron Jenkins.
An Ace found the the board and left Jenkins with one
out that didn't come. Of course not, the
absent queen was behind Joe all along.
The final table started nearly as fast as heads up
play finished with Gershon Distenfeld falling to
Queens twice in the first six hands to get
eliminated. Yes, the championship dedicated
#ForLinda was bookended by Queens determining the
action. Eerie concidences maybe... or maybe if you
believe in that kind of thing an angel on Joe's
shoulder.
Jenkins won a little over a million for second.
Michael Cannon finished third. Ryan Hagerty finished
fourth. Tony Yuan fifth followed by maybe the most
active and aggressive player on the table Harrison
Dobin in sixth. A couple of tough spots had Shawn
Stroke bow out in seventh.
Prior to the final table Upeshka De Silva, suffered
the cruel fate of contracting Covid and per the
rules of the tournament had to forfeit his chips and
take 9th place money. Upeshka with ties to Houston,
TX was going for his fourth WSOP bracelet and
despite being 8th in chips was probably the one
player everybody was most concerned about.
Regarding the play, Joe made some conscious tactical
decisions on his plan for the final table that he
shared with us on the condition we not to write
about in our pre tournament
interview. Retrospectively, he did exactly
as he said he would and it worked out like he
thought it would. Many people thought as the
overwhelming chip leader he should come out pressing
and apply ICM pressure with the stiff payjumps.
Maybe on an ordinary final table but with these
opponents, many of them willfully ignoring ICM for
their own reasons, a slightly different strategy
that he applied worked. When it was time to flex his
stack--he did and it worked again.
We can't wait to see the ESPN broadcast as we
haven't discussed the hands with Joe yet. Maybe the
cards determined some of his play or maybe his play
determined much of the results. Will be a fun watch.
That will air in February, but more pressing matters
now. Joe plays Damian Salas on January 3rd and we'll
be clicking refresh on PokerNews like the poker
junkies we are during the heads up match. We know
ESPN hopes that heads up conflict takes more then
one hand. But if Joe wins it in the first hand
again, so be it--what will be will be!
VIRTUAL RAIL
AND RUNGOODGEAR:
If you want to join us on Joe's virtual rail we have
a thread on facebook where we are wishing him well
and we know he'll check it to see all his support
just before the Heads Up match. Please leave a
message or pic wishing him the best. Go to the
pinned post
here.
You'll notice the awesome shirts a lot of us are
wearing designed and made by
RunGoodGear.com.
Want to say thanks again to Tana Karn for allowing
GCP to be on the shoulder as we join them in
supporting our friend Joe in this epic run. Very
generous of RunGood as making fan shirts has become
their thing during the Main Event. Check out their
site there is some great poker gear on there.
CHRIS READ:
Another win for Louisiana as one of our own Chris
Read takes down the seniors event in a series at
private poker club in Georgia. Chris is now a
Georgia native but originally hails from Louisiana
and a devoted Saints fan. Believe she won a hunk of
silver for her play. We also think she has the best
looking mask in all of poker. She's pictured
with JJ Liu.
BERT FOS WINS:
Maybe it's just us but hard to open Facebook with
out seeing NOLA player Bert Fos and his giant check
greet us in an ad for an online site. Played
many times with Bert so happy to see it.
Well done for taking it down Bert. We always wonder
what happens to the giant checks? They go up in a
man cave?
Bert let us know...
JOE HEBERT
CHIP LEADER 2020 WSOP MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE:
We've been sitting on an update for a little bit
until we had a chance to have an official interview
with Joe. The native of Metairie, LA went to Las
Vegas to play some of the online events this month
and won a satellite to the WSOP Main Event.
We didn't think there were too many locals playing
this year as they had to travel to Nevada or New
Jersey so it was a little off our radar.. When we
found out Hebert was 24 out of just 26 players left,
we immediately started sweating him on the PokerNews
twitch stream and he immediately started chipping up
(coincidence we think not).
What a run! So check out our
interview with Joe where we get deep into that
run and the special motivations he has in this crazy
year. He mentions several players from around the
region including Mike Lech of Arkansas, BJ McBrayer
of Alabama, Ben Thomas of Baton Rouge and all his
friends in NOLA and the Metairie bar scene.
Virtual rail will be wearing T-Shirts made by Tana
Karn and RunGoodGear to support Joe from afar.
As you can tell from the interview Joe is easy to
root for and we think it's about time somebody
brought the WSOP Main Event back to the birthplace
of poker. Many of us will be wearing these
sweet rail shirts made by Tana Karn and RunGoodGear.
Chipcounts from PokerNews:
Joseph "kolebear" Hebert 13,052,534
Shawn "shades927" Stroke 5,252,000
Ryan "Hagzzz021" Hagerty 5,071,572
Ye "YUAN365" Yuan 4,829,459
Michael "geNet1x_" Cannon 4,408,847
Gershon "jets613" Distenfeld 3,475,481
Ron "Samthedog76" Jenkins 2,476,746
Upeshka "gomezhamburg" De Silva 2,151,969
Harrison "Harrisond33" Dobin 1,581,392
Payouts for the U.S. final nine start at 98k and go
all the way up to 1.5 million. Second also will be a
millionaire. Sixth place on will earn more then
200k.
Texan Upeshka De Silva may only have 2.1 million in
chips but surely is the most accomplished player
left with three bracelets to his name. Joe did well
to bust some of the other elite pros including
Martin Zamani and Dan Zack just before the final
table.
The final table will play out December 28th. From
there the winner will then play the International
Bracket winner heads up for the bracelet and an
additional one million dollars. Argentinian Damian
Salas, who has another WSOP final table to his name,
already won the international tournament on GGPoker.
DON'T
FORGET TO HEAD TO OUR
