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PODCASTS

 

Clyde Duet (Local Author)  Episode 5 /2021

ARCHIVE:

Michael Monaghan Episode 4 /2021

Will "Poker Monkey" Souther Episode 3 /2021

Paul Dutsch Episode 2 / 2021   

Corey Harrison Episode 1 /2021

BLOGS

DINE ON THE WHALES

 Wild Bill's reflections on poker, sports, and issues facing the Gulf Coast. Wild Bill is one half of GCP. Poker player, poker coach, and Gulf Coast Poker Tour operator.

 POKER IS WAR>

 Gene D is the other half of GCP. Gene shares his outlook on the local and national poker scene. His mantra is money won is sweeter than money earned. 

THE POKER MONKEY

 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.

 

NO DOUBT'N NOLAN DALLA

 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.  

 

LITTLE THOUGHTS

 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.

 

POKER FACES IN THE CROWD

 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.

N-SIDE POKER

 PLAYER N scribes tales of grifters, sleaze balls, and beautiful card sharks all hustling on the Coast.

PARTNERS
MR. APPLE:
World famous New Orleans candy apples and signature desserts.  Around the corner from Harrahs NOLA. Order yours online right now!

Go HERE


WE ARE HEADED TO HARRAHS FOR POKERGRAS
July 29 - August 8!
Book those hotels and AirBNBs now!







OUT OF BOUNDS SPORTS BAR AND GRILL
4445 Veterans BLVD, Metaire, LA
504.889.7359

"THE MILLY IN PHILLY"
September 9 - 19
Pearl River Resorts
 Philadelphia, MS

 SCHEDULE and STRUCTURES
(scroll down)

 In the spirit of such Heavyweight clashes like the Thrilla in Manilla, the Rumble in the Jungle, and the Malice at the Palace, the Milly in Philly is coming. Fistfuls of chips will fly as you fight for the Million Dollars in guarantees.

 If there is only one event you play this year, it's gotta be the Milly in Philly.
FRESH PODCAST:

Clyde Duet  Episode 5 /2021

ARCHIVE:

Michael Monaghan Episode 4 /2021

Will "Poker Monkey" Souther GCP PODCAST Episode 3 /2021

                                          Paul Dutsch GCP PODCAST Episode 2 / 2021   

                                  Corey Harrison GCP PODCAST Episode 1 /2021
N VEGAS:NEWS
MILLY IN PHILLY:

ROOKIES:

They may be new to poker but the handled the end of the tournament like they were seniors. A 15 way chop in the rookies event inusred everybody left with over $1,000 in winnings.

We spy a couple of players in there who will probably be soon over the 25k maximum. Still congratulations to all 15 many of them can say that won as much as anybody in the first tournament they played.

SENIORS:

Speaking of seniors and chops they also made an even chop. James Collins gets the trophy for the biggest chip stack but the top 10 all won just under 3k.

Several familiar names in the money including Thuy Djedjos, Robert Veazy, Grover Faulkner, Greg Raymer, Terry Simpson, Ralph Reid and Martha Stewart (she should have played our celebrity tournament).

RESULTS:
SENIORS ROOKIES
1 James Collins 2956 1 Jaime Westmoreland 1096
2 Michale Miller 2956 2 Wade Smith 1096
3 Thuy Djedjos 2956 3 Wayne Neyland 1096
4 Ralph Reid 2956 4 Hiren Arora 1096
5 Martha Stewart 2956 5 Christopher Moore 1096
6 Ralph Speegle 2956 6 Nicholas Young 1096
7 Robert Veazey 2956 7 William Akins 1096
8 Terry Simpson 2956 8 Robert Camp 1096
9 Steve Bailey 2956 9 Susan Smith 1096
10 Lenard Anderson 2956 10 Leann Moore 1096
11 Grover Faulkner 601 11 David Gibson 1096
12 Curtis Terry 601 12 Travis Gordon 1096
13 Charles Patrick 601 13 Jason Bergeron 1096
14 Ronald Duckworth 601 14 Ronal Duckworth 1096
15 Greg Raymer 601 15 Paula Norwood 1096
16 Helen McBrearty 601
17 Larry Barker 601
18 Charles Griffin 301
19 Raymond Riley 300
MILLY IN PHILLY:

FREEZEOUT:

A talented field of 77 pared down to a loaded final three tables. We expected a high level of play and saw it. Big name after big name busted until there were just 8 left. At the final table Preston McEwen took a big lead but ultimately finished third. BJ McBrayer repeated his final table performance in this event in June placing 5th. Our winner Donovan Dean continued a solid week here at Pearl River Resorts winning $26,180. Carl Masters likewise has had a great week taking second place for $16,170. 

Hamid Izadi finished 4th. Christopher Lane, David Moses, and Kenneth Schatten were the rest of the 8 handed final table.

MONSTER STACK:

Forrest Raleigh got the best of a four way chop winning the trophy and over 10k. Damon Tucker (2nd $8890), Daniel Bonet (3rd $8823) and Thongla Tanthalansy (4th $7122) were involved in the chop.

Kristi Bailey finished 6th as the last woman standing.

COMPLETE RESULTS:

MONSTER STACK MONSTER STACK cont. OLD SCHOOL FREEZEOUT
1 Forrest Raleigh 10008 13 Paul Strizhevsky 857 1 Donovan Dean 26180
2 Damon Tucker 8890 14 Robin Glaysher 857 2 Carl Masters 16170
3 Daniel Bonet 8823 15 William Anderson 857 3 Preston McEwen 10780
4 Thongla Tanthalansy 7122 16 Lisa Davis 714 4 Hamid Izadi 6930
5 Clifton Collins 3713 17 Chad Noel 714 5 BJ McBrayer 5390
6 Kristi Bailey 2570 18 Joel Camargo 714 6 Christopher Lane 4620
7 Corey Bierria 1999 19 Larry Downey 571 7 David Moses 3850
8 Thomas Jacobs 1714 20 Adison Kloysuntia 571 8 Kenneth Schatten 3080
9 Jeremy Moore 1142 21 Alan Downey 571
10 Daniel Brock 1000 22 Joseph Carden 571
11 John Ducote Jr 1000 23 Paul Patterson 571
12 Jacob Perkins 1000 24 David Davis 571


MILLY IN PHILLY:

LAST LONGER:

Larry Downey earned 13,000 for first place in the $300 plus Last Longer. Massimo Dirienzo fell in heads up action but still earned 8000. Also at the final table: Derek Normand (3rd $5500); Curtis Terry (4th $4375); Sley Sanchez (5th $3250); Peter Gurney (6th $2250); David Davis (7th $1750); Marvin Williams Jr (8th $1500); and Roy Henry (9th $1000).

The Last longer side pool was split between 8 players with roughly 12 left in the field. Each made an additional $737.

CELEBRITY BOUNTY:

Jason Greeson (pictured) played the part of Jason from "Friday the 13th" took the celeb bounty literally and machete'd the field in a chop that saw him win the event.

Ronald Palculict got second, Don Willis third, Larry Little fourth and Marvin Williams fifth with all players making more than $2300 in the distribution. Jack Fortman went out just before the chop earning $977. Roy Henry, Chan Pelton and Clyde Fields rounded out the final table. Robin Glaysher finished in the money as the last woman standing.

POP UP PLO:

Former runner up in the Pearl RIver Main Event Walker Miskelly won 5k flat for first place in the Pop Up PLO. His good buddy Cody Stanford had to settle for second place with a $3245 hit. Segdrick Collins finished third for $2163. Roderick Moreland, David Huwe, Joshua Heinze, Justin Kelly, Fred Benjamin, and Kristi Bailey all made the money as the top nine.

COMPLETE RESULTS:

Last Longer Celeb Bounty Pop Up PLO
1 Larry Downey 13000 1 Jason Greeson $3,362 1 Walker Miskelly 50000
2 Massimo Dirienzo 8000 2 Ronald Palculict $3,558 2 William Stanford 3245
3 Derek Normand 5500 3 Don Willis $2,942 3 Segdrick Collins 2163
4 Curtis Terry 4375 4 Larry Little $2,571 4 Roderick Moreland 1391
5 Sley Sanchez 3250 5 Marvin Williams $2,393 5 David Huwe 1082
6 Peter Gurney 2250 6 Jack Fortman 977 6 Joshua Heinze 927
7 David Davis 1750 7 Roy Henry 760 7 Justin Kelly 773
8 Marvin Williams Jr. 1500 8 Chan Pelton 652 8 Fred Benjamin 618
9 Roy Henry 1000 9 Clyde Fields 434 9 Kirsti Bailey 251
10 David Champion 875 10 Stanley Williams 380
11 Kenneth Schatten 875 11 Jeffrey Hearn 380
12 Donald Shipley JR 875 12 Christopher Williamson 380
13 William Hinson 875 13 Jason Riesenberg 380
14 Tara Snow 875 14 Robin Glaysher 380
15 Brian Henry 875 15 Eddy Smith 380
16 Clinton Dunn 875 16 Jon Clement 380
17 Greg Raymer 875 17 Tavis Mosely 380
18 Joseph Carden 875 18 Aaron Decord 380
19 Stanley Williams 500 19 Lucas Tae 217
20 Michael Williams 500 20 Preston Croft 217
21 Kenneth Brosnahan 500 21 Debra Irvine 217

MILLY IN PHILLY:

ESKRIDGE WINS WOMENS EVENT:

Brenda Eskridge gets the W in the Women's event. A three way chop between Joanne Davis and Pamela Belote gave Eskridge the trophy for being the chip leader. All three players won $2176. Melissa Booth finished third for $837, Kimberly Crawford fifth for $586, and Robin Glaysher sixth for $419.

A big thank you to all the ladies who made this event possible including, but certainly not limited to, Bonnie Weitzel and the members of the WPA who sponsored the event.  We can't forget Prissy Giroir and Jennifer Germany of PLON.  We are lucky to have so many women in our region working to grow the game. GCP and Pearl River Resorts are even luckier to be able to partner with them.

BIG CHOP IN MONDAY 100K:

A late night chop insured Lucas Tae got the trophy and by far the biggest share of loot with a 20k visit to cashier. Seven other players divvied up the remainder. Aaron Decord pocketed $12940 while Justin Bracy, Tim Caffrey, Jason Eskridge, Robert Lemke, Jeremy Letson and Peter Gurney all earned 10k.

JW Carter was the unlucky player to bust just before the chop in 9th for $2395. 472 total players created a prize pool over $136k with 50 paid.

SIZZLER CHOPS:

The top five in the Sizzler brokered a late night chop dead even with $7908 for each player. Joshua Plummer got the trophy but Shawn Dugas, Robert Gregory, Ronald Palculict and Teddy Conner got the same payout.

Also at the final table: Taylor Dean (6th $2700); Larry Serebrany (7th $2100); Jack Fortman (8th $1680) and Thomas Page (9th $1200).

COMPLETE RESULTS:

SIZZLER  LADIES EVENT
1 Joshua Plummer 7908 15 James Robertson 900 1 Brenda Eskridge 2176
2 Shawn Dugas 7908 16 Marilyn Puig 750 2 Joanne Davis 2176
3 Robert Gregory 7908 17 Freddie Gladney JF 750 3 Pamela Belote 2176
4 Ronald Palculict 7908 18 Juan Ronquillo 750 4 Melissa Booth 837
5 Teddy Conner Jr 7908 19 Kenneth Schatten 600 5 Kimberly Crawford 586
6 Taylor Deane 2700 20 Lafarrah Weeks 600 6 Robin Glaysher 419
7 Larry Serebrany 2100 21 Horace Lovie 600
8 Jack Fortman 1680 22 Jordan Williams 480
9 Thomas Page 1200 23 Preston Croft 480
10 Alvin Ratliff 1050 24 Jimmy Millsaps 480
11 Kevin Henerson 1050 25 David Solowes 480
12 Jason Crews 1050 26 Justin Hunt 480
13 Anthony Gray 900 27 Jerry Giroir 480
14 Derek Warriner 900

100k GUARANTEE
1 Lucas Tae 20,000 26 Krystal Ancar 1027
2 Aaron Decord 12940 27 William Stanford 1027
3 Justin Bracy 10000 28 Forrest Raleigh 888
4 Tim Caffrey 10000 29 Phillip Johnson 888
5 Jason Eskridge 10000 30 Stanislav Angelov 888
6 Robert Lemke 10000 31 Nassar Jaser 820
7 Jeremy Letson 10000 32 William Hinson 820
8 Peter Gurney 10000 33 Massimo Dirienzo 820
9 JW Carter 2395 34 James Stamplye 683
10 Jeffrey Hearn 2190 35 Jerrit Pack 683
11 Josie Campbell 2190 36 James McPherson 683
12 Larry Srebrany 2190 37 Randall Albritton 615
13 David Hines 1779 38 Eric Yim 615
14 Brenda Eskridge 1779 39 Preston McEwen 615
15 David Huwe 1779 40 James Barden 615
16 Matthew Johnson 1369 41 Charles Dawson 615
17 Lucas Hillman 1369 42 Terry Simpson 615
18 Joshua Simpson 1369 43 Derek Normand 615
19 Marsha Adams 1232 44 Godfrey Morgan 615
20 Christopher Lane 1232 45 Timothy Garles 615
21 Lunique Petiote 1232 46 Matthew South 546
22 Marvin Williams 1095 47 Timothy Kelley 546
23 Jason Riesenberg 1095 48 Lap Ng 546
24 Scott Weis 1095 49 Chan Pelton 546
25 John Major 1027 50 Kevin Henderson 546
MILLY IN PHILLY:

EVENT ONE RECAP:


BRADSHAW WINS IT:

After a spirit ICM chop discussion broke down between the final six players action continued to heads up play when David Bradshaw and Carl Masters chopped it.
Logan Hewett fell in third place. Bradshaw took home $56,310 and Masters earned $45,000. Hewett won $28,796. Rogen Chhabra (4th $22484), Buddy Nix (5th $17198), James Boulware (6th $13,334), Hyman Friedman (7th $10,415), Adam Townshend (8th $8245) and David Hayes (9th $6589) rounded out the final table.

PETIOTE LAST WOMAN STANDING:

The Bag Bonus Event saw 29 players multi-bag with only six getting the triple bag. The other 23 double bagged. Esther Petiote was the last woman standing winning $4340 for 14th place. The 5 flight event returned 181 players on Sunday with more than 50 players making over 1k.

FULL RESULTS:

1 David Bradshaw 56310 61 Chester Dilday 986 121 Joe Hebert 592
2 Carl Masters 45000 62 Michale Pelt 986 122 Lance Cone 592
3 Logan Hewett 28796 63 Richard Garner 986 123 Anthony Donaldson 592
4 Rogen Chhabra 22484 64 Jeremy Pickett 907 124 Matthew Higgins 592
5 Lemuel "Buddy" Nix 17198 65 Aaron Decord 907 125 Douglas Segers 592
6 James Boulware 13334 66 William Olivera 907 126 Anthony Gray 592
7 Hyman Friedman 10415 67 Nicholas Rodrique 907 127 Jason Lefort 592
8 Adam Townshend 8245 68 Ronald Duckworth 907 128 Meichael Peery 592
9 David Hayes 6589 69 Forrest Wofford 907 129 Cody Stanford 592
10 Huey Hulin 5326 70 Orion Allen 907 130 Cheyen Auterson 592
11 Austin Reilly 5326 71 David Davis 907 131 Nicholas Young 592
12 Jesse Lott 5326 72 Joseph Brewer 907 132 Randall Smith 592
13 Charles Dawson III 4340 73 William Joiner 828 133 Matthew Smith 592
14 Esther Petiote 4340 74 Thomas Jones 828 134 JW Carter 592
15 Carlton Strickland 4340 75 Paul Zgheib 828 135 Peter Gurney 592
16 Patrick "PJ" Horrigan 3552 76 Preston McEwen 828 136 Roy Henry 592
17 Robert Parnell 3552 77 Harold Lam 828 137 Preston Brock Croft 592
18 David Wilkens 3552 78 Chan Pelton 828 138 BJ McBrayer 592
19 Jacob Corda 2960 79 Robert Henderson 828 139 Justin Metz 592
20 Cole Kennedy 2960 80 Michael Sengdetka 828 140 Lawrence Highfield 592
21 Dustin Stewart 2960 81 Robert Lemke 828 141 Bryan Glasscock 592
22 Frederick Miller III 2487 82 Marilyn Puig 710 142 Brandon Guillory 592
23 Robert Wetzel 2487 83 Michael Hathcock 710 143 Darius Flowers 592
24 Frank Covich 2487 84 Matthew Aycock 710 144 Robert Taylor 592
25 David Hines 2132 85 William Rogers 710 145 David Tanery 553
26 Mark Davis 2132 86 Nicholas Hobbs 710 146 Joshua Emorty 553
27 Christian Pasnick 2132 87 Taylor Dean 710 147 Lori Smith 553
28 James Stampley 1817 88 Bobby Moree 710 148 David Champion 553
29 Justin Kelly 1817 89 Paula Norwood 710 149 Keith Gamble 553
30 Segdrick Coolins 1817 90 Donnie Phan 710 150 Zack McMullins 553
31 David McJenkins 1540 91 Paul Junkin 710 151 Thomas Page 553
32 Tai Cao 1540 92 Lucas Tae 710 152 William Bowlett 553
33 Jason Rogers 1540 93 John Seale 710 153 Phillip Wade 553
34 Christopher Sumrall 1381 94 Joaquin Grands 710 154 Justin Hunt 553
35 Clifford Matthews 1381 95 Derek Ridley 710 155 Jay Bishop 553
36 Ralph Reid 1381 96 Geraldo Crayton 710 156 Melissa Booth 553
37 Curtis Terry 1223 97 Matthew Johnson 710 157 James Burke 553
38 Tim Burden 1223 98 Lunique Petiote 710 158 Dennis Jones 553
39 Daniel Lowery 1223 99 William Sadka 710 159 Jerry Vanlandingham 553
40 Forrest Raleigh 1223 100 Chris Cochran 631 160 Lucas Hillman 553
41 Mary Carey 1223 101 Susan Murphey 631 161 Walker Miskelly 553
42 Alec Wilson 1223 102 Srikanth Manchikatla 631 162 Matt South 553
43 John Holley 1223 103 Lonny Weitzel 631 163 Tommy Adams  553
44 Douglas Roby 1223 104 Anthony Reynolds 631 164 Randall Alleman 553
45 Nicholas Prejeant 1223 105 David Solowes 631 165 Louis Manzella 553
46 Donovan Dean 1105 106 Charles Westbrook 631 166 Thomas Dowdle 553
47 Scott Weiss 1105 107 Francis Boquet 631 167 Terry Simpson 553
48 Derrick Cutler 1105 108 David Hobson 631 168 Eric Lefort 553
49 Michael Williams 1105 109 Adam Byars 631 169 Jason Schott 553
50 Dustin Sampey 1105 110 Matthew Welch 631 170 Kenard Bowie 553
51 Matthew Wetzel 1105 111 James Kizer 631 171 Christopher Barger 513
52 Thuy Djedjos 1105 112 Hugh Holmes 631 172 Freddie Gladney 513
53 Thongla Nanthalangy 1105 113 DNR 631 173 Richard Diamond 513
54 Matthew Clarkson 1105 114 Adam Cotant 631 174 Austin Paulin 513
55 James Davis 986 115 Jeffrey Hearn 631 175 Matthew Hamilton 513
56 Joseph Carden 986 116 Seth Lesniak 631 176 Wyatt Boothe 513
57 Trace Henderson 986 117 Bradley Gray 631 177 Randy Hollis 513
58 Paul Legget 986 118 John Jacob 592 178 William Akins 513
59 David Lee 986 119 Ray Langston 592 179 Lacey Coffey 513
60 Herman Stewart 986 120 Charles Bell 592 180 John Humpries 513
181 Robert Gregory 513
POKER GRAS:

MAIN EVENT WRAP-UP:


Joe Hebert, GCP's Player of the Year, matched Joe Saleh's feat of winning the Poker Gras Main Event after being awarded his Player of the Year trophy.

Joe took a chip lead at the final table and preserved it up to a four way chop. He got the most, just under 40k, and the trophy. Joe (Hebert) did do Joe (Saleh) one better by also winning another Poker Gras event--chopping a Friday night Turbo with Breakout Player of the Year Preston McEwen (left in pic).

John Jenkins (yellow shirt) chip stack got him a juicer cut of the deal for $32.4k. Roger Javier (in teal shirt) and Taylor Aguillard (in Huk hat) both made over 25.5k. The deal was made shortly after Sidney Farber (pictured below)  busted in fifth for 12.7k.

Farber won one of our social media contests and made the long drive down from West Virginia to play the 1k Old School Freezout and cash in his Main ticket.  Crazy how often players have parlayed these free seats into real money in our events. Jonathan Pansano another social media contest winner also cashed and won an earlier event during the week.

The final table also included familiar names Chase Turner (7th 9.6k), David Chocheles (7th $7.4k), Nekoda "Cody" Foster (8th $5.9k) and Michael Monaghan (9th $4.7k). Monaghan matched Todd Skinner as the only players to make two Poker Gras Main Event final tables.  Foster and Aguillard had the distinction of making the final tables of both the reentry and the Main Event.

It was also a good run for GCP Award winners: Breakout Player of the Year winner Preston McEwen cashed in 14th, Senior Player of the Year Hamid Izadi cashed in 25th, Female Player of the Year Chris Read cashed in 36th, and Industry Professional of the year Justin Hammer cashed in 46th. So yes, every winner  that was there cashed the Main Event.

COMPLETE PAYOUTS:
1 Joe Hebert $39,716 18 Konstantin Si $2,580 35 Allan Farber $1,210
2 John Jenkins $32,479 19 Kien Tran $2,166 36 Christina Read $1,210
3 Roger Javier $25,586 20 Wayne Schmidt $2,166 37 John Cressend $1,090
4 Taylor Aguillard $25,514 21 Ruth Hall $2,166 38 Kenneth Parker $1,090
5 Sidney Farber $12,715 22 Mark Dempsey $1,842 39 Barry Faust $1,090
6 Chase Turner $9,676 23 Rebecca Campbell $1,842 40 Ronald Tremblay $1,090
7 David Chocheles $7,465 24 David Lee $1,842 41 Terry Moore $1,090
8 Nekoda Foster $5,935 25 Hamid Izadi $1,586 42 Christopher Battles $1,090
9 Michael Monaghan $4,720 26 Tim Sanderson $1,586 43 Ah Yeoh $1,090
10 Preston Croft $3,809 27 Derek Normand $1,586 44 James Lemelle $1,090
11 Harvey Smith $3,809 28 Randy Gordon $1,420 45 Heather Hardie $1,090
12 John Major $3,809 29 Bill Flippen $1,420 46 Justin Hammer 990
13 Brandon Guillory $3,115 30 Barbara Skinner $1,420 47 Alfred Blue 990
14 Preston McEwen $3,115 31 Stuart Slaton  $1,320 48 Jonathan Pansano 990
15 BJ McBrayer $3,115 32 Donald Colletti $1,320 49 Eric Vogel 990
16 Mohammad Dastoori $2,580 33 Greg Urbanski $1,320 50 Derek Siess 990
17 Mark Fischer $2,580 34 Jaime Tran $1,210 51 Clarence Clement 990

GULF COAST POKER AWARD WINNERS:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

Joe Hebert

FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

Chris Read

BREAKOUT PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

Preston McEwen

SENIOR OF THE YEAR:

Hamid Izadi

CONTENT PROVIDER OF THE YEAR:

PokerNews Podcast

INDUSTRY PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR:

Justin Hammer

LOVE OF POKER AWARD:

Ron Held

Watch video here.

Thanks to the efforts of Jo Ella McIntosh, and Harrah's New Orleans, the pictures of Joe Hebert and Ron Held now hang in the poker room.

We were delighted to honor Ron's love of the game and give his trophy to his widow and family.
POKER MOURNS THE LOSS OF ANOTHER:

Sadly, Mike Vernace lost his short but grueling battle with Covid recently. In the New Orleans poker community we've lost a great friend and lover of our game. A staple in home and bar games for years, Mike recently began to travel a bit more for poker.

The messages of grief following his passing are a testament to the quality person that he was and how deeply he will be missed. Just about as good a guy, and as wholesome a person you could ask for as a friend. He  was always ready to offer a helping hand.

In all the years playing poker with Mike we never saw him have a bad interaction with another player. A class act who loved his family deeply. Our thoughts are with them and his friends right now.

We hope everybody is taking every measure they can to protect themselves from this virus. We've lost too many already in our community. We are also praying for those we know who are currently very sick.
POKER GRAS RECAP:

PENG "GUI" ZHENG WINS HIGH ROLLER OLD SCHOOL FREEZEOUT:

Gui was our 2019 Cash Game player of the year, an award that did not return in 2020 but Gui sure did. He beat a load field in the $1100 Old School Freezeout. Gui won over 22k for first and his heads up opponent Robert Georato took home 13.6k for second.

One of our favorites, Gerald Stogner, who seems to run good in GCP gear finished third for just under 9k. Gary Callais (4th 6.1k), Thomas Jacobs (5th 4.5k) and Konstantin Suvorkin (6th 3.4k) rounded out the in the money players.

ONE DAY CHOP:

Judge Terry Moore chopped the One Day NLHE event with two GCP Award winners. Player of the Year Joe Hebert and Newcomer of the Year Preston McEwen joined him in winning over 3k. The final table included Lap Ng, Thomas Darwin, Todd Skiner, Clarence Celment, Frank Natal and Bryan Tudor who all made the money.

DON'T POKER THE BEAR:

The finale to the series the Deep Stack was won by local John Marcello who has made "Don't Poker the Bear," his catchphrase. In winning over 9k for first he must have said it quite a bit over the day. Lots of familiar names in the money:

1 John Marcello $9,170
2 Donovan Dean $5,704
3 Giang Nguyen $4,198
4 Zhou Lin $3,063
5 Clinton Bordelon $1,776
6 Derek Normand $1,391
7 Rebecca Campbell $1,110
8 Ruth Hall $902
9 Alex Tassin $746
10 Priscillia Giroir $746
11 Eric Vogel $746
12 Todd Skinner $629

POKER GRAS RECAPS:

ELEVATED CELEBRATION IN RE-ENTRY:

Kris Kent, co-owner of one our sponsors, Celevate Energy drinks, took down the re-entry event after making a deal heads up. He and Kelly Hebert agreed to guarantee second place $23,000 and play it out for the trophy, and the glory. A wild tournament for the winner as he entered many pots like Clark Kent with his pair under another pair and then turn into Superman as he got there. He credited his good run, naturally, to his energy drink.

Jacob Shambaugh (3rd 14k), Jonathan "Ladder-Up" Wisbey (4th 10.5k), Umut Meraler (5th 7,8k), Taylor Aguillard (6th 5.9k), Nekoda "Cody" Foster (7th 4.6k), Chris Hight (8th 3.6k) and Gavin Munroe (9th 2.8k) rounded out the final table. 660 players smashed the re-entry total from 2019 and set a Poker Gras record for total players in an event.

Lots of familiar names made deep runs including Robert Brown, Corey Harrison, Alex Wood, Sam Folkins, Yousef Saleh, Jovon Williams, Michael Green, Michael Benton, John Finnan and David Johnson.

ROOKIE CHOP:

Michael Colbert (btw contact us... we got some free swag for you) got credit for the win after making a 6 way chop that included Joe Eubanks, Jeremy Deblieux, Jason Napoli, Mike Flowers and Samuel Stockwell. Remember in this event, our biggest Rookie event at any venue, you were only eligible to play if you started with less than 25k in career earnings according to Hendon Mob.
At least one of the players who cashed went over the 25k total with their cash.

BACK2BACK BRADY:

Charles Brady took out his final two opponents on the last hand to win event two after barreling through the field. Clifford Matthews came up just short but had more chips to take second in the Bounty Turbo and Mark Dempsey (who had a great series) finished third.

Andrew Beaker and Andrew Head finished fourth and fifth. Robert Brown cashed again for sixth, with Devon Hayes just before him at the cage in seventh. Senior of the Year nominee Jerry Giroir finished eighth and Mark Daily was the first one paid in ninth.

In Event 3, the Over 40 tournament, Brady again triumphed this time having more chips than Michael Williams in a heads up deal. Stephen Hastings, John Durio, Joan Rhodes and Soctt Daily finished 3rd-6th in that order. Douglas Gore, Senior of the Year nominee Hiep Doan, Brian Waystack (who had himself a pretty good series), Larry Shepard, Danny Miles and Nick Rodrique also cashed.

Brady once again built up a massive stack, constantly put his opponents to the test and always seemed to have it or get there when called. At this point we thought Brady was a lock for the fictional title of Player of the Series.

DEMPSEY, NUNEZ, LITTLE MAKE DEAL:

Mark Dempsey (we told you he had a great series) chopped with Larry Little and Glenn Nunez in the bounty tournament. Nunez got an extra dollar and credit for the W in the deal. Chris Read, Carl Guillot, John Durio, Michael Penix, Jason Schott, and Madhed Moghaddan also cashed.
POKER GRAS:

SOCIAL MEDIA WINNER:

We drew two more social media contest winners. Lynn Kimball wonour contest for a Main Event seat at Poker Gras AND a Main Event seat at the Milly in Philly. One of most participated contests ever so congratulations to Lynn. She's been playing for 15 years and is mostly a cash game player. She loves the thrill of competition from playing (and beating--our words not hers) all the men at the table. Feels really good at putting her opponents on a hand and playing accordingly.

We are still waiting on our second winner to get back to us. We anticipate that some time today but just wanted everybody to know if you haven't heard from us yet. You likely weren't the winner.  We have also reached out to the next in line if the winner can not play for some reason.

But it's nots not over! We pinned the very last contest which will award TWO winners for Thursday's Poker Gras Main Event flight atop our Facebook page. Still time to enter (and please carefully follow the rules).

SINGLE TABLE SATELLITES:

Just been told today that they will run single tables to feed into the Freezeout starting now. Think the interest list and single tables will be in the tournament aread.

Also, should be going on tomorrow as well.

HOTEL:

Sorry if you tried the Hilton for the end of the week and couldn't get discount. Told the room block is back open. https://book.passkey.com/e/50210383

Book fast as block will go soon.
POKER GRAS:

Some answers to questions we've been fielding recently:

*(As of now) The tournament tables will be nine handed.

*Our multi-flight events will be best bag forward. 

*Structures (actually tweaked today--mostly just the break times) are on www.pokergras.com/schedule. Scroll down and click button to download.

*(As of now) Masks are optional but CDC, city (and maybe the state, too) are advising you to wear them vaxxed or not. That said it's an advisory and still optional.

*Yes, you can register today (Wednesday 28th) in advance for any tournament between 4 and 9 pm. We expect a big crowd this series so we encourage you do so.

Obviously, a lot of this is subject to change.  We just want to say thank you in advance for everybody coming and we appreciate your patience. Lots of logistical hurdles to pull this off in a very strange year.



CELEVATE:

Elevate your poker game and celebrate your wins at Poker Gras with our sponsor Celevate. Look for Kris Kent during the 9 to 5 tournament who has put a Celevate swag bounty on himself. Also, they will be contributing to our Wednesday Swag event.
TOURNAMENT NEWS:

POKER GRAS:

*We are just a couple of days from Event 1. 5pm start on Thursday $300 Rentry with four flights and a Sunday restart.
Might want to register early for that one. Early registration opens Wednesday 28th from 4 to 9 pm.  You can buy into every tournament in advance.

*Rookies event is Friday at 7pm. If you know any rookies in the area (under 25k in Hendon Mob stats) this is event to try poker for the first time.

*Think you can still get the room discount at the Hilton across the street if you mention the Harrahs Poker Tournament.

*Thank you to other sponsors like Celevate, California Drawstrings, Tee to the Green, and Mister Apple who will contribute to this event.

VENETIAN WINNERS:

Congrats to Rob Georato (left) and Chad Holloway (right) who each prevailed in Venetian tournaments. Rob won almost 68k, a Venetian Bronze coin, and the Champion Trophy in the $600 NLH Freezeout. Rob should be a Poker Gras, if you see him, ask him about the time he bested a Bear in heads up action. Yes, a bear.

Chad Holloway, PokerNews writer, bracelet winner and one time Tulane student, also won an event. Pretty good (and long) day for him. He busted an earlier tournament (in the money) and then jumped in the $300 NLH Monster Stack Freezout. Many hours and a few cocktails later, chopped it as the slight chipleader to get the W.

WPT:

Unfortunately, none of the locals made the TV table final six. D.J. Alexader came closest winning 44.5k for 12th. Blake Barousse went out 19th for 24k. Logan Hewett busted one before him, 20th, but also got 24k as the first in that payjump.
CARD COUNTER TRAILER:

A good many of ya'll are in this as extras.  As usual, this trailer basically is the movie but good to see some local venues in the backgrounds even if we can figure out the entire plot.  Reminder a lot of this was filmed at the IP.
WPT CHOCTAW DAY THREE:

Day two pared 260 players down to 35. Only 4 players bagged more than 2 million.  Albert Calderon is the chip leader with over 3 million in chips.

Notables still in:
Logan Hewett 1.475m 59 bb (8th in chips)
DJ Alexander 595k 24 bb
Blake Barousse 495k 20 bb (picture from World Poker Tour follow the Day Three action there)

Payouts:
Will Souther 40th ~$14.5k
Schulyer Thornton 43rd $12.5k
Michael Sanders 116th ~$6k
WPT CHOCTAW:



Locals on to day two:

The WPT Main Event in Choctaw, Oklahoma had 362 entrants in Flight A and 602 in B. Total of 964 for a prize pool north of 3.7 million. Min Cash just under 6k and first will be almost 560k.

Logan Hewitt after a strong end to Day 2 to finish near the top of the chip counts.  Saw TK Miles and Will Souther on the updates sharing a table (pic above from WPT.com--follow Day 2 there). Lots of familiar names and stack accumulators from around the region in the chip counts below. 260 players return today with 121 making money. Good luck to those still in.

Sorry if we missed anyone (let us know!) and good luck to all remaining.

Logan Hewett 543.5k
Gavin Munroe 271.5k
Schulyer Thornton 236k
Derek Normand 220k
Jared Ingles 202k
Jeremy Moore 166.5k (pictured right)
DJ Alexander 165k
Blake Barousse 160.5k
Will Souther aka Fresh Prince aka Will Smith 144k
BJ McBrayer 143.5k
Mike Monaghan 135.5k
Michael Sanders 134.5k
Mike Cordell 122k
Tai Cao 102k
Curtis Terry 85k
TK Miles 84.5k
Herb Montalbano 81k
Mina Greco 55.5k
Zhen Cai 54k
David Lee DNR
POKER GRAS NEWS:

SWAG EVENT: Jim Beam and Maker's Mark have contributed a ton of swag to our swag event Wednesday at 11am. Everybody will get SOMETHING (...unless we run outve). Just saw hoodies, t-shirt hoodies, backpacks and other goodies they've donated. Awesome.  Big thanks to our partners there (especially you Joe M!)

BUST OUT LOUNGE:   Don't forget during the weekend events the Bust Out Lounge will be rocking with lots of free Maker's Mark drinks.

REGISTRATION INFO: If you want to preregister, and based on turnout around the region you probably do, you can buyin in as early as Wednesday, July 28th from 4pm to 9pm. Also, told any time registration is open you can buy into ANY event UNLESS... here's the big unless... there is a line. Then you are limited to just one event.

POKER GRAS Ts: Some of you might land one in the Swag event but we'll also have them for sale. Really like them.
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTESTS WINNERS:

So far we have given away two Poker Gras Main Event $600 Seats (to be played August 5th). Just started a new contest today. Go win your way in. Go where?

Visit FACEBOOK,  TWITTER and INSTAGRAM to earn an entry to the random draws. Don't forget our BIG contest is still open and the winner to that gets a seat to the Poker Gras Main Event and Pearl River Main Event (September 9 - 19).

Congrats to Mike Simpson who participated on Twitter and won our GIF contest by random draw. And congrats to Prissy Giroir who pariticpated on every platform in our GCP Awards contest. Her Facebook entry was randomly drawn.

OTHER NEWS:

POKER GRAS STRUCTURES?

We got them--finally.  Go to www.pokergras.com/schedule.  Scroll down to download.

MONKEY IS BACK?

An entertaining blog post as per usual.
REST IN PEACE

It's with great sadness we report the loss of Jeremy Tinsley who passed away last week due to complications from Covid. The young father of three was a beloved player and a staple around the region. Thank you to Shawn Calvit for sharing the posts in our Facebook group about Jeremy. We pray for Jeremy's family and friends.

Jeremy won over 600k in tournament poker. Some of his biggest scores were in Tunica tournaments. Lots of glory and cash in World Poker Open's including a 1st place finish and a fifth place in a televised 10k WPT tournament.  You can tell from the outpouring of sadness Jeremy will be remembered for being a great person to strangers and friends alike. Many notables in the game tweeted or shared their sorrow that he passed way too young.

Please be safe out there everybody. Looks like we still got a long way to go before we put Covid behind us and these new variants are scarier and deadlier even for the young and healthy like Jeremy. Hope everybody does their part to protect themselves and their families until this is over.

Also, we mourn the passing of Layne Flack, the coolest of customers and six time bracelet winner. He came to New Orleans once with the WSOP Academy and taught a number of our readers. We had the pleasure of helping out in that seminar. He was a star of stars. His personality and smile surpassed even his great success on the felt.

The poker world lost two good ones this fortnight.
POKER GRAS HUB:  

Poker Gras rolls: July 29th - August 8th.

HOTEL RATES:

Harrahs has partnered with the Hilton Riverside for ~$121 a night room rates (including weekends).

https://book.passkey.com/e/50210383 or call 1 800 455-8667. Say you are booking for the Harrahs Poker Tournament to get discounted rate. Or say HPT (yeah, yeah we know--not our choice).  But book soon as they only have a small number of rooms.

Also, we know of some discounted rooms at other hotels nearby if you'd like other options. DM us on social media for those links...

SCHEDULE QUESTIONS:

We had some questions about our events. Here are the answers (Scroll down for complete schedule):

Event 1: Monster Stack is a best bag forward but not a BagWow! bonus event.

Rookies Event: Players are eligible if they have less then 25k in earnings per Hendon Mob. Got a home game friend who's afraid to jump into a tournament with all the sharks? Then, this is the event for him. If you are a cash game player and want to try out a tournament? Here's the event for you. Maybe you just win weeklies and bar tournaments so have a modest Hendon Mob--then jump in this one. You will be a favorite.  Idea behind this tournament is to bring in as many new players as possible. So spread the word and help grow the game.

Over 40: Why let all the over 50s only have the fun. It's basically a seniors with a younger cut off so we'll have a bigger prize pool and still dodge those "internet kids." :)

9-5 Crowd: It's a multi-flight, multi day tournament that starts after work.

Swag Event: We'll have plenty of swag donated by sponsors, GCP and Harrahs for those that play.

Freezeout: Expect a similar structure to our Freezeout in Pearl River. It's an old school format. No re-entries with one bullet per player.

GCP Awards Flight: We will be giving out our annual awards (back after a year off for Covid) to recognzie players and people from the region during this flight of the Main Event.

We expect to be posting structures to all the events very soon.

WIN A SEAT CONTESTS:

SOCIAL MEDIA
Okay the Big One will be running from now through the beginning of Poker Gras. In that social media contest you can win a seat to Pearl River's Main Event (September 9 - 19) and the Poker Gras Main Event.

Go to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to earn entries to a random drawing..

But wait... there's more.

We will be giving away additional Main Event Poker Gras seats every week with other social media contests. #2 will start VERY soon.

PLAY FOR IT
Every Saturday at 11am and Monday at 6pm the Harrahs weekly tournaments will ADD one Flight A Poker Gras Main Event Seat to the prizepool.

Also, single table satellites and satellites for the Freezout soming soon.
POKER NEWS:

Shout outs to Tai Cao (pictured in GCP hat), Bonnie Weitzel, Kristen Deardorff, Derek Normand, Chris Read, Charles Johnson and a slew of locals who had deep runs and cashes around the country recently.

POKER AUTHOR CLYDE DUET DID A PODCAST?

You better believe he did. He did ours.   Episode 5 /2021.

IS POKER A MAN'S WORLD?

-Las Vegas Review Journal looks at the gender gap in poker. Here.

IS THE NEW BIG BROTHER A POKER SHOW?

There's a new poker parlor on the set and "No risk, no reward" is the motto for the season. ET has the details.

WIN MILLIONS IN THE WYNN MILLIONS?

Three players won over a million in the $10 Million Guaranteed WYNN MILLIONS prize pool after a three way deal reduced the payjumps for the top three. Complete details on Andrew Moreno's victory here.
POKER GRAS:  

Finally, Poker Gras is ready to roll: July 29th - August 8th.

The schedule below is subject to state approval and there may yet be a surprise or two that pops up...

Pay attention to our Social media because Monday we'll drop one of our most generous Social Media contests we've ever done.  It'll include something sweet for Poker Gras AND a $600 Main Event seat for our Fall event in Pearl River (September 9 - 19).

Yes, is the answer to the most popular question we've been getting.  As is in Yes, Harrahs is working hard on getting some player room rates.  Big thank you to Jo Ella and her team for all the hard work they've done so far. Gene D has also been busy talking to local hotels and we should have some special rates within walking distance too. We will release that info ASAP.
 
PEARL RIVER MAIN EVENT RESULTS:


MCBRAYER WINS IT:

On the heels of a deep run in the Old School High Roller Freezeout that fell just short, BJ McBrayer finished it off in the Main. A third place and a first in the two biggest buy-ins of the week further cements BJ's case as one of the best players in the region.
After a heads of deal with John Song to even out the payouts a little bit, BJ won almost 82k.

Song's second place finish paid him 65k. Aaron Hernandez capped a solid week with a third place score of 41k. Chuck Brady and Jerry Giroir, GCP tournament staples, finished 4th and 5th winning 30k and 23k respectively.  Randall Davenport (6th 18k), Keith Canterbury (7th 13.7k), Chan Pelton (8th 10k), Rob Georgato (9th 8.5k) and last woman standing Susan Murphey (10th 7k) filled out the top ten.

950 players entered and created a 475k prizepool. Here are the complete payouts:

1 BJ McBrayer 81671 51 Clifford Matthews 1520
2 John Song 65334 52 Denis Meisinger 1520
3 Aaron Hernandez 41322 53 Antonio Velasquez 1520
4 Charles Brady 30825 54 Robert Hankins 1520
5 Jerry Giroir 23275 55 Thoas Darwin 1425
6 Randall Davenport 18050 56 William Joyner 1425
7 Keith Canterbury 13725 57 Russell Boyette 1425
8 Chan Pelton 10950 58 Dustin Stewart 1425
9 Rob Georato 8550 59 David Moses 1425
10 Susan Murphey 7030 60 Nicholas Hobbs 1425
11 Marc Hampson 7030 61 Dustin Shears 1425
12 Vafa Kamali 7030 62 Stefan Cvetkonski 1425
13 Michael Campbell 5700 63 Donald Dove 1425
14 Ryan Leerun 5700 64 Schuyler Thornton 1330
15 Umut Meraler 5700 65 Bryan Tudor 1330
16 Eric Lefort 4418 66 Fredrick Mclam 1330
17 James Dowen 4418 67 Debra Irvine 1330
18 Shawn Trahan 4418 68 Derek Normand 1330
19 William Safera 3943 69 John Major 1330
20 Chad Carver 3943 70 Marvin Williams 1330
21 James Allen 3943 71 Ralph Robinson 1330
22 Samuel Bowles 3325 72 Brittany Rodriguez 1330
23 Jaime Tran 3325 73 Segdrick Collins 1235
24 Dan Lowery 3325 74 Chase Forshey 1235
25 Bonnie Weitzel 2850 75 Morton Davis 1235
26 Steven Strickland 2850 76 William Doty 1235
27 Scott Hirsch 2850 77 James McCauley 1235
28 Forrest Wofford 2470 78 Joe Hebert 1235
29 Wiliam Stanford 2470 79 Wyatt Boothe 1235
30 Jeremy Eyer 2470 80 Matt South 1235
31 Michael Horchoff 2138 81 Charles Dawson 1235
32 Devin Lochridge 2138 82 Eric Sutton 1140
33 Norman McKelon 2138 83 Jeffrey Hewitt 1140
34 Philip Holifield 1855 84 Alan Dornay 1140
35 Tom Franklin 1855 85 Chase Turner 1140
36 Eric Burns 1855 86 Andrew Moon 1140
37 Jeremy Guabert 1663 87 Jaymie Virtusio 1140
38 Dell Taylor 1663 88 Michael Sanders 1140
39 Dejuante Alexander 1663 89 Prissy Giroir 1140
40 David Marcoullier 1663 90 Michael Owens 1140
41 Nicholas Hawkins 1663 91 Tai Cao 1045
42 Saeed Niu 1663 92 Lenard Anderson 1045
43 Robert Heard 1663 93 John Van Arnam 1045
44 Harold Kizzire 1663 94 Christopher Lane 1045
45 Roy Henry 1663 95 Clifford Chisolm 522.5
46 Joshua Patrick 1520 96 Greg James 522.5
47 Jerry Stumbo 1520
48 Christopher Conrad 1520
49 Chris Davis 1520
50 Yousef Saleh 1520
PEARL RIVER SUMMER SERIES RESULTS:

 HIGHLIGHTS:

BIG MONSTER STACK: A six way chop in Event Two featured James "Mousey" Davis, David Huwe, Lariena Garrett, Matt South, Derrick Cutler and Josh Warner. Mousey got the biggest chunk winning almost 22k. David Huwe got more for second biggest stack leaving with 18k.

CELEBRITY BOUNTY: Jeremy Moore finished first winning over $7200 and Vernon Langston made over $4400 for second. Greg Raymer went the furthest of any of the celeb bounties exiting in 6th place.

LAST LONGER: Jon Clement won almost 10k in Event 4 for first place. Leonard Lewandowski over 6k for second. Matt South, James Davis, Stephen Hastings and Josh Thibodaux all earned over 1k for their finishes.

OLD SCHOOL FREEZEOUT: Charles Dawson beat Jeremy Moore heads up in Event 5. Dawson made just under 30k for first. BJ McBrayer finished third. Jaime Kizer, Don Dove, Rob Georato, Dyanl Lemery, Keith Gamble, Bradley Hicks and Elliot Howze also cashed the prestigious event.

POP UP PLO: Daniel Holmes won this popup tournament beating Sedgrick Collins heads up.

MONSTER STACK: Newcomer Dillon Sowa won over 12k making his first real cash a first place. Brandon Guillory finished second. Clyde Duet took time from selling his book bo finish in the top four of event 6.

SENIORS: Daniel Brock got 10k after a three way deal with Ronald Duckworth and Sylvester Galen.\

ROOKIES: Cosey Jackson beat Austin Matthews heads up.

SURVIVOR: The final 9 players included a lot of good players who jumped in after busting the main. Over 1500 each was a nice little sweetner for the end of the week.

Note:  All results have been forwarded to Hendon Mob.

Survivor Old School Freezeout
1 Brandon Guillory 1567 1 Charles Dawson 28480
2 Kyle Thornton 1567 2 Jeremy Moore 16465
3 Matt Higgins 1567 3 BJ McBrayer 11303
4 Brittany Rodriguez 1567 4 Jaime Kizer 85444
5 Jerry Monroe 1567 5 Keith Gamble 6319
6 Sam Washburn 1567 6 Bradley Hicks 4806
7 Robin Glaysher 1567 7 Elliot Howze 4005
8 Preston McEwen 1567 8 Donald Dove 3293
9 Justin Kellly 1567 9 Robert Georato 3293
10 Dylan Lemery 2492
Senoirs
1 Daniel Brock 10000 Last Longer
2 Ronald Duckworth 9114 1 Jon Clement 9374
3 Sylvester Galen 6000 2 Leonard Lewandowski 6250
4 Alan Vaughn 4318 3 Matthew South 4258
5 James Allen 3084 4 James Dowen 3418
6 Robert Donald 2220 5 Patrick Waits 2441
7 Douglas Segers 1727 6 John Humpries 1758
8 Ralph Reid 1382 7 Stephen Hastings 1367
9 Charles Griffin 987 8 James Davis 1094
10 Daniel Doucet 864 9 Joshua Thibodaux 781
11 Michael Talley 864 10 Justin Gates 684
12 Billy Banks 864 11 Steven Nethery 684
13 Alan Downey 740 12 Christopher McDaniel 684
14 Lance Cone 740 13 Calvin Louie 586
15 Thurmond Boothe 740 14 Joe Hebert 586
16 Timothy Medley 617 15 Scott Sanford 586
17 Robert Witt 617 16 Hector Puebla 488
18 Leatha Palculict 617 17 Joseph Brewer 488
19 Sam Washburn 493 18 David Hiett 488
20 Lonny Weitzel 493 19 Greg Raymer 391
21 Danny Miles 493 20 Adisorn Kloysuntia 391
22 Larry Cochran 395 21 Brett Echols 391
23 Herb Tapscott 395 22 Dale Trosclair 312
24 Thomas Bledsoe 395
25 Robert Stephens 395 Big Monster Stack
26 Aubrey Day 395 1 James Davis 21753
27 Robert Veazey 395 2 David Huwe 18021
3 Lariena Garrett 15521
Pop Up PLO 4 Matthew South 15521
1 Daniel Holmes 7082 5 Derrick Cutler 15521
2 Sedgrick Collins 4250 6 Joshua Warner 13021
3 Nina Giles 3051 7 Telly Lanier 5070
4 Ryan Taylor II 1962 8 Donald Davis Jr. 4089
5 Morton Davis 1526 9 Noah Morrison 2862
6 Thomas Franklin 1308 10 Quintin Elston 2535
7 Ray curran 1090 11 Devin Lochridge 2535
8 Johnny Shoemate 872 12 Christopher Frady 2535
9 Don Willis 654 13 Cody Suman 2045
14 Robert Georato 2045
Celebrity Bounty 15 Robert Lemke 2045
1 Jeremy Moore 7218 16 Preston McEwen 1554
2 Vernon Langston 4447 17 David Hendrix 1554
3 Michael Lech 3178 18 Patrick Horrigan 1554
4 Lonny Weitzel 2552 19 Randal Smith 1390
5 Levi Carden 1823 20 Scottie Smithey 1390
6 Greg Raymer 1312 21 Norma Dugal 1390
7 Stephen Hastings 1021 22 Thomas Darwin 1227
8 Michael Boykin 816 23 Justin Gates 1227
9 Curtis Picard 583 24 Arundel Simpson 1227
10 Bonnie Weitzel 510 25 Joshua Emory 1063
11 Christopher McDaniel 510 26 Gavin Munroe 1063
12 John Van Arnam 510 27 Raymond Curran 1063
13 Donald Kelly 437 28 Jason Desha 949
14 William Crawford 437 29 Darnell Corbin 949
15 William Tinsley 437 30 Roger Henderson 949
16 Dell Taylor 365 31 Donovan Dean 867
17 Linda Boney 365 32 John Larose 867
18 Scott Weiss 365 33 Trace Henderson 867
19 DNR 292 34 Jeremy Coleman 752
20 Thurmond Boothe 292 35 Levi Carden 752
21 Michael Wright 292 36 Gregory James 752
22 Thomas Hudson 233 37 Timothy Benoit 687
23 Bobby Hunter 233 38 William Stanford 687
24 Jennifer Germany 233 39 Edwin Bockman 687
25 James Dowen 233 40 Derek Green 687
26 Ronald Palculict 233 41 Christina Read 687
27 Stanley Wiliams 233 42 Jose Flores 687
43 Charles Brady 687
Monster Stack 44 Dilsad Meraler 687
1 Dillon Sowa 12357 45 Michael Vernace 687
2 Brandon Gulillory 7613 46 Thomas Franklin 638
3 Donovan Dean 5441 47 Stanley Williams 638
4 Clyde Duet 4368 48 Carl Masters 638
5 Robert Donald 3120 49 Ricky Hazelwood 638
6 James Heath 2246 50 Craig Johnson 638
7 Thomas Crawford 1747 51 Michael McCullough 638
8 Greg James 1398 52 Philip Whittington 638
9 Tim McCaffrey 998 53 Andrew Irwin 638
10 Daniel Lowery 874 54 Christopher McDaniel 638
11 Donna Heard 874 55 Clifford Chisolm 622
12 Daniel Moskowitz 874 56 Michael Tavis 622
13 Jerry Stumbo 749 57 James Allen 622
14 Ernest Williams 749 58 Raymond McCarty 622
15 Stephen Hastings 749 59 Tara Snow 622
16 David Champion 624
17 Ted Leahy 624
18 Lenard Anderson 624 Rookies
19 James Dowen 499 1 Cosey Jackson Jr. 3705
20 Jennifer Germany 499 2 Austin Matthews 2223
21 Russell Vaughn 499 3 Ronald Hagan 1596
22 Michael Wright 399 4 Andrew Haggard 1026
23 Thomas Dujmovich 399 5 Dillon Sowa 798
24 Casey Andus 399 6 Louis Flournoy Jr. 684
25 Sarah Smith 399 7 Yekaterin Lukina 570
26 Fredrick McLam 399 8 Mary Dantone 456
27 John Jacob 399 9 Ronald Duckworth Jr. 342
PEARL RIVER SUMMER SERIES EARLY RESULTS:

HIGGINS WINS IT:

Matt Higgins earned a smidge over 60k after a five chop.  WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer won 35001 for second place. Brandon Robins, Lonny Weitzel, James Davis, and Lee Craft took over 25k each.

Robert Henderson (not Robert "Spider" Henderson from NOLA) won 11253 for seventh. Daniel Lewis (9184 8th) and last woman standing Lariena Garrett ($7339 9th) rounded out the final table.

Jeremy Gaubert, BJ McBrayer and Ray Curran each earned just under 6k after barely missing the final table.

202 players cashed. The final table in big events at Pearl River has kind of become Matt Higgins' second home, nice to see him win one again.

SIZZLER:

Vernon Langston (pictured with Matt) got the W in the Sunday event after a two way chop with Brian Maples. Walker Miskelly finished fourth and Prissy Giroir (Last woman standing in 6th).

LADIES:

Regina Koeing (pictured below) took down the event beating Lafayette's Shawn Trahan heads up. Joanne Cain finished third. Lisa Davis, Lisa Baker and Branda Rogers rounded out the money. Big thank you to the WPA for their schwag bags to all 9 final players.

Thank you also to celebrity bounty Bonnie Weitzel for leading the effort to get a successful ladies event here. Shout out to Linda Keenan of NOLA who owns the store California Drawstrings. She's donated some awesome bubble prizes including a beautiful bag for the seventh place finisher.

Complete Results:

Ladies
1 Regina Koeing   4342
2 Shawn Trahan   2673
3 Joanne Cain   1670
4 Lisa Davis   1114
5 Lisa Baker   780
6 Branda Rogers   557


Sizzler
1 Vernon Langston   12000
2 Brian Maples   10297
3 Walker Miskelly   6130
4 David Prevatt   4733
5 Telly Lanier   3421
6 Prissy Giroir   2566
7 Chris Lane   1996
8 James Striker   1568
9 Thomas Dujmovich   1140
10 Vernell Hoskins   998
11 Albert Booke   998
12 Stefan Cvetkovski   998
13 Dennis Self   855
14 Kenneth Harbaugh   855
15 Mickel Brien   855
16 Raymond Parks   713
17 Rodney Shows   713
18 Christina Read   713
19 Melissa Booth   570
20 Francis Eckert   570
21 David Lindahl   570
22 JW Carter   456
23 Alec Wilson   456
24 Christopher Tantham   456
25 Jeremy Moore   428
26 James Conley   428
27 Calvin Long   428
28 John WIlliams   371
29 Gerald Beard   371
30 Matthew DeMarsh   371

Opener
Matt Higgins 60001   68 Anthony Gray 945   135 Jonathan Drouant 676
Greg Ryamer 35001   69 Philip Walsch 945   136 Ty C. Watson 676
Brandon Robinson 25201   70 James Craft 945   137 Chris Read 676
Lonny Weitzel 25201   71 William Davis 945   138 Dale "Sonny" Trosclair 676
James Davis 25201   72 Stanley Weiss 945   139 Bill Flippen 676
Lee Craft 25201   73 Matt South 945   140 Michael Teague 676
Robert Henderson 11253   74 John Gilbert 856   141 Joey Ringold 676
Daniel Lewis 9184   75 Kenneth Jones 856   142 Justin Gates 676
Lariena Garrett 7339   76 Jerry Monroe 856   143 Jeremy Smith 676
Jeremy Gaubert 5945   77 Aaron Hernandez 856   144 Rebekah Crosby 676
BJ McBrayer 5945   78 Josie Campbell 856   145 William Hinson 631
Ray Curran 5945   79 David Wilkins 856   146 Michael MCCullough 631
Chris Frady 4865   80 John Marino 856   147 Michael Benton 631
Brandon Lee 4865   81 Ramunas Medimans 856   148 John Teague 631
Glenn Guathier 4865   82 Jay Frideman 856   149 Dennis Jones 631
Chris Savage 4010   83 Prestron Croft 766   150 Justin Wilson 631
Buddy Nix 4010   84 Daniel Moskowitz 766   151 Vafa Kamili 631
Chase Forshey 4010   85 James Striker 766   152 Justin Golding 631
David Crawford 3335   86 Matthew Clarkson 766   153 Levi Carden 631
Ralph Reid 3335   87 Steven Henderson 766   154 Jousha Warner 631
Wyatt Boothe 3335   88 William Truett 766   155 Prissy Giroir 631
Hal Bryan 2795   89 Jeffry Hearn 766   156 Carl Masters 631
Dustin Stewart 2795   90 Bonnie Weitzel 766   157 Stephen Fields 631
Bryan Clark 2795   91 Segdrick Collins 766   158 Robert Rawson 631
Dexter Burns 2389   92 Cole Land 766   159 Cole Warrington 631
Daniel Hernandez 2389   93 Greg Urbanski 766   160 Jeffrey Drenner 631
Mitch Duncan 2389   94 Alec Wilson 766   161 Ronald Sellers 631
Timothy Swinford 2028   95 Christopher Cochran 766   162 Clifford Matthews 631
Ronald Tremblay 2028   96 Guy McKay 766   163 Jerry Giroir 631
Randall Franks 2028   97 Will Anderson 766   164 Randall Smith 631
Stephen Dodd 1758   98 Ron Hope 766   165 Christopher Barger 631
Jimmy Bryan 1758   99 Stephen Greene 766   166 Amber Douglas 631
Christopher McDanie 1758   100 Frank Boswell 720   167 Thuy Djedjos 631
Laurence Dilday 1534   101 Jason Morris 720   168 Tara Snow 631
Charles Westbrook 1534   102 Cody Cunningham 720   169 Kenneth Steele 631
John Sinnott 1534   103 Jacob Perkins 720   170 Ryan Flynn 631
Tongla Nanthalangy 1306   104 David Moses 720   171 Faris Brooks 631
Micheal Hebert 1306   105 JW Carter 720   172 Jerry Van Landingham 586
Thomas Franklin 1306   106 Daniel Bonet 720   173 Samuel Folkins 586
Stephen Bierman 1306   107 Francis Eckert 720   174 Heath Branson 586
David Prevatt 1306   108 Cody Suman 720   175 Trace Henderson 586
Clifford Billups 1306   109 Shawn Trahan 720   176 Arlen Dujmovich 586
Zachary Brock 1306   110 Russell Boyette 720   177 Sammie Kirkwood 586
Bryant Gandy 1306   111 Susan Murphy 720   178 Robert Lemke 586
Thomas Norwood 1306   112 Michael Weaver 720   179 Bennett James 586
Regina Koeing 1170   113 Scott Weiss 720   180 Steven Thornton 586
Bryane Wilson 1170   114 Karl Chesser 720   181 Dell Taylor 586
Ralph Robins 1170   115 Todd Skinner 720   182 Stephen Becker 586
Timothy Freeze 1170   116 James Shults 720   183 Robert Georato 586
John Chandler 1170   117 David Champion 720   184 Christopher Lassinger 586
Chase Turner 1170   118 Raymond Parks 676   185 Dean Digerolamo 586
Debra Irvine 1170   119 John Humpphries 676   186 James Robertson 586
David Taylor  1170   120 Robby Greene 676   187 Andrew Simon 586
Adrian Mableton 1081   121 Johnny Tang 676   188 Melissa Booth 586
Ryan Remele 1081   122 Jeremy Letson 676   189 Gerald Rivett 586
Tracy Allen 1081   123 Terry Simpson 676   190 Sean Garic 586
Yousef Saleh 1081   124 Philip Smith 676   191 Jody Millsaps 586
Chester Dilday 1081   125 Heip Doan 676   192 Raymond Jimenez 586
John Van Aman 1081   126 Nelson Solar 676   193 Ronnie Scott 586
James Rhodes 1081   127 Damon Tucker 676   194 Jeremy Moore 586
Micheal Williams 1081   128 Joshua Blankenship 676   195 Gerald Randal 586
Jonathan Greer 1081   129 Preston McEwen 676   196 Albert Booke 586
Percy Domineck 1081   130 Thurmond Boothe 676   197 Jeremy Sharpe 586
Angela Sayers 945   131 Stefan Cverkovski 676   198 Kris Kent 586
David Hendrix 945   132 Michael Lech 676   199 Gabriel Daspit 540
Joshua Emory 945   133 Bradley Travis 676   200 David McJenkin 540
Walker Miskelly 945   134 Christopher Trantham 676   201 John McNeil 540
              202 Christopher Pool 540

EVENT 1 BAGGERS:

PRIZE POOL GUARANTEE SMASHED:

Over 500k collected for the prize pool in event 1.  Double the guarantee and another record at Pearl River Resorts with 2090 players.  On Sunday, restart is 1 pm.  Also, a WPA Ladies event and the Sunday Sizzler.  Tomorrow 100k Guarantee on a Monday! (Who does that?)

BRYAN CLARK A POKER SUPER HERO

It's unusual for the biggest bag in Flight A to stay that way with four flights remaining but Bryan Clark faded 2089 players to come in with the most impressive stack for day two. In an over half a million prize pool, Clark was the sole player to bag more than half a million chips.

Not like Bryan (pictured) was idle over the remaining flights as he (and seven other players) captured the elusive triple bag. After a second bag players can chose between 1k cash or two $600 Main Event Seats. The third bag just another flat 3k in cash.

Christopher McDaniel solo bagged the second biggest stack with 493k.

The rest of top five featured double baggers: Ray Curran (413k), Lonny Weitzel (399k), and Josh Emory (367k).

Rounding out the top ten some familiar names around these parts: Walker Miskelly, Hiep Doan, BJ McBrayer and James Craft.

Just outside the top ten Chris Read, Preston McEwen (double), Chris Frady, Philip Walsh, Karl Chesser, Chris Savage and Russell Boyette (triple... again).

The other triple baggers beside Clark and Boyette: Brock Croft, Brandon Robinson, Debra Irvine, Prissy Giroir, Lance Jones, and Susan Murphey. Shout out to the ladies for scooping three of the 8 triple bags!

Reminder do not forget to head over to our FACEBOOK  page for more up to the minute updates during this series.
PEARL RIVER RESORTS SUMMER SERIES HAS LAUNCHED:

Please check out our FACEBOOK page for our updates.  Don't forget we have a 3 SEATS added satellite to start this event 

The 250k Guarantee $300 BagWow! tournament series starts tonight at 6 pm.  Also, players (free) buffet at 5:30.  Believe pork loin and chocolate cake are on the menu.

Glad everybody could make it.

CRUSHERS GOING TO CRUSH:

Tai Cao has been busy in Houston, and said he will be joining us soon up here. He finished third in the High Roller at the Prime Social Club winning over 28k for third.  Jared Ingles also found the cashier winning $14,170 for fifth. Tai is currently near the top of the points race.  Also, in the mix for that are Chris Conrad and Logan Hewett.  Hewett won an event for over 70k earlier this week.
 
MAJOR TOURNAMENT NEWS:



HARRAHS NOLA:

Subject to State Gaming Approval we have the permission to release official dates for our next big event.

July 29 through August 8th will feature the return of... Poker Gras.

Look for lots more details very soon in this space. Huge thank you to Harrahs, NOLA; Jo-Ella, Robbie, Jonathan, Chase, Mark and all the top notch staff in Harrahs. Couldn't be more excited for this event.

OTHER TOURNAMENTS IN THE REGION:

Our friends at the Horseshoe Tunica will be hosting a RunGood Event July 6th through July 11th. Lots of good stuff on the schedule with 100k Guarantee on the Main.

Two other teasers: expect another regional 10 day series in September before the WSOP kicks off and maybe an event in August in Bossier.

Good to see poker back and thriving in the region.
GCP NEWS:

PLO STRUCTURE:

Been asked about this quite a bit so here are all the details:


 

GUESS THE FLOP CONTEST:

We will post the final video for the guess the flop social media contest and announce the winner this weekend (perhaps as soon as today). Look for it this evening on our Facebook page. A handful of ya'll are in contention.

Good luck!

Also, our guess the chips contest will be revealed early next week.
LOCAL NEWS:

RIP TOMMY HUFNAGLE

WSOP Bracelet winner Tommy Hufnagle passed last week at the age of 77. A player respected by peers like Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese, Hufnagle maybe doesn't get his full due from the early record books of the WSOP. Once upon a time the best players didn't view a legacy from a lens of stockpiling bracelets but rather by consistently stacking chips. Hufnagle did both.

His bracelet came in a $1500 Seven Card Stud Split event in 1998. He earned just under 900k in live tournaments per Hendon Mob. In recent years he made his home on the Coast. Our condelences to his family and friends.

VARIANCE WITH SHORR

A recent CardPlayer story featured former GCP blogger Shannon Shorr's thoughts on making it through downswings. Worth a read for anybody running bad.  Everybody goes through it even the best players in the world.


PEARL RIVER UPDATES:

We have several social media contests still going where you can win your way to Pearl River's Summer Series June 3 - June 13.

Go to our FACEBOOK,  TWITTER or INSTAGRAM. Like, follow, and comment for a chance to win a seat in events including the $600 Main Event $250K Guarantee!

We are just two weeks away from our BagWow! opener also a 250k Guarantee. Hotel bookings are coming fast and furious so we expect another big crowd. If you haven't booked yet, do so soon to insure you get a room on property.

Don't forget we've added 10 dealers, 10 tables and another registration line so we are ready for the crush of people.

CELEBRITY BOUNTIES:

The remainder of our bounties have been selected from your nominations.  They are WPA Ambassodor Bonnie Weitzel, PLON Ambassador Prissy Giroir, and David "Atom Bomb" Hendrix.  And we'll annouce one of our social media contest winners right here:  Congrats to William Ken Anderson.  His Twitter response nominating a celebrity bounty was pulled up by the Random Number Generator.  His Event 1 entry is on the house!

DATES ON THE CALENDER:

We aren't making any official announcements but we've been busy reconnecting with old friends and connecting with new ones. For those that like our events you might want to pay attention to these date ranges as we are in the process of exploring some opportunities for the remainder of 2021.

-Late July/Early August
-Mid September
-Early December
-Early Middle December

Definitely more details to come, and we will do it as soon as possible.
CELEBRITY POKER:

ANNA KHAIT UPDATE:

Former poker pro, and Survivor contestant, Anna Khait was recently mentioned in a New York Times story about Project Veritas.

PokerNews subesquently did a story on the  New York Times story.

Then the story became PokerNews taking down their story about the story.

Why?  Anna Khait tweeted the following... 

(And for the record we've never called Anna a spy in our story about the story about the story (?))

Poker News heard from my lawyer today. The next step is a lawsuit. I don’t take libel lightly. pic.twitter.com/3kIpg47Z1y

— Anna Khait (@Annakhait) May 19, 2021


Here is the orginial New York Times story. Headline: Actitvists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump 'Enemies' in Government.

RUSSELL CROWE GAGA FOR POKER FACE MOVIE ROLE:

He will be playing Lady Gaga in a behind the scenes story retelling how online poker site Bwin won the incredible pre Black Friday bidding war to be the table sponsorship in the video for her hugely popular song:  Poker Face.



Just kidding! (Don't sue us!)  He won't be playing Lady Gaga.

The plot of the movie Poker Face actually surrounds a home game thrown by a Miami rich guy (Crowe) that is interrupted by a home intruder known for murder and arson.

WHATS THE DEALIO?

Shannon Elisabeth of American Pie fame is involved in a new poker platform. In the age of Zoom, Dealio Webcam poker is attempt to recreate Live Poker online. It mirrors what many did on their own during the pandemic.  We wonder if fills a need in the post pandemic world free of lockdowns?

They make the case that Dealio could solve the problem of AI bots and helper software as you can see their opponents.  Course you can't see what else is on their screen(s)-- certainly, seem like there could be workarounds even with this format.

Haley Hintze of Cardschat.com has the details here.
LONE STAR POKER NEWS:

HEADED TO MONDAY:

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!

Check out PokerNews for event coverage.

KRISTEN DEARDORFF CHOPS IN VEGAS:

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.

Here's all of our 2021 podcasts:

Corey "The Professor" Harrison GCP PODCAST Episode 1 /2021

Paul Dutsch GCP PODCAST Episode 2 / 2021


Will "Poker Monkey" Souther GCP PODCAST Episode 3 /2021

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTESTS:

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.

1 Teddy Conner 21210
2 Conner Romedy 21210
3 Brenda Eskridge 10668
4 Gavin Munroe 8064
5 Dustin Stewart 5964
6 Elliot Howze 4536
7 JW Carter 3780
8 Derrick Cutler 3108
9 Timothy Maxwell 3108
10 Brandon Robinson 2352

HIEP, HIEP HOORAY:

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:


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 news here.

-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.

 

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