WCPC Heads Up Part 2 Preview
This Sunday, March 13, 2011 brings part 2 of the Windy City Poker Championship Heads Up Match. The first match pits WPT Boot Camp instructor Nick Brancato against St. Louis Pro Scott Clark. The episode airs on Comcast SportsNet at 9pm. Here's a sneak preview.
Windy City Poker Championship Returns March 6
Windy City Poker Championship returns to your television set Sunday, March 6, 2011 with its most exciting content yet. 13 new episodes debut in 2011, beginning with the Heads Up Tournament, featuring 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang, movie critic, columnist, and radio host Richard Roper, Mark "Poker Ho" Kroon, WPT Boot Camp Instructor Nick Brancato, St. Louis Poker Pro, and founder of Saint Louis Poker, Scotty Clark, local amateur, former WCPC champ Brent White, and number of other great poker players from around the Chicagoland area and the region.
If you're in Chicago, or get Comcast SportsNet on your local provider (including naitonal broadcast on DirecTv and Dish Network) you can tune in this Sunday night at 9PM Central. The show will also be broadcast on regional sports networks in the Washington D.C. area, the Mississippi gulf coast region, and in Florida. Check your local listings.
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Shaun Deeb Owes Chris Cosenza $50
Do we have a scandal brewing?!
On January 27, 2011 Chicago Poker Club and Windy City Poker Championship cast and crew headed down to Orange Park, FL to the Orange Park Kennel Club, home to the JAX Poker Room, for the 2nd Annual Chad Brown No Limit Texas Hold 'em Championship.
In the coming days and weeks, we'd like to share stories, pictures and videos of the adventure. In the meantime, I'd like to corroborate a story I heard on the February 3rd Ante Up Poker Podcast, for the purposes of getting a friend $50 (at the expense of another new friend). ;)
Our good friends Scott Long and Chris Cosenza, from Ante Up Magazine came to the event as spectators, journalists, and hosts of the upcoming television production. They are also doing some guest hosting on Windy City Poker Championship, so Kirk set them down in front of the camera to record some on-camera introductions, transitions, and so on.
I'm not saying our buddies at Ante Up are camera shy, but... well... they needed a few minutes to warm up after being away from the critical camera eye for so many months. After a few failed attempts at landing a drop, Shaun Deeb bet Chris $50 that he wouldn't nail the spot on the next take. Let my video tell the rest of the story:
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Poker Celebs and Local Enthusiasts Square Off for TV
The third and final event of the Main Event Charity Games, televised for Windy City Poker Championship, weekend (seems like that should have 30 hyphens) was the "Winner Take All" event, featuring poker greats, and poker faces known only the Chicago enthusiasts. The 8-player table featured Richard Roeper, Jerry Yang, Mark Kroon, Nick Brancato, and Scotty Clark. The table also included Chicago locals David "The Fish" Backstrom, "Sergeant" Sergeant Gary Carr, Kevin Boyd and our Deep Stack Event runner up Ted Leahy.
The event had a $1500 buy-in, with the winner taking down the full prize pool. The winner is disclosed after the break.
2015 Windy City Poker Championship - $3k Buy-in - Hours 1 & 2 - July 2015
TV Broadcast: $3,000 Buy-in Benefitting Shady Oaks Camp at Little Guys Home Technology
Hosted by Jason Finn & Bernard Lee, Broadcast August 23, 2015
The 2015 WCPC coverage this episode is the featured table hours 1 and 2 of 3, featuring Nick Pupillo, Steven Pedlow, Kevin Boyd, Craig Casino, Steve Venasopoulos, George Karambinis and Michael Sabbia. Hosted by Jason Finn and Bernard Lee. Event benefits Shady Oaks Camp.
2015 Windy City Poker Championship - $3k Buy-in - Feature Table 3 of 3
$3,000 Buy-in Benefitting Shady Oaks Camp
The 2015 WCPC coverage this episode is the featured table hour 3 of 3, featuring Jeff Holcomb, Faraz Jaka, Gary Carr, Richard Roeper, Stan Jablonsky, and Michael Sabbia. Hosted by Jason Finn and Bernard Lee. Event benefits Shady Oaks Camp.
2015 Windy City Poker Championship - $3k Buy-in - Feature Table 2 of 3
$3,000 Buy-in Benefitting Shady Oaks Camp
The 2015 WCPC coverage this episode is the featured table hour 2 of 3, featuring Aaron Massey, Paul Fisher, Joel Schaub, Ron Magers, Chris Karambinis, and John Daplus. Hosted by Jason Finn and Bernard Lee. Event benefits Shady Oaks Camp.
2015 Windy City Poker Championship - $3k Buy-in - Feature Table 1 of 3
$3,000 Buy-in Benefitting Shady Oaks Camp
The 2015 WCPC coverage this episode is the featured table hour 1 of 3, featuring Nick Pupillo, Steven Pedlow, Kevin Boyd, Craig Casino, Steve Venasopoulos, George Karambinis and Michael Sabbia. Hosted by Jason Finn and Bernard Lee. Event benefits Shady Oaks Camp.
An Interview with Jerry Yang - Celebrity, Family, and Charity
“You’re not going to believe this,” came the voice on the other end of the line, “I missed my bus”.
“You’re kidding?” Kirk Fallah, the creator and producer of Windy City Poker Championship, was distraught. His face fell. “Jerry missed his bus,” he relayed to the crew.
Jerry Yang was born in Laos, and escaped with his family to Thailand when his home country fell under Communist rule in the 1970s. Life didn’t get much easier, as his family spent four years in a refugee camp, where they faced more adversity than most of us can imagine. At the age of 13, Jerry came to the US, and the rest of his story began to unfold. In 2007, Jerry Yang won $8.25MM and the championship bracelet when he took down the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.
On this particular weekend, three years later, Jerry headed 2000 miles east to attend the Chicago Memorial Police Foundation poker event, and also to benefit the charities involved with Main Event Charity Games, and a number of upcoming episodes of Windy City Poker Championship.
When Kirk received the unfortunate phone call, Jerry had headed an additional 80 miles east, to the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI. The humble champ opted to take the casino’s complimentary shuttle, and while monitoring the return schedule, based his timing on “Chicago time”, not realizing that Michigan was an additional time zone east (later). Now the champ missed his ride, and the TV production was on hold.
Fortunately for all involved, a member of the show’s crew headed out to pick up Yang, and a couple hours later we were back in business. Later in the day, I got to sit down with the Champ. Here's what we talked about: