Mother Nature was aggressive this weekend as she dumped several inches of snow throughout the south burbs of Chicago. Luckily however that did not stop players from coming out to play in the charity events this weekend both in Tinley Park and Homer Glen Illinois.
On Saturday at Ariel’s Bar and Restaurant 27 players ($1,080 prize pool) ventured out in the cold and snow to play the noon 20,000 chip deep stack event.
Even though he took several bad beats and lost a few flips, John Castillo would walk away with first place valued at $550 which included a $100 seat to our May Championship Event. Second received $315, while third place went home with $215.
Not too long after the start of our noon tournament the $1/$2 cash game got up and running and went late into the night with some serious action! Players were hoping to win not only some extra money to cover this months heating bill, but they were also hoping to win a seat on TV to a special May televised cash game.
Players who came to play cash received entries into a drawing where one player would win a seat to the televised $2/$5/$10 game. When it was time for the drawing at 8pm…everyone huddled into the room and watched one of the charity volunteers from the American Legion Post 1170 select James Golding as our first player at the TV Cash game table! Congrats to James for winning the seat!
The nightly 7pm 20,000 chip deep stack also ran with familiar faces and new players to our charity events.
Dave “Fishy Fish” Backstrom finished on the money bubble…always a tough spot to end up in any tournament. Lucky for him though he held the high hand for that night’s promotion which included a $25 gift card to Best Buy.
Dave also had the honor of having a bounty placed on his head by the hosting charity for another $25 Best Buy gift card. The eventual winner of the 7pm tournament Mike Laurenzana knocked out Dave and was the winner of that promotional prize.
Sunday February 2nd, 2014
SuperBowl Sunday got things started at noon with a low $3 max rake cash game. Players who came for the 2pm main event sat down to warm up their poker game and get ready for the 30,000 chip deep stack event.
The $135 paid for an all you can eat/drink buffet of pasta, pizza, chips, cookies, beef, beer and soda. $100 of the entry went to the prize pool.
After several hours of playing an amazing structure Blue Shark Optics pro Matt Schwartz took first place in our SuperBowl poker event taking home $1,200* which includes a seat to our May Championship Event.
The evening capped off with a $1/$2 game that ran from the start of the SuperBowl game till 1:59 am. Players who played cash that day were entered into the second drawing for a seat to our televised $2/$5/$10 cash game. A volunteer from Shady Oaks Camp reached into the drawing bucket at 8pm and pulled out the name of Alex Crawford for the seat at the TV table. Congratulations to Alex!
All in all the weekend was full of action, fun, food, and winners! We look forward to next weekend’s event at the VFW in Tinley Park. See you on Saturday February 8th for another great day of poker!
*All payouts adhere to the Illinois Charitable Games Act