Click HERE for the final Season VI Leader Board

June 7, 2011

Season VI WSOP Players Begin Their Campaign This Weekend!  

On Saturday, June 11th, in WSOP Event #18: $1500 NL Hold'em we have Mark, Paul, Gail and Jonkey all playing. Then the next day Tom C. plays in WSOP Event #20: $1000 NL Hold'em.  Mike and Kevin will be playing later in the month and of course our Main Event players, Tom E. and Linn, will get going in early July.

This year there will be two ways to follow our players:

·         The main source will be our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker.  You will need to have a FaceBook account and then "Like" The Syndicate group page to see our updates.

·         Another resource will be our new BlogSpot page at http://www.sdsyndicate2011.blogspot.com.  You will need a gmail address to sign into BlogSpot.  Once you do then be sure to "Follow" our blog to get real time notices of any updates.

Both sites should feature real time updates and we will try to "cross-update" them whenever possible.  We'll of course summarize the action on the website as well once the tournaments are over.

Good luck to all of our Syndicate WSOP players!

May 15, 2011

Season VI - Playoff Event:  Gail won the playoff event and a $1,500 WSOP prize package with her first ever Syndicate victory. Gail survived a scare at 7-handed when she lead out into a board of QTx and Farid, sensing weakness, put Gail all in. Gail snap-called and Farid said a version of "oops".  Gail showed QT for top two and Farid had only a gut-shot and needed a 9 to win the hand. Of course a 9 came on the turn   .....   followed by a 10 on the river to fill Gail up! Not too long after that Gail and Farid got involved in another hand - this time Farid had the advantage with AA to Gail's KK. The flop didn't change anything but when a king hit on the turn Gail chipped up again and Farid's season was over in dramatic style.

Jonkey took 2nd  place (and the second $1500 prize package) for his first Syndicate WSOP prize in 6 campaigns.  After losing about 1/3 of his stack early he chipped up with a several big hands, including quads, a flush, a set and trips.  With a comfortable chip lead he was able to coast the rest of the way into the top 5.

Tom Czzz made it a family affair as he took 3rd place and a $1000 WSOP package and Kevin and Mike P. got 4th and 5th respectively to round out our Las Vegas crew.

The Final Table:
1.   Gail
2.   Jonkey
3.   Tom Czzz
4.   Kevin
5.   Mike P.
6.   Gary
7.   Farid
8.   Yoshi
9.   Tim
10. Felix

The Leaderboard: It's over!  Season VI of the Syndicate is in the books.  Now we just have to wait to see how much loot our players bring home from Vegas.  Congratulations again to our 2011 San Diego Syndicate winners: Tom E., Linn, Mark, Paul, Gail, Jonkey, Tom Czzz, Kevin and Mike.  We are sending 9 players for total buy-ins of $29,000 and $3,350 in expenses.  Could this be THE year?!

Coming Up:  Stay tuned after the World Series for news about Season VII of The Syndicate.  We'll announce the new schedule as well as any changes in July once the WSOP is over.  We expect to get underway sometime in August.

May 8, 2011

Season XI Winners Announced:  Congratulations to our Main Event Winners: Tom E. and Linn.  Both had great seasons though they arrived in different ways.  Tom only had 8 scores but he made them count with 3 wins, a 2nd and a 4th while Linn had 12 scores with one win and five top 5 finishes overall.  Both players avoided the leader's jinx of previous seasons in which no player with a lead going into the final event came away with a top prize before. 

Right behind them in 3rd and 4th place respectively were Mark A. and Paul H.  Both were in the race till the very end but came up just short.  They are going to Vegas too as each earned a $1,500 WSOP prize package.  We'll send a message soon on how you can follow all our winners as they represent the Syndicate and try to send us back some dough!!

More on Season XI:  The Syndicate had a record breaking season in every respect.  We had  80 different players (previous record was 51) who combined for 646 entries (previous 414).  This generated a WSOP Prize Package fund of $32,400 (previous $23,050) with the same amount paid out at our tournaments.  This extra savings allowed us to award TWO Main Events for the first time as well as the two guaranteed $1500 seats plus five playoff seats.  That's 9 players going to Vegas!

Gratitude:  The Syndicate would like to thank Gail & Tom for graciously allowing us to transform their garage into a pretty sweet poker room.  Thanks also to Chef Patsy for cooking for us - every tourney there was a mad dash to be in the front of the line for her tasty cuisine!  I would also like to personally thank Chad for helping me take care of the check-ins all season (again!) and to all the players who helped setup, cleanup and get water & ice.  More thanks are due to Steve, our web-master (and Sierra Nevada connoisseur) for maintaining our super-fancy website.  

Finally, the Syndicate would like to thank all the players that came out and made this our best season ever.  There is no doubt we'll be back next year and there is no doubt that The Syndicate really is San Diego's Finest Poker!

May 7, 2011

Season VI - Event 20:  There was a lot of energy this evening as  the top 7 players all had a chance at a Main Event seat and everyone in the top 10 had a chance at guaranteed seat.  In the end all the contenders fell without changing position, leaving the final 6 players to compete for that night's prize pool.  Chris G. came out of retirement to take a solid 5th place followed by Gail in 4th and Jonkey, who lost with AA to Keith's 55 (grrrrrr), got 3rd place.  That left Keith M. and Felix to duke it out at 1:40AM and 28 minutes later it was all over with Felix taking it down to end the season strong with his 2nd tournament in a row.

The Final Table:
1.   Felix

2.   Keith M.

3.   Jonkey

4.   Gail

5.   Chris G.

6.   Greg I.

7.   Kevin

8.   Sandy

9.   Steve H.

10. Paul P.

The Leaderboard: It's over!  There was no change this week.  Tom E. and Linn held on to earn $10,000 Main Event entries and Mark and Paul kept their spots to get their $1,500 WSOP entries.  More on our winners coming right up....

Coming Up:   Our next event is our Playoff Tournament on Sunday, May 15th at 3:00PM.00PM.  We will be awarding two $1,500 and three $1,000 WSOP tournament seats.  For this tournament the base starting stack will be $15,000 with 30 minute blind levels.  All players are ranked according to their final finish in the regular season and each player will receive $300 in chips more than the player just below them.  For example: the 16th seed will start with $15,000 and the 1st seed will begin with $18,900.  Then bonus chips due to overall participation ($50 per event entered) and results in the majors will be added.  A separate email will be sent with playoff seeding, starting stacks and other information.  The buy-in is $100 (+$5).  1/2 of the money will go into the overall prize pool and 1/2 will be paid out at the tournament.

April 17, 2011

Season VI - Event 19:  It was an ominous site as one by one the series leaders shipped their final chips in and lost.  At the end of the evening it was only Tom E., who had grinded his stack most of the night, left to help change his own fate.  Before we get into that we did have a tournament tonight.  It was won by Chef-Felix over Chef-Patsy.  Patsy had Felix well down in chips until they got it all in when Patsy hit top pair (with a Q) only to run into Felix's flopped 2 pair.   They traded stacks and now Felix held a huge chip advantage.  They took turns betting and folding for awhile until Patsy made her final stand with K9 only to have Felix wake up with AA.  

The Final Table:
1.   Felix

2.   Patsy

3.   Chad

4.   Tom E.

5.   Jonkey

6.   Kevin S.

The Leaderboard: The top of the leaderboard got real interesting tonight as Linn, Mark, Paul and Clint all busted out with effectively no points.  Tom E., on the other hand, played survival poker and kept finding a way to stay in the tourney.  His effort was good enough for 4th place and 40 points.  That puts Tom in first place for the season with one event to go!  Right behind him sit Linn, Mark and Paul so there should be quite a battle for these two Main Event seats.  Everyone in the top 6 has a chance to win one of the two main prizes.  Meanwhile everyone in the top 11 places has a chance to get into at least the guaranteed seats awarded to 3rd and 4th.

At the other end of the leaderboard there are SEVEN players "below the line" who can still make it into the playoffs with a top finish in the last event.

Coming Up:   Our last regular season event of the campaign is on Saturday, May 7th at 3:00PM.  This will be a MAJOR tournament with a 15,000 chip starting stack and 30 minute blinds.  The buy-in is $100 (+$5).  We encourage everyone who has played this season to come out and play this final event of the year.  The more players we have the better the poker will be and in the end we will have 2 champs who really deserve their victories.

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker

More on the leaderboard:  you will notice that the Leaderboard is color-coded to indicate the projected end of the year WSOP prize packages.  Blue is for the $10,000 Main Event package, Red is for a $2500 seat (if available) and Green is for the guaranteed $1500 seats.  The Orange indicates the players that qualify for the playoff tournament.  These projections are based on our year-to-date attendance & savings and will be adjusted as we progress through the season.  You can see more information on this at the bottom of the Results page below the Stake chart.

April 9, 2011

Season VI - Event 18:   We had a strong turnout for event 18 last night with 29 players.  With a final table that included 3 of the top 5 players there was a lot of action and pressure.  A common exchange seemed to go something like this:  "I'm all in"; followed by "I call"; followed by "oh f@#K!" - as time after time a short to medium stack player would make his final stand and run into AA or KK.  At the end of all this action the last player standing was a first time Syndicate winner, Yoshi, who moved from 23rd place to well into the playoff picture with his victory.  Linn held on to earn his 723rd 2nd place finish and Mark (who brilliantly called Larry's all-in raise with 44 to Larry's KK only to hit his set on the river) took 3rd place.

The Final Table:
1.   Yoshi
2.   Linn
3.   Muck
4.   Wayne
5.   Tim
6.   Larry
7.   Mike
8.   Don
9.   Brady
10. Eddie

The Leaderboard: It's crunch time now at the top of the leaderboard.  Linn and Mark moved into the 1st and 2nd spots respectively while Tom E. and Paul dropped down to 3rd and 4th.  Clint is still our bubble boy and there was little movement in the rest of the top 10.  With TWO main event seats up for grabs and two tournaments left in the season this is going to be an exciting finish!

Coming Up:  Our next event is on Sunday, April 17th at 4:00PM. This will be a short-handed tournament with a $10,000 chip starting stack and 25 minute blinds.  Once we get down to 30 players we will go no more than 6-handed the rest of the way.  The buy-in is $100 (+$5).

April 9, 2011

SEASON 6 YEAR END PRIZE PACKAGES ANNOUNCED:

With three events to go this season we can now safely announce that there will be enough funds available to award TWO Main Event prize packages.  That's two $10,000 buy-ins plus $750 in expenses!

Additionally we will award two $1500 seat packages (the buy-in plus $300) to our 3rd and 4th place finishers.

The next 16 players will then be eligible for our playoff tournament where the following prize packages will be awarded*:

                1.  $1500 (+$250)

                2.  $1500 (+$250)

                3.  $1000 (+$250)

                4.  $1000 (+$250)

*Please note: These playoff prizes are not completely set.  However, this shows the minimum prizes that will be awarded.  It is possible that 3rd place in the playoff could become a $1500 seat and/or we may be able to add a 5th seat.  This will be determined at the end of the regular season once we know our final account balance.

Good luck to all the players that are trying to win a seat to the Main Event.  We have a very tight race this season with 9 players only one win away from being in the top two.  Beyond that you only have to look back to what Jake did in season 4 to see how many players still have a shot at this.  In 2009, with three events left, Jake was in the middle of the pack exactly 200 points behind the leader, Mike Petrassi.  Jake went on to win the final three events to finish the season in 1st place, 30 points above Mike.  This year the top 15 could make it with just two wins and everyone in the top 20 could get there with three.

March 26, 2011

Season VI - Event 17:  The last rebuy event of the season went down last night and it may have been the liveliest one ever.  With just 24 players we had 71 rebuys and 22 add-ons for a total prize pool of $3425!  After paying out $1735 to the top 4 spots and the night's expenses we had $1690 go into the treasury. 

The winner for the 2nd time this season was Brady.  Brady moved into a commanding chip position once he knocked Muck out when his AK suited spiked a river king against Muck's QQ.  Our 3rd place finisher, Chad, fell soon after that leaving Brady to go up against our newest Syndicate member, Alan "the Human Card Rack" Ho.  Throughout the tournament Alan, who we picked up at last week's circuit event, displayed a dizzying array of pocket kings, sets, quads and seemed to hit just about every flop he was involved in.  Fortunately Alan appears to be a nice guy so we'll go ahead and keep on the mailing list (for now anyway!).  Heads up was a different story though as Brady had a huge chip advantage when 2-handed play started.  Alan hung on for about 15 minutes before running into Brady's KT on a king high flop.

The Final Table:
1.   Brady
2.   Alan.
3.   Chad
4.   Mark
5.   Clint
6.   Mike
7.   Paul
8.   Larry
9.   Gary
10. Steve


The Leaderboard: There was a little movement at the top as the points race has really tightened up.  Tom and Paul stayed at the top though Paul gained a little ground on the leader.  Muck moved ahead of Linn to take 3rd place, just 4 points behind Paul.  Linn is now in 4th and Clint is the new bubble boy.

Unless we have a total collapse in attendance it appears we will be awarding TWO MAIN EVENT packages and it looks like it is going to be a real battle for those top two spots.  Likewise there is a heated battle to get into, or stay in, the playoff tourney.  This really shows the depth the Syndicate is developing in poker talent since there are some very good poker players just fighting for a playoff spot!

Coming Up:   Our next event is on Sunday, April 10th at 4:00PM.  PLEASE NOTE this date as it is a change from the original schedule.   Another change is that this will be a normal deep-stack tournament with a 10,000 chip starting stack and 25 minute blinds.  The buy-in is $100 (+$5).

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker

More on the leaderboard/Prize Projections:  you will notice that the Leaderboard is color-coded to indicate the projected end of the year WSOP prize packages.  Blue is for the $10,000 Main Event package, Red is for a $2500 seat (if available) and Green is for the guaranteed $1500 seats.  The Orange indicates the players that qualify for the playoff tournament.  These projections are based on our year-to-date attendance & savings and will be adjusted as we progress through the season.  You can see more information on this at the bottom of the Results page below the Stake chart.

March 13, 2011

Gail Goes Deep!

On Friday we had several Syndicate members, including Erica, Tim, Eddie, Jonkey, Mark, Paul, Chris, Gail, Greg (I hope I didn't leave anyone out) play in the $355 noon event up at Harrah's.  There were 331 entries and the payouts started at 36.

By the dinner break Jonkey, Paul, Gail and Eddie were still alive.  Paul was nursing a short stack and just never caught up - he went out soon after the break but then went up and crushed the cash game.  Eddie fell a little later on, leaving Gail and Jonkey still in it. 

With about 45 players left Jonkey and Gail ended up at the same table.  Jonkey was now working a short stack of about 50k (when the average was about 70k) and Gail had about 73k when the following hand came up: 

With the blinds at 1200/2400/200 a middle position player (MP) with about a 150k stack limped in, Gail  completed the small blind and the big blind (28k stack) checked his option.  The flop came 8c8sJc.  Gail bet 5000 into the 9000 chip pot.  The BB then shoved over the top of her.  The MP thought for about 30 seconds and called.  Gail then went INTO THE TANK.    For  a  b  o  u  t     f  o  u  r     m  i  n  u  t  e  s.  No one at the table said a word.  Finally, she says "ALL IN" and now it's the MP's turn to tank.  He has to call about 45k more for a pot containing almost 140k. After about a minute he calls as well so now there's over 180,000 in chips in the pot!  Gail shows K8 for trips, the BB has two clubs for a flush draw and the MP has QQ.  The board comes K on the turn and the 2c on the river.  At first Gail (along with many at the table) only saw the club on the river and thought the pot was won by the BB - but of course the K on the turn had given Gail a boat and she raked the MASSIVE pot in with both arms.  It was quite a sight!

Jonkey ended up busting out in 23rd place at 1:30am when his AhTh ran into a Jupiter-sized stack holding AK.  This was good for $741.  Gail on the other hand finished day 1 of the tourney with 241,000 chips, which was good for 4th position out of the 17 players that were to return for day 2. 

The next day Gail picked up where she left off as she almost tripled up with KK to become the chip leader with about 14 players left.  Then she kept on outlasting opponents and gaining chips until it was 8 handed and she had about 1.2 million out of the 3.3 million in play.  Our heroine then just held her ground as players kept busting out until finally it was 3-handed and each player had a stack of about 1 million chips.  By now the tournament had been running for 19 hours over two days.  The final three lasted for almost 2 hours but now Gail started running into some trouble.  Several times she would flop middle pair and get bet off her hand.  She felt like she was making good lay-downs but at this level her stack was starting to suffer.  Finally, with a stack of about 600k and the blinds at 12000/24000/4000 Gail shoved over the top of a 100k bet with A9.  Unfortunately the villain had AK and it was all over.

For her efforts Gail earned $9000 in cash, a $1000 tournament voucher and a hat!  You can see her results on the WSOP site here: Event #16 Harrah's WSOP

Congratulations Gail - this is why we play poker!

March 13, 2011

Season VI - Event 16:  Early on this was a night of coolers.  In the first few levels Gary lost with a flopped flush to a higher flopped flush; Gail lost boat under boat and Cal lost with set under set.  It looked like we'd be over early but things slowed down after that and we actually reached the 3000/6000/500 level with four players left.  There was a lot of shoving!  And the winner of the late shove-fest was Phil, feeling refreshed after a six tourney vacation and armed with his new favorite hand, the powerful A8 which he used to dispatch a few players.  2nd place last night was Linn, who ironically had A8 himself in the final hand but Phil made the winning call with 88.  Jonkey came in 3rd and Paul 4th.

The Final Table:
1.   Phil

2.   Linn

3.   Jonkey

4.   Paul

5.   Chad

6.   Clint

7.   Steve

8.   Yoshi

9.   Tom Czzz

10. Muck

The Leaderboard: The top of the leaderboard is shuffling around each tournament now.  While Tom E. held on to 1st place, Paul moved into 2nd place and Linn took over 3rd.  This bumped Mark down to 4th and made Tom Czzz our new bubble boy in 5th place.

Coming Up:   Our next event is on Saturday, March 26th at 4:00PM.  This will be a RE-BUY tournament with a 2,000 chips starting stack.  They buy-in is $50 (+$5).  There are unlimited re-buys ($25 for 2,000 chips) until the end of the 4th level if you are at or below your starting stack.  This includes the start of the tournament so effectively a player can start with 4,000 chips for $75.  There is an optional 3,000 chip add-on (for $25) available to all players still in the tournament at the end of the 4th level.

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker

More on the leaderboard:  you will notice that the Leaderboard is color-coded to indicate the projected end of the year WSOP prize packages.  Blue is for the $10,000 Main Event package, Red is for a $2500 seat (if available) and Green is for the guaranteed $1500 seats.  The Orange indicates the players that qualify for the playoff tournament.  These projections are based on our year-to-date attendance & savings and will be adjusted as we progress through the season.  You can see more information on this at the bottom of the Results page below the Stake chart.

February 27, 2011

Season VI - Event 15:   We played our 3rd major yesterday and had our first 3 time winner of the season.  Tom E. survived Larry's early attack (played to the tune of "Beans, beans, the magical fruit....") to outlast a strong field of 28 players.  Muck came in 2nd place and Gail took 3rd.

The Final Table:
1.   Tom E.
2.   Muck
3.   Gail
4.   Yoshi
5.   Eddie
6.   Don
7.   Mike
8.   Tom C.
9.   Bob
10. Clint

The Leaderboard: Lots of movement at the top of the standings this week!  Tom E. is now back on top with Muck about a 3 iron away in 2nd place.  Tom C. has moved into 3rd and Paul H. dropped to 4th.  Clint is now our official bubble boy.  At our current pace we will be awarding TWO main event seats this season so the battle for the top spots should be exciting down the home stretch.

Coming Up:  Our next event is on Sunday, March 13th at 4:00PM. This will be a regular deep stack tournament with a $10,000 chip starting stack and 25 minute blinds. The buy-in is $100 (+$5).

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker

February 19, 2011

Season VI - Event 14:  This was our third rebuy event of the season and it was a wild one as we had 28 players, 69 rebuys and 23 add-ons for a total of $3500 in the pot.  Of course 1/2 was awarded in prize money while the other 1/2 goes toward our end of the year prize packages.  This time it was the long suffering (and long whining) Jonkey who took it down for his first victory since Event 12 of season IV.  He snuck onto the final table with a short stack and then got hit right in the face with the deck as he seemed to have the right hand at the right moment throughout the 4 hour final table.  Really, it was that long!

To commemorate his first win in over 2 years here are the Top 10 things discovered by Jonkey at this tournament:

10.  Winning a race is a really good feeling 
9.   That the $100 chips eventually come off the table
8.    AA is always a good hand but it's really sweet when your opponent has KK (thanks Kevin!)
7.   The cash game on a Saturday night is a lot louder when you're not playing in it
6.   If the conversation starts to lag you can always heckle Mark and then everyone laughs and loosens up   
5.   That the $500 chips eventually come off the table also
4.   When you can easily bet a stack of twenty $1000 chips your opponent will often fold
3.   That the Syndicate really does have a 3000/6000 blind level 
2.  There are no antes when you play heads-up 

and the number one thing Jonkey learned.....
1. Tequila is even better for celebration than for consolation

The Final Table:
1.   Jonkey
2.   Tom Czzzz.
3.   Eddie
4.   Paul H.
5.   Felix
6.   Gary
7.   Mike P.
8.   Muck
9.   Don
10. Bob


The Leaderboard: There was a real shakeup at the top of the leaderboard as Tom Czzzz moved up from 8th place to a tie for the lead with the P-man.  Tom E. and Linn then slid down to 3rd and 4th place respectively while Kevin became our new bubble boy.

Coming Up:   Our next event is on Sunday, February 27th at 3:00PM. This will be our third Major Event of the season.  This tournament will feature a $15,000 chip starting stack with 30 minute blinds. The buy-in is $100 (+$5).  While the points are the same as a regular tournament the top  5 finishers will receive Bonus Playoff Chips to be used should they qualify for the playoffs.

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker

More on the leaderboard/Prize Projections:  you will notice that the Leaderboard is color-coded to indicate the projected end of the year WSOP prize packages.  Blue is for the $10,000 Main Event package, Red is for a $2500 seat (if available) and Green is for the guaranteed $1500 seats.  The Orange indicates the players that qualify for the playoff tournament.  These projections are based on our year-to-date attendance & savings and will be adjusted as we progress through the season.  You can see more information on this at the bottom of the Results page below the Stake chart.

February 14, 2011

Season VI Prize Package Update:

Though we are still getting strong attendance compared to previous seasons, our numbers have dropped considerably since the beginning of the year.   If our recent pace we holds up we should have about $31,000 available for our prize packages.  This will still allow us to award two Main Event prize packages plus a$1500 package each for 3rd and 4th place.  There would also be four $1000 to $1500 packages available for the playoff winners. 

Please note:  if we get below $30,000 in savings we will not award a 2nd Main Event package and will add several more lower buy-in awards per the published rules. 

Schedule Change:

The tournament currently scheduled for May 1st (Event #20) has been moved to Saturday May 7th.  Mark your calendars! 

February 5, 2011

Season VI - Event 13:  After a fantastic seminar with Linda Johnson we had a deep stack tourney with yet another repeat winner:  this time it was Patsy who outlasted everyone else for the second time this season.  Chad came in 2nd place as heads-up was over quickly since Patsy's stack dwarfed Chad's when they began play.  Tai took third place, followed by Cal (!) and Steve.

The Final Table:
1.   Patsy
2.   Chadzilla
3.   Tai
4.   Cal
5.   Steve
6.   Eddie
7.   Paul H.
8.   Brady
9.   Tom S.
10. Linn


The Leaderboard: Tom E. still holds 1st place overall and Linn moved up one spot to take 2nd place.  Paul's 20 points were enough to move him up to 3rd place and Kevin and Clint now have 4th and 5th place respectively.

Coming Up:   The next event is on Saturday, February 19thyat 4:00PM.  This will be a RE-BUY tournament with a 2,000 chips starting stack.  They buy-in is $50 (+$5).  There are unlimited re-buys ($25 for 2,000 chips) until the end of the 4th level if you are at or below your starting stack.  This includes the start of the tournament so effectively a player can start with 4,000 chips for $75.  There is an optional 3,000 chip add-on (for $25) available to all players still in the tournament at the end of the 4th level.

LINDA JOHNSON SEMINAR:  The presentation by Ms. Johnson went great.  We had about 30 Syndicateers there to listen as Linda went over many important strategy concepts.  She focused mostly on deep-stack tournament poker with an emphasize on sound fundamental play.  She also slipped in a lot of interesting and amusing stories as well as giving us an idea of how she moved up to the top of the poker world.  Thank you Linda and thanks also to everyone who brought canned goods for the San Diego Food Bank.

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker.

More on the leaderboard:  you will notice that the Leaderboard is color-coded to indicate the projected end of the year WSOP prize packages.  Blue is for the $10,000 Main Event package, Red is for a $2500 seat (if available) and Green is for the guaranteed $1500 seats.  The Orange indicates the players that qualify for the playoff tournament.  These projections are based on our year-to-date attendance & savings and will be adjusted as we progress through the season.  You can see more information on this at the bottom of the Results page below the Stake chart.

January 23, 2011

Season VI - Event 12:  This was quite an eventful tournament.  First we saw a player go from 150 chips in round 1 to the chip lead at the final table; then we had a surprise visit as  a legendary rocker came to play with us; and finally we had a long time Syndicate player get his first victory ever. 

Our first story was of the "chip and a chair" variety as Gil got knocked down to 150 chips during a huge hand.  After a few double and triple-ups he hung on with a below-average stack most of the way until by the final table he had taken the chip lead with over 100,000 chips.  Unfortunately (for Gil) his Cinderella story was over before midnight as he bowed out in 5th place after losing a couple of races.   

Our next story was a little more electric as the infamous rocker Silly Idol (subbing for Muck) caused quite a Shock to the System when he came in with his Rebel Yell.  However, he couldn't Catch his Fall as he failed to make the Mony Mony Mony.  He too was gone by The Midnight Hour as he went home To Be A Lover and go Dancing With Himself.

One player that was still in the tourney after midnight was Linn H. who had been a Syndicate bridesmaid seven times in five seasons.  This time Linn finally stepped up to the altar to claim his first Syndicate victory.  After Brady busted out in 3rd, Wayne had a 3 to 1 chip lead over Linn .  This time though, Linn held on and after almost an hour of heads-up play he proved that he was the one who was Hot In The City with his first win.  Congratulations Linn! 

The Final Table:
1.   Linn
2.   Wayne
3.   Brady
4.   Tom Czzz
5.   Gil
6.   Kevin

The Leaderboard: Tom E. (1st place) and Clint (2nd place) maintained their positions while Linn moved way up the board into 3rd and Kevin moved up two spot to take 4th place.  Paul H. slid down to 5th to round out the top five.

Coming Up:   On February 5th at 2:30PM will be the seminar lead by Linda Johnson, The First Lady of Poker (more below).  Following the seminar, at 4:00PM we will play Event 13 which is now a regular Deep Stack Tourney with a 10,000 chip starting stack and 25 minute blinds.  The buy-in is $100 (+$5).

LINDA JOHNSON SEMINAR:  Professional poker player, WSOP bracelet winner and all around poker luminary Linda Johnson will lead a seminar before our next tournament on February 5th.  The seminar will begin at 2:30PM but Linda will be at our tournament location at 2:00PM for anyone who would like to talk to her personally.  We have an Evite out for this event but if you need another one please email us a request. 

SPECIAL GIFT: Linda is a charitable person and has been very involved with helping those in need. As a gesture of our thanks, we would like to donate canned goods to our local San Diego Food Bank. If you'd like to participate, please bring 2-5 (or more!) food items per the guidelines at: http://www.sandiegofoodbank.org/fooddrives/most-needed-food-items/. Thank you!

Website Updates:  The full results including the Leaderboard and the Player Stake page will be available later today on our website .  You can always keep up with everything on our website as we update it as soon as possible after each event.  You can also follow us and interact on our FaceBook page at The San Diego Syndicate: Poker

More on the leaderboard:  you will notice that the Leaderboard is color-coded to indicate the projected end of the year WSOP prize packages.  Blue is for the $10,000 Main Event package, Red is for a $2500 seat (if available) and Green is for the guaranteed $1500 seats.  The Orange indicates the players that qualify for the playoff tournament.  These projections are based on our year-to-date attendance & savings and will be adjusted as we progress through the season.  You can see more information on this at the bottom of the Results page below the Stake chart.

January 14, 2011

The Syndicate is proud to announce a pre-tournament seminar by The First Lady of Poker, Linda Johnson.  Linda is a renowned professional poker player and WSOP bracelet winner.  She has also held many important posts within the poker world.  These include: