Sometimes it's hard to get a snack during a poker tournament. If players forget to bring their own, they suddenly find themselves at the mercy of breaks and venue options, but not here at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel. Oh no, here at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel they know how to treat their players right.
Just off to the side of the tournament area there is a spread available to players at all time. This morning it was complete with coffee, soda, juice and a fine selection of pastries. Now that it's afternoon, those breakfast options have been swapped out with fruits (i.e. strawberries, grapes, pineapple, etc.) and veggies (i.e. broccoli, carrots, celery, cucumbers, etc.).
Hungry? Simply get up between hands and grab a quick bite. Thirsty? No need to wait on a waitress, just grab a bottle of water and get back to the action.
As any poker player can tell you, it's the little things that make a big differences, and here at Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel they seem to be well aware of that fact.
With around 5,000 in the pot and a board reading , a player in early position checked and Kevin Reyes bet 3,300. His opponent made a quick call, and then it went check-check on the river.
"It's good," the early-position played admitted when Reyes tabled the .
In between hand, Reyes, who is donning a black New York Yankees cap, is keeping himself busy reading The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War. It'd seemed like an interesting choice for the poker table, so we decided to look it up. Here's the book's description according to Amazon:
In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America’s destiny.
Seneca Poker Room Manager Amanda Scarcelli just handed us the payouts for Event #10. The 119 entries created a prize pool of $29,958, and the top 12 finishers will earn a minimum payday of $629. The eventual winner will take home $8,988.
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We saw Carol Leonardi gathering her things and then walk out of the tournament area. A quick check with Nicholas Walker confirmed that she had indeed been eliminated from the tournament.
According to him, several players each put in 800 preflop and saw a flop of . One player led out for 3,500, Leonardi called, and then Walker bumped it to 8,000. Both his opponents called, a turned, and two checks saw Walker fire 10,000. His first opponent folded, and then Leonardi called off her last 6,100 holding . Unfortunately for her, Walker rolled over for a full house.
Leonardi needed the case ace to chop, but it wasn't in the cards as a blanked on the river.
With 5,000 or so already in the pot and a board reading , Buck Ramsay bet 2,900 from middle position and received a call from Aaron Olshan, who was sitting in the cutoff.
When the completed the board on the river, Ramsay slowed down with a check and then snap-folded to a bet of 6,300 from Olshan.
Despite how that hand played out, Ramsay is actually the one thriving here today as he is sitting with a hefty stack of 65,000. That said, Olshan isn't doing too bad either as he is up a bit from the starting stack.
On Tuesday, April 1, David Kelly took down the $150 No-Limit Hold'em event here at the 2014 Western New York Poker Challenge, and he's back in action today looking for another title.
Kelly is seated over at Table 19, which is where we heard a dealer shout out, "All in and a call."
We made out way over to discover the dealer verifying stacks between Kelly and his opponent in the big blind. The board read , and Kelly had the laid out in front of him. The big blind's hand had already been mucked, but Kelly confirmed that his opponent had held and the two got it in on the turn.
It was close, but Kelly had a slightly bigger stack to send the big blind to the rail.