Author: maxsoundsmusic

After a summer that included a huge Syndi turnout in Vegas, our annual feast at Carmines, four Syndi WSOP cashes (plus about a dozen more for our players), the Summer Fun Tourney, and the Tiki – we are ready to start our 18th season!

The invitation is now out for our first event on Saturday, September 16th at 3pm. We expect a big turnout so please let us know as soon as you can if you plan to play.

There are a few changes changes for this upcoming season:

• Players will now receive 100 bonus chips per event they attend to add to their playoff stack.
• The bonus chips awarded at the majors are now: 1st – 3000, 2nd – 2500, 3rd – 2000, 4th – 1500, 5th – 1000. These chips will be added to a player’s playoff stack.
• The final event of the season will be a MAJOR MAJOR featuring a 50,000 chip starting stack and 30 minute levels. This will be event 16 on Sunday, April 21.
• If a player earns a guaranteed seat to the Main Event Bonus Tourney, then all bonus chips will be worth double and added to their stacks. (players advancing from the main playoff will have used their bonus chips).
• Each seed in the main playoff tourney will now receive 500 chips more than the previous seed. For example, the 18th seed will have a base stack of 25,000 chips; the 17th seed will start with 25,500 and so forth.

Be sure to check our STRUCTURES and RULES pages for all of the details.

WSOP PAYOUTS – we’ll be paying out each player’s share of our WSOP earnings at our first event. Any players that don’t make this event will get paid by Venmo. And remember, we still have Matt & Kelsi left to play for us next summer!

WEBSITE UPDATES – there are still some updates coming including linking to our workbook that will show all results, player stakes and the Syndicate Bank that will track all income, expenses and savings. We also will update our archives with previous year’s results and pictures.

Since Joy left us to go live somewhere in the desert with the saguaros and prickly pears, we had an opening on the committee. And the choice was easy! Wendi Beneke joins myself, Chad, Paul, Keithy, Matt and Don on the Syndicate Committee. Wendi joined the Syndicate halfway through Season 9 and has been a Syndicate mainstay ever since, winning a Main Event seat in Season 15. Welcome Wendi!

The Main Event began today – our players start on Wednesday – Day 1C (John and Mark) and Thursday – Day 1D (Paul). LFG SYNDICATORS!!!

It’s been a fantastic World Series of Poker for the Syndicate so far as we’ve had four cashes already (out of eight that have played). We’ve never had four cashes in a Series before and we still have six players yet to go! So far Alan, Anthony, Keithy, Rene, Ranjit, Patsy, Lena and Don have played and we still have Gary B (who’s playing in The Closer), Paul H, John B and Mark S left to go in the Main Event. (Matt & Kelsi are deferring until next summer for some reason). And really, we’ve had five winners once we count Mark Ross for the mini-syndi who had a nice cash in the Monster!

Here are the results for the Syndicate representatives:

And here are the results for all of the Syndicators that have played so far:

Congratulations to Mark Sawkar for winning our third Main Event seat! Mark was the 3rd seed at the start of the tourney, behind Anthony and Keithy and just ahead of Matt Burley. This will be Mark’s first time playing in the Main Event.

The players began with an average of 170,000 chips with the top seed starting with 200,000 and the bottom seeds (our three playoff winners) starting with 150,000 each. The levels were 40 minutes long (starting at 1k/2k/2k) from levels 1 – 6 and 35 minutes in length beginning in level 7.

We lost our first player at the end of level 4 when Don ran his 11bb stack (holding KJ) into Matt’s AA. After that we lost Ranjit, Rene, Keithy and Anthony between levels 5 and 7. Kelsi busted next in level 8, leaving Gary, Patsy, Matt and Mark. By now Mark had a commanding chip lead over the field causing everyone to play shallower than what the average stack size would be.

Gary lasted until the next level before going out in 4th place. The remaining three of Patsy, Matt and Mark then played 3-handed for almost two hours before Patsy finally lost all of her chips in the 11th level (10k/20k/20k).

Now heads-up begins with Mark’s stack at 1.57m chips to Matt’s 122k chips – a 13 to 1 advantage! After a few hands they got it in with Matt holding KK to Mark’s 44 for Matt’s first double up.

Matt continued to grind his stack up until this big hand: Mark raised and Matt called and they saw a flop of 8c9c9d. Matt check-called the flop and they saw a J fall on the turn. Matt check-raised all in and Mark called. Matt tabled J9 and Mark showed QcJc. The river bricked and Matt took the chip lead with about 1m to Mark’s 700k.

After that everything seemed to go Mark’s way. He kept winning small and medium-sized pots as Matt seemed unable to connect or slow Mark down. Matt did have a chance to take it down, with a small chip-lead remaining, when they got it all in on the turn with this hand: Matt held Ad8c against Mark’s Ah2h and the board ran out Ac7c4c Kd 4h for a chop.

Soon after that Mark flopped a set with 22 vs Matt’s top pair to give him back the chip lead. Mark ended up earning the victory after about a 90 minute heads-up duel.

Congratulations to ALL of our winners (plus Mark Ross) and good luck to them and the Syndicate in Las Vegas this Summer!!!

Final Table Results:

1. Mark
2. Matt
3. Patsy
4. Gary
5. Kelsi
6. Anthony
7. Keithy
8. Rene
9. Ranjit
10. Don

.

Congratulations to our playoff winners! Don, Patsy, Ranjit and Lena all earned $1500 WSOP seats and will play for the syndicate in Las Vegas this summer. Additionally, Don, Patsy and Ranjit advanced to play in our Bonus Main Event Final Table Tourney the next day.

And since everyone wants to know – It was Mark “I made it past dinner” Ross who won the coveted Mini-Syndi seat in 5th place.

Just in time for our WSOP trip to Vegas – the new Syndicate design is ready on all of our merch! By popular demand we are bringing back our original design from way back in season 2! You can get this, and any of our previous designs, by following the links on our merch page.

Congratulations to Robert on his first Syndicate victory! Robert played in 12 events this season (his first) and scored a 1st and a 3rd, which helped move him up into the middle of the playoff field.

The runner up was Drew, who knew going into the tourney that he had to go DEEEEP to have a chance at the playoffs. With only six tourneys played this season, the 3-time WSOP Circuit Event winner knew he need a top score to make it, but he didn’t realize he’d have to win! He gave it a good run but ultimately fell just one place short.

In 3rd place was Don B, who managed to jump into the playoffs while also crushing Anthony’s soul along the way! After all of the night’s previous action, Anthony, who came in 4th on this night, needed a 2nd place finish to pass John B and earn the second Main Event seat. He gave John (who busted in 13th place to break a tie with Alan) perhaps the most brutal sweat in Syndicate history. At the final table Anthony had a decent amount of chips but kept adding to his stack as players busted out. By the time four players remained Anthony had amassed a formidable stack by the time he got all in with AhKh vs Don’s ATo. With a 10 on the flop and another 10 on the turn, Anthony lost about 2/3 of his stack (of course a K landed on the river! But Anthony mounted a mini-comeback and chipped back up to extend John’s now excruciating sweat! This went on for some time until Anthony was finally all-in again – this time with AJ against Don’s mighty 85. A 5 on the flop and a 5 on the turn ended Anthony’s run and light John finally take a breath and celebrate.

Jack also made a great run this evening for his 5th place finish, but like Drew he fell just one place short of making the playoffs.

Final Table

1. Robert
2. Drew
3. Don B
4. Anthony
5. Jack
6. Kelsi
7. Patsy
8. Paul H
9. Lena
10. Lisa

The Leaderboard & Season 17 Final At 10:25pm, when John Borges busted in 13th place, Paul Hopkins clinched his second WSOP Main Event seat and 1st place overall for the Season. P-man won his first Main Event seat back in Season 8 when he came in 2nd place overall just behind Rene. Paul began with the Syndicate back in 2008 (season 4) when he earned his first WSOP seat in the playoffs. This season Paul had 10 scores with one victory and eight final tables.

Our 2nd place finisher, and winner of our 2nd Main Event seat, is John Borges. John started the tournament having to contend with SEVEN players that could have knocked him out of that seat! John, who started with the Syndicate back in season 14, had a solid season with eight scores, including a win and seven final tables.

Amazingly, all of the guaranteed seat players held on to their seats and will now come back next Sunday to play in our Bonus Main Event Final Table Tourney. Congratulations to Alan, Anthony, Keithy, Mark, Matt B, Gary, Kelsi and Rene.

Our playoff field is also now set with Buck, Ranjit and Jonkey as the top three seeds. Congratulations again to both Robert and Don as they both came from below “the line” to earn a playoff seat and chance at winning a $1,500 or even a $10,000 WSOP seat!

Congratulations to all of our winners and good luck to our playoff contenders both on Saturday and Sunday!

Next Up The top 18 players that did not earn a guaranteed seat will play again Saturday at 3pm. The top four players will earn a $1,500 seat with the top three of them advancing to the Main Event Bonus tournament the next day – also at 3pm. We will send out Evites and more information about those tournaments soon via email. Please note that Alan will unfortunately not be able to play in the Sunday tournament.

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

Congratulation to Kelsi for her first Syndicate victory! Kelsi started with us back in season 14 and had two runner’s up finishes in season 16 – but this was her first time winning it all! In second place was Alan “Machu Picchu” Ho, followed by Keithy, Matt H and Gary B.

Final Table

1. Kelsi
2. Alan
3. Keithy
4. Matt H
5. Gary B
6. Lena
7. Jonkey
8. Buck
9. Farid
10. John B

The Leaderboard – Things are crazy now at the top of the leaderboard! Paul somehow held on to first place with 430 points, but we now have John B and Alan in a tie for 2nd, just 10 points behind him. Keithy is right behind them in 4th place with 400 points. Then there’s a pack of players: Mark S, Matt B, Gary, Rene and even Anthony within 60 points of a Main Event seat! Even Kelsi and Buck are still in reach of a guaranteed main event seat with a win in the final event!

Then down in the playoff hunt, anyone down to Chad in 53rd place could still make it into the playoffs and still be eligible for a Main Event prize package!!

Next Up – The final regular season event is this Saturday, April 29th at 3pm. This will be a Major Deep Stack tourney with a 40k starting stack.

Cash Game – Bring some extra dough to the final tourney as we will have a cash game game going as players bust out.

Congratulations to John Borges for his first Syndicate victory!! This was John’s second top-3 finish in a row and his seventh final table appearance this season. Not only that but the win vaulted him up into 2nd place overall and a main event seat (for now!). In 2nd place, after an exciting heads-up match, was Patsy. This is Patsy’s second runner-up finish of the season and moved her into the middle of the playoff bracket. In 3rd place was the best-dressed man of the evening, Anders. In 4th place was Dana, followed by Spork, Matt B (remember him?!) and Paul “The Grinder” Hopkins to round out the money winners.

Final Table

1. John B
2. Patsy
3. Anders
4. Dana
5. Spork
6. Matt B
7. Paul H
8. Andi
9. Anthony
10. Ranjit

The Leaderboard – With John’s win the top of the leaderboard just got even tighter! Mark S, Matt B, Rene and Anthony are all within 50 points of a Main Event seat; and everyone down to Buck in 11th place could move into the blue with a win at the next tournament. It’s going to be an exciting final two tourneys!

Next Up – We had to reschedule the next event so we our next tournament is on April 22nd. This will be event 15 – a regular deep stack. Event 16 will then be played on April 29th.

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

As we make the turn down the homestretch of the season we have added one more guaranteed $1500 seat to the leaderboard. We now have two guaranteed main event seats, seven guaranteed $1500 seats, and 18 playoff seats. With this additional guaranteed seat added, the top THREE playoff winners (out of four) will now advance to the Main Event Bonus Seat Tournament.

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

Congratulations to Ranjit on his second win of the season and fifth overall in his illustrious Syndicate career! The runner up was Jonkey, who survived a harrowing run of bad cards, suck-outs, bad beats, Anthony’s haranguing, AND Matt Hopkins to earn his second 2nd of the season. In 3rd place was John “I’m an official Syndicate Closer Now” Borges with his fifth final table of the season. Rene took 4th place and Joy – in her final tournament with us (for now!) – took 5th.

Final Table

1. Ranjit
2. Jonkey
3. John B
4. Rene
5. Joy
6. Matt Hopkins
7. Alan
8. Tombie
9. Kelly
10. Jack

The Leaderboard – The top of the leaderboard is getting TIGHT!! Mark and Paul are still in the lead but Rene and Alan moved up this week and Keithy, Matt B, Anthony and Gary are all still completely within striking distance. Really, anyone down to 11th place could move into the overall lead with a win. It’s going to be a wild final three tourneys this season!!

Projections – John B, Joy and I will make reasonable projections and may revise the prize possibilities this week. Stay tuned on that.

Next Up – The next tournament is a rebuy event on Saturday, March 25 – we will be running a cash game again as players bust out of the event.

Schedule Change – The tournament scheduled for April 15th will be rescheduled. We will now run Event 15 on April 22nd and Event 16 on April 29th.

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

Congratulation to Wendi for winning our third major of the season. This is Wendi’s first win since Season 15, Event 12 when she went on to win a Main Event seat and represent the Syndicate at the WSOP that season. In 2nd place was Lisa with her third Syndicate final table in a row. Steve came in 3rd, Joey 4th and Paul H came in 5th.

Final Table

1. Wendi
2. Lisa
3. Steve
4. Joey
5. Paul H
6. Anthony
7. Mark S
8. Jack]
9. Dana
10. Anthony

Congratulation to Jim H for his victory in Event 11. This was Jim’s first win since Event 6 of Season 12, which was Jim’s third ever Syndicate event! In second place was Spork, followed by Mark S, Anthony and the return of Dave Bernatz!

Final Table

1. Jim H
2. Spork
3. Mark S
4. Anthony
5. Dave Bernatz
6. John B
7. Bob C
8. Bob W
9. Lisa
10. Anders

The Leaderboard

With his 3rd place finish this week Mark S has vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with a 10 point lead over Matt B and Paul H, who are now tied for 2nd place. Everybody else dropped down a spot with Keithy now in 4th; Gary in 5th; Alan and Rene tied for 6th; and Buck in 8th. Anthony’s 4th place finish this week moved him up into the bubble-boy spot.

Next Up

The next event is a MAJOR deep stack tourney on Saturday February 25th at 3pm.

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

So it would seem that everyone’s favorite Raider fan has a strategy – win the 10th event of every season! So far Paul has six syndicate victories and the last three have been in the 10th event of the season! Congratulations P-Man! In 2nd place was Tombie with his first points of the season in five attempts. In 3rd place was Gary B, followed by Dave Readman, Lisa, and Alan to round out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Paul H
2. Tombie
3. Gary B
4. Dave Readman
5. Lisa
6. Alan
7. Robb
8. Keith
9. MC
10. Buck

The Leaderboard

Paul’s victory this week, which now makes six scores and five final table appearances, has vaulted him into a 1st place tie with Matt “What Happened” Burley. This dropped Keithy, who has nine scores this season, down to 3rd place. Gary and Alan’s high finishes this tourney moved them up to 4th and 5th place respectively. Rene, Buck and MarkS complete our current guaranteed seat holders. Anthony is still the bubble boy.

Next Up

The next event is a regular deep stack tourney on Saturday February 11th at 3pm. The evite will go out soon.

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

Congratulations to Mark for winning the second major of the season. This is Mark’s third Syndicate victory as he’s won one tournament per season for the last three seasons. In 2nd place, with his first Syndicate points is everyone’s favorite fishing commissioner, Jim Sleight. In 3rd place was Gary B, who is no stranger to the final table! We had 50 players for this event so the pay went down to 6th place: Scotty, Alan and MC took 4th, 5th and 6th.

Final Table:

1. Mark S
2. Jim S
3. Gary B
4. Scotty
5. Alan
6. MC
7. Don B
8. Matt B
9. Bob W
10. Lisa

The Leaderboard

With his win Mark shot from the middle of the pack in 13th place all the way up to 2nd. That dropped Buck down to 3rd place and then Keith inched ahead of Alan with the 10 points he earned. Gary B also made a strong move into the guaranteed seats with his 3rd place finish.

Next Up

Holiday Hold’em at Jonkey’s Keller William office in La Jolla. Dinner and cocktails will be from 5:30 to 6:30 with the tourney starting at 6:30. We should be done between 10:30 and 11:00.

Event #9 is a regular deepstack tourney on Saturday, January 7th.

Congratulations to Jon “Trouble” Towers for his victory in event 6. This is Jon’s third win in the last two seasons after (surprisingly) going his first 8 seasons without one! It must be all the extra nutrients he gets from his private pomegranate orchard! Jon also won our Final Table playoff tourney and Main Event seat at the end of Season 15.

In 2nd place was Jim H. for his best finish since he won Event 6 in season 12. In 3rd place was Rene, followed by Chris, Dr. Bob and Paul H. to round out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Jon T
2. Jim H
3. Rene
4. Chris Blake
5. Bob W
6. Paul H
7. Wayne
8. Sharon
9. TJ
10. Jonkey

The Leaderboard

The tope of the leaderboard tightened up some as Matt posted another goose egg. He still leads by a healthy 70 points over Paul H., who moved up from 5th to 2nd with his fifth score in a row (including 4 final tables). Keith dropped down to 3rd place and Wayne moved up two spots with his 7th place finish this week. After that, Alan dropped two spots to 5th place followed by Rene, Jon and Mark Ross to complete our guaranteed seats. John B is our current bubble-boy.

Next Up

Event 7 is a regular deep-stack tournament on Saturday Nov. 19th at 3pm

And the winner of event 5 was Not Matt Burley – aka Gary Bousquet. Congratulations Gary on your fifth career syndicate victory. In the last three seasons Gary has won one tournament per season – so we should be safe from him until next season! In second place was Lena, playing in her first Syndicate event since season 12 in 2016. Mark Ross clearly likes dealing since he got 3rd place for the second time this season. Keithy and John Thursby got 4th and 5th to round out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Gary B
2. Lena
3. Mark Ross
4. Keithy
5. John Thursby
6. Matt Hopkins
7. Rene
8. Wendi
9. Jon T
10. Mark S

The Leaderboard

We decided to let Matt B play this tourney after all but made sure he didn’t get any points – but even with his first 0 since March of last season he is well ahead of the field. Keithy though is closing the gap – with five scores in as many events, including three final table appearances – he has moved into 2nd place. Alan got a min-score and dropped down to to 3rd place. Behind him is Mark “3rd place or nothing” Ross. After that there is a tie for 5th between John B and Paul H. Wayne is in 7th place and Gary’s win moved him up into guaranteed seat territory. Ranjit is our current bubble-boy.

Next Up: Event 6 will be a re-entry tournament on Saturday, November 5th at 3PM. The evite will be out soon. Matt B is still invited at this time.

Full results and the updated leaderboard will be ready soon.

First – how about those Padres! What a great game and series – and against the Dodgers!

Next, we have an announcement to make. In the interest of fairness Matt Burley will only be able to play in every other tournament. He’ll be able to play next on Nov. 5th.

Seriously, congratulations Matt on your second win of the season and 11th overall (in 9 seasons)! Apparently even Matt needs a little luck on his side though: with 5 players remaining Matt shoved KJo and gets snapped by Keith with AA; a K on the flop and a J on the turn gave Matt a big stack and he never looked back!

Steve P took 2nd place and Keithy held on for 3rd. Mark S and Wendi got 4th and 5th respectively to round out our money winners.

Final Table:

1. Matt B
2. Steve P
3. Keithy
4. Mark S
5. Wendi
6. Dalton
7. John B
8. Wayne
9. Paul H

The Leaderboard: After 4 events Matt B has 4 scores, 3 final tables and 2 wins. So he’s in the lead. 105 points below him is Alan with a win and three scores. John B and Paul H are in 3rd and 4th respectively, each with 3 final table appearances this season. Keith (4 scores), Wayne (3 FT’s) Ranjit, Buck and Scotty round out our players currently in the green section.

Next Up: Event 5 is a regular deep stack event this Saturday, October 22nd at 3pm.

Full results HERE and a Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

Link to the Season 17 Leaderboard, Results, Stake and Schedule

Final Table

1. Matt B
2. Drew
3. John B
4. Buck
5. Waynbe
6. Paul H
7. Kelsi
8. Don B
9. Donnie
10. Alan