San Diego Syndicate

Congratulations to Ranjit for winning Event 10. By the mid-point of the tournament Ranjit had a very healthy stack. And then he didn’t. And then he did again. Finally, with five players remaining at the final table he was down to 4BB while Farid, who had been the chip leader for a looooooooong time, had the table covered with about 950k chips. Yet somehow Ranjit held on to win for the sixth time his Syndicate career!

In 2nd place was Farid who suffered one bad beat after another (usually followed by another bad beat) at the final table. Yet he still came away with his second 2nd place finish of the season and is now in 2nd place in the standings!

In 3rd place was Jack, who held on to earn his third final-table points of the season. In 4th place was Scott N with his fourth top-5 (or better) finish of the season. In 5th place was Jonkey with his first final table appearance since event 13 of last season (though it should be noted how stoic he as been throughout that dry spell – at least according to Anthony). In 6th place was Anders, followed by Kelly in 7th to round out our money winners.

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In bonus coverage we’d like to highlight a fun hand that happened before the final table. At the 3000/6000 level Susan was down to 18k and she got it all in with two callers. She tabled A3o while her opponents showed 55 and A4. Things were looking pretty grim for Susan until (her hero) Jonkey spread out a flop 333! Susan took that triple up all the way to 11th place!

Final Table

1. Ranjit
2. Farid
3. Jack
4. Scott
5. Jonkey
6. Anders
7. Kelly
8. Keithy
9. Steve P
10. Pat

The Leaderboard with his 8th place finish this event Keithy held on to the top spot. Next up in 2nd place is Farid with second runners up finish of the season. Scott N moved into 3rd place with his 4th place finish in this tournament.

Next Up Event 11 is a regular tournament with a 25k starting stack on February 8th at 3pm.

Season 19 at a Glance The Season 19 results/info can be found  HERE

The next Syndicate tournament, previously scheduled for January 18th, has been rescheduled. The entire remaining schedule will now be pushed forward. The next tournament, Event 9, will be a re-entry event on February 1st at 3pm. The final regular season event will now be held on Sunday, April 27 at 1pm.

Congratulations to Mark “who wants a ride in my Porsche?” Ross for taking down Event 9! This is Mark’s fifth victory since beginning his Syndicate career back in Season 8. In second place was Don B for his fourth score in seven events this season. In 3rd place was Keithy for his third top-3 finish of the season. In 4th was Paul H with his fourth final table this season. Alan and Jeff came in 5th and 6th places to round out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Mark Ross
2. Don B
3. Keithy
4. Paul H
5. Alan
6. Jeff
7. Farid
8. Trevor
9. Paul R
10. Anders

The Leaderboard With his 3rd place finish this event Keithy extended his overall lead. Meanwhile Mark Ross moved up from who knows where to 2nd place!! The next several places all slid down a couple of spots as Alan and Paul moved into a tie for 3rd place.

Next Up Event 10 is a REBUY tournament with a 25k starting stack on Saturday, January 18 at 3pm.

Season 19 at a Glance All of the Season 19 results/info can be found  HERE

Congratulations to Mona for winning the 3rd annual Holiday Hold’em event! We had 25 players, a lot of fun and raised a nice pile of money for our charity! Extra thanks to the players (and a couple of non-players) who contributed extra!! Mona told me to thank Kelsi for not showing up this year so that she could have a chance to take it down!

Here’s the Final Table:

1. Mona
2. Becky
3. Paul H
4. Steve P
5. Wendi
6. Alan
7. Wayne
8. Tamer
9. Maryanne
10. Farid

We’ll be back again next December with another edition of Holiday Hold’em!

Congratulations to Tom Czzz for his first win since Event 4 of Season 7! While that was just over 13 years ago, it should be noted that he didn’t play in six of those seasons! Back in Season 7 Tom came in 2nd place overall to earn a Main Event seat and went on to last deep into day-4 for a nice cash-out for himself and the Syndi.

In 2nd place, after a VERY short heads up match (the players had reached the 50k/100k level!) was Matt Hopkins. In 3rd place was Maryanne, repeating her performance in Event 5. In 4th place was Chris B, for her third final table appearance of the season. Farid came in 5th place for his fourth score while Robert and Alan came in 6th and 7th respectively to round out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Tom Czzz
2. Matt H
3. Maryanne
4. Chris B
5. Farid
6. Robert D
7. Alan
8. Dana M
9. Andi
10. Jack

The Leaderboard Keithy, Scott N and Christopher all held on to their top spots despite not getting any points. Below them the order shuffled around Robert and Andi moving up into 4th and 5th places. Lena dropped to 6th place while Maryanne moved up into a tie with her in that spot. Alan and Farid moved up into the guaranteed slots, bumping down Paul H and Pat.

Next Up Event 9 is a regular 25k starting stack tournament (no re-entries) on Saturday, January 4 at 3pm.

Season 19 at a Glance All of the Season 19 results/info can be found  HERE

Congratulations to Paul R for winning event 7 this season. Paul is definitely on a hot streak as he’s won 50% of the tourneys he’s played in so far (he’s played in two)! This is Paul’s 9th Syndicate victory since played his first event with us back in season 4 (2008). This victory was especially tough to secure considering these were the final four players…

In 2nd place was Lena who has managed to work the Syndicate into her jet-setting schedule just enough to get 1st and a 2nd place in back to back events. In 3rd place was Wendi for her third score in a row while Andi came in 4th place, which keeps her near the top of the leaderboard. Scott N took 5th place for the second event in a row and Jon Towers took 6th to round out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Paul R
2. Leena
3. Wendi
4. Andi
5. Scott N
6. Jon T
7. Tombie
8. Jeff
9. Chris B
10. Mark R

The Leaderboard Keithy is still at the top of the leaderboard but he now shares the top spot with Scott N, who now has a 2nd and two 5th’s to go with an 11th place finish in event 4. Christopher dropped down to 3rd place and Lena moved up from 19th to 4th place with her 2nd place finish this event. Behind them are Steve “wordle” Alkema, Paul H, Andi, Robert and Pat H in the 5th through 9th place guaranteed seats.

Next Up  The 8th event of the season will be held on SUNDAY, 8th at 2 pm. This will be a Super Major Deep Stack Tournament with a 50k starting stack.

Season 19 at a Glance All of the Season 19 results/info can be found  HERE

Congratulations to Lena for her first Syndicate victory! Lena started playing in the Syndicate back in Season 10 (2014) but as a globe-trotting international celebrity she’s only been able to play in 33 regular-season events so far. She made it to 2nd place twice (in seasons 17 & 18) but she earned her first win at this event.

In 2nd place this week was Keithy, who has now moved back into first place overall. Keith wanted to thank Jonkey for the sweet double-up during the 1000/1500 level when his AQ prevailed over the commissioner’s KK. In 3rd place was everyone’s favorite Canadian, Dave Readman, for his second final table of the season. John B, Scott N, Christopher and Steve P rounded out our money winners.

Final Table

1. Lena
2. Keith
3. Dave Readman
4. John B
5. Scott N
6. Christopher
7. Steve P
8. Scotty S
9. Kelly
10. Rene

The Leaderboard With his 2nd place finish this week and his win back in Event 2, Keithy has jumped into the top spot on the leaderboard. Christopher “Payday” Black moved into 2nd place with his 6th place finish this week. Steve A and Paul H dropped down to 3rd and 4th and Scott N moved up into a tie for 4th place. Pat H, Robert and Kelly have the bottom three guaranteed seats.

Next Up  Event 7 is a regular 25k starting stack tournament (no re-entries) on Saturday, November 23 at 3pm.

Season 19 at a Glance All of the Season 19 results/info can be found  HERE

Congratulations to Tom on winning the fifth event of the season for the second time in a row! As reported a year ago – Tom began playing with The Syndicate in back in 2007 (Season 3) and since then has won nine Syndi tournaments. Here’s Tom after his first victory on Nov. 4th 2007 (Season 3 – Event 8):

Alan came in 2nd place after a 40 minute heads up battle for his second final table in the last three events. Maryanne took 3rd place for her best Syndicate finish ever. Dana the Wizard came in 4th place and Robert busted in 5th place.

In 6th place was Dana M, who lost a heartbreaking hand when she got it all in after the flop with KsKd vs Tom’s KhKc. The board finished runner-runner hearts to send Dana out into the rainy night.

Final Table:

1. Tom E
2. Alan
3. Maryanne
4. Dana K
5. Robert
6. Dana M
7. Wendi
8. Paul H
9. Kelly
10. Matt H

The Leaderboard Steve A still sits on top of our leaderboard after five events. Paul H moved up two spots with an 8th place finish this week, knocking Christopher down to 3rd place. Pat H, Robert, and Alan all moved up with their finishes into 4th, 5th and 6th place respectively. Keithy and Farid are now tied for the 7th place.

Next Up We run it back again this weekend! Event 6 is a re-entry tournament with a 25k starting stack on Saturday, Nov. 9th at 3pm. Re-entries are allowed through the end of level 6. A surrender option is also available.

Season 19 at a Glance All of the Season 19 information can be found by clicking HERE

Congratulations to Jim who has now continued his streak of one win per season into it’s third season. Jim came to the final table with an average stack and then went on a HEATER!! Early at the final table Jim doubled through Christopher when the stacks went in on a king-high board, Christopher turned over AA while Jim showed KT. They flipped stacks when a King landed on the river.

Soon after that Chris Blake went all in and got a quick call by Jim. This time Jim had the AA and they held against Chris’s JJ to knock her out in 7th place.

Then, after Rene busted in 6th place, Pat went all-in and Jim made the call. Pat tabled 10-10 and Jim showed 77. It was Jim’s night though as a 7 landed on the river to send Pat home with his second 5th place finish in a row.

By now Jim had the table covered and started to really apply pressure. After several hands, mostly won by Jim, this hand happened: Steve went all in and was called by Jim and Tamer. The flop came J9T. Tamer moved all-in and Jim called. Tamer turned over QK for a flopped straight and Jim showed J9 for 2-pair. But is was Jim’s night as a Jack on the turn filled him up and he knocked out Steve and Tamer in 4th and 3rd place respectively.

The heads-up match between Christopher and Jim was short-lived as Jim had about 90% of the chips in play. After just a few hands Christopher shoved with A4ss and Jim made the call with 77. Christopher didn’t improve and handed his Payday bar to Jim!

Final Table

1. Jim
2. Christopher
3. Tamer
4. Steve
5. Pat
6. Rene
7. Chris B
8. Anthony
9. Kelly
10. Bob W

The Leaderboard Steve’s 4th place finish vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard while Christopher’s second top-3 finish in a row moved him into 2nd place. Keith “dropped like a rock” (his words now mine!) to 3rd place after an early exit this event. Paul, Keith and Pat (who has two 5th places in a row) are now tied for 3rd place. Anthony and Jim are now tied for 6th place.

Next Up Event 5 is a regular tournament with a 25k starting stack (no re-entries) on Saturday, Nov. 2nd at 3pm.

Season 19 at a Glance All of the Season 19 information can be found by clicking HERE

Congratulations to Andi for her first Syndicate victory! Somehow Andi managed to go 117 events spread out over twelve seasons (starting back in season 7) without a win. And now, after winning the Tiki back in August, she’s finally has the regular season win she’s been looking for.

In 2nd and 3rd place, starting off strong in their first events of the season, were Anthony and Christopher. In 4th place was Mona and Pat Hempsey, with his second final table, came in 5th place. Susan and Robert came in 6th and 7th to round out our money winners.

Final Table:

1. Andi
2. Anthony
3. Christopher
4. Mona
5. Pat H
6. Susan
7. Robert
8. Alan
9. Don
10. Jon T

The Leaderboard: The top four spots stayed the same with Keithy, Steve A and Paul H still in the blue. Andi’s win moved her into a tie with Farid for 4th place. Anthony’s runner up this tourney moved him up into 8th place overall.

Next Up: Event 4 is a major tournament with a 40k starting stack (no re-entries) on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 3pm.

Season 19 at a Glance – All of the Season 19 information can be found by clicking HERE

Here we go again! The Syndicate began in 2006 with an abbreviated 10-event schedule and here we are 18.5 years later, still going as strong as ever!!

Congratulations to Steve A for taking down the first event of the season. This is Steve’s fourth Syndicate victory and his second to start off a season (he last did it in season 16). In 2nd place was everyone’s favorite 9 2/3s fingered poker playing scientist, Farid! In 3rd was Mark Ross (really!) and in 4th place was Pauly H (much less surprising 🙂 In 5th place was one of our new players, the nattily-attired Chris Z. And Kelly snuck into 6th place to round out our money winners.

Besides Chris Z , the Syndicate also welcomes Pat Hempsey (who took 9th place), Tom Luu, Monty Montemarano, Rich Hendricks and Scott Najjar. We also welcomed back Tom Czzz, Chris Onderdonk, Mike Roderick and Jimmy (Chops) Inocerta.

Final Table

1. Steve A
2. Farid
3. Mark Ross
4. Paul H
5. Chris Z
6. Kelly
7. Dave Readman
8. Mary Anne
9. Pat H
10. Robert D

Next Up – The second event of the season is on Saturday, September 21st at 3pm. This will be a re-entry tournament with a 25k starting stack. Re-entries are available through the end of level 6.

Link to the Season 19 Leaderboard, Results, Stake, Schedule

Here are the updated/final Leaderboard, Results, Player Stake pages:

Link to the Season 18, Leaderboard, Results, Stake, Schedule

We have only a few changes to announce for the new season:

• The buy-in will increase from $150 to $160 ($150 + $10).  The main reason for this is to have a better chance of awarding a fourth main event seat.
• There are now two 50k starting stack super-majors on the schedule: events 8 and 16.  These are our only two Sunday events.
• There will be a rule change that guarantees that at least two players from the playoff tournament will advance to the Main Event Final Table Tourney on the next day.
• Please note the two Makeup Dates on the schedule in December and in April.  In the event that a tournament needs to be rescheduled it will move to one of those dates.

At our first event we’ll be distributing everyone their share of $10,140 in winnings. If you can’t attend the first event let us know if you’d like to have your share sent by venmo or otherwise. The balance ($2,121) is being held to pay for new tables and other annual expenses. Here is the payout list:

As we get ready to kick off Syndicate Season 19 here’s a wrap-up of our WSOP results from the summer. You can look a few posts down to see who played in which event but the best part of the summer is that we had THREE cashes! Don Bisco cashed in the monster for $3,000 and Gabby cashed in the closer, also for $3,000. Plus John Borges, playing for the Syndicate in the Main Event for the second season in a row, cashed for $20,000!

John had an eventful main event run, eventually finishing in 963rd place (out of 10,112). He had a tough first day but managed to hang in there despite losing with AA, QQ, JJ, TT and twice having the villains river sets. He was still alive at the end of the day with 12k in chips.

Then early on day 2 John had two double ups, going from 12k to 50k and eventually bagging 98k Then early on day 3 John eliminated two players and went from 90k to 220k. He ended up bagging 160k.

Then came day 4. The field was close to the money, needing only 12 players to bust. John kept looking at bad to marginal cards and kept folding. Then the bubble burst and John was in the money! He had 120k and then won a nice a pot with AA.

Unfortunately, John’s dream ended about half way through day 4 when this hand happened:

With the blinds at 5k/10k our hero had 173k chips (17bb) with TT in UTG +2. UTG +1 opened to 22k. John shoved. The cutoff flats and the OR also calls. The pot is 544k. The flop was 532 rb and it checks through. The turn is a 6. CO bets 80k and OR calls.  River is another 5 and it goes check check. It all looks good for our hero until the cutoff shows JJ and sends us home.

Great run John and congratulations on two fantastic Syndicate seasons!

Another highlight was Keith Morgan’s Main Event run. He was playing for Tilted Poker and and made it to 741st place for $27,500. Congratulations Keith!!

We had a great turnout of 30 players for the Summer Fun Tourney. Congratulations to Chris for taking it down!!

This will be a FULL PAYOUT Tourney!

Here is the schedule for all of our Syndicate team players. Good luck to you all and good luck to The Syndicate!!

Congratulations and good luck to all of our players!!

Main Event Players:

1. John B
2. Anthony
3. Steve A

$1,500 Players

1. Dana K
2. Paul H
3. Paul R
4. Gabby
5. Ray
6. Joey
7. Tom E
8. Jonkey
9. Don
10. Dana M
11. Amy

Mini Syndi:

1. Jeff

Season 17 Players:

1. Kelsi Burley
2. Matt Burley

Congratulation to Steve Alkema for winning our third Main Event seat! Steve was the top seed going into this event and held on for the victory. This will be Steve’s first time playing in the Main Event!

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

And since everyone wants to know – Jeff won the coveted Mini-Syndi seat in 5th place!

From the desk of contributing correspondent Anders Wright:

There’s always a sweat.  Last Sunday, at the Syndicate’s final tournament of the season, that was an understatement. The stakes were high, and the drama at the very top and bottom of the leaderboard was palpable, as those at the top jockeyed for a Main Event seat, and those further down scrambled to make it into the playoffs. 

Look up. You’ll see a great picture of Sunday’s winner, Jim H, who needed two things to happen to make it into the playoffs. First, he had to win the tournament. He did. Second, he needed Mona not to score any points. She did, which makes Jim the current playoff bubble-boy, despite taking home the bacon, after a brief heads-up with Dana for the win.

Oh, and speaking of needing to win? If Dana had come back and beat Jim H, he locks up a Main Event seat. Instead, that seat goes to Anthony, who also needed a significant combination of factors to occur, starting with outscoring Steve A, and, after he busted, hoping that neither Paul R, Joey nor Dana took down the tournament. His stress level was obviously through the roof, as he set off the outside alarm several times while pacing, and looked fit to shit a compact Hyundai at one point!

Rounding out the money winners was John Borges, with his Main Event seat already in the bag, in 3^rd place.  In 4th place was Anders, who just barely scraped his way into the playoffs. Patsy, who needed a second place or better to make the playoffs, fell just short of that in 5^th place.  Mark S took 6^th place for our final pay spot.

Final Table:

1. Jim H
2. Dana Wizard
3. John Borges
4. Anders
5. Patsy
6. Mark S
7. Chris Black
8. Don B
9. Paul R
10. Keithy

The Leaderboard: As if he wasn’t already in the lead by enough, John Borges increased his dominance this season by extending that lead with a 3rd place in this event. In 2nd place this season is Anthony who, as mentioned above, spent about 12 hours sweating various hands and other players’ finishes to earn his first Main Event seat!

Anthony had no shot at a guaranteed Main Event seat if he didn’t at least make the points after Steve busted out While Steve busted in 27th place, Anthony was on life support with 21 players remaining when this hand took place: with just 4bb left in his stack Anthony shoved and got called by Susan, who had him well-covered. Anthony tabled 88 and Susan showed KTdd. Two diamonds landed on the flop to make it fun and Anthony then faded 15 outs twice to more than double up. Then, after declaring that he wasn’t going to play another hand until after the points bubble, Anthony (in the BB) faced an all-in from Robert (in the SB). Everyone’s favorite boy from Rananchqua tanked for about a minute before finally making the call with JJ. Robert tabled 53hh but jacks held to propel Anthony into the points and give him a perilous hold on 2nd place. Once Joey, then Paul R, and finally Dana bowed out, Anthony was able to finally exhale and claim his prize!

Next Up: Our next event is Day 1 of the Playoffs. On Saturday, May 4, nineteen players will duke it out for four $1500 seats and the two who finish at the top-2 will return on Sunday for a one-table winner-take-all Main Event playoff. Additional WSOP satellites will be run on both Saturday and Sunday for those not in the playoffs.  

Guaranteed Seats – Sunday Main Event Bracket:

1. Steve A
2. Dana K
3. Paul H
4. Paul R
5. Gabby
6. Ray
7. Joey
8. Tom E

Playoff Seats – Saturday Playoff Bracket:

1. Amy
2. Don
3. Robert
4. Christopher
5. MC
6. Dr. John
7. Alan
8. Kelly
9. Jack
10. Dana M
11. Wendi
12. Jonkey
13. Mark S
14. David BL
15. Faird
16. Dave Readman
17. Anders
18. Jeff M
19. Mona

Congratulations to all of our winners and good luck to all of the players that are still in the hunt!

Season 18 at a Glance – All of the Season 18 information can be found at the link below. Link to the Season 18, Leaderboard, Results, Stake, Schedule & Bank