| TOURNAMENT UPDATES ETC.
Season XIV– Our 14th season is now over and we are ready to roll into Vegas in June and July. Once again I’d like to thank Joey for being such a fantastic host – The Fred Astaire Poker Palace is just an amazing venue! The Winners: This season’s WSOP player field is now set. Congratulations to our champion Alan who shattered our all-time scoring records. In 2nd place was David Benjamin, while Gary B. took 3rd place. All three of them earned their second Syndicate Main Event seats. Playoff Event: On May 11th we held our playoff event. Coming out on top, each with a $1,500 WSOP entry + $250 in cash, were Keith, Rowan, Scott D and Steve A. Bonus Main Event Tourney: This was our third season playing this event and it has turned out to be very popular. The five players that earned guaranteed seats – Scott A, Gary F, Linn, Wendi and Ranjit — were joined by the top-4 playoff winners (Keith, Rowan, Scott D and Steve A) in a single table tournament last Saturday to determine our fourth Main Event winner. This event was set up to simulate the real WSOP Main Event final table. There were 321,000,000 chips in play with the top seed starting with 50m and the four bottom seeds starting with 30m. The blinds started at 200k/400k just like the real final table and were 45 minutes long. After a couple hours of heads up play Ranjit had a substantial chip lead over Keith when the final hand went down: in an un-raised pot the players saw a flop of 4c2s3s. There was a bet and a call and the turn brought the As. All-in and a call with both players tabling J5 for two straights. Ranjit had the flush draw though with two clubs and the Ac on the river clinched the tourney and the fourth Main Event seat for Ranjit. Congratulations and good luck to all of our winners. And good luck to The Syndicate!!
WSOP Syndicate Travel Update: Our main contingent will be going out from June 20th through June 24th. On Friday and Saturday – June 21 and 22 – there is the 2-day start of the $1,500 “Monster Stack” tournament. We encourage all of our non-Main Event winners to enter this event as it is always a lot of fun to be out there together Remember, even if you didn’t win a Syndicate seat you are welcome to come out at that time. This trip really is one of the highlights of our year and we have a lot of fun playing poker and hanging out in Vegas together. Even if you don’t plan to play in a bracelet event there are plenty of great deep-stack tournaments to play there at the Rio each day as well as other events at other casinos. Most of us stay at the Rio since it’s always better to “stay where you play”! Saturday April 27 Season 14 – Event 16: Guess who won. Yep. With his third win of the season, combined with three 2nds and two 3rds, Alan shattered the Syndicate point total record for a season. With 800 points he’s 285 points over 2nd place this season and 235 points over Keith’s previous record of 565 last season. And this is only counting the five seasons since we dropped to 16 events. In fact, even during our the earlier seasons when we played a 20-tourney-schedule, the highest point total was Jacob back in season 9 with 650 points. So congratulations to Alan on this victory and on an outstanding season! Now you need to take this success and momentum to Vegas and get us some money!! In 2nd place was Gary B. He had a fun night – he began the night in 4th place – 10 points behind Syndi rookie, Scott A. Once Scott busted out he parked right behind Gary to see what would unfold. Gary was never really in danger and once he clinched the final Main Event seat he went on a tear and ended up in 2nd place for the night. In 3rd place was Kelsi – for her best finish of the season. She was followed by her boy-toy Matt in 4th place. Bob C and Jill came in 5th and 6threspectively t round out our money winners.
We did have quite a bit of movement to get into the playoffs as Brad, Monte and Jonkey dropped out of the field to be replaced by Matt B, Jill and (the truly unlucky) Paul H.. Keithy is the bubble boy at the top of the playoff and will have the top seed for that event. I’ll send a separate email to all the participants with more information on this tourney. Congratulations again to all of our winners!! THANKS: This tournament marked the final regular season tournament to be held at our new venue. I want to thank Joey for offering us such an awesome place to play. We have been very fortunate over the years to have such great hosts and Joey fits right in on that list. Thank you!! Thanks also to Patsy and Farid for feeding us so well this season – especially the pineapple chicken and meatball sandwiches!!! I also want to thank Scott and Mona and any other players that showed up early to help set up, mostly without me even asking anyone. And let’s not forget Joy for taking care of the buy-ins each night. Thank you Joy – you’re a peach! Saturday April 6 Season 14 – Event 15: This reporter was at the same table as Steve P for much of the night and he was a juggernaut! He got chips early and wielded his stack like a wrecking ball all night long. This was Steve’s first victory since his first campaign with us back in season 10. In 2nd place was Jill, with her best finish since the end of Season 12. Alan – yes that Alan – came in 3rd place. As if he needed any more points! Wayne came in 4th place for his second top-4 finish in a row and Linn and Joey rounded out our money winners in 5th and 6th place.
The Leaderboard: Our top two Main Event seats are all locked up with Alan extending his record-breaking lead and David Benjamin wrapping up his second Syndicate Main Event seat. That third seat though is totally in play with players down to Steve P in 12th place still mathematically in it. Next we have the guaranteed seats and we have players all the way down to John B in 22nd place who could make it into the bonus Main Event tourney. Then the playoffs – it turns out that three of our players (Andi, Jeff B, and Jim H) can’t play in the playoff. That means the line now rests just below Steve A in 29th place. That means that players down to Jimmy X and Christopher could still sneak into a playoff seat. Good luck everyone -it should be an exciting final regular season event!! Saturday April 6 Season 14 – Event 14: Congratulations to Wayne for his victory. This was Wayne’s first win since Event 8 of Season 10 and his fourth overall since joining us back in season 6. This reporter sat next to Wayne most of the tournament and Wayne never had a big stack until the mid-point of the final table when he doubled twice through the chip leader, Scott, and then held on to go heads up against Gary B. Heads up play began at about 1:30 am with Wayne having a slight chip advantage. The lead changed hands several times over the next hour until Wayne finally took it down at the 30,000/60,000 level. In 3rd place was Jonkey with BY FAR his best finish of the season. In 4th place was Kelly, who had the same finish just three events earlier. Scott A, who had a MASSIVE stack at 6-handed after knocking David B (Scott won a 700k+ pot when his JJ sucked out on David’s KK) out, came in 5th place. Really, the deck went arctic cold on Scott after that big hand. Because of the insane number of re-entries (27) we paid the entire final table, so Paul R, David B, Wendi, Anthony and Andi also cashed..
The Leaderboard: As previously reported, Alan has locked up the first Main Event seat of the season. David B, who strengthened his 2nd place position with yet another final table after coming in 7th this week (his 9th of the season) has a firm hold on the second Main Event seat. After that, it’s going to be a war for the third seat! Right now Scott A has the spot with 370 points. But there are seven players within striking distance! Gary B is the closest with 360 points. He’s followed by Gary F (345), Wendi (305) Keithy (298), and Rowan (295) who are all currently in the guaranteed seat level. Saturday March 23 Season 14 – Event 13: Event #13 was a wild one from the get go, as players were busting out early and often. In the end, Alan continued his HEATER as he took down event #13!!! Midway through the tourney, he got it aipf with KK vs. Craig’s AA for a 70k pot. Naturally a K hit the flop and he rode that all the way to the winner’s circle. In 2nd place was Andi. When you flop quads with 33 aipf, you know you’re destined to go deep! 3rd place was Wendi, who has now made 3 FT in her last four tourneys! Rounding our money winners were 4th: Monte, 5th: Thane, and 6th: John B. Both Monte and John B have now catapulted to the middle of the playoff race.
The Leaderboard: Alan has now mathematically clinched an ME seat. 2nd place is David Benjamin and it would take a virtually impossible combination of results for him to drop out of the top-3. With his 9th place finish, Gary F. had leapfrogged Scott A. into 3rd place. 9 players after that are all within 90 points of 3rd place. It’s going to be an exciting finish these last 3 weeks! Saturday March 9 Season 14 – Event 12: David Benjamin took down his second tournament of the season as he made his eight final table out of 12 events! Brad came in 2nd place, ending a long drought for him. In 3rd place it was (everyone gets one guess!) – Alan for his sixth final table and fourth top-3 finish of the season. John B had his best finish of the season in 4th place. Christopher and Chris came in 5th and 6th place to round out our money winners.
The Leaderboard: While they may not have mathematically eliminated the field it is looking increasingly likely that two of our Main Event seats are pretty locked up. With a 3rd and 1st place respectively, Alan and David might want to start looking at flights and hotel room in early July. Saturday February 16 Season 14 – Event 11: And we have a new winner! Scott Aulds, who was down to 27k in chips by the end of the first level, first grinded his stack back into contention, then he turned that into a big stack and held it for the rest of the tourney. Linn “I love 2nd place” Holland took 2nd place. Anders took 3rd and stayed to deal for the very quick heads-up match. Kelly, Rowan, and Anthony round out our money winners.
The Leaderboard: So Alan busted out early and guess what – he’s still WAY out in the lead in 1st place. David B, with his 7th place finish this week, closed the gap in 2nd place – now just 85 points behind the leader. Scott A moved way up with his win and now sits in 3rd place. This bumped Gary F, Ranjit and Keithy down a notch. Rowan moved up a couple of spots with her 5th place finish this week and is now in 6th place overall. Ranjit and Linn hold the final two guaranteed seats. Saturday January 19 Season 14 – Event 10: Just in time for our next tournament – here is the last tournament’s results: We had 60 players and 24 re-entries and at the end of it all Ranjit came out on top for his first Syndicate victory. In second place was Rowan, followed by Wendi, Gary, and of course Alan.
Saturday January 19 Season 14 – Event 9: Our winner this tourney, in just her eighth Syndicate event is Chris Blake – congratulations Chris! In second place was Steve P, with Matt B staying to deal in 3rd place. Kim, Bob C, Matt H, and David B round out our $$ winners.
Saturday January 12 Season 14 – Event 8: Paul R took down his seventh Syndicate tournament ever and first since season 11. You can expect Paul to win another tourney this season since every time he has won it was at least twice in a season (seasons 5, 9, 11). In 2nd place was Gary F with his second runner up finish of the season. In 3rd place was Jim H for his second final table appearance of the season. Chris Blake, Linn, Jeff B and Jonkey round out our money winners.
Saturday December 15 Season 14 – Event 7: Congratulations to Rick Harrell on his victory on Saturday. He played a handful of tourneys with us last year and just now jumped back in. Good timing Rick! In 2nd place was (the usually absent) Monte, followed by Gary B, who came in 3rd place for the second week in a row. Scott A, Tom, Steve A and David Benjamin round out our money winners.
Saturday December 1
Season 14 – Event 5: And Keithy just keeps on winning! This is his second victory in five events this season and his fourth win in the past two seasons. In 2nd place, just like in Event 1 this season vs Keith, was Alan, who now has three 2nds in just five events! In third place was Ranjit – for his best Syndicate finish and second final table this season.
Saturday November 3
Season 14 – Event 3: Our third event of the season was won by David Benjamin. His stack started growing early and he just never looked back. This was David’s fourth syndicate victory – David was one of our Main Event players back in season 8 and he’s off to a great start this season. In 2nd place was newcomer Scott Aulds and in 3rd place was goldilocks himself – Chad!
Saturday September 29 Season 14– Event 2: Sorry for the super-late update everyone. Our second event of the season was won by Scott Dennis. Scott has played parts of three seasons before this (9, 10 and 13) but is committing to playing a full season this time. His previous best was a 4th place finish in event 3 last season. In second place was Alan – again!!! In third place was Linn – who apparently is tired of coming in second!!
Saturday August 25
Of course if we don’t meet our projections then this will be adjusted as we go along, but it looks achievable at this point. Changes This Season: Really we’re not changing very much but here are a few important differences:
August 29, 2018 TIKI TOURNEY 12 As we get ready for the start of our 14th season – aka Temporada de Fortuna – here are the results of our most colorful event of the year, the Tiki Tourney! First place went to our newest, and beardiest, player, Josh V – congratulations Josh on starting your Syndicate career with a win at our biggest event of the year!
The real winner of the Tiki Tourney this summer was Eddie O, the winner of the best Tiki/Hawaiin shirt outfit: he earned second place last summer but took it down this year with a bright blue tiki shirt that had a lot more going on than meets the eye. Way to go Eddie O!   The runner up in the best tiki/hawaiian attire contest had a great night as he not only beat out a formidable field of flowered garments but won the whole damn tournament – welcome aboard Josh!
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San Diego Syndicate 