TOURNAMENT UPDATES – PLAYOFF
| May 10, 2014 – Season IX:
Our ninth season is now over and we are ready to head to Vegas in June and July. This was by far our biggest season as we had 111 different players and averaged 52 entries per event. We saved up a little over $53,000 for our WSOP prize pool and are sending a record FOUR players to the Main Event as well as six others to $1,500 events. We’d also like to recognize Wayne, Gary B, Paul H., Erica, Jimmy X, Eddie O, Gary F and Linn for their stellar attendance record as they each played in all twenty events this season. And thank you again to Jill & Jamie Hickerson for being such gracious hosts; to Patsy for being such an awesome chef; and to Steve “I’m outa here” Leal for being our web-dude. The Winners: This season’s WSOP player field is now set. Congratulations to Jacob Beck who is our overall champion for season 9. This is Jacob’s first season with the Syndicate and he made the most of it, winning three events and making seven final tables. Joining Jacob in the Main Event is our 2nd place overall finisher, Wayne Moeck. Wayne started off with a scorching first half of the season including two wins, two 2nds and a 4th. He backed this up with three solid finishes in the second half to coast to the finish line. |
| Our 3rd Main Event winner is Dana Katzenmeier. This is Dana’s second full season and he definitely gets the most improved player award since he went from 61st place last season (one score in 10 events!) to third place this year. This season Dana managed one 1st, one 2nd, one 3rd, seven final tables and 13 scores out of 18 events. Wow!
Our 4th Main Event winner is Gary Bousquet. This is also Gary’s second season with us and he also made a big improvement, moving from 45th place last year all the way up to 4th this time. Gary had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place as well as eight other scores to put together a very consistent season. The next two places also earned guaranteed $1,500 WSOP seats. These went to Matt Burley and Marcee Topp. |
Playoff Event: On Saturday we held our playoff event for the players in the top 22 that did not receive a guaranteed seat. So 16 players were vying for 4 seats. Coming out on top, each with a $1,500 WSOP entry + $250 in cash, were Chad Mothe’, Jonkey, Rene Delacova andMike Rohwer.
TOURNAMENT UPDATES – REGULAR SEASON
May 3, 2014
Season IX – Event 20:
Last Saturday we had the season finale for our ninth season! Everyone in the top 11 going into this event had a chance of winning a main event seat, though some would need more help than others. One by one the challengers started to fall, even as both players whose seats were in jeopardy, Dana and Gary B, were each knocked out with no points. They were forced to sit it out in the clubhouse as some of the top contenders made deep runs. Matt B., who had the best chance to catch up, gave it his best but fell in 24thplace. Rene, also with a good opportunity, then ran out of chips in 14th – this in turn clinched a Main Event seat for Dana (Wayne’s seat was mathematically clinched earlier when Gary B was knocked out). That left Paul H. and Marcee to try to knock Gary out of a top spot. Paul, who needed to get a top-2 finish, made it to 7th place before getting busted. Marcee, who needed a 3rd place or better finish, just couldn’t hang on, finishing on 6th place.
That left five players in this tournament, including Paul R. who needed a 3rd place finish or better to advance to the playoffs. He managed that and more by winning his second event out of the last three to move all the way up to 17th place. In second place was MC, with his best finish of the season, followed by Scotty Stors, Larry and Chad.
Congratulations then to our Main Event winners, including our grand champion, Jacob, and the runners up: Wayne, Dana and Gary. All four players will be playing their first Main Event. Right behind them were Matt B and Marcee, who each earned a guaranteed $1,500 seat. We wish all of them (and The Syndicate) the best of luck and good fortune in Las Vegas this summer!!
April 27, 2014
Season IX – Event 19:
First, we’d like to congratulate Jacob for clinching first place overall and trip to Las Vegas to play in the Main Event. With none of the chasers earning enough points to challenge him on the final week he secured the top spot. We’ll have more on what to expect this summer after our final event.
As for last night, things are starting to get interesting. Matt B continued his scorching 2nd half run by winning his second event of the season. Since Event #12 Matt has made five final tables including three in a row and four out of the last five. In second place was Rene, followed by Chad, Jonkey, Paul R. and David W.
April 13, 2014
Season IX – Event 18:Congratulations to Paul R. for taking down Event #18. After playing for over an hour at 7-handed and for 45 minutes 3-handed it was over in one hand once it got heads-up. Paul had the chip lead when they saw a flop of T8Jddd. It all got in with Paul holding 9h7d for a flopped straight with a redraw to the straight flush while Eddie held 2-pair and was looking to improve to a boat. The board bricked out for Eddie though with a harmless 6s and 3s. This was Paul’s first victory since Season #5 back at our original location, Penwarden Gardens and makes him a longshot now to make the playoffs. In 3rd place was Jonkey, for his best finish of the season. Though he had to make a gut shot against top pair, a set of J’s against KK, and 2-pair to crack Aces to get there. He reported being fine with the way things turned out. In 4th place was Mike Rowher for his best result since winning the third tournament of the season. TJ then took 5th place followed by Josh F. in 6th to round out our money winners.
March 29, 2014
Season IX – Event 17:Congratulations to Marcee for her first Syndicate win – even in a field without Jacob in it, that’s impressive!! In2nd place, with his best finish ever, is The Syndicate’s best handicapper, Jimmy X. Matt B, who has decided to step up his game recently, came in 3rd. David Rimi and Anthony also earned some cash in 4th and 5thplace.
March 22, 2014
Season IX – Event 16:It happened again! Jacob “Final Table or Nothing” Beck has won his third event of the season. Jacob has earned points 8 times this season – 7 of those have been final tables, with 3 victories and 2 runners up finishes. This time it was Chad that he dueled heads up. They played for over an hour and at one point Jacob was down to 10BB when Chad won a huge pot with AA vs. 99. Jacob held on tenaciously though until he finally doubled through Chad to take the lead back when his 55 held against Chad’s A9. Ultimately it ended when Jacob caught a piece of the flop holding 86hh and Chad whiffed with QT. This was Chad’s best result of the season and moved him well into the playoff field. In third place was Marcee, followed by TJ and Bob C.
March 1, 2014
Season IX – Event 15:Congratulations to Matt B for taking down his first Syndicate event! After losing a big hand to Veronica very early in the tournament Matt was down to just 1600 chips. He then won a couple of all-in races to regain a small stack and then settled in and built his stack back up steadily from there. I think it’s safe now to call it a comeback!! In 2nd place was Bob C. followed by Linn, Jill, Peggy and Jon T. – all in the money!
February 23, 2014
Season IX – Event 14:Congratulations to Dana for taking down his first Syndicate event! Dana was already having a solid season and this win moved him up into 3rd place overall. In second place was (no drumroll needed) Jacob who has now moved into first place overall. In third place was Gary F, for his best finish of the season. Alan, Don B. and Eddie O. followed to round out our money winners.
February 8, 2014
Season IX – Event 13:We had another repeat winner – this time Jacob, who also won event #5, took it down. It was an especially exciting finish this time after a tense heads-up match with Mark Ross, the second place finisher. Jacob had about a 6 to 1 chip advantage over Mark when heads-up started and on the first hand Mark went all-in withAd9d. Jacob obliged, and called with AsQh. The board ran out T82TK (with only 1 diamond) and it was over in one hand nice and “early” at 12:38 am. (of course the real action by then was going on over at the cash table – which didn’t end until 4am!!). David Rimi had another nice finish in 3rd place, followed by Kevin H. in 4th and Erica in 5th to round out our money winners.
January 26, 2014
Season IX – Event 12: Sorry for the delay Syndicators – your commish got really busy this week. Congratulations are in order for Craig who won his first Syndicate event last Saturday night. After a 1 hour 50 minute heads-up duel with Paul H., it came down to one big hand: at the 7000/14000 level Paul raised to 35k, Craig raised to 70k, and Paul shoved. Paul showed AJ while Craig tabled 99 and then flopped a set to seal the deal. This left Paul crippled and it ended quickly when Paul shoved with K2 and Craig called with the mighty 94, then flopped 2-pair and turned a boat!!
January 18, 2014
Season IX – Event 11:The second half of the season is now underway. Our winner this week was Ed F. who played with us a few times last season but made his season 9 debut at this event. In second place was our Season 7 champ Keith Morgan. In third place was Tim Daly, who usually just comes out for the Tiki. In fourth place, continuing his solid debut season is Jacob; with Linn, Stan and Paul L. rounding out our money winners.
January 4, 2014
Season IX – Event 4:We finally made up that missing tournament (#4) from earlier in the season and can now close out the first half of the season. This contest, with 53 players and a prize pool inflated by 17 re-entries, was won by Gary Bousquet, for his first Syndicate victory. Congratulations Gary! This finish moved Gary up to 2ndplace overall (aka 1st place behind Wayne!). In 2nd place was Jacob followed by Carl Agbayani, a former regular who is back and ready to play again! In 4th place was Wayne who managed to get quads three times on this night! Paul Hopkins came in 5th place followed by Peggy in 6th. Peggy was excited to make her first Syndicate final table!
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November 24, 2013
Season IX – Event 10: The winner of our second major of the season, and of his second tournament in a row, is our undisputed overall leader Wayne Moeck. We have had back to back winners before, but never with such large fields, as these two victories were over 60 and 59 players respectively. Wayne came to the final table as one of the short stacks and at one point, when they were 8 handed, even offered to sell his share of the last longer pool (of $500) for just $20! Wayne kept hanging in there as one player after another fell until he finally doubled through Jonkey when his K9 turned into 2-pair on the river to best Jonkey’s AA. This sent Jonkey to the fridge looking for an IPA while Wayne contended with newcomers David Rimi and Wendi plus the ever cagey Dr. John. It seemed as if none of them felt like leaving since they then played 4-handed for over an hour. David was the first to fall, at 2:41am, when he got into a big hand with Wendi: the two players got it all in on a flop of JsQsKs and Wendi felt pretty comfortable since she held the 9sTs. The river As even gave her the royal flush!! Soon after that Wendi knocked out Dr. John when she shoved with 88 and was called by the good doctor’s KQ. The flop was 8K4 and Wendi’s set held up. Those two knockouts gave Wendi the chip lead going into her heads-up battle with Wayne, but it was not enough since Wayne seems to have destiny on his side.
November 17, 2013
Season IX – Event 9: We had another awesome turnout last night with 60 players entered. After eight tournaments we are still averaging just over 60 players per event and we have now had an even 100 different players attend a Syndicate event this season. It looks like our projection of at least four Main Event seats being awarded is going to come true! After last night we may need to at least pencil in Wayne as one of those final four since after two runners up finishes earlier in the season, Wayne took it down last night. This is Wayne’s first Syndicate victory but he did get a little help from first year player Monte when they got it all in with AK vs. A9. Wayne spiked his 9 on the river to nearly double up and send Monte to the rail in 4th place. Dana took 2nd place for his best Syndicate finish and Jon T. went out in 3rd. Steve A. came in 5th for another solid finish to back up his win in event #7. Lisa S. hung on for 6th place while last season’s champ, Rene, bowed out in 7th.
November 3, 2013
Season IX – Event 8: It was a big night for the Syndicate as we had another first prize over $1,000 – that’s pretty impressive considering that ½ of the prize pool is withheld and saved toward our year-end awards. At this tournament we had 59 players with the prize pool boosted by 13 re-entries. This time our lucky, strike that, our skillful winner was Bob Cosway. This was Bob’s third Syndicate victory overall with his last one coming in event 10 of season 5. In second place was Dr. John with his best Syndicate finish to date. Erica got third place in her third final table appearance of the season. Tom E. came in 4th place and in 5th was (drum roll please) Chad!! Dave Bernatz came in 6th with our birthday boy (big 4-0) Mikey P coming in 7th.
October 20, 2013
Season IX – Event 7:We had another big turnout for Event 7 with 63 players. This puts us well on our way to offering four Main Event seats for next summer’s WSOP Series! So far our series is still completely up for grabs as fully half of our field could get into the Main Event section with a win and the entire field could get there with just two big results. This week it was Steve A.’s turn to make the move up the leaderboard as he went from the 53rd spot to 10th place with his first Syndicate victory. He bested Patsy, who had a monster stack early, when his Q-high flush bettered Patsy’s baby flush. In third place, with his best finish of the season, was Alan H. He was followed by Marcee in 4th place, who made her second final table appearance in a row, and Jose in 5th with his first Syndicate final table. Rounding out our money winners were two newcomers, George W. in 6th and Jay J. in 7th.
October 5, 2013
Season IX – Event 6: So it would seem that prior Syndicate experience is of little use in winning Syndicate tournaments since for the second time in three events our winner was playing in his first Syndicate event ever. This time it was David Rimi (from Riverside!) who took down. Congratulations Dave and enjoy that drive every other week since with 100 points already it would be silly to not play the rest of the season! In second place was another relative Syndicate newcomer, Marcee Topp. Gary B. took 3rd place for his second deep final table finish of the season. Another player making her first Syndicate appearance, Kim Frost, took 4th place. Linn and Alan H. took 5th and 6th to round out the money winners.
September 28, 2013
Season IX – Event 5: First off, while this is the fourth tournament we have played this season it was Event #5 on the schedule. Event #4 had to be postponed due to our venue change and will be rescheduled later. Going forward though we will refer to all the tournaments as the Event # from the schedule.
Now, on to last night’s event… We had 55 players entered and the winner of the first Major of the season was one of our new players, Jacob Beck. Jacob’s first big result was a 2nd place at the Tiki Tournament plus he had a 4th place finish in Event 1 this season. Last night with 6 players remaining Jacob had the table covered and he never relinquished the lead. For the second tournament in a row Wayne made it to the final two but this time Jacob started with a 3 to 1 advantage and Wayne could never catch up. In third place was Kevin H., followed by Dave Bernatz, Rene, Don C. and Erica to round out our seven money winners.
September 8, 2013
Season IX – Event 3: We had another great turnout for Event #3 with 58 players and this time the prize pool was bolstered by 15 re-entries. This gave us our largest prize pool ever with the Syndicate’s first four figure 1st prize ever as the top spot for this tournament paid $1,030! This was our first time trying out the re-entry format and it seemed to go over well, especially compared to the rebuy tournaments we would hold in previous seasons.
The winner of this tournament was newcomer, Mike Rowher, who managed to survive flopping quads and then rivering a royal flush, both at the final table. He then held on against Wayne in a 36 minute heads up duel that lasted especially long considering it was played entirely during the 10k/20k level! So Mike now has won every Syndicate event he has played in and Wayne notched his fourth 2nd place finish in 3+ seasons (143* more runner’s up finishes and he’ll be tied with Linn!).
In third place was Kelly, followed by Jimmy X, Eddie O., Keith and Don C. to round out our money winners. The money bubble boy was Jonkey in 8th place.
August 25, 2013
Season IX – Event 2: Another tourney, another record! This time we had 71 players participate* so that’s two for two on sellouts so far this season! The winner this time was David Woo for not only his first win but his first Syndicate cash ever. Congratulation David! In second place was Gary B for his best Syndicate finish as well. David had Gary out-chipped about 2.5 to 1 when heads-up play started and Gary never could catch up. By the final hand, David had increased his advantage to about 4 to 1; Gary raised preflop and David called. The flop came 8h, 6c, Kh; Gary shoved (showing Kd5d) and David called with the 8d4d. The board ran out 6d, 8c to give David trips and win!
In third place was Dana followed by Carmella, Kim, Stan Diego, Keith and Rene to round out the money winners. It is noteworthy that Keith is right in the hunt again with his second final table appearance in a row.
August 4, 2013
Season IX – Event 1: We kicked off the new season last night with a record-setting 69 players. This number included 17 players who had never played a regular season event with us before. It was great to see all our regulars return from past seasons as well as to welcome so many new players. Last season was our best ever by a wide margin and now season 9 is starting off even stronger!
These new players have made an impact early as Josh (3rd), Jacob (4th) and Emily (6th) all went deep at the final table. Our first champ of the season though was one of last season’s newcomers, TJ Western. He and his hat won two events last year, despite not starting until event #9. TJ defeated Steve Leal after a 20 minute long heads-up dual. It was over in hurry though when Steve picked the wrong time to bluff shove with TsJc on a Ac6c9d board. TJ insta-called with As8d and the turn was no help to Steve, leaving him drawing dead on the river.
July 15, 2013
The Tiki Tourney – The Tiki Tourney had a great turnout once again with 63 players and a prize pool of over $9,000 that was boosted by another 12 re-entries. A big thank you to Patsy and Farid for hosting this year. It may have been a little crowded and warm – but that’s how it is when you play poker in the tropics! Patsy really took care of us with a fantastic feast and plenty of tasty deserts and Farid played the gracious host right up until the very end when he knocked out the final player and won the tournament! Along with the $2,165 in first place prize money Farid gets to be Tiki King for a year!
In second place was one of our new players, Jacob. After re-entering earlier, he built and then held onto a huge stack all the way till the end. He had Farid about 2 to 1 when heads-up play started, but after a couple of lead changes Farid came out on top. In 3rd place was Tom Czzz, followed by Keith Morgan in 4th and Jonkey in 5th.
Announcing Season 9 – After another fun Tiki Tourney we are ready to go for the ninth season of The San Diego Syndicate. The new season kicks off on Sunday, August 4th at 4PM. Once again we’ll be playing at Tom & Gail’s house. The new schedule is attached to this message. Check it out!
We are anticipating yet another big season for the Syndicate. This past summer, for the first time, we sent three players to the Main Event of the WSOP! In addition we sent nine more players to events ranging from $1,000 to $2,500. Unfortunately we had no cashes at the WSOP this summer – though Paul “Pman” Hopkins came tantalizingly close in his Main Event run by finishing about 1,300th out of 6,353 players. Next year, right?!
Here are the highlights of the upcoming season:
· We will play a 20 event schedule with only a player’s top 12 scores counting toward his/her point totals.
· Just like last season a player must enter at least 5 events to be eligible to share in any post-season winnings.
· This season we have done away with re-buy events altogether and have replaced them with re-entry tournaments. While the rebuy tournaments were a lot of fun, it has been a long time since the WSOP has offered this format. While the WSOP does only have a couple of re-entry events each summer, our players encounter this format all the time in casino tournaments. The Venetian, Caesars, Rio, Bicycle Club and Commerce (among others) all run re-entry events in their tournament series. These events will feature unlimited re-entries for the first 5 levels of play.
· The season-ending playoff tournament will be a free-roll for the players that qualify!
· The line to reach the playoff tournament will now be at the top 22 instead of 20 and 4 WSOP seats will be awarded in this event. The remaining WSOP seats will be guaranteed.
The Syndicate was started nine years ago by a small group of friends as a way to send one of them to the Main Event – now here we are almost a decade later after just sending a dozen players to Vegas. Here’s to another great season!!
San Diego Syndicate 