Lone Star Poker Series Champions Social

Lone Star Poker Series Day 3
Day: 1

Flight F Underway

Overview of Flight F
Overview of Flight F

The final flight has started play with 25 entries at the start.

Players will have until approximately 9:30 p.m. to either jump in or re-enter before registration is closed for the night.

Vu Amongst the Leaders

Nic Vu
Nic Vu

Nic Vu has had a nice Flight E so far and has built his stack up after having a great couple of levels. According to him, he gathered a large number of chips when his opponent misread his hand, incorrectly believing that he had a flush draw.

The winner of over $220,000 in career poker earnings, Vu is looking to build his stack into a deep run and add another nice score to his resume.

Player Chips Progress
Nic Vu us
Nic Vu
255,000 130,000

Tags: Nic Vu

Industry Insiders: Isaac Trumbo of Houston’s Champions Poker Club

Isaac Trumbo
Isaac Trumbo

Right now, the Lone Star Poker Series is taking place at Champions Poker Club, Houston’s premier cardroom. The festival, which is being live reported here on PokerNews, coming to town was due in no small part to 39-year-old Isaac Trumbo, Executive Vice President of Champions Poker Club.

Trumbo, who has been married for 18 years and has a six-year-old daughter, has worked in the industry since 2007, which is when he began his career in the California cardrooms.

“California has a very unique gaming framework,” he told PokerNews. “I started on the tables, thinking that I was getting a great short-term job, and instead I found a career in an industry that I would have never imagined.”

Trumbo, who actually bagged the big stack in Friday night's flight in the Kickoff Event, first learned poker from his father, who enjoyed games of every kind.

“He introduced me and my brothers to canasta, backgammon, hearts, rummy, chess, blackjack, and of course every variety of poker imaginable,” said Trumbo. “We’d play for points or mixed nuts, but eventually I started losing G.I. Joe's to my older brother on the regular. So, like many others, I was well primed to get swept up in the poker boom. I fell in love with the game and with cardrooms, and I’ve been at it ever since.”

So, for someone who has been in the industry a long time, what’s the craziest thing Trumbo has ever witnessed?

“About 10 years ago, I was the Casino Manager at a small Sacramento cardroom. Late one night, a fistfight broke out on one of our poker tables,” he explained. “The big blind had put the hijack all in, and while he was contemplating, two players who were uninvolved came to blows with the fight ending up on top of the table. The fight was broken up and the police were called.”

He continued: “When all was said and done, my shift manager turned to the player in the hijack and said, ‘So what are you going to do?’ The player was confused, so the shift manager said, ‘He put you all in. I need a call or a fold, brother.’ Remarkably, the pot and the hands were undisturbed despite a beating happening on top of the table. Those were some seriously sturdy tables.”

Isaac Trumbo
Isaac Trumbo also likes to play poker in his free time.

Fortunately, such disturbances haven’t been a problem in Texas, which has been a hotbed for poker in recent years. Among the many different cardrooms in Houston, Champions Poker Club has set itself apart from the competition. Trumbo offered his take on why.

“The Champions team strives to offer an environment where poker players can play and feel a sense of security and comfort. The underground card rooms have been in existence for years, but not everyone is comfortable in that type of environment. We want to offer a private membership experience that ‘wows’ the players from the minute they walk in the door by offering excellent customer service, a beautiful room with all the amenities, action-packed poker games, and of course great poker tournaments, especially like this Lone Star Poker Series.”

For more on Champions Poker Club, follow them on Twitter at @HTXChampions.

Tags: Isaac Trumbo

Flight E Status

Action has been intense so far today in Flight E which has attracted the largest amount of entries of any flight by far with a touch over 100.

Registration will close after the current 20-minute break. There is one more starting flight, which starts this evening at 5 p.m., the last chance for players to take their shot at bagging for Day 2 of the $400 buy-in, $150K GTD Spring Series Kick Off.

Lone Star Poker Series Day 3

Day 1 Started