Main Event
Day 1a Started
Southern Poker Open
Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Southern Poker Open
Buy-in
$420
Entries
1,138
Level
31
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
200,000
History in the Making
The Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City is celebrating the end of summer with the Southern Poker Open by RunGood Events.
The Texas hold'em tournament will be the first land-based poker tournament in property history, which will take place in the Horseshoe's Riverdome facility. The event offers a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool with a $420 buy-in; or, players can win a seat into the event via one of three $100 satellites. Five Day 1 flights are scheduled with surviving players returning on Sunday at noon to play down to a champion. For the full schedule of flights and satellites, click here.
The first flight of the event is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday. Players buying into the event will begin their tournament with 20,000 chips and must survive twelve 30-minute levels to make it through to Day 2. Late registration and unlimited re-entry are available until the start of Level 9 (approximately 10:30 p.m. local time). The structure employs the big-blind ante, for faster play throughout the event. For the full structure sheet, click here.
PokerNews will be on hand to cover this event from start to finish with player stories, monster pots, photos, and more.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/100
Ante: 0
The First-Ever Southern Poker Open is Underway
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
Cards are in the air for the first-ever Southern Poker Open brought to you by RunGood Events.
Update Your Chip Stacks with the My Stack App
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
PokerNews has activated the My Stack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
The Guy That Got Bluffed
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
"You want to get the name of the guy that got bluffed?" asked Brian Peel, "I just folded queens on a jack-seven-deuce rainbow board."
Peel was facing an all-in bet from Michael Vardeman. Vardeman was first to act and shoved the 
flop.
Peel tanked for a moment before folding to the veteran from the 173rd Airborne division.
Vardeman is now retired after working with the phone company.
He's married to his wife Polly and when asked how long he'd been married, he replied.
"Oh hell, I don't even know."
He never said what hand he had, but Peel was convinced that his queens were no good.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
24,000 | |
|
|
14,500 |
High Hand and Free Stuff
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
Chad Disante, the poker room manager at the Horseshoe Bossier is welcoming the crowd of 125 players who kicked off the tournament. His excitement about the Southern Poker Open is obvious.
He just announced that the player who gets the highest hand in the next 20 minutes will win a commemorative SPO cup and a free drink.
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/100
Ante: 100
Mintz Condition
Level 2
: 100/100, 100 ante
Sports Radio host Ben Mintz has taken his seat in Day 1a and is playing against type as per his radio show, Mixin' it up with Mintz. Mintz has limped in to a few pots and folded the flop, but has mostly stayed out of the way in the early going. He has 19,400 of his original 20,000 as the closing seconds of Level 1 tick away.
Mintz is no stranger to RunGood Events or poker tournaments in general. With $604,471 in lifetime live tournament winnings, including a 75th-place finish in the 2011 WSOP Main Event and a WSOP Circuit Ring in 2012, Mintz played poker professionally for a number of years but left the life of a grinder to complete his education. Mintz graduated Ole Miss with a degree in managerial finance in August of 2015. It only took a few months for him to learn that working in finance was a boring existence, though, and Mintz debuted a sports-talk radio program December 14th, 2015.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
19,400
19,400
|
19,400 |
One for WPA Ambassador Bonnie Weitzel
Level 2
: 100/100, 100 ante
Bonnie Weitzel was in the small blind and five players limped to her. She made it 1,000 more to go and got two callers.
She led the 
flop for 3,200 and both her opponents folded.
Weitzel flashed queens and then collected the pot.
Weitzel is an ambassador for the Women's Poker Association (WPA), which is a global membership-based, all-volunteer, professional organization formed to promote, develop, and professionalize the advancement of women in poker by heightening the exposure of current women poker players while encouraging and developing new women players (taken from the WPA website).
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
24,000
24,000
|
24,000 |