Flight 1A of the $280 buy-in, $40k guarantee is in the books! 53 players started the day, 7 players made it to Day 2. We have a tie for the largest chip stack and look forward to tonight’s Flight 1B
Steve Richards 289,000
Paul Sampson 289,000
Stephen Worland 245,500
Dennis Holtorf 144,000
Steve Nevius 64,000
Adam Bishop 63,500
Ivan Zarate 50,000
Day 1 continues with 2 flights tomorrow at 11am & 5pm.
Our first event here in Reno was a smashing success, drawing more players than the casino has seen for this particular event in years. A good time was had by all, and the event ended in a surprise nine way chop with Ivan Zarate taking the lion’s share of the winnings.
The event featured a $200 buy-in with $50 of that going to a bounty on each player. Zarate ended up with $2,300 on top of the bounties he collected on his way to the final table. This brings Zarate’s tournament winnings to nearly $70,000. The rest of the table received $809 each in addition to the bounties they collected.
The field was an impressive 79 players for a small bounty event on a Thursday, and players loved playing in a room with a view of the high sierras and praised the structure of the event as well.
A satellite went off with a nice crowd as well, with 53 entrants competing for 11 seats into the $40k guaranteed event starting on Friday.
Cards are in the air and we have passed 70 players with a ton of time left in registration in the $200 buy-in Warm Up Bounty event ($50 bounties). The room looks great and players are excited. We’ve also seen the reveal of the prelim event trophies and the first appearance by our Pink Ninja!
iNinja returned from the dead with it’s first Resurrection event at Diamond Jo Casino in Northwoods, Iowa on December 15th 2018. A day that will be known forever as the day the dead rose and the busted players came back from the rail. Each player was given a “resurrection chip” featuring a logo of a ninja clawing it’s way out of a grave. Upon busting the event, the player could turn in the chip and receive twenty big blinds and a new life.
Players weren’t certain how to handle the unique structure at first, and bust outs were fast and furious for the first few hours, but eventually most players realized that holding on to their chips was very valuable in this format. The tournament ended with nearly seven million chips in play and 93 players. This was a stack of more than 65,000 for each entry! Later in the tournament a resurrection chip was worth nearly 200,000 tournament chips.
The event was incredibly well received, with 93 entries nearly doubling the typical Saturday tournament field at Diamond Jo. Players came from as far as Las Vegas to play the new event and celebrate with the tour founders as they watch their brand rise from the dead. Cash games were fast and furious all weekend, with $2/5 no-limit Holdem running both Friday and Saturday nights.
In the end local player Neil Cullen took down the $2,321 first prize and a custom made card protector to commemorate the event. Players were able to take a resurrection chip home once the event was complete, and dozens of players took advantage of this opportunity to get a one of a kind card protector! Player reaction was overwhelmingly positive and the tour owners celebrated with players in cash games once the event was complete.
The tour would like to thank everyone who came to the event. We can’t do it without your support! We look forward to returning to Diamond Jo very soon!
