Hellmuth’s Charity Poker Tournament Raises $110K

The following article appeared in the February issue of Ante Up Magazine, as well as on their website.

Hellmuth’s charity poker tournament raises $110K

January 25, 2012, Chris 

On Dec. 17, I attended the second annual Phil Hellmuth’s Hold’em with Agrace HospiceCare charity event in Madison because Hellmuth invited me to be one of the tournament’s “celebrities” thanks to my position with PokerNews and Ante Up.

More than 250 played in the event, which featured food, a raffle, silent auction and a full-day tournament hosted byHellmuth, all to raise money for Agrace HospiceCare.

Joining me as celebrities were an eclectic mix of local celebrities and poker pros. They included 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champion Annette Obrestad; 1998 WSOP fourth-place finisher, Dewey Weum; and pros Eddie Blumenthal, Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon, Mike “Wisco” Murray and Anthony “D1rtyR1v3r” Nardi. Some of the celebrities included NFL and UW Badgers player Derek Engler, NBC 15’s Carleen Wild, Charlie Shortino and Leigh Mills, pro golfer Jerry Kelly and Badgers women’s hockey coach and member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team Mark Johnson.

As far as the tournament, that title went to Laura Schultz, who overcame some stiff competition. John Orr, a Wisconsin businessman, was the final-table bubble boy in 10th place, advancing such players as Morgan Machina, “Madtown” Jerry, John Green, Nardi and Kroon. The latter almost defended his title, ultimately finishing fourth. Schultz defeated Green heads-up to claim the title and trophy.

A slew of attendees were chosen for private heads-up poker games the next day with Kroon (winners: George King, Mark Stevens and Gary Rice), Obrestad (winners: Scott Saunders, Wayne Harris and Dick Solis) and Hellmuth (winners: Mike Saunders, Paul Guyette and Josh Nelson).

It was another successful event as about $110K was raised. All signs point to a third go in 2012, so mark you calendars for the weekend before Christmas.

— Chad Holloway is Ante Up’s Wisconsin Ambassador. He’s a senior writer for
PokerNews.com and a member of Team Blue Shark Optics. Email him at
anteupchad@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter @ChadAHolloway.

First Article for Ante Up Magazine

Ho-Chunk brings bad beat to Dells and Nekoosa

November 22, 2011, Chris 

Ho-Chunk Gaming introduced a bad-beat jackpot to its Wisconsin Dells and Nekoosa poker rooms this year. The former property, located in South Central Wisconsin about an hour north of Madison, is a 12-table room that regularly spreads limit and no-limit Texas Hold’em, pot-limit Omaha and Omaha/8; as well as a full slate of tournaments. Likewise, Nekoosa spreads all the same games, albeit in their cozier three-table room. Not surprisingly, both rooms have experienced a spike in traffic since the introduction of the BBJ.

Compared with other casinos around the country, Ho-Chunk’s BBJ is actually quite kind. Only eligible in hold’em games, Ho-Chunk’s BBJ is triggered whenever aces full of 10s (or better) are beaten by four of a kind (or better). Both players must use both of their hole cards, and cannot utilize community cards consisting of three aces. Finally, there must be a minimum of four players playing at the start of the hand to qualify.

Once hit, the BBJ is distributed not only to the loser (40 percent) and winner (20 percent) of the hand, but anyone playing in the rooms at the time (20 percent). This means you could be playing at a $2-$4 limit hold’em game in Nekoosa and still receive part of the BBJ when it’s hit in a $1-$2 no-limit game in Wisconsin Dells, and vice versa.

“The bad-beat jackpot at Ho-Chunk has been great,” local player Dan Almerli said. “The action seems to have picked up and it’s reassuring to know that if I take a horrendous beat, I stand to win a small fortune as opposed to losing a few hundred in the hand.”

Many BBJs in other casinos require quads to be beaten, so it was a shock to see Ho-Chunk’s BBJ take so long to hit. After last being hit in late May at a meek $20,472, Ho-Chunk’s BBJ wasn’t struck for another five months, swelling to a little more than $160K, until on Oct. 30.

Eric Barka’s pocket aces improved to aces full of queens only to run into the quad queens of Andrew Westrum. What’s more, there were only two tables in action, which meant everyone else in the room took home $4,420.95.
“It was nice seeing the bad-beat jackpot get so large, as it certainly brought in some new money,” Almerli said a few days after the BBJ was hit. “I just wish I would have been there when it hit.”

While he may have missed the big jackpot, Almerli was still eligible for the reserve, which started the BBJ anew at a healthy $60K (25 cents of every $1 dropped goes to the reserve BBJ). Needless to say, if you’re looking to play some poker, with the possibility of a nice payday, look no further than Ho-Chunk Wisconsin Dells and Nekoosa.

— Chad Holloway is Ante Up’s Wisconsin Ambassador. He’s also a senior writer for PokerNews.com and contributes to Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker Blog. Email him at anteupchad@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter @ChadAHolloway.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/ho-chunk-brings-bad-beat-to-dells-and-nekoosa.htm