The month of January starts the US of A's poker year with not one, but two large poker festivals in the otherwise empty wilderness of Tunica, Mississippi. But with the World Poker Open, including its WPT $10,000 Main Event on January 19 th at the Goldstrike, and the WSOP Circuit Event with its own $10,000 comp on the 24 th , there's plenty to be getting on with besides wondering who decided that part of the world needed so many huge casinos. The Grand Casino (host to the Circuit event) has already staged a week's worth of the smaller ($500) comps and the buy-ins steadily increase over the month.
As for the Goldstrike, their kickoff tournament was the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em yesterday, won by Ted Garner, who took almost $100,000 for first and entry into the Main Event. It looks like one could rush backwards and forwards playing two of these a day, if one had the bankroll and the inclination, and there are several 'mega satellites' running for both Main Events. So far, the results have been (unsurprisingly) dominated by Americans but as the buy-ins increase there may be more of the big names showing up, and even some European players not already heading for Copenhagen or the Ladbrokes cruise.