Widely accepted as the largest, most popular and best structured poker tournament series in Canada, the British Columbia Poker Championships, or BCPCs as they are more commonly named, will once again be hosted at the River Rock Casino Resort from October 23 to November 9th, 2011.
Last year, CanadaPoker.com was pleased to bring our readers, real time updates from the series, including some extensive player photo galleries and our own live stream of the final two tables of the $2,700 event.
This years schedule looks to be even bigger and better, even though pre-series prize-pool estimates have not yet been posted. The events at River Rock Casino Resort have always delivered far larger than anticipated prize-pools; often exceeding combined estimates by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For instance in 2010, just the $2,700 Main Event drew 548 players, generating a prize pool of $1,345,080, while the 3 starting day $550 sold out to generate it’s own $243,040 pot, with first place fetching almost $56,000. Lastly, the $1,100 burst it’s original field cap of 550 players, drawing 647 players with a $139,493 top spot, the 3 events together crushing the estimated 2 million in prize-pools prior to the event, while 2009 reached over $2.5 million in total prize money awarded!
With the 2011 schedule’s addition of a $5,000 “High-Roller”, as well as bumping the previously $2,700 event up to $3,000, this year should make for some huge numbers. With this years dates set well before US Thanksgiving and the current USA online poker situation, it’s also safe to assume many will make the trek north for some of this action. With the smaller $550 and $1,100 events selling out despite the holiday clash last year, everything is in favor of seeing capped fields across the board.
Super Satellites have already started running, with noon $225 buy-ins scheduled every Saturday in August for seats into the $3,000 Main Event, Sunday noon $120’s for the $1,100 and Tuesday 7:00 PM “Super Sats” with a $370 buy-in for the $5,000. October 23rd and 24th are currently also listed as dedicated pre-series satellite days leading into the scheduled events beginning on the 25th. While also not yet listed, those that have previously attended report ample availability of single table satellites during the series and cash games of every stake to grind out buy-ins and add to the bank.
This years 2011 Tournament Schedule is as follows:
October 25th to 28th: $550 Bounty Event
October 30th & 31st: $1,100 Event
November 2nd to 5th: $3,000 Main Event
November 7th to 9th: $5,000 High Roller Event
In previous years the $2700 main event winners have pocketed prizes money in the hundreds of thousands, $300,000 last year and better than half a million in 2006 when David White won it. Many well known players attend, both past and current WSOP Bracelet winners Daniel Negreanu and Daniel Idema have both taken it down for around $400,000 each. The River Rock Casino Resort has also played host to the Johnny Chan Classic and World Poker Tour Canada event series in the past, making it no stranger to accommodating world class events and big names.
Positive player reports make mention that the casino has several restaurants inside, with meal vouchers are given to entrants to put towards the eats. “Gifts” have also traditionally given to those playing in the events, with any comps generally being appreciated in playing community; last year Main Event players were given stylish River Rock “hoodies”. Lastly, all accounts seemed to find the attached hotel a very comfortable stay, while also unanimously reporting great staff on all accounts.
Of course, the last perk of heading west for the BCPC’s is that generally speaking, Vancouver weather in late October and early November is much milder than elsewhere in the country and as a coastal city there is plenty of things to see and do away from the felts when players need some nightlife or R&R.
