Cash Casino’s “Nevada Poker Room” in Calgary is once again hosting its “Great Canadian Freeze-out” poker tournament series consisting of 3 events held over 5 days. The series kicked off Wednesday February 23rd, with a $300+35+ ($10 optional add-on) No Limit Hold’em Event, to get things kicked off for the 3 starting day, $500+50+10 Main Event. The top 15 spots from each “qualifying day” advance to Sunday’s finals to play for the big money. Previous installments of the popular series have seen the first place money anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000.
Originally played as a $760 buy-in during the poker boom, players would come from across Canada to play in a more often than not swelled and sold out field of upwards of 600 players for the 4 day event. Organizers reacted to the economic recession and lowered the buy-in, with around 300 entries always a fair estimate in today’s market of how many will turn out over the Main Event to play. Most popular with Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton players, a decent amount of players from the Northern Alberta cities have been making their Facebook and Twitter announcements that they are headed to “The Cash to take it down!” Many of the fiercest player on the Canadian poker circuit received their initial bankroll boost from the event, Edmonton’s Mary Gabriel, Calgary’s Joel Bullock and Karim Chatur are just a few of the dozens of faces that line the poker rooms walls for taking down one of Cash Casino’s major events.
The “sister” Cash Casino Poker room in Red Deer also hosts several large series a year, creating a convenient location for players from the two million plus population cities of Alberta to battle it out with the locals for large prize-pools. The multiple entry day formats has always been popular with players, one bad day on the felts still leaves a few more chances to play for an ever building prize-pool, with many other Canadian poker series choosing to adopt the format after seeing its success in doing so. Healthy starting stacks and longer blind levels usually see these events last for at least 12 hours each day, before those who advance is determined and of course the big winner on Sunday. While the finalist play down, a “Last Chance Tournament” is also held, this time priced at $155+25+10. Good luck to everyone playing this week!
