Season II Goes Platinum Now

Hold’em Radio Platinum VIP Members get great discounts from poker-based businesses, behind-the-scenes tours at events, special merchandise options and the chance to play and win big prizes - all this for just $24.95 a month.

Among the benefits for Platinum VIP members is regular online freeroll tournaments, with championship events where some $10,000 in prizes are awarded to major tournaments and more.

There are quarterly Majors Freerolls offered - Sept 2016, Dec 2016, March 2017 and June 2017 – where our Platinum VIP Members earn their way to from Qualifier Freerolls leading up to the Majors.

The Major 1 (Sept 2016) winner receives a buy-in from us into the 2015 HPT $2500 Season Championship at Thunder Valley Casino in northern California Oct 20-25 and up to $500 as a travel reimbursement.

The Major 2 (Dec 2016) winner receives from us a $1500 custom-built Off Tilt Poker Table for your own home, ManCave, etc.

Win Major 3 (March 2017) and join CardPlayerCruises with a cabin for 2 to any of their 2017 cruises, a $1700 value as we buy your cabin for you as winner.

Take down Major 4 (June 2017) and we buy you in to the 2017 World Series $1500 Monster Stack and up to $500 in travel reimbursement. (Date TBA when the 2017 World Series schedule is released).

Qualifier Freerolls take place at least twice a week – three times a week some months – for Platinum VIP Members to earn their way into Majors and Mini-Majors.

The Mini-Majors monthly offer prizes like a pair of Blue Shark Optics eyewear for one month each quarter, and the other month each quarter is your own entry for up to $425 in buy-ins for a regional tournament near you, such as HPT Main Event Satellites, World Series Circuit ring events, or a local event at your home poker room.

There will also be regular events with prizes from sponsors, special Platinum-VIP-Only merchandise available and much more as Season II goes along.

Season II of the Hold’em Radio Platinum VIP Program is just $24.95 a month (payable as a yearly $299 option only). Join by July 15 and be part of a special Mini-Major to win up to $425 for a regional tournament entry of your choice.

Full Platinum VIP Program details available here.

See our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more. Void where prohibited.

Our Live Location Appearances

We have quite a busy schedule right now and hope to see this build for the remainder of the year and be even bigger in 2017.

Here is where we are scheduled to be for the last 6 months of 2016.

JUNE
1-30: World Series of Poker, Rio All-Suites Casino, Las Vegas, NV.

JULY
1-18: World Series of Poker, Rio All-Suites Casino, Las Vegas, NV.
13-18: Heartland Poker Tour, Golden Gates Casino, Blackhawk, CO
21-31: Ante Up World Championships, Thunder Valley Resort, Lincoln, CA

AUGUST
1-8: Ante Up World Championships, Thunder Valley Resort, Lincoln, CA
4-8: Heartland Poker Tour, Ameristar Casino, Vicksburg, MS

SEPTEMBER
1-5: Heartland Poker Tour, Ameristar Casino, East Chicago, IL
14-19: Heartland Poker Tour, Golden Gates Casino, Blackhawk, CO
21-26: Heartland Poker Tour, Daytona Beach Dog and Kennel Club, Daytona Beach, FL

OCTOBER
1-10: TBA
13-24: Heartland Poker Tour Season Championships, Thunder Valley Resort, Lincoln, CA

NOVEMBER
2-7: Heartland Poker Tour, Ameristar Casino, St. Charles, MO
16-21: Heartland Poker Tour, Ameristar Casino, Kansas City, MO.
22-27: Ante Up NorCal Classic, Thunder Valley Resort, Lincoln, CA

4 Days, $78K

Gina Stagnitto turned a $1500 buyin into 4 days of play and a $78,264 cash in the WSOP Monster Stack. 

Gina played solid all four days, really moving up midway through Day 3. She found herself sitting at about 30BB for much of the last 4 hours of play yesterday, then put on a big run to close Day 3 3/27 with 6.9 million chips.

A very aggressive start propelled her briefly into the chiplead today. Losing an all-in AK<KK dropped her back to her start-of-day stack, and she was back grinding and riding a bit of a roller-coaster.

She called the 2.6 million all in preflop of Andrew Moreno, and saw she was behind AQ-AK, with Moreno saying to his rail, "We got just what we wanted," before hiding his head in their hands so he couldn't see the outcome.

That pose kept Moreno from knowing there was a Q in the window, putting Gina ahead on the Q-J-6 flop. Moreno had 7 outs, and caught one of them with the turn T for Broadway, and Gina was down to 5.5milly.

She slid as low as 3.5m, then found AA and shoved, drawing 1 caller who had AK and suddenly she was back to 8.5 million and 13 players left in the tourney.

Then the UTG player raised to almost 600k and Gina opted to shove for her 8.6m to isolate that player and force his all in. The BB< however, had Gina covered and he made the call, turning over KK.

Gina had AJ and the UTG player had AA.

There was a K on the flop, and the river J didn't help, eliminating the UTG player in 13th and Gina in 12th, a $78k cash for here, the biggest of her career.

She walked from the table with a smile on here face, looking as relaxed as she did while playing day 3 and day 4.

"See you in the main, I'm definitely playing the Main Event now," she said as she headed off to collect her winnings.

Gina's @WSOP Monster Stack Run

Down to 27,000 late on Day 2, Gina Stagnitto slowly worked her way back, then used most of Day 3 to find places to pick up more and more chips in the WSOP $1500 Monster Stack. By the time Day 3 had come to a close, Gina was all the way up to 6.9 million chips and sitting 3/27.

Gina is a regular among our NorCal/Nevada circuit of players, having finished 8th last January in the Poker Night in America event at Thunder Valley. She was also 10th at the most recent HPT at Thunder Valley.

Day 4 - the final day - kicks off and Gina is the most active player early on, scoring one knockout and moving to nearly 12 million and the chiplead. She put a shorter-stack all-in preflop while holding AK, only to have that player turn over KK, hold, and take a decent stack from her.

The first break of the day is over and Gina is sitting right about where she started the day. There are 17 players left, a redraw coming at 10 and the LiveStream starting when 9 players remain, all battling for the $1.12 million top prize and the WSOP bracelet.

More for Mikie

@Clubwpt619 met @MariaHo, TattyTats and NormanChad today as we took a tour through the World Series of Poker, and we wanted to post these photos of his trip so he had them available.

Mikie with Tatjana Pasalic

Mikie with Norman Chad

Mikie the Mascot is at @WSOP

 

Michael @clubwpt619 Cowen is making his first-ever trip to the World Series of Poker, and we're taking him on a trip around to see everything that is going on. His mom, Slyvia, arranged for Mikie the Mascot to come here for three day of fun. That's 2009 WSOP Main Event Champ Joe Cada (above) with Mikie, and WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel (below) with Mikie.

Since Mikie is such a big ClubWPT.com fan, we wanted to make sure he had a chance to meet up with Mike Sexton of the WPT as well, then stop over at the HoldemRadio booth for a while today.

Doubling Up Today

We have a busy weekend as we send our team to two different states for poker events at the WSOP and at Thunder Valley.

Our Las Vegas-based team is at the Rio for the WSOP as today is the kickoff of Seniors Day, expecting well in excess of 4,000 entries for today's only Day 1.

We also have a team at Thunder Valley Casino in northern California for Saturday's OneDay$100K, a $400 buy-in with a $100,000 guarantee. Today is Satellite Day, with three $100 Satellites (11am, 5pm, 8pm) where 1-in-5 entries wins a OneDay$100K entry for the 11am Saturday start.

Stop by our WSOP booth and say hi to Lucky and Mary - our Las Vegas Hosts - and learn about all the exciting things we have coming up for the rest of 2016 and in to 2017.

At Thunder Valley, track down Dan as he moves among the tables taking photos, writing updates, and drinking Peet's Coffee.

15th for Gold

Opening hand of the day, Lisa Meredith leads out, @craigpgold moves all in for 1.3 million and Hamilton makes the call.

Gold - Q♠️ Q♣️

Meredith - A♠️ 7♠️

The flop? K♠️ 8♠️ 2♠️

Meridith flops the nut flush, and Gold is eliminated in 15th place, cashing for $59,139.

"I won a lot of these to get where I ended up," said Gold, a few minutes after being eliminated. "She had to call once she lead out," added Gold, afterwards with a chuckle and a smile that was part-grimace from being out, "But did she have to open with A7?"

Gold's parents came out of the Amazon Room a moment later, and it was family time for the Golds ...

Dan Ross - HoldemRadio.com

Eyes on @CraigpGold

Final day of MillyMaker starts in a few moments, with Craig Gold among the 15 vying for one of two Million-dollar payouts today.

We'll be on the rail and inside the ropes following along the progress of one of our NorCal friends - who does have a WSOP circuit ring to his name, looking to add more jewelry today.

Catch updates on our Twitter Account and right here too

One Day $100K GTD @TVPokerRoom Saturday

Come out and join us this Saturday at Thunder Valley Casino in northern California for the always-popular One Day $100,000 Guaranteed tourney.

The $400 buyin draws a big field, with the prize pool pushing double the guarantee. April's One Day $100K drew 514 entires and a prize pool just shy of $180,000. Consider this your satellite to the WSOP Monster Stack the following weekend in Las Vegas.

Speaking of satellites, all day this Friday are satellites to win your way in the to One Day $100k. Play a $100 multi-table satellite at 11am, 5pm or 8pm, all with 1-in-5 entries winning a One Day $100K seat for Saturday.

Buy Dad a seat directly into the tourney on Saturday and you can still celebrate Fathers Day with him on Sunday, for this is a one-day-only event, leaving all of Sunday to celebrate Dad.

We are going to be providing the Live Updates for the event, so be sure to stop by and say hi, we'll be at our booth in the tournament area, as we are for all series tournaments at Thunder Valley.

Who Will Play for the Chop

No other way to look at the MillyMaker than to say the top-two players are going to chop the money, leaving $65k and a bracelet on the table for the heads-up match.

That's right, after a week-plus of relatively little chirping from players about how the WSOP was going - including a Colossus that went off with very few issues of any sort - the Millionaire Maker's payouts were released last night and the chirping became louder than the mass-echoes of shuffling chips.

Sure, we understand the top two finishers were promised $1 million each, but a $500,000 jump from 3rd to 2nd place and only a $65,403 from second to first? This turns the heads-up match into basically a chop of the $2,065,403 remaining money.

In ANY other tournament series the players would be going nuts over this. The fact the WSOP bracelet is THE most coveted prize for any poker player is the only thing preventing a ton of extra-chirping.

Day 2 MillyMakers

In the money today is @Scott_Cooper and more still chasing the Milly-to-the-Top-Two in the @WSOP Millionaire Maker. Joining QuadKinkz Podcast co-host Cooper in the money today is (In photo order, below) Deeg Poker Team Pro Ivin Arquiza, WSOP Bracelet winner Jesse Rockowitz, former HPO Las Vegas winner Simon Deadman, multiple WSOP circuit winner Woody Moore and skyidver-elite Darrel Dier.

The @QuadKingz

With podcast hosts @BucaneerMike, @Scott_Cooper and @1MovePoker all going at it today, we have the entire Quad Kingz lineup in Flight B of the $1500 Millionaire Maker.

This is the team of Mike Bratovich (above) Scott Cooper (middle) and Clint Cartwright (bottom), all Team BlueSharkOptics pro's as well. 

Second Career

If @1MovePoker needs a break from the felt, well, it appears he's all set for his backup job and is even advertising here at the WSOP MillyMaker.

OK, I'll be honest here, I just couldn't pass up a chance to take this photo when I saw where Clint Cartwright was sitting.

The TeamBlueSharkOptics pro - and Hold'em Radio Program Director - did smile once I put the camera down.

He has one cash already in this year's WSOP, in the $565 PLO, and looking for a Day 2, a Day 3, a FT and a bracelet (in that order) with his MillyMaker entry today.

All Quiet on the MillyMaker Front

We are right outside the Brasilia Room and cards have just gone in the air for the $1500 Millionaire Maker ... and you'd think church service just began. The room has turned incredibly quiet.

This is a sign of one and one thing only - scared money.

The Brasilia Room is the beginning Day 1 room for most WSOP events, and the players are normally talking as they settle in for the tourneys. Today, though, the incredibly quiet room - but for the cricket-like sound of chips shuffling - is only happening because of the large number of players who are here today for their "life-changing money" win, and they are far too nervous to chat-it-up with their tablemates.

This also means the experienced players are looking around and thinking, "easy game," for them to make their standard moves, push nitty players off of marginal hands and more.

15th For 17k

.. for @DarrelDier in the $1500 6Max. We talked with him right after his cash, and he was talking about late-registering the MillyMaker, but it sounds as though he'll just wait until Saturday's Flight B instead.

He ran JJ into KK early in Day 3, battled back by shoving 4 hands in a row (first one he had AA and ... no caller) then called an all in with AK, only to run into AA, leaving him with just 1BB.

Darrel's Draw

15 left @WSOP $1500 6Max and @DarrelDier has Daniel @dDeoxyribo Strelitz on his left, but Fedor @CrownUpGuy Holz just busted from that once-6-handed table.

DIer started the day with 297,000 and ran JJ into KK early, battling his way back ever since in seach of the $346,088 top prize and a bracelet.

Blinding Down Already

The @WSOP MillyMaker story so far is the vast number of players whose stacks are being blinded down here 30 minutes in to Flight A.

We just did a walkthrough of the Brasilia Room and almost every table has at least one stack blinding down, while a few tables have as many as three stacks with chips going in while awaiting the arrival of their owners.

Remember, if you Pre-registered for the MillyMaker Flight A, your stack is live and has been for 36 minutes now.

6-Max and MillyMaker

With @DarrelDier in final 21 of $1500 6-max and flight A of the $1500 MIllyMaker, we're camped out all day today at the Rio to check out the action.

Evening Report

I busted PlO and guess i should do some work while im here at the Rio.
The 10k Dealers choice nears the money bubble with Phil Hellmuth is still in contention while the 6max heads to dinner break and the also the $1500 HORSE FT is still going with 4 players remaining.

Lets not forget the $565 PLO and $1500 razz along with the almost 1300 players in the Rio Daily deepstack.

Lots going on here at WSOP and yet the halls remain quite.

This is our Evening report and really cause im just still here..

Avoid This Poker Fraud/Scam

The LGBT Poker Tour run by @MNastasis is anything but what it claims, and with her poker activity apparently resuming, now is a good time to remind the poker community about this issue we first published information about last month.

Below is our report from May 2016 - 

For all the good we come across within the poker community, every once in a while we see things that just shouldn't take place. After spending a great deal of time investigating and doing our homework, we've learned the proposed LGBT Poker Tour is not being accurate in the promotions leading up to its listed start later this year.

The tour's founder/director has claimed to have five locations secured, three Team Pro's and three National Sponsors, all listed via the LGBT Poker Tour's FB page, the promoter's FB pages and a website dedicated to the tour promoter and to her own activities.

We have obtained in writing from each poker room, team pro and sponsor that none of the businesses or people have any involvement in the LGBT Poker Tour, nor have they ever had any business agreements.

The first four casinos/poker rooms have responded back to us to state they are NOT holding a Tour event at their location and there's never been any agreement to do so. The last listed casino did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

All three listed "Team Pro's" say they have never met the tour promoter, never talked to her, and never agreed to be a Team Pro. One requested his name be removed and received no reply back. Another told me he is prepared to sue to have his name removed.

Of the three listed "National Sponsors," two have replied back stating they have never had any involvement with the LGBT Poker Tour, and one stating their legal team would be working to take care of this on their end. We missed a number of direct connections with the third sponsor, who eventually replied back stating they were not interested in such a sponsorship.

We ask that you not use this posting to make derogatory comments about the tour, its promoter or anyone who had been involved with the LGBT Poker Tour via our comments section. This is informational based on our extensive investigation into the tour and is being posted to let the poker community know our findings about an organization that is not putting out accurate information about its alleged startup poker tour.

--Dan Ross
Hold'em Radio