The WPTDeepStacks event in Houston went off without a hitch after 790-entrants created a $790,000 prizepool in the controversial event, and Daryl Aguirre walked away with the $143,765 first prize.
Texas No-Limit Hold’em, the most popular form of poker in the world, is illegal in Texas.
Only in America.
Fortunately, The FreeRolls Poker Club found a loophole, and the World Poker Tour (WPT) felt confident enough in the interpretation to hold a $1,000 buy-in, $100k GTD WPTDeepStacks Main Event, and it went off without a single SWAT team breaking down the door, and smacking anyone with a rifle butt.
About that law.
FreeRolls offer daily ($35), monthly ($550) and annual ($4k) membership fees, and pull in revenue through advertising, enabling them to run rake free poker games, and this is how they circumvent the law, and yet I have no idea how that works. Houston may not have a problem now but methinks it’s only a matter of time.
I will tell you one thing, the grey area as far as the legal stuff is concerned didn’t bother the locals. 790-entrants turned up for the $1,000, $100,000 Guaranteed WPTDeepStacks Main Event, at the Palacio Maria Event Center, creating a prizepool of $790,000, shared between 99 players.
The winner of the event was an amateur player, Daryl Aguirre, who before this event had only cashed in five games totalling less than $6k.
“It’s just crazy,” said Aguirre after beating Jason Brice in heads-up action.
Brice began heads-up with all the experience (he once finished 33rd in the World Series of Poker Main Event), and all the chips (he had a 2:1 chip lead), but it was Aguirre who triumphed to bank the $143,765 first prize and a $3k WPTDS Championship package.
After the win, Aguirre sat down with the WPT and told them that the victory will motivate him to play more, but will have to run that possibility by his wife who is at home taking care of three children while he is tossing his hands into the muck.
Aguirre told the WPT that he planned to use his prize money to take his family on vacation.
It wasn’t a smooth ride for the champion.
He fired three bullets worth $1k each.
Or perhaps they were plastic bullets?
Final Table Results
1. Daryl Aguirre – $143,765*
2. Jason Brice – $98,735
3. Robert Bresner – $63,715
4. Mohammad Arani- $47,140
5. Dennis Brand – $35,965
6. Satheesh Francis – $28,520
7. Jose Cavazos – $23,610
8. Lam Tran – $18,780
9. Jules Allum – $14,095
*Includes a $3k WPTDS Championship Package
