California Poker -- Greg Heslip Wins the Annie Duke Freeroll at Pala CasinoHeslip Was Awarded $8,000 for First Place |
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Saturday, Jan. 30 served as a grand confirmation for the new poker room at Pala Casino in San Diego County. It wasn’t the grand opening for the room — that took place on May 22 — but there was excitement in the air as the new room staged its first major tournament event. Poker professional and star of “Celebrity Apprentice,” Annie Duke, was on hand to host the $25,000 Annie Duke Freeroll Poker Challenge, with $8,000 going to the eventual champion. The top 10 players all walked away with prize money in the event.
“This is our new beginning. We were really professional in running this thing, and now we have a spot on the map so that people know about us,” said George Arsenis, who worked in the poker room at the Tropicana for 15 years in Atlantic City, and then managed a poker room at the Mountaineer Casino in West Virginia before moving out to California to manage the new poker room at Pala Casino. Pala recently completed a $100 million renovation of their property, and adding a poker room was a priority during that remodel. “We opened our new 15-table poker room last summer, and play has been growing on a weekly basis. Everyone is really excited that Annie Duke is here to host and play in our first major event,” said Bill Bembenek, Pala’s chief executive officer.
Duke signed autographs, took pictures, and talked with fans for an hour and a half before the event began, and then those same fans set their sights on knocking her out of the tournament.
“It’s really cool, because you get to see people who really love poker, they love the game from the standpoint of just having fun,” said Duke of her time interacting with poker fans and players at Pala. “I enjoy this in a lot of ways, particularly here in San Diego where everyone is really nice.”
Cards got into the air at 10:30 a.m. in the freeroll, and the 67 players that logged 100 hours of play in the Pala poker room starting on Nov. 16, 2009 were the lucky recipients of seats in the tournament along with Duke. She began play at table 5 with a $1,000 bounty available to the player that knocked her out, and at the start of each new level she moved to a new table so everyone had a chance to play against her.
During the early stages of the event, Duke played well and grew her stack to 17,500 when the average stack was still at 1,360. Everyone was gunning for her, though, and she was eventually eliminated in 22nd place. The proud bounty hunter was Shawn Delargy, who was awarded the $1,000 prize for capturing Duke. Once she was eliminated, the remaining players set their sights on making the final table, where the top 10 players all would walk away with at least $500.
The tournament wrapped up just before 5 p.m. and the final battle came down to the bounty winner Delargy and Greg Heslip. Delargy built a 3-1 chip advantage before Heslip came from behind to win a big pot and even up the chip counts. Heslip then began to pull away before delivering a knockout blow.
Final Hand:
Heslip raised to 10,000 preflop from the small blind, and Delargy reraised all in for 42,000 more from the button. Heslip made the call and the final two players left in the event turned over their cards:
Heslip: 10
8
Delargy: 6 4
Board: A
K 5 3 9
Delargy was eliminated in second place on the hand, and he took home $4,900 in addition to the $1,000 bounty he received for busting Duke earlier in the day. Heslip, a local Pala Casino player from San Diego, won the tournament and the top prize worth $8,000.
“I’ve never gotten first place,” said Heslip after the win as he happily posed for winner photos with Duke. “I play here 2-3 times a week and I will definitely be back.”
Final Results:
1: Greg Heslip — $8,000
2: Shawn Delargy — $4,900 (Also claimed the $1,000 bounty for eliminating Duke)
3: Kyle Perez — $3,500
4: Robert Glenn Butler — $2,000
5: Robert Muehlberg — $1,700
6: Glenn Connolly — $1,500
7: Chris Ciremele — $1,200
8: Joseph Sims — $1,000
9: Gary Benton — $700
10: Peggy Diaz — $500
About Pala Casino Hotel and Resort:
The recently expanded Pala Casino Spa & Resort includes a Las Vegas-style casino with 2,000 slot machines, 15 poker tables and 87 table games; a 507-room hotel; a 10,000-square-foot, full-service spa and salon that features 14 treatment rooms; a state-of-the-art fitness center; swimming pool with 12 private poolside cabanas, and dual-temperature outdoor Jacuzzi. Pala also offers 10 restaurants and 40,000 square feet of meeting and convention space. Pala Casino Spa & Resort is a AAA four-diamond award winner for six consecutive years. Its state-of-the-art Pala Spa was named the 2009 Best Casino Spa by “Spas of America” and the 2009 Best Casino Spa by the “Southern California Gaming Guide.”
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