Featured Articles Archive - Page 246

Station Casinos, tribal owners open casino near San Francisco

Station Casinos, Inc. and the tribal owners of an $800 million Northern California casino decided a 13-year wait was long enough.So, with crowds building for Tuesday’s planned 10 a.m. public opening of the Graton Resort &Casino, the property was opened an hour early.The Graton Resort, owned by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, is in the Sonoma County city of Rohnert Park, roughly 48 miles north of San Francisco.Station Casinos developed the resort and will manage the property for the tribe under a seven-year contract.“For those who have already toured the facility, there has been nothing short of jaw-dropping amazement,” Graton general manager Joe Hasson said Monday, following a week of practice runs for employees and an invitation-only event Saturday night.Hasson managed Station Casinos’ properties in Las Vegas, most notably the Green Valley Ranch Resort when it was featured in the reality television series “American Casino.” Hasson oversaw the Aliante Casino’s opening in 2008...read more

Riess completes 10-year journey from basement to World Champion

LAS VEGAS -- Ryan Riess was 14 years old when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003. He and his friends got excited about poker, and Riess, with his parents' permission, started hosting $10 tournaments in his basement in Clarkston, Mich., on Friday nights."He loved numbers and math, and this was kind of the perfect storm for him," said Riess's father, Frank Riess, who used to call Ryan "Champ" when he was younger.Ten years later, Riess won the same tournament, claiming an $8.36 million first-place prize and the title World Champion."I've been dreaming about this for a long time, ever since I was 14," said Riess, sitting at the poker table next to bundles upon bundles of cash and the WSOP Main Event bracelet, itself worth a cool $500,000...read more

Ryan Riess wins WSOP Main Event, $8.36 million

LAS VEGAS -- Ryan Riess and Jay Farber battled for 90 hands in a tense, back-and-forth affair before Riess finally beat Farber to win the World Series of Poker Main Event and $8,361,570. Farber won $5,174,357 for finishing in second.It's the first time someone wearing a Detroit Lions jersey -- Riess sported a Calvin Johnson jersey -- won a championship since 1957."I'm from Detroit (and) I'm a huge Lions fan," said the 23-year-old champion as he explained why he wore the jersey."I was overwhelmed with joy," Riess said as he described the moment of victory...read more

Unflappable Lehavot finishes third at WSOP Main Event

LAS VEGAS -- There isn't much that can disturb Amir Lehavot at the poker table.On Monday afternoon and evening, during final table play at the World Series of Poker Main Event, Marc-Etienne McLaughlin's rail implored him to fold his small blind and a number of occasions when the action had been folded around to him.Lehavot did comply a few times, but he also found spots to move all-in, much to McLaughlin's rail's chagrin, to pick up the blinds and antes...read more

Riess, Farber reach heads-up play at WSOP Main Event

LAS VEGAS -- Jay Farber and Ryan Riess survived 8.5 wild hours of final table play at the World Series of Poker Main Event Monday and will play heads up for $8.36 million Tuesday night.Before a rowdy crowd in the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Riess knocked out Amir Lehavot to set the heads-up matchup...read more

Loosli stays patient, finishes fourth at WSOP

LAS VEGAS -- If there's one thing you can't accuse Sylvain Loosli of being, it's impatient. The Frenchman didn't play any of the first 17 hands at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. And when he found himself stuck with a medium-sized chip stack between two overwhelming chip leaders and two short stacks, he bided his time to make sure he could move up the pay ladder."I knew I had to be patient," said Loosli...read more

Tran goes from favorite to fifth at WSOP Main Event

It wasn't supposed to happen like this. JC Tran was not only the most experienced player at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table, he was also the chip leader. The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino listed him as a 9/5 favorite against the other eight players in the field – an astounding favorite considering he held less than 20 percent of the chips in play.But Tran held WSOP and World Poker Tour titles...read more

McLaughlin sixth at WSOP Main Event, but wins the "battle of the rail"

LAS VEGAS -- If you walked by the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Monday afternoon, you may have wondered if you wandered into a St. Patrick's Day party that somehow never ended, despite the fact that it's been nearly eight months since the holiday.In fact, the men and women dressed in green, covered in Shamrocks, and chanting in French were friends of Marc-Etienne McLaughlin, one of the players at the World Series of Poker's final table.McLaughlin, whose rail included fellow French-Canadian and 2010 Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, spent most of Monday on a roller coaster that saw his chip stack go from third at the beginning of play, down to the short stack, and back up into the top three with six players to play...read more

Brummelhuis seventh at WSOP Main Event: Mission accomplished

LAS VEGAS -- Michiel Brummelhuis started the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event with one major goal in mind: Don't finish ninth.Since all the members of the November Nine already received ninth-place money of $733,224, being the first to bust would result in no additional profit from the experience.Brummelhuis started the day in seventh chip position, ahead of both David Benefield and Mark Newhouse, but both players doubled up early and Brummelhuis found himself in last place in chips, wondering if he could find a way to move up the ladder.In the end, he outlasted both players and finished seventh, claiming $1,225,356 (or an additional $492,132)."I'm happy with the experience; I'm happy that I didn't finish ninth," said Brummelhuis...read more

Benefield confident of decisions on the felt, still making up his mind off of it

David Benefield had some of the biggest lay downs in the early stages of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table, but he also showed that he wasn't afraid to put his chips to use.After folding pocket 10s to Michiel Brummelhuis's four bet (Brummelhuis had aces), he moved all in over the top of JC Tran's button raise holding just king-deuce suited."JC is opening the button a ton," said Benefield...read more