You've heard it over and over again: life is set the journey, not the destination. This weekend's Run It Up Resorts Rumble turned out to be about both.
To understand why, you have to wonder a matter: how far would you journey for a $30 poker tournament? For your bedroom? To a buddy's house? A half hour to a neighborhood casino?
Would you travel for 13 hours by car?
At least one person did just that, one in all 124 individuals who traveled from all over to play a $30 poker tournament, meet their hero Jason Somerville, and be part of PokerStars' five-year journey back to the United States.
On any normal day, Brandon Turner could be rebuilding the interior of Wendy's restaurants. He owns a transforming business together with his dad, and so they travel everywhere in the state of Indiana for his or her work. This weekend, Brandon decided he would drive even further. He left Greenwood, Indiana and began driving east.
"It took me almost 13 hours with traffic," Turner said. "I'm only a huge fan of Jason (Somerville). I've always desired to meet him. I REALLY LIKE poker. I've missed PokerStars because it went away on Black Friday, and that i just desired to come back to playing again."
So, there he sat in a ballroom filled with players in a single of Atlantic City's most storied buildings, home of its first Boardwalk casino and a hotel where Sinatra used to play.
The moment marked the intersection of several different journeys: of players in search of an opportunity to play legal poker within the United States, of Jason Somerville's Run It Up empire making a new live event, and of PokerStars' first steps to rebuilding itself within the regulated parts of the USA.
"Doesn't it make you angry?" Somerville said at one point in the course of the day about his American fans' inability to play legally outside New Jersey. "Isn't it so dumb?"
It was part motivational speech, part Q&A, and part political rally led by certainly one of poker's most charismatic young heroes.
"Let's use this angst," he said. "WE WILL use this passion...for change."
Watch the PokerStars Blog later this week for an in-depth feature on Jason Somerville
Somerville at the mic during his Run It Up Resorts Rumble stream
Again, all of this--the day of poker, Q&As, turkey burgers, chess matches, corn hole, and a beach party--was undeniably a part of a destination for plenty of; you do not drive 13 hours with no need somewhere you're meant to be going. Nevertheless, the development itself felt like a primary step for lots of people within the room, perhaps more so for Chris Young than anyone.
Chris Young
Two years ago he lived in Boca Raton, Florida when an Audi made a right activate red. It slammed directly into Young and his motorcycle.
"I flew 200 feet and landed on a Mazda," Young said. "I shattered my right femur, lost six pints of blood."
In the 2 years since, he went through multiple surgeries and bone grafts, all of which left him unable to work an ordinary job. Take one guess how he spent his time recovering.
Young buried himself in NLHE theory, read everything about poker he could get his hands on, and began paying attention to Somerville's broadcasts. Finally, after two years of having better, he was able to start his new job with the Local 486 in Baltimore. He's in plumbing and pipefitting, and he started work the very first thing today.
But before that, he took his last weekend of an excessively long two years, to drive up from Baltimore and play poker among his heroes. Along the way, he got them to sign his cane.
Young with Chris Moneymaker
Every story within the room that day was different, however the common thread among them was how happy the players were to be back on PokerStars, even for an easy $30 poker tourney.
Throughout the day, they heard from the likes of Liv Boeree, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Selbst, and Chris Moneymaker. A few of them played--eight at a time--in chess games against Jen Shahade (she won every game).
Eight at a time? No problem!
The tournament itself, despite only costing $30, was tough by any measure. A majority of the folks playing it have spent greater than their fair proportion of time watching Somerville's countless hours of Twitch streams. The players are, in a word, good. Because they share the similar training and talent, a few of them found themselves pondering the poker physics behind equal talents clashing on the table.
"Everybody playing was trained by carver (Somerville's pseudonym)," player Colin Byerly said while looking in amazement across the room. "Everybody knows what's happening, but there's nothing you are able to do about it."
Ready to enroll in PokerStars? Click here to get an account.Meanwhile, the person with the cane had a mission in mind.
While the craziness played out around him, Young won one of the most first big hands of the tournament, and some hours later he sat across the final table with the opposite eight finalists.
Lee Jones preparing his bad puns for the overall table bust outs
It was a turbo event, and the overall table went fast. Young managed to put fourth and watched from the sidelines as Dan Sewnig (aka monkeyman067) took the primary Run It Up Resorts Rumble title. Sewnig had qualified for $1.50, won his buy-in, $200 in cash, and two nights at Resorts. It also gave him the risk to satisfy Somerville.
"He's very professional. He's very outgoing. He's exactly what poker must keep this rolling," Sewnig said of Somerville. "AFTER I saw that he was going to come back to New Jersey, I USED TO BE very excited, because he's going to bring people in."
Winner Dan Sewnig (right) with Jason Somerville and runner-up Matt Laverty
By and by, the players shut down their laptops, asked Somerville questions for an hour, after which retired to the beachside Landshark Bar and Grill for the VIP Club Live party where...well, we do not tell all the stories now can we? (But, we do have photos!)
These people really take their rumbles seriously
There isn't any telling exactly where all this may occasionally lead. Somerville has his eyes on more Run It Up Events. The Americas Cup of Poker is coming to Resorts next month. And there'll be more. The PokerStars staff spent all of Saturday signing up new accounts for people, and there seems to be a bright future in New Jersey. As for the remainder of the USA, that's still a question of time.
Even still, because the VIP Club Live party began Saturday night, a gentle rain had began to clear off the Atlantic City coast. Because the revelers shook off the rain and dove into the food, someone screamed "Rainbow!" and just as sure because it was captured on Lee Jones' cell phone, there it was above us.
Somehow, people had come from all over only for an opportunity to play on PokerStars again, and by the tip of it, all of them stood on the end of the rainbow.
It felt fitting within the best way.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars news]
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