Juan Benedetti was in for $7,500 just eight days after winning at the $12,500 level. But this was no jam job…and fitness was clearly not in question.
As proof, the ultra-sharp Horse Tourneys cash game player won our $7,500 ($3,750 to the winner) Guaranteed tourney just a week and a day after winning our $12,500 Guaranteed game on Saturday, August 6. Look for Benedetti to “step up in class” for our $25,000 Guaranteed tourney coming up this Saturday, August 20.
Sunday was our last chance qualifier for Indiana Grand’s first-ever NHC tournament (they’ll be giving three seats away in Shelbyville on August 20). David Browning and Samuel Alipio were our two winners yesterday and they’ll both be heading to Indiana Grand with not one but two entries at their disposal. We wish Indiana Grand the best of luck with its event on Saturday, and hope that it becomes a regular fixture on the annual brick-and-mortar contest calendar.
The BIG One filled its 39th and 40th available seats on Sunday in our Two-Seats-Guaranteed qualifier. Ryan Steigmeier and Michael Caposio were our two top finishers and both will be heading to Laurel on a full ride on Sept. 24-25. Just 10 more seats remain available in online tourneys for this high-expectation event, so be sure to play in our The Big One qualifiers the next few Sundays.
We also held an entry-only Horse Player World Series qualifier on Sunday with the top two finishers winning seats. It, like each of the above three tourneys mentioned, was a “Live Format” tourney. The going-away winner was Vince LaRocco who posted a monster score of $124.40. Second was our The BIG One runner-up Michael Caposio and you will note that his scores in each tournament were identical — $83.80. Further investigation reveals, as you might have guessed, that Michael used the exact same picks in both tourneys.
Either Michael had outside obligations that precluded him from monitoring the tournament in real time, or he just got on a roll and figured he would stick with his first hunches throughout.
In any event, it just shows that good picks are good picks — and during those times when life inevitably gets in the way of our horseplaying, you don’t have to limit yourself to Pick & Prays. Live-format tourneys are winnable too.
Congratulations to Michael and to all of this weekend’s winners. Check in here tomorrow for musings about this past week’s Saratoga and Monmouth on-site tourneys.