With the ink barely dry on David Snyder’s Flo-Cal Faceoff winner’s check of $183,750, it’s already time to start focusing on the second leg of the 2022 Tourney Triple series, the Players Championship here on April 9-10. An All Optional Live competition in which contestants make 15 plays from 30 available races each day, the Players Championship offers a purse guaranteed to be at least $350,000.
Another popular and important April event is the Keeneland Grade One Gamble on Saturday, April 23rd. Offering cash and seats to the 2023 NHC and the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, the Gamble can be played this year either on-track at Keeneland or online at Xpressbet.
Your very first chance to earn a $2,000 Players Championship spot and/or a $3,500 seat to the Keeneland Grade One Gamble comes up on Friday.
Last year, Dan Wilde of Austin, Texas, won $213,000 in the first-ever Players Championship. This year, it can be your turn. On April 8th, entries will cost $2,000 each. You can get yours for $156 if you win Friday’s 1-per-15, $156 Pick & Pray.
Meanwhile a $207 entry fee buys you a 1-in-20 shot at winning your way to the Gamble. It, too, is a Pick & Pray.
The exact same entry fee and winning ratio as in the Keeneland game will be in effect for Friday’s play-in to the 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge. Entries cost $207 each, and one of every 20 will earn a $3,500 spot in the March 5th contest, which can be played from either Gulfstream, Santa Anita or Xpressbet.
For cash game enthusiasts, there’s Friday’s HT Tour event, our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray, which carries an entry fee of $190.
Meanwhile, each day of the upcoming weekend will offer qualifiers to the Bally’s NHC Last Chance tournament, a week from today on January 27th. Friday’s Pick & Pray carries a $59 buy-in with one in 10 picking up a $500 entry for NHC Eve. There will also be several single-track, direct qualifiers to the Bally’s Last Chance sprinkled throughout the weekend menus.
Over at HorsePlayers at HorsePlayers on Friday, there’s a qualifier to next week’s NHC.
It’s a $165 Pick & Pray with one spot guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1-per-65.
Contest races for Friday are the 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th from Gulfstream, the 6th and 9th at Tampa Bay Downs and the 5th through 9th from Gulfstream—10 races in all.
On Saturday, another Players Championship qualifier headlines the featured-tourney proceedings.
Once again, $156 is what it takes to try your luck in getting a cut-rate seat to the middle leg of the Tourney Triple. This time, though, the game will be run in Live format.
Also in Live-format is Saturday’s HT Tour game, a $30,000 Guaranteed, No Limit cash tourney. Entries cost $350 apiece. This serves as our richest competition of the weekend.
Operating as a Pick & Pray (as it always does) is the Saturday Big Bucks tourney. It’s an “up-to-$20,000” game with a guaranteed pot of $10,000. Entries—at $1,150 per shot—are limited to 20 (unless we get a late arrival or two from last-minute Saturday feeders…in which case the pot will exceed $20,000). Payouts go just to the top three finishers with the winner collecting 70 percent of the net pool, the runner up getting 20 percent, and the third-place finisher picking up the remaining 10 percent.
Another Saturday Pick & Pray here at HorseTourneys is a $210 qualifier to the following weekend’s NHC. It’s a 1-per-55 affair with one spot guaranteed.
Of course, there’s again an opportunity on Saturday to qualify for the January 27th Bally’s NHC Last Chance tournament. An upfront stake of $59 gets you into this 1-per-10, Live-format tourney.
Saturday’s $15 Jackpot Pick 4 tourney, a Pick & Pray, will have a carryover of $577. In our Pick 4 Jackpot games, going four-for-four means you win or share the Jackpot. (You don’t have to be the only winner.) Meanwhile, 70% of the daily net pool gets paid out to players via the traditional $2.00 win/place scoring system. The other 30% goes to the Jackpot pool. Entries in these Jackpot Pick 4 tourneys are limited to three per person.
The Jackpot Pick 4 races for Saturday are the 8th and 9th at Aqueduct and races 9 and 11 from Gulfstream.
There are two featured qualifiers at HorsePlayers on Saturday—one for the NHC and one for the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge. Both will be run in Live format.
The NHC qualifier is a Low Ratio play-in with an entry fee of $500 and a winning ratio of 1-per-21, While not guaranteed, this tourney requires just 10 entries for it to go on as scheduled.
The BCBC game is a $179 qualifier with at least one $10,000 entry certain to be won regardless of participation. The winning ratio here is 1-per-65.
Saturday’s featured-tourney races are the 6th through 9th from Aqueduct; the 7th and 8th at Tampa Bay Downs; the 8th through 11th from Gulfstream and races 8 and 9 at Laurel—12 races in all.
Both the Players Championship and Keeneland Grade One Gamble are part of the mix on a Sunday dominated by Live-format tourneys.
The Players Championship play-in is a Live format with a $156 entry fee, a winning ratio of 1-in-15 and victors picking up a $2,000 berth in the middle leg of the Tourney Triple.
Also a Live-format tilt, the Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier carries an entry fee of $207 with one of every 20 aspirants grabbing a $3,500 entry.
The exact same price structure and format will be in place for Sunday’s 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge qualifier.
Sunday’s HT Tour skirmish is our $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit. Entries will set you back $250 in what is a Live-format game this week.
Ditto the Live format deal in Sunday’s Bally’s NHC Last Chance tournament qualifier. It’s $59 to play.
The Sunday Big Bucks game is always run in Live format. It’s an up-to-$20,000 battle with $7,500 Guaranteed and an entry fee of $1,150. Entries for this one are limited to 20, and payouts are made only to the top three finishers.
We’ll also have a $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney on Sunday. The Jackpot amount will depend on how many played in the Saturday Pick 4 Jackpot tourney—and whether anyone hit it. Check our website or our Twitter feed starting on Saturday night for updates. Our Pick 4 Jackpot games are always Pick & Prays, and this one is no exception.
The NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge combine to offer three featured events on Sunday at HorsePlayers.
Two of them are late NHC qualifiers. One is a Live-format, open-to-all, $500 Low Ratio qualifier with a winning ratio of 1-in-21. Note that at least 10 entries must be signed on in order for this tourney to “go.”
The other is similar but different! It’s a Live-format, $500 Low Ratio play-in restricted to those who haven’t yet punched their ticket to next week’s big dance. The same 10-entry minimum thing applies here too.
The BCBC qualifier is also of the Live-format, Low Ratio variety. It’s $500 to enter, and the winning ratio is 1-per-23. One $10,000 entry for next November is guaranteed to be awarded.
Good luck on what is a “getaway weekend” for many of you. We hope that it is a “get ahead” weekend for all of you.