We all love Presidents—especially when we’re staring at their pictures in our wallets. You can add to your collection of such photos (as well as some of Ben Franklin) during the upcoming Presidents Day weekend replete with four days of featured-tourney cash games and qualifiers.
The holiday weekend fun begins on Friday.
This Saturday and Sunday will largely be Live-format days…but Pick & Prays are the order of the day on Friday, when many are busy working to provide food, shelter and entry fees to their family.
Friday’s big cash opportunity is our $15,000 Guaranteed No Limit Pick & Pray, which carries an entry fee of $190 and serves as the day’s HT Tour event.
Just a couple of weeks remain in which to qualify for the 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge. Entries to Friday’s Pick & Pray play-in 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.
The same format and price points are in effect for Friday’s Keeneland Grade One Gamble qualifier. The “Gamble” takes place on Saturday, April 23rd. Offering lots of cash and seats to the NHC and Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge, the contest can be played this year either on-track at Keeneland or online at Xpressbet. You can earn a $3,500 spot in the Gamble in Friday’s Pick & Pray for an upfront investment of $207. That works out to a winning ratio of 1-in-20.
The Monmouth Pick Your Prize Handicapping Challenge on June 4th can also be played on-track (at Monmouth, of course) or at Xpressbet (or, in New Jersey, at 4NJBets). Based on 200 entries, the Pick Your Prize Challenge will offer 18 2023 NHC spots, four Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge berths and cash prizes totaling $65,000. You can grab yourself a $2,000 entry to it for $156 in Friday’s 1-per-15 Pick & Pray.
The $350,000 Guaranteed Players Championship, the middle jewel of the 2022 Tourney Triple, can only be played online. To be specific, it can only be played right here at HorseTourneys on April 9-10. A $156 entry fee buys you a 1-in-15 chance at a $2,000 seat for the lucrative, all-cash “PC”, which will be an All Optional Live competition.
On March 26th, Sam Houston will host its Texas Champions Day contest with a couple of NHC seats on the line. You can pay $1,000 to enter it next month…or you can win a spot in it for $79 in Friday’s 1-per-15 Pick & Pray.
Over at HorsePlayers on Friday, you can nail down a place in the 2023 NHC.
It’s a $75 Pick & Pray with two seats guaranteed and a winning ratio of 1-per-143.
Contest races for Friday are the 6th through 9th from Tampa Bay Downs, the 6th through 9th at Gulfstream and the first two races from Santa Anita—10 races in all.
Saturday’s menu contains the richest tourney of the holiday weekend.
It’s our Live-format, $30,000 Guaranteed, No Limit cash tourney. Entries cost $350 apiece. This battle is also the day’s HT Tour event.
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.
Your second opportunity of the weekend to win a $2,000 Monmouth Pick Your Prize entry comes on Saturday. It’s a $156, Live-format affair with a winning ratio of 1-per-15.
The same applies to Saturday’s Players Championship play-in. Entries cost $156 in this Live-format game, and the grand prize is a $2,000 seat.
For $207, you can make a Live-format attempt at earning a $3,500 Keeneland Grade One Gamble seat. The winning ratio here is 1-per-20.
An additional $207 could get you a $3,500 berth in the 1 S/T Ultimate Betting Challenge. Here, too, the format is Live.
The $15 Jackpot Pick 4 tourney was hit last Sunday, so the Jackpot resets to an HT-seeded $300. In our Pick 4 Jackpot games (always run as Pick & Prays, 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 through 10th from Tampa Bay Downs and race 10 at Gulfstream.
The feature at HorsePlayers on Saturday involves the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge.
It’s a $179, Live-format 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 10th from Tampa; the 1st and 3rd at Santa Anita; the 8th and 9th (both graded stakes) from Laurel; and races 9, 10 and 12 at Gulfstream—12 races all together.
Eight more featured tourneys come your way on Sunday.
For a third straight day, we’ll again offer opportunities to qualify for the Pick Your Prize Challenge, the Players Championship, the Keeneland Grade One Gamble and the 1/ST Ultimate Betting Challenge. All four play-ins will be contested in Live format.
After a one-day hiatus, the Sam Houston Texas Champions Day contest will again be in play via Sunday’s Live-format, $79, 1-per-15 qualifier.
Sunday’s HT Tour showdown is our $20,000 Guaranteed, No Limit cash game. Entries go for $250 a pop in what is a Live-format game this week.
The Sunday Big Bucks game is always run in Live format. It’s an up-to-$20,000 square-off with an entry fee of $1,150 and a purse guaranteed to be at least $7,500. Entries for this one are limited to 20, and payouts are made only to the top three finishers.
Another $15 Pick 4 Jackpot tourney (a Pick & Pray, as always) is also on tap this 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.
The NHC and the Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge share the featured-tourney spotlight on Sunday at HorsePlayers.
The NHC game is a “regular,” Live-format qualifier with an entry fee of $165, a winning ratio of 1-in-65 and two seats to the 2023 renewal guaranteed.
The BCBC play-in is a Live-format, Low Ratio test calling for an entry fee of $500, which works out to a winning ratio of 1-per-23. At stake is at least one $10,000 entry for next November in this guaranteed game.
The Monday (Presidents Day) featured-tourney schedule has not yet been constructed. However, it figures to be a fun day of contest play with holiday racing on tap at such venues as Laurel (12:25 pm ET first post), Parx (12:25), Aqueduct (12:50), Santa Anita (3:30) and Golden Gate (3:45).
Enjoy the holiday weekend…and good luck to all.