The start of the Sping 2006 Season has been changed to May 8th. The 1 week delay will not effect anything in the course of play throughout the season.

Stay tuned to this News Feed for updates on the schedule, as soon as we have it...

Play began at 4pm sharp on Sunday April 16 for the Championship. With a couple of quick busts, it took over 2 hours to get the 32 person event down to 2 tables. Play tightened up a bit and we got down to the final table at 7pm. The 9-handed final table consisted of Geoff Simons, Steve Burnham, Deborah Roscher, Per Widlund, Dan Gestaut, Steve McCumber, Matt Haver, Justin Hicks and Kevin Saito, with Kevin having the dominating chip lead.

We saw the short stacks scramble to accumulate some chips as the blinds increased, but most fell victim. At 5-handed play, Dan Gestaut decided to come over the top of Justin Hicks's raise. Unfortunately, Dan's pocket 9's didn't hold up to Justin's A3 when an Ace came on the river, leaving Dan crippled. The very next hand saw Dan try his A-rag against Justin's pocket 9's, but nothing came for Dan, leaving him with a 5th place finish.

Steve McCumber finished in 4th place when he decided to make a move with A6 offsuit. Justin, again, made the executioner's call with a dominating AJ, and gave Steve a 4th place finish, on the bubble of the prizes.

Matt Haver having been shortstacked at 4 handed, was facing a serious chip deficit at 3 handed, after Justin had collected the last 2 player's chips. But he woke up with AK and decided he needed to go for it. Unfortunately, Justin made the call with pocket 6's and made a runner-runner straight to give Matt the 3rd place finish, and the free buy-in to the Tulalip WSOP satellite.

Head's up lasted approximately 2 minutes. Despite having knocked out the last 3 players himself, Justin was still dominated in chip by Kevin. When it became an all-in situation and the cards were flipped, it was Kevin's K9 vs. Justin's K8. With 2 pair on the flop for Kevin, his victory was secured.

Justin received the 2nd place trophy and a free buy-in to Tulalip's WSOP satellite, and Kevin received the Champion's Trophy and coin, plus a free buy-in to Tulalip's WPT satellite.

The list of qualifying players has been finalized. The players have been emailed their invitations to reserve their seat. To see a list of the players and how they qualified, click here:

Winter '06 Championship

In a tug of war battle in the final night of Sit 'N Go's, Christina Winton locks up 1st place in the Jillian's Division by 6 points, beating out Jason Mizuta. Christina is also the first woman player in SPO history to win a Division. Congratulations Christina!

Jillian's Standings

Congratulations to Dan Gestaut for grabbing the #1 rank in the Highliner Division.

Dan was hounded at every turn in the last few weeks by Joshua Herring. Josh was able to grab a victory in the first event of the night, but Dan was right there with him in heads-up. Dan was then able to outlast Josh in the second event, thereby securing the Divisional title.

Highliner Standings

Week 13, our second-to-last week of the Winter Season, saw an early points leader, and a scramble from players to catch up to that leader. Drew Hall was the first to win a tournament last week as he grabbed first place in the 6:30pm event at the Highliner on Monday. His lead was the precedent that was set for the rest of the week, as player after player tried to gather enough points to knock him out. Jillian's on Tuesday night saw a radical turn-over in the standings for that division, with 4 players making over 120 points! But Drew held tight with 65 Sit 'N Go points of his own, keeping his lead. When it came down to it at the final event of the season for Pike's Pub, it was undecided until the very last hand. All players could tell the pressure was on, and play went extremely late with heads-up happening after the bar had closed! With his closest rivals not earning enough at that final table, Drew Hall held onto the Points Lead for the week, and earned the free buy-in to Tulalip's Sat. tourney.

Weekly Points Leader

This week will be the final week of play for the Winter Season. The details for the Championship, held this Sunday April 16th, are now posted. If you are close to qualifying, or you already are qualifying, make sure you come out and make your move. Only the Top 9 VIP's from each Division will earn an invitation to the Championship. Details on the invitation process and how to confirm your seat are also posted.

In addition, there will be a No Limit Cash Game immediately following the Championship. This is the same format as the VIP games - $1/$2 blinds, buy-in between $50 and $100. This will be a private table of ONLY SPO members, but it will be open to ALL SPO members regardless of VIP status, or whether they had a seat in the Championship. If you don't get into the Championship, come by and watch the action and play a little with us after its done...

Winter Championship

And remember to cast your ballot for the Winter 06 Awards. Ballots are available at both events this week. We'll be announcing the winners, and awarding trophies, at the Highliner on Friday April 28th. All players are welcome, and encouraged to come by the gala event. And remember, you can only earn your award if you are there to accept it. In addition to the player-voted awards, we'll also be giving out the Divisional awards, and some stat's-based awards as well. Have a look at last season's winners....

Fall Season Awards

Week 12 of the Winter '06 Season took off Monday night with some nice showing by new players. Patrick Broadfoot and Michael Anderson both finished well at th Highliner on Monday night. Michael turned up the heat on Tuesday, earning 95 Sit 'N Go points, but it was Steve Schow who added 65 points to his Bad Beat Jackpot of 100 points, and pulled ahead in the Weekly Points Leader race. Wednesday night once again proved to be the battle ground, as both Steve and Michael made the final table in the 6 table tournament. Steve battled tremendous swings in his chip stack, being forced all in in a blind at one point. Michael was dominant and relentless, but finally succumbed to a second place finish against Steve, giving Steve the Weekly Points Leader. Even though he hit the Bad Beat Jackpot at Jillian's, those 100 points had no bearing, since he earned enough to get the free buy-in at Tulalip without it. Congrats Steve!

Weekly Points Leader

Steve will also be our Featured Player of the Week. You can read his poker bio on our front page. Knock him out of a tournament this week and you win 20 Bounty Points instantly!

This season's awards ceremony will feature a number of awards that are "player voted". In previous seasons, awards were all pick's by the Tournament Director (me!). This Season, I'm opening it up, and letting the players decide some of the winners. Come by any tournament this week and grab a ballot to cast your vote! The ceremonies will be held between seasons in late April, date and location to be announced. You can see last season's awards here:

Fall Season Awards