November 5th is coming up this Sunday for our second |TOC|! Tonight and tomorrow night will be the last qualifying games for this month!

How do you qualify? Just win a nightly event during the month of October and your seat will be reserved. The TOC will be a $25 + $5 buy-in event of ONLY SPO winners (RSVP required). With a maximum of 20 players each month, this is your opportunity to see how your game holds up in real casino, real money environments.. against the players you play with in the league. To up the ante, the SPO will be adding $100 to the prize pool. Payouts will go to the top 3 players (50%/30%/20%). In addition, Specialty Points will be awarded to the top 8 players.

The qualifying Players so far:

Bryan Kaasa
Ryan Bailey
Laura Morzov
Debbie Roscher
Lenny Hom
Tim Lechner
Andy LaPlante
Umair Bashir
Mong Kon Mo
Christian Ray
Per Widlund
Richard Todd
Dan Ebert
Gordon Roberts
Telsin Brower

PLEASE NOTE: This is open to all players to qualify. You do NOT need to be a VIP Member to participate.

Week 7 saw the tightest race for the |Weekly Points race| yet this season. Going into our Wednesday night game at Bleacher's Pub the top 10 players were less than 90 points apart from each other. Add to the mixture a seasonal record setting attendence of 51 players, pushing the point payouts through the roof, and you have a serious battle!

Starting the night it was Lenny Hom's lead to loose. It was looking good for Lenny when about half way through the night his table hit the |Bad Beat jackpot|. Unfortunately for Lenny, Richard was the loser of that hand, giving him 175 points. Richard had the best of both worlds though, as he still had chips after the loss to continue in the game.

One by one the folks that were placed above Richard were knocked out as Richard dug in and ground his way up to 4th place. The extra 68 points for the 4th was enough to put him ahead of the pack, and secure him the top spot on the |Weekly Points Leader board|. Richard will also be going to Tulalip with a free buy-in to their Saturday morning tournament!

Week 6 was a crazy week for the |Weekly Points Race|. By the time we got to the final event of the week at Bleachers on Wednesday night, a good half dozen players were in serious contention for the top spot. All were keeping eyes on everyone's chip stacks to see how they would measure up at the end of the night.

As the five-table event got down to 3 tables and the blinds started to get serious, Umair Bashir, the points leader at the beginning of the night, took a couple of bad hits to his stack and was busted in 16th place. Next to go was last week's winner Andy LaPlante, who looked to be the first player to take the Weekly Points Leader 2 weeks in a row. But Andy succumbed taking 10th.

With 2 players on the final table needing to make 2nd place or better to grab the lead from Umair the heat was on. Unfortunately they couldn't find the cards to do that and Umair's lead held up. With 226 total points for the week, Umair is your Week 6 Points Leader, and receives the |free buy-in to Tulalip's Saturday tournament|.

After some careful consideration, player input, and respected counsel, SPO H.Q. has made a rule change. This is VERY rare, and we don't like to do it often. As a matter of fact, we have yet to do it mid-season... ever!

Retroactive back to the beginning of the Fall 06 season, all points earned through Bounty Chips in the Bleachers Division will be tabulated for the Divisional Standings. Previously, these points were considered Specialty Points, and were counted as such in the |Specialty Points Wild Card race|, and did not factor into the standings for the Bleachers Division. We feel that they are an integral part of the structure and format of that division, and should therefore be considered when judging who is the best at that format.

Second Chance Sit 'N Go points, Bad Beat Jackpot points, and Points Leader Bounty Points will still be earned as Specialty Points at Bleachers and all divisions.

The standings and event results for all Bleachers events have been modified and updated on the website. We apologize to those unfortunate to have a negative outcome to this rule change.

|Bleachers Division Standings|

Last Saturday at the Highliner we held our first ever Shoot-Out format event. This was the first of only 2 Special Events for the Fall '06 season, and a chance at winning cash in a free-roll event.

Bryan Kaasa was the top dog that day, beating out a field of 42 players. The event was a book definition of "deep stack poker", with huge starting chips (the largest in SPO history), and a snail's pace progression on the blinds. The event lasted over 6 1/2 hours!

You can read more about Bryan's win, and a blow-by-blow of the action on |the News Feed|. You can also see the full results and participants |here|.

And stay tuned for the return of the Team Tournament Special Event on November 11th. This is one of the most popular formats we've had over the years!

With a short week again, last week's play was packed with action. Huge turnouts at both Jillian's on Tuesday, and Bleachers on Wednesday meant the Weekly Points race was wide open. After 5 hours of Sit n' Go action Tuesday night, several players were in contention.

As the final table took shape on Wednesday night, clearly half of it was in contention for the free buy-in at Tulalip Casino. Andy LaPlante's finest performance in SPO play to date would shape the outcome of that final table. In order to claim the Weekly Points Leader, he needed to not only make the final table, but knock out Steve McCumber AND finish high in the ranks for that event (reminiscent of Todd Brunson in Poker Superstars II!). When Steve took a big blow early it looked feasible, but Steve hung in there and continued to ride out the storm, taking 3rd and leaving Andy with a 'must win' situation. Head's Up was a battle in it's own right for him. Overcoming a 3-1 chip deficit, he battled up and down for almost an hour, and came out on top by 16 points! Andy took 5 bounty's that night, showing that at 5 points each, they can make quite a difference!

Andy will be the Featured Player of the Week this week, and you can read a brief bio on our homepage. As FPW, Andy is worth 25 bounty points in any non-Sit 'n Go event this week!

Seats are filling up quickly for the first of |only 2 Special Events| for the Fall '06 SPO Season. The Highliner will play host for the first ever Shoot-Out format event.

Specifically, up to 64 players will be randomly seated, evenly across multiple tables. Players will play each table down to 2 players when play is then stopped, never consolidating tables as players bust out. Once each table has only 2 players remaining, chips stacks are counted, and players are then consolidated to 2 tables, continuing play against new opponents with the chips they earned in the previous round. Each of those 2 tables will play down to 4 players, and the game will then combine to a single final round of 1 table and 8 players.

This is a free-roll event... it cost's nothing to play and is open to everyone. This event will be one fo the few chances that you can will cash in a free roll in SPO play. Who ever said money is never free?!?!?

In addition, the winner of this event will earn a guaranteed seat at the Fall 2006 Season Championship. Grab your seat now!

More Info |here|

To say Matthew Edwards has been on a tear lately would be putting it mildly! Starting back in August, between Spring and Fall SPO seasons, he made the decision to concentrate on improving his game at the casino in real money events. Tulalip Casino provides a great opportunity to do just that, with a great weekend schedule.

Matt began by having several great weeks playing in the Saturday tournament they have each week (that the SPO provides a |free buy-in| to). One of these was a win, which qualified him for the monstrous Ultimate Poker Vacation II event that took place on October 7th. The only way into this event was to place in the top 3 of one of Tulalip's Saturday events, and it gave away several World Poker Tour buy-ins as prizes.

Keeping with his record up there, Matt performed spledidly, using tools he's honed in SPO play for the last couple of season's. When the dust settled, Matt was victorious, grabbing the win! Top prize was a free buy-in to any $10,000 World Poker Tour event this season, but Matt opted to cash that prize out, and take home some cold hard cash for his efforts. "I had to make the smart decision and take cash, only because I have [...] college loans to pay off. My total winnings [for the day] came out to $11,537.00."

"Thanks for running a great league. I know I wouldn't have won either the qualifier or this without the free practice."

We had another record setting week in the SPO last week. For the first time in SPO history, we had consecutive Weekly Points winners by a husband and wife! Will Hutchins was our winner for week 3, and his wife |Laura Morzov| blazed her way to the top of the board for week 4!

In a short week of play, she warmed up with a fourth place finish in the 6:30 event at the Highliner on Monday night. Then she buckled down and grabbed her first SPO win in the 9pm event that night. With only a few players on her tail for the week, she padded her lead with 65 points at Jillian's on Tuesday night, securing her place at the top of the |Weekly Points Board|. It should also be noted that she is one of only a few women that have earned that spot. Congrats Laura!