Downtown Chicago Poker Rooms

1. Downtown Chicago Poker Rooms Game
2. Downtown Chicago Poker Rooms For Rent

Here is the complete schedule of daily poker tournaments in the Chicago & Hammond area, including Chicagoland West, Hammond, Joliet, Michigan City, and Peoria. Click on any tournament for comprehensive information and details including buy-ins, admin fees, starting chips, blind structures, days run, and more. Hotel Amenities: Youda Poker Miniclip Get a great night sleep in our quiet rooms and suites and walk to top Chicago restaurants and gaming in minutes from our Rivers Casino Des Plaines hotel. You can't get a better gambling option in Illinois or the Midwest!

For the past couple of weeks, the Horseshoe Hammond played host to the Third Annual Chicago Poker Classic, a tournament series that has established itself as one of the most prestigious in the country. This year’s event, which had $500,000 in added prizes, proved to be a tremendous success with attendance up in the prelims 50 percent from last year, while the Main Event was up 20 percent.

A full schedule of tournaments, plus a $50,000 cash bonus to the overall points leader of the 12-day series, and a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro V8 to the turbo series champion, appealed the masses and drew some of Chicagoland’s best poker players to the felt. While Ryan Leng managed to win both of those bonuses, it was Anthony Marsico who captured the headlines by winning the championship event.

Chicago Poker Classic Event #8 Main Event

The Main Event was a $3,125 buy-in that drew 360 entrants and created a prize pool of $1,107,600. The tournament attracted top pros like Chad Brown, Robert Chow, Kurt Jewell, Aaron Steury, Kevin Saul, and 2011 CPC Main Event champion Thomas Koral.

After three days of play, nine players secured seats at the 2012 Chicago Poker Classic final table:

3rd Annual Chicago Poker Classic Final Table

It didn’t take long for action to heat up as five players were eliminated from the final table in just a level and a half. The first elimination came when short-stacked Brett Schwertley lost a flip with to . The 28-year-old poker pro from Omaha, Nebraska, earned $23,266 for his ninth-place finish.

After 23-year-old poker dealer Elliott Hebden exited in eighth place, Shon Alexander followed was eliminated in seventh. In Alexander's last hand, he moved all in for 243,000 with and was called by of Scott Seville. An ace on the flop spelled the end for Alexander, who collected $36,152. Timothy Chang and John Jovanovich were the next two to go in sixth and fifth place, respectively, leaving just four players competing for the title.

At this point, Seville was sitting with nearly three million in chips and was primed for victory. However, Seville lost a few key pots before getting his stack all in with on a flop against Matthew Rosen’s . The kept Seville out in front, but the river gave Rosen a winning flush. Seville, a 37-year-old “computer guy” from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, was eliminated in fourth place for $75,793.

A short time later, Edward Ochana, a professional poker player from Illinois who placed 34th in the 2010 WSOP Main Event for $255,000, succumbed in third place for $108,268, leaving Rosen to play heads up against Anthony Marsico. The latter had began the final table as the chip leader and slowly chipped up throughout the day.

Rosen ended up losing a big pot after running into Marsico’s rivered set of sevens, which left him with just 1.5 million to Marsico’s 9.5 million. Coincidentally, Rosen’s demise came when Marsico hit another set, this time a flopped set of eights. Rosen, a 28-year-old mortgage broker from Des Plaines, Illinois, finished as the runner-up for $164,279.

“This feels good. I’m a little bit tired, but it feels good,” Marsico said after the eight-hour final table. “I was pretty confident. I told someone before today that if I didn’t get to the top three I’d be pretty disappointed.”

Marisco, a 26-year-old professional poker player, had previously attended Lewis University where he was an All-American soccer player. He studied business administration and primarily plays high-limit pot-limit Omaha cash games in the Chicago area. Marisco, who finished Days 2 and 3 as the chip leader and was never all in for his tournament life until play reached three handed, became the 2012 Chicago Poker Classic Main Event champion and was awarded $265,825.

“I’m definitely going to go blow some money for sure. First on my buddies and then back at the poker table,” Marsico said after his win.

Chicago Poker Classic Event #8 Main Event

Here’s a look at the other winners from the Third Annual Chicago Poker Classic:

Chicago Poker Classic Event #1 No-Limit Hold’em Re-entry

Chicago Poker Classic Event #2 No-Limit Hold’em

Chicago Poker Classic Event #3 No-Limit Hold’em w/ $100 Rebuys

Chicago Poker Classic Event #4 Seven Game Mix

Chicago Poker Classic Event #5 No-Limit Hold’em

Chicago Poker Classic Event #6 No-Limit Hold’em Heads Up

Chicago Poker Classic Event #7 Pot Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys

Chicago Poker Classic Event #9 Six-Handed NLH

Chicago Poker Classic Event #10 No-Limit Hold’em

Chicago Poker Classic Event #11 No-Limit Hold’em

CPC Overall Point Standings Top Ten

CPC Turbo Overall Point Standings Top Ten

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• Chicago - variants
• Follow the Queen - variants
• The Bitch - variants

In most of these seven card stud poker variants, a special role is played by the spades, the queens or the queen of spades.

Chicago

This poker variant, also known as High Chicago, is a seven card stud game in which the pot is split between the highest hand and the highest spade in the hole. Face up spades do not count, so for example if the ace of spades is dealt face up, the king of spades in the hole is sure to win half the pot.

The cards are dealt as in seven card stud: two cards face down, four cards face up and the last card face down. There are five betting rounds: one after each round of face up cards and one after the final card. Each betting round is begun by the player with the highest hand showing.

After the final betting round the active players declare whether they are going for highest (face down) spade, highest hand or both. A player declaring both wins only if holding both the highest spade and the highest hand. Declaration can be either in sequence, starting to the left of the dealer, or simultaneous, using chips.

You must have a spade face down to be eligible to win the spade half of the pot. Without this, you cannot declare spade and win, even if all the other players are going for high.

Variants

In Low Chicago the pot is split between the lowest spade (ace counting high) and the highest hand (it is not a low poker game). Similar games can of course be played using any suit: for example in High or Low San Francisco the high hand splits the pot with the highest or lowest heart.

Downtown Chicago Poker Rooms Game

Follow the Queen

This is seven card stud in which when a queen is dealt face up, the next card dealt face up and the other three cards of the same rank become wild for all players. For example a player gets the Q face up and the next player is dealt the 7 face up: all sevens are now wild. If another queen is dealt face up, the previous wild card is cancelled, and the face up card following the new queen becomes wild instead. If the last face up card dealt is a queen, there are no wild cards. In the showdown the highest hand wins.

Variants

Some play that all queens in the hole are wild. In this version there can be as many as seven wild cards in play: three concealed queens and four wild cards created by an exposed queen.

Some play that if no queens are dealt face up, no one wins and there is a new deal, played for the same pot, involving only the players who did not fold on the deal without a face up queen.

Some play that if the last card dealt face up is a queen., the dealer deals one further card face up. This card belongs to no one, but the other three cards of the same rank are wild.

Dirty Schultz

This is similar to Follow the Queen, except that the event that causes the next card to become wild is the appearance of a natural pair among any player's face up cards.

So whenever a card is dealt face up that is the same rank as another face up card held by that player, the next card that is dealt becomes wild (as do all cards that are equal to it), and the previous wild card (if any) ceases to be wild. If the very last face up card that is dealt creates a pair, then there nothing at all is wild.

Two details need to be clarified before playing this variant:

1. What happens if a player who has a wild card face up is dealt a second (equal) wild card face up? My suggestion: these cards are equal so they count as a pair, and the next card dealt will change the wild card.
2. What happens if a player who already has a natural pair is dealt a third equal card face up? My suggestion: this is not a new pair, so the wild card does not change. However, if a player has 5, 8 face up and 5's are currently wild, and the player is then dealt a second 8 face up, this pair of 8's is a new natural pair, and the next card dealt changes the wild card.

Variants

Some play that after a pair is dealt, the next card is immediately dealt face up to the centre of the table. This centre card belongs to no one, but all cards of the same rank as it are wild. Whenever a new pair appears, another card is dealt to the centre on top of the previous one, and this will normally change the wild card. In this version, a wild card is dealt to the centre even if the very last card dealt face up to a player is wild - so there will always be a wild card if any player has a pair showing.

Some play that each player's seventh card is dealt face up, unless the player pays a fixed price to the pot to have the seventh card dealt face down. By buying a face down card at the end you avoid the risk of changing the wild card if it pairs one of your face up cards, and also gain the advantage of having three rather than two cards concealed from the other players.

The Bitch

The Bitch in this seven card stud variant is the queen of spades. If the queen of spades is dealt face up, the deal and betting immediately stop, all the cards are thrown in and shuffled, and there is a new deal involving only those players who had not folded when the queen of spades appeared.

In the showdown the player with the highest hand splits the pot with the player who has the queen of spades in the hole (if any). If the queen of spades was not dealt at all the high hand wins the whole pot.

Variants

Some play that the queen of spades in the hole is wild. In this case the pot is not split.

Black Mariah

Downtown Chicago Poker Rooms For Rent

This name is used for at least four different variants.

1. Often, Black Mariah is used as an alternative name for The Bitch.
2. Some play Black Mariah as a variant of Follow the Queen in which if the Q is dealt face up, the play immediately ends, as in The Bitch.
3. Some play Black Mariah as a seven card stud variant in which you must have the best hand and the highest spade to win the pot. The high spade can be any of your seven cards, not necessarily face down. If the best hand and the highest spade in the showdown are held by different players, or if no one has any spades, no one wins and the pot remains for the new deal, in which only the players who were in the showdown take part.
4. Sometimes Black Mariah is used as an alternative name for High Chicago.