The Gulf Coast has long been considered a hotspot for gambling, and for the first time ever, the Mid-State Poker Tour arrived in Baton Rouge to host an exhibition tournament last weekend at the Belle of Baton Rouge Casino.
The Mid-State Poker Tour hosts competitive Texas Hold ’em style poker tournaments primarily throughout the Midwest. The group is headquartered in Minnesota and travels as far as Louisiana and Colorado to host competitions for professional and amateur players alike.
According to William Philips, founder of Gulf Coast Poker, the tournament was planned two months ago and took place from Friday to Sunday in an effort to attract out-of-state professionals to the tournament with the promise of Mardi Gras celebrations.
“There were a lot of regulars and a lot of locals, but I heard a lot of folks say the parades drew them out here,” Phillips said.
It is likely that the tournament’s $118,000 jackpot also played a significant role in attracting professional talent to the Belle.
Phillips said the tournament was structured in a way that was accommodating to local players and enticing to professional hot shots. Players could purchase $60, $90 and $250 worth of chips at satellite tables earlier in the week if they didn’t have the money to buy into the main $1,100 events. The top 20 percent of players from each group progressed to the next highest group until they were eliminated.
The main event began at 5 p.m on Friday. and ended around 11 p.m. on Sunday. Phillips said most people believed the final games would feature two professional players, but underdog Shawn Schoreck of Gretna, La., upset everyone in attendance to defeat the notorious Kou Vang in a showdown that lasted for more than three hours.
“That’s the great thing about poker – you can have a favorite going in, but a local player can have a lucky streak and sweep the whole thing,” Phillips said.
Schoreck took home $31,105 of the $118,000 pot and a customized diamond bracelet, while Vang left the Belle with $21,032 to his name.
Schoreck’s performance was only one of the many surprise turns the competition took this weekend. At the end of Saturday’s events, professional player Erica Sumner led the competition with 232,600 chips, almost twice as many as the night’s runner-up Michael Benton, who had 145,300. According to numerous Mid-State tour personnel, Sumner is likely the first woman in the history of the organization to have led the competition on the night before the final day of play. Although she lost on day two, Sumner still won more than $2,000 and bested more than 100 other players over the course of the weekend.
Other notable players in attendance included Baton Rouge native Walter Chambers, who won the last televised matches of the New Orleans World Series of Poker Circuit, and Allen “The Chainsaw” Kessler, who has achieved previous success in Louisiana and left this tournament $3,638 richer.
Phillips said the tournament was successful and well-run, and it helped solidify Louisiana as one of the most popular gaming destinations on the Gulf Coast.
“This was the Belle’s first tournament, but it was definitely a good one,” Phillips said.