[toc]The Gardens Casino is ready to show off its new renovations with another big poker tour coming to the property. Poker Night in America (PNIA) is headed to the California card room later this month. As part of the festivities, there will be televised cash games as well as a tournament with a televised final table.
PNIA visit part of The Gardens Poker Classic
The PNIA visit coincides with the Main Event of The Garden Poker Classic tournament series. That series gets underway on Friday, Sept. 15, then continues until the end of the month. In the middle of all the poker madness is the Main Event.
The Main Event is a $565 buy-in tournament with an astounding 14 starting flights. Starting on Saturday, Sept. 16, there will be two flights a day, every day at 11 a.m. and 3.p.m. The final flights run on Friday, Sept. 21.
The Gardens has a successful history of running big-guarantee events with numerous starting flights. Last year, its SoCal Poker Championship ran flights from September through December for a $3 million guaranteed $350 buy-in event. That tournament drew over 9,000 entries. Moreover, the prize pool came in at over $3.5 million.
Earlier this year, the casino hosted a WPT500 event along with the World Poker Tour. That small buy-in event produced over 3,600 entries and resulted in a $1.6 million prize pool.
There is a $1 million guarantee on the event, plus PNIA is filming the final table for TV. The full schedule for the Main Event and the other tournaments in the series is available on The Gardens Casino’s website.
PNIA filming tournament and hosting two days of cash games
“We are very excited to be going to the Los Angeles area and to be partnered with such a tremendous casino as The Gardens,” said Todd Anderson, president of Rush Street Productions, PNIA’s production company. “Everyone knows L.A. is a hotbed for poker as well as Hollywood celebs. We’re looking forward to some interesting games.”
Anderson plans to feature those characters and some big-name pros in two days of cash game action. PNIA is streaming the games on Sept. 22 and 23. Some of the players scheduled to appear include:
- Greg Mueller
- Actor Kevin Pollak
- Eli Elezra
- David “ODB” Baker
- Mike Matusow
Gardens letting players win their way into the PNIA line-up
From July 9 through Sept. 3, The Gardens Casino has run a drawing for its regular cash game players. Over that time, there were 27 winners, who will compete in a freeroll tournament to win a seat in the PNIA cash games.
The top nine finishers in the freeroll all earn a prize. The players finishing third through ninth each win a seat in the $1 million guaranteed Main Event.
The two players remaining at the end of the freeroll each get $10,000 to play in the PNIA cash games. They will appear alongside the celebrity players while the action streams nearly live on Twitch.
