Thomas Kornechuk only picked up poker two years ago. Despite his limited experience, the 57-year-old software engineer from Auburn, Washington managed to outlast a field of 608 entries to win the 2019 World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley $1,700 no-limit hold’em main event. Kornechuk was awarded the $193,439 top prize and his first WSOPC gold ring as the champion. He also earned 840 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to see him climb into 25th place in the overall POY race standings for the time being.

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Kornechuk entered the final day of this event in eighth chip position with 17 players remaining. He got things off on the right foot, finding a double up through start-of-day leader Jeremy Joseph with pocket queens. By the time the unofficial final table of ten was set, Kornechuk had climbed to third chip position.

Kornechuk scored the first two knockouts at the final table to take the outright lead, picking up pocket aces to eliminate Paul Chai (10th – $14,443) and then winning a race with AQ against the 66 of Paul Camby (9th – $17,943).

Kornechuk notched his third knockout of the final table when his AK beat the KJ of Chris Tham (6th – $37,259).

Jeremy Joseph had begun the day as the chip leader, and he still had a healthy stack with five remaining. He knocked out Tony Bracy (5th – $48,847) to enter four-handed play near the top of the chip counts. After that 2018 WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley main event champion Brett Murray began to go on a run. He eliminated short-stack Yifu He in fourth place $64,921), and then followed that up by doubling through Joseph. Both players had made trips on a Q5357 board, but Murray’s A5 beat out Joseph’s J5 to secure the sizable pot. Not long after that Joseph got all-in with top pair on a nine-high board, only to lose to Murray’s overpair of 1010. Joseph took home $87,488 as the third-place finisher.

Murray took the chip lead into heads-up play, but the two traded the advantage back and forth for quite a while before either player managed to truly separate themselves. By the time the final hand arose Kornechuk held more than a 30-to-1 advantage. Kornechuk picked up the 74 on the button and moved all-in, putting Murray at risk for his last 2.25 or so big blinds. Murray made the call with the 43. The board came down 98472 and Kornechuk made two pair to secure the pot and the title. Murray took home $119,644 for his runner-up finish, falling just short of becoming a two-time WSOPC main event champion at Thunder Valley Casino Resort.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

California isn’t exactly poker-friendly when it comes to legislation, but you can still find a surprisingly large number of real money poker tournaments around the state. The trick is knowing where to look.

There are two types of establishments where you can legally play poker and participate in tournaments throughout the year: card rooms and tribal casinos.

California card rooms provide tournaments all the time, attracting expert and novice poker players. At these locations, you can find high-stakes and beginner-friendly tournaments daily. Generally, card rooms host their tournaments in the evenings and offer affordable buy-ins.

Alternatively, tribal casinos are more likely to host tournaments over the weekend more than during the week. Tournament pools tend to have lower maximum limits in comparison to card rooms, although no-limit tournaments sometimes pop up.

Overall, there are tons of excellent poker tournaments to enjoy as you tour California’s different poker locations. Below we break it all down for you in more detail.

Poker Tournaments At California Card Rooms

California has 66 total card rooms currently operating throughout the state, with the majority of these clustered around major California cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. There were once hundreds of card rooms throughout the Golden State, but 1995 legislation made it illegal for new card rooms to open.

California card rooms are legal because of a loophole in the legislation. California doesn’t allow gamblers to play poker when they are in direct competition with the house, at least when it concerns real money. To get around this, card rooms typically have players take turns acting as the dealer or standing in for the house. This means that games progress a little more slowly than at fully legal gambling locations like Las Vegas.

However, the arrangement allows card rooms to persist even with California’s generally anti-gambling legislation.

Most California card rooms offer major poker varieties like Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha Hold ‘Em, although plenty of others also offer poker games like Seven-Card Stud.

To play in any card room in California, you need to be at least 18-years-old in accordance with California law. Most card rooms require that you put up some money to buy-in to various tables. Newcomers can look out for card rooms that offer free, beginner-friendly games to teach new poker players the ropes.

Some of the best California card rooms for poker include:

The Bicycle Hotel & Casino

This card room offers a ton of different Cal games and traditional poker varieties. It has a rich history and is a stop for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which occurs from November to December every year. The WSOP tournament draws extremely talented players and is great for playing and watching in equal measure. Viewership alone can get up into the hundreds of thousands.

The Bike also includes a seven-story hotel, a few other gaming opportunities, and live entertainment venues.

Bay 101

This card room is well-known for the experience and professionalism of its dealers. It’s a fantastic stopover poker place if you ever fly into the San Jose airport, and it’s pretty close to the San Francisco Bay Area as well. Tons of different Hold ‘Em games are available, with levels averaging several hundred dollars on most days.

Commerce Casino

One of the largest card rooms in the world, this card room hosts the LA Poker Classic. This annual tournament is held from January to March, and it’s actually the longest-running poker tournament series in all of Los Angeles. Promotions vary every year, with pools running upwards of $100,000 in many cases.

Poker Tournaments At Indian Casinos

California’s Indian casinos are also an excellent place to scratch your poker itch. These casinos operate because they’re technically not on California soil. Instead, they stand on sovereign Indian ground, so they aren’t subject to the same types of gambling laws.

As a result, Indian casinos and resorts offer all the gambling activities you’d expect at a Las Vegas counterpart while still technically being within California borders. Many of the best resorts host poker card rooms of their own or may allow you to play poker on open floors. It all depends on the layout of a given establishment.

One of the nice things about Indian casinos is that many of them feature private poker tables that can be reserved ahead of time. Using these, you’ll be able to set up a private poker tournament for you and your friends or set up high-stakes games if you and your fellow poker enthusiasts want to make things interesting.

Another advantage that Indian casinos have over traditional card rooms is that they’re more often paired with exquisite hotels, luxurious spas, and restaurants. Staying at one of these casinos is a true vacation experience, and it still lets you play all the poker you like. The downside is that most Indian casinos feature far fewer poker tables than even the smallest card rooms.

You do need to be 21-years-old to enter the majority of tribal casinos and thus participate in their poker tournaments.

There are several top-tier Indian casinos that feature poker rooms and tournaments:

Thunder Valley Casino Resort

Thunder Valley is one of the best Northern California tribal casinos in the state. It’s just outside Sacramento and encompasses almost 250,000 ft.². There are 2,800 slot machines, but more importantly, there are 114 gaming tables. You’ll be able to play live poker 24 hours a day, plus enjoy excellent restaurants and a fantastic hotel at the same location.

Morongo Casino Resort Spa

At this phenomenal Southern California Indian casino, you can take advantage of 150,000 ft.² of gaming space, which includes a dedicated poker room that offers 13 reservable private tables. Other amenities include several restaurants, a hotel, and 2,700 slot machines.

Pechanga Casino

Pechanga offers fantastic daily tournaments. These occur Monday through Saturday, with generally low buy-ins. Many of these daily tournaments feature guaranteed prize pools ranging between $2,000 and $10,000 depending on the tournament.

Some of the daily tournaments are pretty creative. For instance, if you play the “Breakfast Club” tournament on Monday through Friday for one hour between 5:00 am and 8:00 am, you’ll get a free meal.

California Poker Tournaments FAQ

This is actually more of a generalization instead of a hardline requirement. The truth is that tribal casinos can set their own gambling age limits because they are technically on sovereign Indian territory. Most tribal casinos set their minimum age of entrance to 21-years-old, but there are some exceptions.

They set the age limit to 21-years-old to prevent any underage drinking on their premises. Most tribal casinos serve alcohol on their open poker floors.

Poker Tournament Thunder Valley Tournament

It depends. The National Indian Gaming Commission regulates the poker tournaments that occur in tribal casinos. Meanwhile, the California Gambling Control Commission regulates the poker tournament held by regular card rooms.

In most cases, yes. Anyone who has enough money for the buy-in rates can join. However, some tournaments may request that you be a member of the card room or another club in order to get into certain high profile or high-prize pool tournaments.

Poker Tournament Thunder Valley Racing

Some tournaments are certainly beginner-friendly and are flooded with general poker enthusiasts instead of experts. Others are the opposite. It all depends on the tournament in question.

Thunder Valley Poker Tournament Updates

Yes. Just because you earned the money on sovereign Indian territory doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t get reported on your taxes at the end of the year.