Remember that the Heartland Poker Tour returns to The Golden Gates Casino in Colorado starting today. Colorado law prevents you from buying into the main event directly. You will have to win a main event qualifier to get your entry but luckily there are multiple ways to accomplish that feat. Keep in mind that last year the event was very very busy. It was so busy that The Golden Gates Casino had a hard time accommodating all the players. You can preregister for a main event qualifier by contacting the poker room directly.

Pre-registration is available at Golden Gates Casino only. All players must have a “Golden Rewards” players card to register and play. Each HPT Main Event Qualifier is limited to 14 tables or up to 154 players. There is NO Direct Buy to the Main Event.
If traveling to the Tournament from outside of Colorado, the HPT has a limited number of seats reserved for HPT Qualifiers. If you would like to reserve a Qualifier seat, send your name and city/state along with the day and time you want to reserve to Dave Quenette via email at dave@heartlandpokertour.com You MUST be from outside Colorado to reserve a seat. The seat will be held up to 12 hours before the event start time.One seat per email.

There are two different satellite buy-ins for the main event qualifier, $45 and $80. In the $45 buy-in one player advances to the main event qualifier. In the $80 buy-in two players advance. These satellites run all day. The house takes a large fee for these tournaments at $11-$12 for the entry fee.

Satellite Structure

March 28, 2008 to April 09, 2008

You start with 1,500 in chips and as you see in the PDF (provided by HPT) you will have an M of 10 at level two. But hey…..The good news is that if you win 5 of these you can combine them into one main event entry. If not, you’ll have to play in a main event qualifier where the top 20% of the field gets an entry to the main event.

Main Event Qualifier Structure

March 28, 2008 to April 11, 2008

The good news is that the main event qualifier structure is more forgiving. You are given 10,000 chips to start and the blinds escalate every 30 minutes. The buy-in to these events is $340 with the house taking $40. These tournaments are limited and run less frequent with times of 10am and 6pm. You must have a casino players card to play. Pre-registration is available and it’s first come first served. If you can afford it, this is definitely the way to go.

Main Event Structure

April 11 -13, 2008

If you’re lucky enough to make it this far the main event will be divided into 3 flights. You are given 15,000 in starting chips and a very forgiving structure. Day 2 will play down to the final 6 before filming the TV table which will take place April 13, 2008 at approximately 3pm according to the website.

I will be out of town next week, but I may try to make it up for a main event qualifier. I personally think that the satellites suck and will be a waste of time for me. Plus it’s not feasible schedule wise. Some of my friends have put together a couple tournaments where the winner will earn a buy-in to the MEQ. The blind structure will be more reasonable and most importantly it will be close to home. If you go up, good luck I may see you there. Mostly likely not since ISAP!

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