World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon may not be up for representing an online poker site, but he seems content to lend his name to a brick-and-mortar room. After wearing the Wheeling Island Hotel and Casino logo during his appearance at this year’s Main Event final table, Moon is playing host at an upcoming tournament series at the West Virginia poker room.
Moon will serve as host and loan his name to the Darvin Moon Poker Challenge. The tournament series will run from January 14th to 18th and include five No Limit Hold’em tournaments. The events will feature buy-ins ranging from $125 to $550, culminating in a WSOP satellite with a $130 buy-in.
There is also an added incentive for players to take part in all of the events. The casino will be awarding points to the top 20 finishers in each tournament. The person who accumulates the most player points across the first four events gets to face off against Moon in the Ultimate Challenge, a heads-up match in which the winner will walk away with $2,000 offered up by the casino.
The tournaments will feature starting stacks of at least 10,000 chips and none of the Moon events will include rebuys. However, there will be satellites for the $500 tournament, more than one of which features an optional rebuy. All of the satellites will take place in the casino’s poker room, while the Challenge events will be held in the casino’s feature showroom.
It has been widely documented that Moon won his seat into the WSOP at a qualifier held at Wheeling Casino and it seems to be the lone exception to Moon’s otherwise stringent no endorsement policy. Although Moon hails from Maryland, the West Virginia casino is just a couple of hours from his hometown of Oakland. The property is best known for its greyhound racing track, which is the most profitable dog track in America based on purses paid, but it also offers table games, slots and, of course, poker.
The Jim Beam Poker Room at the Wheeling Island Casino offers a range of cash games year-round, including Seven Card Stud, Hold’em, and Omaha. The stakes range from $1/$5 to $40/$80 for Stud, $2/$4 to $40/$80 for Limit Hold’em, and $1/$2 to $5/$10 for Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Omaha, and No Limit Hold’em games. The room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and features 20 tables.
Pre-registration for the Darvin Moon Poker Challenge will open up on January 1st at 12:00pm. The complete schedule of events is included below. All times are local:
Thursday, January 14th
1:00pm – Satellite for the $500 event – $65 buy-in (one optional rebuy)
7:00pm – Event #1 NHL – 10,000 in Tournament Chips – $125 buy-in (no rebuy)
Friday, January 15th
1:00pm – Satellite for the $500 event – $65 buy-in (one optional rebuy)
7:00pm – Event #2 NHL – 10,000 in Tournament Chips – $125 buy-in (no rebuy)
Saturday, January 16th
10:00am – Turbo satellite – $40 buy-in (no rebuy)
1:00pm – Event #3 NHL – 12,000 in Tournament Chips – $230 buy-in (no rebuy)
Sunday, January 17th
10:00am – Turbo satellite – $65 Buy-in (no re-buy)
1:00pm – Event #4 NHL – 15,000 in Tournament Chips – $550 buy-in (no rebuy)
Monday, January 18th
10:00am – The Ultimate Challenge – $2,000 added
1:00pm – WSOP Super Satellite NHL – 10,000 in Tournament Chips – $130 buy-in (no rebuy)
