Online poker room TitanPoker.com player ‘Ragen’ has ascended to poker glory after winning 1st place in the $2,500,000 Guaranteed tournament staged on March 8th, 2009. After playing for a total of 13 hours and 28 minutes, he won the top prize of $525,000.

Ragen, a Titan Poker player who signed up at the poker room in May 2007 outlasted second place finisher gwka, who won a huge cash prize of $275,000.

In the final hand of Heads-up play, Ragen had Ace of Spades and Ten of Hearts versus gwka’s pair of Jacks. gwka went All-in before the Flop. The Flop brought a pair of Kings and a four. But the tournament win was assured for Ragen when the Turn brought him an Ace of Clubs.

The $2,500,000 Guaranteed Prize tournament started on March 8th, but lasted into the early morning hours of March 9th. A total of 1,370 players participated in the tournament.

The $2,500,000 qualifying satellite tournaments had buy-ins as low as $2.75 + $0.20, so players could potentially win a share of $2,500,000 for an investment of less than three dollars. Players could also skip the satellites and buy-in directly to the Main Event for $1,500 + $80.

The California State Poker Championship, usually held during the fall, has been moved up this year to take place during the final weeks leading up to the 2009 World Series of Poker. The series, hosted at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, will start April 30th and run through May 22nd. A total of 24 events fill the busy schedule, leading up to the $5,100 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Championship that begins Friday, May 22nd.

Several new events have been added to the line-up this year, including two H.O.R.S.E. events (one with a $545 buy-in, the other $1,065), a $200 no-limit hold’em event with rebuys, and a $545 double-elimination NLHE heads-up tournament. In addition to the many other NLHE
Bodog
tournaments on the schedule, the series also includes events in Omaha 8-or-better, stud, and stud 8-or-better.

Matt Savage, fresh off helping run the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, will be the tournament director for the California State Poker Championship. “I’m excited to be back at Commerce Casino to provide players with great tournament structures and different games,” said Savage.

The championship event will have guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. The $5,100 buy-in for the championship marks a significant jump in the buy-in from last fall’s $1,580. Commerce Casino spokesman John Griffo noted that the higher buy-in was established so as to increase the profile of the tournament, elevating it to the status of a major tournament.

Meanwhile, the change to a spring series was done with eye toward providing players with a meaningful warm-up as they ready for a summer of tournament poker in Vegas. “We opted to make changes to the Cal State Poker Championship to provide players a way to focus their skills leading into the World Series of Poker,” said Griffo. “By adding additional games and increasing the stakes, we hope to have created an opportunity for players to hone their skills or fatten their bankroll before facing the masses at the WSOP.”