Lone Star Poker Series Champions Social

Lone Star Poker Series Day 1
Day: 1

Q&A w/ Lone Star Poker Series Co-Founder Kim Stone

Hayden Fortini & Kim Stone
Hayden Fortini & Kim Stone

One of the familiar faces here at Champions Poker Club is Kim Stone, who along with her significant other, Hayden Fortini, founded the Lone Star Poker Series. The poker power couple is expecting their first child later this year, and PokerNews recently spoke to Stone about the Lone Star Poker Series.

PokerNews: How are you feeling now that the Lone Star Poker Series has a few events under their belt?

Kim Stone: Hayden and I are very pleasantly surprised by how much and how quickly the LSPS brand has taken off. We’ve even had to postpone a couple of events outside of Houston because of Baby Fortini coming in July. We feel very fortunate that Texas poker players love our events and already have a sense of loyalty and positive expectations for each series we put together When every event ends, they ask us when the next one is to be scheduled. It’s very humbling but exciting to be a part of something like this from the very beginning.

What should players look forward to in the upcoming series?

Partnering up with Champions Poker Club has been incredible. With their help and their support, we’ve been able to build up to a truly epic series. We are in the process of building a live stream studio under the design advisement of PokerGO. This is not your typical live stream poker table. You will have to see it to understand how amazing it’s going to be. We are elevating the whole player experience by making all the media outlets available to the players and their families and friends.

What sets the Lone Star Poker Series apart from other poker tournaments?

My vision has always been two-fold. First, it’s to have the best staff from around the country to elevate the player experience. Hiring highly experienced staff that run some of the largest fields and best structures around the country, allows our not-so-small poker community here in Houston to experience poker in its best form.

Second is to make poker fun again. Tournament poker is highly competitive and sometimes stressful, but it should never lose the core qualities of being a fun, exciting, and competitive way to gamble and potentially win tens of thousands of dollars! I want every player that plays one of our events to enjoy every minute. Fortunately, my partners allow me a lot of room for spending money on the small things that really matter - like the custom-made money clips and trophy buckles made by Max Lang, the $10,000 added money in the Surprise Bounty Event, and of course, the 1 Million Chip Custom Plaques that will be featured on the final tables of the Ultimate Monster and the $1 Million GTD Main Event

Tags: Kim Stone

PokerNews' Own Jeff Platt Enters the Fray

Jeff Platt
Jeff Platt

Jeff Platt is one of the participants in Flight B of the $400 buy-in, $150K GTD Spring Series Kick Off.

Platt is of course well known across the poker community through his work with PokerGo and other poker media endeavors including being the cohost of the PN Podcast.

Listen to Platt here, in a recent PN Podcast episode as where discusses the plans for the 2021 WSOP and more.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Jeff Platt
Jeff Platt
44,000
17,000
17,000

Flight A Final Chip Counts

William Howard
William Howard

Flight A has come to an end after 6 and a half hours of play. 47 entries ended at 12% of the field which was six players remaining.

The chip leader is William Howard with 430,000. They will return to action on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Each player who bagged has the option to try again in another flight to attempt to bag a larger stack. Two bags equals an automatic min cash as well.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of William Howard us
William Howard
430,000
Profile photo of Robert Field us
Robert Field
360,500
Profile photo of James Burrell us
James Burrell
258,500
Profile photo of Jeremy Deets us
Jeremy Deets
136,000
Profile photo of Brent Thomas us
Brent Thomas
72,500

Deets Toward the Top

Jeremy Deets
Jeremy Deets

Spring, Texas native Jeremy Deets has been having a stellar day in Flight A so far as the field winds down with just 15 remaining out of the 47 entries.

Deets has just one cash on his record from 2017 as he will be looking to catapult this Day 1 success into something more.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Jeremy Deets us
Jeremy Deets
210,000
92,000
92,000