Tell a random poker player that a poker series in Houston had to cancel a day's action due to inclement weather, and the player would almost certainly think a summer or fall Gulf Coast hurricane was to blame. But a wintry deep freeze and treacherous, icy roads? That's the story behind the cancellation of Tuesday's scheduled action at the Moneymaker Poker Tour stop at Texas Card House Houston.
Faced with what the National Weather Service termed a "hard freeze" with temperatures in the teens, plus high winds and possibly treacherous road conditions, tour officials decided to postpone and cancel action in several events scheduled to run on Tuesday. Four non-numbered events on Wednesday, including two satellites, were also cancelled. The changes as a whole also assured sufficient seating for the remaining numbered events as they run throughout the rest of the week.
The first Day 1 flight of the stop's official main event was also shifted from Wednesday to Thursday, according to the latest version of the Houston stop's complete schedule, including all revisions. The series will continue through Monday, January 22.
Cold weather, possibly hazardous road conditions behind rescheduling
Houston's relatively scant experience with winter road conditions played a factor as well, A small possibility of precipitation, when combined with the frigid arctic air that moved south through the central US, created the chance of flash-frozen roads with which Houston's drivers have little experience. Add in the Texas Card House Houston's location on one of Houstons busiest arterials, Westheimer Road, and the possibility of extended traffic backups existed.
The precipitation didn't materialize, though the cold and wind arrived in force. "The decision to postpone the big guaranteed events yesterday and today was made due to the cold weather and road conditions," the MoneyMaker Tour's Tony Burns told PokerOrg.
"We wanted to ensure player’s safety so we moved the $25,000 Guaranteed PLO and $50,000 Guaranteed No Limit Holdem events to be hosted tomorrow, January 17th at Noon and 4pm respectively." Both of those events were scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but have been shifted back to Wednesday starts.
