Road Warrior: Landon Anderson's Long Trek To a Deep WPT Choctaw Run

By Sean Chaffin and Fernando Vargas

Landon Anderson had been ready for some poker. That’s what provoked the Wisconsinite to drive 13 hours from his home in Kenosha to compete in the Season XVI WPT Choctaw Main Event.

“It was a great drive here, no traffic at all,” Anderson said. “It was beautiful.”

Kenosha is located on the shores of Lake Michigan and and the drive took him south, past Chicago and through Illinois. In St. Louis, he headed west, passing through towns like Eureka, Bourbon, and Cuba in Missouri and then south all the way through Muskogee and McAlester in Oklahoma before arriving in Durant.

It was quite a journey.

After such a long day behind the wheel, most might choose simply to crash into bed for a full-night’s sleep or maybe even a nap. Not Anderson.

“I came straight here and played 12 hours of cash games after 13 hours of a drive,” Anderson said. “Then I slept a few hours, and I played in another cash game with last year’s winner James Mackey and played another several hours.”

When he rolled into town, Anderson had enough for his buy-in but planned to win enough for a backup. His planned worked. He pocketed a couple thousand bucks before taking to the $3,700 Main Event.

“I played here last year and I’ve been watching the WPT on TV forever,” Anderson told WPT.com on the dinner break.

After working more than 20 years in the printing business, Anderson is now retired and has more time to pursue his passion for playing cards.

Just before the dinner break, Anderson helped move the field into the money when he busted Gary Snyder at the same time WPT Champions Club member Dylan Wilkerson was eliminated on another table. With the field two places off the money, the eliminations of Snyder and Wilkerson gave everyone else a cash, including Anderson.

Then just after the dinner break, Anderson recorded a knockout after a smaller stack moved all in with pocket queens. Anderson made the call with ace-queen, and an ace on the flop rescued his hand to give Anderson the win. He jumped from his chair in celebration before raking in the pot.

“That’s it,’ he said when the ace spiked on the flop,” Anderson said, relaying what his opponent had commented. “You’ve gotta gamble a little in these.”

Despite that pot putting Anderson amongst the chip leaders at the time, his stack dwindled soon after. Ultimately, Anderson’s run came to an end in 58th place, but out of a field of 924 entries it was quite the result following a 13-hour trek across the country.

For Anderson, it would have been a dream come true to win the event, but unfortunately he’ll have to settle for a score of $8,929. Add that to the couple of thousand dollars he said he won in the cash game, and Anderson did well for himself at Choctaw Casino Resort.