No post today because this. Playing the 6-Max on 1 hour sleep.
https://twitter.com/pacwestclassic/status/1171142802148708353?s=21
Category Archives: General Poker
2019 Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic — Day 1
And we’re back! At least for a week.
I’ve rarely had the confluence of having time and money to do a full schedule at a series. For most of the time I was playing poker intensely, I was always on the edge of being broke (well, really, I was broke), playing little daily tournaments, building up some money, then blowing it on a shot at something that rarely paid off. Or getting my car servied. Bankroll management is more difficult when your life and poker bankrolls (such as they are) are intertwined.
For instance, a year-and-a-half ago, when I had my largest-ever cash here at Chinook Winds, I used a big chunk of it to pay off my property taxes, paid income taxes on another big chunk, then had to replace a water heater that decided to go out the next week. Stuff starts adding up.
This series, though, I had vacation time from work available, ready cash from (among other things) buying a piece of Molly Mossey’s action at EPT Barcelona and chopping a $10K at Final Table back in July.
So I’ve been anticipating this series maybe a little too much. The last week at the office, I could feel my mind drifting (more than usual) as I counted down the hours. Anyway, I headed out to Lincoln City first thing Saturday morning for the 11am start of Event #1 $125K GTD NLHE, a $290 buyin with a $100 addon and rebuys through the sixth 40-minute level.
Busted my first bullet about 10 minutes into the second level when I got into a raising way with a pair of tens against an aggressive player a couple of seats on my right after a low flop. We both had an over pair to the board all the way to the river, and his was jacks.
They’re announcing that they might be a bit short on registrations for @ChinookWinds @PACWESTclassic #1 $125K GTD NLHE, so
MASSIVE OVERLAY ALERT!
With the number of entries and players left, maybe $25K overlay after addons. Still 50 minutes plus break!
— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) September 7, 2019
Attendance was a bit light, there was concern that the guarantee might be quite short, but it turned out the $125K wasn’t the real problem for the first day.
Going to dinner w 32K. 20bb when we come back!
— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) September 8, 2019
A re-entry went a bit better, and I went to the dinner break with an above-average stack, in part due to knocking out First Friend of the Blog Brad Press. That didn’t last that long, however, and I played most of the rest of that tournament in the 10bb zone. Jacks were my bane for the night; I shoved with a pair myself and got called by ace-king, which hit on the flop.
Contrary to expectations, the tournament hit the money on the first day, just short of the scheduled end of play, at 45 players. They broke the bubble, then drew to determine the number of hands before bagging near the end of the 4K/8K level.
https://twitter.com/PACWESTclassic/status/1170593406038339584?s=20
The place where the overlay was really a concern was in the 5pm $50K GTD NLHE. I registered this one only about 40 minutes before the second break (with registration open through the 30-minute break). There were only about 100 entries, in a $220 buyin tournament that had a $100 addon. You can do the math.
Brad Press, center
This was a hard game for me. Aside from the fact I came in shorter than I like (but the overlay looked so juicy!), I had the longest period of total card-deadness I can remember in quite a long time (Brad has said something to the effect he’s never seen someone get so many pairs of aces in a game.) But it’s a statistical possibility (something I wrote about for PokerNews a few years back), and just something you have to swallow. Jammed king-queen with about 8bb left, and the big blind woke up with ace-queen.
Running at 8pm most of the nights through the week is a $230 buyin satellite for Friday’s High Roller ($2,500 buyin). Again, a late entry didn’t exactly help. I made it down to two tables (sort of, they miscounted the number of players on three tables and consolidated, then had one guy wandering around until someone busted).
So, a long day with nothing—or rather less than nothing—to show for it. Tournament poker at its finest!
Today’s schedule includes a 10-Seat GTD tournament for the Main Event next weekend at 1pm (the first event started at 11 this morning, GL Steve Myers!) I plan to play that then jump into the $50K GTD that’s due to start at 5pm (that should be interesting if yesterday’s is any indication). Then there’s another High Roller satellite at 8 (which I hope to be too busy to play). And I hear there’s cash games!
PNW Poker Leaderboard — LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2019
I’m afraid that I didn’t follow up on my post about Molly Anne Mossey‘s deep run on Day 3 at the EPT Barcelona Main Event, but she busted in 50th place (from 1,988 entries) just short of the end of day. The final table for that event was yesterday, Molly made a tidy sum for her first-ever EPT, and she was planning to play a side event before the end of the series.
Between Hossein Ensan bringing it for us old guys by winning the WSOP Main Event and Molly doing great for poker media in her debut at the EPT, I’m feeling pretty good about coming out of poker retirement for a week to play at the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic next weekend. (People laugh when they see me at a game, but I’ve played about 20 live tournaments this year; during the first eight months of the years between 2012 and 2015, I played an average of 200).
Sadly, spending two prime summer weekends at the beach meant a tradeoff , so I missed what could be the last big event held at Portland Meadows Poker Club before the long-rumored conversion into freight-shipping warehouse center happens. There’s still time to catch the last events of the series today! (Brad Press, who took the picture below, took tenth place, by the way.)
Via friend of the blog Brad Press, clock from today's @PDXmeadowspoker $60K GTD NLHE (he's still in, GL!). Couldn't make it myself, but with more than $100K prize pool (payouts shown only for remaining players), it's one of the largest tournaments ever in Portland! pic.twitter.com/1IM1N2jUtF
— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) September 1, 2019
On to the show!
In the good news/bad news department, results from the Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up were posted within a couple of days, rather than weeks (or never). In the bad news, for whatever reason, no dates are on the series as posted at Hendon Mob (just “August 2019”), the title of the series duplicates the Spring series, and there’s only one event listed. That’s something, though, right?
Binh “Jimmy” Nguyen was the winner of that event, the Friday +$2K NLHE tournament. His win moves him up two spots to #78 on the Leaderboard.
Moving further afield, Seattle’s John Phan was at the WSOP Foxwoods #6 $500K GTD NLHE final table. The tournament had more than 1,750 entries and a prize pool of $900K. Phan’s 7th-place finish moves him up nearly 100 places on the Leaderboard, to #283.
James Romero had a good showing at EPT Barcelona, not the least of which was in Event #12 EPT Cup NLHE. Typically seen in the high rollers, Romero took a flier on the €550 buyin event that got 3,260 entries, and snagged 3rd place (placing just ahead of a Spanish player named Vicente Romero). Way more than I’ve ever won, but not enough to budge him from his #10 spot on the Leaderboard.
Mill Creek’s online whiz Jordan Westmorland was the only US player to cash in the Melbourne Poker Championship #11 NLHE Main Event, and he won it. He moves from #38 to #31 on the Leaderboard.
It’s not often that there’s significant movement in the top 10 of the Leaderboard. But just a month after Seth Davies took over the top spot on the Oregon Leaderboard at Hendon Mob, he gets 2nd place in EPT Barcelona #28 NLHE, a 52-entry, €50K buyin high roller that gives him a career-high cash and edges him from #4 to #3 (winkling Brandon Cantu out of that spot) on the overall PNW Leaderboard.
This is the last Leaderboard update until the end of the Chinook Winds series. Hopefully, those results will be promptly and completely reported, and I’ll get a chance to add my own name to the lists!
Following Molly — EPT Barcelona Day 3
https://twitter.com/MollyAnneMossey/status/1164346969608769537
I worked briefly with Molly Anne Mossey during my stint as a poker reporter at the Word Series of Poker back in 2016, and following her career arc—mostly via Twitter, but every now and then in a news article with Jacki Burkhart—since then, I was impressed enough to consider something I have only done three times in the past: buying action. So I sent a couple of quick messages and shipped her enough to cover the 5% she was offering on her part of the EPT Barcelona Main Event.
I’ve had pretty good luck with my stakes in the past. Years ago, I bought a friend into a game at Encore Club just after he’d been laid off because I could sympathize. That didn’t pay off, but the next time he was selling action, I took a 10% piece of a Muckleshoot main event and got a min-return out of it. Then I had a bit of Jacki’s Poker Night in America cash game winnings, which made my overall action profit about even.
It was all dwarfed by buying 5% (with markup) of Molly’s €5,300 ($5,875) EPT buyin. But by 1pm our time today, it had panned out. Molly had a tough start on Day 1B, but she had a couple of doubles—including one just before the end of the day—that put her back over starting stack. So I’m stoked! There are 191 players left from the field of 1,988, Molly’s already made a couple of pay jumps, and despite a rough last level of Day 2, she’s bank on chip average going into Day 3.
Lost 140k the last level of the night, but still managed to bag up 309,000* coming back to 3k/6k tomorrow at noon for Day 3 of the #EPTBarcelona @PokerStarsLIVE Main Event.
*Silver lining, still had enough chips so that my bag stood up on its own ❤️ pic.twitter.com/erQHfoscHK
— Minnesota Molly (Sometimes Living in Las Vegas) (@MollyAnneMossey) August 28, 2019
Here’s her table draw for the start of the day, in case you would like to follow along with Molly today (watch live on YouTube or Twitch):
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips | BB |
| 5 | 1 | Timur Margolin | Israel | 72,000 | 12 |
| Margolin has nearly $2M in tournament earnings on Hendon Mob, and is the holder of a WSOP bracelet from 2018 in a $2,500 NLHE tournament. He has another from the 2018 WSOPE Monster Stack, and took 2nd in the WSOP International Circuit Main Event in 2017. | |||||
| 5 | 2 | Stefan Fabian | Romania | 810,000 | 135 |
| About $250K in lifetime earnings. Fabian’s biggest success was in 2016 at the Master Classics of Poker, where he took 5th place. He placed 14th in the 2016 EPT Prague Main Event. | |||||
| 5 | 3 | Dengdong Huang | China | 220,000 | 37 |
| Only $25K in reported live earnings, Huang has already had two small cashes at EPT Barcelona (and one last year). | |||||
| 5 | 4 | Jussi Hakkanen | Finland | 143,000 | 24 |
| Hakkanen has $39K in reported live earnings, including three from the current EPT Barcelona. His biggest live cash so far was in the €2,200 High Roller a couple of days ago. | |||||
| 5 | 5 | Gaelle Baumann | France | 386,000 | 64 |
| Famous for being one of two women who almost made the final table of the WSOP Main Event in 2012, Baumann has $1.1M in tournament earnings. She’s has a long record of cashes in four and five figures since then, but nothing on the same scale. | |||||
| 5 | 6 | Molly Mossey | United States | 309,000 | 52 |
| $98K in tournament earnings, with the biggest one being the first: a 3rd place at MSPT Iowa in 2012. Her most recent was a min-cash in the WSOP Main Event this summer. | |||||
| 5 | 7 | Benjamin Saada | France | 151,000 | 25 |
| Saada has just under $200K on Hendon Mob, including a 3rd place in a €1,100 side event at EPT Barcelona last year. He had a deep run at the 2012 EPT Deauville (32nd). | |||||
| 5 | 8 | Ramandeep Singh Gujral | India | 173,000 | 29 |
| Most of Gujral’s $117K in reported earnings was from a win at this year’s PCA, in a $1,100 side event. He has cashes dating back to 2007, mostly in India and Macau. | |||||
I know I’m crossing my fingers! 5% of 9th place would just about buy a seat at EPT Prague, which has been my goal since 2011. 6th place would be more than I’ve ever won in a poker tournament. 3rd place would be more than I’ve got in reported earnings on Hendon Mob. I would have no problem being shown up on that scale!
PNW Poker Leaderboard — 07 August 2019
Not a lot of poker action over the past couple of weeks, but a conversation during last weekend’s Portland Meadows $40K GTD NLHE prompted me to take a look at the Hendon Mob Oregon, USA All-Time Money List, and I am insanely happy to announce that Annie “Hasn’t Actually Lived Here For Over a Decade” Duke is no longer the top player on the list.
That honor belongs—and will likely remain with for a long time—to Seth Davies, whose 8th-place finish in the WSOP #90 NLHE High Roller pushed him into the top slot by about the amount of his profit in the $50K buyin event. He should retain that position for a while, considering how active he is in high roller events. The next player likely to surpass Duke is the Oregon #3 player, James Romero, but he’s still about $700K back. He hasn’t been as active in high roller events (at least not cashing in them), so it could be a little while. His WSOP bio lists his residence as Las Vegas, unlike Davies, who claims Bend on Hendon Mob and WSOP.
Fourth place is held by Esther Taylor, who hasn’t been here since at least 2011. Her Hendon Mob profile list residence in Pennsylvania but born in Portland.
Climbing on her spot are Max Young and Carter Gill. Young has been out on the circuit; all of Gill’s cashes this year were in events at Chinook Winds and Wildhorse, and he was at my table on Saturday at Portland Meadows.
So the future for the actual Oregon players—the ones who might bring some of their winnings back to the state to play—taking over the top spots on the leaderboard is looking brisht.
We’ve seen some late results come in from months-old events the past few episodes, this time there’s a result that looks like it might be because of a change of residence. Jason Cohen is from somewhere in Washington, his bio doesn’t specify, but back in April, he took 2nd place in the Card Player Poker Tour NLHE Quantum with 728 entries, at Ocean’s Eleven Casino outside San Diego. It’s his second recorded cash, and he bumps up to #858 on the PNW Poler Leaderboard.
Dylan Wilkerson also picked up a 2nd place in the 442-entry WSOPC Cherokee #4 $100K GTD NLHE. He’s staying at #11 on the Leaderboard.
PNW Poker Leaderboard — 23 July 2019
Only four results make the cut this edition, as outlying series in Vegas don’t tend to report as promptly as the WSOP. Plus, there were a few events that wound up after the WSOP Main Event.
Chad Wassmuth was one of two PNW players at the final table of the Wynn Summer Classic $100K GTD NLHE tournament held on 8 July. He took 3rd place; enough to edge him up from #43 to #42 on the Leaderboard. The winner of that same event was Maxwell Young (still #20). There were 455 entries in the tournament, and the prize pool was more than double the guarantee.
The next week’s Wynn Summer Classic $100K GTD NLHE was won by Seattle’s Cheang Yoo, in a three-way deal. There were fewer entries in this event (343) but the prize pool was still more than $160K. Yoo moves up nearly 200 places on the Leaderboard to #378.
Rami Mornel
Finally, Rami Mornel of Redmond gains 370 spots to reach #248 after placing 7th in WSOP #89 NLHE, the last bracelet event of the season, with 608 players ponying up $5K each to play 30-minute levels. WPT commentator Tony Dunst took 2nd place, Jordan Cristos came in 4th, and it was Phil Hellmuth‘s last close call of the year, as he busted just after Mornel.
And hey, breaking the rules for just a minute here, the Poker Mutant three-way-chopped the $10K at Final Table last Friday for not nearly enough to get onto the Leaderboard even if it was tracked by Hendon Mob, but it’s more than enough to make me feel a little better about flying to LA for rake-free WPT satellites at The Bike in a couple weeks and/or to make my reservations for the week in Lincoln City for the upcoming Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic!
And, oh, this.
PNW Poker Leaderboard — 17 July 2019
Goodbye to the Rio Convention Center. Will the 2020 WSOP be here or will it find a new home in Vegas?
Expect plenty of rumors and innuendo over the next few months until they release the official schedule. pic.twitter.com/Pj0WxHxern
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) July 17, 2019
The World Series of Poker is essentially over, my man (in my mind, at least) Hossein Ensan‘s the first over-50 Main Event winner in the modern era of poker and the oldest since Noel Furlong in 1999 (by the way, there’s a great documentary about that Main Event that’s been making the rounds, in case you haven’t seen it).
Watched the first 1/3 of this last night – really amazing stuff! 1999 WSOP at Binion’s: https://t.co/kdYInRt8VH @RealKidPoker @phil_hellmuth
— Brian Hastings (@brianchastings) July 13, 2019
With the end of the series comes the last big rush of results through Hendon Mob, so it’s time for another edition of the Leaderboard!
Not a lot of movement this time, most of the names are high up on the board where smaller cashes don’t affect the standings at all.
First, though, let’s clear up an old result, from April in Pendleton where Yakima’s Ronald Anderson broke into the Leaderboard with a win in Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up #1 NLHE, with 486 entries. He went on to cash in several tournaments in Las Vegas this summer, as well. Welcome to the Leaderboard at #915!
Dylan Linde maintains his #8 ranking with his 52nd place showing (from 2,800 entries) in WSOP #84 $1M GTD NLHE The Closer. A cash in The Closer at 26th for Max Young keeps him at #20.
Bremerton’s Austin Hortalenza got his fourth recorded cash with a 12th place finish from 6,248 contenders in WSOP #75 NLHE Little One for One Drop. Hortalenza moves from #2123 to #501.
Moving up in the buyins a bit, James Romero got 10th place in WSOP #86 NLHE 6-Max Championship, which doesn’t budge him from #10, but doesn’t hurt, either.
Finally, another name from the upper reaches, Darren Rabinowitz (#15) is the big winner for this roundup, finishing 6th of 2,589 in WSOP #82 NLHE Double Stack (won by Thomas Koral, the winner of the 2013 Oregon State Poker Championships at Chinook Winds).
And that’s it! Quite the dropoff from the past few weeks, but a lot easier to type up with a cat on the desk.
Heads Up!
Ignition Casino $7 NLHE Jackpot Sit & Go
This the Ignition version of the three-person winner-takes-all Sit & Go with a variable payout. 2x the buyin for most of the games, 5x for about 25% of the games, with payouts much higher for a very few games. Never got more than the 5x payout on anything, but I’ve been profitable in them. Cashed 50/114, which wouldn’t be enough to profit if they were all just 2x payouts but about 16% ROI.
Structures are very fast and some of the players are decent—I was in one the other day where none of us hit the wall before we were all down to 5bb—but most of the players still limp into every hand long past the point where they should just be shoving.
I was heads-up this morning on hand 8 in a $35 payout after losing some chips in the first couple hands (starting stack 500, down to 330) and the other player had just swallowed up the third player. (he had 1170, with blinds at 20/40.
J♥ 4♣ He called, flop was Q♠ 5♣ T♦ and I folded to his bet on the turn.
3♥ 8♥ Folded my small blind.
2♥ 4♥. Folded to his bet on A♠ 7♦ T♣ flop.
3♥ A♦ Shoved after he limped in. He folded.
3♦ Q♠ This hand got checked down to the river with a 9♠ 5♣ 4♠ T♠ A♦ board. He had 3♥ Q♣. I’m still down at 270 against his 1230.
J♠ 2♠ I fold small blind.
2♥ 5♦. Really, any hand without a deuce or trey in it would be nice. He limps, flop is 7♠ 3♥ J♥ and I fold to a bet. 210 left.
4♦ 2♣ Uhhh, guys? Fold small blind.
J♠ 2♠ This looks familiar. He calls, the board gets checked down K♦ A♥ 7♣ 4♣ Q♥ and at showdown he has 3♣ 6♠, so jack-high takes the cake. A win!
9♠ 9♣ I shove on the first hand of 30/60 and he calls with 7♦ A♦. Board runs out clean and I double to 460.
Q♣ T♠ He limps, I shove, and he folds.
2♦ K♥ Shove. Up to 580.
8♣ J♦ He limps, I check and we check through the flop to a board of 3♦ 8♠ A♥ 5♣. I bet my second pair for 180 and he folds.
4♥ Q♠ I fold my small blind. This is the 21st hand of the tournament.
6♣ T♠ He calls and I check. 6♦ 2♦ 9♣ flop and I check-call his bet of 60. Q♠ turn and I check-fold to another min-bet. Down to 490.
6♠ J♥ Fold the small blind.
K♦ 7♠ He folds.
8♠ 7♥ I fold.
9♥ A♥ He folds.
2♠ 6♥ Not back to this, please. Fold.
9♣ 2♠ He limps in and the flop is 4♦ 3♦ 2♥. I do have a pair, so I jam the last 400 in, he calls with J♣ A♠ and the board is safe for me. I hate to double on that hand, but there you go. I’m in the lead with 920.
4♠ 6♣ Blinds to 40/80. I fold my small blind.
8♠ 8♣ I shove, he calls all in with 6♣ 5♣ and the board runs out 4♠ T♣ K♣ 9♥ Q♣. back down to 260 aka 3.25bb.
4♦ 9♥ Fold.
Q♠ T♥ He limps, I shove and he calls with 2♥ 3♠. I double to 440.
A♥ A♠ I still only have 4.5bb. I shove, and he calls with A♣ 5♣. Reasonable, and this time the spade flush runs out for me. Up to 880.
Q♠ A♠ He limps, I shove. He calls with 5♦ Q♦. I’m 70% to win the pot and the game, but the board runs out 8♥ 6♠ 2♥ 2♠ 6♥. I make two pair with an ace, but he has the crucial eight for the better two pair. Down to 260.
6♥ 8♦ I shove, he calls with 5♣ Q♠, and I spike an eight on the river to double to 520.
4♥ A♦ Old pattern. He limps, I shove, he calls wih K♦ 5♦ (59%/41%) and the board is T♠ 4♠ 6♠ 3♠ no don’t do it! 2♣. Couldn’t even give me a spade on the river to make the flush instead of the straight.
PNW Poker Players: 2019 WSOP Main Event Day 7
Sorry for the lateness of the post, I was working on a new edition of the PNW Poker Leaderboard last night and just didn’t manage to get even this minor post done before work.
Also Jacob Thibodeau! Listed as being from Juneau, AK but lives in Shoreline and plays in Seattle
— Michael Corson (@MichaelBigTime) July 11, 2019
Essentially, everyone from the PNW contingent has been eliminated, apart from Preben Stokkan, the Norwegian pro whose WSOP profile says is from my hometown of Corvallis, and who is—amazingly enough—still in the game with 30 players remaining despite having been down to a single big blind on Day 3, up to the chip lead by the end of that day, then 104/106 at the start of play yesterday.
As always, in addition to PNW players, I’m on the bandwagon for Hossein Ensan, senior EPT crusher, who was 2nd in chips at the end of Day 6 and is still in the top 4 (all between 30M and 40M).
PNW Poker Players: 2019 WSOP Main Event Day 6
So who knows Ian Pelz? The WSOP reports say he lives in Eugene, but most of his previous cashes come from Illinois and Colorado (he won the opening event of the 2018 Colorado Poker Championship) and Hendon Mob says he’s from Boulder. GL to him!
Play starts today (106 players remaining) at 80,000 for the big blind, so even Shane Abbott and Preben Stokkan still have 10bb. It’ll be 200,000 by the end of the day. Stokkan famously was down to a single big blind at the first break of Day 3 before he ran it up to EOD3 chip leader. Maybe lightning will strike twice.
Great job to Jacki Burkhart, Nick Getzen, Mans Montgomery, and Jeffrey Dewitt for making the money and bringing at least a little of it back to the PNW!
EOD RANK | NAME | CITY | CHIPS
10 | Ian Pelz | Eugene | 9,365,000 ** DAY 2C PNW CHIP LEADER
===== AVERAGE CHIP STACK START OF DAY 6: 4,850,000
===== MEDIAN CHIP STACK START OF DAY 6: 4,013,000
103 | Shane Abbott | Seattle | 1,110,000
104 | Preben Stokkan | Corvallis | 1,100,000 ** DAY 3 OVERALL CHIP LEADER