Category Archives: Poker Calendar

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 19 September 2018

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There is no other news. Ali Imsirovic, a 24-year-old guy from Vancouver, Washington beats a field of top players in a high-roller series to win back-to-back events and score enough points to take the second-ever Poker Masters purple jacket trophy. (Read Chad Holloway at PokerNews for more.)

By all accounts, he’s been incredibly successful for several years on Bovada and—particularly—America’s Cardroom, but at this time last year, his total live recorded cashes were for less than $70K. By the time the Poker Masters started, he’d ramped that up to $1.2M, and the money he made last week doubled that.

There are a couple of good, long interviews with Ali. Evan (@gripsed) Jarvis talked to him last fall for PokerNews, before Ali’s incredible streak in the high rollers got going. Remko Rinkema caught up with him for Poker Central just after the Poker Masters concluded. Both times he tells the same story of how his streak in poker tournaments began. It sure sounds like he’s talking about Final Table…

Only a Day Away

  • See the 28 August Planner for info about the Muckleshoot Fall Classic starting this weekend. There’s a satellite tonight, events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, then satellites Monday through Wednesday nights before the four events next weekend.
  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III continues through Sunday. Entry days for the final $250K GTD event run through Saturday with a $250 buyin.
  • HPT Golden Gates $1,650 Main Event stared today with entries through Saturday and Final table on Monday.
  • The Gardens Poker Classic started last weekend, there’s a $100K GTD Friday at 2pm [170e100a], with the $50K GTD PSPC Moneymaker event (guarantee includes the $30K PSPC package) on Saturday. The $350 buyin $300K GTD Main Event starts next Thursday.
  • The WSOPC Online got going Tuesday. There’s a $100K GTD $350 buyin on Sunday.
  • The Pechanga Endless Summer Poker Series f$200K GTD Main Event ($400 buyin) starts Friday.
  • The Wynn Fall Classic runs 26 September—14 October and features a $500K GTD Main Event, plus two $250K GTD and two $150K GTD side events, along with a Survivor, PLO, and Seniors event.
  • Deepstacks Poker Tour Edmonton is at Casino Yellowhead s week from Friday, with the C$1,100 buyin Main Event (now with BB ante) getting under way 4 October. Other events include a bounty, 8-Max, Seniors, and Ladies tournaments. The Main Event is about US$850; RT flight and a room near the casino for the last few days of the series can be found for about US$450.
  • Lucky Chances Casino near San Francisco has their monthly $350 buyin $20K-to-first guarantee tournament on the last day of the month at 9:30am. It’s kind of a turbo structure with 20-minute rounds for the first two hours, but a prize pool with a 5700% potential return is nothing to sneeze at.
  • There’s a Last Sunday of the Month tournament at Tulalip Casino on 30 September at 11am. $25K GTD with a $100 bounty. $340 buyin including dealer appreciation. Big blind antes!
  • Bicycle Casino‘s Big Poker Oktober is back on 1 October, opening with a Quantum $400K GTD tournament ($245 and $365 entry flights, with 10% and 15% getting to Day 2, respectively). They have another $400K GTD ($1,100 buyin) in conjunction with the CardPlayer Poker Tour mid-month.
  • Canterbury Park Casino‘s Fall Poker Classic has more than 20 events from 5—21 October outside Minneapolis. Lots of tournaments including PLO, 6-Max, HORSE, Crazy Pineapple, and the $1,100 buyin Main Event. Should you be silly enough to blow off the first weekend of the Fall Coast Classic at Chinook Winds, you can get there for the Main and have a place to stay for about $500.

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 06 September 2018

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Brian Pygon

Brian Pygon

Picture via Brian J Pygon’s Facebook timeline

I didn’t know Brian well, despite having shared Jeremy Harkin‘s Las Vegas house with him and several other folks the summer of 2016, but he was always a friendly and solicitous face to see, especially when other folks you might run into during a Vegas summer could be a bit wrapped up in their personal fortunes.

Jeremy posted a long tribute on Facebook Tuesday, take the time to read if if you would and leave a message if you knew him.

Another post on Brian’s Facebook page mentions there will be a celebration of Brian’s life at Creekside Golf Course in Salem on October 6th.

Poker Celebrities in Town

Three-time WSOP Main Event Top 100 finisher Andrew Brokos reached out for info on cash games  shootouts (about which I know nothing) at Portland Meadows last week, not long after I noted Twitch sensation/author/grinder Carlos Welch was back in town. and I lamented the fact that I wasn’t going to get a chance to get a picture of them. Carlos helped out with a snap froom N Portland.

My Time Is Coming

The last week has bee a little bit of a bringdown from the previous one.

It started off well with a relatively early late-reg into a $10+1 NLHE Turbo with a $4K GTD. 500 entries made the prize pool $5K and I managed to get to the final table. First hand and we’re only six-handed because three players get moved to our table between the button and the blinds, I jam 3bb (only one player has more than 10bb) with [qs kc], BB calls with [jd as], the case queen comes on the flop but it’s [ah] on the river and I go out.

Everything else is a brick: online PLO8, 6-Max, and another Turbo, then the Final Table $10K. A couple more 6-Max tournaments, a Thousandaire Maker where I never get any traction, 6-Max, a truly heart-breaking Thousandaire Maker where I build from the starting stack of 2,500 to more than 12,000 iin 43 hands, then get all-in  with queens, flop a set, but lose to runner-runner Broadway.

Played a satellite for the Ignition Casino $100K, some more PLO8, an online $25K where I cannot manage to recover after some early success, and a cash game where I manage to get it all in on the river against a guy who flopped quads.

Another episode in my run at PokerTime is out. I’m looking pretty good by the end, even if the @2PokerGuys do malign the way I stack chips.

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the first Friday of the month, which means a $20K GTD tournament at Final Table at 7pm. It’s $100 for a 12K stack (with an extra $1K if you register before starting time), with a live rebuy ($100 for 12K at any time) and a $50 addon (10K in chips) at the first break. It’s the biggest regular game in town; last month’s prize pool was over $30K!

Added to #PNWPokerCal This Week

  • South Sound Poker Championship, Shelton 3—9 September
  • WSOPC Online, Nevada 18—30 September
  • Tulalip $25K NLHE Bounty 30 September

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

Just a few big results (although I know of a couple of cashes that hadn’t been reported to Hendon Mob yet.

Seth Davies was at EPT Barcelona and came in 6th of 54 in Event #17 €50K NLHE (no that’s not the guarantee), then 13th of 77 in Event #22 €25K NLHE.

On this side of the Atlantic, at WSOPC Foxwoods Main Event, Dylan Wilkerson got 5th place in a field of 519. And Portland’s Linn Sayre got 3rd in what looks like a chop in the Ante Up Poker Tour #2 NLHE at Atlantis Casino in Reno.

Only a Day Away

  • Mid-States Poker Tour stops at Canterbury Park in Shakopee (just outside of Minneapolis) through 16 September. There’s a $300K GTD $1,100 buyin Main Event with three entry days (13—15 September) with satellites running daily until then.
  • The Commerce Poker Series runs through 16 September. A $200K GTD event ($240 buyin) has already begun and ends this weekend. An $1,100 entry $500K GTD starts 13 September.
  • See last week’s Planner for info about the Muckleshoot Fall Classic. There’s a satellite tonight.
  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III continues through 26 September, this weekend is a Mid-States Poker Tour event with a $250K GTD for $1,100 (starting days Friday and Saturday), a $100K GTD ($340 entry) has starts Monday and Tuesday, then there’s a $200K GTD ($600 buyin) foor the Ante Up Poker Tour Thursday through Saturday next week. The series ends with a $250 buyin $250K GTD event.

  • The South Sound Poker Championship snuck in this week at Little Creek Casino west of Olymppia in Shelton. If you see this early Wednesday, you might make their Bounty tournament at 11am, but Thursday is a 7pm $120 (including addon) toournament with $1K added to the prize pool, there’s a game at 11am Friday, and the big game is Saturday at 11am, with $3K added and a $340 entry. Registration is available online.
  • WSOPC Thunder Valley starts tomorrow with a $300K GTD tournament for $400 entry. It’s a 2-day event with five flights (two on Thursday and Friday, one on Saturday). HORSE on Monday and O8 on Tuesday! The $1,700 Main Event has $500 GTD.

  • The Aria Poker Masters starts Friday with its smallest buyin: $10K. You can only rebuy once. Watch it on PokerGO.
  • HPT Golden Gates kicks off in Colorado 12 September with a four-flight $400 buyin tournament. Their $1,650 Main Event begins 19 September.
  • The Gardens Poker Classic (starting 14 Septepmber) is—among other things—the third stop on the West Coast for the PokerStars Platinum Championship, where you can compete for a ticket to a $25K buyin in the Bahamas in January and $5K in expenses (also known as the cost of a banana at the Atlantis Resort). There are a few other things going on during the Classic, including a $300K TD, a $200K GTD, a $550 buyin 8-Game Mix, some HORSE, and a Progressive Bounty tournament.
  • The WSOPC Online was announced last week. It will run from 18—30 September with 13 events over 13 days and $700K GTD total ($200K for the Main Event). Playable from either NJ or Nevada (It’s not supposed to matter where in either state),  at $200, Event #1 is going to be the cheapest prixe-point for a Circuit Ring so far. The Main Event is 30 September and costs just $525, less than a third of the live Ciircuit Main Events. There’s a $215 PLO 6-Max event that last weekend calling me…
  • The Pechanga Endless Summer Poker Series features a $200K GTD Main Event  with a $400 buyin, as well as some leadin events and 3 (count ’em three!) Survivor tournaments (the Ladies Survivor has a $150 buyin while the other two are just $70). Pechanga Resort and Casino is about halfway between LA and San Diego, inland from Oceanside about 20 miles.

 

#PNWPokerCal for 28 August 2018: MOST EXCELLENT EDITION

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My Time Is Coming

The Ignition Super Millions Poker Open ended Sunday and last week I popped into another small $10K GTD NLHE 6-Max, busted halfway through, then banged straight out of the nightly $3K GTD NLHE 6-Max. A couple nights later I nabbed 3rd place in a 153-entry $500 GTD NLHE Turbo Bounty, picking up 8 bounties along the way.

The Final Table $10K GTD NLHE  went bad from start to finish, and I busted my live rebuy just before the break, then dropped 100bb in 45 minutes on the shootout tables.

Saturday, I got into an Ignition $300 GTD O8 and just started sucking up chips, then blew a stack that should have gotten me to first or second and took 4th out of 36 for a small cash. Got halfway through the Sunday 6-Max ($4K), and busted a $1K NLHE Super Knockout early.

Monday…well, last week I’d promised I’d have to get over to Claudia’s (at SE 30th & Hawthorne, always the closest game to my house) for the Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo game they spread once a week, and I headed over this week to see if I could catch David Long, my semi-regular partner for trips  to Lincoln City and Pendleton, to talk about October’s Fall Coast Classic Poker Tournament at Chinook Winds. He wasn’t there, so I played the tournament myself (I might have been thinking about that anyway), got seated next to Joe Brandenburg on his first visit there, and I ended up taking first place (all those years of low-level PLO8 and Big O at the late Portland Players Club still paying off!) And with 45% going to first place even after we paid a bubble, even Steve Chanthabouasy would be happy with the percentage (though maybe not the size of the pot).

And Tuesday, the second episode of the PokerTime session I played in dropped, and I actually play a couple of hands.

This Week In Portland Poker

I haven’t seen any announcements for the big Labor Day holiday weekend, so I’ll just leave you with the Oregonian article that Josh Stellmon posted Monday to the NW Poker Facebook group, which includes some news about redevelopment plans for the Portland Meadows site.

Mackenzie via City of Portland and Oregonlive.com

Added to #PNWPokerCal This Week

  • Muckleshoot Fall Classic Satellites, Auburn 2—26 September
  • Lucky Chances $20K/1st, Colma 30 September

Muckleshoot 2018 Fall Classic

The full schedule for the Fall Classic is out, and for the first time that I can recall since starting up the #PNWPokercal, Muckleshoot is putting guarantees (instead of cash added to the prize pool) on their tournaments. A minimum of $500K in prize money is up for grabs over 7 tournaments.

Muckleshoot has spearheaded the concept of satellites for multiple events with games running the three weeks before the series on Sunday morning (10:15am) and Wednesday night (7:15pm) for $150 where a cash gets you $1,250 in tournament entries. There are three nights of $190 tournaments with $1,750 in tournament buyins in a gap between the two weekend of the series.

 

A 2-day Main Event (29—30 September, $750 buyin) with $150K GTD and two $100KGTD (22 & 28 September, $400 buyin) events are the tentpoles of the series, with an $80K GTD tournament leading off on 21 September ($300 buyn). Thrown into the mix are a $25K GTD LHE tournament (23 September, $200 buyin) and $15K GTD O8 (27 September, $200 buyin) for the fixed limit fans, and a finale I know a couple people will love: the $40K GTD NLHE Shootout (30 September, $300 buyin).

Ticket presales are already open.

Only a Day Away

  • Ameristar East Chicago is the host to HPT Chicagoland Main Event ($1,650 buyin) has three entry days starting Thursday.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour stops at Canterbury Park in Shakopee (just outside of Minneapolis) from Thursday through 16 September. There’s a $300K GTD $1,100 buyin Main Event with three entry days (13—15 September) with satellites running daily from 5 September.
  • The Commerce Poker Series starts Friday and runs through 16 September. The first full week features a tasty-looking $350 HORSE tournament, some Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo, and a $240 buyin $200K GTD.
  • See above for info about the Muckleshoot Fall Classic Satellites.
  • Labor Day is the start of Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. Running through 26 September, the first week features a $100K GTD ($340 buyin) followed by the $1,100 buyin $250K GTD tournament co-sponsored by MSPT.
  • WSOPC Thunder Valley opens 6 September with a $300K GTD tournament for $400 entry. It’s a 2-day event with five flights (two on Thursday and Friday, one on Saturday). HORSE on Monday, 10 September and O8 on Tuesday! The $1,700 Main Event has $500 GTD.
  • The Aria Poker Masters starts 7 September with its smallest buyin: $10K. You can only rebuy once.
  • HPT Golden Gates kicks off in Colorado 12 September with a four-flight $400 buyin tournament. Their $1,650 Main Event begins 19 September.
  • The Gardens Poker Classic (starting 14 Septepmber) is—among other things—the third stop on the West Coast for the PokerStart Platinum Championship, where you can compete for a ticket to a $25K buyin in the Bahamas in January and $5K in expenses (also known as the cost of a banana at the Atlantis Resort). There are a few other things going on during the Classic, including a $300K TD, a $200K GTD, a $550 buyin 8-Game Mix, some HORSE, and a Progressive Bounty tournament.

#PNWPokerCal for 20 August 2018

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My Time Is Coming

Because of life, my poker week usually consists of the Friday night $10K GTD at Final Table and one other night of degeneracy, with one or two evenings of online poker at Ignition Casino. I changed things up this week because of a couple of changes at Portland Meadows.

The main one was the introduction of the big blind ante (BBA) to all of their tournaments starting Monday. I’m pretty sure the twelve people reading this already know about the BBA, but it was definitely not on the radar of some of the players this week. I didn’t see any signs up announcing it (it was mentioned by Brian Sarchi on the NW Poker Facebook group and the schedule, but some people just show up).

I got out to Meadows late on Tuesday for the 7pm game, got lucky, got lucky, made the final table, then managed to make a bad call in a multi-way pot where I had the other two players covered and lost almost my entire stack before going out in ninth place, well short of the money in that size of a field.

The mechanics of the BBA are this: the player in the big blind puts out an amount equal to the size of the big blind first, then posts the big blind. If the player doesn’t have enough to cover both, they post the big blind (or whatever portion of it that they can) first, then any remaining chips for the ante.

Friday, I went back for the second big change: the Freezeout Big O. Big O tends to be a very volatile game and it’s rarely played without reentries. I got there an hour after the game started and lasted a whole half-hour. No antes in Big O!

Fortunately, I had plenty of time to get into the 7pm NLHE tournament ($2K GTD). Early on, I played [6s 5s] and rivered a gut-shot 8-high straight against a guy who flopped a set of 8s, and I guess I played it tricky enough that he was audibly kicking himself for twenty minutes after he doubled me up because he missed it. It didn’t seem to phase his play, though, because by the time I’d climbed to 80K and been beaten back down to 25K, he was back up to 100K.

The player on my right remembered my card cap from back in the Encore Club days and we had a pleasant chat, then I asked her if she had any thoughts about the BBA format (always thinking ahead for  material!). She said hadn’t heard about it yet, though we were going to be moving into the antes in just a few minutes, and it took all of about ten seconds to tell her about it, the dealer chimed in, and we chatted about the potential tactical modifications you might need to make to your game.

Shortly after that, the BBA went into effect and hit the player on her right, who had been listening to his iPhone and drinking what apparently wasn’t his first drink. He was also a novice to the big blind ante format, and unlike the player between us, was completely unprepared for change, apart from having caught a snippet of the conversation going on around him. That snippet had been twisted in his mind into some sort of angle or something of the sort, because he then spent a long time telling us he’d never heard of such a thing. When I mentioned that I’d heard the ARIA had been where it started, he said (several times) that he played at ARIA several times a year and had never heard of such a thing. Anyway, it went like that for a while, until he shoved a shortish stack with [jx 3x] and I called with [kh jh] to send him to the shootout tables. A couple of players looked longingly at his table once he was seated there.

I never got anywhere near the lead, but I made the final table as one of three smaller stacks. Only seven places paid, and there was talk of a chop right away but no decision before a couple of players were knocked out. An agreement was made to pay the bubble, and one of the other players busted on that. By then I was the smallest stack, with only about 50K, but three all-ins in a row (ending with a pair of tens that I showed) got me 25K each time, and put me near the chip average. The big stacks at the table (including the player who’d doubled me up early on) were taking damage and, you know, it’s a long way between $335 and $1,465 when the average stack is just 16bb, so the next time a chop was proposed, everyone was ready.

Depending on the structure of the tournament, the big blind ante is going to change how much you pay per orbit. Where antes are about 1/10th or 1/12th the big blind (say 500/1,000/100 or 600/1,200/100) you’ll pay more on a nine-handed table with the big blind ante (9×100=900 in both of those examples, whereas you’d pay 1,000 or 1,200 for a big blind ante). In tournaments where the antes are 1/8th or 1/6th the big blind (600/1,200/200 to use one of the examples above) you’re actually paying less on a full table (9×200=1,800 vs 1,200 for the big blind ante). For shorter stacks, this can be great, because—as in most pot-limit games—you don’t pay anything when you’re not in the blinds. On the downside, if you’re on the big blind, it’s a bit harder to squeak past the blinds, and you might be more inclined to go with what you get dealt when your stack loses nearly twice as many chips on a particular hand.

From a speed standpoint, there’s no hectoring of multiple players to get their antes out. It remains to be seen how it affects play near the final table when you have two or three short-handed tables.

This Week In Portland Poker

The Game has a $300 single-table sit-and-go this Tuesday at 7pm. Call to reserve a seat or get on the waiting list.

One of these days soon, I need to get over to Claudia’s Sports Pub & Grill for their 7pm Monday PLO8 with a $25 buyin.

Worst Graphics Ever!

It’s the final episode of the most recent PokerTime, picked apart by Joe Ingram or Doug Polk (they’re pretty much interchangeable so far as I can tell, one wears a tank-top or something) for titling and design esthetics in a recent podcast on starting a YouTube channel. Anyway, I at least, am looking forward to more from Jonathan Levy and Grant Denison (I can tell them apart).

Added to #PNWPokerCal This Week

A couple of series within driving range already in progress that I missed adding while I was sidelined (thanks Steve Roselius for reminding me to check the Alberta venues!) Check the /?pnwpokercal for more info!

  • Summer Super Stack, Calgary 15—27 August
  • Ante Up Poker Tour, Reno 16—26 August
  • Mid-States Poker Tour, Shakopee 30 August—16 September
  • Gardens Poker Classic, Hawaiian Gardens 14—30 September
  • Canterbury Park Fall Poker Classic, Shakopee 5—21 October
  • Bay 101 Fall Poker Classic, San Jose 15—22 October

PNW Pokerleaderboard

Alll the action this week is in the Southeast, at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida and at the World Series of Poker Circuit  in Cherokee, North Carolina.

New to the leaderboard, Portland’s Andrew Dymburt picked up his first recorded cash in the SHRPO #23 $50K GTD NLHE, a $150 buyin tournament with 610 entries that netted him five figures.

Almedin Imsirovic  was also at the Hard Rock, playing slightly larger buyins in somewhat smaller fields. SHRPO #14 $1M GTD NLHE High Roller was a $50K entry with 25 players. 5 positions paid (20% of the field!) and Imsirovic took 4th. He followed that up with 9th place (out of 12 paying and 91 entries) in SHRPO #25 $500K GTD NLHE.

Perennials Matt Affleck and Lee Markholt took 16th of 442 in SHRPO #20 $1M GTD NLHE and 10th/209 in SHRPO #17 $200K NLHE 8-Max. respectively.

Moving up to Cherokee, Kindah Sakkal had a great run in a filed of nearly 1,200 entries in the $400 buyin WSOPC Cherokee #8 $200K NLHE Monster Stack. The tournament almost doubled the guarantee and she took 4th place.

Another $400 event (the price points for all WSOPC events have been raised this year) saw Max Young start the 2018—19 season strongly, by placing 3rd in a field of 471 for the WSOPC Cherokee #13 $50K NLHE Double Stack (the prize pool reached $155K).

Last, but far from least, Kao Saechao was poised to follow his deep WSOP MAIN Event run on Day 3 of the WSOPC Cherokee #11 $1M GTD NLHE Main Event, but he lost a race early in the day and went out in 21st. Still, with a field of more than a thousand, a respectable showing.

Only a Day Away

  • The Bicycle Casino WPT500/Legends of Poker continues on with the $570 entry WPT500 with $1M GTD and flights running through Saturday. Eash entry day features a regular flight at 1130am and a turbo at 5pm. Day 2 on Sunday with final table on Monday. Immediately following that is another $1M GTD tournament with 6 entry days ($350 buyin). Friday is the ast pair of flights, with Day 2 (including direct entry for $2,200) on Saturday.
  • One of the tournaments I didn’t get on my calendar in time is the Summer Super Stack at Deerfoot Inn in Calgary. The Main Event (C$1,600 buyin) has entry days on Friday and Saturday and there are some side-events through Sunday. The flyer mentions C$300K in guarantees through the series, but I don’t see any guarantees on individual events or links to structures.
  • Another ongoing series I missed is the Ante Up Poker Tour Reno at the Atlantis. The $200K GTD Main Event starts Friday ($1,100 entry) with another entry flight on Saturday. Winner of the Main gets on the cover of Ante Up.
  • The second stop in the PokerStars Players Championship is at Lucky Chances Casino south of San Francisco. It’s $86 for an entry—the amount Chris Moneymaker paid for his satellite to the WSOP fifteen years ago—and the prize is a Platinum Pass seat in the $25K buyin PSPC tournament in The Bahamas next January, along with $5K in expenses. The PSPC itself will be loaded with online and live qualifiers (and people who won seats in drawings), There’ll be tour stop in September in LA and Phoenix, and another at Run It Up Reno in November.
  • The Colorado State Poker Championship 22 at Golden Gates Casinois just about over, but Wednesday is the $75K GTD High Roller ($2,500 entry).

  • Image via Steve Roselius.

    This month’s Muckleshoot Casino Deepstack tournament ($300 buyin) takes place Sunday at 10:15am. Next Sunday at the same time id the monthly Deepstack ($300 buyin). They still haven’t posted anything on their web site about next month’s Muckleshoot Fall Poker Classic (21—30 September, that link goes to Facebook).

  • The Parq Vancouver Super Sunday is a C$450+50 buyin (US$385 total) starting at 10:15am. You can register up to 2 days early if you’re up that direction.
  • Tulalip Casino’s Last Sunday of the Month Back to School tournament is at 11am on the 26th. $5K added to the prize pool and a $220 buyin with $10 dealer addon. Now with big blind antes!
  • Ameristar East Chicago is the host to HPT Chicagoland from 23 August to 3 September. The Main Event ($1,650 buyin) has three entry days starting 30 August. Three flight days for the $1,650 entry Main Event, starting 30 August.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour stops at Canterbury Park in Shakopee (just outside of Minneapolis) from 30 August through 16 September. There’s a $300K GTD $1,100 buyin Main Event with three entry days (13—15 September) with satellites running daily from 5 September.

  • The Commerce Poker Series starts in just over two weeks (31 August) and runs through 16 September. The first full week features a tasty-looking $350 HORSE tournament, some Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo, and a $240 buyin $200K GTD. Plus, if you get there before 2 September, you can take some time off to see ”Holy Hollywood History!”, an exhibit of goodies from the Adam West/Burt Ward Batman TV show at The Hollywood Museum.
  • Labor Day is the start of Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. Running through 26 September, the first week features a $100K GTD ($340 buyin) followed by the $1,100 buyin $250K GTD tournament co-sponsored by MSPT.
  • Coming up the end of Labor Day week is the WSOPC Thunder Valley and the Aria Poker Masters for anyone named Imsirovic.

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 12 August 2018

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When I decided to take a break from the Planner back in March, I did not realize it would last quite this long. “Maybe a couple of months,” I told myself, “spend some more time playing, maybe head down to Vegas a couple of times, I’ll be back soon.” Best laid plans and all that.

Enough banter. Let’s get into stuff.

Watch 10/25 Ladies Night! | Seminole Hard Rock, Hollywood, FL from PokerNightTV on www.twitch.tv

Jacki Burkhart on Poker Night In America

After making the final table of the WSOP Ladies tournament, Jacki was invited to Florida for a taping/streaming of Poker Night In America Ladies Night. There were two $25/$25 sessions on consecutive nights, streamed simultaneously on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook, jacki was on the first, Friday night, as one of the newest players to the national scene, along with Jo Kim, Lily Kiletto, Danielle Andersen, Jamie Kerstetter, and Kelly Minkin. There were some issues with the graphics, as the session ended the announcers said she was up over $6000, then the last tally showed only $300 profit, but she reported a number closer to the original on Facebook. So yay! You can see her pick up a $3100 pot somewhere in the stream.

Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up

Results are in for the smallest of the Wildhorse Round Ups, The bigger events ran about 300 entries each, with the Main Event ($330 buyin) garnering 294 players and a prize pool just under $90K. Results are up on Hendon Mob.

PNW Poker Leaderboard

Walla Walla’s Felipe Nievez-Lopez gets onto the leaderboard with a win in the Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up Main Event. It’s also his first Hendon Mob recorded cash. I wouldn’t normally report on Chad Norheim (Gig Harbor) taking 5th in the event for his second recorded cash, but the fact that he turned around and went to The Bike in LA to make the unofficial final table at Legends of Poker #3 $200K GTD NLHE tickles my fancy. Coming in 2nd was Denny Edwards of Hermiston for his biggest-ever cash (all 13 of them from events at Wildhorse, by the way), and Ronnie Anderson from Yakima, whose first recorded cash was a win in a 400-entry event at Wildhorse in the spring. Both players move up about 300 places in the rankings (Edwards moves to #595, Anderson to #864).

The event leading into the main was Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up #5  with 267 entries and a prize pool of over $52K. Corren Spargur from Richland won that (moving up to #786) and Ryan Stoker repeats on the leaderboard this week because of his 2nd place finish. Stoker only picks up 9 places (moving to #174) because it just gets harded and harder the more money you’re made.

Speaking of which, James Romero‘s stuck at #10, despite the cashes for James Christopher Romero getting wrapped in to his records and winning the Seminole hard Rock Poker Open #3 NLHE 8-Max Turbo. Really hard when you get up to that level; the gaps are so many dollars apart.

This Week In Portland Poker

The Game is running single-table sit-and-gos on Tuesday nights at 7pm. There’s a rotating buyin ranging from $200 to $1K. I played the $500 buyin last week and managed to chop three ways at a table that included Dustin Tragethon, Randy “Terminator” Palazzo, Nick “Wonka” Getzen, and Jonathan “Jonathan” Levy among others. Call The Game to find out the stakes for future games and reserve your place.

There’s another episode of PokerTime out but the series I played in hasn’t started yet. Console yourselves.

Last week’s $10K at Final Table (out with the second nuts). Portland poker is not dead.

There’s a $10K almost every week at Final Table on Friday night and another at Portland Meadows Saturday at noon. And two tournaments every day at both clubs (plus shootouts). I’ll try to make the rounds of places like Claudia’s and Rialto soon!

UPDATE

Just after I posted this, Brian Sarchi at Portland Meadows posted on Facebook’s NW Poker group that all tournaments at Meadows will be using the big blind ante starting Monday (when antes come into play, the big blind puts in 2x the big blind, half for antes for all players, and the remainder for the big blind). The Friday Big O and Saturday 7pm tournament also have changes.

Only a Day Away

  • The Bicycle Casino WPT500/Legends of Poker continues on after the end of Mega Millions XIX. This weekend has some great stuff that I’m just dying about missing: a $350 buyin HORSE tournament tomorrow, a $565 Survivor tournament where 10% of the entries get a $5K payout (Friday), then the $570 entry WPT500 with $1M GTD starting Saturday, with flights running through next weekend (25 August). Eash entry day features a regular flight at 1130am and a turbo at 5pm.Day 2 on 26 August and final table on Monday, 27 August. Immediately following that is another $1M GTD tournament with 6 entry days ($350 buyin).
  • The Colorado State Poker Championship 22 starts its $1100 Main Event on Friday, with  another entry day on Saturday, at Golden Gates Casino.
  • Tomorrow through Saturday are the last 3 entry days for the Venetian August Extravaganza #10 $100 GTD NLHE. $250 buyin and run as big blind ante (as are the Colorado State poker Championship games). The August Estravaganza is followed by the 7-day Senior Extravaganza. For some reason, neither event is currently linked from the Venetian’s poker blog.
  • Friday and Saturday are the entry days for the HPT St. Charles Main Event outside of St. Louis. At Ameristar St. Louis, it’s a $1,650 buyin event; the most recent (in April) had a $435K prize pool.
  • The second stop in the PokerStars Players Championship is at Lucky Chances Casino south of San Francisco starting Sunday. It’s $86 for an entry—the amount Chris Moneymaker paid for his satellite to the WSOP fifteen years ago—and the prize is a Platinum Pass seat in the $25K buyin PSPC tournament in The Bahamas next January, along with $5K in expenses. The PSPC itself will be loaded with online and live qualifiers (and people who won seats in drawings), One was awarded last week at Stones Gambling Hall in Sacramento, There’ll be tour stop in September in LA and Phoenix, and another at Run It Up Reno in November.

  • Image via Steve Roselius.

    This month’s Muckleshoot Casino Big Bounty tournament ($200 buyin) takes place Sunday at 10:15am. Next Sunday at the same time id the monthly Deepstack ($300 buyin). They still haven’t posted anything on their web site about next month’s Muckleshoot Fall Poker Classic (21—30 September) but that link goes to Facebook. Friend of the blog Steve Roselius posted a snapshot of the flyer from the poker room to Facebook. They’ve typically run satellites to the all or part of the series in preceding weeks.

  • A little further afield, Ameristar East Chicago is the host to HPT Chicagoland from 23 August to 3 September. Main Event ($1,650 buyin) has three entry days starting 30 August. Nonstop RT tickets  for Thursday through Tuesday of that weekend are still less than $350, Accommodations could, uh, run a bit more.
  • The Commerce Poker Series starts in just over two weeks (30 August) and runs through 16 September

This Place Is a Dump! #PNWPokerLeaderboard for 5 August 2018

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I eked out the most recent #PNWPokerleaderboard on the Fourth of July—over a month ago—but even that only covered tournaments reported through the end of June. Then, Hendon Mob changed the format of their reports (from which this info is drawn), and all of the tools I’d written to automate the process were busted. Updating them took me some time, what with a broken wrist, but it’s finally done, so let’s catch up on how Pacific Northwest players did in the last weeks of the World Series of Poker and other events! At the top of the board, of course, is Kao Saechao. His 16th-place finish at the World Series of Poker Main Event puts him just outside the million-dollar club of the top two dozen players in the Pacific Northwest (and as I’ve mentioned before, some of those people don’t actually live here any more). The Main Event made some money for a number of other PNW players, as well. Notable was Mason Barrell of Eugene who has exactly one Hendon Mob cash on his record: 70th place in the field of 7,874. That’s in the top 1% of the Main Event for his only recorded cash. Washington’s Eric Kepper and Bothell’s Aaron Moreau-Cook got their first recorded cashes (at 131st and 354th, respectively). Making it to 73rd, Ahmed Amin of Seattle just about doubled his recorded tournament winnings; Takashi Matsushita (also Seattle) took 261st for nearly ten times his previous records. Paul Varrano (Pullman), Christopher Leslie (Portland), and Adam Walton (Seattle) made the same payout tier at 387th, 352nd, and 407th, but I gotta give the not to Adam for making a little extra by cashing in the Wynn Summer Classic $5K Survivor about a week earlier. I prefer the poker players who survive. If you missed the great 5th-place run of Jacki Burkhart in the WSOP #57 $1,000/$10,000 NLHE Ladies Championship and were having trouble finding the replay, have no fear, because it’s still on Twitch, but since they switched over from the very end of the $10K Razz Championship just a quarter hour after the stream started, it’s labeled for that game. You can hear a little rightful bitching about the marginalization of the tournament by the WSOP and broadcast media in Jamie Kerstetter and Chad Holloway‘s LFG Podcast, where they interview Molly Mossey, the 7th-place finisher. Jacki and Jamie are both scheduled to play the Poker Night in America Ladies Night on Friday this week, (along with Lily Kiletto, Natasha Mercier, and Danielle “@dmoongirl” Andersen). James Romero didn’t post any big cashes at the WSOP (I mean, he got a double-up for 608th in the Main Event but that’s piker’s money for Romero), he did make six figures for 3rd place at the Venetian/Mid-States Poker Tour $3.5K NLHE Big Blind Ante, as well as decent ROI for the Venetian/Card Player Poker Tour #126 taking 17th. Darren Rabinowitz placed 13th in that one, and took 5th in the Wynn $200K NLHE. There was a James Christopher Romero from Wilsonville who grabbed 7th at the Larry Flynt Grand Slam of Poker $777,777 NLHE at the end of the month, which seems like a weird coincidence, particularly since JCR’s only other recorded cash is from a tournament last summer in Macau, but I could just be mistaken about that coincidence. Friend of the blog Ryan Stoker placed 4th in a Wynn Summer Classic $1M NLHE at the end of June (won by Athanosios Polychronopoulos, the favorite name of every poker reporter). It looks like a three-way deal was made after Ryan busted, but he did quite well. Kirkland’s Matthew Simmons got a huge boost to his lifetime earnings with the best part of a four-way deal at the Planet Hollywood GOLIATH $500K NLHE. Bill Patten, one of the owners of the late Aces Full club on SE Powell, won a huge WSOP Daily Deepstack in June, with 1,199 entries, which brings him to the brink of $100K in recorded cashes. Lee Markholt, one of the biggest names in poker in the PNW (and #6 on the all-time earnings list for the region) cranked it up a little bit by finishing 5th in the WSOP #76 $3,000 HORSE. Jesse Hampton of Mercer Island came in 9th, effectively doubling his lifetime earnings. The WSOP #63 NLHE High Roller got 480 entries; Bellevue’s Noah Bronstein added a nice chunk to his record by placing 4th. Back over at a Wynn Summer Classic $100K NLHE on 1 July, Garry Bleisner from Spokane Valley took 2nd in a 3-way deal (with more than $100K left in the $240K prize pool) that dwarfed his previous earnings and got him on the PNW Leaderboard. Other newcomers are John Durney (Aberdeen) whose only recorded cash so far is 2nd place in a deal at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza #92 $75K NLHE, and Portland’s Amy Schwarz, who beat out 8,906 other players for a 14th-place finish in WSOP #6 NLHE The Giant, the $365 tournament with the $2.676M prize pool that ran qualifiers throughout the series and wrapped up at the end of June.

Amy Schwarz, WSOP The Giant © Melissa Haereiti

Seattle’s Laurence Hughes kept the hammer down as the summer series came to a close, with a final table in a seniors tournament at the Wynn on 8 July (7th of nearly 500 entries), a final table (3rd) in a seniors tournament at Bellagio three days later (only 64 entries, but chopped by Eli Elezra and Michael Holm), and 5th place in a Wynn Summer Classic $200K NLHE three days after that. Wrapping things up in this catch-up edition are a couple of 3rd place finishes in the WSOP Daily Deepstacks. Kent’s Kevin Jenkins did it on 29 June, Phillippe Olbrechts pulled it off on 5 July. That’s far from all the winners and cashers. Don’t argue with anyone who says they cashed the main just because they’re not on here; if they didn’t at least triple their buyin, I didn’t cover it. Let them live out their fantasies. I think I might know someone. The heat this week may delay me, but I’m going to try to get the weekly #PNWPokerCal back in operation. Thanks to everyone who’s offered thanks and support over the summer!

There’s Plenty of October to Share, Guys!

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The cast just came off my wrist last week, so I’m not back in shape to take up my duties here at Mutant Poker Tower quite yet, but I have been trying to keep up the calendar (thanks to Nick Getzen for his kind words last week about its utility!) and somehow, three series of interest to PNW poker players coming up in the next quarter have managed to pick overlapping dates (once again).

Closest to home, the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic has been on the calendar (20—28 October) for months. They released their tournament schedule a while back, and I’ve had it marked ever since.

The World Series of Poker Circuit Lake Tahoe dates (25 October—5 November) were announced along with the rest of the season just before the WSOP started in late May. The individual events haven’t been announced yet.

And this week, Run It Up Reno‘s dates were released (19—29 October) along with the event schedule.

So three of the only tournament series that run in my loosely-defined greater Pacific Northwest (including Northern California and Nevada) will be operating simultaneously for four days, and for another six days, at least two of them will overlap. There’s a fair amount of travel time between Lincoln City and Tahoe/Reno, and even just going from Harvey’s Lake Tahoe to the Peppermill Reno isn’t like shuttling between the Venetian and the Rio.

These guys are killing me.

Shout out tonight to Liz Brandenburg, recovering from surgery for a broken elbow (at least I hope she’s recovering, the last post I saw from her she’d been waiting for a few hours because they’d pushed back her surgery time). Also on this summer’s Poker Disabled List:

  • Dan “Goofy” Beecher, who broke some ribs falling off a deck a couple weeks after I fell off a deck;
  • Angela “Badass” Jordison, who unexpectedly tried cliff-diving on the wrong kind of cliff (way too far to the water).

Be  careful out there, and remember that poker rooms are much safer than the outdoors.

First Friday

I think this week marks the return of the Final Table First Friday $20K GTD after a WSOP hiatus. $100 buyin with 1 live rebuy and $50 addon.

Newly-minted WSOP Dealer’s Choice bracelet owner Jeremy Harkin is working to get a dealers choice game together Friday nights at Portland Meadows. See the NW Poker group on Facebook to find out details and availability.

I got the chance to play poker in Portland on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago (I’m usually doing stuff with family if I’m in town) and chopped the Portland Meadows $10K, then put my bump to work in the 5/10 game recorded for The Poker Guys‘ PokerTime YouTube show, playing with Jacki Burkhart (who’ll be on Poker Night in America  in a couple of weeks), former Portlander Jeff Dobrin (who appeared  on some of the previous game’s installments), as well as Jeff Mitseff and some of the other regulars from the show. While we’re waiting for that to drop, enjoy one of the recent eps.

Take This Stack and Shove It

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My father was a union shop steward and local president when I was a kid, and about the time I went to college, he moved on to a job with the union as an organizer, eventually finishing his career after more than a decade as the top official of his union in the state. So I grew up in a union household. We never had a car that wasn’t American-made. I’ve worked for myself for most of my career, and I’ve never been a union member myself (except for a very brief stint at Fred Meyer where I got to fill out all the paperwork but didn’t last long enough to get to the point where I was an actual member of the bargaining unit) but I’ve never crossed a picket line.

It was with some dismay that the day after I booked a weekend trip to play some satellites at the World Series of Poker, I heard of the citywide strike called for 1 June by the Culinary and Bartenders Union in a tweet from Kevin Mathers.

There’s a list on the union site of the 30+ casinos and hotels that will be affected by the strike if it happens. What won’t be directly affected is the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, the site of the WSOP.

According to vegastravelalert.org, the info website of the union, the contract at the Rio doesn’t expire until a couple of weeks after the end of the WSOP, although the rest of the Caesars properties are affected by the 1 June deadline.

Luckily—since I only had a couple of days on this trip and I wanted to maximize my time—I’d booked my accommodations at the Rio for the first time ever. So no picket-crossing me.

I’m getting in on Friday evening (the 8th), hoping to jump into the 8pm $575 Mega Satellite (pays $5K in lammers and $50 cash), then Saturday and Sunday’s 9am $185 Mega Satellite (pays 3 $500 lammers and $100 cash), with the Venetian 7:05pm $40K GTD Survivor ($400 entry, pays $3,400 cash), and some Omaha Hi-Low cash games at the Rio, Venetian, or Orleans to fill in the time before I fly back out late Sunday.

Workers of the world unite!

April’s Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

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Results for the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up are in the Hendon Mob database, so it’s time to do a little update of the leaderboard. It’s been a month since the last real update, and in addition to Wildhorse, there’s been a fair amount of action for Northwest players outside of Northwest venues.

First, though, a couple of words about how the sausage gets made. I compile this info from Hendon Mob’s state-level leader boards by looking for differences in the “money won” numbers from week to week.  I check Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I’d include British Columbia if I could, but Hendon Mob doesn’t break Canadian provinces out separately like they do for states in the US.

I only track players with $3K or more of reported earnings on the leaderboard. The Hendon Mob leaderboard doesn’t track recurring or daily tournaments. And because this is all just the Poker Mutant doing all the work for free, I can’t highlight everyone in my write-ups or every cash, much as I might want to.

If you’ve been following along for a while, you might notice that while I link to the Hendon Mob payout pages (or direct sources), I don’t typically list the amount won. That’s because casino’s don’t usually report the results of a deal. Some do, but I know, for instance, that the Wildhorse Main Event had a 3-way deal, but the figures reported to Hendon Mob don’t reflect that.

So like all ranking systems, nothing here is completely accurate, but it’s fun all the same, no?

Newbies

Almost as if to prove my point, let’s start with the bogus entry in the players who are just breaking the $3K barrier that keeps the riff-raff oout of the leaderboard. This guy had just $1,300 in winnings before he took 2nd place in the 402-entry Thursday tournament at Wildhorse, but Vancouver’s Bill Patten also has another 2nd place at Wildhorse from last year as William Patten (no relation to Vince van), and he’s been on the leaderboard for a while. So not really a newbie.

No idea whether Shane Stonemetz from Zillah, Washington has another identity (there aren’t any other Stonemetzes on Hendon Mob), but he had a breakout win in Event #3 at Wildhorse. He jumps in at #1275 on the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard.

James Austin [#1280] of Mill Creek, Washington only had a couple of cashes under his belt before winning the first event at Wildhorse; Matt Johnson from Richland took 2nd for his first recorded cash (but there’s another Matt Johnson from the suspiciously nearby Tri-Cities with six Pendleton cashes since 2010, not to mention a Matt Johnson from Kennewick with five).

Yakima’s Ronnie Anderson won the Thursday event at Wildhorse for a first Hendon Mob cash, ditto for Boise’s Ron Rausch in the Seniors tournament on Wednesday. They’re 1463 and 1480, respectively, on the PNW Leaderboard. James Han of Beaverton got his first and second Hendon Mob cashes at Wildhorse this series, with 4th place in the Friday tournament and 22nd  in the Main Event.

Old Guard

Seattle’s Dylan Wilkerson has been on a roll the past month, with 7 cashes including a win, four final tables, and an unofficial final table appearance. He started off with a 10th-place finish at the WSOPC Las Vegas Main Event (610 entries), then 8th in the High Roller at the same series (109 entries). Hopping out to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, he placed 8th in the Bounty tournament (#10, 145 entries) and the 8-Max (#11, 170 entries) and the Turbo (#13, 93 entries), slipping in a 24th place in the $3M GTD WPT Showdown Championship (1,309 entries). Then he swung up to North Carolina to win the 1,060-entry WSOPC Cherokee Main Event. And on the 21st He Rested. Well, probably he played poker, but he hasn’t cashed in another tracked tournament for a whole week. For all that work, Wilkerson moves up three spots on the leaderboard to 8th.

The biggest jump—percentage-wise—this month is from the single cash by Scott Powrie from Bothell, who goes from #1,062 to #296 by taking 4th place at the WSOPC Las Vegas Main Event. His nearest contender for “Most Improved Ranking” is Colton, Washington’s Richard Jutte, who won the Friday tournament at Wildhorse (moving from #2,671 to #754: more places on the leaderboard but slightly smaller percentage).

Toledo, Oregon’s Tony Shearer (#1182, 3rd in the Wildhorse Friday tournament) and  Robert Haerling of North Powder (#1244, 2nd in Wildhorse Event #3) both moved up by more than 50%.

Bob Schulhauser of Spokane gets the credit for the win of the Wildhorse Main Event in the record books, but blog selfie mascot Elizabeth Tedder and friend of the blog Clarke Straus were in on the deal (now #150 and #233). Clarke noted Kristy Becker of Alaska deserved mention (though I don’t track Alaska) as it’s still rare for two of the final four players in a large tournament to be women. Binh “Jimmy” Nguyen came in 5th, moving him up to #78.

Bob Petty from Richland didn’t have a single score that would have gotten him on the leaderboard round-up this month, but he had two 4th-place finishes at Wildhorse in Event #1 and the Seniors tournament that did the trick. He was the next guy out after me in last fall’s Seniors tournament.

Down in Las Vegas, Landon Brown pulled off a similar hat trick, stringing three cashes at Planet Hollywood’s WSOPC together , including getting heads-up for a ring in Event #3, and an unofficial final table in Event #6, along with a min-cash in the Main Event.

Stephen Elliott from Richland moves from #750 to #473 with his win in the Wildhorse High Roller. The scheduled payouts in this event were incredibly steep, with 2nd place making barely half that of first; that was attained by Stephen Schumacher of Lewiston, who also took 3rd in the Turbo. He moves up to #459.

Peter Lynn (#921, Olympia) came in 5th in the Run it Up Reno Main Event. Thomas Kornechuk of Auburn moved up more than 250 places to #605 with a 55th-place showing at the WPT Showdown Championship. Enrique Curiel’s 3rd place at the Wildhorse Event #10 was enough to move the Pasco resident up to #798.

Another player with more than 20% rise in rank was Ryan Stoker of Spokane, whose 10-place finish at the now-notorious HPT Las Vegas Main Event bumped him up from #843 to #651 (the venue and/or organizers—facing an overlay—allowed some players to register late at half price).

Calvin Lee (#78, mercer Island) eschewed the US entirely. His last three cashes have been in Korea, with two this month at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, taking 54th in the Main Event and 8th in the High Roller.

David Mallet of Point Roberts, Washington won the 15-entry HPT Las Vegas Event #2 on Aprll Fool’s Day before wandering his way north to Pendleton. Along the way, he stopped off for the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley Main Event for a min-cash, then once he got to town he took 14th in the Wildhorse Seniors tournament and 9th the next day in Thursday’s game. That all pputs him in #406 on the leaderboard.

John Stephenson from Yelm hasn’t had a recorded cash since 2014, but he’s come roaring back with a win in WSOPC Cherokee Event #12 that puts him at #138.

Talking Stick in Arizona is one of the places that records actual payouts in the cvase of a deal, and Mercer Island’s Michael Corson was in a 3-way deal for the Getaway Classic.

Daniel park skips in under the tent with 18th place at the WSOPC Las Vegas Main Event, moving up to #213. Dylan Linde took 10th in the SHRPO Big Stack, but it doesn’t budge him on the leader board (#16) because the differences between players at that level aren’t affected by your average cash. Likewise, Darren Rabinowitz (#14) doesn’t move even with three four-figire cashes at WSOPC Las Vegas Main Event (40th place) a final table in the SHRPO Bounty, and a min-cash in the SHRPO Main Event.

Then there’s Kao Saechao. He went down a spot to #57, but he shouldn’t even be on the list this month because I’m pretty sure he wasn’t even in Pendleton. He has three cashes at Wildhorse attributed to him (30th in Friday’s Event #11, and wins in Big O and O8, but I’m think those are supposed to be under Kao “Flexx” Saechao from Seattle, who was at my table for he High Roller.

What leaderboard report would be complete without some Maxwell Young news? He dragged in a first-place prize at the Mid-States Poker Tour Black Hawk Main Event stop that was his third-largest to date. He’s reached the point where the kind of thing that woul propell someone else up into the top10% of the leaderboard moves him…2 spots, to #37.

Max has got to be looking over his shoulder now for Almedin Imsirovic. The Vancouver native was interviewed in the April 25 issue of CardPlayer magazine’s “When I was a Donk” feature (not yet available online), then promptly won the Borgata Poker Open Main Event. He’s sitting in position #38, right behind Max.

For the number geeks, here are a few figures

  • There are currently 3,435 players in my database (which may include some duplicates as noted before).
  • 32% of the players are from Oregon.
  • 59% of the players are from Washington.
  • 9% of the players are from Idaho.
  • The numbers of players in the database are roughly relative to the populations of the states, with Idaho picking up a few percentage points vs Washington.
  • There are 6 poker millionaires on the Oregon leaderboard, though at least half of them no longer actually live here.
  • Kevin MacPhee and Dylan Linde are the Idaho poker millionaires.
  • Washington has 16 poker millionaires on the leaderboard.
  • Poker millionaires make up less then 0.7% of the player the leaderboard tracks.
  • There are 28 players with less than $1M and more than $500K in lifetime earnings on the leaderboard (0.8%).
  • 48 players fall into the range between $250K and $500K in lifetime earnings (1.4%).
  • Players with more than $100K but less than $250K make up 4.25% of the players.
  • Players with lifetime earnings of $100K or more account for just over 7% of the group I track (those with $3K or more in lifetime winnings).
  • 66% of the players tracked (those with more than $3K) have less than $20K in lifetime earnings.
  • For other tracked players with less than $100K in lifetime earnings, 2% were above $80K;
  • 2.9% had between $60K and $80K;
  • 6.1% had between $40K and $60K;
  • and 15.8% were between $20K and $40K.

May Days of Poker

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As we head into this year’s Las Vegas summer poker season, poker continues apace here in Portland (and Oregon).

On May 5th at noon, the Portland Meadows Poker Room hosts a  $30K GTD NLHE Survivor tournament for its annual Kentucky Derby celebration with a buyin of $225.There’s no rebuy and no addon. The flyer says the tournament will end “when there is exactly 10% of the field remaining”, which—depending on rounding—would mean everyone who gets paid gets over $2,200, ten times the buyin.

The next Saturday, May 12th at noon, the Final Table Poker Club is putting on another $50K GTD NLHE tournament with a $160 buyin, $160 live rebuy, and $80 addon. Check their website for more info.

Reports are that action at The Game is just as juicy as ever, keep an eye on Rialto and Claudia’s daily action, and even Aces (inside BC’s Restaurant, 2433 SE Powell, call 503-719-7399) is back with daily tournaments at noon and 6pm Monday through Saturday.

Of note: Ontario Poker Room has a $550 tournament scheduled for 26 May that pays out $10K to 1 out of 20 players. $15 of each entry is the door fee, $15 goes to the dealers, and $20 is for all you can eat food.