Awesome halloween display shared with me by podcast listener Bruce from Westchester, CA! pic.twitter.com/XnEXENjUCk

— Andrew Brokos (@thinkingpoker) October 31, 2017

You can tell they're dead because they're playing 5-card draw. https://t.co/AFwyX6QZY8

— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) October 31, 2017

Howdy, poker peeps! It’s the last Planner before the start of the biggest poker series of the year in the Pacific Northwest, the Wildhorse Casino Fall Poker Round Up, which starts tonight! I was Planning (see what I did there?) to be there for the entire series, but some last-minute changes to schedules mean I’m going to miss the first weekend and, but save a seat for me in Monday’s Omaha Hi-Lo!

@WildhorseCasino in 3 days with the baddest bitches around. Priming my liver as we speak. @jackiburkhart81 @pokerlizzard

— Angela Jordison (@Angelajordison) October 31, 2017

Lots of stuff I could cover today, but I’m already a day late getting this done, and I don’t want to miss anything (though I invariably will), so let’s get to it.

My Time Is Coming: Back From Hiatus?

Back before I went off to work at the WSOP in 2016, I was doing a series called My Time Is Coming, running down the events I was playing each week, but it all got sidetracked by seven weeks of reporting in Vegas and a more-than-full-time job when I got back (plus I can barely keep up on the Planner each week).

In case you hadn’t seen them, I wrote a couple of non-Planner pieces over the past month, a walk-through of the only Hyper Turbo event I’ve ever played, and some hand histories from a table in a Thousandaire Maker where I was seated with poker raconteur Carlos Welch.

My schedule over the past few months has been mostly online, what with trips to the beach (although one was for the Chinook Winds Main Event) and family activities eating into my already-reduced playing schedule. Still, that’s averaged about 10 tournaments a week, focusing on the nightly Ignition Casino Thousandaire Makers (42 of those alone). As well as I’ve been doing online, the lack of live play means I haven’t cashed live since May, and I’m getting a little antsy, especially since I’ve never cashed a tournament at Wildhorse. And I’m going to be there for a week…

Run It Twice

Over on the NW Poker group on Facebook, Josh Stellmon posted a link to the latest Willamette Week article on fight between Oregon Lottery and Portland Meadows, which basically says that there’s not going to be an immediate hammer coming down on Meadows. This was Josh’s analysis:

On its surface this might look like every other article about the ongoing Meadows/Oregon Lotto saga, but this might be the most interesting one yet if you read between the lines (doesn’t take much). In agreeing to the declaratory order process, Meadows and Oregon Lottery are teeing up the issue for judicial review by the Oregon Court of Appeals, so for better or for worse, looks like we might get some clarity. If the news is eventually bad, the good news is the Court of Appeals process could take a while, and it looks like Oregon Lottery agreed to keep the license open until they get a judicial ruling. Looks like the only issues are whether taking a door fee constitutes “house money,” and whether handling the chips constitutes a “house bank.” Obviously significant issues, as the model doesn’t make any sense if a court finds against Meadows on either issue.

And as a number of people noticed, it doesn’t help WW’s credibility to run a clearly-marked photo of a Final Table table in a story about Meadows. Nice job, folks! If you want more to sneer about when discussing WW, head over to the Northwest Labor Press, which rakes writer Nigel Jacquiss over some unrelated coals (though I suspect they’d take a dim view of Portland poker rooms and volunteer dealers).

The Crazy Session

Episode Six. Isn’t that Return of the Jedi?

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Benjamin Martin from Bothell grabbed 2nd place in the Venetian October Weekend Extravaganza $300 Rebuy a couple weeks ago, putting him on the Hendon Mob database for the first time with a good score.

Big names making big money since last week’s report include Dylan Linde (11th in the Main Event at the WSOPC Chicago); and Tyler Patterson and Matt Affleck at the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in Florida, taking 14th and 25th, respectively.

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the first week of the months and Friday is the First Friday, which means it should be a $20K GTD (a text message on Thursday says $15K GTD this month) at Final Table. 7pm, $15 door, $80 buyin with $80 live rebuy, and $40 addon.

If shootouts are your thing, Micah Bell reports that there are “$1/2/5 Omaha mix game on Saturdays @ The Game starting around 7pm. 4 card Hi and 5 card Hi/Lo (Big O)”. November is Player Appreciation Month, so that’s cool.

Now that Rialto’s back in operation, there are games there seven days a week, text or call 503-227-8147.

Wildhorse Schedule

All eyes will be on the East! I’m not absolutely sure there will be a Planner next week, but I’ll try to get it done.

Only a Day Away

• The World Series of Poker Circuit Lake Tahoe Main Event starts tomorrow at Harvey’s. $1,675 entry with flights at 11am Friday and Saturday.
• Mid-States Poker Tour Denver Poker Open  $100K GTD kickoff event kicks starts today with $360 entry flights through Saturday.
• The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV is bursting with events for the next few weeks, including a $200K GTD this weekend ($1,100 entry) and a $300 Survivor on Friday night (pays $2,500 to 10% of the field, with $12K GTD).
•  The LA Poker Open starts Friday. Next week features PLO (Tuesday at 5pm, $350), a NLHE 6-Max at noon on Wednesday with PLO8 at 5pm (both $350). Thursday is a $570 Big O game!
• Next Thursday at Planet Hollywood is the WSOPC Las Vegas opener, a $365 Ring event with six entry flights (noon and 4pm, Thursday—Saturday) and $200 GTD. The Main Event ($1,675) has $1M GTD and starts 17 November.
• The Lucky Chances 19th Annual Gold Rush in Colma (south of San Francisco) starts 12 November and features six events with 1st-place guarantees ranging from $10K to $100K for the Main Event ($1,080 buyin, starts 18 November).

Remember to keep an eye on the #PNWPokerCal Twitter hashtag and the PNW Poker Calendar for upcoming events!

https://twitter.com/PACWESTclassic/status/912360065599913985

#BitterAtTheBeach

This year’s Fall Coast Classic is in the books, we’ve got full results archived, and they’re even up on Hendon Mob already, thanks to quick work by the staff (though I did have to get them to do a correction on Main Event Winner Jimmy Nguyen, after they initially assigned it to a guy from England with $300 in lifetime earnings).

I didn’t manage to make it to the money, but I did bag chips for only the second time in the couple dozen multi-day events I’ve played (both times in fall series events at Chinook and yes, I’m that bad). Doubly pleased to be bagging and outlasting my two-and-a-half hour performance last fall at Chinook.

Obligatory Angela Jordison photo.

I was at the back of the room on table 38, and we didn’t get five players to start until about ten minutes into the first level. There were a couple of aggressive players at the table , then Steve Myers sat down in seat 5 and the game was on. One hand in the first level where I raised from early position to 300, Steve 4-bet to 5300. I lost that hand. We saw a 240bb pot in the first level, with Steve losing a big chunk of the chips he’d gained, but he came back. Eventually, though, I picked up some chips (doubling up against one of the ago players) and managed to outlast Steve and several others until the table broke after dinner.

By 9pm on Day 1, I was up to 150K, even though getting aces twice in an orbit didn’t pay off for much. I went into the day planning to write down hands, but I must be getting slow, because I quickly discovered it didn’t seem practical (to be fair to myself, taking notes in the early stage of the game before the table was full was part of the problem).

Bagged 198K @PACWESTclassic Main Event, ahead of the chip average for now! Been up 22.5 hrs, need sleep for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/NaafFCiLFH

— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) September 24, 2017

By the time we wrapped up a little after midnight (12 50-minute levels plus breaks) I had 198K, which put me in the top 20% of the returning field of 154 (from 300 entries).

My seat draw for Day 2 was decent. I was the biggest stack at the table. Henry Fields—who’d been on my right most of Day 1—was on my right again, and Kerry Yoon was on my left with a smaller but respectable stack.

Kerry got to work right away, knocking out one of the short stacks with [ax jx] v [ax qx]. I doubled up another short stack—Khanista Griffin—before calling her button all in with [kx kx] for a third of my stack from the big blind with [9d td] (Kerry turned to me and said “How do you make that call?”). Patrick, between us in the smalll blind, was all in as well, but I flopped a flush and knocked them both out. That put me up to 273K.

One table broke almost immediately at the start of the day, and more the 40 players were gone in the first hour level. We picked up several new players, including Max Young, who came to the table with what looked like 300K and sat on my right. So I was sandwiched between Max and Kerry, who by this time had more than tripled the 101K he’d started with for Day 2,

I had a fairly significant setback twenty minutes into level 14 (the second level of Day 2) when I called an early position raise to 16K with [kc jc], flopped top pair, check-raised 40K after a 16K bet on a [kx 5x 7x] flop, then felt I sort of had to call the 72K all-in (against [kx qx]. Like I said, bad player. That ate up about half my stack and I texted my friends that I was down to 112K at 12:25pm.

Then came the end, in what was one of the craziest hands of poker I’ve ever been involved in.

I had exactly 110K, at the 3K/6K/500 level. We were going up to 4K/8K/500 in about half an hour, by which time I’ll be down to just about 90K. I get [9d 9h] in UTG1. Max is UTG and he folds. I shove with only a couple of other stacks covering me behind.

Kerry, on my left, is one of them, with what I estimated was more than three times my own count. He makes the call, which is probably a bad sign, I was thinking. Behind him, the guy I lost half my stack to folds. Toma Barber, who made the final table the only other time I bagged chips (min-cash for me, that time) is all in with a very short stack. Then River Rich, who I played with a lot in the old Encore Club days and who’s doubled up to about 200K since he got to the table, takes a minute before he shoves over the top. There’s nearly 400K in the pot now, the button and blinds fold, and Kerry has to make the decision about whether to put another 70-80K in, which he eventually does. My nines are up against Kerry’s [as kd], [kc ks] for Toma, and [ad ah] for Rich. The last king bangs out on the flop: [kh qh th], giving Toma the chance to quadruple his stack. The turn [2d] didn’t change anything, but the [jh] gave me a king-high straight flush. Unfortunately, Rich made a royal flush with the ace of hearts, so I was only second-best with the penultimate poker hand.

Despite an overlay in the opening event (up against the Muckleshoot and WSOPC Thunder Valley Main Events, gotta watch those calendars, people!) it seemed like folks were having a good time, folks were giving the staff kudos, and dates for the winter series have been announced already (14—25 February, up against the WSOPC event in Last Vegas at the Rio, of course).

They’re Baaaack…

Willamette Week reported Tuesday that the Oregon Lottery is still being used as a wedge to try to peel off poker from the offerings at Portland Meadows. That was followed by stories by Mo Nuwarrah at PokerNews and Brian Pempus at CardPlayer.

Guys, if you need photos of actual poker being played Portland, let me know!

More Poker Time

Poker Time – Episode 2 part 1https://t.co/jlJTy8KLLQ https://t.co/HdpHLxrVoX

— Portland Meadows Poker Room (@PDXmeadowspoker) September 26, 2017

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Results from the Chinook and Muckleshoot series haven’t been integrated into the state-wide rankings at Hendon Mob yet, but I can tell you that four of the nine final table finishers in the Chinook Main Event made their first recorded cash last weekend, and for a couple of others, it was the biggest cash by far. But we’ll get to that next week.

It was a good week for Bend’s Seth Davies, who played in the $100K buyin Poker Masters tournament at the Aria. He took 4th place. You can watch the action on PokerGo. Or rather, you can if you can get it to load for you. (They’re running $300/$600 PLO this week on Poker After Dark, by the way.

This Week In Portland Poker

Usual schedules this week in Portland.

Only a Day Away

• Los Angeles’s Gardens Poker Classic/Poker Night in America continues, but a cloud arose during the $1M event last year, when as the weekend approached and player participation in the $565 tournament wasn’t meeting the guarantee expectations, the card room pushed back Day 2 from Saturday to Monday and added four entry flights.
• The Main Event of the Heartland Poker Tour is at Ameristar Casino St. Charles, with entry flights through Saturday.
• The Wynn Fall Classic $400K GTD European Poker Open is this weekend with an $1,100 buyin.
• The second part of the Deepstacks Poker Tour Battle of Alberta starts in Calgary on Thursday.
• The Stones $250K Fall Classic is Friday at Stones Gambling Hall with five side events, satellites, and a $150K GTD Main Event.
• The Bicycle Casino/Card Player Poker Tour V Big Poker Oktober starts 1 October. It’s just over two weeks long, and has a couple of $400K GTD events, with the first starting Monday.
• There’s a mini-series with smaller buyins for the RealGrinders poker group at the Venetian, running next week. It features $125 buyin O8, HORSE, and Big O tournaments.
• Heartland Poker Tour Kansas City, is at the Ameristar there, opening a week from Thursday (5 October) with a 350 buyin $100K GTD.

Remember to keep an eye on the #PNWPokerCal Twitter hashtag and the PNW Poker Calendar for upcoming events!

https://twitter.com/pacwestclassic/status/909961715785203714

Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic

The series is already half over! Thursday at noon is the ever-popular Event #10 $20K GTD Big O (played in the proper pot liimit format, not that limit crap, that’s no way to play Big O), and the Event #15 $150K GTD NLHE Main Event starts Saturday, with satellites in different formats Thursday and Friday evenings at 6pm (not really enough time to get down from Portland after work, guys), and a turbo satellite on Saturday morning at 10am.

Winners photos for the 6-Max and Seniors event were posted on Twitter (see above and here), but more posts might get more retweets (hint, hint).

I spent the weekend at Cape Disappointment for my wife’s birthday, so I didn’t get to play the 6-Max, but I did pick up a new t-shirt (from Friends of the Columbia River Gateway) for playing poker.

Calendar Changes

If you look at the next couple of weeks of the #PNWPokerCal Calendar, you’ll see a lot more stuff. That’s not because there are a lot more series, but I’ve started adding specific events. I’m going to try adding in as many events as possible for series in the Northwest, tournament with guarantees of more than $200K (or non-guarantee main events for larger series) and non-NLHE tournaments.

Additionally, I’m adding addresses and Google Map links for events, so if you’re unsure where a venue is, you can checkit out fast. Let me know if you think things are getting too cluttered (but try the buttons above the calendar first to filter by geographic regions first!)

Poker Time

The first three episodes of Poker Time hit the “air” this week, with Jonathan Levy and Grant Denison bringing their skills to bear on completely new content rather than broadcasts from the WSOP, WPT, or EPT. Featuring local poker names like Baptiste Chavalliez, Robert Brewer, and Jake Dahl, it’s a look into how some successful players approach a 5/5 cash game. More than two-and-a-half hours of poker in the three episodes. Watch Jake suck out on Baptiste in real time!

Poker Time: A New Poker TV Show…FIRST EPISODE!

It's finally here! Episode two comes tomorrow. https://t.co/jKuL1lrGAY

— The Poker Guys (@2PokerGuys) September 18, 2017

My Ears Are Burning (Like a Phoenix)

An article in the online journal Gaming Today quoted Ron Teston—who’s trying to open a social gaming club in Phoenix (between Ashland and Medford)—as saying “Social-gaming operations in Portland and California charge participants $15 per hour to play poker…” Ehhhh, no.

“Social-gaming operations in Portland … charge … $15 per hour to play poker” @GamingTodayNews

More like $15/dayhttps://t.co/k8aRceZFOe

— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) September 19, 2017

The publication tweeted that they were disabling the article while they looked into it (meanwhile David Long corrected my correction by pointing out it was “up to” $15/day, since only the larger venues charge that much) but it’s still up without any correction.

Racing Chips

If you haven’t shoved The Chip Race, the Irish poker podcast from David Lappin and Dara O’Kearney (with news from the execrable Ian Simpson) you’re missing out on—as people say the Irish say the craik. A lot of the show content is Euro-ccentric and sort of just makes you wish you were bumming around Ireland and the United Kingdom playing poker live and on any of the myriad legal online sites (Unibet sponsors the show) but it’s full of good stories and advice. The most recent episode features Jennifer Tilly (who will also be on Poker Night in America this Friday).

Set-mining with 20% of your stack is set-FRACKING. It's poor risk/reward and it happens when rocks crack.

— Barny Boatman (@barnyboatman) July 7, 2014

Yes! Heard @daraokearney use this on @thechiprace like it was a real thing. I'm gonna need a new bucket list soon. https://t.co/OgcGIfOrZS

— Barny Boatman (@barnyboatman) September 19, 2017

Anyway, last week Dara quoted an old comment by Barny Boatman—one of the famous Hendon Mob—which I retweeted. Then I got credit for “resurrecting” it from Thinking Poker podcaster Andrew Brokos, and Ryan Laplante retweeted Brokos’s comment. I replied that it wasn’t me, and just to continue to give credit where credit is due, it was The Chip Race.

Dollars4Dustin

Back in April, Dustin Brandon Ferreira was crossing a street in Medford when he was hit by a truck. According to a story by KTVL-TV, Ferreira is a founder of the Rogue Valley Scorpions, a wheelchair basketball team in Southern Oregon. His bones were already brittle from osteogenesis imperfecta, and twenty-seven bones were broken in the accident. He’s in the process of trying to raise $20K for a new wheelchair and handicap-accessible van, and one of his fundraisers (in addition to a GoFundMe site) is a poker tournament at Medford’s Southern Oregon Poker Club. Coming up October 9th.

Dollars4Dustin Texas Hold’em Poker Fundraiser 10/8 Southern Oregon Poker Club, Medford https://t.co/agFCSpBAzG pic.twitter.com/cJuSBeOc5L

— Poker Mutant (@pokermutant) September 17, 2017

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

No significant winners posted to Hendon Mob this week, but here are the Muckleshoot Summer Poker Classic Main Event results:

#Poker: After a hard-fought battle, here are the results from our Summer Poker Classic Main Event. Thank you to everyone who joined us. pic.twitter.com/FPGGUz7nZo

— Muckleshoot Casino Resort (@Muckleshoot_C) September 19, 2017

And a little action from the event:

Level2 Event4 @Muckleshoot_C Classic: 2 players openly agree if folded to them in blinds, will go all-in dark. They do. Ruled not collusion.

— Luckbox Larry (@hugepoker) September 17, 2017

Amusingly, both players have 62o and they split the pot

— Luckbox Larry (@hugepoker) September 17, 2017

This Week In Portland Poker

Usual schedules this week in Portland. Friday night’s usual $10K GTD at Final Table will be a $5K GTD this week because of the festivities at Chinook Winds.

Room 52, Where Are You?

A new addition to the social gaming scene in Portland, Room 52 opened this week inside Midpoint Cafe, at SE 52nd & Powell. They’ll be running 0.50/1 shootouts. Text 971-517-9230 for seat availability.

Only a Day Away

• It’s the last week of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5. There are 3 days left to enter a $250 buyin $250K GTD NLHE. You can get updates and info at the poker room blog.
• The World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley Main Event has two entry days on Friday and Saturday. There’s a $500K GTD for the $1675 entry.
• Los Angeles’s Gardens Poker Classic/Poker Night in America is coming to the end of the entry days for their $1M GTD $565 buyin tournament. There are two flights Thursday and two more on Friday.
• Heartland Poker Tour is at Ameristar Casino St. Charles, the $100K GTD $350 entry starting tournament has entries through Saturday; the Main Event ($1650 entry) starts next Thursday.
• The monthly Lucky Chances Casino (Colma, south of San Francisco) $20K guaranteed to first place is coming up Sunday at 9:30am. It’s $375 including the dealer addon.
• The Tulalip Last Sunday of the Month has a $25K GTD and $100 bounties for September. It starts Sunay at 11am with a $340 buyin.
• The Wynn Fall Classic starts next Wednesday. There are three big events, with the first the $400K GTD European Open (no need to be European to play) $1100 entry, with live streaming of the event. Online poker site Unibet has been running satellites for the event and will be bringing in 200 qualifiers.
• The second part of the Deepstacks Poker Tour Battle of Alberta starts in Calgary on 28 September.
• The Stones $250K Fall Classic starts 29 September at Stones Gambling Hall with five side events, satellites, and a $150K GTD Main Event.
• The Bicycle Casino/Card Player Poker Tour V Big Poker Oktober starts 1 October. It’s just over two weeks long, and has a couple of $400K GTD events.
• There’s a mini-series with smaller buyins for the RealGrinders poker group at the Venetian, running from 2—8 October. It features $125 buyin O8, HORSE, and Big O tournaments.

Remember to keep an eye on the #PNWPokerCal Twitter hashtag and the PNW Poker Calendar for upcoming events!

Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic

It’s upon us! Oregon’s other big-time poker series, down at the beach, starts this weekend with a $75K GTD NLHE 6-Max, with two starting days (saturday and Sunday) and reentry through level 6 (40 minute levels) both days. Total cost is $340 ($300 entry + $30 fee + $10 dealer appreciation).

The week is jam-packed with satellites to the Main Event, plus a $25K GTD Seniors tournament (changed to 50+ now that I meet the former, higher, restriction) on Tuesday, $10K GTD Limit Omaha Hi-Lo on Wednesday (you’d think that game would be seniors-only!), a Boss Bounty tournament Wednesday night with $200 bounties paid by the casino, and $20K GTD Big O on Thursday, along with cash games and more. Check out the PDF with the schedule and structures.

In a twist this series, the $150K GTD NLHE Main Event is no reentry. Once and done. Day 1 (of 2) is 23 September, entry is $575 ($500 entry + $50 fee + $25 dealer appreciation), and there’s a $200 addon after level 6. Total chip buy is 40K + 30K.

I’m hoping to make it down for more than just the Main Event; see you all there!

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

The new name on the leaderboard this week is Brian Keller from Sammamish, who dropped into the $800 buyin 8-Max at the Venetian in Las Vegas (along with another 284 entries) and came out in third place for an impressive first Hendon Mob cash.

Gary Swaney of Olympia has been posting results for a decade, but hit his biggest cash in a different Venetian event, the $400 SuperStack, which drew 129 entries. No official reports, but it appears Swaney took second in a heads-up deal.

Happy Birthday, Kevmath!

For anyone in the poker industry—and particularly anyone who spends time poring over tournament schedules—Kevin Mathers aka @Kevmath stands tall (really, he’s well over six feet). His birthday was Monday. He’s the backbone of poker Twitter (his tenth anniversary is coming up next May), and by then he should be well over 100K tweets (he’s only 3400 off that mark). He turned an obsession with poker and a near-encyclopedic knowledge of players and past results (plus what must be phenomenally fast thumbs) into a hobby, then a profession, to the point that he’s been the official social media presence for the WSOP the past two years.

Happy Birthday @Kevmath! So glad we have you in our industry and hope you have a great day! pic.twitter.com/xgWW542h8Y

— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) September 11, 2017

This Week In Portland Poker

Usual schedules this week in Portland.

Only a Day Away

• The  Muckleshoot Summer Classic kicks off today with a $2K Added NLHE Shootour at noon and a Limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament at 6pm. Their $20K Added Main Event ($750 entry, presumably with extra dealer addon) starts Sunday.

Please Note: You will not be able to enter the garage via the blue marked roadway from 5 am to noon, Wed. & Thurs. https://t.co/GCmeaHVCRr pic.twitter.com/BeTYNgTBxZ

— Muckleshoot Casino Resort (@Muckleshoot_C) September 13, 2017

• There’s a $200K GTD at Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5 this weekend. Starts at noon Friday and Saturday ($1100 entry), and finishing up on Sunday. Friday at 5:05pm is a PLO/PLO8 mix with $250 buyin and $7K GTD. Tuesday is the first flight os a $250 buyin $250K GTD tournament. You can get updates and info at the poker room blog.
• Friday at 5pm is the $20K GTD Big O game at the Commerce Poker Series with a $570 entry. The $1M Main Event ($1100 entry) starts today, with entry days through Saturday. You can follow action on Twitter @LAPC and  @TheJustinHammer.
• Entry to the Heartland Poker Tour Golden Gates Casino in Colorado Main Event runs from today through Saturday with a $1650 buyin. Sunday features a $3K buyin 2-day 8-Max High Roller.
• The Deepstacks Poker Tour’s Battle of Alberta: Edmonton at Casino Yellowhead Main Event starts tomorrow. C$1100 buyin, with entry days  through Saturday.
• The Aria/PokerGO Poker Masters starts today!
• The World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley starts tomorrow with a $365 entry Ring event with a $250K guarantee. There are five entry flights (two each on Thursday and Friday and one on Saturday). PLO on MOnday, HORSE on Tuesday (both $365, both Ring events). A week from Friday is the $500K GTD Main Event ($1675 entry). Inconveniently scheduled against Chinook Winds.
• Los Angeles’s Gardens Poker Classic/Poker Night in America starts Friday and runs the second half of the  month, kicking off with a $565 Main Event with $1M GTD and 12 entry flights. There’s a PLO 6-Max on 25 September and a Big O/7-Card Stud Hi Lo 29 September (the Big O is possibly limit since that seems to be what they mean in Southern California unless its explicitly pot limit).
• At Talking Stick Resort in Arizona, the Arena Poker Room Seniors Poker Open starts Saturday, with a $500 buyin.
• Heartland Poker Tour is at Ameristar Casino St. Charles a week from today. The casino is 8 miles from the St. Louis airport (STL).
• The monthly Lucky Chances Casino (Colma, south of San Francisco) $20K guaranteed to first place is coming up 24 September at 9:30am. It’s $375 including the dealer addon. Dates for their annual Gold Rush Series have been relased; it runs 12—19 November, and features a two-day tournament with $100K guaranteed to first.
• The Tulalip Last Sunday of the Month has a $25K GTD and $100 bounties for September. It starts 24 September at 11am with a $340 buyin.
• Two weeks off is the Wynn Fall Classic. There are three big events, with the first the $400K GTD European Open (no need to be European to play) $1100 entry, with live streaming of the event. Online poker site Unibet has been running satellites for the event and will be bringing in 200 qualifiers.
• The second part of the Deepstacks Poker Tour Battle of Alberta starts in Calgary on 28 September.
• The Stones $250K Fall Classic starts 29 September at Stones Gambling Hall with five side events, satellites, and a $150K GTD Main Event.

Remember to keep an eye on the #PNWPokerCal Twitter hashtag and the PNW Poker Calendar for upcoming events!

My Eyes Are Burning, Too

This is going to be a short write-up today. It was predicted as a week of 100° temperatures here in Portland, I don’t have an air conditioner set up in my office any more, and the only reason it’s not as hot as the predictions is that the sky is full of smoke and ash because some idiot teenagers were flipping fireworks off the side of a trail in the Columbia River Gorge Saturday, so now there’s a fire of least 10,000 acres in size. I hadn’t moved up the Willamette Valley to Portland at the time of the Mt. St. Helens eruption, and the ashfall this time is far less, but seriously, this really sucks. I’m not the outdoorsman I know a lot of you folks are, but my father and his sister have been hiking on both sides of the Columbia between Portland and Hood River a couple of times a week for years during the summers (including an impromptu overnight when a hike on Ruckle Ridge lasted longer than expected). The Gorge isn’t going to be the same for the rest of my life.

WOW. Incredible time lapse video shows how the #EagleCreekFire grew from Monday into early Tuesday.

(Video: Oca Hoeflein on YouTube). pic.twitter.com/XK8FsDkRmb

— KATU News (@KATUNews) September 5, 2017

Who’s Got the Button?

Curious about the Labor Day Win the Button at Stones Gambling Hall? You can watch the final table on Twitch.

Results for #WinTheButtonhttps://t.co/opT1330p7S

Live Stream FT @StonesLivePoker https://t.co/UG5ZihJ7Ry

GEGA-000412
1800GAMBLER

— Stones Gambling Hall (@StonesGambling) September 6, 2017

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Jeffrey Farnes from Salem got his first Hendon Mob cash at Thunder Valley in the Main Event of the Ante Up World Championship. It didn’t take him long to notch a big #2, taking second place in the WPTDeepstacks Reno Main Event.

Jeff Farnes goes home in 2nd place WPTDS Reno earning $39,735. https://t.co/59gaAZHKVy pic.twitter.com/MFSAFVmWZI

— WPT Prime (@WPTPrime) August 28, 2017

Everett’s Artem Markov  is the other big winner for the week, in the 1,180-player HPT Monster Stack side event in East Chicago, where he negotiated a heads-up deal for substantial second place. It’s Artem’s third (and by far largest) recorded cash.

AND THE WINNER IS…

After 12 grueling hours of poker play, Mark Owens and Artem Markov agree to chop the remaini… https://t.co/fOSee3xDWc pic.twitter.com/C6kNfTEJyv

— HPT Updates (@HPTUpdates) August 28, 2017

This Week In Portland Poker

If the weather’s too hot for you, maybe you’d like a Freezeout Saturday at Portland Meadows?

Only a Day Away

• The final Wednesday night Muckleshoot Summer Classic Satellite is tonight at 7pm. One out of ten players ($125 buyin) gets a choice between two packages of seats in the series. There are $225 Mega Satellites for all five events in the Classic Sunday, Sunday at noon, and at 7pm on Monday and Tuesday. The Classic starts a week from today, with a $2K added NLHE Shootout at noon ($250 buyin). There’s a Limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament ($200 buyin) at 7pm. The September calendar is finally available.
• The second week of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5 is beginning. The first big event just squeaked past the $200K guarantee by a couple thousand dollars (about 3 $800 buyins). This weekend is a $125K GTD tournament with three starting flights and $250 buyin. You can get updates and info at the poker room blog.
• There are 2 $570 flights each on Friday and Saturday at the Commerce Poker Series for a $300K GTD, with lots of satellites for their $1M GTD Main Event and a $350 buyin PLO game Sunday at 4pm. You can follow action on Twitter @LAPC and  @TheJustinHammer.

Play in any CPS Tournament to automatically be entered to win a free $1,000,000 Main Event Seat. pic.twitter.com/9PM3lIOCq2

— The Commerce Casino & Hotel (@CommerceCasino) September 5, 2017

• There are still four events (well, five if you can get up north by 11am) at the Little Creek Casino South Sound Poker Championship.
• Friday, Heartland Poker Tour moves to Golden Gates Casino in Colorado. In addition to qualifiers to the Main Event (starting next Wednesday), the first days feature four entry days for a $400 buyin.
• Friday is also the start of Deepstacks Poker Tour’s Battle of Alberta: Edmonton at Casino Yellowhead. There are several days featuring satellites to multiple series events and a C$1,100 C$250K GTD Main Event. Also, NLH/PLO mix and a C$660 PLO 8-Max. About $430 RT (in US dollars) and you’d be flying on 9/11 if you want to make that one. C$660 is about $530.
• The Aria/PokerGO Poker Masters is coming up in two weeks with five events.
• The World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley starts 14 September. It features PLO, NLHE 6-Max, and HORSE ring events, as well as a $1,675 Main Event (with entry flights 22 and 23 September).
• Los Angeles’s Gardens Poker Classic/Poker Night in America runs the second half of September, kicking off with a $565 Main Event with $1M GTD and 12 entry flights.
• At Talking Stick Resort in Arizona, the Arena Poker Room Seniors Poker Open runs 16—18 September, with a $500 buyin.
• The Chinook Winds Casino Resort Fall Coast Classic starts 16 September with the popular $75K GTD NLHE 6-Max. The capper is a $150K NLHE, $550 entry, no rebuy, and a $200 addon.
• Heartland Poker Tour is at Ameristar Casino St. Charles two weeks from today. The casino is 8 miles from the St. Louis airport (STL). It’s about a 4-hour direct flight; you can get a direct roundtrip flight and a room for the entire series at a motel less than a mile away for less than $900.

Remember to keep an eye on the #PNWPokerCal Twitter hashtag and the PNW Poker Calendar for upcoming events!