Category Archives: Poker Calendar

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 30 August 2017

Posted on by

Angela Jordison’s Birthday!

I’ve found I can never go wrong with a picture of Angela Jordison on the post, so here’s one from the summer of 2016. Oh, and the inside of my nose. Happy birthday, Angela! (Did I mention Angela came in 51st in the Arizona State Poker Championship the other day?)

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

The big (and only) number this week comes from Portland’s own 2016 WPT Five Diamond Champ James Romero, who’s been living up to his post-win promise to travel the world “donating the money back to professional poker players from every country” with cashes this year in the Bahamas, Australia, and Canada (as well as across the US). He placed 49th out of 1,682 entries in the Main Event at the PokerStars Championship Main Event in Barcelona.

We’re looking for good things today from Jeffrey Mitseff, who double-qualified for the $100K GTD Big HORSE tournament at The Bike over the weekend. He started Day 2 (Tuesday) in 5th place (and 18th place) out of 48 advancing players. There were two other players who qualified twice; Jeff was the only one of the three with two above-average qualifying stacks.

 

Portland Poker Championship Series III

The final numbers are in and there’s a new champion here in town. The PPCS3 started the last game on Sunday with a 4-way tie at 50 points (three first-place finishers and a fourth player with two cashes equalling 50 points), but Thai T. got into the money for just enough points to push him ahead of the others. It may not be a perfect point system, but at least the winner was someone who made a final table this time around!

Congrats to Ben May and Brian Sarchi, and the staff at Final Table and Portland Meadows, and to all of the volunteer dealers (except for those who done me wrong!) who keep the game of poker running in Portland. And what the hell, thanks to the players.

 

Portland Wrestling Poker

If you’ve ever listened to The Poker Guys podcast, seen their YouTube channel, read their Twitter feed, or seen their feature-length art film, then you’ve probably through: “Sure, they can yammer on about a single hand for an hour, but could they do that kind of incisive, witty commentary on the fly? In real time?”

Well, you still won’t know for sure, but you can check out a couple of sample hands from the trials of the Radio Frequency ID (RFID) table at Portland Meadows that they put together. No live streaming plans, but that gives the Guys time to put together a nifty production without a big crew.

This Week In Portland Poker

UPDATE: Friday’s game at Final Table is not a $20K GTD due to the Labor Day Weekend.

Friday is the first of the month, which means it’s First Friday, which should mean a $20K GTD at Final Table to follow up on the PPCS3. And it’s Labor Day Weekend, when the plight of the working man is traditionally celebrated with games of chance, so who knows? There may be some special events announced at the last minutes.

Only a Day Away

  • Another 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. The last Wednesday satellite is next Wednesday. There are $225 Mega Satellites for all five events in the Classic Sunday, 10 September at noon, and at 7pm on Monday and Tuesday, 11 and 12 September. The Classic starts two weeks from today.
  • Heartland Poker Tour at Ameristar East Chicago runs through Labor Day. Flights into the $1,650 Main Event are Thursday through Saturday at 2pm on the first two days and 1pm on Saturday. There are $375 satellites running through Saturday morning and some side events. Last-minute travel over the holiday and with massive disruptions through the Southeast are likely to lead to some problems, but there are still $230 round-trip tickets for Saturday morning (with departure just after midnight Friday) that would get to Chicago with plenty of time to make even the 10am satellite if everything connects.
  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5 starts tomorrow with four weeks of events. The big early event is an $800 buyin 8-Max with a $200K GTD and there are four smaller buyin events with six-figure guarantees.
  • The Commerce Poker Series starts Friday, with an early $350 buyin $100K GTD. It features a $1M GTD Main Event ($1,100 entry), a $5K NL 2-7 Triple Draw tournament, and some big bounty tournaments.
  • Sunday at Eugene’s Beach Poker Club is their $135 buyin Monthly Big Tournament.
  • Labor Day at Stone Gambling Hall is a $15K GTD Win the Button tournament, where the button is assigned to whoever won the last hand.
  • Little Creek Casino’s South Sound Poker Championship starts Tuesday with a Seniors (50+) tournament at 11am. There are six events (most at 11am), including a $340 Main Event with $5K added to the prize pool. Little Creek is in Shelton, Washington, west of Olympia, about 125 miles from Portland.
  • A week from Friday (8 September), Heartland Poker Tour moves to Golden Gates Casino in Colorado. In addition to qualifiers to the Main Event (starting 13 September), the first days feature four entry days for a $400 buyin.
  • 8 September 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.

  • If money’s not an issue for you, the Aria/PokerGO Poker Masters is coming up in two weeks with five events. Buyins of $50K and $100K, but if you had to ask, you can’t afford it. If you enter all four of the $50K events you get into the $100K free rake-free!
  • Stomping on two other Northwest-adjacent tournament series (Muckleshoot and Chinook Winds), the World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley comes to the Sacramento area 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 through 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.
  • And last but not least, it’s the Chinook Winds Casino Resort Fall Coast Classic starting 16 September with the popular $75K GTD NLHE 6-Max.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 23 August 2017

Posted on by

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

The undisputed champ of this week’s leaderboard is Max Young, who’s been crushing the national poker circuit this year after years of local crushing. His latest, biggest win comes at Philadelphia’s Parx Casino, in the Main Event of the series, a $1,600 entry (Max said on Facebook that he fired two bullets) with 447 entries and a prize pool of $650K. This is Max’s 21st recorded cash in 2017 (with four months and change left to go), his eleventh final table and  fourth five-or-better figure cash this year, plus he won a World Series of Poker Circuit ring in Florida in February. Maybe I’ll stop holding a grudge against him for sucking out on me in an Aces $25K guarantee four years ago and just say I knew him when!

New on the list this week is David Froyalde from Federal Way. David’s very first Hendon Mob cash is a doozy: first place in the Venetian August Weekend Extravaganza Event #1, with a buyin of $250 and 618 entries, with a prize pool of $126,690.

Down in Florida at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, Mill Creek, Washington’s Charles Coultas notched first in Event #15 PLO, with a $2,650 buyin and 99 entries, while Scott Clements placed 24th in the $5,250 NLHE Championship.

Poker for the Cure

The annual poker benefit for the Susan G. Komen Sleep In for the Cure fundraiser is Friday. Top prize is a trip for two to Las Vegas. It’s a $50 buyin, at the iHeartRADIO Portland Lounge in Tigard, with proceeds going to fight breast cancer.

Portland Poker Championship Series III

PPCS3 Event 1 points

PPCS3 Event 2 points

The first two games of the PPCS3 are in the bag and the race for the championship belt is on, using the new World Series of Poker Circuit-based system. So far as I can tell, there were no repeating cashes over the weekend, so it’s theoretically anyone’s game.

For those unfamiliar with the system, a set number of points are awarded to the final table (ranging from 50 for first place to 15 or ninth place. Then, of the remaining in-the-money players, the bottom half get 2.5 points, the top 20% get 10 points, and the middle 30% get 5 points.

Saigon Vic and Jim Hissner  are tied for the lead, this weekend’s games will determine who gets the belt. I did not cash, but there’s still time!

The prize pool Saturday got to nearly $39K (with a $20K GTD); I was out before the end of rebuys (and before addons) on Sunday but there were already 132 entries with 57 rebuys with 13 minutes left.

Saturday at noon is a $30K GTD tournament at Final Table, with a $120 buyin (and one live rebuy) with a $60 addon. Coming up on Sunday is the big one: a $50K GTD at Portland Meadows. The entry fee is $200, and addon is $80.

Good luck to everyone! I hope to see you all. I’ll be the guy with the trophy on the rail.

 

Ready For My Close-Ups, Part 2

I hadn’t seen dates for it before last week’s post, but Run It Up Reno returns in October with eight days of affordable tournaments including HORSE, O8/S8, PLO/Big O, and NORSE (NLHE + ORSE)..

Only a Day Away

  • The Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker features one of the biggest guarantee HORSE tournaments I’ve seen, with $240 and $350 buyins over six flights for a $100K GTD. The twist is the O is Big O. Friday is a Survivor tournament with a $5K payout, and Saturday it’s a $10K payout. How can I resist? I can because I have to work. It burns! Friday is also the first of three entry flights for the WPT Main Event, a $4K buyin. Last year’s event had 687 entries and a prize pool of nearly $2.5M.
  • WPTDeepstacks at Reno Atlantis has a $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin) starting Friday at noon. Saturday is another flight, with Day 2 on Sunday and the final table on Monday.
  • The second 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. The satellites run weekly through 6 September. Sunday is Muckleshoot’s $300 buyin Deepstack.
  • Today is the start of the Horseshoe Poker Classic in Council Bluffs, Iowa (across the river from the Omaha airport). Its Main Event has five flights through Saturday August, with Day 2 on Sunday.
  • Heartland Poker Tour returns to Ameristar East Chicago tomorrow, which is always one of their bigger stops. They open with a $200K GTD ($350 buyin); the Main Event begins 31 August.
  • At 9:30am Sunday, Lucky Chances Casino holds its monthly $20K GTD to first place tournament. $375 including the staff appreciation.
  • The monthly No Chop at the Top tournament at Tulalip Resort Casino is at 11am on 27 August. $230 (including dealer addon) with $5K added.
  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5 starts 31 August with four weeks of events. The big early event is an $800 buyin 8-Max with a $200K GTD and there are four smaller buyin events with six-figure guarantees.
  • The Commerce Poker Series starts a week from Friiday, with an early $350 buyin $100K GTD. It features a $1M GTD Main Event ($1,100 entry), a $5K NL 2-7 Triple Draw tournament, and some big bounty tournaments.
  • Labor Day at Stone Gambling Hall is a $15K GTD Win the Button tournament, where the button is assigned to whoever won the last hand.
  • Little Creek Casino’s South Sound Poker Championship starts 5 September with a Seniors (50+) tournament at 11am. There are six events (most at 11am), including a $340 Main Event with $5K added to the prize pool. Little Creek is in Shelton, Washington, west of Olympia, about 125 miles from Portland.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 16 August 2017

Posted on by

Help Scott Ranstrom Get Back to Poker

Photograph from KATU.com

The 69-year-old Vietnam veteran considers himself a jack-of-all trades, someone who can learn a new skill just by watching. He spent years as a commercial roofer. He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, and doesn’t do drugs. “My biggest crime in life is playing poker, and I love doing that,” he said.

For those who don’t know the story, almost exactly four months ago, Scott Ranstrom was sitting in a Denny’s on Southeast 82nd Avenue just south of the Portland city line using their wi-fi playing online poker and doing some other tasks, when a man he’d never met walked in, doused Ranstrom with gasoline, and lit him on fire. Ranstrom spent two months in a coma, and he’s still in the hospital, with a long road of recovery and rehabilitation ahead.

Nearly every article since the attack has mentioned his love of playing poker, and the update that ran on KATU the other night was no exception, with Ranstrom telling  reporter Keaton Thomas that he’s going back to playing poker once he gets out of the hospital. It also mentioned that his GoFundMe site, set up to cover extensive medical expenses, had raised just $40K of a $100K goal.

Portland Poker Championship Series III and Texas Hold’em For the Cure 2017

I’m keeping both of these up front here in the Planner for the next two weeks.

The PPCS3 starts Saturday at noon at Portland Meadows with a $20K GTD tournament. It’s a Freezeout with a $165 buyin. No rebuy, no addon, and a 25K starting stack. Everyone gets a pass from me for the first game (as a player at Meadows pointed out the other day, I do have the champion’s trophy for the last Portland series!) but the point system has been corrected, so that’s not likely to happen again.

Sunday at noon is game two of four, this time at Final Table. Another $20K GTD, using the format for Final Table’s monthly First Friday tournaments: $80 buyin with $80 live rebuy and $40 addon.

The annual poker benefit for the Susan G. Komen Sleep In for the Cure fundraiser is two weeks from Friday. Top prize is a trip for two to Las Vegas. It’s a $50 buyin, at the iHeartRADIO Portland Lounge in Tigard, with proceeds going to fight breast cancer.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Just one new name on the leaderboard this week (and by “new” I mean according to the ever-changing set of arbitrary rules I use to put it together): Jeffrey Farnes of Salem got his first Hendon Mob rating with an impressive 15th place at the Ante Up World Championship at Thunder Valley outside of Sacramento. The $1,650 buyin event busted the $500K GTD with almost 500 entries, The numbers at the top look like some sort of deal was made at the unofficial final table; the player who came to the table as chip leader walked away with more for 8th place than anyone except the champion.

Kindah Sakkal from WSOP.com

Max Young of Seaside, Dylan Linde from Couer d’Alene, and Kindah Sakkhal of Bothell represent all three states in the US Pacific Northwest and they were all in Cherokee North Carolina for the World Series of Poker Circuit stop that included the Global Casino Championship. Max cashed in the stop’s Main Event for 28th place (knocked out by the eventual winner, Harry Arutyunyan), and Kindah went on to take 4th place in the 1,022 entry tournament. Linde took 6th place in the Global Poker Championship (from 124 entries who had to qualify through the WSOP point system).

Rounding out this week’s top scorers, Seattle’s Matt Affleck fell just short of a win in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Purple Chip Bounty.

Racist Crap

I’m an old white guy. But in my younger days, I lived for a few years with a woman who grew up in Compton during the Watts riots. We were sometimes harassed on the streets of “liberal” Eugene back in the ’80s, and other stuff happened when I wasn’t around. The best man at my parent’s wedding was interned during World War II until a couple years before he met my father in grade school. I’ve got family with Japanese roots and others with African-American adoptees. 30 years ago, skinheads living around the corner from my house beat an Ethiopian student named Mulugeta Seraw to death with a baseball bat a half mile away. So please, if you’ve got some sort of “explanation” for why you think the events in Charlottesville last weekend were somehow not racist or that there are “many sides,” or that I’ve been “fed” propaganda, save your energy for someone else, because the only thing you’re going to convince me of is that you’re a racist. Even if nobody died or was hurt last weekend, it would still have been a bunch of racists gathering to protest the removal of monuments to racists who fought to preserve slavery. 

Suggesting that after I’ve made it to the age of 55, after running for the Oregon Legislature more than two decades ago, after writing a political blog for several years, and after two years of research for a book on Democratic Party foreign policy, that you’ve got some special insight into politics that I haven’t developed is not only insulting it’s stupid.

And really, messaging me that you’ve “lost all respect” for me because I won’t bother to watch your pro-Nazi videos just convinces me I could care less about your opinion, Mike H. George McGovern dropped bombs on Nazis.

With 1972 Democratic presidential candidate Senator George McGovern, at the 2007 McGovern Conference in Mitchell, South Dakota.

Ready For My Close-Ups

A spate of tournament series are coming to the Northwest and Northern California/Nevada in short order. They’ll all be covered in Only a Day Away as they get closer, but here’s a brief look ahead at events less than 10 hours drive (according to Apple Maps) from my house:

Only a Day Away

  • The Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker is closing in on its last couple of weeks. Entry flights for Mega Millions XVII run through Monday. Two daily flights for $160 buy-in with a $100 addon (5% of players advance to Day 2 on 22 August)); and weekend flights for $550 with 10% advancing. Monday and Tuesday are $460 Mega Satellites for direct entry into Day 2 (starting with 60+ big blinds). Tuesday is a $550 PL Mixed game (PLO, Big O, and Triple Draw Badugi, $30K GTD), with a $1,100 buyin $100K GTD NLHE tournament on Wednesday and a $50K NLHE Nounty tournament (same buyin) the next day. Wednesday is also the first of six flights for the Big HORSE tournament (with Big O instead of Limit Omaha Hi-Lo). There’s a $100K GTD for that. The first three flights are $240 with 10% getting to the money, and the final three are $350, with 15% making Day 2.
  • The Main Event for the Golden Gates Casino Colorado Poker Championship Summer is this weekend with flights on Friday and Saturday. $1,100 buyin.
  • Friday is also Day 1A for the Deerfoot Inn & Casino Summer Super Stack Main Event. It’s C$1,500 with three entry days and ends on the day of the eclipse (21 August).
  • The Venetian August Extravaganza runs through Sunday. Friday and Saturday are flights into an $80K GTD NLHE tournament with a buyin of $340.
  • Sunday at noon is a Crazy Pineapple tournament at Eugene’s Beach Poker Club. $75 buyin with $20 addon. You can call the club early to get a 1K bonus. A week from Sunday is their big Crazy Pineapple tournament!
  • Cactus Pete’s is in Nevada, but nowhere near Vegas. It’s just about due south of Twin Falls Idaho, in Jackpot. They host Pokermania for five days starting next today, with 12 events.
  • The first 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. The satellites run weekly through 6 September. Sunday at noon is the first of four Mega Satellites; $225 gets you into contention for entries in all five days’ events. At noon the next Sunday (27 August) there’s a $300 Deepstack).
  • WPTDeepstacks returns to Reno Atlantis tomorrow for 12 days of action, inclluding a $200K GTD Main Event. This Saturday and Sunday are $400 flights to a $50K GTD NLHE.
  • Next Wednesday is the start of the Horseshoe Poker Classic in Council Bluffs, Iowa (across the river from the Omaha airport). Its Main Event has five flights between 23 and 26 August, with Day 2 on 27 August.
  • In just a week, Heartland Poker Tour returns to Ameristar East Chicago, which is always one of their bigger stops.
  • At 9:30am the morning of 27 August, Lucky Chances Casino holds its monthly $20K GTD to first place tournament. $375 including the staff appreciation.
  • The monthly No Chop at the Top tournament at Tulalip Resort Casino is at 11am on 27 August. $230 (including dealer addon) with $5K added.

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

 

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 9 August 2017

Posted on by

Almost There

After an initial announcement that they’ve be opening today, Sally Jean announced on the NW Poker Facebook group that Room 52 PDX is going to be delayed while the owners of the establishment finish some licensing issues. Here’s hoping the best for everyone involved. After setbacks over the past couple of years, it’d be good to see some new options. Portland poker whack-a-mole!

Texas Hold’em For the Cure 2017

The annual poker benefit for the Susan G. Komen Sleep In for the Cure fundraiser is two weeks from Friday. Top prize is a trip for two to Las Vegas, with other top finishers getting a seat in the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic main Event next month, trips to Chinook Winds, and more. It’s a $50 buyin, at the iHeartRADIO Portland Lounge in Tigard, with proceeds going to fight breast cancer.

Portland Poker Championship Series III

The pleas of the poker public have been heard, and it looks like there’s going to be an attempt to install someone other than the Poker Mutant as the champion of tournament poker in Portland. The schedule for the third installment of the Portland Poker Championship Series was announced yesterday, with the first event ten days from today.

It’s four events on consecutive weekends, with two $20K GTDs up first (at Portland Meadows, then Final Table), and a $30K GTD at Final Table on the second Saturday, with the final event being a $50K GTD on Sunday, 27 August at Meadows. All events start at noon.

Word is, there will be a new point system that won’t let the travesty of someone who didn’t make any of the four final tables to win player of the series.

There’s a championship belt this time around. I hope it comes with extenders like airplane seatbelts. I may need them.

Muckleshoot Summer Classic

Also just announced close on the horizon is the Muckleshoot Summer Classic, coming up 13—18 September. Yes, in classic PNW series fashion, it tangles up with the Chinook Winds series, particularly with the last two events at Muckleshoot on the same weekend as Chinook Winds’ opening 6-Max.

Of couse, neither venue cleared that weekend for me—it’s Mrs. Mutant’s birthday, and she has other plans for me than playing poker.

The series includes a Shootout, Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, and four standard NLHE tournaments, with between $4K and $20K added to the prize pool.

There are $125 satellites every Wednesday from 16 August—6 September at 7pm, with a couple of options if you win, and four mega-sartellites (20 August and 10, 11, and 12 September) for $225 where 1 in 10 players earns entry into all of the tournaments. There’s also $14K in awards for the top 4 points earners.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

The Summer Poker Round-Up at Wildhorse put a couple of new names onto the leaderboard, with Kimberly Wood (Salem) jumping way up. She had a single recorded cash of $416 from one of the Daily Deepstacks events at the WSOP she won first place in the $330 tournament on Saturdaythis summer until of the series. Boise’s David Smith moved onto the board with a 6th-place finish in the same game and a 2nd place in the previous evening’s tournament. That’s a lot of hours of poker.

Matthew Ostby, Binh Nguyen, and Steve Myers (mentioned here last week) were all in the last stages of the Saturday tournament. So was Michael Foti, who also made the final table of Thursday’s game. Other names in the big money for Wildhorse were Dick Turner and Rich Hampton, with 1st and second Friday

Survivor 48

I wrote a little piece the other day about cashing in one of Ignition Casino’s Thousandaire Maker tournaments.

Only a Day Away

  • The  Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker runs through the rest of August. Friday is the first of eleven days of entry flights for Mega Millions XVII. Two daily flights for $160 buy-in with a $100 addon (5% of players advance to Day 2 on 22 August)); and weekend flights for $550 with 10% advancing. Also on 22 August is the $550 PL Mix game ($30K GTD with PLO, Big O, and Triple Draw Badugi).

  • This weekend, the Golden Gates Casino Colorado Poker Championship Summer has a Deepstack Freezeout, a $3K Survivor, and a Deepstack 6-Max, along with LHE and Main Event satellites. The Main Event starts 18 August. 

  • It’s opening day for the Deerfoot Inn & Casino Summer Super Stack in Calgary. Among the featured events are a C$230 Bounty tournament with C$200 of the buyin going to your bounty, and a C$330 PLO Bounty (C$100 bounty). There’s a NLHE equivalent to that one. The Main Event is C$1,500 with three entry days and ends on the day of the eclipse.

  • The Venetian August Extravaganza starts tomorrow, with 20 events and guarantees between $5K and $80K (buyins between $125 and $340) through 20 August.

https://twitter.com/azstatechamp/status/883091731339767812

  • Saturday at noon is a PLO tournament at Eugene’s Beach Poker Club. $60 buyin with $40 rebuy and addon. You can call the club early to get a 1K bonus. A week from Sunday is their big Crazy Pineapple tournament!
  • Cactus Pete’s is in Nevada, but nowhere near Vegas. It’s just about due south of Twin Falls Idaho, in Jackpot. They host Pokermania for five days starting next Wednesday, with 12 events.
  • WPT/Deepstacks returns to Reno Atlantis on next Thursday for 12 days of action, inclluding a $200K GTD Main Event.
  • In just over two weeks, Heartland Poker Tour returns to Ameristar East Chicago, which is always one of their bigger stops. The hotel’s your big expense; direct flights to O’Hare airport in Chicago around the $1,650 Main Event over Labor Day weekend can be found for less than $150 roundtrip.

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

 

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 2 August 2017

Posted on by

MTV debuted 35 years ago (1 August 1982) with this song. What the hell happened?

Radio Radio (Frequency ID)

If you’ve been in Portland Meadows Poker Room over the past couple of months, you may have noticed a little roped-off area in one corner, with a very special table. It’s part of a Radio Frequency ID (RFID) setup akin to those in use by everyone from Live at the Bike to the World Series of Poker. Sensors in the table can read chips in a special (expensive) deck of cards. The data feeds into a computer program that—with the aid of someone entering bet sizes, call, and folds—can track the action with a multiple-camera setup, displaying cards and equities as the hand plays out. There have been a couple of run-throughs already, but the first big trial was Monday evening. No announcements yet about exactly what’s going to be done with the setup, but I feel safe in saying that I was Monday’s #garbagehuman.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

Rafael Reis of Kent chopped the last two places of an Aria Poker Classic event in mid-July, taking first and a little more than the 2nd-place finisher in cash.

Over at the Venetian/Mid-States Poker Tour Main Event, Dylan Linde of Idaho, Dylan Wilkerson and Matt Affleck (both Washington) had 27th, 34th, and 42nd finishes (respectively). Dan Barker of Poulsbo didn’t make quite as much money as those guys, but he did get a better multiplier in the Venetian $30K GTD NLHE Rebuy (106 entries and 225 rebuys).

Finally getting out of Vegas, William Zaiss made the final table of the Ante Up World Championship Monolith at Thunder Valley. With 855 entries, the $250K GTD swelled to $342K.

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s going to feel a lot like Vegas Hell on Earth this week in Portland (and much of Oregon) with the temperatures over 100° most of the week. I specifically didn’t go down to work there this summer…

After a threatened closing last fall, then a devastating fire on the upper floors of the building hosting the Rialto in downtown Portland, an announcement went up over the weekend that the poker tables were going to be be back as of Tuesday morning. According to a Facebook post by Sean Dalton, the game is afoot!

It’s time for another Final Table First Friday $20K GTD! Friday night at 7pm. Just $80 (with 1 live rebuy), and $40 for an addon. Plus the $15 club fee for the day.

Saturday at 2pm is the next installment of the Poker in Cambodia tournaments at The Game. Two more $2,500 packages (or cash) available, $100 buyin and rebuy with $50 addon. They’ve also announced a special Bounty tournament for 20 August!

Only a Day Away

Remember, your feedback is always important. Like, why couldn’t someone mention to me last week’s title said August instead of July for an entire week? Why don’t people send me updates about special events? Why the heck can’t Muckleshoot or Tulalip get their monthly schedules done before the month actually starts? I’m just a guy, y’know?

  • The Ante Up Poker Tour World Championship at Thunder Valley is coming to a conclusion with the $500K NLHE Main Event starting Friday ($1,650 buyin). There are entry flights at 11am Friday and Saturday with Day 2 wrapping it up on Sunday.

  • The  Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker has its own $500K GTD this weekend with 2 flights each day Friday to Tuesday ($240 entry), and Day 2 on Wednesday. Players with multiple stacks qualifying for Day 2 get $1,500 for each extra stack.

  • Golden Gates Casino kicks off the Colorado Poker Championship Summer, tomorrow (nothing like having the schedule available just a couple days before the start of action). The first big event is a $100K guarantee with a $400 buyin. The Main Event ($1,100) starts 18 August.

  • Deerfoot Inn & Casino in Calgary brings back their Summer Super Stack next Wednesday. Amond the featured events are a C$230 Bounty tournament with C$200 of the buyin going to your bounty, and a C$330 PLO Bounty (C$100 bounty). There’s a NLHE equivalent to that one. The Main Event is C$1,500 with three entry days and ends on the day of the eclipse.
  • The Venetian August Extravaganza starts next Thursday, with 20 events and guarantees between $5K and $80K (buyins between $125 and $340) through 20 August.
  • Even deeper into the red hot zone is the Arizona State Poker Championship at Talking Stick Resort outside Phoenix. Entry days next Thursday through the following Sunday for the $1,100 tournament (with 9am starts). Finals on Tuesday, 15 August. No guarantee but an expected prize pool of $1.1M.
  • Cactus Pete’s is in Nevada, but nowhere near Vegas. It’s just about due south of Twin Falls Idaho, in Jackpot. They host Pokermania from 16—20 August, with 12 events.
  • WPT/Deepstacks returns to Reno Atlantis on 17 August for 12 days of action, inclluding a $200K GTD Main Event.

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

 

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 26 July 2017

Posted on by

My worst nightmare. I make it to a televised final table, win a bunch of money, and then this. Hopefully, Scott Blumstein will at least get an endorsement deal with Jockey. Worst of all, with age and other things, I look even worse with my shirt off. Maybe I can get some rich dude to prop bet me into losing some weight…

Where the Hesps Are

Jack McGiffin writes again that the folks at Napoleons Casino & Restaurant in Hull are planning a big welcome for John Hesp when he comes back to play his next £10 tournament. Jack says Hesp’s home casino is “planning a tournament with a large bounty” on the fourth-place WSOP Main Event finisher. Meanwhile, you can take a tour of Napoleons (courtesy of Google Maps). Is it time to organize a drive to make Hull Portland’s Sister Poker City?

Wildhorse Numbers

Results from the Summer Wildhorse series are up (though they’re not yet posted to Hendon Mob). The biggest of the six events was Saturday’s $340 buyin, which brought in 278 entries, and a prize pool of more than $84K. Congrats to friend of the blog Steve Myers who told us he’d been up for 28 hours by the time he got back to Portland on Sunday morning after a four-way deal. Overall, numbers for this year’s summer games seems a little up from last year, even with lodging at a premium.

PacWest Fall Coast Classic at Chinook Winds

The next big thing is here! Thanks Devin Sweet for passing it on.

https://twitter.com/pacwestclassic/status/890093464649650176

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

Things quieted down significantly in big tournament action with the end of the WSOP, though some of the venues that don’t report on the day of will likely trickle results into Hendon Mob for a week or two. The biggest number showing up this week was Tommy Tran, of Everett, Washington, who made 22nd of 684 in the Planet Hollywood Goliath Grand Finale.

This Week In Portland Poker

I’ve sat in on a couple of technical run-through with the RFID table and software from videopokertable.net at Portland Meadows over the past couple of months, and last week was supposed to be a run-through with a full table of players. Haven’t heard how it went yet, but I’m crossing my fingers!

Only a Day Away

  • The Ante Up Poker Tour World Championship at Thunder Valley has the Monolith coming up this weekend. It’s a $250K GTD $455 entry tournament with a flight on Thursday, two on Friday, and one on Saturday. Day 2 is Sunday. They have side events through the week, and a $500K GTD tournament with $1,650 buyin next weekend.
  • Tulalip has a $10K added No Chop at the Top tournament on Sunday at 11am. $295 entry and 30-minute rounds, with first place getting 50% of the prize money and equal amounts for the next nine players. No deals allowed. Nobody else gets a cent! Assuming there were 300 players (and that about $235 of the buyin went to the prize pool), that’s be about $40K for first place and nearly $4,500 for the other nine who make the money.  Of course, your chances of making the money are only about 1:30.
  • Muckleshoot’s  5th Sunday $400 entry tournament with $3K added next Sunday.
  • The World Poker Tour and Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker starts Friday with a $350 $100K GTD no rebuy/reentry 2-day tournament and a $365 Survivor (with $3K paid to the survivors), then three days of a $200K GTD with a $240 entry.
  • Eugene’s Beach Poker Club has a $250 buyin Monster Stack at noon on Saturday, with a PLO tournament two weeks later (Saturday, 12 August) and their Crazy Pineapple tournament Sunday, 20 August. All players are in the running for bonuses in the 10 September Final Tournament.
  • Sunday is the $20K GTD to first place at Lucky Chances south of San Francisco in Colma. $350 entry and the game starts at 9:30am.
  • Golden Gates Casino in Colorado is scheduled to have its Colorado Poker Championship Summer, starting next Thursday. There are 25 events plus satellites over three weeks of action.

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

 

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 19 July 2017: The Final Table Edition

Posted on by

Less Kassouf, More Hesp

Aside from the fact that it’s great to have a guy on the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table who’s older than I am just a couple of years after both Neil Blumenfield and Pierre Neuville (both older) made it there, it’s also satisfying that this year’s Old Guy at the Table, John Hesp is a far more likable version of British poker conviviality than last year’s WSOP “star,” William Kassouf.

It may just have been the fact that folks already in Kassouf mode got more coverage in the poker media over the past year, but it seemed that there was more attention paid to players with verbal diarrhea. I mean, I like talking to people at the poker table — it was my primary social outlet for a while — but I’m not so much enthused with being talked at at the poker table. The fact that Kassouf had very real poker success both before and after he got so much attention on ESPN could have meant a glut of imitators.

Personally, I’m hoping Hesp’s style (and deeper run, and big stack of chips) counteracts that a bit.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

James Weatherman from Washington was the top cash of the week for less-established players, shooting from less than $8K in recorded tournament cashes to almost $43K in one shot by placing 323rd in Event #73: $10,000 NLHE Main Event.

As you might expect, one of the last Big O tournaments of the summer was won by a Portlander—Jacob Nepom—who bested 266 players in the Planet Hollywood $400 Big O Goliath Stack, the day after the 4th of July.

Seattle’s Mel Elpusan has just one Hendon Mob Cash, and it’s a min-cash, but it’s from the Main Event. And Prathap Gannamaneni picked up his second recorded cash at the Venetian #92 $30K GTD $400 NLHE Bounty.

Results from the Tulalip Poker Pow Wow Main Event waaaaaay back in January finally posted this week, giving players Eugene Moss and David Goodkin (both of Bellevue) and Max Young (Seaside) big bumps.

Ian Johns was the last US player from Oregon, Washington, or Idaho to fall in the quest for the Final Table of the Main Event, busting out in 73rd place in Event #73.

This Week In Portland Poker

Something special brewing at The Game the next couple of weeks. Kind of wishing I had a month free to spend in Southeast Asia.

Only a Day Away

  • The first tournament of the Wildhorse Resort & Casino Summer Poker Round Up was today at noon. You can see the schedule above for the rest of this week’s events.
  •  Down south in Sacramento, Thunder Valley hosts the Ante Up Poker Tour World Championship starting Thursday. It culminates in a $500K GTD Main Event in early August, but up first is the $160 buyin $100K GTD Catapult, with five starting flights through Saturday and Day 2 on Sunday.
  • There are still a few days left for the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. The last big event is a $600 $250K GTD tournament with starting flights Thursday through Saturday and Day 2 on Sunday.
  • The Card Player San Diego Classic at Oceans 11 starts tomorrow with an estimated prize pool of $100K and a $250 buyin.
  • Larry Flynt’s Grand Slam of Poker at LA’s Hustler Casino has a $777,777 GTD tournament beginning Friday. There are two daily flights (12:30pm and 5pm through Wednesday, with Day 2 next Thursday and a final day on Friday. $375 buyin.
  • Muckleshoot’s $300 Deepstack is Sunday at noon, and there’s a 5th Sunday $400 entry tournament with $3K added next Sunday.
  • The World Poker Tour and Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker runs from next Friday through the end of August. It starts with a $350 $100K GTD no rebuy/reentry 2-day tournament and a $365 Survivor (with $3K paid to the survivors), then three days of a $200K GTD with a $240 entry.
  • Eugene’s Beach Poker Club has a $250 buyin Monster Stack at noon on 29 July, with a PLO tournament two weeks later (Saturday, 12 August) and their Crazy Pineapple tournament Sunday, 20 August. All players are in the running for bonuses in the 10 September Final Tournament.
  • Sunday the 30th is the $20K GTD to first place at Lucky Chances south of San Francisco in Colma. $350 entry and the game starts at 9:30am.

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

 

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 12 July 2017: The Main Event Edition (Part A)

Posted on by

Deal With It

Portland’s Devin Sweet dealing the Main Event feature table on Day 1B, with 2006 champion Jamie Gold at right; photo from a post on NW Poker by Lorenzo Melgoza

One of the things about watching World Series of Poker coverage this past month or so on PokerGo that’s been making me poker-itchy has been seeing so many of the people I worked with last year, both reporters and dealers. The reporters are mostly caught in the background in occasional shots, but the dealers are right there in all of the action, usually covered by two or three cameras on the table. I covered the mixed games as a reporter last year, the better dealers tend to work the mixed games, and they tend to be the dealers assigned to feature tables, so many of them are familiar.

None of them is as well known to me as Devin Sweet, though, because there’s no need to go to Las Vegas to see her in action. She’s been around Portland as a dealer and player (she won an event at Pendleton in 2011), she’s been involved in managing the Chinook Winds series for several years, and she was up in the early rotation for coverage of Day 1B on at the Main Event, dealing to Jamie Gold and Scott Abrams. So keep an eye out for her as the tournament plays out.

Not Gonna Happen

The July issue of CardPlayer magazine has a bizarre ad for the World Heavyweight Poker Championship Invitational, with a “100 Entry Cap | Largest Buy-In | Largest Prize Pool” and “Largest First Prize Payout in Poker Tournament History.”

Supposedly taking place in Reno in mid-December the “Biggest Fundraiser Poker Charity Event in History” (it doesn’t mention a charity for what) sports a $1,888,888 buyin, and more than $30M for first place.

I have to say, despite the fact that I do not expect anyone reading this to be planning to play it, the general vibe—not to mention the quality of the materials and the fact that social media for sponsor Caviar Affair hasn’t been active for four years—doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

Rachel O’Neal‘s Facebook post of her stack in WSOP Event #66: $1,500 NLHE.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

James Tercek from Vancouver was top of the new names in this week’s Pacific Northwest Hendon Mob stats, making it to 13th place in the Ultimate Goliath at Planet Hollywood at the end of June.The $600 tournament beat the $500K GTD by nearly $160K, with $1,078 entries.

Forest Grove’s Nathan Paul got his first recorded cash in a big way, taking 4th in last Saturday’s $235 Daily Deepstack at the Rio. Stevie Ackerman of Spanaway more than tripled his recorded tournament earnings by taking first in the same event.

Rachel O’Neal is a Portland attorney who uses the slogan “Make Them Pay — In Spades” on her web site. She’s been playing poker for a while, but took down her first three recorded cashes on three consecutive days last week (technically). She made it to the final table of a 948-entry $235 Daily Deepstack on the 4th of July (one of two O’Neals at the final table; the other was from Georgia). On the 5th of July, she played Event #66: $1,500 NLHE, grabbing 80th place on Day 2 (6 July, but it’s recorded at Hendon Mob as the starting day). Then she apparently jumped right into the 7pm $365 Daily Deepstack Turbo, taking 44th there for a small cash. After a couple of days of no cashes (maybe she had to rest) she struck again, at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza Event #87 $100K GTD Bounty, for another 44th place (there were 464 entries, with a prize pool of $150K plus $93K in bounties.

The elephant in the room for established players this week is Esther Taylor. There were some comments in a Facebook thread last week wondering how someone like her could be playing in the Poker Players Championship. I’ve never met her at the table (or anywhere else) before working at the WSOP last summer, and all I can say is she seemed to be shooting me suspicious looks whenever I was reporting on her tables. She’s had a pretty good summer, though, making three final tables before the 4th of July, as well as four other cashes. Then, the day after the 4th, she got to the final table of Event #67: $25,000 PLO8 High Roller, and finished in 3rd place, a cash that was more than half the size of her previous recorded earnings and which jumps her over 4 players on the Hendon Mob’s Oregon leaderboard. With Taylor no longer actually living in Vancouver (so I’ve hears), James Romero moved to Vegas, and Annie Duke somewhere else (who cares?), Seth Davies (in 4th place on the Oregon leaderboard) is now the top-ranked player on the state leaderboard who actually lives here. By the way, just before she late-regged the PLO tournament, Taylor took 4th place in Event #64: $1,500 NLHE/PLO 8-Max for a 5600% ROI.

Speaking of the PPC, Washington’s Ian Johns has almost doubled the number of cashes he had last year—though 2016’s  four cashes included 2 bracelets. He hasn’t seen any final tables this year, but he’s come close all seven times, finishing between 18th and 17th on two cashes and between 10th and 12th on the other five. Last week it was 10th place in Event #62: $50,000 Poker Players Championship 6-Max. 

Vi Do of Bellingham played the Venetian Event #76 $1,100 NLHE Bounty, taking 4th place.

This Week In Portland Poker

Regular schedules so far as I’m aware.

Only a Day Away

  • The Heartland Poker Tour at Golden Gates Casino in Colorado had the first flight of its Main Event today, there are three more. You can get a one-way ticket to Denver for Friday morning for less then $200!
  • It’s gold! Well, actually it’s silver and Eugene’s High Mountain Poker Palace has a four-tournament has their 2017 Anniversary Silver Series with games ranging from $40 to $230, with $260 in added money, and silver coins for the top three finishers in each tournament. If you’re planning to drive from out of town, you might want to call and make sure there’s room. It could be a big crowd for the space, which was quite nice the time I made it down.
  • Up in Calgary, there are daily C$225 “Wild Card Rounds” at 6:30pm and at noon on Friday and Saturday. 1 in 5 players get entry to Sunday’s Silver Buckle Showdown at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino. You can also buy into the Showdown for C$1,000, you get 25K in chips and play 30-minute levels. Tickets to Calgary, though, are almost $400 one-way, and that’s US dollars.
  • Larry Flynt’s Grand Slam of Poker starts tomorrow at LA’s Hustler Casino. It features a $200K GTD kickoff event ($250 buyin). The Main Event is $375 and has a GTD of $777,777. Non-stop one-way flights to LAX for $120 Saturday morning.
  • Muckleshoot’s $200 Big Bounty is Sunday at noon, 23 July is a $300 Deepstack, and there’s a 5th Sunday $400 entry tournament with $3K added.
  • Save your summer in luxury with the Bellagio Cup XIII, a 5-day $10,400 buyin starting Friday. $1,090 satellites, turbo and hyper turbo satellites run from tomorrow through Sunday (Day 3 of the Cup) for entries into the Cup.

  • Next Wednesday, close to home at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino Summer Poker Round-Up, there are six events (plus satellites), the largest of which has a buyin of $340. As mentioned last week, accommodations are sparse and expensive due to a motorcycle get-together.
  •  Down south in Sacramento, Thunder Valley hosts the Ante Up Poker Tour World Championship starting 20 July, which culminates in a $500K GTD Main Event in early August.
  • If the nice summer in Portland isn’t hot enough for you yet, the Card Player San Diego Classic at Oceans 11 has a $250 entry fee and three starting days (two flights each day) next week, with the final day on Sunday. You could get to San Diego airport with an hour to get to Oceanside before the first Saturday flight for about $200 if you buy your ticket now. Don’t know how you’ll get back.
  • The last day of the World Series of Poker Main Event is 22 July. The tournament playes every day until then except for a two-day break on 18 & 19 July once the final table has been finalized. Daily Deepstacks run through 17 July (the last day before the Main Event final table). If you’re down in Las Vegas because you want to breathe in the excitement of the big money, the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza is running through 23 July. Monday and Tuesday are starting days for their Event #103: CardPlayer Poker Tour $2M GTD $5,000 NLHE Main Event, and there are a number of other tournaments there, as well as the rest of the regular Vegas schedule. Happy hunting!

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

 

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 5 July 2017

Posted on by

Thinking Poker With Angela Jordison

Poker media megastar Angela Jordison mentioned on Facebook today that Andrew Brokos of the Thinking Poker podcast briefly analyzed a hand from their faceoff in a $1,500 PLO8 tournament at the World Series of Poker on the most recent edition of the podcast. Check it out! You should also go back and hear her interview with Brokos and Nate Meyvis from just after she won three tournament in a row in Pendleton in 2015.

Esther Taylor at the final table of WSOP Event #64: $1,500 NLHE/PLO 8-Max. She took 4th place this evening.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

The top three new names on the leaderboard this week are all from Oregon.

Jason James of McMinnville bagged a respectable first-ever Hendon Mob result by taking 69th place in Event #47: $1,500 NLHE Monster Stack. There were 6,716 entries in the tournament, so James just missed being in the top 1%.

Portland’s Justin Dye made the final table at a Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series $100K GTD. The result looks like there was a nine-way deal, with the players all making between $8K and $18K. Dye took 7th place in the tournament, which more than doubled the guarantee with 1,944 entries at $150.

Kevin Nelson of Springfield got through 1,012 other entries to make it to 4th place in a WSOP $235 Daily Deepstack on 29 June. (If you’re looking for other 2017 Daily Deepstack results, look here).

Scott Clements won more than a quarter of a million dollars to extend his lead as Washington State’s leading tournament winner after coming into the final table  as the chip leader of Event #54: $10,000 PLO 8-Max Championship. Clements took fourth place, losing to Tommy Le, who placed 3rd in the same event last year and 2nd in the $25K PLO High Roller.

Lee Watkinson from Washington made the final table of Event #58: $1,500 NLHE. There were 1,763 entries.

The Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series Main Event was a $500K GTD tournament with a $570 buyin and more than two thousand entries. The prize pool pushed over a million dollars, and Portland’s Sai Ram Sirandas got fifth place.

Nick Stowall of Portland has had a pretty good week. He cashed at 208th in Event #52: $1,500 NLHE and 207th in Event #58: $1,500 NLHE, then made it up to 33rd in Event #60: $888 Crazy Eights NLHE 8-Handed and 43rd in Event #65: $1,000 NLHE.

Federal Way’s Kate Hoang made the final table of Event #51: $10,000 PLO8 Championship (and she cashed in Event #64: $1,500 NLHE/PLO on Monday). Darren Rabinowitz (now living in Las Vegas) cashed in Event #61: $3,333 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE High Roller in 5th place. The biggest (so far) online event at the WSOP was won by 2015 November Niner Thomas Cannulli, and drew 424 entries. Bonnie Rossi (also of Federal Way) got to the final table of Event #57: $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, a tournament that had 405 entries. Also among the limit games, Grant Pass’s Scott Mayfield took 8th place in Event #53: $3,000 LHE 6-Max.

Back outside of the Rio, Richard Forrest from Eugene played the Aria Classic Seniors NLHE. Six of the last seven players (including Forrest) took an even payout with the first-place player winning almost double that. And last but not least (there are a lot of other players with cashes in the summer), Washington’s Kenneth Burnsed got fourth place in a WSOP $235 Daily Deepstack last week.

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the first weekend of the month, so this is the First Friday at Final Table. It’s time for a $20K GTD tournament, with the usual $80 buyin and live rebuy, and a $40 addon. I miss the days when I had more special events to mention here.

Only a Day Away

The WSOP Main Event starts this weekend and most of the other series in Las Vegas are winding down.

  • The CardPlayer Poker Tour at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles is in the middle of its run. This Thursday the last two flights of a $100K GTD with  $150 buyin take place and the game ends tomorrow. Saturday through Wednesday are $245 flights for their $400K GTD main event. Day 2 is next Thursday with the final day on Friday the 14th.
  • The Heartland Poker Tour returns to Golden Gates Casino in Colorado a week from tomorrow. The Main Event begins 12 July. There are four side events and many satellites before the Main. The HPT is no longer televising their events, but there will be a live stream of the final table on 17 July.
  • Up in Calgary, there are daily C$225 “Wild Card Rounds” at 6:30pm and at noon on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this weekend and Friday and Saturday next week. 1 in 5 players get entry to the 16 July Silver Buckle Showdown at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino. You can also buy into the Showdown for C$1,000, you get 25K in chips and play 30-minute levels.
  • Muckleshoot’s Monthly Special is Sunday at noon. It’s a $250 buyin for 15K in chips. Next Sunday (18 July) is the $200 Big Bounty, 23 July is a $300 Deepstack, and there’s a 5th Sunday $400 entry tournament with $3K added.
  • Larry Flynt’s Grand Slam of Poker starts next Thursday at LA’s Hustler Casino. It features a $200K GTD kickoff event ($250 buyin). The Main Event is $375 and has a GTD of $777,777.
  • A last-minute entry in the Las Vegas tournament summer is the Bellagio Cup XIII, a 5-day $10,400 buyin starting 14 July. $1,090 satellites, turbo and hyper turbo satellites run from 13 July through 16 July (Day 3 of the Cup) for entries into the Cup.
  • It (relatively) close to homeat the Wildhorse Resort & Casino Summer Poker Round-Up.There are six events, the largest of which has a buyin of $340. As mentioned last week, accommodations are sparse and expensive due to a motorcycle get-together.
  •  Down south in Sacramento, Thunder Valley hosts the Ante Up Poker Tour World Championship starting 20 July, which culminates in a $500K GTD Main Event in early August.

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