Gearing Up

There are just 40 shopping days before the beginning of the World Series of Poker, but some of the other Las Vegas series start even earlier than Memorial Day.

PokerNews has a day-by-day calendar of events at several venues starting with 25 May, showing start time, guarantee (if any), buy-in, and fees. It’s nicely laid-out but doesn’t really hold a match to Kenny Hallaert’s summer poker tournament spreadsheet which is the comprehensive source for info on Vegas offerings (and starts on 15 May, with the opening of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III).

Another consideration you might have is how good a structure is the tournament you’re thinking about playing? Two Plus Two poster plog has a site that evaluates tournament structures through a mathematical formula to derive something they call S-Points, and there’s a list of 2017 tournaments that have been calculated out for you. At the top end of the S-Points in the WSOP Main Event (339), at the bottom is the WSOP’s $1K Turbo Bounty (34). It shouldn’t be the end all of how you decide which events to play, but it can be another tool in the box.

The Young & the General

Results from the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up are available on their site, and local player (and a former owner of Aces Full) Bill “General” Patten had a decent weekend, taking 1st place in the Friday tournament after finishing 2nd in Thursday’s (non-High Roller) event.

And I’d be remiss if I missed mentioning Max Young rocketing to the upper section of the WSOP CIrcuit Leaderboard. As of today, he’s in 4th place on the national ranking, with an even 200 points. With only three more stops on this year’s circuit (Cherokee’s already under way, Baltimore starts next week, and New Orleans is in three weeks), he appears to have a lock on a seat to the Global Casino Championship. He picked up four more cashes at the Council Bluffs stop, with three final tables and a brush with another Circuit ring, losing heads-up to the guy who’s at the top of the leaderboard.

High Roller

Poking at the Hendon Mob Oregon All Time Money List, for the first time in a while, I saw a name that didn’t look familiar high up. With nearly $900K in earnings, Vitaly Rizhkov sits in 8th place among the Tam Nguyens, Joe Brandenburgs, and Jordan Riches. Looking at Rizhkov’s cashes, you can see that they’re all from last spring and summer, and all from just six High Roller events at Aria. Four $25K buyins and two $50K buyins (for a minimum of $200K in buyins in the events he cashed in). He also played in the $300K buyin Super High Roller Bowl (without a cash).

I have to admit, I was caught flatfooted on this one. I’ve been following poker—specifically poker players in Oregon and Washington—for a couple of years now, and I thought I had relative familiarity with the big names (if not always the faces for the names). Rizhkov is an Azerbaijan-born entrepreneur who’s once wrote an article titled “What I learned from sacking 100 employees and losing $1.5 million.”

Vitaly Rizhkov, via Poker Telegraph

From the Archive

Coming from a mostly non-gambling family, I never set foot in a casino until a trip to New Orleans when I was 42, when my brother asked my wife and I to meet with him at Harrah’s. Since I didn’t start playing poker (again) until a few years later, my first experience playing in an actual casino was after I started the blog. Thanks, Quinault Beach! Not long after that, I won a noon game at Encore, which got me into the (then) monthly Champions Freeroll (taking second to David Moshe), and I became some sort of casino whore after my first taste of the forbidden, with unfruitful trips to Spirit Mountain and Foxwoods.

This Week In Portland Poker

Nothing announced as of press time.

Only a Day Away

• The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic at Hustler Casino continues through the end of April. The series’ big event starts Saturday, a $500K GTD with five entry days ($350 entry).
• Calgary’s Deerfoot Casino Spring Super Stack starts today, with the C$1,100 Main Event (C$100K GTD) up front. Entry days through Saturday, with finals on Sunday.
• The CardPlayer Poker Tour has a stop at San Diego’s Ocean’s Eleven Casino starting tomorrow. It’s a $150K GTD tournament with $250 entry.
• The Wynn Signature Weekend $250K GTD starts tomorrow. Three days of entry ($600) and Day 2 on Sunday.
• Talking Stick Resort’s Getaway Classic starts Friday, with three tournaments ($200, $300, and $300, respectively).
• Battle of the Bay at Lucky Chances Casino in Colma starts with a super satellite  to multiple events in the series on Saturday, which guarantees between $10K and $100K to the first-place finisher. Sunday is the first event, with $40K guaranteed to first place.
• Little Creek Casino is running WSOP package satellites Tuesdays in April at 7pm. $255 buyin plus a dealer addon, every 10 players in the tournament gets an entry to the $1,500 Millionaire Maker and $750 in travel expenses. In May, there will be four Monster Stack packages available.
• The Cal State Poker Championship starts next Friday at Commerce Casino in LA (see last week’s Planner).
• Two weeks from today is the Venetian May Weekend Extravaganza, featuring a $340 buyin $100K GTD tournament.

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

Experiments

I’m a sucker for innovation, and I heard about something the other day that—even if Montreal wasn’t already one of my travel goals—would put the Canadian capitol on my radar.

partypoker was one of the first online poker sites, but they saw the writing on the wall and pulled out of the US long before Black Friday, after the 2006 passage of the UIGEA. They have moved tentatively into the regulated US market in recent years, with a toehold in New Jersey. partypoker never left Europe or Canada however, and as PokerStars seems to have faltered since its acquisition by Amaya Gaming, partypoker has stepped up to challenge them on the live poker front.

The partypoker Million North America is coming to what has become the premiere tournament venue in Canada: Playground Poker Club outside Montreal. The partypoker Million has a C$5M guarantee ($3.75M in US currency, with C$1M guaranteed for first place). The buyin is C$5,300 (US$3,980) for 1M in chips (with starting days on 5 & 6 May), but the innovative thing about the tournament is how you can buy in for lesser amounts.

Yes, there are the usual mega satellites, but there are also several days of Phase I entries. From 2—4 May, you can enter a Phase I tournament for C$550. You receive 100K in chips (starting at 200bb deep) then play down to 10% of the field. Instead of survivors winning a seat and starting Day 1 with 1M chips, they start with whatever chips they’ve won in Phase 1. The average stack from the Phase I games will be 1M, but given the usual distributions for satellite tournaments, the median stack will be lower than that; more than half of the players will have less than the average and probably between 30—40% will actually have more than the starting stack, some with perhaps as much as 5M. It’s an exciting prospect when you buy in for 10% of the regular price. There’s even an option on 30April and 1 June to get into a Phase I for C$275 (50K in chips, with 5% of the field getting to Day 1).

Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away

Nothing to do with the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up (which it looks like I’m going to miss this year). No, everyone from TMZ  to the Daily Mail is reporting that the 79 69-year-old doctor from Lexington, Kentucky who was bloodily dragged from a United flight in Chicago the other day is named David Dao, calling him a “poker champ” (the Mail) who “killed it as a pro poker player” at the WSOP as the TMZ headline would have it.

A little perspective might be needed, since most of these headlines were written by non-poker players.

Dao is certainly accomplished, with his biggest cash over $117K for a second place finish in a 2009 WSOP Circuit Championship event with a $5,150 buyin at Tunica. But “poker champ” or “poker pro”? He took 30th place in last year’s 6,761-entry Crazy 8s WSOP event, but the $20K he got for that,—and his lifetime reported tournament winnings of $266K over 11 years—isn’t exactly doctor money, and it comes out to $24K/year before expenses. That’s getting-by money. He’ll hopefully make more from the lawsuit.

“Fat Dude Asleep At the Poker Table,” photo by Sean Gentry, June 2011

From the Archive

Back in the early days post-Black Friday, five-figure guarantees at Portland poker clubs were more or less unheard of, but with PokerStars and Full Tilt shut down, the clubs started catering to the newly-orphaned online crowd. May 2011 saw Ace of Spades and Aces Players Club both put on what I believe were the first above-ground $10K guarantees in town. I didn’t get close to the cash of either one; but I’d cash one at Encore Club the next month, and outright win one in November, which was for a brief time the biggest individual cash in a $10K in Portland.

This Week In Portland Poker

If you aren’t able to make it out to Pendleton for the Main Event this weekend—say, you’ve got family coming over for Easter dinner or some such—Portland Meadows is putting on a $20K Freezeout on Saturday at noon. $165 buyin. No rebuy, no addon and a 25K stack.

Deal of the Week: The Social Experiment

Ever gotten tired of everyone at the table slowing things down because they’re squeezing in the last work on a call between hands, watching a movie on their tablet, or eyes
closed grooving to the tunes over their headphones? Coming up at Los Angeles’s Commerce Casino at the end of the month is the 2017 Cal State Poker Championship. One of the first events on the schedule is a one-day $100K GTD tournament with a $350 buyin (29 April). No phones, hoodies, sunglasses, or headphones allowed; it’s been dubbed The Social Experiment by   the Commerce Tournament Director Matt Savage and Tournament Coordinator Justin Hammer. Increasing punishments for infractions are promised, starting with 3 hands according to the structure sheet.

Half-hour blind levels starting 300bb deep, with levels moving to 40 miinutes after the bubble bursts (12.5% payout). It’s not worth the trip to LA just for this event, but that night there’s also a mega satellite to the $1M Main Event a couple of weeks later, as well as a $75K GTD Bounty tournament and $15K GTD (for Facebook friends of the casino) the next day, an Omaha HI-Lo tournament on Monday (1 May), HORSE on Tuesday, plus Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo and NLHE Survivor  on Wednesday. Not to mention a couple of other events and more mega satellites. I’m freaking out trying to figure out how to get time off of work with each day of the schedule I read,

Follow the @LAPC, @SavagePoker, and @TheJustinHammer for more.

Only a Day Away

• The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II is coming into its final weekend. Friday is the last of four entry days for a $150K GTD ($250 entry). There is a $40K GTD on Saturday ($400, 1 day) and a $30K GTD on Sunday ($300 with $100 rebuy).
• Little Creek Casino is running WSOP package satellites Tuesdays in April at 7pm. $255 buyin plus a dealer addon, every 10 players in the tournament gets an entry to the $1,500 Millionaire Maker and $750 in travel expenses. In May, there will be four Monster Stack packages available.
• The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic at Hustler Casino continues through the end of April. Tomorrow through Saturday are entries for the $150K GTD ($175 buyin). Earlier flights on each day get smaller stacks and qualify fewer players for Day 2, and Thursday’s flights qualify more players than Friday’s or Saturday’s. Not sure what the ratioonale is for that. The series’ big event starts 21 April, a $500K GTD with five entry days.
• The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up has been running since last weekend. Tomorrow is the High Roller and a regular NLHE even, Friday is the $340 entry, and Saturday is the Main Event start day ($550 entry).
• WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley starts its $300K GTD Main Event on Friday and Saturday, for a $1,100 buyin, Day 2 on Sunday, and the final table on Monday.
• Calgary’s Deerfoot Casino Spring Super Stack starts in a week, with the C$1,100 Main Event (C$100K GTD) up front. Entry days next Thursday through Saturday, with finals on Sunday.
• The Wynn Signature Weekend $250K GTD runs 20—23 April. Three days of entry ($600) and Day 2 on Sunday.
• The CardPlayer Poker Tour has a stop at San Diego’s Ocean’s Eleven Casino from 20—23 April. It’s a $150K GTD tournament with $250 entry.
• Talking Stick Resort’s Getaway Classic happens 21—23 April, with three tournaments ($200, $300, and $300, respectively).
• The Cal State Poker Championship starts 28 April at Commerce Casino in LA (see above).
• Battle of the Bay at Lucky Chances Casino in Colma starts with a super satellite on 22 April to multiple events in the series, which guarantees between $10K and $100K to the first-place finisher. See last week’s Planner.

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

Nice Casino You’ve Got There…

Been feeling a little beleaguered by legal attacks on Portland’s card room scene instigated by, y’know, people who want to muscle out the competition? Don’t think that you’re alone, although there may be someone with more muscle pushing back.

The Ilani Casino in Ridgefield, Washington is just about to open—the Cowlitz Indian Tribe performed a dedication ceremony for the new Interstate 5 overpass yesterday—the same day that the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case where the owners of the La Center card rooms challenged the legal status of the tribe itself in an attempt to stave off its construction.

It’s hard to know whether they thought they really had a chance at this point or if it was some sort of last gasp of an effort that kept the case going. Ilani has been under construction at the cost of half a billion dollars since well before the case was up for consideration at the highest court of the land. The state of Washington doesn’t lightly undertake freeway overpass construction. And New Phoenix Casino just closed in La Center a couple weeks ago.

Indications are that Ilani won’t have a poker room to start, but as the largest gaming facility within an hour of Portland (assuming you can get across the Interstate Bridge in less than an hour), its large conference area could conceivably host a regional or national poker tour stop.

Not Ready for Live at the Bike

Everyone’s got problems this week.

The Bicycle Casino was shut down yesterday after a raid in a criminal fraud investigation involving nine state and federal agencies (“Everybody wants to get into the action…at The Bike!”) According to CBSLocal, agencies involved included “the Los Angeles High Intensity Financial Crime Area Task Force, the IRS, the California Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” as well as US Immigration & Customs Enforcement. News late Tuesday says they’ll be opened back up by Wednesday afternoon, which may be good news for Christopher Sigman, who mentioned that he is supposed to be playing Thursday on Live at the Bike on the NW Poker group (it’s $5/$10 NLHE, according to the calendar, 7—10PM Pacific on Twitch and YouTube).

From the Archive

The sixth anniversary of Black Friday is coming up in a week-and-a-half (thanks, Obama!). It happened just a few months after I started the blog, which art the time consisted mostly of obsessively noting the results of every single game I played, no matter how small. Encore Club had a $500 GTD Freeroll that day.

A couple of weeks later, I had my first-ever win in a live tournament of more than two tables, at a promotional event for Portland Players Club‘s new ownership.

This Week In Portland Poker

I haven’t seen an announcement yet, but this is the First Friday of the month and there should be a $20K GTD at Final Table at 7pm, $80 buy-in with live rebuy and $40 addon. It’ll be my return to live poker after a couple of weeks off; I’ll be there with the Portland Poker Championship Series trophy!

Deal of the Week: Lucky Changes at the Battle of the Bay

It’s the time of the year for the Battle of the Bay series at Lucky Chances Casino just south of San Francisco. BoB is a week’s worth of tournaments featuring first-place guarantees (rather than guarantees of the entire prize pool).The series gets started with a Super Satellite 22 April and runs through 1 May. There are five events in the series, with first-place guarantees of $40K (13 April, $625 entry including dealer addon), $20K (24 April and 26 April, $375), $10K (27 April, $225), and $100K (entry days on 29 and 30 April, $1,105). All events begin at 9:30am, and they’re all one-day tournaments, except for the $100K, which ends on 1 May.

Lucky Chances is another casino that tends not to report tournament results to Hendon Mob, The last Battle of the Bay results they provided only included the winner’s name and payouts for 27 players, but it did show $371K for the total prize pool (so 371 entries) and what looked like the results of a deal that gave about $80K to first and $50K each to the next three players. Last November’s Gold Rush event with the same buyin had a prize pool of $461K, 461 entries (45 payouts), and a more than $15K going to 10th place with $70K at the top.

It’s entirely possible to catch a morning flight to San Francisco and make the start of the tournament with time to spare; the casino (in Colma) is less than 10 miles from the airport; maybe 15 minutes in weekend morning traffic.

Only a Day Away

• The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III has two days of entry to theur $400K GTD, $1,600 entry tournament tomorrow and Friday.
• Little Creek Casino is running WSOP package satellites Tuesdays in April at 7pm. $255 buyin plus a dealer addon, every 10 players in the tournament gets an entry to the $1,500 Millionaire Maker and $750 in travel expenses.
• The Heartland Poker Tour n St. Charles, Missouri starts three flights of their $1,650 Main Event on Friday (with two on Saturday). Last year’s St. Charles Main Event (in May) had nearly $500K in the prize pool; the fall stop got over $575K.
• Friday is the start of the Main Event at the Council Bluffs World Series of Poker Circuit. Last year had 321 entries ($1,650 buyin) for a prize pool of $481K,
• This weekend at the Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic at Hustler Casino is a $250 buyin $250K GTD tournament with four entry days (Thursday through Sunday) and a final day on Tuesday (11 April).
• Peppermill Casino’s Run It Up Reno is in full swing, with the $100K GTD Main Event (600 entry) starting on Friday.
• The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up starts tomorrow. The first real event is Friday at noon ($175 buyin), with noon events on Saturday (NLHE) and Sunday (NLHE Shootout), with Big O on Sunday night at 7pm.
• Elk Valley Casino in Crescent City, California has a WSOP Main Event Satellite on Friday and Saturday. There are two qualifying sessions (6pm on the 7th, 10am on the 8th), with the final session at 4pm on the 8th. Entry is $250, with 1st place receiving the Main Event seat and $2K in expenses. Maximum of 160 players.
• The first event of the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley is Friday, with a $260 buyin $100K GTD 8-Max. Entry flights on Friday and Saturday (two) with Day 2 on Sunday.
• Calgary’s Deerfoot Casino Spring Super Stack is back in two weeks, with a C$100K GTD C$1,100 buyin and three entry days.

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

The Round Up

Yeah, this happened here in Oregon, but it was Albany, not Pendleton.

But you can still take your chances at the Spring Poker Round Up starting next week at WIldhorse Casino in Eastern Oregon. Thirteen events over eleven days, with buyins ranging from $125 to $550 for the Main Event and a High Roller at $1,100, plus some satellites.

Last spring, Lisa Meredith won the first event, with 529 entries, then she went on to take third place at the WSOP Millionaire Maker (7,190) for a prize nearly ten times the prize pool of the Pendleton event. Two years ago, Angela Jordison swept the first three events, so if you’re a female player and you want the good poker juju, this may be the series for you. That, and it’s well-situated to build up a bankroll for anyone just a couple months before the WSOP starts.

Events of note are:

• #4 — Sunday, 9 April, 7pm — Big O, $230 with $1K added to the prize pool. This is a new event at Pendleton, though there’s plenty of cash game Big O action.
• #5 — Monday, 10 April, noon — Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, $230 with $3K added. $38K prize pool last year.
• #6 — Tuesday, 11 April, noon — HORSE, $230 with $3K added. $23K last year.
• #9 — Thursday, 13 April, noon – NLHE High Roller, $1,100 (satellites at 7pm 10 April and 12 April). $72K last year.
• #12 — Saturday & Sunday, 15 & 16 April, noon — NLHE Main Event, $550 with $10K added (satellites at 7pm 6 April and 14 April). $172K last year.

From the Archive

I’ve been writing this blog for more than six years, so there’s a lot of stuff from the early days even I don’t remember.

• 10 February 2011, The Internet Hand
  A brief examination of [qx 7x].
• 1 March 2011, Paired Off
  A sad tale of recovery and loss.
  
• 23 March 2011, Hansen, He’s So Hot Right Now
  The time a couple of friends compared me to Gus Hansen.

This Week In Portland Poker

The big event in Portland poker is happening in Salem today and it may be over by the time you read this. 1pm is the hearing on House Bill 2190, which would draw the definitions of the state’s social gaming rules in a manner that would choke out poker as we’ve come to know it in the city.

And, of course, there was last week’s article in Willamette Week by Nigel Jacquiss.

It wasn’t one of the best efforts by Jacquiss (who has a Pulitzer Prize under his belt) with his description of Final Table as “a room that smells like a mixture of air freshener, fear and fryer grease.” (Unless it was his own fear, perhaps.) He padded the account with a portrayal of the late John Ogai and quotes from the more-recently-passed Chris Vetter without including material from several sources I know were interviewed extensively in the main body of the article. He didn’t reconcile the claim that the clubs were operating illegally with the fact that the city has allowed their operation for most of a decade. It’s only in a sidebar that he mentions “Portland’s poker rooms are licensed and operating openly. Yet several of their practices appear to violate the law.” There’s certainly a gray area—much as recreational marijuana sales are legal in Oregon but not legal under federal statutes—but it’s not as clear-cut as he portrays it in the article.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries issues, though…

Only a Day Away

• The last event of this year’s Bicycle Casino Winnin’ o’ the Green, a $200K GTD Monster Stack tournament with $245 buyin has entries today and Thursday.
• The Mid-States Poker Tour at Golden Gates Poker Room in Black Hawk, Colorado has three entry days for its $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 entry) Thursday through Saturday.
• Tomorrow is the first of three entry days to the $529,850 GTD Main Event of the   Planet Hollywood Goliath Warm Up.
• The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III has a $600 entry $200K GTD Bounty tournament with three entry days starting Sunday. Sunday evening is a $7K GTD $250 PLO/PLO8 mix.
• Little Creek Casino is running WSOP package satellites on the next four Tuesdays at 7pm. $255 buyin plus a dealer addon, every 10 players in the tournament gets an entry to the $1,500 Millionaire Maker and $750 in travel expenses.
• The Heartland Poker Tour opens today in St. Charles, Missouri with a $350 buyin, $100K GTD.
• The Council Bluffs World Series of Poker Circuit begins tomorrow. It’s one of the smaller stops on the Circuit, with 321 players for last year’s Main Event.
• The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic at Hustler Casino in Gardena, California starts Friday with satellites for the $150K GTD event over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday both have 2 flights each ($250 entry). The 12:30pm flight gets 20K in chips and 12% make it to Day 2. The 5pm flight gets 24K, and 4% advance. If you qualify more than once, you get $1K for any stack not played.
• Peppermill Casino hosts another Run It Up Reno beginning on Monday. The first day has a $20K GTD (with seats to the Main Event added) and a 6-Max PLO tournament.
• The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up starts next Thursday (see above).
• Elk Valley Casino in Crescent City, California has a WSOP Main Event Satellite on 7 & 8 April. There are two qualifying sessions (6pm on the 7th, 10am on the 8th), with the final session at 4pm on the 8th. Entry is $250, with 1st place receiving the Main Event seat and $2K in expenses. Maximum of 160 players.
• The first event of the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley is 7 April, with a $260 buyin $100K GTD 8-Max. Entry flights on Friday and Saturday (two) with Day 2 on Sunday.

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

A Little Touch of Limon In the Night

I made an appearance on the High Roller Radio podcast a few months back, but I’m not nearly as entertaining or experienced as Abe Limon, late of Live at the Bike and other ventures. PokerSesh is no more, but HRR interviewed him this week, shortly after the Mike Dentale/Cate Hall heads-up match (Do I care about that enough to link? I do not.) He has a few words to say on the “poker/industrial complex” (actually, he says those particular words quite a few times), staking, and poker player rating systems.

Get Your O Face On

Former Portland-area player James “SplitSuit” Sweeney, co-founder of the Red Chip Poker training site, has a primer for playing “Big-O,” if you’ve been looking enviously over from your NLHE table at the people having fun next door. All those cards!

Tuesday Mix

My Las Vegas host for last summer, Jeremy “Worm” Harkin, has been doing his best to build a regular Tuesday night mix game—and give some advice on mixed game play—at Portland Meadows with 2 levels of blinds ($1/$2 on the main tables and $0.25/$0.50 on the others). Before last night’s game he announced on the NW Poker Facebook group an offer that I wish I couldn’t have refused:

Here is what I’m contemplating now. I am going to play the smaller game tonight only and if I lose, everything is as normal except for I still will be showing all of my hands and non-showdown pots to let the others know what I was betting with. If I win I’m going to DONATE all of my winnings back to the table for everyone who was there when I quit (I do plan on playing until 230am). My profits will be divided based on the number of hours the players played in the smaller game. (The more hours you played the smaller game with me the higher % of profits you will receive) This offer is only good towards the NEWEW, smaller game players, none of the regulars from our regular $1/2 game can get this offer. I expect to win anywhere from $300 to $1000 in this game. If I lose, it’s all on me obviously. Game is on for 7pm tonight.

I’ve been itching to play this game myself.Gonna have to wait a couple of weeks, though. Jeremy’s game was still going with a couple of tables as of 11:30pm Tuesday.

BTW, just because I haven’t been playing live since I won the Portland Poker Championship Series trophy, I haven’t been completely slacking off. I picked up a satellite ticket to the Ignition Black Spade Poker Open Main Event, a $300K GTD NLHE tournament taking place on the opening weekend of the Pendleton Spring Poker Round Up.

LATE ADDITION: Published this morning after I went to bed is the Willamette Week article I mentioned was due to come out.

This Week In Portland Poker

Nothing special that I’m aware of this week, but I’m eager to see the new RFID table at Portland Meadows setup; Brian Sarchi told me last week that the computer’s up and running and that the cameras were going to be installed. Here’s some info from Gorilla Gaming about the tables (similar to those used by the WSOP, HPT, Bicycle Casino, and others). If you’re interested in the technology behind reading the cards and putting live hands on a screen (I downloaded the software a couple of years ago, you can use it in a limited way without a hole-cam or RFID table) read about PokerGFX here.

Only a Day Away

• At The Bike, the Winnin’ o’ the Green moves into the final week with Mega Millions XVI, a $1M GTD tournament with a $160 minimum buyin. There are two flights (with optional $100 addon) through Monday. Day 2 is on Tuesday. The last event begins Tuesday, a $200K GTD Monster Stack tournament with $245 buyin and entries through Thursday.
• The $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin) of the WPTDeepstacks Reno at the Atlantis starts Friday and runs until Monday.
• The first event of the Mid-States Poker Tour at Golden Gates Poker Room  in Black Hawk, Colorado is Thursday, a $100K GTD, $360 buyin.
• Friday is the start of the Planet Hollywood Goliath Warm Up, with $1M in combined guarantees, including the $529,850 HTD Main Event with a $1,650 buyin, three entry days (30 March—1 April).
• Vancouver, BC’s Edgewater Casino has a Super Saturday tournament at 10:15am with w C$500 buyin.
• Tulalip’s Last Sunday of the Month tournament is Sunday for a $290 buyin (with dealer addon) $25K GTD tournament with 30-minute levels. They’re also offering a weekly $60 No Chop NLHE tournament on Sundays.
• The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III starts Monday, with a $150K GTD (three entry days, $400 buyin, 11am start time). The series runs through mid-April.
• Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington has another satellite for a WSOP Colossus buyin and $750 in travel expenses next Tuesday night at 7pm. Tickets are available online. There are three Millionaire Maker packages up for grabs on Tuesdays in April.
• The Heartland Poker Tour hits St. Charles, Missouri, outside of St. Louis a week from tomorrow with an opening $350 buyin, $100K GTD. Their $1,650 buyin Main Event (live streamed, no longer televised) starts 7 April. Alaska and Southwest both have direct flights to St. Louis from PDX, you can get RT tickets on Alaska for about $425. (St. Charles is about 8 miles from the airport).
• Another direct destination you may not be aware of is Omaha, just across the Mississippi River from Council Bluffs where the World Series of Poker Circuit lands 30 March. Direct roundtrip flights on Alaska are about $450. For a town near Omaha, you’d think there might be more than a single Omaha tournament on the schedule, but Council Bluffs it is Iowa, not Nebraska.
• LA’s Hustler Casino has its annual Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic starting 31 March. The series has over $1M in guarantees, with a $500K GTD Quantum tournament near the end and a two-entry-day $250K near the start ($250 buyin).
• Peppermill Casino hosts another Run It Up Reno from 3—10 April. It includes a number of small buyin events, including 6-Max Triple Stud and PLO, a 6-Max 8-Game championship, a NLHE Partner tournament, Win the Button, NL Omaha Bounty, Big O, and 3-Card NLHE. The topper is a 2-day $100K GTD NLHE Main Event with a $600 entry. Most of the buyins are $125 to $225.

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

Limon Tweet of the Week

https://twitter.com/limonpoker/status/839251251464282112

ΠOKEP In the Black (Sea)

Russia’s in the news a lot lately. I’ve long been interested in Russia, from an historical perspective, as a fan of Constructivist poster art, because of a fascination with non-Roman letterforms, and because part of my wife’s family is of Russian origin. In fact, there are so many Russian emigres in the Portland area that Russian is the 3rd most-spoken language in Oregon—behind English and Spanish—and I know some of them are playing poker. I know that I’ve always wanted to go see Russia someday myself.

Well, here’s your chance to make the trip for the first time—or to go back home to make some money. ■■■■■■■■■■—one of the earliest and biggest online poker operators—is in the process of building out their live poker tour, and this month’s stop is in Sochi, the site of the most-recent Winter Olympics. The big events are the $250K GTD Russian Poker Championship ($550, 3/18—22), a $100K GTD High Roller ($3,300, 3/18—20), and the $1M GTD Main Event ($1,100, 3/23—27). You can pick up tickets to Sochi for as low as $1,100 RT (although some of those have ungodly delays that make the trip nearly 60 hours; take the day-long layover in Moscow to check it out!)

So if the thought of carrying a wad of cash into Russia (or trying to get your winnings out of Russia) doesn’t scare you, hop on the computer right now. There are Russian women—who have to warm their own hands by blowing on them—waiting by the phone.

The stop after Sochi (in early May) is in Montreal, with a $5M GTD at Playground Poker Club. The flight’s shorter but they speak French, so for some of you it may be a wash.

And, from Christian Zetzsche, one of my WSOP reporting compatriots last summer, this:

Portland Poker Championship Series II

The first two events of the PPCS2 are complete, and the race is on for the championship. Plus lots of money. There’s a trophy for the series point leader (at right) and the two biggest events are yet to come with two $30K GTDs at Final Table Friday night at 7pm and Portland Meadows at noon Saturday.

The prize pool in last Friday’s $20K GTD at Final Table was over $35K. The Saturday game at Portland Meadows had 368 entries and a total of more than $45K in money awarded to 45 players.

I went on a heater just after the first break at Final Table, wiping out the stach of the table chip leader in consecutive hands that took me from 17K to 43K early on. The, near the second (addon) break, I lost everything I’d gained and more, got the addon, and was out on the third hand after break. Went home and got into a 70-player onliine 6-Max tournament, took third place, and made back my buyins, at least.

Saturday at Portland Meadows went a bit better, despite being card-dead after getting aces under the gun and queens on my big blind in the second level. I did not know there were that many variations on [4x 7x]. I got lucky with [ax kx] on the button when a player in early position shoved 16bb near the end of the 400/800 level, I reshoved for 33bb, and the player in the small blind tanked for a while before he shoved with a bigger stack. The original raiser had [ax qx] and small blind had [qx qx]. I hit an ace on the turn, avoided a four-flush that would have sunk me, and started the 500/1K level with 70bb.

I took a couple of chances, open-raising a hand with [4s 5s] to 3bb and having a woman a couple of seats to my left re-raise me for a second time to 10bb off a relatively short stack. The flop was [kc jc 9s], not what you would consider a good flop for my hand. I checked and she checked behind. The turn was [ks]. I had her covered by about 30bb, and I shoved, then showed my bluff when I folded. I wouldn’t normally do that, but I was sort of setting myself up for something.

About 25 minutes later, I limped into a multi-way pot from late position with [5h 6h] and four players checked the [ax 8s 5x] flop, only to have [5s] hit the turn. The big blind bet 2.5bb, and a player in middle position called, then I raised to 15bb. BB folds, MP tanks a long time, then finally calls. A low, non-spade on the river and I put another 25bb in with 10bb behind. MP tanked again for a long time, then called, only to ship most of his stack to my end of the table.

Then I got up over 115K until I was in the big blind with [ks 5s] and action folded to a big stack in the small blind who fumbled a raise that ended up getting ruled a min-raise. I called and flopped two spades, called a half-pot flop bet, then hit the second nuts with a spade on the turn. The small blind put in 8K and I raised to 25K, only to have him call, and then a fourth spade hit the river and I had to fold to his all-in. He showed [as ax], naturally.

We got to the money (45 players) after about nine hours but I was below average for the rest of the night. By ten hours I had about half the average stack and we were at three tables (I could now afford to pay my friend Daryl back; I’d had to borrow $40 for the addon because I hadn’t grabbed enough bills off my desk when I left the house).

I was under 10bb at 100K when I shoved [kx kx] in late position and got a call from a much bigger stack on the button. He had [ax qx] and flopped [jx tx 9x], but I was still ahead 65%/35%. But [ax] on the turn put a knife in my chances for a big payout.

See you all Friday night at Final Table!

This Week In Portland Poker

Last Sunday saw the late additon at Portland Meadows of a $2,800 Blaycation package that included an entry into the WSOP Colossus, travel expenses, coaching, and a week-long experience hosted by poker pro Bernard Lee. Brian Sarchi at PM said there may be more of these on the way.

Monday at Final Table was a special morning tournament/going-away party for Jack McGiffin, who I mentioned here last month; he’s off to Merrie Olde England for retirement. He’s taking a few dollars along with him, since he was in the final chop in the Friday night $20K.

This week, of course, are the final two events in the Portland Poker Championship Series II. A reminder that both venues have increased their door fees to $15/day.

Saturday at 4pm at The Game is the final WSOP Satellite Event of their spring season. It’s the big one, a $100 buyin with unlimited rebuys and a $50 addon for a chance to win a seat to the $10,000 Main Event. There’s an 80-player cap on the event, you can reserve a seat at the front desk, and they’re serving a Parmesan chicken dinner for $10 from 3pm to 8pm.

Chicken Dinner

Chinook Winds  is notoriously close-mouthed about posting winners of their series, but the top three finishers of the recent PacWest Poker Classic are now available, via Devin Sweet.

Limon-Related Tweet of the Week

I feel sorry for poker mutant! He must really need friends!

— Chris Shepard (@letsflip4rolls) March 7, 2017

Limon did once call me the most self-loathing poker player he’d ever met. About five minutes after the first time we’d ever talked. My advice: don’t get into a situation where he can possibly get a read on you. Then again, I’m not so self-loathing as to pass up a “god among men” shout-out.

More Satellites

The Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington is only a couple of hours to the north. I’ve never made it up there myself, but it seems to have some decent poker action. In addition to this week’s South Sound Poker Championship (see below), they’re running WSOP satellites for the Colossus (every Tuesday in March at 7pm, $155 entry for a package including a $565 seat and $750 in expenses), and to the Millionaire Maker (every Tuesday in April at 7pm, $255 buyin plus dealer addon for a $1,500 seat and $750 in expenses).

Deal of the Week: Fly Pendleton

Only have time to make one or two events at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up and wish there was some way to get there that didn’t eat up as much time as driving four hours out the Gorge into the high plateau (which can have some icy thrills even in the early spring)? There used to be air service through Seaport, a small carrier that flew from the private terminal at PDX. They went under a year or so ago, but along comes Boutique Air (“Fly Private for the Cost of Commercial”), which operates prop planes on three flights a day between PDX and Pendleton. Want to go out for the High Roller and come back after the Main Event? You can get a non-refundable economy seat for the 1-hour flight for $49 each way ($90 refundable). The trip’s just an hour, the first flight to Pendleton is at 8am, and you can be back before 8am Monday morning. It’s going to be more expensive than driving out, but if you can only make a day or two, it might just be worth it to keep yourself rested.

Yes, it’s kind of claustrophobic-looking but it’s still bigger than your car. Definitely bigger than my car.

Only a Day Away

• Tonight is the last Wednesday satellite for the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic. The series begins next Wednesday.
• The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star has a 3pm Turbo ($2,100 buyin) today and a 4pm $25K buyin High Roller. There were more than 800 entries in the Main Event before closwe of registration yesterday.
• The Wynn Spring Classic has a Survivor tournament at noon today, with a $250K GTD event starting Thursday—Saturday ($600 entry). Sunday is the final day of the $250K, and a $400 buyin $40K GTD.
• The World Series of Poker Circuit event at The Bike has started, interspersed with their Winnin’ o’ the Green series. You might still have time to get down there for the 2pm PL Stud 8/Big O mix today ($240 buyin, $10K GTD) or the $355 Survivor (top 10% get $3K). The $265 NLHE 6-Max starts tomorrow, there’s a big bounty tournament, and the nightly WSOPC Main Event satellite. Friday is a bigger Survivor at 5pm, and Satueday is the first flight of the WSOPC Main Event ($1,675 entry). The new Bicycle Hotel is offering 20% off rooms during March with use of the WSOPC17 code.
• The South Sound Poker Championship at Little Creek Casino has a $150 Bounty tournament ($1K added to prize pool) today, Thursday is $120 NLHE ($1K added). Friday is a regular $180 NLHE tournament. Saturday is the big $340 buyin tournament with $5K added to the prize pool. Then Sunday is a Last Chance Survivor ($127 buyin). The Thursday event starts at 7pm, all others begin at 11am. Little Creek’s WSOP Tuesday night satellites (see above) start up next week.
• As the WPT nears the end of its run at Bay 101, it makes the second stop it the annual “California Swing” at Thunder Valley outside of Sacramento. The Rolling Thunder Main Event ($3,500) is half the buyin of the Shooting Star, and the field is typically smaller (400+ compared to Bay 101’s 700+). There are lots of multi-table satellites (beginning Sunday) and other events, including a $250K GTD (starting days Wednesday through Friday), a one-day $100K GTD ($1,100 buyin) Friday, and a $1,100 Bounty tournament where the payout for knocking out a player is $500.
• Deepstacks Poker Tour (officially merged with rhe WPT last month after several years of working together, but still running separately in Canada) are in Calgary starting Friday at the Grey Eagle. It opens with a C$100K GTD on Friday (C$550 buyin), features HORSE, PLO, and Survivor tournaments, and wraps up with either a C$300K or C$250K GTD Main Event, depending on which part of the schedule you look at. The Canadian dollar is currently at about 76¢US.
• Gardens Casino in LA has an ad in the latest issue of CardPlayer nothing on their websitefor a $50K GTD game ($175 buyin with $100 addon) at 5pm on Friday, but there’s that I can find.
• The Venetian March Weekend Extravaganza starts 14 March (Tuesday) and runs through Sunday. The big event is a $600 buyin $200K GTD with three entry days. The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III kicks off a week after it’s over. How time flies.
• WPTDeepstacks Reno is at the Atlantis starting 16 March and running until 27 March. They have an opening $50K GTD event ($400 buyin) and a $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin, starting 24 March).

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