Brian Thorp, winner of the Final Table $100K Guarantee, October 24, 2015 (photo via Final Table Facebook page)

Final Table $100K Guarantee

The $100K Guarantee at Final Table is over, and we have a winner! According to the post on Facebook, there was no chop. Total prize pool was $113K—a bit smaller than the spring event—with a combined 299 entries and rebuys. I was up from 12K to 28K by the first break (after level 4), then busted out at the end of level 10, jamming a short stack with [kc qc] into a raise from Tam Nguyen, who had [jx jx].

Encore Poker Series

With that out of the way, it means this week is the Encore Poker Series VII, with its own $100K. I’m out of the running for the two bigger games of the series: the $50K on Saturday and the $100K on Sunday; gotta blow ethylene glycol fog on the trick-or-treaters on Halloween (seriously, scheduling on Halloween?), and Poker Mutant Papa has a significant birthday on All Saints Day, but I’m planning to play both Thursday and Friday ($20K and $30K guarantees, respectively).

Here’s a quick rundown:

It always amuses me a little when poker rooms like the Venetian return to their regular schedules after a series (see below). They send me announcements about the guarantees: $124.5K in guarantees every week at the Venetian. But if you add up the guaranteed events at Encore over a week, it’s over $50K. Yes, there are some differences: the base buyin at the Venetian is larger, there are only two events each day (as opposed to five), but the steady drizzle of Portland poker versus the flash flood of Vegas poker stacks up pretty well, considering.

Red Zone II

It’s down to the finals in the Poker Update “Most Memorable Televised Poker Hand of All Time” contest. Dozens of Northwest voters helped push Justin “Red” Phillips’s from slightly behind a hand featuring Mikael Mizrachi to a massive win with 80% of the vote. The final is Phillips vs. Phil Hellmuth getting squashed in a hand from “The Big Game.”

WSOP November Nine

The big news in the poker world, of course, is the World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine, who meet back at the table on Sunday, November 8th. According to Kevin Mathers, the all-seeing eye of the poker world, this is the schedule, in Las Vegas (i.e. Pacific) time. No live streaming, which bites.

The WSOP ME weekend schedule: pic.twitter.com/Xa4NQL4SUU

— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) October 25, 2015

Miscellaneous

Checked in on the Last Sunday of the Month tournament at Tulalip Resort Casino, which was a $500 buyin.

https://twitter.com/tulalippoker/status/656888971033714688

The poker room calendar for next month says there’s another $500K at the end of November, this time with $5K added.

And a little further north in Vancouver, PokerNews Canada covered the PlayNow Poker Championship at the Hard Rock. The final three players in the C$1,650 Main Event chopped up C$150K, with another C$8,760 for the winner, awarding Scott McMorran more than US$44.6K.

World Poker Tour Five Diamond Poker Classic: Deal of the Day

Looking for that perfect Christmas/birthday gift for the Poker Mutant? Nothing says you love the weekly #PNWPokerCalendar Planner than a $10.4K ticket to the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio in mid-December. A little too much? How about $1.6K for the Seniors event? Or $1,090 for the other codgers tournament on December 7th?

The Five Diamond runs from December 4th to the 19th and includes a $560 buyin event on Sunday, December 6th, numerous events at $1,090 and $1.6K, a couple of $5.2K and $10.4K tournaments (including the Main Event), and a $100K High Roller. If you’ve been itching to play a big-buyin Pot Limit Omaha event, there’s one on the schedule for $1,090. Oh, and another for $10.4K.

No guarantees, but last year’s Main made a $5.7M prize pool with 586 entries. The series is sure to draw in a crowd of poker players, along with folks making a trip to Vegas to blow the money they’ve saved all year to buy Christmas presents, and over at the Venetian, they’ve scheduled the five-day Winter Weekend Extravaganza starting the 9th to cater to folks with smaller bankrolls. It includes a $100K guarantee with just a $250 buyin.

I’ve never played at Bellagio—their riff-raff scanners keep me out—but I hear it’s very nice inside and the Five Diamond is sort of the jewel in the WPT crown, so I’m giving the pick this week. Say “Hi” to Mike and Vince for me.

This Week in Portland Poker

I expect things are going to be mostly focused at Encore for the weekend, but there are a few things to note:

• Tonight at Portland Players Club is a $1K guarantee Big O tournament (7:15pm, $20/8K buyin, live rebuys at ≤12K, $30/20K addon). Halloween brings a $2K guarantee Big O game (5pm, $100/30K buyin/live rebuys, $40/20K addon, 30 minute rounds). If you’re a fan of the strange and bizarre, try out their Monday Mix 19 (or so) game shootout (double-barreled 6-card Omaha, anyone?), but beware of the $5-25 spread bets in the limit games! BEWARE! And if you’re looking for a poker club to buy….
•  The Game has announced a $10K guaranteed winner-takes-all event for 4pm November 21st. 80 player cap, $100 buyin/rebuy/addon. Please, guys, lose the zooming red text.

Only a Day Away

• The Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up is set to start on November 5th. Eleven days of poker in Pendleton. I just got out of town the last time I went as it was starting to snow.  This has been billed as the biggest poker series in the Northwest for years, and I haven’t seen a lot of competition for that title. Some, but not a lot. See my Deal from last month for more.
• At LA’s Hustler Casino Liz Flynt Fall Poker Classic, a $500K, $350 buyin tournament starts Thursday, with two starting flights (12:30pm and 5pm) every day through Monday (had the week wrong on that one in last week’s post).
• The Venetian Deepstacks Extravaganza IV started Monday and runs until Thanksgiving, with 61 events. Coming up this weekend is the second big guarantee, a $600 buyin $200K event with starting days Thursday through Saturday and Day 2 on Sunday. Next week is a $175K ($400 buyin) and a $200K guarantee for $1.1K.
• Tomorrow (the 29th) is the start of the closest WSOP Circuit event of the year, at Harveys Lake Tahoe. None of the 12 events have guarantees, and there’s no HORSE bracelet this year, but even the non-ring Seniors event last year got 254 entries (and was won by Camas’s Debra Pulley), so there should be plenty of tournament and cash action to justify the trip.
• In addition to Wildhorse (see above), Thursday the 5th is the beginning of the Mid-States Poker Tour stop at Golden Gates, west of Denver. Opening weekend is a $100K, $360 buyin tournament. The Main Event has a $1.1K buyin and $200K guarantee.
• Aria in Las Vegas has a couple more of those $25K High Rollers on November 6th and 7th to take advantage of the folks in town railing the WSOP Main Event.
• Friday the 6th is the opening of the World Tavern Poker Open at Planet Hollywood (which I wrote about last month); it ends just before the World Series of Poker Circuit hits the same venue.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.

There really isn’t anything else to talk about this week. 11am. The Final Table. $100K guarantee. $300 buyin and $100 addon.

But please, FT, fix the web site. The week of the big event is no time for it to be broken on tablet and phone browsers. Put the schedule up front, don’t keep burying it as a PDF link. Make sure it’s accurate.

I’m pretty sure there’s supposed to be a number attached there to the 11am guarantees. And while I think having the structures is great, maybe put the antes on instead of limits.

Am I giving away the fact that I used to be a freelance proofreader?

Seriously, though, this is going to be a great game and I’d recommend picking up your ticket by Friday unless you want to wait in a long line or risk being an alternate.

Encore Poker Series: Deal of the Day

Once again, we stick to Portland for the Deal, with four events next week making up a total of $200K in guarantees at Encore Club. No bounty tournament this time around. All of the events are rebuy or re-entry. The Main Event of the series is the second $100K guarantee event in Portland in two weekends, on Sunday, November 1st at noon. Buyin at Encore is $500—the room capacity is smaller than at Final Table, so there’s a corresponding shift upward in cost—but the starting stack is 30K (vs. 12K) so you’re starting a bit deeper, with 300BB (at 100/100). 40 minute blinds!

The $50K of the series is on Halloween. It starts at 1pm Saturday, but unless you plan to just flush your money into the system, you’re not going to get home in time for trick-or-treaters.

Opening events for the series are a $20K on Thursday and $30K on Friday, both at 8pm.

Again, get your tickets early.

This Week in Portland Poker

• Tomorrow evening (Thursday), Final Table ramps up to the $100K with a double guarantee for their 7pm game. $3K guarantee for a $40 buyin, 1 re-entry, and a $20 addon.
• If you don’t want to plunk down $400+ with a better than 80% chance of not seeing that money again (for most of us),or if you’ve busted from the $100K, Portland Players Club is putting on a 5:15pm $500 guarantee bounty tournament for $20. Today at noon is a $400 special Big O freeroll ($5 door fee gets you 2K in chips). Friday is a $750 NLHE freeroll. Halloween is a 5pm $2K Big O tournament; $100 for 30K in chips.

Only a Day Away

• The Wynn Fall Classic in Las Vegas wraps up this weekend with a $300K guarantee ($1.6K buyin). Starting flights are Friday and Saturday at noon, Day 2 is Sunday, and Day 3 is Monday. Winners of the earlier events can be found here.
• At LA’s Hustler Casino Liz Flynt Fall Poker Classic, a $500K, $350 buyin tournament starts Thursday, with two starting flights (12:30pm and 5pm) every day through Monday.
• The PlayNow Poker Championship finishes up this weekend at the Hard Rock Casino in Vancouver with a C$1,650 Main Event; starting days Friday and Saturday.
• The Card Player Poker Tour/Hollywood Park Casino National Championship of Poker in Los Angeles has its final event, a $500 $150K guarantee Main Event this weekend.
• At San Diego’s Oceans 11 Casino, the WPTDeepstacks event has a party tonight to kick off its three-day $200K Main Event with a $1.1K buyin and starting days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
• Run It Up at the Peppermill Reno ends Sunday, with starting days for its $100K Main Event ($565 buyin) on Friday (noon) and Saturday (8:30am). The Day 1 structure for Saturday is a turbo, with Day 2 scheduled to begin at noon Saturday and a final table livestream on Twitch on Sunday.
• The Eldorado Resort Casino Poker Challenge $1K buyin Tournament of Champions starts Saturday in Reno, with Day 2 on Sunday.
• Tulalip Resort and Casino north of Seattle has a regular Last Sunday of the Month tournament. If you’ve just finished up chopping the $100K at Final Table, get someone to drive you to Marysville while you nap so you can get into their $500 buyin game. Par-lay!
• The Venetian Deepstacks Extravaganza IV starts Monday and runs until Thanksgiving, with 61 events. The first is a two-day $150K guarantee, $250 buyin, and three starting days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). It’s immediately followed by a $600 buyin $200K guarantee event.
• Thursday the 29th is the start of the closest WSOP Circuit event of the year, at Harveys Lake Tahoe. None of the 12 events have guarantees, and there’s no HORSE bracelet this year, but even the non-ring Seniors event last year got 254 entries (and was won by Camas’s Debra Pulley), so there should be plenty of tournament and cash action to justify the trip.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.

What is it about art directors and poker? Are they living in some sort of time vortex? Last summer, Newsweek ran a cover article on the dangers of online gaming, featuring a kid holding an iPad displaying the five cards of a spade royal flush.

About the same time, GEICO started running a pretty funny ad featuring Kenny Rogers playing poker, driving his tablemates to the point of desperation by singing the chorus to “The Gambler.” All the players are holding five cards. Nolan Dalla, the Senior Writer for WSOP.com, wrote a personal blog titled “Will Kenny Rogers Please Learn How to Play Hold’Em?” Admittedly, we don’t see the faces of the cards in this game, so they could be playing Big O or a 2-7 game, and the song does date from 1978, when Five Card Draw was more well-known than Texas Hold’Em, but the younger guys Kenny’s playing with are about as unlikely to be playing Draw as they are a Seven Card Stud game. Never mind, as Dalla points out, that they don’t have any chips or money on the table. Dalla mocks Rogers for the gaffe, but he’s just hired talent in the piece, not the person making decisions about the game they’re playing.

The same goes for the latest in the bizarre Matthew McConaughey Lincoln car commercial series. Previously, he the ad agency had him do some drawling metaphysical rambles seemingly-inspired by his turn as a burned-out cynic/murder investigator in True Decective (though not appropriating the look of the chain-smoking, pony-tailed, Russ Cohle, a guy whose only fix for years to the broken tail light on his beat-up truck was red duct tape). In one of the most recent, he’s silent, simply smirking at the camera when he gets back in the car following his (presumed) win after drawing to and tabling a six-high straight flush. And once again, in the only shot where you see the four players seated at the table, there isn’t any sort of betting unit in sight.

Final Table $100K: Deal of the Day

The Deal is usually a pick for out-of-town travel opportunities where you can maximize your tournament profit. For some players from the west side of Portland, SE 122nd and Division may seem like out-of-town, but Final Table continues to be one of the mainstays of poker in the city, and it’s first up this fall with a $100K guarantee tournament on Saturday, October 24th, at 11am. It’s less than 20 minutes from my house, the buyin is $300 (with a $100 addon, one rebuy, and a $10 door fee). How much more of a bargain can you find?

Final Table $100K Guarantee from March 2015

When Final Table ran a $100K earlier this year, the prize pool made it to $133.5K, with nearly $34K scheduled for first place. You can see from my bustout photo above that all I did was contribute money in that game. Advance tickets are on sale now, you can be fairly certain that it’s going to be full—even the spacious Final Table can only accommodate so many tables—and parking’s going to be tight, as usual, though once you find a space, you won’t have to move your car every couple hours. Late registrants are likely to get stuck at the folding tables and chairs, rather than any of the newly re-felted main tables or comfy chairs used for the daily tournaments. I can walk down to Chavez & Division in 20 minutes, so I’m probably just going to catch a bus.

Final Table will be breaking tables down as fast as they can after the break and any alternates have been seated in order to get shootouts up and running. They’ve been running 1/2 and 2/5 every day; there should be plenty of action for players busting out of the $100K.

This Week in Portland Poker

• I’m going to stray outside of Portland to mention the Friday night tournament in my old (and I mean really old) stomping grounds of Eugene, at Full House Poker. It’s a $150 buyin with a $30 addon. $5 daily membership fee for non-members. $5 dealer bonus. I think it’s 20K for the buyin and 20K for the bonus, but the web site has a typo: “200,00 starting/double dealer bonus/add-on” and it says “$5 Double Dealer Bonus receives 200,000 chips.” Not sure if they’re all supposed to be 200K or 20K. 7pm, usually gets a dozen or more players.
• The Game on SW Barbur has a new Power Hour with a $5 door fee until noon (open at 11am). Gets a mention because today they’re featuring a catered lunch from the official restaurant of the Mutant Poker blog, Hunan Pearl in Lake Oswego.
• Don’t like carrying wads of cash into poker clubs? Big Stack Players Club lets you buy into tournaments with credit or debit cards. You still have to figure out what to do when you have to carry the cash out. Tournaments start at 7pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; 5pm on Sunday.
• Portland Players Club has a $2K Big O tournament at 7:15 Friday night. 20K chips for $40, live rebuys, and another 20K for $30 addon at break. Saturday is a $3K guarantee for $30 at 6:15pm, with 3 freeroll flights at 11am, 1pm, and 3:30pm.
• In the calm before the $100K storm, Final Table has their regular schedule, with the new $10K ($75 buyin, $30 addon) at 7pm Friday, a $4K at 1pm on Saturday ($40 with live rebuys and $40 addon).
• Encore Club’s 4-event EPS series comes up at the end of the month, they ran a $9K at noon on Monday that got a $13K prize pool (took 5th after riding a short stack at the final table) and I wouldn’t be too surprised if there was another special this week or next. Friday is a $13K guarantee ($60 buyin), with first place getting a seat to their$100K (on November 1st), there are $3.5K games Saturday and Sunday at noon ($40 buyin for both), and an $8K Saturday night at 8pm ($60 buyin) which is giving out a seat to the $50K (Halloween).
• And how could I forget Aces Full on SE Powell? Their weekday noon game is now a $1K guarantee Monday to Thursday, with a $2K guarantee on Friday, all on a $20 buyin and $10 door fee.

Only a Day Away

• The Wynn Fall Classic in Las Vegas begins today with a $50K guarantee Seniors event (50+) with a $600 buyin. It features three multi-day events with guarantees from $100K to $300K. Weren’t the Democratic Party presidential candidates there last night? I wonder if Bernie Sanders plays poker?
• Tomorrow is the start of LA’s Hustler Casino Liz Flynt Fall Poker Classic. Three of the first four events are survivor tournaments (even chop at 10% of the field). There’s a $250K guarantee event with a $250 buyin, a $500K guarantee event with a $350 buyin, and a $250K guarantee with $150 buyin and $100 addon. It runs through November 5th.
• The PlayNow Poker Championship runs from tomorrow until October 25th. at the Hard Rock Casino in Vancouver. The first event is a C$330 Women’s event (about US$250). They’re estimating a prize pool of more than US$110K for the second, two-day event (US610 entry, freezeout format) and event 3, a US$1265 main event. Seating for all events is limited.
• Friday is the start of the Card Player Poker Tour/Hollywood Park Casino National Championship of Poker in Los Angeles. It kicks off with a $25K guarantee event that includes four seats to the $500 $150K guarantee Main Event the next weekend.
• Saturday is opening day at Oceans 11 Casino for another WPTDeepstacks event, starting off with a $50K guarantee and ending with a $200K Main Event.
• Jason Somerville brings his Run It Up juggernaut to the Peppermill Reno next Tuesday for six days, with a $565 Main Event, plus Big O, Survivor, Ante Up, and All In Or Fold tournaments.
• And if you’re in Reno next week instead of at Final Table for the $100K, the Eldorado Resort Casino Poker Challenge is running, with a $1K Tournament of Champions ($40K guarantee) that might be interesting if you want the feel of a small-field high roller tournament.  There are two preliminary $240 events with 5 seats to the TOC awarded to the top five finishers.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.

No particular news this week. Forrest Auel mentioned the other day that he was shown on one of the World Series of Poker Main Event telecasts last week. I tried to spot him so I could capture a screen shot but ESPN and/or Comcast conspired to screw up the scheduling and I got a recording of people discussing baseball instead of one of the episodes. Somewhere in the fifth or sixth hours of the ME broadcast. Look for him.

Other than that, I already recapped my bubble of the Final Table $20K and an odd find in the America’s Cardroom $1M guarantee last Sunday, so read those if you’re interested.

Vegas, Baby!: Deal of the Day

So much coming up in November. I mentioned the tournaments in Northern California in Redding and Sacramento last week, but more or less at the same time—and a lot closer together—are the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV (running from late October to the day before Thanksgiving) and the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Planet Hollywood, which has a 12-day run starting November 12th. The casinos are less than a mile apart, probably a 25-30 minute walk when you factor in the intersection at Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd. and the Paris Las Vegas driveways (plus having to dodge the escort service flyers and hobos dressed up as cartoon characters).

I recommended the WSOPC Planet Hollywood stop for the week of November 15th already because of the selection of mixed games running as side events. Having the Venetian series running concurrently sweetens the pot. There’s a $500K guarantee NLHE tournament ($1600 buyin) opposite the mix events, with the $1650 buyin, $1.5M guarantee WSOPC Main Event at the end of the week. It should be a pretty intense week for poker players who can get away to Vegas for the week after Wildhorse.

This Week in Portland Poker

• Saturday at 1pm is the $35K guarantee at Encore Club. $200 entry/re-entry and an $80 addon. It’s the next step to a great month of Portland tournament poker.
• Tickets for the Final Table $100K guarantee might start selling in the next week. It’s scheduled for October 24th at 11am with a $300 buyin/rebuy and a $100 addon. Monday was the scheduled start of the return of the 1pm $500 guarantee Big O tournament ($20 buyin/rebuy/addon).
• Saturday at 5pm is Portland Players Club’s $2K guarantee Big O tournament ($100 buyin/rebuy, $40 addon). It’s a deepstack format with 30K in the starting stack, though you can never be deepstacked enough in Big O. Chadd just added a 12:05pm $1K NLHE freeroll before the Big O game.

Only a Day Away

• The Card Player Poker Tour/Bicycle Casino Big Poker Oktober  in LA has entry days into their inaugural $300K event today through Friday. Sunday is a $50K guarantee, with mostly $150 buyin events over the next week.
• Deepstacks Poker Tour in Edmonton, Alberta (airport code: YEG) drew 240 players for its C$550 Event #1, awarding C$26K for first place. The C$440 Event #3 (PLO) got 102. The C$200K guarantee Main Event (C$1.5K entry) has entry days Friday and Saturday.
• The Wynn Fall Classic kicks off next Wednesday in Las Vegas with a $50K guarantee Seniors event (50+) with a $600 buyin. It features three multi-day events with guarantees from $100K to $300K.
• Next Thursday is the start of LA’s Hustler Casino Liz Flynt Fall Poker Classic. Three of the first four events are survivor tournaments (even chop at 10% of the field). There’s a $250K guarantee event with a $250 buyin, a $500K guarantee event with a $350 buyin, and a $250K guarantee with $150 buyin and $100 addon. It runs through November 5th.
• Friday the 16th is the start of the Card Player Poker Tour/Hollywood Park Casino National Championship of Poker in Los Angeles. It kicks off with a $25K guarantee event that includes four seats to the $500 $150K guarantee Main Event the next weekend.
• Further south in San Diego, Saturday the 17th is opening day at Oceans 11 Casino for another WPTDeepstacks event, starting off with a $50K guarantee and ending with a $200K Main Event.
• LATE ADDITION: PlayNow.com is the government-run online gaming /lottery site run by British Columbia. It runs online poker (you have to be a resident of BC to play, not just passing through) but also sponsors some live events. I got notice after I posted this week’s calendar that their PlayNow Poker Championship runs from next Thursday (the 15th) until October 25th. at the Hard Rock Casino in Vancouver. The first event is a C$330 Women’s event (about US$250). They’re estimating a prize pool of more than US$110K for the second, two-day event (US610 entry, freezeout format) and event 3, a US$1265 main event. Seating for all events is limited.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.