Daily Archives: Thursday, 2 November 2017

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 1 (or 2) November 2017

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

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

My Time Is Coming: Back From Hiatus?

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

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

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

Run It Twice

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

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

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

The Crazy Session

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

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

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

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

This Week In Portland Poker

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

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

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

Wildhorse Schedule

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

Only a Day Away

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

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