Monthly Archives: October 2019

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 27 October 2019

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When last we checked in on our buddy Sam Cosby earlier this year—formerly a member of the respectable poker media and now a degenerate circuit grinder—it was to chide him for not getting his hometown updated on Hendon Mob. But it’s happened now and we at Mutant Poker are happy to welcome Cosby into the fold of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard with his 2nd place finish at the WSOPC Hammond #10 NLHE. During the summer he would have been down around #458, but he’s debuting this edition at #268.

Another PNW player at WSOPC Hammond was Wilsonville’s Eric Jarosh, who finished 14th in Event #12 $1M GTD NLHE Main Event for his biggest recorded cash. Jarosh jumps nearly 400 places on the Leaderboard, to #590.

Matt Affleck maintains his #12 with a 7th-place finish in the Wynn Fall Classic $1M GTD NLHE Championship, which brought in 1,024 entries at $1,600 apiece.

Back at the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic, my nemesis John Gribben (Olympia) chopped with me for only his second recorded cash. Then he headed down to Run It Up Reno IX to win even bigger (and no chop) in Event #1 $100K GTD NLHE Miini Main Event, over 408 others. Gribben jumps from #1879 on the Leaderboard to #661.

Baker City, OR’s Dennis Jones notched his biggest-ever score in the RunGood Bossier City $100K GTD NLHE Main Event. The tournament more than doubled the guarantee, and Dennis took 2nd. Jones moves from #2444 to #791.

All the way back in Pennsylvania, Po Ying (Seattle) debuts #1414 with a 6th-place finish at  Parx Big Stax XXXI #2 NLHE, with over 1,400 entries.

Nicky Komphouvong from Portland climbs 750 places to #827 with his 7th-place finish in Big Poker Oktober/CardPlayer Poker Tour $500K GTD NLHE Main Event at the Bicycle Casino in LA.  It was Komphouvong’s lrgest-recorded cash.

Regrettably, Muckleshoot Casino submitted only the top ten finishers to Hendon Mob for the recent Fall Poker Classic. It’s better than Wildhorse Casino having submitted the Summer Poker Round Up as another Spring Round Up and including the results from only the first event, but as a poker reporter, you kind of expect full reporting, like any other major series.

Anyway, hometown (Auburn) player Damon Kerkes  won Muckleshoot Fall Poker Classic #1 $80K GTD NLHE to jump onto the Leaderboard at #1865 with his first big cash.

Max Young sticks in the #20 spot with two runner-up cashes. He came in 2nd in Muckleshoot #2 NLHE, then headed quickly down to Reno where he just missed out on the PokerStars Platinum Pass to next year’s EPT Barcelona, in Run It Up Reno #10 IX NLHE Moneymaker’s Road to the PSPC.

Adam Croffut (seated), Dan Beecher (behind, left), and Kenneth Richardson, Jr. (behind, right), photo via Heather Beecher

Everett’s Adam Croffut moves up two spots to #57 with his win in Muckleshoot #3 $80K GTD NLHE; Dan “Goofy” Beecher (Portland), Kenneth Richardson, Jr. (University Place, WA), and Chong Lee (Tacoma) tied in second place. Richardson and Lee are making their first appearances on the Leaderboard, at #1734 and #1752. Beecher moves up to #216 from #234.

Dupont, WA’s Alex Ding only has one recorded cash, but since it’s for first place in the  Muckleshoot Fall Classic $140K GTD NLHE Main Event, it’s a nice one to have. There was a seven-way ICM deal in the 350-entry tournament (the prize pool went nearly $100K over the guarantee). Ding’s victory puts him in #1214 on the Leaderboard. Coming in 2nd was Lynden, WA’s Dave van Weerdhnizen, climbing more than 100 places to #350. Third place in the tournament went to Jennifer Hughes from Gig Harbor, gaining more than 400 places to land at #615. A couple of slots in the deal fell to players from out of the northwest, but 6th was Post Falls, ID’s Nathan Thrush, getting his first major cash and landing on the Leaderboard at #1463. Finally, Matthew Dvorsak, from Tacoma, took 7th, jumping up almost 200 places to #290.

That’s the last report before the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up (7—17 November, PDF link with schedule and structures) but I do want to give a shoutout to this site’s benefactor Jeremy Harkin for the dedication to Big O that took him to the middle of Texas to play the Permian Basis Poker Series High Roller Big O (and to win it.) And don’t forget to pick up a copy of Ante Up Magazine if you see one (or read it for free online) the November issue is my debut as their PNW Ambassador.

Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic Series Championship

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I was looking at the sweet, sweet trophy Stuart Young won at the Bend Poker Room Monster Stack Main Event at the end of the month and realizing that there weren’t any trophies given out at the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic.

When John Gribben and I chopped the second of the $50K GTD tournaments heads-up the second night of the series, my original suggestion was to make a deal, then play out for a set amount. Tournament Director Matthew Moring said that was a no-go, any deal immediately ended the tournament (my suspicion was that had more to do with it being 5am than a hard and fast rule), so John and I agreed to an even chop. I asked for the win, John said he would like to get the picture because it was his first big win (and he’d pay me a little bit extra). I haven’t actually ever had a winner photo for a big tournament myself, and as it was, Matt took a couple of photos of the both of us as well as John by himself, and this is the one that ended up getting sent out.

But no trophy. If there had been or if there had been a casino championship on the line (as ther is for a World Series of Poker Circuit series or at the upcoming Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up, the decision would have had to be a bit different. How much—if anything—would the trophy be worth to me in the negotiation? Do I care about the win on my Hendon Mob profile? Do I want to be known as being involved in only the third-most-egregious thing that Will Kassouf did?

Do Player of the Year, Global Poker Index, or—most importantly—series champion points matter to me? If there’s a monetary reward (as at Wildhorse) or some other benefit that accrues to top performers (the Global Casino Championship contenders on the WSOPC Leaderboard can attend for free), then a friendly chop is not going to happen (#TeamNoChop c/o Angela Jordison).

Just for kicks, I went through and assigned points to players in the Fall Coast Poker Classic using the WSOP Circuit system for non-Main Event tournaments.

1st — 50 points
2nd — 37.5 points
3rd — 30 points
4th — 27.5 points
5th — 25 points
6th — 22.5 points
7th — 20 points
8th — 17.5 points
9th — 15 points
Remaining 20% of those in the money — 10 points
Remaining 30% of those in the money – 5 points
Remaining 50% of those in the money — 2.5 points

I didn’t count the Fall Coast Classic Main Event with the same point system as the WSOPC Main Events because it doesn’t automatically get the winner into anything (the winner at each WSOPC stop is automatically free-rolled into the Global Poker Championship) and because the price disparity between most of the events isn’t as great as at a WSOPC stop. My preference here would be to average out the points assigned to position in the case of chops, but the WSOP doesn’t do that. So here goes!

First off are the folks who won events without accruing any other points: That’s 50 points each for Casey Ring (Main Event), Adam Schneider (Monday evening $10K GTD freeze-out with an 11-way chop), Alex Kuzarov (#22 $40K GTD with a 6-way deal), Robert Fitzgerald (#11 $10K GTD HORSE with what looks like a 6-way deal), Robert Squires (#14 O8, maybe another 6-way deal), Tri Ton (#1 $125K GTD), and Jason Heiner (#7 $40K GTD 6-max, looks like a 4-way ICM chop). Andy Su won #2 ($50K GTD), Michael Mackie got 50 points for #10 ($30K GTD Seniors, some sort of FT deal), Gilbert Marquez got 1st in #18 ($25K GTD Big O, 3-way deal involving—oh, no!—Angela, how could you?), and Dan Anderson took 50 for #21 ($150K GTD High Roller).

Two players won a tournament and min-cashed another (2.5 points): Carl Oman won #17 ($40K GTD Big Bounty) and cashed the 6-Max; John Gribben won #5 (see above) and cashed the Main.

Richard Imel took 11th in #5 (5 points) and won #13 Super Boss Bounty for 55 points. Bohr He and Kevin Buck are the first players in this list who did not win an event but have more points than some of the players who did. Buck made the final table of #1, took third in #5, and cashed in #17. He was also at the final table for #5, took 6th in the 6-Max, and 9th in the Main Event. Jake Dahl final-tabled #14 HORSE, placed 3rd in $14 O8. and picked up 15th in the Main Event for his 55 points.

Cody Rogan was the third-place finisher for points with 57.5. He started strong with 4th place in #1, placed 4th again in #8, and min-cashed in #13 to pull just ahead of the rest of the pack.

Michael Freedom is the runner-up in points with 65 after a 2nd-place in #10 (Seniors) and 4th in #22. 37.5 for the former and 27.5 for the latter.

And the champeen is Graham Adam Duke, who picked up an remarkable 82.5 points, well ahead of the pack. Duke did not win a single event, but he made three deep runs, coming in 3rd in #2, 9th in #7 (which would be a final table except it was the 6-max), and runner-up in #21, the High Roller.

The Poker Mutant Antes Up

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I meant to announce this on the blog last weekend but as my Twitter account was offline, I held off and I’m just getting to it now, but I’ve accepted the post of Pacific Northwest Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine, taking up the shoes Jammin’ Jay Zeman finally managed to put in the Goodwill bin long after he’d moved to the East Coast.

I’ll be doing round ups of as much poker room information as I can get hold of from poker rooms and casinos in much of the territory I was covering with the PNW Poker Calendar, but also trying to pick up info on cash game action that hasn’t really been part of my purview as a mostly tournament player (so tips are highly appreciated!)

My first submission covers the results of the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic (and hopefully a couple of other Oregon goodies, depending on the editor’s choices), but just after I submitted the column (to be included in the November issue of the print magazine), I saw news of the imminent closing of the Tulalip Poker Room in a tweet from their account and sent it in.

Yay, I’m on the front page?