If you’re not watching Severance on Apple TV+, do it now. Nothing poker-related.
Writing this in Portland while long-time friend of the blog Brad Press is out at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up this week, shaming my supposed dedication to Omaha and HORSE. I haven’t even been playing much around town since coming so close in the 6-Max at Chinook WInds last month.
I did finally play some poker over Zoom, with a group that’s been going for a couple of years, using the PokerStars Home Games feature, which just made me wish I’d pushed the home game I started playing in back in 2008 to do the same. So far, I’ve cashed in three of the five games I played there and got a couple of bounties to offset the buy-in in another.
I did play the Portland Meadows NLHE Monster Stack Freezeout at the end of March, but lasted less than 2 levels. I’d just started to recover from my usual early race-to-the-bottom after playing some low suited connectors and catching a flush, then decided to shove-bluff over the villain in that hand when I picked up [as qs] and the flop was all-hearts with a queen. Jonathan Levy of The Poker Guys was sitting across the table from me while the villain—who hit the flush with his own low suited connectors and actually seemed a little concerned—briefly tanked over the call, and I got a laugh when Jonathan looked under the table to see if my legs were jangling nervously. I don’t think they were. It’s just money!
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
A quick reminder of what makes the Leaderboard. I track players whose cashes are reported to The Hendon Mob tournament database, who have more than $3K in lifetime earnings, and whose residency is listed at Hendon Mob as Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or Alberta (I suppose I really should add Yukon and Northwest Territories one of these days). Players are included if they have at least one single cash over $10K recorded, and if that cash is at least 300% ROI (no offense, but I’m not going to include WSOP Main Event min-cashes). I encourage everyone to check out the links to Hendon Mob and WSOP to get more details on individual tournaments and series.
Speaking of the 6-Max at Chinook Winds, Justin Foord of Portland was the runner-up in the PacWest Poker Classic #5 $50K GTD NLHE 6-Max, which had 106 entries. Payouts make it look like there was a 3-way deal, with Hillsboro, Oregon’s Andrew Johnson taking 1st. Johnson goes up nearly two hundred places, to #1002; Foord climbs a couple thousand, from #4871 to #2892.
Calgary’s Robert Buckingham gains a couple hundred places (#970) with 5th place in the WSOP Circuit Los Angeles #9 $75K GTD NLHE.
Tualatin, Oregon’s Zachary Bright picked up their biggest-ever cash in the PacWest #19 $225K GTD NLHE Main Event, coming in 6th of 441. Bright jumps up nearly three thousand places on the Leaderboard, to #3026. Fifth-place went to Salem, Oregon’s Michael Mischkot, who debuts on the Leaderboard at #2925. Another newcomer to the Leaderboard is 4th-place finisher Richard Johnson from Eugene, who was part of a four-way deal that places him at #1975. Climbing 500 places is Eugene’s Richard Thysell, with a biggest-ever cash for 3rd. Roger Scott from Shoreline, Washington goes from #4565 to #1393 by taking 2nd. And the winner of the Main Event is another newcomer to the Leaderboard: Larry Brown (his bio just says Oregon) who is #1553.
Landing at #3628 is Washington State’s Dwight Gilbert, the 3rd-place finisher in PacWest #17 $40K GTD NLHE Big Bounty. The tournament picked up 178 entries. Spanaway, Washington’s Richard Reed took 2nd. Also a new entry on the Leaderboard, Reed comes in at #3462. The winner was yet another Leaderboard newcomer, Matthew Gmur, from Oregon. The win—part of a 4-way deal—puts Gmur at #3260.
Matthew Jewett of Shoreline, Washington came in 15th in the 2,273-entry Millionaire Sprint Mayhem Poker Series #3 $500K GTD NLHE Monster Stack, with a prize pool over $1.2M, down at The Lodge in Round Rock, Texas.
The PacWest #1 $100K GTD NLHE opening event brought in 499 players. Kennewick, Washington’s James Stringer almost beat their personal best with 5th place in a 5-way deal, and moves from #1748 to #1351. The newcomer to the Leaderboard of the group is Anthony Chavez from Sunnyside, Washington, with 4th and #3324. Portland’s Brian Barker climbs more than seven hundred places to #1412 with the 2nd-place finish. And Dion Swan — also Portland — took 1st, climbing twenty-seven hundred places to #2045.
Did I mention we’ve got some more results from up north? The Great Canadian Freedom Series NLHE Main Event ran at the Cash Casino in Calgary and drew 142 entries. Karim Chatur from Calgary came in 3rd but actually drops a spot on the Leaderboard to #56 because of other player movement (Vanessa Kade, see below). Another Calgarian, David Howat got their biggest cash for 2nd, and moves up from #747 to #605.
Bainbridge Island player Kyle Rohl placed 6th in the Venetian DeepStack New Year’s Extravaganza #43 $200K GTD NLHE UltimateStack back in January (result just now being applied to their profile). The event picked up 537 entries and Rohl enters the Leaderboard at #2750.
Over in Regina, Saskatchewan, at the Station Poker Classic C$1,100 NLHE there were 299 entries for the C$1,100 event, and Calgary’s Kelly Kellner came in 4th, good for a bump of twenty-five places on the Leaderboard, to #298. Matt Kwong, also from Calgary, came in 4th of 287 in the Station C$900 NLHE, for a personal best and gains almost a hundred places (#438).
At Calgary’s ACE Poker NLHE Colossus, hometown player Grant Frulling topped the field of 264, for their biggest cash and a slide up from #1286 to #942.
Olympia’s Peter Lynn went down to Houston for the Prime Social Texas Poker Championship #9 $500K GTD NLHE The Big Texas, a 643-entry tournament where Lynn came in 6th. It was a career best, and Lynn goes from #2969 to #1555.
Kao Saechao of Renton, Washington won the Venetian DeepStack Showdown Poker Series #19 $40K GTD NLHE Monster Stack in a 4-way deal out of a field of 211. Saechao moves up more than one hundred places, to #433.
Edmonton’s Jonathan Sanborn claimed 1st place over 132 entries at Calgary’s Great Canadian Freedom Series NLHE The C$550, then came in 3rd of 296 at the Station Poker Classic C$500 NLHE three weeks later. Sanborn climbs from #171 to #155.
It was a good showing for PNW players at the new home of the World Series of Poker, in the WSOP Circuit Bally’s #12 NLHE High Roller. Perpetual Leaderboard resident Dylan Linde took 4th, though he drops from #5 to #6 on the Leaderboard (see James Romero, below). The winner of the 98-entry field was Andrew Rodgers from Anchorage, who said he’d lost his job a couple of months before hitting the biggest cash of his career. Rodgers goes up about three hundred spots, to #676.
Tyler Knittle of Lakewood, Washington took down their largest cash for 3rd in the 106-entry Tampa Poker Classic $100K GTD NLHE. Knittle jumps more than a thousand places on the Leaderboard, to #1134.
Darren Rabinowitz came in 6th of 393 at the Venetian #2 $500K GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack in early March, but still drops a place to #21 on the Leaderboard because of Adam Hendrix moving up.
Jordan Westmorland was living my dream, playing at the European Poker Tour in Prague, even through it was late winter instead of Christmastime. Westmorland was assigned 2nd place in a 3-way deal in the 129-entry EPT Prague #28 NLHE, which had a prize pool of €301,440. Westmorland gains four spots, and is #40.
Salem’s Jason Beasley beat 331 other players to win the Bally’s Colorado Poker Championship #21 $200K GTD NLHE. Beasley climbs more than sixty places, to #171.
Where to begin with James Romero’s March? How about at the Venetian #10 $1M GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack? Romero came in 8th out of 409 entries on 9 March. A couple of days later, he was across the street at the Wynn Millions Poker Series $2M GTD NLHE, and took 4th of 889. Then, at the end of the month, it was 2nd of 49 in the Prime #21 NLHE 6-Max in Houston. That was enough to kick Romero up a notch to #5 on the PNW Poker Leaderboard.
Then there’s Adam Hendrix, whose cashes were all in Las Vegas, but there were a lot of them (including a couple that didn’t quite make my reporting guidelines). It started with Hendrix coming in 4th in the same Venetian #10 $1M GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack event Romero cashed in. Then it was over to the Aria for the 88-entry US Poker Open/PokerGo Tour #3 NLHE, which Hendrix won. Hendrix followed that up with 5th of 66 in USPO #8 PLO. Hendrix cracks the Leaderboard All-Time Top 20, moving up four places to #18.
Vanessa Kade continues her assault on live poker. Kade only had a single cash to make this Leaderboard, but it is a career-best live cash (Kade’s win in last year’s PokerStars anniversary online event was larger). Kade goes from #109 to #51 with a 4th-place finish in the Wynn Millions Poker Series $10M GTD NLHE, an event with 1,075 entries.
And we wrap up this Leaderboard (finally) with Chris Brewer. Brewer started off the month in the Czech Republic (Prague!), winning the EPT Prague #9 NLHE, a €10,200, 37-entry tournament. Two days later, 4th of 34 in the €50,000 34-entry (with 11 re-entries) EPT Prague #17 NLHE High Roller. Then, back to Vegas for runner-up in USPO #5 NLHE, which drew 66 entries at $10K each. That’s all good for breaking into the Leaderboard Top 10, moving from #12 to #9.
Kevmath Quarterly Top 20
This is the fifth Quarterly and the first one without Seth Davies! Dylan Linde and James Romero swapped positions up in the Top 10 and there’s a sudden influx of Albertan players this quarter: fully 35% of the Top 20 tournament earners.
Players whose names are followed by an asterisk were on the Annual Top 20 list in December.
| December 2021 rank | April 2022 rank | state | player |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 9 |  | Christopher Brewer * |
| 115 | 51 |  | Vanessa Kade * |
| 22 | 18 |  | Adam Hendrix * |
| 6 | 5 | | James Romero * |
| 576 | 172 |  | Cody Mckay |
| 385 | 151 | | Rambo Halpern |
| 129 | 87 |  | Jayakrishnan Nair |
| 5 | 6 |  | Dylan Linde * |
| 226 | 162 | | Andy Truong |
| 233 | 171 | | Jason Beasley |
| 238 | 175 | | Pam MacNaughton |
| 3300 | 743 | | Michael Zuro |
| 44 | 40 | | Jordan Westmorland |
| 150 | 127 | | Malcolm Bolger |
| 1506 | 637 | | Ali Taghi Khani |
| 5050 | 970 | | Robert Buckingham |
| 194 | 155 | | Jonathan Sanborn |
| 175 | 148 | | Aaron Thivyanathan * |
| 2078 | 861 | | Brian Foley |
| 25 | 25 | | Maxwell Young * |