PNW Poker Leaderboard — 27 September 2022

Another round of poker returning to semi-normal took place last week, with two of the last three venues running tournament series in the Pacific Northwest scheduling them during the same week, naturally.

The South Sound Championship at Little Creek Casino west of Olympia ran from 21–25 September, with four events, featuring a $750 Main Event. The final table for the field of 95 included 3-time WSOP bracelet-winner Rep Porter (currently #12 on the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard),

Photo from Tracie Osborn via NW Poker Facebook Community

Meanwhile, down on the Oregon Coast, the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic ran from 17-25 September, with 19 events. I was only able to make it down a couple days, and busted two 6-Max bullets, min-cashed the freezeout that night, then got knocked out of the HORSE tournament halfway through. (congrats to John Gribben for chopping that one). The 6-Max had kind of a big overlay, but I think most of the other events did reasonably well. Some of the early results are already on Hendon Mob, thanks to Kevin Mathers, who was pulling them from the leaderboards posed by Chinook Winds, though those only have the top 20 results, so they won’t be complete until all the information is submitted.

Photo from Forrest Auel via NW Poker Facebook Community

Then, of course, there was Allen Kessler making a big deal out of the $10 dealer appreciation that doesn’t appear on the chart but is on each structure sheet. I’m just glad he didn’t notice the Main Event had a $25 dealer appreciation.

Key to the Leaderboard

  • Name and home town (according to the player’s Hendon Mob profile).
  • The player’s most recent ranking in the PNW Poker Leaderboard in italics. If this is their first time on the Leaderboard, an em dash ()
  • Their new standing in bold, preceded by the pound sign (#).
  • Their change in status on the Leaderboard (with an arrow indicating up or down), or a black club (♣) if this is their first appearance.
  • For each of the tournaments that are being recognized in this Leaderboard:
    • The name and link to the Hendon Mob listing for that tournament.
    • The player’s finishing position in the tournament and the number of entries.
    • The tournament prize pool in US dollars.
Julius Roque (Lethbridge, Alberta)
#264
#249
+15
2nd of 251 entries, $55.1K prize pool
Eric Resnick (Bend, Oregon)
#636
#581
+55
2nd of 80 entries, $50K prize pool

Great tournament, there was a 20% overlay on the guarantee, a game so nice I played it twice (and did not cash).

Eric Davis (Calgary, Alberta)
#1126
#969
+157
1st of 251 entries, $55.1K prize pool

Davis and Roque (above) made a deal in this tournament.

Zachary Powers (Marysville, Washington)
#1191
#1018
+173
3rd of 450 entries, $130.4K prize pool
Wallace Yuen (Vancouver, British Columbia)
#3483
#2262
+1221
3rd of 138 entries, $99.8K prize pool
Andy Truong (Edmonton, Alberta)
#155
#148
+7
1st of 150 entries, $54.6K prize pool
Lee Van-Voorhis (Washington)
#2816
#1913
+903
9th of 759 entries, $740K prize pool
Mikael Andersen (Federal Way, Washington)
#4432
#2328
+2104
2nd of 73 entries, $109.5K prize pool

Andersen outlasted 3rd-place finished Ryan Laplante to get heads-up with Michael Wang, who made three of the Stairway to Millions event final tables, winning two of them. Players who cash in a Stairway to Millions event win their prize as well as a ticket to the next level of the tournament series “stairway,” with players finishing in the top 3 places earning the ability to skip up two levels. Unless, of course, the venue decides to renege on the guarantee and cancel the final levels.

Michael Allis (Post Falls, Idaho)
#982
#824
+158
8th of 759 entries, $740K prize pool
Christopher Hull (Vancouver, Washington)
#1320
#1020
+300
4th of 382 entries, $150K prize pool

There appears to have been some sort of eal among the top four players.

Patrick Ronan (Girdwood, Alaska)
#894
#723
+171
1st of 84 entries, $42.8K prize pool

This is Ronan’s 2nd-largest cash, and it’s followed closely by another win in a Seniors event four days later that was just under the reporting limit.

Lawrence Hoy (Salem, Oregon)
#5867
#2017
+3850
1st of 450 entries, $130.4K prize pool
Kao Saechao (Renton, Washington)
#266
#239
+27
3rd of 92 entries, $230K prize pool
Graeme Frank (Calgary, Alberta)
#403
#332
+71
2nd of 150 entries, $54.6K prize pool
1st of 138 entries, $99.8K prize pool
Nicholas Peterson (Courtenay, British Columbia)
#1009
1st of 1040 entries, $343.2K prize pool
Adam Hendrix (Anchorage, Alaska)
#17
#13
+4
6th of 642 entries, $3.1M prize pool
Clemen Deng via shortpoker.com
Clemen Deng (Portland, Oregon)
#1497
#257
+1240
2nd of 145 entries, $217.5K prize pool
5th of 204 entries, $408K prize pool
1st of 62 entries, $595.2K prize pool

This great run in Tampa won Deng the WPT Player of the Festival.

Seth Davies (Bend, Oregon)
#1
#1
0
6th of 131 entries, $3.2M prize pool
3rd of 88 entries, $6.6M prize pool
8th of 115 entries, $23M prize pool
10th of 99 entries, $9.9M prize pool
2nd of 30 entries, $1.5M prize pool

I wouldn’t normally have included the 10th-place finish here because it was below my guideline for ROI, despite that min-cash being twice my lifetime earnings on Hendon Mob, but considering how Davies just keeps putting more and more space between the #1 and #2 spots on the Leaderboard, I think it’s a worthy exception.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 6 September 2022: The Max and Angela Edition

I’ve been doing the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard in one form or another now for over seven years, since well before I “retired” from regularly playing live tournaments. As people have noted, I still show up at some special events (or when I just get the urge) but I’ve gone from an average of 20 live tournaments per month before I retired to about 4 per month in the first year and just a couple a month since I started playing live again last fall.

That’s a fair number of official Leaderboard posts. But I think this week is the first time that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing two people I’ve played with on the top end of the Leaderboard (technically on the bottom of the list since I build up to the bigger earners each edition).

Max Young, of course, played regularly in Portland before heading out onto the circuit and becoming the winner of multiple World Series of Poker Circuit Rings. I still remember one particularly brutal beat where he got it in bad against me at Aces Players Club and caught a card to double up, then went on to win the tournament (I did at least still make the final table). It still burns, but ah, the reflected glory!

And Angela Jordison, while I’ve played against her far less, has been a delight to watch move up the Leaderboard ranks. The rapport she has with Jacki Burkhart has rightly attracted international attention, and I think there are a lot of poker players out there envious for that combination of success (soooo close to the bracelet and ring!) and friendship. I’m still looking for the opportunity to play some Omaha against her, but I’m not challenging her to a heads-up match.

So this one’s for Max and Angela, keep the table warm, my time is coming.

Key to the Leaderboard

  • Name and home town (according to the player’s Hendon Mob profile).
  • The player’s most recent ranking in the PNW Poker Leaderboard in italics. If this is their first time on the Leaderboard, an em dash ()
  • Their new standing in bold, preceded by the pound sign (#).
  • Their change in status on the Leaderboard (with an arrow indicating up or down), or a black club (♣) if this is their first appearance.
  • For each of the tournaments that are being recognized in this Leaderboard:
    • The name and link to the Hendon Mob listing for that tournament.
    • The player’s finishing position in the tournament and the number of entries.
    • The tournament prize pool in US dollars.
Logan Miller (Spokane, Washington)
#4193
6th of 1055 entries, $548.6K prize pool
Nikki Young (Vale, Oregon)
#4070
3rd of 394 entries, $115.2K prize pool
Leonel Curiel (Pasco, Washington)
#3264
4th of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool
Michael Jutte (Spokane, Washington)
#693
#615
+78
2nd of 394 entries, $115.2K prize pool
Shane Brotherwood (Calgary, Alberta)
#224
#212
+12
6th of 334 entries, $335.5K prize pool
Mark Willis (Longview, Washington)
#3126
3rd of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool
Minh Thai (Calgary, Alberta)
#1343
#1048
+295
1st of 47 entries, $46.9K prize pool
Aamir Khan (Calgary, Alberta)
#379
#242
+137
1st of 497 entries, $109.9K prize pool
Aamir Khan / albertapokerindex.com
Steve Zhang (Calgary, Alberta)
#988
#815
+173
2nd of 324 entries, $119.4K prize pool
Shannon Lazorko (Calgary, Alberta)
#1861
#1329
+532
3rd of 497 entries, $109.9K prize pool

Lazorko also had another, smaller cash in the Summer Super Stack Main Event.

Jimmy Lee (Edmonton, Alberta)
#69
#67
+2
1st of 73 entries, $48.8K prize pool
Abdul Majid (Calgary, Alberta)
#4753
#2188
+2565
5th of 334 entries, $335.5K prize pool
Jason Elrod (Pendleton, Oregon)
#3755
#1934
+1821
1st of 394 entries, $115.2K prize pool

An actual winner of an event in Pendleton who’s from Pendleton!

Mark Bonsack (Maple Valley, Washington)
#157
#145
+12
2nd of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool
Dan Close (Yakima, Washington)
#4157
#1774
+2383
1st of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool

It looks like there was at least a 2-way (possibly 4-way) deal made in this event. All four of the players whose cashes made the Leaderboard were from Washington State. Step it up, Oregon!

Jaspal Brar (Edmonton, Alberta)
#52
#48
+4
60th of 2294 entries, $11.1M prize pool
Weston Pring (Calgary, Alberta)
#247
#225
+22
1st of 324 entries, $119.4K prize pool
Westoon Pring / albertapokerindex.com
Aaron Thivyanathan (Renton, Washington)
#102
#98
+4
2nd of 76 entries, $73.7K prize pool
3rd of 119 entries, $115.4K prize pool
Darren Rabinowitz (Mercer Island, Washington)
#20
#20
0
5th of 542 entries, $629.8K prize pool
Graeme Frank (Calgary, Alberta)
#634
#403
+231
2nd of 334 entries, $335.5K prize pool
Nohad Tellani (Edmonton, Alberta)
#511
#325
+186
2nd of 754 entries, $363.4K prize pool
Angela Jordison (Redmond, Oregon)
#88
#75
+13
6th of 205 entries, $410K prize pool
1st of 532 entries, $518.7K prize pool
Maxwell Young (Oregon)
#25
#24
+1
1st of 205 entries, $410K prize pool
Max Young / wsop.com