The post-World Series of Poker lull in series schedules is over, and things are cranking up into high gear, even here in the Pacific Northwest, where big events are few and far-between. Of course, just like the last two years, venues are stepping on each others’ action, which just seems like it’s a detriment to the venues and the players. Two years ago, while the Deepstacks Poker Tour was operating out of Chinook Winds, they planted their fall series right in the middle of the only two WSOP Circuit events close to the NW (Lake Tahoe and Vancouver), which were already causing conflict by overlapping by a week. Last fall, the Fall Coast Classic at Chinook was the same weekend as Muckleshoot Casino’s Poker Summer Classic, and it’s happened again this year.

Chinook’s $550 buyin/$200 add-on Main Event has a $100K guarantee, and it seems to me that it would be easier for them to build that that if they could draw a wider range of players, including, say, those from Seattle. Muckleshoot’s $750 buyin Main Event has $20K added to the prize pool, is likely to have a larger prize pool (the last $750 event there on Hendon Mob had just over 200 entries); after player fees are deducted from the added money, the casino’s still likely to be kicking in $10K; and it’s a lot closer to Seattle. And when you consider travel time, the trip from Portland to Auburn isn’t that much longer than Portland to Lincoln City.

That’s not even mentioning the Heartland Poker Tour event at Thunder Valley getting under way just north of Sacramento, which is just as close to Ashland poker players as Lincoln City. No beach, of course.

Writing as a hardcore tournament junkie, I don’t want to have to choose.

Northern California Poker Belt: Deal of the Day

That last item leads into this week’s deal. There’s a lot of the pokers going on in NoCal next month, and if you’ve got some time mid-September you can bounce your way between San Jose, Reno (yes, technically Nevada), and Sacramento.

Under ideal traffic conditions (in the Bay Area and Sacto? right…) the drive from San Jose to Reno is just over four hours, with Sacramento halfway in-between. Tuesday, September 8th is the  start of the Bay 101 Open in San Jose (mentioned in the first of this month’s Planners); it runs through the 15th (the next Tuesday). The Heartland Poker Tour hits Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort on Thursday, September 10th, with the last flight of the Main Event starting Saturday September 19th. And, as mentioned, HPT will be at Thunder Valley in Lincoln, north of Sacramento, starting Monday the 14th, with Main Event flights on the 24th, 25th, and 26th (Thursday-Saturday).

Depending on your preferences, you could easily move between venues, sampling the action at each to see what suits yiou best (haven’t been there myself, but Thunder Valley has a great reputation). There are even options to get from city to city if you’d rather leave the driving to someone else, like Megabus that cost less than $15 to get from Sacramento to Reno. Megabus doesn’t serve San Jose, but you can get from the Santa Clara Caltrain station (on the other side of the San Jose airport from Bay 101) to within a block of the San Francisco Megabus pickup for less than $10 and about 90 minutes if the train’s an express.

This Week in Portland Poker

Nothing big off the usual schedule this week but:

• Portland Players Club has a $40 buyin $1.5K guarantee Big O Deepstack tournament this Friday at 7:15.
• Encore Club has announced that they’re bumping the guarantee on their weekday noon games from $1.5K to $2K, starting next Monday (September 1).
• Final Table posted a note on Facebook that they’re planning a $100K guarantee (no date announced yet), and “many more Awesome changes!!!!” Hopefully, that won’t affect the $20K guarantee they’d normally have September 4th (though I can’t play this month).
  
• Aces Full has no cover fee through the end of August as they ramp back up under new management.
  

Only a Day Away

• Tonight and tomorrow are series satellites for next month’s Muckleshoot Poker Classic (see last week’s Deal for more).
• The Ashland Social Club‘s final Summer Sunday Series event is Sunday (natch) at 11am. PLO with a $100 buyin,  $20 unlimited rebuys and a $20 addon.
• Tulalip Resort Casino’s Hot August Nights final Sunday tournament is a $25K added, $550 buy-in tournament Sunday at 11am. Not exactly “night”, but it should be by the time you get done. Seating may be limited, call before you get in the car.
• Muckleshoot Casino’s Sunday tournament starts at noon. It has $3K added; buyin is $330.
• The Edmonton Poker Classic, at Casino Edmonton, in Edmonton, Alberta (YEG) starts Sunday.
• WPT Legends of Poker is running at the Bicycle Casino; Saturday is the first flight of the $3.7K Main Event.
• WPTDeepstacks at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa runs through the end of the month.
• September 2nd is the start of the Commerce Poker Series in LA. It kicks off with a $350 buyin $200K guarantee event.
• The HPT hits Colorado’s Golden Gates on September 4th (a week from Friday), which overlaps the HPT series at Grand Sierra Resort in Reno.
• The Bay 101 Open starts on September 8th.
• And the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5 runs from September 10th to October 4th.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker…in the future.