My Time Is Coming

“Coming” or “up”…we’re going to find out in three months.

Dropped into The Game last week for their advertised PLO evening and found out the game had gotten going a little early, and everyone (well, five of them) had agreed on a mix rotation of PLO and Big O. Personally, I’d come for the PLO because I don’t get to play much of it live in person whereas I can go to Portland Meadows pretty much any night if I want to play Big O (and I haven’t been there much for that) but I’d driven through evening traffic for 45 minutes to get there and figured I’d sit down for a bit. Lost a little in the first hands (Big O), gained it back with extra in the PLO round, then lost my buyin and a rebuy in quick succession during the next Big O round. It took me less time than the drive to get there. Probably not doing that again.

The turnout for Friday’s $10K at Final Table was light but they made the guarantee. The small field meant I got sort of close to the money, but I went out with a full third of the field left.

Saturday, I busted four online tournaments at Ignition Casino, including one $11 buyin $10K GTD where I was 5th in chips with 400 of the 992 entries remaining but got my queens cracked by jacks for a double-up of a short stack, thengot the short end of three more spots where I was ahead to double up three more players, ending up with me busting in 211th place, thirty spots short of the money.

I bought a piece of Jason Marshall Brown‘s attempt at the Muckleshoot Fall Poker Classic Main Event last weekend, and he pulled through like a trooper, cashing for the minimum, but cashing nonetheless.  The payout structure for that event was exceptionally slow to rise at the bottom.

Tuesday,  I wandered back over to Final Table for their $1500 GTD, which missed the guarantee by a single buyin. I got to the final table (new chairs!) as one of the short stacks, but managed to hold on until there were just three of us left, doubled up through Saigon Vic by shoving deuces and flopping a set, then negotiated a chop with Vic and Benson that gave me better than 2nd place money.

This week it’s the $20K at Final Table for me (it did not work out well), then evaluating what to do for the two weeks before the start of the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic. I’m planning to be there for the entire run, then out to Pendleton for the opening weekend of the Wildhorse Fall Poker Rodeo (who thought having the only satellite to the opening weekend High Roller on Thursday was a good idea?). After taking the week off from work for Chinook, I’m not likely to be spending any weekdays in Pendleton.

If I’m feeling frisky after Chinook, the Main Event of the WSOPC Lake Tahoe is the same weekend as the Wildhorse High Roller. There are a couple of other Ring events that weekend and they’ve  got a satellite Friday night for the last flight of the Main.

WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley, Lucky Chances Gold Rush, WSOPC Planet Hollywood…all on the potential list. Might take a stab at WPT Five Diamond for a side event.

And EPT Prague is still calling to me for my birthday.

The Coming Storm

Here are previews and links to all of the schedules I cold snag for the next three months.

 

 

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

Way over on Cyprus at the Merit Gangsters Poker Open, James Romero took 7th of 74 in the $10K buyin High Rolle, as the only American in the money.

Ridgefield’s Carl Oman came close to besting his career high in last fall’s High Roller in Pendleton by making it to the final table of the 496-entry HPT Colorado, finishing in 9th place.

And close behind Carl was a name that first appeared on the Leaderboard last week, as Jeff Baxter from Oakland, Oregon took 11th place, for just his second recorded tournament cash.

Abbreviated results from the Muckleshoot Fall Poker Classic are online.

Only a Day Away

• The Wynn Fall Classic runs through 14 October and features a $500K GTD Main Event, plus two $150K GTD side events, along with a Survivor, PLO, and Seniors event.
• Bicycle Casino‘s Big Poker Oktober is back with two more $500K GTD events remaining on the schedule.
• Canterbury Park Casino‘s Fall Poker Classic has more than 20 events through 21 October outside Minneapolis.
• WPTDeepstacks San Diego finishes next weekend at Oceans 11 Casino in Oceanside, and has a $200K GTD Main Event starting 11 October.
• WSOPC Chicago (actually northwest Indiana) is on, featuring a $1M GTD Main Event overlapping the first weekend of the Chinook Winds series.
• Stones Gambling Hall (outside Sacramento) brings back its own Fall Classic with a total of $250K GTD between 12—21 October. They open with a Win the Button tournament (that’d be killer with big blind antes). The Main Event (starting 18 October) is $500 for entry and $150K GTD.
• The Bay 101 Fall Poker Classic gets going mid-month, running about a week. It has a 2-day Main Event ($1,100 buyin) with entry days on 20 & 21 October.
• The Venetian October Extravaganza is a little aperitif before the last major series of the year there. There are a couple $100K events and a $150K, plus a couple Progressive Bounty tournaments.
• The folks at Calgary’s Cash Casino Wild West Shoot Out, need to get their web act together. The image they posted of their flyer is too small to read and isn’t linked to a larger version but PokerAtlas has it.
• Run It Up Reno has one of the more eclectic schedules with PLO KO, NLHE 6-Max, NORSE, 6-max HORSE(!) and a lot more, mostly for $125—$250 price points. I’ve heard it’s a lot of fun.
• The Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic is less than two weeks away. More than $750K in guarantees, with an opening $150K GTD tournament, $650 buyin $50K Big Bounty tournament, $100K GTD 6-Max, and $200K GTD Main Event. I’ll see you there.