So soon? Well, there’s a lot of stuff to cover here. We got the new format. We’ve got huge showing from Angela Jordison and some guy whose third recorded cash almost won him a bracelet in a 20,000+ entry tournament (name of Jared Kingery). Almost everything in this edition is from the World Series of Poker or from the WSOP Circuit Calgary, though there are a couple of results from outside the country.
Congrats to everyone (but especially Angela, thanks putting off winning a bracelet until I can be there to see it happen!)
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.
This has got to be one of the largest jumps in the time I’ve been keeping the Leaderboard. This is just Kingery’s third recorded cash. The first was in January of this year.
I had to make a decision about the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard going into this year’s World Series of Poker. It’s a lot of work. There are only so many of you reading it. And with all of the people from the Northwest doing so well out there in the wide world of poker, each edition gets pretty repetitive. I’ve run completely out of ways to describe peoples’ advances up the Leaderboard. Maybe I’m just lazy.
So rather than further tighten the requirements I use to decide who gets reported on, I’m changing up the format a little bit (the other option in my decision was to just stop doing the Leaderboard). So what you see below is what we’ve got for now.
All your favorite info is still here, organized, loosely in the order of the amount of money won in the reporting period. (which varies according to when I can get things together), You’ll find the bigger cashes at the bottom.
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 thge number of entries.
The tournament prize pool in US dollars.
As always, this info is gleaned from the Hendon Mob state and province lists for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Alberta and British Columbia. The Leaderboard tries to recognize players who’ve had a significant cash: the gross amount must be more than $10,000 and four times the buy-in. Mistakes will be made and I apologize for any that creep in. I just do this for the fun of it!
I’m pretty sure this player is the same person as the previous player, just reported on two different Hendon Mob profiles. If they were properly combined, their Leaderboard rank would be #872.
It was great to see someone else from the Portland area make it to the world poker stage. It was just February of last year that Alvarez first appeared on the Leaderboard, with a cash at a Venetian event that was just a little too small to meet the guidelines, but which I put in because there wasn’t a lot of poker going on. His first ranking was #4354; now he’s in the Top 100.
Carl Oman, winner of the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley Main Event. via worldpokertour.com
Nothing much to say upfront, I’ve regrettably had to cancel my plans to play the WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud tournament in just over a week and may not make it down to Vegas this summer at all, so let’s just get into it.
No reports from Wildhorse in this Leaderboard, but thanks to Kevmath, they are now available at Hendon Mob. so they’ll be in the next one. Plenty here from Thunder Valley and elsewhere.
This was the end of the Deepstacks brand, so this is the last WPTDeepstacks series (the WPT will now have a “Main” tour and a “Prime” tour). Bellevue’s David Goodkin was 22nd in the field of 1,414, rising one-hundred and sixty-five places to #1013. Kao Saechao of Damascus came in 20th and moves up one place to #35. Tom Mahon of Dairy was 16th, going from #1213 to #975. Mukilteo, Washington’s Catherine Miller scored a best-ever cash in 3rd (as part of a 5-way deal) that propelled her from #3020 to #349 on the Leaderboard. At the top of the chop was Carl Oman, from Vancouver, Washington (pictured above) who jumps to #192 from $460.
James Weatherman was in some prestigious territory at the Aria Resort & Casino in the PokerGo Tour Stairway #1 NLHE. Among the 60 entries were Andrew Lichtenberger, Dylan Linde, and PNW crusher Jaime Cervantes Alvarez—who didn’t quite make it into this Leaderboard but I hear he’s done some stuff since I ran the numbers. Weatherman picks up four hundred spots , ending at #914.
Aaron Thivyanathan picks up ten (now #122) with 2nd out of 518 entries at St. Petersburg, Florida’s Derby Lane Spring Open $75K GTD NLHE. It looks like there might have been a 3-way deal.
Matt Affleck took 3rd in a 767-entry tournament in las Vegas, the Wynn Signature Series $500K GTD NLHE. It’s enough to move Affleck up one place to #15 past Greg Mueller.
It was 2nd place for Dylan Linde in the PokerGo Tour/Venetian #5 NLHE High Roller that took him from #6 to…#6. Movement’s tough at the top. Still, Linde came out ahead of 32 other players.
It’s kind of scary to think that we’re less than a month away from this year’s World Series of Poker. Yeah! You forgot didn’t you? It’s been nearly three years since the last summer-time WSOP, and even if you did remember, you probably were wondering why rooms at the Rio All-Suite Casino & Hotel were so damn cheap compared to last time. That’s because the WSOP isn’t there any more, stupid! This time around, the whole thing’s happening on the Strip, at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, and, as Firesign Theater used to say: Everything You Know Is Wrong. It’s not just that you’re not going to know where anything is any more (really, did you ever figure out which room was Brasilia and which one was Amazon?) but the people running things are going to be confused, too, so this has the potential to be a right shitshow, as they say. Anyway, here’s some maps, just in case they might help. In both cases the ballroom areas at the top of the map are on the east side of the buildings, away from the Strip.
Bally’s
Paris
One. Million. Dollars.
Forrest Auel posted on the NW Poker Facebook group that a cash at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up will put Joe Brandenburg over the $1,000,000 lifetime earnings mark (he was just over $999,000 after cashes at Chinook Winds in March) but the results haven’t been posted to Hendon Mob as of this evening!
Big Move
Not too long before “press time”, The Final Table Poker Club posted a notice on Facebook that they’re going to be moving from their long-time location at SE 122nd & Division to SE 82nd & Powell. No specifics as to the location yet. One change that’s already made is that the club is now open to 18 and over, as it was when it started out back on NE Glisan.
WSOP Team Event
There are going to be some determined teams out in the field this year.
I'm teaming up with someone I've long admired @AngelaJordison for her wit and conviction. BUT pls do let me know if you want to be involved. I may be able to match a couple more teams up!
No results from Wildhorse yet, but plenty more Canadians moving up. I ran the numbers before the WPTDeepstacks at Thunder Valley the other day, so those results aren’t here yet, either.
Lacombe, Alberta’s Malcolm Buller was runner-up in the Deerfoot Inn Spring Super Stack#5 NLHE Deepstack on 12 April. Buller goes from #2827 to #2096. Regan Duong was the winner (out of Calgary) and picked up a biggest prize ever in the 293-entry tournament, gaining more than a thousand points, to #1902.
Himmophoom Bounthinh continues to grind away in Vegas, coming in 2nd at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza #9 $20K GTD NLHE Monster Stack, a 137-entry event. Nu goes from #293 to ##279.
I love that tournament directors can use the same combination of words in an event title in different combinations, don’ you? Anyway. David Howat of Calgary came in 7th in this tournament, enough to propel Howat fifty places up the Leaderboard to #556. Takuma Bergeron from Coquitlam, British Columbia took 4th (surprisingly, coming in just ahead of a British pro Jack Hardcastle, a name I did not expect to run across in a Calgary event). Bergeron goes from #758 to #584. Douglas James of Vancouver picked up 3rd for their biggest-ever cash, jumping nearly four-hundred and fifty spaces to #824. Edmonton’s Jaspal Brar was 2nd, moving up four places to #65. And—also from Edmonton—Colton Yamagishi won the biggest pot of ther career, in a field of 307 entries, where the prize pool was nearly C$400K.
This event had 263 entries and a C$125K prize pool. Calgary’s Aidan Klingbell had their biggest-ever cash in 4th, with a jump of two thousand places to #2893. In 3rd was Jordan Banfield, also of Calgary, who vlimbs five hundred spots, to #1559. Another Calgarian, Kim Pham, came in 2nd, also for a career high cash, and bumps up from #4420 to #2347. Event winner Gurdeep Parhar completed Calgary’s sweep of the top 4 places. Parhar combines the win (and biggest cash) with 6th in Event #8 (above) to climb from #998 to #683.
Sebastian Crema out of North Vancouver gains almost seventy spots (#474) with a 5th place finish in the Wynn Signature Series $400K GTD NLHE Mystery Bounty (reminder for this and Max Young’s standings, Hendon Mob stats do not include bounties earned by players). This event got 1,247 entries.
Vancouver’s Wei Min Hou took 1st in a 3-way deal at the Deerfoot Spring Super Stack #6 PLO Superstack. There were 55 entries, and Hou’s success takes them exactly nine-hundred and ninety-nine places up the Leaderboard, to #1820.
Dylan Linde took 4th out of 86 in the WSOPC Bally’s #12 NLHE High Roller, but since Linde’s already #6, there’s no move. Anchorage’s Andrew Rodgers got the Circuit Ring with the win, and also gains two-hundred-and fifty places on the Leaderboard (#424).
Woody Christy went from Renton to Amsterdam to cash big at WPTDeepStacks Amsterdam #4 NLHE Main Event. Christy took 8th in a field of 757, and leaps from #3352 to #1892.
Another out-of-country experience took Edmonton’s Pawan Braich to St. Maarten, where they competed in WSOPC Caribbean #10 $200K GTD NLHE Main Event against 255 other entries, to come in 6th. Braich moves up twenty-three places, to #258.
Edmonton’s Nohad Teliani had a couple of good weeks. Teliani won the WPT/Seminole #10 $50K NLHE Big Stack 6-Max — a field of 151 — then popped across to Dublin for the record-setting 2,040-entry Irish Poker Open #13 NLHE Main Event, there they came in 21st. That was good for two-hundred and twenty places on the Leaderboard; Teliani is now #579.
James Romero was the runner-up at the Prime Social #21 NLHE 6-Max out of 49 entries. The winner of the event is listed as “Unknown Player”, with a Ukrainian flag. Romero holds at #5.
Adam Hendrix is another of the top-of-the-Leaderboard players who cashed but didn’t move (#18) with a 17th-place finish in the WPT/Seminole #36 $2M GTD NLHE Championship. There were 2,010 entries, and the prize pool went over $6.4M, with a 6-way even chop at the final table.
If you’re not watching Severanceon 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.
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 is4th-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.
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.
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.
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.
Andrew Rodgers via WSOP.com
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.
Jason Beasley takes home the trophy and $80,178 as the Colorado Poker Championship $1,200 Main Event winner @ballysbhpoker! Congratulations Jason! 💰🏆👍 pic.twitter.com/BxXTUz6MUa
— Bally's Black Hawk Poker (@ballysbhpoker) March 21, 2022
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.
Adam Hendrix via PokerGO
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.
Chris Brewer via pokerstarsblog
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.
Just a few results after the deluge of WSOP Circuit stuff last time. Picking up three good cashes from the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza I.
Vancouver, Washington provided the winners of two of those numbers.
David Moshe was the winner of the Venetian DSE #7 $40K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, in an even 2-way chop. There were 130 entries in the tournament, and it posted a prize pool of $66K.
The other Vancouvian on the board this week was Christopher Hull, who was 2nd in a 2-way chop in a similar tournament, the Venetian DSE #13 $40K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, this one with 154 entries.
The third and final result for this edition is from Victoria: Dominick French was 2nd in Venetian DSE #1 $100K GTD NLHE UltimateStack, which was also chopped two ways, with 468 entries and a prize pool of $154K.
Portland Meadows NLHE Mystery Bounty
I hadn’t played live poker since before Christmas, so I was champing at the bit when Brian Sarchi announced the first Mystery Bounty tournament in the area a couple of weeks ago. I’m always interested in trying out something different, and I kind of figured I needed to get my poker legs back before heading to Chinook Winds for the PacWest Poker Classic next month.
Because parking’s always tight, I meant to take the bus over Sunday morning but since I didn’t get going early enough, I hopped over in the Mutantmobile. The lot was already full a half-hour before the show, so I ended up in the Comcast parking lot down the street.
Unlike a regular bounty tournament, where you get a set value for each player you knock out, the mystery bounty format only pays out when players are already in the money. So there’s no potential for saving yourself with bounties if you don’t cash. You’ve got to make it into the money yourself to get any bounties (and even then you’re not guaranteed).
This tournament was paying 15% of the field, which meant 15% of the players would have bounties on their heads. When the field gets down to the money, each of the remaining players gets a bounty chip, and when you knock someone out and take their bounty chip, you get a chance to draw an envelope from the lottery drum and find out how much your the bounty is worth: in this case, anywhere from $400 (the price of entry) to $5,000.
Jackie Burkhart with one of the hand warmer/cell phone chargers she brought, which were a popular item on a chilly afternoon.
My table started looking rough at the very beginning, as Sam Nguyen sat down in seat 3 and Jackie Burkhart popped into seat 2, with Toma Barber showing up a little after things started in seat 1. I was sitting in 5 (not to give short shrift to the other end of the table, but I’ve been out of the loop for a while and didn’t recognize everyone, particularly with masks on).
The person I (and everyone else) needed to watch out for was seat 4 who, after a bit of a lull early on, went on a tear, knocking out player after player and amassing a stack of chips that was approximately 10% of the chips in play while we were still 54-handed (44% of the original field).
It made for some nail-biting calls, when I’d get involved, some action would raise the stakes, and seat 4 would move a handful of red chips into play, essentially putting anyone involved in the hand all-in.He cleared out short stacks and some big stacks, like a poker Katamari Damancy.
The first couple of levels didn’t go so well. My stack slid down from the 30K start to just over 20K, then in level 3, I managed to spin it up to nearly 80K, knocking out Toma (sadly) in the process. Ran some queens into aces and lost more than half my stack not long after registration had closed, though I did almost get bailed out with a spade flush on the board.
By round 8, eight players had been eliminated from our table. Toma was one, but the other seven were all part of the stack on my right. I was nursing the approximately 40K I had left after my setback, and just about half the 121 entries had been eliminated.
I was still below the 67K average with less than 30bb as we went to level 9, with a 2K big blind. I chipped up a little bit—even getting a laydown from the big stack—as we closed in on the end of the fifth hour of play.
The first big hand for me was in UTG+1. The big stack raised and I 3-bet [ac qc]. People got out of the way of the next casualty and we got the money all in, with the big stack holding [8c 8s]. I made trip aces on the flop, but the middle card was an [8h], giving him a full house. I was resigned to my fate, but on the river came a [qh] for a better full house and I doubled up to more than 130K, which was probably enough to get me close to the money, since we were down to around 40 players, with 18 places paying.
I should have left myself in resignation mode, though. Just a few hands later, I had kings and 3-bet seat 4. He called and we were heads-up to the queen-high flop, where we got all-in and I was up against aces again. And lost again, but this time didn’t have any chips left. I probably should have been able to get away, even with kings, and if it had been any other player, maybe i could have; there just wasn’t any way to do it against that big stack.
That was my Mystery Bounty experience. Sam outlasted me, as did Darin Stout who came to the table a level or two before I left. Brian says he’s planning to run something like this again soon, which should be entertaining. My reccomendation would be to adjust a couple glitches in the payout structures. The curve for the position payouts should be adjusted on the bottom so the bottom payouts are at least a little more than the buy-in ($400, in this case). It’s not a huge adjustment to the curve to backfill some of the lower payouts.
Likewise, the Mystery Bounty amounts ought not to have jumps of $100, $500, $500, $1000, $1000, $500, $1000. The interval should always increase!
So much to get to. I thought there would be a bit of a lull in January, but there was a lot of Pacific Northwest action at the World Series of Poker Circuit Calgary in January (there’s another one at Calgary’s Deerfoot Innjust before the WSOP in May). That’s what happens when you bring a major series up this way. But first…
Poker In the Ears
Those of you who follow the blog (which I assume is anyone reading this) may remember I appeared as a Superfan quiz contestant against Joe Stapleton last May on the Poker In the Ears podcast (along with co-host James Hartigan). In the most recent episode (#238), James read a comment I made on their Discord channel asking why—among all of the other non-poker media they mention—they hadn’t dropped Peacemaker. Not satisfying responses. Watch it.
Portland Meadows Special Events
Portland Meadows is holding two special events in February. On Saturday the 19th is a $180 NLHE Freezeout and on Sunday the 20th is their first NLHE Mystery Bounty. The Bounty is a $400 buy-in, and once the field is down to 15% of registrants, anyone who knocks out another player gets to draw from the barrel to see the amount of the bounty they receive, from $400 to $5K. Both tournaments are freezeouts, with no add-on, and 30 minute levels.
The PacWest Poker Classic is Back!
It’s been two years since I was at Chinook Winds for the last tournament series there, and after having to postpone their attempt to restart last fall, it looks like things are finally going to happen in less than four weeks now. There’s a program and structures and everything. It’s the usual full schedule of guaranteed tournaments and (guaranteed) satellites, with 19 scheduled events, including tentpole $100K GTD and $225K GTD tournaments on the weekends, the $560 (including buy-in, fee, and dealer appreciation) NLHE 6-Max, HORSE, Big O (still only a $170 buy-in), and $660 NLHE Big Bounty. It’ll be very familiar for anyone who’s been there before, and hopefully a little bit of a return to normal. No idea what the covid restrictions are going to be by then; as of today, masks and temperature checks are still in place according to the web site.
Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up
Wildhorse has announced their April series, but there’s no schedule released as of yet. Check their poker page for updates.
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
As mentioned, the bulk of the news is coming out of Calgard and the first World Series of Poker Circuit stop in the Northwest since Vancouver seven years ago.
Wie Da from Edmonton picked up their first cash, good for a jump into #4046 on the Leaderboard, by placing 3rd in WSOPC Calgary #5 PLO. The field of 246 entries pushed the prize pool over US$$100K. Takuma Bergeron from Coquitlam, British Columbia moved from #1056 to #773 by taking 2nd place. The winner of the tournament was Calgary’s Pei Li, climbing nearly eleven hundred places to #1230 and scoring a personal best.
Vancouver-based Omid Pekniyat got a first Hendon Mob cash and comes in at #3937 by taking 2nd in WSOPC Calgary #11 NLHE/PLO 8-Max. Wei Min Hou of Vancouver was the winner, and debuts at #2928.
The Main Event in Calgary got 1,179 entries, with a prize pool of US$1.4M. Coming in 21st was Edmonton’s Jason Pelletier picking up a best-ever cash and jumping a thousand places on the Leaderboard to #2237. 20th went to West Vancouver’s Forouzan Soloudeh, with a climb of more than one hundred places to #843. In 19th was Harminder Aujla of Surrey, British Columbia, going from #1140 to #981. Weston Pring of Calgary was 18th, enough for #298, a gain of eleven places. Michael Bernstein from Edmonton placed 18th rising nearly one-hundred and fifty spots to #809. It was a biggest-ever cash for Vancouver’s Tyson Rampersand, climbing more than thirty-five hundred places to #2620 by placing 15th. 13th was enough to move Edmonton’s Jonathan Sanborn seven places on the upper end of the Leaderboard, to #175. Coming in at 11th was Shane Axelson (Calgary)for their only cash so far, which places them at #2659. 10th place was another newcomer to the Leaderboard, North Vancouver’s Adam Crockett, with a best-ever cash that jumps them into #2448. Robert Buckingham from Calgary took 6th, for a biggest-ever cash that pushed them up nearly four thousand places to #1162. Edmonton-based Malcolm Bolger also had their best-ever result in 5th, though an impressive record going back to 2008 meant they only moved from #150 to #126, Pam MacNaughton from Red Deer, Alberta came in 4th, for a move of sixty-five places to #173. From Vancouver, Arvhin Melinah picked up 3rd for a best-ever result that catapulted them all the way to #386 on the Leaderboard in their premiere appearance. And Cody Mckay from Daysland, Alberta was the winner of the tournament, with a best-ever cash that moved them from #577 to #167.
Edmonton’s Michael Shaw took 2nd in the WSOPC Calgary #3 NLHE Black Chip Bounty. The tournament had 540 entries and a non-bounty prize pool of nearly US$100K (plus bounties of over $40K). Shaw’s cash was only their 2nd; they move up nearly four thousand places on the Leaderboard, to #3020.
There was almost US$250K in the prize pool for this tournament, with 943 entries. Skyler Daoust of Nanaimo, British Columbia got a first recorded cash in 5th place, putting them on the Leaderboard at #3804. Aamir Khan of Calgary place 4th to climb thirty-four places to #398. Cole Harmon from Courtenay, British Columbia took it down and jumped more than a thousand places, landing at #919.
Shannon Lazorko of Calgary picked up a third (and best) Hendon Mob cash placing 5th in this 1,108-entry tournament with a prize pool of US$227K. Lazorko debuts on the Leaderboard at #3504. Another newcomer with a first cash (also from Calgary) is Chris Yu. for 4th. Yu is at #3088. In 2nd was (again, Calgary) Jason Hromada—also new to the list—at #1918 with just their third recorded cash. Peter Griffin’s win was their fourth cash (just beating their third, from back in 2016) and takes the British Columbia player from #1216 to #677.
Moving from Calgary for a moment to Durant, Oklahoma, Bellevue’s Dien Le came in 23rd in the WSOPC Choctaw #9 NLHE Main Event. There were more than 1,400 entries and a prize pool that surpassed $2.1M. Le ekes out a five-spot rise to #119.
Edmonton’s Jonathan Woof got a first cash with a win in WSOPC Calgary #6 NLHE Double Stack. The prize pool was $86K with 542 entries. Woof starts out at #2966.
Back up in Calgary, Edmonton’s Zhi Jiang won WSOPC Calgary #7 NLHE 6-Max, their best-ever cash (out of four) and good enough for a place at #2421.
Vancouver, Washington’s Jaime Cervantes Alvarez took 45th in the field of nearly two thousand at the WPT Lucky Hearts #20 $2M GTD NLHE Championship. Alvarez moves from #189 to #162. The prize pool was over $6M.
Reginald Caymol of Seattle climbs from #352 to #304, taking 5th in the Wynn Signature Series $250K GTD NLHE. 671 entries pushed the prize pool to nearly $350K.
The WSOPC Calgary #1 NLHE DoubleStack was won by hometown player Adam Balis over 375 other entries, with a prize pool of just under US$100K. Balis picked up a first-ever cash and enters the Leaderboard at #2144.
Portland’s Brian Barker came in 3rd at a Wynn $150K GTD NLHEwith 301 entries. Barker gets a best-ever cahs and is #2123.
Adelsinei Da Silva from Seattle got their biggest cash with 3rd out of 718 in Philadelphia at the Live! Size NLHE. The prize pool was over $277K, with what looks like a 4-way chop. Da Silva jumps from #3804 to #1596.
Brian Foley of Puolsbo, Washington hit big twice in this reporting period, at yet another Circuit stop, first with a 4th-place at WSOPC Thunder Valley #9 NLHE High Roller outside of Sacramento, then 9th at WSOPC Thunder Valley #10 $500K GTD NLHE Main Event. That propelled Foley up from #2080 to #851. The High Roller had 59 entries and a prize pool of $207K; the Main Event beat the guarantee by nearly $400K, with 587 entries. Shoreline, Washington’s Feiyue Wu pops onto the Leaderboard at #850 by coming in 3rd with a best-ever cash.
Picking up a late result (from Calgary…), Vancouver’s Chuck Choi won the Deerfoot Inn Fall Super Stack #7 NLHE Main Event back in November, over 396 others. The prize pool was over $300K. Choi debuts on the Leaderboard at #1149.
Mike Zuro from Salem picked up a Circuit Ring at WSOPC Tunica #2 $100K GTD NLHE. He beat a field of 1,585 and took 1st out of a prize pool of more than half a million dollars. It’s great to see Mike hit it big, I had a great dinner at an event at Chinook Winds with Zuro and his wife years ago. Zuro blasts from #3304 to #748.
Finally, James Romero edges out Dylan Linde for the 5th-place spot on the Leaderboard after winning the WPT Lucky Hearts #19 $200K GTD NLHE Deep Stack.There were 413 entries and the prize pool rose to as giddy $826K.
That’s all for now! Keep on winning (and Happy almost-Valentine’s Day)!
It’s a whole new year, but the Poker Mutant is back with just a few end-of-the-year results. After the long slogs of the past two Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboards, let me tell you, it’s nice to just have a handful of names to go through.
Starting off with Olympia’s Glenn Larson, who grabbed 3rd place in the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley #5 $100K NLHE Norcal Jacked Stack back at the beginning of December. 554 entries and a $277K prize pool. Larson gains one hundred and thirty-plus places to land at #461.
Jonathan Sanborn of Edmonton won a World Series of Poker Circuit Ring at the WSOPC Aruba #5NLHE Monster Stack. It’s the first Ring for Sanborn, who gets a dozen spots on the leaderboard to hit #182.
Congratulations to Dominick French of Canada who was the winner via a four way chop in our DeepStack Extravaganza Event #23 $400 NLH MonsterStack $20,000 guarantee on 12.16.21
Congratulations to Derick Roseborough of Kimberly, ID who was the winner via a five way chop in our DeepStack Extravaganza Event #30 $500 NLH EpicStack $30,000 guarantee on 12.24.21
Premiering at #3242 on the Leaderboard is Kimberly, Idaho player Derick Roseborough, nabbing a win in the Venetian #30 $30K GTD NLHE Deepstack over 118 other entries. It’s Roseborough’s first recorded cash.
Patrick Ronan of Girdwood, Alaska came in 10th out of 851 entries in the Venetian/Mid-States Poker Tour #40 $500K GTD NLHE Main Event to close out the 2021 results on the Leaderboard (thought there may always be some stragglers). It’s Ronan’s best cash to date, and it move4s them from #1426 to #1151.
Portland’s Andy Su gets the first result of 2022, in the Venetian #43 $200K GTD NLHE UltimateStack, with a 5th-place finish. Su goes up thirty-0four slots, to #340.
And we’ll wrap up this edition of the Leaderboard with Christopher Brewer (#14) taking 2nd out of 37 in the Venetian/PokerGO High Roller 02,
That’s it until next time. I’m off to drink some Glenmorrangie to celebrate the Internal Revenue Service finally accepting my tournament buy-in expenses for 2018 after ten months of trying to get them to understand that poker money doesn’t grow on trees.
Not a lot of live poker action from me since the World Series of Poker trip I made in October, though I’ve kept up a busy schedule of low-level online Omaha tournaments and Jackpot Sit-n-Go games on Ignition Casino. I played (and min-cashed) the November First Friday $20K GTD at Final Table—look for their new schedule starting 1 January, and barely lasted a level at Portland Meadows Oregon State Big O Championship in mid-December.
I started this blog when I was 49 years old. back at the start of the month, I turned 60. My wife and I went to New York City for my birthday, getting out just befoe the omicron coronavirus variant took over. Got back to PDX at 10:30pm and at 7am the next morning I was on a flight to Hawaii to spend a few days with my father , who was over there using up condo points before the end of the year. That’s Kiluaea behind us in the shot. If you go up there at night, the lava in the crater makes that white smoke look bright red.
PNW Poker Leaderboard
This edition of the Leaderboard includes some October and November straggling results from Canadian casinos. Like these…
Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram from Calgary won the Casino Yellowhead/Pure Poker Tour #1 PLO Bountyback at the end of September, beating out 176 other entries in the C$440 buy-in tournament. Sivabalasundaram climbs two hundred spots to #926.
Edmonton’s Andy Truong came in 2nd in the Yellowhead PPT #3 NLHE out of 326 entries. It’s good for a fifteen spot bump to #226.
Alberta-based Curtil Burlet comes into the Leaderboard hot, with a biggest-ever cash (it only their third) that lands them at #3092, for the runner-up position in Yellowhead/PPT #4 NLHE Bounty. (Remember that bounty cash is not reflected in Hendon Mob records and therefor does not affect the PNW Poker Leaderboard.) Calgary’s Weston Pring won the event, going from #347 to #309. Pring was featured in the last Leaderboard update; they came in 101st in the WSOP Main Event.
A C$1,100 buyin back in early October in Edmonton (470 entries and a prize pool of US$353K), the six top finishers all made it to the Leaderboard. Haven Werner of Calgary took 6th, moving him from #531 to #470. Fort St. John, British Columbia’s Bernice McLennan posted a biggest cash in 5th, jumping all the way to #2079 from #4428. Amir Khan, another Calgarian, took 4th, which combined with a 3rd-place finish in a Wynn Fall Classic $100K GTD NLHE in mid-November (404 entries, $237K prize pool) jumps Khan 1400 places to #917. Surrey, British Columbia’s Mike Kim goes up seventy-four places to #317 by taking 3rd. Out of Whitecourt, Alberta, it’s john Hanna debuting at #1160 on the Leaderboard with a 2nd-place finish. Finally, on the top, is Kyle Ho from Burnaby, with a best-ever cash and a move from #243 to #186.
Jordan Banfield from Calgary won the Deerfoot Inn Fall Super Stack #1 NLHE Deepstack in Calgary, an event that drew 385 entries back in early November. The prize pool was over US$88K. It’s Banfield’s only cash so far, and they enter the Leaderboard at #2622.
John Nielsen from Sylvan Lake, Alberta placed 4th in this event (354 entries, US$135K pot) back in early November, going up more than 100 places on the Leaderboard, to #849. Coming in at 2nd was Ivan Milanovic, with a best-ever cash (only their fifth on record), good for a first-time ranking of #1990. The champion was Kelly Gall from Calgary, with their biggest cash so far and a jump of fifteen hundred spots on the Leaderboard, to #1284.
Redmond’s Dominick Nguyen found some time to play poker on the East Coast mid-November and won the 432-entry Boston Billiard Club & Casino Veterans Day NLHE tournament for a 2nd-ever cash and a new spot on the Leaderboard at #2586.
Daniel Lefebvre of Alberta was the 5th-place finisher in this event of nearly 400 entries and a US$300K prize pool. Lefebvre moves three hundred spots on the Leaderboard, to #981 (3 squared and nine squared!) Tyler Hurman from Calgary got their largest-ever cash in 4th, and climbs from #832 to #663. In 3rd was Kaan Becer out of Vancouver, whi gets an increase of twenty places to #193. And Takuma Bergeron from Coquitlam, Alberta got a best-ever cash in a deal for 2nd place, which raised them from #5503 to #1056.
back down to the States, James Battenberg from Issaquah nabbed 4th at a Wynn Fall Classic $100K GTD NLHE that had over three hundred entries and a $148K prize pool. Battenberg moves fifteen hundred places on the Leaderboard, to #2655.
Christopher Brewer hit the jackpot on consecutive days at the Aria High Roller series. On November 16th, Brewer came in 3rd of 43 in Aria High Roller 39 NLHE, then 1st at Aria High Roller 40 NLHE the next day (albeit with only 16 entries). It’s enough to move from #16 to #14 on the Leaderboard.
Catching up to where the last Leaderboard left off on WSOP events, Dylan Wilkerson played World Series of Poker #79 NLHE Poker Hall of Fame Bounty. This new event awarded a bounty for each Poker Hall of Fame player eliminated, with the amount equal to the year they were inducted. There were bounties for eleven HoF entries, plus new WSOP spokesperson Vince Vaughn. All of the bounties were eliminated on Day One. Wilkerson placed 9th out of 468. By the way, Wilkerson’s WSOP profile now lists him as living in San Francisco, so no telling how much longer Hendon Mob will have him as a Washington State player; then he’ll be off the Leaderboard and everyone will move up!
There were 1,921 entries in the $800 WSOP #81 NLHE Deepstack, and Maxwell Sabel of Sun Valley, Idaho made it past 1,911 of them for a 10th-place finish and a first recorded Hendon Mob cash. Sabel makes a debut on the Leaderboard at #3127.
On the other end of the WSOP spectrum, #1-ranked Seth Davies placed 4th of 33 in the WSOP #82 NLHE Super High Roller, where the buy-in was $250K. Davies continues to increase the gap between #1 and #2.
Ian Modder of North Vancouver, British Columbia gets a seven spot increase on the Leaderboard to #141 by placing 36th out of 1,903 in WSOP #83 NLHE The Closer.
Despite being called “The Closer”, Event #83 wasn’t even close to being the last bracelet tournament of the 2021 WSOP. This one was. It may be the latest (in the year) tournament to be played at a WSOP for quite some time, since they’re going back to the summer schedule. This game had a $5K buy-in, an aggressive two-day structure, and finished on November 23rd after 531 entries. 3 PNW players made a deep run in the event. with the first being from Edmonton, Ryan Snyder, who gained three hundred places on the Leaderboard, ending at #558. Lee Markholt didn’t gain any ground on the Leaderboard because he’s already way up at #8, but he did place at…8th. . And George Wolff came in 7th. Wolff went on to a mid-December 13th-place finish in the World Poker Tour Five Diamond NLHE Main Event. He stays at #17.
Dylan Linde moves up a spot—inside the Leaderboard top 10!—from #6 to #5 with an 8th-place finish in the WPT Five Diamond NLHE Main Event.
Jumping over to the Czech Republic, Mercer Island’s Carter Newhof rises more than four hundred places to #553 with a 3rd-place showing in World Series of Poker Europe #6 $200K GTD NLHE/PLO. Newhof was the only American in the top 10 of the 230 entries.
Jordan Westmorland gains nine places on the Leaderboard with a 5th of 57 finish at WSOP Europe #10 NLHE Platinum High Roller. Westmorland (from Lynnwood, Washington) is now #44.
Tracie Osborne from Lacey, Washington got their biggest cash in Lincoln, California, at the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley $1M GTD NLHE Championship by placing 20th of 588. Osborne moves from #2284 to #1722. Steve Chanthabouasy‘s 9th-place finish in the same event kicks them up a notch, to #88.
Twin Falls’ Sean Banahan racked up a best-ever cash at the Wynn Winter Classic $500K GTD NLHEthat wrapped up 12 December with 743 entries. Looking at the payouts, there may have been some sort of deal done at four players remaining. Banahan’s Hendon Mob record only goes back to January 2020, so it’s definitely been impacted by the pandemic, and it includes a cash in a Seniors event, but this was a nice way to end the year! Banahan goes from #1666 to #577.
The final entry in the Leaderboard this time is how I’d like to close out every Leaderboard: Angela Jordison, taking 5th in the 1,042-entry Mid-States Poker Tour Minnesota Winter Poker Classic #9 $300K GTD NLHE Main Event. It’s yet another personal best cash for Jordison, coming just a couple of months after the “money phone” record at the Venetian. This pops Jordison up anothher thirty places on the Leaderboard, to #181.
Kevmath Quarterly Yearly Top 20
This is the fourth edition of the Kevmath Quarterly, which got started before his recent acquisition by GPI/The Hendon Mob. These players are the top 20 recorded tournament earners for mid-December 2020 through mid-December 2021 (ranked in order of 2021 earnings), and the change in their rank on the PNW Poker Leaderboard (which is based on lifetime recorded earnings). Players whose names are followed by an asterisk were on the list last quarter.
Both Seth Davies and Christopher Brewer are far ahead of the pack, with more than $3 million each in recorded tournament cashes over the past year. Adam Hendrix and Dylan Linde are both in the high six figures, the other sixteen names are all in the range between $160K and $400K.
You can see the giant jumps in Leaderboard status resulting from deep runs in the World Series of Poker main Event by Jung Woo and Matthew Jewett; the shot-in-the-dark cash by Bin Weng in the WSOP NLHE High Roller, and Robert Davis‘s runner-up finish in the WSOP NLHE Seniors tournament. Christopher Brewer, Dylan Linde, and Dylan Wilkerson moving up the Leaderboard ranks pushed a couple of other high-performing players down a notch, despite being in the Top 20.
NOTE: I started this a month ago! And I’m just now finishing it up. Sorry for the delay, in the meantime I’ve qualified for the WSOP Super Seniors event, been to New York City for the anniversary of my marriage to Mrs. Poker Mutant, and Hawai’i to spend a couple days with my dad—things are just that busy! Happy Holidays!
The WSOP Main Event is over and done with, with al of the PNW participants out before the final tables. I have to admit that after including Mitchell Halverson and Jesse Lonis in the 2021 WSOP Main Event Trackerbecause WSOP has them as Oregon players, that I was disappointed to see they were listed on the Nevada and New York leaderboards at Hendon Mob, so they aren’t included in the combined PNW leaderboard.
Even without them, there’s a lot of territory to cover.
Let’s start with Kenn Pluard from Happy Valley, Oregon, who was 25th in the field of 1,441 at the Wynn Fall Classic $1.5M GTD NLHE. That, and a career-high cash at the Main Event (338th) bounce Pluard from #978 to #584.
Maxwell Young reappears on the Leaderboard with a 12th-place finish at the Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series II #35 $400K GTD NLHE UltimateStack. The tournament got 1,408 entries and pushed the prize pool to $1.35M. Calgary’s Phil Wright nabbed 4th in the same event, for a career-high score and a jump on the Leaderboard from #2508 to #505.
Bellevue’s Brian Orrico took 48th in the 5,404-entry tournament, going from #2725 to #1814 on the Leaderboard. The Seniors is typically one of the largest fields; previous years with only one entry day set records for the largest single-entry-day live poker tournaments. This year’s run with two entry days generated $4.8M for the prize pool. Coming in at 34th was Victoria player Rhonda Shepek, with a career best and a jump of 2500 places to #2133. Robert Sun from Anchorage came in 22nd and climbs to #1932 from #4026. Coming in at 17th was John McNaughton of Innisfall, Alberta with a biggest-ever cash and debut on the leaderboard at #1349. Every two years, Robert Davis comes out of Eagle River, Alaska to cash in the Seniors tournament—he has exactly 3 Hendon Mob entries: 2017, 2019, and this year—all in the same event. This year he hit it big, with 2nd place, far eclipsing his previous totals, and leaping from #4320 to #162 on the Leaderboard. Davis is now #7 on the Alaska state leaderboard.
Robert Davis
Red Deer, Albeta’s Jason Volk was runner-up in the Venetian #36 $150K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. It’s Volk’s largest cash (this is the season!) and he moves almost 1800 spots to #870.
Dwayne Hillock from Prince George, British Columbia came in 14th in WSOP #55 NLHE Colossus out of 9,399 entries. The prize pool was just over $3.1M. Hillock rises over 800 places to #1533.
The Wynn $3M GTD NLHE Championshipmade a prize pool of $5.7M with 1,775 entries and Brett Kennedy of Sattle took 50th, climbing forty spots on the Leaderboard to #319.
It was a biggest-ever cash for John Nielsen (Sylvan Lake, Alberta) with a win in the Autumn at Aria $40K GTD NLHE. Nielsen goes up more than 600 spots to #958.
Monroe, Washington’s Roger Hammond is up 800 places to #1937 with a 7th-place finish in the Venetian #40 $150K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. 358 entries and a $347K prize pool.
The Super Seniors event (60+) got nearly 1,900 entries this year, makng a prize pool of just under $1.7M. Sad to say, I’m qualifying for this by next summer. Three PNW players made the final two tables. Alberta’s Gary Bain got a largest-ever cash placing in 16th and jumping eighty spots to #846. From masco, Washington, Anthony Simpson took 13th for a climb from #536 to #476. And you may remember Bill Stabler of Salem having been the runner-up in the Seniors event the last time everyone got together at the Rio in 2019; he came in 4th in this tournament.
Bill Stabler
Chris Brewer got shafted by The Bet that Limon won back in 2015 because people picked Koray Aldemir for their slate of players in the Main Event. Hopefully, his 5th-place finish in the WSOP #60 Poker Players Championship 6-Max is some consolation. There were 63 entries at $50K each. Brewer maintains at #16 on the Leaderboard.
Final result of the 144 players drafted in main was $9,832,700 (thanks @kooraay90 ) for 680% roi. Not sure how much to take away from this. The result is clearly top 5-10% run, but also a bet like this always going to be won because one of the drafted players went very deep
Portland’s James Haddad made it to 12th in the field of 725, which is good for a move from #126 to #125. Dylan Wilkerson came in 8th, and stays at #13. Sterling Lopez out of Anchorage took 4th, for their biggest recorded cash and a move from #2961 to #708.
Nearly two thousand entries in this event pushed the prize pool to just under $1.9M. Sean Banahan from Twin Falls, Idaho made it to 24th for a career-high cash, and moves about six hundred spots to #1666. Coming in 9th was Jimmy Lee from Edmonton, which moves him two notches up to #77.
It was a largest-ever cash for Puyallup’s Jason Diaz, placing 4th out of 355 in the Aria $40K GTD NLHE. Just about triple the guarantee with 355 entries. Diaz jumps up about four thousand places on the Leaderboard to #2699.
Anchorage’s Young Ji won the Aria $30K GTD PLO8 in either a 3 or 4-way deal (186 entries, $74K prize pool). Ji is a 2015 WSOP PLO8 bracelet winner. He climbs 5 spots on the Leaderboard to #130.
Noah Bronstein was heads-up for the WSOP #64 NLHE/PLO 8-Max bracelet. There was a field of 579 entries at $5K each. Bronstein moves up nearly twenty places to #34.
Donald Kehler of Prince George, British Columbia bounced more than a thousand places to #1849 with a win (and largest-ever cash) in the $400 Rio Daily Deep Stack Series NLHE. The tournament on 3 November got 184 entries and whipped up a prize pool of over $60K.
From Redmond, Washington, Karimon Umarov placed 27th in the 3,821-player Mini Main freeze out, which had a prize pool of just over $3.4M. Umarov debuts on the Leaderboard with their biggest-ever result at #3601. Prasad Dobbins from Anchorage got their biggest cash and a boost from #4173 to #2256 with 20th place. And Seattle’s Matt Jewett got 6th in this event just before he jumped into the actual Main (more to come).
Reminder: Just doing the big winners here. This thing’s long enough as it is, I apologize if you cashed and didn’t get on the Leaderboard round-up, if you didn’t get something like a 300% ROI or better, I can just say, “Good job!” That leads us to Rittie Chuaprasert from here in Portland, who came in 259 out of this year’s field of 6,650 entries. That’s within the top 4%, with another 11% of the field cashing but not making it into this write-up, if it’s any consolation. Chuaprasert goes from #367 to #295. Viola, Idaho’s Michael Faulkner picked up their largest cash at 124th in the Main and goes up over five hundred places to #646. Another biggest cash was for Weston Pring of Calgary, at 101st (just before Ali Imsirovic’s father Salko at 100th, who—I believe—still lives in Vancouver, Washington, but is listed in with the WSOP and Hendon Mob as a Las Vegas resident). Pring is up about a hundred and fifty places, to #347. At 90th was Fatima Nanji out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Nanji is up ninety-one places to #239, with their own biggest cash. Nanji was one of the last two women remaining at the beginning of Day 6. Adam Walton jumps sixty-five places to #102 by coming in 42nd (and another personal best cash). Matt Jewett from Shoreline, Washington came in 28th, and doubled his lifetime earnings with the single cash, climbing more than four hundred places to #135. Finally, it’s Bellevue-based Jung Woo, whose 19th-place finish was (yet another) best-ever recorded cash. It’s just the fifth cash for Woo and makes up 96% of his total winnings. Woo’s standing on the Leaderboard goes from #5358 to #247.
Fatima Nanji
Vikas Sundhi from Bellingham and Edmonton’s Alemu Makonen came in 10th and 6th, respectively in the Wynn Fall Classic $400K GTD NLHE, a 1,438-entry tournament with a prize pool of $1.4M. Sundhi got their largest-ever cash and moves up one hundred and fourteen places to #550; Makonen holds at #54.
Jose Mendoza took 3rd in the Venetian #44 $100K GTD NLHE MonsterStackin a six-way deal that gave the Kennewick player their biggest-ever cash. Mendoza moves nearly three hundred places on the Leaderboard, to #670. Almost six hundred entries tripled the guarantee.
Seth Davies continues to put up numbers ever edition of the Leaderboard, with a 3rd in Aria/PokerGONLHEHigh Roller30. 5 players cashed in the 30-entry tournament, with former PNWer Ali Imsirovic at the top. Davies is still #1.
Renton, Washington’s Kao Saechao picked up 2nd place in Venetian #46 $75K GTD PLO,ahead of 319 other players (the prize pool tripled the guarantee), then made the final table at 8th in WSOP #71 PLO Bounty 8-Max at 8th That event had 860 entries. (Note: Bounties are not reported as part of tjhe earnings for the tournament.) Two final tables takes Saechao from #890 to #549 on the Leaderboard.
It was a win for Calgary’s Doug Lee, who bested 327 entries at the Autumn at Aria $40K GTD NLHE on 10 November. It appears from the payouts that there may have been a five-way deal.Lee holds at #26 on the Leaderboard.
In a blast from the past, Esther Taylor-Brady is still on the Oregon list at both Hendon Mob and WSOP. Taylor-Brady made 5th place in a field of 372 at WSOP #69 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo. Taylor-Brady remains at #28.
There were 5,252 entries in this tournament, and three players from the PNW at the final three tables. Maria McAlpin moves from #646 to #577 with a 26th-place finish. 23rd is good enough to help Adam Croffut slide up four places to #96. A newcomer to the Leaderboard are Deer Kim, whose 33rd-place is enough for #3601.
New on the Leaderboard at #813 is Matt Mayima from Seattle, who posted an impressive 2nd place in WSOP #71 PLO8 Bounty 8-Max as their first recorded live cash. The field had 860 entries. That’s a nice way to start off.
Matt Mayima
Back over at theAutumn at the Aria $40K GTD NLHE on 12 November, Burnaby, British Columbia player Alen Bakovic was 2nd in a five-way deal for their biggest score and a jump of more than nine hundred places on the Leaderboard, to #1721.
Another Canadian made the (unofficial) final table of a WSOP mixed-game event when Edmonton’s Nohad Teliani came in 9th in WSOP #72 Mixed NLHE/PLO 8-Max. Teliani gets a boost of almost two hundred places, and is now #828 on the Leaderboard. There were 856 entries in this event.
Nohad Teliani
And finally,Mans Montgomery out of Eagle, Idaho notches up four spots to #156 with a 4th-place finish in the Venetian #59 $150K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. The prize pool beat the guarantee with 204 entries.
That’s it for this long-delayed edition of the PNW Poker Leaderboard. Next edition will get us caught up. I will report that I was playing a tournament online on the way to Hawai’i that I thought would be over by the time we had to shut off our computers but even though we weren’t in the money when they shut off the on-board wi-fi, I managed to glide into a min-cash because I had enough chips. The dream is alive!
