#PNWPokerCalendar Planner for 13 January 2016

I hope everyone’s year’s gotten off to a good start. Are we winning? At least we’re back to normal winter weather in Portland. The perfect kind of weather for being inside playing poker in the warm and dry.

Aussie Millions

Got a DM Tuesday from one of the Aussie Millions promotional companies. They’ve got a drawing for a seat to the Aussie Millions Main Event. The Main Event has three starting days: 24-26 January and runs for a total of five days. It’s a AU$10.6K buy-in (US$7.4K) at Crown Casino in Melbourne. The flight alone’s going to cost $2K. But it is one of the premiere events in the world of poker, last year there were nearly 650 entries and the prize pool was over US$5M. And the Crown is 18+, so if you’re locked out of Portland poker because of Portland Players Club’s closing as the last of the alcohol-free clubs….

Competition closes at midnight on January 14th Melbourne time, which is 5am Thursday morning here, so if you’re going to enter, make sure you do it today.

The entry form’s built for Australian and New Zealand players, so you have to trick the phone number and zip fields. You can just type in the first four number of your ZIP for the postal code, but Australian phone numbers are eight digits with a two-digit prefix. It’s the same number of digits as US phone numbers, but the first two digits have to be in the range 02-08. If your number’s 503-555-1212, just use 0355551212 and it should work. What have you got to lose?

aussiemillions

Monday Mix

My focus on the site is mostly on tournaments (hence the title “Pacific NW Tournament Calendar,” duh), but there are a lot of “shootouts” around town. Technically, most of them are hour-long tournaments with one blind level, unlimited rebuys, and a chip chop at the end of the tournament.

Most of them are Hold’em (big surprise) but there’s one game that’s had a few homes where those of us with a penchant for odd games can get some more cards: the Monday Mix game hosted by Devin Sweet.

It started off in BC’s underneath Aces Players Club on Powell, then moved to Portland Players Club last year. Now that PPC is resting, it’s got a home at the Rialto Poolroom Bar and Cafe in downtown Portland,

The Mix offers a wide variety of games, with 20 or so different variations of Omaha, Stud, Badugi, and more, in addition to Hold’em. Blinds for the flop games are 1/1 1/2 (corrected per Mix dealer Josh Harding). The Stud games are played 5-25 spread limit. My own personal opinion is that takes most of the interest out of limit stud games, with a $600 max buy-in and five rounds of betting that can go to $100, you might as well just toss in your chips and draw for a high card, but some people like it. Monday nights at 7pm.

Rialto is also offering Sunday noon games of 4/8 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, in addition to NLHE at other times. Check the NW Poker Facebook page for notices.

PacWest Poker Classic

The schedule for Oregon’s other poker series, the PacWest Poker Classic at Chinook Winds the last week of February is up. The schedule in the Tournament Guide PDF has some incorrect dates, but a spot check of the dates on the structure sheets themselves looks okay. More on this later!
Pacwest_Splash

Note to other old people, PacWest’s Seniors tournament is 55+, not 50+.

 Deal of the Day: Tulalip Poker Pow Wow

This year’s Poker Pow Wow is coming right up. It has five events over two weekends, from Friday, 22 January to Sunday, 31 January.

  • Event 1. NLHE. $235 buy-in, Friday and Saturday entry days (1/22-23) with Day 2 on Sunday 1/24. 30-minute levels on Day 1, 40 minutes on Day 2.
  • Event 2. PLO8. $150 buy-in. One day (Monday, 1/25). 30-minute levels.
  • Event 3. NLHE Seniors (usually 50+, but after seeing PacWest, what do I know?). $235 buy-in. One day (Tuesday, 1/26). 30-minute levels.
  • Event 4. PLO. $235 buy-in. One day (Wednesday. 1/27). 30-minute levels.
  • Event 5. NLHE Main Event with $10K added. $500 buy-in. Three entry days (Thursday-Saturday, 1/28-30) with Day 2 on Sunday, 1/31. 40-minute levels on Day 1, 60-minute levels on Day 2.

No fee information is on the structure sheets (at above link). Satellites for the Main Event are running at noon today, 3pm Saturday, and next Wednesday at noon ($60 entry). I’m not sure of the room capacity. One comment on Twitter leads me to believe seating may be limited, but I’m trying to get confirmation of capacity from Tulalip. (UPDATE: 110 seats plus alternates.)

This Week in Portland Poker

As I’m putting this report together Tuesday, I haven’t seen any announcements for special events for the next week; everyone seems to be on their regular schedules until next weekend.

Only a Day Away

  • In LA, the Liz Flynt Poker Championship has two more entry days (two flights each today and tomorrow, with a final day on Friday). It’s a $200K guarantee with a $275 buy-in and six entry flights over three days.
  • The LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino starts Friday and runs through early March. I went into detail about the schedule in a Deal back in November.
  • The Wynn Signature Weekend in Las Vegas, a 3-entry-day, $600 entry, $250K guarantee NLHE event, starts next Thursday (1/21), with Day 2 on Sunday (1/24).
  • Thunder Valley outside Sacramento is hosting Poker Night in America starting next Thursday (1/21). The first non-satellite event is a $425 buy-in $200K guarantee NLHE tournament with four entry flights over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and a live-streamed final table on Sunday (1/24). There are nine other events with smaller guarantees ($7.5K to $25K) before the $1650 Main Event, which is recorded for television. They’re also running satellites for a $10K buy-in to their $25/$50 televised cash game.
  • Aria has updated their web site, but their poker page still doesn’t carry any information about their $25K buy-in High Roller events. They’ve got two more next Friday (1/22) and Saturday (1/23). You can read about past events at Poker Telegraph. If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
  • The Tulalip Poker Pow Wow (see above) starts a week from Friday (1/22).
  • There’s an Ante Up Cruise to the Mexican Riviera (Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta) coming up Sunday, 24 January if you’re looking for some last-minute relief from the rain. Small events ($20-$100) with a $300 championship. Plus whatever they’re charging for the ship, of course.
  • The first Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza of 2016 gets under way a week from Monday (1/25) and runs until March.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.