#PNWPokerCal Planner for 25 January 2017

Late-Breaking News for the Morning

Full schedule released about a month before usual.

 

MISSING: BRONZIE. LAST SEEN: A couple of weeks ago (either that or it’s lost on the floor of my office somewhere).

Have You Seen Me?

UPDATE: Bronzie has been found. And not on my office floor.

I started using the hat off of a toy Simpsons figurine (Professor Frink) as my card cap a number of years ago, after dealer Matt Johnson squawked at me to get my damn Hawthorne Bridge rivet off of his cards (back during one of the renovations, the county sold rivet heads they’d cut off as souvenirs). The original was plastic and painted silver with a red top (it’s supposed to be a kitchen colander, with some sort of electric arc generators built onto it), but after being carried around to a lot of games, the plastic was bending and the paint was coming off.

So when I headed down to Las Vegas in the summer of 2012 for a couple of weeks, I took an afternoon to make a 3D model of the hat (with Blender, an open-source—free—modeling program) and sent the model off to Shapeways, a company that will print your 3D files in anything from plastic to platinum. I ordered four card caps, three in metal, and one in a metallic plastic. Two of the metal caps were delayed for finishing, but I got the plastic cap and ‘Bronzie’ (pictured above) in time for the Vegas trip. The plastic proved too brittle for carrying around in my pocket, but I used Bronzie and his mates ever since, in almost every game for the past four-and-a-half years (above, he’s pictured next to my stack in the biggest cash I’ve ever had at a tournament, back at Encore Club a couple years ago).

One of the caps is solid silver, but Bronzie and Goldie are both stainless steel at heart (Goldie is electroplated with—wait for it—gold).

I’ve walked away from tables a number of times leaving one of the caps behind, but someone’s always called me back or I’ve felt in my pocket at the last minute. But I’ve finally lost one of the set, and near as I can guess, it was at a home game two weeks back. If anyone runs across Bronzie, I’d appreciate getting it back, it’s not worth very much, and I can always get another one printed, but it’s served me well.

I had to go to the $10K at Final Table (yay! the snow is mostly gone!) with a backup (above) on Friday. Blasted through my first buy-in, built my way up from 5K of my second buyin (and the addon), then ran [qx qx] into [jx jx] all in on the flop and a jack on the river.

#PDXPokerTroubles

It’s been a harsh few weeks of winter, but except for a few dirty snow piles, it’s mostly gone from the metro area. Except for some roads closed by landslides and some gargantuan potholes, driving’s back to normal. Even I84 is open again.

In fact, pretty much everything is open with the exception of Rialto, which is going to be closed for some weeks yet, after a fire on the upper floors of the building.

A Shameless Plug

For any Breaking Bad fans who also happen to be Lord of the Rings geeks.

For anyone too young to remember the original…

Calgary Shout-Out

If you’re missing the cold and you want a shot at a free seat in the WSOP Main Event, the Deerfoot Inn & Casino is giving away a seat to the champ at their Winter SuperStack that starts tomorrow. Nonstop flights from Portland for a little more than $500 round-trip. Temperatures guaranteed to be below 0°C.

Deal of the Week: Groundhog Weekend at the Venetian

Not literally, because 2 February is on a Thursday, but the first weekend of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I has two events for the shot-taker.

Friday, 3 February, is the second of two entry days for Event #7, an $1,100 buyin $300,000 Guarantee tournament with Day 2 on Saturday. This will be a relatively small tournament, because of the buyin, and you might think that the field would be full of hardcore grinders, but of the 21 players who cashed in last winter’s opening weekend event, the only big name was Annette Obrestad. Not only that, but there was an overlay of nearly $20,000, with just a $200,000 guarantee, so they’re sticking their neck out upping this year’s guarantee. Or maybe it’s like throwing chum in the water to attract the sharks.

If you bust out on Friday or during the first three hours Saturday, you can get into the $100,000 Guarantee, $1,100 buyin bounty. Each bounty is $300, so if you can get 8 bounties you can make both buyins back without even cashing! Mmmm, bounties.

Only a Day Away

  • Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic has a $300K Guarantee with a $350 buyin starting today. Two entry flights per day through Saturday. Saturday night is a mega satellite for the WPT event held a month from now.
  • The Tulalip Poker Pow Wow has a  $100K Guarantee this weekend with a $520 buyin. Entry days are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 1PM on the first two days and 11am on Saturday.
  • Poker Night in America at Thunder Valley is winding down this weeked, Saturday and Sunday is filming for the $25/$50 cash game, and this weekend is also a $250K Guaranteed Main Event with a $1,100 buyin (entry days Friday and Saturday, with two more days of play Sunday and Monday).
  • The Winter SuperStack (mentioned above) has its first event tomorrow, a C$100K Guarantee for a C$550 buyin (that’s $76K and $420, approximately), but the tantalizing eventsthis weekend is Friday night’s C$330 4-Game Mix tournament (PLO, Omaha Hi-Lo, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo) and Saturday night’s C$330 PLO Bounty (with C$100 bounties).
  • If you head up to the Seattle area for the $100K at Tulalip but bust out on Day 1, you might wander down to Muckleshoot Casino for their 5th Sunday $3K Added tournament ($330 buyin).
  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I starts Monday.

Remember to keep an eye on the #PNWPokerCal Twitter hashtag and the PNW Poker Calendar for upcoming events!