#PNWPokerCal Planner for 17 May 2017


Portland attorney Tom Rask, representing the card rooms in La Center

#SaveOregonPoker

There was a public hearing on House Bill 2190 last Wednesday in the Oregon Senate’s Committee on General Government and Accountability. There were some quite eloquent statements made against the bill (video of the hearing is available), including those from Angela Jordison (starting at 12 minutes in); representatives of Portland Meadows (26 minutes); Bob Atkinson (35 minutes), a former Asst. Attorney General for the Oregon Department of Justice; and Cynthia Thompson (58 minutes).

The voices against the bill that would kill Oregon poker as it currently exists (and pretty much kill Oregon tournament poker no matter what) far outnumbered the advocates of the bill (you can read the letters and see exhibits here), but the quality of the questioning didn’t lend itself to a lot of hope that the bill will die in committee. A work session is scheduled for today at 1pm, there’s a note on the agenda: House Bill 2190 is scheduled solely for the purpose of committee discussion; no action will be taken on the measure.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

This week’s mover onto the leaderboard is Tommy Kendrick of Olympia, who got to what looks like a four-way chop in a $20K GTD during the Venetian May Weekend Extravaganza for a 2nd-place finish of over $6,500.

John Sloat of Washington had his best cash ever at the California State Poker Championship in a  $350 buyin, $300K GTD tournament where he took 3rd place. The partypoker Millions North America event in Montreal drew Oregon’s #2 player (after Annie Duke, natch). James Romero entered the field of nearly 1,200 players paying C$5,300 and placed 52nd, for C$25,000 (a little over $18K US), a week after posting a couple of smaller cashes at Borgata. Seattle’s Dylan Wilkerson is riding the wave after winning the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event in Los Angeles in March, then making the final table of the WPT Tournament of Champions last month: he played (and cashed) the partypoker Million in Nottingham last month, and made it into the top 100 of the North America event. David Goodkin‘s big first-place finish from the Seniors event at the Tulalip Poker Pow Wow in January finally showed up on Hendon Mob last week. Rounding out this week’s leaderboard is Jeff DeWitt, participant in an 11-way even chop at Talking Stick Resort in Arizona, where 12th got just under $900 and all the remaining players picked up $5K.  That’s a heck of a ladder.

WSOP News

Big news Monday from the World Series of Poker. You’ve likely already seen it, but the November Nine is no more. After nine years of delaying the final table of the Main Event for four months, it’s back to playing out on consecutive days, with several hours of delayed coverage on ESPN each day, from Day 1A on 8 July to the end on 22 July. Additionally, footage not used by ESPN will be distributed through Poker Central, the online poker channel.

Jake Hates Poker

If you want to get the scoop on the summer from the perspective of an actual poker player (as opposed to myself), check out Jake Dahl’s new blog.

This Week In Portland Poker

Business as usual for the most part. Meanwhile, at The Game:


Only a Day Away

  • The Gardens Poker Festival got under way this week in Los Angeles (Hawaiian Gardens, technically), the interesting items on the agenda are a couple of $10K GTD tournaments with action clocks (today and tomorrow at 5pm and noon, respectively) and a Big O/7-Card Stud Hi-Lo $10K GTD on Friday at 11am (bowing to the wake-up times of Stud players more than Big O players, amirite?) The big event is a $565 buyin $1M GTD WPT500 event with 14 entry flights between Sunday and 29 May.
  • The summer Las Vegas series are already under way: the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III started Monday and the big event this weekend is a $100K GTD $400 buyin. There are two Big O events during the series: a $75K GTD $600 buyin in mid-June, and $100K PLO/PLO8/Big O in early July with a $1,100 buyin. The capper near the end of the series two months from now is the $2M GTD Venetian/Card Player Poker Tour Main Event with a $5K buyin (I was just about there…)
  • The WSOP Warm-Up Series at Horseshoe Hammond has a $210 tournament with two Millionaire Maker and one WSOP Main Event seat added to the prize pool starting today. The Main Event of the Hammond series (just east of Chicago, 4 hours from Portland on a direct flight) has three WSOP Main Event seats added to the prize pool.
  • Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California has two more $340 buyin WSOP qualifiers on the next two Saturdays for $1,500 Omaha HI-Lo and Seven-Card Stud. Both events have 11am starts times and they’re a short jump from the Oakland airport.
  • Sunday at noon is the Muckleshoot Big Bounty a $200 buyin for 15K in chips. Next Sunday in Auburn is the monthly Deepstack, for $300.
  • Tulalip Casino’s Last Sunday of the Month Tourney for may is a $35K GTD with $400 buyin (including dealer addon). It starts 28 May at 11am.
  • Little Creek Casino still has one more WSOP Monster Stack package satellite Tuesday night.
  • In the other Vancouver, River Rock Casino’s May Showdown at the Rock runs 24—28 May, with three events: C$230, C$345 (including C$50 bounty), and a two-day C$575 tournament with two entry days. C$575 is about $420 (420! In Vancouver!). You can pre-register by calling their poker room, registrations are transferable/non-refundable, and each flight will have 100 players max.
  • The second big Vegas series gets started a week from Friday at Planet Hollywood. It’s the Goliath 2017, aka the Poor Man’s WSOP. The Goliath started off as Harrah’s smaller version of the Colossus, with the same buyin but 1/10th the guarantee. After several years, it now has two $1M GTD tournaments ($600 and $1,650) and  a $2K buyin $2M GTD. There’s a $125K Big O event in early July, and a variety of other events. It kicks off with with a $600 buyin $250K the first weekend.
  • Lucky Chances south of San Francisco has a tournament 28 May with $20K GTD for the first place finisher and a $375 buyin. It starts at 9:30am. The next morning is a $4K for first tournament ($130 buyin), FYI: their regular weekly schedule has an $8K for first GTD every Sunday.
  • Tuesday the 30th, it’s time for The Grand at the Golden Nugget. Nearly 60 events through 3 July, with what is usually the most diverse ange of tournaments at easily-affordable buyins. There’s a Mixed PLO8/Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O tournament on 5 June, all Big O on 26 June, and the $570 PLO8/Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O Championship the next day.
  • And , of course, there’s the World Series of Poker starting the same day and running through 17 July. It kicks off with Daily Deepstacks and cash games on the first day, then there’s the Casino Employee event, a $10K  buyin Tag Team tournament, the $3K shootout, $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo, and on the weekend, the Colossus III, with an $8M guarantee, $1M to first, and just a $565 buyin.

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