PNW Poker Leaderboard — 6 September 2022: The Max and Angela Edition

I’ve been doing the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard in one form or another now for over seven years, since well before I “retired” from regularly playing live tournaments. As people have noted, I still show up at some special events (or when I just get the urge) but I’ve gone from an average of 20 live tournaments per month before I retired to about 4 per month in the first year and just a couple a month since I started playing live again last fall.

That’s a fair number of official Leaderboard posts. But I think this week is the first time that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing two people I’ve played with on the top end of the Leaderboard (technically on the bottom of the list since I build up to the bigger earners each edition).

Max Young, of course, played regularly in Portland before heading out onto the circuit and becoming the winner of multiple World Series of Poker Circuit Rings. I still remember one particularly brutal beat where he got it in bad against me at Aces Players Club and caught a card to double up, then went on to win the tournament (I did at least still make the final table). It still burns, but ah, the reflected glory!

And Angela Jordison, while I’ve played against her far less, has been a delight to watch move up the Leaderboard ranks. The rapport she has with Jacki Burkhart has rightly attracted international attention, and I think there are a lot of poker players out there envious for that combination of success (soooo close to the bracelet and ring!) and friendship. I’m still looking for the opportunity to play some Omaha against her, but I’m not challenging her to a heads-up match.

So this one’s for Max and Angela, keep the table warm, my time is coming.

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.
    • The tournament prize pool in US dollars.
Logan Miller (Spokane, Washington)
#4193
6th of 1055 entries, $548.6K prize pool
Nikki Young (Vale, Oregon)
#4070
3rd of 394 entries, $115.2K prize pool
Leonel Curiel (Pasco, Washington)
#3264
4th of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool
Michael Jutte (Spokane, Washington)
#693
#615
+78
2nd of 394 entries, $115.2K prize pool
Shane Brotherwood (Calgary, Alberta)
#224
#212
+12
6th of 334 entries, $335.5K prize pool
Mark Willis (Longview, Washington)
#3126
3rd of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool
Minh Thai (Calgary, Alberta)
#1343
#1048
+295
1st of 47 entries, $46.9K prize pool
Aamir Khan (Calgary, Alberta)
#379
#242
+137
1st of 497 entries, $109.9K prize pool
Aamir Khan / albertapokerindex.com
Steve Zhang (Calgary, Alberta)
#988
#815
+173
2nd of 324 entries, $119.4K prize pool
Shannon Lazorko (Calgary, Alberta)
#1861
#1329
+532
3rd of 497 entries, $109.9K prize pool

Lazorko also had another, smaller cash in the Summer Super Stack Main Event.

Jimmy Lee (Edmonton, Alberta)
#69
#67
+2
1st of 73 entries, $48.8K prize pool
Abdul Majid (Calgary, Alberta)
#4753
#2188
+2565
5th of 334 entries, $335.5K prize pool
Jason Elrod (Pendleton, Oregon)
#3755
#1934
+1821
1st of 394 entries, $115.2K prize pool

An actual winner of an event in Pendleton who’s from Pendleton!

Mark Bonsack (Maple Valley, Washington)
#157
#145
+12
2nd of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool
Dan Close (Yakima, Washington)
#4157
#1774
+2383
1st of 341 entries, $133.5K prize pool

It looks like there was at least a 2-way (possibly 4-way) deal made in this event. All four of the players whose cashes made the Leaderboard were from Washington State. Step it up, Oregon!

Jaspal Brar (Edmonton, Alberta)
#52
#48
+4
60th of 2294 entries, $11.1M prize pool
Weston Pring (Calgary, Alberta)
#247
#225
+22
1st of 324 entries, $119.4K prize pool
Westoon Pring / albertapokerindex.com
Aaron Thivyanathan (Renton, Washington)
#102
#98
+4
2nd of 76 entries, $73.7K prize pool
3rd of 119 entries, $115.4K prize pool
Darren Rabinowitz (Mercer Island, Washington)
#20
#20
0
5th of 542 entries, $629.8K prize pool
Graeme Frank (Calgary, Alberta)
#634
#403
+231
2nd of 334 entries, $335.5K prize pool
Nohad Tellani (Edmonton, Alberta)
#511
#325
+186
2nd of 754 entries, $363.4K prize pool
Angela Jordison (Redmond, Oregon)
#88
#75
+13
6th of 205 entries, $410K prize pool
1st of 532 entries, $518.7K prize pool
Maxwell Young (Oregon)
#25
#24
+1
1st of 205 entries, $410K prize pool
Max Young / wsop.com

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 23 August 2022 — The Jacki and Angela Edition

Though only one of them is on the Leaderboard this time (that’s Angela Jordison, twice) the duo of Jordison and Jacki Burkhart has been making the media rounds this past couple of weeks, with appearances on the Thinking Poker Podcast with Andrew Brokos and Carlos Welch, as well as an interview with Jennifer Newell at Tight Poker. Plus, there’s this:

https://twitter.com/thechiprace/status/1561782112365281280?s=20&t=Hg_IJkQk5GrObrsJL5yq3A

Haven’t had a chance to listen to The Chip Race yet, but the Thinking Poker interview is long and funny and makes me wish I had the chance to hang out with people more.

I did get the chance this past weekend to see Jeremy Harkin for the first time in forever, eating some tasty BBQ cooked by Dan Butcher, who was one of the first folks I met on the Portland poker scene, back in my early days at the Chadd Baker-era Portland Players Club.

I haven’t played much live (or really, online) lately, though I did donate in both the $20K and $40K guarantees at the grand re-opening of Final Table after their move to SE 82nd & Division. More about that at another time.

We’re less than four weeks from the start of the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic Poker Tournament, here’s a link to the PDF for the schedule and structures.

Until next Leaderboard (or that “another time” article I mentioned)!

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

David Froyalde (Federal Way, Washington)
#838
#749
+89
5th of 435 entries, $208K prize pool

The Hendon Mob page for this event says it was a $1M guarantee, but I think my entry here is correct.

Matt McLeish (Calgary, Alberta)
#2148
#1676
+472
4th of 169 entries, $124.8K prize pool
William Reddick (Lethbridge, Alberta)
#4532
#2795
+1737
2nd of 192 entries, $63.3K prize pool
Jarrod Leppard (Red Deer, Alberta)
#1153
#979
+174
2nd of 243 entries, $81.4K prize pool
Jonathan Woof (Edmonton, Alberta)
#3082
#2080
+1002
10th of 470 entries, $1M prize pool
Kang Lee (Edmonton, Alberta)
#931
#803
+128
38th of 2968 entries, $3.9M prize pool
Aaron Thivyanathan (Renton, Washington)
#105
#102
+3
6th of 314 entries, $304.5K prize pool
Jimmy Lee (Edmonton, Alberta)
#69
#69
0
5th of 293 entries, $149.4K prize pool
Pawan Braich (Edmonton, Alberta)
#267
#255
+12
3rd of 169 entries, $124.8K prize pool
Dominick French (Victoria, British Columbia)
#156
#148
+8
37th of 2968 entries, $3.9M prize pool
Dien Le (Bellevue, Washington)
#117
#114
+3
1st of 413 entries, $99.6K prize pool
Rhonda Shepek (Victoria, British Columbia)
#1885
#1259
+626
21st of 2968 entries, $3.9M prize pool
Weston Pring (Calgary, Alberta)
#275
#247
+28
2nd of 169 entries, $124.8K prize pool
Wesley Remmer (Kenai, Alaska)
#2262
6th of 708 entries, $1M prize pool
Taylor Hart (Newberg, Oregon)
#288
#251
+37
43rd of 2968 entries, $3.9M prize pool

Hart’s performance in this Leaderboard-qualifying event is smaller than that of some of the other players in this tournament, but Hart also had a number of other, smaller cashes that didn’t qualify for the Leaderboard but dd boost his overall position.

Sandra Neal (Aldergrove, British Columbia)
#2426
#1210
+1216
2nd of 925 entries, $305.2K prize pool

The WSOP site lists Neal as a resident of Tennessee and most of their Hendon Mob cashes are at Cherokee and other Southeast US venues, but the listing at the Mob says BC.

Haochen Shi (Calgary, Alberta)
#1796
1st of 408 entries, $68K prize pool
Vanessa Kade (Kelowna, British Columbia)
#50
#48
+2
10th of 573 entries, $2.6M prize pool
Vincent Lam (Edmonton, Alberta)
#209
#178
+31
10th of 2968 entries, $3.9M prize pool
Calvin Lee (Mercer Island, Washington)
#144
#130
+14
13th of 1178 entries, $5.4M prize pool
Matt Affleck (Seattle, Washington)
#15
#15
0
14th of 1110 entries, $5.3M prize pool
Esther Taylor-Brady (Portland, Oregon)
#27
#26
+1
1st of 115 entries, $230K prize pool
Angela Jordison (Redmond, Oregon)
#97
#88
+9
5th of 979 entries, $948.1K prize pool
3rd of 415 entries, $404.6K prize pool
Angela Jordison at the MSPT Iowa Main Event / PokerNews
Kyle Ho (Burnaby, British Columbia)
#136
#96
+40
5th of 2765 entries, $6.1M prize pool
Jaspal Brar (Edmonton, Alberta)
#61
#52
+9
1st of 1282 entries, $1.1M prize pool

Brar won the final live event of the 2022 WSOP, picking up bracelet number one, then headed to Barcelona.

Jaspal Brar and crew / WSOP
Christopher Brewer (Eugene, Oregon)
#5
#4
+1
5th of 1110 entries, $5.3M prize pool

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 17 July 2022 — Do You Even Meditate?

I’d like to sincerely (but probably pointlessly) apologize to Aaron Duczak for not noticing he was from the Pacific Northwest (specifically, Kamloops, British Columbia) until he was on the final table of the WSOP Main Event. There is nobody who would have liked to make more of the fact that this year’s Main Event had two players from the PNW in contention for the $10M top prize than myself.

The combined population of the states and provinces I track in the PNW Poker Leaderboard—Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alkaska, British Columbia, and Alberta—is about twenty-three and a half million, smaller than the population of California (38 million) or Texas (28 million), and just a bit more than that of Florida (21 million) but here we had two players who weren’t long-established pros at the final table of the biggest event of any poker year. Pretty cool.On top of that, both Angela Jordison and Stuart Young* were on the Day 4 feature table on PokerGO for a long period with the man everyone was talking about at the time, Zilong Zheng, Five players from the PNW cracked the spots between 100 and 200 in the Main Event.
* And Vancouver, Washington’s Ali Imsirovic.

So a pretty cool Main Event for the PNW.

Well-Aged Final Tables

If you’ve got a few extra minutes, check out my updated interactive chart of the ages of the players who’ve made the Main Event final table since 2005!

PNW Poker Leaderboard

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.
    • The tournament prize pool in US dollars.
Omar Stefanini (Coquitlam, British Columbia)
#1140
#995
+145
44th of 2441 entries, $2.3M prize pool
Adam Todd (Rogers, Alaska)
#800
#724
+76
76th of 2854 entries, $3.7M prize pool
Peter Cowles (Seattle, Washington)
#2325
#1820
+505
56th of 5833 entries, $5.1M prize pool
Joel Micka (Seattle, Washington)
#31
#33
-2
51st of 1359 entries, $3.6M prize pool
Laurie Gore (Port Hadlock, Washington)
#2071
#1588
+483
2nd of 410 entries, $135.3K prize pool

Looks like a 7-way deal in this one.

Mark Aylward-Nally (Vancouver, British Columbia)
#7233
#3179
+4054
3rd of 308 entries, $101.6K prize pool
Kennon Buckmaster (Grants Pass, Oregon)
#3149
#2109
+1040
55th of 5833 entries, $5.1M prize pool
Joshua Biedak (Victoria, British Columbia)
#641
#581
+60
2nd of 161 entries, $83.2K prize pool
Waheed Feda (Washington)
#1064
#897
+167
79th of 2854 entries, $3.7M prize pool
Edward House (Soldotna, Alaska)
#3033
#1991
+1042
62nd of 14112 entries, $8.3M prize pool
Vanessa Ames (Mill Creek, Washington)
#3136
#2032
+1104
51st of 5702 entries, $5.7M prize pool
Matthew Jewett (Shoreline, Washington)
#108
#111
-3
2nd of 262 entries, $86.4K prize pool
Nicholas Sena-Hopkins (Seattle, Washington)
#820
#689
+131
50th of 5702 entries, $5.7M prize pool
Jason James (Seattle, Washington)
#605
#532
+73
16th of 833 entries, $1.2M prize pool
Chris Gallagher (Portland, Oregon)
#1181
#915
+266
28th of 6903 entries, $3.5M prize pool

Though they now list online WSOP bracelet events, Hendon Mob doesn’t factor them into the rankings, so Gallagher’s 5th place finish last month in the WSOP ONLINE 2022 PLO 6-Max—a $1K buy-in with 470 entries—doesn’t affect the standing.

Venkata Muramalla (Sammamish, Washington)
#2615
#1900
+715
3rd of 434 entries, $303.8K prize pool
Tyler Patterson (Everett, Washington)
#19
#19
0
27th of 5833 entries, $5.1M prize pool
Frederick Parsons (Kamloops, British Columbia)
#606
#501
+105
19th of 5833 entries, $5.1M prize pool
Clemen Deng (Portland, Oregon)
#2733
#1486
+1247
18th of 967 entries, $2.1M prize pool
Jesse Kertland (Ellensburg, Washington)
#342
#298
+44
41st of 2854 entries, $3.7M prize pool
39th of 6903 entries, $3.5M prize pool
Lynh Nguyen (Seattle, Washington)
#7505
#1963
+5542
6th of 1074 entries, $955.8K prize pool

This is just Nguyen’s second recorded cash.

Matthew Kelly (Hillsboro, Oregon)
#2004
20th of 14112 entries, $8.3M prize pool
David Katzov (Vancouver, British Columbia)
#2882
#1278
+1604
5th of 170 entries, $467.5K prize pool
Doug Lee (Calgary, Alberta)
#26
#26
0
9th of 2441 entries, $2.3M prize pool
Tesfaldet Tekle (Tukwila, Washington)
#450
#359
+91
22nd of 683 entries, $6.3M prize pool
Kevin Theodore (Seattle, Washington)
#554
#409
+145
14th of 6903 entries, $3.5M prize pool
Jacqueline Burkhart (Boring, Oregon)
#252
#222
+30
327th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Dean Sanderson (Salem, Oregon)
#1441
230th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Tony Phu Le (Surrey, British Columbia)
#1812
#817
+995
221st of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Noah Bronstein (Bellevue, Washington)
#34
#35
-1
6th of 1234 entries, $1.5M prize pool
Angela Jordison (Redmond, Oregon)
#109
#97
+12
175th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Aaron Thivyanathan (Renton, Washington)
#128
#105
+23
169th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Steve Chanthabouasy (Clackamas, Oregon)
#92
#83
+9
158th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Luke Travis (Blaine, Washington)
#1872
#761
+1111
154th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Stuart Young (Portland, Oregon)
#803
#461
+342
102nd of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Charles Coultas (Mill Creek, Washington)
#71
#66
+5
8th of 284 entries, $2.6M prize pool
Richard Mercier (Anchorage, Alaska)
#4625
#928
+3697
1st of 473 entries, $458.8K prize pool
Vincent Lam (Edmonton, Alberta)
#314
#209
+105
4th of 1234 entries, $1.5M prize pool
Carl Marvin III (Juneau, Alaska)
#4271
#635
+3636
6th of 2574 entries, $3.7M prize pool
Carl Oman (Vancouver, Washington)
#192
#126
+66
2nd of 1076 entries, $1M prize pool

Carl’s so hot right now.

Juan Riedinger (Vancouver, British Columbia)
#357
2nd of 5608 entries, $2M prize pool
Pei Li (Calgary, Alberta)
#1022
#253
+769
1st of 1390 entries, $1.8M prize pool
Pei Li, winner of the 2022 WSOP bracelet for the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha Bounty tournament.
Esther Taylor-Brady* (Portland, Oregon)
#28
#27
+1
2nd of 1234 entries, $1.5M prize pool

Yeah, I put an asterisk on Taylor-Brady for reasons of residence.

Joshua Morrow (Juneau, Alaska)
#329
1st of 1438 entries, $575.2K prize pool
Edmund Chan (Vancouver, British Columbia)
#315
95th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool

This is Chan’s deepest-ever run in the Main Event; in 2017, Chan placed 116th. Chan has two other better-than-min-cashes in the Main Event.

David Timmons (Ketchum, Idaho)
#184
3rd of 14112 entries, $8.3M prize pool

This is Timmons’s first recorded tournament cash, as well as a first appearance on the Leaderboard.

David Timmons
Adam Hendrix (Anchorage, Alaska)
#18
#17
+1
1st of 1446 entries, $2M prize pool
4th of 756 entries, $3.4M prize pool

The Wynn tournament was an even chop with Wojciech Barzanteny.

Aaron Duczak (Kamloops, British Columbia)
#138
#30
+108
7th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Jeffrey Farnes (Dallas, Oregon)
#629
#29
+600
6th of 8663 entries, $80.7M prize pool
Aaron Duczak
Jeffrey Farnes

The Main Event Comes of Age, 2022

Now that we’ve got a winner, I’m following up on my original article by this title at PokerNews back in 2015 (and follow-ups here, and here), here’s an updated table of WSOP Main Event final tablists.

The lines for winners are marked with circles; the second-place finisher is marked with a box. Roll over the chart for last names and places for each year (excepting 2020).

Choosing a World Series of Poker Main Event Starting Day: Does it Matter? Revisited.

Las week on the PokerGo Podcast, co-hosts Tim Duckworth and Donnie Peters were discussing the oft-repeated theory that playing the last day of the WSOP Main Event was the best way to run up a big stack.

As it happens, I’d taken a look at that assumption in an article at PokerNews back in 2015 (just a few months before I interviewed for a job there with Donnie and Matt Parvis, as a matter of fact).

In that article, I charted end-of-day chip stacks against entrants, breaking each day’s finishers into six groups: top 10%, 70% to 90%, 50% to 70%, 30% to 50%, 10% to 30%, and bottom 10%.

There wasn’t any statistical correlation between the number of entrants on each day and the stack distribution that I could find, the biggest end-of-day stack between 2011 and 2015 was on a Day 1A (2012). In 2011, the biggest ending stack was on Day 1A, and in 2014 the biggest stack on 1A was larger than on 1B despite a field only a third the size.

The other groupings remained very consistent. The first decile (bottom 10%) topped out consistently around 45% of the starting stack. The fourth decile (40%) had just over starting stack. The median at 50% was about 120% of starting stack, etc.

I wasn’t particularly surprised when I ran numbers for 2016 to 2022 (2020 excluded). This time, I used a percentage of starting stack to represent the end-of-day numbers, because the number of chips went from 50,000 to 60,000 in 2019. Again, everything except the top 10% is very consistent. And again, earlier starting days with fewer entries have outperformed larger fields: 2017 Day 1A had the largest end-of-day stack; the same thing happened in 2019.

Where there is a definite correlation is in the number of players that survive each day. Larger fields have a larger percentage of the field surviving to Day 2. Of the 20 starting days from 2016 to 2022, the range of survivors was from 67% to 77%, and the percentage of survivors on Day 1A was never more than 72%. The percentage of survivors on the last day—Day 1C until 2019 and Day 1D in 2021 and 2022—was never lower than 75%.

While there was only a 3% difference in the number of survivors between the first and last starting day in 2019, in each of the other years, there were between 5% and 9% more entering players making it to Day 2. Only on 2022 Day 1C were there more survivors on a later starting day.

So if you’re looking for a reason to play the last entry day for the Main Event, that’s your reason.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 5 July 2022

David Johnson (Grande Prairie, Alberta)
#3157
#1608
+1549
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