Category Archives: General Poker

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 23 November 2017 — THANKS FOR PORTLAND POKER!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

What am I grateful for? Rake-free Portland poker clubs and especially the players who volunteer to deal because my ability to shuffle and deal is crummy..

Safe travels and best wishes for your holiday weekend (and before you head out to your regular game on Thursday, call your club to see if they’re closed!).

Ernie Haugen

According to a post on the NW Poker Facebook group, former La Center card room floorman Ernie Haugen passed away last week. According to Kasey Sutton, a viewing is scheduled for 1 December at Longview Memorial Park, with another viewing and service on 4 December. See the post for details and to leave remembrances. 

Holiday Tournaments and Other Announcements

Out on the east side of the state, the Ontario Poker Room is putting on a potluck fundraiser tournament for veterans of Oregon and Idaho on 2 December at 1pm. Buyin is $60 with unlimited $10 rebuys for the first hour and a $10 addon. Prospective players are requested to RSVP by 29 November.

On 9 December at noon, Medford Poker Room is having their $120 buyin Deep Stack tournament. They also suggest you reserve your seat.

The 12th Annual Northwest Deaf Poker Tournament returns to its new home at Portland Meadows Poker Room, 23 & 24 February, 2018 with three tournaments (one on Friday evening and two on Saturday). See the Facebook announcement for more info and contact information.

That Guy

My Time Is Coming

A decent week overall here at Poker Mutant Central. Not a Max Young kind of week, but decent. I cashed in last Wednesday’s Ignition $5K GTD Thousandaire Maker (falling a little short of the Thursday game and not getting anywhere in Saturday’s or Wednesday night’s). Dropped a little money in the PLO cash games there, then took a whack at the Jackpot Sit & Go Ignition has begun to offer, where you play a 3-person game that has a variable payout, from double the buyin to 1200 times the buyin. So far I’ve played 11 $7 jackpot games. Most have had $14 payouts—one had a $35 payout—and I’ve won 6 (but not the bigger one). I’ve also played 11 of the $15 Jackpots (two of which were $75 payouts), and cashed six of the standard $30 pots.

Friday night, I was in a five-way chop at Final Table’s $10K GTD, with everyone getting between 3rd place and 2nd place money. Monday was my long-time home game (where I met Jim-Jim the Poker Cat); I dropped two buyins, busting the second time just before break, then headed over to The Game for some 1/2 NLHE. I waited about an hour before I got a seat at a new table, then left an hour later after playing back against the reckless straddler who sat on my left resulted in a double-up.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

The Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up puts lots of big numbers up in the leaderboard this week as the results hit Hendon Mob.

Brian Son of Meridian, Idaho is the big name in the new money. Going into November, he had two small cashes recorded, but he hit the money three times in Pendleton, taking 4th place in both the Shootout and the Main Event. Matt L’Hommedieu has exactly one recorded cash, but it was for 2nd place in the $330 Friday night tournament just before the Main Event. Colfax’s Ryan Christopherson had just a min cash from this summer on his record before winning Event #1. Mel Hoelzle came from Boise to pick up his first cash, a win in Thursday’s Event #9. Pogo Hyde from Salen opens his Hendon Mob page strong with 2nd place in Event #1, and Douglas Reiper bested his only other cash by a factor of twenty, taking second place in the High Roller.

Out at Mid-States Poker Tour Denver Poker Open, Jason Beasley won the Main Event, Beasley lives in Colorado now, but he’s from Salem (and his Hendon Mob entry still lists him from there).

Even farther away, Calvin Lee (Mercer Island) won the 2017 Japan High Roller Festival Main Event (Japan only recently legalized casinos, so national poker championships have been held elsewhere, much like the Norwegians hold theirs in Dublin).

It was a good series back in Pendleton for Idahoans, with Twin Falls’ Michael York taking first on the Main Event, after making the unofficial final table of Event #10 the night before and cashing in Event #9. And, from Boise, David Smith took 2nd in Event #2, 21st in the Seniors, and 3rd in the Main Event.

2nd-place Main Event finisher Dale Dietzel (Gates, Oregon) blew out his previous cashes and picked up 13th in Event #10. Angel Iniquez grabbed first in Event #10. James Morris of Seattle took the bracelet in Event #2, Jason Heiner got 10th in #10 and 11th in the Main, Carl Oman was the winner of the High Roller, and David Mallet won the Seniors.

Seattle’s Alexander Fitzgerald went deep at WPT Montreal, cashing 22nd of 606 entries.

Clark Watkins double-dipped in Event #2 at Pendleton (2nd) and #10 (23rd). And congrats to Astoria’s Troy Stinnett, with three cashes including two final tables (20th in the Shootour, 8th in Event #1, and 3rd in the High Roller)!

Schrödinger’s Laak On The Chip Race

If you’re not listening to the Irish poker podcast hosted by David Lappin  and Dara O’Kearney, you should be. Their first episode of season 4 features river-of-consciousness  poker personality Phil Laak, whose interview starts thusly:

Laak: Not to diminish my own accomplishments, I want to clarify even though it says $3.6 million won [reported tournament winnings on Hendon Mob], I wonder how many millions I spent to get that $3.6 milllion? Like, it’s not like that—that’s uh—I don’t know the answer. I don’t know if I’m  ROI plus or minus. I have spent…probably if I’m plus, it’s gotta be like less than a million…I mean I…

Lappin: That’s (not?) a good ROI.

Laak: â€¦spent a lot of…It’s probably like two hundred thousand…it might be minus, I don’t know! I’ve done so much…I’m not the best accountant. I could figure that out. I actually could easily figure it out because I have all my tax records, I could do the plus and minus, but I get…those kind of things make me anxious, looking at the…I’ve recorded, in fact I’ve recorded all my gambling since, like 1999 when I actually started gambling, but now this is the first reveal, okay? Now this is a fact, this is…I’m not making this up, and I wonder how this is possible…

Lappin: A Chip Race exclusive.

Laak: And…maybe it’s some Freudian, weird, dark thing, but I don’t look at it, I don’t want to look at it, I have no urge to look at it, I know it would be relatively easy to look at it. I am…I collect the data and then I don’t analyze it.

In other podcast news, Limon was a guest on the Part Time Poker podcast the other day, He’s always worth a listen no matter where he shows up. You can turn it off after he’s gone.

Session 3 Episode 3

It it’s Tuesday it must be PokerTime! Well, after Tuesday, anyway…

New Game

The Tulalip Poker Pow Wow coming up in January has a couple of odd mixed game tournaments in it. The 4-game mix is PLO, PL Hold’em (PLH), PLO8, and PLH8 (Pot Limit Hold’em 8 or Better). That last one’s pretty strange, but the 2-game Mix is PLO8 and something called Pot Limit 5 Card Holdout. When my far more experienced poker traveling companion David Long and I were out in Pendleton the other week, I asked him if he’d ever heard of such a thing. Was it some oddball term for Big O? I mean, there’s five cards. He said he hadn’t heard of it, but having designed games of various sorts over the years, I was curious what it was.

It’s something being promoted by Omega Gaming USA, apparently. There’s a brief Reddit thread about it, but a more detailed description in the State of Washington Gambling Commission‘s letter of approval to Omega (which is addressed to Marysville, home of Tulalip Casino).

The game plays out like this:

  1. Small and big blinds are put out, as in Hold’em.
  2. Each player gets five cards.
  3. There is a round of betting (pot limit, starting to the left of the big blind).
  4. Players discard up to four of the cards in their hand, starting to the left of the button. All of the cards remaining in the player’s hand must play.
  5. If more than one player remains, the dealer burns a card and turns over two cards for a flop.
  6. Remaining players bet, call, or fold.
  7. If more than one player remains, the dealer burns another card and turns over two cards for the river.
  8. Remaining players bet, call, or fold.
  9. If more than one players remains, there is a showdown.

The twist to this game is that your five-card hand must include all of the cards you keep, plus enough of the four cards on the board to equal five. If you keep one card, you are playing all four cards from the board. If you don’t discard anything, you don’t get to use any of the community cards. If you discard two, you use the three in your hand and two from the board.

Running some sample hands for a couple of hours, it felt like the game had aspects of draw and stud games, as well as Omaha. I’m not likely to get a chance to play thr tournament since it’s midweek—and I’m not about to give away the strategic insights we came up with (except that players keeping four cards are very likely to make their flush)—but I am going to keep a look out for any chance to play it.

This Week In Portland Poker

Final Table announced a double guarantee for their Friday morning (11am) tournament just after I posted this week’s Planner. The $10K GTD for Friday night is also confirmed. Saturday at noon is a big $30K GTD at Portland Meadows!

UPDATE: Sally Jean at Room 52 says on Facebook they will be open Thanksgiving night from 8pm until 2pm for 0.50/1, $200 max! See their post for availability.

UPDATEDER: Also too late to make the original post (guys, you know I usually write these by Tuesday night, right?) Heath Bloodgood announced a $50K GTD tournament ($160 buyin with 1 live rebuy, $80 addon) at noon on 2 December. Pre-reg starts Monday.

I haven’t seen any announcements for specials on the day after Thanksgiving (there should be a $10K GTD at Final Table at 7pm, as usual), but Saturday at noon is a big $30K GTD at Portland Meadows! See you there if I’m not in some turkey-induced coma.

Only a Day Away

There’s a flurry of games over the next three weeks but a big gap in poker series activity (nearby, but there’s always Prague) starting in mid-December. So get your money in now!

  • It’s the last weekend of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV in Las Vegas. Friday and Saturday have $340 flights for a $100K GTD tournament (finishing on Sunday), and there are some smaller events, including a $7K GTD Omaha Hi-Low tournament at 2pm Friday. The Venetian December Extravaganza starts 4 December; its centerpiece is the $500K GTD Card Player Poker Tour DoubleStack ($3,500 entry) on 8 December.
  • The WPTDeepstack Championship starts Friday at Thunder Valley. It opens with a $560 $100K GTD and closes with the $2,500 buyin $1M GTD championship next weekend.
  • Friday is the start of the WPT Five Diamond at Bellagio in Las Vegas. There are more than two weeks of tournaments (culminating in the $10,400 buyin Main Event) with a number of them at the $1,100 level. The first is just $560! Saturday features the first of two shot clock tournaments, there’s a Seniors game and PLO on Monday, and $1,620 NLHE 6-Max on Tuesday. Why do I have a job?
  • The last Sunday in November is a Deepstack tournament at Muckleshoot Casino. $300 buyin for 25K in chips, starting at noon. It’s a qualifier for their Tournament of Champions (17 December): free entry to the TOC for the winner, $250 for anyone who qualified by playing 5 TOC qualifying events and scored enough points, and remaining spots go for $400. Now they tell me.
  • The Last Sunday of the Month tournament at Tulalip is an $820 buyin with a $75K GTD. 11am on 26 November. There’s a satellite ($90 buyin) on Saturday at 3pm.
  • Sunday is the opening event of a smaller Las Vegas series, the Aria Fall Poker Classic, which kicks off with a $470 buyin PLO tournament. The other events in the week-long series are NLHE and they’re a mix of $400 and $240 buyins.
  • The Wynn Signature Weekend starts next Wednesday with a $25K GTD Seniors tournament, followed by three days of entry into a $600 $250K GTD tournament (Thursday through Saturday, with Day 2 on Sunday) and a $2.5K Survivor game on Sunday at noon for the save ($300 entry).
  • Back in Missouri, it’s HPT St. Charles, with a $100K GTD event starting next Thursday (three entry days), a $500 entry Seniors Championship the next week (7 December, Pearl Harbor Day), and the $2,500 entry HPT Championship Open starting 8 December. Last year’s Championship (held at Thunder Valley) had a $500K GTD prize pool of more than $900K. This year there’s no guarantee. One-way flight that Friday to St. Louis International (just a few miles from the casino) is about $220.
  • The last West Coast WSOP Circuit stop is at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. It gets under way on 1 December with a NLHE Bounty Ring event, then there’s a $300K GTD $365-entry Ring tournament the first weekend of December. The Main Event ($1,675) starts 9 December.
  • The Ontario Poker Room Veterans Fundraiser is 2 December and the Medford Poker Room Holiday Tournament is 8 December (see above).

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 15 November 2017

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Wildhorse Fall Poker Wrap Up

Results for all of the events at Wildhorse from last week have been posted, and they’re duplicated here. Entries were down for most events, despite the extension of the time for entry and re-entry. I don’t know what to make of that, in particular, though the series was up against two West Coast WSOPC events (Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas), a Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza, and the LA Poker Open overlapping either the entire series or one of the weekends.

Event2016 Entries2017 Entries2016 First Prize2017 First Prize2016 Prize Pool2017 Prize Pool2017 Winner
#1 $175 No Limit Hold'em - Fri612558$18,247$16,631$91,800$82,515Ryan Christopherson, Colfax, WA
#2 $230 No Limit Hold'em - Sat522503$20,102 $19,452$104,400$98,270James Morris, Olympia, WA
#3 $230 No Limit Hold'em Shootout - Sun240192$9,940 $7,710$48,600$39,980Michael Foti, Tigard, OR
#4 $230 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - Mon228196$10,425 $9,911$46,320$40,240Cornelio McLean, Tacoma, WA
#5 $230 HORSE - Tue (2016)
#5 $230 Big O - Tue (2017)		122132$6,285$6,519$26,677$28,080Robert Mitchell, Salt Lake City, UT
#6 $125 No Limit Hold'em Turbo - Tue161190$4,995$4,762$ 16,465$19,050Jose Gomez, Grandview, WA
#7 $230 No LImit Hold'em Seniors - Wed324290$13,845 $13,625$64,800$58,100David Mallet, Point Roberts, WA
#8 $1,100 No Limit Hold'em High Roller - Thu8861$21,000$15,646$88,000$57,950Carl Oman, Vancouver, WA
#9 $230 No Limit Hold'em - Thu318326$13,696$13,975$63,600$64,940Mel Hoelzle, Boise, ID
#10 $340 No Limit Hold'em - Fri474441$29,443$27,778$142,200$130,685Angel Iniquez, Richland, WA
#11 $550 No Limit Hold'em Main Event - Sat431401$45,402 $44,943$214,725$200,475Michael York, Twin Falls, ID
#12 $175 No Limit Hold'em Turbo - Sat119107$4,651$4,225$17,957$16,247Randall Palazzo, West Linn, OR

As mentioned last week, the 2018 Spring Poker Round Up dates are set for 5—15 April.

My Time Is Coming

After busting out of the Wildhorse Big O tournament last Tuesday, I played one of the final Ignition Golden Spade Poker Open events, the $15K NLHE 6-Max, making it about half-way through the field of 400, then jumped into their  nightly $8K NLHE (338/815), a $2,500 NLHE Turbo (130/229), and a $3K NLHE 6-Max (31/48) before finally just playing some online 4/8 Omaha Hi-Lo and making a whopping $10 profit. Woohoo!

I started off Wednesday morning with an online $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo, and when I didn’t get very far, I went down to the satellite room and played two $43 NLHE Satellites, busting in the first round on bullet 1 and pulling out a tricky comeback on the second. I was short-stacked through most of the game, then sucked out with QX JX against AX KX which managed to keep me alive into three-handed play, then I put a couple of brutal hits on the gentleman who was the big stack for almost the entire game and I ended up with two $100 vouchers for my entry into Event #7 NLHE Seniors.

I wish I could say more about how the Seniors tournament went. I had a good start, I know that much, with about three times the starting stack three hours into the game, with about half the field remaining. I spent a good portion of the first part of the game sitting next to Thomas Schultheis, who was the series champion a few years back, and who’s medium-distantly-related to me by marriage.

I went through something like six table changes during the course of the game—including ending back at the same seat in the middle of the room twice—and lost a third of my stack in a blind on blind hand to 2X 4X just before dinner. We were in the money just before the 9pm (after a noon start and a 1-hour dinner break.

Went for two more hours, getting close to the final table when I shoved AX KX and got called by 9X 9X. The flop of JX JX QX gave me the dreaded too many outs, and I just missed the unofficial final table and a sparkly hat. The big stack in the picture above belonged to Hamid Siddiqui, who went out just before I did, after suffering some major losses following the two-table redraw.

My High Roller experience the next day was short and ugly. I lost some chips early on, battled my way back to near starting stack, then picked up A♦ 2♦ in the big blind and called a raise along with three others. The flop was K♦ 6X 4♦ and I called a bet, then an even bigger bet on the 2♣ turn (I was heads-up with the original raiser by this point). When the 2♠ came on the river, I stupidly though I was good with the trips, but my opponent had 6X 6X in his hand and I was out after just ninety minutes. Congrats to my poker buddy Steve Myers for cashing 6th place, after arriving late because of a terrible wreck on I84 on the way out.

I went on a little bit of a rampage (not the kind where you make money) after the High Roller bustout: dropped a buyin at 0.1/0.25 PLO on Ignition, Got to 30/130 in a $2,500 NLHE,  then 45/84 in a 4K NLHE 6-Max. Went downstairs and bought into the 10/20 Omaha Hi-Lo game, was almost felted, got quads that brought me almost even, then ran it back down. And that was all mostly before dinner.

After dinner, I went back to the room and bricked 6 tournaments, including the Thousandaire Maker.

My poker travel partner, David Long, and I decided to head back to Portland Friday morning —we both had stuff crop up at home. I played some more online cash PLO, with mixed results, busted the Thousandaire Maker and a $4K NLHE Turbo, then min-cashed a 77-player $500 PLO8 Turbo. Saturday I played (and busted) three online tournaments, and lost a buyin at 0.1/0.25 NLHE Zone. Sunday, I was out of the Thousandaire Maker in two hands (he did have an ace; JX JX no good!) and a $5K NLHE, then there weren’t enough people signed up for the Thousandaire Maker to get it started, and I played a 6-Max (briefly) before doubling my buyin at cash PLO. That is all.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Kevin MacPhee was over in Rozvadov last week, defending the title in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker Europe; he just missed making the final table after Maria Ho drew out to a king-high straight to crack his kings. The other big cashes for the week were down in Las Vegas at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV, where Darren Rabinowitz got 3rd place in the $200K GTD NLHE and Marco Garcia grabbed 2nd in a $100K GTD NLHE.

Pendleton results hadn’t posted to Hendon Mob by Sunday when the leaderboards are run; hopefully they’ll be there by next week!

New Session

Every Tuesday!

 This Week In Portland Poker

Regular schedules.

Only a Day Away

Series are starting to thin out a bit before the holidays.

  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV weekend event is a $125K GTD tournament with a $250 buyin. Each of the three entry flights (Thursday—Saturday at noon) plays down to 5% of the field (10% of the field is paid, with $400—$800 paid to the players who don’t go through to Day 2). Monday and Tuesday are entry days for a $400 buyin with $100K GTD.
  •  The LA Poker Open Main Event ($1,100 buyin, $500K GTD) has entry flights Thursday—Saturday (1px, 1pm, and noon, respectively). It wraps up on Sunday.
  • The WSOPC Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood has a 6-Max ($365 buyin) tomorrow at noon, with flights to the $1,675 Main Event ($1M GTD) on Friday and Saturday,
  • The Lucky Chances 19th Annual Gold Rush finishes up this weekend with their $100K GTD to first place tournament ($1,080 buyin) at 9am on Saturday.
  • The Stones $100K Quantum has started. There are entry flights at 10am Thursday through Saturday, with a 6pm flight on Thursday.
    Stones is also running a $1K buyin Single Table Sit & Go on 22 November. First come, first served.
  • The last two Sundays in November mean the Big Bounty and Deepstack tournaments at Muckleshoot Casino. Both games start at noon on their respective weeks.
  • The Last Sunday of the Month tournament at Tulalip is an $820 buyin with a $75K GTD. 11am on 26 November.
  • The WPTDeepstack Championship starts the day after Thanksgiving at Thunder Valley. It opens with a $560 $100K GTD and closes with the $2,500 buyin $1M GTD championship at the beginning of December.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 8 November 2017

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On the Cover of the WSOP

Max Young continues to steamroll his way to the top of the World Series of Poker Circuita win in  standings with Lake Tahoe. Fresh on the heels of a $120+K win at Parx Casino in Philadelphia (you can read about that here), the Lake Tahoe win is Young’s largest to date, and puts him over half a million dollars in recorded tournament earnings, with half of that in just the last three months.

Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up Results

Structures for the events at Wildhorse Casino were never posted online, but they’re getting the results from the series online quickly, with about a 1-day lag. If you’re here in the poker room you can check out the posters on the wall, but it’s handy to have right there at your virtual fingers.

Attendance numbers were down a bit in the first four events, with 20% and 15% drops for the Shootout on Sunday and Monday’s Omaha Hi-Lo (exacerbated perhaps by the closure of Interstate 84 between Pendleton and La Grande due to snow and a series of crashes Monday morning). No excuse for the Shootout, though.

The Big O tournament on Tuesday pulled in 132 entries in its debut. That’s ten more players than the HORSE tournament that was in the Tuesday spot last year.

My Time Is Coming

Thursday was the first day of my little poker vacation. I did a couple of errands, then late-regged a small 6-Max and did rather well. Lost eight tournaments in a row, busted two satellites I’d won tickets for, lost a couple of PLO cash sessions and that was just before the weekend started.

Between getting ready for the trip to Pendleton, doing stuff around the house and visiting with some relatives on Sunday evening, I played six PLO and NLHE Zoom cash sessions (profiting in five), min-cashed a small PLO Turbo tournament and played a $10K guarantee and a Thousandaire Maker.

photo via KATU.com

Monday was the drive out to Wildhorse through rain in the fire-scorched Gorge, past a jackknifed house in Hood River right up to where they had I84 closed. Then I jumped into the Omaha Hi-Lo tournament, never getting much above starting stack and lasting only three hours. Played a little PLO online, then it was back down to the tourney area for the NLHE High Roller Super Satellite. The Monday night satty got 37 entries, paying out seven $1K tournament vouchers (the full cost of the High Roller is $1,100, which means you pay fees on both the satellite and the actual entry). I’m not complaining about that though, because after a slow start, I was hitting sets left and right (without getting any large hands early on), then some well-timed pocket aces came through and I ended up eliminating the bubble player.

 

Tuesday’s Big O tournament went bad at first, then I went on a bit of a rush in the second and third levels, and I had well over twice the starting stack as we closed in on the break. Joe Brandenburg was two seats to my right and had a couple of hands go bad, including one where I turned a better full house. He was all in on the last hand before break, with me and another couple players contributing to his resurgence, then after the break he broke my big stack in two big hands. I made a bit of a rally, but was out after a couple more rounds.

The 2018 Spring Poker Round Up dates have been announced: 5—15 April. Why is it always tax season or property tax season? What am I? Made of money?

Whatever It Is Cannot Come Soon Enough

https://twitter.com/djnorcal/status/926323513379643393

In case you’re unaware of Infinite Stacks, I suggest you take a look at this post from a couple of years ago.

Big Buyin at Tulalip

November’s Last Sunday of the Month tournament at Tulalip Casino is a $75K GTD $820 (including dealer appreciation) buyin with 30-minute levels. That’s at 11am on 26 November, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

There are satellites to the LSOM running at 3pm on each of the Saturdays in November, with $90 buyins.

https://twitter.com/tulalippoker/status/926871693632647168

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Louis Schaffer from Portland hasn’t had Max Young-brand success the past couple of months, but it’s been pretty good. His first recorded tournament score was in September, when he made the final table of the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Classic Main Event, and he was back at the final table of a series Main Event at the end of October placing 6th of 326 at WPTDeepstacks San Diego, with a final table that included (and was won by) Upeshka da Silva.

The WSOPC Lake Tahoe stop wasn’t just good got Max Young. Grant Denison of 2 Poker Guys came in 3rd in the Monster Stack event, as well (I’d include the other poker guy, Jonathan Levy—who was right behind Grant, in 4th place—but Jonathan’s Hendon Mob profile lists him a being from “Brooklynn, NY” (sic), and this leaderboard specifically says “Pacific Northwest” on it.

New Session

Speaking of Grant and Jonathan…there’s new Poker Time. Believe me, they are being entreated to do a PLO session.

 This Week In Portland Poker

Does Portland Poker exist if I’m not there? Discuss.

Seriously, though, there’s a double guarantee at Final Table on Wednesday morning at 11am. Double what? The usual 11am guarantee is $1,200.

Only a Day Away

  • Mid-States Poker Tour Denver Poker Open  Main Event, with an $1,100 buyin and $200K GTD has its first flight on Thursday at noon, with flights on Friday and Saturday at the same time. It’s a two-day tournament wrapping up on Sunday.
  • At the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV this weekend, there’s a $600 buyin $150K GTD tournament starting Saturday at noon, with a second flight Sunday. Next week is a $400K GTD three-day tournament with flights on Tuesday and Wednesday ($1,600 entry).
  •  The LA Poker Open has a $570 buyin Big O game Thursday, with mixed Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo on Tuesday for the same price. Their Main Event ($1,100 buyin) starts next Thursday; there are entry flights at 1pm through next Saturday.
  • Tomorrow at Planet Hollywood is the WSOPC Las Vegas opener, a $365 Ring event with six entry flights (noon and 4pm, Thursday—Saturday) and $200 GTD. The Main Event ($1,675) has $1M GTD and starts 17 November (next Friday).
  • The Lucky Chances 19th Annual Gold Rush in Colma (south of San Francisco) starts Monday and features six events with 1st-place guarantees ranging from $10K to $100K for the Main Event ($1,080 buyin, starts 18 November).
  • The Stones $100K Quantum starts next Tuesday. There are three days (five flights total) with $120 entry (gets you 10K in chips). 10% of the players from those flights advance to Day 2 (19 November). Friday and Saturday of next weekend (17 & 18 November) have 10am flights for $240 (20K in chips), with 20% of the field advancing. You can also direct-register on Day 2 for $900 and 100K in chips.You get $250 for qualifying for Day 2, and $900 for each additional qualification (with the biggest stack going forward).
    Stones is also running a $1K buyin Single Table Sit & Go on 22 November. First come, first served.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 1 (or 2) November 2017

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Howdy, poker peeps! It’s the last Planner before the start of the biggest poker series of the year in the Pacific Northwest, the Wildhorse Casino Fall Poker Round Up, which starts tonight! I was Planning (see what I did there?) to be there for the entire series, but some last-minute changes to schedules mean I’m going to miss the first weekend and, but save a seat for me in Monday’s Omaha Hi-Lo!

Lots of stuff I could cover today, but I’m already a day late getting this done, and I don’t want to miss anything (though I invariably will), so let’s get to it.

My Time Is Coming: Back From Hiatus?

Back before I went off to work at the WSOP in 2016, I was doing a series called My Time Is Coming, running down the events I was playing each week, but it all got sidetracked by seven weeks of reporting in Vegas and a more-than-full-time job when I got back (plus I can barely keep up on the Planner each week).

In case you hadn’t seen them, I wrote a couple of non-Planner pieces over the past month, a walk-through of the only Hyper Turbo event I’ve ever played, and some hand histories from a table in a Thousandaire Maker where I was seated with poker raconteur Carlos Welch.

My schedule over the past few months has been mostly online, what with trips to the beach (although one was for the Chinook Winds Main Event) and family activities eating into my already-reduced playing schedule. Still, that’s averaged about 10 tournaments a week, focusing on the nightly Ignition Casino Thousandaire Makers (42 of those alone). As well as I’ve been doing online, the lack of live play means I haven’t cashed live since May, and I’m getting a little antsy, especially since I’ve never cashed a tournament at Wildhorse. And I’m going to be there for a week…

Run It Twice

Over on the NW Poker group on Facebook, Josh Stellmon posted a link to the latest Willamette Week article on fight between Oregon Lottery and Portland Meadows, which basically says that there’s not going to be an immediate hammer coming down on Meadows. This was Josh’s analysis:

On its surface this might look like every other article about the ongoing Meadows/Oregon Lotto saga, but this might be the most interesting one yet if you read between the lines (doesn’t take much). In agreeing to the declaratory order process, Meadows and Oregon Lottery are teeing up the issue for judicial review by the Oregon Court of Appeals, so for better or for worse, looks like we might get some clarity. If the news is eventually bad, the good news is the Court of Appeals process could take a while, and it looks like Oregon Lottery agreed to keep the license open until they get a judicial ruling. Looks like the only issues are whether taking a door fee constitutes “house money,” and whether handling the chips constitutes a “house bank.” Obviously significant issues, as the model doesn’t make any sense if a court finds against Meadows on either issue.

And as a number of people noticed, it doesn’t help WW’s credibility to run a clearly-marked photo of a Final Table table in a story about Meadows. Nice job, folks! If you want more to sneer about when discussing WW, head over to the Northwest Labor Press, which rakes writer Nigel Jacquiss over some unrelated coals (though I suspect they’d take a dim view of Portland poker rooms and volunteer dealers).

The Crazy Session

Episode Six. Isn’t that Return of the Jedi?

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Benjamin Martin from Bothell grabbed 2nd place in the Venetian October Weekend Extravaganza $300 Rebuy a couple weeks ago, putting him on the Hendon Mob database for the first time with a good score.

Big names making big money since last week’s report include Dylan Linde (11th in the Main Event at the WSOPC Chicago); and Tyler Patterson and Matt Affleck at the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in Florida, taking 14th and 25th, respectively.

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the first week of the months and Friday is the First Friday, which means it should be a $20K GTD (a text message on Thursday says $15K GTD this month) at Final Table. 7pm, $15 door, $80 buyin with $80 live rebuy, and $40 addon.

If shootouts are your thing, Micah Bell reports that there are “$1/2/5 Omaha mix game on Saturdays @ The Game starting around 7pm. 4 card Hi and 5 card Hi/Lo (Big O)”. November is Player Appreciation Month, so that’s cool.

Now that Rialto’s back in operation, there are games there seven days a week, text or call 503-227-8147.

Wildhorse Schedule

All eyes will be on the East! I’m not absolutely sure there will be a Planner next week, but I’ll try to get it done.

Only a Day Away

  • The World Series of Poker Circuit Lake Tahoe Main Event starts tomorrow at Harvey’s. $1,675 entry with flights at 11am Friday and Saturday.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour Denver Poker Open  $100K GTD kickoff event kicks starts today with $360 entry flights through Saturday.
  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV is bursting with events for the next few weeks, including a $200K GTD this weekend ($1,100 entry) and a $300 Survivor on Friday night (pays $2,500 to 10% of the field, with $12K GTD).
  •  The LA Poker Open starts Friday. Next week features PLO (Tuesday at 5pm, $350), a NLHE 6-Max at noon on Wednesday with PLO8 at 5pm (both $350). Thursday is a $570 Big O game!
  • Next Thursday at Planet Hollywood is the WSOPC Las Vegas opener, a $365 Ring event with six entry flights (noon and 4pm, Thursday—Saturday) and $200 GTD. The Main Event ($1,675) has $1M GTD and starts 17 November.
  • The Lucky Chances 19th Annual Gold Rush in Colma (south of San Francisco) starts 12 November and features six events with 1st-place guarantees ranging from $10K to $100K for the Main Event ($1,080 buyin, starts 18 November).

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

Carloose On the Loose

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Everyone who reads this blog (both of you) knows that I’m a fan of the Ignition Casino Thousandaire Maker tournaments. I had the opportunity the other day to play most of my time in the tournament along with poker celebrity and renowned nit Carlos Welch. Despite the anonymous play on the tables at Ignition, Carlos posted the screen shot above so I knew his player number in the game (which is assigned in the order of sign-up). I only lasted 81 hands total, but because I was at the same table as Carlos and Ignition’s hand histories (released 24 hours after the tournament ends) include folded hands, you can get a small peek at the mind of the master at work.

I started the tournament as Player 9, and we were six-handed for the first eight hands of the tournament as other players joined up. By the time Carlos joined our table on hand 13 (as the result of table balancing when a third table was created), we’d been up to nine players, but were back down to six. Carlos (Player 13) came in with almost a full starting stack of 2,500; I’d already been up to 2,800, then lost 900 on a draw to Broadway and the second nut flush (neither of which came in) in the previous hand.

Carlos folded 3♠ 2♦ to a raise, on the button his first hand at the table. On his small blind, we were eight-handed and UTG (full stack and on his third hand) raised with 5♣ 7♣. The button called with 5♦ A♦, Carlos folded K♠ 9♦ and the board ran out with UTG betting every street and shoving on the river with three cards to a flush and Broadway on the board. The button called and they chopped 60 chips.

Four hands later, Carlos was HJ with J♥ Q♣ and a stack of 2,400. There were seven players and UTG1 raised 8♥ 7♠, with Carlos colding and SB calling with K♦ T♦. The flop was Q♦ 7♦ K♣, about as good as SB could ask for. He check-called an 8bb c-bet. The 7♣ on the turn flipped the script, but SB check-called a 12bb bet, leaving him about 40bb. The river 8♣ completed UTG1’s full house but SB couldn’t get away from the top pair and called off another 24bb.

At this point, Carlos’s fortunes and mine hadn’t changed much. He had 60bb (2,400) and I was down to a little under 45bb.

Another three hands and I have 2♣ 2♥ in CO. Carlos is BB with K♣ Q♥. UTG1 raised A♦ K♦ to 140, I set-mined, and both blinds came along (K♠ 3♥ for SB). The flop was J♥ 2♠ 9♥ and with position I bet 250 after three checks. The 420 chips I won made a nice boost.

The next hand, Carlos had 5♦ 5♥ in SB. UTG opened to 140, getting a call from 7♣ 4♣ (Player 17 on the button, with almost 72bb at the new 30/60 level). Carlos folded his pair. The flop came 8♥ 2♠ 4♠ and UTG bet 210 on the overpair, getting a call. UTG (Player 14) continued for another 410 on the 6♦ turn, then check-snap-called all in on the T♥ river. The two players essentially swapped chip counts.

Carlos had been at the table for about 25 minutes and we were in essentially in the same boat when he had his first big break. Blinds were 40/80, I had 1,930 and Carlos was down to 2,140. There were a couple stacks at the table in the 5K range, but everyone else was between 1,700 and 2,500. Carlos min-raised with K♣ K♦ UTG and got called by BB with T♦ 9♥. BB donk-bet 360 on the 4♥ J♥ 9♠ flop. Carlos just called. The turn was 7♥ and BB lead all-in for a bit more than Carlos’s stack. Carlos snapped and the river A♣ changed nothing, doubling up Carlos.

Forty minutes in, action folded to SB. He limped in with 8♠ 9♣ and Carlos raised to 5x with Q♠ K♦. SB folded. The next hand, I raised Q♦ Q♠ 3x and Carlos folded 9♠ 2♠ from SB. BB folded 2♠ K♦.

A couple hands later at 50/100, UTG1 raised to more than 11bb (more than half his stack) with A♥ K♠. Carlos had 6♦ 6♠ and was next to act. He folded. Nitty. My 7♥ 3♥ didn’t look so good; I folded.

Carlos had the Mutant Jack (suited ace-jack: A♠ J♠) and raised to 300 to take the hand. On the 60th hand I was at the table, he folded 8♥ A♦ preflop—actually the best hand of the seven players at the table. I lost my BB to a SB raise with 5♥ K♦ (I had 2♦ 5♦ and only 18bb).

On the next hand (with seven players at the table), Carlos opened to 300 from UTG with A♣ T♣. BB called with K♣ 9♣. BB bet 430 on the 2♣ 4♥ 9♥ flop and Carlos folded. (I had Q♠ 5♠ on the button, thanks for asking.) Carlos was still just over the 4,000 mark; I was down to 1,635.

I raised A♥ Q♥ from UTG1 a few hands later, nobody called the 300, including Carlos on the button with the only other ace: 6♠ A♦. UTG1 raised to 250 on the next hand with A♠ T♥ and Carlos gave up his 2♥ 2♠ in CO.

Carlos raised T♥ J♣ UTG a few hands later, getting past K♠ 7♠, A♣ 3♣, and K♥ 7♥ in SB.

A limp from a middle position player with 9♦ T♣ and SB with 6♠ T♠ led to a small pot with Carlos involved from BB holding 8♥ K♣. The flop of 6♣ 6♦ Q♣ elicited a pot-sized bet from SB, with Carlos and the original raiser folding. Carlos folded his 9♠ K♥ in the SB on the next hand, facing a raise from a short stack with Q♣ K♣. Next to act after the raise, I folded 3♣ A♠.

Carlos took a bit of a hit on the button the next hand with J♣ 9♥. HJ raised with J♠ Q♣ and Carlos called 230; it was heads up to the flop of K♣ 3♠ T♥. The raiser check-raised Carlos, who put in 300 on his gut shot, but he folded to the all in bet for more than half his stack.

He wasn’t deterred, however, raising 2♦ 4♦ from CO on the next hand. Was it a spite raise? I don’t know, but it did work.

I jammed Q♥ 8♥ all in from BB against a call from the shorter stack in SB (he had Q♠ 3♦ and folded). On hand 80, HJ raised 9♦ 9♣. Carlos folded the Portland Nuts (Q♠ T♣). On the button!

My time with Carlos ended on the next hand, after a couple of hours of playing with him. I shoved 11bb with Q♥ K♠ UTG1 and SB had Q♣ A♦. Carlos folded 3♦ 5♣ in CO, which would have made two pair on the flop: T♦ 3♠ 5♦ 7♠ J♥. But he made the $1K payout anyway. Me? I had to wait for another day.

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 25 October 2017

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Portland Meadows Freezeout Series Wrapup

Because of some conflicts in my schedule, I was only able to make a couple of these events (#4 and #8 and no cash in either), but it seemed as if it was a successful series, everything crushed the guarantees (more than double in the $300 Main Event and nearly triple in the Big O). After busting the bounty game, I was able to get into the Big O shootout for an hour and come out even for the night, despite being down to 3bb at one point). Never give up! Never surrender! (All but the last photo courtesy Brian Sarchi and the Facebook NW Poker group).

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2018 Tulalip Annual Poker Pow Wow

The Pow Wow is back bigly in January (6—21) with sixteen days of events, including a 2-game mix (PLO8 and Something called Pot Limit 5 Card Holdout) and a 4-game mix (PLO, PL Hold’em, PLO8, and PL Hold’em 8 or Better —whaaaaa?), as well a a $500 buyin $100K GTD Main Event).

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Two big cashes from across the Atlantic this week, following on the heels of Liz Tedder’s run in WPT Deepstacks events in Morocco and Holland. Richard Pittman from Olympia got his first big recorded score at a World Series of Poker International Circuit side event in Rozvadov in the Czech Republic. He took 2nd place in the King’s Big Stack, a €100K ($117.5K) GTD with just a â‚¬140 buyin. Pittman was the only US player (out of 95 who made the money) to cash in the event.

Brandon Cantu was also in Rozvadov (WSOP Europe started Thursday, just after the Circuit series), and he made it to 14th place in the €1M GTD Circuit Main Event.

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s always like this.

Only a Day Away

  • You have until Saturday (two flights each day) to get into the $500K GTD Main Event at the Liz Flynt Fall Poker Classic in Gardena’s Hustler Casino, with $100K guaranteed to first place. Buyin is $325. There’s a PLO tournament on Halloween ($235 buyin) and a Bounty Survivor tournament the next day: $235 buyin with $1K for 10% of entrants and $100 bounties.
  • WPTDeepstacks San Diego, at the Ocean’s 11 Casino starts its $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin) tomorrow, with entry flights on Friday and Saturday, as well.
  • One of the closest stops the WSOPC makes is in Lake Tahoe, and that’s coming up a week from tomorrow.
  • The World Series of Poker Circuit Lake Tahoe starts tomorrow at Harvey’s. There’s a PLO event at 4pm Thursday, 6-Max on Monday, and the $1,675 Main Event begins next Friday. Tahoe is generally one of the smaller Circuit stops, perfect for anyone who’s hunting for a Ring.
  • Tulalip Casino’s Last Sunday of the Month tournament is Sunday at 11am. It’s $330 with $5K added to the prize pool.
  • The Muckleshoot 5th Sunday tournament is at noon Sunday. It’s a $400 buyin with $3K added.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour Denver Poker Open gets satellites going on the day before Halloween and a $100K GTD event kicks things off next Thursday.
  • Monday is also the start of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV, which runs though Thanksgiving weekend. It features seven events with guarantees in the range of $100K to $400K, as well as PLO, PLO8, Survivor and PLO Bounty tournaments.
  • The Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up has $40K added to the prize pool, starts next Thursday, and runs runs 11 days.

  •  The LA Poker Open has 17 days of play at the Commerce Casino starting a week from Friday.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 18 October 2017

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Tedder On Tour

Elizabeth Tedder Wants Her Friends to Experience the WPTDeepStacks Europe WPTDeepStacks WPTDeepStacks Netherlands Season 2017-2018 1B 100/500/1,000

After making the final table in Morocco, Liz Tedder popped up to southern Holland via Brussels to play in the WPTDeepstacks Holland. She made Day 2 but not the money, though she did get a little bit of press on WPT.com for her efforts. She’s home now (after a stopover in Iceland), despite my entreaty to extend the run.

He’s a Reporta and a Playa

Hopefully, I’m not blowing his cover, but one of the guys I worked with during my dalliance with poker reporting last year just moved to town a couple of weeks ago. Folks who’ve played World Series of Poker events may recognize Sam Cosby, and you’re likely to see him at the tables in-between trips to exotic locales like South America, Europe, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. Monday, he even came to the home game I started out at (we both busted before the money).

 

Portland Meadows Freezeout Series

The series starts tomorrow, with a 6-Max tournament at noon, and a Big O tournament at 7pm. All eight tournaments are true freezeouts, with no re-entry, no rebuy, and no addon. I can hardly wait.

The Crazy Session Continues

Episode 4 of the second session of Poker Time is out. I’m not sure if this is the one with Jar Jar Binks.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Just a couple of big cashes from established PNW players this week. Tyler Patterson notched 7th place at the Wynn Fall Classic Championship, and Matt Affleck took the first place prize.

This Week In Portland Poker

See the Portland Meadows Freezeout Series info above.

Only a Day Away

  • The Bicycle Casino /CardPlayer Poker Tour Big Poker Oktober is in its final days, The big games and mix games are over, but there are a couple of $25Ks and a $50K (and a Survivor) over the next few days.
  • WSOPC Chicago at Horseshoe Hammond Main Event ($1,675 entry with $1M GTD) starts Friday, with a second entry day on Saturday. You can actually still get a non-stop, one-way ticket for Friday as low as $240.
  • Run It Up Reno, at the Peppermill, has been running since Monday. It goes through the weekend and features Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo 6-Max ($125) on Friday, a $600 entry, $150K GTD NLHE Main Event with starts on Friday and Saturday, $125 entryPLO/Big O with $5K GTD on Saturday, and lots more. If you want to get down there Thursday, start driving or you can take a flight for about $240. That’s the downside of last-minute travel shopping. Their game placards look very nice.

  • Thunder Valley Resort and Casino hosts the Ante Up NorCal Classic this week. There’s a $150K GTD Main Event with entry days on Saturday and Sunday, You can drive there in less than 10 hours if you don’t stop to pee (but you’d miss the Freezeout Series at Portland Meadows).
  • There’s another Venetian Weekend Extravaganza running through Sunday. The Adobe MAX conference is in the Venetian Conference Center, so if you’re in the graphics or document industry, maybe you can get your poker junket paid for…otherwise, at least a couple hundred dollars each way. The DSE IV gets going just a week later. The big event isa $400K GTD with a $1,600 entry (running during the week of the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up, naturally.
  • There’s a $500K GTD Main Event at the Liz Flynt Fall Poker Class in Gardena’s Hustler Casino, with $100K guaranteed to first place, but the series starts off with a $325 entry $100K GTD on Saturday and a $50K GTD ($300 buyin) on Sunday. The Main Event flights start Tuesday and run through Saturday; buyin is $325. It’ll be, let’s say—interesting—to see what the fallout is from the nearby Gardens Casino messing with their schedule last month when they fell short of a large guarantee. Direct one-way flights to LAX on Monday are still available for less than $100.
  • The Talking Stick Resort’s Arena Poker Room has its 2017 Arena Fall Classic this weekend. Three events with $200, $300, and $300 buyins and a total expected prize pool of about $120K.
  • WPTDeepstacks San Diego, at the Ocean’s 11 Casino is opening with the $75K GTD Haig Kelegian King of Clubs Classic ($300 with addon) and ending with a $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100).
  • One of the closest stops the WSOPC makes is in Lake Tahoe, and that’s coming up a week from tomorrow.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour Denver Poker Open gets satellites going on the day before Halloween (a week from Monday) and a $100K GTD event kicks things off that Thursday.
  • The Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up has $40K added to the prize pool, starts 2 November, and runs runs 11 days.

  •  The LA Poker Open has 17 days of play at the Commerce Casino starting 3 November..

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

Hyper Drive

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I’ve played a lot of Turbo tournaments online over the years but I can’t remember ever actually sitting down into a Hyper (Turbo). I play fast enough, but the aggressive speed of the blind structures is far more subject to variance. A couple of weeks back, though, during a Wild Wednesday promotion on Ignition Casino, I jumped in and two-tabled their $12K GTD NLHE 50K Chips Hyper while I was playing my usual $5K GTD NLHE Thousandaire Maker.

Ignition’s Hyper games have 3-minute blind levels, meaning two or three hands at the most at each level; between three and four levels per circuit of the table.

Hand 2 Q♠ Q♣ SB 40/80 49,920
It’s already level 2! UTG raises A♦ 3♦ to 400 and UTG2 calls with 9♠ 9♥. I three-bet to 960 and both of the others call. We flop T♠ J♠ 9♣, I check, UTG2 checks, and UTG2 bets abut half-pot (1,640) on his set. I call. 8♥ turn is a great card for me. I check again, UTG2 bets 3,120 and I call. The river is 5♠, I bet 6,000 and he calls with the set. So I’m off to a pretty good start.

Hand 8 9♦ 9♥ UTG1 100/200 62,680
I’ve got about 9K more than any of the other players at the table, but nobody’s down below 40K yet, even though a couple of levels have gone by already. I open to 600, the big blind calls with 3♥ 2♥. The flop is A♦ J♦ Q♥ and I misclick, betting just 200 instead of my more typical half-pot. It must look fishy, because he calls. The turn is Q♦, and he check-folds to another bet of 800.

Hand 15 4♥ 4♣ BB 200/400/40 63,055
Another hand, another level! I’ve been bounced to a new table, though I’ve got the chip lead here, too. UTG2 has J♣ J♦ and opens to 1K. SB calls with T♥ 7♦ and I come along. The flop is 9♣ 3♦ 8♦. SB and I check, UTG2 bets 1,720, SB has an open-ended straight draw and calls. I dump the hand and they both check to the river after an ace hits the turn, with the jacks holding out.

Hand 24 A♥ 8♥ SB 500/1K/100 60,215
Blinds are moving up rapidly; I’ve gone from more than 300bb to 60bb in 15 minutes and I haven’t even really lost much in the way of chips. UTG3 opens Q♥ Q♦ to 3K, getting called by the button 7♦ A♣ and both of us in the blinds (BB has K♦ 5♥). The flop is 9♣ 4♠ 7♣ and UTG3 makes a bet of 9,900 getting folds from the rest of us.

Hand 32 5♠ 5♥ SB 1K/2K/200 54,515
UTG calls with 8♥ K♥, HJ raises to 6K K♣ Q♦, the button calls with A♣ 9♥, and I defend my low pair, followed by a call from the limper. I fold after a c-bet of 7,700 on the flop of K♠ A♠ 8♦ from the original raiser and a call from the button, then UTG jams his bottom two pair and wins the pot.

Hand 34 Q♣ J♦ CO 1K/2K/200 48,115
Wow. Playing two hands in the same level! HJ min-raises with T♣ 7♠ and I call. Both the small and big blinds (K♣ T♠ and [ks jd[, respectively) come along. It’s a Q♦ 9♣ 8♦ flop and HJ bets 8K for his open-ended draw. I just call, but both the blinds fold. The turn is 2♥. HJ checks this time, I overbet the pot with an all in, and HJ puts another 36K in with his draw. He misses with the 3♦ on the river, and I more than double.

Hand 39 T♦ K♠ BB 1.5K/3K/300 104,330
UTG1 raises to 9K with J♦ J♥, I defend, then check-fold to a 14K c-bet when the flop is 2♠ 2♥ 4♠.

Hand 40 9♣ T♣ SB 2K/4K/400 95,030
Action folds to me and I just call with a hand I’d usually raise with, particularly since BB has about a third of my stack. The flop is 4♦ 5♥ 7♦ and I check fold when BB jams the remaining 29K into the pot with 4♣ Q♦. He is ahead, but I wouldn’t be loving it if it was me.

Hand 46 K♥ A♠ UTG 2.5K/5K/500 88,330
I raise to 15K and everyone folds. I pick up more than 10K.

Hand 47 A♥ J♦ UTG 2.5K/5K/500 98,830
Everyone folds. Nobody has less than 10bb, but that changes so fast in hyper.

Hand 50 K♦ Q♣ CO 3K/6K/600 100,130
HJ min-raises with A♠ 8♥. I call and so do both the blinds (5♦ 5♥ for SB and 6♣ 9♦ for BB). The flop is Q♦ Q♠ 7♦, it checks to me and I bet about half-pot. Everyone folds.

Hand 53 T♦ Q♦ UTG1 3.5K/75K/700 138,930
I raise the Portland Nuts to 21K and everyone folds. I’m the only player on the table with more than 80K.

Hand 55 J♣ 9♦ BB 4K/8K/800 153,530
UTG limps in with K♥ A♥, SB is along with A♦ 4♠, and I check. We all check a flop of 6♣ 7♠ 6♦, then I chack call ona 16K bet from UTG when the turn is 9♥ (SB folds). We check the 3♣ river and my top pair holds for a tidy result.

Hand 59 A♥ 8♥ UTG1 5K/10K/1K 183,730
I’m not sure why I didn’t call the jam from UTG (51K with 9♠ K♥), but it’s probably because SB at the time had close to 150K and I didn’t want to get squeezed or called with this particular hand.

Hand 62 J♠ A♦ BB 5K/10K/1K 180,730
This hand momentarily put me in the top 20 players in the tournament, with about 100 remaining. Action just folded to SB, who limped his K♦ K♣. I raised to 40K, he went all in for a total of 123K, and I decided to call. The board ran 9♥ 2♣ T♥ A♣ 4♦ and he cracked in 90th place.

Hand 65 6♠ 7♠ CO 6K/12K/1.2K 300,404
Three players at the table are under 50K (one has just a big blind remaining), then there are  another three in the 150K to 200K range. And there’s me, but even I’ve only got 50bb. UTG goes all in with A♥ 4♥ and just 23K. I call, and BB—one of the mid-range stacks—calls with 5♥ 8♥. The flop is auspicious but the board is 2♣ 2♠ 8♠ Q♣ 4♦ by the river, and the all-in wins.

Hand 69 K♥ A♦ UTG1 8K/16K/1.6K 271,604
I raise to 48K and CO goes all in for just 4K more. I call, he shows Q♠ J♠, and the board runs out 8♠ K♣ A♣ 2♥ 4♣; the wrong color black for him, fortunately. We’re down to 70 players.

Hand 70 Q♦ tdd UTG 10K/10K/2K 350,804
I don’t know why I fold this hand here under the gun. In any case, It’s a mistake, although it may have cost me less. The fold may also have cost me more. One of the short stacks in CO goes all in with 8♦ Q♥ and 62K. I definitely would have called that if I’d raised to my standard 30K here. The tricky decision would have been when SB went all in with A♥ K♣ and 157K. Would I have called another 95K even with the Portland Nuts? If I had, I would have been nicely-rewarded, because the board was T♠ K♥ 5♣ 4♠ T♥. SB won with two pair, but my trips would have picked up a pot of 250K.

Hand 78 A♣ 5♣ UTG1 12.5K/25K/2.5K 303,304
My first actual setback for a while. I raise to 75K, CO is all in for just 16.5K with T♦ Q♥ and BB calls with A♥ 8♣ from a stack about equal to mine. We check it down to the river with 2♠ 7♠ 2♥ Q♠ 8♣ on the board, the short stack quintuples with two pair and BB get the side with a better kicker.

Hand 90 3♥ 4♥ BB 30K/60K/6K 107,304
Yeah, you read that right: 12 hands and the big blind has gone from 25K to 60K! Worse, just after the last hand I wrote up, I was in the big blind, got moved to UTG at another table, and had to pay another big blind, so even though I was only down to 225K after the loss, I’ve lost another 115K just from blinds and antes in 10 hands. The ABC of Hyper: Always Be Chippin’. Anyway, I’m under 2BB here, we’re in the money, I’ve got suited connectors even if they’re crappy suited connectors. I’ll barely be able to pay the small blind and ante if I fold. UTG2 is all in for 176K with J♠ J♣, CO is the tournament chip leader with 810K and shoves with 6♣ 6♦, and I’m all in with my last 41K. The flop is 4♠ K♣ K♦, so there’s almost hope, but the Q♦ turn and 9♥ river give the chips to the best hand and I’m out in 41st.

90 hands. 90 minutes, +58% ROI.

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 11 October 2017

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photo PokerNews.com

 

I’ve Been Saving All My Money Just to Play Poker There…

For some of us, part of the allure of poker is the potential of going someplace more exotic than Las Vegas, funding our travel with our winnings or at least giving us an excuse to go somewhere, whether that’s a poker cruise or, in my case, Dublin or Prague (still working on those).

Newberg’s Liz Tedder (Brandenburg) took a little trip to Morocco for some sun and surf, plus a little poker at the WPTDeepstacks Marrakech, where she did more than just add a couple of new flags to her long list of US cashes at Hendon Mob. She min-cashed a preliminary tournament, then went on to the final table of the Main Event, the only US player to cash in the field of 433 mostly-European entrants.

Elizabeth Tedder Mixes Vacation With WPTDS Marrakech WPTDeepStacks PMU.fr WPTDeepStacks Marrakech Season 2017-2018 2 1,000/4,000/8,000

Up over a million chips near the beginning of Day 3 (Sunday) with just 16 players left, Liz had a bit of a setback when her kings were cracked, but she held on through three more hours, to make it to ninth place. You can watch the WPT stream of the final table on Twitch, and if you don’t mind listening to French commentary, Liz is on much of the Day 3 coverage from co-sponsor PMU.

The Poker Mutant happened to notice that WPTDeepstacks had an event starting this week in Holland…

All aboard the train plane.

You Might Call It the “Poker Mutant” Series

Announced just after last week’s Planner went up, Portland Meadows has four days of freezeouts beginning next Thursday, with a 6-Max and Big O. There’s a Bounty tournament (with half the buyin going toward the bounty) and a $300 entry High Roller, plus two Survivor tournaments to cap things off (it’s not explicit on the announcement, but a $145 entry Survivor will pay about $1,450 to 10% of the entries, depending on how the 10% is rounded). You know i love a Survivor.

Dollars4Dustin

It seems like good poker-related news is hard to find sometimes, but the Southern Oregon poker community came together Sunday at Southern Oregon Poker Club in Medford to raise money for Dustin Ferreira, who needs a new wheelchair and an accessible van.

It’s Always Time for PokerTime

More episodes from Grant and Jonathan.

Heads Up At The Game

They didn’t get a full bracket at last weekend’s planned $500 entry 8-player HU challenge at The Game, but Daniel Ross posted the bracket from the 6 entries. Players went 3-handed after the first round and battled it out for all the money.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

The big new numbers of the week came from Muckleshoot Casino, as the results of the 2017 Summer Poker Classic. First place finishes in the $500 (chop) and $300 events  for Ed Pineda (Puyallup) dwarfed his previous recorded cashes. Federal Way’s Patrick Ngo cashed twice at the series—his only recorded cashes so far—making the unofficial final table of the $500 event and taking first place in the Main Event . Not a bad record. And Sarah Pong from Portland took 5th place in the Main Event to drive her numbers way up,

Scott Clements won first place in the $600 $150K GTD Wynn tournament last week, making him the week’s winner in overall dollars and for a single cash, with Kevin MacPhee weighting the table heavily in the Northwest’s favor with a fourth-place finish. Gennadiy Dvosis (Bellevue) was another player on the leader board who picked up some big bucks with a 3rd place in the Muckleshoot Main Event, along with Nicholas Halvorsen of Vaughn, Washington. Dan “Goofy” Beecher made two final tables during the Muckleshoot series (with three cashes overall). And, of course, rounding out the big money, the aforementioned Liz Tedder rounded out the top-scoring returning players.

Side note: I mentioned last week that there was a ghost entry on Hendon Mob for Joe Brandenburg (as “Joe Bradenburg”); those cashes were consolidated into the right entry and make Joe one of the bigger winners of the week by themselves!

This Week In Portland Poker

Nothing special this week, but see the Portland Meadows Freezeout Series coming up a week from Thursday.

Only a Day Away

  • The Bicycle Casino/Card Player Poker Tour V Big Poker Oktober continues this weekend with a 2-entry day ($1100) $400K GTD. Entry days Saturday through Monday. They have a $10K GTD PLO tournament coming up on Wednesday.
  • The Heartland Poker Tour Kansas City Main Event has three entry days ($1650) starting tomorrow.
  • WSOPC Chicago at Horseshoe Hammond kicks off with a $500K GTD $365 entry Ring event with three entry days (4 flights) Thursday through Saturday. There’s also a $580 PLO tournament there on Sunday.
  • Monday is the start of Run It Up Reno, at the Peppermill. They start with 6-Max PLO ($150), 6-Max HORSE ($150), and 8-Game 8-Max ($235).
  • The always-buys Thunder Valley Resort and Casino hosts the Ante Up NorCal Classic starting next Tuesday. There’s a $150K GTD Main Event, $10K GTD O8, and a couple of other goodies on the menu.
  • There’s another Venetian Weekend Extravaganza (also beginning Tuesday), with the big event a $340 buyin $100K GTD.
  • If you want to follow in Liz Tedder’s footsteps (sort of), get your surf and poker at WPTDeepstacks San Diego, at the Ocean’s 11 Casino, opening with the $75K GTD Haig Kelegian King of Clubs Classic ($300 with addon) and ending with a $200K GTD Main Event ($1100).

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