The World Series of Poker is coming into the final couple of weeks—technically, there are several weeks of before the end of the Main Event on 22 July, but the last bracelet event starts on 11 July—today is the start of Event #54 $10K PLO8 and Event #55 $1,500 Seven Card Stud; the last event is number #74.
#PNWPokerLeaderboard
The big winner of the week is Beaverton’s Ryan Himes (at least that’s how he’s still listed at Hendon Mob), a mixed-game specialist who took 5th place in Event #44 $3K HORSE (in 4th place was Tom Koral, not from the Pacific Northwest, but the former champion of the Oregon State Poker Championship at Chinook Winds Casino a few years back.)
Vi Do of Bellingham took a respectable 7th in a $200K GTD at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza in what looks to have been a deal between the final eight players with a total prize pool of more than $360K.
Remember the days back before anyone in the USA had ever heard of William Kassouf? If you took a poll of poker watchers and asked them to vote on who provided the most abrasive TV encounter at the WSOP, the 2014 dustup between Kyle Keranen and Portland’s Curtis Rystadt would likely be high on the list. Rystadt wasn’t one of the big winners this week, but he did well enough to catch my eye, with a 33rd-place cash in Event #49 $3K PLO 6-Max, his first WSOP bink since taking 100th in the Main Event that year.
This Week In Portland Poker
Regular schedules.
Only a Day Away
It’s actually starting to get to be time to start planning for what comes after the WSOP. I’d hoped to get back down before the end of the series (still might happen, but…) but if you’re booking flights in time to get a deal, you should already be looking at mid-July plans.
Speaking of which, I usually only run the Planner two weeks out, but the Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Upstarts three weeks from today, and if you haven’t already gotten a room in town, you may be out of luck. Everything reasonable is already booked, and there’s not much of anything at all available, possibly because of Pendleton Bike Week (no, it’s not bicycles) and a concert by Grand Funk Railroad on the Saturday of the series. Hit up your better-prepared buddies or snag one of the last (pricy) rooms left. I know I’ve still got to figure out what I’m going to be able to do.
The Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Seriesends Friday. The last event is a $550 Mega Satellite for the WSOP Main Event with 10 seats GTD. The CardPlayer Poker Tourstarts there the next day, with a $150 $100K GTD tournament as the first big event.
On the Fourth of July at Oceans 11 Casino there’s a little $50K GTD outside San Diego, if you happen to be in the area.
The Heartland Poker Tour returns to Golden Gates Casino in Colorado a week from tomorrow. The Main Event begins 12 July.
Larry Flynt’s Grand Slam of Poker starts 13 July at LA’s Hustler Casino. It features a $200K GTD kickoff event ($250 buyin). The Main Event is $375 and has a GTD of $777,777.
The week’s big win goes to Portland’s Grant Denison, co-host of The Breakdown poker podcast. Grant took fifth place in Event #33 $1,500 NLHE at the World Series of Poker, in a field of nearly 1,700. The final table included big names like Ankush Mandavia, Garrett Greer, Griffin Benger, Brandon Cantu, and Alan Cunningham (and those were just among the players who cashed), while the final table also had Max Pescatori and Pratyush Buddiga. Grant briefly held the chip lead while the players were still at two tables and was still in the top half when the unofficial final table was set, but was into shoving territory after the dinner break on Day 3, then lost his last hand to an ace on the river.
Adam Brown of Washington scored his own final table in Event #25 $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, taking sixth place in a field of more than 1,000. Five old guys at the Wynn Summer Classic $600 Seniorstournament came to a deal, and Washington’s Craig Griffiths was one of the four getting an even amount.
Robert Misener of Bend took third in a $235 Daily Deepstack. Tam Nguyen won one of the $365 Turbo Deepstacks. Eugene’s Stephen Johnson has been on a bit of a tear this month, with acash in a $30 tournament in Colombus Ohio a day or two before he got to Las Vegas, then at the Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series, in WSOP Event #18 $565 Pot-Limit Omaha, a final table at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza $75K GTD $600 Big O, and 14th place in Event #32 PLO8/O8/Big O. Tai Nguyen and Eric Pratt of Washington were also on the last two tables of that event.
Ben May, the man behind Final Table is back at the felt himself, with two cashes in Event #36 $5,000 NLHE Six-Max and Event #39 $1,000 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty.
A couple of new names on the leaderboard radar are Idaho’s Terry Grunzke, who scored his first and second recorded cashes this week in $235 Daily Deepstacks, taking third place on Sunday. Brian McGill‘s only recorded score is a first place in the $185 Daily Deepstack; he’s from Washington.
I apologize for the many, many people I’m not mentioning here. There is just so much going on right now that I’m picking and choosing somewhat haphazardly. If you want a mention, drop me a line on Twitter!
Still too much going on in Vegas, looking at the schedules while I’m here in Portland just gives me FOMO. Please, someone, buy a thousand of my ”Fring Lives!” hoodies! (Yeah, the joke’s only funny if you’re a old, and a fan of both Breaking Bad and Lord of the Rings, and maybe not even then.)
The Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Seriesruns through the end of the month. Flights continue through Monday for the $500K GTD Quantum Reload Main Event. There are two daily $85 flights (11:30am and 4pm). There’s an optional $60 addon. 10% of players make it into the money and 7% go on to Day 2 (26 June). On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, there is a a 2pm flight with a $240 buyin (10% advance). For all flights, if you make Day 2, you get $400; if you make Day 2 more than once, you play the larger stack and receive $650 and a $550 voucher for a WSOP Main Event satellite (30 June). The very next day is the start of the CardPlayer Poker Tourstop, which runs through 14 July. There are two major events, a $100K GTD, immediately followed by a $400K GTD, both of which have multiple entry days.
There are direct flights from Portland to Baltimore, and Maryland Live! has a $100K GTD tournament 2-day tournament for $450 , with flights Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning, and Thursday and Friday evening.
It’s the second week of June and we’re more than two weeks into the World Series of Poker, but there’s old news still trickling in to Hendon Mob’s database for some Pacific Northwest players.
For instance, Mahesh Pritamani of Bellevue won the Main Event of the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classicnearly three months ago, but the $57K result just posted (only the top 5 places were reported). It was his first recorded cash, but he just added to it with a min-cash in the WSOPMillionaire Maker last weekend.
Matt Affleck (don’t look for the post snapshotted above, it’s been long since corrected) made the final table of the Colossus, then turned around and went deep in the Millionaire Maker.
James Romero, winner of the WPT Five Diamond last December, has had a min-cash at the Colossus, a final table at the Planet Hollywood Goliath Milly, and was part of a chop in a $1,100 NLHE Turbo at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza that saw seven of the final eight players getting an even $10K.
Tavcoma’s Michael Coombs has had four cashes at the WSOP already, with the best result coming from the $1,500 HORSE last week where he placed 5th. Esther Taylor-Brady listed as an Oregon player(still , just like Annie Duke) also made the HORSE final table.
Ronald Lemco follows his near-win in an early Deepstack with a very deep run (36th, the top 0.2%) in the Colossus. Ryan Himes made it to 6th place in the $1,500 Eight Game Mix. Charles Mast got to 5th in a field of 1,295 in a Daily Deepstack last Thursday, Brandon Cantu made the final table of the $1,500 Dealers Choice tournament.
Shoutouts to Binh ‘Jimmy’ Nguyen, Sam ‘Big Daddy’ Nguyen, and Jacque Lavadour for respectable showings in this summer’s events so far.
As of the time I’m writing this, Poker Guy Grant Denison is doing well in Day 2 of The Marathon as the players approach the money Tuesday night (a little over a dozen to go at midnight). The $1,500 Limit Hold’em tournament is down to three tables, and Ian Johns (winner of two bracelets in limit games last year) is in the middle of the pack. The $1,000 Pot-Limit Omahais playing the last couple hands of Day 1, they should be bagging soo, and hopefully we’ll see some familiar names in the Results.
This Week In Portland Poker
Regular schedules.
Only a Day Away
I’m not going to enumerate all of the series in Las Vegas right now. What’s happening away from the WSOP?
The Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Seriesruns through the end of the month. Friday is the first day of flights for the $500K GTD Quantum Reload Main Event. Every day through 26 June there are two $85 flights (11:30am and 4pm). There’s an optional $60 addon. 10% of players make it into the money and 7% go on to Day 2 (26 June). On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, there is a a 2pm flight with a $240 buyin (10% advance). For all flights, if you make Day 2, you get $400; if you make Day 2 more than once, you play the larger stack and receive $650 and a $550 voucher for a WSOP Main Event satellite (30 June).
At the Cash Casino Calgary Classic’s last weekend, there’s a C$560 Deep Stack with three entry days (Thursday through Saturday) and Day 2 on Sunday, with a final $175 event on Sunday.
Bay 101 Summer Madnesshas their big $1,100 event with starting days Saturday and Sunday at 9am.
The Muckleshoot Casino $200 Big Bounty is this Sunday at noon, and next Sunday is their $300 Deepstack.
If you can’t make it to Vegas and you’re itching for something a little larger than the weekly $10Ks before the end of the WSOP, look at Tulalip Casino’s Last Sunday of the Month $65K on 25 June at 11am. $670 entry.
‘Sicateen’ George. photo via Lonnie Carrol on Facebook.
Sicateen
It’s a term that’s going to live on for years in Portland poker (assuming that there is Portland poker) because of the work of one gregarious man named George, who dealt at Encore and elsewhere, cracking dry jokes, telling stories about his daughter at college and his grandkids, and playing a formidable game of poker himself. If you never got to hear the signature manner he uttered ‘sixteen,’ you’ve missed your chance. RIP, George.
#SaveOregonPoker
According to a Facebook post by Portland Meadows’ Brian Sarchi, the anti-poker House Bill 2190 is dead in committee. It’s good nes for Portland clubs, but not the end of the line. Another bill can always come down the line, there are aspects of how the clubs operate that skirt—if not cross—the intent of the state’s social gaming laws, the labor issues with dealer compensation haven’t disappeared, and I don’t believe the Lottery issue with Portland Meadows has been resolved yet.
Forrest Auel, Event #4 Omaha Hi-Lo
#PNWPokerLeaderboard
The big winner of the week was Forrest Auel, who was the 2nd Oregon player to make a final table at the 2017 WSOP, in Event #4 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo. Auel and Jordan Rich both made to the last three tables on the last day of play (Rich went out in 22nd place). Auel got to the unofficial ten-handed final table in 8th place, managing
Chris Gellagher, Event #1 Casino Employees NLHE
to outlast four players to take sixth after starting Level 28 with just enough to pay the blinds when they came around. Auel had a big rail of PNW players and fellow dealers (he worked the WSOP until this year) that dissipated when he went to get his payout. Also making a deep run in the event was Kate Hoang (20th)
The first Oregon player to final table this year was Chris Gallagher, in the year’s first bracelet contest, Event #1, $565 Casino Employees NLHE. Gallagher was the chip leader going into Day 2’s with ten other players. Unfortunately for Chris, he ran into a couple of bad beats (think [ac kh] v [ac qs]) before busting in seventh place.
Via a message from Jeremy Harkin, we learned Joe Mitchell—winner of Event #8 $333 WSOP.com NLHE—the smallest-ever buy-in for a WSOP bracelet event—was a former resident of Eugene. His WSOP biography still lists it as his hometown, though his Hendon Mob profile reflects his move to Las Vegas some time ago. (Props to my Daryl Vogel, one of the guys I started playing poker again with a few years back, whocashed the Online, and was in the top 25 when they hit the money at 333 players.)
Ronald Lemco of Auburn took 2nd place in a Daily Deepstack for his largest-eveer recorded tournament cash; last year’s tw-time bracelet-winner Ian Johns got 12th in Event #7 $2,500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw; Dylan Wilkerson joined up with Mohsin Charania and Marvin Rettenmaier for 12th place in Event #2 $10K NLHE Tag Team Championship.
The big new name on the leaderboard is Patrick Gannon of Vancouver (WA), with a 4th place in a $235 Daily Deepstack and 2nd in the $135 the previous day. That’s some run-good to start the week.
I made a quick trip to Las Vegas opening weekend, playing the WSOP Online bracelet event on Saturday, the $150K GTD Omaha Hi-Lo at the venetian after I busted that, and an Omaha Hi-Lo/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Mix at the Golden Nugget Sunday morning. I was vacillating between the $30K GTD NLHE Bounty tournament at the Venetian and the $5K GTD HORSE (the prize pool hit $11.5K) at the Orleans until Toma Barber told me he was at Orleans, so I headed over there. Both of the Sunday tournaments went better than those on Saturday, but I could have just stayed home because the only poker money I made over the weekend was in online PLO.
Leaving Las Vegas. At 4 in the morning.
This Week In Portland Poker
Regular schedules.
Only a Day Away
I’m not going to enumerate all of the series in Las Vegas right now. What’s happening away from the WSOP?
The Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Seriesruns through the end of the month. This weekend is a $150K GTD event with $150 buyin; next week is the $500K GTD tournament with starting flights with $85 and $240 buyins.
Tomorrow is the start of the Cash Casino Calgary Classic. The Main Event is next week, with a C$560 buy-in (which includes a dinner buffet) on starting days Thursday through Saturday. Next Tuesday is a $235 PLO tournament.
Bay 101 Summer Madnessruns from 12 June to 19 June with seven events, including an $1,100 Main Event with two starting days.
I’m going to mostly ignore this subject for a week. For one thing, I don’t know anything new. The Oregon Senate’s General Government and Accountability Committee had a work session scheduled for last week, but it was postponed. It’s back on the docket for today, with proposed amendments, the text of which I haven’t had the opportunity to process.
For another thing, I’m not getting this week’s piece started until late Tuesday. Holiday weekend, a last-minute decision to go to a concert with an old friend, and preparations to head to las Vegas this weekend for the opening weekend of the World Series of Poker. So let’s get to it.
Poker Christmas
Christmas has 12 days, but Poker Christmas last a month and a half. Just like the real Christmas, the good children get presents beyojnd belief and the bad children get lumps of coal in their stockings. That’s if they can still afford coal after the summer in Vegas.
Today is the very first bracelet event of the World Series of Poker. Other series have been running for a couple of weeks, and Daily Deepstacks got going yesterday at the Rio, but 11am is the start time for Event #1:Casino Employees NLHE. If you’re not a casino employee, you can enter Event #2: $10,000 Tag TeamNLHE. And no, that’s not the guarantee.
This weekend’sbig event is Event #5: The COLOSSUS III – $565 NLHE. There are entry flights at 10am and 4pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Saturday is also Event #8: $333 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE, the lowest-ever (so far) bracelet event, weighing in at a price lower than the WSOP Circuit Ring side events. It’s where I’m going to be.
I’ve mentioned November Niner (one of the last) Kenny Hallaert’s regular summer spreadsheet before (it’s linked from the Calendar page), but I would be remiss not to trow out Kim Unger‘s Tableau dataset, which covers the same ground but in a somewhat different manner.
You can directly edit the valules in fields by clicking, rather than using the slider handles.
You can filter the schedule by type of tournament (daily, satellite, series), by date, buyin (althogh this could use some refinement), how many chups, level length, and rake percentage, as well as venue.
I don’t think there’s any relation to Stu Unger.
Ming Zhu, via the Venetian Poker Room blog.
#PNWPokerLeaderboard
I thought there’s be more action this week, but I miscalculated. The only big winner reported by Saturday was Portland’s Ming Zhu, nearly taking the trophy in the first event of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III, a $125K GTD, $250 buyin. Ming had 6.6M chips to winner Brandon West’s 8M when they went to heads up, and the players chopped, with West getting the trophy and 5% more money than Ming. (By the way, the Venetian Poker Room’s blog has moved from the antiquated Blogspot to WordPress.)
This Week In Portland Poker
It’s the beginning of the month, which means First Friday at Final Table, with the $20K guarantee, one of the best tournament values in the Northwest. $80 entry, $80 live rebuy, and a $40 addon.
Only a Day Away
We’re already more than a week into the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. There’s a sweet-looking $150K GTD Omaha Hi-Lo tournament with $600 flights on Friday and Saturday (it’s my plan if I bust out of the WSOP.com bracelet event before 8).
At Planet Hollywood’s Goliath 2017, Sunday is the first of four flights for the $1M GTD Goliath Milly NLHE ($600 entry).
The Grand at the Golden Nuggetis running now, and this weekend is a $100K GTD with just a $150 buyin. Six flights (3 on Friday, 3 on Saturday) at 11am, 3pm, and 7pm. The Grand had a few large overlays on their big events in recent years, so it might be worth checking out, since this one is going to need more than 800 entries to break even.
In Los Angeles, there’s another $150 $100K GTD at the Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Series. Eight flights total from Saturday through Tuesday, and you get $1,200 for every extra stack that qualifies for Day 2.
The Aria isn’t doing anything big for a couple of weeks (now that the SUper High Roller Bowl is over), but they will have an 11am $465 HORSE tournament nect Tuesday, and PLO for the same price and time on Thursday.
There are two charity events atBinionson Friday and Saturday, then some HORSE (Monday, 11am, $$20K GTD, $230 buyin) and Omaha Hi-Lo (same, but Tuesday).
Opening weekend at the Wynn, there’s a $5K Survivor tournament on Friday ($400 buyin, cashing players receive $5K each) and a $100K GTD ($550 entry) on Saturday, MSunday, and Monday.
Unfortunately, there is news. After a working meeting last Wednesday in the state Senate’s General Government and Accountability committee on House Bill 2190—aimed at shutting down poker rooms in Oregon (specifically those in Portland)—there was a little bit of hope when Brian Pempus at CardPlayer wrote the headline “Oregon Senate Committee Is No Fan Of Anti-Poker Room Bill.” The article wasn’t entirely positive, but it did indicate some interest from committee members in perhaps finding some accommodation.
The enemies of Portland poker are legion, however, and in an article published Sunday in Willamette Week, Nigel Jacquiss covered a new front opened by the Oregon Lottery, which is threatening the lottery franchise held by Portland Meadows, on the basis of alleged violations of state social gaming laws and city ordinances. A letter from the lottery director dated last Tuesday would seem to force the operators of the facility to choose between the sure bet of their take from lottery games and machines, and holding onto a poker room that’s already in peril.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the Lottery—it not only sucks money away from working-class Oregonians to make up for a lack of political will to raise income taxes, but it’s horribly inefficient by needing to raise about two dollars for every dollar of revenue, and needing to spend a good chunk of that revenue to administrators and companies that sell lottery products, not to mention advertising to try to convince people to play the lottery in the first place.You could get rid of the lottery entirely, raise taxes by the amount the lottery brings in, and actually save some money. Of course, then you’d have to pay unemployment to the guy who wrote that letter.
Big Injun
Many moons ago, there was a Portland satirical newspaper called The Free Agent, run by some bright young people known to the Poker Mutant. Most of them have gone on to far greater things then I have (I’d say “all of them,” but there may be one who fell hard like me), and one of them is writing a Q&A column in Willamette Week as Dr. Know. One thing I do know is how to get letters in newspapers, for whatever that’s worth, and Dr. Know took on one of my questions the other day.
#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.
Big money this week was for Kevin Jenkinsof Kent, with a 3rd-place finish in a preliminary tournament at WSOPC New Orleans with nearly 1,000 entries, nearly doubling his lifetime earnings. A distant runner-up was Valparaiso, Idaho’s Paul Loduca, with the runner-up in a 6-Max at HPT Chicago.
Nobody new on the leaderboard this week, but expect a lot of new names and movement in the next edition, after the first week of the WSOP.
This Week In Portland Poker
Who the fuck knows?
Only a Day Away
The Gardens Poker Festival $1M GTD Main Event is underway with six more days of entry flights ($565) before Day 2 on Tuesday.
We’re already more than a week into the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. Coming up Friday and Saturday are $600 entry flights for a $200K GTD. MOnday is the first of two flights for a $250K GTD with $1,100 buyin.
The WSOP Warm-Up Seriesat Horseshoe Hammond starts its Main Event tomorrow, with entry on Friday and Saturday. $680 gets you into a 2-day event with three $10K WSOP Main Event seats added to the prize pool.
River Rock Casino’s May Showdown at the Rock starts today in Vancouver, with three events: C$230, C$345 (including C$50 bounty), and a two-day C$575 tournament with two entry days. You can pre-register by calling their poker room, registrations are transferable/non-refundable, and each flight will have 100 players max.
Thursday at Planet Hollywood is the start of Goliath 2017. The first event is a $250K GTD with a $600 buyin and starting days through Saturday.
Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California has a WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud qualilfier on Saturday at 11am.
Sunday at noon is the Muckleshoot monthly Deepstack, for $300.
Lucky Chances south of San Francisco has a tournament Sunday 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 Pokerstarting 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.
Not to be left out, Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Series in Los Angeles is where you can find the people who aren’t making the few hour trip to Las Vegas. It runs all through June.
The other ball drops in Vegas a week from Friday with series spinning up at Aria, Binions, and the Wynn.
The Orleans dropped their summer series a couple of years back, but that doens’t mean the place is dead. If anything, they don’t have to do anything special to get people in to play, so they just piggyback off the rest of the series. That doesn’t mean they won’t do something out of the ordinary from time-to-time, and Saturday, 3 June, they’re running a Triple Stud tournament for just $150. Not big money, but how can you say no?
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.
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 Seriesat 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.
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 Pokerstarting 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.
No news or schedule updates today in solidarity with the clubs who’ve decided to shut down for 10 May. There’s a Senate General Government & Accountability Committee working meeting scheduled today at 1pm Wednesday (900 Court St NE, Salem). Both Portland Meadows and Final Table will be closed for the day, with players carpooling from both locations.
#PNWPokerLeaderboard
New on the radar is Lake O’s Max Brown, who had a pretty good run at Run It Up Reno in early April (results just posted on Hendon Mod this week). He cashed in 4 of the 16 events in the series, taking 4th in the 3 Card NLHE, coming in 2nd in the NLHE Partner event, and almost making the final table of the Main Event.
The other big winner of the week (apart from the people who made big money here in Portland at the Final Table $20K and Kentucky Derby Day tournament at Portland Meadows) was Spokane’s Frank Ward, who placed 2nd in a tournament at Dover Downs, in Delaware.
This Week In Portland Poker
All tou really need to know this week is that Portland Meadows and Final Table will be closed. The Planner will be back next week (maybe even later this week) with updates and schedules.
So many hashtags, so little time. This edition of the Planner may be a little short; I’m not even getting started until almost 11pm Tuesday night, when I usually have some of the work already done.
The main reason for that is HB2190, which restricts the types of organizations to which cities can issue social gaming licenses. Fraternal, charitable, and religious organizations, essentially. There’s lots of info on the bill and about the bill, I’ve put together sort of a clearinghouse of the information I know about,and it’s on the menu above next to the calendar link.
The big news this week, of course, is that the Oregon House of Representatives passed the bill, after an incredibly smarmy introduction by Representative Paul Evans, in which he alluded to Russian mobsters, Portland as the capital of sex trafficking and drugs (kind of rich coming from a guy whose district includes east Salem), and wild estimates of the income at Portland Meadows. I urge you to take a look.
The bill has already had a first, perfunctory, reading in the Senate. If it passes there, the last stop before it’s made into law will be the desk of Governor Kate Brown.
#PNWPokerLeaderboard
After all the movement of the Spring Poker Round Up, it was relatively quiet this past week. The big winner (and only five-figure cash) was Bend’s Seth Davies, who snagged 3rd place in a $25K buyin High Roller at the Aria for $93,600. Ming Zhu took 4th in the a WSOPC event in Cherokee, North Carolina. Dylan Wilkerson skipped across the pond to the £ 5,000 partypoker Millions Nottingham and a min-cash. Seattle’s Brenda DeWitt had her best cash ever with a final table of the 317-entry $300 buyin Getaway Classic at Talking Stick in Arizona.
Moar Casino
Just a week after the opening if the Ilani casino on the Washington side of the Columbia River, the Siletz tribe went public Tuesday with news that they’re hoping to open a casino north of Salem by 2021. According to KGW-TV:
The Siletz have been hatching this plan for about two years and are working to get buy-in from all nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon. They hope the plan would keep a “proliferation of casinos” from the metro region, according to Craig Dorsay, tribal attorney for the Siletz Indians.
None of the tribes would need to contribute financially to get a share of the revenues, as long as they agree not to build another casino in the Portland area.
The Siletz (who operate Chinook WInds) already have land in trust for them in the area, and wouldn’t face the same battle for recognition and trust land that the Cowlitz tribe had to navigate through. Any proposal would need approval from the state and federal authorities, and could still face stiff opposition from local businesses and outside interests.
The proposed site is at the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 99.
This Week In Portland Poker
I’M A MORON! THERE’S A FIRST FRIDAY $20K GTD AT FINAL TABLE TOMORROW NIGHT (FRIDAY) AT 7PM!
Wheeee! Horsies!
Only a Day Away
The Beach Poker Clubin Eugene has a First Sunday of the Month Super Stack tournament at noon on 7 May. $135 includes your buyin, lunch, and dealer bonus. 30 minute levels and 400bb deep to start.
Tomorrow is the first of six flights for a $300K GTD at the Cal State Poker Championship. Day 2 is Sunday. You can check in on the action at lapcnews.com (the Social Experiment tournament got 500+ entries, half-again what was needed to meet the guarantee).
Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California has a $340 buyin WSOP Monster Stack qualifier on Sunday, with a tournament on Saturday that earns you points for the WSOP qualifier freeroll later in the month. Over the next three Saturdays, they have qualifiers for $1500 WSOP events in Limit Hold’em, Omaha HI-Lo, and Seven-Card Stud.
Sunday is opening day for the WPTDeepstacks Turlock in central California. The $100K GTD Main Event ($1,100 entry) starts next Friday, with a livestreamed final table on Sunday, 14 May.
Sunday, there’s a $10K GTD Big O tournament at Ocean’s Eleven in San Diego.
Little Creek Casino still has a few WSOP Monster Stack package satellites Tuesday nights in May. Next Saturday is a Bounty tournament.
Stones Gambling Hall is running a Six Shooter $100K GTD Tournamentover two weekends, with Day 1 flights (two per day) from 12—14 May ($200 buyin) and Day 2 on 21 May. The field pays 15%, everyone making Day 2 is in the money, and you can multi-qualify, with your stacks being combined for Day 2.
The 15th is also opening day for the first of the Vegas summer series, the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. The opener is a $125K GTD$250 buyin tournament.
The WSOP Warm-Up Seriesat Horseshoe Hammond has a $210 tournament with two Millionaire Maker and one WSOP Main Event seat added to the prize pool starting on 17 May. 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.
UPDATE: HB2190 was not heard on the floor today – Looks like it will go tomorrow [Wednesday].
For everyone that wants to help get the word out about Social Gaming in Oregon CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES NOW – here is the link. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/findyo…/leg-districts.html
Type in your address and CALL your HOUSE Rep. TODAY!
WHAT TO SAY:
Let them know you oppose HB2190 and be genuine on how you feel about Social Gaming. Also that is bill is being driving from OUT OF STATE BUSINESS. REMEMBER: Keep is short and sweet and remember we need to educate and get these Representatives on our side.
Thank you everyone for being involved. I know how busy everyone is and appreciated everyone for taking the time to make theses calls and Emails.
Please Note that you made a call in the comments- Let’s double or triple yesterdays production……
#PNWPokerLeaderboard
I’m trying out something new here at Mutant Poker. Utilizing the skills granted to me by computers, I’m collating information from the Hendon Mobtournament tracking site to create the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard, combining players from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho (I’d include BC, but Canadian players aren’t broken out by province.
It’s not going to be so much an actual leaderboard. I won’t be dwelling on the players at the top so much (Annie Dukeis still at the top of the Oregon list even though she hasn’t lived here for years, to my knowledge). But when a player makes a big score, or has an exciting move up the leaderboard, I should be able to identify them and give them props.
Caveats: It goes without saying that cash winnings are untracked. Reports of tournament winners to Hendon Mob are entirely voluntary (none of the Portland cards rooms do it, nor do a number of casinos in the Northwest and elsewhere). If you’ve ever listened to Limon (or me) you know buyins aren’t tracked, so high numbers in tournament winnings doesn’t necessarily indicate profitability (see Chino Rheem). While Hendon Mob tracks them for some venues, daily tournament cashes don’t count as part of a player’s ranking. Not all results are reported immediately; during the summer, Hendon Mob picks up WSOP results almost as soon as they’re on the web site, but it can take several days for venues like the Venetian to post results, and it can be longer for regional casinos. And, inaccurate results can make things difficult, whether there’s an error on the side of the reporting body or on the part of Hendon Mob.
Serveral of those ingredients contribute to why the Big Mover on this first list is making an unknown jump. Bill “The General” Patten, as I mentioned last week took second and first places in a couple of events at Pendleton last week. Bill wasn’t in the first set of records I pulled from the database: Prior to last week, Bill (as William Patten in Hendon Mob’s database) had just two cashes listed: $1,150 from an event at last spring’s Round up, and $1,900 from a Wynn daily tournament several years ago. My baseline didn’t include him, because I only looked at players in the Oregon, Washington, and Idaho leaderboards down to $3,000 in earnings. His scores added up to $3,050, but one of them was a daily, so he was far down the Washington leaderboard and somewhere well below 3,000 on the combined PNW leaderboard. Then he won $35K in two events, but the first place score was posted at Hendon Mob under the name Bill Patton. Now, I know they’re the same guy, but if the numbers hadn’t been so big, or it had been someone I didn’t know personally, I might have missed that. Anyway, Bill shoots up to 277 on the Hendon Mob Washington list from down around 2,200. And he makes his debut on the PNW Poker Leaderboard at 607. (FYI, I’m 1,883, thank you very much.)
Other new names with big cashes last week were Angel Iniquez from Richland, who won one of the $200 NLHE events in Pendleton; Lacey Colefrom Walla Walla with a 2nd; Richland’s Joseph Martin who final tabled the Main Event, Thanh Nguyen of Seattle with a runner-up in Omaha Hi-Lo, and Michael Curtis of Rainier for 3rd in the High Roller. I’ll mention that there is a Jose Iniquez with a first place at a Chinook Winds Deepstacks Poker Tour event from a few years back; Iniquez isn’t that uncommon a name good poker players with similar names do tend to raise red flags for me.
Another big mover doe the week was Duane Miller, who moved up over 900 spots on the Washington leaderboard with four cashes—including 3nd in the Shootout and 5th in the Seniors. Tacoma’s Jon WIlliams jumped nearly 700 spots after winning the HORSE tournament at Wildhorse. Mike Turchin of Tacoma Way is still 1,212 on the Washington board, but that’s 460 places higher than he was last week.
Big Money for the week goes to Ryan Dahl, the winner of both the High Roller and the Main Event, for a total of $52,872. The Main Event runner-up was Anthony Simpson, he had the third-largest score of the week (coming after Bill Patten, and including cashing in the Seniors event).
Pacific Northwest Poker Tournament Leaderboard
(including Oregon, Washington, and Idaho)
Despite not working the WSOP this year, due to time constraints, I’m not going to be able to do day-by-day updates like I did a couple of years ago, but as results geg posted to Hendon Mob, I should be able to keep up on things nonetheless.
Pronounced ee-la-NAY, according to the video on their About page, Ilani opened up Monday about 30 miles north of Portland, with a miles-long backup of cars on I5 heading to Ridgefield, Washington from Vancouver and points south. No poker room, so it’s of no real interest to me until they host some big tournament series (crossing fingers) but they do have some pretty card designs. Cards but no poker!
Our cards highlight The Cowlitz Tribe's culture. The Queen’s clothing blends traditional regalia from the Lower Cowlitz & Upper Cowlitz. pic.twitter.com/yqzVklT2S8
I’ve been presenting archive pieces in more-or-less chronological order, but I’m going to deviate for a week because of a topic I’ve talked with people about more than once over the past week, particularly as people prepare to play the big tournaments of the summer.
Everyone’s excited about the Monster Stack, the Colossus, the Goliath, the Giant, etc. Tournaments that have thousands (or even tens of thousands) of players. The gambler’s instinct is to go for those enormous prize pools. But as I laid out in “Sweet Spot” four years ago (one of my most popular posts), you’re probably better off playing tournaments with 30—60 players, because you stand to do much better if you make the money without winning the tournament, i.e if you beat just 95% of the field.
The Cal State Poker Championship starts Friday at Commerce Casino in LA with a $50K GTD two-day tournament with a $175 buyin. Saturday at noon is The Social Experiment, the $100K GTD tournament banning hoodies, earphones, and electronic devices.
