Oddly enough, things slowed down a little mid-July, despite what seemed to be a huge amount of poker going on. Maybe I’m just starting to get excited/worried about the state of things in Las Vegas for the WSOP; Clark County, Nevada just passed a mask requirement for employees of public-facing establishments—vaccinated or not—the other day. Crossing my fingers.
As explained in the latest Lock In, it's looking increasingly unlikely that I (and many other Euros) will make it to the WSOP this year but for those who are going…. https://t.co/dUq4bGerwx
Starting off this very short Leaderboard with a dip below my usual threshold for reporting; and by ‘dip’ I mean, of course Dan “Goofy” Beecher (friend of the blog) who was part of a 4-way deal in the Venetian/PokerGO Deepstack Championship Poker Series #109 $20K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. Beecher took 3rd in the field of 149. He’s 2,313 on the Global Poker Index, and he moves up twenty places on the PNW Poker Leaderboard to #326.
Sequim’s Scott Silverman has a long record of Hendon Mob cashes, starting back in 1990, but not anything that’s popped up above the reporting limits for the lLeaderboard, which is why we might find him making a debut at #337 from his 3rd-place cash at the Venetian #107 $20K GTD NLHE Seniors. There were 181 entries in the tournament, and 2nd place went to another PNW player, Bruce Sicard of Hillsboro, who picked up his very first recorded cash and pops up at #3850. Why the 3500-place disparity, you might ask, when Sicard presumably made better money at 2nd than Silverman at 3rd? Because the Leaderboard is based on lifetime recorded cashes and Silverman’s record is much longer. Neither Silverman’s or Sicard’s winnings have generated a GPI score yet.
Aaron Thivyanathan (GPI: 89)headed down to Florida for the last half of the month, and promptly won the Seminole Hard Rock One Day Challenge NLHE, a 129-entry game that generated a prize pool of $125K. That’s good for nearly sixty spots on the Leaderboard: Thivyanathan is no #220.
And the last player on the Leaderboard for the month of July is Shoreline, Washington’s Matthew Jewett, due to a lifetime best cash in the Wynn Summer Classic $500K GTD NLHE. Jewett took 2nd out of 2,480 entries in what appears (per payouts) to have been a 5-way ICM chop. The total prize pool was more than a million dollars. Jewett is GPI: 7099 and goes from #4291 to #704 on the PNW Poker Leaderboard.
It’s been suspected for a while that this year’s WSOP would be the last one held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel. There hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but cancellation of a long-standing reservation for a pool tournament at Bally’s appears to have inadvertently broken the news.
With the Rio having been sold, and slated to become a Hyatt Hotel, a move for the WSOP was inevitable sooner or later. Now, a pool tournament organizer has revealed that it's getting booted out of Bally's/Paris Las Vegas next year to make room.https://t.co/xkgnG22LN6
Here in Portland, things are getting back to normal-ish. Final Table announced that August 5th will be the first post-pandemic $20K GTD. Buyin is $100, with one live rebuy, and there’s a $50 add-on. This Saturday is another $300 buyin/$150 add-on tournament at The Game.
I’ve only played one game live since the start of the pandemic so far, and even when I was playing a lot I didn’t get out of the metro Portland area much, but in the interests of general PNW poker, here’s a quote from Dan Gee about No Look Poker Room in Medford.
No Look has been consistently excellent, is extremely respectful to all players of all nationalities and ages and also very supportive of the disabled… excellent wheelchair access and the custom bathroom with seperate general bathrooms for men and women. But they also keep a decent amount of tourneys in the mix including a weekly Omaha day or two for those players, and games start consistently at noon…
Might be just the thing you need if you’re down in the Bootleg fire area and need a break from worrying. Stay safe.
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
This edition we’re adding in the Global Poker Index(GPI) rankings for players on the Leaderboard. If you’re not familiar with the GPI, it’s a ranking system for tournament players that calculates a value for every qualifying result reported to The Hendon Mob (now owned by GPI), based on the number of entries,size of the buyin, amount of money won, and age of the result (with more recent results counting for more and results over three years old not counted). There’s a handy explainer here.
I have exactly one qualifying result, from September 2019 when I chopped a tournament at Chinook Winds with John Gribben. When it was new, it was worth about 75 GPI points; at nearly two years old, it only counts for 15. My GPI score is 111,965.
The Wynn Summer Classic $1.5M GTD NLHE Mystery Bounty was a unique event with $600K in bounties over and above the guarantee. Every knockout on Day 1 was good for $100 (out of a $1600 buyin). If you got to Day 2, you got your $100 back and if you knocked out another player you got to draw an envelope awarding anywhere from $500 to $100,000. There were more than 1,500 entries. Beaverton’s Anthony An made it to 12th place, gaining his largest-ever score (plus whatever bounties he won). An climbs 1,050 places on the Leaderboard, to #1699 (GPI: 17824).
Oregon had two players at the final table of the Venetian DeepStack Poker Tour/PokerGO $150K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. Coming in 4th of 215 was Benjamin Garrick of Gold Beach (climbing almost four hundred on the Leaderboard to #1077, GPI: 2659). It’s Garrick’s second-largest cash. Portland’s Rambo Halpern (GPI: 5,941) got 2nd place (his second-best) making it to #430, a climb of over 200 places on the Leaderboard.
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) July 6, 2021
The WPT/Venetian #88 $3M GTD NLHE had just short of 1,200 entries. Cheang Yoo of Seattle (GPI: 938) came in 34th, rising nearly 80 places on the Leaderboard to #410. Portland’s Landen Lucas (GPI: 1,449) took 16th, enough to climb from #551 to #385.
There’s rarely a Leaderboard these days without an appearance by Christopher Brewer (GPI: 164) and this is no exception, though it’s just a small one: 7th in a field of 53 in the PokerGO Cup #3 NLHE at Aria. Even the min-cash is enough to tick him up from #32 to #31.
Vanessa Kade makes another appearance here with her own 7th-place finish (out of 66) in PokerGO Cup #1 NLHE. Kade is GPI: 636 and climbs fifteen places on the Leaderboard, to #128.
Back over at the Wynn Summer Classic $100K GTD PLO, Adam Hendrix made 4th (the number of entries wasn’t reported to Hendon Mob). The cash moves him from #26 to #25. He is currently the highest ranked PNW player on the Global Poker Index at GPI: 8.
The Wynn Millions as it was called, brought a lot of PNW players, as it was sort of a fill-in for this summer’s WSOP. Though about a fifth the size, with 1,328 entries, a large-field $10K buy-in—at the Wynn, considered to be one of the best poker venues in town—was an attractive draw for folks who’d mostly been holed up for over a year. Scott Mayfield (Grants Pass, GPI: 10564) placed 73rd, bumping him almost twenty spots up the Leaderboard, to #132. Climbing nine places to #114 was Scott Eskanazi (GPI: 3976), in 76th place. Max Young made it to 29th; he holds at #23 on the Leaderboard (GPI: 32, currently the second-highest PNW player on the GPI).
The real standout result is Vancouver Washington’s Jaime Cervantes Alvarez, with (as of now) five cashes on Hendon Mob, all of them since February, with the 3rd being 7th place at the Wynn Millions. He leapfrogs from #4076 to #185 on the Leaderboard (GPI: 583).
The big numbers for the week were put up by perennial casher Dylan Linde (GPI: 62) who placed 40th in the Wynn Millions then took 3rd in the PokerGO Cup #2 NLHE(61 entries) and winning the previously-mentioned PokerGO Cup #3 NLHE.
It’s been less than two weeks since the last edition of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard, but there’s a lot going on so I’m going to bang this out as fast as I can.
Oregon and Washington COVID-19 restrictions are over, and the clubs in the Portland are are back in business, with Portland Meadows running a bounty tournament tonight at 7pm, and Final Table resurrecting their $10K guarantee on Friday night at 6pm (there are other changes at both clubs, but check their web sites out to get the latest. The Game is back to regular hours and ran a $400 buy-in tournament last weekend. Check out Facebook for more info on places like 45th Street Pub & Grill, Kit Kat Club, Rialto, and yeah, even Last Frontier. Poker beggars can’t be choosers. Most of this stuff can be found through the NW Poker group.
PNW Poker Leaderboard
The super high rollers seem to have been on a bit of a bye for the past week or so, so we’ve got a crop of not-as-familiar names this edition. What’s truly notable, though, is that every single one of these cashes includes the player’s best-ever recorded cash, even for people with long Hendon Mob trails.
We’re starting with Darnell Holder from Seattle, whose first cash isn’t huge, but it’s a respectable 34th place in the Wynn Summer Classic $1M GTD NLHE, which had 1,312 entries and a $1.9M pot. He enters the Leaderboard at #3916.
Congratulations to Cornelio McLean of Tacoma, WA who was the outright winner in our DCPS Event #64 $600 Pot Limit Omaha 8/B $30,000 guarantee on 6.17.21
Congratulations Ryan Roeder, winner of the Summer Classic $400 NLH $40K GTD on June 14. Ryan was the final player standing of the 284 player event, winning $23,754!
Ryan Roeder of Seattle comes onto the Leaderboard at #2094 with a win in the Wynn $40K GTD NLHE. With 284 entries, it more than doubled the guarantee.
Lots of smiles for Kevin Theodore from Seattle, whose biggest cash as winner of the Wynn $40K GTN NLHE was followed a week later by winning the Venetian/PokerGO #70 $20K GTD NLHE Bounty. There were 252 entries at Wynn and 114 at the Venetian. Theodore moves 400_ spots on the Leaderboard to #844.
On June 15, Kevin Theodore won $17,769 for his first place finish in the Summer Classic $400 NLH $40K GTD. Congratulations Kevin!
Stephen Ferrell made the trip to the Venetian/PokerGO #63 $200K GTD NLHE MonsterStack from Post Falls to take 2nd place in a field of more than a thousand for his first recorded cash, which catapults him to #1415 on the Leaderboard. I think the Venetian’s tweet here has a typo in Ferrell’s name.
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) June 20, 2021
Speaking of typos, I see that Seattle’s Karan Chadha, who was at the same final table and placed 6th, should be on the Leaderboard but Hendon Mob has the residence as Seattle, CA. This was Chadha’s biggest cash, and the first that would qualify him for inclusion in a Leaderboard write-up, so I’m glad to have noticed it.
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) June 20, 2021
Finally, Aaron Thivyanathan is back, and despite having been featured here numerous times this year already, this is Thivyanathan’s largest cash as runner-up in the WPT/Seminole Hard Rock Tampa #6 NLHE. 167 entries and a prize pool of $334K. Thivyanathan climbs from #417 to #281 on this edition of the Leaderboard.
That’s it for now! See you on the non-virtual felt soon!
The big news of the past two weeks is, of course, the announcement of the 2021 World Series of Poker Schedule last Monday. I had my room reservation at the Rio and flights scheduled by 11am that morning, after listening to Kevmath and the folks on the Rec Poker podcast as they went through it just after it hit the internet. I’m not going to bore you with my thoughts on the schedule—there are plenty of people far more knowledgable than myself ready to do that—but my own plans (depending on how things work out) include the 2-day Event #24 $600 PLO 8-Max Deepstack on October 12th, Event #27 $1,500 HORSE (3 days, October 13th), and Event #28 $1,000 PLO 8-Max (also 3 days, October 14th), along with however many satellites I can fit in before that Saturday night (hopefully not too many).
Still haven’t played a live game anywhere, though everyone is ramping up. The Game ran a $400 buy-in tournament this weekend scheduled for June 26. Portland Meadows has a $120 freezeout at noon every Saturday and a $100 freezeout on Sundays. And Final Table announced a competition Friday to give points to frequent players that comp them into a tournament where they play for a seat at the WSOP.
Podcast Frenzy
I mentioned the other day (ad nauseum) that I was on the Poker in the Ears podcast with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton. If you’re in a PokerStars real-money market, they give you a $109 ticket for the Sunday Millions tournament, but if you’re a victim of Black Friday or some other government regulatory shenanigans, they send you a consolation prize of some PokerStars merchandise. I unbagged my winnings this week.
I even made it into the last episode of the season, after I posted a tweet with some antique James Bond merch to Hartigan, an aficionado of all things Bond.
Since I started walking into work again a couple of weeks ago, my podcast listening time has gone back up, and at the end of last month I was listening to an interview of 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Rob Campbell on an episode of The Lock-In podcast, and he mentioned that he’d been doing a show called Podker. Co-hosted by $1/$3 cash game player and radio personality Angus O’Loughlin, it’s one of the funniest shows I’ve heard, as two guys with very Australian accents talk hand histories and interview people like Daniel Negreanu and Dan Zack and Daniel “Jungleman” Cates. Really, all the Dans. There are just a couple of seasons of 10 episodes so far, go back to the first one (November 2019) and trace the journey.
Kevmath’s Quarterly Year in Review
Thee months ago at the suggestion of Kevin Mathers, I ran the first year-over year ranking for the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard, and it’s time for the second edition already! Players are listed in order by their recorded tournament earnings between mid-June 2020 and mid-June 2021. The numeric values are their Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard ranks at the beginning and the end of the year-long period,
Vanessa Kade is the big newcomer to this list, with a cash (see below) in live tournaments after her massive online win in the Sunday Millions 15th Anniversaryearlier this spring. A few folks fell off the list as cashes between March and June of last year dropped away.
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
Nobody was new to the Leaderboard this semi-month.
Let’s start out with Aaron Thivyanathan from Renton, who came 4th (of 202) in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa #5 NLHE for his second-biggest score. Thivyanathan goes from #464 to #417 (that is since the last Leaderboard, the numbers in the table above are between last June and now).
Tony Hoang of Edmonton placed 8th in a Wynn Summer Classic $250K GTD NLHE held 7–10 June (why can’t the Wynn number their tournaments like normal people?) 1,350 entrants made for a prize pool of over $700K. Hoang moves from #431 to #386.
There were 2,790 entries in the MSPT/Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series #41 $1.5M GTD NLHE, pushing the prize pool to nearly $2.7M. 20th place was Filmon Ghebreegzabheir from Issaquah. Moving nearly 100 places up the Leaderboard, Ghebreegzabheir is now #514. Adam Walton of Seattle came in 11th in the same event, and rises to #173.
Congratulations to YePing Shan of Canada who was the winner via a 6 way chop in our DCPS Event #50 $600 NLH MonsterStack $100,000 guarantee on 6.9.21
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) June 10, 2021
Out of Sherwood Park, Alberta, YePing Shan won the Venetian #50 $100K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. It’s Shan’s largest recorded cash, and takes him up to #520 on the Leaderboard.
Christopher Brewer continues a journey through the high roller circuit, with a 7th place in the US PokerOpen/PokerGO #11 NLHE at the Aria/PokerGO studio. There were 69 entries. Brewer sticks at #32.
Adam Hendrix was the runner-up in USPO #5 NLHE with 85 runners. A good score, but not enough to move up from #26.
Down Under, Canadian Michael Maddocks had a good couple of weeks. First, there was a 3rd place cash in a field of nearly 500 in the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast #1 NLHE. Always a good way to start the series. Then, a week later, runner up in a field of 1,113, in WPTDS Gold Coast #6 NLHE, for his biggest score to date. And a couple of weeks after that it’s another 3rd place (out of 108) in the Australian Poker League Poker Tour NLHE Jackstar Super High Roller. Maddocks jumps nearly 500 places on the Leaderboard, to #224.
We’ll wrap up this edition of the Leaderboard with the afore-mentioned Vanessa Kade, who rises almost 300 places to #143 with her jump into IRL high-roller poker. After her Sunday Millions, she popped into the US Poker Open. Kade came in 4th of 99 in USPO #9 NLHE, then 5th just a couple of days later in USPO #11 NLHE.
That’s it for now! Happy belated Juneteenth and have a great Father’s Day (you know who you are!)
When I started this blog, I’d just turned 49. I’d been playing live Hold’em for a little over two years. Tomorrow, I’ll be six months away from turning 60. So there’s that.
As previously mentioned, I was the Superfan contestant in the “Superfan vs. Stapes” segment on the official PokerStars podcast last week. This is the only exposure my card protectors have gotten in over a year!
Portland Poker
The Portland Meadows and Final Table poker rooms are (as of this writing) operating at 50% capacity, per county COVID restrictions, so things are moving in the right direction. There are a number of other venues in the Portland-area running shootouts and some tournaments. They include:
45th Street Pub & Grill
The Game
Kit Kat Poker Club
Last Frontier
Stadiums Sports Bar
If you’ve got some other places that accept walk-ins drop me a line on Twitter @pokermutant.
Not-Portland NW Poker
Around the region, it seems to be mostly card rooms picking up the slack, rather than the casinos. High Mountain Poker is back in Eugene, and the Ontario Poker Room at the far east of Oregon has been active. Lots of reports from Palace in the Seattle area. Mostly from @dave_has_aces. Renton’s Fortune Poker is running high hand announcements on the NW Poker Facebook group.
The poker rooms at Spirit Mountain and Tulalip closed before the pandemic. Wildhorse—which was one of the first large venues in the state closed by a coronavirus outbreak—still hasn’t re-opened their poker room. Ditto for Chinook Winds, though they have announced tentative dates for the Fall Coast Poker Classic in September.
The biggest guarantee on a tournament I’ve seen so far is at the Clearwater Poker Room in East Wenatchee: $10KGTD, which has apparently been running since April.
Keep an eye on PokerAtlas, but call ahead before you head out anywhere is my advice.
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
Justin Mevs of Seattle is the first of two new names we welcome onto the Leaderboard this time. Mevs won the 186-entry Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series #23 $25K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, as the result of a 5-way deal on 26 May. It’s Mevs’s 4th and largest recorded cash. Mevs debuts at #3961.
Congratulations to Justin Mevs of Seattle, WA who was the winner via a five way chop in our DCPS Event #23 $400 NLH MonsterStack $25,000 guarantee on 5.26.21
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) May 27, 2021
13th place in the Wynn/PokerGO Summer Classic $1M GTD NLHEis Derek Hershman‘s first recorded cash. The player from Spokane beat out 1,717 other players to make it into the top 1% of the field. He is #2667 on the Leaderboard.
Open at Noon or 5pm for your share of triple-figures in the $300,000 Guaranteed $600 H-Town Special. Everything Houston-related is represented in this event, and you have you door fee wiped out if you show in ANY H-Town-related gear all weekend long.
Players open with a special H-Town 31,260 stack, playing 34-minute Day 1 levels. Registration and a single re-entry-per-player-per-flight period is open for 3 hours, 30 minutes for each flight in tomorrow’s 2 flights, Friday’s 2 flights (Noon and 5pm) and Saturday’s 2 flights (Noon and 5pm as well).
Check out the structure sheet to see all that Hammer has added that references H-Town, and don’t forget to yell “He Gone” when someone busts.
Max stays at #24.
Congratulations to Benjamin Garrick of Gold Beach, OR who was the winner via a two way chop in our DCPS Event #35 $400 NLH MonsterStack $50,000 guarantee on 5.31.21
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) June 1, 2021
Gold Beach’s Benjamin Garrick moves from #3087 to #1549 with a win in the Venetian #35 $50K GTD NLHE MonsterStackon 31 May. He beat 350 other entries in a 2-way chop for his 5th and biggest win.
Congratulations to Dylan Wilkerson of Las Vegas, Nevada, who was the outright winner of the DCPS Event #16 $400 NLH UltimateStack $150k guarantee on 5-20-21.
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) May 21, 2021
I’d be remiss if I did not mention Chris Brewer‘s win in the partypoker/WPT Online #5 $1M GTD NLHE High Roller, even though the results are not counted in the Hendon Mob leaderboard stats (though they are now recorded as part of the player’s tournament results). Not to worry, though, because he came in 3rd in the 65-entry Venetian/PokerGO #28 NLHE High Roller on 28 May, and turned around the next day to place 5th in the 43-entry Venetian/PokerGO #31 NLHE High Roller. Good thing, too, because apparently his bag full of chips was stolen from the food court there during the tournament. According to Daniel Negreanu on his DAT Poker Podcast, both Brewer’s bag and one belonging to Ali Imsirovic were taken. Just a reminder to keep your belongings close! Or don’t win anything, so you don’t have anything to lose!
Despite losing his bag, Brewer moves up two slots to #32 on the leaderboard. He passes Carter Gill (now #34) and DAT Poker co-host Terence Chan (#33). He’s sitting right behind Ian Johns (#31).
I had my bag get stolen last night at the casino. It has a few larger casino chips in it, if anyone gets offered an odd trade for chips please lmk.
Have you ever had a couple of days when everything just seemed to be going your way? Joshua Jutz from Pasco did early this month. First off, he got into the 224-entry Wynn Signature Series $40K GTD NLHE on 2 May and won the whole thing for his fifth and biggest-ever recorded cash. You know how those things go, he probably wasn’t back into his room until pretty early. But at some point mid-day on 3 May, he went across the street and joined 67 other entries in the Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series #1 $20K GTD NLHE Survivor, and cashed for the top prize along with 6 others. Now, I’m just guessing here, but I think he waited until Day 1B (4 May) of the 2-Day Wynn $100K GTD NLHE (626 entries), then came back the next day to take 5th, for his 2nd-best cash. All that moves Jutz onto the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard for the first time at #1969.
Dylan Wilkerson moves up a slot on the Leaderboard with 8th place in the 995-entry Wynn $250K GTD NLHE. It’s enough for him to slip past Greg Mueller to #13.
8th place in the Wynn $400K GTD NLHE takes Federal Way’s Daniel Park from #213 to #197. The tournament got 851 entries over 3 start days. Renton’s Brian Meadows picked up his best-ever cash by taking 2nd in the same event; Meadows climbs from #1048 to #408.
Tyrone Smith (University Place) was runner-up in the 581-entry Wynn $100K GTD NLHE on 26–28 April. It’s Smith’s largest cash so far, and he moves more than 3,400 places on the leaderboard, to #1957.
More movement in the Top 20 comes from Dylan Linde, whose 6 May 4th place in an Aria NLHE High Rollerwith 46 entries was enough to propel him past the Lees (Watkinson and Markholt) and Annie Duke(!) from #10 to #7! Exciting!
And as we often do, we wrap up an edition of the Leaderboard with a Seth Davies (#1) cash. He was the runner-up to Bill Klein in an Aria NLHE High Roller with a $25K buy-in. He came in just ahead of Ali Imsirovic.
I found myself giving advice on where to play tournaments in Vegas to a friend heading down there the other day, almost like old times, even though I haven’t played live for fourteen months and I probably won’t for a while yet, though I did get my second COVID shot Monday.
I may have to start up the Calendar one of these days soon.
Tentative dates have been announced for the PACWEST Poker Classic at Chinook Winds this fall. As for the other large tournament series venues, Wildhorse Casino hasn’t yet re-opened their poker room, and Muckleshoot doesn’t even list poker on their game list on the web site. Late-breaking addition, it looks like limited indoor seating will be back in Multnomah County as of Friday, 7 May.
In Portland, both Final Table (celebrating a tenth anniversary this month) and Portland Meadows had to close again on April 30, because of state COVID regulations.
Monday, I played my first game in the online bombpot Poker Kate Brown Third Shutdown poker series running this week. Ran my queens into aces in the 6-Max after 40 minutes. Mostly been confining myself to the nightly $2.20 buyin Big O on Actioncards, and the $22 NLHE 6-Max on Ignition, both of which I enjoy enough to ignore the fact that I haven’t cashed since some early successes. After bombing out of the bombpot tournament, I played the Ignition 6-Max for 95 minutes and made a profit of $2.
$2K GTD 6-Max Turbo, 6 players from the money. 2 hands before this, I was 9/24 and called 5BB all-in with 99; A4 flopped trips. After this, out on the bubble. https://t.co/F3UUPZRwBL
— Poker “Socially AND Emotionally Distant” Mutant (@pokermutant) April 29, 2021
Action is hot and heavy in Las Vegas and Florida this edition of the Leaderboard. Starting off in Vegas!
The 199-entry Venetian #24 $40K GTD NLHE MonsterStack final table on 18 April was host to two PNW players. Maria McAlpin from Boise picked up 3rd, moving McAlpin from #786 to #657, and Poulsbo’s Dan Barker took it down, climbing from #455 to #391.
Aaron Thivyanathan goes from #536 to #461 with a 62nd in the massive 2,482-entry WPT SHRPO #18 $2M GTD NLHE Championship (23–27 April). The prize pool was nearly $8 million,
No movement for #10 Dylan Linde, despite a 12th place finish in the WPT SHRPO #28 $200K GTD NLHE Deep Stack. It was another tournament of conservative guarantees or pent-up demand, with a prize pool of 1.36 million from the 287 entries.
Dylan Wilkerson had the only non-NLHE result of this edition, with 6th in the WPT SHRPO #29 PLO Deep Stack with 168 entries. He holds at #14 even though he also had four smaller cashes during the series.
Day 1 of the $25k High Roller concludes at @shrpo with 24 players remaining from the record-setting 145-entrant field as @Chris_D_Brewer leads ahead of @seanmperry1.
Coming in just ahead of Davies in the SHR was Christopher Brewer, whose 3rd place there combined with a 6th in the 145-entry WPT SHRPO #24 NLHE High Roller jumps him from #60 to #34 on the Leaderboard. Oh, to be young and insanely talented at high stakes poker!
Actually, I’d even take just the young, these days.
Hard to believe that it’s been five years since I applied for a job working as a live reporter at the World Series of Poker. I ran across the notice, I was working part-time at a friend’s second-run movie theater, selling tickets and popcorn and beer (Yes, it was Jeff “Punk Rock” Martin’sJoy Cinema and Pub in Tigard! Give them your support!).
The summer I worked there was a little different than the years before or since. WSOP had contracted out the live reporting operation to PokerNews for several years, then they decided to move the operation in-house for 2016. I’d written over a dozen articles as a freelancer for PokerNews over the previous couple of years, and I’d followed the adventures of my editor there, Martin Harris, who’d covered events in North and South America, Australia, and Europe, so even though the word went out from WSOP instead of PokerNews, I gave it a shot. They say they’re only looking for Vegas-based applicants this year, but if you’re a reader who’s down there, it might be worth checking out. Or maybe you can bluff them.
Another biggest-ever cash goes to Seattle/Henderson’s Adam Walton, taking down the 813-entry Venetian #6 $40K GTD NLHE UltimateStack. Walton jumps over 120 spots on the Leaerboard, to #194.
Congratulations to Adam Walton of Henderson, NV who was the winner via a four way chop in our 11:10 AM DeepStack Extravaganza Event #06 $1100 NLH UltimateStack $400K guarantee on 4.4.21
Adam takes home the gold DeepStack Extravaganza Champion Coin, the trophy, and $106,901 pic.twitter.com/CfxjAT4KVv
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) April 5, 2021
Chris Brewer continues to work the tables at the Aria High Rollers, cashing in 5th on both April 2nd and 3rd, in fields of 31 and 30 (both of which were won by former PNW Leaderboard regular Almedin Imsirovic). It;s good enough for Brewer to move from #75 to #60.
And up top at #1, it’s Seth Davies, who continues to put space between himself and everyone else with two 4th-place finishes at Aria on the 1st and on the 3rd, just ahead of Brewer (Imsirovic took 2nd on April 1st; I miss having that guy in my regular standings).
This isn't an April Fools jokes: the WSOP is back. We couldn’t wait another day to share the good news : – WSOP back in-person from Sept. 30 to Nov. 23 at @RioVegas – Summer to see the return of WSOP Online – WSOP Europe @PokerroomKings to round out 2021https://t.co/kOacLy6PaEpic.twitter.com/lFXNRiN7E6
I tell ya, poker isolation has been a bitch. My home game crowd—despite including a number of techies—never got it together to do the Zoom game thing using PokerStars Home Games or anything else, so it’s been thirteen months since we got together or I’ve even talked to most of those guys. Yes, I’ve had other stuff going on.
I have played some online poker the past year. Ignition, for sure, where I’ve been playing for years, but also a couple of other small web-based sites, like Nitrogen (promoted by The Poker Guys) and lately Actioncardz, which features a lot of the games I played a lot of back in my Portland Players Club days: a lot of Big O (and I played HORSE for the first time in forever this afternoon!)
Out in the real world, lots of folks are coming out of their COVID hibernation and hitting the real felt. Here are some of the big cashes for the past couple of weeks for players from the Pacific Northwest!
Let’s start at the Wynn Spring Classic $1M GTD NLHE. From Puyallup, Ilana Gun came in 19th for their first recorded cash in almost two years (and their fifth and largest-ever cash). Gun moves up nearly 1500 places, to #2477 on the Leaderboard.
Back to the Wynn $1M GTD, David Oppenheim from Mercer Island came in 15th in this tournament, which was his first cash post-COVID. He climbs from #661 to #548.
Vancouver, Washington’s Mohammad Rafie had his largest-ever cash in a Wynn Spring Classic $15K NLHEwith a $54K prize pool. He bested 209 other entries to take it down. Crossing my fingers he got one of their Wynn-shaped trophies. Rafie jumps more than 1300 places to #1618.
Two PNW players made the final table of the WPT/Venetian #16 $200K GTD NLHE DoubleStack, which picked up 947 entries to bust the guarantee to over $480K. Andrew Rogers from Anchorage took 5th, just besting his previous top cash (which was only last November). And Seattle’s Brett Polen came in 3rd, also for a personal best. Rogers goes up about 600 places to #1113. Polen climbs almost 4600 spots to #1099.
Buckley, Washington’s Glenn Thompson also notched his best cash, taking 2nd of 1,015 enties in the Wynn $250K GTD NLHE. Its prize pool was mroe than $530K. Tis was Thompson’s first cash since 2019, Last year suuuuucked! Thompson goes from #1514 to #648 on the Leaderboard.
And would we be complete without an Adam Hendrix report at the end? The Anchorage player did a two-way deal (officially 2nd) in the LA Poker Classic NLHE Main Event with Michael Liang to continue his march up the Leaderboard, from #30 to #26.
Lots of Pacific Northwest poker action going on in Las Vegas the past few weeks.
The new entry on the PNW Poker Leaderboard this time around is Vancouver, Washington’s Jaime Cervantes Alvarez, who placed 39th of 652 in the Card Player Poker Tour/Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza #26 $500K GTD NLHE, played in mid-February. The prize pool was close to triple the guarantee. It’s Alvarez’s first Hendon Mob cash and he hits the Leaderboard at #4354.
Aaron Thivyanathan of Renton placed just ahead of Alvarez at #38 in the same tournament at the Venetian. The next week, it was out to Florida for Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic #7 NLHE, another $1.5M prize pool tournament, and 35th place out of 959 entries. Then in the second week of Marsh, back to Vegas for 17th of 253 in World Poker Tour/Venetian DeepStack Showdown #14 $20K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. He climbs from #638 to #552 on the Leaderboard. You may have noticed from his name showing up in the early February Leaderboard roundup that Thivyanathan has been busy.
Korey Payne has been keeping busy since his big win back in November.And he took 33rd in the same CPPT/Venetian #26 $500K GTD NLHE ahead of Thivyanathan and Alvarez, which moves him up 5 places to #162.
A little further up the winner’s list on that tournament you find one of my favorite people, Kao Saechao, who placed 29th. Saechao went on to cash in several more tournaments at the Venetian over the next three weeks, including WPT/Venetian #5 $15K GTD NLHE Survivor that ended up with a prize pool of $73K and 14 $5,200 payouts, and WPT/Venetian #8 $15K GTD NLHE Survivorthat did the same for 18 players. He also made it to 12th of 259 in the WPT/Venetian #7 $75K GTD NLHE Monster Stack. Need I say it? $250K prize pool. For this and more, Saechao moves not at all from his already prestigious #38 position.
Reginald Caymol jumped another 18 spots on the Leaderboard, to #399 taking 13th of 809 in the WPT/Venetian #13 $250K GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack. The Seattle player adds the cash to several smaller cashes at the Wynn earlier this year.
The WPT/Venetian #10 $1.5M GTD NLHE Main Eventwas a big draw for PNW players, several of whom went deep. The field drew 937 entries and had more than $4.3M in the prize pool. Out of Olympia, Raymond Dandrea cashed in 84th. He rises 40 spots on the Leaderboard to #526.
At 74th in the money, Kao Seng Saetern (Portland) bumped all the way up from #1509 to #1216.
Ten places higher, Port Orchard, Washington’s Kristopher Rundquist got his largest-ever cash for 64th, and goes more than 1700 spots up the Leaderboard to #2306.
pasco, Washington’s Joseph Beltran Arredondo came in 37th. He is now #827 on the Leaderboard.
George Wolff made the final three tables at 24th. He stays at #17. On the other hand, Adam Hendrix making 17th was just enough to push him from #31 on the Leaderboard to #30.
Finally, as usual it’s the high rollers that gobble up the big-money attention. Christopher Brewer continues to wreak havoc on the Aria tables, and cashed three tournaments in quick succession. It was a 2nd place for him in the Aria High Roller 04 NLHE. With just 14 entries, it looks like he did a 2-way deal with former PNW Leaderboard mainstay Ali Imsirovic that gave Brewer his career best cash. The next day, Brewer took 3rd in the 16-entry Aria High Roller 05 NLHE (no deal for him this time, though it looks like Sam Soveral and Jake Schindler chopped the top two spots). Then a week later it’s Aria High Roller 08 NLHE, with 6 payouts out of 39 entries and Brewer in 4th. For all that, he climbs 40 places to #75 on the Leaderboard.
Angela Jordison represent!
Three QUEENS of Poker on International Women's Day!
