No commentary this episode except to point out that there’s a rather significant first cash at the end. There are some recent events from places like the Venetian that weren’t posted when I ran the stats.
Key to the Leaderboard
Name and home town (according to the player’s Hendon Mob profile).
The player’s most recent ranking in the PNW Poker Leaderboard in italics. If this is their first time on the Leaderboard, an em dash (—)
Their new standing in bold, preceded by the pound sign (#).
Their change in status on the Leaderboard (with an arrow indicating up or down), or a black club (♣) if this is their first appearance.
For each of the tournaments that are being recognized in this Leaderboard:
The name and link to the Hendon Mob listing for that tournament.
The player’s finishing position in the tournament and thge number of entries.
Lake has five recorded cashes since 2009, all of them at the WSOP, in HORSE (three cashes), Stud, and now Stud Hi-Lo. This is Lake’s first recorded cash in ten years, and it’s the largest by far.
Taylor finished below Scott Lake (above) in this event but had some other, smaller cashes that increased the cumulative total for the Leaderboard reporting period.
So soon? Well, there’s a lot of stuff to cover here. We got the new format. We’ve got huge showing from Angela Jordison and some guy whose third recorded cash almost won him a bracelet in a 20,000+ entry tournament (name of Jared Kingery). Almost everything in this edition is from the World Series of Poker or from the WSOP Circuit Calgary, though there are a couple of results from outside the country.
Congrats to everyone (but especially Angela, thanks putting off winning a bracelet until I can be there to see it happen!)
Key to the Leaderboard
Name and home town (according to the player’s Hendon Mob profile).
The player’s most recent ranking in the PNW Poker Leaderboard in italics. If this is their first time on the Leaderboard, an em dash (—)
Their new standing in bold, preceded by the pound sign (#).
Their change in status on the Leaderboard (with an arrow indicating up or down), or a black club (♣) if this is their first appearance.
For each of the tournaments that are being recognized in this Leaderboard:
The name and link to the Hendon Mob listing for that tournament.
The player’s finishing position in the tournament and thge number of entries.
This has got to be one of the largest jumps in the time I’ve been keeping the Leaderboard. This is just Kingery’s third recorded cash. The first was in January of this year.
I had to make a decision about the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard going into this year’s World Series of Poker. It’s a lot of work. There are only so many of you reading it. And with all of the people from the Northwest doing so well out there in the wide world of poker, each edition gets pretty repetitive. I’ve run completely out of ways to describe peoples’ advances up the Leaderboard. Maybe I’m just lazy.
So rather than further tighten the requirements I use to decide who gets reported on, I’m changing up the format a little bit (the other option in my decision was to just stop doing the Leaderboard). So what you see below is what we’ve got for now.
All your favorite info is still here, organized, loosely in the order of the amount of money won in the reporting period. (which varies according to when I can get things together), You’ll find the bigger cashes at the bottom.
Name and home town (according to the player’s Hendon Mob profile).
The player’s most recent ranking in the PNW Poker Leaderboard in italics. If this is their first time on the Leaderboard, an em dash (—)
Their new standing in bold, preceded by the pound sign (#).
Their change in status on the Leaderboard (with an arrow indicating up or down), or a black club (♣) if this is their first appearance.
For each of the tournaments that are being recognized in this Leaderboard:
The name and link to the Hendon Mob listing for that tournament.
The player’s finishing position in the tournament and thge number of entries.
The tournament prize pool in US dollars.
As always, this info is gleaned from the Hendon Mob state and province lists for Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Alberta and British Columbia. The Leaderboard tries to recognize players who’ve had a significant cash: the gross amount must be more than $10,000 and four times the buy-in. Mistakes will be made and I apologize for any that creep in. I just do this for the fun of it!
I’m pretty sure this player is the same person as the previous player, just reported on two different Hendon Mob profiles. If they were properly combined, their Leaderboard rank would be #872.
It was great to see someone else from the Portland area make it to the world poker stage. It was just February of last year that Alvarez first appeared on the Leaderboard, with a cash at a Venetian event that was just a little too small to meet the guidelines, but which I put in because there wasn’t a lot of poker going on. His first ranking was #4354; now he’s in the Top 100.
Carl Oman, winner of the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley Main Event. via worldpokertour.com
Nothing much to say upfront, I’ve regrettably had to cancel my plans to play the WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud tournament in just over a week and may not make it down to Vegas this summer at all, so let’s just get into it.
No reports from Wildhorse in this Leaderboard, but thanks to Kevmath, they are now available at Hendon Mob. so they’ll be in the next one. Plenty here from Thunder Valley and elsewhere.
This was the end of the Deepstacks brand, so this is the last WPTDeepstacks series (the WPT will now have a “Main” tour and a “Prime” tour). Bellevue’s David Goodkin was 22nd in the field of 1,414, rising one-hundred and sixty-five places to #1013. Kao Saechao of Damascus came in 20th and moves up one place to #35. Tom Mahon of Dairy was 16th, going from #1213 to #975. Mukilteo, Washington’s Catherine Miller scored a best-ever cash in 3rd (as part of a 5-way deal) that propelled her from #3020 to #349 on the Leaderboard. At the top of the chop was Carl Oman, from Vancouver, Washington (pictured above) who jumps to #192 from $460.
James Weatherman was in some prestigious territory at the Aria Resort & Casino in the PokerGo Tour Stairway #1 NLHE. Among the 60 entries were Andrew Lichtenberger, Dylan Linde, and PNW crusher Jaime Cervantes Alvarez—who didn’t quite make it into this Leaderboard but I hear he’s done some stuff since I ran the numbers. Weatherman picks up four hundred spots , ending at #914.
Aaron Thivyanathan picks up ten (now #122) with 2nd out of 518 entries at St. Petersburg, Florida’s Derby Lane Spring Open $75K GTD NLHE. It looks like there might have been a 3-way deal.
Matt Affleck took 3rd in a 767-entry tournament in las Vegas, the Wynn Signature Series $500K GTD NLHE. It’s enough to move Affleck up one place to #15 past Greg Mueller.
It was 2nd place for Dylan Linde in the PokerGo Tour/Venetian #5 NLHE High Roller that took him from #6 to…#6. Movement’s tough at the top. Still, Linde came out ahead of 32 other players.
It’s kind of scary to think that we’re less than a month away from this year’s World Series of Poker. Yeah! You forgot didn’t you? It’s been nearly three years since the last summer-time WSOP, and even if you did remember, you probably were wondering why rooms at the Rio All-Suite Casino & Hotel were so damn cheap compared to last time. That’s because the WSOP isn’t there any more, stupid! This time around, the whole thing’s happening on the Strip, at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, and, as Firesign Theater used to say: Everything You Know Is Wrong. It’s not just that you’re not going to know where anything is any more (really, did you ever figure out which room was Brasilia and which one was Amazon?) but the people running things are going to be confused, too, so this has the potential to be a right shitshow, as they say. Anyway, here’s some maps, just in case they might help. In both cases the ballroom areas at the top of the map are on the east side of the buildings, away from the Strip.
Bally’s
Paris
One. Million. Dollars.
Forrest Auel posted on the NW Poker Facebook group that a cash at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up will put Joe Brandenburg over the $1,000,000 lifetime earnings mark (he was just over $999,000 after cashes at Chinook Winds in March) but the results haven’t been posted to Hendon Mob as of this evening!
Big Move
Not too long before “press time”, The Final Table Poker Club posted a notice on Facebook that they’re going to be moving from their long-time location at SE 122nd & Division to SE 82nd & Powell. No specifics as to the location yet. One change that’s already made is that the club is now open to 18 and over, as it was when it started out back on NE Glisan.
WSOP Team Event
There are going to be some determined teams out in the field this year.
I'm teaming up with someone I've long admired @AngelaJordison for her wit and conviction. BUT pls do let me know if you want to be involved. I may be able to match a couple more teams up!
No results from Wildhorse yet, but plenty more Canadians moving up. I ran the numbers before the WPTDeepstacks at Thunder Valley the other day, so those results aren’t here yet, either.
Lacombe, Alberta’s Malcolm Buller was runner-up in the Deerfoot Inn Spring Super Stack#5 NLHE Deepstack on 12 April. Buller goes from #2827 to #2096. Regan Duong was the winner (out of Calgary) and picked up a biggest prize ever in the 293-entry tournament, gaining more than a thousand points, to #1902.
Himmophoom Bounthinh continues to grind away in Vegas, coming in 2nd at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza #9 $20K GTD NLHE Monster Stack, a 137-entry event. Nu goes from #293 to ##279.
I love that tournament directors can use the same combination of words in an event title in different combinations, don’ you? Anyway. David Howat of Calgary came in 7th in this tournament, enough to propel Howat fifty places up the Leaderboard to #556. Takuma Bergeron from Coquitlam, British Columbia took 4th (surprisingly, coming in just ahead of a British pro Jack Hardcastle, a name I did not expect to run across in a Calgary event). Bergeron goes from #758 to #584. Douglas James of Vancouver picked up 3rd for their biggest-ever cash, jumping nearly four-hundred and fifty spaces to #824. Edmonton’s Jaspal Brar was 2nd, moving up four places to #65. And—also from Edmonton—Colton Yamagishi won the biggest pot of ther career, in a field of 307 entries, where the prize pool was nearly C$400K.
This event had 263 entries and a C$125K prize pool. Calgary’s Aidan Klingbell had their biggest-ever cash in 4th, with a jump of two thousand places to #2893. In 3rd was Jordan Banfield, also of Calgary, who vlimbs five hundred spots, to #1559. Another Calgarian, Kim Pham, came in 2nd, also for a career high cash, and bumps up from #4420 to #2347. Event winner Gurdeep Parhar completed Calgary’s sweep of the top 4 places. Parhar combines the win (and biggest cash) with 6th in Event #8 (above) to climb from #998 to #683.
Sebastian Crema out of North Vancouver gains almost seventy spots (#474) with a 5th place finish in the Wynn Signature Series $400K GTD NLHE Mystery Bounty (reminder for this and Max Young’s standings, Hendon Mob stats do not include bounties earned by players). This event got 1,247 entries.
Vancouver’s Wei Min Hou took 1st in a 3-way deal at the Deerfoot Spring Super Stack #6 PLO Superstack. There were 55 entries, and Hou’s success takes them exactly nine-hundred and ninety-nine places up the Leaderboard, to #1820.
Dylan Linde took 4th out of 86 in the WSOPC Bally’s #12 NLHE High Roller, but since Linde’s already #6, there’s no move. Anchorage’s Andrew Rodgers got the Circuit Ring with the win, and also gains two-hundred-and fifty places on the Leaderboard (#424).
Woody Christy went from Renton to Amsterdam to cash big at WPTDeepStacks Amsterdam #4 NLHE Main Event. Christy took 8th in a field of 757, and leaps from #3352 to #1892.
Another out-of-country experience took Edmonton’s Pawan Braich to St. Maarten, where they competed in WSOPC Caribbean #10 $200K GTD NLHE Main Event against 255 other entries, to come in 6th. Braich moves up twenty-three places, to #258.
Edmonton’s Nohad Teliani had a couple of good weeks. Teliani won the WPT/Seminole #10 $50K NLHE Big Stack 6-Max — a field of 151 — then popped across to Dublin for the record-setting 2,040-entry Irish Poker Open #13 NLHE Main Event, there they came in 21st. That was good for two-hundred and twenty places on the Leaderboard; Teliani is now #579.
James Romero was the runner-up at the Prime Social #21 NLHE 6-Max out of 49 entries. The winner of the event is listed as “Unknown Player”, with a Ukrainian flag. Romero holds at #5.
Adam Hendrix is another of the top-of-the-Leaderboard players who cashed but didn’t move (#18) with a 17th-place finish in the WPT/Seminole #36 $2M GTD NLHE Championship. There were 2,010 entries, and the prize pool went over $6.4M, with a 6-way even chop at the final table.
If you’re not watching Severanceon Apple TV+, do it now. Nothing poker-related.
Writing this in Portland while long-time friend of the blog Brad Press is out at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up this week, shaming my supposed dedication to Omaha and HORSE. I haven’t even been playing much around town since coming so close in the 6-Max at Chinook WInds last month.
I did finally play some poker over Zoom, with a group that’s been going for a couple of years, using the PokerStars Home Games feature, which just made me wish I’d pushed the home game I started playing in back in 2008 to do the same. So far, I’ve cashed in three of the five games I played there and got a couple of bounties to offset the buy-in in another.
I did play the Portland Meadows NLHE Monster Stack Freezeout at the end of March, but lasted less than 2 levels. I’d just started to recover from my usual early race-to-the-bottom after playing some low suited connectors and catching a flush, then decided to shove-bluff over the villain in that hand when I picked up A♠Q♠ and the flop was all-hearts with a queen. Jonathan Levy of The Poker Guys was sitting across the table from me while the villain—who hit the flush with his own low suited connectors and actually seemed a little concerned—briefly tanked over the call, and I got a laugh when Jonathan looked under the table to see if my legs were jangling nervously. I don’t think they were. It’s just money!
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
A quick reminder of what makes the Leaderboard. I track players whose cashes are reported to The Hendon Mob tournament database, who have more than $3K in lifetime earnings, and whose residency is listed at Hendon Mob as Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or Alberta (I suppose I really should add Yukon and Northwest Territories one of these days). Players are included if they have at least one single cash over $10K recorded, and if that cash is at least 300% ROI (no offense, but I’m not going to include WSOP Main Event min-cashes). I encourage everyone to check out the links to Hendon Mob and WSOP to get more details on individual tournaments and series.
Speaking of the 6-Max at Chinook Winds, Justin Foord of Portland was the runner-up in the PacWest Poker Classic #5 $50K GTD NLHE 6-Max, which had 106 entries. Payouts make it look like there was a 3-way deal, with Hillsboro, Oregon’s Andrew Johnson taking 1st. Johnson goes up nearly two hundred places, to #1002; Foord climbs a couple thousand, from #4871 to #2892.
Tualatin, Oregon’s Zachary Bright picked up their biggest-ever cash in the PacWest #19 $225K GTD NLHE Main Event, coming in 6th of 441. Bright jumps up nearly three thousand places on the Leaderboard, to #3026. Fifth-place went to Salem, Oregon’s Michael Mischkot, who debuts on the Leaderboard at #2925. Another newcomer to the Leaderboard is4th-place finisher Richard Johnson from Eugene, who was part of a four-way deal that places him at #1975. Climbing 500 places is Eugene’s Richard Thysell, with a biggest-ever cash for 3rd. Roger Scott from Shoreline, Washington goes from #4565 to #1393 by taking 2nd. And the winner of the Main Event is another newcomer to the Leaderboard: Larry Brown (his bio just says Oregon) who is #1553.
Landing at #3628 is Washington State’s Dwight Gilbert, the 3rd-place finisher in PacWest #17 $40K GTD NLHE Big Bounty. The tournament picked up 178 entries. Spanaway, Washington’s Richard Reed took 2nd. Also a new entry on the Leaderboard, Reed comes in at #3462. The winner was yet another Leaderboard newcomer, Matthew Gmur, from Oregon. The win—part of a 4-way deal—puts Gmur at #3260.
The PacWest #1 $100K GTD NLHE opening event brought in 499 players. Kennewick, Washington’s James Stringer almost beat their personal best with 5th place in a 5-way deal, and moves from #1748 to #1351. The newcomer to the Leaderboard of the group is Anthony Chavez from Sunnyside, Washington, with 4th and #3324. Portland’s Brian Barker climbs more than seven hundred places to #1412 with the 2nd-place finish. And Dion Swan — also Portland — took 1st, climbing twenty-seven hundred places to #2045.
Did I mention we’ve got some more results from up north? The Great Canadian Freedom Series NLHE Main Event ran at the Cash Casino in Calgary and drew 142 entries. Karim Chatur from Calgary came in 3rd but actually drops a spot on the Leaderboard to #56 because of other player movement (Vanessa Kade, see below). Another Calgarian, David Howat got their biggest cash for 2nd, and moves up from #747 to #605.
Over in Regina, Saskatchewan, at the Station Poker Classic C$1,100 NLHE there were 299 entries for the C$1,100 event, and Calgary’s Kelly Kellner came in 4th, good for a bump of twenty-five places on the Leaderboard, to #298. Matt Kwong, also from Calgary, came in 4th of 287 in the Station C$900 NLHE, for a personal best and gains almost a hundred places (#438).
At Calgary’s ACE Poker NLHE Colossus, hometown player Grant Frulling topped the field of 264, for their biggest cash and a slide up from #1286 to #942.
It was a good showing for PNW players at the new home of the World Series of Poker, in the WSOP Circuit Bally’s #12 NLHE High Roller. Perpetual Leaderboard resident Dylan Linde took 4th, though he drops from #5 to #6 on the Leaderboard (see James Romero, below). The winner of the 98-entry field was Andrew Rodgers from Anchorage, who said he’d lost his job a couple of months before hitting the biggest cash of his career. Rodgers goes up about three hundred spots, to #676.
Andrew Rodgers via WSOP.com
Tyler Knittle of Lakewood, Washington took down their largest cash for 3rd in the 106-entry Tampa Poker Classic $100K GTD NLHE. Knittle jumps more than a thousand places on the Leaderboard, to #1134.
Darren Rabinowitz came in 6th of 393 at the Venetian #2 $500K GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack in early March, but still drops a place to #21 on the Leaderboard because of Adam Hendrix moving up.
Jordan Westmorland was living my dream, playing at the European Poker Tour in Prague, even through it was late winter instead of Christmastime. Westmorland was assigned 2nd place in a 3-way deal in the 129-entry EPT Prague #28 NLHE, which had a prize pool of €301,440. Westmorland gains four spots, and is #40.
Where to begin with James Romero’s March? How about at the Venetian #10 $1M GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack? Romero came in 8th out of 409 entries on 9 March. A couple of days later, he was across the street at the Wynn Millions Poker Series $2M GTD NLHE, and took 4th of 889. Then, at the end of the month, it was 2nd of 49 in the Prime #21 NLHE 6-Max in Houston. That was enough to kick Romero up a notch to #5 on the PNW Poker Leaderboard.
Adam Hendrix via PokerGO
Then there’s Adam Hendrix, whose cashes were all in Las Vegas, but there were a lot of them (including a couple that didn’t quite make my reporting guidelines). It started with Hendrix coming in 4th in the same Venetian #10 $1M GTD NLHE Ultimate Stack event Romero cashed in. Then it was over to the Aria for the 88-entry US Poker Open/PokerGo Tour #3 NLHE, which Hendrix won. Hendrix followed that up with 5th of 66 in USPO #8 PLO. Hendrix cracks the Leaderboard All-Time Top 20, moving up four places to #18.
Vanessa Kade continues her assault on live poker. Kade only had a single cash to make this Leaderboard, but it is a career-best live cash (Kade’s win in last year’s PokerStars anniversary online event was larger). Kade goes from #109 to #51 with a 4th-place finish in the Wynn Millions Poker Series $10M GTD NLHE, an event with 1,075 entries.
And we wrap up this Leaderboard (finally) with Chris Brewer. Brewer started off the month in the Czech Republic (Prague!), winning the EPT Prague #9 NLHE, a €10,200, 37-entry tournament. Two days later, 4th of 34 in the €50,000 34-entry (with 11 re-entries) EPT Prague #17 NLHE High Roller. Then, back to Vegas for runner-up in USPO #5 NLHE, which drew 66 entries at $10K each. That’s all good for breaking into the Leaderboard Top 10, moving from #12 to #9.
Chris Brewer via pokerstarsblog
Kevmath Quarterly Top 20
This is the fifth Quarterly and the first one without Seth Davies! Dylan Linde and James Romero swapped positions up in the Top 10 and there’s a sudden influx of Albertan players this quarter: fully 35% of the Top 20 tournament earners.
It was the first poker series in the US Pacific Northwest in twoyears (since I’m now including Alberta and British Columbia in the Leaderboard rankings, I have to acknowledge that they got the jump on us last fall), and players came out to Lincoln City, despite having to (more or less) wear masks, and suffer high fuel prices and sunny beaches.
David and I had to get our feet wet.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play the whole week (job) so I took a couple days off early in the series so that I could play the 6-Max and HORSE tournaments. My sometime travel partner David Long — who I hadn’t really talked to for two years —sent me a message a couple weeks beforehand, and I switched up my reservation so we could split a room. Already saving money!
We got to Lincoln City about a half-hour after the start of Sunday afternoon’s tournament, a $25K GTD NLHE running while the opening $100K was in Day 2. David went off to register for the cash game waiting lists; I hit the tournament registration desk.
I only lasted a couple of hours in the $25K, by which it was check-in time at the motel, so I headed off to get our bags up to the room, then came back to wait for David to head up for dinner at the 60s Cafe and Diner for a burger and a Boozy Shake, the better to play the 3-Seat GTD NLHE Main Event Satellite (2 bullets and it didn’t help).
Monday morning was the $50K GTD NLHE 6-Max, which I had been looking forward to as much as the HORSE. I was a little late for the start, owing to a lot more folks than I was expecting at the Pig & Pancake, but we managed to get breakfast and over to the casino before it was too late. The buy-in on this one was $550, plus the dealer appreciation, so it’s one of the bigger outlays I’m willing to do these days.
Things got off to a pretty decent start, when I picked up a pair of sevens and his a set versus top pair on my first hand. Another set of events in round 4 pumped me up to about 50K from the 32K start. Lost some ground, then picked back up to make it to around 80K before I ran into sevens as my own nemesis, hitting trip tens with AxTx against a full house of sevens over tens. I called off 20K on the river alone and was down under the starting stack. That may have been the crucial point for me in this one.
I was under 20K at the beginning of the next level, four hours in, then I started to pick up some steam after a table change. We were under 30 players (with 12 places paying) six hours in. I was up to 30 big blinds, but the average was twice that. Another table move put me in with some guys who were even older than I am.
This new table is making me rethink skipping the old man tournament tomorrow morning.
No. No, I WILL play HORSE as planned. Different set of old men.
Another hour, and making a lucky river gunshot straight for Broadway put me up above average for the first time in a while. After a dinner break, we were seven places from the money, and I was back down to 20 big blinds. I did get to see three all-spade flops in a row, which was kind of bizarre.
The board was still reading 16 players remaining when the end came for me. I picked up AxQx for my big blind and I had about 15bb, which I was reasonably certain was the shortest stack left. We were five-handed at our table, and the UTG player raised to 18K (3x). One of the older players at the table (who’d been grumbling to me about showing the aggressive ‘kids’ like UTG what’s what) pushed it to 40K, and I knew that I was taking a bit of a risk to race so close to the bubble, but I went all-in, nonetheless. With the extra 60K, I was sure I could get through the bubble, even with 4 players left. UTG folded right away. The guy who 3-bet thought it over for a bit, wondered aloud if I might have ace-king, and looked at his stack, which I think was probably well over 300K, before deciding to call with 9x9x. The flop was under eights, there was a king on the turn (would that I had the ace-king!) and he was safe on the river.
When I got up, Forrest Auel was taking a couple people off the board and I saw that it was just showing 13. I asked if I was the actual bubble boy and he told me that I was 14th, so I guess a couple went out just before me. I might have held my fire if I’d known we were at 14 instead of 16, but I think I played this game pretty well over all.
The HORSE tournament wasn’t starting until 4pm on Tuesday, so after walking down to the Pacific Ocean to get our feet wet (they turned to ice in about two minutes because it was still in the 40s at mid-day and the water at the Oregon coast is always cold) we headed up to the cash games, which were already under way by the time we got there. David put himself on all the lists, and I signed up for some NLHE, Limit Hold’em, and an unlikely Stud game, then we went off in search of some Game King slot machines. After a small win, we got called back to the live action games, David sat down in Big O, and I got a seat in the $1/$3 NLHE. Aside from a couple live cash sessions at the WSOP last fall, between not really being a cash player and COVID, I hadn’t played live cash NLHE since my last trip to Chinook Winds two years ago, but I managed to make a little profit over 90 minutes, then went off to sign up for the tournament.
The $10K GTD HORSE started off in Stud Hi-Lo, and I somehow managed to scoop the first hand with the nut flush and a 76 low for a decent pot — since everyone was in on it at first — but I ran into some trouble in the Hold’em round, holding on to top pair twice in a row against players who picked up trips on the turn.
Two hours in, the big bet was already up to 1K, and I was down to 9500 chips from a 14K starting stack. But the next hour, in an Omaha Hi-Lo round, I somehow scooped a pot with a pair of threes and got back over starting stack.
It wasn’t going to be back-to-back cashes for me in HORSE tournaments, however. Once again, it was Hold’em that stuck it to me. Not long before the end of round 12, I 3-bet with AxKx and the original raiser and I pumped it up to 7500, five bets at that level. I had him slightly outchipped. I whiffed the low flop, but called his bet. The turn was an ace, and he bet it, I put in another bit get, and he was all in for a bit more. He flipped over QxQx. All good. Until the queen came on the river, leaving me with less than two big bets.
Qe switched into Omaha and I took down a 3/4 pot by making a straight with middle cards and still having the low, then picked up 2x4x4x5x and it looked like I might pick up some more but no low came in, and though I had a set of fours, the queens guy had a set of jacks.
That was it for me! Back home to go to work the next morning, driving on the mountain road to Salem in the dark and the rain. Post-Poker Fun! I wasn’t able to make it down to the Main Event the next weekend, but I think I played about as well as I ever have, despite being a wee bit rusty.
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
No results here yet from the PacWest Poker Classic, but there are definitely some interesting things from outside the region.
Coldfield, Washington’s Paul Wood was 5th in the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza #29 $100K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, out of 177 entries ($171.7K prize pool). It’s their biggest cash to date, and it’s enough to take Woods from #4588 to #2815 on the PNW Poker Leaderboard.
Picking up results from early December, Prabakaran Sivabalasundaram from Calgary was 5th out of 233 entries in this event at Cash Casino in their home town. The prize pool reached C$221K. Sivabalasundaram gains more than a hundred spots on the Leaderboard, landing at #822. 4th place was claimes by Deron Noksana from the Northwest Territories, jumping seventy places to #434. Third place gave David Howat (Calgary) a two-hundred-place boost to #747. Lethbridge, Alberta’s Kevin Martin took 2nd, for a gain of twenty-three spots (#172). And on the top of the heap was Jimmy Lee from Edmonton, climbing from #77 to #69.
Edmonton’s Allen Butkovic was runner-up in the Pure Poker Tour Edmonton #5 NLHE. The prize pool was over C$100K with 362 entries. Butkovic gains nine places, to #268.
This event (mid-February, not last year!) got 481 entries, generating a prize pool of C$438K. Krista Kay Teller (Leduc, Alberta) picked up their biggest-ever cash in 7th and gained twelve hundred places on the Leaderboard, landing at #2117. Just ahead of Tellier in 6th was Ali Razzaq of Edmonton, climbing from #1259 to #993. Also from Edmonton was 4th-place finisher Tyler St. Clair, rising thirty-six spots to #304. Ali Taghi Khani (Edmonton) placed 2nd in both this event and Pure Poker Tour Edmonton #3 NLHE Bounty(306 entries, C$144K prize pool), for their two biggest-ever cashes and nearly nine hundred places on the Leaderboard, now #634. Edmonton’s Andy Truong was the winner of the Main Event, gaining sixty-two places, to #166.
Climbing almost thirteen hundred places to #1835 is Sherwood park, Alberta’s Edgar Zurawell, who won the Wild West Shootout #3 NLHE Mini Main Event, ahead of 244 other players and with a prize pool just short of C$63K.
James Schmidt (Spokane) got their biggest-ever cash and fifty-six spots on the Leaderboard (#423) with 2nd place at the Wynn Millions Poker Series $40K GTD NLHE Seniors. 348 entries made a prize pool just over $120K.
Coming in 13th at the Wynn Millions $1.5M GTD NLHE Mystery Bounty, Beaverton’s Anthony An took down their biggest-ever cash and rose over four hundred places to #983. And it was Rambo Halpern — former owner of one of the first poker clubs I played in — who took an astounding 2nd-place (plus some bounties) in the field of 2,103 that more than doubled the guarantee. It bumps him up by two hundred places, to #150 on the PNW Poker Leaderboard.Brian Cunningham (Portland) gained nearly two thousands spots on the Leaderboard by winning the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I #24 $100K NLHE MonsterStack. Cunningham beat a field of 195 (prize pool of $189K).
Dylan Linde ekes out a rare Top Twenty move: up one spot from #6 to #5 (edging out James Romero) with 7th place at the LA Poker Classic #28 NLHE Main Event, which got 119 entries and a prize pool of $1.12M. Which also brings us to the last name on this edition of the PNW Poker Leaderboard: Seattle’s Jayakrishnan Nair, who claimed 2nd place and a forty-four spot climb, to #86.
Just a few results after the deluge of WSOP Circuit stuff last time. Picking up three good cashes from the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza I.
Vancouver, Washington provided the winners of two of those numbers.
David Moshe was the winner of the Venetian DSE #7 $40K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, in an even 2-way chop. There were 130 entries in the tournament, and it posted a prize pool of $66K.
The other Vancouvian on the board this week was Christopher Hull, who was 2nd in a 2-way chop in a similar tournament, the Venetian DSE #13 $40K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, this one with 154 entries.
The third and final result for this edition is from Victoria: Dominick French was 2nd in Venetian DSE #1 $100K GTD NLHE UltimateStack, which was also chopped two ways, with 468 entries and a prize pool of $154K.
Portland Meadows NLHE Mystery Bounty
I hadn’t played live poker since before Christmas, so I was champing at the bit when Brian Sarchi announced the first Mystery Bounty tournament in the area a couple of weeks ago. I’m always interested in trying out something different, and I kind of figured I needed to get my poker legs back before heading to Chinook Winds for the PacWest Poker Classic next month.
Because parking’s always tight, I meant to take the bus over Sunday morning but since I didn’t get going early enough, I hopped over in the Mutantmobile. The lot was already full a half-hour before the show, so I ended up in the Comcast parking lot down the street.
Unlike a regular bounty tournament, where you get a set value for each player you knock out, the mystery bounty format only pays out when players are already in the money. So there’s no potential for saving yourself with bounties if you don’t cash. You’ve got to make it into the money yourself to get any bounties (and even then you’re not guaranteed).
This tournament was paying 15% of the field, which meant 15% of the players would have bounties on their heads. When the field gets down to the money, each of the remaining players gets a bounty chip, and when you knock someone out and take their bounty chip, you get a chance to draw an envelope from the lottery drum and find out how much your the bounty is worth: in this case, anywhere from $400 (the price of entry) to $5,000.
Jackie Burkhart with one of the hand warmer/cell phone chargers she brought, which were a popular item on a chilly afternoon.
My table started looking rough at the very beginning, as Sam Nguyen sat down in seat 3 and Jackie Burkhart popped into seat 2, with Toma Barber showing up a little after things started in seat 1. I was sitting in 5 (not to give short shrift to the other end of the table, but I’ve been out of the loop for a while and didn’t recognize everyone, particularly with masks on).
The person I (and everyone else) needed to watch out for was seat 4 who, after a bit of a lull early on, went on a tear, knocking out player after player and amassing a stack of chips that was approximately 10% of the chips in play while we were still 54-handed (44% of the original field).
It made for some nail-biting calls, when I’d get involved, some action would raise the stakes, and seat 4 would move a handful of red chips into play, essentially putting anyone involved in the hand all-in.He cleared out short stacks and some big stacks, like a poker Katamari Damancy.
The first couple of levels didn’t go so well. My stack slid down from the 30K start to just over 20K, then in level 3, I managed to spin it up to nearly 80K, knocking out Toma (sadly) in the process. Ran some queens into aces and lost more than half my stack not long after registration had closed, though I did almost get bailed out with a spade flush on the board.
By round 8, eight players had been eliminated from our table. Toma was one, but the other seven were all part of the stack on my right. I was nursing the approximately 40K I had left after my setback, and just about half the 121 entries had been eliminated.
I was still below the 67K average with less than 30bb as we went to level 9, with a 2K big blind. I chipped up a little bit—even getting a laydown from the big stack—as we closed in on the end of the fifth hour of play.
The first big hand for me was in UTG+1. The big stack raised and I 3-bet A♣Q♣. People got out of the way of the next casualty and we got the money all in, with the big stack holding 8♣8♠. I made trip aces on the flop, but the middle card was an 8♥, giving him a full house. I was resigned to my fate, but on the river came a Q♥ for a better full house and I doubled up to more than 130K, which was probably enough to get me close to the money, since we were down to around 40 players, with 18 places paying.
I should have left myself in resignation mode, though. Just a few hands later, I had kings and 3-bet seat 4. He called and we were heads-up to the queen-high flop, where we got all-in and I was up against aces again. And lost again, but this time didn’t have any chips left. I probably should have been able to get away, even with kings, and if it had been any other player, maybe i could have; there just wasn’t any way to do it against that big stack.
That was my Mystery Bounty experience. Sam outlasted me, as did Darin Stout who came to the table a level or two before I left. Brian says he’s planning to run something like this again soon, which should be entertaining. My reccomendation would be to adjust a couple glitches in the payout structures. The curve for the position payouts should be adjusted on the bottom so the bottom payouts are at least a little more than the buy-in ($400, in this case). It’s not a huge adjustment to the curve to backfill some of the lower payouts.
Likewise, the Mystery Bounty amounts ought not to have jumps of $100, $500, $500, $1000, $1000, $500, $1000. The interval should always increase!
So much to get to. I thought there would be a bit of a lull in January, but there was a lot of Pacific Northwest action at the World Series of Poker Circuit Calgary in January (there’s another one at Calgary’s Deerfoot Innjust before the WSOP in May). That’s what happens when you bring a major series up this way. But first…
Poker In the Ears
Those of you who follow the blog (which I assume is anyone reading this) may remember I appeared as a Superfan quiz contestant against Joe Stapleton last May on the Poker In the Ears podcast (along with co-host James Hartigan). In the most recent episode (#238), James read a comment I made on their Discord channel asking why—among all of the other non-poker media they mention—they hadn’t dropped Peacemaker. Not satisfying responses. Watch it.
Portland Meadows Special Events
Portland Meadows is holding two special events in February. On Saturday the 19th is a $180 NLHE Freezeout and on Sunday the 20th is their first NLHE Mystery Bounty. The Bounty is a $400 buy-in, and once the field is down to 15% of registrants, anyone who knocks out another player gets to draw from the barrel to see the amount of the bounty they receive, from $400 to $5K. Both tournaments are freezeouts, with no add-on, and 30 minute levels.
The PacWest Poker Classic is Back!
It’s been two years since I was at Chinook Winds for the last tournament series there, and after having to postpone their attempt to restart last fall, it looks like things are finally going to happen in less than four weeks now. There’s a program and structures and everything. It’s the usual full schedule of guaranteed tournaments and (guaranteed) satellites, with 19 scheduled events, including tentpole $100K GTD and $225K GTD tournaments on the weekends, the $560 (including buy-in, fee, and dealer appreciation) NLHE 6-Max, HORSE, Big O (still only a $170 buy-in), and $660 NLHE Big Bounty. It’ll be very familiar for anyone who’s been there before, and hopefully a little bit of a return to normal. No idea what the covid restrictions are going to be by then; as of today, masks and temperature checks are still in place according to the web site.
Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up
Wildhorse has announced their April series, but there’s no schedule released as of yet. Check their poker page for updates.
Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard
As mentioned, the bulk of the news is coming out of Calgard and the first World Series of Poker Circuit stop in the Northwest since Vancouver seven years ago.
Wie Da from Edmonton picked up their first cash, good for a jump into #4046 on the Leaderboard, by placing 3rd in WSOPC Calgary #5 PLO. The field of 246 entries pushed the prize pool over US$$100K. Takuma Bergeron from Coquitlam, British Columbia moved from #1056 to #773 by taking 2nd place. The winner of the tournament was Calgary’s Pei Li, climbing nearly eleven hundred places to #1230 and scoring a personal best.
Vancouver-based Omid Pekniyat got a first Hendon Mob cash and comes in at #3937 by taking 2nd in WSOPC Calgary #11 NLHE/PLO 8-Max. Wei Min Hou of Vancouver was the winner, and debuts at #2928.
The Main Event in Calgary got 1,179 entries, with a prize pool of US$1.4M. Coming in 21st was Edmonton’s Jason Pelletier picking up a best-ever cash and jumping a thousand places on the Leaderboard to #2237. 20th went to West Vancouver’s Forouzan Soloudeh, with a climb of more than one hundred places to #843. In 19th was Harminder Aujla of Surrey, British Columbia, going from #1140 to #981. Weston Pring of Calgary was 18th, enough for #298, a gain of eleven places. Michael Bernstein from Edmonton placed 18th rising nearly one-hundred and fifty spots to #809. It was a biggest-ever cash for Vancouver’s Tyson Rampersand, climbing more than thirty-five hundred places to #2620 by placing 15th. 13th was enough to move Edmonton’s Jonathan Sanborn seven places on the upper end of the Leaderboard, to #175. Coming in at 11th was Shane Axelson (Calgary)for their only cash so far, which places them at #2659. 10th place was another newcomer to the Leaderboard, North Vancouver’s Adam Crockett, with a best-ever cash that jumps them into #2448. Robert Buckingham from Calgary took 6th, for a biggest-ever cash that pushed them up nearly four thousand places to #1162. Edmonton-based Malcolm Bolger also had their best-ever result in 5th, though an impressive record going back to 2008 meant they only moved from #150 to #126, Pam MacNaughton from Red Deer, Alberta came in 4th, for a move of sixty-five places to #173. From Vancouver, Arvhin Melinah picked up 3rd for a best-ever result that catapulted them all the way to #386 on the Leaderboard in their premiere appearance. And Cody Mckay from Daysland, Alberta was the winner of the tournament, with a best-ever cash that moved them from #577 to #167.
Edmonton’s Michael Shaw took 2nd in the WSOPC Calgary #3 NLHE Black Chip Bounty. The tournament had 540 entries and a non-bounty prize pool of nearly US$100K (plus bounties of over $40K). Shaw’s cash was only their 2nd; they move up nearly four thousand places on the Leaderboard, to #3020.
There was almost US$250K in the prize pool for this tournament, with 943 entries. Skyler Daoust of Nanaimo, British Columbia got a first recorded cash in 5th place, putting them on the Leaderboard at #3804. Aamir Khan of Calgary place 4th to climb thirty-four places to #398. Cole Harmon from Courtenay, British Columbia took it down and jumped more than a thousand places, landing at #919.
Shannon Lazorko of Calgary picked up a third (and best) Hendon Mob cash placing 5th in this 1,108-entry tournament with a prize pool of US$227K. Lazorko debuts on the Leaderboard at #3504. Another newcomer with a first cash (also from Calgary) is Chris Yu. for 4th. Yu is at #3088. In 2nd was (again, Calgary) Jason Hromada—also new to the list—at #1918 with just their third recorded cash. Peter Griffin’s win was their fourth cash (just beating their third, from back in 2016) and takes the British Columbia player from #1216 to #677.
Moving from Calgary for a moment to Durant, Oklahoma, Bellevue’s Dien Le came in 23rd in the WSOPC Choctaw #9 NLHE Main Event. There were more than 1,400 entries and a prize pool that surpassed $2.1M. Le ekes out a five-spot rise to #119.
Edmonton’s Jonathan Woof got a first cash with a win in WSOPC Calgary #6 NLHE Double Stack. The prize pool was $86K with 542 entries. Woof starts out at #2966.
Back up in Calgary, Edmonton’s Zhi Jiang won WSOPC Calgary #7 NLHE 6-Max, their best-ever cash (out of four) and good enough for a place at #2421.
Vancouver, Washington’s Jaime Cervantes Alvarez took 45th in the field of nearly two thousand at the WPT Lucky Hearts #20 $2M GTD NLHE Championship. Alvarez moves from #189 to #162. The prize pool was over $6M.
Reginald Caymol of Seattle climbs from #352 to #304, taking 5th in the Wynn Signature Series $250K GTD NLHE. 671 entries pushed the prize pool to nearly $350K.
The WSOPC Calgary #1 NLHE DoubleStack was won by hometown player Adam Balis over 375 other entries, with a prize pool of just under US$100K. Balis picked up a first-ever cash and enters the Leaderboard at #2144.
Portland’s Brian Barker came in 3rd at a Wynn $150K GTD NLHEwith 301 entries. Barker gets a best-ever cahs and is #2123.
Adelsinei Da Silva from Seattle got their biggest cash with 3rd out of 718 in Philadelphia at the Live! Size NLHE. The prize pool was over $277K, with what looks like a 4-way chop. Da Silva jumps from #3804 to #1596.
Brian Foley of Puolsbo, Washington hit big twice in this reporting period, at yet another Circuit stop, first with a 4th-place at WSOPC Thunder Valley #9 NLHE High Roller outside of Sacramento, then 9th at WSOPC Thunder Valley #10 $500K GTD NLHE Main Event. That propelled Foley up from #2080 to #851. The High Roller had 59 entries and a prize pool of $207K; the Main Event beat the guarantee by nearly $400K, with 587 entries. Shoreline, Washington’s Feiyue Wu pops onto the Leaderboard at #850 by coming in 3rd with a best-ever cash.
Picking up a late result (from Calgary…), Vancouver’s Chuck Choi won the Deerfoot Inn Fall Super Stack #7 NLHE Main Event back in November, over 396 others. The prize pool was over $300K. Choi debuts on the Leaderboard at #1149.
Mike Zuro from Salem picked up a Circuit Ring at WSOPC Tunica #2 $100K GTD NLHE. He beat a field of 1,585 and took 1st out of a prize pool of more than half a million dollars. It’s great to see Mike hit it big, I had a great dinner at an event at Chinook Winds with Zuro and his wife years ago. Zuro blasts from #3304 to #748.
Finally, James Romero edges out Dylan Linde for the 5th-place spot on the Leaderboard after winning the WPT Lucky Hearts #19 $200K GTD NLHE Deep Stack.There were 413 entries and the prize pool rose to as giddy $826K.
That’s all for now! Keep on winning (and Happy almost-Valentine’s Day)!
It’s a whole new year, but the Poker Mutant is back with just a few end-of-the-year results. After the long slogs of the past two Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboards, let me tell you, it’s nice to just have a handful of names to go through.
Starting off with Olympia’s Glenn Larson, who grabbed 3rd place in the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley #5 $100K NLHE Norcal Jacked Stack back at the beginning of December. 554 entries and a $277K prize pool. Larson gains one hundred and thirty-plus places to land at #461.
Jonathan Sanborn of Edmonton won a World Series of Poker Circuit Ring at the WSOPC Aruba #5NLHE Monster Stack. It’s the first Ring for Sanborn, who gets a dozen spots on the leaderboard to hit #182.
Congratulations to Dominick French of Canada who was the winner via a four way chop in our DeepStack Extravaganza Event #23 $400 NLH MonsterStack $20,000 guarantee on 12.16.21
Congratulations to Derick Roseborough of Kimberly, ID who was the winner via a five way chop in our DeepStack Extravaganza Event #30 $500 NLH EpicStack $30,000 guarantee on 12.24.21
Premiering at #3242 on the Leaderboard is Kimberly, Idaho player Derick Roseborough, nabbing a win in the Venetian #30 $30K GTD NLHE Deepstack over 118 other entries. It’s Roseborough’s first recorded cash.
Patrick Ronan of Girdwood, Alaska came in 10th out of 851 entries in the Venetian/Mid-States Poker Tour #40 $500K GTD NLHE Main Event to close out the 2021 results on the Leaderboard (thought there may always be some stragglers). It’s Ronan’s best cash to date, and it move4s them from #1426 to #1151.
Portland’s Andy Su gets the first result of 2022, in the Venetian #43 $200K GTD NLHE UltimateStack, with a 5th-place finish. Su goes up thirty-0four slots, to #340.
And we’ll wrap up this edition of the Leaderboard with Christopher Brewer (#14) taking 2nd out of 37 in the Venetian/PokerGO High Roller 02,
That’s it until next time. I’m off to drink some Glenmorrangie to celebrate the Internal Revenue Service finally accepting my tournament buy-in expenses for 2018 after ten months of trying to get them to understand that poker money doesn’t grow on trees.
