#PNWPokerCalendar Planner for October 28

Brian Thorp, winner of the Final Table $100K Guarantee, October 24, 2015 (photo via Final Table Facebook page)

Brian Thorp, winner of the Final Table $100K Guarantee, October 24, 2015 (photo via Final Table Facebook page)

Final Table $100K Guarantee

The $100K Guarantee at Final Table is over, and we have a winner! According to the post on Facebook, there was no chop. Total prize pool was $113K—a bit smaller than the spring event—with a combined 299 entries and rebuys. I was up from 12K to 28K by the first break (after level 4), then busted out at the end of level 10, jamming a short stack with [kc qc] into a raise from Tam Nguyen, who had [jx jx].

Encore Poker Series

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With that out of the way, it means this week is the Encore Poker Series VII, with its own $100K. I’m out of the running for the two bigger games of the series: the $50K on Saturday and the $100K on Sunday; gotta blow ethylene glycol fog on the trick-or-treaters on Halloween (seriously, scheduling on Halloween?), and Poker Mutant Papa has a significant birthday on All Saints Day, but I’m planning to play both Thursday and Friday ($20K and $30K guarantees, respectively).

Here’s a quick rundown:

Guarantee$20K$30K$50K$100K
DayThursdayFridaySaturdaySunday
Date10/2910/3010/3111/1
Starting Time8pm8pm1pm12pm
Buyin/Rebuy/Re-Entry Cost$100$150$250$500
Buyin/Rebuy/Re-Entry Chips15K15K25K30K
Rebuy/Re-Entry1 Rebuy through level 31 Rebuy through level 3Unlimited Re-Entry through level 6Unlimited Re-Entry through level 6
Addon Cost$50 between level 3 and 4$60 between level 3 and 4$100 between level 3 and 4, entries and re-entries in levels 4-6 can buy addon at that time$100 between level 3 and 4, entries and re-entries in levels 4-6 can buy addon at that time
Addon Chips10K10K15K20K
Blind Level Length25 minutes25 minutes35 minutes40 minutes

It always amuses me a little when poker rooms like the Venetian return to their regular schedules after a series (see below). They send me announcements about the guarantees: $124.5K in guarantees every week at the Venetian. But if you add up the guaranteed events at Encore over a week, it’s over $50K. Yes, there are some differences: the base buyin at the Venetian is larger, there are only two events each day (as opposed to five), but the steady drizzle of Portland poker versus the flash flood of Vegas poker stacks up pretty well, considering.

Red Zone II

red

It’s down to the finals in the Poker Update “Most Memorable Televised Poker Hand of All Time” contest. Dozens of Northwest voters helped push Justin “Red” Phillips’s from slightly behind a hand featuring Mikael Mizrachi to a massive win with 80% of the vote. The final is Phillips vs. Phil Hellmuth getting squashed in a hand from “The Big Game.”

WSOP November Nine

The big news in the poker world, of course, is the World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine, who meet back at the table on Sunday, November 8th. According to Kevin Mathers, the all-seeing eye of the poker world, this is the schedule, in Las Vegas (i.e. Pacific) time. No live streaming, which bites.

Miscellaneous

Checked in on the Last Sunday of the Month tournament at Tulalip Resort Casino, which was a $500 buyin.

The poker room calendar for next month says there’s another $500K at the end of November, this time with $5K added.

And a little further north in Vancouver, PokerNews Canada covered the PlayNow Poker Championship at the Hard Rock. The final three players in the C$1,650 Main Event chopped up C$150K, with another C$8,760 for the winner, awarding Scott McMorran more than US$44.6K.

World Poker Tour Five Diamond Poker Classic: Deal of the Day

Looking for that perfect Christmas/birthday gift for the Poker Mutant? Nothing says you love the weekly #PNWPokerCalendar Planner than a $10.4K ticket to the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio in mid-December. A little too much? How about $1.6K for the Seniors event? Or $1,090 for the other codgers tournament on December 7th?

The Five Diamond runs from December 4th to the 19th and includes a $560 buyin event on Sunday, December 6th, numerous events at $1,090 and $1.6K, a couple of $5.2K and $10.4K tournaments (including the Main Event), and a $100K High Roller. If you’ve been itching to play a big-buyin Pot Limit Omaha event, there’s one on the schedule for $1,090. Oh, and another for $10.4K.

No guarantees, but last year’s Main made a $5.7M prize pool with 586 entries. The series is sure to draw in a crowd of poker players, along with folks making a trip to Vegas to blow the money they’ve saved all year to buy Christmas presents, and over at the Venetian, they’ve scheduled the five-day Winter Weekend Extravaganza starting the 9th to cater to folks with smaller bankrolls. It includes a $100K guarantee with just a $250 buyin.

I’ve never played at Bellagio—their riff-raff scanners keep me out—but I hear it’s very nice inside and the Five Diamond is sort of the jewel in the WPT crown, so I’m giving the pick this week. Say “Hi” to Mike and Vince for me.

This Week in Portland Poker

I expect things are going to be mostly focused at Encore for the weekend, but there are a few things to note:

  • Tonight at Portland Players Club is a $1K guarantee Big O tournament (7:15pm, $20/8K buyin, live rebuys at ≤12K, $30/20K addon). Halloween brings a $2K guarantee Big O game (5pm, $100/30K buyin/live rebuys, $40/20K addon, 30 minute rounds). If you’re a fan of the strange and bizarre, try out their Monday Mix 19 (or so) game shootout (double-barreled 6-card Omaha, anyone?), but beware of the $5-25 spread bets in the limit games! BEWARE! And if you’re looking for a poker club to buy….
  •  The Game has announced a $10K guaranteed winner-takes-all event for 4pm November 21st. 80 player cap, $100 buyin/rebuy/addon. Please, guys, lose the zooming red text.

Only a Day Away

  • The Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up is set to start on November 5th. Eleven days of poker in Pendleton. I just got out of town the last time I went as it was starting to snow.  This has been billed as the biggest poker series in the Northwest for years, and I haven’t seen a lot of competition for that title. Some, but not a lot. See my Deal from last month for more.
  • At LA’s Hustler Casino Liz Flynt Fall Poker Classic, a $500K, $350 buyin tournament starts Thursday, with two starting flights (12:30pm and 5pm) every day through Monday (had the week wrong on that one in last week’s post).
  • The Venetian Deepstacks Extravaganza IV started Monday and runs until Thanksgiving, with 61 events. Coming up this weekend is the second big guarantee, a $600 buyin $200K event with starting days Thursday through Saturday and Day 2 on Sunday. Next week is a $175K ($400 buyin) and a $200K guarantee for $1.1K.
  • Tomorrow (the 29th) is the start of the closest WSOP Circuit event of the year, at Harveys Lake Tahoe. None of the 12 events have guarantees, and there’s no HORSE bracelet this year, but even the non-ring Seniors event last year got 254 entries (and was won by Camas’s Debra Pulley), so there should be plenty of tournament and cash action to justify the trip.
  • In addition to Wildhorse (see above), Thursday the 5th is the beginning of the Mid-States Poker Tour stop at Golden Gates, west of Denver. Opening weekend is a $100K, $360 buyin tournament. The Main Event has a $1.1K buyin and $200K guarantee.
  • Aria in Las Vegas has a couple more of those $25K High Rollers on November 6th and 7th to take advantage of the folks in town railing the WSOP Main Event.
  • Friday the 6th is the opening of the World Tavern Poker Open at Planet Hollywood (which I wrote about last month); it ends just before the World Series of Poker Circuit hits the same venue.

Check out the Pacific Northwest Tournament Calendar for more poker.