#PNWPokerCal Planner for 11 January 2017

It’s been a quiet week in Lake Woebegon…wait, those are the wrong old man notes….

#PDXPokerTroubles

The billionth ice storm of a winter less than a month old caused yet more havoc for poker players in the Portland region. The Game opened up Friday, only to be greeted with sheets of ice across the city that evening. Out in North Portland, Portland Meadows was closed both Saturday and Sunday because of the storm, and even though things were beginning to thaw in the city on Monday, their capacious but exposed parking lot was a sheet of ice and the building’s operators kept it closed Monday. Final Table was able to open up on Monday after weekend closures; fortunately, they got their First Friday $20K in under the snow front. Rialto, as mentioned last week, is closed for several weeks after a fire in the building.

It snowed here Tuesday evening (as if you didn’t know that already), so it’s likely there are more weather closures this week.

My own poker week was short. I played a tournament with the group of guys who got me back into poker. Not exactly high stakes, you can see from the numbers below (as well as my new nickname above the notation for the quad kings high hand I made that took a bunch of the host;s chips. But that was the only money I made during the night, I lost three big hands after being chip leader and went out in fifth place. Afterward, I went to the only other home game I’ve ever been to, where I met a very nice young woman who told me she read the blog every week—before she took all of my chips in a Big O cash game. And then I switched tables to play some 7-Card Stud before a) realizing it was Stud 8 and b) was Pot Limit. Not a good night overall for me.

 

Deal of the Week: Tulalip Poker Pow Wow $100K

 

There are only a limited number of $100K Guarantee (or events with prize pools that large) events within a few hours drive of the Portland. We had three of them in town last spring, but there’s nothing that big on the immediate horizon here for the moment. That leaves Wildhorse (where the Spring and Fall Main Events are $170K to $200K and more without guarantees) and Chinook Winds (where the Main Event next month has had a $100K guarantee). Muckleshoot’s Main Events. And Tulalip, north of Seattle.

The 2017 Poker Pow Wow starts Saturday, but the big events are next weekend (a $50K Guarantee) and the last full week of the month. The Main Event  is a $500 buyin with $20 dealer appreciation tournament. There are entry days on Thursday (26 January), Friday, and Saturday, with the final day of play on Sunday (29 January). All days of the Main Event start at 11am. The drive is roughly the same as to Pendleton for distance, but usually a little slower due to Seattle-area traffic.

No online structure sheets, but what do you need to know? It’s a 2-day $100K for $520 bucks! Go get ’em!

This Week In Portland Poker

No announcements for anything special this weekend that I’ve seen so far, but a lot is going to depend on the weather. If the snow hangs around for a while, we could all be cannibalizing out rolls in no time, if you know what I mean. Have you ever considered a Caribbean poker cruise?

Only a Day Away

The poker world is ramping back up after the holidays!

  • Friday is the last of four entry days into the Hustler Casino Poker Players Tournament $250K Guarantee that closes out the series this weekend. If you can get to LA, it’s $250 for the buyin, and there are two flights (12:30 and 5pm) each day, with 12% of the field going to Day 2 (Saturday) and 15% in the money.
  • The Heartland Poker Tour East Chicago series starts tomorrow with a $300 buyin $100K Guaranteed tournament. There are three entry days, with Day 2 on 15 January. The first of three Main Event flights in on 19 January. It’s still possible to get flight/room packages at the hosting casino for either tournament for less than $600 total. Last year’s opening $100K had a prize pool of $298K, and the $1,650 Main Event prize pool was over $900K, with a top prize of $211K.
  • Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic  begins a seven-week run on Friday.  There are a total of 60 events, with eleven of them having guarantees of $100K or more, plus the $10K buyin WPT Championship that caps the series. Structures have been posted for about half of the events so far. Of particular note for Portland players is the $570 entry Big O tournament on Groundhog Day (2 February).
  • The 2-week Tulalip Poker Pow Wow starts 14 January with a $10K Guarantee, then a week including O8, HORSE, and PLO, before the $50K Guarantee and $100K Guarantee events on succeeding weeks.
  • The $40K Guarantee Stones Gambling Hall Chip Amplifier is 15 January outside of Sacramento. Buyin in level 1 is $120 for 10K in chips, but the price and the number of chips go up for each level, with the last one being level 6 where $550 gets you 60K in chips.
  • It’s back to Thunder Valley on the 17th, with Poker Night in America.As they’ve done before, they’re running satellites to the $5,000 buyin televised cash game (filmed 28/29 January), as well as a slate of 12 tournaments that features two $250K Guarantees (the first for a $450 buyin and the second for $1,100). In-between, there’s 6-Max, HORSE, and lots of satellites to the second of the $250Ks.
  • If you’re in Vegas next week, the Venetian January Weekend Extravaganza starts  Wednesday (18 January) and runs through Sunday. The biggest event is a $150 buyin $60K Guarantee, but there’s a $9K Guarantee $250 PLO Bounty tournament on Saturday evening, which looks like fun. The month-long Deepstack Extravaganza I gets going just a week later, on 30 January.

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