#PNWPokerCal Planner for 8 February 2017

Bryce Burt

LAPC News

It was a busy Friday for Portland players at Commerce Casino’s Los Angeles Poker Classic. Early on Friday, as predicted, PDX represented in the Big O tournament, with Bryce Burt and Joe Brandenburg in the final six going into Day 2 of the $570, 52-entry game. Joe had the lead, with had more than twice the number of chips of the nearest contender. Both he and Bryce were already in the money, with seven places paying (and two players sharing the money for that spot).

Joe Brandenburg

Bryce took 5th place, and Joe went on to the final three-way deal. Joe and another player took less cash than the third player in the deal, but Joe managed to snag the Frederick Remington bronze statuette that LAPC awards, which he can put on the shelf along with the World Series of Poker Circuit Ring he won last fall.

But that wasn’t the only LAPC trophy coming back to Oregon after Friday.

Joey Pham

Joey Pham—who took 3rd in a PLO8 tournament on Wednesday—entered the WPT LAPC Main Event Freeroll and won a seat to the $10,000 buyin tournament that starts 25 February.

Pham bested 617 other players with a $0 investment. There was an optional $60 addon that doubled the starting stack, but Pham did a true freeroll. The seat was added to the prize pool by Commerce; the rest of the final table received $1,100 satellite entries based on the number of addons sold during the tournament. Last year’s LAPC Main Event was won by Dietrich Fast, who got just over $1M.

The Price of Poker Is Going Up

Most of the card rooms in Portland have charged $10 a day for the seven years I’ve been playing in them, whether you’re there for a single tournament or all day playing shootouts. The late, lamented Portland Players Club had a $5 entry fee for its early game back in the day, and you can still get into The Game for $5 before noon.

But the big clubs—Portland Meadows and Final Table—have both announced that they will be raising the rate by 50% to $15/day starting 3 March. That may be a little tough on players of something like the $20 morning tournament at Final Table (42% vig!) but I can’t really begrudge the clubs for having to adjust prices for the time.

To soften the blow a little, the clubs announced another 4-event series to be held over the first two weekends of March. Details to come.

Bronzie

Super Poker Portland

A lot of pent-up poker energy went into making the first big weekend of the poker year a success, despite attempts to ice the whole thing last Friday. An expected ice storm caused Final Table to exercise the option to call off the guarantee  Friday morning when freezing rain actually did hit PDX, but a warming trend quickly turned it to slush and floodwaters (in creeksides and parking lots), and by the time of the game at 7pm, they needn’t have bothered. The prize pool was $17,600 anyway, and the final six players made a deal for $2,000 each, with the remainder to be paid to first place. Sometime around 5:30am, that got chopped up for the final three.

And yes, I took fifth place.

I got five hours of sleep and went on a spectacular (spectacular for me, anyways) run on Saturday at Portland Meadows, going from 15K for the starting stack to 70K at the first break, and 135K before the second break addon. It was the second-largest tournament ever at Meadows, with 349 entries. It was over the guarantee more than an hour before entry closed (and before addons), cresting finally at $43,170.

I made a horrible misstep as we closed in on two tables (well into the money with 45 places paying but still far down the payout scale), opening from early position with [8s 7s] and more than double the average stack into another big stack on an eight high board with two clubs. Too much aggression? Playing poker for fifteen-and-a-half hours since midnight Friday (and five hours before that)? Whatever it was, it likely cost me a lot of money. I ended up losing all but about 5bb and went out a couple hands later so I could go home and kick myself.

Freedom of Choice

After seeing my article on Advanced Poker TrainingGavin Smith (the former Portlander, not the Canadian/Alaskan one), contacted me asking if I knew of any way to get training in the games played at the WSOP Dealers Choice tournaments. My own feeling is that the market for most of those games is too small to have a general training site. Most of the games aren’t even played online, you have to be in venues where there are enough mixed game players to find cash games, much less tournaments, which do have a different style. Devin Sweet‘s Monday Mix game is on hiatus, there is a Tuesday night mix game hosted at Portland Meadows by Jeremy Harkin, and there are some private games, but you can’t even really find a HORSE tournament in town now that PPC is gone.

Eugene’s Full House Poker did just post a notice in NW Poker that they are running a 31+ game Mix on Sundays and Wednesdays. Timely.

I almost played the DC at the WSOP a couple of years ago. I’m ready for a study group. Who’s ready to talk Badeucy?

Articles

In case you missed it, I did a write-up this week of my battle against a virtual Qui Nguyen on Advanced Poker Training’s Final Table Trainer. And the day before that, a little post about how to estimate when a WSOP tournament will end (and how to find other useful info).

A couple of questions over the weekend made me think that a reminder of last year’s series on equities in a 6-Max tournament (A Game That Will Live In Infamy) and a PLO8 Bounty tournament (Wild Kingdom) might be in order. Enjoy!

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the place to be. Only another 10 days to the beach.

Deal of the Week: LAPC Satellites

I have to say that I wish I could get the time off to go down to Los Angeles to catch one of the satellites at the LAPC. Not because I think I can follow in Joey Pham’s footsteps and win a free seat, but because there have been some hefty overlays in the daily satellites for the Main Event.

Every Sunday-Thursday at 7pm, the Commerce and WPT have been guaranteeing a $10,000 Main Event seat in a mega satellite with a $225 initial buy-in (there are live $200 rebuys if you’re at or under the starting stack, and an optional $200 addon. The satellites need the equivalent of 50 buyins to make the guarantee, but they’ve been getting started with fewer than ten entrants, which means that —if you play your cards right—you could potentially win a WPT seat for substantially less than the $1,100 satellites that run on the weekends.

Only a Day Away

  • Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic is nearing the end of its first month (it runs through the first days of March). This weekend’s big event is the second $300K GTD of the series, with a $570 buyin and entry days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Friday evening is a two-day $570 Dealer’s Choice tournament, there’s a 2-seat GTD satellite for the $10K Main Event Saturday ($1,100 entry) and Sunday is the $1,100 HORSE (2 hour levels) and another 1-seat GTD Main Event Freeroll. Monday is the $1,100 PLO8/O8, thenTuesday is the start of a $1M GTD with 4 starting day ($1,100)
  • This weekend at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I there’s a $250K GTD $800 event with starts Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Monday is a $400 $15K GTD O8 (one day). Next weekend is another $250K GTD, but with a $600 entry.
  • Heartland Poker Tour Colorado starts tomorrow at the Golden Gate Casino west of Denver. Event #1 has three starting days (saturday is the last) with a $300 buyin. Monday is the $200 Seniors tournament, then the $1,650 buyin Main Event begins next Wednesday. Lots of satellites through the week.
  • Next week is the first Wednesday satellite for the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic. Direct buyin starts today for the five events beginning Wednesday, 15 Marsh ($250 Shootout; $200, $300, $500 NLHE; and $750 Main Event). A Wednesday night (7pm ) satellite win get you either:
    • Tickets to the $500 and any two of the three smaller events, or
    • Main Event ticket and one of the events excluding the $500.
  • Medford Poker Club has a $260 NLHE tournament this Saturday at noon. $225 with a $25 fee, no rebuy, $25 addon (after round 5), and a $10 dealer appreciation.
  • Thursday, 16 February is the first flight of five (2 flights on Friday and Saturday) for another $100K Catapult at Thunder Valley.
  • The World Series of Poker Circuit comes to the home the the WSOP in the first Las Vegas stop of the year at the Rio on 17 February. The opening event is a $250K GTD $365 Ring event with six starting flights (two each Friday through Sunday).
  • Chinook Winds’ PacWest Poker Classic begins a week from Saturday, with a 2-entry day $330 6-Max tournament ($50K GTD). Day 2 is on a Monday (President’s Day).
  • The first of the $550 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star mega satellites is 18 February at 9am.

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