Monthly Archives: May 2017

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 31 May 2017

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#SaveOregonPoker

I’m going to mostly ignore this subject for a week. For one thing, I don’t know anything new. The Oregon Senate’s General Government and Accountability Committee had a work session scheduled for last week, but it was postponed. It’s back on the docket for today, with proposed amendments, the text of which I haven’t had the opportunity to process.

For another thing, I’m not getting this week’s piece started until late Tuesday. Holiday weekend, a last-minute decision to go to a concert with an old friend, and preparations to head to las Vegas this weekend for the opening weekend of the World Series of Poker. So let’s get to it.

Poker Christmas

Christmas has 12 days, but Poker Christmas last a month and a half. Just like the real Christmas, the good children get presents beyojnd belief and the bad children get lumps of coal in their stockings. That’s if they can still afford coal after the summer in Vegas.

Today is the very first bracelet event of the World Series of Poker. Other series have  been running for a couple of weeks, and Daily Deepstacks got going yesterday at the Rio, but 11am is the start time for Event #1: Casino Employees NLHE. If you’re not a casino employee, you can enter Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team NLHE. And no, that’s not the guarantee.

This weekend’s big event is Event #5: The COLOSSUS III – $565 NLHE. There are entry flights at 10am and 4pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Saturday is also Event #8: $333 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE, the lowest-ever (so far) bracelet event, weighing in at a price lower than the WSOP Circuit Ring side events. It’s where I’m going to be.

For the full schedule of WSOP events, check out their schedule, or…

2017 Summer Vegas Poker

I’ve mentioned November Niner (one of the last) Kenny Hallaert’s regular summer spreadsheet before (it’s linked from the Calendar page), but I would be remiss not to trow out Kim Unger‘s Tableau dataset, which covers the same ground but in a somewhat different manner.

You can directly edit the valules in fields by clicking, rather than using the slider handles.

You can filter the schedule by type of tournament (daily, satellite, series), by date, buyin (althogh this could use some refinement), how many chups, level length, and rake percentage, as well as venue.

I don’t think there’s any relation to Stu Unger.

Ming Zhu, via the Venetian Poker Room blog.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

I thought there’s be more action this week, but I miscalculated. The only big winner reported by Saturday was Portland’s Ming Zhu, nearly taking the trophy in the first event of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III, a $125K GTD, $250 buyin. Ming had 6.6M chips to winner Brandon West’s 8M when they went to heads up, and the players chopped, with West getting the trophy and 5% more money than Ming. (By the way, the Venetian Poker Room’s blog has moved from the antiquated Blogspot to WordPress.)

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the beginning of the month, which means First Friday at Final Table, with the $20K guarantee, one of the best tournament values in the Northwest. $80 entry, $80 live rebuy, and a $40 addon.

Only a Day Away

  • We’re already more than a week into the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. There’s a sweet-looking $150K GTD Omaha Hi-Lo tournament with $600 flights on Friday and Saturday (it’s my plan if I bust out of the WSOP.com bracelet event before 8).
  • At Planet Hollywood’s Goliath 2017, Sunday is the first of four flights for the $1M GTD Goliath Milly NLHE ($600 entry).
  • The Grand at the Golden Nugget is running now, and this weekend is a $100K GTD with just a $150 buyin. Six flights (3 on Friday, 3 on Saturday) at 11am, 3pm, and 7pm. The Grand had a few large overlays on their big events in recent years, so it might be worth checking out, since this one is going to need more than 800 entries to break even.
  • In Los Angeles, there’s another $150 $100K GTD at the Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Series. Eight flights total from Saturday through Tuesday, and you get $1,200 for every extra stack that qualifies for Day 2.
  • The Aria isn’t doing anything big for a couple of weeks (now that the SUper High Roller Bowl is over), but they will have an 11am $465 HORSE tournament nect Tuesday, and PLO for the same price and time on Thursday.
  • There are two charity events at Binions on Friday and Saturday, then some HORSE (Monday, 11am, $$20K GTD, $230 buyin) and Omaha Hi-Lo (same, but Tuesday).
  • Opening weekend at the Wynn, there’s a $5K Survivor tournament on Friday ($400 buyin, cashing players receive $5K each) and a $100K GTD ($550 entry) on Saturday, MSunday, and Monday.
  • The Orleans  is running a Triple Stud tournament for just $150.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 24 May 2017

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No News Is Good News

Unfortunately, there is news. After a working meeting last Wednesday in the state Senate’s General Government and Accountability committee on House Bill 2190—aimed at shutting down poker rooms in Oregon (specifically those in Portland)—there was a little bit of hope when Brian Pempus at CardPlayer wrote the headline “Oregon Senate Committee Is No Fan Of Anti-Poker Room Bill.” The article wasn’t entirely positive, but it did indicate some interest from committee members in perhaps finding some accommodation.

The enemies of Portland poker are legion, however, and in an article published Sunday in Willamette Week, Nigel Jacquiss covered a new front opened by the Oregon Lottery, which is threatening the lottery franchise held by Portland Meadows, on the basis of alleged violations of state social gaming laws and city ordinances. A letter from the  lottery director dated last Tuesday would seem to force the operators of the facility to choose between the sure bet of their take from lottery games and machines, and holding onto a poker room that’s already in peril.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the Lottery—it not only sucks money away from working-class Oregonians to make up for a lack of political will to raise income taxes, but it’s horribly inefficient by needing to raise about two dollars for every dollar of revenue, and needing to spend a good chunk of that revenue to administrators and companies that sell lottery products, not to mention advertising to try to convince people to play the lottery in the first place.You could get rid of the lottery entirely, raise taxes by the amount the lottery brings in, and actually save some money. Of course, then you’d have to pay unemployment to the guy who wrote that letter.

Big Injun

Many moons ago, there was a Portland satirical newspaper called The Free Agent, run by some bright young people known to the Poker Mutant. Most of them have gone on to far greater things then I have (I’d say “all of them,” but there may be one who fell hard like me), and one of them is writing a Q&A column in Willamette Week as Dr. Know. One thing I do know is how to get letters in newspapers, for whatever that’s worth, and Dr. Know took on one of my questions the other day.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

This week’s mover onto the leaderboard is Tommy Kendrick of Olympia, who got to what looks like a four-way chop in a $20K GTD during the Venetian May Weekend Extravaganza for a 2nd-place finish of over $6,500.

Big money this week was for Kevin Jenkins of Kent, with a 3rd-place finish in a preliminary tournament at WSOPC New Orleans with nearly 1,000 entries, nearly doubling his lifetime earnings. A distant runner-up was Valparaiso, Idaho’s Paul Loduca, with the runner-up in a 6-Max at HPT Chicago.

Nobody new on the leaderboard this week, but expect a lot of new names and movement in the next edition, after the first week of the WSOP.

This Week In Portland Poker

Who the fuck knows?

Only a Day Away

  • The Gardens Poker Festival $1M GTD Main Event is underway with six more days of entry flights ($565) before Day 2 on Tuesday.
  • We’re already more than a week into the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. Coming up Friday and Saturday are $600 entry flights for a $200K GTD. MOnday is the first of two flights for a $250K GTD with $1,100 buyin.
  • The WSOP Warm-Up Series at Horseshoe Hammond starts its Main Event tomorrow, with entry on Friday and Saturday. $680 gets you into a 2-day event with three $10K WSOP Main Event seats added to the prize pool.
  • River Rock Casino’s May Showdown at the Rock starts today in Vancouver, with three events: C$230, C$345 (including C$50 bounty), and a two-day C$575 tournament with two entry days. You can pre-register by calling their poker room, registrations are transferable/non-refundable, and each flight will have 100 players max.
  • Thursday at Planet Hollywood is the start of Goliath 2017. The first event is a $250K GTD with a $600 buyin and starting days through Saturday.
  • Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California has a WSOP $1,500 Seven-Card Stud qualilfier on Saturday at 11am.
  • Tulalip Casino’s Last Sunday of the Month Tourney for May is a $35K GTD with $400 buyin (including dealer addon). It starts at 11am.
  • Sunday at noon is the Muckleshoot  monthly Deepstack, for $300.
  • Lucky Chances south of San Francisco has a tournament Sunday with $20K GTD for the first place finisher and a $375 buyin. It starts at 9:30am. The next morning is a $4K for first tournament ($130 buyin), FYI: their regular weekly schedule has an $8K for first GTD every Sunday.
  • Tuesday the 30th, it’s time for The Grand at the Golden Nugget. Nearly 60 events through 3 July, with what is usually the most diverse ange of tournaments at easily-affordable buyins. There’s a Mixed PLO8/Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O tournament on 5 June, all Big O on 26 June, and the $570 PLO8/Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O Championship the next day.
  • And , of course, there’s the World Series of Poker starting the same day and running through 17 July. It kicks off with Daily Deepstacks and cash games on the first day, then there’s the Casino Employee event, a $10K  buyin Tag Team tournament, the $3K shootout, $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo, and on the weekend, the Colossus III, with an $8M guarantee, $1M to first, and just a $565 buyin.
  • Not to be left out, Bicycle Casino Summer Poker Series in Los Angeles is where you can find the people who aren’t making the few hour trip to Las Vegas. It runs all through June.
  • The other ball drops in Vegas a week from Friday with series spinning up at Aria, Binions, and the Wynn.
  • The Orleans  dropped their summer series a couple of years back, but that doens’t mean the place is dead. If anything, they don’t have to do anything special to get people in to play, so they just piggyback off the rest of the series. That doesn’t mean they won’t do something out of the ordinary from time-to-time, and Saturday, 3 June, they’re running a Triple Stud tournament for just $150. Not big money, but how can you say no?

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 17 May 2017

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Portland attorney Tom Rask, representing the card rooms in La Center

#SaveOregonPoker

There was a public hearing on House Bill 2190 last Wednesday in the Oregon Senate’s Committee on General Government and Accountability. There were some quite eloquent statements made against the bill (video of the hearing is available), including those from Angela Jordison (starting at 12 minutes in); representatives of Portland Meadows (26 minutes); Bob Atkinson (35 minutes), a former Asst. Attorney General for the Oregon Department of Justice; and Cynthia Thompson (58 minutes).

The voices against the bill that would kill Oregon poker as it currently exists (and pretty much kill Oregon tournament poker no matter what) far outnumbered the advocates of the bill (you can read the letters and see exhibits here), but the quality of the questioning didn’t lend itself to a lot of hope that the bill will die in committee. A work session is scheduled for today at 1pm, there’s a note on the agenda: House Bill 2190 is scheduled solely for the purpose of committee discussion; no action will be taken on the measure.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

This week’s mover onto the leaderboard is Tommy Kendrick of Olympia, who got to what looks like a four-way chop in a $20K GTD during the Venetian May Weekend Extravaganza for a 2nd-place finish of over $6,500.

John Sloat of Washington had his best cash ever at the California State Poker Championship in a  $350 buyin, $300K GTD tournament where he took 3rd place. The partypoker Millions North America event in Montreal drew Oregon’s #2 player (after Annie Duke, natch). James Romero entered the field of nearly 1,200 players paying C$5,300 and placed 52nd, for C$25,000 (a little over $18K US), a week after posting a couple of smaller cashes at Borgata. Seattle’s Dylan Wilkerson is riding the wave after winning the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event in Los Angeles in March, then making the final table of the WPT Tournament of Champions last month: he played (and cashed) the partypoker Million in Nottingham last month, and made it into the top 100 of the North America event. David Goodkin‘s big first-place finish from the Seniors event at the Tulalip Poker Pow Wow in January finally showed up on Hendon Mob last week. Rounding out this week’s leaderboard is Jeff DeWitt, participant in an 11-way even chop at Talking Stick Resort in Arizona, where 12th got just under $900 and all the remaining players picked up $5K.  That’s a heck of a ladder.

WSOP News

Big news Monday from the World Series of Poker. You’ve likely already seen it, but the November Nine is no more. After nine years of delaying the final table of the Main Event for four months, it’s back to playing out on consecutive days, with several hours of delayed coverage on ESPN each day, from Day 1A on 8 July to the end on 22 July. Additionally, footage not used by ESPN will be distributed through Poker Central, the online poker channel.

Jake Hates Poker

If you want to get the scoop on the summer from the perspective of an actual poker player (as opposed to myself), check out Jake Dahl’s new blog.

This Week In Portland Poker

Business as usual for the most part. Meanwhile, at The Game:


Only a Day Away

  • The Gardens Poker Festival got under way this week in Los Angeles (Hawaiian Gardens, technically), the interesting items on the agenda are a couple of $10K GTD tournaments with action clocks (today and tomorrow at 5pm and noon, respectively) and a Big O/7-Card Stud Hi-Lo $10K GTD on Friday at 11am (bowing to the wake-up times of Stud players more than Big O players, amirite?) The big event is a $565 buyin $1M GTD WPT500 event with 14 entry flights between Sunday and 29 May.
  • The summer Las Vegas series are already under way: the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III started Monday and the big event this weekend is a $100K GTD $400 buyin. There are two Big O events during the series: a $75K GTD $600 buyin in mid-June, and $100K PLO/PLO8/Big O in early July with a $1,100 buyin. The capper near the end of the series two months from now is the $2M GTD Venetian/Card Player Poker Tour Main Event with a $5K buyin (I was just about there…)
  • The WSOP Warm-Up Series at Horseshoe Hammond has a $210 tournament with two Millionaire Maker and one WSOP Main Event seat added to the prize pool starting today. The Main Event of the Hammond series (just east of Chicago, 4 hours from Portland on a direct flight) has three WSOP Main Event seats added to the prize pool.
  • Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California has two more $340 buyin WSOP qualifiers on the next two Saturdays for $1,500 Omaha HI-Lo and Seven-Card Stud. Both events have 11am starts times and they’re a short jump from the Oakland airport.
  • Sunday at noon is the Muckleshoot Big Bounty a $200 buyin for 15K in chips. Next Sunday in Auburn is the monthly Deepstack, for $300.
  • Tulalip Casino’s Last Sunday of the Month Tourney for may is a $35K GTD with $400 buyin (including dealer addon). It starts 28 May at 11am.
  • Little Creek Casino still has one more WSOP Monster Stack package satellite Tuesday night.
  • In the other Vancouver, River Rock Casino’s May Showdown at the Rock runs 24—28 May, with three events: C$230, C$345 (including C$50 bounty), and a two-day C$575 tournament with two entry days. C$575 is about $420 (420! In Vancouver!). You can pre-register by calling their poker room, registrations are transferable/non-refundable, and each flight will have 100 players max.
  • The second big Vegas series gets started a week from Friday at Planet Hollywood. It’s the Goliath 2017, aka the Poor Man’s WSOP. The Goliath started off as Harrah’s smaller version of the Colossus, with the same buyin but 1/10th the guarantee. After several years, it now has two $1M GTD tournaments ($600 and $1,650) and  a $2K buyin $2M GTD. There’s a $125K Big O event in early July, and a variety of other events. It kicks off with with a $600 buyin $250K the first weekend.
  • Lucky Chances south of San Francisco has a tournament 28 May with $20K GTD for the first place finisher and a $375 buyin. It starts at 9:30am. The next morning is a $4K for first tournament ($130 buyin), FYI: their regular weekly schedule has an $8K for first GTD every Sunday.
  • Tuesday the 30th, it’s time for The Grand at the Golden Nugget. Nearly 60 events through 3 July, with what is usually the most diverse ange of tournaments at easily-affordable buyins. There’s a Mixed PLO8/Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O tournament on 5 June, all Big O on 26 June, and the $570 PLO8/Omaha Hi-Lo/Big O Championship the next day.
  • And , of course, there’s the World Series of Poker starting the same day and running through 17 July. It kicks off with Daily Deepstacks and cash games on the first day, then there’s the Casino Employee event, a $10K  buyin Tag Team tournament, the $3K shootout, $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo, and on the weekend, the Colossus III, with an $8M guarantee, $1M to first, and just a $565 buyin.

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

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 10 May 2017

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#SaveOregonPoker

No news or schedule updates today in solidarity with the clubs who’ve decided to shut down for 10 May. There’s a Senate General Government & Accountability Committee working meeting scheduled today at 1pm Wednesday (900 Court St NE, Salem). Both Portland Meadows and Final Table will be closed for the day, with players carpooling from both locations.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

New on the radar is Lake O’s Max Brown, who had a pretty good run at Run It Up Reno  in early April (results just posted on Hendon Mod this week). He cashed in 4 of the 16 events in the series, taking 4th in the 3 Card NLHE, coming in 2nd in the NLHE Partner event, and almost making the final table of the Main Event.

The other big winner of the week (apart from the people who made big money here in Portland at the Final Table $20K and Kentucky Derby Day tournament at Portland Meadows) was Spokane’s Frank Ward, who placed 2nd in a tournament at Dover Downs, in Delaware.

This Week In Portland Poker

All tou really need to know this week is that Portland Meadows and Final Table will be closed. The Planner will be back next week (maybe even later this week) with updates and schedules.

2015 #SAVEOREGONPOKER BILL

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From a friend of the blog…

THIS 2015 SAVE OREGON POKER BILL/DRAFT was the product of Encore/Final Table/Ace of Spades/others, driven by Chris Vetter (in addition to substantial leadership of G. Sugerman/others) several years ago that established a legal rake, allowed dealers to become employees & entirely eliminated any/all “gray” areas w/regard to the questionable legalities of Oregon Poker some have led you to believe. It was a counter measure to the previous attempted sabotage of Oregon Poker via La Center…..as La Center’s player attendance was dwindling, so they found a weakness in Oregon Poker via Salem. IT WAS NEVER RELEASED, but it should be brought back to life as it’s a very useful resource/guideline. Hopefully, the Portland community/poker club owners will unite to form an alliance via pooling funds, creating fundraisers, promoting organized letters & hiring the appropriate representation in Salem to show our legislature how they are being misled….in addition, to seriously considering taking this to the ballot box if can’t get traction in Salem. If the current Salem bill continues, the actions the legislature may adversely take will not only encourage underground poker rooms, but exterminate all options for poker players to enjoy their sport in a legal, safe, licensed environment. PLEASE READ…..PLEASE PASS ON! THIS IS WHAT THEY SHOULD BE VOTING ON!!!!! THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER!!

The proposals here—in bold as emendations to the existing laws—laid out some rules for the operation of poker rooms, including stipulations about square footage, allowing up to an 18% rake (yikes!), and allowing the hiring of dealers to get them out of the volunteer ghetto, among other things.

POKER-BILL-DRAFT-LC0985_DRAFT_2015

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 3 May 2017

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#SaveOregonPoker

So many hashtags, so little time. This edition of the Planner may be a little short; I’m not even getting started until almost 11pm Tuesday night, when I usually have some of the work already done.

The main reason for that is HB2190, which restricts the types of organizations to which cities can issue social gaming licenses. Fraternal, charitable, and religious organizations, essentially. There’s lots of info on the bill and about the bill, I’ve put together sort of a clearinghouse of the information I know about, and it’s on the menu above next to the calendar link.

The big news this week, of course, is that the Oregon House of Representatives passed the bill, after an incredibly smarmy introduction by Representative Paul Evans, in which he alluded to Russian mobsters, Portland as the capital of sex trafficking and drugs (kind of rich coming from a guy whose district includes east Salem), and wild estimates of the income at Portland Meadows. I urge you to take a look.

The bill has already had a first, perfunctory, reading in the Senate. If it passes there, the last stop before it’s made into law will be the desk of Governor Kate Brown.

#PNWPokerLeaderboard

After all the movement of the Spring Poker Round Up, it was relatively quiet this past week. The big winner (and only five-figure cash) was Bend’s Seth Davies, who snagged 3rd place in a $25K buyin High Roller at the Aria for $93,600. Ming Zhu took 4th in the a WSOPC event in Cherokee, North Carolina. Dylan Wilkerson skipped across the pond to the £ 5,000 partypoker Millions Nottingham and a min-cash. Seattle’s Brenda DeWitt had her best cash ever with a final table of the 317-entry $300 buyin Getaway Classic at Talking Stick in Arizona.

Moar Casino

Just a week after the opening if the Ilani casino on the Washington side of the Columbia River, the Siletz tribe went public Tuesday with news that they’re hoping to open a casino north of Salem by 2021. According to KGW-TV:

The Siletz have been hatching this plan for about two years and are working to get buy-in from all nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon. They hope the plan would keep a “proliferation of casinos” from the metro region, according to Craig Dorsay, tribal attorney for the Siletz Indians.

None of the tribes would need to contribute financially to get a share of the revenues, as long as they agree not to build another casino in the Portland area.

The Siletz (who operate Chinook WInds) already have land in trust for them in the area, and wouldn’t face the same battle for recognition and trust land that the Cowlitz tribe had to navigate through. Any proposal would need approval from the state and federal authorities, and could still face stiff opposition from local businesses and outside interests.

The proposed site is at the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 99.

This Week In Portland Poker

I’M A MORON! THERE’S A FIRST FRIDAY $20K GTD AT FINAL TABLE TOMORROW NIGHT (FRIDAY) AT 7PM!

Wheeee! Horsies!


Only a Day Away

  • The Beach Poker Club in Eugene has a First Sunday of the Month Super Stack tournament at noon on 7 May. $135 includes your buyin, lunch, and dealer bonus. 30 minute levels and 400bb deep to start.
  • Tomorrow is the first of six flights for a $300K GTD at the Cal State Poker Championship. Day 2 is Sunday. You can check in on the action at lapcnews.com (the Social Experiment tournament got 500+ entries, half-again what was needed to meet the guarantee).
  • Today is the start of the Venetian May Weekend Extravaganza, featuring a $340 buyin $100K GTD tournament.
  • The Deep Stack Derby at Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot, Nevada starts today.
  • Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California has a $340 buyin WSOP Monster Stack qualifier on Sunday, with a tournament on Saturday that earns you points for the WSOP qualifier freeroll later in the month. Over the next three Saturdays, they have qualifiers for $1500 WSOP events in Limit Hold’em, Omaha HI-Lo, and Seven-Card Stud.
  • Sunday is opening day for the WPTDeepstacks Turlock in central California. The $100K GTD Main Event ($1,100 entry) starts next Friday, with a livestreamed final table on Sunday, 14 May.
  • Sunday, there’s a $10K GTD Big O tournament at Ocean’s Eleven in San Diego.
  • Little Creek Casino still has a few WSOP Monster Stack package satellites Tuesday nights in May. Next Saturday is a Bounty tournament.
  • Stones Gambling Hall is running a Six Shooter $100K GTD Tournament over two weekends, with Day 1 flights (two per day) from 12—14 May ($200 buyin) and Day 2 on 21 May. The field pays 15%, everyone making Day 2 is in the money, and you can multi-qualify, with your stacks being combined for Day 2.
  • 14 May is the Muckleshoot Monthly Special, a $250 buyin for 15K in chips.
  • 15 May is the first day for The Gardens Casino Poker/WPT500 Festival, featuring a $1M GTD $565 buyin event from 21 May to 31 May.
  • The 15th is also opening day for the first of the Vegas summer series, the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III. The opener is a $125K GTD$250 buyin tournament.
  • The WSOP Warm-Up Series at Horseshoe Hammond has a $210 tournament with two Millionaire Maker and one WSOP Main Event seat added to the prize pool starting on 17 May. The Main Event of the Hammond series (just east of Chicago, 4 hours from Portland on a direct flight) has three WSOP Main Event seats added to the prize pool.

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