Monthly Archives: March 2018

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 28 March 2018: POKER IS EVERYWHERE

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Welcome to the last #PNWPokerCal Planner. At least for the forseeable future.

MutantPoker.com isn’t going away, and I expect that I’ll probably still keep updating the Pacific NW Tournament Calendar when I can. I’ll post other stuff from time-to-time, and I’ll definitely continue posting @pokermutant on Twitter, but I’m going to step back from trying to make the deadline every Tuesday. Way too may typos and editing errors creeping in. Plus I’ve run out of stupid jokes for titles.

Where to Find Stuff

Over the years I’ve been compiling the calendar, I’ve found some good sources of info on tournaments. Some not-so-good. Here’s where I look for myself.

LOCAL Clubs

Portland clubs have varying levels of engagement with their web sites. Sometimes info goes up elsewhere first, sometimes what’s on the web site is incomplete or out-of-date.

Portland Meadows

The Meadows web page is under the Social menu on the racetrack site. They also have social media links. Facebook Twitter

Final Table

I rewrote the website for Final Table, so at least I think it’s pretty informative. They have a Google Calendar-based monthly and 4-day calendar, plus there are ways to show structures for regular and special events. They’re active on Facebook but not so much on Twitter.

The Game

It’s not the prettiest web site out there and there’s not much in the way of tournaments but The Game does put up a monthly slate of shootout info, with food specials and  other goodies from time to time. Semi-regular posts on Facebook in the NW Poker group.

NW Poker on Facebook

Facebook’s taking it in the shorts right now because they collect info about you that you probably had no idea they had access to and sell it to every Bob, Dick, and Ivan out there so Mark Zuckerberg can pay people to wipe his ass for him (conjecture) but the NW Poker group is the clearing-house for daily info on local games and players.

One Good Hand

The home site for both Claudia’s and Rialto. You’ll also find regular posts from Rialto on NW Poker.

Regional

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of every poker venue in the PNW, just places I checked in on at least semi-regularly. Or sort of knew about.

Last Frontier Casino

Where would we be without the good buddies up north who have worked so hard to shut down Portland poker? Facebook Twitter

Spirit Mountain Casino

I’ve only played there three times and not at all in the past five years—tournaments are my thing, you know—but they’re still plugging along without the likes of me. No poker-specific social media.

Chinook Winds Casino

My favorite casino at the moment. Very good at getting their schedules and structures up and available before tournament series. Twitter

Black Diamond Private Member Association

An Albany-area club, Black Diamond requires membership to see their schedule. They have an active Facebook page.

Beach Poker Club

Eugene. Facebook is active but no Twitter this calendar year.

High Mountain Poker Palace

Kind of hard to tell if they’re doing anything, the Twitter account has been idle for a couple of months, but there was a Facebook post this month.

Bend Poker Room

For a small-town venue, BPR has busy Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Widhorse Resort & Casino

Will it be my next favorite casino in a week or two? All I know is they don’t have poker-specific social media.

Little Creek Casino

Northwest of Olympia, Little Creek has a regular schedule of small tournaments with the occasional series.

Muckleshoot Casino

Muckleshoot publishes a monthly poker room calendar, usually just after the first of the month but sometimes it makes it out before the end of the previous month (April is up!). Their social media accounts aren’t poker-specific.

Tulalip Casino

Tulalip’s monthly poker calendar is usually more delinquent than Muckleshoot’s (April is not up!).

Compilations

Casinos are corporations and like a lot of corporations, they have processes for getting things done. Their web sites are usually run by an overworked in-house publicity department that’s handling stuff for the entire casino or they’re outsourced to third-party web development services who could care less about whether yo are getting your tournament info in a timely manner. There are, however, people whose job it is to get info out to you (and unlike me, they get paid for it) and poker rooms often send information to these venues long before it gets onto their own casino’s web sites.

PokerAtlas

If you don’t already have a PokerAtlas account (and associated app), get one today (it’s free). Their information isn’t always up-to-date (I’m pretty sure Aces Full isn’t having a tournament today at noon), but their infoo on major tournament series is reliable. You can search for info by geographic region, filter by state and date, and even see info about cash games. They own TableCaptain, a competitor to the Bravo poker management system, which shows live cash game and tournament clock info for venues like Muckleshoot. PokerAtlas also maintains geographically-oriented Twitter accounts: @PortlandPoker, @OregonPoker,  @SeattlePoker, @PokerVancouver, etc.

Bravo Poker Live

The Bravo Poker site and app has dozens of locations with tournament and live game info available. I can tell, for instance that as I type this, there aren’t any tables running at Cactus Pete’s in Jackpot, Nevada; that Tulalip has 5 tables (4 of 1/3 NLHE and 1 2-10 Spread HE with wailing lists of 7 and 1, respectively); 17 tables running at the Orleans (7 different stakes of O8 and HE) and that their 7pm PLO tournament is down to 5 players after four hours.

CardPlayer

The CardPlayer site has an extensive list of tournament series for the US and abroad. It’s not as easily searchable as the one at PokerAtlas, but it works.

The Hendon Mob

Naturally, Hendon Mob has a list of worldwide seres. It has the added benefit of links to netcasts of events as they become available.

PokerNews

last but not least is PokerNews, where the list of events isn’t as comprehensive but it does come with links to live reporting.

tournament series and major venues

World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker Circuit

World Poker Tour

Heartland Poker Tour

WPTDeepstacks

Mid-States Poker Tour

Venetian Deepstacks

Commerce Casino

Bicycle Casino

Pacific Northwest Leader Board

A lot of material for this last leaderboard (holy crap, I did a lot of programming to produce this feature, how am I going to just toss that aside?). The results from the Muckleshoot Spring Classic hit The Hendon Mob this week.  Since they’re all from the same series this week, let’s do it chronologically, more or less.

Jordan Feliciano (Troutdale) took down the Thursday tournament with 324 entries and a prize pool just over $30K, then cashed in the Main Event at 12th for his second and third Hendon Mob records. Nathaniel Janda of Mill Creek, Washington took 2nd in the Thursday tournament for his second recorded cash.

Tacoma’s Michael Coombs had a small cash in the Omaha 8 tournament Wednesday evening (there was a 4-way deal at the end; alert Angela Jordison!) then won the Friday tournament before triple-dipping with a 29th place finish in the Main Event. The Friday tournament had a four-way split for 2nd place, with Josh Sepulveda (Lynnwood), Michael Turchin (Federal Way), David Gray (Puyallup, his seond-ever recorded cash), and Stone Samrith (Burien) sharing the honors.

Sean Brandow, Thanh Hoang, and Tommy Kivela were all at the final table of the Saturday tournament ($500 buyin) where it looks as if there might have been a final table deal.

Kivela went on to make the final table of the Main Event ($750 buyin) for a good weekend (he has only five recorded cashes and one of the other three was the final table at the Chinook Winds Main Event just last month.

Only two other PNW players were in the top six in the Muckleshoot Main Event: Portland’s Allen Oh in 5th and Kao Saechao in 4th(Damascus, also coming off a good Chinook series run).

This Week In Portland Poker

Portland Meadows is closed for Easter Sunday.

https://twitter.com/devvynpdx/status/978521144675323904

Only a Day Away

Would you believe we’re less than two months from the beginning of the Las Vegas summer series season? The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III starts 14 May; and Planet Hollywood GOLIATH starts 24 May.

  • The Bicycle Mega Millions XVIII wraps on Saturday. There are two $245 entry flights each day through Friday for their last event, a $250K guarantee.
  • The World Series of Poker Circuit  Planet Hollywood Main Event has entries on Friday and Saturday ($1,675).
  • Run It Up Reno at Peppermill Casino has its $600 $150K GTD Main Event this weekend, with entries on Friday and Saturday. There’s also a $5K GTDPLO Bounty tournament on Saturday evening ($235 buyin with $100 bounties).

  • The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II has a $200K GTD $1,100 entry tournament with flights today and tomorrow. They haven’t got any large events planned this weekend with the WSOPC main down the street at Planet Hollywood, but it ramps back up next Thursday with a $600 $200K GTD.
  • WSOPC Council Bluffs starts tomorrow.
  • Heartland Poker Tour is at the  Westgate Las Vegas tomorrow. The Main Event ($1,650 entry) on the first weekend of April has a $500K guarantee; there;s an opening event with a $350 buyin with $100K GTD.
  • Tomorrow is WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley. It opens with two $100K GTD tournaments (a multi-entry-day event with $160 buyin during the week with Day 2 on Friday and a single-day tournament on Saturday with $460 buyin) and wraps with a $500K GTD event ($1,100 buyin) starting next Thursday.
  • Saturday morning at Bay 101 in San Jose, they’re ramping their tournament schedule back up after last year’s move with a $550 freezeout with big blind antes. They’ve announced the sates for this years Bay 101 Open (14—21 May); most of the tournaments on their schedule come with a $350 voucher for the series.
  • The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up is coming up in just over a week, with a slightly reconfigured schedule that puts the High Roller up front on the first weekend rather than mid-week. Adjust your plans accordingly. I’ll be there Thursday for the 7pm NLHE High Roller Super Satellite.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour Colorado is in Black Hawk next week, starting with a $150K GTD, $350 buyin and wrapping with a $1,100 buyin on a $300K GTD event.
  • Deepstacks Poker Tour Edmonton runs 6—16 April at Casino Yellowhead. The capping event is a C$300K tournament with C$1,100 buyin (US$230K and $845, respectively). Flights bracketing the Main Event are going for about $300RT.
  • The HPT St. Charles stop near St. Louis is always popular, and they head east after Las Vegas for a series starting 12 April.
  • Stones Gambling Hall has a their Spring Classic coming up 10 April with multiple events and a $150K GTD Main Event.

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 21 March 2018: SPRING INTO POKER

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Pacific Northwest Leaderboard

There was a late (late) report from the Chinook Winds PACWEST Poker Classic that showed up in this week’s collation for Oregon players on The Hendon Mob: Eugene’s David Holder, who took 2nd place in the Main Event. It was his largest reported cash—and the first one in nearly five years—thogh he had a string of four-figure cashes for several years in LA and elsewhere, and was the winner of the 2011 TJ Cloutier Choctaw Poker Challenge.

Ian Johns made it to 10th in a field of 1,533 at the LAPC25 #48 $1M GTD NLHE Double Stack, another number from mid-February that just posted this past week (I reported on Belliga Flores getting 8th in the same event last week). Out in Atlantic City, Max Young is still cranking them out, just missing a third WSOP Circuit Ring in Event #4 NLHE Double Stack. He lost to a guy older than me! So there is hope! max is already qualified for this year’s Global Casino Championship via his Main Event win at Lake Tahoe earlier last fall.

This Week In Portland Poker

Nothing special going on that I’m aware of, but next weekend…

Only a Day Away

Would you believe we’re less than two months from the beginning of the Las Vegas summer series season? The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III starts 14 May; and Planet Hollywood GOLIATH starts 24 May.

  • I somehow missed the announcement of the Atlantis All In Poker Series in Reno (which started last Thursday). It runs through this weekend, so if you were heading down a couple days early for Run It  Up Reno, you might check in on the $200K NLHE Main Event with $1,100 buyin on Friday and Saturday at 11am.
  • The Bicycle Mega Millions XVIII with a $1M GTD for a $160 buyin has entry days through Monday, with two $160 entry/$100 addon flights each day at 11:30am and 4pm, and $550 flights (a higher percentage of players make it to Day 2) Friday—Sunday at 2pm. Tuesday (Day 2 of the $1M event) is the first of six flights for a $245 tournament with $250K GTD.
  • The World Series of Poker Circuit is back in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood tomorrow with an opening $150K ($365 entry) this weekend, PLO on Monday, and the Main Event next weekend.
  • The $40K/1st tournament at Lucky Chances is Sunday at 9:30am.
  • Run It Up Reno is at Peppermill Casino starts Monday. It has a reputation as an extremely fun series, and while the events aren’t particularly large (with a $600 buyin $150KGTD Main Event), they do have a range of games, includiing PLO, HORSE, and 8-Game 6-Max.
  • Monday is also the beginning of Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II which kicks off with a $200K GTD $1,100 entry tournament for the non-weekend-warriors: starting days on Wednesday and Thursday next week, offset from the Planet Hollywood Main Event.
  • Next Thursday is WSOPC Council Bluffs.
  • The Heartland Poker Tour return to  Las Vegas at the Westgate next Thursday. The Main Event ($1,650 entry) on the first weekend of April has a $500K guarantee; there;s an opening event with a $350 buyin (flights 29—31 March) with $100K GTD.
  • Also starting next Thursday is WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley. It opens with two $100K GTD tournaments (a multi-entry-day event with $160 buyin during the week with Day 2 on Friday and a single-day tournament on Saturday with $460 buyin) and wraps up next weekend with a $500K GTD event ($1,100 buyin).
WPTDS_TV
  • The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up is coming up in just over two weeks with a slightly reconfigured schedule that puts the High Roller up front on the first weekend rather than mid-week. Adjust your plans accordingly.
  • Mid-States Poker Tour Colorado is in Black Hawk two weeks from today, starting with a $150K GTD, $350 buyin and wrapping with a $1,100 buyin on a $300K GTD event.
  • Deepstacks Poker Tour Edmonton runs 6—16 April at Casino Yellowhead. The capping event is a C$300K tournament with C$1,100 buyin (US$230K and $845, respectively). Flights bracketing the Main Event are going for about $300RT.

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 14 March 2018

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Yeah, that’s right, it’s been a year since I won the trophy as the best poker player in Portland!  And now that I’ve won my first five-figure score I’m going to be insufferable!

This week’s edition of the Planner is going to be a short one; I need to go and soak my swelled head.

The PACWEST Saga—Now With Hendon Mob!

We’ve had the results of the PACWEST Poker Classic posted for a couple of weeks now, but for those of us who live and die by numbers, the real question was when were they going to show up on The Hendon Mob?

Like an idiot, I was checking them obsessively—sometimes several times a day—even though you can have (and I do) Hendon Mob alert you when a change is made to your results. Angela Jordison took time out of her busy schedule of playing poker and drinking in LA at the WSOPC/Mega Millions series to text me Saturday afternoon when they weren’t showing up yet. I checked again early Sunday and there was my latest cash, but they were still entering them in; while all of the events were listed for the serie, only the first event had a link when I first checked it. A couple of hours later, all were up. You can find them here.

I put together a points spreadsheet for the series, using the WSOP Circuit point system for Ring events. Tam Nguyen was the overall winner with a first-place in Event #7 NLHE Seniors and final table in Event #1 $100K NLHE, for 67.5 points. For “open” events (non-restricted by age, in this case), the crown would go to TJ Amhaz, whose technical 2nd in Event #1, final table in Event #13 $50K NLHE, and min-cash in Event #16 $200K NLHE Main Event, got him 62.5 points, just enough to edge ahead of Richard Chouinard, who also had two final tables (Event #3 and the Main Event) and a min-cash for 60 points. Two more players with two final tables tied for the next spot with 55 points: Kris Monteith and Calvin Le. With wins in one event and a min-cash in another, Angel Farrington and Dan Beecher got 52.5 points, putting them ahead of everyone who won an event but didn’t cash anything else (50 points): Angela Jordison, Jacob Dahl, Kao Saechao, Matthew Jacks, Paul Nguyen, and Paul Thomas.

Pacific Northwest Leaderboard

The winner of the Chinook Winds PACWEST Poker Classic, Portland’s Paul Nguyen, was the top new name on the leaderboard, with his only recorded cash in Event#16 $200K NLHE Main Event putting him in 299th place on Hendon Mob’s Oregon listings. Event #1 $100K NLHE 4th-place finisher William Tinoco was the second newbie (ir was also his first cash) in the big money for the week’s reports.

Meanwhile, down in Los Angeles, James Romero took first place in the WPT/LAPC #59 $200K GTD $5,250 NLHE 8-Max, besting 57 others. Portland’s Andy Su grabbed 4th in the Wynn Spring Classic $1M NLHE Championship in Las Vegas. Glenn Larson of Olympia was the second Larson at the final table of the WPT Rolling Thunder $3,500 NLHE Main Event at Thunder Valley, making 8th place (the event was won by a David Larson from San Jose). Out of Seattle, Belciga Flores took 8th at the LAPC #48 $1M NLHE Double Stack. 

Calvin Le from Portland was the big money-winner at the PACWEST Poker Classic after Paul Nguyen, with 4th-place finishes in Event #13 $50K NLHE on Friday and Event #16 $200K NLHE Main Event, just edging out TJ Amhaz, who was a co-winner in Event #1 $100K NLHE, took 6th in Event #13 $50K NLHE, and 33rd in the $200K Main Event.

Dylan Wilkerson got a 6th in the Wynn Spring Classic $3,150 NLHE (with a $385K prize pool), then headed north to THunder Valley for a small cash the WPT $3,500 NLHE Main Event.

Portland’s Richard Chouinard was one of a handful of players to cash three (or more) times at the PACWEST Poker Classic. He had a min-cash in Event #1, lost the heads-up batrtle to Angela Jordison in Event #2, and made 7th place in the Main Event. Event #1 co-winner Kao Saechao went down to Thunder Valley and made the unofficial final table of WPT Event #3 NLHE Knockout.

Bryce Schnellenberger of Portland got his second Hendon Mob record for 3rd place in the Main Event. Olympia’s Chris Hinchcliffe got his 88th with 13th place at the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event.

Kris Monteith of Gresham was another three-cash winner at PACWEST, making final tables in Event #9 Omaha Hi/Lo and the Main Event, and a small cash in Event #11 Big O. Robert Mitchell from Corvallis was another PNWer who cashed in the Wynn $1M NLHE, taking 15th.

Daniel Magdalen (Milwaukee) got 5th in the PACWEST Main Event, which was just enough to pull ahead of me (3rd place in Event #1) for the reporting period, but I still jumped 300 places on Hendon Mob’s Oregon All Time Money List.

Poker Time With Tedder

There’s a new session of 2 Poker Guys’ Poker Time $1K Sit & Go that features Elizabeth Tedder. Liz is in both 442nd (as Liz) and 69th (as Elizabeth) positions on the Oregon All Time Money List. If she got those combined she could get out of the 69 position (and move up to 61).

This Week In Portland Poker

It’s the big St. Patrick’s Day $50K GTD NLHE at Final Table this Saturday. There’s a $160 buyin with 1 live rebuy and $80 addon (with $15 daily membership fee). 12K chips for buyin/rebuy, and 10K for the addon. Expect the plaques to come out for this one!

Lucky Chances Battle of the Bay

The Cardroom, a magazine and website covering the Northern California poker scene, announced that Lucky Chances Casino (south of San Francisco) has scheduled their annual Battle of the Bay. The series runs from 22—30 April, and features guarantees for first place ranging from $10K during the week to $40K on opening weekend, and presumably $100K for first place in the Main Event (it’s not specified in the article but it appears elsewhere). Buyin for the $40K/1st event is $630 (with staff appreciation) and the Main Event is $1,110. Lucky Chances has a $40K/1st on 25 March (also $630) at 9:30am.

Only a Day Away

#PNWPokerCal Planner for 7 March 2018

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Bilzerian PNW-Style

https://twitter.com/jackiburkhart81/status/970179122604400641

Stepping Up The Game

Over in SW Portland, The Game is splashing shootout pots with half the membership fees every three hours from open to close on Sundays. They’re also advertising 20/40 at noon on Monday and Thursday, though it;s not specified in anything I’ve seen whether it’s LHE or NLHE. I’m, uh, guessing limit since the calendar says the game’s full kill, but then again you might want to bring $20K along with, just in case. Discount entry fees before noon, 2/5 NLHE running three days a week, with 2/5 PLO and 1/2/5 PLO on Thursdays and Saturdays, respectively.

Portland Meadows DASH Tournament

I was busy getting my ass walloped in the Final Table $20K last Friday, but the Portland Meadows DASH/CRYPTO 20% Overlay tournament—the first brick-and-mortar tournament with buyins and payouts in cryptocurrency—got a respectable turnout, with some players reportedly re-entering four or five times (note: this is never even remotely profitable).

At the time of the tournament, DASH was selling at about $610 (the buyin for the tournament was 0.1D). It dropped a little bit on Monday and is about $580/D as I write this.

DASH tournament final table courtesy Brian Sarchi/Portland Meadows Poker Room

 

This Week In Portland Poker

It appears as if the most recent addition to the Portland poker scene, Room 52 is no longer in operation. You might keep an eye on the NW Poker group on Facebook to see if there’s more info.

Downtown at the Rialto, they’re trying to get a mixed game shootout running on Mondays, though they’re using the Monday MIx moniker popularized by Devin Sweet, which caused a little dustup in the Facebook announcement.

Just before last weekend’s $20K, Final Table announced a $50K GTD tournament on St. Patrick’s Day.
This week looks like a regular old week of poker in Portland,

My Time Is Coming

Life since the PACWEST Poker Classic has been hideously poker-free. I played a single $10K and a short (losing) microstakes cash game on Ignition Casino because I had an overdue freelance project, the schedule of which was not helped by me spending two weekends in Llincoln City. Then I dropped two buyins at Final Table’s $20K on Friday night in just under 70 minutes. Almost got to my target number in the Saturday night Thousandaire Maker but lost a flip (I had only gotten there by sucking out with nines vs. kings) and busted half-way through; late-regged the $4K 6-Max and busted 49/125; was the first one out of an O8 Turbo, Just missed winning a Jackpot SnG, and dropped my buyins in PLO and NLHE Zone (the Ignition equivalent of PokerStars’ Zoom cash tables). The Black Diamond Poker Open is running online through the end of the month, so I may hit that a little, if I can get this project off my desk.

Pacific Northwest Leaderboard

Results from the Chinook Winds series still haven’t posted to Hendon Mob! What? It’s only been a week and a half since the end of the series? Aaaaaagh! They haven’t updated my photo, either.

Matt Affleck made the Main Event final table of the Rio Las Vegas WSOPC stop, though he was out in ninth.

Powell Butte, Oregon’s Bryce Clark picked up 3rd place in Event #43 of the Venetian Deepstacks Extravaganza. It’s his best-ever score.

Stephen Schumacher from Lewiston picked up his second five-figure cash, getting to 14th in the same WSOPC event as Affleck., then cashed the next day in 12th at the Venetian in Event #44, a $150K GTD tournament.

https://twitter.com/aliimsirovic/status/971180051835142145

Back at the Rio, Seth Davies picked up a little cash in the $2,200 High Roller, then went for the long green at an Aria High Roller ($25K buyin) getting heads-up with David Peters in a 15-entry tournament.

And, not to leave out the Wynn, Aaron Thivyanathan (Renton) took 4th place in the 227-entry field of a $100K GTD tournament.

Recognize Anyone?

image via Dion Hunt on NW Poker

2018 Summer Schedule

The last couple of weeks have seen a spate of schedule releases for summer tournament series (believe it or not, the first of them—at the Venetian—opens in just 68 days).

As usual, the first place you should look for info to compare series is Kenny Halleart‘s comprehensive spreadsheet. Hallaert has been putting this together for a number of years, well before he got to the WSOP Main Event Final Table, and as a tournament director in his own right, he’s meticulous about getting all of the info.

The World Series of Poker schedule was announced weeks ago, of course. and it’s easy to find. Structure sheets are linked underneath the name of the event.

The schedule for the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III has been released (last Thursday) but it’s not linked from the poker room’s blog yet. Between Labor Day and the Fourth of July, events for the series will take place in the Venetian’s Sands Convention Center, to accommodate an expanded schedule.

The Planet Hollywood GOLIATH schedule is still in working status, but you can get a good idea of its scope. It features events with both $1M and $2M guarantees.

The Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget only has a draft schedule out, as well, but it features two $250K GTD events and a $500K GTD Main Event which aren’t likely to change.

The Aria/WPT500 schedule is out (sans structures), on the WPT site.

That leaves the Wynn, Bellagio, and Binions schedules yet to come (and finalization on a couple of the above). All of the above are linked through the Calendar.

Only a Day Away

  • Muckleshoot Casino has one last $125 Wednesday satellites (7pm tonight) for packages to the Spring Classic coming up next week. Each package has the option of entry into the $500 $10K Added tournament on Saturday, 17 March and two of the Wednesday—Friday tournaments or entry into the $750 $20K added Main Event and one of the weekday tournaments. There are Mega Satellites Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday for tickets to all of the NLHE events, then Wednesday is the opening $2K Added NLHE Shootout ($300 entry) at noon, with a $200 entry O8 at 7pm (not included with anmy of the satellite packages). That builds up to the $10K Added NLHE  next Saturday ($500 entry, last year Portland’s Allen Oh won). A week from Sunday is the $750 buyin Main Event, which had a $142K prize pool last year.
  • The Wynn Classic’s $600 buyin $250K GTD NLHE has three noon flights starting tomorrow.
  • The Bicycle Casino WSOPC/Mega Millions XVIII has the WSOPC Main Event this weekend, with entry flights on Saturday and Sunday at noon (you can also buy direct into Day 2 on Monday, with the original starting stack). Tomorrow is their $10K GTD Big O tournament ($240 entry) and there’s a $3K Survivor tournament tomorrow at 4pm ($365 buyin). The event I’m really sorry to miss is the return of the $100K GTD HORSE game ($350 entry), with six entry flights between Saturday and Wednesday. Next weekend is the beginning of Mega Millions XVIII $1M GTD.
  • The Venetian March Extravaganza runs next week, with twelve events, including a $200K GTD with flights next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday ($600 entry).
  • Coming up in just over two weeks, the World Series of Poker Circuit is back in Las Vegas (pace yourselves, guys!) at Planet Hollywood this time.