PNW Poker Leaderboard — 21 March 2020: Change at the Top!

Wow. I’m writing this a day or so after the near-total shutdown of the live poker economy. The big poker rooms in LA, major poker rooms in Vegas, associated hotels, cancellation of series around the world (with some moving online, including the World Series of Poker Circuit).

The WSOP itself hasn’t been cancelled—I just got notification that my application for media credentials for this year was approved yesterday and according to an interview with WSOP Director Gregory Chochon covered by PokerNews—but with potential weeks of quarantine and social distancing ahead during this period when players are usually working hard to build their bankrolls up before the summer, you’ve also got to feel for the folks who made a little bank this past month and are going to be stuck with no chance to get to the next stage.

My own stab at the summer roll is going to be a bit stunted. I played three tournaments this month so far and that’s likely to be the last live games I get in for a while. I dropped in to the opening night of Portland Meadows at their new location (they’re closed now, it’s been a tough re-opening).

Played the Final Table First Friday $20K GTD and busted well before the money after watching pocket queens (including my own) get sucked out on three times in the early levels. Then, the next Monday, I got together with my original home game players at Daryl’s house (yes, two people with names that sound the same at the same table can be confusing). Chopped that heads up for the second time in a row.

In addition to the players, there are going to be a lot of employees and dealers hurting for money in the quarantine weeks. Eugene’s Full House Poker has put together a fund to keep people afloat (not an endorsement, just information).

There’s also a Portland-oriented fund organized by Bella Tomaltsky.

So with most live poker on hiatus for an indefinite period, let’s look at what might be some of the last tournament cashes for a while.

In lighter news, there’s a great interview with Grant Denison and Jonathan Levy done by one of my favorite broadcast teams at The Chip Race.

There hasn’t been a change at the top of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard since I started it almost two years ago. Until now. Oregon’s Seth Davies was in a close 2nd behind Washington’s Scott Clements, but a trip to partypoker MILLIONS Sochi netted him two cashes to pull him ahead. First off was a 7th-place finish in the Super High Roller NLHE Short Deck (50 entries), which was followed up a couple days later with 4th in another (55-entry) Super High Roller NLHE Short Deck (won by Phil Ivey). Davies is ahead of Clements by only $13K, about 0.15% of their lifetime earnings.

This is where I’d congratulate Kevin Buck—whose Twitter handle is a literal Oregon reference—for his win at the Wynn Spring Classic $1M GTD NLHE, but his Hendon Mob profile lists him as a Las Vegas resident. James Pennella of Kirkland finished 9th in the field of 687, moving him from #288 to #262.

Mercer Island’s Calvin Lee was runner-up at the Wynn Spring Classic $100K GTD NLHE, climbing nine spots to #161, while Dien Le (Bellevue) took 4th, moving him right behind Lee, at #162.

Tyler Patterson moves up two places to #16 with his part of a 10-way ICM deal in the Bay 101 Shooting Star NLHE, which had 290 entries (he presumably got to keep his Shooting Star bounty). That came just a few days after his 10th-place finish in the 250-entry WPT Rolling Thunder NLHE Main Event.

A number of the newly-included Canadian contingent found some money at WPT Fallsview, on the north side of Niagra Falls, where there were 594 entries in the C$5K Main Event, for a prize pool just over US$2M. Coming in 21st—and moving up the Leaderboard four places to #119—was Umang Dattani of Calgary (finishing just ahead of Vanessa Selbst). Maple, BC’s Arash Tafakori came in 11th, winning his biggest score (of three) and leaping 4,500 places on the Leaderboard to #1629. The top PNW finisher in the tournament was Jaspal Brar of Edmonton in 7th. He climbs 10 places to #67 (and went on to cash in the WPT LAPC Main Event a week later).

In the WPT Fallsview C$2,500 NLHE side event, Ron Lauzon of Edmonton picked up his largest-ever cash in a long string (72) of cashes for 13th (moving 20 places to #252). 6th place went to Richmond, BC’s Stephen Wong, now #1003 from #4212.

The outlier for this edition is Rogers, AK’s Adam Todd, taking 4th in the RUNGOOD Poker Series Joplin $100K GTD NLHE Main Event (that’s Joplin MO), 383 entries paid $575 and the prize pool was over $180K. It was Todd’s biggest cash, and he climbs almost 1,500 spots on the Leaderboard, to #2242.

Dylan Linde took 14th at the WPT LAPC NLHE Main Event, which drew 490 entries and $4.7M prize pool. He remains #10. Ian Johns finished 3rd of 48 in the $2,140 buy-in WPT LAPC #66 HORSE and holds at #30.

North of the border in Calgary, Donald McCall from Airdrie, AB was the winner (263 entries) of Great Canadian Freeze Out #4 NLHE. It’s his biggest cash and he moves exactly 700 places to #1158. Two Calgary players took 2nd and 3rd in the Great Canadian Freeze Out #10 NLHE Main Event, (C$660 buy-in). Karim Chatur was 3rd and moves up one spot to #57; Tak Chu is the big gainer for the week, moving from #6638 to #2096 for his second-place finish.

In other news out of Calgary, the C$440 buy-in Grey Eagle Winter XScape NLHE Main Event saw local Doug Lee win the field of 251. He remains #23 on the Leaderboard. Matt Kwong (also Calgary) moves up to #571 for second, and the afore-mentioned Donald McCall took third.

The opening event of the PacWest Poker Classic was a $310 entry, $125K GTD NLHE tournament with a four-way deal made. Gavin Smith of Portland took 1st for his biggest-ever cash, and climbs 600+ places to #1286. In 2nd was Bruce Zhen (Salem, also largest cash) rises to #1023. Crescent City, OR resident Gurit Marwah debuts at #2880 on the Leaderboard for 3rd. And Portland’s Baptiste Chavaillaz came in 4th. bumping him 10 places, to #155. The event drew 498 entries.

Nick Getzen (Portland) won the PacWest Poker Classic $100K GTD NLHE 6-Max, for what is surprisingly, his largest tournament cash (though you may have watched him pull down large chunks of cash on PokerTime. Getzen is up almost 1,000 places on the Leaderboard, to #1681.

Finally, there’s the PacWest Poker Classic $225K GTD NLHE Main Event, which ended in a 6-way deal. Lee Ferris (Washougal, WA, #1844 on the Leaderboard) got 6th. Trevor Kahlberg of Bend claimed 5th (now #1696). Sheridan, OR’s Mark Hurst gains 650+ spots to #1126 for 4th and Ridgefield, WA’s Carl Oman makes another hit at Chinook in 3rd, going from #716 to #538. Second place went to Leaderboard newcomer Ty LaCroix (Portland), who debuts at #1852. Finally, Longview’s Tareq Amhaz got 1st, jumping to #803 from #1474. It was the largest cash for all six players.

And that’s probably it for the Leaderboard for the foreseeable future. Without any live games anywhere in the world, I’m not going to have anything to post here and while I got some money onto Ignition since I stared writing this a couple of days ago, my first tournament ended juat as I was making a recovery after losing a big flip when denial of service attacks took the site down, so there’s not even going to be my own online crap to blog about.

Maybe it’s time to turn my attention to marble racing.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 2 March 2020

No results yet from the PacWest Poker Classic at Chinook Winds. I’m just going to reiterate here that there’s no reason it should take a week for results to be posted.

Poker Mutant & Toma Barber

I went down to Lincoln City the first weekend to no avail, splitting a room with Toma Barber—who I had first met before he moved to Portland, when we were seated next to each other for much of Day 2 in the first $1,000+ buy-in tournament I cashed, back in 2013. I had to head back to town without playing the HORSE tournament that I’d been looking forward to because of a family emergency, which also prevented me from making the Main Event the next weekend. On the plus side, I did finally have my first tournament profit/win of the year in my old home game a week after bubbling the Final Table $10K NLHE. (Also, a minor profit playing $1/3 NLHE cash at PacWest.)

I am pretty sure there is not a “Coronavirus Casino”

But enough of my paltry performances. Let’s talk about the WSOP potentially getting called off in three months because of COVID-19! Or the fact that we’re only a month away from the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up and they closed it down today because a worker came down with the coronavirus!

James Romero wins partypoker MILLIONS South America (photo Camila Ocampo for partypoker blob)

It’s #5 on the Leaderboard, James Romero on top of the money tree again with a win in the 30-entry partypoker Millions South America #6 $25K NLHE Super High Roller, just a month afer a big cash in a partypoker $10K in the UK. No change in standings.

Seth Davies maintains at #2 with 2nd place in the first Aria $10K NLHE High Roller of the year.

Adam Hendrix (photo: Poker News via WSOP.com)

Out of Anchorage, Adam Hendrix took 5th place in the WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #12 $1M GTD NLHE Main Event (747 entries). Hendrix is new to the Leaderboard (added with the expansion to include Alaska, BC , and Alberta), but he’s the #1 Alaskan on the Hendon Mob’s state-by-state rankings. Derek Duclos from Caldwell, ID (#1932) placed in 17th.

There were a couple of results out of the Winter Super Stack #8 NLHE in Calgary (138 entries) and I’d probably be reporting more names except for the fact that a lot of players aren’t identified as anything but “Canada” for their residence. The top dog was #146-ranked (moving up 20 spots) Sinan Tawfik of Calgary, who came in 1st. Don Montgomery (also Calgary) took 4th place, moving up more than 300 places on the Leaderboard to #1079.

Anthony An from Juneau picked up his best-ever cash with a win in the LAPC #52 $100K GTD NLHE Bounty Championship, beating the 100-entry field. An goes from #901 to #640.

Anthony An (photo: lapcnews.com)

Another Remington sculpture was brought back to the PNWby Bellevue, WA’s Adam Tyburski, who cleared the field in the 42-entry LAPC #44 LHE. Tyburski climbs more than 500 places to #1326.

Adam Tyburski (photo: lapcnews.com)

On the other side of the country at the WSOPC Tampa #6 $200K GTD NLHE Monster Stack, Vancouver, BC-based bracelet-winner Robert Cheung grabbed 5th. He’s far enough up the Leaderboard (#28) that even the final table of a 1,371-entry tournament doesn’t move him.

There’s nowhere up to go for #1 Scott Clements. He was runner-up in the 148-entry WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #9 HORSE.

Russell Serion (photo: wsop.com)

Russell Serion from Richmond, BC picked up his biggest cash and a Ring with a win in the WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #8 NLHE Black Chip Bounty. There were a total of 168 entries. Serion’s another player with a 500+ climb this week, hitting #1185.

And the last item for the Leaderboard and for the Rio is Boise’s Maria McAlpin, coming in 3rd at WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #10 NLHE Double Stack. McAlpin breaks through the 1,000 barrier, going from #1003 to #816.

Maybe Chinook results will be in in a couple of weeks. Until then, wash your hands! Those cards and chips are filthy!