Monthly Archives: April 2021

PNW Poker Leaderboard — Tax Day 2021

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Hard to believe that it’s been five years since I applied for a job working as a live reporter at the World Series of Poker. I ran across the notice, I was working part-time at a friend’s second-run movie theater, selling tickets and popcorn and beer (Yes, it was Jeff “Punk Rock” Martin’s Joy Cinema and Pub in Tigard! Give them your support!).

The summer I worked there was a little different than the years before or since. WSOP had contracted out the live reporting operation to PokerNews for several years, then they decided to move the operation in-house for 2016. I’d written over a dozen articles as a freelancer for PokerNews over the previous couple of years, and I’d followed the adventures of my editor there, Martin Harris, who’d covered events in North and South America, Australia, and Europe, so even though the word went out from WSOP instead of PokerNews, I gave it a shot. They say they’re only looking for Vegas-based applicants this year, but if you’re a reader who’s down there, it might be worth checking out. Or maybe you can bluff them.

Not many numbers for PNW players this first half of April, but there are some big numbers.

The new name on the board comes in at #3310. It’s Douglas Rogers of Kennewick, who picks up his biggest-ever Hendon Mob cash coming in 3rd out of 180 entries at the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza #8 $40K GTD NLHE MonsterStack.

Another biggest-ever cash goes to Seattle/Henderson’s Adam Walton, taking down the 813-entry Venetian #6 $40K GTD NLHE UltimateStack. Walton jumps over 120 spots on the Leaerboard, to #194.

Chris Brewer continues to work the tables at the Aria High Rollers, cashing in 5th on both April 2nd and 3rd, in fields of 31 and 30 (both of which were won by former PNW Leaderboard regular Almedin Imsirovic). It;s good enough for Brewer to move from #75 to #60.

And up top at #1, it’s Seth Davies, who continues to put space between himself and everyone else with two 4th-place finishes at Aria on the 1st and on the 3rd, just ahead of Brewer (Imsirovic took 2nd on April 1st; I miss having that guy in my regular standings).

And that’s it! Off to play some Big O!

PNW Poker Leaderboard — April Fools 2021

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Not a joke

https://twitter.com/wsop/status/1377637706021265410?s=21

The Leaderboard

I tell ya, poker isolation has been a bitch. My home game crowd—despite including a number of techies—never got it together to do the Zoom game thing using PokerStars Home Games or anything else, so it’s been thirteen months since we got together or I’ve even talked to most of those guys. Yes, I’ve had other stuff going on.

I have played some online poker the past year. Ignition, for sure, where I’ve been playing for years, but also a couple of other small web-based sites, like Nitrogen (promoted by The Poker Guys) and lately Actioncardz, which features a lot of the games I played a lot of back in my Portland Players Club days: a lot of Big O (and I played HORSE for the first time in forever this afternoon!)

Out in the real world, lots of folks are coming out of their COVID hibernation and hitting the  real felt. Here are some of the big cashes for the past couple of weeks for players from the Pacific Northwest!

Let’s start at the Wynn Spring Classic $1M GTD NLHE. From Puyallup, Ilana Gun came in 19th for their first recorded cash in almost two years (and their fifth and largest-ever cash). Gun moves up nearly 1500 places, to #2477 on the Leaderboard.

Richland’s Angel Iniquez came in 33rd in the same event, but also notched a 2nd place in the World Poker Tour/Venetian DeepStack Showdown Poker Series #26 $12K GTD NLHE Bounty. With 169 entries, the prize pool more than tripled, and the top three players did a nearly-even chop. Iniquez goes from #1009 to #830.

Back to the Wynn $1M GTD, David Oppenheim from Mercer Island came in 15th in this tournament, which was his first cash post-COVID. He climbs from #661 to #548.

Vancouver, Washington’s Mohammad Rafie had his largest-ever cash in a Wynn Spring Classic $15K NLHE with a $54K prize pool. He bested 209 other entries to take it down. Crossing my fingers he got one of their Wynn-shaped trophies. Rafie jumps more than 1300 places to #1618.

Two PNW players made the final table of the WPT/Venetian #16 $200K GTD NLHE DoubleStack, which picked up 947 entries to bust the guarantee to over $480K. Andrew Rogers from Anchorage took 5th, just besting his previous top cash (which was only last November). And Seattle’s Brett Polen  came in 3rd, also for a personal best. Rogers goes up about 600 places to #1113. Polen climbs almost 4600 spots to #1099.

Buckley, Washington’s Glenn Thompson also notched his best cash, taking 2nd of 1,015 enties in the Wynn $250K GTD NLHE. Its prize pool was mroe than $530K. Tis was Thompson’s first cash since 2019, Last year suuuuucked! Thompson goes from #1514 to #648 on the Leaderboard.

And would we be complete without an Adam Hendrix report at the end? The Anchorage player did a two-way deal (officially 2nd) in the LA Poker Classic NLHE Main Event with Michael Liang to continue his march up the Leaderboard, from #30 to #26.