This year’s not off to the banger of a start that last year was, with a four-figure win to start things off. This has been a down month, mostly due to my entry in the Portland Meadows All the Drawmaha tournament.

January started off with a couple of losses in the Beaverton Quarantine Zoom games I play; perhaps my NLHE senses are a bit off. Then it was a bubble in the old home game, which I didn’t mind so much as it was the first game with those guys in quite a while.

Pulled myself out of the hole with the next week’s Quarantine games (NLHE and PLO8 Bounty). Then dropped a chunk in the Drawmaha tournament and never got back to black.

Played 30 Ignition $2 NLHE Jackpot Sit-and-Gos, down four buyins even with two $10 cashes.

And that’s the start of the new year. Coming up in February on my personal calendar is a Freezeout tournament at Last Frontier, and the Portland Poker Winter Royale, two games each at Meadows and Final Table. There are a couple of big games at the Little Creek Spring South Sound Series in early March that are intriguing as well, and of course, the PacWest Poker Classic at Chinook Winds is coming up in just five weeks!

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

It’s the first Leaderboard of the year! Technically, I did put out a Leaderboard early in January, but this is there first one covering events that took place in 2024, so first of the year. I’ve upped the inclusion criteria slightly, with $20,000 (US dollar equivalent) as the cutoff (also, only listing events with an ROI of 400% or more). The reason is, with longer periods between Leaderboards, the number of players who meet the requirements increases more or less geometrically (twice as long between events means roughly twice as many entries). Otherwise, I’d be here until March.

Lots of news out of Canada this installment, as World Series of Poker Circuit Calgary ran from January 10–22, more or less at the same time as WSOPC Northern California.

Key to the Leaderboard

• Name and home town (according to the player’s Hendon Mob profile).
• The player’s most recent ranking in the PNW Poker Leaderboard in italics. If this is their first time on the Leaderboard, an em dash (—)
• Their new standing in bold, preceded by the pound sign (#).
• Their change in status on the Leaderboard (with an arrow indicating up or down), or a black club (♣) if this is their first appearance.
• For each of the tournaments that are being recognized in this Leaderboard:
  • The name and link to the Hendon Mob listing for that tournament.
  • The player’s finishing position in the tournament and the number of entries.
  • The tournament prize pool in US dollars.