2016 WSOP

ESPN‘s coverage of this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event started this week on Sunday, with Day 4 of the tournament. It was my last day on the job as a live reporter, and I was watching in the background to see if I managed to walk in front of a camera. No luck, but Oregon got a little airtime, with dealer Devin Sweet sharing some screen with Maria Ho, and in the last big hand of the day’s coverage, with Portland-born Cole Jackson‘s alma mater Linfield College and Wilsonville getting the classic Norman Chad reference to the Blue Hens as the school mascot.

The Trouble With Dealers

Elijah Post put out a short film about his experiences at the WSOP in 2013 and 2014. Not a lot of poker action, but if you want to see the unvarnished secret lives of dealers…

The State of Portland Poker

There’s no feeling like screwing up when you know you’re screwing up, and the ecent I’d been looking forward to for months—the $100,000 guarantee Main Event at Chinook WInds’ Fall Coast Classic was a monumental screw-up on my part.

I wasn’t able to make the rest of the series because of work. Back after the spring PacWest Poker Classic, I’d talked to Tournament Director Rebecca May about setting up some sort of live reporting system (well before I got a whiff of the WSOP gig), put together a proposal, and kept in touch. Timing and other issues didn’t work out, but Rebecca and Devin did manage to wangle a room for me for a couple of days for the weekend, so I was stoked about the event.

It started off well enough. Everyone got 30,000 in chips to begin, and I’m reasonably sure the extra 10,000 chips for $25 ended up in all of the stacks. I went down a few thousand, and up a few thousand. My plan for the tournament was to record every hand with the patented scrawl grid I’d used at the WSOP, and I bought four small notepads at the Safeway Friday night before the tournament. Each pad only had 60 pages, though, which would only last about two hours at a page per hand, so I was a bit concerned about running out of pages if I made it even deep into Day 1. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried.

For one thing, while I can record hands pretty well as an observer, keeping track of more than just cards I’m dealt proved harder than I expected, particularly when the table was short-handed at the opening of the game. That did mean that I could squeeze several rows of dealt cards onto a single page. The problem is, recording significant hands is where the real meat resides. Anyway, I was down about 1,000 chips and 26 hands in when I failed to record even the cards I’d been dealt for the first time.

It was hand 39 that got me. I was in the big blind in level 2, with right around 40,000 and 9♠T♣. An early position player raised to three or four times the big blind, SN in the small blind called, and I came along. The flop looked dreamy: 9♣8♣7♣, giving me the open-ended straight flush draw and top pair. I don’t remember the action (and I didn’t write it down afterward) but the turn was a low non-club card. The turn was the J♠, the wrong black jack for me, but one that still gave me a straight. I opened to 4,000 (there had been some action on the turn that justified the bet, then the original raiser overbet the pot to 20,000. Now, the smart thing to do there would be to fold, leaving me with 31,000 and change. The calculus for me was that unless he hit the flush on the flop, or had QxTx, I’ve got him dead to rights. Aces, kings, queens, even a set of jacks are beat by my straight. I have 100 big blinds left if I lose, and 350 if I win. So I call and he has A♣Q♣. I got Malec-ed.

At the break not long after, I overhear the guy telling another player the overbet was intentional, so I’m pretty sure if I’d had J♣T♣ or either end of the straight flush had come in and I’d 3-bet him on the river, I would have gotten all of his chips. My only note on the hand after I wrote down my position and the cards was “BOOM.”

I stopped recording for a while after that, then pulled the pad out after the break. I was starting with 15,625. I only recorded 13 nothingburger hands, and I think hand 14 was where I had raised AxQx in early position and called a re-raise from middle position to see a flop of AxAxTx. The turn and river were 6x7x. Don’t remember the action on the flop and turn; I think they may been checked, but when I checked the river my opponent got impatient and bet 5,000, which I had to call even though I was again feeling like I might be beat. Naturally he had TxTx for a flopped full house. He did say something about not understanding how I didn’t go broke on that hand.

That did leave me with less than 10,000. which got whittled away. Picked up TxTx and shoved over a couple of limpers, including a short stack who happened to have AxAx, and I was out in a blistering two hours and twenty-five minutes.

Played a little 1/3 NLHE that night in the cash game while I was checking up on a couple of people, and made a few dollars, then switched over to the 1/2 Big O when it started up and lost my buyin and profit when I shoved with top set on a Qx9♠7♠ board, lost the main pot to a shorter stack who pulled out a flush and low for a scoop and just chopped the $76 side pot with a third player

Photo via Devin Sweet’s post to the Facebook NW Poker group.

I should have some more info on the events there by next week.

Weekend Getaway: Grey Eagle Calgary

The Deepstacks Poker Tour doesn’t come to Oregon any more, but since pulling out they’ve partnered with the WPT to become sort of a feeder series like what the WSOP Circuit is for the WSOP. Their Canadian stops aren’t WPT-branded, but the upcoming Calgary stop at the end of October is a big event, even as the oil industry behind Alberta’s book years has had a hard time recently.

This week, the DSPT announced that the Calgary Main Event (C$2,500/US$1,900 buyin) will have an increased guarantee of C$1,000,000 (US$760,000), twice the previous amount. Other announcements at the DSPT in recent weeks have included a partnership with Jason Somerville, who will  be livestreaming events throughout the week and hosting the broadcast of the final table on Twitch.tv.

The full schedule for the series hasn’t been released yet, but the Championship Main Event runs from 2–5 December. Rooms at the Grey Eagle Resort & Casino (the event venue) are about US$125/night. This far out, round-trip flights to Calgary are cheap, with direct service from PDX to YYC for about US$285 on Air Canada.

This Week in Portland Poker

Another quiet week—i.e. no announced specials as of Tuesday evening that I’m aware of. The big games are going to be at 7pm at Final Table on Friday and noon Saturday at Portland Meadows. Last week was the final run of the Sunday Big O tournament at A&L Sports Bar/Portland Players Club, as as the room reverts back to football use for the season.

Only a Day Away

• It’s opening day for the Muckleshoot Summer Classic. This week’s events include today’s $250 NLHE shootout, with standard $200, $300, $500, and $750 tournaments starting through Sunday.
• The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza 3.5 has a couple of smaller events this weekend, with a one-day $25K guarantee on Friday for a $340 buyin, a two entry day $125K on Friday and Saturday for $600, with PLO/PLO8 and NLHE bounty tournament in the evening. Coming up next week is a $250K guarantee with a $250 buyin and five starting days.
• The Commerce Poker Series in Los Angeles draws to a close with a $1,650 buyin $500K guarantee Main Event with starting flights Friday and Saturday.
• The HPT Colorado Main Event has four starting days from today until Saturday. $1,650 buyin.
• Friday is the start of the Gardens Poker Classic in Los Angeles.
• CardPlayer Cruises leaves from Seattle on Friday.
• The WPTDeepstacks tour rolls into Casino del Sol in Tucson on Saturday.
• Next Friday is the start of the Stones Gambling Hall $250,000 Fall Classic
• Two weeks from now is the Wynn Fall Classic, followed a day later by another HPT at the Peppermill Casino, then the Deepstacks Poker Tour pulls into Edmonton Alberta for ten days.

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