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
- Muckleshoot Casino Spring Classic starts at noon with the $2K Added NLHE Shootout ($300 entry), and a $200 entry O8 at 7pm (not included with any of the satellite packages). That builds up to the $10K Added NLHE Saturday ($500 entry, last year Portland’s Allen Oh won). Sunday is the $750 buyin Main Event, which had a $142K prize pool last year.
- The Bicycle Mega Millions XVIII with a $1M GTD for a $160 buyin event starts tomorrow.
- The Venetian March Extravaganza runs this weekend.
- Coming up next Thursday, the World Series of Poker Circuit is back in Las Vegas (pace yourselves, guys!) at Planet Hollywood this time.
- The $40K/1st tournament at Lucky Chances mentioned above is Sunday, 25 March.
- Run It Up Reno is at Peppermill Casino a week from Monday.
- Monday, 26 March is also the beginning of Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II.
- Two weeks from tomorrow three tournament series kick off: WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley in California, HPT Las Vegas at the Westgate, and WSOPC Council Bluffs, just across the river from Omaha, Nebraska (you can actually get RT tickets for less than $300, no non-stop flights though).