I meant to get this edition of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard out yesterday to coincide with Valentine’s Day and the 161st birthday of the State of Oregon—not to mention that I was hoping to be busy playing poker for the next four days at the PacWest Poker Classic—but life had its own little funny plans, so instead of whipping out a post after a couple of drinks with my sweetheart last night, here I am in the Lincoln City Motel 6 after busting Event #1 $100K NLHE (twice) and Event #2 10-Seat NLHE Main Event Satellite (just once) with just a Diet Coke in hand.
So let’s start out with the most important news of the past couple of weeks. Ryan Stoker came in third in the Wynn Signature Series $400K NLHE Main Event. Wynn doesn’t immediately report their results to Hendon Mob, so Ryan’s cash didn’t make it into the last edition. Congrats to him for his second-largest cash; he moves up from #217 to #184. Ryan bested over 500 other players.
The big winner this time in absolute terms is #2 on the list, Seth Davies who was Down Under at the Australian Poker Open #5 A$25K NLHE, which had 47 entries. Davies finished behind Stephen Chidwick and Eric Seidel.
Four years ago, Sam Cosby was abusing junior senior poker reporters at the World Series of Poker. A couple of years ago when I had my best-ever cash here at the PacWest, Sam was hanging around looking a little jealous. Last summer I think he might have figured out that if even I could make a five-figure cash, he ought to be a shoo-in, because since giving up reporting and going on the road as a full-time player, Sam’s been on a tear, garnering his second Circuit Ring in five months at WSOPC Potawatami #9 NLHE, a $1,125 buy-in with 151 entries, and notching his largest cash, and climbing more than 100 spots on the Leaderboard, to #329. The move to Portland did good!
With 231 entries at C$880, the Pure Canadian Poker Championship NLHE Main Event at Casino Yellowhead in Edmonton put a few players into this week’s standings.
The winner was Edmonton’s Malcolm Bolger, who snagged another in an impressive run of five-figure cashes (9 out of 32, mostly in events with $1K or smaller buy-ins). He climbs about 20 spots to #145.
Deron Noksana (Edmonton) took second placing, moving him from #619 to #492; and Jimmy Lee (also Edmonton) was third. Lee is already #81 on the Leaderboard, and his cash does not movie him up from that position.
Another well-known poker journalist, Adam Lamers (Edmonton) beat out 228 other entries in the Pure Canadian Poker Championship NLHE Triple Stack. Lamers climbs to #829 on the PNW Leaderboard, He’s also breathing down the neck of the top three on the Poker Media Power Rankings, particularly as Sam Cosby’s eligibility is about to expire.
Lamers’s runner-up, Harvey Johnson (just listed as from Alberta), moved onto the Leaderboard with his second recorded cash. He debuts at #3362.
Bellingham’s Yon Kim enters the Leaderboard with his second cash, a win in the Venetian DSE #3 $25K GTD NLHE Monster Stack. Kim starts at #2830.
The Parx Big Stax XXXII NLHE 300 in Bensalem, Pennsylvania drew 2,257 entries at $340 each, and Seattle’s Pofuk Ying made it to 8th to zoom up 4,300 spots to #1694. Gonna put an asterisk on this one, because all six of Ying’s cashes going back to 2017 are from Parx Big Stax events, which may mean not Seattle after all.
Finally, a 16th-place finish that’s not in the WSOP doesn’t usually make it to the Leaderboard, but Federal Way’s David Froyalde did it at the MSPT/Venetian $1M GTD NLHE. There were nearly 1,100 entries at $1,100. It was Froyalde’s second-largest cash and moves him up to #1063.
Time for some sleep. Then some more poker, hopefully!