This one is for my dad, whose 81st birthday was today. Started this report after I just got home from my brother’s house where we had our small immediate family together for a little celebration.
Unlike so many of you, I did not learn poker from my father. Didn’t learn it from my mother or anyone else in my family. Nobody in my family played cards when I was a kid, though Dad says he and Mom played some pinochle during their early college years. Nobody I knew even gambled, at least as far as I knew. My folks came from kind of hardscrabble families without a lot of money, and while I know that’s not exactly a bar for many people that prevents them from getting into gaming, the times (after a series of vice scandals rocked Portland’s gambling scene but well before Indian casinos brought legalized gaming to the state) and somewhat puritanical though not dogmatic religious upbringings combined with the lack of money to never even really put poker in front of my face. “I don’t know anything about poker,” he’s said to me any number of times, but it’s been a hell of a year, between COVID and cancer surgery for him, along with having to vacate his house because of a lack of electricity during the fires last fall and the ice storm that coincided with his cancer surgery, so he gets the dedication for this Leaderboard.
Running this one chronologically, again. And I’m dropping the GPI rankings because I’m not sure they added anything useful.
Graeme Wright of Calgary was runner-up in the Autumn at the Aria Poker Series $40K GTD NLHE on 7 October, out of 258 entries. It’s Wright’s largest cash (and only the fifth on record). Wright moves up over a thousands places on the Leaderboard to #1686.
The Wynn Fall Classic $2M GTD NLHE Mystery Bounty brought in over $3M to the prize pool, with 2,333 entries. In 50th place was Brett Kennedy (Seattle) whose cash was good enough to move them from #385 to #359, Eight places further on, at 32nd, was Surrey, British Columbia player Harsukhpaul Sangha, moving five places on the Leaderboard, to #110.
Daniel Boskovic (Port Moody, British Columbia) took second in the 14 October Aria Poker Series $40K GTD NLHE, out of 308 entries. The prize pool for that one topped $100K. Boskovic goes from #3927 to #2366, with their best career cash.
On a slightly larger stage, Seattle’s Chad Campbell came in 2nd in World Series of Poker #29 NLHE Short Deck Championship, beating 64 other players to go head-to-head with Chance Kornuth and their biggest cash. It takes Campbell up almost five hundred places on the Leaderboard, to #296.
WSOP #30 NLHE Monster Stack
Jacqueline Burkhart at 53rd, which was enough to inch up another seven places to #256. Vancouver, Washington’s James Ward debuted on the Leaderboard at #2461 by placing 45th. Christopher Brewer took a break from the nosebleed buy-ins to place 30th (which doesn’t move him from #16). Another PNW crusher, Dylan Wilkerson—#13—came in at 27th. On the last two tables, it was #8 Lee Markholt taking 17th, Seattle’s Katsushi Yoshida getting 14th (and moving eight hundred spots on the Leaderboard to #871), with Jeff Vertes of Abbotsford, British Columbia getting 12th (and climbing from #213 to #180).
In case you’re wondering how Chris’s bet here is likely to go, revisit what Limon did (and I tagged along for) during the 2015 WSOP Main Event.
Ralph ‘Rep’ Porter got close to another bracelet, making it to 4th in WSOP #31 NL 2-7 Lowball Draw. 272 entries, this is typically the $1,500 buy-in event with the fewest entries if you’re looking for a bracelet yourself! Porter stays at #11.
Vancouver’s Joseph Leung moves up forty places on the Leaderboard to #217 with a 2nd place at the Venetian DeepStack Poker Series II #23 $75K GTD PLO. That event got 267 entries and pushed the prize pool to more than three times the guarantee.
Everyone’s favorite new senior, Angela Jordison, won her biggest recorded cash in Venetian #22 $50K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. 359 entries brounght the prize pool up to $183K. Jordison’s rank on the Leaderboard goes from #282 to #224 with that win, a 10th place in the Wynn Fall Classic $400K NLHE Seniors and some other stuff, like 108th in the WSOP #52 NLHE Seniors Championship. It’s a good thing I’ll be able to play the Super Seniors next year so I can stay out of Jordison’s way. Jordison bested another PNW player—Benjamin Garrick of Gold Beach—in the Venetian event. It was still Garrick’s best cash, and they move 300+ places to #748. Two other PNW players were at the final table of the Wynn Seniors tournament , as well: April Facey—another Port Moody native, who rises about 150 places to #539—and Spokane Valley’s Justin Monk, whose 3rd-place finish took them from #179 to #146.
#18 Tyler Patterson took 20th in the WSOP #33 NLHE 8-Max.The event drew 2,778 entries at $800 each for a proze pool of nearly $2M. Kris Steinbach from Sherwood Park, Alberta grabbed 5th place, moving from #280 to #187.
Tacoma’s Peter Lynn grabbed their biggest cash and almost grabbed a bracelet, in the 285-entry WSOP #34 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw, losing to David “Bakes” Baker. Lynn jumps from #2470 to #865.
Portland’s Brian Cunningham notched a personal best cash in the 18 October and moved more than three thousand places on the Leaderboard (to #2905) by winning the Rio Daily 1pm Deep Stack, which got a prize pool of $57K out of 284 entries.
From Federal Way, Jacob Rich made it to 6th place in the 2,931 entry field of WSOP #35 NLHE Freezeout. It’s a best cash for Rich, and it’s enough for a debut on the leaderboard at #1671.
The follow-up to last week’s out-of-nowhere entry of Tacoma’s Bin Weng in the WSOP’s $25K buy-in Heads-Up tournament was Weng placing 6th in WSOP #38 NLHE High Roller 8-Max, a $50K buy-in with 81 entries. Weng was slugging it out on the final table with Mustapha Kanit, Sam Soverel, Chris Hunichen, Erik Seidel, Gal Yifrach, Justin Bonomo, and Michael Addamo. Again, that’s some chutzpah for someone whose lifetime recorded tournament earnings prior to this event were less than the buy-in, and that includes a min-cash in the $25K Heads Up. Weng had a significant addition to the recorded earnings from this, and moves from #1296 to #239 on the Leaderboard.
Dien Le from Bellevue bumps up two places to #122 with 11th place in WSOP #39 PLO 8-Max. There were 821 entries in the event.
The WSOP #41 NLHE Freezeout got 896 $2,500 entries. George Wolff came in 18th. He stays at the #17 spot on the Leaderboard.
Steve Chanthabouasy climbs five places to #90 after making the final table of the WSOP #44 LHE 6-Max, a $3K buy-in that got 162 entries. Chanthabouasy took 6th.
Slipping out of the Rio for a moment, at the Orleans Poker Series $75K GTD NLHE on 23 October, Tim Zhou from Kenmore, Washington placed 2nd for a lifetime best, and moves up from #2158 to #1677 on the Leaderboard.
Portland’s Brian Bowman jumps 400 spots to #1376 with a 13th place finish in WSOP #46 NLHE Deepstack. There were over 2,000 entries in this one.
Colten Yamagishi from Edmonton got their biggest cash coming in 4th out of 1,569 entries in WSOP #50 Mixed NLHE/PLO Deepstack 8-Max. Yamagishi is up 270 places on the Leaderboard, to #530.
WSOP #51 NLHE 6-Max
Three PNW players made it deep in the 997-entry field of this $3K buy-in tournament. It was a best-ever cash for Seattle’s Matthew Schwagler, rising 400 places to #984 via a 25th place finish. It was 12th place for Krishna Vitaldevara of Woodinville, Washington, who has a massive 5100-spot rise to #1680 with another best-ever cash. And North Vancouver, British Columbia’s Jonas Mackoff finished just ahead of Vitaldevara in 11th place, but holds at #40.
Until the next time!