But you can still take your chances at the Spring Poker Round Up starting next week at WIldhorse Casino in Eastern Oregon. Thirteen events over eleven days, with buyins ranging from $125 to $550 for the Main Event and a High Roller at $1,100, plus some satellites.
Last spring, Lisa Meredith won the first event, with 529 entries, then she went on to take third place at the WSOP Millionaire Maker (7,190) for a prize nearly ten times the prize pool of the Pendleton event. Two years ago, Angela Jordison swept the first three events, so if you’re a female player and you want the good poker juju, this may be the series for you. That, and it’s well-situated to build up a bankroll for anyone just a couple months before the WSOP starts.
Events of note are:
#4 — Sunday, 9 April, 7pm — Big O, $230 with $1K added to the prize pool. This is a new event at Pendleton, though there’s plenty of cash game Big O action.
#5 — Monday, 10 April, noon — Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, $230 with $3K added. $38K prize pool last year.
#6 — Tuesday, 11 April, noon — HORSE, $230 with $3K added. $23K last year.
#9 — Thursday, 13 April, noon – NLHE High Roller, $1,100 (satellites at 7pm 10 April and 12 April). $72K last year.
#12 — Saturday & Sunday, 15 & 16 April, noon — NLHE Main Event, $550 with $10K added (satellites at 7pm 6 April and 14 April). $172K last year.
From the Archive
I’ve been writing this blog for more than six years, so there’s a lot of stuff from the early days even I don’t remember.
The big event in Portland poker is happening in Salem today and it may be over by the time you read this. 1pm is the hearing on House Bill 2190, which would draw the definitions of the state’s social gaming rules in a manner that would choke out poker as we’ve come to know it in the city.
And, of course, there was last week’s article in Willamette Weekby Nigel Jacquiss.
It wasn’t one of the best efforts by Jacquiss (who has a Pulitzer Prize under his belt) with his description of Final Table as “a room that smells like a mixture of air freshener, fear and fryer grease.” (Unless it was his own fear, perhaps.) He padded the account with a portrayal of the late John Ogai and quotes from the more-recently-passed Chris Vetter without including material from several sources I know were interviewed extensively in the main body of the article. He didn’t reconcile the claim that the clubs were operating illegally with the fact that the city has allowed their operation for most of a decade. It’s only in a sidebar that he mentions “Portland’s poker rooms are licensed and operating openly. Yet several of their practices appear to violate the law.” There’s certainly a gray area—much as recreational marijuana sales are legal in Oregon but not legal under federal statutes—but it’s not as clear-cut as he portrays it in the article.
The Bureau of Labor and Industries issues, though…
Only a Day Away
The last event of this year’s Bicycle Casino Winnin’ o’ the Green, a $200K GTD Monster Stack tournament with $245 buyin has entries today and Thursday.
Tomorrow is the first of three entry days to the $529,850 GTD Main Event of the Planet Hollywood Goliath Warm Up.
The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IIIhas a $600 entry $200K GTD Bounty tournament with three entry days starting Sunday. Sunday evening is a $7K GTD $250 PLO/PLO8 mix.
Little Creek Casino is running WSOP package satellites on the next four Tuesdays at 7pm. $255 buyin plus a dealer addon, every 10 players in the tournament gets an entry to the $1,500 Millionaire Maker and $750 in travel expenses.
The Heartland Poker Tour opens today in St. Charles, Missouri with a $350 buyin, $100K GTD.
The Council BluffsWorld Series of Poker Circuit begins tomorrow. It’s one of the smaller stops on the Circuit, with 321 players for last year’s Main Event.
The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classicat Hustler Casino in Gardena, California starts Friday with satellites for the $150K GTD event over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday both have 2 flights each ($250 entry). The 12:30pm flight gets 20K in chips and 12% make it to Day 2. The 5pm flight gets 24K, and 4% advance. If you qualify more than once, you get $1K for any stack not played.
Elk Valley Casino in Crescent City, California has a WSOP Main Event Satellite on 7 & 8 April. There are two qualifying sessions (6pm on the 7th, 10am on the 8th), with the final session at 4pm on the 8th. Entry is $250, with 1st place receiving the Main Event seat and $2K in expenses. Maximum of 160 players.
The first event of the WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valleyis 7 April, with a $260 buyin $100K GTD 8-Max. Entry flights on Friday and Saturday (two) with Day 2 on Sunday.
I made an appearance on the High Roller Radio podcast a few months back, but I’m not nearly as entertaining or experienced as Abe Limon, late of Live at the Bike and other ventures. PokerSesh is no more, but HRR interviewed him this week, shortly after the Mike Dentale/Cate Hall heads-up match (Do I care about that enough to link? I do not.) He has a few words to say on the “poker/industrial complex” (actually, he says those particular words quite a few times), staking, and poker player rating systems.
Get Your O Face On
Former Portland-area player James “SplitSuit” Sweeney, co-founder of the Red Chip Poker training site, has a primer for playing “Big-O,” if you’ve been looking enviously over from your NLHE table at the people having fun next door. All those cards!
Tuesday Mix
My Las Vegas host for last summer, Jeremy “Worm” Harkin, has been doing his best to build a regular Tuesday night mix game—and give some advice on mixed game play—at Portland Meadows with 2 levels of blinds ($1/$2 on the main tables and $0.25/$0.50 on the others). Before last night’s game he announced on the NW Poker Facebook group an offer that I wish I couldn’t have refused:
Here is what I’m contemplating now. I am going to play the smaller game tonight only and if I lose, everything is as normal except for I still will be showing all of my hands and non-showdown pots to let the others know what I was betting with. If I win I’m going to DONATE all of my winnings back to the table for everyone who was there when I quit (I do plan on playing until 230am). My profits will be divided based on the number of hours the players played in the smaller game. (The more hours you played the smaller game with me the higher % of profits you will receive) This offer is only good towards the NEWEW, smaller game players, none of the regulars from our regular $1/2 game can get this offer. I expect to win anywhere from $300 to $1000 in this game. If I lose, it’s all on me obviously. Game is on for 7pm tonight.
I’ve been itching to play this game myself.Gonna have to wait a couple of weeks, though. Jeremy’s game was still going with a couple of tables as of 11:30pm Tuesday.
LATE ADDITION: Published this morning after I went to bed is the Willamette Week article I mentioned was due to come out.
This Week In Portland Poker
Nothing special that I’m aware of this week, but I’m eager to see the new RFID table at Portland Meadows setup; Brian Sarchi told me last week that the computer’s up and running and that the cameras were going to be installed. Here’s some info from Gorilla Gaming about the tables (similar to those used by the WSOP, HPT, Bicycle Casino, and others). If you’re interested in the technology behind reading the cards and putting live hands on a screen (I downloaded the software a couple of years ago, you can use it in a limited way without a hole-cam or RFID table) read about PokerGFX here.
Only a Day Away
At The Bike, the Winnin’ o’ the Green moves into the final week with Mega Millions XVI, a $1M GTD tournament with a $160 minimum buyin. There are two flights (with optional $100 addon) through Monday. Day 2 is on Tuesday. The last event begins Tuesday, a $200K GTD Monster Stack tournament with $245 buyin and entries through Thursday.
The $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin) of the WPTDeepstacks Reno at the Atlantis starts Friday and runs until Monday.
Friday is the start of the Planet Hollywood Goliath Warm Up, with $1M in combined guarantees, including the $529,850 HTD Main Event with a $1,650 buyin, three entry days (30 March—1 April).
Vancouver, BC’s Edgewater Casino has a Super Saturday tournament at 10:15am with w C$500 buyin.
The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IIIstarts Monday, with a $150K GTD (three entry days, $400 buyin, 11am start time). The series runs through mid-April.
Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington has another satellite for a WSOP Colossus buyin and $750 in travel expenses next Tuesday night at 7pm. Tickets are available online. There are three Millionaire Maker packages up for grabs on Tuesdays in April.
The Heartland Poker Tour hits St. Charles, Missouri, outside of St. Louis a week from tomorrow with an opening $350 buyin, $100K GTD. Their $1,650 buyin Main Event (live streamed, no longer televised) starts 7 April. Alaska and Southwest both have direct flights to St. Louis from PDX, you can get RT tickets on Alaska for about $425. (St. Charles is about 8 miles from the airport).
Another direct destination you may not be aware of is Omaha, just across the Mississippi River from Council Bluffs where the World Series of Poker Circuit lands 30 March. Direct roundtrip flights on Alaska are about $450. For a town near Omaha, you’d think there might be more than a single Omaha tournament on the schedule, but Council Bluffs it is Iowa, not Nebraska.
LA’s Hustler Casino has its annual Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classicstarting 31 March. The series has over $1M in guarantees, with a $500K GTD Quantum tournament near the end and a two-entry-day $250K near the start ($250 buyin).
Peppermill Casino hosts another Run It Up Reno from 3—10 April. It includes a number of small buyin events, including 6-Max Triple Stud and PLO, a 6-Max 8-Game championship, a NLHE Partner tournament, Win the Button, NL Omaha Bounty, Big O, and 3-Card NLHE. The topper is a 2-day $100K GTD NLHE Main Event with a $600 entry. Most of the buyins are $125 to $225.
As of Saturday, just after midnight (so technically Sunday morning) the Poker Mutant is the reigning champion of tournament poker in Portland.
One thing I want to clarify: what I won was the trophy for series champion. And I did it without winning very much money.
This site’s slogan has always been Poker That Just Ain’t Right
I consider myself a decent player (like, who doesn’t?), and I have shared in some big-for-Portland prize pools, with cashes in the several-thousand-dollar range. But I’m under no delusion that I’m the best player in town: I don’t make a living playing poker, I’ve never had the bankroll to even try, and apart from last summer when I was working for the World Series, I haven’t even made significant money as a poker writer, much less as a player (a couple of those PokerNews articles came out to something like $1/hour) and this gig pays zero.
I wasn’t on a miracle heater. Variance being what it is, it would certainly be possible for someone to hit a hot streak during a four-game series. But that was not what happened. Instead, I got the trophy for in-the-money finishes of 24th and 11th. I didn’t even make a final table.
I’m laughing on the inside. That is my smile.
The funniest thing about this to me is that after seeing the numbers from the first weekend’s results, I approached Brian Sarchi at Portland Meadows early Saturday about possibly using something like the WSOP Circuit point model, little knowing I would be named Champion by the system I was arguing against (Max Young later mentioned he’d suggested the same change after the last series).
Points were awarded to players who cashed, by the order in which they busted. So if a tournament had 36 players making the money, the winner got 36 points, the runner-up got 35, and so on down to 36th place getting 1 point (the formula for this is numberOfCashingPlayers – cashingPosition + 1). The problem with that kind of a point system is when you have unequal numbers of players getting points. If all four events had awarded points only to the top 20 finishers or the final 9, it’s not an issue. But if the number of payouts is based on the number of entries and some of the tournaments are re-entry and others are rebuys, the re-entry tournaments are going to have more payouts, producing more points for the leaders and for middle-of-the-pack finishers.
I cashed in both of the re-entry tournaments. My first cash was in 24th place out of 45 cashing players. For that, I got 22 points (45 – 24 + 1 = 22). The folks who made the final table of the rebuy tournament the night before—with 27 players cashing—got between 19 (for 9th place and 27 (for first). So for a 24th-place finish, I ended up with as many points as the Friday night player who made 6th.
Early in the last tournament, after results from Event #3 had been tallied, Brian announced that the series leader had 65 points. The final event had over 400 entries, with 54 places paid, and by about 9pm, I was the only player remaining in the field with enough points from previous events who could overtake the point leader. Brian told me that if I managed to get to 11th place or better, I’d pick up the needed 44 points.
So that became my goal. Max, who was moved to couple spots to my left with a pile of chips after we’d hit the money (which happened about 8:30pm), seemed intent on making it his mission to make sure I didn’t get there. About 11pm, with 20 or so players remaining, I picked up aces for the fifth time in the game and raised to 50K (2.5bb) and Max 3-bet to 125K (which I was counting on). Another player went all-in for 79K and I shoved about 400K. Max considered it (he had me covered by several hundred thousand) then folded, only to spent the next few minutes debating whether he should have just flatted preflop, since he would have hit a set of nines on the flop. I did lay down a raise with A♥Q♥ to him not long after (he showed jacks) in my attempt to get the trophy, where I normally would have flatted his 3-bet, which was about a quarter of my remaining chips.
Just before midnight we hit a break and the 12th player was eliminated, cementing my grip on the championship. I was pretty short by that point, with less than 10bb, and I shoved K♥9♥ only to have Max wake up with A♥T♥. So 11th I needed to make and 11th is what I got.
I’d like to say thanks to everyone who was egging me on the last couple of hours. It was a fun goal, and while I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m not worthy of this type of award, I’m definitely a bit embarrassed to win it the way I did, getting less than 1% of the combined prize pool. A lot of people did better than me during this series.
Just for comparison, under the WSOP Circuit model, the winners of the events would have received 50 points each, and everyone in the final nine would get a graduated amount down to 15 points for 9th place. My 24th place the first Saturday would have been worth 5 points and the 11th place that clinched me the championship would have been 10 points, equal to the points someone who cashed once in 9th place.
I may not be a serious champion, but I plan to take the championship seriously! I’ll be out of circulation for a couple of weeks attending to some family business, but I will be dragging my trophy to every tournament I play after that for a month or so.
More In the Week Of Unearned Accolades
A while back on Twitter, I passed along a link toZach Elwood’s review ofTrumped, a book by a former executive in the President’s former Atlantic City casino operations. A number of people mentioned to me they’d picked up on Zach’s recommendation, including an player going by the Twitter handle @itchybollix (who’s a great follow if you want to keep up on Irish political scandals and be lullabied every afternoon with a tweet of “GOODNIGHT CORRUPT FUCKIN’ SHITHOLE”). I haven’t read the book yet, Zach was the guy who recommended it, but somehow this happens:
After two weeks and $160K of combined prizes in the PPCS (plus the WSOP Main Event seat from The Game), things are a little laid back, with no specials that I’m aware of. Just a reminder that Portland Meadows and Final Table are now charging $15/day for their door fees. and there’s a new schedule for Meadows, with some Freezeouts on the schedule.
And Final Table is getting your weekends going early with 11am start times for their first Saturday and Sunday tournaments (super-early if you were there the morning of Daylight Savings Time).
Finally, a number of people have mentioned to me they’ve been interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winning Nigel Jacquiss of Willamette Week for an article he’s doing on the Portland poker scene. A WW photographer was at Final Table’s $30K on Friday night photographing player’s hands…
Only a Day Away
The World Series of Poker Circuit at The Bike is over but the Winnin’ o’ the Green series continues this weekend with Mega Millions XVI, a $1M GTD tournament with eleven starting days and multiple flights each day, inclluding the option to enter for $160 or $550, with different Day 2 advancement criteria.
Deepstacks Poker Tour Calgary is at the Grey Eagle Casino.The C$250K GTD Main Event (C$1,100 buyin) has entry flights on Friday and Saturday, with Day 2 on Sunday.
The Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classicruns today through Monday. The Shootour is today at noon, with events building to Sunday’s $20K added $750 buyin Main Event (noon).
WPTDeepstacks Reno at the Atlantis starts tomorrow and runs until 27 March. They have an opening $50K GTD event ($400 buyin) and a $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin, starting 24 March).
Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington is running satellites for a package including a WSOP Colossus buyin and $750 in travel expenses next Tuesday night at 7pm, with another on the following Tuesday. Tickets are available online.
Next Friday is the start of the Planet Hollywood Goliath Warm Up, with $1M in combined guarantees, including the $529,850 HTD Main Event with a $1,650 buyin, three entry days (30 March—1 April).
The Heartland Poker Tour has done well in St. Charles, Missouri, outside of St. Louis. They’re back there on 29 March with an opening $350 buyin, $100K GTD. Their $1,650 buyin Main Event (live streamed, no longer televised) starts 7 April. Alaska and Southwest both have direct flights to St. Louis from PDX, you can get RT tickets on Alaska for about $425. (St. Charles is about 8 miles from the airport).
Russia’s in the news a lot lately. I’ve long been interested in Russia, from an historical perspective, as a fan of Constructivist poster art, because of a fascination with non-Roman letterforms, and because part of my wife’s family is of Russian origin. In fact, there are so many Russian emigres in the Portland area that Russian is the 3rd most-spoken language in Oregon—behind English and Spanish—and I know some of them are playing poker. I know that I’ve always wanted to go see Russia someday myself.
Well, here’s your chance to make the trip for the first time—or to go back home to make some money. ■■■■■■■■■■—one of the earliest and biggest online poker operators—is in the process of building out their live poker tour, and this month’s stop is in Sochi, the site of the most-recent Winter Olympics. The big events are the $250K GTD Russian Poker Championship ($550, 3/18—22), a $100K GTD High Roller ($3,300, 3/18—20), and the $1M GTD Main Event ($1,100, 3/23—27). You can pick up tickets to Sochi for as low as $1,100 RT (although some of those have ungodly delays that make the trip nearly 60 hours; take the day-long layover in Moscow to check it out!)
So if the thought of carrying a wad of cash into Russia (or trying to get your winnings out of Russia) doesn’t scare you, hop on the computer right now. There are Russian women—who have to warm their own hands by blowing on them—waiting by the phone.
The stop after Sochi (in early May) is in Montreal, with a $5M GTD at Playground Poker Club. The flight’s shorter but they speak French, so for some of you it may be a wash.
And, from Christian Zetzsche, one of my WSOP reporting compatriots last summer, this:
Portland Poker Championship Series II
The first two events of the PPCS2 are complete, and the race is on for the championship. Plus lots of money. There’s a trophy for the series point leader (at right) and the two biggest events are yet to come with two$30K GTDs at Final Table Friday night at 7pm and Portland Meadows at noon Saturday.
The prize pool in last Friday’s $20K GTD at Final Table was over $35K. The Saturday game at Portland Meadows had 368 entries and a total of more than $45K in money awarded to 45 players.
I went on a heater just after the first break at Final Table, wiping out the stach of the table chip leader in consecutive hands that took me from 17K to 43K early on. The, near the second (addon) break, I lost everything I’d gained and more, got the addon, and was out on the third hand after break. Went home and got into a 70-player onliine 6-Max tournament, took third place, and made back my buyins, at least.
Saturday at Portland Meadows went a bit better, despite being card-dead after getting aces under the gun and queens on my big blind in the second level. I did not know there were that many variations on 4x7x. I got lucky with AxKx on the button when a player in early position shoved 16bb near the end of the 400/800 level, I reshoved for 33bb, and the player in the small blind tanked for a while before he shoved with a bigger stack. The original raiser had AxQx and small blind had QxQx. I hit an ace on the turn, avoided a four-flush that would have sunk me, and started the 500/1K level with 70bb.
I took a couple of chances, open-raising a hand with 4♠5♠ to 3bb and having a woman a couple of seats to my left re-raise me for a second time to 10bb off a relatively short stack. The flop was K♣J♣9♠, not what you would consider a good flop for my hand. I checked and she checked behind. The turn was K♠. I had her covered by about 30bb, and I shoved, then showed my bluff when I folded. I wouldn’t normally do that, but I was sort of setting myself up for something.
About 25 minutes later, I limped into a multi-way pot from late position with 5♥6♥ and four players checked the Ax8♠5x flop, only to have 5♠ hit the turn. The big blind bet 2.5bb, and a player in middle position called, then I raised to 15bb. BB folds, MP tanks a long time, then finally calls. A low, non-spade on the river and I put another 25bb in with 10bb behind. MP tanked again for a long time, then called, only to ship most of his stack to my end of the table.
Then I got up over 115K until I was in the big blind with K♠5♠ and action folded to a big stack in the small blind who fumbled a raise that ended up getting ruled a min-raise. I called and flopped two spades, called a half-pot flop bet, then hit the second nuts with a spade on the turn. The small blind put in 8K and I raised to 25K, only to have him call, and then a fourth spade hit the river and I had to fold to his all-in. He showed A♠Ax, naturally.
We got to the money (45 players) after about nine hours but I was below average for the rest of the night. By ten hours I had about half the average stack and we were at three tables (I could now afford to pay my friend Daryl back; I’d had to borrow $40 for the addon because I hadn’t grabbed enough bills off my desk when I left the house).
I was under 10bb at 100K when I shoved KxKx in late position and got a call from a much bigger stack on the button. He had AxQx and flopped JxTx9x, but I was still ahead 65%/35%. But Ax on the turn put a knife in my chances for a big payout.
See you all Friday night at Final Table!
This Week In Portland Poker
Last Sunday saw the late additon at Portland Meadows of a $2,800 Blaycation package that included an entry into the WSOP Colossus, travel expenses, coaching, and a week-long experience hosted by poker pro Bernard Lee. Brian Sarchi at PM said there may be more of these on the way.
This week, of course, are the final two events in the Portland Poker Championship Series II. A reminder that both venues have increased their door fees to $15/day.
Saturday at 4pm at The Game is the final WSOP Satellite Event of their spring season. It’s the big one, a $100 buyin with unlimited rebuys and a $50 addon for a chance to win a seat to the $10,000Main Event. There’s an 80-player cap on the event, you can reserve a seat at the front desk, and they’re serving a Parmesan chicken dinner for $10 from 3pm to 8pm.
Chicken Dinner
Chinook Winds is notoriously close-mouthed about posting winners of their series, but the top three finishers of the recent PacWest Poker Classic are now available, viaDevin Sweet.
Limon-Related Tweet of the Week
I feel sorry for poker mutant! He must really need friends!
Limon did once call me the most self-loathing poker player he’d ever met. About five minutes after the first time we’d ever talked. My advice: don’t get into a situation where he can possibly get a read on you. Then again, I’m not so self-loathing as to pass up a “god among men” shout-out.
More Satellites
The Little Creek Casino in Shelton, Washington is only a couple of hours to the north. I’ve never made it up there myself, but it seems to have some decent poker action. In addition to this week’s South Sound Poker Championship (see below), they’re running WSOP satellites for the Colossus (every Tuesday in March at 7pm, $155 entry for a package including a $565 seat and $750 in expenses), and to the Millionaire Maker (every Tuesday in April at 7pm, $255 buyin plus dealer addon for a $1,500 seat and $750 in expenses).
Deal of the Week: Fly Pendleton
Only have time to make one or two events at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up and wish there was some way to get there that didn’t eat up as much time as driving four hours out the Gorge into the high plateau (which can have some icy thrills even in the early spring)? There used to be air service through Seaport, a small carrier that flew from the private terminal at PDX. They went under a year or so ago, but along comes Boutique Air (“Fly Private for the Cost of Commercial”), which operates prop planes on three flights a day between PDX and Pendleton. Want to go out for the High Roller and come back after the Main Event? You can get a non-refundable economy seat for the 1-hour flight for $49 each way ($90 refundable). The trip’s just an hour, the first flight to Pendleton is at 8am, and you can be back before 8am Monday morning. It’s going to be more expensive than driving out, but if you can only make a day or two, it might just be worth it to keep yourself rested.
Yes, it’s kind of claustrophobic-looking but it’s still bigger than your car. Definitely bigger than my car.
The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Starhas a 3pm Turbo ($2,100 buyin) today and a 4pm $25K buyin High Roller. There were more than 800 entries in the Main Event before closwe of registration yesterday.
The Wynn Spring Classic has a Survivor tournament at noon today, with a $250K GTD event starting Thursday—Saturday ($600 entry). Sunday is the final day of the $250K, and a $400 buyin $40K GTD.
The World Series of Poker Circuit event at The Bike has started, interspersed with their Winnin’ o’ the Green series. You might still have time to get down there for the 2pm PL Stud 8/Big O mix today ($240 buyin, $10K GTD) or the $355 Survivor (top 10% get $3K). The $265 NLHE 6-Max starts tomorrow, there’s a big bounty tournament, and the nightly WSOPC Main Event satellite. Friday is a bigger Survivor at 5pm, and Satueday is the first flight of the WSOPC Main Event ($1,675 entry). The new Bicycle Hotel is offering 20% off rooms during March with use of the WSOPC17 code.
The South Sound Poker Championship at Little Creek Casino has a $150 Bounty tournament ($1K added to prize pool) today, Thursday is $120 NLHE ($1K added). Friday is a regular $180 NLHE tournament. Saturday is the big $340 buyin tournament with $5K added to the prize pool. Then Sunday is a Last Chance Survivor ($127 buyin). The Thursday event starts at 7pm, all others begin at 11am. Little Creek’s WSOP Tuesday night satellites (see above) start up next week.
As the WPT nears the end of its run at Bay 101, it makes the second stop it the annual “California Swing” at Thunder Valley outside of Sacramento. The Rolling Thunder Main Event ($3,500) is half the buyin of the Shooting Star, and the field is typically smaller (400+ compared to Bay 101’s 700+). There are lots of multi-table satellites (beginning Sunday) and other events, including a $250K GTD (starting days Wednesday through Friday), a one-day $100K GTD ($1,100 buyin) Friday, and a $1,100 Bounty tournament where the payout for knocking out a player is $500.
Deepstacks Poker Tour (officially merged with rhe WPT last month after several years of working together, but still running separately in Canada)are in Calgary starting Friday at the Grey Eagle. It opens with a C$100K GTD on Friday (C$550 buyin), features HORSE, PLO, and Survivor tournaments, and wraps up with either a C$300K or C$250K GTD Main Event, depending on which part of the schedule you look at. The Canadian dollar is currently at about 76¢US.
Gardens Casino in LA has an ad in the latest issue of CardPlayer nothing on their websitefor a $50K GTD game ($175 buyin with $100 addon) at 5pm on Friday, but there’s that I can find.
WPTDeepstacks Reno is at the Atlantis starting 16 March and running until 27 March. They have an opening $50K GTD event ($400 buyin) and a $200K GTD Main Event ($1,100 buyin, starting 24 March).
I stole the design for my 3D-printed card caps from an accessory on a Simpsons figurine, and last week it showed up in the “couch gag” opener of the show, as Homer searches through the animated worlds of South Park, the California Raisins set, and the Nerd from Robot Chicken, to find the iconic ship painting that hangs over the family’s couch. TMI?
Frankly, for me poker Twitter without a slice of Limon is dull poker Twitter. And Tuesday morning—despite having sworn off of social media and leaving his gig at Live at the Bike in February—he tried out Twitter only to find he was un-banned.
The world was then full of light. And the c-word.
Apologies
There’s a load of news I was wanting to cover. Max Young’s position on the WSOP Circuit Leaderboard that could net him a seat at this year’s Global Casino Championship, Jacque Lavadour‘srun in the WSOPC Rio Monster Stack or Liz Tedder‘s 3rd-place finish in the HORSE, but my evening got sucked up by another cash in the Ignition Casino Thousandaire Maker, so I’m going to have to cut this short.
This Week In Portland Poker
With the good (the afore-mentioned Portland Poker Championship Series II) comes the not-so-good:this is the week Final Table and Portland Meadows raise door fees to $15/day. This isn’t so much of a big deal to the cash game players—$5 is just a straddle to them—but for someone like the daily 11am Final Table tournament with a $20 buyin, that extra $25/week can add up (I’m speaking from experience).
Deal of the Week: Week 1 of the WSOP
Have you been poring over your WSOP schedule? I have started to give it a personal look, although I’ve never actually played more than two tournaments a season there that weren’t the dailies. But this may be the year I step it up a bit.
First off, I intend to make use of WSOP.com. They’re already running a variety of satellites to events ranging from the online bracelet events to the Colossus, to the Main Event. They currently run on Sunday, but as the WSOP gets under way, there should be MTTs for specific events a day or two before they start.
The first game on my schedule is 3 June, Event #8, $333,333 GTD NLHE. It’s a $333 buyin on Saturday afternoon, and just one day.
Sunday, there should be plenty of satellites to events through the next week.
Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic ends tomorrow with the final day of taping for the WPT Main Event. The last event is a $1,100 1-day $100K GTD NLHE Bounty tournament tomorrow at 2pm. There’s no prize pool! You get $1,000 for every player you eliminate (the other $100 of your buyin is fees). Then once things get down to the final nine players, it turns into a winner take all for the last $9K. Interesting concept. No laddering!
$1,100 mega satellites for the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Starstart tomorrow. There’s a $2,100 two-day event starting Sunday (only 250 players and 50 alternates), and another $2,100 Turbo and a $25K High Roller on Wednesday. The Shooting Star Main Event has starting days on Monday and Tuesday.
The Wynn Spring Classic has a $750K GTD championship ($1,600 entry) with entry days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with the final day on Sunday.
The Stones Gambling Hall $250,000 Spring Classicis coming to a close with three entry flights to their $125K GTD Main Event Thursday through Saturday (10am each day). It’s a $450 buyin, with the final day on Sunday.
The World Series of Poker Circuit event at The Bike is part of their Winnin’ o’ the Green series. It starts Friday and runs through the end of the month. The first WSOPC event is Saturday, 4 March, with the Main event beginning the next Saturday. Mega Millions XVI starts on St. Patricks’s Day, with 22 entry flights over 11 days, with a $160 buyin, and $100 addon, with a $1M GTD prize pool.
The South Sound Poker Championship at Little Creek Casino in Shelton—west of Olympia—starts Monday with a Super Satellite tournament ($50 including dealer addon). Super Satellite for what? Well you’ll need to call the poker room for that, but Tuesday is a $125 NLHE Seniors game, Wednesday is a $150 Bounty tournament ($1K added to prize pool), Thursday is $120 NLHE ($1K added). Next Friday is a regular $180 NLHE tournament. Saturday (11 March) is the big $340 buyin tournament with $5K added to the prize pool. Then Sunday is a Last Chance Survivor ($127 buyin). Monday and Thursday events start at 7pm, all others begin at 11am.
As the WPT nears the end of its run at Bay 101, it makes the second stop it the annual “California Swing” at Thunder Valley outside of Sacramento. The Rolling Thunder Main Event ($3,500) is half the buyin of the Shooting Star, and the field is typically smaller (400+ compared to Bay 101’s 700+). There are lots of multi-table satellites (beginning Sunday) and other events, including next week’s $250K GTD (starting days Wednesday through Friday), a one-day $100K GTD ($1,100 buyin) next Friday, and a $1,100 Bounty tournament where the payout for knocking out a player is $500.
Deepstacks Poker Tour (officially merged with rhe WPT last month after several years of working together, but still running separately in Canada)are in Calgary starting 10 March at the Grey Eagle. It opens with a C$100K GTD on Friday (C$550 buyin), features HORSE, PLO, and Survivor tournaments, and wraps up with either a C$300K or C$250K GTD Main Event, depending on which part of the schedule you look at. The Canadian dollar is currently at about 76¢US.
Gardens Casino in LA has an ad in the latest issue of CardPlayer nothing on their websitefor a $50K GTD game ($175 buyin with $100 addon) at 5pm on 10 March, but there’s that I can find.
The PacWest Poker Classic got off to a bang on Friday and Saturday, with a total of 280 entries into the first event, a $340 $50K GTD NLHE 6-Max tournament. I went down to play on Sunday, and my first bullet ran into a bit of a buzzsaw on a fairly tough table. With the dealer add-on, we were starting with 17K in chips and just 85bb deep, but the second and third hands of the day at my table had pots of more than 40bb. There were 4.5x opening raises, and min c-bets, and by the end of the first break, I got a fold when I shoved my last 5K with Qx2x. A suited ace on the first hand after the break didn’t fare so well and I re-entered, with the draw sending me back to the same table (different seat) and somewhat better luck. I had one pocket pair (treys) in the first two hours, then picked up kings and made my way up over both the starting stack and chip average for the first times in the day, before a player sitting in my old seat managed to move up from 8K to wiping out the 40K stack of the player on his right.
The staff planned the tournament so that everyone coming back to Day 2 was in the money (although not necessarily profitable, I met a number of players who were on their third or fourth bullet). The size of the tournament rivaled WSOPC events with slightly higher buyins (the 6-Max at Palm Beach Kennel Club won by Max Young last week had a prize pool less than the guarantee on the PacWest 6-Max), which says a lot about the number of players hungering for poker in the Northwest.
Things were running well for the first portion of the series; I expect the same will be true of the last half this weekend. Congrats to Robery Brewer, the champ who took home his unchopped share of the $80K+ pot!
I busted the tournament with enough time to head home through torrential rain in the Coast Range with at least a little light in the sky to aid visibility, but I did cash another Ignition Casino Thousandaire Maker Monday night, so my poker week was not a complete loss. Actually a bit of a profit, even after two bullets at the beach!
Poker Guys v. DNegs
Grant Denison and Stephen Levy, akaThe Poker Guys, have a very successful poker podcast and they got the get of poker-related gets: an interview with Daniel Negreanu, who talks about his experience falling just short of the WSOP Main Event Final Table, among other things.
The Summer Schedules
Now that the WSOP has released its schedule, other summer series are begging to be fleshed out.
Planet Hollywood will get the ball running with their Goliathseries on 26 May. The Goliath is Caesars’ less-expensive alternate to the WSOP, it runs through 10 July, and it has six capstone events, ranging from the opening $100K GTD to a $2M GTD closer. As in past years, it includes a number of non-NLHE events, including HORSE, Big O, and a three-game Omaha mix. It’s also the venue for the Deaf Poker Tour events (starting 6 July).
Another venue for the mixed-game player is The Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas. It runs from 31 May to 3 July, and includes HORSE, 8-game Mix, PLO, and a $10K buyin Seniors Championship, a $100K GTD and $500K GTD, a Poker Night in America event, and, of course, Big O.
More series on the way soon.
This Week In Portland Poker
The Game has another couple of WSOP-related eventsthis week.Tonight a 7pm is a $40 buyin/rebuy tournament with a $20 addon. The winner receives a package including flight, hotel, and an entry in flight 5F of the Colossus III. Sunday at noon is a package to play the Ladies Championship event.
Not only is the Main Event a $100K guarantee for a $560 buyin and $200 addon, but it’s over on Sunday, there are no re-entries, and a number of the best players in the area are off at the World Series Circuit stop in Las Vegas for the Main Event there.
Only a Day Away
The $10K buyin Main Event of Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic starts Saturday, with tomorrow and Friday dedicated to $1,100 mega satellites. The remaining events while the Main Event plays down include a $2,140 NLHE 6-Max (Sunday) $5,250 buyin PLO 7-Max (Monday), $2,140 Dealers Choice (Tuesday), $25K buyin NLHE Turbo 6-Max (also Tuesday), and a $1,100 $100K GTD NLHE Turbo (Wednesday). Both of the Turbo events are one day, the others are two days.
The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I is coming up on its last weekend. Today and tomorrow at noon are the final flights of the $750K GTD $1,600 buyin. Friday through Sunday are entry days for the $150K GTD $250 buyin SuperStack tournament.
Tonight is another Wednesday satellite for the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic.Direct buyin starts today for the five events beginning Wednesday, 15 March ($250 Shootout; $200, $300, $500 NLHE; and $750 Main Event). A Wednesday night (7pm ) satellite win get you either:
Tickets to the $500 and any two of the three smaller events, or
Main Event ticket and one of the events excluding the $500.
Sunday is a $250 Deepstack. Something to fall back on after Day 1 of the Main Event at Chinook.
TheWorld Series of Poker CircuitLas Vegas stop this year moves to the WSOP’s home at the Rio on Friday. The opening event is a $250K GTD $365 Ring event with six starting flights (two each Friday through Sunday).
There are four $550 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Starmega satellites starting Sunday. Then there are three $1,100 mega satellites after that, then the events begin.
The Wynn Spring Classic starts tomorrow with four events and $165K in guarantees (including a Survivor with a $5K payout for $400 entry and a PLO tournament on Sunday evening). There’s a $100K with entries on Monday and Tuesday ($400) and a $750K championship that starts the next Thursday ($1,600 entry).
The Stones Gambling Hall in the Sacramento area has a $250,000 Spring Classicstarting Friday and running through 5 March. It features a $125K GTD two-day Main Event ($450), satellites, a $10K GTD NLHE 6-Max ($200), $40K GTD NLHE Deep Stack ($350), $75K NLHE Monster Stack ($500), and a $120 NLHE on opening day. Everything except for the Main is a single day event.
Lucky Chances south of SF has a tournament with $20K guaranteed to 1st on Sunday.
The World Series of Poker Circuit event at The Bike is part of their Winnin’ o’ the Green series. It starts 3 March and runs through 31 March. The first WSOPC event is Saturday, 4 March, with the Main event beginning the next Saturday. Mega Millions XVI starts on St. Patricks’s Day, with 22 entry flights over 11 days, with a $160 buyin, and $100 addon, with a $1M GTD prize pool.
To be a little fair to myself, I only lost half that stack in a flip, then I lost two thirds of the rest with tens against jacks on what looked like a pretty safe board. It was the next night I made an incredibly bone-headed move in a satellite tourney for the Main Event at Chinook. A satellite tourney!
By the way, the noon $10K at Portland Meadows on Saturday had a prize pool of more than $21K
Goodbyes
When you play poker long enough, you get to know some people, even if they’re just faces across the table, and people come and go. I’m actually kind of a wallflower when I’m not behind my computer, and I’m horrible with names. But three of the people I’ve talked to for years are all heading out of town next month (to different places).
Jack at Final Table has been a fixture in the 11am game there and I’ve been at tables with him as much as probably anyone in town. He and his wife are moving overseas.
Jason is heading to San Francisco. I met him as a dealer when I first got into live poker, and he’s the only person I’ve ever actually staked in a tournament.
I met Toma in thefirst Main Event I played at Chinook Winds, back when Deepstacks Poker Tour was running things. Toma impressed me with his come from the bottom play that got him to the final table (as opposed to my min-cash). He moved up to Portland from Vegas, and he’s been here for a few years, but he’s heading out.
I guess now I’m going to have to learn a few more names. Good luck, all!
On a sad good-bye, after press time this morning, I learned of the passing of Chris Vetter, known in the Portland poker community as an activist for poker, as well as a player. There’s an announcement on Facebook.
For several years, Chadd Baker‘s Portland Players Club was host to the Annual Northwest Deaf Poker Tournament, which was actually several tournaments over two days in an environment where deaf players were made to feel comfortable . With the demise of the PPC, this year’s series is being held at Portland Meadows on 24-25 Feb. There are three tournaments, a $50 buyin at 6pm Friday, a $100 on Saturday at 10am, and a $75 event at 6pm Saturday with $500 added to the prize money. Contact James Forncrook via the Facebook link above if you or someone you know is interested in participating.
This Week In Portland Poker
The Game has been running mostly shootouts (including some 2/5 PLO8), but this weekend is the first of their WSOP-related events. They’ve got a freeroll on Saturday at noon that gets you a flight to Vegas, two nights in a hotel, and a boat ride with the winners of the bigger packages. The winner of the Sunday event ($40 buyin, $20 addon) gets all the same stuff and a seat in Event #5 $565 Colossus III Flight Fon 4 June. Flight F is the afternoon flight of the last entry day; if you get through the day, you’ll start up at 2pm Monday. There’s another seat for the Colossus being given away next Wednesday at 7pm. The buyin for that tournament is $25, with a $10 addon. A week from Saturday is an entry to the Ladies Championship.
The series has more than $200K in guarantees, and features a Main Event with a $100K guarantee. Events each day begin at noon and 6pm.
It opens this Saturday with one of the most exciting events (for me), the $50K GTD NLHE 6-Max. Entry is $300 + $30 fee + $10 dealer appreciation. Blind levels are 40 minutes (super-long for a 6-Max) and you start with 75bb (with an extra 10bb if you get the dealer appreciation). There are two entry days (Saturday and Sunday), with both flights converging on Monday (President’s Day) at 2pm. Re-entry through level 6 of each entry day.
Each night of the first weekend has satellites to the Main Event.
Monday at noon is a $15K GTD NLHE tournament ($140 with DA), and there’s another $15K on Tuesday for Seniors (50+) ($120). Both days have Main Event satellites.
Wednesday’s noon tournament is a $7,500 GTD Limit Omaha Hi/Lo ($160), with an $80 NLHE Bounty tournament in the evening. Thursday is the ever-popular $160 Big O tournament with a $15K guarantee (Main Event satellite at night. Friday’s tournament is NLHE with a $180 buyin (including DA) and an $80 addon with a $25K guarantee. There’s a satellite at 6.
Saturday morning at 10am is your last opportunity to enter a mega satellite for the Main Event, which has a $100K guarantee for a $560 buyin and $200 addon. There’s only one entry day, and this year there’s no re-entry. Day 2 starts at 11am on Sunday (26 February).
Only a Day Away
Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic‘s $1M GTD starts today, with four entry days for the $1,100 buyin. It’s one re-entry per session, and players will reach the money on Day 1 (12%) with 10% of players going to Day 2 on Sunday. You can try to qualify for Day two up to 4 times, and receive the smallest prize for any qualifying abandoned stacks. There are $175 mega satellites (10 seats GTD) for the event through Friday evening. Saturday is a $50K GTD $175 buyin NLHE tournament, and Sunday has a $1,650 Bounty ($500 for each elimination) and a $350 HORSE tournament. Monday is a NLHE Seniors event ($570) and Omaha 8/Stud 8 ($1,100). Tuesday is a 2-day $100K GTD ($1,100 entry) and PLO8 (also $1,100). What am I doing here?
In Vegas at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I, Thursday kicks off a $600 entry $250K with 3 entry days and a final day on Sunday. Monday is the first of two entry days for a $750K 3-day $1,600 buyin.
Heartland Poker Tour Colorado starts its $1,650 buyin Main Event today at Golden Gates Casino west of Denver, with four entry flights through Saturday..
Tonight is the first Wednesday satellite for the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic.Direct buyin starts today for the five events beginning Wednesday, 15 Marsh ($250 Shootout; $200, $300, $500 NLHE; and $750 Main Event). A Wednesday night (7pm ) satellite win get you either:
Tickets to the $500 and any two of the three smaller events, or
Main Event ticket and one of the events excluding the $500.
If you missed the Muckleshoot Casino Monthly Special last Sunday, you have two more specials over the next two Sundays. This weekend is the $170 Big Bounty tournament, and next weekend is a $250 Deepstack. Something to fall back on after Day 1 of the Main Event at Chinook.
TheWorld Series of Poker CircuitLas Vegas stop this year moves to the WSOP’s home at the Rio on Friday. The opening event is a $250K GTD $365 Ring event with six starting flights (two each Friday through Sunday).
The first of the $550 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Starmega satellites is Saturday morning at 9am. Daily satellites start up 26 Debruary and run through the beginning of the first day of the series. Speaking of which, Will Kassouf is one of this year’s Shooting Star Bounties, so here’s your chance to make $2,500 for taking him out (though he’s been on a bit of a heater lately….)
The Wynn Spring Classic starts next Thursday with four events and $165K in guarantees (including a Survivor with a $5K payout for $400 entry and a PLO tournament on Sunday evening). There’s a $100K with entries on Monday and Tuesday ($400) and a $750K championship that starts the next Thursday ($1,600 entry).
Think you won’t get enough poker to suit you at Chinook? The Stones Gambling Hall in the Sacramento area has a $250,000 Spring Classicstarting 24 Feb and running through 5 March. It features a $125K GTD two-day Main Event ($450), satellites, a $10K GTD NLHE 6-Max ($200), $40K GTD NLHE Deep Stack ($350), $75K NLHE Monster Stack ($500), and a $120 NLHE on opening day. Everything except for the Main is a single day event.
The gimmick at Lucky Chances south of San Francisco is tournaments with guaranteed first place prizes, and the first big event of the year there is at 9:30am 26 February. It’s guaranteeing $20K for first place, with a $350 buyin. Their weekly events guarantee first place $8K (Sunday, $250 buyin), $4K (Tuesday, $200), and $2.5K (Monday, Wednesday—Saturday, $65). And those are all 9:30am tournaments.
It was a busy Friday for Portland players at Commerce Casino’s Los Angeles Poker Classic. Early on Friday, as predicted, PDX represented in the Big O tournament, with Bryce Burt and Joe Brandenburg in the final six going into Day 2 of the $570, 52-entry game. Joe had the lead, with had more than twice the number of chips of the nearest contender. Both he and Bryce were already in the money, with seven places paying (and two players sharing the money for that spot).
Joe Brandenburg
Bryce took 5th place, and Joe went on to the final three-way deal. Joe and another player took less cash than the third player in the deal, but Joe managed to snag the Frederick Remington bronze statuette that LAPC awards, which he can put on the shelf along with the World Series of Poker Circuit Ring he won last fall.
But that wasn’t the only LAPC trophy coming back to Oregon after Friday.
Joey Pham
Joey Pham—who took 3rd in a PLO8 tournament on Wednesday—entered the WPT LAPC Main Event Freeroll and won a seat to the $10,000 buyin tournament that starts 25 February.
Pham bested 617 other players with a $0 investment. There was an optional $60 addon that doubled the starting stack, but Pham did a true freeroll. The seat was added to the prize pool by Commerce; the rest of the final table received $1,100 satellite entries based on the number of addons sold during the tournament. Last year’s LAPC Main Event was won by Dietrich Fast, who got just over $1M.
The Price of Poker Is Going Up
Most of the card rooms in Portland have charged $10 a day for the seven years I’ve been playing in them, whether you’re there for a single tournament or all day playing shootouts. The late, lamented Portland Players Club had a $5 entry fee for its early game back in the day, and you can still get into The Game for $5 before noon.
But the big clubs—Portland Meadows and Final Table—have both announced that they will be raising the rate by 50% to $15/day starting 3 March. That may be a little tough on players of something like the $20 morning tournament at Final Table (42% vig!) but I can’t really begrudge the clubs for having to adjust prices for the time.
To soften the blow a little, the clubs announced another 4-event series to be held over the first two weekends of March. Details to come.
Bronzie
Bronzie is finally home with his mates after a harrowing month of basement captivity. pic.twitter.com/Js3afkl8iK
A lot of pent-up poker energy went into making the first big weekend of the poker year a success, despite attempts to ice the whole thing last Friday. An expected ice storm caused Final Table to exercise the option to call off the guarantee Friday morning when freezing rain actually did hit PDX, but a warming trend quickly turned it to slush and floodwaters (in creeksides and parking lots), and by the time of the game at 7pm, they needn’t have bothered. The prize pool was $17,600 anyway, and the final six players made a deal for $2,000 each, with the remainder to be paid to first place. Sometime around 5:30am, that got chopped up for the final three.
And yes, I took fifth place.
I got five hours of sleep and went on a spectacular (spectacular for me, anyways) run on Saturday at Portland Meadows, going from 15K for the starting stack to 70K at the first break, and 135K before the second break addon. It was the second-largest tournament ever at Meadows, with 349 entries. It was over the guarantee more than an hour before entry closed (and before addons), cresting finally at $43,170.
I made a horrible misstep as we closed in on two tables (well into the money with 45 places paying but still far down the payout scale), opening from early position with 8♠7♠ and more than double the average stack into another big stack on an eight high board with two clubs. Too much aggression? Playing poker for fifteen-and-a-half hours since midnight Friday (and five hours before that)? Whatever it was, it likely cost me a lot of money. I ended up losing all but about 5bb and went out a couple hands later so I could go home and kick myself.
Freedom of Choice
After seeing my article on Advanced Poker Training, Gavin Smith (the former Portlander, not the Canadian/Alaskan one), contacted me asking if I knew of any way to get training in the games played at the WSOP Dealers Choice tournaments. My own feeling is that the market for most of those games is too small to have a general training site. Most of the games aren’t even played online, you have to be in venues where there are enough mixed game players to find cash games, much less tournaments, which do have a different style. Devin Sweet‘s Monday Mix game is on hiatus, there is a Tuesday night mix game hosted at Portland Meadows by Jeremy Harkin, and there are some private games, but you can’t even really find a HORSE tournament in town now that PPC is gone.
A couple of questions over the weekend made me think that a reminder of last year’s series on equities in a 6-Max tournament (A Game That Will Live In Infamy) and a PLO8 Bounty tournament (Wild Kingdom) might be in order. Enjoy!
This Week In Portland Poker
It’s the place to be. Only another 10 days to the beach.
Deal of the Week: LAPC Satellites
I have to say that I wish I could get the time off to go down to Los Angeles to catch one of the satellites at the LAPC. Not because I think I can follow in Joey Pham’s footsteps and win a free seat, but because there have been some hefty overlays in the daily satellites for the Main Event.
Every Sunday-Thursday at 7pm, the Commerce and WPT have been guaranteeing a $10,000 Main Event seat in a mega satellite with a $225 initial buy-in (there are live $200 rebuys if you’re at or under the starting stack, and an optional $200 addon. The satellites need the equivalent of 50 buyins to make the guarantee, but they’ve been getting started with fewer than ten entrants, which means that —if you play your cards right—you could potentially win a WPT seat for substantially less than the $1,100 satellites that run on the weekends.
Only a Day Away
Commerce Casino‘s LA Poker Classic is nearing the end of its first month (it runs through the first days of March). This weekend’s big event is the second $300K GTD of the series, with a $570 buyin and entry days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Friday evening is a two-day $570 Dealer’s Choice tournament, there’s a 2-seat GTD satellite for the $10K Main Event Saturday ($1,100 entry) and Sunday is the $1,100 HORSE (2 hour levels) and another 1-seat GTD Main Event Freeroll. Monday is the $1,100 PLO8/O8, thenTuesday is the start of a $1M GTD with 4 starting day ($1,100)
This weekend at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza I there’s a $250K GTD $800 event with starts Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Monday is a $400 $15K GTD O8 (one day). Next weekend is another $250K GTD, but with a $600 entry.
Heartland Poker Tour Colorado starts tomorrow at the Golden Gate Casino west of Denver. Event #1 has three starting days (saturday is the last) with a $300 buyin. Monday is the $200 Seniors tournament, then the $1,650 buyin Main Event begins next Wednesday. Lots of satellites through the week.
Next week is the first Wednesday satellite for the Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic.Direct buyin starts today for the five events beginning Wednesday, 15 Marsh ($250 Shootout; $200, $300, $500 NLHE; and $750 Main Event). A Wednesday night (7pm ) satellite win get you either:
Tickets to the $500 and any two of the three smaller events, or
Main Event ticket and one of the events excluding the $500.
Medford Poker Clubhas a $260 NLHE tournament this Saturday at noon. $225 with a $25 fee, no rebuy, $25 addon (after round 5), and a $10 dealer appreciation.
Thursday, 16 February is the first flight of five (2 flights on Friday and Saturday) for another $100K Catapult at Thunder Valley.
TheWorld Series of Poker Circuitcomes to the home the the WSOP in the first Las Vegas stop of the year at the Rio on 17 February. The opening event is a $250K GTD $365 Ring event with six starting flights (two each Friday through Sunday).
Chinook Winds’ PacWest Poker Classicbegins a week from Saturday, with a 2-entry day $330 6-Max tournament ($50K GTD). Day 2 is on a Monday (President’s Day).
The poker world’s computer-related attention has been on the “Brains vs. Bot” match between the No Limit Hold’em Heads Up artificial intelligence program Libratus and four hapless human challengers named Dong Kim, Jimmy Chou, Daniel McAulay and Jason Les, but over at Advanced Poker Training, they’ve unveiled a little something of their own.
They ran a sale on a subscription during Thanksgiving week, and I signed up (always eager to improve my game). I’ve been planning to do a review of their training program (which I still intend to do, but the short version is, I think it’s well worth the price to see if it works for you) but this week they unleashed the QuiNguyen bot in their Final Table Trainer, and I wanted to give a little sample.
The Final Table Trainer is just what it sounds like, a single, nine-person table where you can select the level of skill of the other opponents (Nguyen only shows up in the Hardest level), whick of the two dozen or so advisors you want to use (and whether you want them to always be looking over your shoulder or only when you ask), and relative stack size. I was using Daylian Cain, which is a real name of a Yale professor of management and marketing—I don’t know how many there can be—and the prof’s Twitter account uses the same image APT has in their list of named players, but he’s described in his advisor bio as a “Deep Thinking. Loose Aggressive” player who charges as much as $1,600/hr. for poker coaching. So I figure I’m doing good right off the bat. At least if I take his advice.
So here’s the situation at the very beginning of the trainer. I have 300K at 5K/10K/1K. 30bb. I start in middle position. Action folds to me. Daylian’s advice is covering a player to my left with 24bb and the Mike Caro bot with 34bb. The small blind has only 9bb and ends up picking up the pot.
I raise my A♦8♦ to 3x (a little less than Daylian suggests, but then I think he’s more of a cash player). Jonathan Little calls from the small blind, then leads out for 18K—only 20% of the pot—on a flop of 2♥9♦J♣—and I fold.
Hand seven is a pair of sevens on the button. Doug Hull raises from under the gun and I call, along with Caro in the big blind. Hull opens for 30K on the T♦J♠2♣ flop and I fold (which is also Daylian’s suggestion).
Hand 14 I get 8♦T♦ in middle position with an unopened pot (the button is on Svetlana in Seat 9) and Daylian’s advice is to raise to 33K. I only have 22bb, though and though I’d typically play this deeper, I balk, and fold. Ditto for A♣7♣ on the next hand.
Hand 17 is my first run-in with Nguyen, but I’m fine with that because I have aces. I start with just over 20bb in the cutoff, action folds to Nguyen, who raises to 21K. I make a bet of about 1.5 times the pot and everyone folds.
I have threes and fours on the next two hands with unopened pots. Daylian suggested a fold with the former and raise with the latter, but I fold them both. On hand 29, I get the treys again. Nguyen opens for 23K and Daylian suggests a three-bet, but I fold. Four hands later it’s deuces under the gun plus one. Daylian says to open, but I don’t, with just 21bb and blinds coming up.
I open up with jacks in hand 36, and the big blind reraises to 84K. I shove (against advice), and Svetlana folds, which puts me back where I started.
My next hand, both Daylian and I agree that J♣9♣ can be raised to 30K, which gets through with no more action.
Daylian and I get along great until hand 60, folding pairs of fives and ragged aces, until I get The Butcher in the small blind. Calle Yang (“Tight, Aggressive Pro”) has gone all in for 11bb from late position and the only player after me (“Randy Malone”) has less than half my stack. A loss drops me down to 14bb, but I can’t lose more than that. I call against orders. Yang has Q♦9♠ and the board runs out Q♣8♣J♥8♠4♣ giving us both queens and eights with a jack so we chop.
I pick up K♥8♥ on the next hand (blinds are up to 7,500/15,000/1,500) and make what the program labels as a questionable fold to a 33K raise from Nguyen on the button. Daylian, at least, thinks I did the right thing.
Hand 66 I fold A♦3♦ in early position instead of opening to 51K (~20% of my stack). We’re still nine-handed, I have 16bb and there are four stacks with 6—10bb still to act behind me. No thank you.
I make a 3x raise in middle position with K♠J♠. Everyone’s still in, two short stacks have managed to chip up, and if you look to my right, you can see that the Qui Nguyen bot has the lead by nearly 150K. I take the blinds and antes. I get fours the next hand and again elect to fold rather than raise (Daylian’s suggestion.
Hand 77, Malone on my left shoves 100K and Yang re-shoves from the button for 122K. Both Yang and I fold our blinds (I have 5♦3♥. I don’t get to see theiir cards in the replay, but Yang wins. Six hands later, Old Man Caro is wiped out by Svetlana.
I fold my way down to 10bb by Hand 96 when I pick up a pair of tens. I’m the short stack on the seven-handed table and I open-shove from the cutoff despite advice to bet a third of my stack. Nobody calls and I’m still below my starting stack.
I have T♠A♥ on the next hand when the Nguyen-bot raises to 38K (627K behind). I shove for 189K (which the program labels “Interesting Bet — Preflop,” and pick up the pot.
I get a “Questionable Fold — Preflop” with a pair of fives on the button facing a raise to 32K from Yang on Hand 152. My Daylian says “Call” but my finger says “Fold.”
I shove T♥K♣ as second-to-act a few hands later where Daylian says the only thing to do is fold. But it works.
Hand 107. I’m on the button with 255K and A♦K♠. Little’s bot raises to 32K from the cutoff. He has 470K, second only to Nguyen (with 682K), and I push back. The advice is to raise to 93K, but I push my whole stack in (only 15bb or so) and get a fold.
Four hands later and it’s a suited ace. Here I just call the raise from Yang to 36K (advice is to fold) and get a flop if 5♣9♦4♣. Yang bets 44K and I fold.
On the big blind three hands on and Yang raises the button to 36K. I call with K♥8♥ and we see the flop of Q♣7♦A♠. I check and fold to Yang’s c-bet.
Action folds to me in the cutoff with Q♦8♦ and I shove 13bb. The button and small blind have more than I do but I have the big blind covered by three or four blinds. Daylian only recommends a raise.
I shove with A♦K♠ under-the-gun plus one on hand 119 and get folds all around. Nguyen is still in the lead (661K) but Yang’s taken 2nd (581K), with Little in third (442K).
Hand 123 is another “Interesting Bet — Preflop” (I do like how they don’t just say: “Bad.” Yang opens to 46K with the blinds at 10K/20K/2K, and I shove T♠A♥. I only have half Yang’s chips but the 3-bet gets a fold.
But I fold 4♥A♦ on the next hand even though the pot’s unopened and I’m in a later position than Yang. Why? Because I don’t plan on folding if I raise.
It’s hand 127 and I open to 60K under-the-gun with T♠T♥ and 250K behind. Everyone folds.
Hand 131 I open shove with 6♦6♠ in the cutoff and pick up the pot.
Hand 133 and I open to 60K with 9♠J♠. Daylian says 70K but I try to keep it simple. Folds around and I’m at 400K.
Hand 142 and I get A♦2♦ in the big blind. Everyone folds to Nguyen, and the bot raises to 48K. I call (agreeing with Daylian). The flop comes down 4♣Q♥J♥. Nguyen bets 46K and I fold with 304K left. Fourth of seven with all the smaller stacks in a line on my left (and the bigger stacks in a line on my right).
I ignore Daylian’s advice to raise T♣J♠ from the cutoff and fold hand 145. I shove A♥4♥ under-the-gun on Qui Nguyen’s big blind!. Ace-high like a boss!
I do not fold Q♥K♣ on hand 159 when Jonathan LIttle opens under-the-gun to 42K. No! I shove and everyone bows to my poker might!
Yang (still in second place to Nguyen with Little well behind) opens her button to 44K on my big blind with A♣J♦. I have less than 14bb and shove to pick up the pot.
182 hands in and I’m down to 11bb at 12.5K/25K/2.5K. I fold a pair of fours against advice to raise. Five hands later, it’s J♠Q♦ and I open with a shove to 11bb for a win.
I fold J♥K♦ from the small blind to a shove by one of the small stacks, then a pair of sixes on the button to another all in (and a call). I ignore advice to open for 3.5x (from a 9BB stack)with 7♦A♣ and shove instead. Yang calls with K♦Q♦ from the big blind, catching a Q♥ on the turn but losing when I get A♠ on the river. The double up puts me in a close third (with Nguyen still in the lead).
I fold J♥8♥ under-the-gun on the next hand, then Doug Hull is all in with the shortest stack (less than 5bb) on my big blind. Yang calls.
My advisor says to fold here. I feel that Yang’s is sheerly a position call, and Yang-bot has 14bb behind if it folds. I’ve got one of the strongest hands in Hold’em. I shove instead. Yang folds, the board runs out 2♠2♣Q♥Q♠6♠ and I become chip leader with six players remaining.
K♠7♠ in an unraised pot two hands later is advised as a raise, but I fold. Meanwhile, Nguyen has doubled up Little, who’s not in second place about 160K behind me.
Little moves up as I fold a series of hands, until hand 205, when he opens under-the-gun for a little over 2x and I push it from 58K to 140K with A♥Q♥ on the button. I have top pair/top kicker on the Q♠7♥5♥ flop—as well as the nut flush draw—and over-shove for my remaining 531K. Little-bot folds.
Q♣7♣ on the next hand, I fold against advice. Q♣T♣ on hand 207 and I open for 75K. Yang calls. The flop isn’t as quite as good as it was two hands ago, but [7c 5c 6g] is reasonable. Yang checks from the big blind and I bet another 75K (less than the 120K recommended). Yang folds, and is now down under 12bb.
A♠A♣ on the next hand and I open for 75K. Everyone folds. Hand 208 and I am the first player to one million chips with Little the closest at half my stack and just six players remaining (including me).
I raise A♥T♠ in the next round as second-to-act, then Q♦9♦ under-the-gun. I fold a big blind 3♥A♠ to a raise and 3-bet, then 6♣5♣ in the small blind to a 60K open. Fold K♥J♣ on the button. with a Little open and Nguyen 3-bet.
My next big blind, both the short(est) stacks shove and I have A♠J♣ with no other players left to act. The program labels this as a “Questionable Call”, but with 800K and the chip lead even if I lose, I have to disagree. Even Daylian said to fold. And maybe they were right. as Lebedeva under the gun makes a set of deuces on the flop. Villegas has queens, but an ace on the turn eliminates him, and I pick up a side pot of 52K, though Lebedeva snaps up into the tight competition between second, third, and fourth place (less than 1bb separating the three of them).
On the button, I have T♥A♥ and 3-bet Yang to 250K (more than the 188K suggested), The flop is fantastic: 2♥8♥J♥, and the nut flush.
Yang bets 220K, leaving only 24K behind and I just call. A♦ on the turn, Yang puts in the last chips, I call with the nuts, and the river brings the 8♠ making a full house for Yang’s 2♦2♠. I really don’t see any way of avoiding that result; I’ve got the nuts on the flop and Yang’s committed with the set. The loss knocks me back to 366K (14bb) and fourth place on the table. Yang takes over the lead.
My next hand is 7♦4♦ and Kayllian suggests a raise to 83K. I fold. ON hand 230, I get an “Interesting Bet — Preflop” note. I’m in the big blind with T♦J♠. Under-the-gun opens to 55K. Nguyen calls from the small blind. I squeeze for 308K, less than either of the other two players, but for a significant portion of their stacks. I get two folds and move up close to third.
The Little-bot shoves on hand 231 and I go against advice to shove a pair of sizes from the small blind. Little has 7♣A♠ and misses the 9♠4♥2♥9♥3♥ board. I almost get a straight flush. Down to four, but more importantly, I’m in second place.
Q♥Q♣ on the next hand and Nguyen opens to 63K. I go a bit beyond the recommendation and put in almost half my stack for a 325K 3-bet. Everyone folds and I have over 800K again. I raise to 75K with A♦5♦ on the next hand and take the blinds and antes.
Nguyen raises my big blind (4♥3♠) and I fold. Yang opens to 63K on my small and I fold 8♣A♠: there’s going to be a lot of this coming up.
Nguyen-bot raises under-the-gun and I 3-bet him again to 265K, with A♣Q♠. This time he calls, the flop is K♠6♠7♥, he checks to me and I bet 300K (with just 247K behind). He only has 259K and calls with A♥J♦, then gets lucky as the turn is 7♠ and river is 6♦. We split the pot.
I fold T♣9♠ (advice is to raise to 85K), then squeeze over a 63K raise from Lebdeva and call from Nguyen. I have both of them covered, and they both fold. The win puts me back in the lead by all of 20K.
I raise the small blind to 90K as the blind level goes up to 15K/30K/3K, Lebedeva folds the big blind and I’m back to a million.
Waylian recommends a fold of my A♥7♣ under the gun, but I raise to 90K. Lebedeva—the current short stack—shoves 232K and everyone folds.
Yang opens to 66K next, and I 3-bet with A♣J♠. Yang folds. I stay pretty quiet for a while, drifting down from 1 million to 850K as Yang chips up over a million. I open to 90K when Yang and Nguyen fold to me small blind, and take Lebedeva’s big.
Nguyen makes another under-the-gun open on hand 256. I 3-bet with 9♦K♦ (advice is to call) and take it down pre-flop.
On our next blinds, Nguyen opens for 75K into my A♠K♦ and I raise to 300K, more than half his stack. That wins.
9♠9♥ on the button. I open to 90K (with Lebedeva and Yang in the small and big blind, respectively). Lebedeva shoves (196K), Yang folds, and I call). It’s a race against Lebedeva’s J♠K♣ but the cards go all around with 7♠8♦Q♦A♠2♠. It’s me (1.29M), Yang (931K), and Nguyen (485K) after hand 260.
At this point, I’m mostly going to let these guys beat up on each other. I don’t care which one I get heads-up with so long as I get heads-up. But I do call a button raise to 63K from Yang on my big blind, with 9♥Q♦ (that’s also the advice). I check call 60K (against advice) on the flop of 3♥3♦4♠, then check fold to a bet on the K♦ turn.
Yang’s up to 1.2M ten hands later, I’m at 1M, and Nguyen’s holding steadish at 444K. I raise to 90K from the small blind with J♣8♣. Yang calls and I bet another 90K when the flop is 2♥8♠3♠. Yang folds.
90K as a raise from the button with K♠A♥ on hand 272 wins. On the next hand, Yang raises the button and Nguyen strikes with an all in from the small blind to win.
After Nguyen folds his button a couple hands later, Waylian advises a raise to 102K for my small blind hand of 9♣4♦. I’m just not doing that here against the other large chip stack. I fold. I do raise A♣8♦ in the same position two orbits later. Yang calls. The flop is 5♥J♣Q♦. Waylian wants a c-bet of 117K, but I check, followed by Yang. 2♠ on the turn and I check again (this time with approval). Yang checks. We both check the 5♣ on the river, Yang shows 9♣7♠ and I take it with an ace kicker for the pair on the board.
I get A♦K♥ and raise a small blind for a win. Meanwhile, the stacks have evened out somewhat. Nguyen is in third, but he’s pushed his way up to 765K. Yang has 837K, and I’m in the upper 900Ks.
On hand 285, Nguyen raises to 69K and I call from the big blind with A♥7♠. I call 60K on the 3♥3♦Q♣ flop and 78K more on the 6♣ turn, but balk at the 150K river (J♥) bet of 150K.
Nguyen calls from the small blind as the chip leader on hand 288. I check and the flop is 3♣9♥9♣. 8♣ on the turn, 2♣ on the river and both checked. I win the hand with the deuces. Nguyen had td5h.
Nguyen raises to 75K from the small blind on hand 291. I re-raise to 180K with A♥5♦ in the big blind. He has just over 1M remaining (I have 727K behind)> The flop is K♣J♥8♥ and he continues with a bet of 150K. I fold.
The next hand I call his button raise of 66K from the small blind with T♣8♣. Yang folds. The flop is 8♦9♣K♣ and I bet 90K. Nguyen calls.]2♥ on the turn and I bet 150K. Nguyen folds. The win puts me back in second place.
I raise a small blind to 150K with black sizes and Yang folds.
Blinds are up to 20K/40K/4K when Yang raises from the button to 100K. Nguyen folds and I reraise to 320K with T♠T♣ in the big blind. Yang has 516K behind and folds. On a button, I open to 120K with Q♠A♣ and get folds. There hasn’t been a hand go to a flop for anyone for a while. I get a walk the next hand. Yang’s far behind with 445K. At 1.06M, I’m close to Nguyen’s 1.2M.
I fold a button 5♦7♦ despite advice. Similarly, Waylian suggests a raise to 136K in the small blind with 4♠K♣ and I ignore him. I do raise A♦J♥ to 120K on the button. Nguyen calls, the flop is 8♣6♥7♦ and I just let him have it when he bets 110K.
Yang shoves for 425K on hand 309. Nguyen folds, and I decide to take a shot at the knockout here with a call (Waylian says: Fold). It’s for slightly more than half my stack (less if you consider that I’m already in for the big blind. Yang has 3♣A♥, I catch a ten on the flop, Yang has a gutshot wheel draw on the turn, and then catches the ace on the river. Back to the basement.
A couple of hands later, K♥A♣ on the button and I shove for less than 10bb. Nobody calls.
I make the program mad by folding deuces in the small blind to a Nguyen button raise for a quarter of my stack, then shove K♠7♠ on my own button. Yang calls from the small blind with 8♦8♥ but I get the king on the river and get back into second place, leaving Yang with only 7bb.
Yang shoves the next hand with K♦7♠ on the button. I have Q♥K♠ in the big blind, the board runs out 3♣K♣6♥A♦8♥ and this time there’s no chop. I win the hand and go heads-up with the Qui Nguyen bot.
Nguyen-bot has almost 60% of the chips, but I have the advantage of being human. The first contest of the heads-up is hand 323 (from the start of the final table). Nguyen raises from the button to 84K. I call with 3♣K♥. I have an open-ended straight draw on the flop of J♣Q♣T♥, I check, Nguyen bets and I shove. Nguyen folds, I fold a couple of ragged jacks, then raise 3♠A♣ from the small blind only to have Nguyen call. The flop is garbage for me 9♠5♦9♥, but when Nguyen checks I shove and he folds.
I raise K♣5♠ and Nguyen calls (by this point, I’ve pulled ahead of him by 150K). I have top pair on a board of 2♣4♣5♦ and shove. He folds.
Two hands later I call his opening raise to 92K with 7♥J♦. The flop is 6♦6♣2♣ and I check fold to his bet.
I limp from the button with J♣8♦. Nguyen checks. The flop is 5♥9♠9♦ and we both check. On the Q♦ turn, Nguyen bets 40K. I call. 8♣ on the river makes my two pair, Nguyen checks and shows J♦7♦. I take the pot.
Nguyen raises the button to 88K, my advisor says call but I 3-bet to 256K and Nguyen-bot folds. I have 1.57M and our positions have reversed since the beginning of the heads-up match.
I open to 160K with 9♠K♦ (about half again what is recommended) and Nguyen calls. The flop is T♦J♠6♠, he bets 136K and even with an over card and gut-shot straight draw, I fold to wait for a better spot.
Nguyen opens to 88K and I shove with 4♥4♦. Not recommended. After my pre-flop fold on the next hand, he folds to my A♣Q♥. I’ve got about a 300K (7bb) advantage in a 67bb world.
Hand 338 I’m on the button and open black tens to 100K. Nguyen calls, the flop is 2♥J♠3♦ and I shove. Nguyen folds.
I shove on him the next hand with J♥7♥ when he opens for 100K, and he folds, then I open-shove with 6♥A♥ from the button. I’m up 1.7M to 1M.
Nguyen folds his button on the next hand, then I raise 3♦3♠ the next hand and get another fold.
He raises a hand and I fold, then I bet 120K on the button with 6♠6♥. That’s also the advice Waylian gives, but the analyzer rates it as a “Questionable Bet — Preflop.” The Nguyen-bot 3-bets to 364K. Against advice, I shove, and Nguyen calls with Q♠Q♦. I double him up and he’s ahead 5:2.
I shove 7♣9♣ (advice is to call) over Nguyen’s 88K raise on the next hand. He folds. I shove A♦T♠ and he folds. He raises my big blind while I’m holding 2♠T♣ and I fold. 9♠J♥ is an open-shove. He calls with A♣6♥, my nine pairs on the flop, and I retake the lead on hand 348.
I fold 3♦6♠ to a raise, then shove K♥4♦. Nguyen-bot calls with 7♥A♦ and it’s all over on the river.
Of course, this is not the same as actually playing against Qui Nguyen, and it doesn’t have the stress and environmental factors of a live game with $8.5M up top. I got lucky on my last two hands, winning my all-in with a 43% hand and knocking out Nguyen with only a 36% chance.
Still, I went into the heads-up with the Nguyen-bot with a plan to force the simulation of a high-variance player into high-variance situations.
I hope to do an in-depth review of APT at some point soon, but here’s a little bit about what I could learn from this particular matchup.
I’m particularly fond of this chart, which is produced for each APT session. I’m not necessarily a favorite going into a hand, but in more than half of the hands I played to the turn, I improved my equity (not the case for every one of my sessions on APT). On this particular tournament, I got an overall rating of 115 on APT’s “Poker IQ,” with 160 as the max and 100 as the mean average. And I did better (adjusted for luck) than 83% of the other players on the site (though I will point out that falls 2% short of even the 15% payout field of a WSOP event). The chart produced for each session includes ratings for your performance on each street, as well as standard session stats like VPIP and CBET%, situations where you or an opponent raised (with playback links), hands where you won or lost the most, hands you’ve tagged, and hands the analyzer rates aas questionable or interesting. You can view a sample report here.
At the Portland Meadows tournament on Saturday, one of the dealers (and I apologize for not remembering which) asked me how to figure out how long a tournament lasted.
Before the tournament happens, that’s not always easy. Tournament directors have rules of thumb—they have to in order to estimate scheduling needs for staff and room space—but even the WSOP has had to rearrange portions of its schedule every year: events get more players than expected, changes to structures have unforseen consequences, etc. Structure changes and increased chip stacks a couple of years back led to a number of WSOP events reaching the bubble considerably later than in previous years, particularly in the limit events. You can read bout that in an article I did for PokerNews.
As it turns out, though. the question was about events in the past, specifically the Colossus. And helpfully, it was about WSOP events. That meant we were talking about some of the best-documented events in the poker world.
If you’re not already aware of it, the WSOP web site has live reporting archives from nearly every bracelet event for the past decade or so. Many of the CIrcuit Main Events are also represented. I worked for the live reporting team at the WSOP last year, and one of your duties as a live reporter is to insert Level updates each time the blinds go up. Finding out what the last blind level was in a WSOP tournament is as easy as:
Find the year and event you want from the popup menu at the top of the page and select “GO.”
Click the “UPDATES” tab. That always takes you to the last report for the event whenever you switch events.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for a level notice like the one below.
If you don’t see a level notice, select the next page (they’re in reverse chronological order starting on page 1) and repeat item 3 until you find the last level started.
In the case of the Colossus II (2016), the players were heads-up going into Level 43. In the last stages of a tournament, there will be frequent chip updates, as there was before the last level in the example below, and you can see that the two players had about 54bb between them (Keeline was the eventual winner). Cord Garcia won the larger Colossus I in 2015 in Level 41, with blinds at 500K/1M/150K, with a little more than 100bb in play.
The heads-up battle between Qui Nguyen and Gordon Vayo ended with more than 100bb in play. Other events at the WSOP have ended with as many as 150bb between the last players. On the other hand, when I was involved in a chop last week at Final Table, there were six players with fewer than 90bb in play.
The WSOP archives really are a mine of useful information. Ive mined them for other articles over the years. Is there a best day to play the Main Event (or any other event)? Check it out.
Not a WSOP event you’re interested in? If it’s a regularly-scheduled tournament, like a daily at the Venetian, you can check out tournament clocks at Bravo Poker Live, either online or through their mobile app. It might take some watching (and some late nights) to get a feel for how things run on a regular basis, but in the example you can see at right, there are three players left with 50bb between them in a $240 Aria tournament. The clock is probably paused because they made a deal, since there’s not a break scheduled for nearly an hour. It even shows you what the even chop would pay at the bottom.
And, of course, there was last week’s article in Willamette Week by Nigel Jacquiss.
The prize pool in last Friday’s $20K GTD at Final Table was over $35K. The Saturday game at Portland Meadows had 368 entries and a total of more than $45K in money awarded to 45 players.
A lot of pent-up poker energy went into making the first big weekend of the poker year a success, despite attempts to ice the whole thing last Friday. An expected ice storm caused Final Table to exercise the option to call off the guarantee Friday morning when freezing rain actually did hit PDX, but a warming trend quickly turned it to slush and floodwaters (in creeksides and parking lots), and by the time of the game at 7pm, they needn’t have bothered. The prize pool was $17,600 anyway, and the final six players made a deal for $2,000 each, with the remainder to be paid to first place. Sometime around 5:30am, that got chopped up for the final three.
Eugene’s 
