Category Archives: General Poker

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 22 October 2021

Posted on by

Too much going on to jawbone right now. I’m going to do this chronologically because so many people are cashing in the same events.

Don’t think I’ve mentioned this for a while, but the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard is compiled poker tournament stats for the states and provinces of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, and Alberta. I try to put a report together every two weeks, but it’s a labor of love, so real life can slow me down sometimes.

James Romero GPI: 216 was 5th in a field of 107 at the Merit Poker./partypoker MILLIONS North Cyprus #13 $500K GTD NLHE High Roller. It appears as if the 50 re-entries (at $10.5K each) were not counted as part of the reported entries, the total prize pool was $1.44M. Romero went on to cash 68th at the World Series of Poker #17 NLHE Millionaire Maker. Romero holds at #5 on the PNW Poker Leaderboard.

Vancouver BC’s Harpreet Gill GPI: 3415 jumps more than a hundred places on the Leaderboard to #84 by taking 3rd place in another event at the same series, the $5.5K buy-in Merit/partypoker #23 $3M GTD NLHE. That tournament posted 556 entries and 283 re-entries, with a prize pool of $3.8M. It’s Gill’s best-ever cash.

On the other side of the world—at Round Rock, Texas’s The Lodge Millionaire Mayhem #4 $1.25M GTD NLHE Main Event Michael Bernstein of Edmonton GPI: 4384 placed 13th out of 1,621 to climb 350 places to #967.

World Series of Poker Event #4 $5M GTD NLHE The Reunion

The Reunion was the big kickoff event for the returning WSOP and it pulled in nearly 13,000 entries, making a prize pool of $5.45M from $500 buy-ins. Four players from the PNW made it deep enough to be picked up by my tracker. Out of Roseburg, Sandra Bratton GPI: 27964 came in 48th. That’s the top 0.4% for those of you thinking 48th doesn’t sound so hard. Bratton goes from #2375 to #1810. Ryan Stoker (Spokane) moved up nine spots to #165 with 42nd place, before going on to win a bracelet after stats were compiled for this Leaderboard (I’m not sure if WSOP Online stats will get rolled into Hendon Mob leaderboards, but congrats, Ryan). Stoker is GPI: 1667. Seattle’s Katsushi Yoshida GPI: 4095 picked up a best-ever cash for 26th place and rises to #1686, nearly 1200 spots on the Leaderboard. Also from Seattle: Cheang Yoo, the 25th-place finisher. Yoo GPI: 644 is up to #344 from #400.

Steven Sporre from North Plains, Washington got their first-ever Hendon Mob cash with a 4th-place in the Orleans 2021 Fall Poker $75K GTD NLHE. Sporre is GPI: 40274 and debuts on the Leaderboard at #4259.

From Renton, Maria Pearlie Tapang GPI: 17111 goes from #6439 to #2993 after taking 3rd place (their best-ever cash) in Venetian Deepstack Championship #6 $50K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. That event got 205 entries.

Back over at the Rio, it was Adam Hendrix GPI: 2 in another big buy-in tournament, the WSOP #6 NLHE 6-Max High Roller. Hendrix took 8th of 135, in a prize pool of more than $3M. Hendrix’s position on the Leaderboard stays at #24.

Sean Fitzpatrick from Mill Creek, Washington GPI: 26166 won the Rio Daily Deepstack Series NLHE 7PM on 3 October. Fitpatrick beat 134 other entries and climbs almost 900 spots on the Leaderboard, to #2054.

Out of Eugene, William Tinoco moves from #1863 to #1289 by taking 4th out of 263 in a Wynn Fall Classic $200K GTD NLHE. It’s Tinoco’s GPI: 12488 best-ever cash.

The first PNW bracelet of the season goes to Jaswinder Lally from Vancouver, British Columbia, in only his third recorded tournament cash, in WSOP #7 Dealer’s Choice 6-Max. Lally GPI: 6726 moves from #6535 to #643. Nice to see that particular bracelet come back to the PNW!

https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/1445626721990942722?s=20

World Series of Poker Event #8 NLHE Deepstack

The first of the $600 buy-in events this year drew 4,527 entries, and there were only three players from the PNW who made it to the Leaderboard from there (others cashed but not for enough to make it into this report). Chris Niemeyer of Lake Stevens GPI:16110 came in 28th; putting them on the Leaderboard for the first time at #4071. Yakima’s Theodore Demoe GPI: 6810 made it to 21st, and has a new Leaderboard ranking of #3915. GPI: 11192 Marty Stephens from Coos Bay placed 16th, their best-ever cash and a clip of 1500 places to #2382.

Moving up the Leaderboard from #18 to #17 is George Wolff, with a 6th place finish out of the 134 entrants in WSOP #9 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship and 23rd in the WSOP #25 NLHE 6-Max. Wolff is GPI: 1129.

Portland’s own Wayne Harmon was 48th out of 1,790 entries in the Wynn $1M GTD NLHE. The prize pool was nearly $2.6M. Harmon GPI: 624 is up more than twenty spots on the Leaderboard, to #205.

Sukhpaul Dhaliwal from Langley, British Columbia GPI: 4562 took 5th in the WSOP #10 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty, beating 1,635 other players to move two spots up on the Leaderboard to #59.

I’m including Tacoma’s Bin Weng GPI: 12466 in this edition of the Leaderboard even though the +47% ROI they made from their 5th-place finish in WSOP #11 NLHE Heads-Up Championship wasn’t nearly enough to get a mention, usually. (They’re going to make it into the next edition without a problem, from results posted since I ran this collation.) But you have to admire the sheer balls of someone with $12K in recorded tournament earnings and just three cashes, ponying up $25K to play heads-up matches with the likes of Adrian Mateos—Weng’s first match, Dan Zack—Weng’s third match and the player who knocked them out of the tournament, David Peters, and Cary Katz. I mean, jeez. Weng’s cash takes them from #3551 to #1296.

Kevin Erickson via PokerNews

Vancouver, Washington’s Kevin Erickson almost won a bracelet in WSOP #12 LHE, losing heads-up to Yuval Bronshtein. The limit hold’em event drew 422 entries. Erickson’s third and best tournament cash leapfrogs him over more than four thousand other players on the Leaderboard to #784.

Landen Lucas, Portland still, according to Hendon Mob, GPI: 290 has a two-fer, with 10th place in the WSOP #13 NLHE Freezeout followed up by 33rd place (out of 5,326) in WSOP #17 NLHE Millionaire Maker. Lucas goes from #353 to #271 on the Leaderboard.

Rafael Lebron

Puyallup’s Rafael Lebron GPI: 2927 was the next PNW player to win a bracelet, in WSOP #14 Seven-Card Stud, not the one where Phil Hellmuth threatened to burn down the Rio, the other one, where LeBron bested David Williams among others.It’s Lebron’s second bracelet, and the victory moves him up 19 places on the Leaderboard to #89.

World Series of Poker Event #15 NLHE 6-Max

Two PNW players made the last few tables of this 1,450-entry tournament. Just missing the final two tables at 13th place was Jonas Mackoff of North Vancouver, British Columbia, GPI: 4858. That’s goof for three spots on the Leaderboard, they’re now #40. 8th place was Kirkland player Jonathan Baylor‘s largest score GPI: 2704; it’s a climb of nearly two thousand places on the Leaderboard for them, to #1352.

The legendary Terrence Chan GPI: 10620 was at the final table of WSOP #16 LHE Championship, coming in 4th. 92 players put up the $10K entry fee; Chan remains at #33 on the Leaderboard.

It was a notable first recorded cash, in 8th at the Grand Poker Series #22 $500K GTD NLHE for Phillip Latimer of Moses Lake, Washington. Latimer debuts on the Leaderboard at #3475.

World Series of Poker Event #17 NLHE Millionaire Maker

In addition to James Romero (mentioned above) five other PNW players had significant cashes in the Millionaire Maker this year. Anchorage’s Kristy Becker GPI:16854 busted just after Romero, in 67th, and moves from #1436 to #1170 on the Leaderboard. Bruce Herman of Ellensberg, Washington #16814 achieved their best cash with 72nd, enough to climb more than 700 places to #1835. Vanessa Kade GPI:465 moves up six positions to #122 with a 75th place finish (followed by 19th in the WSOP #25 NLHE 6-Max). Climbing nine spots to #124 is Bellevue’s Dien Le, GPI: 179 who made the final two tables at 17th. And on the final table, picking up their best-ever cash was GPI: 6323 Adam Sherman of Seattle at 8th. Sherman goes from #903 to #359.

Adam Sherman

Seth Davies has to make an appearance in the Leaderboard each edition by contractual obligation, and this time is no excepton. with a 3rd-place finish in Aria High Roller 25 NLHE. 22 entries, looking at the payouts, there may have been a 4-way deal between Davies, Jake Schindler, Nick Petrangelo, and Stephen Chidwick. Davies GPI: 50 remains #1 on the Leaderboard and just keeps putting space between himself and everyone else,

339 players entered the Wynn $200K GTD NLHE and Seattle’s Brian Heeb came in 7th. Heeb is up nearly 200 places on the Leaderboard, at #1073.

World Series of Poker Event #21 PLO8/O8/Big O

Charles Coultas of Mill Creek, Washington GPI: 6961 was the 10th-place finisher in this event with 641 entries. Coultas climbs three places on the Leaderboard to #85. The winner of the bracelet was Dylan Linde, #6 on the Leaderboard and GPI: 112, bringing yet another bracelet to the PNW.

Dylan Linde

Darren Kennedy GPI:31626 of White Rock, British Columbia bested me by 79 places in the WSOP #27 HORSE, coming in 5th and moving up about eighty places to #313.

A Tale of Two—Maybe Three—Kaos

And that brings us to the the other PNW player who was at the HORSE final table: Kao “Flexx” Saechao. That’s the Seattle-area Kao, who placed 4th in the tournament and posted a number of other results the time period covered by this edition of the Leaderboard, including a min-cash in the Millionaire Maker. The problem is, Washington Kao’s results get mixed into those of Oregon’s Kao Saechao, not only the final table finish of the HORSE but even to the point where the results of both Kaos were attributed to Oregon Kao

Not to be outdone, Kerry Moynahan posted on Facebook that two other players with the his name cashing in an event at the Venetian last year.

In any event, I can’t reliable rank either Kao because there’s a mixup of results, and that throws everything else into flux. Not by much, but some. Anyway, great job, both Flexx and Kao. Between the two of them, they’ve got four WSOP cashes and a win in a Daily Deepstack in the past couple of weeks.

That’s all for now!

WSOP 2021: Choose Your Own H.O.R.S.E. Adventure

Posted on by

This isn’t (hopefully) going to be a long post; it’s a little before 8:30am as I’m typing this, hoping I’ll get sleepy by staring at the screen, but I’ve been up for over an hour and I didn’t get to sleep until 4.

Yesterday started off with me popping over to Denny’s catty-corner from the Rio. It seems like, despite the wide-open rep of Las Vegas—many of the restaurants in the casino complex are shuttered—at least during the weekdays—which has led to scenes like this.

Denny’s, on the other hand, was busy and considerably less expensive than anything I’d seen on the menus at the Rio. All you have to do is take your life into your hands by walking across both Flamingo and Valley View each direction during morning rush hour to get there.

First order of the day was to get registered for Event #196 $180 NLHE Turbo Mega Satellite. I had my three $500 lammers from the evening before, but I was hoping to pick up another $1500 in lammers from this satellite. I’m starting to think my decision to grind satellites in the COVID era was -EV. By the end of registration, only 18 players had joined in, which meat just one full payout and one of two lamps and $200 cash. I had one Ax Qx hand get all in against Ax Jx and lose, which mostly wiped me out an I ended up fifth. The other players were discussing how to potentially chop it up as I picked up my bag, while the TD pretended something on the far wall of the Pavilion room was interesting.

That took a couple hours. It was time to make a decision about the path of my next three days in Vegas. I was (discounting expenses and treating my lammers as actual dollars) slightly ahead on the trip after the first day. Do I a) buy into the HORSE tournament? or b) use the lammers for the bulk of three more $580 mega satellites? With the number of players the mega were getting, I wasn’t sure how many of those were going to be profitable for me—I really prefer the larger satellite fields—and they could mean forgoing the two other bracelet events I was interested in.

As it happened, my passions took the lead and I dropped my lammers at the cage to register for HORSE.

My first table in the HORSE tournament couldn’t have had a better location. Though it also had Ian Johns in the seat next to me. It seemed like several other players there were from Washington state, as well. The next table wasn’t so good, in the ass-end of the Tan section of Amazon with bad lighting that made it difficult for the older players—not me, of course—to see the stud variant up cards at the other end of the table. Ran into some serious hardships and was down to 7k from 25k at one point before a phenomenal O8 segment took me up over starting stack and nearly 40k.

Got moved after a couple hours to a table with better lighting but also Alan Kessler. I lost the first hand I played there (to him) and then a (for me) massive hand where I had seven hearts in stud and I had to call off on the river when he raised me with his rivered boat. That stung. I did manage to pull off a flush that held up against Anthony Zinno to recover a bit.

Got moved to a table with Barry Greenstein and was dealt 2♦ 3♦ 4♦ in Razz, which got me excited. Then I got 2 black kings, which took some of the edge off. At this point, we were nearing the final three levels of play, which is still two hours before bagging, but I’d made it past the ed of registration, and if I could hang on with my <10 big bet stack, I might be able to make Day 2.

Attendance was down a bit for this event. There were 751 entries in 2019 and just 594 yesterday, which is a full 20% drop. I’m guessing that’s probably worse for someone like myself, because most of the people who aren’t showing up are the more casual HORSE players (like me).

Ran into Joe Brandenberg in the halls, and Jeff Mitseff at the next table at the end of the night. We got the “five hands” notice from the floor just as we headed into the Razz round. I think I managed to stay out of most of those hands.

Anyway, my table draw is interesting. Felipe Ramos is #3 in live tournament earnings in Brazil. Ron Ware runs the Mixed Game Poker in Las Vegas group on Facebook.

After we bagged up, I needed to find some food. If there was anything open at the Rio during the day, it wasn’t open at 2:15am. I headed across to Ping Pang Pong (crossing Valley View in the dark, yeek!) and managed to wolf down my first food since breakfast. This hibernation fat is good for something!

Going to try to make the day last as long as I can! Usually I change out the card cover each time I cash, I’ve got to decide whether making Day 2 of my first WSOP bracelet event is significant enough to swap out.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 15 August 2021

Posted on by

Kind of a bummer week for the PNW poker scene as surging COVID case numbers led to governors in both Oregon and Washington imposing mask mandates on indoor facilities once again, and an outbreak at Chinook Winds Casino led to both a two-week (minimum) shitdown and the cancellation of the Fall Coast Classic.

https://twitter.com/PACWESTclassic/status/1425658501766926340

I’d been starting to wonder if I should go, even though I was only going to be able to make the first weekend. I’d gotten a room reservation (now cancelled) and been planning to see some folks I hadn’t connected with for a long time. Not to mention Boozy Shakes at the â€™60s Cafe and Diner.Really wondering if I’m going to see the WSOP‘s last hurrah at the Rio,

PNW Poker Leaderboard

First up in this edition is Portland’s Landen Lucas, who placed 17th out of 490 entries at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open/POKER GO #35 $1M GTD NLHE in Hollywood, Florida. Lucas climbs nearly thirty places on the Leaderboard to #353. GPI: 2,130.

Phillip Brocoum, another Portlander, makes his debut on Hendon Mob and on the Leaderboard at #2290 after placing 5th in a 5-way chop of Venetian DeepStack Showdown #6 $150K GTD NLHE UltimateStack (539 entries). GPI: 18,609.

Darren Rabinowitz came in 6th at the SHRPO #34 $3M GTD NLHE Championship (1,880 entries). His cash moves him from #22 to #20. GPI: #582. Matt Affleck was just ahead of him in 5th, for his first significant live cash in a while. He sticks at #15 on the Leaderboard. GPI: 3,686.

Chris Brewer — GPI: 178 — won the title in an ICM chop with Sean Winter in the 24-player SHRPO #24 NLHE Super High Roller. Brewer climbs 5 more places on the Leaderboard to #26

Writing this up after a very disappointing experience in the Ignition Super Millions Poker Open $350K GTD NLHE Main Event this afternoon. I don’t even want to talk about it. Ran like God in the satty. At least I didn’t win and have to forfeit my winnings because I violated the Terms of Service!

 

PokerMutant In Play: July 2021

Posted on by

it was a pretty restrained month for me. I fire up a lot of online tournaments—about one a day, on the average this year—but for various reasons I skipped a bunch of days this month, so the total to evaluate is remarkably small. It may be the smallest total I’ve posted in a month for over a decade.

1 July

My favorite, the Ignition Casino $5K GTD NLHE Thousandaire Maker. It’s a $75 buyin freezeout, with a $7 fee, and for about 7% of the players, there’s a $1K cash payout. Basically a satellite with money payout. This one got 73 entries, I busted in 43rd place.

6 July

The first live poker I’d played since early March 2020. The Portland Meadows NLHE $1500 WSOP Satellite. I got there late, so the lot was jam-packed, but I parked a few blocks down Killingsworth and hiked to the club. I didn’t get there until the big blind was already 600, managed to eke it out to 18th of 70. $100 buyin with a $20 door fee.

Then a long gap.

23 July

Yes, I really didn’t play a hand of poker—live or online—for two-and-a-half weeks. Weird.But with the return of the home game that started my time in 21st-century poker coming up, I fired up Ignition to play the nightly $2K GTD NLHE 6-Max Turbo. This $20 buyin/$2 fee game starts out slow, with a lot of players flocking to the last stages to just throw their money at the wall to see if it sticks. Mostly, it doesn’t, because there are a few people like myself who aren’t afraid to punish people for their stupidity. About a third of the entries are re-entry (2 allowed), but I almost never ever do, because as I’ve said forever, rebuys are for suckers. This game got 129 entries (including 40 re-entries). Paid 24 places, I came in 11th and made a whopping 104% ROI. Only down $179 for the month so far.

24 July

Went to the home game for the first time in seventeen months. Outdoor deck in Tigard, Saw all the old gang, heard all the old jokes. Busted 6/9 with my signature Mutant Jack hand A♥ J♥ to aces from the host, Vic. $30 buyin and a $5 addon. Got out in time to hit the Joy Cinema where I was working as a cashier/projectionist/toilet cleaner/food handler for the 9:15 show of Road Warrior and chatted with my friend (for more than 35 years) and former boss Jeff “Punk Rock” Martin. Down $214 for the month, not counting my movie ticket, popcorn, and Diet Coke.

25 July

Another $22 NLHE 6-Max Turbo. This one’s slightly larger, with 146 entries (45 re-entry). Still 24 paid but this time I make it to 10th. Still only 130% ROI for two-and-a-half hours. Down $185 for July.

26 July

Making the 6-Max a nightly thing, but this game I don’t even make it to the end of the entry period. Out 33 of 63 (at the time). Just 33 minutes. Down $207.

27 July

Another cash in the 6-Max. I get very lucky a couple of times but end up oout in 18th place after two hours and 40 minutes. 149 entries with 44 re-entries and 24 paid ($710 up top). My take is 68% ROI. Down $192.

28 July

I fire up Ignition a little earlier than the 10pm 5-Max after a couple of work nights where I was up past 1am and get into the 8pm $1K GTD PLO Turbo. I took 2nd in one of these smaller tournaments at the end of June, I’m a big fan of the Great Game of PLO™, but I fall far short in this one: 27th of 45 entries. Buyin is $15 with a $1,5 fee, no re-entry, which is kind of refreshing in a PLO game. Down $209.

29 July

Another PLO Turbo. No dice. 30th of 47 (neither this night or the previous nighyt reached the end of registration, so that’s not an accurate number of the total entries. Down $226 for the month.

30 July

Back to the 6-Max Turbo. These games—like most turbos—tend to be short-stacked in the final stages, but it’s easy to make mistakes like shoving into the aces of the guy who’s just gotten lucky against your pair. Anyway, 7th of 135 (40 re-entries). $648 up top but I get a 268% ROI. Just over three hours. Down $167.

31 July

The start of this tournament was almost laughable. You begin with 10K in chips. I came in at the 80/160 level and was down a couple thousand (15bb) in the first four hands. I doubled up on hand 5 when someone called my nut flush (and the nuts) on the river, I won the next two hands and doubled through the chip leader, then I doubled again just before the first break, knocking out the former chip leader and two others. I hit a set on the flop and we all managed to get everything in. I held against several draws. Had some setbacks in the next hour, but was back upon top by the second break.

There wwere 78 entries in the tournament and a prize pool of $1,185. 17 places paid. My time in the tournament was almost exactly two hours and forty minutes (total time would have been 3:20) and I was there until the last, when my aces ran into a flopped two pair HU and I couldn’t recover. 1035% ROI! I end the month up $9! Just short of 20 hours. 45¢ an hour.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 17 July 2021

Posted on by

Soooooo much going on!

It’s been suspected for a while that this year’s WSOP would be the last one held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel. There hasn’t been an official announcement yet, but cancellation of a long-standing reservation for a pool tournament at Bally’s appears to have inadvertently broken the news.

Here in Portland, things are getting back to normal-ish. Final Table announced that August 5th will be the first post-pandemic $20K GTD. Buyin is $100, with one live rebuy, and there’s a $50 add-on. This Saturday is another $300 buyin/$150 add-on tournament at The Game.

I’ve only played one game live since the start of the pandemic so far, and even when I was playing a lot I didn’t get out of the metro Portland area much, but in the interests of general PNW poker, here’s a quote from Dan Gee about No Look Poker Room in Medford.

No Look has been consistently excellent, is extremely respectful to all players of all nationalities and ages and also very supportive of the disabled… excellent wheelchair access and the custom bathroom with seperate general bathrooms for men and women. But they also keep a decent amount of tourneys in the mix including a weekly Omaha day or two for those players, and games start consistently at noon…

Might be just the thing you need if you’re down in the Bootleg fire area and need a break from worrying. Stay safe.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

This edition we’re adding in the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings for players on the Leaderboard. If you’re not familiar with the GPI, it’s a ranking system for tournament players that calculates a value for every qualifying result reported to The Hendon Mob (now owned by GPI), based on the number of entries,size of the buyin, amount of money won, and age of the result (with more recent results counting for more and results over three years old not counted). There’s a handy explainer here.

I have exactly one qualifying result, from September 2019 when I chopped a tournament at Chinook Winds with John Gribben. When it was new, it was worth about 75 GPI points; at nearly two years old, it only counts for 15. My GPI score is 111,965.

Anthony An via PokerNews

The Wynn Summer Classic $1.5M GTD NLHE Mystery Bounty was a unique event with $600K in bounties over and above the guarantee. Every knockout on Day 1 was good for $100 (out of a $1600 buyin). If you got to Day 2, you got your $100 back and if you knocked out another player you got to draw an envelope awarding anywhere from $500 to $100,000. There were more than 1,500 entries. Beaverton’s Anthony An made it to 12th place, gaining his largest-ever score (plus whatever bounties he won). An climbs 1,050 places on the Leaderboard, to #1699 (GPI: 17824).

Oregon had two players at the final table of the Venetian DeepStack Poker Tour/PokerGO $150K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. Coming in 4th of 215 was Benjamin Garrick of Gold Beach (climbing almost four hundred on the Leaderboard to #1077, GPI: 2659). It’s Garrick’s second-largest cash. Portland’s Rambo Halpern (GPI: 5,941) got 2nd place (his second-best) making it to #430, a climb of over 200 places on the Leaderboard.

The WPT/Venetian #88 $3M GTD NLHE had just short of 1,200 entries. Cheang Yoo of Seattle (GPI: 938) came in 34th, rising nearly 80 places on the Leaderboard to #410. Portland’s Landen Lucas (GPI: 1,449) took 16th, enough to climb from #551 to #385.

There’s rarely a Leaderboard these days without an appearance by Christopher Brewer (GPI: 164) and this is no exception, though it’s just a small one: 7th in a field of 53 in the PokerGO Cup #3 NLHE at Aria. Even the min-cash is enough to tick him up from #32 to #31.

Vanessa Kade makes another appearance here with her own 7th-place finish (out of 66) in PokerGO Cup #1 NLHE. Kade is GPI: 636 and climbs fifteen places on the Leaderboard, to #128.

Back over at the Wynn Summer Classic $100K GTD PLO, Adam Hendrix made 4th (the number of entries wasn’t reported to Hendon Mob). The cash moves him from #26 to #25. He is currently the highest ranked PNW player on the Global Poker Index at GPI: 8.

#8 on the PNW Leaderboard, GPI: 493 Lee Markholt picked up points in the Wynn $1M GTD NLHE, placing 18th there before claiming 111th in the massive Wynn Summer Classic $10M GTD NLHE Millions.

The Wynn Millions as it was called, brought a lot of PNW players, as it was sort of a fill-in for this summer’s WSOP. Though about a fifth the size, with 1,328 entries, a large-field $10K buy-in—at the Wynn, considered to be one of the best poker venues in town—was an attractive draw for folks who’d mostly been holed up for over a year. Scott Mayfield (Grants Pass, GPI: 10564) placed 73rd, bumping him almost twenty spots up the Leaderboard, to #132. Climbing nine places to #114 was Scott Eskanazi (GPI: 3976), in 76th place. Max Young made it to 29th; he holds at #23 on the Leaderboard (GPI: 32, currently the second-highest PNW player on the GPI).

Jaime Cervantes via PokerNews

The real standout result is Vancouver Washington’s Jaime Cervantes Alvarez, with (as of now) five cashes on Hendon Mob, all of them since February, with the 3rd being 7th place at the Wynn Millions. He leapfrogs from #4076 to #185 on the Leaderboard (GPI: 583). 

The big numbers for the week were put up by perennial casher Dylan Linde (GPI: 62) who placed 40th in the Wynn Millions then took 3rd in the PokerGO Cup #2 NLHE (61 entries) and winning the previously-mentioned PokerGO Cup #3 NLHE. 

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 1 July 2021 — Delta Edition

Posted on by

It’s been less than two weeks since the last edition of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard, but there’s a lot going on so I’m going to bang this out as fast as I can.

Oregon and Washington COVID-19 restrictions are over, and the clubs in the Portland are are back in business, with Portland Meadows running a bounty tournament tonight at 7pm, and Final Table resurrecting their $10K guarantee on Friday night at 6pm (there are other changes at both clubs, but check their web sites out to get the latest. The Game is back to regular hours and ran a $400 buy-in tournament last weekend. Check out Facebook for more info on places like 45th Street Pub & Grill, Kit Kat Club, Rialto, and yeah, even Last Frontier. Poker beggars can’t be choosers. Most of this stuff can be found through the NW Poker group.

PNW Poker Leaderboard

The super high rollers seem to have been on a bit of a bye for the past week or so, so we’ve got a crop of not-as-familiar names this edition. What’s truly notable, though, is that every single one of these cashes includes the player’s best-ever recorded cash, even for people with long Hendon Mob trails.

We’re starting with Darnell Holder from Seattle, whose first cash isn’t huge, but it’s a respectable 34th place in the Wynn Summer Classic $1M GTD NLHE, which had 1,312 entries and a $1.9M pot. He enters the Leaderboard at #3916.

Cornelio McLean from Tacoma got his largest cash ever by winning the 84-entry Venetian/PokerGO Deepstach Championship Poker Series #64 $30K GTD PLO8. McLean moves over 800 spots up the Leaderboard, to #1718.

Lynnwood, Washington’s William Scott moves from #6214 to #2649 coming 3rd of 258 entries in Venetian/PokerGO #61 $50K GTD NLHE MonsterStack.

Ryan Roeder of Seattle comes onto the Leaderboard at #2094 with a win in the Wynn $40K GTD NLHE. With 284 entries, it more than doubled the guarantee.

Lots of smiles for Kevin Theodore from Seattle, whose biggest cash as winner of the Wynn $40K GTN NLHE was followed a week later by winning the Venetian/PokerGO #70 $20K GTD NLHE Bounty. There were 252 entries at Wynn and 114 at the Venetian. Theodore moves 400_ spots on the Leaderboard to #844.

Portland poker icon Dan “Goofy” Beecher was part of a three-way deal at the Orleans Summer Series $222,222 GTD NLHE Dynamite Deuces that led to his biggest-ever cash. Beecher jumps about 70 places to #343.

Dan’s on the right in the picture below.

Stephen Ferrell made the trip to the Venetian/PokerGO #63 $200K GTD NLHE MonsterStack from Post Falls to take 2nd place in a field of more than a thousand for his first recorded cash, which catapults him to #1415 on the Leaderboard. I think the Venetian’s tweet here has a typo in Ferrell’s name.

Speaking of typos, I see that Seattle’s Karan Chadha, who was at the same final table and placed 6th, should be on the Leaderboard but Hendon Mob has the residence as Seattle, CA. This was Chadha’s biggest cash, and the first that would qualify him for inclusion in a Leaderboard write-up, so I’m glad to have noticed it.

Finally, Aaron Thivyanathan is back, and despite having been featured here numerous times this year already, this is Thivyanathan’s largest cash as runner-up in the WPT/Seminole Hard Rock Tampa #6 NLHE. 167 entries and a prize pool of $334K. Thivyanathan climbs from #417 to #281 on this edition of the Leaderboard.

That’s it for now! See you on the non-virtual felt soon!

PNW Poker Leaderboard — Father’s Day 2021 — WSOP is Go!

Posted on by

2021 WSOP Schedule Released

https://twitter.com/TheHendonMob/status/1405259965267419140

The big news of the past two weeks is, of course, the announcement of the 2021 World Series of Poker Schedule last Monday. I had my room reservation at the Rio and flights scheduled by 11am that morning, after listening to Kevmath and the folks on the Rec Poker podcast as they went through it just after it hit the internet. I’m not going to bore you with my thoughts on the schedule—there are plenty of people far more knowledgable than myself ready to do that—but my own plans (depending on how things work out) include the 2-day Event #24 $600 PLO 8-Max Deepstack on October 12th, Event #27 $1,500 HORSE (3 days, October 13th), and Event #28 $1,000 PLO 8-Max (also 3 days, October 14th), along with however many satellites I can fit in before that Saturday night (hopefully not too many).

Still haven’t played a live game anywhere, though everyone is ramping up. The Game ran a $400 buy-in tournament this weekend scheduled for June 26. Portland Meadows has a $120 freezeout at noon every Saturday and a $100 freezeout on Sundays. And Final Table announced a competition Friday to give points to frequent players that comp them into a tournament where they play for a seat at the WSOP.

Podcast Frenzy

I mentioned the other day (ad nauseum) that I was on the Poker in the Ears podcast with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton. If you’re in a PokerStars real-money market, they give you a $109 ticket for the Sunday Millions tournament, but if you’re a victim of Black Friday or some other government regulatory shenanigans, they send you a consolation prize of some PokerStars merchandise. I unbagged my winnings this week.

I even made it into the last episode of the season, after I posted a tweet with some antique James Bond merch to Hartigan, an aficionado of all things Bond.

Since I started walking into work again a couple of weeks ago, my podcast listening time has gone back up, and at the end of last month I was listening to an interview of 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Rob Campbell on an episode of The Lock-In podcast, and he mentioned that he’d been doing a show called Podker. Co-hosted by $1/$3 cash game player and radio personality Angus O’Loughlin, it’s one of the funniest shows I’ve heard, as two guys with very Australian accents talk hand histories and interview people like Daniel Negreanu and Dan Zack and Daniel “Jungleman” Cates. Really, all the Dans. There are just a couple of seasons of 10 episodes so far, go back to the first one (November 2019) and trace the journey.

Kevmath’s Quarterly Year in Review

Thee months ago at the suggestion of Kevin Mathers, I ran the first year-over year ranking for the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard, and it’s time for the second edition already! Players are listed in order by their recorded tournament earnings between mid-June 2020 and mid-June 2021. The numeric values are their Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard ranks at the beginning and the end of the year-long period,

June 2020 RankJune 2021 rankstateplayer
78232Christopher Brewer
11Seth Davies
3126Adam Hendrix
2523Maxwell Young
430143Vanessa Kade
396173Adam Walton
1413Dylan Wilkerson
1309411Brian Meadows
107Dylan Linde
390233Wayne Harmon
766417Aaron Thivyanathan
7163Chad Wassmuth
2627Esther Taylor-Brady
3938Kao Saechao
1197575Brian Swanson
1507653Glenn Thompson
56761105Brett Polen
154133Dien Le
228198Daniel Park
473358Reginald Caymol

Vanessa Kade is the big newcomer to this list, with a cash (see below) in live tournaments after her massive online win in the Sunday Millions 15th Anniversary earlier this spring. A few folks fell off the list as cashes between March and June of last year dropped away.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Nobody was new to the Leaderboard this semi-month.

Let’s start out with Aaron Thivyanathan from Renton, who came 4th (of 202) in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa #5 NLHE for his second-biggest score. Thivyanathan goes from #464 to #417 (that is since the last Leaderboard, the numbers in the table above are between last June and now).

Dien Le from Bellevue placed 7th of 398 in Seminole Hard Rock Deep Stack Poker Series #5 $200K GTD NLHE. Le climbs eight spots to #133.

Tony Hoang of Edmonton placed 8th in a Wynn Summer Classic $250K GTD NLHE held 7—10 June (why can’t the Wynn number their tournaments like normal people?) 1,350 entrants made for a prize pool of over $700K. Hoang moves from #431 to #386.

There were 2,790 entries in the MSPT/Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series #41 $1.5M GTD NLHE, pushing the prize pool to nearly $2.7M. 20th place was Filmon Ghebreegzabheir from Issaquah. Moving nearly 100 places up the Leaderboard, Ghebreegzabheir is now #514. Adam Walton of Seattle came in 11th in the same event, and rises to #173.

Out of Sherwood Park, Alberta, YePing Shan won the Venetian #50 $100K GTD NLHE MonsterStack. It’s Shan’s largest recorded cash, and takes him up to #520 on the Leaderboard.

Christopher Brewer continues a journey through the high roller circuit, with a 7th place in the US PokerOpen/PokerGO #11 NLHE at the Aria/PokerGO studio. There were 69 entries. Brewer sticks at #32.

Adam Hendrix was the runner-up in USPO #5 NLHE with 85 runners. A good score, but not enough to move up from #26.

Down Under, Canadian Michael Maddocks had a good couple of weeks. First, there was a 3rd place cash in a field of nearly 500 in the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast #1 NLHE. Always a good way to start the series. Then, a week later, runner up in a field of 1,113, in WPTDS Gold Coast #6 NLHE, for his biggest score to date. And a couple of weeks after that it’s another 3rd place (out of 108) in the Australian Poker League Poker Tour NLHE Jackstar Super High Roller. Maddocks jumps nearly 500 places on the Leaderboard, to #224.

We’ll wrap up this edition of the Leaderboard with the afore-mentioned Vanessa Kade, who rises almost 300 places to #143 with her jump into IRL high-roller poker. After her Sunday Millions, she popped into the US Poker Open. Kade came in 4th of 99 in USPO #9 NLHE, then 5th just a couple of days later in USPO #11 NLHE.

That’s it for now! Happy belated Juneteenth and have a great Father’s Day (you know who you are!)

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 5 June 2021

Posted on by

Six Months to 60

When I started this blog, I’d just turned 49. I’d been playing live Hold’em for a little over two years. Tomorrow, I’ll be six months away from turning 60. So there’s that.

Five years ago, I was 3 days into my run as a live reporter at the WSOP.

Poker In the Ears

As previously mentioned, I was the Superfan contestant in the “Superfan vs. Stapes” segment on the official PokerStars podcast last week. This is the only exposure my card protectors have gotten in over a year!

Portland Poker

The Portland Meadows and Final Table poker rooms are (as of this writing) operating at 50% capacity, per county COVID restrictions, so things are moving in the right direction. There are a number of other venues in the Portland-area running shootouts and some tournaments. They include:

  • 45th Street Pub & Grill
  • The Game
  • Kit Kat Poker Club
  • Last Frontier
  • Stadiums Sports Bar

If you’ve got some other places that accept walk-ins drop me a line on Twitter @pokermutant.

Not-Portland NW Poker

Around the region, it seems to be mostly card rooms picking up the slack, rather than the casinos. High Mountain Poker is back in Eugene, and the Ontario Poker Room at the far east of Oregon has been active. Lots of reports from Palace in the Seattle area. Mostly from @dave_has_aces. Renton’s Fortune Poker is running high hand announcements on the NW Poker Facebook group.

https://twitter.com/dave_has_aces/status/1400884567599312897?s=20

The poker rooms at Spirit Mountain and Tulalip closed before the pandemic. Wildhorse—which was one of the first large venues in the state closed by a coronavirus outbreak—still hasn’t re-opened their poker room. Ditto for Chinook Winds, though they have announced tentative dates for the Fall Coast Poker Classic in September.

The biggest guarantee on a tournament I’ve seen so far is at the Clearwater Poker Room in East Wenatchee: $10K GTD, which has apparently been running since April.

Keep an eye on PokerAtlas, but call ahead before you head out anywhere is my advice.

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard

Justin Mevs of Seattle is the first of two new names we welcome onto the Leaderboard this time. Mevs won the 186-entry Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series #23 $25K GTD NLHE MonsterStack, as the result of a 5-way deal on 26 May. It’s Mevs’s 4th and largest recorded cash. Mevs debuts at #3961.

13th place in the Wynn/PokerGO Summer Classic $1M GTD NLHE is Derek Hershman‘s first recorded cash. The player from Spokane beat out 1,717 other players to make it into the top 1% of the field. He is #2667 on the Leaderboard.

Max Young returns to the Leaderboard round-up with a 5th at the Prime Social Summer Series #10 $300K GTD NL H-Town (no idea what that means). 959 entries at the Houston (presumably H-Town) event. Found some info:

Open at Noon or 5pm for your share of triple-figures in the $300,000 Guaranteed $600 H-Town Special. Everything Houston-related is represented in this event, and you have you door fee wiped out if you show in ANY H-Town-related gear all weekend long.

Players open with a special H-Town 31,260 stack, playing 34-minute Day 1 levels. Registration and a single re-entry-per-player-per-flight period is open for 3 hours, 30 minutes for each flight in tomorrow’s 2 flights, Friday’s 2 flights (Noon and 5pm) and Saturday’s 2 flights (Noon and 5pm as well).

Check out the structure sheet to see all that Hammer has added that references H-Town, and don’t forget to yell “He Gone” when someone busts.

Max stays at #24.

Gold Beach’s Benjamin Garrick moves from #3087 to #1549 with a win in the Venetian #35 $50K GTD NLHE MonsterStack on 31 May. He beat 350 other entries in a 2-way chop for his 5th and biggest win.

Dylan Wilkerson came 7th in the Venetian #24 $250K GTD NLHE UltimateStack. The event had 867 total entries. Wilkerson had a win 10 days earlier in the Venetian #16 $150K GTD NLHE UltimateStack, with 739 entries. He holds at #13.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention Chris Brewer‘s win in the partypoker/WPT Online #5 $1M GTD NLHE High Roller, even though the results are not counted in the Hendon Mob leaderboard stats (though they are now recorded as part of the player’s tournament results). Not to worry, though, because he came in 3rd in the 65-entry Venetian/PokerGO #28 NLHE High Roller on 28 May, and turned around the next day to place 5th in the 43-entry Venetian/PokerGO #31 NLHE High Roller. Good thing, too, because apparently his bag full of chips was stolen from the food court there during the tournament. According to Daniel Negreanu on his DAT Poker Podcast, both Brewer’s bag and one belonging to Ali Imsirovic were taken. Just a reminder to keep your belongings close! Or don’t win anything, so you don’t have anything to lose!

Despite losing his bag, Brewer moves up two slots to #32 on the leaderboard. He passes Carter Gill (now #34) and DAT Poker co-host Terence Chan (#33). He’s sitting right behind Ian Johns (#31).

PokerMutant on Poker In the Ears Podcast

Posted on by

Catch the PokerMutant on today’s Poker In the Ears podcast (#215), head-to-head with Joe Stapleton on the Superfan vs. Stapes segment with James Hartigan officiating. We’re answering questions about the 1985 Martin Scorsese film After Hours, a quintessential film about life in New York City 25 years ago. The fun starts at 54:30.

Oh, and there’s an interview with Parker ‘tonkaaaap’ Talbot, too.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 20—21 May 2021

Posted on by

Have you ever had a couple of days when everything just seemed to be going your way? Joshua Jutz from Pasco did early this month. First off, he got into the 224-entry Wynn Signature Series $40K GTD NLHE on 2 May and won the whole thing for his fifth and biggest-ever recorded cash. You know how those things go, he probably wasn’t back into his room until pretty early. But at some point mid-day on 3 May, he went across the street and joined 67 other entries in the Venetian Deepstack Championship Poker Series #1 $20K GTD NLHE Survivor, and cashed for the top prize along with 6 others. Now, I’m just guessing here, but I think he waited until Day 1B (4 May) of the 2-Day Wynn $100K GTD NLHE (626 entries), then came back the next day to take 5th, for his 2nd-best cash. All that moves Jutz onto the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard for the first time at #1969.

https://twitter.com/WynnPoker/status/1389361710553714688?s=20

Dylan Wilkerson moves up a slot on the Leaderboard with 8th place in the 995-entry Wynn $250K GTD NLHE. It’s enough for him to slip past Greg Mueller to #13.

8th place in the Wynn $400K GTD NLHE takes Federal Way’s Daniel Park from #213 to #197. The tournament got 851 entries over 3 start days. Renton’s Brian Meadows picked up his best-ever cash by taking 2nd in the same event; Meadows climbs from #1048 to #408.

Tyrone Smith (University Place) was runner-up in the 581-entry Wynn $100K GTD NLHE  on 26—28 April. It’s Smith’s largest cash so far, and he moves more than 3,400 places on the leaderboard, to #1957.

Kent’s Jonas Laid goes up more than 1900 places to #1511 with a 2nd as part of a 3-way deal in Venetian #10 $100K GTD NLHE MonsterStack.There were 543 entries.

More movement in the Top 20 comes from Dylan Linde, whose 6 May 4th place in an Aria NLHE High Roller with 46 entries was enough to propel him past the Lees (Watkinson and Markholt) and Annie Duke(!) from #10 to #7! Exciting!

And as we often do, we wrap up an edition of the Leaderboard with a Seth Davies (#1) cash. He was the runner-up to Bill Klein in an Aria NLHE High Roller with a $25K buy-in. He came in just ahead of Ali Imsirovic.