I hope everyone’s year’s gotten off to a good start. Are we winning? At least we’re back to normal winter weather in Portland. The perfect kind of weather for being inside playing poker in the warm and dry.
Aussie Millions
Got a DM Tuesday from one of the Aussie Millions promotional companies. They’ve got a drawing for a seat to the Aussie Millions Main Event. The Main Event has three starting days: 24-26 January and runs for a total of five days. It’s a AU$10.6K buy-in (US$7.4K) at Crown Casino in Melbourne. The flight alone’s going to cost $2K. But it is one of the premiere events in the world of poker, last year there were nearly 650 entries and the prize pool was over US$5M. And the Crown is 18+, so if you’re locked out of Portland poker because of Portland Players Club’s closing as the last of the alcohol-free clubs….
Competition closes at midnight on January 14th Melbourne time, which is 5am Thursday morning here, so if you’re going to enter, make sure you do it today.
The entry form’s built for Australian and New Zealand players, so you have to trick the phone number and zip fields. You can just type in the first four number of your ZIP for the postal code, but Australian phone numbers are eight digits with a two-digit prefix. It’s the same number of digits as US phone numbers, but the first two digits have to be in the range 02-08. If your number’s 503-555-1212, just use 0355551212 and it should work. What have you got to lose?
Monday Mix
My focus on the site is mostly on tournaments (hence the title “Pacific NW Tournament Calendar,” duh), but there are a lot of “shootouts” around town. Technically, most of them are hour-long tournaments with one blind level, unlimited rebuys, and a chip chop at the end of the tournament.
Most of them are Hold’em (big surprise) but there’s one game that’s had a few homes where those of us with a penchant for odd games can get some more cards: the Monday Mix game hosted by Devin Sweet.
It started off in BC’s underneath Aces Players Club on Powell, then moved to Portland Players Club last year. Now that PPC is resting, it’s got a home at the Rialto Poolroom Bar and Cafe in downtown Portland,
The Mix offers a wide variety of games, with 20 or so different variations of Omaha, Stud, Badugi, and more, in addition to Hold’em. Blinds for the flop games are 1/1 1/2 (corrected per Mix dealer Josh Harding). The Stud games are played 5-25 spread limit. My own personal opinion is that takes most of the interest out of limit stud games, with a $600 max buy-in and five rounds of betting that can go to $100, you might as well just toss in your chips and draw for a high card, but some people like it. Monday nights at 7pm.
Rialto is also offering Sunday noon games of 4/8 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, in addition to NLHE at other times. Check the NW Poker Facebook page for notices.
PacWest Poker Classic
The schedule for Oregon’s other poker series, the PacWest Poker Classic at Chinook Winds the last week of February is up. The schedule in the Tournament Guide PDF has some incorrect dates, but a spot check of the dates on the structure sheets themselves looks okay. More on this later!
Note to other old people, PacWest’s Seniors tournament is 55+, not 50+.
Deal of the Day: Tulalip Poker Pow Wow
This year’s Poker Pow Wow is coming right up. It has five events over two weekends, from Friday, 22 January to Sunday, 31 January.
Event 1. NLHE. $235 buy-in, Friday and Saturday entry days (1/22-23) with Day 2 on Sunday 1/24. 30-minute levels on Day 1, 40 minutes on Day 2.
Event 2. PLO8. $150 buy-in. One day (Monday, 1/25). 30-minute levels.
Event 3. NLHE Seniors (usually 50+, but after seeing PacWest, what do I know?). $235 buy-in. One day (Tuesday, 1/26). 30-minute levels.
Event 4. PLO. $235 buy-in. One day (Wednesday. 1/27). 30-minute levels.
Event 5. NLHE Main Event with $10K added. $500 buy-in. Three entry days (Thursday-Saturday, 1/28-30) with Day 2 on Sunday, 1/31. 40-minute levels on Day 1, 60-minute levels on Day 2.
No fee information is on the structure sheets (at above link). Satellites for the Main Event are running at noon today, 3pm Saturday, and next Wednesday at noon ($60 entry). I’m not sure of the room capacity. One comment on Twitter leads me to believe seating may be limited, but I’m trying to get confirmation of capacity from Tulalip. (UPDATE: 110 seats plus alternates.)
@pokermutant @TulalipPoker last time I checked in they were 8 table maximum due to the new poker room. Has has that changed?
As I’m putting this report together Tuesday, I haven’t seen any announcements for special events for the next week; everyone seems to be on their regular schedules until next weekend.
Only a Day Away
In LA, the Liz Flynt Poker Championship has two more entry days (two flights each today and tomorrow, with a final day on Friday). It’s a $200K guarantee with a $275 buy-in and six entry flights over three days.
The Wynn Signature Weekend in Las Vegas, a 3-entry-day, $600 entry, $250K guarantee NLHE event, starts next Thursday (1/21), with Day 2 on Sunday (1/24).
Thunder Valley outside Sacramento is hosting Poker Night in America starting next Thursday (1/21). The first non-satellite event is a $425 buy-in $200K guarantee NLHE tournament with four entry flights over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and a live-streamed final table on Sunday (1/24). There are nine other events with smaller guarantees ($7.5K to $25K) before the $1650 Main Event, which is recorded for television. They’re also running satellites for a $10K buy-in to their $25/$50 televised cash game.
Aria has updated their web site, but their poker page still doesn’t carry any information about their $25K buy-in High Roller events. They’ve got two more next Friday (1/22) and Saturday (1/23). You can read about past events at Poker Telegraph. If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
There’s an Ante Up Cruise to the Mexican Riviera (Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta) coming up Sunday, 24 January if you’re looking for some last-minute relief from the rain. Small events ($20-$100) with a $300 championship. Plus whatever they’re charging for the ship, of course.
Got a DM today from one of the Aussie Millions promotional companies. They’ve got a drawing for a seat to the Aussie Millions Main Event. The Main Event has three starting days: 24-26 January and runs for a total of five days. It’s a AU$10.6K buy-in (US$7.4K) at Crown Casino in Melbourne. The flight alone’s going to cost $2K. But it is one of the premiere events in the world of poker, last year there were nearly 650 entries and the prize pool was over US$5M. And the Crown is 18+, so if you’re locked out of Portland poker because of Portland Players Club’s closing as the last of the alcohol-free clubs….
Competition closes at midnight on January 14th Melbourne time, which is 5am Thursday morning here, so if you’re going to enter, make sure you do it today.
The entry form’s built for Australian and New Zealand players, so you have to trick the phone number and zip fields. You can just type in the first four number of your ZIP for the postal code, but Australian phone numbers are eight digits with a two-digit prefix. It’s the same number of digits as US phone numbers, but the first two digits have to be in the range 02-08. If your number’s 503-555-1212, just use 0355551212 and it should work. What have you got to lose?
Very weird. Almost a week in and I think the headline is the first time
I’ve typed in the new year….
I Come From the Land of the Ice & Snow
Winter weather tends to hit the Portland area hard, since freezing temperatures here generally mean ice rather than snow. Yeah, yeah, everyone from Eastern Oregon and Colorado and the East Coast, you know how to drive in snow, Portland doesn’t know how to keep the streets clear of snow, yadda, yadda, yadda…. None of you suckers are good on ice.
I first met Chadd Baker shortly after poker’s Black Friday. I got an invitation to Portland Players Club—which he’d purchased early in the year—for a promotional freeroll tournament. I won it—my first live MTT win—after a couple of years playing in the home game that was my re-introduction to poker. PPC had been around before Chadd in its location above Biddie McGraw’s at NE 60th & Glisan, it was profiled in Bluff magazine (which disappeared into the void recently), but Chadd had been trying to sell it over the past year. PPC’s been a favorite place to play for me, with cheap buy-ins and door fees, 11am start times for the first tournament, and a selection of games other than NLHE: mostly Big O these days, but HORSE, PLO, PLO8, and more. It was close to my house: I could walk there in about 30 minutes and drive there in less than 10.
Through it all, Chadd’s been there night and day. Putting together the web site, posting to Facebook, texting players to get them in to play, wrangling volunteer dealers (who are themselves some of the best and most experienced non-Hold’em dealers you’ll ever run across), making sandwiches, blending great shakes, cleaning, stocking, etc. The club was usually open late; Chadd would be there at opening and through the evening game most every day of the long poker week. How he found time to have a wife and child boggles my mind.
Anyway, this phase of Portland Players Club is at an end. The last game was the day before New Year’s Eve. All but one of the tables in the club was gone. I’m going to miss the old place. I met a lot of interesting characters—and a few folks I consider friends—at PPC. It was the kind of place that I though might be cool to own myself if I had the money to keep the place running—I can’t imagine Chadd was making a giant profit—except for the fact that I knew how much time and effort he put in to the job. He’s a better man than I am. I’ll just have to settle for imagining Chadd running my imaginary poker club.
2016 : My Time Is Coming
Deal of the Day: Los Angeles Poker Classic Weeks 1 & 2
There’s nothing not to like about the LAPC at Commerce Casino. It’s got a huge amount of action at the Largest Card Casino in the Worldâ„¢. For more than a month-and-a-half, from a $175 buy-in $100K guarantee a week from Friday to the $10K WPT Championship that wraps up 3 March, there’s something for nearly everyone.
A lot of side events at LAPC are non-Hold’em tournaments, which may make it more appealing to those of us who like a little variety, compared to the World Series of Poker. There are trade-offs: Buy-ins at LAPC aren’t as large. LA’s a bit more expensive to get around without a car than Vegas. But who could pass up a $350 Crazy Pineapple 8 or Better tournament?
The first two full weeks of the series (1/17-30) have some particular appeal. Apart from a $100K NLHE Bounty game on the first Sunday ($350 buy-in, $100 bounties) and a $250K guarantee NLHE Turbo with $240 buy-in (eight starting flights through the week, with Day 2 on the 25th), there arr 1pm games (mostly $350 buy-ins) of Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, Triple Stud (7-Card Stud Hi and Hi-lo, and Razz), mixed Omaha Hi-Lo and 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo, PLO, PLO8, Limit Hold’em, HORSE, NLHE All In Or Fold, not to mention nightly satellites to the Main Event at the end of February.
Plus, if you get on the list early and can get over to the Bicycle Casino with an extra $500+ in your pocket, you might be able to play 5/5 PLO on Live At the Bike with Abe Limon in the commentary booth.
So, if you’re ready to make me into the next Greg Raymer (minus the embarrassing non-conviction arrest), drop me a line. I know where I want to go. Plus Limon’s holding $250 for me from a prop bet we won (that’s half my LATB buy-in right there!)
This Week in Portland Poker
Encore Club has a special $8K tournament tonight at 8pm, $50 buy-in, $25 add-on, no re-entry or re-buy. They’ve announced another $35K guarantee for the 23rd.
The Game has announced a bigger, better Big Shot for the end of the month, with $20K guaranteed to first place.
WPTDeepstacks at Hustler Casino in LA continues through the 11th. Followed immediately by the four-day Liz Flynt Poker Championship (January 12-15). The WPTDeepstacks Main Event is $1.1K with a $300K guarantee. The Liz Flynt event is a $200K with a $275 buy-in and six entry flights over three days.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the GoFundMe site for Kim. A generous donation from Dan Pasko reached the goal on Christmas Day. Don’t let that stop you from continuing to help out.
Mutant Poker In Review: 2015
It’s been a pleasure to bring you news and info on Portland and Northwest poker tournaments and players for the past year (or, at least, the last half of it). As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, the blog’s been around for five years, but 2015 was the year I tried to do much more than write about my own games mixed with some analytical articles.
I started running daily reports on NW players in Vegas for the WSOP and other series in early June, combing reports for mentions of anyone from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia.
For months now, I’ve been struggling with a display issue on the calendar. It looked fine to me in the edit mode, but there was an issue that added padding at the beginning and end of the blocks designating events that made it difficult to read single-day events (or the ends of some multi-day events that spanned more than one week). It was some fairly complex JavaScript that computed positions of the overlays and I was never able to get it figured out, but a different WordPress theme fixed it in a second, so you’ll see things look better now. The trouble I go through for you guys….
Anyway, now that the new year’s about to begin, there are lots of tournament options opening up (tip for newbies, events are colorized by geographic region: Nevada, California, Oregon/Washington/BC, and Other—mostly Alberta, Colorado, and Arizona—and there are buttons above the calendar that can be used to hide or show various regions).
It’s been a treat. Hope we all have a good 2016.
Deal of the Day: Tulalip Poker Pow Wow
You’d think that there would be a little more promotional lead-up to a 10-day poker series, but maybe Tulalip doesn’t need to do anything more than draw in the locals. Anyway, the January Poker Calendar was posted the other day, and right there at the top is the 2016 Poker Pow Wow, running from the 22nd to the 31st of the month. Here’s the schedule (there are some satellites to the Main Event running in the week prior to the series, as well):
Two-day NLHE with 2 entry days (1/22-23, with final on 1/24). $235 buy-in. Structure sheets don’t specify re-buys, dealer appreciation, or fees, though there is a mention of ODAF in some of the notes below the schedule.
Two-day NLHE Main Event with 3 entry days (1/28-30, final on 1/31) with $10K added to the prize pool. $500 buy-in.
All events at noon.
If you’re at Tulalip for the $60 Main Event satellite on the 20th, there’s a drawing for six Main Event seats.
This Week in Portland Poker
Final Table gets the Portland poker year off to a jumpstart with their First Friday $20K at 7pm. $100 buy-in/re-entry and a $50 add-on.
Encore Club adds to the first weekend of 2016 with a $20K on Saturday at 8pm. Also $100 buy-in/re-entry and $50 add-on. Encore is closed New Year’s Eve.
Aces Full is closed New Year’s Event and New Year’s Day. They’ll ring in the New Year with a $1K guarantee at noon on Saturday.
The Game is closing at 10pm New Year’s Eve (but they’ll be open New Year’s Day).
WPTDeepstacks at Hustler Casino in LA starts Saturday and runs through the 11th. It’s followed immediately by the four-day Liz Flynt Poker Championship (January 12-15). Event 1 of WPT Deepstacks is a $350 buy-in with a $250K guarantee. The Main Event is $1.1K with a $300K guarantee. The Liz Flynt event is a $200K with a $275 buy-in and six entry flights over three days.
Sunday the 10th is an event at a club I haven’t mentioned before. Stones Gambling Hall is a new(ish) venue in the Sacramento area, in Citrus Heights about halfway between Sacramento and Lincoln (where Thunder Valley is located). The tournament is a two-day $100K guarantee, with a $1,110 buy-in, 40 minute levels, and 60 minutes at the final table (live-streamed).
GoFundMe for Portland Dealer Kim Poff and Her Kids
Kim Poff has been a bright spot of the Portland poker club scene for the past several years. She’s brought a smile and light to the dealer box the whole time I’ve known her. I hadn’t seen her around for a couple of months and assumed that I just hadn’t been in the right place, but news got out last week that she had a stroke in September and is in physical therapy to help her recovery. Jim Rostel set up a GoFundMe page for Kim and her children, to help them out at Christmas. Not asking for much and don’t worry about it being too close to Christmas. Any little bit will help.
The California Swing consists of three WPT Main Tour events: LAPC at the Commerce at the end of February, the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose in early March, and WPT Rolling Thunder at Thunder Valley a week later. (The Main Events of each series are $10K, $7.5K, and $3.5K, respectively.)
Over the first three days of the new year, Thunder Valley will be running three tournaments (and numerous satellites).
January 1: $25K guarantee welcome event ($150 buy-in).
January 2: $100K guarantee with a $400 buy-in.
January 3: WPT Rolling Thunder Mega Satellite with 20 $3.5K Main Event seats guaranteed ($400 buy-in).
Yes, you’ll have to put up with more than two months of delayed gratification if you get one of the satellite seats (the first entry day for Rolling Thunder isn’t until March 12) but it’ll be like having the Golden Ticket in your pocket, knowing you’ll be heading back down to Lincoln for the big game in the spring.
Thunder Valley is about a 10-hour drive from Portland, depending on conditions. Get your year off to a good start!
Aces Full is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. They’ll ring in the New Year with a $1K guarantee at noon on January 2.
The Game is closing Christmas Day and at 10pm New Year’s Eve.
Planet Hollywood is the site of the PHamous Poker Weekend a week from Saturday (the afore-mentioned Boxing Day). It runs through the 30th, and features an inaugural $200K guarantee with a $565 entry.
Sunday at 11am is Tulalip’s Last Sunday of the Month tournament. This month they’re adding $5K to the prize pool. It’s a $400 buy-in ($10 dealer toke). And it’s a Super Bounty $100).
WPTDeepstacks at Hustler Casino in LA gets going a week from Saturday (January 2). Event 1 is a $350 buy-in with a $250K guarantee. The Main Event is $1.1K with a $300K guarantee.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning
to win a million dollars,
or at least cash to get 2x their buy-in back….”
—with apologies to Emma Lazarus
There’s a $7M guarantee for the prize pool this year. Last year was $5M, but the actual prize pool was over $11M. Cord Garcia only got $639K last year (less then 6% of the prize pool); this year’s winner—guaranteed $1M—could potentially get as much as 14% (though there’s need to be a significant drop-off of entrants from last year).
A primary complaint about last year’s event—apart from the long payout lines and the general crush of people—was that Garcia got such a small share of the prize pool for coming out on top of more than 22,400 other players. His cash was an ROI of 113,000% (Joe McKeehan’s Main Event cash last month had an ROI over 75,000%) but many people felt it should have been 10% of the prize pool, or at least an even $1M.
Almost every large 9-handed tournament payout structure does the same thing in the top 99 places. The top 9 spots are individual steps at the final table. Typically, the payout curve is structured so the amount of the payout for ninth place is around 10% of the prize for first. Next, there are three steps with three payouts (10-12, 13-15, 16-18) for the second table. Then there are nine steps, one for each table with these positions: 19-27, 28-36, 27-45, 46-54, 55-63, 64-72, 73-81, 82-90, and 91-99.
Beyond that, payouts are grouped by multiple tables. The 2015 Main Event had six steps with seven tables grouped in each step (63 players/step), then there was a step with eight tables (72 players) and one with eleven tables (99 players). (There was also a group of more than 350 players who got the minimum $15K payout, but that wasn’t part of the usual payout structures.)
By comparison, the 2009 Main Event had three payout steps with seven-table groups and five with eight tables (note the same jolt in the curve as in this year’s graph where the payout amounts were adjusted to increase the amount given to the bottom half of the final table).
2014’s Main Event had six payouts with seven tables each, and three with eight tables.
The old days back in 2006 (when the Main Event had its largest-ever turnout: 8,776 entrants) were more haphazard. It was a little weird, with places below 81st paying out in steps of five tables, seven steps of seven tables, a step of six tables, a step of five tables, two more six-table steps, a step of five, and then 56 more places at the bottom step. And you can see that the payout curve was wonky, too (Jamie Gold’s $12M first place prize goes off the top of this chart).
Adjustments in how many places pay out at each of the lower steps makes a big difference in how the money’s distributed. Recent payouts for the Main Event, as you can see above, have slight increases in the number of players being paid at the lower steps, unlike 2006 where the steps were all over the board. This is a similar graph for last year’s Colossus.
Unlike the Main Event (at least in recent years), the number of players in the first step below 99 didn’t increase after several payout steps. It pegged out at eleven tables (99 players) and stayed there except for the bottom three steps. I don’t know if that’s a result of some issue with the payout system in use at the WSOP (maybe it has trouble handling more than 100 payouts at a level?). That’s not the only way the prize pool could have adhered to the payout curve though.
WSOP VP of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky was quoted by PokerNews when the complaints started rolling as as saying: “”There is a 100-year-old mathematical formula called the Golden Ratio, where every place relates to the other spot.” He went on, “”This is the exact structure, we didn’t gimmick it up or do anything for marketing or to make numbers look like they were up. We spit it in the computer and this is what the numbers should be according to this long-standing mathematical formula.”
This is all true. You can see from the curve that there aren’t the kind of odd wiggles and jumps you see in the payout curve of even the 2015 Main Event. There are a number of ways to work within the formula, however.
It took me about 15 minutes to come up with this payout structure that would have paid Garcia (or whoever else might have won in 2015) a cool million for last year’s Colossus.
This structure compresses the number of payout levels, and has as many as two times the number of players paid out at the lower payout levels. It starts with 180 players making $1,275 (versus $1,096 for the bottom 81 payouts in the actual payout structure). The top positions all get more than $100K in my version.
Place
Actual 2015 Colossus Payout
Adjusted 2015 Colossus Payout
1
$638,880
$1,000,000
2
$386,253
$733,009
3
$308,761
$541,170
4
$234,927
$402,415
5
$182,348
$301,391
6
$140,956
$227,354
7
$109,632
$172,739
8
$87,817
$132,188
9
$67,681
$101,885
Combined, there’s $1.5M more awarded to the final table if the winner gets $1M without adjusting the curve (always be careful what you wish for when you want the winners to win more). While 360 players at the bottom get paid more, players between 55th and 1,882 make less. That said, it’s not the only way to slice the pie.
Only a couple of more poker weeks left in 2015! Action’s winding down for the holidays most everywhere (with a few exceptions) but the PNW Poker Calendar is here to help you make your plans for the upcoming year.
Deal of the Day: Talking Stick Staycation Weekend
SHIT SHOW IN AZ! Never again! Unable to accommodate plyrs @ Arizona state champ is a disgrace! 200+ deep alt list! @CasinoArizona
Now, I know that Talking Stick, outside of Phoenix, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but coming up at the end of January, they have a three-day series of mid-level buy-in events ($200, $300, and $300) as part of their 2016 Staycation Weekend Poker Tournament. The tournaments run January 29-31, they only have a combined expected prize pool of about $130K, but if you play all three, you get two nights free lodging at the resort.
The tournaments start at 11:15am, but there are still some early flights available; I saw round-trip prices for an 8:40am arrival in Phoenix—including a rental car—for $260, which is less than the price of the rooms. The prize pools and the deal may not make it enough to make it +EV from a financial perspective, but if we’ve had 20″ of rain in Portland by the end of December and traffic’s at a standstill because of all of the slides and sinkholes, maybe a golf trip to Arizona at the end of January might be just your kind of thing.
Staycation deals go on sale this Saturday. Call 480-850-7734 for details.
This Week in Portland Poker
Thursday night at 8pm at Encore Club is a $1K Ladies Freeroll. $40 to re-buy, $20 to add-on at the first break. Next Saturday (the day after Christmas, aka the first day ofKwanzaa, or Boxing Day to those of you from more recent remnants of the British Empire) is a $35K guarantee ($200 buy-in and re-entry, $80 add-on).
Saturday at 2pm, at The Game, is another of their $10K guaranteed to first place events (The Big Shot). $100 buy-in and re-entry, with a $100 add-on. 80 players max.
Final Table‘s new 9pm $10 buy-in All-In-Or-Fold tournament started up Monday. Today will be a double guarantee ($2K, $20 buy-in/re-buy/add-on) at 11am and a triple guarantee ($4.5K, $40 buy-in/re-entry, $20 add-on) at 7pm.
At 7:15pm tonight, Portland Players Club runs a $1K guarantee Big O tournament, with $20 buy-in and live re-buys, and a $30 add-on. Friday at the same time is double the guarantee, with a $40 buy-in/re-buy and $30 add-on. Saturday is a 12:15pm NLHE Freeroll, with $10 live re-buys and a $20 add-on.
Only a Day Away
The only tournament series running in the Western States that I’m aware of is the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio; Steve Chanthabouasy was playing Day 2 of the Main Event as I was compiling this info yesterday (and as I was still writing, I read his post about losing a race to Brian Rast). There are still a couple of side events if you are in or can get to Vegas over the weekend. Tomorrow is a $5.2K entry tournament at 2pm. Saturday at 2pm is a $1,090 Turbo tournament. And, of course, there’s Friday’s $100K entry High Roller at 1pm.
If you can brave the Siskiyous, The Ashland Social Club (in Ashland, natch) has its Holiday Poker Tournament Saturday at noon. $150 buy-in, $10 dealer appreciation, and it comes with prizes and bounties for knocking out staff members. Seating is limited, call 541-944-6490 for info.
Planet Hollywood is the site of the PHamous Poker Weekend a week from Saturday (the afore-mentioned Boxing Day). It runs through the 30th, and features an inaugural $200K guarantee with a $565 entry.
With this one hand, a relative unknown was pushed to the forefront of the poker scene — Justin Phillips. And it was such a memorable hand that it emerged victorious among 31 other competitors in PokerUpdate.com Most Memorable Televised Poker Hand bracket.
Mutant Poker readers pushed the hand to the top in the semi-final and final stages of the competition, and I was happy to help Jeremy Harkin put Justin in touch with Poker Update. Catch the publicity wave!
It’s just about time to tick over another year here at Mutant Poker Central. My first post was on December 11, 2010, Five years ago come Friday. It wasn’t much, I was just getting things set up, and didn’t really start posting in earnest until January of 2011, Mucho water under the bridge since then, though I still haven’t made it to Prague for the December EPT. Maybe next year. The Poker Mutant celebrated his birthday this past weekend by cashing three straight online tournaments—including taking second place in a 143-player NLHE 6-Max—and by putting in a new tagline at the top of the page, a quote from November Niner Neil Blumenfield’s interview on the 2+2 Pokercast.
Deal of the Day: Christmas In Vegas
If you get a wad of cash in your Christmas stocking, you can plan on a trip down to Sin City for two concurrent series running between Christmas and New Year’s.
The Venetian has its New Year’s Eve Extravaganza running between Christmas Day and January 10, with three major events ($100K-$150K guarantees). None of the 34 events have buy-ins greater than $400, there are two each day (noon and 7pm), and there are 4pm satellites to the multi-day events.
Planet Hollywood’s PHamous Poker Weekend just runs the 26th to the 30th of December, with a $565 buy-in $200K guarantee tournament anchoring the series. It also includes PLO and a Bounty PLO tournament.
This Week in Portland Poker
Final Table‘s new 9pm $10 buy-in All-In-Or-Fold tournament started up Monday. Today will be a double guarantee ($2K, $20 buy-in/re-buy/add-on) at 11am and a triple guarantee ($4.5K, $40 buy-in/re-entry, $20 add-on) at 7pm.
Portland Players Club has a new Bonus Guarantee schedule posted, with $500 Big O tournaments tonight and next Monday at 7:15pm, a $1K Big O at next Wednesday evening, and NLHE freerolls at 12:15pm Thursday through Saturday with $400, $500, and $1K guarantees, respectively. Late Addition: Saturday at 5pm is a $2K guarantee Big O game. $100 buy-in.
At The Game this Saturday at 2pm, they’re having a Cash Game Tournament. The tournament ($30 buy-in/re-buy, $20 add-on plays down to the 10-handed final table. Everyone at the table gets a new stack of chips representing 10% of the prize money. The player with the shortest stack after each hand can elect to cash out for the value of their chips. To make the deal sweeter in this first run of the game, The Game is adding $1K to the prize pool.
Making it into the top three percent of a tournament with more than 1,200 players takes a fair amount of good luck, as well as some skill. The stats for this run are pretty great, even though there were a couple of setbacks. I can look at this to console myself after making what may have been one of the worst a calls ever last night in the Final Table $20K, just a few spots from the money.
Hand 27♥7♣ D 9,990 10/20
UTG opens to 60 with J♦K♣ and UTG2 calls with 6♠7♠. I call, and SB comes along with A♦2♦. The flop is 8♣3♠5♥, I’m in the lead, but UTG bets his open-ended for 150. I call, SB calls, UTG drops out. 5♦ turn gets checked around, as does the 9♥ river, which makes UTG2’s straight. I’m such a wimp.
Hand 6J♣Q♠ UTG2 9,780 20/40
I open to 120, getting calls from HJ (T♠Q♣) and SB (A♦A♠). I check the [3s 6d td] flop, then fold after a bet from HJ and check-raise from the aces (which win the hand).
Hand 7 8♣8♥ UTG1 9,660 20/40
I open to 120 and get called by HJ and D (K♠T♦ and K♦J♦, respectively). The flop is low and clubby: 3♣7♣2♣ and I get my c-bet of 200 through.
Hand 189♥K♥ BB 9,900 40/80
UTG1 min-raises with Q♥A♥, I call, the flop is 7♦Q♦7♥ and I call a c-bet of 180. Probably a good thing the turn is 3♣, because a heart would have gotten me into lots of trouble. I check fold to a bet of 440.
Hand 29J♣8♣ D 9,370 50/100
UTG limps with A♥8♥. UTG 1 is down to 690 and goes all-in with K♦Q♠. I call because I’m on the button, and UTG calls. The board gets checked to the river: K♥5♦3♠K♣7♥, the short stack triples up.
Hand 366♥T♥ BB 8,680 75/150
UTG raises to 376 (yes, it’s one of those) with Q♠A♠. UTG1 has 9♣Q♣ and calls. CO calls with A♥J♣, and they let me see a cheap 4-way flop with crap when I’m relatively deep-stacked: 4♠4♥K♥. UTG bets 573 and I’m the only caller. A♣ on the turn and I bet 1K just to throw him off, which he calls. 9♥ on the river. I check it to see what he does. He just checks, and I’m finally up over starting stack.
Hand 37 J♣T♠ SB 11,456 75/150 Action checks to me, I open to 450, and BB raises to 1,050 with K♥K♣. I fold.
Hand 509♥9♦ UTG3 10,706 100/200
I open to 600 and get called by CO and SB. We all check the J♣3♥A♦ flop, CO has A♠A♥. SB, with 6♠5♦ bets 1,200 with an open-ended straight draw on the 4♥ turn, I fold, CO calls his set and hits quads with the A♣ on the river. He check-raises a 2,200 bluff from SB, leaving him with half a starting stack.
Hand 55 Q♥J♠ D 9,606 125/250/25
UTG2 min-raises with 4♣4♠, getting calls from me and BB with 9♠A♠. The flop is 5♠A♦6♦, gets checked around, and after a 6♥ on the turn, UTG2 bets 925. I fold, BB calls, and wins on the river 8♠ with the better two pair.
Hand 619♣J♣ UTG1 8,976 150/300/30
I open for 900 and get a call from the button’s T♣T♦. The flop is 9♠4♦8♠ and he’s more cautious than me, because he folds to a bet of 1.5K.
Hand 64K♣J♣ SB 10,206 150/300/30 UTG1 raises to 700 with 9♠9♥, I call, and BB is in with Q♣J♦. The flop is checked, but after the 7♠ turn, BB goes all-in for 2.8K. UTG1 and I both fold.
Hand 69A♦J♠ UTG2 9,346 200/400/40
UTG min-raises with K♣J♦ and I call. BB is in with Q♥8♦. Both have me well-covered. I call a bet of 800 after the K♥K♦2♦2♠ turn, then another 1.6K on the deceptive A♣ river and lose to the full house, naturally.
Hand 72Q♦Q♥ BB 6,026 200/400/40
UTG1 raises to 950 with 7♣7♠, off a 7.5K stack. There are big stacks at 19K, 26K, and 40K; everyone else is below the 10K starting stack, and I’m second-shortest. D calls with A♥9♣; he has the 26K stack. I shove my remaining 6K. UTG1 calls (?) leaving just 1.5K back, then D raises to 11.4K and he has to go all-in to call. The board runs out dangerously but ends up okay for me: 8♥8♦8♥4♠2♣. UTG1 gets a side-pot of 3K.
Hand 75A♦7♦ CO 18,198 200/400/40
We”re seven-handed at the table and I call a min-raise from UTG1 (T♦J♦). D calls after me with 6♦9♦. The flop is T♠4♥8♠, UTG1 shoves for 17K and takes the pot.
Hand 80J♠A♦ SB 16,658 250/500/50
UTG limps with J♥A♠, CO raises to 1.5K with T♦K♦, I call, and UTG shoves for 13K to win the pot.
Hand 827♥7♦ CO 15,058 250/500/50
I open to 1.5K and BB comes along with T♠Q♠. He folds when I c-bet 3♠9♣3♥ for 2K.
Hand 83K♠K♥ HJ 17,158 250/500/50
I open to 1.5K a second hand in a row, D 3-bets to 3.9K with a slightly larger stack, I 4-bet to 8K, and he calls. The flop is 6♠3♠6♦, I shove my remaining 9.1K and he calls with slim odds. The turn and river are 9♦9♠ and I double.
Hand 84A♣J♥ UTG2 35,366 250/500/50
On a bit of a roll, something you need to make it deep. There are eight players seated. Two of us are in the mid-30K range, the other big stack is in BB on this hand. UTG and UTG1 have 20K and 6K. HJ has only 4K, and CO is down to his last blind-and-a-half after doubling me up. On the button is a stack of 9K, and SB has 17K. So there’s some variety, and it’s nice to be on the top of the heap for a bit. UTG min-raises this hand with A♠9♥. I call and we’re HU. We both check down to the river: 3♠6♣T♥2♦7♠ and my kicker clinches it. Three in a row.
Hand 87T♠9♠ BB 37,346 300/600/60
I call a raise to 1.8K from UTG with 6♠6♣, hit top pair against a set on a 4♣9♦6♦ flop, don’t bet it, and thank my lucky stars afterward that I didn’t have an ace when I fold to a bet on the A♣ turn. I’m a genius.
Hand 88K♠8♠ SB 35,486 300/600/60
Action folds to me, I raise, BB folds his J♦5♠.
Hand 898♥6♠ D 36,506 300/600/60 BB is all-in for his last 377. UTG2 raises with 9♠J♣. I’m the only caller. I fold to a bet after the 4♦T♣4♠ flop, the turn and river are K♥A♠, BB has 6♣Q♠, nobody has a pair, BB ends up with 1.9K.
Hand 918♦7♦ HJ 35,186 300/600/60
I open to 1.8K and win.
Hand 92Q♥K♣ UTG2 36,506 300/600/60 I open another hand, D calls with J♦T♣ and hits bottom pair with J♠2♦A♥. I c-bet 2K and he calls. We check through to the river (7♠9♦) and he takes the hand.
Hand 962♥A♥ BB 32,446 400/800/80 UTG goes to 2.4K with 9♦9♣. I make kind of a loose call, and whiff the flop of 6♣K♥3♠. The Q♥ on the turn is tantalizing: I check-call 2.9K, but lose when the river is Q♦ and we both check.
Hand 98A♣J♦ D 26,566 400/800/80
UTG1 opens A♦Q♣ to 1.6K, HJ has K♣T♦ and calls, and I’m in, in the worst shape of the three hands by far. Fortunately, after a bet from HJ of 2,450 on the 2♠6♥ 9k flop, I fold, as does UTG1. Aggression wins the day.
Hand 102Q♠Q♣ UTG1 24,646 400/800/80
BB calls my raise of 2.4K with A♣5♣, calls the c-bet of 3K on a T♣J♠K♦ flop, then check-folds to a bet of 6K when I hit the straight on the turn with 9♥.
Hand 105K♦T♦ SB 32,026 500/1K/100
A pivotal hand. HJ raises to 2K with 4♠8♠. CO calls with T♥Q♠, I call, and BB is in with 6♦3♦. The 5♦J♦4♣ flop gives a little bit to almost everyone: I have the best flush draw, HJ has bottom pair, and BB has the open-ended straight (and thinks he has the flush, most likely). It checks to HJ, who bets 4.4K. I call, along with BB. 8♦ on the flop makes my flush, gives HJ two pair, and makes an inferior flush for BB, who’s drawing dead at this point. I check, BB goes all-in for 11K, HJ calls with less than 6K behind, and I shove. HJ folds. The river is a J♣ and I pick up a sizable pot that more than doubles me up.
Hand 111A♠Q♠ UTG 68,946 500/1K/100
I open to 3K and SB calls with 8♦K♠. BB is all-in for 65. The flop is 9♣7♦6♣, SB goes all-in for 16.2K with his open-ended straight draw and I fold. BB has 2♥Q♣, a K♥ hits on the river, and SB wins the pot. The A♥ turn would have given me the pot.
Hand 128 A♠9♠ UTG1 59,826 800/1.6K/160
I raise to 4.8K and everyone folds.
Hand 129Q♠K♦ UTG 63,506 800/1.6K/160 I open another hand and everyone folds. I have the best hand, but in an 9-way all-in, I’m actually a few points behindJ♠6♠. The power of suited. The two player to my right (in the blinds in this hand) both have me covered by 30-50K. The two players on my left are below me, but have enough to cripple my stack. Three seats to my left is another stack that covers me, but by less than the blinds. There are a couple of <20BB stacks, and on the button is another potentially-crippling stack.
Hand 140Q♦A♥ SB 60,906 1K/2K/200 UTG1 now covers me and raises to 5,555 with 5♦5♠, natch. I’m the only caller. Flop is 5♣6♥4♦, I check-fold to a bet of 8,888.
Hand 145Q♠Q♣ UTG2 54,201 1.25K/2.5K/250
I open to 7.5K and win the pot.
Hand 151J♠A♥ CO 54,951 1.25K/2.5K/250 On the button to my left is a stack 10K smaller than me (17BB). The blinds both have me covered by at least 8BB. UTG is a short stack with just 5BB, UTG1 has about the same as the button, and the table leader is in UTG2 with almost 60BB. Another short stack in UTG3 (8BB) and HJ has me covered with 36BB. Action folds to UTG3, who shoves A♦7♦. I re-shove and the blinds fold. The board runs out Q♠ hs J♦A♣8♥ and I win the pot.
Hand 161J♥9♥ BB 72,361 1.5K/3K/300
UTG ships 5♥K♥ with just under 2.5BB and it folds to me. I call with a hand I would have played anyway and lose on the K♦8♦Q♣3♣5♦ board.
Hand 168Q♦A♦ UTG1 61,283 2K/4K/400
Hopefully, the diamonds will do me better than the hearts in hand 140. I raise to 12K and everyone folds. Not a pair among them.
Hand 172Q♦Q♠ D 62,883 2K/4K/400 SB has 64BB and leads the table. BB has 8K. UTG is sitting with almost 50BB, UTG1 has 22BB, HJ has 28BB, and UTG3 and CO both just have me covered with 18BB. One of those spots you’re hoping nobody with a big stack decides to blast off with an ace before it gets to you. The second chip leader folds 3♦7♠. UTG1 makes a bit more than a min-raise to 9K with Q♣K♥. three covering stacks ahead of me fold J♣7♦, 3♣8♥, and 4♥4♣. I have 15BB, there’s 4.5BB in the pot and a minimum 3-bet leaves me with less then 10BB, so I shove. The big stack has 3♦7♠, the short stack makes a tight fold of A♣J♥, and the original raiser lets it go.
Hand 179Q♠Q♣ SB 72,855 2.5K/5K/500
This has to be some kind of personal record. If you’re keeping track, this is the third time I’ve had queens in less than 35 hands. It’s the fifth time in the tournament so far. As I’ve said before, the distribution of starting hands only equalizes in the long run. I’m sure I’ll pay for this later. The short stack is UTG, and he shoves 6BB with A♣J♠. Big stacks in UTG1 and UTG2 fold. UTG3 has J♦Q♥ and folds with several covering stacks behind. There goes one of my queens. HJ ships a stack slightly smaller than mine with T♠T♦. CO folds my other queen with K♠Q♦, he’s got 25BB. D has 12BB and folds 6♦3♠. BB is the table chip leader, with a stack four times my size, but I can’t really worry about that with the queens. I shove, and he calls with 2♣2♠. The board is 5♦3♦7♣9♥4♦, and I win a massive pot. Bizarrely enough, preflop odds with the dead cards taken into consideration had me more or less even with the other three players. If the queens aren’t dead, then my equity preflop is 78%.
Hand 180J♠J♥ D 241,950 2.5K/5K/500
Seven-handed after I eliminated two players (we’re now in the money) with the queens. I’m suddenly the table chip leader, by 6BB. One of the bigger stacks, with 35BB, limps in UTG with 7♠7♥. It folds to the shortest stack, in the CO, who shoves 12BB with 4♦A♦. SB folds. I rip my jacks in for 48BB and UTG calls off. The runout is 8♣T♠9♦A♠5♠. The short stack finds his ace and triples, but I take a substantial side pot that still gives me more chips.
Hand 1948♣A♣ BB 279,650 3.5K/7K/700
Action folds to SB, he min-raises with K♣A♥ and I 3-bet to 50K. He 4-bets for a total of 142K, I call, and get very lucky with a straight on the 9♠J♠6♣T♠7♠ board. No spade! Life is ugly and he goes out 93rd.
Hand 200 8♦8♠ UTG2 418,845 3.5K/7K/700 My turn to be on the wrong side of queens. I open to 21K, it folds to BB who goes all-in for just under 200K. I call, he has Q♣Q♦ and I ship almost half my stack to him. Just arrogance.
Hand 203 J♥J♦ BB 216,599 4K/8K/800
UTG min-raises with A♠7♠, HJ has just 30K and shoves holding T♣K♣. UTG has more than I do; I shove from BB, thenUTG folds. It looks good at first, but the run-out is 5♣J♠9♦Q♦8♥ and he pulls off a straight.
Hand 205Q♠K♥ D 180,779 4K/8K/800
UTG2, one of the two stacks under 100K goes all-in with 9♥9♠. Intermediate positions fold to me and I shove, with two bigger stacks behind. The biggest stack —UTG3 with 5x the shover’s chips—folded A♥T♥. The blinds fold, the board is 6♠T♠3♣K♠7♦ and I knock out a player in 75th.
Hand 211Q♠T♠ UTG 283,659 5K/10K/1K The Portland Nuts. How can I lose? I open to 30K and everyone folds. They know.
Hand 217 Q♠A♣ UTG3 285,659 5K/10K/1K Open to 30K. Folds all around.
Hand 219A♣A♠ UTG1 307,659 5K/10K/1K Sort of a dangerous spot to get this, early in the pecking order, I’m not about to slow-play it at 30BB. Fortunately, UTG goes all-in for about 100K, so there’s some profit to be made if the aces hold up. I shove over the top, everyone folds, he has 8♥8♣, the board is 6♣9♥K♣K♦J♥ and he’s out in 59th.
Hand 2206♣8♦ BB 428,029 6K/12K/1.2K
I get a walk.
Hand 2289♦7♦ BB 426,829 6K/12K/1.2K
I call a min-raise from D, hit top pair on the 6♣2♣9♠ flop, check-call 24K on the turn when K♦ hits, and we both check the K♥ river. He whiffed with J♠Q♣.
Hand 238J♦Q♥ SB 450,829 8K/16K/1.6K
D has the most chips at the table with 736K, but I’m in a tight race for 2nd place v BB. Action folds to me and I open to 32K. BB calls the min-raise, maybe because nearly every other raise I’ve made has been 3x or all-in. The flop is 9♥9♦9♠. I c-bet 35K, which he calls. 6♠ turn. I check-fold to an all-in, he has K♠J♣ and has me dominated.
Hand 241T♣T♦ HJ 343,229 10K/20K/2K
I open to 45K and win.
Hand 244A♣7♣ UTG 383,229 10K/20K/2K I open 60K and UTG1 raises to 138K. Everyone else folds and I call. He has K♥Q♥, hits top pair on the K♠6♦J♣ flop, and I check-fold to his delayed c-bet of 158K on the 4♠ turn.
Hand 251T♦T♣ UTG2 200,329 12.5K/25K/2.5K
I’m all-in with tens and 8BB, SB has A♠Q♠ and has me covered by just over 1BB. I’m good to the river: J♣5♦2♣6♦A♥.
Five hours and ten minutes. 251 hands. 36th of 1,219 entries. +309% ROI. VPIP: 19.5% (49/251). Won 35.5% of hands played that did not go to showdown (11/31). 36.7% of hands played went to showdown (18/49). Won chips in 66.7% of hands that went to showdown (12/18).
I’ve never really been a fan of turbo tournaments in general, but I have to say that doing a hand history of a super turbo has its advantages. I got into this game after busting just short of the money in one of my more regular options. It was already well under way by the time I got in; I started off with just over 12BB. I started off UTG.
Hand 49♣9♦ CO T4,230 250/500
I’m planning to move all-in here anyway. HJ limps in with 8♦T♦ from a stack of 5K, I shove, D has just a few more chips than me and shoves 7♦7♠, then HJ calls. Two of the tens have been folded, the board runs out K♥2♦8♥Q♥Q♣ and I triple up.
Hand 15K♦Q♠ UTG2 T11,860 500/1K/100
Nine hands and three levels later, I’m on another table in seat 4. We’re missing a couple players at the table. One player has just 4BB, most of the rest of the table is around my size, but everyone else has me covered. I shove and take the blinds.
Hand 16A♦9♦ UTG1 T13,960 500/1K/100
I shove and the short stack in the BB calls for just over 2BB with 5♠J♠. Two aces and a jack on the flop, another jack on the river and my full house is the better of the two.
Hand 19A♠J♦ SB T17,240 500/1K/100
UTG raises to 3K with A♥J♥ and I call, the flop is K♥T♥2♣ and a 4♣ on the turn. I fold to a 4K bet with no pair and just the gutshot Broadway for a chop.
Hand 418♦A♥ UTG T2,270 2K/4K/400
Yeah, that’s right, UTG with half a big blind. The middle of a super turbo is not the time or place to go card dead. The previous round, if I’d opened UTG with 8♦6♥, I would have turned a straight against a pair of kings in the BB, but it would have required me to go all-in preflop, which doesn’t seem likely. Another hand, 9♠4♣ would have made trip fours on the river. But I shoved my tiny stack here, hoping to get enough to make it through the blinds. UTG1 called the big blind with Q♥8♥, BB had 6♣Q♦. The flop, of course, brought one of the queens, but I binked an ace on the river.
Hand 42A♥5♣ BB T10,280 2K/4K/400
UTG calls with 21K behind and T♠J♦. We’re just on the bubble, and I fold to a min-bet on the 7♣K♠T♥ flop.
Hand 447♠A♠ D T3,480 2.5K/5K/500
Back down to the sub-BB range. It’s a decent hand, but not even the best ace. UTG has T♣A♥ and calls, I’m all-in, SB limps with 4♣7♣, and BB raises to 30K with J♣A♣, covering both of the other players. The board is A♦9♦2♠Q♦Q♣, the jack kicker gives BB the pot, and I’m out at the bottom end of the cash.
Forty minutes. 44 hands. 14th place of 85 entries. +64% ROI.
Kim Poff
