Category Archives: General Poker

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 2 March 2020

Posted on by

No results yet from the PacWest Poker Classic at Chinook Winds. I’m just going to reiterate here that there’s no reason it should take a week for results to be posted.

Poker Mutant & Toma Barber

I went down to Lincoln City the first weekend to no avail, splitting a room with Toma Barber—who I had first met before he moved to Portland, when we were seated next to each other for much of Day 2 in the first $1,000+ buy-in tournament I cashed, back in 2013. I had to head back to town without playing the HORSE tournament that I’d been looking forward to because of a family emergency, which also prevented me from making the Main Event the next weekend. On the plus side, I did finally have my first tournament profit/win of the year in my old home game a week after bubbling the Final Table $10K NLHE. (Also, a minor profit playing $1/3 NLHE cash at PacWest.)

I am pretty sure there is not a “Coronavirus Casino”

But enough of my paltry performances. Let’s talk about the WSOP potentially getting called off in three months because of COVID-19! Or the fact that we’re only a month away from the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round Up and they closed it down today because a worker came down with the coronavirus!

James Romero wins partypoker MILLIONS South America (photo Camila Ocampo for partypoker blob)

It’s #5 on the Leaderboard, James Romero on top of the money tree again with a win in the 30-entry partypoker Millions South America #6 $25K NLHE Super High Roller, just a month afer a big cash in a partypoker $10K in the UK. No change in standings.

Seth Davies maintains at #2 with 2nd place in the first Aria $10K NLHE High Roller of the year.

Adam Hendrix (photo: Poker News via WSOP.com)

Out of Anchorage, Adam Hendrix took 5th place in the WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #12 $1M GTD NLHE Main Event (747 entries). Hendrix is new to the Leaderboard (added with the expansion to include Alaska, BC , and Alberta), but he’s the #1 Alaskan on the Hendon Mob’s state-by-state rankings. Derek Duclos from Caldwell, ID (#1932) placed in 17th.

There were a couple of results out of the Winter Super Stack #8 NLHE in Calgary (138 entries) and I’d probably be reporting more names except for the fact that a lot of players aren’t identified as anything but “Canada” for their residence. The top dog was #146-ranked (moving up 20 spots) Sinan Tawfik of Calgary, who came in 1st. Don Montgomery (also Calgary) took 4th place, moving up more than 300 places on the Leaderboard to #1079.

Anthony An from Juneau picked up his best-ever cash with a win in the LAPC #52 $100K GTD NLHE Bounty Championship, beating the 100-entry field. An goes from #901 to #640.

Anthony An (photo: lapcnews.com)

Another Remington sculpture was brought back to the PNWby Bellevue, WA’s Adam Tyburski, who cleared the field in the 42-entry LAPC #44 LHE. Tyburski climbs more than 500 places to #1326.

Adam Tyburski (photo: lapcnews.com)

On the other side of the country at the WSOPC Tampa #6 $200K GTD NLHE Monster Stack, Vancouver, BC-based bracelet-winner Robert Cheung grabbed 5th. He’s far enough up the Leaderboard (#28) that even the final table of a 1,371-entry tournament doesn’t move him.

There’s nowhere up to go for #1 Scott Clements. He was runner-up in the 148-entry WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #9 HORSE.

Russell Serion (photo: wsop.com)

Russell Serion from Richmond, BC picked up his biggest cash and a Ring with a win in the WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #8 NLHE Black Chip Bounty. There were a total of 168 entries. Serion’s another player with a 500+ climb this week, hitting #1185.

And the last item for the Leaderboard and for the Rio is Boise’s Maria McAlpin, coming in 3rd at WSOPC Rio Las Vegas #10 NLHE Double Stack. McAlpin breaks through the 1,000 barrier, going from #1003 to #816.

Maybe Chinook results will be in in a couple of weeks. Until then, wash your hands! Those cards and chips are filthy!

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 31 January 2020: Pendleton Edition

Posted on by

The dam broke this week and results from both the Summer and Fall Wildhorse Poker Round Ups have made it to Hendon Mob, where they’ve been absorbed into the state (and now province) leaderboards, and made their way to this, the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard. On top of that, the holiday lull is over and NW players have fanned out actoss the world to win more money.

Marko Pantelic (photo from wsop.com)

On top of the movers this week is Bellevue’s Marko Pantelic, taking third out of 487 entries in the WSOPC Thunder Valley #12 $500K GTD NLHE Main Event. His fifth recorded cash is his best by far (three of his other cashes were also from Northern California events). marko moves up nearly 2,100 places, to #564.

George Wolff continues to bang away at the high roller circuit, with a 3rd place in the Australian Poker Open #4 $25K PLO. It’s his third cash in Australia since the start of the year, and he moves up another place on the Leaderboard, to #16.

Andrew Brunette from Woodland, WA picked up his first and only (so far) recorded cash by winning the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #12 +$10K NLHE Main Event. There were 434 entries, and Brunette makes it onto the Leaderboard for the first time at #1288. Coming in right behind Brunette was Auburn, WA’s Jeffrey Lindsey, who rose from #3316 ro #1259 with his fifth (and largest) cash. David Templeton from Anchorage took third—far from his first or fifth cash, but still his best. He goes from #395 to #333. Boise’s Gregg Wilkinson was 4th for his biggest cash (jumping 4,010 places to #2303). And Monty Ford of Wellpinit, WA is the last of the players from that event to make this edition of the Leaderboard, with his 5th place finish taking him to #1011.

Boise’s Jessica King took down the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #3 +$5K NLHE, her largest score to date, beating a field of 470 and moving her up nearly 5,000 places to #1642. Gregory Lindberg from Corvallis came in 2nd for his best cash, climbing about a hundred places to #462. Chad Wassmuth from Lewiston moved up two spots to #71 with a 3rd place in this event and a win in Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #1 +$3K NLHE. The runner-up in the latter event was a different Chad from Idaho, Chad Heft (Boise), who picked up his first cash and a position at #3486. back in Event #2, Kennewick, WA’s Jimmy Stringer came in 4th, but he gets an extra boost because he won Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up #2 +3K NLHE back in August. Stringer is now #794.

Back on the other side of the globe, Portland’s Landen Lucas came in 5th out of 299 in Aussie Millions #19 NLHE, a A$2,500 buy-in. He climbs to #568.

Tzu Huang of Surrey, BC was at the WPT/Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open $2M GTD NLHE Championship and came in 16th out of 843 entries. Huang rises fifty places to #309. Matt Affleck came in 23rd, and remains at #15.

Beaverton’s Binh Nguyen was one of the few players to have any results reported from the lone Summer series event in Pendleton that had been submitted, but he also won the Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up #4 NLHE and climbs to #128. Justin Monk (Spokane Valley) was his runner-up, and he goes to #186. Ghulam Mirza of Kennewick was third. Coincidentally, Ghulam Mirza Mohammed of Kennewick was 2nd in the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #10 +3K NLHE. Do you think they could be related? The former only has four cashes (#2929) and the latter has five (#2049). Jeff Ball (from Pendleton!) took 4th in Summer Event #4) and is now #1811.

William Smith of Tualatin, OR won Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #11 +$3K NLHE. He bumps up to #797. Boise’s Brent Becker took 2nd (#715) and Jared Dairy of Bend got 3rd (#1829).

Shoreline, WA’s Cynthia Orr makes her debut on the Leaderboard at #2546 by winning Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #9 +3K NLHE Seniors. Her runner-up was another newcomer, Kennewick’s James Peck, whose first cash puts him at #3440.

Dylan Wilkerson was another PNW player Down Under, getting 3rd in the Aussie Millions #18 PLO8. There were 133 entries, and Wilkerson remains at #14.

Zack Powers of Arlington, WA took 2nd iin the 341-entry Wildhorse Summer Poker Round Up #3 NLHE. He enters at #3089.

Spokane’s Paul Thone (#3792) got his second cash in Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up #5 +$3K O8. That’s the last of the entries for Pendleton; may they never be this late again!

Lastly but not leastly, Seattle’s Dean Bui won a Wynn Signature Series $400 NLHE mid-month to go from #188 too #177, then James Canitz of Eagle River, AK got second in the same event the next day, popping up to #895.

That’s it for the end of the month. I know there are a couple of results that hadn’t posted by the time the charts ran on Wednesday (looking at you Ryan Stoker!) but you’ll just need to wait for the next edition.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 20 January 2020

Posted on by

Well, this decade’s been a bust for me so far. With Portland Meadows closed down until they get their new location (8102 NE Killingsworth) set up, Final Table has been running $20K guarantees every Friday night. The first of those this year (on the regularly-scheduled First Friday) got 190 entries. That had dropped down to 137, but that was still enough for nearly $7K scheduled for the top prize.

I also dropped in to see the new Trio room at 9th & E Burnside (photo at the top from Kat Mullins on the NW Poker Facebook page). They had a couple of Big O tables running the first day and when I sat down, Kerry Moynahan (who was dealing), mentioned that he didn’t usually see me at the shootout tables, as opposed to the multi-table tournaments. Five minutes later, after winning my first hand and then losing my entire buy-in on the second—after flopping a straight and calling off against a better straight on the turn—he knew why.

That’s my 2020 so far…how’s everyone else’s?

If you’re a real stats-watcher, you may notice some variation in this edition of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard, because it now includes players from Alaska, Alberta, and British Columbia. It’s a move I’ve been wanting to make for a while but was too lazy to implement until recently. I meant to get it going before the start of the year, but here it is in the second edition!

Why not start with George Wolff, who’s been walloping the high roller scene since last fall’s British Poker Open. He’s cashed in 10 events with buy-ins of $10K or more with nearly $1.9M in earnings, with the latest coming in the Aussie Millions A$25,000 NLHE Challenge, where he made a deal for 2nd place. George moves up a rarified 5 spots on the Leaderboard, from #22 to #17.

James Romero  (photo: Mickey May/partypoker)

James Romero came in 3rd after starting the final day as chip leader at the partypoker MILLIONS UK $5M GTD NLHE Main Event, a $10K buy-in with 530 entries. Romero also rises five spots, to #5 on the Leaderboard, with his largest score since winning the 2016 WPT Five Diamond (which was only his third recorded live cash, if you really want to beat yourself up over your poker career like I do).

John Skrovan (photo: PokerNews/wsop.com)

The first player from Canada to make an appearance on the Leaderboard is John Skrovan of Burnaby, BC, who took 2nd place in the WSOPC Choctaw NLHE Main Event. As usual, the venue drew a large field of 1,065 entries. It’s Skrovan’s largest cash ever (even though he made the final table of a $600 bracelet event with 6,000+ entries at last year’s WSOP), He moves up 400 spots to #211 on the Leaderboard.

Tom Mahon from Dairy, OR got a little of the Lucky Changes Gold Rush #3 NLHE, which brought in 632 entries for a prize pool of $632K. Mahon cashed in 6th place, doubled his lifetime reported earnings, and moves nearly 850 spots on the Leadderboard, to #1115.

Portland’s Ming Zhu was the runner-up at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganze NYE #36 NLHE MonsterStack, as part of a six-way deal. He’s currently #250.

The lone newcomer to the Leaderboard (breaking the $3K earnings threshold, as opposed to a couple thousand folks added from BC, AB, and AK) is Vancouver (WA)’s Isaiah Avery, whose second recorded cash was 3rd place in the $200 buy-in, 839-entry MOOSE Poker Tournament Series #10 $30K GTD NLHE. It got—and you can do the calculations yourself) more than five times the guarantee. and had an incredible flat payout structure (none of this 9th makes 10% of 1st; it was one-third). The 5-day series at the las Vegas Golden Nugget had 17 events, which must have kept the place pretty jammed. Avery starts at #3518.

The last name on the list this edition is Ronald Anderson from Yakima. He’s #710 after taking 3rd in a three-way deal at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganze NYE #33 NLHE MonsterStack.

Keep on winning!

Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard Top 20 (01.20.2020)

01 Scott Clements

02 Seth Davies

03 Shawn Buchanan

04 Kevin MacPhee

05 James Romero

06 Brandon Cantu

07 Annie Duke*

08 Lee Watkinson

09 Lee Markholt

10 Dylan Linde

11Ralph “Rep” Porter

12 Amichai Barer

13 Greg Mueller

14Dylan Wilkerson

15Matt Affleck

16 Matthew Jarvis

17 George Wolff

18Tyler Patterson

19Quinn Do

20 Elliot Smith

*seriously, she hasn’t lived here for a long time, but she’s still on the Hendon Mob list for Oregon

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 04 January 2020

Posted on by

The new year starts out a lot like the old year, with a lot of familiar names making a lot of money. Not me, I literally just busted out of my first tournament of the year (Final Table First Friday $20K GTD) just short of the money, after having a decent-sized stack at 4 tables (with 3 tables cashing).

The short stack mentioned above lost a big hand to me when my dominated (but suited) king hit the flush against his ace-king. He was down to a quarter of a big blind but chipped up and was still in when I went from 30bb (about twice the average stack) to zero.

Let’s start off the new year with news of the #2 player on the leaderboard, Seth Davies, who won the WPT Five Diamond NLHE High Roller (53 entries at $25K a pop), then turned right around and cashed in third place in the WPT Five Diamond NLHE Main Event (606 entries, $10.4K buyin). That comes on the heels of his biggest-ever cash last month. Remaining in the #3 spot, Kevin MacPhee took 18th.

George Wolff continues his climb, moving up two spots to #16 with a string of cashes last month. Notable among them was a runner-up finish at EPT Prague #5 PLO High Roller (PRAGUE!), which got a total of 40 entries, which was his largest single payout so far. A week later is a sixth-place in EPT Prague #33 NLHE High Roller (66 entries, $25K entry). A huge amount of money but sort of a smaller multiple cash that wouldn’t normally make the list, except that the next day he takes 9th in the 255-entry EPT Prague #39 NLHE High Roller ($10K buy-in), then hops over to the Bellagio for 3rd place in WPT Five Diamond #27 NLHE High Roller ($25K, 37 entries), and wraps up just before Christmas at the Venetian in the CPPT/DSE NYE #19 NLHE Main Event with 160 entries and a $3.5K buy-in, where he gets third again. A fairly productive three weeks.

Max Young continues to crush what I guess are called the large-field “mid-majors” these days, with 2nd in the Wynn Winter Classic $500K GTD NLHE; more than 1,200 entries doubled the guarantee. Max moves up a spot to #20.

Holding at #8, Dylan Linde came in 7th at the WPT Five Diamond #15 NLHE, a $5.2K buy-in tournament that saw 127 entries. Buy his book!

The only new name on the Leaderboard in this first edition of 2020 is Michael Kiselman of Edmonds. His singular recorded cash is for first place in what looks like a 2-way deal in the Wynn Winter Classic $40K NLHE over 270 other players (the prize pool was nearly $100K). His first spot on the Leaderboard is #1383.

Up the block at Harrah’s, at the WSOPC Las Vegas #11 $500K GTD NLHE Main Event, it was Matt Affleck taking 12th place. He is still #12.

Alex Dickson of Keizer knocked off 3rd at at the WSOPC Las Vegas #3 $100K NLHE, which apparently missed the guarantee with 188 entries at $600 a pop. He’s up nearly 50 places to #351.

I could swae I saw our old friend Wayne Keller at the Portland Meadows Grand Finale the other day, but he was also at the WSOPC Las Vegas #6 NLHE Seniors tournament, where he won a Circuit Ring! Wayne climbs 14 spots to #193.

And that’s a great way to end the first edition of the Leaderboard for the year. I’d have more, but Wildhorse still hasn’t reported results from November’s Round Up to either Hendon Mob or Cardplayer. If you like to keep track of this stuff yourself, harangue your tournament director to send in the results.

Otherwise it’s like you’ve never existed.

Look Back In Poker

Posted on by

Everybody’s always asking
Why do what I do
I don’t gamble ’cuz I want to win, boys
I gamble ’cuz I need to lose

This was the year I didn’t go to Vegas.

I announced last fall that I was retiring from poker at the end of 2018, then got a lot of funny looks from people when I started showing up at tournaments three weejs after I retired. It wasn’t ever supposed to be an absolute thing, but I did scale back my poker playing to spend more time with the family, specifically, my wife, who retired on January 1st. And I did.

I played 95 live tournaments in 2018, and only 53 in 2019. There was a starker comparison in the first half of each year, because in 2019 I played only 14 live tournaments between January and June, where I’d played 37 in 2018. Online, I was still fairly active, with 388 tournaments in 2018 only going down to 306 in 2019, but half of the 2019 tournaments were Jackpot Sit-and-Gos, hyper-turbo, 3-player tournaments that tend to last less than 10 minutes, so they weren’t exactly eating up the time an MTT would. 3% ROI playing mostly $7 entries but also some $2, $15, and $20 games. Never saw a jackpot higher than 5x the buy-in.

After playing 85 of the nightly Thousandaire Maker tournaments on Ignition Poker last year, I entered 16 Thousandaire Makers in 2019 (cashed 2, for a -14% ROI).

I had my second-largest career cash ($10K) in this first year of my retirement, which—at the end of November—had me as #28 on the Poker Media Power Rankings, right between two of the actual poker journalists I worked with at the World Series two years ago.

In 2018, I made two brief trips too Las Vegas—in the summer and just before New Year’s, but I didn’t leave the Northwest at all (for poker) in 2019. My first experience as a player at the World Series of Poker was in 2012, I was down for short periods at least once during the summer each year until 2018 (and for a pretty long period in 2016) even when I wasn’t playing a WSOP event); now that’s retired.

Just one third the number of tournaments at Final Table this year (13 vs. 41 in 2018), even though it was the final year of my free door fees there (part of the payment for doing their web site a couple of years back, and a real steal in no-rake Portland). I played a couple more tournaments this year at Portland Meadows (14 in 2019 vs. 11 in 2018) because of the Grand Finale series.

You might think that the second-best career cash would be my best ROI in a tournament this year, but at 1800%, that was just over half the ROI from an Ignition $4K GTD NLHE Turbo where I took 4th of 471, for ROI of 3100%. I had five other tournaments where I cashed for more than a 1000% ROI.

Wins this year included a 66-player Ignition $500 GTD PLO8 Turbo, first in a chop in a Final Table $10K GTD NLHE (83 entries), the Chinook Winds $50K GTD NLHE (technically second, but I got a skosh more money, 210 entries), and a bunch of Jackpot Sit-and-Gos.

As usual, I didn’t play much in the way of cash games, but a couple of decent sessions at Portland Meadows were enough to make that part profitable.

Goals in the new year: satellite into a $5K or $10K buyin. I’ve got my eye on the Bay 101 Shooting Star (which has satellites running this month and February) or the LAPC/WPT Main Event at the end of February, with two 50-Seat guaranteed mega satellites just before Day 1. Then, of course, there’s the WSOP Main Event.

Love to goto the Irish Poker Open in March, but there are some obstacles in the way that make it easier to try for Bay 101 or LAPC instead. PokerStars hasn’t announced that there’ll even be and EPT Prague next year, so that ship may have sailed.

Hapy New Year!

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 13 December 2019

Posted on by

It’s Friday the 13th and I’m coming off a 2nd-place finish last night in a tournament, so I’m feeling like writing about some poker, even though the little bit I made at the Portland Meadows Grand Finale #10 $2K GTD NLHE Seniors isn’t close to getting me a mention here except for the fact that I write the column.

Let’s get to some real prize-winners!

The new name on the Leaderboard is Scotty McDaniel from Brent(?), OR, whose 4th-ever cash is a 4th-place finish at WSOPC Planet Hollywood #9 $100K GTD NLHE Monster Stack. He debuts on the list at #1755.

Seth Davies makes a big jump to the #2 spot on the leaderboard, edging out Kevin McPhee with 5th place in the PokerMasters #10 NLHE Main Event, a $50K buyin with 34 entries, followed by another 5th in the partypoker MILLIONS World Bahamas NLHE  Super High Roller Bowl. And by “super”, they mean, of course, a $250,000 buyin. 37 entries.

The high roller tournaments continue to be good for George Wolff, as well, with a 2nd-place finish in PokerMasters #8 NLHE ($25K buyin). He moves six spots to #18.

It’s good to be Alex Ding (Dupont, WA) this fall. He won the Muckleshoot Main Event in October for his first recorded tournament cash. In the last installment of the Leaderboard, we reported he was runner-up in the WPT Montreal High Roller (recorded cash #2). And this time he took 2nd in the WPT Five Diamond NLHE 6-Max. He’s #203 on the Leaderboard.

It’s another runner-up for David Oppenheim (Mercer Island) who got his best-ever cash in the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV $200K GTD NLHE EpicStack. Oppenheim climbs 144 spots to #323.

At #11, Dylan Wilkerson holds steady with his 4th-place finish in WSOPC LA #5 $250K GTD NLHE Monster Stack.There were 815 entries.

Michael Long of Henderson, WA won the 185-entry Wynn Winter Classic $25K NLHE Seniors, his second-best score, popping him up more than 250 places to #545. In the Wynn Winter $250K GTD Classic NLHE, Gerald Peltolta from Renton came in 5th for his biggest cash. He is now #383. Puyallup’s David Price took 2nd in a 3-way deal at the Wynn Winter Classic $40K GTD NLHE, doubling his lifetime earnings and moving to #1281.

In more senior poker news, Woodland’s Kelly Frisbie  grabbed 3rd in the WPT Five Diamond NLHE Seniors (132 entries, $1,100 buyin). That’s Kelly’s largest cash and enough to move from #822 to #574.

Matthew Simmons from Kirkland (winner of a Planet Holywood GOLIATH Stack event in 2018) came in 3rd of 426 entries in the WSOPC Planet Hollywood $75K GTD NLHE Double Stack. His 2nd-best cash moves him to #237.

Landon Brown from Kent decided to spend some of the winter in Florida winning money at the SHRPO #2 $250K GTD NLHE, where he came in 7th after a smaller cash at the WPT event there a couple weeks earlier. Landon in #336. In one of the more bizarre coincidences I’ve run across doing this, a Landon Moore (Billings?, OR) is reported as taking 2nd place in SHRPO #18 $50K GTD NLHE Deep Stack Black Chip Bounty.That’s good to move from #1861 to #1228.

Finally, congrats to Bryce Cox of Maple Valley, WA, whose biggest-ever cash in WSOPC Planet Hollywood #3 NLHE just missed the usual cutoff for the Leaderboard roundup by $33, but I feel like someone who just won a Circuit Ring ought to get a little bump!

Anyway, tonight is the Bounty tournament at Portland Meadows, then it’s the $80K GTD tomorrow and the final game on Sunday: Big O! See you on the felt!

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 26 November 2019

Posted on by

While we wait for the results of the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up to trickle up to Hendon Mob (cross your fingers, the Summer results still aren’t up there) let’s take a look at what’s been going on for Pacific Northwest poker players the past month.

George Wolff ripped it up at this year’s Poker Masters, giving a little hope to the idea that the purple jacket might be held for two years in a row by a (former) Portland-area player. Wolff took 3rd (out of 34) in Event #7 $25K PLO, then 2nd in the next day’s Event #8 $25K NLHE. He moves up 4 spots on the Leaderboard, to #24.

Another high-ranking player making a move this edition is Max Young, going from #20 to #19 with his 3rd-place finish at WSOPC Durant #11 $1M GTD NLHE Main Event. Durant is one of the larger stops on the World Series Circuit, and there were 983 entries in this Main Event.

Alex Ding, via Playground Poker

Right on the heels of his first Hendon Mob-reported cash (the Muckleshoot Fall Classic Main Event), Alex Ding (Dupont, WA) headed to Montreal for the WPT/partypoker LIVE series, where he got 2nd in the C$5,300 buy-in Event #4 C$500K GTD NLHE High Roller. The WPT’s Tony Dunst came in 3rd, with the winner claiming anonymity. Ding’s second cash bumps him up nearly 1,000 places, to #281 on the Leaderboard.

The WSOPC stop at Lake Tahoe is considerably smaller than Durant, but it stilll got 424 entries. Charles Coultas of Mill Creek, WA took 3rd in Event #10 NLHE Main Event, adding to an already substantial record. He moves from #52 to #46.

Sam Cosby via WSOP.com

Samuel Cosby continues to make the most of his hall pass from the poker reporting life, winning his first ring on Halloween in Event #8 NLHE Monster Stack (appropriately). That’s his 14th recorded cash since the summer began. He jumps 51 places to #217.

Ellensberg, WA’s Jesse Kertland cashed in four out of five successive events at WSOPC Lake Tahoe (I don’t know if he was even in the one he didn’t cash), with three final tables: Event #5 NLHE 6-Max where he took 5th,  4th place in Event #7 NLHE 8-Max, and another 4th in Event #8 NLHE Monster Stack. Not enough to get him the Casino Championship (Steve Foutty had six cashes with two wins), but he does gain more than 20 places on the Leaderboard: #180.

Lee Markholt started this period as #7 and he stays at #7, despite his 8th place finish in the WSOPC Lake Tahoe main Event. Ditto for James Romero, who took 24th in a field of 1,109 at WPT/partypoker Live C$3,300 NLHE Main Event. He stays at #9.

Shadd Baudoin went from Grants Pass to the Venetian Lucky Shot Poker Series $150K TOTAL NLHE (yes, that tournament) which didn’t quite make the guarantee at 645 entries. Shadd picked up 3rd place and climbs from #869 ti #633.

Finally, Matthew Schwangler of Seattle moves almost 500 places to #1095 with a 4th place finish at WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley #1 $100K GTD NLHE.The tournament got 282 entries and with Schwangler on the final table is another former reporting colleague, Valerie Cross.

I’m now the Ante Up magazine Pacific Northwest Ambassador. The December issue of the magazine is available for free in poker rooms around the country, or online right here.

PNW Poker Leaderboard — 27 October 2019

Posted on by

When last we checked in on our buddy Sam Cosby earlier this year—formerly a member of the respectable poker media and now a degenerate circuit grinder—it was to chide him for not getting his hometown updated on Hendon Mob. But it’s happened now and we at Mutant Poker are happy to welcome Cosby into the fold of the Pacific Northwest Poker Leaderboard with his 2nd place finish at the WSOPC Hammond #10 NLHE. During the summer he would have been down around #458, but he’s debuting this edition at #268.

Another PNW player at WSOPC Hammond was Wilsonville’s Eric Jarosh, who finished 14th in Event #12 $1M GTD NLHE Main Event for his biggest recorded cash. Jarosh jumps nearly 400 places on the Leaderboard, to #590.

Matt Affleck maintains his #12 with a 7th-place finish in the Wynn Fall Classic $1M GTD NLHE Championship, which brought in 1,024 entries at $1,600 apiece.

Back at the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic, my nemesis John Gribben (Olympia) chopped with me for only his second recorded cash. Then he headed down to Run It Up Reno IX to win even bigger (and no chop) in Event #1 $100K GTD NLHE Miini Main Event, over 408 others. Gribben jumps from #1879 on the Leaderboard to #661.

Baker City, OR’s Dennis Jones notched his biggest-ever score in the RunGood Bossier City $100K GTD NLHE Main Event. The tournament more than doubled the guarantee, and Dennis took 2nd. Jones moves from #2444 to #791.

All the way back in Pennsylvania, Po Ying (Seattle) debuts #1414 with a 6th-place finish at  Parx Big Stax XXXI #2 NLHE, with over 1,400 entries.

Nicky Komphouvong from Portland climbs 750 places to #827 with his 7th-place finish in Big Poker Oktober/CardPlayer Poker Tour $500K GTD NLHE Main Event at the Bicycle Casino in LA.  It was Komphouvong’s lrgest-recorded cash.

Regrettably, Muckleshoot Casino submitted only the top ten finishers to Hendon Mob for the recent Fall Poker Classic. It’s better than Wildhorse Casino having submitted the Summer Poker Round Up as another Spring Round Up and including the results from only the first event, but as a poker reporter, you kind of expect full reporting, like any other major series.

Anyway, hometown (Auburn) player Damon Kerkes  won Muckleshoot Fall Poker Classic #1 $80K GTD NLHE to jump onto the Leaderboard at #1865 with his first big cash.

Max Young sticks in the #20 spot with two runner-up cashes. He came in 2nd in Muckleshoot #2 NLHE, then headed quickly down to Reno where he just missed out on the PokerStars Platinum Pass to next year’s EPT Barcelona, in Run It Up Reno #10 IX NLHE Moneymaker’s Road to the PSPC.

Adam Croffut (seated), Dan Beecher (behind, left), and Kenneth Richardson, Jr. (behind, right), photo via Heather Beecher

Everett’s Adam Croffut moves up two spots to #57 with his win in Muckleshoot #3 $80K GTD NLHE; Dan “Goofy” Beecher (Portland), Kenneth Richardson, Jr. (University Place, WA), and Chong Lee (Tacoma) tied in second place. Richardson and Lee are making their first appearances on the Leaderboard, at #1734 and #1752. Beecher moves up to #216 from #234.

Dupont, WA’s Alex Ding only has one recorded cash, but since it’s for first place in the  Muckleshoot Fall Classic $140K GTD NLHE Main Event, it’s a nice one to have. There was a seven-way ICM deal in the 350-entry tournament (the prize pool went nearly $100K over the guarantee). Ding’s victory puts him in #1214 on the Leaderboard. Coming in 2nd was Lynden, WA’s Dave van Weerdhnizen, climbing more than 100 places to #350. Third place in the tournament went to Jennifer Hughes from Gig Harbor, gaining more than 400 places to land at #615. A couple of slots in the deal fell to players from out of the northwest, but 6th was Post Falls, ID’s Nathan Thrush, getting his first major cash and landing on the Leaderboard at #1463. Finally, Matthew Dvorsak, from Tacoma, took 7th, jumping up almost 200 places to #290.

That’s the last report before the Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up (7—17 November, PDF link with schedule and structures) but I do want to give a shoutout to this site’s benefactor Jeremy Harkin for the dedication to Big O that took him to the middle of Texas to play the Permian Basis Poker Series High Roller Big O (and to win it.) And don’t forget to pick up a copy of Ante Up Magazine if you see one (or read it for free online) the November issue is my debut as their PNW Ambassador.

Ante Up Magazine Pacific Northwest Ambassador

Posted on by

If you have news or updates on Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington, mostly) poker—cash games, poker rooms, and tournaments—that would be useful for the nationwide audience of Ante Up Magazine, please drop me a line: anteupdarrel at mutantpoker.com by email or @pokermutant on Twitter.

Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic Series Championship

Posted on by

I was looking at the sweet, sweet trophy Stuart Young won at the Bend Poker Room Monster Stack Main Event at the end of the month and realizing that there weren’t any trophies given out at the Chinook Winds Fall Coast Poker Classic.

When John Gribben and I chopped the second of the $50K GTD tournaments heads-up the second night of the series, my original suggestion was to make a deal, then play out for a set amount. Tournament Director Matthew Moring said that was a no-go, any deal immediately ended the tournament (my suspicion was that had more to do with it being 5am than a hard and fast rule), so John and I agreed to an even chop. I asked for the win, John said he would like to get the picture because it was his first big win (and he’d pay me a little bit extra). I haven’t actually ever had a winner photo for a big tournament myself, and as it was, Matt took a couple of photos of the both of us as well as John by himself, and this is the one that ended up getting sent out.

But no trophy. If there had been or if there had been a casino championship on the line (as ther is for a World Series of Poker Circuit series or at the upcoming Wildhorse Fall Poker Round Up, the decision would have had to be a bit different. How much—if anything—would the trophy be worth to me in the negotiation? Do I care about the win on my Hendon Mob profile? Do I want to be known as being involved in only the third-most-egregious thing that Will Kassouf did?

Do Player of the Year, Global Poker Index, or—most importantly—series champion points matter to me? If there’s a monetary reward (as at Wildhorse) or some other benefit that accrues to top performers (the Global Casino Championship contenders on the WSOPC Leaderboard can attend for free), then a friendly chop is not going to happen (#TeamNoChop c/o Angela Jordison).

Just for kicks, I went through and assigned points to players in the Fall Coast Poker Classic using the WSOP Circuit system for non-Main Event tournaments.

1st — 50 points
2nd — 37.5 points
3rd — 30 points
4th — 27.5 points
5th — 25 points
6th — 22.5 points
7th — 20 points
8th — 17.5 points
9th — 15 points
Remaining 20% of those in the money — 10 points
Remaining 30% of those in the money – 5 points
Remaining 50% of those in the money — 2.5 points

I didn’t count the Fall Coast Classic Main Event with the same point system as the WSOPC Main Events because it doesn’t automatically get the winner into anything (the winner at each WSOPC stop is automatically free-rolled into the Global Poker Championship) and because the price disparity between most of the events isn’t as great as at a WSOPC stop. My preference here would be to average out the points assigned to position in the case of chops, but the WSOP doesn’t do that. So here goes!

First off are the folks who won events without accruing any other points: That’s 50 points each for Casey Ring (Main Event), Adam Schneider (Monday evening $10K GTD freeze-out with an 11-way chop), Alex Kuzarov (#22 $40K GTD with a 6-way deal), Robert Fitzgerald (#11 $10K GTD HORSE with what looks like a 6-way deal), Robert Squires (#14 O8, maybe another 6-way deal), Tri Ton (#1 $125K GTD), and Jason Heiner (#7 $40K GTD 6-max, looks like a 4-way ICM chop). Andy Su won #2 ($50K GTD), Michael Mackie got 50 points for #10 ($30K GTD Seniors, some sort of FT deal), Gilbert Marquez got 1st in #18 ($25K GTD Big O, 3-way deal involving—oh, no!—Angela, how could you?), and Dan Anderson took 50 for #21 ($150K GTD High Roller).

Two players won a tournament and min-cashed another (2.5 points): Carl Oman won #17 ($40K GTD Big Bounty) and cashed the 6-Max; John Gribben won #5 (see above) and cashed the Main.

Richard Imel took 11th in #5 (5 points) and won #13 Super Boss Bounty for 55 points. Bohr He and Kevin Buck are the first players in this list who did not win an event but have more points than some of the players who did. Buck made the final table of #1, took third in #5, and cashed in #17. He was also at the final table for #5, took 6th in the 6-Max, and 9th in the Main Event. Jake Dahl final-tabled #14 HORSE, placed 3rd in $14 O8. and picked up 15th in the Main Event for his 55 points.

Cody Rogan was the third-place finisher for points with 57.5. He started strong with 4th place in #1, placed 4th again in #8, and min-cashed in #13 to pull just ahead of the rest of the pack.

Michael Freedom is the runner-up in points with 65 after a 2nd-place in #10 (Seniors) and 4th in #22. 37.5 for the former and 27.5 for the latter.

And the champeen is Graham Adam Duke, who picked up an remarkable 82.5 points, well ahead of the pack. Duke did not win a single event, but he made three deep runs, coming in 3rd in #2, 9th in #7 (which would be a final table except it was the 6-max), and runner-up in #21, the High Roller.