{"id":1729,"date":"2016-12-07T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T15:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mutantpoker.com\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2016-12-07T07:10:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T15:10:25","slug":"pnwpokercal-planner-for-7-december-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mutantpoker.com\/?p=1729","title":{"rendered":"#PNWPokerCal Planner for 7 December 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blogiversary<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today is the 75th anniversary of the \u201cdate which will live in infamy,\u201d<\/strong> according to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt<\/strong>, when the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. When I was a kid, it seemed like it was something that happened a long time before I was born, but in reality, I was born just one day before the 20th anniversary (you can do the math, presumably), and now 20 years doesn’t seem like such a long time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Next Sunday is the sixth anniversary of the first post\u00a0here at Mutant Poker<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0so if the amount of time between now and Pearl Harbor was a year, the blog would have been running\u00a0for almost a month of that year, and that’s truly a weird thing for me to contemplate.<\/p>\n

The early days of the blog were mostly self-analysis of online tournaments<\/strong>, on Cake and Full Tilt. Black Friday<\/strong> hit just four\u00a0months after I started the blog, after which I started playing more live, at Aces Players Club and Portland Players Club (where I won my first live tournament<\/strong> of any size in May of 2011<\/a>). The next month, I final-tabled the first $10K<\/strong> guarantee I played at Encore Club<\/a> and I was kind of hooked, in addition to being at loose ends without any steady work. I won a noon game at Encore in July, which got me into the next month’s Champions Freeroll, where I took 2nd place for my first $1K payday<\/strong><\/a>. That was eclipsed in the fall when I won a $10K outright<\/strong><\/a>, flew to Vegas three hours after I won, and played in a $2,500 buyin<\/strong> Venetian Main Event<\/a>\u00a0to try to get to EPT Prague for a major birthday. (Didn’t happen and never will now, as you know if you’ve been reading the blog).<\/p>\n

I’ve kept meticulous records<\/strong> all along the way (every buyin, every cash, every expense for nearly six years in an online database) and my attempts to analyze tournament poker profitability<\/strong> led to a post<\/a> that turned into articles for PokerNews<\/a><\/strong> and Deadspin, as well as an NVG thread at 2+2<\/a><\/strong>. That led to interviews with\u00a0Limon<\/strong> on his\u00a0PokerSesh<\/strong> show, work as a\u00a0live reporter at the WSOP<\/strong> this year, and this morning I’m going to be recording another interview with\u00a0High Roller Radio<\/strong>, just a mont after WSOP final tablist and\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>best-selling author\u00a0James McManus<\/strong> was on the show.<\/p>\n

So thanks everyone for reading and encouragement. I particularly want to thank\u00a0Brad Smith<\/a><\/strong> at\u00a0<\/a>Hot Pepper Studios<\/strong><\/a>, who\u2014in addition to being my employer for the past few months\u2014was the person who suggested six years ago that if I wanted to\u00a0get serious about poker, I should start a blog.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jammin\u2019 Jay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jay Zeman<\/strong> was a fixture in the NW poker scene for years, both as a player and as a dealer, before moving to the East Coast last year<\/strong>. If you’d played poker in the Seattle area, particularly, you’re sure to have run into him. He still writes about the Pacific Northwest poker scene for Ante Up<\/em><\/strong> magazine<\/a>.\u00a0Tuesday, he got the biggest cash of his tournament life, over $33,000, for an eighth-place finish at the\u00a0WSOPC Cherokee Main Event<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Portland Poker Holiday Championship Series<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I played the first event in the series before heading to Pacific City\u00a0for a weekend, got lucky in one spot, made it into the money, and then made a bad move with A<\/span>x<\/span><\/span> 9<\/span>x<\/span><\/span><\/span> and about 11bb. A shorter stack on my left had just doubled up, thought about it for a second, then went all in to call with A<\/span>x<\/span><\/span> K<\/span>x<\/span><\/span><\/span>, he flopped a king, I turned a nine, and he stayed ahead on the river, then I was out a few hands later. Min cash! I already posted the results from the series<\/strong> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deal of the Week:\u00a0LAPC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time to look ahead to the new year. The\u00a0LA Poker Classic<\/a><\/strong> at the\u00a0Commerce Casino<\/strong> is always one of the first major events of the calendar year in the West,\u00a0running from mid-January to early March. The dates (13 January\u20142 March<\/strong>) have been set for a while, but the schedule was just released last week.<\/p>\n

Unless you’ve got\u00a0the\u00a0time and money to spend a months-and-a-half in Los Angeles, the LAPC is something you need to pick and choose from. Here are a few of the highlights I see for myself and other Portland tournament players.<\/p>\n

Opening weekend there are three events with a total of $350K in guarantees.\u00a013 January<\/strong> (Friday the 13th), is a 2-day $175 buyin with a $100K guarantee, only one entry flight at 5pm. On\u00a014 January<\/strong>, there’s a $150K with a buyin of $570, also a 2-day event. Sunday,\u00a015 January<\/strong> is a 1-day $100K tournament with a $350 buyin that includes a $100 bounty.<\/p>\n

There are a number of non-NLHE tournaments throughout the series (mostly on weekdays) but of special note to Portlanders is the\u00a02 February<\/strong> $570 buyin\u00a0Big O<\/strong> tournament. No guarantee, but it’s two days (ending on a Friday). There’s a\u00a0NL HORSE<\/strong> tournament on\u00a019<\/strong> February<\/strong> if you ever want to know what lighting $340 on fire feels like.<\/p>\n

The series culminates with a 5-day\u00a0WPT Championship<\/strong> event with a $10K buyin. Only one starting day (25 February<\/strong>) but there are lots of opportunities for satelliting in on Saturday nights\u00a0throughtout the series and in the week leading up to the start.<\/p>\n

Only a Day Away<\/strong><\/p>\n