EncoreBlog

October marks the one-year anniversary for Encore Club, and we’re taking advantage of the milestone to make some improvements and changes to the club.  I just wanted to take a moment to talk about some of these changes, and some of the things that won’t be changing, so we can continue to provide the best card room in town.

To begin with, I’ll introduce myself for those unfamiliar.  I am Sean Gentry, the General Manager of Encore Club, and I hope you’ll all recognize me from the photo I’ve included.  I’ve been working for a few weeks on the improvements you’re about to see, and I know they’re going to grab the interest of all of the Portland players.

First, I’d like to talk about what won’t be different.  Here at Encore we’re dedicated to providing you with the best tournament experience in town, with proficient and friendly dealers, on-time tournaments, quality equipment, and a fun atmosphere.  That will never go away… we’ve got a fantastic group of volunteer dealers who love to be here at the club, so you can look forward to that continuing.  Another constant will be our starting times… we’ll continue to have the same 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, and 10:00 starting times that we currently have, so you won’t have to worry about learning new times to arrive.

As for what we will be changing… well, the list is long.  We’ll be adding new freerolls to the weekly schedule, with great opportunities for new and experienced players alike to enjoy a free chance at some money.  These will be money-added freerolls, where all add-ons and buy-ins go on top of the starting pot.  Encore is dedicated to giving away thousands of dollars a month in freerolls, which is great news for our players and the club alike.

We’ll also be providing new games to play and more opportunities to play them.  We’re putting our 7:00 Tuesday Mixed Game tournament on the official schedule, with a set $35 buy-in, and that is just the start of the new interesting tournaments you’ll find added to the schedule you love.  We’re looking to build a solid following for our non-Hold’em game selection, and you’ll see a consistent effort on that front from us here at Encore.

This Saturday 10/08 at 7pm will be our final $10k Main Event, and I’ll be announcing the new schedule and other improvements at that time.  It should be an exciting night and I am looking forward to the positive reaction these adjustments will bring.  After all, poker players love bigger prize pools, more guarantees, new games, and more freerolls… and that is exactly what we’re going to deliver.

Of course, our one-year anniversary is coming on Saturday October 29.  Encore is going to put on an amazing Birthday tournament that will be the buzz of the poker community in Portland for some time.  It’ll be something Portland has never seen, and something Encore is going to be proud to host.

I look forward to seeing each of you this weekend, and thanks for the great year we’ve had!  Here’s to an amazing second year for Encore and all of our great players!

It was another great night here at Encore Club as 138 regular players came in to fight it out for the $3000 we threw into the prize pool for this prestigious freeroll.  After all of the add-ons and rebuys, the total pot came to $7725, with $1915 set aside for first place.

We really appreciate our frequent players here at Encore, and it’s very rewarding to look across the room and see every table packed with familiar faces.  Looking at all of our friends who came in to join us, we can appreciate the community that has built up around our club and our favorite game.

In the end, there was an adjustment of the prize pool for the final four players, but it was a lot of fun for everyone involved.  Congratulations to our winner, David Moshe, as well as all of the players who finished in the money.  We’re looking forward to seeing more of you next month in the August TOC freeroll.

Final Table Results:

1 $1915 David Moshe
2 $1180 Darrel Plant
3 $1030 Aurelia Wong
4 $910 Black Stallion
5 $500 Mark Castle
6 $350 (name withheld)
7 $270 Barry Bonds
8 $230 Ben Carmel
9 $210 Lisa Sanchez

I hope all of you enjoy the photos and recap, thanks for checking out the blog.  Sorry about the formatting with the photos, I’m incompetent with this sort of thing… they’re still nice, right?

One of the most popular games aside from Texas Hold’em is Omaha Eight-or-better.  This is a variation of Hold’em where each player is dealt four hole cards rather than two.  Play continues on the flop, turn, and river as normal, with the exception that two cards must play from each player’s hand.  In the eight-or-better variation an extra level of excitement is added as a qualifying low hand is eligible for half of the pot.

Pot-limit games tend to have more action on the flop as the better is capped pre-flop by the “pot limit” aspect.  PLO8 is an action game with plenty of big draws and wild results.  If you haven’t had a chance to play this exciting game, we offer a monthly PLO8 game here at Encore to give you the opportunity.  Tomorrow at noon we’ll be running this tournament, with a $100 buy-in, one rebuy, and a $50 add-on.  We’ve had as many as 42 players for this game with a prize pool of $7400… come and give it a try!

It was another exciting night at the Encore Club for our $10k Guaranteed Main Event.  119 players came to compete for a $20,500 prize pool.  Once again, the final few players decided to chop rather than play it out, using an ICM calculator to distribute the winnings among the top four.  Jonathon Levy came out the big winner with a take of $3960, followed by Eric O, “Barry Bonds”, and Ben Pascua who each netted approximately three grand.

There was plenty of fun and action at all the tables, and everyone appeared to have a great time.  I want to thank all of the players who came out to join us, and I hope we see all of you again at the next one.  It’s always a lot of fun to see our room full and all of our great volunteer dealers throwing the cards around.  It can be a little hectic at times, but it’s worth it to keep all of our players having a great time.

Our final table started with only eight players after a double elimination.  It was an exciting high-tension battle which took more than an hour to whittle the field down to four.  After some discussion among the tables, an ICM calculator was used to determine the payouts among the remaining chip stacks.  The numbers were agreed upon, and the tournament was over!  Congratulations to all who played, and especially to those who cashed.  I look forward to seeing each of you around the club.

Plenty of fun and excitement last night as we held our June $3000 Added Tournament of Champions Freeroll.  While you might have to take some notes to remember the specific name, there was no question that everyone attending was having a great time playing against their fellow qualifiers.  While we always love seeing new people at the tables, there’s something about knowing the name of practically everyone I saw last night that made it really fun.

121 players came out on a beautiful early summer evening to play through the night for a first place prize of $1775.  We were lucky enough to have a great group of volunteer dealers working hard to keep the games running smooth.  I know I couldn’t have kept the tournament running without their professionalism, and of course the great help of our floor staff who kept the rebuys and add-ons flowing from the desk to the tables.

I was able to get out from behind the desk once we got down to four tables or so, and was lucky enough to get some decent photos of the some of the remaining players.  I even handed my camera over to a friend and had him take a quick shot of me in my usual spot.

The final table predictably contained a who’s-who of Encore players.  Check out the line-up below… while there are a couple of new faces, most of them are folks we see a few times a month or more.  Let’s hope we see each of them in next month’s $3000 Added Tournament of Champions Freeroll.