If youre talking about 2/5+ nlhe then yes it's basically dead (at least the last time I passed through). It's really hit or miss and it doesn't help with all the venues popping up. It's not like Oregon has a big population of poker players.

you gotta go where the grindbot poker pro posers are too scared to go- mixed and hope by some miracle it gets deep enough to be worth it

Well there are 2/5 and 5/10 uncapped buyin games still going I'd presume, I mean they were last time I was there but never mentioned itt

I can only hope at least one of my connections will still work

I'm sure there are private games. If you live in Portland or if you still have friends who play poker that can invite you great.

For people that don't.. I know of exactly one public 2/5 uncapped that sometimes is worth it, sometimes not. I'm not in town anymore but I heard it went into the ****ter

So many clubs and people spread out really hurt nlhe in Oregon. That's why the mixed are ok I guess because everyone knows there's only couple places to play

The capped games are still good. I'm playing 2/5 at FT right now with a 1k cap.


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I don't want anyone to think I'm bashing on Portland poker. I'm just saying from my small sample size... other places are better in terms of action and stakes for those looking to play 2/5+

People were friendly but def on the serious side. The 2/5 games I played in 1. Def weren't loose 2. Didn't play deep 3. Most had some clue what they were doing (ffs 70-100bb nlhe isn't that hard).

For the casual person looking to kill an afternoon and not win or lose too much it's probably the perfect spot considering even a good pros hourly expectation in those conditions probably isn't going to be more than $30/hr long term.

Personally I think playing in those kind of conditions is worse than watching paint dry. I guess call me a degen but I like big pots, fast chips, deep stacks, and a relaxed drinking atmosphere.

When Iron Mike's game was going at Aces, it was very loose and there would always be 3 stacks over 250BB and sometimes 6+

2/5 and would get kicked up to 5/10 occasionally, and he'd let it run 3-handed instead of breaking the game at 4 AM or whatever

Stuff would happen like 7 limpers for 5 bucks, I make it 65 in the BB and everyone calls

The current 2/5 at Aces on Tuesdays and Thursdays has a few rocks, but generally gets a few players that make it pretty wild, and it can get really deep. A couple of well-advertised private games, both 1/2 and 2/5, also play loose and deep.

And Devil confirmed still going strong: last night needed to get there by 8:10 to get a seat for the 9:00 start time (still haven't figured out why they don't just start earlier, since the dealers are there and would make an extra hour of tips; maybe to give the club and the dancers an hour of poker players hanging out with nothing to do but spend money?). Couple of short stacks to start, but otherwise played much deeper than 100bb.

I always assumed this was obvious.

Yeah, but then why not start at 8:00 and have those players come at 7:00 when the club isn't as crowded? They have a pretty good crowd of non-poker players by 8:30, but it's slim before that.

This week's #PNWPokerCal. Links to the Tribune article on the Encore shutdown and some other stuff.

Good article, Darrel, and has been my thought through this whole thing. Yeah, it sucks, but the fact the card rooms have existed as they have for this long, and getting this big, is kind of insane. We had a good run with what is pretty much undeniably an illegal industry, now we just have to hope we can get the law to change. Personally, I think the method with the most chance of success is changing the law to allow dealers to accept tips. I don't think any change that will allow "professional" rooms to operate where the house takes a rake/cover charge/portion of tips will ever fly.

And I will continue to rant about the fact that I've played 5+ years with stupid stupid shootout rules that did nothing to make the game any more or less legal.

Amazing that Oregon is so liberal about some things (pot, strip clubs for example), but adults playing poker for money, that's just tooooo crazy. Nevermind all that Oregon Lottery garbage that is at every bar swindling people out of money.


And re: the shootout rules, I hate them. The main reason I don't bother playing at Final Table which is right down the street from me. Every hour, half the table goes back down to like 20 bb's. So frustrating to see a gambletron work up a decent stack just to see him go back down to $40 at 1/2 every hour.

Yeah, again, it's been my biggest gripe forever. Legality of the game is not a balancing test: once it's illegal it's illegal, regardless of whether you do something to make it LESS illegal. And on that note, most of the stupid shootout rules don't even do that. There's a difference between "hey, I could argue X," and X being a LEGITIMATE work around to the law. None of the stupid shootout rules do that. The games were illegal the moment they took a door fee (I laughed out loud when someone on FB suggested the cover was for all of the other plethora of activities these clubs offer; comment seems to be gone). Encouraging going south didn't stop that.

The posting on FB defending free labor and blaming the people who went to BOLI is maddening. "Don't they know we can't have a game if the dealers get paid blah blah".

How about the guy who suggested the volunteer dealers also just pay the door fee so they are considered customers too, but then volunteer to just deal for everyone.

My impression is that the people who know the individuals involved in the lawsuit have reasonable grounds to criticize it. And there's a big difference between volunteer dealing and sweatshop work.


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What does volunteer dealing have to do with Portland card rooms?

Let's not pretend that if you "voluntarily show up to work" then you are "volunteering."

The dealers are relying on income from dealing. For some (most?) it's their only job. For all, it supplements their income at the least.

I show up to work and make pickups and deliveries of my own volition, too, but I'm not volunteering. If someone gets paid to work in a soup kitchen, that's a job, not a volunteer position.

It's good and fine to have opinions on how much a government should or shouldn't regulate jobs. But it's completely dishonest to call the dealers volunteers. Their position is defined as a job through actions, not defined as a volunteer through disingenuous words.

Okay, sure. But the lawsuit was not brought on out of a sincere desire to help dealers. From what I understand, the person who instigated this litigation still frequents Portland card rooms. You are right: it is a job, and it is unlawful to treat it otherwise. However, dealers are making about double what I would make if I were employed in Portland. So I think the situation is less predatory than many are making it out to be and not analogous to other types of exploitative labor.


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Yeah, agreed. I don't think it's very predatory at all, from a relative perspective. But I suppose it is to some small degree, depending on definitions and stuff I'm unsure about like whether they can get unemployment benefits and whether they can be "fired" and crap like that.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if the lawsuit came from dishonest or hypocritical motives.

I'm curious about what you mean with what you'd make if you were employed. As a dealer? Or in general?

The clubs have to have volunteer dealers to comply with their social gaming licenses. They say they meet this requirement by not having them on the payroll of the club. But then some dealers went to Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) who of course did classify them as employees who need to be paid minimum wage, covered by worker's comp insurance, etc.. So they started a legal process against Encore, which promptly closed up shop.

So now everyone is like "they can't be employees or the game is illegal" and using that as some rationale for continuing with an unpaid work force, which of course is ludicrous from a labor perspective. Stating things like "well they make more than minimum so who cares" and stuff like that. They are missing the point that the BOLI does not have a duty to protect poker clubs.

It seems like only a matter of time before BOLI and/or the regulators of the social gaming licenses get involved at every club. The media is running with stories about "unregulated illegal poker clubs" which in part embarrass the politicians.

Was fun while it lasted...

It was a rhetorical question

I've got a lot of hours in at various rooms. Friends with dealers, etc

Now u tell me. Me dumb.

What's the closest poker room still running to where PDX / Encore used to be? I'm right in that neighborhood this week.