Wednesday, June 29, 2011

WSOP Day 29 - Akkari, Porter and Griffin Strike Gold

Day 29 saw three WSOP bracelets awarded, two in low buy-in NLHE events and one in Razz.

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari won his first WSOP gold bracelet in Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Brazilian Akkari has some impressive online results, including a second place finish in the $10k WCOOP HORSE event back in 2008. Akkari bested a field of 2,857 players to take down the $675k first prize. Poker is a growing game in Brazil and this win should help motivate a new wave of online and live players.

Another one for the bankers as another former Wall Street employee Rep Porter won his second WSOP bracelet with his victory in Event #44: $2,500 Razz. Porter is a regular on the tournament circuit with a number of previous WSOP cashes and 3 final tables in addition to his first bracelet. Porter takes home $210k for his win, adding to his already impressive $1.5m in live tournament earnings.

Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em had the spotlight cast on it's final table due to the appearance of Antonio Esfandiari. The Magician could only manage 7th place though and eventual victor Kenneth Griffin made his way through another huge field of 2,890 to take down the WSOP bracelet and $455k. There is a touching story behind the win though, and this Bluff article from Jess Welman tells not only that, but the story of the final table action too.

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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Epic Poker League - Epic Fail?

Perhaps I didn't look into this as much as I should have, but I though that the Federated Sports + Gaming League started by Jeffrey Pollack and Annie Duke would be called something like, you know, 'The Federated Sports and Gaming League'.

Alas I was incorrect, and it would appear to have been named Epic Poker League. I'm not sure who was in charge of the naming, but I really think they have got this one wrong.

As far as branding goes, the word is overused these days, especially by the type of people this league is really there to attract. The logo is also a little puzzling:


What were they thinking? If they wanted to be taken more seriously they should have gone with something more official sounding, like 'The Federated Poker League' or similar. The logo looks childish and tacky, and not official at all.

Consider the following:

World Series of Poker Champion

European Poker Tour Champion

Epic Poker League Champion

Which one would you rather be, in order? I thought part of the idea of this league was for the best players, defined by a selection criteria, would play against eachother to determine the true greats of the game. The notion is somewhat questionable of course, but the name now sounds like some small online poker site is running it's own WCOOP-style mini series.

My interest in this organisation is rapidly declining - the idea was that you had to meet the selection criteria in order to play, that was it. Now it seems like you can qualify though a series of mega satellites to earn your place in the $20,000 buy-in tournaments.

The logo is off-brand for this type of event and takes away from the prestige and premium feeling they could have represented with a classier logo and a more official sounding name.

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WSOP Day 28

Ben Lamb is a player who knows heartbreak. In 2009 he made a very deep run in in the WSOP Main Event only to finish just short of the final table and the November Nine, finishing in 14th place.

Just over a week ago that heartbreak must have been repeated as Lamb finished second to Sam Stein in the $3k PLO even, narrowly missing out on a bracelet again.

But Event #42: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship has played down to a winner, and that winner is Ben Lamb. We've seen a few stories of players with close finishes coming back and winning bracelets this year and we can add Ben Lamb to the list.

Lamb took down the championship event in a field of 361 of the worlds best PLO players to earn himself his first bracelet and the $814k first place prize money, one of the biggest in the WSOP this year. Lamb now has over 3.1m in career tournament earnings.

He also picks up a hefty number of WSOP POY points to add to the ones he got for finishing second in the $3k PLO and now tops the leaderboard, one place above Phil Helmuth.


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Monday, June 27, 2011

WSOP Day 27 - Katchalov Falls Short of #2

Well, anyone who read the blog yesterday already knows that Matt Jarvis took down his first bracelet after coming 8th in the Main Event last year. However, there was other news at the WSOP:

The Rio was on second bracelet of 2011 watch as Eugene Katchalov made the final table of Event #41: $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout after winning a bracelet earlier in the WSOP. Justin Pechie was there to spoil the party though after Katchalov only managed 4th place. $167k is a relatively small amount for first place in a WSOP event these days, but I'm sure the bracelet will mean everything to the 26 year old professional poker player.

Like many US online pros, Pechie was considering his future after Black Friday. It looks like he was even considering a move to Canada to continue to play and make his living online. The likelihood of this win effecting that decision is probably slim, but I'm sure the money and a WSOP bracelet on the poker resume might help sway him towards continuing that career path.

In other news, the frequently outspoken Daniel Negreanu got into it at the table with Michael Binger after accusing him of cheating in the $10k H.O.R.S.E. I have no strong opinion on the way the hand played out, but I agree with the people saying that Daniel should stay out of the hand if he's not active in it. It's up to the players to take responsibility for the action in any hand they are in, even when the dealer doesn't do his do properly. The dealers at the WSOP typically aren't the best just based on the sheer number of them needed. With that in mind, you need to be even more careful at the tables.

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Sunday, June 26, 2011

2010 November Niner Matt Jarvis Wins Bracelet

2010 will always be a memorable year for Matt Jarvis. He made the final table of the WSOP Main Event and got all the media attention the poker industry has to offer during the break until the November Nine returns to Vegas to play it out for the bracelet.

Unfortunately someone has to depart in 8th place, and last year it was Matt Jarvis, who busted at the hands of Michael Mizrachi. Many of the November Niners, including the winners, don't earn much respect for thier main even runs but I think we'll see a newfound appreciation for Jarvis today as he took down Event #40: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed for his first WSOP bracelet.

The $808k from this event is a huge score for the WSOP outside of the Main Event and when added to the $1,045,743 he took down for his 8th place finish in 2010 other cashes he's up over $2m in live tournament earnings. Canada also notches up another bracelet, bringing the 2011 WSOP total to 5...

It's no Main Event win, but it must be nice to come back the year after such a deep run and win a bracelet.

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WSOP Days 24, 25 and 26

A few days off for me so a catch up:

Day 24 was a barren day for bracelets as none were awarded due to the $2.5k NL and $10k H.O.R.S.E running longer than scheduled.

However day 25 was a bumper day with three bracelets awarded. The first was to Mikhail Lakhitov who won Event #36: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em for a hefty $750k score.

Fabrice Soulier was a popular winner of Event #37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship and the second bracelet winner of the day for $610k. Frenchman Soulier has been on the tournament circuit for over 10 years and has over $3.2m in live cashes. Tom “durrrr” Dwan also made the final table which interested many of the well known pros as they have bracelet bets (although clearly a lot of the FTP guys aren't around) but eventually busted in 5th place.

Mitch Schock took down the 3rd bracelet of the day in Event #39: $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Omaha. Huge early chip leader Tyler Patterson didn't last the day and Schock took the 2011 WSOP's only HA bracelet down along with $310k for his efforts.

On day 26 Arkadiy Tsinis took down Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em for his first bracelet and $540k. Tsinis adds to the growing list of first time bracelet winners this year.

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Thursday, June 23, 2011

WSOP Day 23 - Mercier Wins Second Bracelet

In 2009 Jason Mercier won his first WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 PLO event for $237k. This year Mercier took that a step further by winning Event #35: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed for $620k and his second WSOP bracelet.

Mercier was quickly becoming regarded as one of the best tournament poker players in the world and this win will help support that argument. In under 4 years Mercier has taken down an EPT, an NAPT high roller event, a $25k bounty shootout, a £20k high roller event in the UK, the EPT Champion of Champions event and a host of smaller wins and deep finishes for a total of $6.3m.


Mercier after his win. Photo credit: Pokernews


That's an absolutely phenomenal run from a player who is just 24 years old. His place on the all time money list is starting to approach, and in some cases has surpassed some of the well known tournament grinders who have been playing for the last 20 years.

That's not all - Mercier is also a force to be feared in online cash games, as well as in the high stakes live games including TV shows like High Stakes Poker. He also took down an event in the 2010 WCOOP on PokerStars.

And we're still not done - Mercier is also an active backer and was featured in an ESPN article on poker staking. He's had a good WSOP so far as he was backing Allen Bari in event 4, which he took down for $874k

Mercier is certainly one to look out for in the rest of the WSOP and beyond. A real presence in cash games both live an online, staking and the tournament circit mean that we can expect to see much more from him in the future.

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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

WSOP Day 22 - Schmid wins Event #34

Mark Schmid was the sole bracelet winner on day 22 after beating over 3,100 players in Event #34: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $488k. Schmid plays online under the name PimpinDonks and is a well known SNG player. Another former banker (JP Morgan Chase) Schmid started playing poker online in 2005 and now makes videos at Sharkscopers, or did at least....

Schmid adds to the growing list of first time bracelet winners this year, and as we're yet to see a double bracelet winner in 2011, could this be the first year in over a decade that it doesn't happen?

Event #37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship drew a field of 239 players including Mori Eskandani, the producer of poker TV shows such as Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker and the NBC National Heads-Up Championship. Eskandani's Poker PROductions is also producing the WSOP shows for ESPN for the first time this year (they're responsible for the 'mothership' final table set) after a successful WSOPE series. Final tables are being broadcast on ESPN3.com and the main shows for the $50k player championship and the main event will be airing on ESPN and ESPN 2.

From Day 3 of the Main Event ESPN will be showing a live stream with hole cards on a slight delay. That should make for some great viewing and some interesting scenarios.

Let's hope Mori and his team can re-ignite some of that WSOP magic and bring poker closer to the world of sport where TV coverage is concerned.

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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

WSOP Day 21 - Helmuth Denied

The final day of Event #33: $10,000 Stud 8 or Better Championship had a star studded final day with David Benyamine, Ted Forrest and Phil Helmuth all making the final table.

All eyes were on Helmuth as he battled his way through the final table to get heads up with eventual champion Eric Rodawig. Rodawig went into heads-up with a large chip lead and managed to deny Helmuth his 12th WSOP bracelet in the process of winning his first and $442k.

There is some good news for Helmuth as he now tops the WSOP Player of the Year standings, just edging out Sam Stein and John Juanda. He'll need to work hard to stay up near the top but he definitely has a shot, and he'll almost certainly care about this.

Event #32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em also awarded a bracelet on day 21 and Kirk Caldwell was the man to take it down. Caldwell brings the tally of Canadian players to win a WSOP bracelet to four.

31 year old Caldwell won his entry to the $1,500 event by winning a local satellite tournament and this win is not only his first cash at the WSOP, but his first ever event. This is the stuff dreams are made of for amateur players and Caldwell seems deserving of the win - he's even offered to back the player he beat heads up for the seat into the WSOP Main Event. Some of the $668k prize money will be split between Caldwell's friends back home in Ontario as part of a deal they made for the tournament.

Let's hope some of the bigger media and reporting sites run with the story a little, as this is the kind of thing the WSOP needs!

It looks like the cash game action is picking up as a few high stakes regulars (Daniel Cates and Brian Hastings, among others) have Tweeted recently about the games. It looks like at least a 500/1k is running at the Rio. Check out WSOP Live Action to keep an eye on what's running.

The WSOP numbers in general continue to look healthy according to wsop.com. Total participation is up over 10% and prize money up over 8% compared to 2010. It's hard to compare turnouts and prizepools on a like-for-like basis as the schedules are a little different, but things certainly aren't as bad as some feared post Black Friday. It'll be worth checking back in a week or so to see if the numbers hold up, and we still have that mega barometer of poker economy health yet to come.

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Monday, June 20, 2011

Helmuth Goes For #12 (again)

Interesting line up in the remaining field of Event #33: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship:

Eric Rodawig
David Benyamine
Mikhail Savinov
Ali Eslami
Antony Lellouche
Joe Tehan
Phil Hellmuth
Felipe Ramos
John Racener
Ted Forrest
Phil Laak
Erik Seidel
Bill Chen
Christopher George
Justin Smith
Chris Tryba
Cyndy Violette
Jon Turner

Turner, Forrest, Laak, Benyamine, Chen - the remaining field is like some kind of poker dream team. Well, almost - Helmuth in the mix again, in a non-holdem event. 168 players turned out for the $10k championship event and just 18 remain after day 2.

If he keeps playing these small field, large buy-in events I'm scared he's going to take one down eventually and we'll never hear the end of it.

The rail should get big today as people start to sweat and anti-sweat the players left in the tournament.

My money is on Erik Seidel, and it's not even close...

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WSOP Days 19 & 20

Duke graduate Andy Frankenberger took down Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and added $600k and a WSOP bracelet to his already impressive poker resume which includes a win in the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event in addition to a $2k Venetian Deepstack event. Frankenberger gave up a Wall Street career as a equity derivatives trader and eventually started playing poker professionally. As if to prove the win means something (from wsop.com):

For me, it’s so important for me to get this win. When I won the Legends and I won the Venetian, poker was very new to me. I had not invested that much into it in terms of time or energy. At this point, I have been playing all year. I have been traveling all over the world. This is my first big win of 2011, so I can’t even begin to tell you how much this win means to me right now.

Another large field for the WSOP as Event #28 attracted over 2,500 players. The fields definitely have been healthy overall and from what I hear the action at the cash tables and in satellites has been good too.

Event #29: $2,500 10-Game Mix was scheduled to play down to a winner, but as the 10th level ended 3 players still remained. Well known 2+2'er Shaun Deeb narrowly missed out on his first bracelet after busting in 4th place. Chris Lee lead the remaining three players into (what should be) the last day.

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

WSOP Day 18

A busy day for bracelets at the WSOP on Day 18 as 3 events reached their conclusion. The seniors event also go off to a start today and a whopping 3,752 players turned out to play the $1k NLHE tournament.

Chris Viox won Event #25: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo after defeating Mike Sexton heads up for the bracelet and $200k.

Event #26: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed saw another Brit come close as Chris Moorman made a deep run, eventually busting in 3rd place. The event was won by the highly pronounceable Oleksil Kovalchuk who took home $689k and a WSOP bracelet for his efforts.

I'm a huge fan of the 2+2 pokercast so I was pleased to see Adam's brother Daniel Idema take down Event #27: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship after coming second in the same event last year. I think we can safely add this to the 'poker is a game of skill' argument after Mark Radoja completed a similar feat just a day before in the $5k NLHE shootout.

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Saturday, June 18, 2011

WSOP Day 17

Just the one bracelet awarded on day 17 of the WSOP as Mark Radoja took down Event #24: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. Radoja made the final table in the same $5k NLHE event last year and came 3rd. One of the worst feelings resulting from a finish like that is that you might never get another opportunity. It must feel pretty good to come back the very next year and win the same event. Radoja took down his first WSOP and bracelet and a healthy $436k for the win.

Popular TV personality Norman Chad made a deep run in Event #25: $1,500 Stud 8 or Better, but fell just short of the final table, busting in 12th place. Mike Sexton did make the final table along with Chris Viox.


Event #29: $2,500 10-Game Mix made it's debut, as did badugi, making it's first appearance as part of the games. 431 players turned out for the event demonstrating a good apatite for the mixed games at the WSOP. Just over 160 players made day 2 and I think we can expect some big names to make a deep run. This is definitely an event which favours the cash game players who play the higher stakes mixed games, as tournament practice is hard to come by.

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Thursday, June 16, 2011

WSOP Day 16

France take down thier second bracelet of the WSOP as Elie Payan wins Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for $292k and the coveted gold bracelet. European players are doing well overall this year and are giving the home players a run for their money. David "Doc" Sands made the final table but could only manage a third place finish after mounting a comeback from a short stack early on. Payan takes another one for the amateur players although that's probably to be expected when the event is a) PLO and b) has over 1,000 players.

Event #23: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix was taken down by John Monnette after a six hour final table defeating Eric Buchman heads up for the bracelet and $278k. John Racener was among those at the final table but fell short of the win in 8th place.

Jess Welman over at Bluff has done a great piece on the WSOP by the numbers and Pokernews also have a piece on prizepools and field sizes.

It looks like only a handful of the events have seen a decrease in numbers from last year and numbers were pretty good last year too. There is a feeling that this is, in the wake of Black Friday, a last stab at WSOP glory for some. While many still have money locked up in Full Tilt accounts, some will also have money burning a hole in their bank accounts as they were forced to cash out from PokerStars. I think the WSOP in 2012 will be the real test, and who knows what might happen between now and next summer.

The line for the WSOP Main Event seems to be around the 5,200 mark and I think a big part of how accurate that is depends on the sattalites PokerStars offers. Stars typically contributes a large number of players to the field (how many is hard to say as players are able to simply cash out the money or play with it online) and the less WSOP centric Main Event Passport now offers a single tournament entry that can be used for not just the WSOP, but also for EPT events, AAPT events and events like the PCA.

That has to have a significant impact on numbers, as does all of the people who'll be busto by the time the Main Event rolls around and can't simply withdraw more money from their online roll.

It's the Main Event of the World Series of Poker though, so you never know!

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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

WSOP Day 14 & 15

More news from Vegas as the bracelets are coming thick and fast. Two of the smaller buy in events awarded bracelets as well as the $10k stud championship.

Foster Hays takes down Event #18: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and a whoping $735k in prize money for making his way through the 3,157 strong field. Hays is a medical researcher and was evedently back at work the day after his win.

Jason Somerville took down Event #20: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem winning $493k and his first WSOP bracelet. Another huge field in this one as 3,175 turned out to play. Jason is a well known and liked pro and the win adds to his already impressive $2.7m in tournament earnings.

...and I'm absolutely cleaning up in my 'pick a player to win his first WSOP bracelets' pool as Bertrand Grospellier, more easily pronounced as ElkY, takes down Event #21: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud, his fist bracelet and just over $330k. Grospellier also becomes only the fourth player in history to complete the triple crown of winning a WPT, WSOP and EPT event after Jake Cody completed the feat earlier this WSOP. PokerStars blog entry on the achievement.

In other news Darren Woods won Event #19: $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six Handed and $213k to spend after he's finished looking at his shiney new bracelet. Kim Nguyen came close to becoming the WSOP's latest female bracelet winner but came just short, busting in second place.

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Monday, June 13, 2011

WSOP Day 13

It's day 13 already and the latest bracelet has been awarded in Event #17: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E to a man by the name of Aaron Steury. The 24 year old poker pro dropped out of university to play poker. Hopefully the bracelet and the $289,283 that go with it help justify that decision (plus he can always go back to school).

Event #21: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship had a starting field of just 126 with 91 of the players returning for day 2. Alexander Kostritsyn and Mike Sexton are among the early chip leaders in what promises to be another pro heavy final few tables.

Two more bracelets are due to be awarded tomorrow, one in Event #18: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em which, rather unsurprisingly, doesn't have any big name pros among the chip leaders at the end of day 2. The second will be awarded to the winner of
Event #19: $2,500 Limit Hold'em (6 handed). All eyes will be on Stephanie Nguyen who could become the first woman to win a WSOP bracelet in an open event for a few years. Sam Grizzle made a deep run in the event, proving that not only is he alive, but he's still able to find backers into $2.5k buy-in tournaments.


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Sunday, June 12, 2011

WSOP Day 11 & 12

The poker world has been spared what would have been an intolerable 10 or 15 years of bragging rights Phil Helmuth would have earned by winning Event #16: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship. He came alarmingly close, going into heads up with a 3-1 chip lead against eventual champion John Juanda. Fortunately the legendary Juanda was there to stop him in his tracks and win his fifth WSOP bracelet.


Junda and Helmuth Heads-Up - Photo from Pokernews


Helmuth earned the majority of his bracelet haul in the earlier days of the WSOP, when field sizes were not much different from the 126 who turned out for the 2-7 Lowball event. If he's going to start playing these types of events each year then may he does have a chance at another bracelet - lets hope there is always a John Juanda standing in his way.

There are some great write ups from the event, including the one and only Tao of Poker and the Pokernews writeup.

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Saturday, June 11, 2011

WSOP Day 10

Event #11: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Championship saw PokerStars pro and online multi tabling beast George Lind miss out on his first WSOP bracelet. Lind is a really nice guy and has had a bad run of it at the WSOP until now. Hopefully he gets to finish one place higher later this summer. The difference between first and second at the WSOP is vast, almost like winning a silver medal at the Olympics, you're never going to be quite happy. Viacheslav Zhukov was the man that took the bracelet and all the glory.


Event #12: $1,500 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em also awarded a bracelet on Day 10 and David Diaz was the man on the receiving end with a cool $352,808 to go with it.


Event #16: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship was always going to be a stacked field but the final 9 has a scary name among it:


Richard Ashby
Steve Sung
Hasan Habib
Greg Raymer
Phil Hellmuth
Nick Schulman
John Juanda
David Baker
Joe Cassidy

That's right, Helmulth as a really good shot at his 12th bracelet in what would be, without question, one of the biggest stories of the WSOP. I'm not sure what his 2-7 Draw Lowball game is like (all of Helmuth's 11 bracelets are in Hold'em) but it's good enough to make his way through a field stacked with pros, even if they weren't necessarily that familiar with the game.

Play restarts tomorrow and I think any of the field winning make a nice story. Bakes won the event last year, Helmuth and Raymer don't need any explanation and Ashby has already made a final table this WSOP.

I'm devastated that Johnny Chan busted late in day 2 as I'd love nothing more than to see him beat Helmuth heads up for a bracelet. That would make my WSOP for sure.

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Thursday, June 09, 2011

WSOP Day 9

I think I'll start with a great blog post from Jesse May on the Brits in Vegas this summer. Great blog overall actually, reccomended by tons of people on Twitter today, well worth a read.

On the subject of Brits (it's going to be a theme as long as we keep winning/going deep) Richard Ashby managed a 4th place finish in Event #11: $10,000 Omaha High-Low Championship - read about his finish over at Black Belt.

Just when I was starting to feel bad about not playing the WSOP this year I saw this:

'0-10 at Wsop so far. Played 60k in tournaments!' (@TheGrinder44 - Michael Mizrachi)

When you're not playing it's a horrible feeling, but ever so slightly worse is being 60k down after 10 tournies. You start off by planning two or three braceletts, then maybe just the one would do, then you think getting even would actaully be pretty cool, then just a cash before you go home is all you're asking for...

Two PokerStars Pro's are in the hunt for a bracelet today. I can't help but feel sorry for Terrence Chan if his WSOP house secures another bracelet that doesn't belong to him.

Struggling to keep up with the action this year - might be more to come later!

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Wednesday, June 08, 2011

WSOP Day 7 & 8 - The Brits Are Here

As a fellow Brit I was pleased to see Matt Perrins take down Event #9: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball after Jake Cody won the $25k HU event a few days ago.

Much has been made of the fact that he didn't know how to play the game until watching a few clips on YouTube a couple of days before the event. But here's the thing, Matt is clealry a good poker player. The rules of the game in nealry all forms are fairly easy to pick up. It's the aggression, reads, the thinking part of poker that takes time to learn and if you can do that for Hold'em, PLO or any other game there's a good chance you can adapt those skills to another game. Not everyone can do it of course and the better you are at adapting and poker in general the better you'll be at making the transition to another game.

There would have been some mistakes along the way, and almost certainly some run good involved, but it's still a remarkable achievement. The Brits have already made a mark on the WSOP this year after a great WSOP in 2010, let's hope we can take a few more bracelets down by the time the main event rolls around in July...

We're down to 3 in Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with another well known online pro Jon Turner up against two more Brits: Sadan Turker and Sean Getzwiller for the bracelet. Turker carries a strong chip lead into the final day with nealry 8m against Getzwiller on 3m and Turner on 1.7m. Still plenty to play for as Turner has just over 20 BB's.

The next of the 'rebuy chip' events started yesterday with Event #12: $1,500 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em underway with 1,340 players starting. 165 made day two as the chips flew after most players decided to use all three bullets from the start. The chip leader finished the day on 124k - in the space of 10 levels that's some serious run hot. Randy 'Nanonoko' Lew posted a good blog on his thoughts on the event here.

Event #11: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship is in the money with 22 players remaining. Jason Mercier went deep but only managed a min-cash after making the money with less than 2 BB's. Notables returning tomorrow to battle it out for the bracelet and $465k include Shaun Deeb, Mike Sexton and the short stacked Josh Arieh.

David Vamplew continues his great run going into day 3 of Event #10: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed - 15 players return today to play for the bracelet.

Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout and Event #14: $3,000 Limit Hold'em get uderway later today.

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Monday, June 06, 2011

WSOP Day 6 & More Black Friday Stuff

The 2011 WSOP has 3 new bracelet winners:

Allen Bari somewhat inevitably took down Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em with his epic chip lead going into the final day with 4 left. Maria Ho put up a valiant fight heads up but Bari emerged the victor, earning $874k in addiiton to the coveted bracelet. Nice round up of the event from Jess Welman over at Bluff.

Event #7: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship concluded with Amir Lehavot taking down a bracelet and $563k for his efforts. Nicolas Levi also made the final table adding a 6th place finish to his 5th place in the WSOPE main event in London last year. If anything players in these event deserve at least a medal for playing 10 handed PLHE for as long as they did...

...but not as much as those making the final table of the even more painful Event #6: $1,500 Limit Hold'em - Harrison Wilder took down the bracelet and just over $200k for first. Scott Clements was among those that made the final table, eventually busting in a tilt-worthy 9th place.

The WSOP isn't all serious business of course, Wicked Chops have a superb 'Girls on the rail' post that is well worth a look. Great work!

Aaron Wilt (DC Coach WiltOnTilt) has posted a great blog about some of the conversations he's had with senior officials. He's also mentioned that he intends to contribute to the Quad Jacks radio show which contunues to be a great source of information (and entertainment) for online poker players.


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Sunday, June 05, 2011

WSOP Day 5, Black Friday in Mainstream Media (again)

Many a 'player to win their first bracelet in 2011' bet was off to a quick start with Eugene Katchalov winning Event #5: $1,500 Seven Card Stud and a not insignificant $122,909. I'm sure Katchalov would have been a popular pick (he went early in both of the drafts I participated in) so a few people will be paying up already. Katchalov is a NLHE specialist by trade, making the win that much more impressive. I might have to put him on my multiple bracelet in 2011 list...

The hugely popular Maria Ho made her first WSOP final table in Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em which is now down to 3 now after 4 started the final day. Allen Bari has a huge chip lead with over 9m chips to Ho and Sean LeFort's 2m each. It would be nice to see a woman take down a bracelet this earlier, especially if it's Maria!


Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, a triple chance (players get two add on chips) event gets underway with a half decent 275 players in the field. Jimmy 'Gobboboy' Fricke and George Lind have enough chips to make the biggest stacks to end day one. Hopefully Jimmy can make a deep run, I'm a big fan of his work on Pokerroad and behind the scenes on the Pokerstars Big Game.

Interesting article on the Fox News website about the effect Black Friday has had on families who rely on online poker as the main source of household income. It;'s great to see a few more 'real' stories come out of Black Friday instead of the 'oh no, I can't buy another $2m apartment/Bentley/$50k watch' type stories. The stories in the upcoming BOOM documentary seem to focus on the same issues, which should get people thinking about some of the more heartwarming stories.

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Saturday, June 04, 2011

WSOP Days 3 & 4 + Other Stuff

The WSOP is really in full swing with events 4,5,6,7 and 8 all in progress currently.

Day 3 is underway in Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em with 42 players back to fight it out for the bracelet. The 2009 winner of the equivalent event Brian Lemke has 1m chips, almost 300k more than second in chips. Still a long way to go in that event though.

Jake Cody wins Event #2: $25,000 Heads-Up Championship for $851,192 and becomes only the third person to achieve a triple crown. Cody has now won an EPT (Deuville), WPT (London) and a WSOP bracelet. He took his time though, 15 months to win all three, and, oh yeah, he's 22 years old...

The first $1k mega donkaments of this years Wold Series, Event #8 starts today and so fare there are over 2,700 players in the field (including those registered for day 1b, which starts tomorrow). I guess poker isn't dead just yet - that's going to be an epic field. I have seen some crazy things playing poker but never anything quite like this.

Bluff Magazine will be taking care of the WSOP player of the year system for this WSOP.

I don't mind a bit of light entertainment and I think the WSOP rematches were just that. Chan and Moneymaker were victorious over Helmuth and Farha with the Chan v Seidel matchup postponed as Seidel was probably winning a few million dollars elsewhere and was unable to play.

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Thursday, June 02, 2011

WSOP Day 2 Round-Up

It would be hard to follow the drama of the first day of the WSOP this year but here's a round up of the various goings on at the WSOP and the wider poker world:

The WSOP has announced a $1 Million buy-in tournament in aid of One Drop, an charity started by Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil fame.

It looks like a few well known businessmen/poker players are on board:

Bobby Baldwin
Phil Ruffin
Andy Beal

In addition to the professionals everyone would expect:

Doyle Brunson
Patrik Antonius
Gus Hansen
Tony G

I think we can add Ivey to that list depending on how things go over the next year (the event will be in 2012). There is some serious value in there from the businessmen so I'd be surprised if we don't see a few lesser known pros selling action and getting involved - even if there is a big rake for the charity.

3 million chip starting stack, not entirely sure that is needed, although it is in line with the chip value of other WSOP tournies. There is a 48 player cap and if reached it would create a $40m prizepool and somewhere in the region of $17m for 1st..

Cue arguements about buying a bracelet (assuming there is one) and the all time money list which currently only requires $16m to take the top spot, although one would guess Seidel will just win it anyway.

2+2 poster ncpokeresq offers a half decent legal analysis of Ivey v. Tiltware which can be read here. It's posted in NVG so take it for what it's worth...

Titlware's response was clearly written by an angry hormonal teenager:

“Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself. In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited -- and has declined -- to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help.”


Rapidly losing respect for the team over at Full Tilt, the knives have come our from some of the better known pro's - looks like that story has a long way to go.

Event #2: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Holdem Championship is about to kick off with day 3. The final 8:

Matt Marafioti vs Gus Hansen
Jake Cody vs Anthony Guetti
David Paredes vs Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Nikolay Evdakov v Eric Froehlich

Some interesting match ups there. Hansen sent Dwan packing in the last round and Timoshenko is just a monster. The structre is interesting too, players get an inital stack, then two 'rebuy' options which they can use at any time.

We'll probably start to see some players multi tabling as Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em kicks off today with what looks like a huge field for a $5k - Negreanu, Binger, Shulman and Liv Boeree are among the early chip leaders. Live updates can be found on Pokernews.

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Wednesday, June 01, 2011

WSOP Day 1 - Phil Ivey not playing WSOP, Bord and Juanda have a scrap

Well, the first 24 hours or so of the WSOP haven’t been without event, that much is for sure.

One thing I forgot to mention in my opening post yesterday was the stick that Full Tilt and other pros who represent sites who are yet to return player money would get from other players.

It was a pretty big oversight, because clearly those who have significant amounts of money tied up in these sites are going to be emotionally charged and in an environment where they are able to confront well known associates of the sites face to face.

It looks like first to create a scene was James Bord, who politely waited around for Jon Juanda to finish his match in the $25k HU event before launching into what appears to be a tirade of abuse at the Full Tilt pro.

Rio security were seen in the lobby giving Bord a hard time about his actions afterwards. Let’s hope there isn’t a hard penalty for his actions despite the fact that they were clearly not the best way to approach any situation that may have occurred.

After the words ‘thieving’ and ‘disgrace’ were heard it sounds like he made a physical threat which I’m sure the Rio security team will have to take seriously. It’s worth noting that Bord is British, so while it’s unlikely any of his own money is held up it’s possible he does have a significant interest in any horses he may have or money owed he’s not getting. There is some speculation that it may not have anything to do with Full Tilt paying out US players.

If Bord and Juanda’s tiff at the Rio was a warm up, then clearly Phil Ivey’s announcement on Facebook was the main event…

To cut a fairly long story short: Phil Ivey isn’t playing in the WSOP this year, and he’s files a law suit against Tiltware, the company that operates Full Tilt Poker.



Phil's statement from Facebook (page can be found here):

For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm.
I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment.


The news came by way of Facebook with conformation seemingly from Wicked Chops Poker first after speaking to Phil's agent.

Without the slick PR machine of Full Tilt behind Phil I guess we can forgive the strange medium and approach of the announcement, including the 'PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIAYE RELEASE' on his website.



While some people are complaining about Phil's own self interest or some other agenda he might have I personally have a lot of respect for Phil and this really only cements his reputation as a stand up guy in my opinion.

Tom Dwan has publicly stated (by way of his Twitter account) that he will return all of the money he's made from Full Tilt in the event that players don't get their money back and that he'll be playing the WSOP.

In other news, Joe Sebok arrives tomorrow, that should be interesting...

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