#863 – Fast-Forward London

The third World Series of Poker-Europe is now history. Congratulations to WSOP-Europe Champion Barry Shulman and everyone who turned in a great performance in London. I’m disappointed that I missed the action because it sounded fun and exciting. (Thanks to WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla and Pokernews for updates.) From my remote location in Scottsdale, Arizona, my favorite story of the Series – though Barry Shulman’s victory was plenty exciting – was Howard Lederer’s close call for his third bracelet.

Last week, I wrote about his near-miss in PLO. It was a great Series for Howard, with final table appearances in £2,500 PLHE/PLO (9^th) and £5,000 PLO (2^nd). In fact, it’s now two straight European WSOPs that Lederer came achingly close to the bracelet.

Among the comments I received on that post was one from Howard’s father, Richard Lederer. Richard, like many people who have contacted me recently, had trouble posting his comment to the blog. (They are working on it, along with the problem of the getting the RSS feed to work – I pass every one of your complaints along to tech.) But Richard Lederer sent me the comment in an e-mail, with permission to use as I saw fit.

Yo Michael

Richard Lederer, Howard’s dad, checking in. Thanks sooo much for showing this portrait of my son with the world and with me. I believe that you have captured the essence of his poker spirit in your Howard Lederer portraits over the years I’m proud to be his father.

I have great admiration for Richard, an author of over 30 books and expert on the English language – he even taught me the word “resistentialism” (the ability of objects to resist human wishes) for the non-functioning comment-function. And I had great times these past five years with every member of his extended family: Richard, his wife Simone, Howard, Annie, Katy, and his ex-wife Deedee and her boyfriend Dale. So I mark my profiles of Howard and Steve Zolotow as my “highlights” of the 2009 WSOP-Europe.

But there were plenty of more conventional highlights, and they bear mentioning if you weren’t keeping track:

1. Turnout was strong at Casino at the Empire for this edition of WSOP-Europe. The first event, £1,000 NLHE, was split into two starting days and drew 608 players, a London tournament poker record.

2. J.P. Kelly won his second bracelet of 2009 by taking down the first event.

3. Erik Cajelais won the second event, £2,500 PLHE/PLO, over a tough final table that included Howard Lederer (9^th), Hoyt Corkins (7^th), Chris Bjorin (6^th), and Men Nguyen (4^th).

4. Jani Vilmunen beat Howard for the bracelet in £5,000 PLO. Some familiar names at the final table included Robert Williamson III (9^th), Roberto Romanello (7^th), and Ross Boatman (4^th).

5. English poker pro Paul Zimbler set a world record (soon undoubtedly to be broken again) for the longest continuous poker session. He played heads-up against 183 opponents during a period of 74 hours, 20 minutes, 21 seconds. He started against Doyle Brunson and broke the old record against Mike Matusow. Zimbler finished 102-81 and raised £35,000 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

6. In the inaugural edition of a Ryder Cup-style poker event called the Caesars Cup, Team Europe defeated Team Americas by a margin of 4-1. It seemed like a cool idea but from what I read, the blinds and levels were set ridiculously high, as if the Ryder Cup was contested at a three-hole mini-golf course. Too bad, but the potential of the format opens up the possibility that someone with money and TV access could toy with it and come up with something very cool

7. WSOP-E ended in dramatic fashion, with Barry Shulman winning the Championship over and extremely tough final table. To give you an idea of how tough the competition was, the runner-up is now the all-time leading tournament poker money-winner. (Daniel Negreanu) Some of the players who just missed making the final table included Doyle Brunson (17^th), Ram Vaswami (15^th), and Eric Liu (10^th). The final table included one newcomer (Marcus Ristola in 5^th), two November Niners (James Akenhead in 9^th, Antoine Saout in 7^th), Chris Bjorin in 6^th (making his second final table of the 2009 WSOP-E), and three of the hottest poker players of 2009: Matt Hawrilenko (8^th), Jason Mercier (4^th), and Praz Bansi (3^rd).

It’s Barry Shulman’s second bracelet, but being over thirty, he has generally been regarded as an old schooler more familiar at final tables in Limit events. Barry is the owner of Card Player Media and his son, Jeffrey, publishes the magazine and makes a Main Event final table a couple of times per decade. Earlier in the London tournament, Jeff announced that he hired Phil Hellmuth as his final-table coach for November. The two are long-time friends and publishing colleagues, but I’m starting to think hiring Hellmuth implies some turmoil in the House of Shulman. At least it would make for a spirited heads-up match.

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