Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Perry Friedman rocks the Full Tilt Poker “grill” to go with his corn rows
I’ve generally stuck to doing a “Week in Pictures” during the preliminary events of the WSOP but I now realize that I’ll be getting more photos than I know what to do with now that we’ve come to the Main Event. So now we’re going to switch up to daily posts as long as we continue to get quality images.
Day 1a started with 1,116 and finished with 821 players. A good number of Team Full Tilt survived to see Day 2.
More photos after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Allen Cunningham, Beth Shak, Bloggers on the Rail, Eli Elezra, Erik Cajelais, Gavin Smith, Greg Mueller, Jerry Yang, Jon Turner, Michael Gracz, Perry Friedman, Roland de Wolfe, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Week 5 brought us to the end of preliminary tournaments as we now prepare for the Main Event onslaught. There was plenty of excitement with all the big names showing up for the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship, more bracelets added to the Full Tilt stable, and every poker playing celebrity showing up to compete in the Ante Up for Africa charity event.
Instead of boring you with my words, you can have a look for yourself in the latest “Week in Pictures”. More photos after the jump.
This year’s Ante Up for Africa charity tournament drew a huge gathering at the rail. They were there to see their favorite celebrities and poker players. There was much yelling and screaming for photos and autographs. Even though this is not a bracelet event, Full Tilt will be will represented when ESPN shows the broadcast. The final table included Rafe Furst, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon and Jennifer Harman.
Photo credit: Gene Bromberg
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Pictures of the Week, WSOP
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Chau Giang and Matt Damon pal around during the Ante Up for Africa fund raiser
“Welcome to Groundhog Day” is the standard phrasing around media row about the rehashing of another Day 1 of the Main Event. Referencing the movie, not the American holiday. The poker world hits the reset button and another group of players enter the Amazon Room with their 30,000 in chips and dreams of bracelets. Day 1b has typically been the slowest of the starts so we can expect a little easier time looking for players, dodging a thinner rail along the way.
Yesterday saw a significant drop in the destruction rate of players. Credit it to the deeper stacks, slower structure, better play, etc but we only dropped 295 of the starting 1,116 players. That’s quite a change from the earlier events including the large buyin World Championships. We did lose the first player within the first 15 minutes of kickoff with a crack of his aces.
Quite a few members of Team Full Tilt were able to dodge the land mines and get a seat assignement for Day 2a on Tuesday, Eli Elezra has the biggest Day 1a stack amongst the FTP pros with +83,000. Other notable names making it through; actress Jennifer Tilly, actor Jason Alexander, blogger Lana “LJ” Maier, 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider, and poker legend Johnny “censored” Chan.
The rest of Team Full Tilt to make it through (average chip stack is 40,780):
Eli Elezra - 83,375
Vitaly Lunkin - 68,300
Mike Gracz - 59,375
Andy Black - 56,475
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker - 56,400
Michael Craig - 42,975
Erik Cajelais - 42,750
Gus Hansen - 38,075
Greg “FBT” Mueller - 35,950
Richard “Quiet Lion” Brodie - 34,300
Roland De Wolfe - 31,000
Beth Shak - 25,525
Nikolay Evdakov - 22,625
Gavin Smith - 17,750
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 13,350
Brian Townsend - 9,125
We’ll spend Day 1b running around the smaller field tracking down our players and keeping an eye on the play.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s the day everyone has been waiting for. After 30+ days of preliminary events and satellites, the World Series of Poker Main Event is here. The first of four “Day 1s” kicked off at noon with a proclamation by Jeffrey Pollack, Jack Effel, and Sasquatch gave the command to Shuffle Up and Deal. Can’t make that stuff up. The field is definitely more amped up this afternoon as everyone tries to win a World Championship.
The draw for Day 1a seems a little lower than expected but the registration line continues to run down the hallway. The growing thought is that we will have a much bigger showing this weekend with the holiday and many players traveling today. The official numbers have not been released yet but we’re hearing that just over 1,100 players are in the field today. In contrast, there are already over 1,400 players registered for Day 1d.
You can’t have the WSOP Main Event without some shilling. The poker expo has opened in the convention center, now with the snappy title of “Pokerpalooza”. Every possible vendor has descended upon Rio hawking their products to the masses. There’s even a mechanical bull on one side of the room and a dance floor right in the middle. It appears a gentleman has been hired to build a monstrous house of cards near the entrance, I can’t imagine what that is supposed to be selling but it takes up a lot of space.
It’s impossible to tour the entire field to catch every Full Tilt pro in the field but I was able to find a few.
Gus Hanson
Andy Bloch
Andy Black
Jerry Yang
Perry Friedman
Gavin Smith
Berry Johnston
Beth Shak
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner
Erik Cajelais
Roland de Wolfe
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker
Michael Craig
Richard Brodie
I’ll be walking the rail and talking with some online qualifiers. I’ll be bringing back the stories about the biggest poker tournament of the year.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Matt Hawrilenko snuck this win under the radar in more ways than one. The last day of the final preliminary event was stuck back in the corner, overshadowed by a massive satellite and the Ante Up for Africa charity event. Railbirds had their back to them as they went from 16 players down to the final table, down to the eventual winner. Another Full Tilt pro took down another bracelet. Number 8 for the family.
Hawrilenko battled through 928 players to take home the gold and over $1,000,000. This was by far the biggest payout in his World Series of Poker by tenfold. He earlier made a final table in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship and has four other cashes this year.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Matt Hawrilenko, WSOP
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Vitaly Lunkin and Erik Seidel both made the $50k HORSE final table but came up short
It’s all over but the big one. There will be no more preliminary events to witness, no more multiple tournaments across several rooms. Today the Amazon Room takes a break to prepare for the big daddy Main Event. There are a few mega-satellites going on throughout the room and we’ll get to watch the big charity Ante Up for Africa event. A low stress day before the halls of the Rio are rammed full of grinders looking for the biggest prize in poker.
Today we will award the final preliminary event bracelet in the $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em tournament with Full Tilt pros Peter “Nordberg” Feldman and Matt Hawrilenko near the top of the board for a bracelet. They start the day with 16 players remaining and playing down to the winner.
It’s more than 90 minutes before kicking off the celeb-heavy Ante Up for Africa tournament and fans have already begun loading up on the rail. Plenty of chances for them to get an up close view of their favorite poker player, movie star, rock star. Anyone can drop $5,000 and get into the event, one of the few being broadcast by ESPN this year. Media access is severely restricted for this tournament so I’ll give it a cursory glance.
In news from the $50,000 HORSE World Championship, Full Tilt walked in with 4 of the remaining 8 seats but unable to bring home another bracelet and that big fancy trophy. It turned out to be one of the longest final tables in World Series of Poker history coming in at just under 19 hours. The only other final table which ran longer was the 2009 World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event won by John Juanda in 19 hours 9 minutes. Vitaly Lunkin went the furthest for Team Full Tilt with a 4th place finish. Lunkin final tabled the two biggest buyins of the year after winning the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Anniversary tournament.
For players coming into town for their shot at the Main Event, they are running Mega-satellites between now and July 5th at 10am and 4pm with a $550 buyin. They are giving away nearly 10 seats per satellite and the play appears to mighty soft in relation to the prize.
Everyone is taking a little break today, gathering themselves for the two week Main Event storm where we’ll see I huge jump in participation and attendance, the rail will be nearly impossible to navigate. If you were thinking of making the trip out here, now is the time to get it done.
Nikolay Evdakov reflects on his Event #56 performance
Sometimes the captions write themselves
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Seidel, Vitaly Lunkin, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Eight players will take their seats for the final table of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Champioship today and four of those players are members of Team Full Tilt. Carrying the flag today will be Vitaly Lunkin who starts the day second in chips followed by Huck Seed, Chau Giang, and Erik Seidel. With 50% of the remaining players, we’re coin flipping to add an eight bracelet to the FTP count. As expected it will be a stacked final table with 18 bracelets amongst the 8 players.
Erik Siedel - 8 wins
Huck Seed - 4 wins
Chau Giang - 3 wins
Vitaly Lunkin - 2 wins
Ville Wahlbeck - 1 win
Lunkin and Wahlbeck have a chance to add to the number of multiple bracelet winners at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Four players have accomplished that feat this year, it could move us into uncharted waters trying to tie/pass the record of six multiple winners in 2003.
There will also be two other bracelet awarded by the end of the day. Eric “Rizen” Lynch is the premier name remaining in the Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em Event. Allie Prescott and Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage are lining up to win some WSOP gold in the $1,500 Stud/8 tournament.
Today brings us the final “open” tournament before the Ante Up for Africa and Main Event. The $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em should draw a nice crowd of grinders and pros looking at their next to last shot at WSOP glory. Those who have not had the best series so far may turn desperate, others will be looking to add more to their 2009 WSOP earnings.
The halls of the Amazon Room have begun their final transformations. Over the last 5 weeks things have been pretty standard. Munchie stations, a few bar setups for adult beverages, the odd booth featuring bikini clad girls to distract the grinders. The Main Event is right around the corner so we’re seeing more displays and hucksters. The Rio staff has begun preparing the convention center for the World Series of Poker Life Expo. I may be able to do an entire post just reviewing each booth.
The clock is ticking for our players this year. Time to make moves.
Restart chip counts after the jump:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed, Vitaly Lunkin, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
I’m not necessarily the most brilliant person in the world, but today I was smarter than the average bear. Today is the final $1,500 “donkament” of the 2009 World Series of Poker and I realized my timing would bring me to the Amazon Room halls smack in the middle of the Final Lemur Stampede. Instead I took my time getting to the media area, a little orange juice and a tasty muffin. A nice casual walk through the Rio. By the time I strolled to my seat all 2,800 hopefuls were tossing chips around like so many useless pieces of ceramic.
Timing is crucial on these days, restart tournaments have already been pushed back by an hour and the poker kitchen is running out of lukewarm cardboard pizzas. Ashtrays and trashcans are overflowing. You cannot get caught on the wrong end of the hallway when the tournament goes on break, the “salmon swimming upstream” metaphor is far too easy.
Of course this is not the big news of the day. Day 4 of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship will bring us the final two tables and into the money. 19 players are looking for the big prize at the end and Full Tilt Poker will have 6 representatives in the remaining field with Gus Hansen, Huck Seed, Chau Giang, Erik Seidel, and David Chiu looking up at tournament leader Vitaly Lunkin. If Lunkin is able to pull off the win he will have taken down the two biggest buyin events of the 2009 World Series of Poker. His bracelet earlier this year was in the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em 40th Anniversary event.
Unfortunately for the media and fans, the restart has been moved to the much smaller green section were it’s nearly impossible to get a good view unless they got on the rail early and never leave.
The top story this morning has been yet another multiple bracelet winner at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Full Tilt pro Greg “FBT” Mueller won his second bracelet of the year, both wins coming in Limit Hold’em events. He is the fourth player to win at least two events and the second Team Full Tilt member after Phil Ivey. He will receive his bracelet at the ceremony today and stand for the Canadian National Anthem.
For the record, 2003 was the year with the most multiple event winners. The historic Chris Moneymaker Main Event win overshadowed a year in which 6 players won two bracelets. Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Layne Flack, Phil Hellmuth, Men “The Master “Nguyen, and Johnny “(censored)” Chan all added jewelry to each wrist that year. We won’t get there this year without some miracles, but a fantastic year none the less.
Several restarts are occurring today and their chip counts are after the jump:
![greg_mueller_ev50_final_table_ev50_final_table_isb_3125_impdi_impdi 2009 World Series of Poker Day 34 - The Final Stampede](http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/greg_mueller_ev50_final_table_ev50_final_table_isb_3125_impdi_impdi.jpg "Greg \\"FBT\\" Mueller wins his second bracelet at the 2009 World Series of Poker")
![2009_wsop_75 2009 World Series of Poker Day 34 - The Final Stampede](http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-from-the-rail/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/2009_wsop_75.jpg "Greg \\"FBT\\" Mueller\'s second bracelet ceremony")
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Greg Mueller, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Greg “FBT” Mueller heads up for $1,500 Limit Shootout bracelet
The third time is a charm. For the third time this week a member of Team Full Tilt Poker found themselves heads up for a World Series of Poker bracelet. The first two time Michael Craig and Lee Watkinson had to accept runner up money. Tonight Greg “FBT” Mueller completed the deal, winning his second WSOP bracelet of the year and 7th over all for Team Full Tilt Poker. He took down the $1,500 Limit Shootout after winning the $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship earlier in the series.
Mueller also becomes the fourth player this year to win multiple bracelets, following up Jeff Lisandro (3), Phil Ivey (2), and Brock Parker (2).
2009 World Series of Poker bracelet winners for Team Full Tilt:
Phil Ivey (2)
Greg “FBT” Mueller (2)
Vitaly Lunkin (1)
Nick Schulman (1)
Roland De Wolfe (1)
More on the victory tomorrow morning.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Greg Mueller, WSOP
(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5, rated) Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Another day gone by, another near miss for a Full Tilt bracelet. Lee Watkinson had Brandon Cantu all in with a weak A2xx at the Pot Limit Omaha/8 but could not hold off the midling eight on the flop. That propelled Cantu to the chip lead and he was able to continue his lucky run to the bracelet.
The final table became very interesting as the blinds rose and players continued to chop chop their way deeper. While sitting four handed, simply betting the pot preflop involved a significant portion of a player’s chip stack. This caused huge fluctuations in the counts and current leader. In the end, the only Full Tilt logo in the winner’s picture was Gavin Smith jumping in with Cantu.
Team FTP has another bracelet shot later today when Greg “FBT” Mueller goes for his second of the year at the $1,500 Limit Shootout final table. He defeated 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider in a long heads up battle to make it through. The final table will be 8-handed with the winner taking away just under $200,000 and the jewelry.
The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship gallops along (see what I did there?) with still over half the starting field coming along. Gus Hansen leads the way going into Day 3 along with Team Full Tilt members Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, David Chui, Vitaly Lunkin, Huck Seed, Chau Giang and others. They are still 37 players away from the money and final two tables.
Two new tournaments kick off today with something called a Triple Chance $3,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament. This replaces the rebuy events and there are varied strategies for playing. We will see how that goes. The big name pros will be split evenly between this and the $1,500 Stud/8 event starting at 5pm.
Things are getting down to the finish line quickly. Looking at the schedule we only see three new events besides the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament and the Main Event. Tomorrow brings the last of the $1,500 “donkaments” and a $2,500 Limit Deuce to Seven Draw tournament. Tuesday has the $5,000 6-max No Limit Hold’em event and that is it. Those tournament will run us down to the end of the week when the celebs show up for charity and near 7,000 people flood town for the Main Event.
Interesting times my friends.
Restart chip counts after the jump:
Lee Watkinson can only watch as his cards do not hold up for his second bracelet
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Lee Watkinson, WSOP
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