Poker From The Rail
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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
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](/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](/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
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
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
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Amazon Room prepares for $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. with more space, less tables
The turnout for yesterday’s $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship was well below the numbers previously seen in the event. Only 95 players dropped the big bucks to play with the best after averaging over 140 in other years (your humble blogger had a friendly wager, taking the over on 132. Cooler). There have been many discussions over the last 24 hours with all manner of excuses. The economy, the earlier $40k NLHE, no television coverage, broke poker players, etc. You name and I’ve heard it.
It certainly was an interesting day from a Full Tilt perspective, 30 of the 95 pros were sporting FTP patches. Unfortunately Steve Zolotow was the first player to hit the rail. Only four players would be shown the door on the first day of play, mostly as a result of the slow structure and triple stacks. David Benyamine, Andy Black and Chris Ferguson are right up there with the chip leaders as we begin day 2 of 5.
As mentioned yesterday, this event drew a huge crowd of fans and railbirds. They patiently waited out a delayed start to the tournament, lined the hallways between the Amazon and VIP rooms gathering autographs, few left during the breaks to save their “spot”. They were only admonished a few times about the prohibited flash photography and I didn’t see a single attempted autograph during play. The pictures below will give you an idea of what we saw.
Full Tilt has yet another chance to add a bracelet to the collection as Lee Watkinson made the Pot Limit Omaha/8 final table. He’s sitting third in chips but Brando Cantu has a monster stack going in. It will be a tough hill to climb but it’s not impossible.
It’s Saturday, so that means we have another $1,500 donkament filling the hallways and poker rooms. Today’s event sold out well before kickoff and many pros who like to buyin late were shutout. Others are wishing they were shutout when they make the walk of shame too early.
Less than a week til the Main Event kicks off, are you ready to sling some chips?
Restart chip counts after the jump:
Fans and railbirds were out in force for the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Another week has gone by at the 2009 World Series of Poker and things are starting to ramp up. Full Tilt was unable to add to it’s collection of WSOP bracelets but FTP blogger Michael Craig and pro Vitaly Lunkin both put in second place showings. The week started with the NHL Stanley Cup coming to the Amazon Room and ending with the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. kick off. The schedule was lighter than the first three weeks but there was plenty of action to capture.
I present to you the week in pictures from the Full Tilt angle.
The first is by far my favorite photo from the 2009 World Series of Poker. Photographer extraordinaire BJ Nemeth has been capturing some incredible images this year. This photo was taken from atop the bracelet ceremony stage as Phil Ivey picked up his 7th World Series of Poker bracelet. It illustrates the massive amount of players, fans, and media Ivey draws to any event. Click to enlarge and enjoy. More images after the jump.
Photo credit: BJ Nemeth
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Amanda Baker, Bloggers on the Rail, Chau Giang, Erick Lindgren, Erik Cajelais, Howard Lederer, Kristy Gazes, Phil Ivey, Pictures of the Week, Rafe Furst, Scott Clements, Steve Zolotow
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Today begins the unofficial final run towards to the end of the 2009 World Series of Poker by kicking off the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Most players have been grinding away for a month in the various games offered but only the big guns and lucky satellite players will be starting up today at noon.
The orange section of the Amazon Room has been configured differently for this tournament. Every other table has been removed to allow more space between the players and perhaps make it easier for the masses on the rail to view their favorite player. The fans will be out in force today.
This is one of the most prestigious events at the World Series of Poker with the huge buyin and the different skills needed to navigate the field. Players will start with a whopping 150,000 in chips, super structure and 90 minute levels. A small field that will take 5 days to play down to our new champion.
In addition to the H.O.R.S.E. tournament today, we will have a bracelet awarded in $2,500 Mixed Hold’em where Allen Cunningham came just short of the table. Day 2 begins for the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha/8 where they are just 15 players short of the money and Full Tilt pro Perry Friedman is the chip leader. Our other new tournament of the day is on the opposite end of the spectrum, a $1,500 LIMIT Shootout tournament.
I expect to watch a full stable of Full Tilt pros sitting amongst the 100+ H.O.R.S.E. players looking to take home the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.
Chip counts for the restarts after the jump:
Orange section of the Amazon Room reconfigured for easy traffic and viewing
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Perry Friedman, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
I should be taking every advantage of this lovely Thursday afternoon/evening because it might be the last slow day I have until I hop that jet airplane back east after the “November Nine” is set. Just one little $1,500 PLO8 tournament kicking off today but tomorrow is the granddaddy of big buyin skill games. The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. is next up on the agenda. We can expect a crush of players, railbirds, and poker media with unreal expectations.
There are three tournaments restarting including two more bracelet winners in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship and $2,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament. The Mix Hold’em event begins it’s Day 2 and amazingly only 7 players from the money already. There are some big names coming back with Barry Greenstein leading the field and Eli Elezra ahead of all other Full Tilt pros.
Mike Matusow will be my player to watch today in the Omaha/8 tournament where he sits 18 out of 23 remaining. Matusow won his second WSOP bracelet in 2002 playing this game and knows how to pull up from the shortstack.
The last sane day of the WSOP, I intend to enjoy it.
~
My blogging brethren over at Wicked Chops Poker spend their days entertaining millions, perhaps billions and trillions of readers each day. They’ve been sitting in media row each day to bring the hard hitting stories from the depths of the Amazon Room. Today they are paying back some of their loyal readers with a freeroll on Full Tilt Poker.
The WSOP has introduced an event during the Main Event called Dream Team Poker. It’s a concept recently developed and getting great reviews. Three players team up and play a tournament against other teams. Prize pool payouts are based on individual AND team performance. The configuration prevents teammates from finding themselves at the same table unless they get really deep.
Wicked Chops Poker is giving you the opportunity to play in this event on their dime, as their second team. The top 3 finishers will win the prize, if one of those players is unable to attend it moves to the next player(s). Kind of like Miss America scandals.
I’m signed up and will be playing from the great big Amazonian Amazon Room.
Tourney Name: WCP Dream Team WSOP Freeroll
Tourney ID: 95494430
Date/Time: June 25, 20:00 ET (8pm ET)
Password: VikkiBlows
~
Chip counts for the restarts after the jump:
Mike Matusow shoots for bracelet #4 today in Omaha/8 Event #46
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Jeff Madsen, Mike Matusow, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
And that blogger would not be me.
We almost had special day for the Full Tilt blogging team here in Vegas. The writing team consists of two people, myself and Michael Craig. Two basic differences between us, Michael can write and play poker. I’m a keyboard hack and boardline grinder. Michael made his third WSOP final table yesterday, I once won a private $10 tournament on Full Tilt.
Michael batted through Day 2 of the Razz tournament and started the final day 8th out of 12. I’m assuming the blame goes toward the structure, but players were busting early and often. The unofficial “9-handed” final table was setup on the secondary feature table with a few players that had a shot. East Coast monster Allen Bari (over $1,000,000 in career tournament earnings), Kenna James (+$3,000,000 career), and of course Jeff Lisandro who already two WSOP bracelets this year.
I did a little “railing” dance throughout the day. Michael would start losing chips, I’d move back to my perch atop media row to watch from afar. He’d start moving up and I would go back. That’s how it went all day. I did not want to be his personal cooler so most of my “railing” was via the internet.
At one point he was the shortstack of the table then he started his run to second chip stack. The other players made their way out of the tournament to hit up the cage for a payout but he stuck around. Unfortunately for Michael the ultimate Stud “stud” was still sitting there. According the chip count reports, Jeff Lisandro was sitting with well over half the chips in play when 4 other players were still involved.
It was only a matter of time before everyone would succumb to his power. Senor Craig finished in second place, just shy of that elusive first WSOP braclet but no dishonor in losing to Lisandro. Not only is this Lisandro’s third WSOP bracelet this year but he’s won all three in different variations of Seven Card Stud. Stud Hi, Stud Hi-Low, and now Razz.
Congrats to Michael and I can’t wait to read his post (edit: his first post it up). He was taking enough notes for a new book.
For the record, I tried to find a picture of the ever-elusive Shauna sweating Michael for you my gentle readers. Either she dodged the camera well or she’s a ghost we’ve been imagining.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Michael Craig, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
On Monday morning, the Poker Players Alliance held a news conference in the Rio to give an update on the current state of poker related legislation and announce some new initiatives. John Pappas, Senator Alfonse D’Amato and Representative Shelley Berkely spoke briefly. Rep. Berkely gave a recap of how former Senator Bill Frist rammed the UIEGA through Congress attached to the Port Security Bill, a bill that was a sure-fire lock to pass, and the only way to sneak it past the voters. Rep. Berkely was the only member of the House to make her way to the floor to make her feelings known on this shady move.
They also highlighted several new plans in the works in Congress. Rep. Menedez on New Jersey has introduced a bill which looks to define and provide an exemption for “games of skill” on the internet to include poker. It would be the second go round for the bill but provides much needed debate on the issue. PPA Champion Barney Frank continues his fight to completely overturn the UIEGA and it appears there might be a Finance Committee hearing in the very near future.
PPA Executive Director John Pappas highlighted several new plans to bring attention to our cause in front of US leaders of Congress and the country.
He announced creation of the National Poker Week to take place after WSOP play wraps for the summer. From July 19th to the 25th, poker players both professional and amateur are encouraged to make a trek to Washington, DC to meet with their local representatives in Congress voicing concerns and support for our game. If unable to make the trip, players can still email their congressman. Information can be found at the National Poker Week or Poker Players Alliance websites.
During that week, the Poker Players Alliance will meet with President Obama on this issue and plan to present him with a petition signed by players. The petition states:
“What’s most important to me is your support for my rights. Please: 1) exempt poker from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and 2) license and regulate internet poker in the US. 3) Respect the rights of law-abiding Americans who love to play this great game of skill.”
All players can sign the petition online at PokerPetition.com, nearly 50,000 players have signed since the launch on Monday. Make your voice heard, sign the petition.
After the press conference, Senator D’Amato took his seat in the Seniors Event for his first ever WSOP tournament and Rep. Berkely was given the honor to say the traditional start of tournament instructions “shuffle up and deal!”
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, PPA, WSOP
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