Entries from September, 2009
Team Full Tilt Look to Dominate Live Poker. Again.
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Things get quite bizarre around me when I find myself going a week’s length of time without serious internet access. I always have my trusty iPhone on my person in case immediate situations present themselves where I need access to a search engine for frivolous trivia answers, but it doesn’t give the outlet for my inter-words or a chance to follow along with things in the poker world. That was the situation I found myself over the last week when I left the grind of the Borgata Poker Open and took a little birthday time away in an island paradise.
So what has happened over the last few days that might be of interest to the casual fan of poker? Members of Team Full Tilt putting a big stamp on the World Series of Poker Europe and an FTP Heads Up grinder collects a WPT win after an huge comeback.
First out of the chute is the easy reporting duty since I was there in person. 1,018 players entered the 2009 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship, they battled for 5 days until we finally found ourselves looking at a heads up match for the title. Olivier “livb112″ Busquet found himself looking at a massive underdog chip stack going up against blackjack specialist Jeremy Brown. Busquet makes his living tearing through $1,000 Heads Up SnG’s on Full Tilt Poker, booking over $1,500,000 in earnings. Brown’s claim to fame seemed to be chugging a beer per orbit and shots of Patrone with his friends. At one point Busquet was all in with his last 1,800,000 in chips versus the +30,000,000 of Brown, behind and turning lucky. Battle after battle, he eventually turned the tide and took down the title. It will certainly be one of the more interesting telecasts of the new season next spring. You can catch his victory interview with Amanda Leatherman here.
In the big news across the pond, we saw members of Team Full Tilt dominate the early WSOP-E events and making a run at the Main Event as we read/write this post. With just 4 total events during this London-based series, players did not have the luxury of warming up with a bunch of smaller events before jumping after a bracelet. The first event was a standard £1,000 buyin No Limit Hold’em tournament. While none of the Full Tilters ran huge in this starter event, we did have Markus Gloser and John Juanda make the money and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson just miss the final table in 15th.
Event #2 is where things became interesting. Just 158 players bought into the Mix Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha for £2,500 with 18 players getting paid. Team Full Tilt member Vitaly Lunkin and “friend of the blog” Allie Prescott both made it into the money but could not get onto the final table. It was a talented final nine which included Howard Lederer, Hoyt Corkins, Chris Bjorin, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Ian Frazer and Erik Cajelais. In the end, Team Full Tilt had the first off the final table and the last man standing. Howard Lederer was eliminated in the 9th place while Erik Cajelais collects his first WSOP braclet to go along with his WPT Five Diamonds Classic title. Many of the players on the final day were also registered for Day 1 of the £5,000 PLO tournament and there seemed to be a lot of live multi-tabling going on.
Howard Lederer would not let his 9th place finish hamper his efforts in Event #3, £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha sure to attract the best European poker players around. 154 players were in the running to start Day 1 but only 18 would make the money and a chance at the bracelet. Tom “durrrr” Dwan has been known to play a few hands of PLO on occasion (tongue firmly in cheek) but he was unable to crack the final table coming in 14th. Nearly half of the final was composed of the red and white patches of Full Tilt with Robert Williamson III, Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman, Roberto Romanello and Howard Lederer in the last nine. Howard Lederer was poised to capture the second bracelet for FTP but was unable to overcome Jani Vilmunen to finish second. That is back-to-back final table finishes for “The Professor”.
The £10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event is will underway and there are just two tables left battling it out. John Juanda won the bracelet in 2008 but was unable to defend his title. James Akenhead has a fantastic chance to duplicate the feat by Ivan Demidov last year. Demidov was already set up as a member of the “November Nine” in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event when he went to Europe and final tabled that Main Event. Akenhead will represent Full Tilt Poker later this year for the WSOP Main Event final table and is now sitting mid-field with 18 players remaining in the European Main Event.
Also looking to make a run at this final bracelet you can find poker legend Doyle Brunson, Hendon Mobster Ram Vaswani, Tony Cousineau, Matt Hawrilenko, Daniel Negreanu, and Jason Mercier. There are no soft spots left in this field. They continue to grind away and hopefully we’ll have just one more great story for Team Full Tilt before the series is complete.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Cajelais, Howard Lederer, James Akenhead, John Juanda
Tilt on Tilt Violence
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
They’re heading into Day 2 of the second event of the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe and a Tilter is leading the way as they head towards the money. Only 158 players put down the £2,500 for the mixed Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha tournament but they only dropped down to 24 players, with 18 of those making the money. Eric Cajelais will bring his intimidation back to play down to a winner. Cajelias is sitting with 145,000, also alive are Team Full Tilt are Howard Lederer and Vitaly Lunkin. Men Nguyen, Allie Prescott, and Hoyt Corkins are also in contention.
Here at The Borgata I am spending my time watching a bunch of grinder fight their way through to make the $925,000 payday along with the televised WPT final table. Getting down close the bubble we had two big Full Tilt pros battling it out against each other and entertaining the rail in the process. Bill Gazes joined the table with Gavin Smith and local poker legend “Joey the B” Brooks right up against the rail and things were entertaining. Until just before the dinner break. Smith and Gazes were both sitting with decent size stack when Smith 3-bet the preflop raise of Gazes. Push, call, and all the chips were in the middle with Smith holding AA and Gazes a lowly little pair of 6’s. No sweating involved as a 6 was waiting in the door.
Day 3 of the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship where they’ll make the money and play down to 27. Still kicking around in the event we have Bill Gazes, Steve Brecher, Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah, Justin “TooRoothlus” Levy (brother of “Roothlus), Kathy Liebert, Matt Brady, Michael Binger, Chris Reslock, and Lee Childs.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bill Gazes, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Cajelais, Gavin Smith, Steve Brecher, WPT
MiniFTOPS XIII Draws Monster Fields
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
As advertised, there was action all over the planet this weekend in the world of poker. Big events in the WSOP-E, World Poker Tour, and the online world. Event #1 in the World Series of Poker Europe kicked off on Friday with a £1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament which drew 608 players. The field was split between two Day 1’s at the Empire Casino in London and was stacked full of the biggest stars in poker. 63 players made the money with Full Tilt being represented in the final standing by Markus Golser (49th for £2,359), John Juanda (43rd for £2,803) and Chris Ferguson (15th for £6,980). Monday brings their £2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha tournaments which means they’ll see a European top-heavy leaderboard.
The 2009 Borgata Poker Open WPT Championship is also underway. While not nearly as pro heavy as the WSOP-E, over a thousand players put up the small buyin amount of $3,500 for a prizepool over $3.5million and their shot at a TV table. Full Tilt pros Gavin Smith, Bill Gazes, John D’Agostino, and Roy Winston made an appearance as well as former WSOP Main Event winner Robert Varkonyi. WSOP bracelet winners J.C. Tran, Jason Young, and Brian Lemke. Matt “All in at 420″ Stout, Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins, Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah, Dean Hamrick, and Matt Brady were also battling it out. Only D’Agostino amongst the Full Tilt pros was unable to survive Day 1a or 1b of the tournament. They’ll play the field down over the next few days and the WPT will film the final table on Thursday.
Then there were the huge online tournaments throughout the day including Big Money Sunday and the conclusion of MiniFTOPS XIII. The numbers on Sunday alone were incredible.
Seven events I watched (Sunday Brawl, Double Deuce, $1Million Guarantee, Sunday Mulligan, and 3 final MiniFTOPS XIII) drew over 51,000 players with a prize pool the exceeded $3,500,000. The MiniFTOPS XIII Main Event cost 25% of the regular Sunday $750,000 Guarantee but almost put that much money in it’s prizepool, $720,000 and change. MiniFTOPS Event #23 was minuscule $12+1 and drew in a ridiculous 19,196 players. The pace of play at one point of the tournament had entrants busting at a rate of 50 PER MINUTE. Incredibly insane numbers and action.
It was a fantastic series and you can expect more of the same down the road.
MiniFTOPS results after the jump:
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MiniFTOPS, WPT and WSOP-E (Alphabet Weekend)
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Plenty of action this weekend both in live and online poker. MiniFTOPS XIII runs the final tournaments of the series and continue to draw massive fields, bankroll changing prizepools for very small buyin amounts. Big Money Sunday will be huge again when the monthly $1,000,000 Guarantee replaces the regular $750,000. The opportunities for life changing money is available.
The live poker news, there are two series which will be running at the same time on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The World Poker Tour makes it’s appearance at the Borgata Hotel and Casino with the WPT Championship kicking off on Saturday. This will turn out one of the biggest fields for a WPT event since they are offering the televised Main Event for just a $3,300+200 and a $2,000,000 Guarantee. Players already set to play are Team Full Tilt members Gavin Smith and Bill Gazes as well as Matt “All in at 420″ Stout, Lee Childs, Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, Kenna James, Matt Brady, and Jason Young.
The rest of the poker world is now getting underway in London as the 2009 World Series of Poker – Europe has started to run their tournaments. The WSOP-E only runs 4 open events but they attract biggest names in poker including most of your favorite Full Tilt players. John Juanda is the defending WSOP-E Main Event Champion and will be looking to repeat his victory.
I’ll be tracking the action all weekend with the online and live tournaments. I’ll bring you the best of the action over the weekend.
More MiniFTOPS XIII results after the jump:
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2009 World Series of Poker ESPN Broadcast
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Things are starting to get interesting on the ESPN broadcast of the 2009 World Series of Poker now. The field has been reduced considerably by this point and you’ll begin to see the leaders emerge as well as some of the spectacular flame outs. There is no doubt that we will see a healthy dose of Phil Ivey as he continued his push to what would eventually be his inclusion in the “November Nine”. Chris Ferguson, Gavin Smith, and Roland De Wolfe should see some TV time as well. 2009 Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro will be primary focus of the broadcast which will have him on the feature table.
I was out there during the WSOP along with fellow FTP blogger Michael Craig. You can check out his archives as well as my Main Event live blogs here. Also listed below are some links to my Pictures of the day. The two ESPN broadcast will run today at 20:00ET and 21:00ET.
2009 World Series of Poker Day 1c and 1d in Pictures
2009 World Series of Poker Day 2a in Pictures
2009 World Series of Poker Day 2b in Pictures
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, ESPN, Phil Ivey, WSOP
Big Monday Sunday and MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
If you couldn’t find action on Full Tilt Poker on Sunday, you just weren’t looking hard enough. On top of the regular Big Money Sunday games, you also had three additional large guarantee events for MiniFTOPS XIII. Those 6 tournaments alone drew just shy of 40,000 players and a huge prize pool over $2,300,000. You had a choice between Heads Up, 6-max, or good old fashioned Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em. There was a little something for every player.
Earlier in the weekend we saw a family battle to dominate MiniFTOPS. Both Chip Jett and wife Karina Jett found themselves at final tables in two different events. Chip Jett entered the MiniFTOPS Event #5 Stud tournament with 1,907 other lasted longer than all but one of them. “inter27″ was the only player left standing when defeated Jett heads up. Not to be overshadowed, Karina Jett battled through 2,210 players to take third in the Pot Limit Omaha Event #6. She may have finished one spot lower on the final board but she went through more players and banked more cash. Chip added $4,337 to his bankroll while Karina cashed for over $9,000.
My sad attempts to play in the MiniFOPS have been hard to come by. I’m certainly glad I did not make that prep bet with Michael Craig. As things settle down around me I will pony up some of my hard-won bankroll on some of these incredibly juicy, huge field tournaments. There are 5 great tournament over the next two days including a whopping $100+9 buyin, $250,000 guarantee tournament this evening with Antes from the start. You can find the complete MiniFTOPS XIII Schedule here.
Event #11 Pot Limit Hold’em / Pot Limit Omaha
When: Monday, September 14th at 13:00ET
Buyin: $20+2
Guarantee: $30,000
Event #12 No Limit Hold’em Ante from the Start
When: Monday, September 14th at 21:00ET
Buyin: $100+9
Guarantee: $250,000
Event #13 No Limit Hold’em 3x Shootout
When: Tuesday, September 15th at 13:00ET
Buyin: $50+5
Guarantee: $30,000
Event #14 H.O.R.S.E.
When: Tuesday, September 15th at 21:00ET
Buyin: $50+5
Guarantee: $50,000
Event #15 No Limit Hold’em 6-max Turbo
When: Tuesday, September 15th at 21:00ET
Buyin: $20+2
Guarantee: $100,000
Big Money Sunday and MiniFTOPS results after the jump:
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Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
MiniFTOPS XIII blasts off
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Wow.
That’s all I was saying last night as I watched the number of entrants sour through the roof for MiniFTOPS XIII Event #1. I would generally wait until the end of the week to do a little recap of the last few events but this turnout warranted it’s own post. 16,750 players for a mid-week, late-night (for my time zone) tournament is incredible. A prizepool of $335,000 with over $50,000 going to first place, all for a tiny buyin of $20+2 or satellite for as little as 75c. The event brought out a baker’s dozen of Team Full Tilt including fellow FTP blogger Michael Craig, Lee Watkinson, Roy Winston, and Scott Fischman. Jon “Pearljammer” Turner was the last pro standing but fell short of the cash.
Professional player Mike “GoLeahsGoEh” Leah was my interesting story of the event. I am spending my next two weeks camped out at the Borgata Hotel and Casino for the WPT event, a little writing and a little playing. Leah was seen here in the tournament room yesterday afternoon competing in their first event of the series but busted out in the late afternoon. Just a few hours later and I was railing him in MiniFTOPS Event #1 and he was tearing up the field. He went on to finish 273rd out of 16,750 and is now sitting in the live tournament room competing again.
The tournament ran an incredible 12 hours, finishing up at 9am my time. Long after my eyes were closed and I was dreaming of bracelets, trophies and little avatar jerseys. The time from start to bubble seemed to fly but there is only so many ways to bust players out. Sitting at the final table, the average chip stack was jus south of 10,000,000 and I was amazed to see that no one made a deal when things were short-handed. Here’s how everything was paid out in the end:
1st – leoelectric – $50,250
2nd – zcooper123 – $33,500
3rd – rova33 – $23,450
4th – Bio72 – $16,750
5th – Chantastic1 – $11,725
6th – ZBTHorton – $8,710
7th – Shadi888 – $6,301
8th – OMGlefty – $4,623
9th – Gags30 – $3,283
My personal MiniFTOPS experience was postponed by one game as I wandered the tables in search of stories and pictures. There were quite a few young guns from the online world in the live field including Matt “All in at 420″ Stout who mentioned to the table that he was missing this MiniFTOPS game, I tried to keep track of his sister for him while he played. We’ve already proven that their will be quite a number of players dividing their time between the live poker world here and the online world during this series.
There are two more MiniFTOPS events today. Event #2 (6-max NLHE Shootout) is already sold out at 1,296 players but there is plenty of room for the 21:00ET Event #3 ($20+2 Limit Omaha/8). You can find the complete schedule here. This looks to be a great series of events for the smaller bankrolled players, giving everyone an opportunity for a big money boost and experience in large field tournaments. My plan is to pony up the money for the Omaha/8 and prepare for my Borgata run at the live version fo the game tomorrow.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
MiniFTOPS XIII set to start
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
A few weeks ago we had FTOPS XIII run its course with huge fields and fantastic turnouts. Tomorrow kicks off the smaller version of the series with MiniFTOPS XIII. You’ll find the same 25 events at merely 10% of the big game buyins. At the beginning of the latest FTOPS, Full Tilt guaranteed $19,000,000 in prizepool money for the two combined series. The big series itself generated over $18,500,000 in cash payouts meaning MiniFTOPS will push us well over $20,000,000 paid out over the last few weeks. That’s a monstrous number no matter how you look at it.
MiniFTOPS XIII has a $3,000,000 guarantee and begins tomorrow (Septermber 9th) with a $200,000 No Limit Hold’em event for a tiny $20+2 buyin. This series has every game you can imagine, at small buyin amounts, for huge sums of money. In the tournaments lobbies you can find satellites into the events for as little as 75c or a few FTP points. These games are accessible by anyone with an account on the site. I plan to take a few shots of my own.
I’ve been looking over the schedule trying to see where I want to lay down some money. My track record proves that I am far from a dynamo when it comes to tournament play but these are going to be too juicy to avoid. I also had an ill-fated concept up my sleeve where I intended to issue a challenge to fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig, a little contest to see who would do better during the MiniFTOPS. Unfortunately for me, I’ll have a very limited schedule and will have to pick my games with care. Your trusty blogger will be making a rare live poker appearance at the Borgata Poker Open.
Games that are definitely out for me are the shootouts (no thank you!), rebuy events (proper bankroll management), and 6-max (I’m a tight nit). That leaves my options open still with a ton of events. I’ll mix in as many non-No Limit Hold’em events that I can fit with a few of the big guarantee pushfests. Looking over the list and here is my tentative schedule. You can find the entire MiniFTOPS schedule listed here.
My MiniFTOPS playing schedule after the jump:
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, MiniFTOPS
Big Money Sunday – September 6th
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Another full weekend online with the Big Money Sunday tournaments and Take 2 promotions bringing out players to the tables as well as a Full Tilt pro making big moves in a live European Tournament. We also saw a huge jump in satellites as players get ready to take their shot at the miniFTOPS which kicks off in just a few days. Fun and profitable times at the virtual tables.
Amanda “Mandy B” Baker came close to a Sunday final table for the second week in a row. If I put up another picture of her in this post I might be accused of bias. She went through nearly 9,700 players in the $200,000 Double Deuce only to finish in 20th place. First the first time since I can remember, the $200,000 ran without reaching it’s guarantee meaning the tounament players were given a $6,000 overlay by Full Tilt. More free money.
The 3 Big Money Sunday regular tournaments kept up their pace with a combined prize pool of over $1.5 Million. ”TheBrain” was the biggest name at the Sunday Brawl final table finishing in 3rd. Previous wins from “TheBrain” include an FTOPS win last August as well as a $1,000 Monday and $100 rebuy $65k Guarantee tournaments on FTP.
The biggest winner of the evening is also a past FTOPS winner who took down one of the biggest online tournaments ever run. ”hAAydon” took down over $140,000 for his victory in the $750,000 Guarantee. That is nearly $400,000 less than he earned for his victory in FTOPS IX Event #22. His $540,000 payday for the two-day $2,500 tournament was one of the largest in history.
In live poker news, Team Full Tilt pro Roland De Wolfe is having a nice run in Spain. They are moving quickly towards the final three tables of the EPT Barcelona tournament and he’s sitting near the middle of the field. This summer De Wolfe claimed his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/8 tournament. He was also the first to win the so-called “Triple Crown” which represnts a WPT, EPT and WSOP victory.
At the same time, you have the WPT Cyprus Main Event occurring with a field stocked full of Full Tilt pros. Currently wading through the tournament are Allen Cunningham, Phil Gordon, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Mike Matusow and 2009 “November Nine” member James Akenhead. That event is just kicking off and promises to have a fine representation from Full Tilt.
After the jump you can find a video with Roland De Wolfe and Poker from The Rail favorite Melissa Castello as well results from the Big Money Sunday events.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Big Money Sunday, Bloggers on the Rail, Roland de Wolfe
Take 2 Promotion pad your bankroll
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
In August Full Tilt gave our players the “Biggest Bonus Ever” and September brings even more free money. The new Take 2 promotion began yesterday (September 1st) and gives you a very easy way to bank up to $50 in free cash. You simply have to signup and play a little poker. Not much more complicated than that.
Most players already fire up at least two tables when grinding away at the cash games, it’s just the best way to maximize your play and remove the temptation of getting frisky due to the “fold fold fold fold” boredom. Now you can earn between $5 and $50 from Full Tilt for doing just that and you’ll receive double points along the way. Play a mininum of two tables earning one measly point on each for 5 days and you bank an extra fiver in your account at the end of the month. Do that for 25 days and your bankroll will be $50 to the better. Unlike the Iron Man challenge, these days do not need to be consecutive.
It’s an easy thing to do, most of you will be running cash game tables during that time. Why not take some free Full Tilt money to pad the bankroll? Keep in mind that you need to go into the My Promotions section on the Cashier screen and elect to participate before you can earn. Here are some of the details from the promotion page:
Take 2 runs from Tuesday, September 1st to Wednesday, September 30th. By playing at least two ring-game tables at the same time during Take 2, you’ll earn double Full Tilt Points on both tables. Play as often as you can during September and you’ll be rewarded with cash, up to $50, depending on the number of days you play.
The more you play during Take 2, the more cash you can earn. Reach four different levels depending on the number of days that you play and you can earn up to $50:
Level 1: Play for 5 days and receive $5
Level 2: Play for 10 days to get $10, for a cumulative total of $15
Level 3: Play for 15 days and take home another $10, a cumulative total of $25
Level 4: Play for 25 days and you’ll earn an additional $25, for a cumulative total of $50
You can find the details on the Take 2 promotion and the Take 2 Rules by clicking on those links.
Good luck at the tables and feel free to leave a comment about how you ran during the month.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail
