In all the excitement of the November Nine, FTOPS XIV, and the Isildur1 cash game craziness I completely lost track of the upcoming $25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship.

In addition to the standard Big Money Sunday games, today at 15:00ET brings a tournament that will feature most of the top players from the online and live poker world. The buyin alone will narrow the field to the best players in Pot Limit Omaha, the game which has quickly taken over as the HU game for those risking huge swings. Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius are already registered and it’s only a matter of time before newly minted member Tom “durrrr” Dwan is in the field. You’ll find Andy Bloch and Erik Seidel signed up as well as “Annette_15″ Obrestad and crazy man Tony G. It wouldn’t be a high stakes Heads-Up these days if you didn’t see Isildur1 registered for the tournament.

The field will be capped at 64 and we halfway there. Full Tilt continues to run satellites for this incredible event, chances to win yourself on “the cheap”. The tournament ID is 116764959, the satellites are listed in the lobby.  I will be surprised if it does not fill before the start leaving a small number of players shooting for part of the $1,600,000 prizepool.

I will be there along the rail to catch and report that action. Look for updates.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

$25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship

Related posts:

1. Huck Seed wins 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship
2. 2009 November Nine – Cada and Moon Heads Up for Championship
3. Clonie Gowen wins 2008 World Poker Open Championship

It generally goes a little like this: Tournaments are the best format, cash games players rule. Tournaments are for lucksack push monkeys, cash games are for boring rock-garden nut-peddlers. As long as poker has been around there has been an argument for both sides of the equation. Nothing is ever solved but in the end it’s just a matter of preference and comfort zone.

You can count me in with the nut-peddling grinder crew as I generally view the tournament players as a bunch of gamblers looking to get all their chips in the middle on the come. It’s also true I’m so tight that I make Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler look like the world’s biggest LAGtard. Different strokes for different folks. Tournament players find my process of grinding out my daily nut in number of big-bets won the dullest most unimaginative form of the game.

This week’s guest blogger comes along and tells both sides it’s our best interest to cross the line, get our money in the game when the price is right and expand horizons. I’ll let him explain.

Ladies and gentlemen, your guest blogger Drizztdj.

Tournament or Cash Player?
by Drizztdj

Unless you have been living under cryogenic freeze for the past six months, or last decade for that matter, you dear readers are aware of the poker exploits of one Phil Ivey. He flies, he wins, he grinds, he smiles on a rare occasion when certain loggers from Maryland are not outdrawing him at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table (that apple must have tasted bitter after the queen flopped).

He’s a tournament player obviously, right? Nearly won WSOP bracelet number eight by becoming one of this year’s “November Nine”, a WPT bracelet, $12.2 million in tournament winnings, the man excels at closing out the tournament once given the chip ammo piled up from the countless check-raises and reading the souls of those who dared to pony up the entry fee to sit at his table. No emotion unchecked, staying just ahead of the blinds to cash isn’t an option as its first place or no place, Phil Ivey is definitely a tournament player.

But, wait. There’s a little side cash game going on at the Bellagio with millions of dollars on the felt. When the lack of tournament chips appear in front him, the high roller can be seen behind the glass doors of Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio playing for stakes that normal nine-to-five cube monkeys like myself only see while hitting up the play chip games. Only those aren’t play chips they’re $10,000 and $25,000 real currency chips being splashed across the felt on an up-and-down straight draw, or trying to squeeze out a wheel in deuce-to-seven triple draw. Likewise, if you’re a closet online nosebleed railbird like me, you’ll see Mr. Ivey’s avatar taking on all comers at Ivey League, Ivey Showdown, Ivey Thunderdome, and Ivey’s Playground tables, playing with $1,000 /$2,000 blinds all levels limit or no limit and in all games.

So, he’s a cash game savant right?

Wrong.

He’s a poker player, much like yourself or at least you’re studying up to become one. Whether it’s the Sunday Majors with $530 buy-ins, the $.01/$.02 no limit Omaha eight or better tables, or Dan’s basement rotation game, chips are chips, the job of the poker player is to extract as many of them possible from your opponents at the table.

Period.

Granted there are the rising blinds of a tournament, or the various table sizes like shootouts, heads-up, cashout, matrix, 6-max. Same with the cash games and their various degrees of blind levels, double stacks, short-handed tables they make you adjust to position, stack size, or the amount of jager-bombs the lush in the four seat had before sitting down.

You can read countless books on tournament versus cash game play and try to “specialize” yourself as a MTT wizard, or feared cash game rounder but in the end a player should try to become one thing. To become a complete poker player with the ability to sit down at any table with any poker variation and feel the profits about to slide into your stack.

Limiting yourself at the tables means side-stepping a potentially juicy cash game because setting out a stack of your own money instead of tournament chips scares you, your stunted growth as a player will only get worse. Or seeing a huge overlay in the Sunday Brawl and walking away from the free money being put on by Full Tilt because tournament play gives you hives. Personally, I have no reservation of tossing a buy-in into the middle of a $50 or $100 buy-in NLO8 cash game on a draw or bluff, but try to get me to spend a $24 token on the $5K PLO guarantee? I turtle up quicker than a quarterback seeing Ray Lewis come through the line untouched and about to decapitate me. It’s a leak and one I cure by occasionally dipping into the $24 and $75 token tourneys (after grabbing a token from the satellites of course).

Sure I enjoy tournaments and occasionally do fairly well in them (except for last night which we’ll blame on the moon’s alignment with Saturn and my daughter’s inability to sleep without a 15-point check before dreaming about whatever a three-old wants these days) . If one were to look up my negative to break even stats they’d see my average buy-in is around the price of a happy meal. Taking shots at a different buy-in level is something everyone should take but it shouldn’t come at the expense of being a “tourney player” or “cash game” player only.

Do read the free advice given by Team Full Tilt.

Do take shots outside of your comfort zone. If you’re a “tourney” player, fire up a ring game, if you’re a “cash game” player hit up one of the many guarantees offered here at Full Tilt.

Do NOT become half of the poker player you want to be. After all, wouldn’t you someday like to be tossing dice with Phil for a million a throw while jet-setting across the globe to 5-star resorts after taking down a tourney and cleaning up the cash game afterwards?

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Guest Post from Drizztjd – Tournament or Cash?

Related posts:

1. Guest Post – Micro-limit Cash Games
2. Guest Post – Julius Goat – Tournament Director
3. Guest Post – Tuscaloosa Johnny

I was minding my own business after a casual day of live cash games/drinking when my trusty wifi-enabled communication devices began chirping and chiming away. Everyone who knew of my associate with The Tilt began texting and twittering about the cash games blowing up with huge pots, all the big game grinders were getting their “two cents” involved. Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Hold’em, and the 7-Game Mix table were packed with obscene amounts of honest-to-god real money cash that are unimaginable to the vast majority of the poker world. There are many huge poker players who won’t go near these levels.

I did what a respectable member of the poker community would do, especially one whose charter involves keeping an eye on the big games and big names. I found a way to fire up the Full Tilt Poker software and witness some of the craziness for myself. I found all the action spread across several different lobbies with the largest games being found in PLO and 7-game involving Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Brian Townsend, Cole South and Abe “EazyPeazy” Mosseri. Notably absent was new Tilter Tom “durrrr” Dwan who was in London preparing for, and playing in, his “durrrr Million Dollar Challenge”. The Challenge didn’t stop Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies from taking time from his preparations to get in a little action.

Most notably involved was the mysterious Isildur1, it seems all we can figure out about this player is that he’s from Sweden and he’s got a bit of the gamble in him. Isildur1 was a regular in the higher stakes but came out of the blue to blast away at the very highest levels running against those accustomed to the rarefied air. Before Dwan hopped a plane across the pond it was reported the Isildur1 came in an relieved his bankroll of over $3,000,000. His name has been mentioned by every outlet that covers poker and the race is on to find out his/her real identity. Dwan even went so far as to issue a challenge for him to become part of the Live Heads Up matches in London. Isildur1’s lack of response was his decline.

I have a habit of saying “Mother Variance is a right bitch” to just about anyone who brags about huge gains over a short amount of time, well that seems to have jumped up and bit poor Isildur1 a little over the last few nights. Patrik Antonius is not the player you want to run into when it’s your time to give a little back. Not only did Antonius give him a smack on the nose, he popped Isildur1 for the biggest pot in online poker history.

In all the bouncing around I actually managed to miss everything go down but my good friends over at PokerNews.com caught it all. Without digging into the forensic details of the hand, I’ll just tell you that Antonius and Isildur1 had all the money in on the turn with a chop the most likely outcome. Antonius hit one of his ten outs on the river and dragged the new record pot of $878,958.50. That is not your standard home game pot. For the full details of the hand (until I can finally get the hand replayer pasted into this spot), you can check out the PokerNews.com writeup.

That wasn’t the end of the beatdown for Isildur1 as Brian Townsend and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies also stepped up over the last few days trying to take a piece out of his bankroll. Dwan must be licking his chops in London, wanting to get back online and reclaim what was once his. It will be interesting to see how long Isildur1 can hang at these levels, he’s been getting chippy in the chat the last few days and it may doing a number on him already. These tables have been running each evening and are definitely worth checking out for pure entertainment value.

~

In Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge news, Dwan is currently 1 for 2 in his battle. He is playing three 12 hours Heads Up matches against Marcello “Luckexpress” Marigliano, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Sammy George at $500/$1000 PLO or NLHE. No player can leave the table before 500 hands or going busto. First up was Marigliano who finished with a narrow edge of just over $22,000 and then he defeated Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies by $68,000.

Playing at these stakes you could generally expect a much wider gap at the end of play but the challenge has been very even. Next up is World Class Smack Talker Sammy George, I feel pretty confident that this will not be a close affair no matter who wins in the end.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Cash Game Explosion

Related posts:

1. Tom “durrr” Dwan puts big money on the line
2. Railing the Big Cash Game
3. Bloggers On The Rail – Million Dollar Cash Game

Sunday brought to close another successful FTOPS with 25 more events and over $18,000,000 dished out among the players. We had some big score by the top online and professional poker players such as David “The Dragon” Pham, Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder, Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire and Thayer “THAY3R” Rassmussen. Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck came out of nowhere to claim the top of the FTOPS XIV leaderboard with one title and a runner-up result in back-to-back days (Event #16 and 18) collecting nearly $100,000. Gary Jones was your big money winner amongst the Full Tilt pros when he banked $193,462 with his 4th place finish in the $2,500 Two Day Event.

The series started off with a little controversy in Event #1 when the players decided to not pay attention when making a deal at the table. If you want to know what happened, feel free to check out the Full Tilt forums. Yesterday concluded the series by paying out $6,487,7000 across four huge tournaments and awarding 13 players with paydays in the six digit range. There were actually four events this series which fell just short of the guarantee which meant that Full Tilt kicked in an extra $200,000 to the players in the form of overlays bringing the final prizepool payout to $18,153,100 across the 25 events.

I spent most of the series sitting in Las Vegas covering the November Nine but that didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping an eye on the biggest set of online tournaments running at the same time. After spending my days with the live players I would return to see what I missed, or what was still going on after one particularly long day. I asked fellow blogger Brad Utz to help me out and here are some of things we witnessed. You can find the final table results of all events after the jump.

- Full Tilt pros have a tough time breaking through to win these major events. Before this series only Erick Lindgren, Berry Johnston, and Gavin Smith were able to accomplish that feat with Smith and Johnston doing it last series. FTOPS XIV saw two more red letter pros score victories with David “The Dragon” Pham and Greg “FBT” Mueller. Pham had several prior FTOPS final tables to his credit but no joy until Event #14. Mueller’s victory was previous documented as he joined Erick Lindgren as the only Full Tilt pros to actually capture a victory in the event they were “hosting”.

- Coming into FTOPS XIV there were only 10 players who have won multiple events across the near 240 tournaments prior to this series. csimmus and Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein lead the way with 3 FTOPS titles. This series added three more to that list with Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder, Deception Pt, and elheroe all earning their second “golden jersey”. Event #5 was the FTOPS stacked table of the series with three previous winner with Burkholder almost adding another, “yuvee04″ going for his FOURTH, and it was here that Deception Pt picked up his second. There were actually quite a few former winners who came close to adding another this series including Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, David “Doc Sands”, and lilkimmer77 who all made final tables.

Live poker update: While finishing up this post I found out that “yuvee04″ just took down the H.O.R.S.E. event at the L.A. Poker Open. Congrats to a friend of the blog!

- Miscellaneous numbers from FTOPS XIV:

Number of events: 25
Guarantee Prizepool: $16,000,000
Actual Prizepool: $18,153,100
Largest Prizepool: $2,735,500 (Main Event)
Smallest Prizepool: $111,000 (Stud Hi/Lo)
Overlay (4 events): $221,300
Number of players: 54,823
Players with over $100,000 payout: 30 (thirty!)
Largest Payout: $539,350.00 (obiedman)
Largest FTP pro Payout: $193,462.50 (Gary Jones)
Total FTP pro cash (#): 79
Total FTP pro cash ($): $481,343.36

- I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t witnessed millions of online hands can appreciate some of the complete insanity the follows along with the big names on the site or when the tournaments get down to just a few tables. The regular Big Money Sunday events are crazy enough but FTOPS brings out the top shelf. The beggars are still there but practically drowned out by every nutball that’s ever posted on a forum or played a $1 SnG offering up their opinions on every move. It’s almost priceless when they start fighting amongst themselves. When the railbirds start challenge to play any for any stakes, it’s pure comedy. That’s why Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron has one of my favorite screennames. In a moment of weakness I decided to start a Railbird Hall of Shame Fame. I witnessed the following names on the rail who will join our inaugural class with nh83012001 getting special honors for challenging everyone “ill play you in any game any stakes”. It seems his apostrophe key was stuck that day also.

Your FTOPS XIV Railbird inductees, be sure to congratulate them:

chuckie247: you think im a fish, yet im the one in profit…
(ragging the rail, while on the rail)
Joey1029: go cry to your mom kid.
(overused the word “kid” when abusing)
nh83012001:ill play you in any game any stakes
(we have a winner!)
xMONSTERxDONGx: u guys dont know what ur talking about
(no-it-alls annoy me on the last day)
i8aNET15: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
(with a incredibly impolite message to “FBT” Mueller)

I’m always looking for something amusing on the rail, feel free to pass anything along if you see something worthy of notice.

After the jump you can find the results for all FTOPS final tables and other notables. You can also find the complete unofficial Full Tilt Poker Red Letter Pro Challenge.

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1st through 4th made a deal:

1st – s00tedj0kers89 – $120,000
2nd – Kevin “kev19 Tanner – $115,000
3rd – taaffey – $80,000
4th – nolez7 – $98,600
5th – Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire- $37,000
6th – Andicover – $23,000

Notables: Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (54th), David “The Dragon” Pham (124th), Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder (134th)

1st – RymesWOrange – $35,782.60
2nd – Stephen “St3phenHendry” Hendry – $23,464.00
3rd – Randers – $16,760.00
4th – 7PRS – $12,737.60
5th – jnksauser – $9,050.40
6th – real-nic – $5,782.20

Notables: RNallin (14th), Scott Fischman (36th)

1st – chrispeace – $76,545.00
2nd – JonEeeWhite – $51,030.00
3rd – Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen – $36,450.00
4th – bastet2004 – $27,337.50
5th – buck99 – $20,047.50
6th – MuckCMuckC – $14,580.00
7th – GnightMoon – $10,206.00
8th – jt3013 – $6,925.00
9th – Laurrra – $4,920.75

Notables: VaShon “Julian Verse” Watkins (21st), Tuan “SuperTuan1″ Nguyen (39th)

1st – Kiv56 – $141,771.00
2nd – archwatcher – $89,678.40
3rd – Ballzdeepx – $66,599.40
4th – ProbBluffingYou – $52,752.00
5th – David “Doc Sands” – $39,564.00
6th – nomaddman – $28,354.20
7th – YrrsiN – $18,463.20
8th – Cowboy3362 – $13,188.00
9th – GoCubsGo969 – $9,231.60

Notables: Chris “boNeZee” Bonita (28th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (39th), Ram Vaswani (44th), Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (61st)Aaron Bartley (70th), Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (83rd), Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (105th), Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder (137th)

1st through 3rd made a deal -

1st – Deception Pt – $20,625.55
2nd – WB123456789 – $17,344.26
3rd – kobeallst – $17,974.19
4th – Steven “UFMan2″ Burkholder – $7,548.00
5th – dannymien – $4,662.00
6th – Shawn “Shawnzjones” Grant – $3,219.00
7th – Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein – $2,442.00
8th – pinishe45- $1,665.00

Notables: Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin (21st), Artie Cobb (44th)

1st – Auspicious – $79,872.50
2nd – MLH90 – $52,381.50
3rd – fuhrmanp1 – $37,632.95
4th – ihorKIM – $28,605.50
5th – JROBB – $20,432.50
6th – BADBOYNEL – $13,002.50

Notables: Thomas Bihl (67th)

1st through 4th made a deal:

1st – Toms2up – $98,674.77
2nd – Bbuddy4brkfst – $79,000.00
3rd – chessazhole1 – $97,737.42
4th – VeryEuropean – $64,000.00
5th – Chezebby – $34,746.40
6th – YanaSchv – $22,718.80
7th – thechad78 – $15,368.60
8th – AKTRE – $10,691.20
9th – crouts – $8,018.40

Notables: Stuart Paterson (34th), Marco Liesy (36th), David “GhettoFabolous” Randall (50th), Chris “Moormanl” Moorman (105th), Joe “JBlaze20″ Chaplin (141st)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – elheroe – $143,827.82
2nd – nrivanakc – $141,953.14
3rd – Egitai – $75,337.36
4th – lolli82 – $55,668.00
5th – yeza – $40,823.20
6th – LilPokerGirlie – $27,834.00

Notables: Michael Tureniec (38th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (47th)

1st – willb77 – $89,088.00
2nd – cczzarr – $53,248.00
3rd – biftaraf – $27,136.00
4th – DuckU – $27,136.00
5th – glogow – $14,336.00
6th – whatariver1 – $14,336.00
7th – Joe “JBlaze20″ Chaplin – $14,336.00
8th – KevboyStar – $14,336.00

Notables: Brian Hastings (38th), Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (65th), Jeff Madsen (81st)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – Jakivi – $222,137.99
2nd – rakeinfools – $228,000.01
3rd – KAFFEPUNCH – $131,937.00
4th – rjmgrace – $99,340.80
5th – LucaG – $74,427.99
6th – Jeff1515 – $51,222.60
7th – lilkimmer77 – $33,372.30
8th – harliee – $23,283.00
9th – bryn2 – $16,298.10

Notables: Aaron Bartley (21st), Kevin “GETPWN3D” Saul (36th), Simon “tedlogan19″ Charette (43rd), Somyung Sim (48th), Nick “FU_15″ Maimone (79th), Lee Watkinson (107th)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – legblch – $42,767.12
2nd – Julian Gardner – $41,760.88
3rd – Zuludogg – $23,773.50
4th – Pointer2 – $19,077.50
5th – Beef_Curtains – $14,393.24
6th – dfunks222 – $10,566.00
7th – JoeSewok – $6,809.20
8th – rover454 – $4,930.80
9th – ILoveClOCKS – $3,522.00

Notables: Roy Winston (14th), Karina Jett (58th), Chris “Moormanl” Moorman (74th)

1st – OmaJoped – $300,000
2nd – neverbluff67 – $198,000
3rd – amak316 – $138,300
4th – Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr – $105,000
5th – Dan “Wretchy” Martin – $72,750
6th – hikkespett – $49,500

Notables: Kevin “GETPWN3D” Saul (8th), Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (9th), Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire (13th), Matt “NoBadBeatsPlz” Kay (34th), Chris “boNeZee” Bonita (95th)

1st – AbdullahOchalan – $54,486.00
2nd – Steve Zolotow – $34,810.50
3rd – endzeit – $22,702.50
4th – MSUsWorst – $15,740,40
5th – CTAPblU KA3EJI – $10,594.50
6th – aiMfoRtheEheAd – $7,264.80

Notables: Austin “The Quietwinner” McCormick (28th), Ram Vaswani (38th), Peter “Nordberg” Feldman (101st)

1st – David “The Dragon” Pham – $69,570
2nd – rumprammer – $45,750
3rd – Smokinokun – $31,800
4th – Zack “Zacpacker” Fellows – $20,400
5th – POCKET FIVE – $12,600
6th – Grippolio – $8,700
7th – FatsoFat6969 – $6,600
8th – nuttynutt – $4,500

Notables: Justin “Boosted J” Smith (11th), Brandon Adams (17th), Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen (19th), Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (28th), Marco Traniello (29th), David “Doc Sands” (38th), Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (40th)

1st – charder30fanobv – $114,654.40
2nd – skinijimi – $73,988.80
3rd – bobboufl11 – $54,785.60
4th – fan4mizzou – $41,230.40
5th – brin1285 – $28,804.80
6th – DE KID – $19,203.20
7th – FresnoDull – $12,990.40
8th – Big Bear Hills – $9,036.80
9th – overbe777 – $6,777.60

Notables: Mario “Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (11th), Dan “USCswimmer” White (90th), Simon “tedlogan19″ Charette (104th)

1st – Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck – $35,036.41
2nd – Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron – $39,538.75
3rd – Hudzzzzz – $32,962.70
4th – Andrew “bigpimping777″ Malott – $38,828.64
5th – icecreamboy – $16,538.74
6th – charly3005 – $12,141.00
7th – roo_400 – $7,824.20
8th – JollyJoker1971 – $5,665.80
9th – acehole60 – $4,047.00

Sigi Stockinger (22nd), Ross Boatman (39th)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – gametime1111 – $191,301.00
2nd – ambiguosity – $189,211.50
3rd – driverseati – $10,8405.00
4th – MichahJ – $81,030.00
5th – chicagocards1 – $58,035.00
6th – rumprammer – $37,230.00

Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis (16th), Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron (33rd), Brent “Bhanks11″ Hanks (36th), Mario “Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (40th), Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger (44th), Halfrek (60th), Isaac Baron (64th), Martin Klaeser (71st), Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul (76th), Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (86th), Dan “Wretchy” Martin (91st), Beth Shak (102nd), Lee “acumen53″ Childs (112th)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – m_hawk_1 – $32,793.63
2nd – Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck – $30,271.17
3rd – MagicGog – $18,624.40
4th – MarleyGroup – $14,567.60
5th – HustlerGrune – $10,879.60
6th – Insky_Bros – $7,560.40
7th – Hyperbaric – $4,610.00
8th – fnnwizard – $3,134.80
9th – Nesby – $2,212.80

Danny “The__D__RY” Ryan (46th), Matt “All In At 420″ Stout (68th)

1st – Greg “FBT” Mueller – $36,081.50
2nd – James “P0KERPR0″ Campbell – $23,660.00
3rd – Vito Roma – $16,900.00
4th – Sect6G – $12,844.00
5th – OmadJoped – $9,126.00
6th – SENORSCOOP – $5,830.50

Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp (43rd)

1st and 2nd made a deal:

1st – Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder – $102,240.40
2nd – SaulGood – $85,000.00
3rd – SmokeChoke – $54,378.20
4th – TIGR778 – $40,923.80
5th – David “muckducks” Cairns – $28,590.60
6th – LuckyLukeKK – $19,060.40
7th – 007-2053 – $12,893.80
8th – S_Dot111 – $8,969.60
9th – Tarsis – $6,727.20

Johan Brolenius (45th), Michael “michaelsc” Schwartz (39th), Simon “tedlogan19″ Charette (97th)

1st through 5th made a deal:

1st – BaDnEwS216 – $18,060.17
2nd – fulltiltok – $19,217.17
3rd – NES_Pro – $17,277.09
4th – Moleon – $19,240.48
5th – Sensor – $16,655.09
6th – Gator93 – $5,400.00

“Miami” John Cernuto (11th), Luis Velador 7 (17th), Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein (19th), Thomas Bihl (45th), Chris Ferguson (47th), Dutch “Dutchalicious” Boyd (50th)

1st – obiedman – $539,350.00
2nd – Supa4real – $340,025.00
3rd – Timvd20 – $252,087.50
4th – Gary Jones – $193,462.50
5th – the_real_magic – $146,562.50
6th – TheAlligatorNo1 – $105,525.00
7th – Ahvall – $70,350.00
8th – DanOBrien – $54,873.00
9th – Rabbit_hunterSA – $39,865.00

Jake “psutennis11″ Toole (15th), Shannon “BLUFFforRENT” Shorr (40th), Dan “Wretchy” Martin (56th), Shawn “jordankickz” Busse (67th), Ryan “ryanbluf” Karp (77th), Taylor Caby (78th), David “Doc Sands” (87th)

1st – Genius28 – $93,302.00
2nd – Snake8484 – $59,374.00
3rd – aviator0925 – $42,940.13
4th – krazylouie – $34,458.13
5th – bearbuck – $25,997.33
6th – portblair – $19,084.50
7th – borromias – $12,298.90
8th – TheBjerre – $8,906.10
9th – BigDawg427 – $6,361.50

Vitaly Lunkin (10th), Justin Smith (40th), Julian Gardner (48th), Kevin “GetPWN3D” Saul, Mario “Pwnasaurus” Silvestri (72nd), Trond Eidsvig (76th), Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire (83rd), Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron (92nd), Jon “Pearljammer” Turner (93rd), Erica Schoenberg (94th), Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb (96th)

1st throught 3rd made a deal:

1st – little chief17 – $125,959.96
2nd – cristinalindley – $106,460.01
3rd – SNG Ninja – $95,968.83
4th – Dinhjo – $52,306.24
5th – Alcatraz27278 – $38,344.80
6th – bethwolf22 – $27,529.60
7th – BikStik8585 – $19,664.00
8th – boltsva – $14,059.76
9th – Al-Extrem1 – $9,940.15

Scott “kickyourace” Neuman (56th)

1st through 3rd made a deal:

1st – zhivago2 – $418,839.16
2nd – Itstime2Win – $316,554.40
3rd – Adam Junglen – $290418.94
4th – dfunks222 – $175,072.00
5th – kinheim – $131,167.23
6th – bankrollme – $90,271.50
7th – nuts7878 – $58,813.25
8th – Valuechecking – $41,032.50
9th – Dr Fill Good – $28,722.75

Here’s how your favorite Full Tilt pros made out:

Post from: Poker From The Rail

FTOPS XIV Wrap Up

Related posts:

1. FTOPS XIII Wrap Up

The equivalent of these nose-bleed levels online can be found on Full Tilt poker, generally in the gamble-it-up game of Pot Limit Hold’em or the recently added 7-game mix cash game tables. It is not uncommon to see up to a half dozen tables running during the weekend at $2,000/$4,000 limits with a waitlist once the 6-max limit is reached. The average post size reaches up to $20,000 and they are seeing over 100 hands per hour. Players looking for big cash game action make this their first stop.

In the recent years, the king of these huge games has become newly minted Team Full Tilt member Tom “durrrr” Dwan. He began his poker career by reportedly loading $50 online and tearing through the low limit SnG’s, now he can be found challenging and felting some of the world’s best players including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, and David Benyamine. He has seen daily swings in the 7 figures but also claims to have never gone broke since he began playing. That alone is an incredible feat that very few poker players can claim.

This weekend in Las Vegas, during the November Nine celebrations, it was announced that Dwan would now be a member of Team Full Tilt. While there are quite a few Full Tilt pros, it’s very rare for a player to be added to the Team and no players since Patrik Antonius joined the roster nearly 18 months ago. Dwan joins such big guns as Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, and others. “Tom is sort of the first wave of great players, who really cut his teeth on the internet but he’s showing that he’s going to be around for a long time,” Lederer praised their newest member, “I feel like Tom’s really our first player that learned his craft online. The new breed.”

Most people know Dwan more recently for his “durrrr Challenge” which he is currently running against Patrik Antonius. Quick primer: Dwan put up $1,500,000 of his own money versus Antonius’ $500,000 that he could win more playing 4 tables simultaneous again Antonius in Heads Up Pot Limit Omaha with $200/$400 being the minimum stakes for 50,000 hands. The Challenge has been running for awhile with both players actively seeking soft spots in the large cash games. Dwan currently leads by just under $800,000 but the swing in that game can be massive. (Link for the “durrrr Challenge” Stats page)

In addition to all the perks for being a team member, Full Tilt has also launched his very own website Tom “durrrr” Dwan and he will now join the stable of players blogging for the site at “durrrr Poker Blog”. He’ll be updating his blog on a regular basis and didn’t waste any time mentioning a new challenge with his very first post.

In just a few short days he will kick off the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge in London. A live version of his online challenge where he will now go Heads Up from November 17th to 19th against such pros as Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Marcello “Luckexpress” Marigliano. Big talker Sammy George also returns after his first go-round in September. There will $1,000,000 on the table for either Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold’em.

A fine way to start his career with Team Full Tilt. You can find Dwan’s welcome video on his brand new official Full Tilt Poker bio page.

You can find a video of “durrrr” press conference with Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Patrik Antonius after the jump as well as the new links and resources you’ll want to bookmark.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan joins Team Full Tilt (press release)
Tom “durrrr” Dwan website
Tom” durrrr” Dwan Poker Blog
“durrrr” Challenge
“durrrr” Challenge Stats Page

Post from: Poker From The Rail

Tom “durrrr” Dwan – Newest Member of Team Full Tilt

Related posts:

1. Tom “durrrr” Dwan starts his HU Challenge
2. durrrr Challenge Stats Tracker
3. durrrr Challenge update and Patrik Antonius interview

As you might imagine, things have been a little crazy around here for the past few days. I made a trip out west for the November Nine, watched Michael Craig pay off a prop bet, and witnessed a 21-year old kid become the newest World Series of Poker champion. You will excuse me just a little bit for missing out on my near daily updates during FTOPS XIV which kicked off more than a week ago. Now that I am back in the safety of the great Northeast I am finally catching up on some things I missed.

That’s not to say I wasn’t keeping an eye on things which were going down with the online world, it just couldn’t be my highest priority. I was really looking forward to throwing yet another image of David “The Dragon” Pham* for his victory in FTOPS XIV Event #14 and because I like adding the “*-not a real dragon tag” to as many posts as possible. But it turns out Greg “FBT” Mueller** had other plans.

Coming into the day, only one Full Tilt pro has ever won an FTOPS event that they were hosting. Erick Lindgren accomplished that feat by taking down FTOPS VII Event #9 for just under $300,000. In fact, before today only Lindgren, Gavin Smith, and David Pham have been able to bring home an FTOPS victory for the red letter pros. Greg Mueller found himself in his comfort zone today.

Merriam and Webster Dictionary
Main Entry: comfort zone
Function: noun
2. the level at which one functions with ease and familiarity

The game was Limit Hold’em, something Mueller is very familiar with over his entire career. I am assuming he was hosting this event since he won two bracelet in the variation this summer at the WSOP. His career Limit Hold’em WSOP resume includes 8 cashes (out of 19 total), 4 final table, 1 second place finish (NLHE/LHE Mix game included), and the 2 WSOP bracelets. Throw in a Seven Card Stud final table and you’d have to believe that he feels pretty comfortable slinging the chips in a limit game.

He was holding, or near, the chip lead for most of the latter parts of the tournament and came to the 6-handed final table with a chance to make history. There were a few opponent’s that would battle him for a very long time. OmadJoped was hoping to become just the third player to win two FTOPS in the same series and James “P0KERPR0″ Campbell was the only other major player. It turned out to be Campbell and Mueller who would finish heads up for the title with Campbell putting up a decent fight but finally succumbing to the former hockey player.

Mueller collected $36,081.50 for his efforts and had a little encouragement from fellow Tilter Mike Matusow just before the final table:

Mike Matusow (Observer): greg fbt mueller is my hero
GregFBTMueller: thx mikey
Mike Matusow (Observer): dear god how u get cards like that

With that I will call it yet another day (night/morning). I will return tomorrow with a full update from the previous tournaments in the series.

*-Not a real dragon
**-Full Blown Tilt

Post from: Poker From The Rail

FTOPS XIV Event #19 – “FBT” Wins

Related posts:

1. 2009 World Series of Poker – Greg “FBT” Mueller wins second bracelet
2. FTOPS X Event #1 Recap
3. Barry Shulman wins 2009 WSOP-E Main Event

2009 World Series of Poker Bracelets
Photo credit: Pokerati.com

After a 40 hour pause of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table, the two remaining players will take their seats to play Heads Up for the most coveted championship in the game. The amateur Darvin Moon will attempt to continue his incredible run through the Main Event field and professional Joe Cada will be trying to break the short record of Peter Eastgate as the youngest Main Event champion. Both showed an incredible ability to come from behind when their tournament life was on the line so we are looking at a battle between two players looking to stay lucky.

The stacks of money are laid out across the felt while the WSOP staff prepares the stage and the hallways outside are full of returning friends, family, and spectators. The only remaining tasks are to open the doors and the player to unbag their chips. Cada enjoys more than a 2-to-1 chiplead and will most likely look to outplay his opponent, Moon on the other line very may well gamble it up early to reduce the advantage.

I will be back once the cards in the air to bring you updates from the Sky Box.  Here you can find the 2009 November Nine Live Blog that got us to this point.

22:00PT – Late start

Play was intended to begin at 10pm but the players are just now unbagging their chips. The crowds are streaming into the auditorium, already getting loud and rowdy. Unsure but I assume they are Joe Cada supporters if Saturday/Sunday taught us anything. The VIP seating area around the stage is full of people milling around in anticipation of our start. There is definitely a ton of excitement in the air whether you are pulling for either player or just a fan of poker.

In unrelated news, Sasquatch has been spotted rolling through the lobby and may be leaning up against the bar.

Things should be underway shortly.

Darvin Moon – 58,850,000
Joe Cada – 135,950,000

22:30PT – Card in the air

Both WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and Tournament Director Jack Effel warmed things up by welcoming the crowd and pumping up the supporters. Amusing that Effel’s voice seems to go up an octave with each new sentence, sounds a bit like Alvin and the Chipmunks by the time he takes a breath. Both players were introduced to loud applause with a Darvin Moon fan even sporting a toy chainsaw.

The theater is completely packed with an even bigger line down the hallway. The line stretches from down to the rotunda near the Amazon Room and halfway back up. An incredible turnout and it should make for a very energetic match.  They surprised everyone in the room when metal legend Vince Neil of Motley Crue was given the honor of commanding “shuffle up and deal”.

We’re getting different predictions for the number of hands we will have during heads up play with the highest being 60 and the lowest (by yours truly) of just 10. They restart play with blinds at 500,000/1,000,000/150,000 ante.

23:00PT – Everything back even

It didn’t take very long for Darvin Moon to erase the sizable lead of Cada. On the very first hand of heads up play they built a huge pot with pre-flop and post-flop raises. In the end Moon drug the pot worth over 40,000,000 with QQ versus 99. The two kings and ace on board probably saved some chips for Cada as they both checked the river.

At this time Moon has a very small chip lead and my 10-hand prediction is down the drain, though neither has seemed very shy about getting large numbers of chips in the middle. As Mike Matusow said about Cada “this kid has no idea what small ball is“.

Darvin Moon – 101,850,000
Joe Cada – 92,950,000

00:00PT – Back and forth

As the clock rolls over to the new day here in Las Vegas, play has settled down a bit as the stacks evened out. Cada retook the lead from Moon after flopping the nut flush but might have played it a little too slow. He probably could have taken more chips as Moon easily called the value bet, a bigger bet probably also gets called. They are still pushing chips back and forth easily although they have been generally much larger pots than we anticipated. As Matusow continues to says they are either limping or playing 10,000,000 pots.

Just before the end of the hour Moon made another push and we are a virtual dead heat, just 500,000 difference with 97,000,000 for both players. That’s less than one small blind.

The hallways continue to be crowded with spectators unable to enter the auditorium. The Rio has been kind enough to have monitors spread throughout the area which is showing the live feed to those unable to make their way in. There is also a major line to the lobby bar with everyone it seems loading up on the adult beverages. The WSOP swag shop is selling out of all their gear and the coffee shop has an endless line.

The players are on the first 20 minute break.

00:30PT – More swings

The stacks were pretty even going into the break but Darvin Moon took the initiative when they returned. Because there were few showdowns we’ll have to wait until the ESPN broadcast to see what was moving Moon along but he has built up a chip lead over his young opponent. After several big pre-flop raises Moon is sitting on a nearly 3-1 chip lead.

Darvin Moon – 145,200,000
Joe Cada – 49,6000

01:00PT – Big punches, no knockouts

We saw our first all-in moment with nothing to show of it than a few chips shipped over to Cada. Moon re-raised pre-flop to 8,000,000 only to have Cada 3-bet allin for another 50,000,000. Moon took his time to make a decision, going so far as standing up which had some of believing we’d see a call and possibly a new champion. He ended folding and getting the chips back a few hands later. Still no sign of either player slowing down as we’re continue to have some massive pots.

With the big swing of chips towards the Darvin Moon side of the table, the rowdy fans of Joe Cada have spent some time sitting on their hands. Earlier in the event 3 guys and a girl took off their shirts, each with C-A-D-A painted on their bodies. That lasted just long enough to get the attention of Jeffrey Pollack and security took care of the fun loving fans. For all the loud fans on either side, it’s get spooky quiet among the 1,500 in the auditorium when a big hand is in progress.

Darvin Moon – 136,050,000
Joe Cada – 58,750,000

01:25PT – New World Series of Poker Champion crowned

It didn’t take long for two huge hands to develop and bring us the 2009 World Series of Poker Champion. Just 25 short minutes ago Darvin Moon enjoyed a significant chip lead over Joe Cada but that changed quickly.

Joe Cada doubled up on a hand when all the chips went in the middle on the turn. Darvin Moon re-raised Cada allin and made him think long and hard about putting his tournament on the line. Cada eventually called with his paired 9 versus the open ended straight draw for Moon. A meaningless 3 hit the river and the chip lead swung back in favor of the young pro. Just 8 hands later and both players once again had all the chips in the middle, this time pre-flop.

The Cada side of the stage erupted when he tabled pocket 9’s and he was racing against the QJd of Moon. There were complete bricks on the entire board and Joe Cada is now the 2009 World Series of Poker champion, replacing Peter Eastgate as the youngest Main Event winner.

It was a well fought match by both players and the entire final table should make for some very interesting TV when it is broadcast on ESPN tomorrow evening.

Signing off from the Sky Box at the Penn & Teller Theater.  I will be back tomorrow with my thoughts and review of the broadcast.

1st – Joe Cada – $8,547,042
2nd – Darvin Moon – $5,182,928
3rd – Antoine Saout – $3,479,670
4th – Eric Buchman – $2,502,890
5th – Jeff Shulman – $1,953,452
6th – Steven Begleiter – $1,587,160
7th – Phil Ivey – $1,404,014
8th – Kevin Schaffel – $1,300,231
9th – James Akenhead – $1,263,602

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 November Nine Live Blog – Heads up for the title

Related posts:

1. 2009 November Nine – Cada and Moon Heads Up for Championship
2. 2009 November Nine Live Blog
3. 2009 World Series of Poker Day 49 – Main Event Day 8 Live Blog

It was a day full of everything you expect to find at the biggest poker event you will find. Over 1,400 spectators lined up early outside the Penn & Teller Theater hours before the gates were scheduled to open, even generating long lines 12 hours after play began. The big name of the table, Phil Ivey, pulled in members of the media from around the world but could not avoid the one monstrous suckout that would have put him back in contention. Darvin Moon, our amateur player who came in as the chipleader, played an interesting game that was all over the map but in the end will be playing heads up for the championship. There were far too many ridiculous suckouts to list but will certainly provide a great viewing experience when it hits the ESPN broadcast on November 10th.

The superstars came out in force and camped most of the night on the stage supporting either Ivey or Jeff Shulman. For his part, Shulman will not be able to prove whether his words were true when he stated he would throw the bracelet in the trash. Our first and last eliminations of the day were bookended by the only two European players at the final table. Akenhead finishing in 9th and Saout in 3rd.

After all that excitement and all the craziness, it is time to shut the lights down in the auditorium and prepare to recharge for Tuesday’s heads up match between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada. I will be back with that match once it kicks off.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 58,875,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 136,925,000

Update: If you’d like to read about the insanity of the November Nine, feel free to click here to read my 2009 November Nine Live Blog

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 November Nine – Cada and Moon Heads Up for Championship

Related posts:

1. 2009 November Nine Live Blog – Heads up for the title
2. 2009 World Series of Poker – November Nine Set
3. $25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship

My view from the heights

After 12 grinding days of poker and nearly 4 months with the 2009 World Series of Poker on “pause” we are now down to the time when a new WSOP Main Event Champion will be crowned. All nine players will shortly entered the Penn & Teller Theater to take their seats at the most coveted final table in the game. Phil Ivey will begin as the most famous and Darvin Moon will have the biggest stack. An ex-Wall Street banker, several young guns and a couple Euros will take their shot at being the last bracelet winner in 2009.

Play is schedule to begin at noon which is just two short hours from now. I will be camped out high above the stage with a bird’s eye view and bringing hourly updates as we whittle down the field. Come back to follow along with your favorite player at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table.

Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 1
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 2
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Seat 2 – James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Seat 4 – Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Seat 5 – Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 13,215,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000

11:30PT – The doors are open

The gates to the Penn & Teller Theater have been opened and the crowds of fans, friends, and spectators have begun pouring into the room to find their seats. The press box is elbow to elbow with outlets from all around the world. The players have completed their pre-game meeting with the WSOP staff including Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. Chip bags are on the table and the dealers are preparing their setups.

The early line on fan noise has Joe Cada well ahead with a crew in yellow Michigan “Cada” t-shirts and mugging for the ESPN cameras. The Darvin Moon crowd is walking around with “heads on sticks”, not exactly sure where that is going. Poker legend Doyle Brunson has found the stage and will be giving the Shuffle Up and Deal command. Photographers are getting their last minute shots before the players are announced, the lovely Lacey Jones is prepping for hosting duties, Lon McCarren and Norm Chad are doing their rehearsals. Fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig is in the house and ready to bring the action from up close.

In late minute player news, the word around town is that Steve Begleiter hired SnG player expert Jonathan Little as his couch for this “Sit n Go”.

13:00PT – Cards in the air

Getting under just a little over an hour later than scheduled, the cards are finally in the air.

Jeffrey Pollack, Lacey Jones, and Jack Effel all took their time at the microphone making announcements and warming up the crowd including the bracelet ceremony for Barry Shulman’s WSOP-E title. Lon McCarren and Norm Chad have have made their ESPN intros, and an honor guard made their appearance for the National Anthem. WSOP Tournament Director Jack Eiffel made the extended player introductions and the biggest ovation was for Phil Ivey followed by Joe Cada and Antoine Saout. The French are outnumbered but making plenty of noise. Jeff “Happy” Shulman received a polite round of applause.

Blinds will be at 120,000/240,000 with 30,000 ante for the next 7 minutes.

14:00PT – Faces in the crowd

Several big guns from Team Full Tilt have been spotted in the crowd to support Phil Ivey. Jen Harman and Marco Traniello are sitting on the stage along with Howard Lederer, Allen Cunningham and Perry Friedman. Phil Gordon is hanging around the Orchestra Pit and there has been a Chris Ferguson spotting.

After the first few orbits the crowd has settled down a little bit, only getting rowdy after a series of preflop battles. The French supporters have been as quiet so far as their boy Antoine Saout.

It took awhile before we saw the first flop and still haven’t seen a turn card. Very few flops, non-existent turns, and most pots being taken down with a preflop raise or a three-bet. They seem to be still feeling each other out and the blinds will not be forcing the action for a very long time. Begleiter and Cada appear to be the early aggressors.

Just 15 hands into the action and Phil Ivey found a hand worthy of pushing all-in behind a raise from Jeff Shulman. Joe Cada asked for a count and went in the tank for quite awhile before mucking, Shulman was not far behind. Shulman has spent the early part of the day making very odd, large opening raises pre-flop, perhaps this was the time for Ivey to look him up.

Shortly after the clock switched over the 2pm, Jack Effel announced an explicable 20 minute break after just an hour of action. This seems to indicate a very long day for our players and fans. When they return blinds will be at 150,000/30,000/40,000 ante for another hour.

You can find the rest of the live blog after the jump.  A mere 5,000 words to describe 17 hours of action.  Thanks for stopping by.  Click below to read the rest of the story.

15:00PT – Still slow going

The lobby here in the Penn & Teller Theater has also attracted a crowd besides those in the auditorium. There is a full service bar and other booths around competing for their attention. Tickets and passes for every seat in the house were given out well before the start of the day and we now have a line of people down the hallway waiting for their chance to get in to see the action. Until then they are stuck watching the ESPN “Live” feed on the many TVs. During the improvised break at the top of the hour, Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer came to the front of the stage to sign autographs for the fans.

The pace of play has been very erratic with the late start and early break. Jack Effel already announced another short 10-minute break in 40 minutes at the end of this level to color up the chips and then possibly another break after an hour. Friends of the players were outside feeling anxious as there has yet to be a terrible amount of action from anyone.

The first official turn and river card was dealt at 14:04PT for those making random prop bets with Eric Buchman taking the pot from Jeff Shulman. James Akenhead came back from the break and put all his chips in the middle early but did not find a caller. His railbird from the UK are making a fine showing with their creative songs from the crowd. The French supporters still relatively quite.

We are still waiting for that first monster pot of the final table.

Updated chip counts at the last break:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 61,535,000
Seat 2 – James Akenhead – 3,445,000
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 10,035,000
Seat 4 – Kevin Schaffel – 10,890,000
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 31,175,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 39,820,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 11,835,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 10,620,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 15,510,000

15:30PT – We finally see some huge pots

It didn’t take us very long to go from very quiet to shouts and songs throughout the arena. In short time we found ourselves with monster pots with Akenhead tripling up and Saout doubling up.

James Akenhead pushed all in a few times since coming back from break but found no action until he shoved UTG for just over 4,000,000. Steven Begleiter tanked and asked for a chip count before flat calling. Eric Buchman sitting just behind Begleiter than re-raises to 12,000,000 and Begleiter laid it down. Akenhead was way behind in the with his KQ up against the AK of Eric Buchman. No help on the flop, King on the turn, leaving just the 3 queens in the deck to save Akenhead’s day and triple up. The UK contingent erupted when one of those queens hit the river. That took his up to 13,000,000 and Buchman down to 35,000,000.

Almost immediately afterwards it seems Antoine Saout and Darvin Moon wanted to get into the big pot action with Moon needing runner-runner to avoid doubling up the Frenchman in a 20,000,000 pot. Moon moved all in on the flop with ace-high and Saout holding two pair. Moon needed running cards for the miracle which never appeared.

This latest action has definitely boosted the energy in the room back to pre-game levels with both the UK and French supporters in full voice. Players are preparing for a quick 10-minute color up break. When they return blinds will be at 200,000/400,000/50,000 ante.

Updated chip counts:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 49,375,000
Seat 2 – James Akenhead – 12,225,000
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 10,800,000
Seat 4 – Kevin Schaffel – 7,375,000
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 24,375,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 34,275,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 16,500,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 21,850,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 18,025,000

16:30PT – James Akenhead eliminted in 9th place

After nearly 4 hours of play we have a first casualty.

The shortstacks continued to stay alive, this time with Kevin Schaffel doubling at the expense of James Akenhead. After the preflop action they both found themselves shipping in on the Jack-high flop. This hand was destined to see all the chips in the middle either way with Schaffel holding AA against the KK of Akenhead. No help on the turn and a scary looking paint card pealed off on the river but was a harmless Jack.

Kevin Schaffel was up to 15,000,000 and James Akenhead went back down to the shortstack with just over 5,000,000 in chips. Only a few hands later Aken head found himself all-in once again against Schaffel and his 33 failed to improve against the 99.

James Akenhead already took home $1,263,602 for his final table appearance and will surely be disappointed with the outcome. He began the day as the shortstack but was able to triple up into contention before the big cooler.

Play continues.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 56,025,000
Seat 2
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 11,650,000
Seat 4 – Kevin Schaffel – 19,450,000
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 24,400,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 33,425,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 8,825,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 23,325,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 18,000,000

17:30PT – Kevin Schaffel eliminated in 8th

The hits keep on coming. While we’d gone a few all-ins without a proper suckout, Eric Bucman lays a nasty beat on Kevin Schaffel.

After taking Akenhead’s entire stack, Schaffel got all his chips in the middle versus Eric Buchman with a dominating hand. He once again was holding AA against an opponent’s KK but was crushed with the King-high flop. To add more to the misery and ending Schaffel’s day was the case King on the turn for quads. Schaffel’s day has been all over map when he started with 6th place stack, down to the bottom, back to the middle with the Akenhead hands and finally out with hand he will not forget.

Eric Buchman is just a few million chips short of chip leader Darvin Moon. Kevin Schaffel takes home $1,300,231 for his 8th place finish.

In railbird news, there are rumors going around and we’ve seen a little of the action but fans have been escorted from the Penn & Teller Theater after a few drunken disagreements. Reportedly one of the fights involved spectators who were both here backing Joe Cada. You have to love those crazy kids from Michigan.

Play continues 7 handed.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 55,075,000
Seat 2
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 9,600,000
Seat 4
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 26,800,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 52,725,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 8,775,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 24,525,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 14,325,000

18:00PT – Waiting to see history and a bizarre play

When first walking into the theater this afternoon we saw the huge line of fans waiting at the entrance. What we didn’t see at that time was the huge line stretching from just outside the entrance nearly half-way down to the Amazon Room. Guards were giving the potential spectators an estimate of a four hour wait from that point.

Bizarre play just near the top of the hour before the players went on a short break.  This hand will be one of those good ones to witness on ESPN this Tuesday.

Darvin Moon and Steven Begleiter found themselves seeing a flop after action built an $8,000,000 pot. Begleiter bet out over $5,000,000 on the all-low board flop and Moon check raised to $15,000,000. After considering his options Begleiter moved all-in over the top putting Moon in the tank. With just $6,000,000 more to call in the pot that was nearly $40,000,000, Darvin Moon laid down his hand. The Begleiter crowd exploded, the media area was shocked, the pros seem to be appalled. Was Moon still shell shocked from his horrible move against Saout earlier in the match?

Begleiter moves up to second place, Darvin Moon down to third, and Eric Buchman is your new chip leader.

Current, semi-accurate chip counts:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 42,075,000
Seat 2
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 8,550,000
Seat 4
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 45,150,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 51,725,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 10,175,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 23,425,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 15,625,000

19:00ET – Dinner Break

The WSOP staff told us that the dinner break would be at 7pm no matter the position of the tournament and that’s exactly what we are doing now. Very few dramatic hands over the last hour, since the “Darvin Moon fold”.

Phil Ivey took decent sized pots from Jeff Shulman and Steven Begleiter. Shulman was facing a preflop re-raise allin from Ivey and went deep in the tank. Up in the press box we all pretty much believed that Shulman was just looking for a reason to fold. After a long time making up his mind Shulman laid down the hand. Near the dinner break Begleiter raised UTG and Ivey quickly called from the big blind then checked called the scary looking KQJ two diamond flop. Check/check on the Jack turn, Ivey firing out a bet on the brick river that screamed “taking you to value town”. Begleiter tanked like Shulman before and found what he needed to make the fold.

7 players take off for their dinner break and will return in 90 minutes. We are still 5 eliminations away from calling it a day.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 41,225,000
Seat 2
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 16,300,000
Seat 4
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 37,550,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 55,125,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 11,100,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 27,725,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 8,525,000

21:30PT – Down to business

The 7 remaining players are returning from their dinner break and it’s time to get down to business. There is still plenty of work to get done before we determine who will play heads up for the title on Monday evening. Darvin Moon will be looking to rebound, Phil Ivey will try to continue his climb up the leaderboard. The railbirds for each player are already making plenty of noise and the French are singing their songs.

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack introduced some Poker Hall of Famers to the crowd before play commenced including this year’s nominee Mike Sexton including Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier and Phil Hellmuth. Sexton gave a few words and then kicked everything off with the Shuffle and Deal command.

Cards and chips are in the air, I predict quite a few spectator dismissals over the next few levels.

22:30PT – The Joe Cada Roller Coaster

Joe Cada came back from dinner with a workable stack, lost most of it, climbed back up with a double up and then got healthy(ish).

Cada had the second shortest stack at the restart and raised it up preflop to have the shortest stack Jeff Shulman push all in over the top. Cada tanked for awhile before calling with AJ, far behind the AK of Jeff Shulman. Cada had some outs on the turn when he was opened but lost most of his stack. That left Cada with just 4 big blinds which went in immediately in the next hand against in a battle of blinds with Eric Buchman. Cada was ahead with J4 versus 54 and stayed head til the river for the double up.

A few later he re-raised all in over top of a Phil Ivey raise and was called down. It was just $4,300,000 more for the call and they were racing with Ivey’s A8 against the baby 4’s of Cada. No sweats on the board and now Phil Ivey is our shortstack and up to $12,500,000.

The roller coaster continues and we are still looking at 7 players with a chance for the title.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 38,200,000
Seat 2
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 10,300,000
Seat 4
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 46,350,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 46,100,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 12,500,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 26,800,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 15,000,000

23:30PM – Chips shuffling around the table

Steven Begleiter was our most recent player to take a big hit and ship his chips across the table. After calling the re-raise from Antoine Saout in the blinds, the flop came out 9 8 3 with two hearts. Saout opted to check instead of continuation bet but check-raised all-in after Begleiter bet out. After a long time in the tank he called with second pair holding 87c and was in a virtual coin flip with Saout holding AKh for two overs and the nut flush draw. Very little sweating as Begleiter was drawing dead after a heart in the turn.

That put Begleiter down under 20,000,000 in chips and Saout is out new chip leaders. The French contigent is very happy.

It has not been nearly 7 hours since we lost our 8th place player. The structure is setup to allow the players to determine the outcome with still very little pressure from the blinds. Ivey and Begleiter are our short stacks with Saout and Buchman leading the way. We have also seen the crowd outside the Penn & Teller Theater finally down to reasonable levels. They are no longer stacked up halfway to the Amazon Room although there are still close to 100 in the entrance area itself, as well as many spectators gathered around the lobby bar.

I am steadly losing my finish time prop bets as my first was under 2am. That is dead and my 4am rebuy is looking in trouble also.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 376,725,000
Seat 2
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 6,600,000
Seat 4
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 19,750,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 47,750,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 16,650,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 52,550,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 16,200,000

00:30PT – The best doesn’t always win, Phil Ivey eliminated in 7th place

The dream of watching Phil Ivey win his first World Series of Poker has come to an end. After finding himself on the shortstack coming back from the break he pushed all-in UTG for just over 6,000,000. It folded around to former chip leader Darvin Moon who rightly snap called with AQ. Ivey was far ahead with AK.

There was a short delay while Ivey chomped on his apple most of the crowd began chanting “Ivey! Ivey! Ivey!”. Eventually Jack Effel called for the flop as I turned to another member of the media and said “I don’t have a good feeling about this”. Sure enough the dealer peeled a queen right off on the flop and the room went crazy. Just like that the favorite player in the tournament has been eliminated making it just a little easier for the remaining 6 to make their way to the championship.

The Penn & Teller Theater now has far fewer seats occupied as the Phil Ivey fans take their leave. Somewhere Norm Chad is crying just a little inside.

He will collect $1,404,014 for his efforts but that will mean very little to the legend.

6 remain and here are the approximate chip stacks:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 40,025,000
Seat 2
Seat 3
Seat 4
Seat 5 – Steve Begleiter – 16,825,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 54,975,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 17,875,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 49,250,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 17,200,000

01:00PT – Darvin Moon and AQ = nuts, Steven Begleiter eliminated in 6th place

Not 20 minutes after Darvin Moon eliminated Phil Ivey with a bad beat via the all powerful AQ, he turned around and did it once again to Steven Begleiter.

Begleiter opened the action UTG for a standard raise and it folded around to Moon in the big blind who shipped it in and was snap called by Begleiter. The flop was pure innocence as well as the turn. I decided to look away from the action and wait for the crowd to tell me what happened. Without ever a doubt the Ace dropped on the turn to eliminate our ex-Wall Street banker from the biggest game in poker.

Steven Begleiter will take home $1,587,160 for his 6th. He said he’ll enjoy a few glasses of wine then see how he feels in the morning after that beat. I also said it would be weird waking up and not preparing for the final table.

Jack Effel has now brought the WSOP cash table-side and play is about restart. We are now 12 hours into the final table action and still sitting with 5 players.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 63,925,000
Seat 2
Seat 3
Seat 4
Seat 5
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 53,250,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 10,350,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 51,725,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 15,525,000

01:30PT – Suckout train keeps on rolling

It’s been a consistent run of suckout hands since the clock clicked over the new day. “Happy” Jeff Shulman was the latest victim when he found himself in the unforunate position of leading pre-flop when he called the all-in of Joe Cada. He could not feel comfortable when he saw his JJ was up against 33, no lead is safe until your opponent is drawing dead.

A 3-ball hits the flop to double up Cada and crush the stack of Shulman.

Darvin Moon then attempted to pull another rabbit out of his Saints hat. He opened on the button only to see Joe Cada re-raise from the big blind. Things went fast and furious as Moon insta-shoves and Cada calls even quicker. He immediately ran over to his crew and we knew he had Aces before they were tabled. Moon holding the monster K9 off. Cada had a few sweats when Moon flopped a 9 but for once the big hand help up.

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 39,375,000
Seat 2
Seat 3
Seat 4
Seat 5
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 49,350,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 44,850,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 48,025,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 13,175,000

02:30PT – A pause in the action

Not the good kind of pause, but the sort which grinds the play down to a series of open, 3-bets, and folds with the minimum amount of chips shifting from one stack to the other. Some of players now appear to be really feeling the strain of their 14th hour in the Penn & Teller Theater. As this table draws closer to the sunrise I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few player get the old head bobs.

Jeff Shulman continues to nurse his short stack, Moon is the second smallest but the other three are huddling around the same amount of chips. There truly is no end in sight for this table and we’ve already witnessed fans or family in the seating area grabbing some much needed sleep. The quote of the hour from another member of the media “Is there another dinner break scheduled?”

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 31,200,000
Seat 2
Seat 3
Seat 4
Seat 5
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 47,400,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 59,350,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 53,125,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 10,675,000

03:10PT – Time runs out, Shulman eliminated in 5th place

“Happy” Jeff Shulman spent the late hours of Saturday and early mornings of Sunday nursing a small stack, catching a double and abandoned pots when necessary. In the end he was unable to duplicate the feat of his father winning the WSOP-E Main Event.

Play resumed after a 20 minute break and Shulman was sitting With just over 5,000,000 chips. He was facing a raise in the big blind from Antoine Saout in the small blind but it was just a few hundred thousand more for the call and they were racing. Saout was holding A9o against 77’s. Saout hit a nine on the flop but Shulman had extra outs with a gutshot draw. Nothing got there on the turn or river and Shulman is our 5th place finisher.

Shulman was a very polarizing character as the November Nine was formed but in the end played a very solid game and would have been a worthy champion. He takes home $1,953,452 for his finish.

Your final 4 chip counts:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 31,575,000
Seat 2
Seat 3
Seat 4
Seat 5
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 55,850,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 45,450,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 62,925,000
Seat 9

04:15PT – The table the time forgot

I’d love to report in flowing prose how the last hour we have seen the remaing four players put on a clinic of spectacular poker and are all now worthy of the Hall of Fame. That would be overstating it a little.

Darvin Moon seems to be getting a little chippy, making huge overshoves before or after the flop. The rest of the players are going through the test of endurance with just a few chips being passed around from one stack to the other. All 4 remaining chipstacks are relatively equal and the blinds are not yet forcing the action, Darvin Moon has taken a small chip lead.

Sunrise is just a few hours.

Chip count update, blinds are at 500,000/1,000,000/150,000 ante:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 53,875,000
Seat 2
Seat 3
Seat 4
Seat 5
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 43,450,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 45,625,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 52,850,000
Seat 9

04:45PT – Biggest pot of the Main Event, Buchman eliminated in 4th

We were beginning to think we would see the sun come up across the desert before any of these players would play a significant pot. That thought was proven unfounded just 30 minutes after my previous update. Eric Buchman and Antoine Saout decided to get their chips in the middle for the biggest pot of the tournament.

After a series of raising, Buchman shoved all-in causing Saout to contemplate his action for so long the staff began to nod off. Saout eventually called with AK and was way ahead of Buchman’s AQ. Saout flopped a king but Buchman was now looking at a gutter ball draw. The king on the turn made no difference and the river blank saw the 89,000,000 pot pushed in the Frenchman’s direction with Buchman down under 10,000,000 in chips.

Buchman briefly found a way to double his stack over 20,000,000 by flopping a king with KT versus Moon’s A7. Just a few hands later these two players found themselves at it again, this time Moon coming in from his preferred position of behind in the hand. It was his KJ versus A5 of Buchman. A king on the turn and Buchman is our 4th place finisher.

We are just one small bustout from ending the day.

Chip count update:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 75,925,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 39,225,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 80,650,000

05:45PT – Crazy game of poker

This is a sick sick game we play, watch, study, and torture ourselves. After Eric Buchman was eliminated in 4th place there was talk around the press box about how long it would take to eliminate the 3rd and final player of the day. We came very close to just that on the very next hand.

After a short break, the players returned and Joe Cada immediately shipped his 39 big blinds in the middle with 22 with Antoine Saout immediately calling with Queens. A crazy way to start 3-handed play by overshoving with ducks but he was paid off with a 2 right there on the flop. Cada still enormous cheering section erupted behind him and he looked stunned. Saout looked equally stunned and has gone from the chip leader to the small stack. Still not short, they should be reminded.

Chip count update:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 75,775,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 78,600,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 41,425,000

05:45PT – Crazy game of poker, Saout eliminated in 3rd

This is a sick sick game we play, watch, study, and torture ourselves. After Eric Buchman was eliminated in 4th place there was talk around the press box about how long it would take to eliminate the 3rd and final player of the day. We came very close to just that on the very next hand.

After a short break, the players returned and Joe Cada immediately shipped his 39 big blinds in the middle with 22 with Antoine Saout immediately calling with Queens. A crazy way to start 3-handed play by overshoving with ducks but he was paid off with a 2 right there on the flop. Cada still enormous cheering section erupted behind him and he looked stunned. Saout looked equally stunned and has gone from the chip leader to the small stack. Still not short, but not horribly short with 40 big blinds.

But before you know it, the two of them were right back at it with all the chips back in the middle. This time it would be a race instead of one player needing a miracle. It took until the river but Cada’s fanbase can celebrate for a few days as their boy will now play heads up against Darvin Moon for the championship with a nice chip lead.

Antoine Saout will have to comfort himself with the $3,479,670 for his 3rd place finish.

Chip count update:

Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 58,875,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 136,925,000

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 November Nine Live Blog

Related posts:

1. 2009 World Series of Poker – November Nine Set
2. 2009 November Nine Live Blog – Heads up for the title
3. 2009 November Nine – Cada and Moon Heads Up for Championship

The big weekend is finally here. All the players are in town, ESPN is putting the final touches on the stage at the Penn & Teller Theater, spectators will soon begin queueing up to get the best seats in the house, people are starting to jockey the big wigs for prime access. The 2009 November Nine players will take their places tomorrow around noon and we will have a new World Series of Poker Champion by Tuesday morning.

It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things as soon as my feet were on the ground. The cab drivers, bartenders, and dealers all have an opinion on who they think will win. Most seem to want Phil Ivey to win it all, many opinions about what he needs to do to get it done. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has already met with chip leader Darvin Moon and he is reportedly head-to-toe in New Orleans Saints gear. The exact same Darvin everyone saw on TV. Media credential request were from all over the globe and seems to be even more mainstream media showing an interest in the game.

I will be back on this space Saturday afternoon and bring hourly updates as the game proceeds down to the remaining two players. Those two will return Tuesday evening at 10pm PT to crown the champion. I will be tracking the three Full Tilt sponsored players, Phil Ivey, James Akenhead, and Steve Begleiter, as well as everything that happens until we have a victor.

Listed below you can find our 2009 November Nine Handicapping posts:

Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 1
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 2
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3

In Phil Ivey news, ESPN’s E:60 program ran a special on the most famous November Nine players to go along with the Insider article I wrote about earlier. After the jump you can find the clip from the episode.

Post from: Poker From The Rail

2009 World Series of Poker – November Nine On The Horizon

Related posts:

1. 2009 World Series of Poker – November Nine Set
2. 2009 November Nine – Cada and Moon Heads Up for Championship
3. 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3