Stories of the Week (March 8 – 13): Durrrr, Isildur1, and an 8 year old. Phil Hellmuth wins WPT?

Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner

#5 – A few poker rankings are published…
#4 – The durrrr Challenge resumes…
#3 – With one child already at a WPT final table, did an 8 year old win $500k online?
#2 – Isildur1 is all over the place…
#1 – Phil Hellmuth infamously said “If luck weren’t involved, I’d win them all.” So was luck involved in the WPT Bay 101?

#5 – A lot of interesting lists came out this week.

- ESPN, in their monthly feature, ranked the top 10 poker players based on: skill. No big surprise Phil Ivey took the top slot. Jason Mercier went from 3^rd to 2^nd, and Durrrr moved from 8^th to 3^rd.

- Maxim ranked the top 20 female players based on: looks. Near as I can tell, it’s just a list of 20 attractive women who have played poker at some point in their lives. Despite the seductive nature of secrecy, Isildur1 did not make the list.

- Daniel Negreanu ranked the top 10 poker tournaments based on: difficulty. The WSOP Main Event came in at #6 due to its soft (but enormous) field.

- Dave McCarthy ranked the top 5 stories of the week based on: his personal beliefs.

#4 – Durrrr rolls on

Durrrr put more distance between himself and Durrrr Challenge rival Patrik Antonius, extending his lead by $342k in a 90 minute session on March 8. The lead stands at $1,755,708 after 33,242 hands. You can watch the biggest hands from the latest session and the entire challenge at the official Durrrr Challenge Stats Page.

Durrrr and Patrik Antonius were active away from the challenge as well. The Full Tilt Poker Academy just released a training video of Antonius teaching high stakes PLO. Durrrr’s blog saw two updates: Dwan discusses a trip to wine country, his big day vs. Isildur1, and reminds readers that since he didn’t post three blog entries in February, he’ll donate $10k to charity.

#3 – 8 Year Old wins Online Poker Tournament?

There was an article floating around about an 8 year old from India winning $500k in an online poker tournament. Not true. Here are a few other poker headlines from this week that I suspect aren’t true either:

- Obama, Senate Republicans Settle Health Care Debate with Razz sit-n-go

- Vanessa Rousso and Husband Dave McCarthy have 11^th child (father unknown)

- Railbird Beggar Transfers Isildur1 $5

#2 – Isildur1 has back to back million dollar days

It was a wild week for Isildur1, who managed to finish the week $575k in the black despite losing $1.8m on March 10. She had a career best day on March 9, winning $1.9m and putting her career win/loss into the black before giving about $1m to Durrrr and almost $2m to Phil Galfond. Imagine my horror when on March 11 I refreshed my spreadsheet with her stats and found that the columns weren’t wide enough to accommodate all the red ink from the previous day:

And the top story of the week:

Phil Hellmuth made the 6-handed final table at the WPT Bay 101. He’s got 11 WSOP bracelets, but he’s never won a WPT event. After 40 hands, all six players were still alive.

Hand 41 (courtesy of www.worldpokertour.com):

Phil Hellmuth completes the small blind to 20,000, Andy Seth raises from the big blind to 80,000, and Hellmuth reraises to 280,000. Seth thinks for a bit before he moves all in, and Hellmuth calls with QQ. Seth shows AJ, and he’ll need to improve to bust Hellmuth.

Seth says, “We need two clubs here, just for the sweat.”

The flop comes K65, and Hellmuth retains the lead. The turn card is the 10, giving Seth additional outs to a gutshot straight.

The river card is — the A.

The crowd explodes in reaction, while Hellmuth just sits at the table, stunned. Hellmuth slowly takes off his sunglasses, takes a deep breath, and shakes hands with the other players at the table.

Then Hellmuth steps off the stage, kneels down, and drops down to the floor in a little ball. The other players expected a blowup, but not this. Someone asks if he needs a doctor.

As he lay curled up on the floor, the players and audience watched unaware of how to proceed. Eventually, Hellmuth composed himself enough to make a graceful exit…

Graceful exit?

Tags: durrrr, hellmuth, Isildur1

Permalink | March 13th, 2010 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker

2 Responses to “Stories of the Week (March 8 – 13): Durrrr, Isildur1, and an 8 year old. Phil Hellmuth wins WPT?”

decd Says:
March 14th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Isildur1 a girl?

Well, Isildur1 is anonymous, but I don’t see any reason we have to use the masculine pronoun. Who’s to say that Isildur1 isn’t a beautiful Swedish woman who reads this blog? –Dave
David Says:
March 27th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
great blog!!!! the phil h, pic is so funny. i love the irony in phils antics….keep up the good work. see u at the freeroll.. D block14