2009 World Series of Poker Day 49 – Main Event Day 8 Live Blog

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

12:00pm:

It’s our final day sitting in the Amazon Room and bound to be the longest of the entire series. The stakes for the players are daunting, 9 of the remaining 27 will be guaranteed at least $1,000,000 and 3 months of publicity and scrutiny. One of these players will be crowned the new World Series of Poker Champion and over $8,000,000.

Most predictions have us playing out at least 6 levels of play before we know who those players will be. That will take us into the very early morning. Phil Ivey himself said he thinks it will take 8 levels of play. Things will get loopy here before we are done.

There are few that would say they would love to see Phil Ivey make the final 9 players, as the WCP boys say, it’s good for poker. The amount of interest and publicity generated for the game would go be tremendous. He will start the day on the ESPN feature table in front of a packed audience. Fellow red letter Full Tilt pro James Akenhead will be sitting at the outer table looking to join his teammate.

As happens in these situations, Full Tilt also will also following a few new names throughout the day. Andrew Lichtenberger, Marco Mattes, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and Warren Zackey.

The instructions have been handed out and cards are in the air. Look for regular updates throughout the day. Starting chip counts after the jump.

1:00pm:

Surely I won’t jinx this but we lost 3 players during that first hour including the last woman in the field Leo Margets. There seems to be little action other than those bustout hands. Phil Ivey doubled up one player, Nick Maimone, with a dominating hand that didn’t hold up. All the money went in pre-flop with Ivey holding JJ and Maimone Q5 soooted.

Other than those hands, the Full Tilt players are feeling everything out and still hanging in there.

Eliminations this hour:

25 – Francois Balmigere – $352,832
26 – Jesse Haabak – $352,832
27 – Leo Margets – $352,832

2:15pm:

Players are heading off on their first break of the day. Ivey and Akenhead took some hits, Akenhead battled back, Steve Begleiter knocks out a favorite, and things are getting testy.

When this episode of the 2009 World Series of Poker is broadcast, there will be a new name filling the internet with his lucksakery. Nick Maimone pulled a rabbit out of his hat against Phil Ivey then turned around and hit another double up with a two outer. On a Q84 board, he insta-called Jordan Smith’s all-in with the almighty baby pair of sevens. He was up against Smith’s pocket tens but we all know what happens. A black seven on the turn for another suckout.

Phil Ivey double up another shortstack, once again with pocket jacks. This time his opponent held more the a naked queen, holding two of the ladies. It was a monster stack but it was another hit to the favorite. James Akenhead has took a beating early this hour but battled back from a low of 3 million back up to 10 million.

The only elimination of the hour came at the expense of Antonio Esfandiari, one of the few famous faces left in the field. He collects $352,832 but would rather be playing in November. I’m sure the ESPN gang feels the same way.

Some unofficial chip counts at the first break:

Steven Begleiter – 15,200,000
Eric Buchman – 12,000,000
James Akenhead – 10,000,000
Andrew Lichtenberger – 8,400,000
Phil Ivey – 6,300,000
Warren Zackey – 4,100,000
Marco Mattes – 795,000

3:30pm:

Nick Maimone continues to run like god. This should make for some great TV and even better fodder for the forums. The player who got him money in bad against Phil Ivey has been hitting big hands and bigger flops as the day progresses. The lastest victim of Maimone was George Caragiorgas who had the misfortune of running into his pocket Kings, flopped set and turned quads. Maimone may never fold a hand again the rest of this tournament.

Ivey and Akenhead continue to struggle and it will be a grind from here on out. We’ve just lost out 9th player of the day getting us down to the final two tables. Steve Begleiter and his posse are making quite a bit of noise at the secondary table and has moved to third place in chips with 1,600,000.

The clock has been paused as they re-draw for the final 18. Players will also now see a jump in pay to $500,577 for 16th to 18th.

Unofficial chip counts midway through the level:

Steven Begleiter – 16,600,000
Eric Buchman – 16,000,000
James Akenhead – 9,600,000
Andrew Lichtenberger – 6,650,000
Phil Ivey – 5,435,000

Eliminations this hour:

19 – Tommy Vedes – $352,832
20 – George Caragiorgas – $352,832
21 – Jonathan Tamayo – $352,832
22 – Warren Zackey – $352,832
23 – Marco Mattes – $352,832

4:45pm:

Players are heading off on their second break of the day at the end of Level 31 and there was a lot of action as the clock ran down. We lost Andrew Lichtenberg early in the hour then things slowed down. Pots were being shipped around with very few all-ins. On the last hand of the level we had all-in and calls on both tables.

On the feature table Steve Begleiter knocked out Ian Tavelli when they both got the chips in the middle after a ragged flop, unfortunately for Tavelli his pocket 9’s were way behind the kings which held up. On the secondary table Ludovic Lacay and Jeff Shulman were all-in preflop racing with 77 versus AKo. The flopped king was enough to knockout our 16th player.

All four remaining Full Tilt players find themselves sitting at the ESPN feature table. Phil Ivey (6,800,000), James Akenhead (10,100,000), Eric Buchman (16,000,000), and Steve Begleiter (27,890,000) who appears to have the chip lead at this time.

3 players dropped this level leaving us just 6 eliminations from the November Nine. There has also been a bump in the payouts with 13th through 15th receiving $633,022.

16 – Ludovic Lacay – $500,577
17 – Ian Tavelli – $500,577
18 – Andrew Lichtenberg – $500,577

For seven weeks the Amazon Room was full of donkeys and lemurs, sharks and fish
On the last day it’s just a small bright light in the corner

6:00pm:

My wish for everyone to see monster lucksack Nick Maimone at the final table has not come true. The broadcast will show you some of the action but 3 months of analyzing his play would be worth it. He became a victim of his own actions when he snapped-called all his chips with two overs and a gutshot draw, with one of his overs no good. If there was to describe it faster than “snap-call” I would try. He couldn’t wait to get his chips in the middle. Full Tilt sponsored player Eric Buchman had top pair with a open end straight draw which turned into trip on the turn and a straight on the river. Maimone is out of the event but takes away $633,022 and the knowledge he’ll be the talk of the forums for months to come.

With that hand, Full Tilt now occupies the top two spots on the leaderboard with Phil Ivey and James Akenhead still very much in contention. That was the only player we lost during the first hour of Level 32. Below are the unofficial chip counts for the four remaining Full Tilt players.

Steven Begleiter – 28,400,000
Eric Buchman – 25,280,000
James Akenhead – 9,460,000
Phil Ivey – 6,540,000

Elimination this hour:

15 – Nick Maimone – $633,022

Eric Buchman has been making moves all day and goes to dinner close to the chip lead

7:00pm:

We’ve finished the 3rd level of play for the evening and the players are heading off on their dinner break. 14 players still remaining after 6 hours of play and things have definitely slowed down. We still have four Tilters in the field with Steve Begleiter and Eric Buchman still leading the field, James Akenhead climbing the leaderboard until a pre-break hit, and Phil Ivey lurking in the background.

I’d love to tell stories about Ivey pushing the other players around and making big moves but he’s simply been playing a patience game with his stack. In a tournament that he’s seen so many players disregarding their chipstack in relation to the blinds with overbets and calls, Ivey has been taking his time and picking spots to grab pots. While he’s in the bottom half of the leaderboard, no one is counting him out.

Unofficial chip counts:

Steven Begleiter – 26,400,000
Eric Buchman – 25,950,000
Phil Ivey – 7,100,000
James Akenhead – 2,600,000

Eliminations this hour:

NONE!

9:30pm:

The talk during dinner break was how quickly we would lose somebody coming back from the dinner break, belly full of food and confidence. We came close to a knockout almost immediately when shortstack Jamie Robbins three-bet allin straight into aces. Robbins tens were toast up until the 5%-er ten hit the river. The room erupted and we continued on with 14 players.

In a very “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment, a colleague pointed out an Associated Press story on ESPN.com which oddly enough states that Phil Ivey has been eliminated from the 2009 World Series of Poker. Screenprint on the left.

“Among those eliminated on Wednesday was Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, who was one of only two prior World Series of Poker tournament winners left as play began Wednesday, along with seven-time gold bracelet winner Phil Ivey.”

Odd considering I am currently watching him play on the ESPN table at the moment. I’m sure the article will be corrected, removed, annihilated before long.

Before the end of this level’s first hour we did find ourselves with two knockouts leaving just 3 away from the November Nine. We’ll also see a new bump in payouts with $896,730 for 10th through 12th.

13 – James Calderaro – $633,022
14 – Ben Lamb – $633,022

Unofficial Full Tilt chip counts:

Eric Buchman – 35,980,000
Steven Begleiter – 27,730,000
Phil Ivey – 8,400,000
James Akenhead – 6,150,000

10:00pm:

Well that certainly didn’t take very long. Within 30 minutes of my last update we dropped two people in a hurry. On the secondary feature table, Billy Kopp put 80BBs in the middle drawing completely dead. He was involved in the hand with Darvin Moon who felted him with QJd versus 53d on an all diamond flop. No card could save him and he was gone from the side stage before the river.

Almost immediately after Phil Ivey called the all-in of Jamie Robbins. Ivey’s ATh help up against Robbins’ KQo to suddenly get us looking for one more elimination to form the November Nine. Both tables will now combine to play 10-handed until that person is gone.

Full Tilt is represented by four players. Phil Ivey, Steve Begleiter, Eric Buchman, and James Akenhead guarantee Tilt will have at least 3 faces when the final table is played. Akenhead enters 10-handed play as the shortstack.

Chip counts for the final 10:

Darvin Moon – 44,300,000
Eric Buchman – 36,780,000
Steven Begleiter – 26,495,000
Jeff Shulman – 17,900,000
Jordan Smith – 15,430,000
Joseph Cada – 13,400,000
Kevin Schaffel – 13,080,000
Phil Ivey – 10,210,000
Antoine Saout – 10,200,000
James Akenhead – 5,100,000

10:45pm:

Unbelievable! Just like that we lost Jordan Smith (his aces versus Darvin Moon’s set) and we have our November Nine.

Phil Ivey makes the final table!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a complete rundown after everything settles down.

Day 8 starting chip counts:

1	Moon, Darvin	20,160,000
2	Kopp, Billy	15,970,000
3	Begleiter, Steven	11,885,000
4	Ivey, Phil	11,350,000
5	Schaffel, Kevin	11,245,000
6	Saout, Antoine	11,135,000
7	Shulman, Jeff	10,170,000
8	Buchman, Eric	10,005,000
9	Robbins, Jamie	9,795,000
10	Lamb, Ben	9,410,000
11	Akenhead, James	8,615,000
12	Cada, Joseph	6,565,000
13	Calderaro, James	6,475,000
14	Lichtenberger, Andrew	5,625,000
15	Ludovic, Lacay	5,610,000
16	Zackey, Warren	5,485,000
17	Mattes, Marco	5,285,000
18	Vedes, Tommy	5,070,000
19	Smith, Jordan	4,510,000
20	Esfandiari, Antonio	4,470,000
21	Tavelli, Ian	4,385,000
22	Tamayo, Jonathan	3,300,000
23	Habbak, Jesse	2,750,000
24	Caragiorgas, George	1,615,000
25	Maimone, Nick	1,545,000
26	Margets, Leo	1,530,000
27	Balmigere, Francois	1,440,000

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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Eric Buchman, James Akenhead, Phil Ivey, Steve Begleiter, WSOP

Permalink | July 15th, 2009 Play Poker on Full Tilt Poker

One Response to “2009 World Series of Poker Day 49 – Main Event Day 8 Live Blog”

goldflop Says:
September 7th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Phil Ivey is the most dominant poker player in the world. He continues to excel at online poker, big live cash games, and poker tournaments. He is definitely the Tiger Woods of poker.