2009 World Series of Poker – Day 6 From the Rail

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

Chris Ferguson plays in the 2009 Champions Invitational
Photo credit: IMPDI

Day 6 was a day of big names and big games. The premier crowd pleasure would be the final table of the Champions Invitational pitting former Main Event winners against one another. ESPN was all set, the stands were ready for the crowd, the players were primed to go. Perennial crowd favorite Phil Hellmuth was the short stack and first to hit the rail. Then the battle begun in earnest. I don’t know why we didn’t think this would last forever, but what could you expect from a final table full of the best players to ever sling chips.

In the end, 1983 Champion Tom McEvoy outlasted a very long 3-handed battle with Dan Harrington and Robert Varkonyi. McEvoy will be taking home the first ever “Binion’s Cup” and will be driving away in that sweet 1970 red Corvette. A great exhibition but on by the greats and we’ll see how it comes out when ESPN broadcasts the event.

The “Stimulus Special” keeps adding to it’s crazy reputation when they stopped play in the early evening will before planned. The official schedule had them playing all the way down to the final table, but were only able to get down to the final 50 before giving every the rest of the “night” off. They’ll resume on Tuesday when they must play from 50 to 1.

Monday was also the first day of the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha and $10k World Championship of Stud. The stud tournament brought out the best players in the game. It also brought out some of the best stud jokes around. Between player banter and twitter, they were flying all over. “What do you call an 80 year old Stud player? Junior!” Just one of the many. Fortunately for the players sanity, the $10k Stud was being played int he back corner of the Brasilia Room away from the mass of railbirds walking around the Amazon Room.

It was a quiet day along the rail and in media row other than the Champions Invitational. Both the PLO and Stud game were in opposite directions and the Rio staff turned the tournament floor into the biggest cash game room on the planet (outside of the California card barns). It was a unique view of the cash game action which is generally not our top priority. The games ranged from $2/$5 to $25/$50 NLHE and probably higher, those were just the ones I could hear announced.

Another first for this humble bloggers, railbirding cash games while keeping track of the other tournaments. I’m learning something new every day.

Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP