Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We are inching ever closer to crowning the first WSOP bracelet winner of the summer in the $25,000 Heads Up Championship. 32 players returned yesterday needing to win one more match to make the money and advance closer to a title. Gus Hansen entered the room late, but with a flourish. The Dane cruised into the Amazon Room with his shirt completely unzipped as he sat for his match with Daniel Alaei. If this had been Patrik Antonius we might have seen some of the female railbirds pass out, as it was he just zipped up and took care of Alaei to move on.
Hansen also provided the match of the tournament in the round of 16 when he took on Team Full Tilt member Tom “durrrr” Dwan. While the others moved along quickly, Dwan and Hansen took turns taking huge chunks out of the other until the blinds forced Hansen to shove his severe short stack in the middle several straight times. He pulled off every showdown and eventually eliminated Dwan in the final match of the night.
They will play just one match today and determine the final four. The next round kicks off at 3pm PT in the Amazon Room.
Matt Marafioto vs Gus Hansen
Jake Cody vs Anthony Guetti
David Paredes vs Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Nikolay Evdakov vs Eric Froehlich
Yesterday was also the first day for the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 tournament which was an interesting indicator of the rest of the summer. There was plenty of speculation ahead of the WSOP about field sizes and they blew the doors off yesterday. According the WSOP staff, the 925 entrants in Event #3 made it the biggest LO8 tournament ever run. A fine start to the summer.
Defending champion Michael Chow will not go back-to-back as he was eliminated late on Day 1. 201 players remain with the top 90 getting paid. Below are the top 10 and notable stacks to kick off Day 2 at 2:30pm with blinds at 500/1,000 (1,000/2,000 limits).
1 – Guillaume Rivet – 71,200
2 – Andy Seth – 61,700
3 – Gary Bolden – 60,700
4 – Richard Monroe – 59,000
5 – Cary Falk – 59,800
6 – James Dempsey – 59,800
7 – Francesco Barbaro – 58,800
8 – Sorel Mizzi – 56,400
9 – Ted Woolridge – 55,300
10 – Kostas Kalathakis – 50,600
Other Notables: Jimmy Fricke (47,600), Barry Greenstein (46,900), Matt Waxman (39,900), Bryan Micon (38,400), Humberto Brenes (36,100), Jean-Robert Bellande (34,700), John D’Agostino (34,400), TJ Cloutier (34,300), Scott Clements (30,600), Thayer Rasmussen (28,500), Josh Arieh (28,400)
The glamour part of the day involves the made-for-TV Grudge Matches playing out on the fancy new ESPN feature table. They will replay three classic Heads Up matches from previous Main Events in front of the cameras. Matches filmed today will be Chris Moneymaker vs Sammy Farha (2003), Johnny Chan vs Phil Hellmuth (1989) then the Rounders favorite and fan choice of the classic Johnny Chan vs Erik Seidel from the 1988 Main Event final table.
Two other new events also run today with the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em off at noon and the field of rocks in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud at 5pm. Both are showing an early trend at record sizes.
Remember to keep an eye out on our @FullTiltPoker twitter and Facebook page for updates during the day. The Fantasy WSOP contest is also up and running for non-US players, get in the game and challenge your favorite pros.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Eric Froehlich, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
With the 2011 WSOP on the horizon, Jennifer Harman invited a bunch of her friends to the Peppermill Resort and Casino in Reno for her annual Poker Throwdown to benefit the NSPCA. I was honored to be on the invite list where I was able to play a few fun hands with Robert Williamson III, talk with Annie Duke about her upcoming FS+G project (more on that later), and help raising money for a great charity.
680 players registered for the tournament with more than $115,000 raised on the day and it was a fun time. There were plenty of great players, celebrities, and friends in attendance. While sitting around the poker room I asked Full Tilt Academy producer Lizzy Harrison if she would like to write up a trip report and she obliged.
2011 Jennifer Harman Poker Throwdown
by Lizzy Harrison
Years ago, when Jen Harman ended a long-term relationship, she retained a high-profile attorney. She didn’t want the house and couldn’t care less about most of the stuff in it. What she wanted was custody of the four pups they’d adopted as a couple. Jen ended up with three of them.
I’ve heard Jen say, on numerous occasions, that rescue dogs are the only way to go. Jen is one to put her money where her mouth is and, for the past five years, she has hosted a charity poker tournament to raise money for the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA).
This year the tournament was held at the Peppermill in Reno, Nevada. I was invited to attend as a “celebrity” which made me feel pretty damn cool. My responsibilities included having my picture taken with an adorable 2-year pit mix, a 10-month old lab mix born with only 3 legs and a couple of pygmy goats. I was scared to hold the rabbit and I’m not sure why.
A whopping 680 players turned out for the $330 buy-in tournament and many of them were quite high profile. Of course Jen and her husband Marco were there, as were other top poker players like Andy Bloch, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, and Robert Williamson III. Real celebrity guests included Lou Diamond Phillips of “La Bamba” fame, Mekhi Phifer, and lots of Olympic snowboarders. World Series of Poker main event champions Jamie Gold and Jerry Yang were also in attendance.
At $50/rebuy almost everyone could afford to get back in when they lost their stack. Those would couldn’t were bought back in by other players that wanted to donate more to the NSPCA. Alex Outhred was on the mic and with his encouragement no respectable tournament participant could sneak out before the rebuy period ended. Over $110,000 was raised for the NSPCA.
With a Ketel OJ in hand I sat down to play. I’d just finished breakfast with my hubby, AlCantHang, and Kevmath and I was ready. The breakfast special that day was prime rib and eggs, and if I’d known I was going to be drinking all day I would have ordered that. Alas, I am a girl, and as one I ordered a chocolate croissant. Note to all readers: a chocolate croissant is not enough food to eat before playing poker and drinking for hours.
The actual tournament went pretty quickly. Within a few hours there were less than 100 players left and I had my game face on. By then I had moved to a new table and Jamie Gold was to my left. Luckily, I watched his Main Event win years back, so I knew exactly how he plays. I was carefully getting ready to trap the main event champion in a huge pot to propel me to the final table. Then JJ Liu hit a gutshot on me and I was out in 69th place.
Andy Bloch and 2007 WSOP Main Event winner Jerry Yang came to Reno to support the cause
Yang went on to final table the tournament
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips shows the camera exactly how many chips he has remaining
Daniel Negreanu shows actress Julie Benz some of the finer points of the game
Tags: AlCantHang, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Bloggers on the Rail, Daniel Negreanu, Guest Posts, Jennifer Harman, Jerry Yang, Lizzie Harrison
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The 2011 World Series of Poker kicked off yesterday and it was as crazy as expected. Ignoring the 500 pound elephant in the room for a moment, the first open event opened things with the big $25,000 Heads Up Championship and drew a nice even number of 128 players. That meant the entire field would start at the same time without any byes.
The hefty price tag meant this event would be chock full of the top pros aiming for a big payday right out of the gate. Some of the more interesting matches in the first round including Tom Dwan versus Peter Jetten, Erik Seidel versus Dani “Ansky” Stern, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi versus Justin Bonomo, Vivek Rajkumar versus Praz Bansi, and Phil Laak versus Jonathan Duhamel. With this caliber of players none can really be considered an upset but the rail was surely disappointed when Stern put away Seidel in pretty quick fashion.
You could make a pretty decent tournament with the names who didn’t make it through to the final 32 including Daniel Nergreanu, Dan “jungleman12″ Cates, Erick Lindgren, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Shaun Deeb, and Scott Clements. Still, plenty of huge names remain and are just one more match victory from making the money. Some of the more interesting matches set for 3pm PT today:
Tom “durrrr” Dwan versus Ashton Griffin
Gus Hansen versus Daniel Alaei
Eric Froehlich versus Steve Zolotow
Erik Cajelais versus Nikolay Evdakov
Olivier Busquet versus Andrew Robl
Carlos Mortensen versus John Duthie
Only one new event today will throw cards in the air and it’s the fun (for some) game of Omaha/8, a $1,500 tournament going off at noon Amazon Room time. This event drew 818 players last year with Michael Chow (?) denying Dan Heimiller his second WSOP bracelet.
Remember to keep an eye out on our @FullTiltPoker twitter and Facebook page for updates during the day. The Fantasy WSOP contest is also up and running for non-US players, get in the game and challenge your favorite pros.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The 2011 World Series of Poker is upon us. The first “open” event will begin in a few hours with the $25,000 Heads Up World Championship and we will officially be underway in the Rio. It’s become a custom around these parts to begin the WSOP by putting together a list of players to watch. Some come into the summer riding a heater, others just seem to be due a big series, and the others are just too big to ignore.
There are plenty of names which could be included on the list but no one wants to read a 3,000 word post. I didn’t include (but well worthy) were current Bluff Player of the Year leader Galen Hall, 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, WPT World Championship winner Scott Seiver, or WSOP legend Doyle Brunson.
Below are some of the players I think are worth your attention this summer. The Big Guns, Honorable Mentions, and Sleepers.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Eugene Katchalov, John Juanda, Jonathan Duhamel, jungleman12, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Vanessa Selbst, Vivek Rajkumar, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
With just one day until the 2011 World Series of Poker gets underway in Las Vegas, we thought it we be a good time to take a look at the first part of the schedule. There are 55 open events throughout the summer (excluding the Casino Employee, Senior, and Ladies events) so we’ll have plenty of time to consider the future. We’ll preview each week as it approaches and attempt to predict what you might expect.
WSOP days are kept pretty standard, you will find the larger field/smaller buyin tournaments starting at noon each day followed by the smaller field/larger buyin events at 5pm. 11 of the 12 “championship” events will have the later start with the 6-handed No Limit Hold’em Championship as the only exception. Only one small anomaly during the first week of play, you won’t find a single new tournament running on Day 6 (Sunday, June 5th).
The World Series of Poker has kicked things off the last few years with a major tournament. Two years ago it was the $40,000 40th Anniversary tournament, last year it was the $50,000 Player’s Championship, this year it will be a $25,000 Heads Up Championship. The field will be capped at 256 players making the Amazon Room into a great spectacle of tables running two heads up matches with dealers sitting on the end.
This is a brand new event for the WSOP so you can’t handicap based on past performance but you can expect some the best, hottest players to do well including Erik Seidel, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Olivier Busquet, and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates.
The rest of the week has one other championship event on the 3rd with the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship. Saturday launches the first of the weekly $1,000 “donkaments” as the kids like to say. It will interesting to see how the attendance is altered due to the recent developments with online poker. You’ll also notice only three of this week’s events are No Limit Hold’em, diversity rules the land.
Below is the list of events scheduled to be played this week.
Day 1, May 31st at 17:00 – $25,000 Heads Up NLHE Championship
Day 2, June 1st at 12:00 – $1,500 Limit Omaha/8
Day 3, June 2nd at 12:00 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em
Day 3, June 2nd at 12:00 – WSOP Rematches
Day 3, June 2nd at 17:00 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Day 4, June 3rd at 12:00 – $1,500 Limit Hold’em
Day 4, June 3rd at 17:00 – $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship
Day 5, June 4th at 12:00 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em
Day 5, June 4th at 17:00 – $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit)
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Planning to hit Las Vegas this summer to play in a few tournaments during the World Series of Poker for the first time or just to rail the action? Even if you’ve been there before, “Tuscaloosa” Johnny is along with a guest post giving you some great ideas where to stay, how to get there, and what to do.
Vegas Vacation Logistics
By “Tuscaloosa” Johnny Kampis
Logistics. It’s generally a pretty boring topic (UPS songs about it be damned), but it’s important to try to figure out the best way to get from Point A to Point B. This applies whether you’re shipping goods across the world or just trying to figure out your Las Vegas plans.
There’s a lot going on not only at the Rio—home to the World Series of Poker—but all of Vegas. If you only plan to stay in Sin City for a week or less, you must try to cram a lot of poker and tourism into a short period of time, depending on your inclination to see the city and experience the other poker rooms. Here’s a quick primer on some of the important logistics of Las Vegas. Consider it your cheat sheet to packing a lot of fun into your stay in the most efficient way possible.
Where should I stay if I want to save a few bucks?
The Rio has actually been running some pretty good rates this summer and you can get a good room–not a true suite as they claim—for a pretty good price, but if you want to stay for weeks and are looking for something cheaper, you have plenty of options in the city.
As a general rule, the farther north you travel on the Strip the lower the rates you will find. Stratosphere (technically just north of the Strip), Circus Circus and Riviera all offer rock bottom prices on rooms, but these properties are practically on an island now with the closure of old-time casino hotels like Sahara, Stardust and Frontier. Your best bets for cheap rates are Imperial Palace mid Strip and Hooters and Excalibur on the south end of the Strip.
Rates Downtown are cheapest, as a rule. El Cortez, which is a block east of the Fremont Street Experience, is offering rooms for less than $20 a night on some dates this summer. While this property is the butt of many jokes, the rooms here actually get decent ratings from customers. If you stay on Fremont Street you’ll need some good transportation to get to the WSOP, which leads us into the next question…
If I choose not to stay at the Rio, what are my best transportation options for getting there?
To really answer the question, we must consider cost versus convenience. If money is no issue, you can cab it all over town. This is not a viable option if you plan to do a lot of traveling and are cost conscious, however, as cabs will cost you an average of $10-$20 a trip depending on how far you go. You can also rent a car for as low as about $20-$30 a day.
The city has a good bus system, with buses hitting every stop on the Strip an average of 15 minutes apart. Each ride costs only $2-$3 and you can buy multi-day passes that provide unlimited rides. Expect an excruciatingly slow ride. Since these buses stop every block or so, with plenty of people getting on (and having to feed their money into the fare machine) and off, you should leave for the Rio well ahead of any scheduled tournaments you plan to play–or expect to be late.
If you happen to be near mid Strip and need to catch a ride to the Rio you have an alternate option. Caesars Entertainment runs shuttle buses from Rio to and from sister properties Harrah’s and Bally’s. These shuttles pick up from each location every 15 minutes or so and can be a viable—and free—option for getting from the Strip to the Rio, and vice versa.
Can you walk it? Sure, if you can stand the triple digit temperatures during the day and the fear of getting mugged on this lonely stretch late at night. It’s about a mile walk from Caesars Palace to the Rio, and that will only take you to the front. It’s several hundred yards from the front of the casino to the WSOP area.
So I busted out of the noon WSOP event rather quickly when my [insert bad beat story here]. What other tournament choices do I have now?
Most events at competing tournament series also start at noon. Those that feature later starting times are smartly (at least in this writer’s opinion) trying to capture some of the WSOP “bustout” market. Namely, events at Binion’s Poker Classic start at 2 p.m. while the Caesars Summer Mega Stack series features alternate type events at 4 p.m., including plenty of large stack turbo NLHE tournament and Omaha tournaments.
Plenty of the casino poker rooms offer daily tournaments, with most in the evenings. Only a few, such as Binion’s and The Venetian, offer buy-ins of $100 or more. Most of the tournament series also have $100 or so “second chance” tournaments, usually beginning around 7 p.m.
Of course, you could just stay at the Rio and play the $235 2 p.m. tournament, the $185 6 p.m. tournament or the $135 10 p.m. tournament. Caesars Entertainment knows how to get the rake.
I don’t really want to overpay for food at the WSOP Poker Kitchen. What other options do I have?
Good luck finding cheap food at the Rio. If you buy into a WSOP bracelet event you get a whopping $10 coupon to at least save a few bucks. Too bad the Rio is on an island, so to speak, so you can’t quickly grab a bite to eat somewhere else on your dinner break.
If you have access to a car, you can make a quick jaunt over to the In ‘n Out Burger on Tropicana, which is only a couple of minutes away by motor transportation.
If you plan to leave the Rio in a situation where time is not a factor and you want to find cheap food, avoid the Strip and head Downtown. The buffets are cheaper, and there are a few fine dining options like Vic ‘n Anthony’s at Golden Nugget, Hugo’s Cellar at Four Queens and Binion’s Ranch Steakhouse at, well, Binion’s that generally offer lower prices than comparable restaurants on Las Vegas Boulevard. There’s always the 99-cent shrimp cocktail at Golden Gate, as well.
This is my first trip to the city and I want to see as much as I can in a day. What should I do?
As someone who has spent WAY too much time in Las Vegas, this is the advice I especially love to give since I’m one of those types who isn’t chained to the poker tables and loves to see the city. The advantage of tourism in Las Vegas is that 90 percent of the must-see attractions are all located on or very close to Las Vegas Boulevard, ne “the Strip.”
If you’re a poker player and only have one day to devote to tourism I would first get me a very comfortable pair of shoes as you will be doing a lot of walking. Fortunately, with plenty of sister properties connected to each other you can avoid some of the heat. Now get yourself to Mandalay Bay to start your Strip tour from south to north. Walk through the inside here to Luxor and then Excalibur. Walk across the pedestrian walkway over Tropicana Avenue to New York-New York. Head across the street and explore MGM Grand. Stop and play a little poker if you desire.
Head north to Planet Hollywood and then dart into Paris. From here you can walk through to Bally’s and then cross the street to Bellagio. Visit the poker room, of course. You’ll likely see some familiar faces. Get in a game if you can. Now walk outside and backtrack toward Aria and Cosmopolitan, two of Vegas’ newest faces. Stop to catch a show of the famed dancing Bellagio fountains if it’s near the top of the hour or half hour. If not, wait and catch the show upon your return.
Play a little poker at Aria and then head past Bellagio to Caesars Palace. Check out the massive casino, admiring the sportsbook and maybe playing poker if you have some time. Walk through the Forum Shoppes and you will come out near the entrance to The Mirage. Take the moving walkway into here and head left to see the poker room, which once was boss in Vegas many moons ago (perhaps you recall Mike McDermott’s lust for it in “Rounders.”)
By now the sun has hopefully set so you can take in the nighttime attractions the Strip has to offer. Try to catch the volcano “eruption” outside The Mirage at the top of the hour closest to sunset and then walk across the street to visit The Venetian and see the replica of St. Mark’s Square from the actual Venice out front. The massive poker room-easily the largest in size in Las Vegas—is right at the front of the casino. Try to get into a game for a little while. If you want to see the pirate “battle” at Treasure Island across the street go for it, but you won’t be missing much if you don’t and, besides, you have to line up early to get a decent view.
From either The Venetian or Treasure Island, head down to Wynn on the other side of Spring Mountain Road. You may notice it looks similar to Bellagio. No surprise there since Steve Wynn built both properties. Walk to the back to catch some poker action.
You’ll want to head down to Fremont Street before 11 p.m. to catch the last show of the Fremont Street Experience so keep an eye on the watch. If you’re short on time grab a cab. If you have plenty of time you can take the bus, which stops in front of Wynn. On the ride to Fremont Street watch for the Silver & Gold Pawn Shop of “Pawn Stars” fame, which is located a few blocks south on Main Avenue.
Catch the last showing of the FSE and then walk down to Binion’s. Skip the current poker room and walk back to the former poker room. Here in the back of the casino you will see the former WSOP tournament area and the Gallery of Champions that is still located on the left wall if you’re facing the back. Stop in the poker room on your way out to say you played here and then go get some sleep. If you still have pep catch some $1-$2 NLHE action across the street at Golden Nugget.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Tuscaloosa Johnny, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Continuing our recap of the 2010 World Series of Poker as we approach the 2011 WSOP, I thought it would be appropriate to repost what I thought were some of the worst beats during the Main Event. I took a (well deserved) beating on some of them, but felt the insanity/nasty factor made most these hands worth submitting.
Bad beats suck. It’s just the nature of the game. Unless you have your opponent drawing completely dead, you have a chance to be on the ugly side of a slim draw. Spending the last few years around both live and online poker games, I have seen my fair share of just incredibly horrible beats. From the river one outers to the runner runner perfect 1% gross beats. It seems my never ending lot in life is to explain to online players that their bad beats happen live and vice versa.
The 2010 WSOP was nothing out of the ordinary in this aspect. At one stretch I watched four consecutive all-in situations where aces or kings were cracked in absolute brutal fashion. ESPN’s Andrew Feldman made his appearance at the Rio at the start of the Main Event and immediately watched big hands get flushed, after two months (or two weeks) you just become immune to them. Perhaps another reason I give very little slack to those who feel the need to tell bad beat stories. I’ve seen them all, your beat is nothing spectacular.
The Main Event brought over 7,000 players and seemingly just as many suckouts. While it is completely impossible to report them all, we did witness quite a few plus our friends at PokerNews were all too happy to display a little grief for the readers. I went back over my notes, tweets, and posts to find the worst ones after a Rail reader left a comment asking about the worst beats I saw. To keep things interesting I’m just posting nine and leaving the last one empty for the readers to fill in the blank.
Here you have some of the nasty, gross, disgusting ways to bust out of the 2010 WSOP Main Event and watch $10,000 disappear. Every one of these beats would send the online railbirds straight to the forums to complain about some sort of “conspiracy”. They were live, they happened, someone walked away very unhappy. After reading these I hope you begin to realize just how wide open this game can be.
Enjoy.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We’re just a few short days away from the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker and things are beginning to buzz. Plans are being solidified, airfare booked, and rolls wired to the Rio cage. While the world winds itself up for the coming series, we thought it would be nice to head back to last year for a few highlights.
Last week I put together a list of some of the best pictures of the summer and today I tried to come up with my 5 favorite stories from last year. It was not an easy task as I didn’t add the much anticipated first WSOP for Annette Obrestad, the incredible class shown by Brandon Adams getting berated on the way to a second place finish, or the incredible run of 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela.
While they may come off as a strictly Full Tilt Poker list, as a long time poker observer, these were the stories I consider the most memorable.
Tags: 2010 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, November Nine, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Erik Seidel has been nicknamed “Seiborg” by our friends at The Micros. Once again he went into a High Stakes tournament looking to destroy and that’s exactly what he did.
The World Poker Tour was making running it’s final tournament of the season and added a $100,000 buyin Super High Roller tournament at the Bellagio to cap it. 29 players entered and it took 3 days to crown the winner. The final table was stacked as expected with only the final 5 making the money, including Seidel, Erick Lindgren, Danial Negreanu, Justin Bonomo, and Vivek Rajkumar. Not too shabby for a “small field” tournament.
Once Erick Lindgren eliminated Daniel Negreanu in 3rd place we were guaranteed to have a member of Team Full Tilt capture the title. After heads up play was underway, it was decided to take a break to resume at noon the next day. After a battle, Seidel added to his incredible 2011 run with the victory and just over $1,000,000. That brings his total for the first 5 months of the year to $4.3million.
I was suggest taking him in your Fantasy WSOP league.
The lastest run of the MiniFTOPS series came to a close and was a big success after the shock of FTOPS XX. Over 160,000 jumped into the fray creating a prizepool of $7,313,591 which comes in less than $9million short of it’s big brother series at 1/10th of the price. The series also concluded without posting a single overlay including the usual Stud/8 event is usually a lock.
Mother Russia blasting out of the gates picking up 3 of the first 8 titles and dominated throughout throughout the fortnight. Russian players would go on to capture 11 of the 45 silver MiniFTOPS jerseys with the United Kingdom coming in a distant second with 4 victories. The Americas continued their struggles picking up just 3 total for both continenants (2 for Brazil, 1 for Canada).
You can’t miss how the jerseys are now spread around the globe when considering the list of titles per country.
11 – Russia
4 – United Kingdom
3 – Canada
3 – Germany
3 – Netherlands
2 – Australia
2 – Austria
2 – Brazil
2 – Denmark
2 – Italy
2 – Poland
2 – Sweden
1 – Belgium
1 – India
1 – Norway
1 – Portugal
1 – Romania
1 – Serbia
1 – Ukraine
Next up on the menu will be the 2011 World Series of Poker in the desert oasis of Las Vegas. Players will begin their journey to a bracelet in a little over a week and we’ll be there to bring you the updates. Keep an eye out this week for our 2010 World Series of Poker highlights brought to you by some of those who witnessed it.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Erik Seidel, MiniFTOPS
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Your Best Bets for Vegas this Summer
By Johnny Kampis
With so many options for accommodations and poker rooms, the choices in Las Vegas can be overwhelming. We’ve compiled some of the best bargains and features of Las Vegas to help you spend your time in the desert gambling mecca wisely.
Best $250 and under tournaments
Several of the tournament series in Vegas this summer are geared to appeal to more modest roller, with Binion’s, Caesars and The Orleans all offering small buy-in affairs. But the best of the bunch is The Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget. Held in the comfy and spacious Grand convention area, this series is known for its deep structures. Granted, this means you may play for more than 10 hours and bubble or min cash, but you can’t complain that you didn’t get a fair shake with the structure.
Best daily casino tournaments
For your money, you can’t beat the Venetian for its daily tournaments, as the structures are deep for an event with a reasonable buy in. The 7 p.m. nightly frolic has a $120 buy in and often attracts a few hundred players while the Deep Stack Extravaganza is running. Expect fast structures at most other daily tournaments, and fees of excess of 30 percent on many of them. One of the best returns for your money is the $50 + $10 daily tournament at Mandalay Bay that returns 80 percent of the cash to the prize pool.
Best tournaments for the non Hold’em fans
Although Golden Nugget gets an honorable mention here, the Summer Mega Stack Series at Caesars Palace earns the kudos for its daily 4 p.m. tournaments. Granted, you get a lot of turbo NLHE events in these afternoon gatherings, but you also see plenty of Omaha tournaments—10 in all, as well as a HORSE tournament. In addition, where else can you play a heads-up NLHE event with a $120 buy in? Of course, if you’re a high roller, then the WSOP offers plenty of events in most poker disciplines, but with buy ins that start at $1,500 most of us must watch from the sideline.
Best satellites
If you tire of the turbo structure of WSOP satellites that are designed to collect your money and determine a winner quickly, head over to The Venetian for the Deep Stack Extravaganza. The Italian-themed property has the edge in four ways. First, the structure is fair and gives you some play. Second, these are two winner satellites. Granted, you can’t win as much, but this method reduces the variance and keeps the satellite interesting when one player is running away with the chip lead. Thirdly, unlike the WSOP, The Venetian lets you buy in other players by trading satellite chips for cash, which helps you unload extra satellite chips and makes it easier to sit around and grind these for a profit. Lastly, the satellite chips you win here are good for any tournament held at The Venetian—including the dailies.
Best cash games
It’s hard to top the action at the Rio during the WSOP. You can choose from tables and tables of NLHE games of any size, in addition to games in other disciplines, as well as mixed games. You may find it hard sometimes to get a seat in the non-NLHE tables, as the ratio of tables to the number of players on the wait list tends to be more skewed. Unfortunately, you do not get rated for comps when playing cash games at the WSOP, and the rake structure is not the most favorable around.
On the Strip, the Bellagio offers plenty of action, but expect a long wait to get a seat-especially on a weekend. The Venetian and Aria are other rooms with plenty of action worth checking out during your stay.
Best mixed games
If you have the roll, you will find plenty of mixed games to your liking at the Rio. However, most of the mixed games start at 10-20 limits and go up–way up. For more recreational mixed games, try The Venetian or Aria, which are both open to spreading mixed games if you can get enough interest. The Venetian gets the edge because it tends to run more non-NLHE games.
Best hotel bargains on the Strip
If you can’t afford five-star accommodations, you still have plenty of options on the Strip—it just depends how low in quality and far from mid Strip you are willing to go. It’s easier to find deals north and south of the heart of the Strip. If you want to stay close to Flamingo Road–the thoroughfare that will take you to the Rio—check out Imperial Palace and Bill’s Gambling Hall. Bill’s is right on Flamingo, while Imperial Palace is a couple blocks up the Strip. Check rates at the Gold Coast, the Rio’s next door neighbor. If you can get a good deal here it’s hard to beat the convenience to the WSOP.
Best hotel deals Downtown
You would be hard pressed to find an expensive room on Fremont Street, as both the price and quality of most hotels here are quite a downgrade from those on the Strip. For a good deal and a nice room, it’s hard to beat the Golden Nugget, which offers regular $39 weekday rates on its accommodations. This rate tends to double on the weekend, but you will get a room that’s better than basic rooms on the Strip that rent for higher rates. Main Street Station is worth a look, too, as the accommodations get high ratings and the rates are even lower than the Nugget’s. The catch is that Main Street Station is a block down Main Street, which is an area you may not want to walk after dark.
Tags: 2011 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Tuscaloosa Johnny, WSOP
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