John Juanda wins 2008 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event
Photo credit: PokerNews.com

John Juanda began the WSoP-E Main Event final table with the chip lead and finished the evening as the last man standing. Juanda captured his 4th World Series of Poker bracelet along with the £868,800 first place money. It was a final table that required endurance along with remarkable poker skill as the play lasted 22 hours with head’s up play alone lasting 7 hours.

Scott Fischman had an up-and-down day finishing the day in 6th for a £171,950 payday when his AQ was outdrawn by KQ.

Overall it was a successful Main Event for the Full Tilt pros with 7 players making the money, two players at the final table and Juanda taking it down for Team Full Tilt.

Scott Fischman makes WSoP-E Final Table

The dreams of a mostly Full Tilt pro final table at the World Series of Poker Europe went out the window quickly with Andy Bloch, Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow and Brandon Adams going out almost in succession. The final table table still shows a chance for an FTP WSoP-E Main Event champion with John Juanda leading the field and Scott Fischman making an outstanding showing.

Also at the final table will be Ivan Demidov who has probably set an unbeatable record. Demidov already had his seat at the big table for the WSoP Main Event scheduled to be played in November. Incredible feat as Scott Fischman kept reminding him throughout the day as the players continued to get knocked out around him.

Full Tilt pro finishing place and cash:

17th - Brandon Adams - £36,200
18th - Mike Matusow - £36,200
19th - Erik Seidel - £28,960
23rd - Andy Bloch - £28,960
33rd - Josh Arieh - £25,340

John Juanda ends Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Europe near the top

Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Europe ended with Full Tilt pros making a big run at the WSoP-E Bracelet and the £868,800 first place prize money. Play finished with just 25 players remaining and 7 of those are Tilters leading with John Juanda heading into Day 4 third in chips. The Main Event started with 362 and only 24 more to go til glory. The money bubble burst with the top 36 paying, everyone is guaranteed £28,960. The day will begin with the blinds at 2000/4000 500 ante.

Full Tilt pros remaining, position in the field and chip count:

3rd - John Juanda - 580,000
8th - Brian ’sbruby’ Townsend - 355,000
10th - Brandon Adams - 309,000
12th - Andy Bloch - 301,000
13th - Scott Fischman - 265,000
19th - Erik Seidel - 133,000
20th - Mike Matusow - 125,000

Chip counts courtesy of the lovely Change100 and the PokerNews crew

Andy Bloch begins WSoP-E Day 3 atop the leaderboard

Full Tilt pros Andy Bloch and Eric Seidel began the World Series of Poker Europe Day 3 sitting atop a leaderboard that was seeing plenty of action from other FTP pros in the field.  Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, John Juanda and Brandon Adams are also in the running with large stacks in the event.  The WSoP-E has a structure that will allow the players plenty of room to make moves and make their way into the money, the final table and eventual winner.

The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe is a smaller version of the Las Vegas version with only 4 events but it still drew a large number of pros.  It has been a successful series for the Full Tilt pros.  Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer made the final table of the H.O.R.S.E event.  Max Pescatori and Chris Ferguson made the final table of the Pot Limit Omaha tournament with Joe Beevers and Allen Cunningham finishing in the top 18.

As Day 3 of the Main Event continues on, Full Tilt pros continue to make their way to the top of chip counts.  Mike Matusow, Erik Seidel and John Juanda are sitting with top 5 stacks.  Scott Fischman, Josh Arieh and Brandon Adams are still making noise.

For regular live updates, please check out Michael Craig at the Full Tilt Poker Blog as he follows along with the action.

For 5 weeks we ran a Brit Blogger Challenge to award two players a trip to London to watch the Million Dollar Cash Game.  The Challenge drew players from throughout the United Kingdom and the play was entertaining.  In the end, blogger Acornman and reader BURNLEY FC BB10 (Bullmeister) outlasted the field and earned their way to mingle with the big names and watch the high stakes action.

Acornman forwarded on his trip report and it he had a great time.

For more Million Dollar Cash Game coverage from Germany and London, check out Michael Craig’s blog as he followed along with all the action.

Million Dollar Cash Game Trip Report
by Acornman

My mouth hung open a little, “Durrr” style, when I checked out the cashier page shortly after winning an all expenses paid trip to London to see the Full Tilt Million Dollar cash game. Full Tilt had been more than generous and I resolved to pop in and see the Queen about making Sir AlCantHang’s knighthood an official one after all the hard work he had done to ensure two British players made it to London.

The Britblogger challenge game had been run over the last ten weeks and finishing in the top two had won Bullmeister and me our trips to the Big Smoke. I only knew Bully through playing the Brit Blogger games but it didn’t take us long to get in touch regarding our plans for London. The big man started the wind-ups right off the bat by telling me he’d been credited with nearly twice the amount I had received as prize money!

I was up early to catch the train from Glasgow to London on Wednesday morning and when the 6′ 5″ Bullmeister joined me a couple of hours into the journey at Preston, I managed to quickly squeeze in my opinion that players shouldn’t take $5 blogger games too seriously and thankfully this seemed to stick in his mind as we got around to discussing an outrageous bluff I’d pulled on him during the last game! Bully turned out to be a top bloke and I thoroughly enjoyed his company over our two day stay.

After checking in at our hotel it was straight to the Hellenic Centre for the big game. The atmosphere seemed relaxed and after ordering a couple of beers from the free bar it was time to settle down and watch some of the world’s very best players do battle at the felt.

The tone was set when Patrik Antonious and Phil Ivey were both in blind for $100k each on the first hand! Ivey’s 73 spiked a 3 against K6 and a small ripple of applause broke out. I can imagine how I would feel if I lost a big pot at low stakes I play at and people started applauding. One of the floor guys was quick to ensure there was no more clapping at moments like that.

The audience itself was small and most had no clue about poker as they were paid extras. Both Bully and I felt it was a shame that real poker fans couldn’t have been used, but for the sake of the production we could understand it as everyone turned up on time,the players were pretty much left alone when milling around on breaks and there were no interruptions to play at the tables.( despite Bully’s threat to streak naked and my temptation to step forward and flick Durrrs ears or push his gaping mouth closed!)

There was plenty going on away from the tables too with players playing roshambo for huge money right beside us and Chinese poker for even bigger stakes going on too. There was gambol in the air as well as the cards,that’s for sure!

Bully became close friends with one of the actor extras he was sure had starred in Last of the Mohican’s! Upon receiving his actor friends business card before leaving on Friday it became clear that Bully’s Oscar winning buddy had mainly been starring as a clown/magician at children’s parties!

Other interesting highlights were the change in young Tom “Durrr” Dwan between day one and day two. I realize the boy will take a coinflip for $100k without blinking, but at one point he lost his $150k stack and watching him sitting waiting on a reload, he looked like a wee boy who had won a competition to play with the seasoned pros.( who were all chatting away like old buddies).

From what I could see his play was still fearless during day one, but he was very quiet and just didn’t seem to fit in at the table. By day two he was still playing almost every pot, his confidence around the other pro’s seemed to have grown and he was a lot more chatty and outgoing.

Mike Matusow arriving at the table and not caring who was winning but just wanting to know who the loosest players were was quite funny, as was his $5k promise to anyone who could drag Hellmuth back to the table after the 11-time bracelet winner stormed out. The Hellmuth blow-up came after the tournament director casually touched his shoulder to get his attention and had more to do with him being down over 200k and him playing up to his poker brat image than anything else it seemed to me.

Without hole card cameras it was hard to follow every hand in great detail. Ivey’s set of threes beating Ferguson’s Aces for over $500k stuck in my head and a couple of spectacular Ivey bluffs also caught my eye.I’m looking forward to catching more on the Sky sports coverage during January.

Overall it was a fantastic trip. Henry from Full Tilt made us very welcome and it was an honour and a privilege to get within touching distance of guys playing poker for nosebleed stakes. Bully and I didn’t like to bother many of the pro’s during their breaks but Chris Ferguson was a pleasure to chat to and Gus Hansen was kind enough to sign an autograph for his number one fan ( my Mum!) after the game had ended.

I’ve missed out winning at roulette, avoiding sniffer spaniels, the fine Indian meal Bully and I enjoyed on Thursday night, me sitting down next to Bully at a fast food outlet and offering him the barbecue sauce he’d requested only to find it wasn’t Bully at all, the sexy secretary at the window across the road from the Hellenic Centre and the receptionist losing our room key. (Bully wound me up that we’d probably been robbed!)

Thanks again Full Tilt. It was a blast!

Vivek “psyduck” wins 2008 Borgata Poker Open
Photo credit: CardPlayer.com

It only took 48 total hands for Full Tilt player Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar to win the 2008 Borgata Poker Open.  He went heads up with Sang Kim holding a 4 to 1 chip lead and it didn’t take long for the match to complete.  It was an interesting final table with plenty of action and huge suckouts.  When all the chips went in on a big hand, the favorite had rarely stood up.  Aces, Kings and Queens were cracked by huge underdogs including the final hand.

Rajkumar and Kim got all the money in on an Ace high flop with “psyduck” holding AJ and Kim showing AQ.  A Jack on the turn and Vivek was celebrating on the rail with all his friends.

It was interesting to see these two players go head’s up because I spent a good amount of time during the tournament watching their tables.  Sang Kim spent most of Day 2 sitting at the table with Full Tilt pro Erik Cajelais and internet phenom Mike “SowerUNCC” Sowers.  Vivek spent the previous days making moves as he climbed up amongst the chip leaders and knocking out Steve Danneman near the money bubble.

Sang Kim, final table at 2008 Borgata Poker Open
Photo credit: CardPlayer.com

Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar chip leader at 2008 Borgata Poker Open
Photo credit: CardPlayer.com

It took 13 grueling hours to reduce the field of the 2008 Borgata Poker Open from 27 players to the final 6 for the televised final table.  Poker legend Ted Forrest went out first on Day 4 in the first 10 minutes when his aces were cracked by 88.  Steve Dannenman was close to making the TV table but ran into the chip leader’s AJ.

Full Tilt player Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar starts off the day with a healthy chip lead against the rest of the field and will use his aggressive style to keep his opponents off balance.  The top prize for this event is $1,424,500.

–Harvey Dent

When I think about the entry I wrote last night I think it’s important to elaborate on a few things, especially the continuing to unfold Cornell Fiji story.

I failed to mention that Steve had a considerable hand in creating the TJ Cookier comic (though it was addressed in the post.) I originally wrote the script  while relaxing in Macau then sent it off to Steve to get his input, additions, and editing. This was roughly a week before the drama began to unfold. When the thread went up and began exploding with views Steve sent me (as well as his backers) a private message doing his best to explain himself and everything that happened. I agreed not to share the exact contents of that message, though a considerable bit of it was made public with his approval.

The long and short of it was that Steve was up a small amount for his collective of backers after the WSOP. He’d returned the money to all of them but two, whose money he still had on him at the Bellagio. He then took it to the Bellagio poker room and began playing a mix of no limit and limit games for which he was under rolled. Poker led to house games which led to the sports book, which is where the bulk of the money was lost. At some point during the spree (I’m not entirely sure whether it was before, during, or after) Steve requested respected 2+2 poster Admo do a $30,000 transfer with him. Admo agreed to send the $30,000 online in exchange for an equal amount deposited in his bank account. After having lost the money at the Bellagio Steve took the money online and began playing fairly high stakes no limit hold’em online and apparently lost the majority of the money to another 2+2 poster.

After this Steve sent a message to Admo explaining what had happened and that he would begin liquidating assets in order to pay back the debt. Three weeks later and Admo hadn’t received a dime, resulting in his making the whole thing public.

The last time this sort of thing happened I was directly involved and very much the fire starter for the public portion of it. This time around I seem to be the only person close to Steve who isn’t involved. Now being outside looking in and there’s none of the anger but still plenty of disappointment.

I talked to Steve today after he sent me a PM asking to sign on. I asked him if he had anyone left ‘on his side’ so to say, the answer was no. I told him I sincerely hope he makes the whole situation right and does his best to recover everything that’s been lost. The dangerous thing about a thread like the one that’s up about Steve now is that it creates a hole so deep and crippling it becomes difficult to get out of. On top of the stress of everyone who knew you as a good guy now calling you scum, there’s the problem that if Steve attempts to get a while collar job and they run a Google search on him a thread about him stealing $50,000 will be one of the first things that comes up. The thread has totally ruined any drive he had to play poker, and grinding out a $50,000 debt starting from nothing is near impossible.

I don’t mean to write any of this as some method to defend Steve’s actions, or say that he’s getting it worse than he should. I’m not a judge and I wouldn’t pretend for a second to know what the right form of retribution or revenge is in a situation like this. Conversely, I questioned whether I should even write about the situation at all, since I don’t want to just drive more negative attention onto the situation.

A month ago Steve was practically a hero online. He’d done as much as anyone to uncover and pursue the UB scandal, resulting in millions of stolen money being repaid (there’s even been one person who says if he receives his full refund from UB he’ll pay Steve’s debt of $50,000 for him, God knows if it’s true.) When Chief Norton shot back with his lawyers Steve made a retraction statement that made Norton look downright foolish. He’d spent months in small and high stakes MTT forums responding to posters questions with detailed and polite replies.

Today Steve is as notorious and hated as anyone within the community. His months of work are all but forgotten and his name is now the butt of an endless string of jokes. It makes you think about just how careful you need to be with your reputation and actions in poker.

For those of you who live in Europe, you’ll be able to watch the Million Dollar Cash Game on Sky Sports starting next January, so keep an eye out for that. As for the rest of you, well, this is why YouTube was invented…

“Miami John” with a deep run in the Borgata Poker Open

The Full Tilt pros run at the Borgata Poker Open ended with the elimination of Robert Mizrachi. Several had a great run including Beth Shak, “Miami John” Cernuto and Steve Brecher. The tournament pushes today from the final 27 down to the 6 who will compete for the nearly $1.5 million first place money.

Even though the Full Tilt pros are gone, there is still some interesting poker to be played on the last 3 tables. Legendary player Ted Forrest (and “The Suicide King” from Michael Craig’s book The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King) is sitting in the middle of the field and is always dangerous. 2005 World Series of Poker runner-up Steve Dannemann made a late round push looking to add to his resume. Dan Heimiller, starting Day 4 as the chipleader, has 32 cashes in the WSoP including a braclet in 2002.

There are 8 WSoP represented in the remaining field and they have combined career tournament earnings of over $29,000,000.

The feel good story of the tournament was a run by professional hockey player Scottie Upshall. Upshall is a young right winger for the Philadelphia Flyers and was playing the event for charity. Having never played a casino poker tournament, his first table found him sitting with a former WSoP Main Event champ and several seasoned pros. He hung tight with the big guns and eventually went out 52nd of 515 banking $15,000 for his charities.

I’ll be here for the rest of the event, bring actual “Poker from the Rail“.

Update: the joys of near instant internet access. Just as I was preparing to post this, Ted Forrest was busted by a player who believed 88 was a proper hand to call off a half of his stack. Forrest and his pocket aces never stood a chance.