Posts Tagged ‘Bloggers on the Rail’
$25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
In all the excitement of the November Nine, FTOPS XIV, and the Isildur1 cash game craziness I completely lost track of the upcoming $25k Heads-Up PLO World Championship.
In addition to the standard Big Money Sunday games, today at 15:00ET brings a tournament that will feature most of the top players from the online and live poker world. The buyin alone will narrow the field to the best players in Pot Limit Omaha, the game which has quickly taken over as the HU game for those risking huge swings. Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius are already registered and it’s only a matter of time before newly minted member Tom “durrrr” Dwan is in the field. You’ll find Andy Bloch and Erik Seidel signed up as well as “Annette_15″ Obrestad and crazy man Tony G. It wouldn’t be a high stakes Heads-Up these days if you didn’t see Isildur1 registered for the tournament.
The field will be capped at 64 and we halfway there. Full Tilt continues to run satellites for this incredible event, chances to win yourself on “the cheap”. The tournament ID is 116764959, the satellites are listed in the lobby. I will be surprised if it does not fill before the start leaving a small number of players shooting for part of the $1,600,000 prizepool.
I will be there along the rail to catch and report that action. Look for updates.
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Tags: $25K Heads-Up World Championship, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan
Guest Post from Drizztjd – Tournament or Cash?
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s usually fuel to fire up a fine argument amongst poker players, especially those plied with large amounts of alcohol and a spur under their saddle. What’s the best, poker tournaments or cash games?
It generally goes a little like this: Tournaments are the best format, cash games players rule. Tournaments are for lucksack push monkeys, cash games are for boring rock-garden nut-peddlers. As long as poker has been around there has been an argument for both sides of the equation. Nothing is ever solved but in the end it’s just a matter of preference and comfort zone.
You can count me in with the nut-peddling grinder crew as I generally view the tournament players as a bunch of gamblers looking to get all their chips in the middle on the come. It’s also true I’m so tight that I make Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler look like the world’s biggest LAGtard. Different strokes for different folks. Tournament players find my process of grinding out my daily nut in number of big-bets won the dullest most unimaginative form of the game.
This week’s guest blogger comes along and tells both sides it’s our best interest to cross the line, get our money in the game when the price is right and expand horizons. I’ll let him explain.
Ladies and gentlemen, your guest blogger Drizztdj.
Tournament or Cash Player?
by Drizztdj
Unless you have been living under cryogenic freeze for the past six months, or last decade for that matter, you dear readers are aware of the poker exploits of one Phil Ivey. He flies, he wins, he grinds, he smiles on a rare occasion when certain loggers from Maryland are not outdrawing him at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table (that apple must have tasted bitter after the queen flopped).
He’s a tournament player obviously, right? Nearly won WSOP bracelet number eight by becoming one of this year’s “November Nine”, a WPT bracelet, $12.2 million in tournament winnings, the man excels at closing out the tournament once given the chip ammo piled up from the countless check-raises and reading the souls of those who dared to pony up the entry fee to sit at his table. No emotion unchecked, staying just ahead of the blinds to cash isn’t an option as its first place or no place, Phil Ivey is definitely a tournament player.
But, wait. There’s a little side cash game going on at the Bellagio with millions of dollars on the felt. When the lack of tournament chips appear in front him, the high roller can be seen behind the glass doors of Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio playing for stakes that normal nine-to-five cube monkeys like myself only see while hitting up the play chip games. Only those aren’t play chips they’re $10,000 and $25,000 real currency chips being splashed across the felt on an up-and-down straight draw, or trying to squeeze out a wheel in deuce-to-seven triple draw. Likewise, if you’re a closet online nosebleed railbird like me, you’ll see Mr. Ivey’s avatar taking on all comers at Ivey League, Ivey Showdown, Ivey Thunderdome, and Ivey’s Playground tables, playing with $1,000 /$2,000 blinds all levels limit or no limit and in all games.
So, he’s a cash game savant right?
Wrong.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, drizztdj, Guest Posts
Cash Game Explosion
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
I was minding my own business after a casual day of live cash games/drinking when my trusty wifi-enabled communication devices began chirping and chiming away. Everyone who knew of my associate with The Tilt began texting and twittering about the cash games blowing up with huge pots, all the big game grinders were getting their “two cents” involved. Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Hold’em, and the 7-Game Mix table were packed with obscene amounts of honest-to-god real money cash that are unimaginable to the vast majority of the poker world. There are many huge poker players who won’t go near these levels.
I did what a respectable member of the poker community would do, especially one whose charter involves keeping an eye on the big games and big names. I found a way to fire up the Full Tilt Poker software and witness some of the craziness for myself. I found all the action spread across several different lobbies with the largest games being found in PLO and 7-game involving Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Brian Townsend, Cole South and Abe “EazyPeazy” Mosseri. Notably absent was new Tilter Tom “durrrr” Dwan who was in London preparing for, and playing in, his “durrrr Million Dollar Challenge”. The Challenge didn’t stop Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies from taking time from his preparations to get in a little action.
Most notably involved was the mysterious Isildur1, it seems all we can figure out about this player is that he’s from Sweden and he’s got a bit of the gamble in him. Isildur1 was a regular in the higher stakes but came out of the blue to blast away at the very highest levels running against those accustomed to the rarefied air. Before Dwan hopped a plane across the pond it was reported the Isildur1 came in an relieved his bankroll of over $3,000,000. His name has been mentioned by every outlet that covers poker and the race is on to find out his/her real identity. Dwan even went so far as to issue a challenge for him to become part of the Live Heads Up matches in London. Isildur1’s lack of response was his decline.
I have a habit of saying “Mother Variance is a right bitch” to just about anyone who brags about huge gains over a short amount of time, well that seems to have jumped up and bit poor Isildur1 a little over the last few nights. Patrik Antonius is not the player you want to run into when it’s your time to give a little back. Not only did Antonius give him a smack on the nose, he popped Isildur1 for the biggest pot in online poker history.
In all the bouncing around I actually managed to miss everything go down but my good friends over at PokerNews.com caught it all. Without digging into the forensic details of the hand, I’ll just tell you that Antonius and Isildur1 had all the money in on the turn with a chop the most likely outcome. Antonius hit one of his ten outs on the river and dragged the new record pot of $878,958.50. That is not your standard home game pot. For the full details of the hand (until I can finally get the hand replayer pasted into this spot), you can check out the PokerNews.com writeup.
That wasn’t the end of the beatdown for Isildur1 as Brian Townsend and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies also stepped up over the last few days trying to take a piece out of his bankroll. Dwan must be licking his chops in London, wanting to get back online and reclaim what was once his. It will be interesting to see how long Isildur1 can hang at these levels, he’s been getting chippy in the chat the last few days and it may doing a number on him already. These tables have been running each evening and are definitely worth checking out for pure entertainment value.
~
In Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge news, Dwan is currently 1 for 2 in his battle. He is playing three 12 hours Heads Up matches against Marcello “Luckexpress” Marigliano, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Sammy George at $500/$1000 PLO or NLHE. No player can leave the table before 500 hands or going busto. First up was Marigliano who finished with a narrow edge of just over $22,000 and then he defeated Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies by $68,000.
Playing at these stakes you could generally expect a much wider gap at the end of play but the challenge has been very even. Next up is World Class Smack Talker Sammy George, I feel pretty confident that this will not be a close affair no matter who wins in the end.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Isildur1, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan
FTOPS XIV Wrap Up
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Sunday brought to close another successful FTOPS with 25 more events and over $18,000,000 dished out among the players. We had some big score by the top online and professional poker players such as David “The Dragon” Pham, Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder, Brian “badbeatninja” Devonshire and Thayer “THAY3R” Rassmussen. Brad “bd3109″ Albrinck came out of nowhere to claim the top of the FTOPS XIV leaderboard with one title and a runner-up result in back-to-back days (Event #16 and 18) collecting nearly $100,000. Gary Jones was your big money winner amongst the Full Tilt pros when he banked $193,462 with his 4th place finish in the $2,500 Two Day Event.
The series started off with a little controversy in Event #1 when the players decided to not pay attention when making a deal at the table. If you want to know what happened, feel free to check out the Full Tilt forums. Yesterday concluded the series by paying out $6,487,7000 across four huge tournaments and awarding 13 players with paydays in the six digit range. There were actually four events this series which fell just short of the guarantee which meant that Full Tilt kicked in an extra $200,000 to the players in the form of overlays bringing the final prizepool payout to $18,153,100 across the 25 events.
I spent most of the series sitting in Las Vegas covering the November Nine but that didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping an eye on the biggest set of online tournaments running at the same time. After spending my days with the live players I would return to see what I missed, or what was still going on after one particularly long day. I asked fellow blogger Brad Utz to help me out and here are some of things we witnessed. You can find the final table results of all events after the jump.
- Full Tilt pros have a tough time breaking through to win these major events. Before this series only Erick Lindgren, Berry Johnston, and Gavin Smith were able to accomplish that feat with Smith and Johnston doing it last series. FTOPS XIV saw two more red letter pros score victories with David “The Dragon” Pham and Greg “FBT” Mueller. Pham had several prior FTOPS final tables to his credit but no joy until Event #14. Mueller’s victory was previous documented as he joined Erick Lindgren as the only Full Tilt pros to actually capture a victory in the event they were “hosting”.
- Coming into FTOPS XIV there were only 10 players who have won multiple events across the near 240 tournaments prior to this series. csimmus and Yuvee “yuvee04″ Bronshtein lead the way with 3 FTOPS titles. This series added three more to that list with Steven “UFman2″ Burkholder, Deception Pt, and elheroe all earning their second “golden jersey”. Event #5 was the FTOPS stacked table of the series with three previous winner with Burkholder almost adding another, “yuvee04″ going for his FOURTH, and it was here that Deception Pt picked up his second. There were actually quite a few former winners who came close to adding another this series including Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, David “Doc Sands”, and lilkimmer77 who all made final tables.
Live poker update: While finishing up this post I found out that “yuvee04″ just took down the H.O.R.S.E. event at the L.A. Poker Open. Congrats to a friend of the blog!
- Miscellaneous numbers from FTOPS XIV:
Number of events: 25
Guarantee Prizepool: $16,000,000
Actual Prizepool: $18,153,100
Largest Prizepool: $2,735,500 (Main Event)
Smallest Prizepool: $111,000 (Stud Hi/Lo)
Overlay (4 events): $221,300
Number of players: 54,823
Players with over $100,000 payout: 30 (thirty!)
Largest Payout: $539,350.00 (obiedman)
Largest FTP pro Payout: $193,462.50 (Gary Jones)
Total FTP pro cash (#): 79
Total FTP pro cash ($): $481,343.36
- I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t witnessed millions of online hands can appreciate some of the complete insanity the follows along with the big names on the site or when the tournaments get down to just a few tables. The regular Big Money Sunday events are crazy enough but FTOPS brings out the top shelf. The beggars are still there but practically drowned out by every nutball that’s ever posted on a forum or played a $1 SnG offering up their opinions on every move. It’s almost priceless when they start fighting amongst themselves. When the railbirds start challenge to play any for any stakes, it’s pure comedy. That’s why Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron has one of my favorite screennames. In a moment of weakness I decided to start a Railbird Hall of Shame Fame. I witnessed the following names on the rail who will join our inaugural class with nh83012001 getting special honors for challenging everyone “ill play you in any game any stakes”. It seems his apostrophe key was stuck that day also.
Your FTOPS XIV Railbird inductees, be sure to congratulate them:
chuckie247: you think im a fish, yet im the one in profit…
(ragging the rail, while on the rail)
Joey1029: go cry to your mom kid.
(overused the word “kid” when abusing)
nh83012001:ill play you in any game any stakes
(we have a winner!)
xMONSTERxDONGx: u guys dont know what ur talking about
(no-it-alls annoy me on the last day)
i8aNET15: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
(with a incredibly impolite message to “FBT” Mueller)
I’m always looking for something amusing on the rail, feel free to pass anything along if you see something worthy of notice.
After the jump you can find the results for all FTOPS final tables and other notables. You can also find the complete unofficial Full Tilt Poker Red Letter Pro Challenge.
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, David Pham, FTOPS, Greg Mueller
Tom “durrrr” Dwan – Newest Member of Team Full Tilt
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
We’ve all heard stories of the Big Game running in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. Standard play is a $2,000/$4,000 cash game sometimes hitting even higher depending who’s in town and who’s stuck. Prop bets flying all over the place with chip sizes 99.9% of us will never see. Then there was the famous battle of Andy Beal versus The Corporation as documented by Michael Craig in The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King where the levels ranged from $30,000/$60,000 to $100,000/$200,000. Insane amounts of money that are practically impossible for the regular grinder to wrap their mind around.
The equivalent of these nose-bleed levels online can be found on Full Tilt poker, generally in the gamble-it-up game of Pot Limit Hold’em or the recently added 7-game mix cash game tables. It is not uncommon to see up to a half dozen tables running during the weekend at $2,000/$4,000 limits with a waitlist once the 6-max limit is reached. The average post size reaches up to $20,000 and they are seeing over 100 hands per hour. Players looking for big cash game action make this their first stop.
In the recent years, the king of these huge games has become newly minted Team Full Tilt member Tom “durrrr” Dwan. He began his poker career by reportedly loading $50 online and tearing through the low limit SnG’s, now he can be found challenging and felting some of the world’s best players including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, and David Benyamine. He has seen daily swings in the 7 figures but also claims to have never gone broke since he began playing. That alone is an incredible feat that very few poker players can claim.
This weekend in Las Vegas, during the November Nine celebrations, it was announced that Dwan would now be a member of Team Full Tilt. While there are quite a few Full Tilt pros, it’s very rare for a player to be added to the Team and no players since Patrik Antonius joined the roster nearly 18 months ago. Dwan joins such big guns as Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, and others. “Tom is sort of the first wave of great players, who really cut his teeth on the internet but he’s showing that he’s going to be around for a long time,” Lederer praised their newest member, “I feel like Tom’s really our first player that learned his craft online. The new breed.”
Most people know Dwan more recently for his “durrrr Challenge” which he is currently running against Patrik Antonius. Quick primer: Dwan put up $1,500,000 of his own money versus Antonius’ $500,000 that he could win more playing 4 tables simultaneous again Antonius in Heads Up Pot Limit Omaha with $200/$400 being the minimum stakes for 50,000 hands. The Challenge has been running for awhile with both players actively seeking soft spots in the large cash games. Dwan currently leads by just under $800,000 but the swing in that game can be massive. (Link for the “durrrr Challenge” Stats page)
In addition to all the perks for being a team member, Full Tilt has also launched his very own website Tom “durrrr” Dwan and he will now join the stable of players blogging for the site at “durrrr Poker Blog”. He’ll be updating his blog on a regular basis and didn’t waste any time mentioning a new challenge with his very first post.
In just a few short days he will kick off the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge in London. A live version of his online challenge where he will now go Heads Up from November 17th to 19th against such pros as Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Marcello “Luckexpress” Marigliano. Big talker Sammy George also returns after his first go-round in September. There will $1,000,000 on the table for either Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold’em.
A fine way to start his career with Team Full Tilt. You can find Dwan’s welcome video on his brand new official Full Tilt Poker bio page.
You can find a video of “durrrr” press conference with Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Patrik Antonius after the jump as well as the new links and resources you’ll want to bookmark.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, Team Full Tilt, Tom Dwan
FTOPS XIV Event #19 – “FBT” Wins
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
As you might imagine, things have been a little crazy around here for the past few days. I made a trip out west for the November Nine, watched Michael Craig pay off a prop bet, and witnessed a 21-year old kid become the newest World Series of Poker champion. You will excuse me just a little bit for missing out on my near daily updates during FTOPS XIV which kicked off more than a week ago. Now that I am back in the safety of the great Northeast I am finally catching up on some things I missed.
That’s not to say I wasn’t keeping an eye on things which were going down with the online world, it just couldn’t be my highest priority. I was really looking forward to throwing yet another image of David “The Dragon” Pham* for his victory in FTOPS XIV Event #14 and because I like adding the “*-not a real dragon tag” to as many posts as possible. But it turns out Greg “FBT” Mueller** had other plans.
Coming into the day, only one Full Tilt pro has ever won an FTOPS event that they were hosting. Erick Lindgren accomplished that feat by taking down FTOPS VII Event #9 for just under $300,000. In fact, before today only Lindgren, Gavin Smith, and David Pham have been able to bring home an FTOPS victory for the red letter pros. Greg Mueller found himself in his comfort zone today.
Merriam and Webster Dictionary
Main Entry: comfort zone
Function: noun
2. the level at which one functions with ease and familiarity
The game was Limit Hold’em, something Mueller is very familiar with over his entire career. I am assuming he was hosting this event since he won two bracelet in the variation this summer at the WSOP. His career Limit Hold’em WSOP resume includes 8 cashes (out of 19 total), 4 final table, 1 second place finish (NLHE/LHE Mix game included), and the 2 WSOP bracelets. Throw in a Seven Card Stud final table and you’d have to believe that he feels pretty comfortable slinging the chips in a limit game.
He was holding, or near, the chip lead for most of the latter parts of the tournament and came to the 6-handed final table with a chance to make history. There were a few opponent’s that would battle him for a very long time. OmadJoped was hoping to become just the third player to win two FTOPS in the same series and James “P0KERPR0″ Campbell was the only other major player. It turned out to be Campbell and Mueller who would finish heads up for the title with Campbell putting up a decent fight but finally succumbing to the former hockey player.
Mueller collected $36,081.50 for his efforts and had a little encouragement from fellow Tilter Mike Matusow just before the final table:
Mike Matusow (Observer): greg fbt mueller is my hero
GregFBTMueller: thx mikey
Mike Matusow (Observer): dear god how u get cards like that
With that I will call it yet another day (night/morning). I will return tomorrow with a full update from the previous tournaments in the series.
*-Not a real dragon
**-Full Blown Tilt
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Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, FTOPS, Greg Mueller
2009 November Nine Live Blog – Heads up for the title
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
2009 World Series of Poker Bracelets
Photo credit: Pokerati.com
After a 40 hour pause of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table, the two remaining players will take their seats to play Heads Up for the most coveted championship in the game. The amateur Darvin Moon will attempt to continue his incredible run through the Main Event field and professional Joe Cada will be trying to break the short record of Peter Eastgate as the youngest Main Event champion. Both showed an incredible ability to come from behind when their tournament life was on the line so we are looking at a battle between two players looking to stay lucky.
The stacks of money are laid out across the felt while the WSOP staff prepares the stage and the hallways outside are full of returning friends, family, and spectators. The only remaining tasks are to open the doors and the player to unbag their chips. Cada enjoys more than a 2-to-1 chiplead and will most likely look to outplay his opponent, Moon on the other line very may well gamble it up early to reduce the advantage.
I will be back once the cards in the air to bring you updates from the Sky Box. Here you can find the 2009 November Nine Live Blog that got us to this point.
22:00PT – Late start
Play was intended to begin at 10pm but the players are just now unbagging their chips. The crowds are streaming into the auditorium, already getting loud and rowdy. Unsure but I assume they are Joe Cada supporters if Saturday/Sunday taught us anything. The VIP seating area around the stage is full of people milling around in anticipation of our start. There is definitely a ton of excitement in the air whether you are pulling for either player or just a fan of poker.
In unrelated news, Sasquatch has been spotted rolling through the lobby and may be leaning up against the bar.
Things should be underway shortly.
Darvin Moon – 58,850,000
Joe Cada – 135,950,000
22:30PT – Card in the air
Both WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and Tournament Director Jack Effel warmed things up by welcoming the crowd and pumping up the supporters. Amusing that Effel’s voice seems to go up an octave with each new sentence, sounds a bit like Alvin and the Chipmunks by the time he takes a breath. Both players were introduced to loud applause with a Darvin Moon fan even sporting a toy chainsaw.
The theater is completely packed with an even bigger line down the hallway. The line stretches from down to the rotunda near the Amazon Room and halfway back up. An incredible turnout and it should make for a very energetic match. They surprised everyone in the room when metal legend Vince Neil of Motley Crue was given the honor of commanding “shuffle up and deal”.
We’re getting different predictions for the number of hands we will have during heads up play with the highest being 60 and the lowest (by yours truly) of just 10. They restart play with blinds at 500,000/1,000,000/150,000 ante.
23:00PT – Everything back even
It didn’t take very long for Darvin Moon to erase the sizable lead of Cada. On the very first hand of heads up play they built a huge pot with pre-flop and post-flop raises. In the end Moon drug the pot worth over 40,000,000 with QQ versus 99. The two kings and ace on board probably saved some chips for Cada as they both checked the river.
At this time Moon has a very small chip lead and my 10-hand prediction is down the drain, though neither has seemed very shy about getting large numbers of chips in the middle. As Mike Matusow said about Cada “this kid has no idea what small ball is“.
Darvin Moon – 101,850,000
Joe Cada – 92,950,000
00:00PT – Back and forth
As the clock rolls over to the new day here in Las Vegas, play has settled down a bit as the stacks evened out. Cada retook the lead from Moon after flopping the nut flush but might have played it a little too slow. He probably could have taken more chips as Moon easily called the value bet, a bigger bet probably also gets called. They are still pushing chips back and forth easily although they have been generally much larger pots than we anticipated. As Matusow continues to says they are either limping or playing 10,000,000 pots.
Just before the end of the hour Moon made another push and we are a virtual dead heat, just 500,000 difference with 97,000,000 for both players. That’s less than one small blind.
The hallways continue to be crowded with spectators unable to enter the auditorium. The Rio has been kind enough to have monitors spread throughout the area which is showing the live feed to those unable to make their way in. There is also a major line to the lobby bar with everyone it seems loading up on the adult beverages. The WSOP swag shop is selling out of all their gear and the coffee shop has an endless line.
The players are on the first 20 minute break.
00:30PT – More swings
The stacks were pretty even going into the break but Darvin Moon took the initiative when they returned. Because there were few showdowns we’ll have to wait until the ESPN broadcast to see what was moving Moon along but he has built up a chip lead over his young opponent. After several big pre-flop raises Moon is sitting on a nearly 3-1 chip lead.
Darvin Moon – 145,200,000
Joe Cada – 49,6000
01:00PT – Big punches, no knockouts
We saw our first all-in moment with nothing to show of it than a few chips shipped over to Cada. Moon re-raised pre-flop to 8,000,000 only to have Cada 3-bet allin for another 50,000,000. Moon took his time to make a decision, going so far as standing up which had some of believing we’d see a call and possibly a new champion. He ended folding and getting the chips back a few hands later. Still no sign of either player slowing down as we’re continue to have some massive pots.
With the big swing of chips towards the Darvin Moon side of the table, the rowdy fans of Joe Cada have spent some time sitting on their hands. Earlier in the event 3 guys and a girl took off their shirts, each with C-A-D-A painted on their bodies. That lasted just long enough to get the attention of Jeffrey Pollack and security took care of the fun loving fans. For all the loud fans on either side, it’s get spooky quiet among the 1,500 in the auditorium when a big hand is in progress.
Darvin Moon – 136,050,000
Joe Cada – 58,750,000
01:25PT – New World Series of Poker Champion crowned
It didn’t take long for two huge hands to develop and bring us the 2009 World Series of Poker Champion. Just 25 short minutes ago Darvin Moon enjoyed a significant chip lead over Joe Cada but that changed quickly.
Joe Cada doubled up on a hand when all the chips went in the middle on the turn. Darvin Moon re-raised Cada allin and made him think long and hard about putting his tournament on the line. Cada eventually called with his paired 9 versus the open ended straight draw for Moon. A meaningless 3 hit the river and the chip lead swung back in favor of the young pro. Just 8 hands later and both players once again had all the chips in the middle, this time pre-flop.
The Cada side of the stage erupted when he tabled pocket 9’s and he was racing against the QJd of Moon. There were complete bricks on the entire board and Joe Cada is now the 2009 World Series of Poker champion, replacing Peter Eastgate as the youngest Main Event winner.
It was a well fought match by both players and the entire final table should make for some very interesting TV when it is broadcast on ESPN tomorrow evening.
Signing off from the Sky Box at the Penn & Teller Theater. I will be back tomorrow with my thoughts and review of the broadcast.
1st – Joe Cada – $8,547,042
2nd – Darvin Moon – $5,182,928
3rd – Antoine Saout – $3,479,670
4th – Eric Buchman – $2,502,890
5th – Jeff Shulman – $1,953,452
6th – Steven Begleiter – $1,587,160
7th – Phil Ivey – $1,404,014
8th – Kevin Schaffel – $1,300,231
9th – James Akenhead – $1,263,602
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
2009 November Nine – Cada and Moon Heads Up for Championship
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
After an insane amount of poker over the last 17+ hours, the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event finally found it’s way down to the final 2 players. The tournament has been suspended with Joe “jcada99″ Cada and Darvin Moon returning on Monday evening to crown the new champion.
It was a day full of everything you expect to find at the biggest poker event you will find. Over 1,400 spectators lined up early outside the Penn & Teller Theater hours before the gates were scheduled to open, even generating long lines 12 hours after play began. The big name of the table, Phil Ivey, pulled in members of the media from around the world but could not avoid the one monstrous suckout that would have put him back in contention. Darvin Moon, our amateur player who came in as the chipleader, played an interesting game that was all over the map but in the end will be playing heads up for the championship. There were far too many ridiculous suckouts to list but will certainly provide a great viewing experience when it hits the ESPN broadcast on November 10th.
The superstars came out in force and camped most of the night on the stage supporting either Ivey or Jeff Shulman. For his part, Shulman will not be able to prove whether his words were true when he stated he would throw the bracelet in the trash. Our first and last eliminations of the day were bookended by the only two European players at the final table. Akenhead finishing in 9th and Saout in 3rd.
After all that excitement and all the craziness, it is time to shut the lights down in the auditorium and prepare to recharge for Tuesday’s heads up match between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada. I will be back with that match once it kicks off.
Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 58,875,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 136,925,000
Update: If you’d like to read about the insanity of the November Nine, feel free to click here to read my 2009 November Nine Live Blog
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, WSOP
2009 November Nine Live Blog
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
My view from the heights
After 12 grinding days of poker and nearly 4 months with the 2009 World Series of Poker on “pause” we are now down to the time when a new WSOP Main Event Champion will be crowned. All nine players will shortly entered the Penn & Teller Theater to take their seats at the most coveted final table in the game. Phil Ivey will begin as the most famous and Darvin Moon will have the biggest stack. An ex-Wall Street banker, several young guns and a couple Euros will take their shot at being the last bracelet winner in 2009.
Play is schedule to begin at noon which is just two short hours from now. I will be camped out high above the stage with a bird’s eye view and bringing hourly updates as we whittle down the field. Come back to follow along with your favorite player at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event final table.
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 1
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 2
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3
Seat 1 – Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Seat 2 – James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Seat 3 – Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Seat 4 – Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Seat 5 – Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Seat 6 – Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Seat 7 – Joe Cada – 13,215,000
Seat 8 – Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
Seat 9 – Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
11:30PT – The doors are open
The gates to the Penn & Teller Theater have been opened and the crowds of fans, friends, and spectators have begun pouring into the room to find their seats. The press box is elbow to elbow with outlets from all around the world. The players have completed their pre-game meeting with the WSOP staff including Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. Chip bags are on the table and the dealers are preparing their setups.
The early line on fan noise has Joe Cada well ahead with a crew in yellow Michigan “Cada” t-shirts and mugging for the ESPN cameras. The Darvin Moon crowd is walking around with “heads on sticks”, not exactly sure where that is going. Poker legend Doyle Brunson has found the stage and will be giving the Shuffle Up and Deal command. Photographers are getting their last minute shots before the players are announced, the lovely Lacey Jones is prepping for hosting duties, Lon McCarren and Norm Chad are doing their rehearsals. Fellow Full Tilt blogger Michael Craig is in the house and ready to bring the action from up close.
In late minute player news, the word around town is that Steve Begleiter hired SnG player expert Jonathan Little as his couch for this “Sit n Go”.
13:00PT – Cards in the air
Getting under just a little over an hour later than scheduled, the cards are finally in the air.
Jeffrey Pollack, Lacey Jones, and Jack Effel all took their time at the microphone making announcements and warming up the crowd including the bracelet ceremony for Barry Shulman’s WSOP-E title. Lon McCarren and Norm Chad have have made their ESPN intros, and an honor guard made their appearance for the National Anthem. WSOP Tournament Director Jack Eiffel made the extended player introductions and the biggest ovation was for Phil Ivey followed by Joe Cada and Antoine Saout. The French are outnumbered but making plenty of noise. Jeff “Happy” Shulman received a polite round of applause.
Blinds will be at 120,000/240,000 with 30,000 ante for the next 7 minutes.
14:00PT – Faces in the crowd
Several big guns from Team Full Tilt have been spotted in the crowd to support Phil Ivey. Jen Harman and Marco Traniello are sitting on the stage along with Howard Lederer, Allen Cunningham and Perry Friedman. Phil Gordon is hanging around the Orchestra Pit and there has been a Chris Ferguson spotting.
After the first few orbits the crowd has settled down a little bit, only getting rowdy after a series of preflop battles. The French supporters have been as quiet so far as their boy Antoine Saout.
It took awhile before we saw the first flop and still haven’t seen a turn card. Very few flops, non-existent turns, and most pots being taken down with a preflop raise or a three-bet. They seem to be still feeling each other out and the blinds will not be forcing the action for a very long time. Begleiter and Cada appear to be the early aggressors.
Just 15 hands into the action and Phil Ivey found a hand worthy of pushing all-in behind a raise from Jeff Shulman. Joe Cada asked for a count and went in the tank for quite awhile before mucking, Shulman was not far behind. Shulman has spent the early part of the day making very odd, large opening raises pre-flop, perhaps this was the time for Ivey to look him up.
Shortly after the clock switched over the 2pm, Jack Effel announced an explicable 20 minute break after just an hour of action. This seems to indicate a very long day for our players and fans. When they return blinds will be at 150,000/30,000/40,000 ante for another hour.
You can find the rest of the live blog after the jump. A mere 5,000 words to describe 17 hours of action. Thanks for stopping by. Click below to read the rest of the story.
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, November Nine, Phil Ivey, WSOP
2009 World Series of Poker – November Nine On The Horizon
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
2009 World Series of Poker Main Event “November Nine”
The big weekend is finally here. All the players are in town, ESPN is putting the final touches on the stage at the Penn & Teller Theater, spectators will soon begin queueing up to get the best seats in the house, people are starting to jockey the big wigs for prime access. The 2009 November Nine players will take their places tomorrow around noon and we will have a new World Series of Poker Champion by Tuesday morning.
It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things as soon as my feet were on the ground. The cab drivers, bartenders, and dealers all have an opinion on who they think will win. Most seem to want Phil Ivey to win it all, many opinions about what he needs to do to get it done. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has already met with chip leader Darvin Moon and he is reportedly head-to-toe in New Orleans Saints gear. The exact same Darvin everyone saw on TV. Media credential request were from all over the globe and seems to be even more mainstream media showing an interest in the game.
I will be back on this space Saturday afternoon and bring hourly updates as the game proceeds down to the remaining two players. Those two will return Tuesday evening at 10pm PT to crown the champion. I will be tracking the three Full Tilt sponsored players, Phil Ivey, James Akenhead, and Steve Begleiter, as well as everything that happens until we have a victor.
Listed below you can find our 2009 November Nine Handicapping posts:
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 1
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 2
Poker from the Rail 2009 World Series of Poker November Nine Part 3
In Phil Ivey news, ESPN’s E:60 program ran a special on the most famous November Nine players to go along with the Insider article I wrote about earlier. After the jump you can find the clip from the episode.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, James Akenhead, Phil Ivey, Steven Begleiter, WSOP
